Fire & Flood (Mythverse #1)

Book 2 Chapter 6

6

The earth around us groans as a giant pale claw appears, then another. As the monster’s head and beady eyes emerge, sand flows off its carapace like water.

My shivers are no longer from being cold as I take in the giant white scorpion standing before us.

His stinger slams into the earth, nearly impaling Hepa. Luckily, Jordan has already shifted into his panther form. He head-butts the scorpion, knocking it off-balance.

“Run,” he growls at us. Only shifters can understand other shifters when they’re in their animal forms, but Hepa doesn’t need a translator—she’s already running.

I scramble to my feet, ready to follow her lead, when it occurs to me—oh yeah, I don’t have to be weak helpless little Edie.

I can be a dragon.

I’d bet my wings that dragon beats scorpion.

“Get out of the way,” I shout to everyone.

Jordan switches back to human form and bounds across the unstable earth scooping Hepa up in his arms. He runs with her while Greg, in his bat form, follows.

I face the scorpion head on, allowing my dragon side to take over. Since the Spring Fling, I’ve shifted a few times, and the feeling never changes. My wings sprout first, emerging from my back in a rush of red. They can change colors according to my mood but when I’m fighting, they’re the color of blood. My spine arches, each vertebra elongating and sharpening, erupting from my back as spikes. Scales shimmer down my arms and legs. Fire chokes my throat.

Gods, it feels amazing. I. Am. A. Dragon.

And I am going to tear apart this monster that dared to come after my team.

I let loose a mighty dragon roar and the scorpion pauses a second before trying to sting me with its tail, darting the sharp dripping needle closer and closer. I let loose a blast of skin melting, body crisping, bad a*s dragon fire.

The flame does absolutely nothing to the scorpion.

Oh crap. It must be fire resistant. I’ve done no combat training while in my dragon form. I s***h with my claws but the scorpion easily dances back out of my reach.

I panic, flapping my wings. That at least gets the air moving, blasting the monster back a bit. When I’m airborne I spot Greg, hovering above Jordan, who is still carrying Hepa in his arms as he runs. It doesn’t seem to be slowing Jordan down a bit. But he’ll tire eventually. And the scorpion—

Is still in pursuit, gaining on them.

I swoop down toward my team, grabbing Jordan and Hepa in my claws and carrying them into the air. Greg follows.

I try to ignore Hepa cursing my leadership skills, but at least they’re out of the way of the scorpion and its giant deadly stinger. I circle and in the distance spot an area with some palm trees.

An oasis! Maybe the monster won’t be able to track us that far away?

I give the scorpion a final look and notice it’s stopped at a point, not moving forward. I go lower to get a better look and Hepa once again curses my name. What is the creature doing? Every time it tries to move past that point, a wall of air shimmers and sparks. Interesting.

I turn to the oasis and fly us there, dropping Hepa and Jordan onto some soft brush. Jordan easily lands on his feet while Hepa rolls a couple of times and gets to her knees, coughing up dirt.

I shift back into my human form. “Is everyone okay?”

“Just great,” Hepa says, sarcasm dripping from every word. She spits out another mouthful of sand.

“What was that?” Greg squeaks, landing on my shoulder.

“That was a really big a*s scorpion,” Jordan, master of the obvious, adds.

“Can you shift back to human, Greg, so I’m not missing part of the conversation?” Hepa asks.

Chagrined, Greg shifts. And then all eyes are on me.

“So what are we going to do?” Greg asks.

“I don’t know,” I admit.

“Let’s…catch our breath and regroup,” Hepa says, getting to her feet. “By the looks of it, that scorpion was tasked with guarding that portal. It couldn’t cross that magical barrier so it has to stay in a certain predetermined location, which is good because that means we’re safe here. Bad because it means we’re stuck.”

“What if that thing has friends around?” Greg asks.

“Scorpions hate water and wet sand. If they come too near they could drown,” Hepa says. “Didn’t you guys take Monsters 101?”

“I must have missed that day,” I mumble.

I take a deep breath, shivering. Our shadows are getting longer and the air is cooler.

“How is the sun setting?” Greg asks. “It’s morning.”

“Not here. Wherever here is,” I say. “Sounds like we’re safe for now. In the morning I’ll fly us back to the fountain and the portals.”

“And the scorpion,” Hepa adds. “You’ll fly us back to the scorpion. Good plan.”

“Maybe we can get up early and sneak past it when it’s sleeping,” I suggest, even though I know it’s a totally lame plan.

“Do scorpions sleep?” Jordan asks, and Hepa nods.

“They’re nocturnal, but again, this one has been given a task,” she adds. “It will fight to the death.”

“Then we’ll fight back,” I say.

Greg paces nervously. I can tell he wants to change back to bat form. When adrenaline is running high like it is now, it’s a struggle to not shift. “Why are we here and not Greece?”

“I’m gonna find out,” I promise. “But first, let’s get back to the Academy alive.”

Later, Jordan decides to take a moonlit skinny dip and Hepa is at the edge of the water creeping on him. She was subtle at first but now is openly staring.

I mean, I am a bit too. It’s hard not to. Jordan has an animal magnetism that draws you to him, and his p***s is definitely something that whoever carved Hermes’ statue might want to take a look at.

I adjust my gaze, feeling like a perv. Greg sits under a palm tree next to me.

“Gonna take a dip too?” I ask.

“Nah. Reminds me of Darcy too much. I’d rather not think about him right now.”

“There’s nothing wrong with remembering those who died.”

I’ve lost so many people. My dad. My grandma. Even Ocypete…yeah, maybe it’s better not to think about that right now. Too complicated.

“Well, I’m going in!” I say, stripping down to my underwear. The desert night air is cool but the water is still warm. I splash into the reservoir and float on my back. Just like Darcy taught me.

“If you don’t mind me paying you a compliment…” Jordan says from a few feet away.

I could use a compliment about now. “Go ahead.”

“You have a smokin’ hot bod.”

I stand and look at him, my feet touching the bottom. I can’t help the shiver I feel. “Thank you, Jordan. You’re not so bad yourself.”

He gazes at me with his amber panther eyes, and I regret my decision to join him. I’d run away from Greg because I didn’t want to talk about Darcy, or think about the dead. But being near Jordan makes me think other thoughts…thoughts that bring up memories of Val.

I flee the water. I don’t need a complication.

We make a fire, or, Hepa does, casting a quick incantation with a tap of her finger. Then we eat a little of the food in our packs, Greg still wondering aloud how we ended up in the middle of…wherever we are.

I remember Ocypete, standing in front of me to shield a chimera from my blazing wrath, begging me to THINK!!

Ocypete had tried to turn me over to the monsters’ side before the night of the attack. She’d convinced a few other students to spy for her, but the gods got wise and she had to kill her recruits so they wouldn’t talk.

I think Fern might’ve been one of them. We haven’t yet had a proper talk about that. Fern doesn’t even know that I talked with Ocypete and she’d called Fern “one of hers.” I just can’t imagine Fern doing anything to hurt people. She’s a healer!

But what if I’m wrong? What if she had a part in getting us sent to the wrong portal? Maybe the reason she didn’t want to go on this mission had nothing to do with her girlfriend not liking it.

I hate suspecting a friend, but someone purposely sent us here…or at least, didn’t want us to get my mom. I don’t know where the portal keys are kept or who has access to them, but it’s definitely something I have to find out when I get back to Mount Olympus Academy…if I get back.

Whoever did this sent us to a portal protected by a monster. They might have wanted to keep me apart from my mom—forever.

My heart pounds with all the questions. It seems like the more I learn about my past, the less I understand.

Or am I just being paranoid? Hermes might be a god, but nobody ever claimed he was a genius. It’s not beyond him to completely mess up and grab the wrong key. Maybe he was just distracted by Jordan’s midsection, and tossed the wrong one through the portal.

It is a distraction. A nice one too. He’d peeled off his shirt once Hepa got the fire started, then, like a true cat, got dangerously close to the source of warmth.

Soon, Hepa calls it a night. The rest of us are still too keyed up from the day, so we kick around ideas for tomorrow. But as it gets late and we get punchy, we start to become ridiculous. Jordan suggests we eat the notoriously disgusting beef chili meal pack.

“Give it a few hours,” he says, “And we can kill that big bad scorpion with fart power.”

Greg, not to be outdone, suggests we just invite the scorpion to join our side and attend MOA with us.

This cracks us up.

“Oh my gods!” I laugh. “Can you imagine Mr. Zee’s face? Or Themis’?”

“Yeah, but Hermes would totally hit on him,” Jordan adds.

When our laughter finally dies down, Greg yawns hugely and soon after shuffles off to bed. Jordan follows a little bit later. But I stay by the dying fire. I need to come up with a plan better than fart power.

Something crackles to my left, I spin around, my wings springing out as I prepare to shift. Then I spot Jordan up in one of the trees, watching the sands.

I sigh in relief and my wings relax, disappearing back beneath my skin. Slipping out from under my blanket, I go to the bottom of the tree.

“Can’t sleep?” I ask.

He’s down in a second, landing in the sand in front of me without a sound. His ninja skills are alarmingly hot.

“This is what I do,” he says. “I watch. I can go days without sleep.” He licks his lips and I can’t help but follow the movement. “It’s all about stamina.”

I swallow and resist the urge to ask any follow up questions about Jordan’s…stamina. “Any movement from our friend the scorpion?”

“Not that I can see, and I would see. I have excellent night vision.”

Those eyes are on me again. This time I don’t look away. I take a step closer. Why the hell not?

Jordan is game.

Val has a fiancée and has clearly moved on. Whatever was between us—if there was anything—is over. And I need to get over it before I seriously embarrass myself.

I lean in and kiss Jordan’s smooth lips

He purrs into my mouth as his tongue invades. It rasps against mine, rough like a cat’s.

I should’ve been expecting that, but I wasn’t and I’m a little weirded out. I push that aside, focusing instead on the way he cups the back of my head in one oversized hand.

He adjusts me expertly, finding the perfect angle to deepen the kiss. I sink into sensation. Enjoying his hot mouth. His warm hard body. And his whiskers gently tickling my face.

Whiskers!?! What the what?!

I jerk back.

Yeah. I am definitely kissing a dude with cat whiskers.

I’m out.

I clear my throat. “Ugh, we probably shouldn’t do this. I’m your team leader and if I make out with you, then I should probably make out with everyone.”

“Yeah!” Jordan grins. “Team building orgy. I like it.”

“No, no. Definitely—just no.” I shake my head to make sure he gets it, “I think it’s best if we keep our team non-orgiastic.”

Jordan visibly deflates, but then after a moment shrugs. “You’re the boss.” He gives me a quick peck on the cheek and then springs back up into his tree.

His sweetness melts my heart but not enough to try making out with a cat-man again. I think Jordan and I are meant to be strictly platonic.

I settle back beside the last dregs of the fire and even though I fight against it, my eyes eventually drift closed and I fall asleep.