Bleed For Me (Loved By Gods #1)(16)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Artemis pushed back, and gazed at him with merry light blue eyes, eyes exactly like his. “I didn’t know you were coming home.”

A snarl broke the air behind them. They both glanced back to see Poseidon shimmer out of sight. He was off, no doubt, to continue hunting for the Fates. And his mate.

“Apollo?” Artemis stroked his cheek. “Why didn’t you let me know you were coming back to Olympus?”

“Because I’m not here to stay.”

Disappointment clouded her lovely features. “But I’ve missed you so.”

And he’d missed her, but Terese needed him. He didn’t want her to wake alone. “Someone’s waiting for me,” he told her softly. “I have to go back to her.”

“To her?” Her jaw dropped.

The last thing he wanted to do was sit through one of his sister’s grillings. “Look, I don’t have much time. Where’s Zeus?” The sooner he got his answers, the sooner he could get back to his vampiress.

Artemis shrugged. “I don’t know. He and that bitch Hera disappeared somewhere.” Artemis hated, hated Hera. Artemis had despised Hera since she’d just been a small girl and she’d learned the truth about what the goddess had done to their mother.

Apollo didn’t exactly feel all warm and tingly toward her. If Hera had gotten her way, he and Artemis never would have been born.

When Hera had learned that Zeus’s lover was pregnant, she’d used her power to prevent the mortal from giving birth anywhere within the world. She’d thought that if Leto couldn’t find a place to birth her children, then both Leto and the offspring she carried would all die. Talk about your wicked bitch.

Luckily for Apollo and his family, the island of Delos had disobeyed Hera. His mother had received refuge there. And he and Artemis had been given life.

Delos. His beautiful island. So gorgeous in the sunlight.

The sunlight Terese would never get to see again.

Artemis touched his cheek. “Why are you sad, brother?”

Trust Artemis to read him so easily. “I have someone I care about, back in New Olympus. She’s in danger.”

“Bring her here,” she said, nodding firmly. “She’ll be safe here—”

“It’s not that simple.” He sighed. “She’s a vampire.”

“A vampire?”

Apollo nodded.

Delighted laughter burst past her lips. “Oh, that’s too good. The sun god and a vampire, how insane is—”

He began walking away from her. “If Zeus isn’t here, then—”

“Wait!” She grabbed his arm. “Why—why do you have to talk to Zeus?”

“Because another vampire is after Terese, the vampire who transformed her, and I need to know how strong that ass**le is.”

The laughter slipped away from her expression. “Did you say Terese?” For a moment, her face glowed with power. “Terese Lafitte, converted by Eric Montraine?”

How the hell did she know that? He gave a quick nod.

Artemis swallowed. “Eric’s strong. Very strong. He’s been running under my moon for nearly a millennium.”

Running under her moon? “What are you talking about?”

Her lips curved into a half-smile. “Apollo, you never really understood about us, did you? You are the sun, all that should be good and strong, but I—I am the moon, the guardian of the dark night, and of all those who dwell within that darkness.”

He grabbed her arms. “Tell me what you know of Eric.”

Her eyes changed, the blue fading. “He hunts her. Stalks her.”

Yeah, yeah, he already knew that. He fought the urge to shake Artemis.

“He took her blood, so he can track her and find her anywhere.”

His heart seemed to freeze. “Anywhere?”

Her gaze lightened as the bright blue returned to her eyes. “He knows where she is. He seeks her…now.”

Chapter Seven

Terese awoke with the setting of the sun. She sat up in the bed, pushed the covers back and stretched slowly.

Apollo wasn’t in the bed with her. But a small white note lay folded on his pillow. She picked up the note and unfolded it carefully.

Go into the den. I have a surprise for you.

Terese climbed from the bed and belted her robe. A surprise? Her lips curved as excitement filled her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gotten a surprise. Not anything that she wanted to be surprised with, anyway.

Being turned into a vamp hadn’t exactly been her idea of a “good” surprise.

She pushed open the bedroom door and hurried down the hallway. She rounded the corner, headed into the den, and froze.

Oh, my God. Her gaze locked on the canvases. On the easels. On the paints.

Terese ran across the room. She stroked the soft tips of the paint brushes. And there were dozens of brushes. All sizes. And the paint…so much paint. Every shade imaginable.

A bubble of laughter escaped her.

Apollo had given art back to her. He’d given her—

A floorboard squeaked behind her. Terese turned, her arms open, a smile on her lips. “Apollo, thank you—”

Apollo wasn’t standing behind her.

Terese’s smile disappeared as terror filled her.

No, it wasn’t Apollo. The man standing there, less than two feet away…was Eric.

“Hello, my dear,” he purred silkily. Then he lunged for her, claws outstretched, fangs bared.

She screamed.

* * *

The air shimmered, and Apollo appeared back in the cabin’s bedroom. “Terese!”

The bed was empty.

He ran into the den, screaming her name.

And he froze at the sight before him.

The art supplies, the supplies he’d painstakingly gathered for her before jumping to Olympus, were destroyed. The canvases were slashed. Brushes were thrown across the room. Paint stained the floor, a hideous splash of red and black.

In the middle of the chaos, lying abandoned in a puddle of paint…was Terese’s robe.

“No!” He grabbed the robe, clutching the soft fabric, his fingers staining red. “Artemis!” he screamed. “Artemis, I need you!”

His sister flashed into the room. Her face blanched when she saw the destruction surrounding Apollo.

“Where is he?” he snarled.

She shook her head. “I-I don’t know.”

Apollo stalked toward her with the robe still clenched in his fingers. “You knew he was after her. You knew who he was, knew how long he’d been a vampire.”