BEFORE THE FALL - A Dark Breed Novella Page 0,33
to our tracer.” Lachesis held out the stone pendant, her lips curving into a sly smile. “You found our Chosen, and you may guard her if you wish.”
Satisfied, Kyana started to nod in acceptance, but the gleam in Lachesis’s eyes stopped her. “What’s the catch?”
Lachesis looked to her sisters before turning back to Kyana. “You may play guardian to Jordan Faye or you may take up a more important job.”
Her curiosity piqued, Kyana reached out and touched the sharp edges of the cut stone. “What job?”
Lachesis slipped the chain around Kyana’s neck. The thing weighed as much as a small hippo.
“A simple task, Kyana.” A smile lit Lachesis’s tearstained cheeks. “We want you to save the world.”
Chapter One
Kyana Aslan shook off the exhilaration shivering under her skin and tossed a grin at Ryker. The demigod smiled back, his teeth blindingly white in the shadows of Matanzas State Forest.
Becoming a goddess certainly had its perks. Like running fifty miles in under five minutes without the smallest hint of exhaustion. She’d only been the new Goddess of the Hunt for a day, and while she didn’t yet have most of Artemis’s powers, the little she did have made her old pacing look like . . . well, it was like trying to compare a wild Mustang to a sleek, gorgeous black Arabian. Both got you where you wanted to go quickly, but the Arabian got you there in style.
“Ky? You ready? We’ll have to take them by surprise.”
Ryker looked so incredibly yummy in his camos, it was difficult to concentrate. Wind-tousled blond hair fell over his silver eyes, casting a shadow across his well-sculpted profile making him look more like a statue of his father, Ares, than the half human he was.
This was only a scouting mission, an exercise to practice the few skills Kyana had inherited from Artemis. And she was loving every minute of it. Being allowed off Olympus for the first time in days was like being let out of a cage. Flying off with Ryker, whom she was coming to like more than she should, was just icing on the cake. That he was wearing those yummy camos was the creamy filling.
Ryker’s expression of concentration was broken by the tiny smile teasing the corner of his full lips, the small fangs bestowed on all demigods glistening in the moonlight. He obviously knew what she was thinking, knew she was probably remembering what he looked like out of those camos, but he was gentleman enough not to mention it. Instead, he pointed to the meeting they’d come to intercept. She studied the clearing as he spoke instructions into her ear, though in all honesty, her blood was pounding too loudly to hear anything else.
If the informant who’d come to Artemis was right, this meeting was being held by those who supported the resurrection of Cronos, an ancient god who’d committed the ultimate sin of trying to off his sons, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. If they could catch one of these bastards and bring it in alive, maybe they’d be able to find and stop the person who was trying to bring Cronos back to life.
That person happened to be Kyana’s closest friend in the world, which made this practice mission even more important.
Her determination settled more firmly in her gut as she peered into the darkness. There was enough of her old Vampyric blood in her to make scanning the trees effortless. Her gaze fell upon rising smoke half a football field away, and while she couldn’t see the bodies, the tracer in her could sense them, feel them. She wanted to hunt them.
But the goddess in her wanted answers more than bloodshed.
She wiggled her toes inside her boots. “I’m ready. But I want to listen before we jump in. See if they mention Haven.”
She didn’t wait for Ryker’s protest. A hundred-foot pine fell into her line of sight, almost exactly where she wanted to be. She didn’t think her feet ever touched the forest floor as she sprinted the fifty yards, looked up at her branch, and sprang from her toes. When she landed in a crouch on top of the thick limb overhead, she wasn’t even winded.
Pressing her belly to the rough branch, she slithered to the end where she could hang her head over, unseen. Pine needles poked through her leather vest and stabbed at her armpits, but she didn’t stop to scratch. Soon, Ryker was there, lying flat on top of her as he too