Monster Whisperer - J.B. Trepagnier Page 0,33

and she had it coming. Hades held up his hands in surrender.

“Don’t get mad, and please don’t hurt Anatolia, River. I asked her if she could see anything to help the monsters aside from getting them out of their collars. She saw you at your clinic, and Cerberus needed a vet, anyway. I checked you out. I could sense the power coming off of you, and I’d only felt that signature one time before when I met your father. I knew you figured out what was wrong with Cerberus right away because you were talking to him like your father can. I tried to scare you a little to see how you would handle being down here with monsters. You’ve handled it beautifully.”

I cracked up laughing when she set his chair on fire. She knew it wouldn’t kill him, but she was making a point, and she had every right to. If Hades was spilling the beans, he needed to spill all of them, including what her father was.

There used to be a time Hades would have killed River on the spot for doing something like that. He’d always been bitter about being delegated to the Underworld with no other Gods to keep him company. Persephone changed all that. She made him a better God. I knew he wouldn’t kill River, but I wasn’t about to threaten him in any way. That girl must have a set of brass balls.

I think I was falling in love.

Chapter 23

Kimon

O

h, my baby bird was magnificent when she was angry. I didn’t care what Anatolia said about her gifts and that green fire. She had to have a little monster in her if she would try to set a God on fire. Hades could have killed her with just a thought. We all knew he wouldn’t because he needed her, but she didn’t. She didn’t know him as we did.

Hades was trying to put the fire in his trousers out. Tryphon helped him out by dousing him with water. I was trying not to laugh. The God of the Underworld was now soaking wet with half his trousers burned off. My baby bird did that, and she didn’t look the least bit sorry. She looked ready to burn the rest of his clothes off.

“Are you done, River? I already said I was sorry for kidnapping you, and you punched me in the face. I thought you got it out of your system then.”

“You kidnapped me because some psychic saw me in a vision?”

“Excuse me? The proper term is an oracle. I’m God touched.”

“Oh, shut up. I’m about to touch your ass with this fire.”

I don’t think any of us would have minded if Anatolia got a little green fire on her. Why Hades put up with her shit was beyond me. He needed to put a leash on his pet oracle because, as far as I knew, she still had her little obsessions that went way too far.

“You can’t touch me, or you’ll piss off two Gods.”

“Oh, shut it, Anatolia,” Hades growled. “River doesn’t worship us, and she’s from another realm. If she’s willing to punch me in the face and set me on fire, I don’t think she cares who she pisses off if she burns you alive.”

Anatolia totally changed. Her spine straightened, and I recognized that look in her eyes. River had just become her new obsession because Anatolia was just bat shit crazy like that. All of us here in the Underworld might be too scared to hurt her and end up getting locked with the Titans, but River had no problem with lighting her up.

Anatolia started batting her eyelashes and twirling her hair. That was how it always started with her. Some people fell for it, then found out the hard way and got a goat in their bed. Most people thought she came on too strong and didn’t want to go there.

“Can I come back and see you sometime? Maybe I’ll see more about you.”

Hades knew precisely where this was heading. He grabbed her elbow and started steering her out the jail.

“That’s enough, Anatolia. I’ll call you again if I need you. Behave, or I’ll have to lock you up.”

When we heard the door closed, I walked up behind my baby bird and wrapped my arms around her waist. I was glad that my minotaur frightened most people and I could kill most anything that got in my way, but I still have human arms to comfort her. My