Hellhound (12 page)

I went to the window and looked up at a robust and full
moon. Thin clouds trailed along, framing the celestial body, then covering it
before moving on. I noticed another cloud float by that was low, thick, and
abysmal. It curled toward me and paused in the dying wind. My eyes narrowed as
I tapped my fingernail against the glass in rhythm to my heartbeat.

The shadows above drew me into a catatonic state.

My former lover watched over me from the sky. I could
do nothing about that. I couldn’t meet him up there and force him to transform
into a human body. Even if I alerted the keepers, they couldn’t mingle with the
air droplets and compel him.

Tick tock, former lover. He would have to come down
sooner or later. And with that thought, the steady and thick cloud suddenly
erupted and disintegrated into the night sky, once again revealing the silver
moon which we both desired.

I hurried to the roof and crouched in the darkness as
I often did. My body had to feed from the night, empowering me. As my body
drank in energy, I continued to muse over everything. Doubt coursed my mind of
needing the strength for a battle tonight, but this invigoration felt euphoric.

I gaped up at the skies, hoping to find Demetrius
again, and eager for him to materialize so that I could smite him.

Demetrius didn’t return that night. The clouds were
normal, and no other disturbances lingered in the air. I’d never hunted a
tracker before. How could I hunt someone who turned into an incorporeal form?
Someone who took to the skies for escape? For the first time in my life, I was
in over my head. But the Hellhound to the clans of Mythos was not someone who
gave up so easily, or at all.

Demetrius was, as far I could discern, the actual
culprit of the murders. I hated him for what he conspired. I wished that I
possessed the abilities of Cronos, able to turn back time before this mess
happened so that I could stop him. I wished that he would’ve talked to me
before this notion even entered his thoughts. I wished I’d known what was in
his heart and why. Maybe I could’ve prevented him, made him see reason. If I
couldn’t have, at least I would’ve physically stopped him and Father would
still be alive today.

No matter. I did not possess the bloodlines of Cronos,
and I did not have the skill to turn back time. It was pointless to waste time
in thinking about the “what ifs.” I lived in the here and now, and it proved to
be vicious. The lives of those before me were passionate and tragic, as were
many of the lives around me. How could I expect my life to be any different? I
owned great abilities, and with that came horrendous woes. Just ask any of my
forefathers and foremothers.

I sat, crouched, and walked around the concrete
rooftop for another hour, perhaps two. He was nowhere in sight, or in smell, so
I returned to my apartment downstairs to use the bathroom.

Thee, the veins in my forearm rose to the surface,
following my fingers as I slid them down my arm. I cringed.

I lifted my finger, but the veins continued to writhe
and pound just beneath the skin. It was as if they were trying to escape from
my flesh and go after my fingers like subservient slaves. The blood vessels, or
rather the blood, obeyed my fingers.

I gulped, turning to face the large mirror above the
counter. The veins in my face squirmed. I heaved and clenched my eyes.

I was imagining this, right? I didn’t move and pull my
blood, nor was it hurting.

When I opened my eyes, the creepy movement abated.
What in the world was going on now? Could things possibly get screwier,
crazier?

I stumbled into the bedroom to find Demetrius sitting
on the edge of the bed, watching me. His hands were in his lap, his fingers
interlaced, and his body seemed as relaxed as it could be considering the
circumstances.

He looked up at me with those smoldering green eyes,
laced with specs of black. He wore all black, his messy hair dark, his skin
olive toned. He lifted his chin, enticed me with his eyes as I slowly stepped
toward him, one foot lazily after the other. Demetrius possessed me in this
manner, perhaps why I fell so easily for him in the first place.

My former lover pressed his lips together, the muscles
in his square jaw jutted. Even through this mess, he retained such unearthly
beauty.

I took two more steps until I stood a foot away from
him. His neck craned up just a smidge so that he could penetrate me with those
emerald eyes. I tucked my hands behind my back and looked down through lowered
lids. My heart raced so heavily that I knew he could hear it. The crescent was
on the bedside table, too far for me to get to before he knew what happened.

I drew in a deep breath and then hissed it out. I
breathed, tightening my fists and then opening them into a claw where I pushed
out my essence. My nails grew into talons.

“We’re finally alone. I’ve missed you,” he said to my
astonishment. His words sounded innocent and truthful. Well, a deceiver turned
out to be the most accomplished liar. I could count off a dozen of my kind in
the past century who were excellent at doing just so.

“I’ve missed you—several times, apparently.” My words
were not as accommodating.

“You believe the Elders so easily?”

“The evidence is irrefutable. My father was an Elder,
whom you killed, and my mother sits on the Council,” I snapped. “Or, have you
forgotten my blood?”

“I remember, which is why you should question
everything.”

“You never told me whether you did or did not kill
them. You fled from the domicile, from the clan, and you fled from me. That
makes you seem as guilty as you are.”

“They were after me as soon as I realized what
happened, and there wasn’t enough time to get to you to explain things. I asked
you to come with me so that I could explain what I knew to you, but you didn’t
come.”

“I will never forget about this. We will never be the
same again, you and I. I don’t know why you did it, but I intend to find out.”

“I’m more than willing to tell you my side of the
story if you would only listen with an open ear. I know what you want right
now.”

Anger clouded my better judgment. Here he offered his
story, but all I wanted was revenge. I had reliable proof that he did it.
Thoughts and fantasies were one thing, and sometimes people couldn’t
differentiate them from true events, but memories that passed through the cerebral
chamber were actual memories, not wishful thinking. Lydia hadn’t dreamt or imagined
the murders.

Listening to Demetrius’s side would’ve been wise, but
then again, why give an ear to a murderer? Right now, I didn’t even want to
know why he did it. I knew that he did it, and that was enough to justify
annihilating him.

“Did you come to turn yourself in? Or will I have to
fight you?”

“My love, will you destroy me?”

“Don’t call me that. You destroyed yourself and our
love. Now tell me, did you kill them?”

I felt that I knew enough of the truth to know I
planned on the right thing. But a small, diminutive part of me wanted to hear
him say so, to verify it. The second he did, I would unleash the greatest fury
ever known—that of a vexed, Mythian woman.

He stared at me, silently challenging my intentions as
if he were calling a bluff.

A thick, billowing cloud of smoke emerged from my
hands and wrapped around them. Demetrius didn’t waiver. In fact, another source
of black smoke emerged from him in response to my paranormal actions.

“I’m equally as powerful as you, Selene.” It was a
stern warning, which only added to my wrath.

My former lover prepared to fight me, and I prepared
to annihilate him.

Chapter Ten

When I took another step forward, fully prepared but
otherwise unmoving, Demetrius stood. He towered above me at a delightful six feet
and four inches.

I silently rebuked myself. I couldn’t think of him in
beautiful and charming terms. Nothing should endear him to me. He was a cold-blooded
killer. He would be my final assignment because I didn’t know what would become
of me after his death.

I swallowed, vigorously attempting to hide the
trembling, and waited a little longer before attacking. Taking a man down who
possessed such strength required skill.

He leaned down, muttering, “You gonna kill me?” It
sounded like a challenge.

“Not until I bring you in.”

He licked his lips. “Not even gonna listen to my
story? You want my blood so badly, lover?”

“You are not my lover. You are my worst enemy, and I
plan on taking you down. Try to fight me now and I will kill you.”

He growled, showing elongated incisors as black smoke
billowed up from behind him. With that response to my words, my essence
darkened and poured out of me in the same form—smoke. Our essences met in the
air, creating black lightning. The door slammed shut. An intense electric
current rattled the atmosphere, enclosed by my bedroom. Abruptly, we were
engulfed in a room full of thick, murky shadows and a shrill of thunder.

Demetrius’s eyes filled with pure blackness, and the
birthmark on his left temple appeared. He waited for me to make the first move,
which I did.

I swiped my hand at him, the long metallic nails aimed
for his throat. He grabbed my wrist with a gentle force and shoved me away. I
quickly swung with my other hand. He leaned so far back that his knees bent at
a ninety-degree angle, such strength and balance. Snapping back up, Demetrius shot
out his palms into my chest with the force of concrete.

First, he knocked the breath out of me. Then, the
impact sent my body flying backward until I hit the wall. I slumped to my
knees, breathing onerously as ire tripled. The room continued to darken until I
could barely see him.

An insatiable growl left my throat. Like a flash of
darkness, I went for him, knocking him back against the bed with brutal force.
He yelped. While I straddled him, I pounded into his face, breaking lips,
busting his eye, and drawing a good amount of black blood.

He shifted beneath me and threw me up and over him
with his knees. My back hit the wall over my bed, and I slid to the mattress
upside down. He wasn’t going to get away from me so easily. I pushed my legs
from the wall and landed on my haunches, facing the headboard. I snapped my
head back and hissed with fangs fully extended.

Demetrius headed for the window. I crossed the bed
like a primal beast on all fours, leaping through the air like a panther, and
hit his body while I clutched onto his shirt. For a split second I hung from
his collar, my toes against his chest. He staggered back.

I drew back my right claw and swiped it down across
his throat. That wound would’ve killed him had his body not dissipated into
smoke. I cut through fog, which didn’t hurt him a bit. He reformed in front of
me, took my wrists, looked me straight in the eyes with a sort of remorseful
but indignant expression, and twisted. I jumped away from him before lunging
again.

My former lover shot out his hands, palms facing me,
and unleashed a furious wind that sent me flying back over the bed and into the
wall. The sheetrock cracked all around as I slumped down. This time I needed a
few seconds to breathe, and then another moment to get to my feet.

By the time I looked up, Demetrius successfully raced
to the window, gathered his knees to his chest, his forearms to his face, and
crashed through the glass. I screamed and ran after him.

Clutching the bottom edge of the window frame, I
peered out and down. His body flailed as he plummeted. The smoke in the room
leapt after him, cocooned him in a pair of black wings, which burst open above
him and then rolled him over. The self-proclaimed Black Angel. Before he hit
the ground, which was about two feet from his face, his entire corporal body
erupted into smoke and then quickly ascended into the sky.

I hit the sides of window, clutched the frame, and
leaned out. I screeched, wailing into the night like a manic banshee. The
remainder of the glass splintered in the frame, cracked, and fell around my
bare feet. The glass from my dresser mirror shattered behind me.

I heaved with exasperation and turmoil. He’d been so
close, and now he would never approach me like that again. I missed, perhaps,
my best chance at capturing him. He taught me everything I knew about hunting,
so he was up to date on my skills like no other. But one thing that separated
me from any normal tracker was the inability to turn into a cloud and fly away.
I couldn’t pursue him.

Tears threatened to fall. Not because the situation
failed to turn out the way I’d hoped, but because the murder of my father
resurfaced. I needed vengeance. Father needed retribution. This crime could not
go unpunished. Demetrius would have hell to pay and a Hellhound to fight off.

Tears welled up from frustration, anger, so many
emotions at once. I began to lose grasp on sanity, or so it felt, and the shattered
wall I kept up to harden my feelings crumbled.

I flipped around and hit the wall. I immediately
pulled away. Like the great mythical inferno, my back hurt like hell, too.
Stripping off my shirt, I headed to the bathroom and examined a red and bruised
back. Contusions raced across my shoulders. Several vertebrae were broken, but
they would fuse together by daybreak. Good thing I had soaked up energy before
the fight.