Free Healed by Fire by Catherine Banks Page B

the strongest
connection to me still, but even after making amends with Achilles
and letting myself love my half-brother again, I didn’t want to
leave her with him.
    “The sooner we get this over with, the
sooner you can be back in her arms,” Victor said from my side.
    I turned and smiled at him. “I know. I
just…”
    “Don’t like leaving her with your half
brother, especially since you can tell she has some of her
memories? Achilles is the most moral Sidhe I know and he won’t make
any advances on her while you are out risking your life. Besides,
what you’re doing isn’t just for her to regain her memories. She is
the key to everything.”
    “I don’t think Achilles will try anything
either, but…what if she starts remembering and I’m not there? What
if she only remembers him and not me?”
    Victor rolled his eyes. “You two dreamed
again, right?”
    “Don’t patronize me, Victor. I know that we
are still connected, but I have no way of knowing what Hera did to
Artemis. If the dragons aren’t as powerful as we think, she could
end up dying.” I wouldn’t let that happen. I refused to let her die
now that I’d found her.
    “Let’s just focus on getting to Rhea’s
Temple,” he said softly.
    We increased our speed and made it to the
City of Rhea, which was the gatekeeper to the Temple, faster than
I’d thought we would. Even during the human reign this had been
left untouched. Of course since it was in the Himalayas and
freezing cold, I wasn’t surprised that even after the uprising
Maurice had left it alone as well. Rhea was the strongest being on
the planet and I for one would not want to be on her bad side.
    “It’s more deserted than I thought it would
be,” Victor said angrily.
    I looked over and saw his fangs fully
extended, which was something he only did when scaring someone or
when he couldn’t retract them due to his overwhelming thirst.
    “I told you to eat on the way here. You’ll
just have to settle for a rabbit to quench the fire for now.”
    Victor grumbled and we started through the
empty town. The buildings looked freshly made, but they had to have
been at least a thousand years old judging by the architecture. The
wolf side of me felt uneasy about walking into someone else’s den,
but this was for Artemis so I would just have to deal with the
feeling.
    Victor disappeared a moment and then
reappeared with two rabbits. He drained the blood from them and
then tossed them to me. “You need to eat too, in case Mother asks a
price from you.”
    I ate the meat from the skinny rabbits and
snapped off one of the rabbit’s feet. I held it out to Victor.
“Want a good luck charm?”
    He swatted the foot away when I waved it at
him and he shook his head in disgust. “I never understood why the
humans used to believe that. And it was rather disgusting that they
kept the piece of animal on their key chains of all places.” I
smiled and then Victor sighed. “I do miss the human world though. I
miss the restaurants, the movies and most of all the women who
threw themselves at me because they wanted to please me and were
attracted to me and thought it was exotic to be with a
vampire.”
    “You mean women don’t throw themselves at
your feet now?”
    Victor groaned. “Yes they do, but only
because I’m the big bad vampire prince. I’m not my father, Ares,
you know that. I don’t like to be feared.” I arched my eyebrow and
Victor smiled. “Okay, I like to be feared a little, but not all the
time and definitely not from the women I want to bed.”
    A loud growling brought my attention to the
skies above us. The moon was gone and I couldn’t see, but I
definitely felt like I was being watched. “What is it, Victor? I’m
blind here.” I caught the dim shape of something flying through the
air above us, but I couldn’t make out the form.
    “It looks like a griffin,” he said a bit in
shock.
    I started running and yelled, “Race you to
the door!”
    Victor caught up to me