Guardian of Atlantis (The Children of Atlantis) (26 page)

Zeus’ face turned deep red. “You have no place in my new kingdom!” He hurled the lightning bolt at Poseidon, and kept hurling the lightning bolts at him until the yard was so brilliantly lit, no one could see either god.

Wave after wave of raw electrical energy rippled through the air.

The BOOMS were deafening.

Finally everything stopped.

Zeus was the only one standing in the middle of the yard.

Poseidon
rested at his feet
in a crumpled heap, with his
hand stretched out in front of him, opened and unmoving, Raven’s neckla
ce on the wet ground beside it.

18

The shadows hide many secrets.

Like doorways to faraway lands

But stepping through may cause
regrets
.

             
--Raven Weir’s journal

The long, pale blonde hair stood out against the black leather the tall, willowy woman wore from her head to the tip of her high heeled boots. She turned and peered back into the shadows she had just stepped out of and listened. Satisfied nothing followed her, she waved her hand in an arch in front of her, effectively sealing the shadow doorway between the kitchen and Hades. She turned back around. Large, pale crystal eyes stood out against the deep honey colored skin. Carefully she surveyed the battle scarred room, taki
ng in every little detail.

She stepped lightly through the debris, neither disturbing it nor causing it to crunch under her feet and stopped inches from Raven’s bloody body. Reaching into one of the pockets in her leather jacket, she pulled out a golf ball size crystal swirling with shades of blue, green and black. She lifted her hand so that it was directly over Raven’s body. She looked over her shoulder, checking again to make sure
she was still alone. When nothing moved or made a sound, s
he turned her attention back to the crystal ball and Raven. She opened her hand, dropping the crystal ball.

The crystal hit Raven’s stomach and shattered. Strands of blue, green and black mist twisted slowly up from the broken crystal. It grew and spread until the mist was the entire length of Raven’s body. It hovered for a few seconds then descended and seeped into her body.

“Help me to quickly heal your wounds,” whispered the woman, still ho
lding her hand over Raven
. “We do not have much time.”

Raven’s eyes suddenly opened.

“Yes, seal the wound. That’s a good girl. I knew you could do it.” The woman’s soft, melodious voice flickered like a butterfly on a warm summer breeze.

Raven drew in a deep breath, filling her empty lungs. Seconds passed. She let the air out and sucked in another deep breath. She did this several times before she started breathing at a rate closer to normal.

Raven blinked
.

“You need to focus on me. I don’t have much time.” The woman knelt down beside Raven and put her hand on Raven’s forehead.

Raven’s eyes widened. She tried to speak, but nothing came out. She frowned and tried to move. Pain
, like she had never felt before,
surged through Raven, causing tears to roll out the sides of her eyes.

The woman smiled. “In a few minutes you’ll be able to speak and get up.” She wiped away
Raven’s tears. “I’m sorry. I know it hurts terribly, but there’s nothing I can do about the pain. It’s always painful when the soul of a person is put back into the
ir
body, and doubly so when the body’s suffered a severe traum
a like yours did. It will pass.
I promise.”

The woman glanced around before returning her attention to Raven. “I can’t stay here much longer. I am Persephone and I intercepted your soul before it was processed in Hades.”

Raven blinked and raised her eyebrows.

“Yes, you were dead. Your soul left your body and was pulled down into Hades. I brought it back because you have to live. You can’t allow anyone to gain the power of Atlantis, especially Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades. Zeus wants to recreate the world so that it worships only him.
Pose
idon, who knows what he wants.
H
e only volunteered for the experiment
that made him what he is
because he thought it would make Medusa like him
even more
. But Hades, he’s angry and bitter at Zeus and it’s been brewing for centuries.”

“Why?” Raven managed to get the word out. She wiggled her fingers.

“Hades is a scary person. War.
Murder.
Revenge.
Torture.
These things make him happy. He’s sadistic and arrogant. How many people do you know name their kingdom after themselves?”

A strange scratching came from the shadows.

“I have to go before Hades finds out I was here.” Persephone stood up.

“Thank you.” Raven moved her arm. The paralysis was gone.

Persephone nodded. She moved silently into the shadows in the hallway. She turned and winked at Raven as she waved her hand and stepped into the shadows.

Persephone was gone.

Raven pushed herself up and scooted back to lean against the cabinet. The pain was fading. Raven looked at the floor. Blood covered a large portion of the tiles. Pale and slightly shaking, she held up her hands. They were covered with
blood. The scene when
Lady Macbeth tried to wash the imaginary blood
from her hands popped into Raven’s
mind causing her to giggle.
She
wiped her hand on her jeans, but it didn’t help much. Her jeans were covered with blood and her sweater was soaked.

“I look like I was the star in a
slasher
movie.
Must have run the wrong way.”
She used the cabinet to pull herself to her feet. She stepped over the blood and looked
around the kitchen. “Mom’s going to
kill me,” she said looking at the much bigger hole in the wall. 

Biting her bottom lip, she absentmindedly reached for the pendant. “Where—” She patted her sweater trying to find it, but realized it wasn’t even on her neck. She scanned the floor, it wasn’t there.

“Morrison took it.” Raven’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t bother with the door way, instead Raven went through the hole in the wall
and
went down the hallway to the living room. But when she got there, she stopped and shook her head.

“Great!” she grumbled.

The front door was no longer there. In fact the entire door frame was gone. Jagged pieces of dry wall and wood outlined another huge hole where the front door should have been. A silver
trident was buried deep in the wall next to the hole.

Raven sighed. “Can this get any better?” The words were barely out of her mouth when the first wave of electrical energy hit her; shoving her backwards and almost knocking her down.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Raven covered her ears with her hands. She moved to the opening and looked out just in time to see Zeus reach down and pick up something lying beside Poseidon.

“My necklace!
That’s it!” she snarled. Raven reached up and grabbed the trident with her right hand. At first it didn’t budge, but she wrapped her left hand around the staff and yanked as hard as she could. The trident came out, taking part of the wall with it.

Raven looked at the trident and smiled. An eerie calm descended upon her. She walked out onto the porch and down the stairs. Raven closed her eyes and turned her face up to the rain.

A wet earthy smell surrounded her. She took a deep breath, drawing the scent into her lungs, making it a part of her. The cold droplets pelted her face, bringing a smile to her lips even though the drops stung her skin. Raven opened her mouth. The water tasted more delicious than anything she had ever eaten or drank. The drops fell onto her parched tongue and rolled down her dry throat.

Raven lowered her head. Her nostrils flared as she glared at the god standing in her front yard.

“Zeus!” she roared.

Zeus whipped around.
“You!
How is it possible?” An astonished look covered his face.

“Like you, of all people,
ooops
, I’m bad. Like you, of all gods,
is
asking that question. I mean, this is such a huge disappointment. It just gets me right here.” She pointed to her heart with her free hand. “I definitely have to lower my expectation of you. It’s just so sad.” The corner of Raven’s lips curled in a sneer. Holding the trident by her side, with her feet slightly apart, Raven looked like a warrior.

“Ethan, did you hear that?” asked Billy.

Ethan shook his head. “It can’t be.” He sniffed the air. “I smell too much blood.
Raven’s blood.
It can’t be.”

Billy glanced around the jeep. “Ethan, you need to see this.”

Ethan looked over the hood. “She’s alive!
But how?
All the blood I smell?”

“What does she think she’s doing?” Pauline slid in beside Billy.

Billy put an arm around her. “Are you okay?” He lightly touched a bruise above her right eye.

“I’m fine. But how is Raven standing there? I just saw the blood on the kitchen floor. She shouldn’t be standing. And she’s insulting Zeus?”

“You saw the blood?” asked Ethan.

“While Zeus and Poseidon were fighting, Sheena and I decided to try to get into the house
through the back door. There’s a lot of blood on the kitchen floor. It looks and smells like Raven bled out.” Pauline leaned against Billy.

“How—”

“There was a huge, bloody butcher knife not far from
the pool of blood,” said Pauline.

“I’ve got to stop her.” Ethan started going around the jeep.

“No.”

“You’ll get killed.”

Pauline and Billy spoke at the same time as they blocked Ethan’s path.

“How are you going to stop her? She’s challenging Zeus.” Billy released his grip on Ethan’s arm.

“I don’t know,” admitted Ethan. His hands clinched into fists. He felt his fangs erupt from his gums and lengthen. “I don’t know.”

“And I greatly underestimated your death. I won’t do that again.” Zeus looked down his nose at her.

“I do believe that’s my necklace you’re holding in your hand.”

Zeus held up the necklace. “Do you mean this?”

“Give it back. Now!” ordered Raven, her voice filled with a power growing inside her.

“I don’t think so. You lied to me about having the key codes.” Zeus smiled. “But now, I finally have them and I’m not giving it back.”

“You have a choice.” Raven made a huge show of popping her neck. “You can give me the necklace like a good little boy.”

Zeus’s eyes narrowed as he glared at her for her insult.

“Or I kick your butt and take it.”

“As if a child like you could. I have more power in my little finger than you will ever have. I’m sick of your insolence. It’s time to teach you a permanent lesson.” A lightning bolt formed in the hand at his side.

“Oh goody!
A fireworks display. This ought to be fun.”

“Brother, leave my daughter alone, I beg of you.” Poseidon rolled to his side. Blood ran down the side of his face.

Zeus looked down at Poseidon. “I’ll deal with you as soon as I’ve killed this so-called Guardian once and for all. You shouldn’t have told me she was dead.”

“But she was. You saw the blood.”

“She will be, when I get through with her.” Zeus hurled the lightning bolt.

“No!” yelled Poseidon.

Raven watched the lightning bolt sail through the air, straight for her. She threw her free hand up in a sweeping motion; the momentum forced her to pivot on the ball of her right foot. Raven stared at her hand.
“
Cooool
!”
Raven looked up at Zeus. “You know, I’m really, really sick of you throwing these things at me. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to kill me.” Raven held up the lightning bolt and squeezed it. The lightning bolt grew extremely bright. The
same way it did when it struck its target. Raven squeezed a little harder.

CRACKLE!

CRACK!

POOF!

The lightning bolt exploded in her hand.

“That’s not possible,” Zeus said in disbelief.

“Yet we both saw it happen,” awe filled Poseidon’s voice. “My daughter is more than a match for you, dear brother.”

Without dropping her gaze, Raven turned her hand over. Tiny pellet-like
fragments fell to the ground
. “I believe that’s me one and Zeus zero. And it’s my serve.”

Zeus roared with a fury known to send the other gods scurrying for cover, but it didn’t intimidate Raven. A lightning bolt suddenly appeared in his hand. As fast as it appeared, he threw it at Raven, and immediately followed it with another one.

Raven didn’t attempt to catch the lightning bolts this time. She lifted the trident, twirling it with the practiced ease of a baton twirler. Just seconds before the lightning bolts struck, Raven twisted and aimed the trident at them. A blue light snaked out of
the tips and sailed directly
toward the mi
ssiles. The lightning bolts
both exploded

She shook a finger at Zeus. “That’s cheating and cheating is not tolerated.” Raven leveled the trident at him. “You have one last chance to give me the necklace,” she told him.