Medusa's Desire (The Fate of Eros #1) (The Fate of Eros Series) (9 page)

"You're Hades' problem now," he said. "You don't belong on land. Your home is here." He kept carefully out of their reach.

Medusa reported the news to her sisters and they were overjoyed by the discovery. Euryale gathered a giant pile of leaves that they munched on as they watched the ghosts grow weaker from the sky. Their waif-like skin became wrinkly and would flake. Their eyes glazed over as they wandered through the desert in desperation. Some of them disintegrated.

Medusa dared to speak her mind one day. "We should help them."

Euryale laughed. "After what they did to us? Never."

The ghost below them was crawling on his belly like a snake. He gripped the ground in front of him and collapsed, unable to propel himself any farther forward.

Medusa frowned. "Look at them. They can't hurt us any more in that state. We need to help them, so the ghosts can stop hating and attacking us."

The man started to lap up the sand in the desert in front of him, as if it were water and he was a dog dying of thirst.

The corner of Stheno's mouth quirked upward. "I suppose they are kind of cute, like stupid dogs that like to eat their own vomit."

Medusa sighed, but she supposed that was the best response she could get from them.

They repaired one of the caves and enlarged it, adding a cell in the back where they could keep the ghosts safely inside. They gathered all the ones they could find. They tried feeding them animals, giving them water, and feeding them plants, but they vomited everything. Finally, left with no other choice, Stheno and Euryale gave them their blood. They made a full recovery and their skin grew even thicker than it was before.

Euryale and Stheno loved their new "pets", cooing over their "babies" as they fed them in the dark as lovingly as a mother feeds a child from her breast.

Every time the creatures consumed the Gorgons' blood, their skin grew a little paler. They became so sensitive to the light outside that Euryale took a little one for a walk and he burst into flames instead.

They also grew jagged fangs that were strong enough to chew through the thick scales of the Gorgons' skin, so they wouldn't have to cut themselves first to eat. Medusa was amazed by their transformations. Even with sharpened rocks and glass she found, she was forced to dig under her scales before she was able to cut herself easily. These creatures gnawed through the scales as if they were made of bread.

When they were hungry, their strength was superhuman and they had to be beaten back several times or blackmailed in order to keep their cravings from killing the three sisters every time they arrived for a feeding.

The Gorgon Sisters had created vampires, which were very different from the myths humans would later claim them to be. Sometimes they would escape to the Earth and drain humans dry, until they withered or burst into flames from the sun. Drinking human blood did nothing for them. Only Gorgon blood could sustain them because it had the power to give life where there was none left.

The Acheron River, the only place they could cleanse their souls and move on, was cursed to them. They couldn't cross it and grew so afraid of all running water that they fled from it. Water burned them whenever they touched it, whether it was "holy" or not. The gods cursed them this way to prevent them from passing onto the afterlife and tainting the pure spirits there.

They grew more violent as their cravings became stronger and the sisters were forced to make X's out of stone that they allowed to sit in the sun. When the vampires misbehaved, they would punish them, by burning the warm stones into their foreheads. This branding served as a warning to themselves and others of the consequences of attacking a Gorgon. They grew sensitive to even the shape; it burned their skin even when not left in the sun. Humans would later mistake this for crucifixes.

Euryale and Stheno grew bored after a while and decided to turn feeding the vampires into a game. They'd purposefully starve them until they were near death and then order them to rip each other's limbs and heads off until just one of them remained. Euryale and Stheno would laugh as throats burst open and bones broke in half. Their hunger increased their strength rather than diminished it. The winner would be given all the blood they could choke down.

Medusa watched them quietly from afar, knowing she was the only one who still missed being a human. Sometimes, when they would hold a vampire gently in their arms and stroke its face while it suckled upon them, she'd wonder whether the humanity of her sisters were still there. But then they'd find ways to up the stakes of the fights. Like giving the vampires weapons or ordering them to hold burning X's while they beat each other up-then she'd know nothing of their old life was left inside them.

Lonelier than ever, Medusa traveled around a lot. Her sisters talked to her less now that they had their pets to attend to.

One day, she saw a coyote walking by and hid in one of the caves to prevent herself from turning it into stone. She longed to pet its thick fur and bury her face in its neck. She'd always wanted a pet, but her father had never allowed her to have one. She preferred the furry kind to the ones her sisters liked.

She felt someone grab her by the snakes on the top of her head; she screamed and thrashed her limbs as more arms surrounded her. She hadn't realized it, but her sisters had set up another cage with new vampires in it that they had told her nothing about. They chomped down on her body as they sucked her blood.

She grew woozy. Unlike her sisters, she could die of blood loss. The snakes fought the creatures surrounding her. Several of them collapsed from the effects of the poison or jumped away from the pain. She ripped the rest of them off of her and ran for her life. Still, she had nightmares about their moans and hands for days afterwards.

These weren't real pets and her sisters would mock her if she told them she wished for real animal companions. They'd tell her that those creatures were too weak to deserve such an honor as being cared for by a Gorgon.

The vampire population could have died off easily. None of them lived very long, but her sisters were fond of them. Every time one perished, they'd create another and because there were so many ghosts whose families were poor or didn't care enough to bury them properly, there were always new vampires to replace them with.

Medusa begged them to have more self-control and only change the ones who gave them permission first. Because she was their sister, they finally agreed. All Stheno and Euryale had to do was point out to the coinless ones that they could either spend a thousand years wandering those shores or be given a second life and body through the drinking of their blood. It didn't take most of them very long to make up their mind.

Medusa soon grew tired of her sisters and their antics.

"Why do we stay here?" Stheno asked her two sisters one day as she picked at her scales. "I want to go back to Athens, show the people we once knew my powers. I would also like to see Mother and Father again. No one has tried to stop us from leaving, so why do we stay?"

Medusa hated it on the Kisthene Plains as well, but was terrified of the consequences of her sisters having free rein on Earth. "The gods will be angry if we leave."

Euryale rolled her eyes. "Like you care what the gods think. I'm in."

Medusa clenched her fists. "You'll be punished when you're caught."

"And look where their original punishment got us." Stheno chuckled. "I wouldn't mind another one."

"What about your pets?" Medusa asked.

Euryale shrugged. "What about them?"

Medusa slapped herself in the forehead.

"We're leaving now," Stheno said. "You can come with us or stay here, but we won't be talked out of it."

Medusa sighed. She wouldn't let them go alone, as much to protect them as to protect everyone else. They flapped their wings and traveled farther than they'd ever gone before.

As the edge of the world came into view, Medusa gasped. It floated like a giant dirt platform in the sky. Sand and rocks blew down from it and landed in the Kisthene Plains below, explaining the source of the sandstorms and why this part of the world was so dry.

A woman's figure, as tall as a titan, came into view. She had dark hair that twirled in the wind. Her back was facing towards them. In her hand, she held a torch high, like a beacon.

"Maybe we should go back," Medusa said. "I didn't know there was anyone out here."

Euryale laughed. "We're not afraid of her."

Neither was Medusa. She imagined the woman gray and crushed into little pieces. She winced. If the woman tried to stop them, her sisters would attack.

As they got closer, a mist flowed from the woman and within that mist four sets of teeth snarled. Molossian dogs stood on either side of her. They had short muzzles and looked ethereal as they walked out from the fog. Their eyes glowed red and they didn't turn to stone as they stared at the Gorgons. They must have been ghost dogs.

Hecate, the guardian of the underworld, pat each of them gently on the head. They whimpered at her touch and licked her hands. How did she touch them? Was she a ghost, too? She looked like flesh and blood.

As the sisters drew closer, Medusa felt relieved for once that she wasn't human. Hecate wasn't facing them, but she could feel her eyes following their every movement. It would have given her goosebumps normally.

The dogs snarled as the girls sped up. They braced themselves to charge.

"Stop," Hecate boomed. She sounded like three women speaking at once. Her voices echoed from all directions into their ears.

Stheno smiled. "No."

And with that one word, Hecate's torch exploded. They were surrounded by fire so bright that every nerve of Medusa's body burst in pain. The dogs nipped at her heels, their barks as loud as thunder as she flew. She woke hours later, lying on the ground where she had started from and aching all over. She didn't remember being flung backwards. Her sisters had already regenerated, but she was forced to clean her wounds in a well they had dug nearby.

Medusa felt certain now that people didn't sneak into the underworld. No one could get past Hecate, especially not a human. She must let them get by purposefully to suffer at the hands of the monsters who dwelled in the underworld instead. Medusa shivered.

"How dare she do that to us?" Stheno ground her teeth.

"We need to go back and show her who truly is the most powerful," Euryale said.

"I can't," Medusa said. "I'm still in pain."

"We won't let her hurt you again." Stheno smacked her fist into her other palm.

Euryale nodded her head. "We need your strength."

Medusa sighed. "Fine, but give me a day to rest."

Medusa slept very little that night because her sisters spent the whole time complaining. She decided it was best to get it over with the next day, even though her body still pounded all over and she didn't feel much better. She rubbed her belly and felt movement. At least her baby seemed all right. Only her skin was affected.

This time, as they neared the edge of the world, Hecate was facing them, but too far away to meet their gaze. In her arms, she held a large golden key that she raised towards the sky.

"Looks like her dogs aren't anywhere in sight." Stheno smiled.

"What's she going to do with that key?" Euryale laughed. "Throw it at us? She made a mistake facing towards us. We'll turn her into stone before she's able to do anything."

As Medusa got close enough to see Hecate's face, she noticed that her eyes were closed. Her nose started to sink into her skin as her mouth disappeared. Soon her whole face was blank and in its place appeared the back of her head. She hadn't turned around because the front of her body was still facing towards them.

"Her head is on backwards!" Euryale shouted.

"What is she?" Medusa's limbs trembled.

Beams of light burst from the key, so bright that it stung their eyes. Medusa shouted as pain shivered through her body and mind. She blacked out and when she woke hours later, she stumbled around.

When she stood, she shrieked because she was standing on the sky. The ground was above her head and statues of her sisters were frozen in front of her. She ran towards them to try to wake them up, but wound up going in the opposite direction.

This was an illusion. The light had scrambled her brain.

"Where are you?" She stumbled and fell upwards, her body sore as it slammed against the ground.

It took hours before the world righted itself and she could make sense of what was happening.

"We need to go back," Stheno said.

This time Euryale wasn't as quick to agree.

"I don't care what you guys do anymore." Medusa crossed her arms. "I'm staying here. I can't take another attack like that. My body is already in too bad of shape." She was surprised she could still walk.

"I have a plan, though," Stheno insisted. "We'll fly in different directions around her to confuse her. She can't take down all of us at once and whoever makes it past will go get Mom and Dad to help fight her and rescue the rest of us."

"I don't think it will work," Medusa said.

Euryale tapped her cheek for a moment, twisting her mouth to the side. "I guess it's worth a try."

"Good," Stheno said. "And when we come back and rescue you, Medusa, we deserve an apology."

"All right, good luck."

But less than an hour later, they came falling from the sky, like screeching meteors. Their skin was sizzling and they were covered in some sort of clear goo. Their eyes had been burned away.

"What happened?" Medusa asked, once they recovered.

"I don't know," Stheno said. "We tried flying all around her, but we couldn't find her face. No matter where we flew, all we could see was the back of her head."

"Stheno hid and I tried to lure her by throwing rocks and she chased me far away."

"But when I tried to escape," Stheno continued, "she was still at the entrance, even though I know I saw her leave."

"And she was holding a snake," Euryale added. "It spit venom all over us that burned. I give up. I don't want to try that again. She's everywhere and she can see everything."