The Return (Titan 1)

Interesting. Looked mortal, but I’d bet my punching arm that he wasn’t—at least, not anymore.

The man pivoted, walking off quickly in the opposite direction. I glanced quickly to where Josie’s dorm rose in the distance, but then wheeled around. It took no time to catch up to the guy as we passed under a cluster of oaks. Dropping her bag on the ground, I reached out and clamped my hand down on the man’s shoulder. A jolt traveled up my arm, and the murky and thick feeling increased.

Yeah, something was not right about this dude.

I spun him around and stared into watery eyes, a washed-out color devoid of life. Inhaling, I caught a stale, musky scent that reminded me of when I’d been in the Underworld. Not a very pleasant smell.

Slamming my hand into the center of his chest, I pushed him back against the trunk of a thick oak, moving us out of the path of unsuspecting bystanders. My lip curled. “You smell of death.”

The thing inside the man cocked its head to the side and laughed a high-pitched wailing sound that most likely caught a bit of attention. “Funny that you know the smell,” it said, its voice distorted as if standing at the end of a long tunnel. “Since you reek of death yourself.”

I rolled my eyes. “Wow. That was a clever comeback.”

“Fuck you,” it snarled.

“Even more ingenious. I bet you can carry on a real deep conversation. Let’s talk about the shitty economy next.”

The thing wearing the man smiled. “And I bet Hades is going to enjoy shoving every imaginable item up your ass when you finally get down there and become his personal chew toy.” It laughed as my hand tightened around the collar of its shirt. “What? Everyone knows about the deal you made, Apollyon.”

My eyes narrowed as my gaze drifted over it. There had to be a reason why it smelled like it’d rolled around in the Underworld and spritzed himself with cologne of death with an extra side of River Styx. My gaze shot back to his face as I remembered what Apollo had said about when the Titans had escaped. “You’re a fucking shade.”

It arched a brow, and those washed-out eyes turned all-black. “And you’re too late.”

The thing threw its head back against the tree with such force that the man’s skull cracked like a clap of thunder. It opened its mouth and pulled a Supernatural—the TV show Deacon always seemed to be watching whenever I was within a ten-mile radius of him. Black smoke poured out of it, whirling up into the trees, blacking out the branches before it disappeared into the night. I dropped my hand, and the guy hit the ground, dead on arrival.

I glanced down at the body. Next to him was the fallen briefcase. There was a name engraved—something ending in Ph.D. “Well, shit.”

Spinning around, I snatched the bag off the ground and picked up my pace. Shades were on campus, and there was no doubt in my mind that they were the ones that had escaped with the Titans. Which meant there was a damn good chance that the Titans were aware of Josie’s location.

I kept to the thicker shadows, moving faster than the mortals could track, becoming nothing more than a burst of wind until I hit the paved walkway leading up to Muse Hall.

Slowing, I jogged up the steps and threw open the door while I hoped Josie had calmed the hell down. The last thing I needed her to do was freak out and run screaming into the hills while I had damn shades roaming the campus, and worse yet, a possible Titan or two or five.

As I headed toward the elevators, a dark-haired brunette swung around from where she sat perched on the arm of the couch. Her glossy lips turned up at the corners as her gaze tracked my progress across the lobby. I got an eyeful of her chest as she bent over, folding her arms under her breasts. The low-cut sweater showed more than enough to get my notice.

Damn.

By the time I stepped into the elevator, I felt sort of molested. A grin tugged at my lips as I turned, facing the closing door. The girl was still staring. I wiggled my fingers at her, and then I got down to focusing on less interesting—but sadly, more important— topics. Like how to convince Josie this was real and neither of us was clinically insane before another shade—or something worse— popped up.

From what I knew about shades, they could possess mortal bodies and will them to do just about anything. And they were dangerous in their shadowy, spirit form, too. They could kill mortals easily, so that begged the question—why was Josie still up and walking around if shades were already here? Why hadn’t they taken her out? Unless that meant their orders weren’t to kill the demigods.

Or, unless the shade’s taunt that I was already too late meant Josie was lying somewhere in a bloody heap.

“Shit,” I hissed, tempted to wing the bag through the elevator walls. I doubted Apollo would be thrilled if I were already too late. Unease stirred in the pit of my stomach, and admittedly, I’d be less than thrilled myself. Hysterics and calling me Pollyanna aside, she seemed like she could be a cool girl.

But she was a pretty, cool girl with a short life expectancy, since she had Titans after her.

When the doors opened, I moved into the hall, heading for her room at the end. I might’ve been a handful of steps away when I felt the coiled awareness of something packing a whole bunch of aether—more than a pure would carry in their blood, even more than what I had.

That meant somewhere on this floor there was something very godlike. Not a pure or a half, and definitely not another Apollyon, since I was the only one currently topside. And it wasn’t the same feeling I got when I’d sensed the shade. The sensation increased as I reached Josie’s door, and as I gripped the handle, I swore under my breath. Yep, something packing a whole lot of aether was in her room. And dammit if I didn’t feel that hollowing in my stomach, that emptiness that begged to be filled with the power only draining aether could fill. I usually could ignore the urge whenever Apollo was around, because his general dickheadedness overshadowed everything else.

But fuck. I was like a damn daimon jonesing for a fix.

And that pissed me off.

Twisting the doorknob, I tapped into the element of fire and melted the internal gears. Open Sesame. There was a shriek from inside the room as I stepped in, kicking the door shut behind me. Took no time to find Josie, since the room was the size of a shoebox. She was sitting on a bed to my right, her back pressed against the wall, eyes wide and the odd, multicolored hair hanging down over her shoulders, past her breasts. Her face was as pale as a daimon’s.

“I brought you your bag,” I announced, tossing it to land on a skewed blue mat on the floor.