Blood of Hercules (Villains of Lore Book 1)

Augustus

There was a loud crashing noise and a thud in the other room where the initiates were supposed to be studying.

Someone shouted.

A grunt echoed.

Cleandro and I stopped lesson planning and stared at each other in horror—we sprinted toward the library.

We skidded to a stop in the doorway.

I fisted my hands.

It was the bane of my fucking existence. Why is she constantly causing fucking problems?

Alexis was standing in the center of the room.

Her nose was smashed, her chin was covered in blood, and both her eyes were swelling and turning black.

Someone punched her in the face.

Red filled my vision. Pure unadulterated rage burned me apart at the seams, and I rubbed at my chest as I breathed deeply.

Alexis was delicate, just like my sister, Helen, and her soft features were twisted with pain.

Every muscle in my body tensed. Men who hurt women didn’t deserve to live.

This is exactly why she shouldn’t be participating in the fucking crucible. It’s a Kronos-damned outrageous dishonor.

My hands itched with the urge to snap someone’s neck, and I trembled from the force of trying to keep myself together.

Cleandro gave me a strange look, like he could see through me.

I ignored him.

He couldn’t see anything; he was just an Olympian.

He would never understand what it felt like to be me. The power. The rage. The weight of responsibility.

Chthonics were an endangered species, and it was my duty as eldest to keep the next generation safe. They were all depending on me. I wouldn’t fail.

Alexis’s lips trembled.

I will not fall for her games.

Hatred and something unidentifiable burned in my gut. She was opening up the possibility of Helen having to take part in this depraved nonsense.

I wanted to kill her for it.

When Kharon had told me just what she was, the hatred had intensified exponentially.

How dare she.

She was a mockery of everything I stood for.

No woman, no matter how strong, should ever endure the crucible. It was dishonorable and wrong.

I didn’t fucking care if Aphrodite and Artemis said I wasn’t progressive. It wasn’t about women being as tough as men; it was about the fact that they shouldn’t have to be.

Spartan women were rare and needed to be protected at all costs. The future of our society depended on keeping them safe.

Now Alexis’s two-colored eyes were wide as she stared down at the floor.

Cleandro and I stalked forward into the room.

At Alexis’s feet, Alessander was unconscious and bloody.

My jaw dropped as I took in the broken pieces of wood all over the boy, and the piece of wood clutched in Alexis’s hand. She’d smashed him with a chair.

Holy Kronos.

Fury warred with grudging respect.

Another figure moaned. Titus was on the ground, blood pouring off his face as he clutched at himself like a weak coward.

She destroyed the sniveling pussy. Both of them. Good.

Sharp emotions strangled me, and I didn’t know how to feel.

Everything about Alexis was confusing.

She was shy and timid, but also bloodthirsty and savage. She made idiotic comments, but according to Pine was a prodigy at theoretical math.

I hadn’t believed it when Kharon had told me what she’d done on the circuit—now I believed him.

She was clearly here to make a statement about women in Sparta.

Not on my watch.

It was completely fucking unacceptable.

My fingers itched, and I fisted them. The urge to kidnap her and lock her away, then break Titus’s mind into little pieces, was overwhelming.

Do it later. Now’s not the time.

Pain radiated through my sternum.

I breathed deeply and fought against my debased urges as Cleandro let the girl off the hook.

He should be punishing her for her lack of self-preservation, not fucking rewarding her. She’s one wrong move away from death.

Alexis stared at Cleandro with wide, grateful eyes, but there was a dimness in her gaze that was uncomfortably familiar.

Life had hurt her.

Badly.

Just like it had hurt me.

It doesn’t matter. Don’t feel bad for her. That’s what she wants. This is all a game to her.

She didn’t make sense.

From what I’d seen, Alexis blundered through life, naive and frustratingly innocent, with no thought for the consequences. Mix in her sanctimonious need to prove women should fight along Spartan men, and you had my worst nightmare come to life.

But I was here.

I was the consequences.

I was going to keep her, and all the women under my charge, safe, whether she fucking wanted it or not.

Cleandro walked away, and I lingered at the door, fighting the urge to do something. Instead of following him out like I should have, I stalked forward across the library, unable to avoid the pull in my gut.

Alexis’s delicate features blanched as she saw me coming.

You better be afraid.

When I stood a foot away, I leaned close, discreetly inhaling her intoxicating scent. A growl burned the back of my throat, and my fingers itched to find out if her golden curls were as soft as they looked.

Concentrate.

With a low growl, I warned her to take better care of herself. Warned her there would be consequences.

She glared up at me with horror.

Kronos, she made me feel like a monster, like she wasn’t the one setting Helen up for pain. I was the one trying to keep everyone safe.

Did she think it was easy?

What did she think, that I’d fucking coddle her? Welcome her with open arms? Applaud as she risked her life like an idiot?

As Alexis stared up at me, her long dark lashes fluttered. Up close, I could see the gold flecks in her midnight-colored eye.

Her tongue flicked out, and she licked across her blood-covered lips. They were curved perfectly.

My silk boxers grew tight, and I instantly loathed myself.

Fuck, what am I doing?

I was older than her and I was her professor.

This was wrong on so many levels.

Something about Alexis made me lose all control.

She made me feral with rage.

If I stay in this library another second, I’m going to murder both those boys for touching her, then kidnap and handcuff her to my bed.

I stalked away.

Poco chittered in the hall as he climbed up my shoulders. His weight was familiar. Calming.

I walked out of the mountain into the warm night and bellowed with rage. A sea of stars sparkled above.

The Milky Way was streaked with yellow.

Punching stone, I breathed roughly.

Shaking my head with confusion, I headed down the path toward the mountain.

I needed to run the circuit to regain control.

A few hours later, my muscles burned from exertion, and a facade of calm was once again plastered across my face.

Cleandro announced to the library that the crucible was over, hit the buttons on his pager, then leaped away.

The initiates startled awake.

Patro and Achilles arrived first and grabbed a barely conscious Alexis.

My knuckles cracked.

Why the fuck are they touching her so familiarly, and why do I care?

I glared at them, and they looked at me with confusion, then disappeared with a loud bang.

I barely stifled the urge to follow them.

You need a distraction.

The rest of the mentors started arriving. I grabbed Alessander and Titus by the front of their togas and dragged them behind a bookcase.

I threw them forcefully to the ground.

They yelped in pain. Good.

Agony exploded in my chest as I activated my powers, yanked them both up, and stared into their eyes.

Pressure burned my skull.

Their mental defenses were nonexistent—I stabbed into their pathetic Olympian minds.

Unlike Chthonics, who fought back, Olympian minds were soft and malleable.

They fell to their knees.

“If you ever dare hurt Alexis again, or any woman, ever,” I bellowed straight into their skulls, “I’ll destroy you from the inside out.”

They cried out like babies.

I made it hurt.

Blood poured from their mouths, eyes, noses, and ears. It covered them in rivers of red. They choked and gagged, unable to breathe.

If they were human, they’d be dead.

As Spartans, they’d live. Unfortunately.

I straddled them. “Spartans don’t hurt women—or I hurt them. Understood? This is just a taste of what I can do.”

Their minds trembled with agony and started to crack. They gagged louder.

I rolled my eyes because I’d barely used my power; their brains weren’t even leaking out their ears.

They were fine.

The sniveling cowards nodded jerkily as they trembled on the floor, suffocating.

I straightened to my full height and brushed off my hands. “You disgust me,” I spat on them, then I stalked away.

“They’re back there,” I said to their mentors and pointed.

Both Olympians bowed to me, terror written across their faces.

I forced my expression back into a mask of calm.

The men relaxed.

Gullible fools.

I turned around and rolled my eyes. Cracking my knuckles, I palmed my gun. I needed to fight a Titan, or I was going to lose it and start torturing Olympians—more so than I already had.

“Domus,” I whispered and pictured the feeling of home.

The world exploded in smoke.

I leaped away.

Narrowing my eyes with confusion, I looked around the quiet forest. A tarp was strewn across branches in a purposeful pattern. I didn’t mean to leap here.

Shrugging, I turned and stalked through the trees.

It would do.

Jumping over the barbed-wire fence of a protected zone, I ventured farther into the woods, searching for my prey.

Kronos, I was so fucking angry.

Alexis Hert is going to be the death of me.

Kharon was right; his plan was the only acceptable path forward.

I’ll tell him later that I agree. We’re going to do it his way.

Things were going to change around here.

They had to.

Aut viam inveniam aut faciam—I shall either find a way or make one.

Otherwise, I was going to lose my mind and people were going to die.