Olympian Elemental Trials Series

Chapter 4: Humans Are Nothing But Trouble

Dion

Damn humans wouldn't get out of the f*****g street. I revved my bike to get two crazy people in the middle of the road to move, instead of standing in the middle of the road like stunned deer. Wait, it was the girl from the plane. Paige, her friend had called her.

The high-beam lights of the truck flashed in her eyes. I could swerve around them before they could even blink, except the hillbilly in the truck next to me was taking up more than his share of the road. The driver wouldn't be able to stop in time or be able to go around them. When he turned his head and stared at me with silver eyes, my blood ran cold.

Shit! It was Zeus, possessing a mortal and he wanted to kill Paige. All the other cars except us had vanished so he'd have a clear shot at running her over.

Not when I was around.

I tossed out a little magic, which tingled across my palm, toward the humans in the road, making them drunk so they wouldn't realize what was going to happened. Then I swerved in front of the truck and tossed up a protective bubble over the truck driver. Cement rumbled and rose along with the earth making a mix of dirt and concrete to form a wall. Tires squealed. Metal crunched in a boom as the massive pickup slammed into a dirt wall. To save the human driver, I absorbed the impact of the wreck, redirecting the accident into myself.

I felt every bone crush, the whiplash, all of the pain radiating through me until my magic subdued the force. I had a migraine that pulsed behind my eyes and swerved my bike alongside the truck to a stop. My bike idled beneath me. Quickly, I erased the wall I had erected and erased all the humans' memories around me. They'd remember the truck stopping suddenly, just not how.

I let out a breath as the driver climbed out of his car, shaking his head. Zeus exorcised from the force of the wreck. Thankfully, Zeus' power was muted whenever he possessed a human or I'd have had a tough time stopping him at all.

Diesel fuel choked the air. With a snap of my fingers, I added a bit of delusion to the driver, then packed most of the earth and concrete down where it appeared to look like a huge pothole that his truck had crashed into and not that the concrete and dirt had risen up to stop him. Scattered people along the road gasped and pointed. Their murmurs about how fast the truck was going and how lucky no one was hurt. A few dashed over to Paige and the old man to check on them.

Satisfied that I hadn't caused two humans to be splattered on the road including Hera's protégé, I turned to find Paige staring at me like I had grown an extra head.

"Y-you stopped the truck."

She didn't sound drunk or delirious...had I missed her and only shot the old man with my power? Or sideswiped both completely? I was going pretty fast so it was plausible I'd messed up. I glanced past her to find the old man giggling and dancing with an invisible partner and signing at the top of his lungs. Nope. He was fine.

"Do you need me to call someone for you and your...grandfather?" I feigned not knowing she'd recently flown over here from America.

Paige crossed her arms over her chest. Her dark chestnut hair curled at the ends, brushing her shoulders. But her gray eyes were like steel as she watched me. "You're the guy from the plane, right?"

I shrugged. "What were you and he doing in the middle of the street?"

"I was trying to help him." She waved to the old man, her voice starting to rise. "Then you made the earth move and stopped that truck. How the heck did you do that? And what were those sparks from your hand?"

Was she not going to let this go?

"Listen, I don't know what you think you saw. There's a pothole that saved yours and your grandfather's lives."

"He's not my grandfather. I don't even know him."

"Then why risk your life to help him?" Too few humans cared more about anyone except themselves and their close circle of friends.

The old man was now safely on the other side of the street. I flicked my hand to remove his drunkenness as he was too susceptible to my power and I didn't want him getting hurt because of me. When she narrowed her eyes, I covered the gesture by wiping my leopard-print shirt down.

"What did you just do?" She stepped closer to the sidewalk as traffic weaved past the stopped truck.

The driver sat on the curve, a crowd around him and an ambulance siren wailed in the distance. He would be shaken up only. I had taken on his accident so he wouldn't even have a scratch or bruise on him.

"Nothing."

"I know you did something. Thank you." She reached out and touched my forearm.

A jolt twisted through me. No one had ever thanked me before. Not even when I'd given my life to protect the humans. Something stuck in my throat and I nodded instead of answering her.

I revved my bike and the engine roared between my legs. "Careful of those street signs."

Before Paige could say anything, I skidded down the street. Too bad she'd seen me use my magic. I should've totally removed her memory with a stronger spell, but I found that I didn't want to. In fact, I wanted to race back to her and ask her if she'd ride with me through the town. If she was new to Greece, I could show her the sites both new and ancient.

What was I thinking? I couldn't get involved with a human. Their lives were like candle flames and too easily extinguished. No, I preferred my women loose, appreciative, forgettable. Paige with her long dark hair and haunting eyes was already burrowing under my skin.

Did her lips taste like sweet wine? Her skin like honey and cream?

I shook my head, guiding the bike faster down the lane. Human eyes wouldn't be able to see me now. I'd be just a tiny blip on any policeman's radar and he'd think the equipment had a glitch.

Dark skies lit up with an approaching thunderstorm. A shadow zoomed above me. I glanced up, spotting the winged figure flying overhead. An Empousa! My grip on the bike slipped, and I slipped into a tailspin before I countered. The bike jerked too far to the left. I went sailing through the air, crashing into the side of a building. All my bones ached from the earlier wreck, and my breath hissed out. Pain lanced up my body.

"Are you okay?" a man asked, dashing up the sidewalk.

I leapt up, racing back to my motorcycle. Every fiber of my being said that something major was about to go down. s**t. Why was one of Hecate's creatures here now? They primarily drank the blood of men as they slept and gave their victims erotic dreams. Kinda a combo vampire-succubus.

The creature's shrill screech was echoed by a bang of thunder. It fled in the direction of where I'd left Paige. And my gut told me that the Empousa was headed straight for her.