They climbed from the car, made sure the doors were locked, and worked their way through the sea of cars. He held out an arm, Eliza slid hers through the crook of his elbow, and they stepped up on to the decorated porch. Making their way to the front door, numerous costumed party-goers gawked as they walked past. “I think everyone’s staring at you,” she leaned in and whispered. But James shook his head and fought down a laugh. “Nope, not me. You.” “What?” she started to protest, but they’d already arrived at the door. James opened it up, the bass hitting them like the blast from a shockwave and allowed her step in first. She was a little shy and overwhelmed it seemed to him, especially eyeing all the revelry. There were extravagant decorations everywhere, black lights in random places, but that wasn’t the sight of her searching gaze. It was the students doing shots and making out and various other lewd activities in dark corners of the rooms. “It was never this wild when I came

The palpable tension in the air every time Christian and Dieter were near each other refused to abate. They were so close to continuing the fight which had started by the pool that it was as if heat waves could be seen between them like an asphalt blacktop on a sweltering summer day. James thought it was incredibly immature and he couldn’t believe how the two of them could act like such kids. Because of this, half of the time he normally would have spent focusing on homework or being with Eliza, he now spent making certain a brawl didn’t erupt. If Christian lost control and abused his abilities, hell would literally break loose. At least Christian was helping some by staying to himself whenever possible. Apparently one of the ways in which Christian relieved stress or vented or whatever was to grab his board and skate like a mad man. So, most afternoons, when he wasn’t training, Christian could be found skateboarding around the parking lots and setting up various obstacles to sk

The snow whipped against him like icy pellets hurling from the sky and the wind blasted in a blistering cold torrent driving deep into his bones. He was suspended in a complete whiteout in the middle of the air, still and steady as is the norm these days, but the blinding white was very different. Usually, he was in the middle of a thunderstorm, not a snowfilled nothingness. And normally the cold didn’t affect him as much. He shivered uncontrollably as a particularly freezing gust engulfed his body. Goose flesh rose along every inch of his skin and his teeth began to chatter noisily; his lips felt as if they were turning blue. James looked around him, still not able to see anything, and hunched inward to try and raise his core body temperature. Just as he could feel the blood in his veins thicken and chill, a deep, feathery voice surrounded him. It came from everywhere and nowhere all at once, reverberated from his very soul, and yet, its source was completely familiar . . . Hades.

The grounds were bleak and dreary as James made his way along the cobble-stoned path. He had just left Blakeney’s house and was heading towards the main hall. Even though sunset was still a few hours off, a curtain of gray had been pulled right over the sky and a consistent mist hung in the air. He briefly wondered if the pacific northwest was like this all the time. From those popular vampire movies he’d seen, he figured that the was case. Whatever, James shrugged and huddled into his dark gray coat to help ward off the chill. Going introspective, he hadn’t really thought much about the change in his dream the other night. Maybe it was the words spoken or the acid-like snow eating away at his skin which made him reluctant to revisit the unpleasant experience. He had gotten used to the traditional dream—even come to recognize it as a sick friend of sorts that he would visit often—but this new version was . . . well . . . terrifying, to say the least. Being submerged in the absence of

They walked in silence down the side hall, but as they emerged out into the main entryway, the fountain of Aphrodite bubbling in the background, Eliza jerked him to a stop. Knowing what was coming, James met her eyes reluctantly. “James…” she sighed. “Mr. Blakeney’s right. We have enough to think about without adding her to the mix. The best—” “And how are we not supposed to think about all those people being killed, huh?” he interrupted. Eliza narrowed her eyes. “Don’t get like that with me just because you’re pissed at the circumstance.” She waited patiently until he had relaxed his shoulders and nodded. Then continued, “I know how you’re feeling. If we could, I’d like to go right now and fight her, but we can’t. We’ll have one chance at this,” she pointed out adamantly, “if we blow it, we may never have another. After all of this is over, we’ll still have our future ahead of us and that’s important too. So please,” Eliza pleaded with him as she placed her hands on his upper ar