"No!" Apollo ran at him, swinging his sword.
From the corner of his eye, Jack saw Robby zoom toward the back rooms.
Jack jumped to the side and parried Apollo's attack. He spared one last prayer that Lara was safe, then focused all his attention on staying alive.
CHAPTER 26
"You make the best cookies ever." Vanessa stuffed another chocolate chip cookie into her mouth.
"Thanks." Lara stacked more on a plate and set it on the table. She'd spent all afternoon baking so she could lure the girls to the kitchen. "More milk, anyone?"
Several hands went up. Lara grabbed the milk jug from the fridge and circled the table, refilling glasses.
Miss Forbidden gave her a confused look. "Why are you being so nice to us? I thought you hated being here."
"I saw how worried you were last night when Hades chose me." Lara returned the jug to the fridge. "I was really touched. This is my way of thanking you."
"I thought I'd never see you again." Vanessa shuddered. "I thought Hades would take you to hell."
"Me, too." Kristy bit into a cookie. "How-how was he?"
All seven maidens turned to Lara, eager for her answer.
"He was... great. Hades is a real gentleman."
"I don't think Zeus is," Miss Forbidden muttered as she glanced at her bruised arms.
"Shh," Cook hushed her. "Someone might hear you."
Kristy finished her cookie and reached for another. "I swear I'm going to gain five pounds tonight."
The other maidens commiserated. While they complained about being overweight, Lara wedged a steak knife underneath the linen ties around her rib cage. She wanted a weapon, just in case Jack was right and Apollo sent a guard to attack them. Jack had also wanted her to get the girls down the road to where the werewolves were waiting with the SUVs. Convincing them to go through the gate would be tough.
She approached the table. "If you really want to lose some weight, you should get some exercise. We could take a walk down the road."
The girls gasped.
"We can't leave," Cook said. "It's forbidden."
"And there are terrible beasts in the woods," Kristy added. "With great gnashing teeth."
Vanessa grimaced. "I heard they drag people to hell."
"I asked Hades about that," Lara said. "And he said the woods are perfectly safe. The beasts know that we're special, so they would actually protect us."
The maidens remained silent while they pondered this new information.
Cook shook her head. "I'm not sure we can trust anything Hades says."
"And you think you can trust Apollo?" Lara asked. "He kidnapped us all from college. We were taken from our friends and families. Vanessa, I met your friends."
Vanessa jumped in her chair. "You know my name?"
"Yes. And I met your roommate Megan. And your friends Carmen and Ramya. They're worried sick about you. All of you have friends and families who are worried about you."
"So?" Cook frowned. "What's the point? We can't go back."
"Yes, you can." Lara pointed in the direction of the road outside. "Half a mile down the road, there are people waiting for us. Nice people, and they want to take us back home. You could all go back to your real lives."
"Are you serious?" Miss Forbidden's eyes widened with a hopeful look.
Vanessa wrinkled her nose. "But I'm failing three of my classes."
"I was flunking, too," Kristy grumbled. "Life is a lot easier here."
"What life?" Lara asked. "You're told what to wear, when to eat, when to clean, when to guard a false god-"
"Don't say that!" Cook looked around nervously.
"I like it here." Vanessa bit into another cookie. "Life is too hard back on Earth."
"It's not supposed to be easy," Lara said. "If it was always easy, we would never grow or learn. And when awful stuff happens, that's when we stretch beyond ourselves and become better than we ever thought was possible."
She thought back to how much she'd grown since the car accident. Now she could be grateful for the suffering and the struggle, because it had left her strong enough to handle this situation and strong enough to embrace a future with Jack.
"And sometimes, we have to make really hard decisions that will affect the rest of our lives." Lara knew her decision to stay with Jack could ultimately cause her to become a vampire. But it was the right decision, and she would stick by it.
She was pulled from her musings by a voice yelling outside. One of the guards. Her heart lurched. What if Jack was right, and the guard meant to kill them? She ran to check the lock. What if the guard had a key? She grabbed a chair and wedged it under the doorknob.
"What are you doing?" Cook stood.
"Is the back door locked?" Lara asked.
"Yes," Cook answered. "But what-"
The doorknob rattled. "Open the door!" the guard yelled.
Lara recognized his voice. It was the head guard, the one she called Squeaky.
"Let me in!" He pounded on the door.
"Yes, master." Cook headed for the door.
"No." Lara held up a hand to stop her.
The other maidens stood.
"We can't disobey a guard," Kristy said.
Squeaky banged on the door. "I order you to open this door. The Elysian Fields are under attack!"
The maidens gasped.
"What should we do?" Vanessa whispered.
"We must open the door." Cook stepped toward the door.
Lara pulled out her knife. "Stay back."
Cook's eyes widened. "You-you're in league with Hades! You're trying to get us all taken to hell!"
"I'm trying to save you," Lara said.
"There can be no survivors," the guard yelled.
Lara gasped. Jack had been right.
"What does that mean?" Vanessa asked.
Lara pushed against the door as the guard shook it. "It means Apollo has ordered the guard to kill us."
The maidens gasped. A few stumbled back. Vanessa started to shake and whimper. Lara heard footsteps moving away from the door. What would Squeaky try next?
"No," Cook whispered. "Apollo is a god. He would never kill us."
"He's not a god," Lara said. "He's been lying to you."
"You're wrong, you're wrong," the maidens said.
"I have to stop you." Cook ran into the kitchen and grabbed a knife. "You're going to get us all dragged to hell."
"No!" Miss Forbidden shouted, and all the maidens turned to her. Her eyes filled with tears, and she rubbed her bruised arms. "She's right. They're not gods."
The kitchen window shattered. The girls squealed. Glass flew into the room.
Squeaky used the hilt of his sword to clear all the glass away. "There can be no survivors."
"He's coming in!" Vanessa cried.
"Stay back!" Lara yelled at the girls. She ran to the window with her knife, ready to stab Squeaky if he tried to climb through the window.
A howl sounded close by. Squeaky shrieked just before a huge wolf knocked him down.
The maidens screamed.
"It's one of the beasts from the woods," Kristy wailed. "He's come to drag us all to hell."
"No, he's saving us." Lara looked out the window. The wolf had pinned Squeaky to the ground. "Come and see."
The girls slowly crept forward to peek out the window.
A young black man strode into view. He was dressed all in black and carrying a sword. Lara recognized him as the Vamp she'd seen before at Syracuse.
"Oh my, look at him," Vanessa whispered. "He's as handsome as Denzel."
He jabbed his sword into the ground, then pulled handcuffs from his jacket pocket and cuffed the guard. He patted the wolf on the head, then plucked his sword from the ground.
"Wow," Vanessa breathed. "Who is he?"
"He's amazing," Kristy added. "Did you see him tame that scary wolf?"
Since the girls persisted in their belief of Greek gods, Lara decided to use that. "He's... Ares, god of war."
"Ooooh," the maidens sighed.
Miss Forbidden pulled Lara aside and whispered, "Who is he really?"
"He's a good man who's come to help us," Lara said. "He can take you to the nearest town, so you can go home."