average human’s Reviews > Bonds of Hercules > Status Update

Patro called out mockingly. “Achilles and I are here for you!”
Hermos shouted something to Agatha, and a safety clicked off.
Augustus turned back in slow motion, his black eyes widening with sheer horror.
Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.
Muzzle flashes lit the night as bark exploded.
Drex staggered.
Two bullets lodged in his arm.
Alexis grabbed him by the front of his toga and dragged him forward as they zigzagged wildly through the trees.
Their lead was disappearing.
Forty feet.
Patro screamed something and Agatha yelled back; both sounds were swallowed by the wind.
Alexis jerkily yanked Drex closer, draping one of his arms over her shoulders. She half ran, half dragged him through the dark woods. His arm was bleeding all over her.
“LEAVE HIM!” I shouted.
Alexis tightened her grip around the injured boy as she dragged him through the woods.
A muzzle flashed.
Pop.
Alexis’s body rocked. She grunted and stumbled.
She wiped at her leg—her gloves were coated in crimson.
Copper stained the air.
She grabbed Drex’s wounded arm, he cried out in pain, and she resumed pulling him through the remaining trees.
A bullet was lodged in Alexis’s right calf.
They.
Shot.
My.
Wife.
Augustus bellowed.
Patro shouted.
A strange pain burned my leg.
I looked back—Hermos, the vile Gorgon, had a gun in his outstretched hand, the barrel smoking with fresh gunpowder.
He’d shot my wife using one of the Spartan guns I’d designed.
I knew all about his kind.
The trainers at the House of Aphrodite were all Gorgons—they’d tortured Patro as a child, for fun. He was fucked up because of their sadistic culture.
“Get to her first!” Patro shouted, and Achilles sped up, his muzzle coated with ice.
Augustus matched him stride for stride.
The two behemoths of the House of Ares moved in a blur, faster than the rest of the Chthonics. They were built for power.
“Handle Hermos—or I’ll destroy him … permanently,” Augustus ordered, blood dripping profusely from his eyes as he weaved through the branches.
Spinning around, I came to a stop—raising both weapons—and fired at point-blank range.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
Hermos didn’t have time to blink.
Bullets ripped through his skull—eyes, mouth, and forehead—his brain exploded. Momentum threw him onto the ice as he bounced off a tree.
I stomped over to Hermos’s fallen body, kicking off his Spartan helmet.
“What the fuck was that for?” Agatha screeched as she stumbled to a stop and kneeled beside her downed partner.
My chest heaved with rage.
“He shot my wife.”
Agatha cradled Hermos’s bloody snake head, her face shifting rapidly between a woman and a demon. “It’s the rules!”
“It’s my wife.”
I turned and ran, resuming the hunt.
An eerie hum filled the air as sleet poured harder and slammed against ice.
Shadows moved up ahead.
When I finally broke out of the forest, Drex was lying in a heap cradling his arm, but his bullet wounds were somehow already healing over.
That’s strange.
I stepped over him.
In the middle of the clearing, Alexis was limping backward. Her strange protector crouched in front of her.
Lightning lit up the inky sky, illuminating wet golden curls.
Augustus and Patro were slowly approaching her.
“Just come with us!” Patro shouted over the wind. “You hate your husbands. We never betrayed you. Not like they did.”
Poppae and Nero crept forward with him.
Augustus shook his head. “Don’t listen to him—let me help you, my carus.” Poco was a lump on his back, hiding from the elements under his cloak.
Achilles stood with his arms crossed, smoking in the sleet, as he watched the two men approach Alexis.
I stalked along the shadows of the tree line.
“Let us help you!” Patro held out his hand. “It’s different with us … We’re not like them.”
Thunder cracked.
“Careful.” Augustus turned his head to the other man. “That’s my wife you’re talking to.”
Patro’s laugh was cold and humorless. “Tell me, does the marriage truly count … if the bride is trapped, deceived, and forced into it?”
Augustus raised his fist.
Achilles moved in a flash, shoving Patro back as he stood in front of him.
“Don’t test me,” Augustus said as he pointed at Patro. “I won’t hold back. Not when it comes to her.”
Lightning flashed.
Achilles’s ice-covered muzzle glinted as he pulled out a serrated hunting knife. He held it up to Augustus’s throat.
Blood dripped from Augustus’s lashes, freezing as it spilled over.
I crept closer, ignoring the pain in my leg.
Alexis held her hands to her chest and closed her eyes like she was concentrating.
She disappeared from the clearing.
Crack.
Lightning flashed.
Alexis rematerialized on the tree line in a cloud of smoke, a foot away from me, looking shocked.
Not only had she leapt a short distance—highly dangerous because of the increased odds of slamming into objects—but she’d leapt directly to me.
“You could have decapitated yourself on a tree!” I lunged for her, snow crunching.
Alexis threw herself backward, grimacing when she backed into a tree. Leaping while injured was also extremely dangerous. She’d exacerbated the hemorrhaging.
“Let me help you.”
Alexis moved away.
I stalked after her.
“Alexis, you shouldn’t leap when you’re injured. You could have hurt yourself!” Augustus shouted from the clearing.
He sprinted toward us with Patro and Achilles on his heels.
Alexis looked back and forth between the approaching men and the deeper woods with wild eyes, like she was debating her options.
She wouldn’t.
When injured, Spartans didn’t leap multiple times in a row because the odds of blood loss, permanent damage, and severe dismemberment were high. We were born with an innate sense of self-preservation.
Alexis took a deep breath.
Yes, she fucking would.
On instinct, I threw myself at her, my hand grabbing her bicep.
Crack.
The two of us were alone.
We were standing in a field of green grass.
The May temperature was mild. Shining softly, the sun was setting in a pink haze.
A hundred feet away, barbed wire fenced in a forest. A sign proclaimed in red letters, “Spartan Federation Militarized Protected Zone, Titans Beware.”
She’d taken us back to Montana, where we’d found her living under a fucking tarp.
“Do you have no sense of self-preservation?” I yelled in horror.
Alexis yanked out of my grip.
Stumbling, she ripped off her blood-soaked gloves and stared down at her trembling fingers. “Drex,” she mouthed silently.
Is there a faint glow coming from her hands?
She wiped it off and it looked normal.
“Leaping twice in a row? What were you thinking? Are you trying to kill yourself?” I snarled.
Her gaze shuttered.
Eyelashes coated in ice, wild curls frozen to her flushed face, she swayed on her feet like she was going to pass out as blood poured from her leg.
Rage and fear mixed inside my chest in a toxic combination.
“Look at me,” I demanded.
She turned away.
Dark thoughts mixed with helpless emotions. My aggression was chasing her away. I was known as the hunter of my generation for a reason—I knew when it was time to switch tactics.
I need to pretend to be a nice man.
With a deep breath, I lowered my voice and relaxed my posture. “Please … let me help you.”
The setting sun cast streaks of pink across her stubborn expression.
I pulled off my helmet and dropped it to show her I wasn’t a threat (I was). “We need to create a tourniquet around your leg and tie off your wound. You’re losing a lot of blood.”
Slowly, I unbuckled my armpit holsters and dropped my weapons onto the grass. I tugged off my black hunting shirt and handed the fabric over to her.
“Tie this around your leg.”
Alexis stared at it.
“Here—let me help.” I dropped to my knees.
The pads of my fingers grazed across her calf—awareness tingled up my arm, and I swallowed a guttural groan. Shifting to hide the inappropriate bulge in my pants, I wrapped the shirt around the top of her calf.
Keep it together. She’s fucking injured, you animal. As gently as possible, I tied it off in a knot.
“Thanks,” Alexis whispered hoarsely.
Water melted off her eyelashes and dripped onto my cheek—she was looking down at me with a strange expression.
Badump-Badump-Badump. My heart was in my throat.
It was the first word she’d said to me in months.
Moisture blurred my vision—I blinked it away.
Tie her up. Grab her quickly; she’s not expecting it. Throw her over your shoulder and leap away. Chain her to your side.
I swallowed thickly.
No. Give her a choice.
I forced my shoulders to relax.
“Let’s … get you back to the base so we can bandage you up properly.” I stood up to my full height and offered her my hand. “I’ll leap us back.”
Be the good guy.
Her expression became guarded.
Fuck, I should have grabbed her.
“Why—not?” My neck tensed and I tried not to bare my teeth like a predator.
I expected silence.
Alexis’s head whipped around, her two-colored eyes boring through me with intensity.
Blood dripped down her cheeks from where she’d cut herself on tree branches—curls stuck out in every direction—her face twisted with dark emotions.
“You betrayed me.”
Shaking my head, I held out my arm for her to take. “No—I married you.”
Alexis’s voice was cold as ice. “Was it worth hurting me … just for your p-powers? Did you get everything you wanted?”
“You don’t understand,” I said through gritted teeth. “It wasn’t like that. The Olympians … the oppression.”
She rolled her eyes and waved her hand dismissively. The ten-carat diamond we’d gifted her danced on her finger.
Don’t attack your wife.
I held my hand out for her patiently. “Just come with me.”
Don’t kidnap her.
“You trapped me,” Alexis said hoarsely. “Stalked me like an animal. Tortured me with your messed-up powers—”
“YOUR POWERS ARE STRONGER NOW TOO,” I shouted, losing all control. “Wake up. The marriage law would have applied to you too, princess. You also benefited from this arrangement—I’m trying to be a better man for you.”
“I NEVER ASKED YOU TO BE ANYTHING!” she screamed.
I shoved my knuckles into my mouth to stop myself from saying something I’d regret.
When I finally regained control of myself, I choked out, “I’m sorry for trapping you … the stalking … marriage … kidnapping. I’m going to be better.”
“And the body p-parts in the boxes?” she whispered.
I narrowed my eyes. “What about them? Those disgraces of men touched you against your will. What the fuck did you expect me to do?”
“Literally anything else,” she said. “Except butchering them!”
I scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous, Alexis.”
She gasped like she was struggling to breathe.
I continued. “I still don’t understand why you rejected the jewels. Were they not up to your standards? Augustus said humans once revered the Hope Diamond. He thought you’d appreciate the history. Did you want something nicer?”
Alexis covered her mouth and made a choking sound as her face turned purple.
I softened my features. “We’ll be better men for—”
“This is j-just physical,” she blurted.
I blinked.
Icy fury doused me.
“What … the fuck did you just say to me?”
Alexis tipped her head back, jaw set.
Blood continued to streak down her cheeks as she set her chin stubbornly, refusing to cower before my rage. I would have been impressed if I wasn’t so fucking furious.
“Say it again,” I said quietly. “I fucking dare you.”
She bared her teeth, eyes flashing. “It’s just physical.”
I lunged.