Read Online Rise of the Blood by Lucienne Diver - Free Book Online Page B

be worried about splinters. Anyway, how can you be so calm about this and how on Earth do you think can I help?”
    “Remember how you once told me you’d save me back someday? Well, I’m calling it in.”
    “So you want me to find out who’s doing this to you and get them to reverse it?”
    “That’s the idea.”
    “What about Serena?”
    “What about her?” he asked.
    I gave him a get real look. “Well, this all started with her walking in on you. Do you think that’s a coincidence?”
    “Well, I did . I mean, as far as I know, she’s human. She doesn’t have the power to pull off something like this. And why would she?”
    “You tell me, loverboy. Did you do anything to piss her off? And while we’re at it, I’m not sure she’s entirely human. I saw her eyes glow on the plane.”
    “Glow, seriously?”
    “Seriously. Gah, I can’t talk to you when you’re…like that. Get some clothes on and we’ll figure this out.”
    He grinned, but moved toward the door, and I backed out to let him pass. The sooner his petrified parts were covered up, the sooner I could think straight. Theoretically.
    He grabbed a pair of pants that had been folded over a chair. His towel slipped as he started to step into them and I quickly averted my eyes.
    “So, Serena,” I said, pretending interest in the artwork on the walls. “How much do you know about her?”
    “Just the official bio, but those are usually more fiction than not. She’s a California girl, born and bred. Discovered at a cattle call for Myron Landau’s last film. Instant celebrity. Nothing mysterious about her.”
    “Uh huh.”
    “Not to sound arrogant, but why would she want to hurt me when that would derail the film? This is a big role for her.”
    “Could you be replaced?”
    “No, don’t worry about my ego. I’m just fine,” he said, buttoning a shirt over his massive chest…not that I was looking. “Yes, in theory I could be replaced. In practice, no one worth their salt is available on such short notice. She’d be shooting her own career in the foot.”
    I thought about that. I didn’t know what I’d seen in her eyes. With the gods begetting here, there and everywhere, it was likely that half the people on Earth had some kind of ancient blood running through their veins. I myself had the gorgon glare, but I couldn’t turn men to stone…or wood. Still, I could hardly condemn Serena for her ancestry. And I suspected the fact that I hadn’t trusted her on sight was more about jealousy than precognition. Jealousy I had no right to feel.
    “Okay then, maybe not Serena. Then who?”
    “Anyone with transformation power. All the major players have it—Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera. Plus, it’s a particular talent of the water divinities, given that water has no fixed form.”
    “So the list of suspects reads like the Olympian family tree?”
    “More or less.”
    I crossed my arms over my chest. He wasn’t going to like this next part one bit. “I’m going to have to bring Armani in on this. I can’t leave him in the dark on the investigation. This is too big for one person, even if that one person is me.”
    “Well, that ought to make his day.”
     
     
    Oddly enough, it didn’t. I was going to wait to tell Nick about Apollo’s, uh, condition, until after maybe a few beers and some mellowing. Introducing him to my crazy family and the thought of another man’s priapic state on top of our harrowing travels seemed like cruel and unusual punishment to me.
    But Nick hardly needed his cop skills to realize that there was a story behind a traumatized Serena collapsing in front of him. He pulled me aside the second I reappeared on the terrace.
    “ What is going on?” he demanded.
    Hesitating wouldn’t make the news any more palatable. “Apollo’s turning into a tree,” I said, as no-nonsense as I could make it.
    “Say what?”
    “She didn’t tell you?”
    “She hasn’t said anything. Her eyelids have fluttered and she’s