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"Oh, no" I started toward theet the shock of your undead life And you ot us penned in"

"Obviously we’re not going to be able to do you lared at Achelous as he brought the uard" The god laughed "Still have that power, don’t you, Gloriana?" The lightning disappeared but when Jerry reached for a knife he was turned to stone, Rafe too Neither of them could move other than to blink their eyes

"What power?" I prayed Achelous didn’t ht he meant If he did, then my relationships with Jerry, with Rafe, hell, even with Ray were totally bogus

"You know exactly what power, Gloriana I made you mortal but it seems even I couldn’t strip away your ability to draw et a ift of enchantment, even at this very h you are still a tes in yourI didn’t dare shrug away from

"I don’t believe you" But I was very afraid Jerry and Rafe did Though their faces were frozen, there was noin their eyes Fury Ie At me? I didn’t dare analyze it I prayed it was at this bastard The weight of his arhientlemen You would never have been able to resist this woman She’s still a Siren where it counts and lured you like dogs to a juicy steak" Achelous chuckled "Aggie toldfor a while How appropriate"

"Stop it" I wanted to cover my ears "I don’t believe you"

"Of course you do Didn’t you ever wonder, Gloriana, why your men were so steadfast? One of theet rid of your adentleet her, could you? Especially you, vampire How many hundreds of years have you danced to her tune?" Achelous laughed again and swept his hand toward the sky, a clap of thunder shaking the terrace "My Sirens kno to hold a man until the day he dies! Of course usually that’s not but an hour after he knows her" Achelous stepped away fro!" I desperately blinked back tears even though he was saying exactly what I’d been terrified was true "You’re just trying to ruin my life now This doesn’t make sense"

"What doesn’t make sense is that you’re still alive!" Achelous stomped away from me, each step another thunderclap "Zeus’s toenails, but this infuriates me How is it possible? I intended for you to have a short andfamily for you and watched you bewitch your first hu to sew to help earn bread after he died" He glared at me "I assuutter and that would be that In a blink of an eye you would be gone forever"

"But I didn’t have an ordinary life I ed Jerry withvampire!" Achelous threw up his hands and the clouds unleashed a torrent, du icy rain on us, everyone except him of course There was no shelter anywhere and we had to just stand there and take it, the cold hard rain drenching us in seconds "Conniving bitch You persuaded him to make you immortal You were supposed to die! I had no idea Had quit watching you or--" He ground his teeth and sparks flew "Hindsight"

As quickly as the rain had started, it stopped The clouds rolled away and the ht sky Stars twinkled above us in a breathtaking display

"Gloriana didn’t die because I wouldn’t allow it" The lilting voice seemed to issue from Heaven itself but instead came from a tiny woman who appeared at Laurie’s side

"Circe!" Achelous stopped in his tracks "What do you have to do with this?"

"I was sick of the way you treated your wo of this proble line of intolerable acts I could not stand by and let you get aith abusing this poor girl" Circe, a goddess in her own right, had also stuck to the Rouess it was the norh she only caave her an i beauty, withdown her back But that wasn’t what made her formidable It was the power that shimmered around her I sure wouldn’t want to cross her

"And how is that your business?" Achelous looked down his nose at her, obviously not intimidated

"As a woman, I decided to make it my business" She poked his broad chest with a pearl white fingernail "You cast Gloriana out without proper resources"

"Of course I did She never appreciated the gold and jewels she had as one of " Achelous spat the last word

"I couldn’t allow you to reduce her to such dire straits She was close to starving She had no way to earn a living" Circe sAnd she was too proud for that, weren’t you, my dear?"