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“You already know Nyssa.” The tall, curvy woman smiled and gave a little wave, but her eyes never left Willow. Still he wondered if he needed to be concerned.
“This is Damaris.” Arsenio beckoned the petite, black haired beauty forward. Where Nyssa seemed to display every emotion like a human video billboard, Damaris was reserved. He didn’t like that he couldn’t read her.
“Geia sas.” She smiled at all of them, but returned her gaze to Willow.
“Damaris and Nyssa are maenads.”
“What?” Willow asked and her eyes blinked in rapid succession while she tried to make sense of what Arsenio had revealed about his companions.
“Maenads are priestesses of Dionysus.” Mathilda volunteered, clearly as awestruck as Willow was herself.
“Okay.” It was evident she was still unsure what to make of the two women. He had to fight the urge to smile.
“YOU WANT TO ASK MORE QUESTIONS SO BADLY. I KNOW YOU DO.” He joked with her telepathically.
“OF COURSE I DO. WHAT THE HELL IS A MAENAD? MATHILDA ACTS LIKE THAT EXPLANATION SUMMED UP EVERYTHING I NEEDED TO KNOW. I’M STILL CLUELESS.”
His eyes went wide with amusement and he coughed to cover the laugh that slipped out. “Road dust... Just have a touch of it scratching my throat.” He explained while he coughed and cleared his throat when everyone looked at him. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Willow sporting a smirk at his lame excuse.
“This fellow is Ulrik. He’s a vampire and has been a guest of the supernatural community here in Delphi for over a year now.” Arsenio continued with his introductions.
The man that stepped forward, looked like he was a Viking in another life. In the sea of dark hair and swarthy skin, he stuck out for his fair skin and honey blonde hair. He formally bowed and then proceeded to kiss the hand of each of the female Protectors. Maybe Ulrik was an Old World vampire because he was very formal. All of the women, with the exception of Phaedra, swooned at the gesture, including Willow he noticed. “Hej. It is a pleasure to meet you all.” The Danish accent had them all dreamy eyed.
Some of the women may have been taken in by his charms, but he and Phaedra shared a look at hearing he was a vampire. He was definitely interested to know how a lone vampire ended up in Greece. Arsenio mentioned he was a guest here. He hoped Ulrik would have no problem sharing his story later when he asked him. Until then, Eli planned to be on high alert. For all they knew, he could be a mole planted by Killian. He didn’t want to be paranoid, but it was Willow’s life that was at stake. He’d rather be safe than sorry.
Eli let everyone introduce themselves. He was no one’s mouthpiece. Plus, he didn’t know what the women were liable to do to him if he tried.
Once all the pleasantries were out of the way, Arsenio barked some orders in Greek, “Párte tis tsántes tous tóra.” A few men materialized from nowhere and grabbed their luggage.
The men scuttled away and they followed.
Willow leaned over and whispered in his ear, “Okay, now that no one can overhear me asking you, tell me what exactly are maenads?”
He grinned. “Mathilda was correct, they’re priestesses of Dionysus who was the Greek god of wine...”
She interrupted him. “I thought that was Bacchus?”
“That’s his name in Roman mythology. Anyways, over the years it got boiled down to the maenads goal being to get you to drink and reach a greater state of ecstasy.”
When he looked at her to see if she was satisfied with his answer she raised an eyebrow. “I don’t see what all the fuss is about.”
“There was stuff about ripping bull’s apart and drinking blood so you could be possessed by Dionysus.”
She wrinkled her nose and looked slightly alarmed. Maybe his explanation was deeper than it needed to be.
“Think about it this way, if a party was a dud, bring in some maenads, it won’t be a dud for much longer. They’re kind of like people that amp up the fun level on a party.”
“So they get people turnt up?”
Her succinct explanation made him chuckle. “That’s a great way to put it. Now multiple what your idea of that is by like 10,000.”
She looked over her shoulder at Nyssa and Damaris. “So this banquet is gonna be lit tonight because of those two?” She turned back to him. “I don’t see it.” She snorted in disbelief.
Parked at the curb were five identical, gray Peugeot 308 hatchbacks. The drivers loaded all of the baggage into one of the cars.
“Get in. Get in. Let us be off.” Arsenio urged everyone to get into the vehicles.
He and Willow climbed into the backseat of Arsenio’s car. Phaedra and Max ended up in the car with Nyssa, which made him want to laugh, thinking about how Phaedra would respond to the bubbly maenad. Morgana, Mathilda and Ulrik grabbed the next car and Zoriana and Damaris rode in the last car.
As they pulled away from the station, Arsenio talked from the passenger seat. Given his large frame, it was impossible for him to turn around and address them so he spoke loudly. “You couldn’t have chosen a better time to come to Delphi. The Pythian Games are starting soon and everyone’s excited to have the Oracle preside over the games. It’s why the maenads accompanied me to pick you up. They wish to throw a banquet tonight in your honor.”
Eli glanced over at Willow to gauge her reaction to all of this. Her mouth was hanging open like she was waiting to catch some flies.
“What?” She shook herself. “What?”
“Maybe you won’t get that Grammy, but it looks like you’ll get to live like a rock star while we’re here.” He smiled at her.
It was clear she was trying to contain the excitement bubbling up inside of her. She bit her lip and tried to fight back the huge grin that wouldn’t go away. She leaned into him and whispered. “Do you think they’ll let me perform?”
“You’re the Oracle. I don’t think they’d deny you anything. You saw the way that chick Nyssa was about to faint after catching a glimpse of you.” He chuckled and brushed a few curls out of her face. When he peered at her, it warmed his heart to see worry lines weren’t etched into her forehead and her face was devoid of concern and battle fatigue. It made him happy that she might get to have a bit of fun. Yeah they were here for a purpose, but she deserved a night off from everything. Even though they were celebrating the Oracle, she could pretend they were honoring her as a singer instead. He kissed her forehead. Something flipped in his stomach when he heard her blissful sigh and she snuggled into his side; then she was off with a million questions for Arsenio.
“What are the Pythian Games?”
“You have not educated her thoroughly on her history, Eli.”
“Sorry, it’s been hard finding time to go over ancient Greek history while eluding bloodthirsty vampires.” His voice dripped with sarcasm, which seemed to be lost on Arsenio because he only tsked and proceeded to give her a detailed account of what exactly the Pythian Games were.
“The Pythian Games are similar to the Olympics, but were held in honor of Apollo. Delphi hosted these athletic events: chariot races, wrestling, boxing, horse races and such, every two years after the Olympics. Initially, it started out with competitions in art: singing, dancing, poetry, before the athletic events were added...” the man continued on. After Arsenio’s speech on the platform about how important the Oracle was, you’d think he would have remembered the guy was a bit of a history buff.
Every now and then, Willow interrupted him, but he didn’t seem to mind the endless questions that she threw at him. Eli had to admit, he was a little rusty on his Greek history so he rather enjoyed Arsenio’s recap. The man was a master storyteller. He half wished they were sitting around a campfire with some S’mores.
After a while, his attention was drawn elsewhere. He listened to the two of them prattle on while he enjoyed gazing out the window at the countryside. Among the abundance of pine trees he saw fig and olive trees also dotted the valley. Wherever they were headed must have been on the outskirts of town, because they passed through without stopping. It made sense that the supernaturals would want to avoid attention.
Thirty minutes later they pulled up to a compound with a security gate. Arsenio waved his hand and repeated some Latin phrase he couldn’t hear and the gate slid open. Their caravan rolled through the gate and drove down a driveway that ran for about half a mile before they arrived at a sprawling estate nestled among pine trees. The white stucco villa was modern in its design. Once the cars parked along the circular driveway, everyone got out.
“Sweet.” Max was clearly impressed with their Greek accommodations.
Standing in front of the house were two tall men with the musculature of Hercules. They were identical. The only way to tell they’d seen at least forty plus birthdays was the gray at their temples and the crow’s feet that crinkled at the corners of their eyes. Their skin was deeply tan. It was hard to tell if it was natural or if the men enjoyed lying about in the sun or a tanning bed.
“Who are they?” Willow asked Arsenio as they climbed from the car.
Eli’s attention was drawn to them as well. There was something about the insolence and smugness that marred the one man’s face that reminded him of his father. He found himself taking an instant dislike to that one. Of course he chided himself for being childish instead of waiting to reserve judgment. Although, he often found his first instincts were usually right. The other one had a strange look on his face as he stared into the car. Almost like he was looking at a ghost.
“That’s Lysander and Hadrian. They are twin brother and the heads of our coven.” Before Arsenio could walk them over and introduce them, Lysander said something to Hadrian and walked away, disappearing around the side of the house. Hadrian’s eyes didn’t leave Willow the whole time they approached him. It made Eli uneasy. Not that he deemed Hadrian or Lysander a threat... yet. It’s just the look in Hadrian’s eyes didn’t quite match the smile on his face. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. Right now he would try and relax, for her.
Tonight they would have a good time and then they needed to get down to the business of finding that book. Hyacinth’s letter said that Killian already knew of the book, which meant that he could already have people on the ground here scavenging for it. His mind went to Ulrik again. He planned to have a conversation with him tonight. Between Ulrik and Damaris, he planned to make sure that neither posed a threat to Willow or their mission to find the book. It was possible he might need to add Hadrian or Lysander to that list. If so, it didn’t matter if there were peace treaties in place, he would raise hell if any harm came to a hair on her head. Consequences be damned.