The Pentagram Child: Part 2 (Afterlife Saga Book 5) Read Online Free Page B

all represented the same thing and that was the shit storm they had brought to my home. One Keira had opened the door to…and worst of all, I had fucking let her!
    I left the temple shaking my head in anger and in doing so barely had enough wits about me to dodge the attack from above.
    “Damn Harpies!” I muttered in annoyance looking up from the floor I had just been forced to drop to. I pushed back up from my hands and slapped the volcanic dust from them as I scanned the area. This next space was a courtyard of sorts and was surrounded by jagged mountain rock. It almost looked like black quartz had erupted from the ground and formed natural knife-edged battlements all around us. I say ‘us’ as it became quickly apparent I was no longer alone.
    “Ladies” I said nodding my head hoping they could detect my sarcasm over my anger at being detained any longer than I had to be. Unfortunately this turned out to be a failing on my part as even their rancorous teeth could be seen from down where I stood.
    The four sisters stood out from the rest of their smaller offspring but it was not only from size alone but also from their higher positioning. They each had perched themselves at the highest point of rock and surrounded themselves with their family of minions at lower points around where I stood.
    Given that only one stood tall amongst the sisters I knew there was a divide in the ranks and if there was one that needed taking out first, it was certainly that one. If there was such a thing as a Harpie with greater intelligence than a common dog then this would be the one
    “Mine!” One snarled that was crouched down low and clutched the stone with its clawed hands. All three heads snapped round to the claim and each showed their distaste with a growl. The brazen one stretched out her face like a snake getting ready for the feast and spat at the others like an angry cat. The other sisters followed suit and portrayed the famous Harpie trait of displaying their fangs in anger. They then stretched out their hideous wings of sagging aged skin, ones void of any feathers.
    Even from down here I could see clearly the pot marks left from where their plumage used to be and it marred along the torn withered skin stretched between the long finger bones, ones that powered their limited flight.
    They were more like a limp bat, gliding along and only being fed from the negative energy this place emits like one of Earth’s power stations. I had to smirk at the idea of fighting these pathetic creatures. Oh yes, they might be greater in number than I but what did they take me for?
    It took me back to the day I first warned Keira, that assumption is the mother from which all mistakes are born, of course my little Vixen had gone and threw it back in my face not long after.
    For the first time since this mess I couldn’t help but smile at the memory. Of course the Harpies took this for something else.
    “Look sisters, we have one willing I think.” They all snapped their elongated jaws in postulated excitement….well they were soon to taste disappointed in the form of swallowing their own blood and that was a promise.
    “Think again Celaeno.” I said pleased to see the twisted mix of both fury and shock that I had guessed right. Celaeno meant ‘Dark one’ and in all the mythology I had heard about these four then it was the dark one that had led the other three to ruin. She held the most of what brains could be had in a Harpie and the other three followed her blindly.
    It was said that her obsessive love for Zeus was what drove the maddening need to torture others in a tainted way to gain attention from her maker. Needless to say it backfired but this rage only inflamed their insatiable desire to take men against their will, demon or not.
    The other three were recognisable through the power of elimination as they too had their own descriptive names as their sister. Celaeno had the darker body of the four and was slightly bigger with