Theta by Lizzy Ford

wasn’t the only person occupying
my thoughts. I had left DC reluctantly, on the orders of a goddess
I had sworn my life to on this very beach. I left behind the temple
guardians – thousands of members of the sacred, royal Greek
Bloodline waiting for me to rescue them, and the sole living
heiress to the Bloodline, the Silent Queen. The first and only
grotesque to be re-animated, it was my responsibility to save the
others. They were my family, my predecessors and successors, and I
would rescue them from the hell they all endured as immortal stone,
sentient statues.
    At least I saved one of my
descendants, I thought, mind on Phoibe. The
Silent Queen had followed the instructions I gave her when she was
six. As long as she never spoke the invocation, and never
reproduced, she would not fall prey to the Bloodline’s
curse.
    Alessandra was the key. If she had saved me,
she could save everyone else.
    Deep in thought, my beast senses picked up
on the man and animals approaching long before I acknowledged them
with a direct look. I didn’t feel the presence of a god, indicating
the elderly man walking with a cane was human. With him were three
large dogs.
    The moment the canines caught wind of me,
all three raced down the beach towards him. As the alpha of all
predators, I was accustomed to other hunter species reacting with
excitement and prey fleeing at the sight of me.
    “ Calm down,” I told the
dogs as they neared. They obeyed, to an extent. I was soon
surrounded by canines with wagging tales. They licked and rubbed up
against me, and I reached out to pat the head of the dog burrowing
under my leg.
    Their master took more time to reach me.
Sizing him up through my peripheral, I waited for the old man to
come within earshot.
    “ It’s not safe for you out
here,” I said in flawless Greek. “Shouldn’t you be in hiding with
the others?”
    “ I might ask you the same,”
the old man said and paused, leaning heavily on his
cane.
    “ I am far scarier than
anything I might run into,” I said with a smile. “You should take
that into account.”
    “ My dogs favor you. They
are good judges of character.”
    The truth was much more difficult to explain
to a stranger. The man lowered himself carefully to the beach and
sat with a sigh. One of his dogs joined him and licked his face.
With close-cropped white hair, large, dark brown eyes, and leathery
olive skin, the elderly man was handsome despite his age.
    “ What brings you here?” he
asked.
    “ I’m not sure I know,” I
answered. “It wouldn’t make sense to you anyway.”
    “ I’ve seen a lot in my
time. Try me.”
    You haven’t seen four
thousand years. I’m the old man here, I
responded silently.
    When I didn’t speak, my visitor seemed to
take the hint. “I’ll be on my way,” said the elderly man. “Do you
need a place to stay or are you passing through?”
    “ I don’t know that either,”
I replied.
    The old man climbed to his feet with effort
and steadied himself with his cane. “Well, I live around the bend.”
He pointed past the rocks on the north side of the beach. “If night
falls, and you need shelter, we will welcome you.”
    “ Thank you.” I didn’t take
my eyes off the sea. It wasn’t likely a mere human could help me,
and I was grateful for the solitude while I waited. Giving the dog
sprawled on the ground a final pat, I draped my arms over my
knees.
    The old man whistled, and his dogs raced
after him. Aware of their progress with my beast senses, I didn’t
have to watch them to track their movements.
    Before they reached the road, I sensed
something was wrong. Twisting, I saw the man sprawled on the
ground. His dogs were standing over him, one whining and another
licking the back of his neck.
    One person’s life wasn’t much of a concern
to me, when I already had too many people to save as it was. The
butcher I’d been as the head of SISA, before I rediscovered my
memories, wouldn’t have cared for the fate of a million