Prologue

Piper stared through the flames as yet another mortal was being devoured by the smoking inferno. She breathed deeply, feeling energy pulse through her. As she moved, her onyx anklet jingled, reminded her of what she was.

A half-demon. One that needed to smell death and smoke for its food.

Her onyx anklet was as black as her mother's, Queen Mila, eyes. All the smoke-demons, or what they were called, wore something with an onyx stone attached to it. Queen Mila wore a crown made entirely of silver and had an onyx stone the size of a clenched fist in the middle of it.

"Piper," a husky voice called her name. She turned, smiling, as she stared at Larson. His father was the fourth most admired person in the smoke-demon world – he was the king's nephew, and his advisor. Larson, like Piper, was one of the rare smoke-demons that had deep chocolate brown eyes like Piper, unlike the coal-like black ones that the rest of the community had.

They were very rare, but existent.

Piper stood up with Larson, and they began to dance around the fire, as did many other smoke-demons, as the mortal abruptly stopped screaming.

-*-*-

"What are you talking about, Zeus?" Poseidon raged. "My creatures are dying because of those mortals! They hunt my creatures for one part of their bodies; then leave the poor things out to rot!"

Zeus turned to him calmly. "Shush, Poseidon, Hera is sleeping."

"Crying in her dreams, no doubt," Poseidon said scathingly. Zeus flinched, and then murmured gently,

"The child is ours, brother. You shan't need to be so harsh about it."

Poseidon instantly softened. "So you finally realized that Hera was a feast upon the eyes, did you?" he asked. "Or was it done out of regret?"

Zeus's face was stormy as he backhanded Poseidon. Poseidon stumbled back, shocked that his own brother had slapped him. It actually wasn't that much of a surprise; actually, considering the way Poseidon had been acting after her death. Zeus's blond hair was a little ruffled as he pointed out the door. "Out. Now. I considered helping your poor little sea otters, but, now . . . no. Probably never."

He was pissed off, Poseidon thought as he walked out. Maybe I shouldn't have said that 'regret' part.

It was dark, with only the assistants of Hermes walking around, and then he bumped into Hermes himself.

"Oh, Lord Poseidon. I didn't see you there," Hermes said sheepishly, his blood-red spikes glinting in the darkness. Even Mount Olympus couldn't have resisted the fashion craze that was sweeping the Earth, now instead of a toga; Hermes wore a black tight shirt and loose jeans, with eyeliner outlining his golden eyes with bright white flecks, the same color of any Olympian. Only the Olympians had the golden eyes, all the other gods and goddesses had bright robin's egg colored eyes flecked with gold.

"It's alright, Hermes," Poseidon said tiredly, running his fingers through his dark red hair, the same shade of Hermes', but he had it normally. He had no beard, only the myths of the Greeks proclaimed that.

"Are you all right?" Hermes asked cautiously. "After Amphitrite –"

"Shut up," Poseidon snarled, his fingers twitching to strangle the young Olympian. Hermes nodded and ran off. Amphitrite, his wife, had been suffocated by an oil spill from the foolish humans while she had been swimming up near the surface.

It was, ironically, the day she had been cursed to be mortal by Honey, her mortal witch sister – this had been before the humans burned off all the witches – who'd been jealous of her sister having Poseidon.

So now I'm a single man, Poseidon thought dryly. As he headed back using the complicated transportation method, he suddenly heard screaming and smelled the acrid stench of smoke and death. He cut the teleportation short to see a raging bonfire with people dancing around it barefoot.

He walked to a girl who had an onyx anklet to ask her what she was doing. He tapped her shoulder after another man - probably her husband or lover - had left. She turned with a smile on her face. When she saw him her eyes flew open, and Poseidon's insides shivered.

Not in a good way, though. Her eyes showed no white, but they were the deepest chocolate brown Poseidon had ever seen. "Yes?" she asked quietly. Or, maybe, that was her loudest voice.

"What are you doing?" he asked curiously. The girl's eyes widened.

"We're, um, celebrating our school reunion," she answered too quickly. Poseidon's eyes narrowed.

"Oh, really?" he pressed. "What school do you go to?"

"St. Angels of Her Lady," the girl replied. Suddenly, chanting erupted throughout the crowd. Exchanging a look between him and the crowd, the anklet girl quickly scurried to a woman with a silver crown – that had an onyx stone embedded in the middle of it.

As the girl quickly kept talking, the woman's eyes flashed to Poseidon's face. Maybe it was the firelight, but Poseidon swore they were black – night-black. She slowly held a hand up, and the chanting stopped immediately.

Must be a cult of some kind, Poseidon thought with amusement. The woman stood up gracefully and slinked over to Poseidon.

"What are you doing here?" she asked with an air of formality. Yep, definitely a cult.

"I heard screaming, and I decided to investigate," Poseidon said just as coolly. The first girl stepped up, brushing the other's shoulder.

"I will escort him, Mother," she said icily. "He should at least get to the nearest bus station." Her mother looked surprised, but then composed herself by nodding.

"Alright. My daughter, Piper, will escort you out." Piper walked away, grabbing Poseidon's arm and towing him along rather strongly.

When they were far enough away, Piper turned on him.

"You need to stay away from us," she warned him. Poseidon nodded, smiling smugly.

"Why is that?"

"Because we're evil," Piper whispered, one of her sleeved falling off her shoulder. It left a very interesting tattoo design. Realizing what he was staring at, Piper quickly brushed the sleeve up.

Cursing himself, Poseidon looked away. It was rude to stare at a woman's naked skin if she didn't want you to look at it or it was by force. By Zeus, it was disgusting if you were staring at her skin by force.

"How so?" Poseidon asked defiantly, still walking. Piper stopped.

"Believe me, we're evil," she whispered, remembering the human Amphitrite, who had begged for mercy before being burned.

Aww. Posey's wife got killed by Piper's kind! This is just the prologue, so I probably won't unless otherwise . . . *Hint, hint*