The Blood of Athens Read Online Free PDF Page B

to find the key card
for their hotel room. He missed the lock with the card as he stared
at June. They had run from his Roadster to their hotel room through a
light rain shower and her hair, styled that afternoon with gentle
curls, lay flat and wet against her back.
    “ We
are,” she said, reaching around him to take the card and unlock the
door. He was obviously too distracted, staring at the droplets of
rain that beaded on her shoulders. Zach ran his knuckles along her
arm.
    “ I
can't believe we drove all the way to Savannah and got married.”
    “ Do
you regret it?” she asked as the lights on the door blinked green
and she turned the doorknob.
    Zach
shook his head. “No.” He laughed. “Not one bit.” Zach pushed
the door open and pressed his body against June, pinning her to the
wall in the hallway at the front of their room. He kissed her,
sliding his hand along her jaw and burying his fingers in her wet
hair. June seemed surprised, but only for a moment now. She was
married and she reminded herself that there was nothing anyone could
say about her if she gave into Zach now. She was his wife. She had
every right to be in this position.
    June's
hands gripped the lapels of his soaked suit jacket and pushed them
over his shoulders. She grabbed his tie and pulled him back down to
her level. Zach was officially, legally hers. It was time to let her
hair down.
    Zach's
phone rang silently in his pocket. Eight missed calls that day. All
from Dr. Jason Livingstone.

“ Most
men are within a finger's breadth of being mad .”
    -Diogenes

    vii.

    In
the deepest woods of the wildest regions,
a towering inferno
blazed in the night.
Drunken women who had abandoned their
homes
danced around the flames.

    This
was a temple built beneath the heavens
without stone walls or
doors to keep people out.
This was the place where they went to
worship him:
King of Revelry.

    And
when a beast would wander into their church
they would pounce upon
it and tear it to bits
as an offering for the beautiful god,
great
Dionysus.

“ For
the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing
them .”
    -Aristotle

    VII.

    The hotel the
school had reserved did not feel like an American hotel. It was a
narrow building that sat right at the edge of the street. You could
spit over the black iron railings on the balcony and hit a passing
taxi. Many of the students had.
    The tiled
bathrooms were small and so were the rooms reserved for the students.
There was no headboard, only twin lamps mounted over each bed on the
wall that was half-white and half-black with paneling. Each room had
a pair of double beds with bright coral comforters and a small tube
television.
    Tuesday
evening, after a day of walking in the National Archaeological Museum
and dinner outside of a café, the students were back in their rooms.
Lewis and Peter had sneaked down to the room that Penny shared with
Minnie. Minnie and Lewis were in the bathroom, rinsing out hotel
shampoo bottles. They knew their only hope of getting the nectar from
the throne room back to the states was in FAA approved miniature
toiletry bottles. “Everyone takes the shampoo from their hotel,”
Lewis said. “No one will even think twice about it.”
    Monday had
been a late night. With jet lag and the day of walking up hills and
crumbling stone steps, none of The Pantheon had been too animated.
Tonight, however, they had turned in early and had energy to spare.
    “ Guys!”
Teddy came tearing down the hall. A maid shouted after him in Greek,
something he could only assume was a command to stop running.
    He stepped
into the girls' room and closed the door. Nick, who Teddy was sharing
a room with, banged on the door. “Hey, you locked me out.”
    Teddy opened
the door and let Nick inside. When the door was closed, Teddy jumped
up on one of the beds to make his speech. His head almost touched the
ceiling.
    “ I,
brilliant and cunning, put a piece of tape over the catch on the back
door while