In Love With Apollo (ON HOLD)

Chapter 3 [Pic of Jason]

Chapter Three

Selene's POV

Katrina suddenly turned away from Nick to study Sol. Her family owned a Thoroughbred horse breeding farm, so it didn't surprise me she was almost more interested in the horse.

"He's gorgeous. Nice conformation," She commented, more to herself than Nick or I. She circled him carefully, stroking his body as she did so. She whistled quietly. "And talk about muscles! This guy is ripped!"

At that, Sol arched his neck and pranced a few steps.

Nick smirked. "Don't encourage him. He's already a major showoff."

Katrina laughed. "Man, Sel, I bet this guy would put Apollo's Pride to shame in a race!" She told me. Apollo's Pride was my favorite of their horses. He was ink black with grayish green eyes, and four white leggings.

Nick's gaze flashed suddenly, and when he spoke, his voice wavered in it's confidence. "Apollo's Pride?"

"My favorite Throoughbred stallion of hers," I explained. I studied him, curious to know what about the name had caused that reaction.

Nick nodded. "Why'd you name him that?" He asked.

Katrina grinned. "Ask Selene. She named him, not me."

Nick stiffened, as if he feared that answer.

I felt a little self-concious under Nick's blazing gold gaze. I shrugged. "I don't know. I was reading a Greek mythology book, and decided that Apollo was my favorite of the gods. Being god of healing, prophecies, poetry, music, the sun, etc., he was pretty impressive, but in my opinion, he had too much pride. And I wanted this guy to be impressive and proud, so I named him Apollo's Pride." When I finished, I waited expectantly to see Nick's reaction. He relaxed a little, and laughed softly.

"Wow. When I learned about the Greek, uh, myths, I never even thought about pride being a fatal flaw of Apollo's. But I suppose your right."

Katrina normally didn't like talking about anything that had to do with History ("They're dead. Let's leave it that way! Don't people always say to move on?!"), but she was too obssesed with Sol to care, or even notice our conversation. Finally, she turned to Nick and asked, "Do you wanna come to my place with us a little later? Dad needs to run a few horses on the beach, and you can either help, or ride Sol."

Nick's gaze darkened. "The beach? As in, near the ocean?"

Katrina nodded. "It's about 45 miles out of town, on the coastline."

"I better not. It's not safe for Sol or I to be by the ocean in times like this," Nick declined gently. I briefly wondered what he meant when he said, "in times like this," but then decided it was probably nothing.

Katrina looked disappointed. "Alright. Well, we better get going then. We'll see you around."

We said our good-byes and turned to leave. Before we left the woods, I turned to glance back at him.

But he was gone.

I blinked. Impossible! There's no way he could've left that fast! It was, like, three seconds that I had my back turned!

I mentioned this to Katrina, and she nodded absently. "Yeah sure. Those shoes would look cute with that outfit."

I stifled a laugh, realizing she was in "Looney Land," a place she goes whenever she has too many thoughts and ideas buzzing around in her head.

~*~

We continued our chatting and catching up, but neither of us were really into it anymore. My mind kept flashing back to Nick. Who was he really? He seemed to perfect to be true. In fact, this day was too perfect to be true.

As the sun set, and the beautiful waves of perfectly painted colors streamed across the sky, Katrina and I said our good-byes. She got in her car and headed home, and I went straight to bed, only pausing to hit Jace as I passed him.

Nick had given me too much to think about, and I felt exausted. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was fast asleep.

~*~

I heard screaming. Terrified screams of innocent people. I also heard a sound unexplainable. It crackled evilly, making a popping noise every once in a while. It seemed to lick at the air, a flashing heat projecting from it. Suddenly, I knew what it was.

A fire.

But it didn't awaken me. No, someone was sitting beside me, singing a soft song that made me drowsy. The lady singing to me looked in her 20s, with long blonde hair and violet eyes. I had a bad feeling about her, but her singing was so beautiful...

"Thalia? Thalia!"

I woke up groggily to someone yelling my name. For some reason, my senses weren't alert. Until I realized my room was engulfed in flames.

"Bloody hell!" I swore. I heard my mom screaming downstairs, and someone yelling at her. The man yelling at her had a firm, you-don't-argue-with-me-or-I-will-gut-you-like-a-fish tone. I caught glimpses of his words.

"Ma'am, we searched the building... Couldn't find her... She must've made it out... Can't allow you to go look..."

I realized they were talking about me. "No! I'm he-" I coughed and cut off as smoke filled my lungs.

I collapsed on the floor in a coughing fit.The heat of the flames surrounded me, making my skin crawl in discomfort. Why hadn't the firefighters found and saved me?

I suddenly felt a pair of strong arms pick me up. I remember seeing those beautiful gold eyes, an hearing his melodious voice tell me, "Hush, baby. Everything will be alright... You'll see..."

Then everything went black.

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