Venus Rising Deleted/Altered Scenes and Snippets

Happy Hour Take 1

I still felt cold inside hours later when we assembled in the courtyard outside the broken dining hall for happy hour. Apparently, the drinks had mostly survived.

"This is ridiculous," Otrera muttered darkly beside me. "The last thing these guys need is alcohol."

I took a long drink of something, cold, fruity, and extremely alcoholic. Yeah, it probably was stupid to drink right now. But this might be my last chance to socialize before I became a human blood bag. The music blaring out of the speakers in the corner was familiar and upbeat, a welcome change from the soundtrack of agonized moans I'd grown accustomed to. Golden people milled around in clusters, laughing and smiling instead of glaring daggers. With a drink in hand, we could ignore the rubble we dodged, we could avert our eyes from the shell of the dining hall, and we could pretend this was the same island we'd all grown to love. "Maybe he's just trying to keep up morale?"

"If they weren't directing their anger inward I'd agree with you."

"Inward?"

Otrera nodded toward the hill that led to the cabins. Aphrodite had opted not to risk putting herself in the middle of another angry crowd and stayed behind. We'd offered to stay with her. Insisted even. But she wouldn't hear of it.

"We're running out of time." Worry had cracked at her voice. "We've lost the steele, it's all scattered around the island now instead of in one central place. And I didn't even think about the demigods stationed off-island. If Narcissus can smuggle Hades off the island, then it's over. You have to watch the dock. You can do that from the party, and bonus, you'll be there to see if any of the shield casters drinks themselves under a table."

Wouldn't that be nice? There were six left. Two for each of us. Much better odds than ten, but not great. Especially since we'd have to knock them out pretty close to simultaneously. The couldn't sense power like I could, but they'd notice if their shield was tampered with. They'd sensed me adding power to the shield to extend it around the island, it stood to reason they'd feel one another drop away.