Molly let out a small laugh. "Goddess of lust, maybe. I don't think Aphrodite loved anyone but herself. She was gorgeous. Physically perfect in every way. I hated her," Molly finished, and Meghan laughed. "She had kids with Ares, not her husband. Theirs was an arranged marriage, and they never should have been forced to be together."
"Did he love her?" she asked softly.
Molly shrugged. "Maybe at first. He lusted after her, for sure. He's admitted as much. Early on, he wanted a real marriage with her, but the longer it went on, the more she insisted on continuing her thing with Ares, Heph went from being hurt, to pissed, to just not caring." Molly paused. "Their relationship was not good for his ego. Not in that department, anyway," she finished quietly. After a few moments, she added, "I think the two of you have that in common, probably."
Meghan nodded.
"You've been thinking you couldn't possibly live up to what he had," Molly said. "Really, the thing is that maybe you're showing him what an actual relationship feels like, for the first time in his existence. And if you mess around on him, if you break him, I hope you can run really, really fast, because I will have a problem with you."
"I wouldn't," Meghan protested. "We might not work out," she finished quietly. "I don't even know what we have, really."
"Not working out is one thing. It happens. I'm just saying: be honest with him. If you decide you're done, you're done, but don't sneak around behind his back, and don't lie to him. And for the record, he'd never lay a hand on you in anger," she finished, and Meghan winced. She'd be lying if she didn't admit that it was one of the first things her mind went to. And she wished her mind would stop going to that place.
"You didn't see him last night," Meghan said, speaking the fear she'd been trying to shove away. "So much rage. And that kind of power is terrifying, and I barely lived through being with someone who had a tiny speck of the amount of power Hephaestus has."
"Heph and his father have issues," Molly said, toying with an envelope from the pile of mail.
"That's putting it mildly," Meghan said.
"You think you can't do this, even though you want it so bad you can hardly breathe," Molly said. "I think you're a lot stronger than you believe you are."
Meghan crinkled her brow. It was slightly annoying that she was broadcasting her thoughts to Molly and Nain all the time, but she guessed it was also kind of convenient, too.
"I think I love him," Meghan said.
Molly met her eyes. "Well... duh," she said, and Meghan laughed. "You should maybe tell him that, though, because I think he needs to hear it. He's afraid of rushing you, afraid of scaring you away. Like I said, you guys have a whole lot of baggage between the two of you. He needs to know you actually want him, and he's probably gonna need to hear it a lot. And you need to know that you're safe, and part of you will never really feel safe, no matter how good Heph is to you, because of your past. You'll never be able to completely let your guard down. It's something you'll have to deal with every single day," she finished quietly.
"Have a bit of experience with this, do you?" Meghan asked her, and Molly gave a small smile.
"I started out as a vigilante finding women no one else gave a shit about. What do you think?"
"Yet you're married to a demon," Meghan pointed out.
Molly shrugged. "We work. It makes zero sense, even to us. That's usually the way it works, I think."
A few minutes later, Molly headed into her office to take care of some phone calls she needed to return, and Meghan got to work sorting the mail and putting together a shopping list. Grocery shopping had become one of her duties. It was ridiculous how much food a household of demons, immortals, and other supernaturals went through in a week.
She was in the midst of surveying the nearly-empty freezer when the building shook with what felt like a bomb going off. Within an instant, it did it again. Molly came racing out of her office, and she exchanged a tense glance with Meghan.
"I hope you're in a fighting mood," Molly said, and Meghan stared at her in incredulity.
"I'm an Earth-witch. I don't fight," she said. There was another loud boom. "Except when I do," she added, and Molly gave a short laugh.
"Heph's stepsons are here for a visit," Molly said.
"Oh, crap," Meghan groaned. She focused, trying to draw up some Earth magic.
"Too much concrete," she muttered in irritation. "I can barely feel anything to draw up here."
Molly grimaced. "Then stay back, all right? I'll draw them away." And in an instant, she was gone. Meghan threw her hands up in the air.
"So I'm just supposed to stand here?" she asked the empty loft. She looked around, looking for something, anything, that would be of use to her if she had to take on one of Hephaestus's crazy stepsons. She glanced toward the training floor, which was where the team members sparred (seeing Nain and Brennan spar on her first day had been nightmarish). It was also where they kept the various weapons they trained with. There were several different kinds of swords, knives, and even a baseball bat hanging on the wall. She grabbed one of the knives. She knew it wouldn't do anything against an immortal, obviously, but it might give her a moment of distraction if they made their way in.
Outside, she could hear Molly and a male voice shouting at one another, and, every once in a while, the building would shake. Molly's two ridiculously huge German Shepherds came trotting out of the office, which was where they usually slept during the day, snarling and growling as they ran for the windows. At that moment, Molly flew past the window, and Meghan could just catch sight of her as she slammed into Deimos.
As she stared out the window, she was startled by a "crack" behind her. She winced, feeling that insane, nauseating swirl of energy that signified a god.
She turned, expecting Phobos with his cold eyes and maniacal giggle. Instead, an almost impossibly-perfect being stood there. He had flowing blond hair, clear blue eyes, full lips — the kind that made a woman's mind turn to sin. He was tall and muscular, and he was dressed like he'd just stepped out of a fashion magazine: dark jeans, a white t-shirt, and a worn but obviously well-loved dark brown leather jacket.
"Hello, beautiful one," he said, a warm smile on his lips.
Meghan backed up a step, still gripping the dagger, hating the way her heart pounded at just the sound of his voice
"I am Eros. And you have nothing to fear from me." The building shook again, and Meghan heard Deimos shriek.
"The Angel already disposed of one of my brothers. It looks as if I'll be another brother short before long," he said in his smooth, honeyed voice. The way he was watching her, as if she was the most interesting, desirable thing in the universe, made her hands tremble. Her breath caught in her throat.
"But my brother is mad. Insane, as he always has been. This will get worse before it gets better." He held his hand out to her. "I cannot allow you to come to harm. Let's get you out of here."
"You're Deimos's brother?" Meghan managed.
He nodded.
"Aphrodite and Ares's son?" she asked again, and received another nod. She crossed her arms. "I am not going anywhere with you."
"You've met my brothers. I am not like them. They are thirsty for blood, always. There is, unfortunately, too much of our father in them."
"Hephaestus is on his way, I'm sure," Meghan said, nodding, knowing she was mostly doing it to reassure herself. She jumped when the west wall of the loft cracked under the pressure of the two immortals slamming into the side of the building from outside.
"By the time he gets here, this place may very well be a pile of rubble. Come with me, and he can come and find you." Eros held his hand out again, beseeched her with those clear blue eyes. "Please, lovely one."
"You aren't worried about your brother?" she asked.
He lifted a shoulder in a lazy shrug. "If he's fool enough to attack here, then there is no hope for him. We all know how this will end. It's just a matter of how much is lost in the process. And you, Meghan," he said, an
d her name sounded musical coming from his lips, "are much too valuable to lose." He beckoned her with his fingers, gently, patiently.
It was at that moment when Deimos came hurtling through one of the large windows near the living room, and, in an instant, Eros had wrapped Meghan tightly into his arms, and she felt herself being pulled apart as he whisked them away from the scene.
"Well, where the hell is she?" Hephaestus growled. He ran his fingers through his hair, on the verge of pulling it out. The pain would be a welcome distraction from the dread he'd felt in his gut since the instant he'd arrived at the loft to find Molly searching frantically for Meghan. Deimos's body still burned in the parking structure below. Two stepsons, gone. "You did kill Phobos, yes?" he asked again.
"Yes. I did," Molly said, crossing her arms. "We'll find her."
"We could already be too late. Did you see anyone around?" he asked and Molly shook her head. The other members of the team — Nain, Brennan, Artemis, Eunomia, and even Mollis's parents, had converged on the loft as soon as word of Molly's battle with Deimos had spread. They'd arrived almost all at the same instant. The battle already finished, Molly exhausted and bleeding, and searching for Meghan.
"I never should have convinced her to work here. Too fucking dangerous," he muttered, pacing. "We need to figure out where her bastard ex is. My money's on him."
Molly's dogs were sitting at her feet, and they both seemed to fix Hephaestus with a too-knowledgeable look. The dogs had always freaked Heph out a little. He liked them, but they were fucking eerie. Kind of like Molly, really.
"He couldn't have gotten past them," Nain said, nodding his head toward the dogs. "And Meghan's not a wimp. She could have taken care of his ass herself."
Molly shook her head. "She said she couldn't draw her power. Too much concrete, not enough contact with the Earth below."
"And you left her—" Heph began, stopped himself before he said something he'd regret. And before his teeth became acquainted with Nain's fist.
Not that he was afraid of the demon, but the man had serious anger issues.
"I left her," Molly said in irritation, knowing very well what he'd been starting to say, "to go and fight off your murderous stepson, Hephaestus." Then she turned to her parents. "Can you start looking for Bryant, please?"
"Not a problem," Tisiphone said, and the two Nether beings blinked out, arguing the second they'd turned away from Molly.
Molly looked at Brennan. "If I get you something with Meghan's scent, do you think you can track her?"
Brennan nodded, and so did Artemis. "I can definitely try. I'll call the alphas from some of the other nearby packs, too, and have them send their best trackers," he said. Molly gave them the sweater Meghan had worn to work that morning so they could get her scent, and then he and Artemis were gone, Artemis handing Brennan's son, Sean, to Eunomia before they left.
"And what the hell am I supposed to do now, Queenie?" Heph asked. Molly's hard, glowing gaze landed on him.
"You are going to pull yourself together and think. You have one stepson out there. Find him and see what he knows."
"Eros wouldn't be involved in anything like this," Hephaestus argued, even as Molly crossed her arms and gave him one of her trademark, "oh, really?" looks. "Fine," he said, throwing up his hands. "You're right. You're also trying to get me out of the way."
"No. I'm trying to have you go do this because I'm sick and tired of killing your family members, all right?" Molly said. "And Eros might not hate you, maybe. But he definitely hates me and I'm not in the mood to destroy anyone else today."
Heph backed down, chastened. "I'm sorry, queenie," he said, bowing his head to her. He shook his head. She made it look so easy. She'd done it, ended the lives of beings who were supposedly immortal, because she had to. Because they'd left her little choice. And in his relief to see age-old enemies gone, he'd overlooked what it did to his friend to have to be the one to end their long existences. "I was an ass."
"Well, you're an immortal. It was a given," Molly said, and he was relieved to see a wry smile on her lips. "Go find him so we know for sure. I'll call you as soon as we know something."
He nodded, and was surprised when she walked up to him and embraced him, her skinny arms stronger around his waist than he would have guessed they'd be. "It'll be okay," she murmured against his chest as he hugged her back. "We'll find her, Heph."
He nodded, unable to speak. For the first time in his existence, he was overwhelmed by fear, by the images that came to his mind, unbidden, of all the terrible things that could be happening to her.
Molly gave him a small, sad smile. "Loving someone is scary shit, isn't it?" she asked, and he nodded. "So let's find her so you can tell her so."
Heph took a breath and focused on his house. He had a few things to pick up before he went out to find his heart.
And he would find her, alive and well. He wouldn't fail her. The possibility of the alternative was just too much to bear.
Chapter Nine
Meghan looked around, taking in the expensive-looking furnishings that surrounded her. They were in the penthouse of one of the large hotels downtown. She stood near the windows, looking out. Eros was in one of the leather chairs, his elbows resting on his legs as he watched her.
"I'm not going to hurt you, you know," he said.
"So you say," Meghan answered, looking back out the window.
"My stepfather has excellent taste," he added.
"Is that supposed to make me think you're less of a creep? Because it's not helping. Really." Meghan kept looking out the window.
"You love him," Eros said after a moment. Meghan looked back at him, and he head his head tilted, just a little, to the side, studying her. Focusing. "And you fear it."
"Eros," she muttered. "Also known as..."
He grinned. "Cupid. Should I put on the loincloth?"
Meghan rolled her eyes and turned back to the window. "I thought you were a little cherub."
He laughed. "No. All grown male, lovely one."
"So you aren't going to hurt me. Fine. Is this you trying to hurt him, then?"
Eros stood up and walked over to her, and Meghan fought the urge to retreat even more.
"I don't want to hurt you. Or him. Okay? He's a decent one, and my mother nearly destroyed him." He took a breath. "But at the same time, I mourn my mother and father." His gaze sharpened. "However, from what I know, my father isn't actually dead. I want him back."
Meghan just stared at him. "And what the hell am I supposed to do about that?"
He smiled. "Nothing. Just stay here. When he comes for you, and he will," he added, "I'll have to convince him to have his little god-killing friend give my father back."
She laughed. She couldn't help it. "Are you serious?"
"She has my father imprisoned. I will have him freed. He is a god of Olympus, and he will be respected."
Meghan shook her head. "If he's imprisoned — and mind you I have no clue about that either way — if he is then he probably did something to deserve it, don't you think?" she asked him.
She saw it. Conflict in his eyes. He turned away from her. "It doesn't matter. He is my father."
"And what about Hephaestus? Are his feelings so easily dismissed, then?" she asked softly, hoping not to make him mad. The last thing she wanted was to be trapped with an angry immortal. Especially surrounded by steel, glass, and concrete, with zero access to her earth magic.
He sighed, and she felt sorry for him, for just a moment. "I like Hephaestus," he finally said. "In all honesty, he was more of a father to me than Ares ever was." He rested his hands on the windowsill, leaned forward, studying the streets below.
Meghan blushed, just a little, as images of Hephaestus in the role of a father flitted through her mind. And her heart ached with it. Eros gave her a long look.
He seemed to make up his mind about something. "Deimos was working with a mortal. After the loss of Phobos, he was determined to make Hephaestus hurt. Badly
."
A chill went up Meghan's spine. "And?"
"He was going to take you. And the mortal assured him he would make you suffer, and that, if Deimos wanted to, that they would make Hephaestus watch."
Bile rose in her throat. "Bryant," she hissed, and he gave a small nod.
"I didn't want that to happen. Not to you and not to him. So I took you. And I figured that, if I put my plan into play, maybe it would get Deimos off of your tail."
"Deimos is probably dead now," she said gently, hoping against hope that it wasn't a mistake.
He gave a terse nod.
"What were they hoping to do against Hephaestus? He wouldn't have let them hurt me," she said, knowing it was true.
"It wasn't just them," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "There are a few spirit daemons involved, beings Mollis has angered. They recognize that teaming up against Hephaestus is the only way to truly defeat him. Injure him badly enough to send him to the Aether."
Her heart tightened at the thought of life without Hephaestus. And then she started to panic. "He probably suspects Bryant," she said. "He's probably going after him right now."
Eros studied her. "Probably," he finally agreed. "And when he arrives, he will be met with beings ready to end his stay here in the mortal realm."
"Eros. You're the god of love. Don't let that happen. Don't let my love be taken from me. Please," she begged. She believed Hephaestus was strong enough, knew he was powerful. But outnumbered and distracted, worrying about her? She didn't want to think about what could happen. "Please," she repeated.
He looked away. "And what will you give me in return?" he asked.
"Are you really so cold?" she asked softly. "Are you a true god of love, or are you just one more selfish being taking everything you can for yourself?" She hoped she was appealing to his better side, praying she wasn't pushing too far. "Think of how you will be loved if you help now instead of adding to the terrors that have already occurred. Think of being accepted and welcomed, instead of reviled," she said. "You have issues with the Angel, and that is to be expected. But is more death really the solution here? Because if you succeed, then not only does Hephaestus lose his time here, but then what? Ares will be free again, and I can't imagine that the god of war is going to bring a lot of love to the world."
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