by Jasmine Walt
“I’m not perfect,” he whispered when he needed to breathe. “I’m blind and crippled and...”
“I’m not perfect either,” I reminded him. “And that’s what makes us...us.” When he hesitated again, I somehow summoned up the nerve to go on. “I just want you, Plutus. Please.”
After that, he didn’t protest any more. I pulled him into the bed with me, ignoring the pain that shot through my shoulder at the moment. He willingly complied and I was lost to him.
There, during the thunderstorm, in between the sheets, Plutus and I were together. I didn’t care what happened tomorrow. I didn’t care if this would be the only time. All I cared about was Plutus.
And that was all that mattered to me.
24
I woke up to sunlight streaming in through the window. The morning after the storm last night was glorious. I felt like I was glowing, like there was something different about me.
I guess, in a way, there was.
I turned my head, and saw him lying there, still asleep from our lovemaking. He looked almost angelic in the morning light. The way the light caught his hair and haloed around his face. I found myself gaping at him.
I blushed, remembering what we did the night before and covered my eyes. I'd been with three other men in my time, the longest and most recent was Ben. This...this was different.
I'm sure everyone thought that though, making love to a god. Even if he was mortal now.
Maybe it was because he'd had a lot of practice. He admitted that I wasn't his first, not by a long shot, which Tisiphone had warned me about it initially.
He was in the middle of gingerly taking my shirt off when he said that. “Callista,” he said softly, “a long time ago, I slept with a lot of women.” He swallowed nervously. “A lot of women.”
The admission caught me off guard, so I was thrown out of it all momentarily. “A lot of them?”
He nodded.
“Why?” The question slipped out before I really thought about it.
He laughed nervously. “I’m the blind, crippled god. No one wanted anything to do with me. I think it's because I wanted to feel something.” He paused. “To feel loved.” He turned away, as if he was ashamed. “I stopped when I realized that I was hurting them. Hurting them more than me.”
I looked down at him and stroked his cheek with my thumb. I understood. After seeing how he was treated by his family and by everyone else, I could understand why.
“I love you,” I whispered. The admission came out quickly, although as I said it, I knew it was true. It took Ben and I over a year to say that we loved one another. It was a different feeling compared to this.
I loved him, heart and soul.
He kissed me deeply. “I love you too,” he said reverently.
This was far different than how it was with Ben. He explored every available inch of me. He said that since he couldn’t see, he was seeing my body in another way. His delicious mouth was everywhere I wanted it to be and when I wanted it to be there. He was gentle with my wound, and it didn’t matter after a certain point. He had me gasping, writhing, and making noises I’d never heard issue from my mouth before.
In fact, he was being slow with the whole thing, to the point where I was begging him to keep going. “Not yet,” he chided. “I’m enjoying this.”
“You could enjoy it so much more.”
“Perhaps.” He sounded amused. “But I’m liking what this is doing to you.”
Truth was, I was liking it too.
And when he entered me, we both cried out in pleasure at the sudden, deep connection.
I searched his face, and then kissed him deeply, trying to hide the single tear that fell down my face.
He started moving, building up a delicious friction between our two bodies. I grasped at his back, feeling a warm sensation deep in my stomach that grew the faster and harder he pushed into me. I started crying out his name, clinging to him for any sort of anchor to this world.
We both came together, his body collapsing on top of mine with his release. And then we lay together in bed holding each other until we fell asleep.
No matter what happens, I told myself. I’ll always have this memory.
Somehow I knew that this would never be enough. I didn’t want to think about it at that moment. All I wanted at that moment was Plutus’ arms around me, and I could pretend like this was forever.
He stirred and my heart turned over and leaped into my mouth. Here it was, the moment of truth. What was he going to say?
He grinned at me in the morning light and stretched, much like a satisfied cat. “Hey,” he said softly. “What're you doing?”
“Watching you.”
He smirked. “I thought that’s what you were doing.”
“You’ve been awake?” I asked, alarmed, wondering how much of my staring he had been awake for. I’m sure it’s a creepy feeling to have someone watching you while you slept. Even if you can't see, you'd know if someone's eyes were on you.
He had a sly grin on his face. “Your heartbeat and breathing changed when you woke up,” he explained. “You’re excited about something.”
I slid across the sheets and kissed him deeply. “I’ll let you figure out what.”
25
We missed check out time that day. I took a few minutes to put on some clothes and go down to the office to pay for another night in our hotel, but otherwise we stayed in bed, convalescing, as Telesphorus said.
Which is just what the doctor ordered. By taking the day off and not worrying about anything, I felt refreshed in a way that I hadn't felt in such a long time, even before I died.
When we weren't knocking boots, Plutus and talked. For the first time, we talked about the future.
“What are we going to do now?” he asked.
“We need to confront Stephen,” I told him. “And I think I know how we're going to do it.” While it wasn't the safest of ideas, it was the quickest way to end it all. Stephen wouldn't give up, not when he so desperately wanted Plutus' powers. I knew him too well to believe he would.
Plutus didn't like it, but he saw the wisdom.
“When all of this is over,” he said to me, “I want to stay with you.” He'd grinned, and I saw the whole world in his smile.
For the first time, I allowed myself to hope that everything was going to be all right. If he was going to have to stay mortal, at least we'd stay like this.
That night, I slept curled up in Plutus' arms, fully prepared to be thrown back into the Underworld.
I wasn't disappointed.
“Oh good, you're alive,” Tisiphone sighed as my environment came into view. “I was actually worried about you.” Her tone of voice suggested otherwise, but by now, I was used to Tisiphone's mannerisms.
“Yeah, what'd you expect?” I groaned, sitting up. My arm was still in its sling, still feeling like an achy deadweight. Couldn't I visit the Underworld a bit more complete?
“Well, I knew you weren't dead,” Tisiphone said, “because we didn't see your face around here.” She extended a hand and I reached out to her, then remembered that it wouldn't do any good here. “You could've been dying. Or...something else.” She frowned. “We were all worried about you.”
“We?”
She shrugged, non-compliant.
“Telesphorus and Hygieia didn't tell you that they helped me out?” I asked. I gingerly touched my bad shoulder. Yep, it was still bad, even in my dreams.
“No,” she answered. “Those kids...” Her voice trailed off as she shook her head. The comment made me wonder how old Tisiphone really was. She turned back to me, with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “You look...different.”
I shrugged.
She giggled like a high school girl. “You boinked him, didn't you?” She was grinning wildly, making my ears turn bright red. “You had sex with the big guy's son!”
My burning cheeks gave me away, even if I didn't answer.
“You little slut!” she cried with
a hearty laugh.
“What?” I asked, appalled that she would call me that.
“What were you thinking, Callie?” she asked. She couldn't stop laughing. “You're turning into a legend. Like Alcmene. Io. Leto. Mortals that all slept with gods.” She was grinning widely. Then the smile withered. “What?”
My face must have shown my sadness. I bit my lip, trying keep back the retort.
“What is it?” she pressed.
“We saw Tyrese…Tiresias,” I said. “He's dead.” The look on her face was that of shock.
“What?” she asked. She waited for me to answer, but I cast my eyes down. “He's been alive for...eons,” she said. “Longer than me.”
“Lamia shot him,” I explained simply. “Before he died, he told us there was no way to make Plutus a god again.”
“What?” Tisiphone shook her head. “That's...wrong. That's impossible. There has to be a way.”
I told her about what he said, and that it was impossible for Plutus to become a god again. Tears started falling down my cheeks and I didn't notice. My heart went out to him. I really wanted him to have a happy ending. And I was going to try my damnedest to give him one.
At the end of it, Tisiphone hovered her hand over my shoulder, just touching, not enough to go through it. “It'll be all right.” She was being uncharacteristically sympathetic.
I closed my eyes, not wanting to start the next sentence, but I had to.
“I need you to do something…”
“What?”
“Stephen Cross is still after us. And there's no end in sight if Plutus is mortal.”
She nodded. “He won't stop until Plutus is dead.”
“Yes, and he won't stop until he becomes a god himself.” I leaned down so we were eye to eye. “We need help.”
Her eyes widened and I realized how much all of the gods and deities feared the big guy upstairs. “Zeus said—”
“We've already established that he's an asshole. But we need help from the gods. If no one wants a change in the order of things, we need help. Please, Tisiphone. Please.”
She watched me for a bit and gave a short, bitter chuckle. “Maybe it's because you're a human in love,” she said, her voice trailing off as she smiled sadly. “I'll try. That's all I can offer you, I can try to get them to help. No promises. I'm only a lowly Fury, after all.”
“Please try,” I said.
“You'll have to make it seem like there's no good way out,” she said, her voice dropping. “The lower the odds, the more likely they'll be to step in.”
“I know,” I said. Fear was gripping my stomach at the thought of what we were going to have to do. “We're going to have to be captured by Lamia. Or the harpies.” For some reason, they sounded a lot less harrowing than Lamia herself. Maybe it was because I'd gotten shot in the shoulder by Lamia; or maybe it was because they were basically chicken people.
“That's going to be dangerous,” Tisiphone said.
“So's running for the rest of your life. We have a billionaire after us. And he's not going to stop until we're dead.”
It took a bit more to get Tisiphone to agree with me. Hell, I didn't want to be a part of it either. It sounded dangerous, and I didn't want to put the man I loved and myself into danger. It seemed there was no other way.
Tisiphone offered up a few more suggestions. Witness protection, leaving the United States, different identities. Each of those propositions ran into their own respective problems. That's what happens when you have a dogged billionaire after you.
It had to end or else I was going to go crazy.
“I will try,” Tisiphone promised. “But you know what the gods are like.”
“Talk to Hades,” I said. “If nothing else, Hades will want to protect his son.”
“Which one?” she asked bleakly.
I saw her point.
I woke up in bed, spooned by Plutus. Morning light was streaming through the window. It was time to start.
“Plutus,” I whispered, gently rocking him awake. “It's time to get going.”
He stirred. “Did you talk to Tisiphone?” he asked. His eyes weren't open.
“Yes.”
“And?”
“We're going to have to wait and see.”
While it wasn't the answer he wanted, staying in one place in fear was driving me absolutely mental.
“Do you trust me, Plutus?” A bad question, considering that I didn't trust myself to get us out of this mess.
He tenderly kissed my lips. “Yes.”
He sounded like he completely believed in me. I wished I did.
26
We made to leave the motel, our makeshift plan ready and our one bag packed.
Plutus admitted that he didn't know where the hotel was in relation to where I had parked the car, so it was going to take a bit of to-do to find that parking garage.
I had the God Gun tucked in the back of my jeans, within easy reach of my good arm. My left arm was going to be out of commission for a while, even with Telesphorus and Hygieia's help. I still wasn't quite used to it being in a sling. I'd often forget about it and try to move it, only to cry out in pain. Plutus hovered by my left side, overprotective of my injured state.
“You're getting in my way,” I told him amusedly as he slung the backpack over his shoulders.
“Get used to it,” he said. “I'm not letting you out of my sight.”
I chuckled at that.
The man behind the counter at the motel peered up at us with big eyes, and I was reminded of the fact that we had to watch ourselves. We were always being watched, which was now actually going to work in our favor.
“Thanks,” I told him and we turned to leave. I couldn't help feeling, though, that we were being watched. Keep it calm, Callie, I told myself.
We hailed a cab and I gave the driver the address of our parking garage. It turns out that we weren't that far from it, which was good. What wasn't good, though, was the amount of parking tickets on the Prelude when I finally found it.
“Oh dammit,” I groaned, seeing the amount of paper underneath the windshield wipers.
“What?” Plutus asked.
“We've had our car parked too long,” I told him. I picked up the tickets and inspected them pretty quickly. “Dion's not going to like these.” I quickly did the math. About two days with tickets every two hours. How much was that going to add up to?
“He's a god,” Plutus said with a shrug. “He won't mind.”
Oh yeah, I kept forgetting that. It was hard to reconcile that fact with the mental image of my partner I had worked with for years.
“Plutus, if you were a harpy,” I asked, opening the car door, “where would you be?”
I felt the cold metal at the back of my neck even before my assailant spoke. “I'm not sure about harpies,” a deep, feminine voice crooned, “but I do know where I'd hide.” The voice reminded me of Kathleen Turner with an Australian accent.
I bristled, steeling myself for it. This is what I had been waiting for, even if it was earlier than expected. Still, even though I was scared shitless, I couldn't show fear. I had the feeling she relished fear.
“Lamia, I presume?” I asked carefully.
“How astute of you.”
I couldn't turn around—the gun kept me looking forward, so I looked at Plutus. He was white with fear. He must have been able to sense my eyes on him because he nodded imperceptibly.
“I was wondering when you'd show your ugly face,” I taunted.
“Callista,” Plutus said warningly. As he stepped forward, the gun at the base of my neck jutted into my neck with such force, I cried out, despite myself. He stopped moving.
“How do you know it's ugly?” the voice behind me asked. She sounded amused, but she also sounded like she was speaking through gritted teeth, so I had to tread carefully.
“I aimed for your head when I shot at you,” I said. I hadn't, but she didn't need to know that. “Did it work?”
She
chuckled behind me. “No.”
I winced as pained exploded through my bad shoulder. She had punched me in the wound with her gun. It hurt. Plutus started forward at my cry of pain, but Lamia stopped him.
“Nuh, uh, lover boy,” she warned. “Another step and I finish the job.”
He stopped.
“You are two highly sought after fugitives, you know that, right?” she said. The barrel of the gun went back to my neck. This time, I didn't wince. I was going to show her that I wasn't a weakling. “My employer really wants to get his hands on you. I daresay he wants you more than he wants him.” She seemed to think that was funny and threw back her head and laughed. “He has special plans for you.”
“He'd better—” Plutus said before being halted mid-speak.
A quick jab with the butt of her gun brought me to my knees. I landed with a cry and my assailant cackled. “What did I warn you about, Plutus?” she asked. “I have no qualms coming back with Callista's dead body. Stephen Cross might not like it, but I don't mind.”
“It's...Callie,” I said. I spat out some blood “And fuck you.”
“Oh, don't make me hit you again, Callista.” Then she stepped in front of me, and I saw what Lamia really looked like.
Imagine a cross between the Crocodile Hunter and an 80's rock star and you'd get something like Lamia. She was tall, about a head taller than me, and her face was built like David Bowie's, especially her cheekbones. Her cowboy hat, jacket, pants, and boots were all made from the same color of tan snakeskin. It was a lot of snakeskin. PETA would have had a field day with her. Underneath her jacket, she wore a black leather corset. Her eye makeup was intense, with way too much black eyeliner and her long blonde hair fell straight and flat. She was pretty in a severe sort of way, and she definitely looked the part of the rogue bounty hunter.
I stared at her open-mouthed for a second because she was such a character, before I took in her rifle pointed at me. It was a genuine AK-47.