Ben took over, grasping the deity’s arm, surprised at the strength he felt in the god’s bicep despite his apparent injury. “What trackers?” he demanded.
With a snap of his fingers, Mars set one of the tech’s hands flashing over a keyboard. “After the last challenge, we, uh…fitted the Muses with internal tracking. They were not made aware of this.”
The tech surveyed the screen and tipped his chin up. “All are accounted for, sir.”
“Summon them here immediately. Bring them and Gaia straight in to the war room.” Mars inclined his head to the left, indicating a discreet door Ben hadn’t noticed before. Mars pointed at Ben. “Emma is with Gaia?”
Ben nodded as worry for Lia ratcheted up a notch.
Zeus pulled his arm free and spread his feet, balancing his weight. “We’ll protect your sister. We’ll go after Lia and rescue her as well.” He spared a glance at the central display.
God, he hoped they did a better job protecting Em than they had with Lia. Ben followed Zeus’s gaze back to the display. The field was empty. No more fucking megalomaniac and his evil sidekick standing in the middle of the damaged crop. “Where are they? Where’s Lia?” He sounded like a broken record, but dammit! He wanted her back safely in his arms.
“Her partisans are following her. Stewart reports they’ve kept her in their sights. But her aura is muted, with black and white feathering at the edges.” Mars scrubbed a hand over his mouth.
Shit, that didn’t sound good. He demanded, “What does that mean?”
The door on the left swished open with a sweet chirping noise at odds with the tension in the room. Gaia barreled into the SecCom room, determination and anger crowning her face. Damn, the goddess looked like a warrior princess and she was loaded for bear. The bow she clutched in one fist gleamed with blue-white light. “It means Pierus believes he has won and intends to force Lia’s transition.” A scowl darkened her brow as alarms blared.
“Gaia, you can’t bring weapons in here,” Mars barked.
“My daughter is in jeopardy, I will do what I must,” she retorted.
Mars sliced his hand across his neck, signaling someone, anyone, to silence the annoying claxon sound. An instant later, the room quieted.
Em had followed Gaia. She rushed to Ben’s side. What’s happening? she signed.
Ben held her gaze, fighting to erase fear from his face. “Lia’s been taken. You should be safe here.” Except, here hadn’t kept Lia safe. Holding Em’s hand, he pivoted toward Zeus. His voice harsh, he asked, “What do we do now?”
Zeus narrowed his eyes. “Son, you and Ian must return to Demeter and modify your formula. Mars, the Muses and I will find Lia and bring her back.”
No way in hell was he going to let them rescue her without him. “I’ll go with you.”
“Ben, buddy.” Ian rested a hand on Ben’s shoulder. “We all have to work our strengths. You and I lack any real god-like powers. We’ll only be in the way. Better for us to stay back and fix what that asshole, Pierus, broke. We’ll contribute by saving the world from devastating hunger.”
Ben clenched his fists and fought the urge to kick the desk next to him. Acting like a petulant child wouldn’t help. “Fine. But can we at least stay hooked into the party line so we know what’s happening?”
With a curt nod, Zeus agreed to his request. Lia’s eight sisters morphed into the room. In short order, they’d arranged themselves in a circle around Zeus, Gaia and Mars. Enlil zipped in between Terri and Aerie. Gone were the ceremonial robes he’d worn earlier. Now he rocked a military style uniform, complete with epaulets. He eased to a halt next to Mars.
“Be careful.” Ian wrapped Nia in a fast hug. The love on his face as he stepped away hurt Ben’s heart. He wanted Lia back within the circle of his arms. If that made him a whiny bitch, so be it.
Nia flipped her coppery curls then joined hands with Corie on her right and Mel on her left to complete a closed circle. “I’m the Muse of the Heavens. I can rein in the power of the sun. Freaking Pierus isn’t going to know what hit him. We’ll go find where that hillbilly is that Lia keeps talking about.”
A sturdy looking partisan moved to the main control panel. “Mars, we have a location. Communicating it now.”
Every god and goddess in the room tipped their heads back to receive the message, faces grim and determined. Em dug her fingers into his forearm, feeling the pressure of the mass exit an instant before him. Ben’s chest ached with the crushing weight from so many immortals lifting from the floor. The lot of them vanished together in a rainbow-hued mist.
Ian pinched his nose and blew out a forceful breath. Ben and Emma followed suit, trying to dissipate the pressure that had built in their heads. It built again as all but three of the partisans in the room stood and misted. Vibrant cobalt haze filled the spots where they stood, lasting only a second before they also vanished.
Giving into his need for release, Ben kicked the nearest desk. He gave it another vicious shot for good measure. A hole roughly the size of his boot marred the side. Emma jumped away from his violent movement, surprise written in her wide eyes. Pain radiated from his foot up his leg, but he was beyond giving a fuck. If they failed to bring Lia home as a woman, he was going to have a hell of a lot more pain.
Ben turned to Em. “You’re coming to the lab. I’m not letting you out of my sight.” He signed and spoke at the same time. He looked at Ian. “Let’s go fix that fucking formula.”
Still in the clutches of a thrall, Lia’s teeth clacked painfully as Pierus hurled her from the Hollow into the middle of an orchard. Or what was left of the grove. Shriveled black-red apples hung from barren branches. The few leaves left were dull brown and spotted with blight. Bees flew about erratically, as though drunken, or poisoned. Even the grass was dead. The only living things Lia could see without being able to move were the maggots crawling over fruit that had fallen from the trees. A light mist pattered to the earth around her. It was oddly warm, instead of the damp cool she’d expect.
Focusing all of her power on the invisible bonds encircling her, Lia imagined blowing up like a puffer fish. The binding cracked, but held firm around her body. Not so her throat and she emitted a long, harsh growl, cursing the heavens in frustration. She drew forth an image from an episode of some sitcom she’d watched, where a fake volcano blew, breaking through the side of a cardboard mountain. She pushed the image outward, from her chest, through her arms, until she’d breached the barrier. But it still wasn’t enough to release the bondage of the demented devil’s hold.
A deep, nasty laugh sounded behind her and continued as Pierus levitated her and spun her about to face him. “I told you that you would lose, Thalia. I offered you clemency.” He tsked his tongue to his teeth. “If only you’d taken the invitation.”
Enki squeaked out a snicker as he materialized next to Pierus. The mischief-making fuck showed up in just a loin cloth. Dude had man titties and they sagged. His skin was pockmarked, like he’d gotten caught in a hailstorm. Her inability to shudder was the only good thing about being frozen in place.
“You are seriously fucked in the head if you believe any of my sisters would agree to your offer.” Lia’s voice was hoarse. The strain to speak grated at the back of her throat.
Still cradling Hunger, who was even uglier up close, Pierus flicked his hand, as if to silence her. Hunger fluttered her wings and squawked, a tiny human sound flirting under the bird’s vocalizations. Instead of putting a tighter grip on Lia, Pierus gently eased his hand over Hunger’s misshapen head.
Lia thought she’d throw up a little in her mouth listening to the bastard croon sweetly over the bird.
The mist thickened into a fog, diminishing visibility and dampening her clothes.
In her petrified state, Lia’s sensitivity to changes in the atmosphere was heightened. Judging by the pain radiating through her chest, a rather large contingent of immortals was about to make an appearance.
Bright light and color burst around
the perimeter of the diseased glade, temporarily scattering the fog. All of her sisters, her parents, and Mars and Enlil zapped out of the Hollow, followed closely by a squadron of the most immense and scary looking warriors in the universe. They quickly surrounded Pierus. Zeus clutched a spear made of energy from the Earth’s center, and Gaia carried a crossbow. A glowing quiver was strapped around her chest. Her parents looked like a couple of badasses. But Mars carried an honest to God rocket launcher.
Enlil extended his hand toward Enki and hurled a lightning burst, striking the lesser god right in the chest. Enki covered his head with his hands and crouched next to Pierus. His loin cloth gaped open, flashing Lia a glimpse of his junk. Goddess, she was never going to be able to unsee that. She squeezed her eyes shut. Please don’t let that be the image she carried into eternity as a bird.
The fog thickened again and warm moisture dripped down the side of Lia’s face. She desperately wanted to wipe it away, but still hadn’t broken Pierus’s hold on her.
Zeus hefted his spear and poised it on his shoulder, aiming the tip at Pierus’s heart. Or rather, the spot on the god’s body a heart might be located, if the bastard actually had one. Zeus’s voice thundered throughout the grove. “This challenge ends now. Release my daughter immediately, or I will crush Hunger where she rests in your arms.” He dipped the point of the spear to Hunger’s gross body.
“Look around, old man.” Pierus sneered as he swept his arm toward the blighted trees. “Thalia has lost.”
Pierus’s grip around her form tightened uncomfortably. “Ow! Son of a bitch.”
Zeus’s brow lowered. He scrunched his face tight, lifted his hand, palm up, and curled his fingers inward, clenching a fist. Hunger flapped her obscene wings for an instant before they folded hard against her body. The bitch screeched a protest, the tone strictly birdlike. Any trace of the human undertones Lia had just heard was completely absent.
“I believe it is you who have lost. Once again.” Gaia stepped up in front of Zeus. Lia’s warrior mother tipped her chin toward the fruit trees surrounding them. “Behold.”
Vibrant red was returning to the apples hanging from the barren limbs. The fruit lost its wizened look. Green leaves burst forth from twigs and branches. It was like watching a time-lapse video. Even the grass transformed from the decayed brown to lush and verdant.
Pierus spun around, clutching his head with his free hand. The thrall on Lia eased and she forced a bolt of energy outward, decimating the remaining bindings, sending them crashing to the ground in a blaze of light. Pins and needles darted painfully along her arms as she shook them to restore feeling. Once the pain vanished, she summoned a projectile of energy, floating it just above her palm. Her eight sisters crowded around her. On her left, Aerie gripped one shoulder, while Callie laid a hand on the other. Each sister joined the chain, linking the nine of them together. The powerful ball of energy glowed with the incandescence of the sun. Lia leashed the enormous wattage of the weapon, and made ready to hurl it at Pierus should the need arise.
But the maniac’s shoulders slumped, his posture echoing his defeat.
Pierus cradled Hunger against his chest. As his inhuman scream rent the air, the frustrated noise toppled Enki to his ass. Enlil stalked up to his half-brother. He seized a handful of plaited hair and jerked Enki to his feet. The diminutive deity stumbled as Enlil pulled him backward across the small clearing.
Once they stood in front of Zeus, Enlil shoved the mischievous little shit to his knees and held him in place with a punishing grip on the back of Enki’s neck. Enlil grasped Zeus’s forearm. “It seems this is over now. I’ll be taking Enki back to the Dilmun. He will be confined until a tribunal can be convened to declare his fate.” Lia recognized the name of the Mesopotamian equivalent of Olympus or Valhalla. It was the perfect place for a renegade god.
“As long as you keep him in isolation, all should be good.” Zeus pulled Enlil in for a bro-hug. “Your assistance with this challenge is appreciated and will not be forgotten.”
Enlil pounded Zeus on the back. He stepped back to jerk Enki to his feet. Together, they disappeared into the Hollow.
Leaving Pierus standing with his shoulders hunched, tears in his eyes, an angry cloud on his face. Shelly approached the defeated god, with Stewart behind her, carrying a gilded cage.
With surprising gentleness, Shelly removed the ailing Hunger from Pierus’s arms. She smoothed the bird’s disfigured feathers. “I’m dating an apprentice of Hermes who is learning animal husbandry. I will ask him to request that Hermes repair the damage to your daughter before Hunger is released into the aviary.” She carefully laid the bird in the cage. With a quiet click, she slid the bolt home, imprisoning Hunger within its golden bars.
Shelly took possession of the cage, and with a nod at Zeus, she and two of the other partisans shifted into the Hollow, guarding the cage and its occupant.
Stewart moved into place directly behind Lia and replaced her sisters’ healing hands with his own. But none of her sisters moved too far away.
“Pierus, this is the fourth of your offspring my children have defeated.” Zeus’s harsh tone belied his gentle expression. Lia imagined it pained Zeus to see Pierus’s anguish, knowing it could be his own daughters dealing with the consequences of losing. “Can we declare this challenge over now?”
Pierus chugged in a vast breath, straightening his posture. He pinned an angry glare on Zeus. “Never. One of my children will be victorious. Then you will know the pain I’ve suffered. If you survive.” He raked Lia with a harsh look. “But know this. Even now, my minions are capturing this daughter’s one true love. I gave him to her for the challenge. Hand-picked him as her help meet. And now, I take him away.”
With a terrifying laugh, Pierus vanished.
Chapter 21
A bolt of shock blasted Lia. Pierus delivered his decree, that he was taking Ben away from her, then simply vanished. There one minute, gone the next, like fog dissolving in sunlight.
Like the relationship she’d shared with Ben.
There was so much noise in her head, from the immortal voices demanding reports, issuing warnings, seeking updates. And not one single voice was quiet.
She cried out her own request. “Ben? Please answer me.”
No reply.
“Everybody fucking shut up.” Frantic emotion hardened her voice, commanding compliance. The sudden silence was deafening. Her head screamed in agony, matching the pain in her heart. “Please, Ben. Please, please answer me.” Tears joined the mist coating her face. There was no response. Just dead air between her mind and his. As if he’d never been there.
“Lia.” Mars stopped, scrubbed a hand over his face. His eyes, wide open in disbelief, did battle with his lips, pursed with anger.
“No,” she moaned. Twisting her hands together, she sobbed. “No, no, don’t say it. Don’t you dare fucking say it.”
“I’m so sorry.” He took a step toward her.
Zeus, arms open, advanced toward her as well.
Lia retreated, holding her hands in front of her. Her emotions were so completely out of control, of its own volition, an energy orb manifested in her palm. The glowing sphere seethed and pulsed frantically, keeping time with her speeding heart. Gaia glided over to her and attempted to wrap her arms around Lia. As if being cradled in her mother’s bosom would fucking ease the pain scoring her, ripping her to shreds. She knocked Gaia’s arms away, flinging the powerful ball toward the nearest tree. Flames burst from the point of contact and licked up the trunk, searing the wood. Burning away the outer layer. Please, let there just be a time delay because he was so far away. Sure that Polly would have spoken to Ian to assure him she was fine, Lia glanced at her older sister. Polly held her gaze and solemnly, sorrowfully shook her head.
“Ian said Ben and Emma just vanished from the lab. Somehow, Pierus breached the security systems again.” Polly shot a reproachful look at Mars.
Mars just looked pissed.
Lia�
�s knees buckled and she dropped like a stone. She called out for him once more. “Ben? Please don’t leave me. I love you.” She waited a beat. “Goddamn you, Ben Jordan. You answer me right now.” She raised her face to the treetops and screamed her anguish.
On her knees, she buried her face in her hands. While her shoulders shook under the burden of her sobs, a hand stroked her spine. She instantly recognized the soothing touch of her twin. Seconds later Mel crooned into her ear, that it would be okay.
She dropped her hands to her lap, her grief knowing no bounds. “Why would he do this?” she whispered
“Who, Pierus?” asked Mel, continuing to skim her palm along Lia’s back.
“Yeah, Pierus. Did he do it because he could? Because it would demoralize me?” Lia barked out a harsh laugh. “If that was his goal he can claim success. I’d rather be a damn magpie.” She glanced at all her sisters. Their expressions varied from shocked to hurt to dismay. Except for Callie. She just looked offended. Well, this wasn’t about her.
Gaia gripped her arm and dragged Lia to her feet. “For thousands of years, Zeus and I have guided and protected you. We raised you to be free thinkers. We’ve been proud of all you have accomplished. Your words desiring to be the thing your sisters before you, and those to follow, have fought against, have hurt my heart so deeply.” Gaia pinched Lia’s bicep, the physical pain cutting through the mental anguish. “We will figure this out. If nothing else, Aerie can influence him to find you again.”
Sobs continued to wrack Lia’s body. She allowed her mother to enfold her in a gentle hug, glad to welcome the calming nudges Mother shared. The peace increased eight fold as her sisters all gathered around but it still wasn’t enough to banish her misery. They were warriors, bonded in sisterhood and in grief. Every single one felt the anguish that made it difficult for Lia to speak. They experienced the torment shredding Lia’s soul. The strongest consoling urges came from Clio, Nia and Polly. Muses who’d won their challenge and gained immortal mates, men who’d find them in their next lifetime. Fall in love with them all over again.
Hunger: Goddesses of Delphi Page 19