"What was that for?" he asked.
"You didn't create that. This is more than a celebration." The wolf sniffed at the spilled wine and growled.
"What do you mean?"
"It has something to do with all this. And your ladylove."
Damien continued to make his way toward the temple, and the crowd thickened around him. Newcomers dressed in evening gowns and tuxedos, all heedless of the mess that the dirt and spilled wine made on their hems and shiny shoes, rubbed shoulders with fantastic creatures. They looked less substantial, almost transparent, in contrast to the rest of the crowd.
"Do you see that?"
"It's a transfer of energy." The wolf raised its nose to the air. "Powerful magic is happening here.''
"And I bet Ames is in the middle of it." The crowd grew tighter the closer they got to the temple, and Damien found himself practically standing on top of his spirit guide.
"Can you do something about this?" he asked.
The wolf let forth a menacing growl, and the two people in front of Damien cast worried glances at it and moved out of the way. They repeated this process until Damien felt the bottom step of the temple jab his ankle.
Damien had watched the Arabian guards, who directed their gazes over the crowd in a precision pattern. He waited until he knew that they would be looking elsewhere, and he and the wolf sprinted up the steps and darted behind a column.
"Think we're clear?" he asked.
"Look there." Two heavily muscled guards, naked to the waist and brandishing scimitars, came up the stairs on the other side of the landing. Damien and the wolf crouched low and ran inside, curling into balls in the corner to the left of the door.
The cool darkness of the temple enveloped them, and the smoky, bitter odor of incense filled Damien's nose. He pinched it so he wouldn't sneeze. Once his eyes adjusted to the lack of sunlight, he saw smaller columns stretching in front of him to the altar, where two men stood, Lyle Ames and a taller man with a mane of salt and pepper hair and a strong nose, definitely Greek in heritage. He focused on a book on the altar, his eagle-like eyes narrowed. Ames stood to the side and looked around the temple.
"Did you hear that?" he asked.
"I heard nothing." The voice of the taller man reminded Damien of the rumbling of distant thunder.
"It sounded like something snuck in."
"The Arabian guards are keeping the crowd at bay."
"I'm concerned about our captives."
The Greek man rubbed his temples. "We'll be taking care of one of them shortly. The other will take care of herself."
"I've never killed anyone before."
"Oh, stop whining, Lyle. That's the nice thing about being a Greek god, my friend. If you make a mistake, you just fetch them back from Hades."
"At what price?"
"It depends on whether Persephone is down there or not. The girl's diabolically clever. Sometimes more than any mortal can pay."
"Aphrodite's not going to be happy with what you want to do to her son."
"Yes, but we hold all the cards. She won't have a choice but to cooperate even afterward."
Damien's heart beat in his throat. He crawled on his hands and knees toward the altar, pausing behind columns to catch his breath and make sure he hadn't been spotted. Once he got closer, he saw that Ames had keys on a golden ring on his belt. He looked at the wolf, who nodded.
When they reached the last column, they watched while Zeus continued to read and mumble to himself. Finally, he looked at Ames and said, "Fetch the Eros so that his sacrifice may bind all those here to our will and the worship of the Pandemos."
Ames bowed and walked past Damien's hiding spot. He went through a side door, and Damien slipped through before it shut. The wolf walked through the door.
They followed Ames through a courtyard, into another white marble building behind the temple, the one Rizzo had pointed out, and into a stairwell. At that point, Ames looked behind him, and Damien had to duck back through a doorway to avoid being spotted, which nearly sent him sprawling over the wolf.
"How can you go through a door but trip me up?" Damien asked after he rose and rubbed his rear end.
"I can only bend the rules so far."
"Let's go before he can get away." But they had already lost sight of Ames. The wolf put his nose to the floor and stopped them at the fifth landing.
Damien pushed the door open a crack and looked both ways. He saw Ames pause in front of an office, and Damien caught his own reflection in the window beside the office door. He realized too late that Ames had seen it as well.
"You can come out, my friend," Ames said and pointed a gun at Damien's head. "I heard you behind me the whole time."
A noise at the door woke Audrey from her lethargic state. How long had she been sitting there? Had another day gone by? She sighed and leaned her head back against the cage behind her. Would she never escape? And would she be stuck with regret in her afterlife that she’d never given a relationship with Damien a chance, as briefly as they’d been together? She could have at least been nicer to him.
Eros also woke, his wings rustling.
"What's that sound?" she asked after she heard it again.
"Our doom, I'm afraid." The dire words sounded ridiculous coming from him.
"Oh, quit being so melodramatic. Is it Zeus?"
Eros shook his head. "It's Ames, but he's come for me."
"What about me?"
"I told you, he's leaving you here to die."
Audrey opened her mouth, but Eros held up a hand.
"There's someone else out there."
"Can you tell who?"
"Someone tall and dark. Accompanied by a wolf. Oh, this could get interesting."
"Damien?" A jolt of adrenaline and hope woke her fully. Was she getting her second chance after all?
"That's the one, the cute policeman I helped you out with." He dodged a swat and looked at Audrey, his brown eyes wide. "He's going to be trapped like you. Unless…"
"Unless what?"
"It's a secret loophole that only I can activate," he said in a whisper. "The Collective Unconscious, being a reflection of the human psyche, has things in place to increase drama, including some special protections for lovers. As long as one is trapped, the other one can't be, as long as you're not in Hades. Have you, ah…?" He made an obscene motion with his hands.
"No, we only met a couple of days ago." But had they? "Maybe in the C.U.?"
"Oh, no, it had to happen in your world. I thought my arrows were more potent than that. Okay, then you have to let me shoot you while you're looking at him."
Audrey's heart twisted. She was willing to try a relationship, not completely surrender her feelings. "What? Are you nuts?"
"No, in spite of being stuck here with you for too long. It's the only way to make sure he doesn't get trapped and left here to die, too."
"What will happen to me?" She asked the question more of herself, but he answered anyway.
"You'll fall madly in love with him. Well, at first, but I don’t know for how long. After that, the arrow wears off gradually until it's your connection that keeps you together and motivated to work on the relationship."
"You sound like a television psychologist."
He puffed out his chest. "Just call me Doctor Eros."
Audrey put her face in her hands. "I can't do that. I can't give up control of my emotions. Not yet."
"Do you want him to die here?"
What had the Oracle said? She would make a choice that would allow her to be worthy of love. Saving Damien’s life fit. She looked up and said, "No." No, she didn't want Damien to die. She didn't want to die, either. And she now knew with certainty she wanted to see where this relationship could go when this nightmare was over.
Besides, if she was going to trust her emotions to anyone, she knew Damien was the most trustworthy one to take care of them.
"Okay, you can do it. But how? Your bow and arrows are over there."
&n
bsp; Cupid grinned and brought out a tiny golden arrow from his loincloth. "I keep this one close in case of emergencies."
"Right." She took a deep breath of the stale air, straightened her shoulders, and clasped her hands. "I'm going to skip the obvious joke. Just be careful and don't make me fall for Ames instead."
"Just tell me when you have a good view of the cop. Here they come."
Audrey scooted back against the bars of the cage that separated her from Eros to shield him. The door burst open, and Damien tumbled through. Ames followed, gun aimed at Damien. Audrey resisted the urge to look at the weapon or at the large black wolf that ran into the room and instead looked at her lover-to-be.
"Now," she said. Eros jabbed her in her right butt cheek.
"Did you have to do that so hard?" It stung, and then warmth flowed through her.
Why haven't I noticed how Damien's hair curls in the damp of the evening or that he has a dimple in his right cheek? Or how nice his rear end looks in those black pants? Okay, I had noticed his ass before, but wow.
"Damien," she called, and he rushed to her cage. Heedless of the arrow still sticking out of her butt, she went to meet him, and they clasped hands through the bars. She heard a click when another cage released from the ceiling, but it hovered over Damien's head, unwilling to trap the second half of a pair of lovers.
Ames looked, up, then at the couple, but before they could pull away from each other, he took the key ring off his belt and unlocked Eros' door.
"Hey, stop!" Cupid struggled, but Ames dragged him from his cage. The silver dragon scratched the businessman's cheek, neck and back through his shirt. Ames ignored it and held the gun to Eros' head.
"Don't make me use this."
Audrey held her breath, and the wolf whined in helplessness. Ames looked from Eros to the gun to the keys, which dangled from the lock.
"You," he told Damien. "Get the keys and put them on my belt."
The corner of Damien's mouth turned up. "You do it," he said. "They're your keys."
"Damien, please. He'll kill him." She closed her eyes, not willing to watch the carnage.
Ames cursed and darted out of the room.
She peeked. "Or not. How did you know?"
"They need the cupid for something in the temple. Undamaged, since that's the best kind of sacrifice." He unlocked her cage, and she fell into his arms. His lips closed on hers, and she felt happy for the first time that week.
"We don't have time for this," the spirit guides chorused.
"Right." Damien pulled away. "Are you okay? Can you walk?"
"My strength is returning now I'm free from the cage." She pulled the arrow out of her rear end and stuck it in her back pocket before he could see it.
Together they ran down the stairs and into the deserted courtyard. They darted outside and found the plaza deserted.
"Where did everyone go?" Audrey spun around to look at the temple, which had vanished, another square government building in its place.
"Ames must've told Zeus you were free." Damien ran his hands through his hair. "They took the party somewhere else. Or they sent us away."
The wolf huffed and lay down, and the dragon flew in ever wider circles above their heads. "And you left the horse in the other city. Where he won't do any good."
"Can you take us?" Damien asked the wolf.
Audrey grinned—of course he would have a strong, powerful beast for a spirit guide.
"I can go swiftly, but not with a human. I am not meant to be ridden."
"Then go and keep an eye on things," Damien told him. "We'll figure something out. All paths here lead to where you want to go."
Audrey shaded her eyes and squinted at the sunset. "Right, unless someone wants you to be really lost."
"All we can do is start walking." He held out his hand.
She took it and couldn't help but smile at him. "Let's go."
Audrey held Damien's hand and tried to concentrate on making the curve around the next hill the one that would bring the city with the right temple into view. The only things that greeted them were a sheep-path with more hills and the sound of the wind whistling around them.
"What now?" asked Audrey. She sat on a rock that marked yet another mile gone and wondered if the happiness she felt at being with him somehow blocked her ability to manifest what she needed. She was a dream weaver, for goodness' sake! But she could recognize when she was up against something more powerful.
"We need to find someone to show us the way." He looked at Audrey's spirit-guide, who only circled them for the hundredth time.
"It's nice to see you finally out and about, honey," a familiar voice called to them.
"Zinfandel." Audrey turned to see the dragon sitting on the slope above them. "Where have you been?"
Her spirit guide left her shoulder and circled Zinfandel’s head.
"Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to interfere with these quest things, which is really a shame because I could pull them off with way more style than most of these shmucks."
Audrey bit back a giggle at his rueful expression. "I'm sure you could, but Damien and I are stuck."
"Together? That's so romantic." He held out a paw, and the smaller dragon landed there. The two beasts, large and small, gazed into each other’s eyes. After a few seconds, the silver spirit guide nodded.
The black wolf bounded out of the shadows and licked Damien's face. Damien put a hand on his head and said, "He says Maggie and Charlie are at the temple, and Maggie has a plan, but they need our help."
"But we still can't get there."
"I can help you," said the silver dragon. It flew back to Audrey.
"What?" She looked into its emerald eyes.
"I can show you the way. Zin can't, but I can."
"But why didn't you before now?" She looked at Zinfandel, who studied his claws with an innocent air. "Oh."
"Size doesn't always matter, honey, as long as you can follow directions. But don't tell her that." With a wink, Zinfandel disappeared.
The little dragon took wing and led them off the path and up the hill. At the top, they found the ruins of a small temple, likely to some god of the country. They joined hands and were about to walk through the door formed by two columns and a straight piece of marble that had been chewed by the elements when Maggie and Charlie stumbled out. Charlie looked especially handsome in a tuxedo, but not half so much as Damien.
"Nice tux, dude," Damien said.
"I am so glad to see you safe," Maggie said to Audrey and moved to hug her. "I'm sorry I had to leave you there."
Audrey held up a hand. She wasn't in the mood for excuses. "How did you get here?"
"All the temples are linked, whether they're in the C.U. or in the waking world. If you know how, you can travel between them."
"Which is how Zeus gets around so fast."
"Exactly. And the magic is older than the Greeks, so they cannot block the spell."
"So what's your plan?" asked Damien.
"First, Audrey, do you have the arrow Eros used on you?"
She reached in her pocket and pulled it out. "How did you know about that?"
"There's a certain glow." Maggie clapped a hand over her mouth and looked at Damien.
"What? Wait a second…" Damien sat with a thud on the crumbling steps. "The way you've been acting here—that kiss—is that why? It was Cupid's arrow?"
Audrey's blush suffused her with warmth from head to toe. "Yes, there's a romantic loophole. That way you wouldn't be trapped."
He ran his hands through his hair. "And what about me, Maggie? Do I have that certain glow? Is that what happened to me at the hospital? These feelings, this overwhelming emotion, are they real?"
"Eros can't create something out of nothing," Maggie assured him. "There has to be something there for it to stick for more than a couple of hours. He just enhances it."
"It all makes sense now. I was touched by Cupid's stupid arrow." Damien looked at Audrey like she was a snake he'd a
lmost stepped on, his contempt a stake to her heart. "Yeah, whatever. We'll talk about this later."
"Damien, I do care about you," Audrey said. She reached for his hand, but he folded his arms.
"Do you? And do I feel the same for you?" He shook his head. "I can't deal with this right now."
Audrey opened her mouth, but no words came out. She couldn't think clearly, Damien's rejection piling on top of past ones.
"That's enough." Charlie's authoritative voice cut through the haze of Audrey's heartbreak. "We've got work to do."
"Audrey," Maggie said, "this is going to put you in greater danger than being trapped in the golden cage, but we need a female to distract Zeus. He's already attracted to you, and he'll incinerate me on sight."
Audrey's heart beat in her throat. She'd thought she could trust her feelings to Damien, but… Then again, she was coming to realize there was no happiness without risk, and she was willing to risk everything to keep Zeus from unleashing awful dream creatures on the waking world. "I'll do whatever it takes to stop them and make my world safe again."
"Then we'll all have to work together." Maggie pointed at Damien. "No matter what you're feeling. Time is of the essence. Here's what we'll do."
29
Damien crouched behind the altar and looked around the temple. He couldn't see any of them, but he could feel Audrey through the connection he had to her thanks to those stupid arrows. He wanted to catch a glimpse of her, to make sure she was okay, but he stuffed his emotions. There was no point in pursuing anything with her, not now, and possibly there never had been. Although he knew now that his grandmother hadn’t been hallucinating, he wished he could know whether her contact with the supernatural world had eventually caused her downward spiral and death. Maybe he should thank Eros for screwing things up for them before he'd allowed himself to change his mind.
Meanwhile, the tableau played out on the altar longer than anyone had expected. In spite of his weakened state, Eros had put up quite a struggle, and the two men at the altar couldn't hold him down enough to kill him, much less draw blood. Finally, after about ten minutes of what looked similar to cartoons of cat fights with limbs going every direction, Ames got a lucky jab with a syringe full of something, and Eros went limp. Damien nodded, and Maggie gave the signal from behind a column.
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