Now assured of Zeus' full attention, Audrey stepped into the torchlight. She wore a simple white acolyte dress that gathered at her shoulders and left a tempting amount of cleavage exposed. A wreath of white flowers sat on her head, and her spirit guide whizzed around her to give her a white glow. Damien swallowed the pride he felt in how good she looked after her ordeal—who knew if those were his true feelings?
"Zeus?" she asked in a meek voice. "Your Excellency?"
Both Zeus and Ames looked up from their grisly work. Zeus paused, knife poised to deal the death blow to the cupid, and narrowed his eyes. "What do you want, human? How did you get in here?"
"You—" Ames tried to say more, but Charlie, who had used the distraction Audrey provided to creep close enough, clamped a strong hand over Ames’ mouth and dragged him into the darkness.
"We have your business partner, Zeus," Maggie called from behind her column. "Give it up."
Zeus laughed, and the building shook. "You think I need that puny human to get what I want? He has set up the paths and whetted the mortals' appetites. Once I harvest the energy from Aphrodite's worship through the golden chain, the humans shall flock to my worship, and I will once again live amongst them and have my pick of women and wealth."
"I don't think that's possible." Audrey's voice, low and quiet, got his attention. "There are powers greater than yours."
"Such as…?"
Audrey chanted to herself and danced, her movements slow and sensual, and her arms above her. Zeus’ gaze locked on Audrey, but Damien wasn’t prepared for the wave of rage and protectiveness that rushed through him. He almost forgot what he was supposed to do, but his wolf nipped at his rear end, snapping him back to attention. Blocked from Zeus’ view by the shadows and the altar itself, Damien crept forward. He slithered under the stone table and jabbed the arrow into Zeus' foot.
Zeus yelled in rage and pain. Damien shimmied backwards and ducked to the side of the raised altar as lightning sizzled across the vaulted ceiling and thunder filled the space. He looked around for the others, but the only one he saw was Maggie, who had to dodge an errant thunderbolt.
Damien peeked at Zeus, who held on to the altar with both hands, his chest heaving. He held his breath. Although Maggie had told them what should happen, Damien knew all too well how unpredictable the gods could be. Again, he resisted the urge to throw himself in front of Audrey. He trusted that she could handle herself.
Zeus' angry gaze fell on Audrey, who stood seemingly unperturbed by the wind and light show raging around her. And when it all fell quiet, the sudden silence pressing on his ears, Damien tensed, ready to do something. He just didn’t know what.
The god’s words echoed through the temple although he didn’t raise his voice. "I recognize you now. You are a marvel, human girl. So brave, so fascinating. I would have you bound and trussed on my temple floor as you were the first time I saw you." He licked his lips.
Damien clenched a fist.
Audrey held up a hand. "I have only one wish, Excellency."
Zeus' eyes bugged out, and he sounded like he struggled with the words. "Anything for you." He panted and clutched the sides of the altar. "Damn Eros’ magic. No—yes—I will grant what you desire."
"For you to close the pathways that have opened the waking world to the dark creatures that live in this one. The human race needs to be left in peace."
Thunder shook the building again when Zeus realized the extent to which he had been tricked. But he had to keep his word.
"Very well, human." He crossed his arms. "This shall not be the last you hear of me." He looked at her intently, and she fell to the ground, clutching her stomach. With a low rumble of laughter, he disappeared.
Maggie ran to Audrey and reached her just before Damien did. "Are you okay?"
"I think so." Her dragon curled around her waist like a belt. "It felt like he punched me."
Damien helped her to a sitting position and let her lean against him. He tried to block awareness of the pleasure of having her in his arms, but memories of that damn dream kept returning. And that had been before Eros shot him. Could his feelings be genuine? He looked down at her. She'd certainly been brave to face Zeus like she had.
"I need to check on Eros." Maggie darted behind the altar, and she lifted Eros' limp form. "He's still breathing, just knocked out. Hopefully he only remembers the party." She smoothed the little god's hair back from his face.
"Can we just leave him like that?" Damien asked.
"I can stand now." Audrey's voice shook, and she accepted Damien's help, her cheeks pale. "I feel off-balance."
"Likely because your body is in a weakened state," Maggie told her. "You need to get back to it soon. But we need to do one more thing."
"What's that?"
"Keep any more paths from opening."
Lucia and Rizzo burst into the temple and led a band of merrymakers in a conga line that threaded through the pillars and up to the altar itself. Damien had to smile. Eros slumbered peacefully on the white marble table amidst the implements that would have killed him. Maggie gestured to Audrey, Damien, and Charlie to follow her, and they crept out of the temple for the last time.
The revelers still danced outside. Aphrodite appeared beside them, finally free from her golden chain and aware that her son was also not captive anymore.
"Where's Lyle?" Her eyes blazed with anger.
"Still in the temple where Charlie and Damien left him tied up and knocked out," Maggie said. "Your son is in there, too."
"Is Eros okay?"
"His ego is probably bruised, and he's sleeping off the sedative that Lyle gave him, but yes, he's fine."
Damien watched Aphrodite's hurried but graceful progress into the temple. "Should we be supporting the release of that little menace?"
The hurt in Audrey's eyes said more about her broken heart than even she, as a writer, possibly could, and Damien looked away. He didn't need to be an ass.
"Okay, so back to the puzzle at hand," Charlie said. They found a table where they could watch the party without being dragged into it. Soon Aphrodite emerged from the temple, Eros drunkenly fluttering around her. She raised her hands, and a cheer went up from the crowd.
"What do you think she'll do now?" asked Damien.
"Probably enjoy the worship," Maggie told him. "A true goddess never retires. Just look at Cher."
"Back to the problem," said Audrey, her tone back to neutral journalistic. "What did the Oracle tell you? That it's well hidden, yet right in front of you, tiny with large effects, has been used for millennia but recently by one of us, and that there was a parallel journey it took to reach those who are using it."
"I've got lots of experience dream weaving, but my abilities come with my job and my training as a former priestess of Avalon," Maggie told her. "But you hadn't done it until recently."
"Nope. The first time was earlier this week, when I heard Demeter's cries."
"What did you do differently that night?"
"I took a shower, got ready for bed…" Her eyes grew wide. "That's the night Kyle gave me the new sleeping pill to try. I told him I'd been stressed about deadlines, especially for the Bistro Moderne review. He's on a sleep rotation right now—I guess they gave him some samples."
"Which sleeping pill? There are several."
"The new one. It's supposedly a mix of natural and synthetic ingredients, and it's available over the counter."
Charlie leaned forward and filled the cups that had appeared in front of them with non-magical wine. "And what do you want to bet that those natural substances have been used before, say by shamans and other holy men, to reach the dream realms?"
"And the parallel journey?"
"How did the drug get to market?" asked Damien. "Did the FDA expedite its approval?"
"Kyle did say something to that effect, that since it's natural plus over-the-counter stuff, it was considered safer and partially beyond FDA jurisdiction. But what did we witness?"
&nbs
p; Maggie set her cup down so hard the wine almost spilled out of it. "Lyle Ames' approval for his business venture, expedited by Zeus himself. How could I have been so dense?"
"So the sleeping pill fit the Oracle's description." Audrey swirled the wine in her golden cup. "But how do we make sure?"
"And more importantly," said Maggie, "how do we get it pulled from the market?"
"Oh, I think we may be able to get a little extra help." Charlie cocked his head toward Aphrodite, who sat on a golden throne in the middle of the square and accepted flowers and gifts from her followers. She looked at their group and gave a little wave.
"She'll be more creative in revenge than any of us ever could," Audrey said. "Believe me, I know."
Lyle Ames woke and squinted at the bright rays of sun that snuck through the cracks between the thick curtains in his private suite at the Plaza. He wore his tuxedo shirt from the night before, unbuttoned, and his cheeks stuck to his teeth like he'd drunk too much wine. In fact, there was a rather strange taste at the back of his tongue and a draft on his bare ass. His face and neck burned like he was covered with scratches, but his fingers didn't find any, and the back of his head throbbed.
He eased himself up on his elbows and willed the pounding in his temples and the rushing noise in his ears to stop. A royal blue dress lay on the floor in a crumpled heap atop a pair of silver heels. Someone was in the shower—that explained the rushing noise.
He rolled to his back and put his hands over his eyes, the darkness a temporary relief. What the hell happened to me? The last thing he remembered was standing beside Zeus on the altar in Aphrodite's temple. He had been trying to drug that infernal cupid so they could sacrifice him to keep the pathways open, and he thought he'd succeeded, but that's where the memory stopped.
"Good morning, darling."
Ames rubbed his eyes. "Oh, shit."
Delilah Butler frowned, her hands on her hips. The terrycloth bathrobe she wore peeked open at her chest, but she was otherwise covered. "Now that's not a very nice thing to say. You were much happier to see me last night, so grateful that I'd helped to make the party a success."
He rose too quickly and had to sit to keep the room from tilting and throwing him against the wall. "Did we…?"
"Oh, yes, and you were magnificent. You know, I've been thinking about leaving my bore of a husband for a while now, and you'd be a good replacement. I know there's no love anymore between you and Amelia."
"A good what?" He jumped up and swallowed the acid that rose in his throat. He imagined the headline the following day—Prominent Businessman Dies in Fiery Crash.
"A good replacement. You're rich, not that bad looking, and you're good in the sack."
He pulled the sheets over his lap to cover his nakedness. "Delilah, I have a wife. This was a mistake, a horrible mistake. Look, I'll do anything to make it up to you."
"You're breaking my heart, Lyle, especially after all those sweet things you said to me." She sat on the bed, her long legs crossed.
He got up and gingerly bent down to retrieve his boxers. He hopped on one foot to put them on without sitting beside her on the bed. His stomach gurgled, and he swallowed against the sour taste in his throat.
"You told me I was your goddess—that I was prettier than Aphrodite, even though that actress you got to play her was a real knockout."
"Whatever I said, I didn't mean it. Please, Delilah, ask anything. You can have money, cars, houses, jewelry, whatever."
She leaned back so that the robe opened a little in front and revealed the plump, ripe top of one of her breasts. "Anything?"
"Anything."
She narrowed her eyes, and he felt like a rat that's just been spotted by a snake. "Pull the new sleeping pill from the market. I know your corporation is behind it."
He stopped putting on his tuxedo pants and looked at her. "What?"
"That new sleeping pill. It's got to go, Lyle. It gave me the weirdest dreams, and I'm still afraid to go to sleep sometimes because of what it did."
He tried to shake his head but discounted that as a bad idea and simply frowned. "I can't."
"Then I'll be sure to call Amelia when I get home. And my lawyer." She got up and walked toward the bathroom.
"Wait." He sat back on the bed and willed the nausea to subside. "Okay, okay, I'll call the head of that division today to have it pulled."
"Good. If it's not pulled out of stores by the end of the week, you'll be hearing from me."
He made sure he was out of sight when she came out of the bathroom.
Audrey woke to the smell of fresh coffee. She blinked at the unfamiliar ceiling, and her stomach growled. She tried to sit up, but the pain in her shoulder kept her pinned to the bed. A whimper escaped her lips before she could bite her tongue over it.
"Nice try, but I heard that." Maggie came in the bedroom and gently helped Audrey to a sitting position. "You need some food in your stomach so you can take your pain meds."
"You got the script filled?" It felt like such a long time ago that she'd been in the hospital. "Where's Damien?"
"He was here, but he's already up and gone. Hold on, I'll be right back."
Maggie returned with a bed tray laden with coffee, orange juice, and a chocolate croissant.
Audrey wolfed down the croissant and savored the coffee under Maggie's watchful eye. Once her stomach settled, she took a pain pill and leaned back to wait for it to take effect. The throbbing in her collarbone matched the sick thud of her heart.
"So, what happened in Lyle's office?" Maggie asked. "Did Eros get you when you weren't looking?"
Audrey recounted Eros' strategy to keep Damien from being trapped. "It worked, too. The cage started to fall but hovered over his head." She blinked, and a tear plopped into her coffee. "I'm afraid he'll never want to talk to me again."
"And you want him to?"
"Yes." She shifted so she wouldn't sit on the tender spot where Eros' arrow had jabbed her. "But is that the spell talking?"
"Not necessarily. What happens in the dream world tends to fade quickly. Whatever you're feeling today is probably all you. Maybe it's what would have happened had Damien not come on too strong to begin with."
"Great."
The doorbell rang, and Maggie ran to get it. "Hello, Charlie."
"I thought you ladies could use some pastries."
Audrey heard Maggie's laugh and their low conversation. It sounded like they had some sort of understanding. She sighed and blew on her coffee, which had magically refilled.
It's not like I need to get involved with someone so soon after Kyle's betrayal anyway. Now there's someone who could use an inconvenient arrow in the ass. I need someone I can trust, someone I can count on to go to the ends of the Earth and beyond for me. Someone like Damien.
Another tear splashed into the coffee.
Maggie came in with a plate of chocolate croissants, cheese Danishes, and cherry turnovers. "Want some more?"
"Yes, I'm still hungry. I can't mend a broken heart, but I sure can feed it." She tried to smile and selected a cherry turnover, but she had to bite her lip.
"Hey, now, there's no reason to cry," Charlie said and brushed her hair back from her face. The gesture made her sniffle louder because it reminded her again of Damien and the way he'd looked at her when he did it.
"Charlie, you know Damien better than any of us. Is there any hope for him and me?"
He sat on the end of the bed, careful not to jostle her or the tray. "Yes and no. Yes because he was definitely interested in you before he got pricked by Eros, no because he doesn't like losing control of his emotions. I bet he's thinking about the past few days and squirming over his behavior."
"Even if I had nothing to do with it?"
"Damien's a deep guy. Just give him time. Remember, he's been dealing with the whole Rizzo thing, too."
Audrey shook her head. "We all have. Rizzo, J.J.—whoever he is has a lot to explain."
Maggie selected a bear claw. "
He does, but his kind likes to keep their secrets, so it might be a while." She frowned. "And the fact that one of them has been involved in both your and Damien's lives means there's more trouble to come."
"What about the sleeping aid?" Audrey asked. She couldn’t deal with J.J. and his secrets until she knew the current situation had at least somewhat resolved.
"I can’t say too much since she technically bent the rules," Maggie said. "But Aphrodite took care of it. She posed as someone Lyle Ames wouldn’t be able to refuse and convinced him to pull it."
Charlie raised his coffee cup in salute. "She must have done a hell of a job. I heard it on the news on the way over, so he acted fast."
Maggie touched her cup to his. "Never underestimate a determined goddess. Or mortal, for that matter. All of you were amazing."
Audrey looked down at her food. She didn’t feel amazing. She just wanted to be home in her bed and to know what to expect.
30
When Damien walked into Arthur’s hospital room, Lucia handed him a sausage biscuit. "Here, darlin', I knew you'd be coming without having eaten breakfast."
He took a small bite. It was perfect. "I don't normally do this."
"What? Eat breakfast in the hospital?"
"Well, that. And I don't normally talk to psychics. But you seem to have a handle on all of this weird stuff."
"I only see patterns and point them out to others." She put a hand on Rizzo's arm, careful not to disturb the I.V. that stuck out of his wrist.
"What about him? Do you see that he'll make it…in this form?"
Instead of answering, she asked, "What happened with you and Audrey in the C.U.? It looked like you two would make a good couple."
He gave her a quick summary of what had happened. "And I finally found out what no one would tell me. Maggie and Charlie had figured it out, but they also knew how I'd feel about it."
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