by S. E. Babin
“I just want to go to bed. And shower. Shower first, then bed for a week.” I laid my head down on the bar.
“We’ll get there. What else did you find out?” Hermes came closer and toyed with a strand of my hair.
“Not much. I haven’t talked to her yet. I didn’t expect to come home to Babies R Us.”
“I have a plan,” he said.
“What is it?” I mumbled.
“I’ll take them to Rhea.”
My head popped up. I whistled low. “I think that’s crazy, yet genius enough to work.” Rhea was our Mother Goddess, although Hera liked to try and claim that title. We all rolled our eyes at her behind her back every time she alluded to it. Gaia was our Earth Mother, but Rhea…she was All. And she was Zeus’ mother. Hiding these women right under his nose was diabolical, but Rhea would keep our secret. She held a soft spot for children and mothers. The women milling around would find a home with her at least until their children were born. There was no telling what would happen afterwards, but I trusted Rhea enough to release them unharmed. At best, they’d be wiped of their memories. It wasn’t ideal, but then again not much was when you were dealing with us.
“When are you planning on taking them?” I hopped off the stool and headed to the coffee machine. I couldn’t believe I had waited that long already. Its siren song was luring me to caffeine heaven. I popped a French roast K-cup into the machine, grabbed a mug, and watched as it filled.
Hermes’ low chuckle snapped me out of my trance. “What?” I said.
“I answered your question twice, but you were too far gone. If I ever need to kidnap you, all I need to do is deprive you of coffee and I can get all the info I need out of you.”
“Har har,” I said as I grabbed the creamer from the fridge and poured some into my cup. A spoonful of sugar and I was set to go. “Now what did you say?”
“Tonight, Abby. We’re leaving within the hour. I’d hoped to be gone before you made it home so you wouldn’t have to see this.”
“Too late,” I said between sips.
“Abs, don’t be like that.” He put a hand out to me, but I stepped out of his reach.
“Seeing these women,” I said after a moment, “it’s hard. I’m trying to live here under the guise of being human, yet the evidence of our destruction haunts us everywhere I turn.” I spotted one woman sitting on my favorite chair crying silently as she stroked her stomach. “They have no idea what’s going on. How their lives will be irrevocably changed after this.”
Hermes took the mug out of my hand, set it on the counter, and pulled me against his chest. “We aren’t all terrible, Abs. You know this.”
I said nothing. We were all capable of this if we were driven enough. Hermes squeezed me tighter.
“Abby, it is not in our nature to be benevolent. We are not of earth.”
I stiffened in his arms, but he squeezed me harder. “Listen to me,” he continued. “Because we aren’t from here, we haven’t taken the time to learn their ways. Not all of us, anyway. You, me, Artie, and Keto – we are different. There are many others as well. Even Father enjoys humans.”
I snorted in his chest and felt Hermes’ answering chuckle. Zeus’ dalliances among humans were legend. “What I’m trying to say is that this is not us. This is not you, or me, or Artie, or Keto. These women are here because we are saving them.”
I shook my head. “It’s too late to save them.”
Hermes sighed. “They are alive. It is not too late. There are things that can be done to ease their transition back into their lives. You know this.”
I did know this, but it still didn’t seem fair for these women to have their youths ripped away. Even if they wouldn’t remember it.
I said as much to Hermes. He sighed. “We cannot change the past.” He tilted my head up so I met his eyes. Warmth, tenderness, and so much more swirled in their depths. “But we can change the future.” His lips swept toward mine, claiming them in a heated kiss.
He set me away from him, and I mourned the loss of his heat. “You and I have much to discuss. But first I have to deal with the future demigod moms.”
“Farewell, Hermes.” I touched my fingers to my lips.
He touched my cheek. “Farewell for now. I will be back in a couple of days.” With that, he spun on his heel and began gathering up the women in a group. Keto was nowhere to be found, but I didn’t doubt he was in the thick of things. I saw Ariadne’s ebony tresses making their way through the room. As much as I didn’t want to deal with anyone else right now, I needed to summon Dionysus.
Within moments, the house was cleared out, any signs of future mommies gone. I let out a long, deep breath and picked up my mug of coffee. I held it up to Ariadne and waved it at her. She shrugged as she made her way into the kitchen. “What is it?”
I blinked. “Have you never had coffee?” Please don’t tell me I invited a philistine into the house.
“Can’t say that I have,” she said. “But you obviously seem to be partial to it.”
Understatement of the millennium. “You have much to learn, young one. Enter. Let me show you the ways of the Force.”
Her brow wrinkled. “The what?”
She didn’t get Star Wars. I didn’t think we could be friends anymore.
32
Chapter Thirty Two
She took to coffee like a college student in finals week, and I felt like a proud mama hen. Artie came down in her pajamas after everyone had cleared out and Ariadne and I were on our second cup. “Well you two look cozy,” she remarked, her violet eyes sparkling over the rims of her glasses.
“Girlfriends and coffee,” I said. “Is there any better combo than that?”
“Cake could make this better,” Ariadne said, which warmed the cockles of my heart.
“What kind?” I asked, noticing the cringe Artie tried to cover up.
“No cake for you?” I gave her a curious look.
She shook her head. “Not until it doesn’t remind me of Hestia anymore. I love cake, too, so it’s tough to pass. I don’t think I can look at it without seeing that smug mouth.” She shuddered as she grabbed a mug and started making herself a cup of coffee.
Surprisingly, during our brief B&E stint into Olympus Zeus didn’t bring up Hestia even once. He never hesitated to use our most uncomfortable moments against us, so I was surprised Artie made it out of there without another verbal scathing. A sudden thought occurred to me.
“Artie, do you think maybe we overlooked Hestia too quickly?”
She carried her mug over to the table and sat down with us. “What do you mean? With the whole pregnancy thing? I’m sure Hestia can do a lot of things. I don’t think she has a penis, though.”
Ariadne choked on her coffee, and even I had to chuckle.
“No, dork,” I said. “I’m talking about the rest of it. Maybe Circe isn’t the only woman involved. Maybe it’s two of the Twelve.”
She looked thoughtful. “Are you doubting my ability to kick someone’s ass thoroughly and with finality?”
I placed a hand to my heart and slapped a solemn look on my face. “Never, oh Huntress. But look deep inside and think about whether that might have been too easy. Eris wasn’t on par with me and even with my powers back I almost got my ass kicked.” It was true. Sometimes I felt the only reason I had won the battle with her was because of what she’d done with Marshall. Something inside of me had snapped when I saw him inside of the cage. It was a combination of power, rage, and horror. If things had been different and it had been just me against her, I wasn’t sure I could have pulled it off at the time because of my personality. I tried to avoid fighting as much as I could. Artemis was better in a fight, but she often chose to solve things diplomatically. Hestia set something off in her I hadn’t seen in a long time, but there was something about this that didn’t seem right. Zeus might not have said anything about it because maybe she was doing just fine. Maybe she wasn’t nearly as injured as she had pretended to be. It would
be the perfect way to throw suspicion from her onto someone else.
Artie pursed her lips. “Maybe,” she said slowly. “You think she wanted to cast suspicion away from her?”
I nodded. “Exactly. What would be the perfect way to do that? Pretend to be seriously injured.”
Artie sat back. I practically could see the wheels in her brain turning. “I don’t know, Abs. She looked pretty screwed up.”
“She did. Maybe it wasn’t all you, though. We all have glamour abilities. Who’s to say she didn’t ham it up for the audience?” I drained the last of my coffee cup as I watched her.
Ariadne spoke up. “I know I wasn’t there for this, but I will tell you Dino thinks Hestia is a stone cold bitch.”
“Dino?” Artie and I asked at the same time.
A pretty blush covered her cheeks. “Dionysus. I call him Dino sometimes.”
“Oh my gods,” I crowed. “I can’t wait to use that!”
Ariadne giggled. “I wouldn’t if I were you. He’s quite sensitive.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” I said, sobering up. Ariadne was with the guy that had threatened to throw me in the middle of town square for a mass rape. Sounded like a stand-up guy. But who was I to question her life choices? I had dated Ares, a guy who used to spend fifteen minutes in the mirror every morning checking out his pec muscles.
If Artie had known what happened, she’d tie him up between two trees and let the animals go at him for the rest of eternity. That would be a secret I’d keep in my Aphrodite lockbox. I couldn’t imagine Hermes saying anything about it, either, but I bet he kept a closer eye on Dionysus from now on.
The time for girl talk was rapidly approaching the end. “Ariadne, I know you just got home, but we don’t have much time. Can you tell us what happened?”
She shrugged. “I’ll try. What I remember of it. For the majority of it, I was drugged and asleep.”
I cursed silently. Our only lead may have fizzled out on us. I motioned her to keep going. From the look in her eyes, she saw my disappointment.
“I remember hearing Circe’s voice. Often. She is a major part of whatever is going on.” Her brows came together. “There was a man. I’d never heard his voice before. It was a strong voice, authoritative. He sounded like he was the one in charge.” She sat back in her chair. “He kept saying something about Typhon. It was fuzzy. Something about no one guessing and something about shifting the blame to stay under Zeus’ radar.”
She confirmed much of what we already thought, but we still didn’t know who the other Olympian was. “Did you ever hear an additional female voice?” I asked, curious to see if our thoughts on Hestia panned out.
She grimaced and shook her head. “I’m so sorry. I was there for weeks, but I was asleep for most of it.”
I smiled. “It’s okay. Not your fault. Dionysus is a lucky man. I’m pleased we got to know each other a little.” Ariadne beamed at me.
“Speaking of which,” I said, trying to clear the images of Dionysus’ idea of punishment out of my mind, “we need to get him here so he can take you home.”
She smiled and it lit up her face. Ariadne was indeed a beautiful woman. I had no idea what she saw in him, but since I wasn’t responsible for this match, I wasn’t going to expend any further brain power on it.
“Should I marry him?” she asked out of the blue.
I blinked in surprise. “Ummm, is it that serious?” I asked.
She shrugged. “It could be.”
I glanced to Artie for help. My first instinct was to tell her to run screaming into the night away from him, but it was obvious she had genuine feelings for him. There was some rocky history between them. Could they make it? I studied her. She was light to his dark, calm to his storm. Maybe so. Artie’s eyes widened behind her glasses, and I could tell she was struggling with her answer, too.
“If you’ve seen his worst and still care about him, I think it’s all the answer you need.” I stood and carried the now empty mugs to the sink. As I stood there, thin arms wrapped around me and squeezed.
Tears pricked my eyes as Ariadne thanked me. I patted her hand and turned around as she released me. “My pleasure. Don’t forget about us once ‘Dino’ sweeps you up on his white horse, okay?”
Her mouth twisted. “That’s not really his style, but I get what you’re saying. I’ll visit often.” She turned to Artie. “Thank you as well. You both risked your lives to get me out of there, and I don’t know how I’ll repay you.”
Artie stood and placed her long arms around Ariadne. “No repayment required. Maybe one day we’ll need some help.”
Ariadne squeezed her and pulled away. “Of course. Aphrodite, can you call him to me? I’m still a little weak.”
I raised my hands, closed my eyes and pictured Dionysus’ strong featured face in my mind. I could feel the prick of attention from him. As I released the image, I shook the excess energy from my hands. “He should be here in a mome–”
A large crack of blinding yellow light made me stagger. An angry Dionysus stood in my kitchen. “This better be good!” His voice boomed throughout my kitchen.
I was so tired of angry men. I gestured with one hand. “Good enough?” I quipped as I pointed at Ariadne. His eyes widened as he saw her standing next to Artie.
“Sweet gods,” he murmured and crossed the distance in two steps. He crushed her in an embrace, his hands tangling in her black hair. She was so tiny her arms couldn’t encompass him. She looked like a ballet dancer next to a WWE wrestler. It was sweet and amusing, and against my will I felt my heart softening toward him. There was true love there. The threads were tentative between them – they had much to work out, but I felt like these two would be the kind of couple who made it through no matter what life or the gods threw at them. I was happy for them. And quite jealous.
Dionysus pulled away and turned to me. His eyes held a host of emotions, wariness, apology, warmth – all the things I never expected to see. “I owe you an apology,” he began. “My life…” he ran a hand across his mouth, uncomfortable. “It hasn’t been easy. Losing Ariadne, well, I didn’t think I’d recover from it. I was willing to do anything –” His voice broke and he looked at the floor. Ariadne wrapped an arm around his waist. He pulled her close and buried his face in her hair for a moment before he continued. “Even if it meant sacrificing another. You have my most sincere thanks, Aphrodite.”
Artie came up beside me and squeezed my hand. Dionysus nodded at her. “And you as well, Artemis. I hear stories about you two being inseparable, so I’ve no doubt you were beside her in this venture. I can’t believe you did this. I don’t understand why.”
“It wasn’t entirely altruistic,” I admitted. “We thought if we could find her, we could figure out who was behind everything.”
His brow furrowed. “Typhon is behind it. We’ve already established this.”
I smiled ruefully. “No, he’s not, I’m afraid. Someone is trying to make people think it’s him. After everything that’s happened I have to think you were used as a pawn in this whole thing. Make it look like you were the figurehead, and they could fly under the radar long enough to make major problems for everyone. At minimum, we know Circe is involved. As far as the other person, we have some thoughts, but nothing solid so far.”
“But I saw him multiple times!” His face reddened as the comprehension he’d been duped like the rest of us settled in. “How?” he finally asked.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “But I plan to figure it out. We believe it’s at least one of the Twelve. If I had to guess, I’d say Circe used her magic to use Typhon’s identity and make it look like he was back and ready to overthrow Zeus. We know who raised him, and we know she was there, so I think she just used that to her advantage.”
His face drained of blood. “The gods help us all.” He pulled Ariadne tighter against him. “If you need an ally, count me in.”
I startled. A few days ago I was terrified of this man and his threats. Did I really wa
nt to count him in our circle? I eyed him warily. Seeing my expression, he sighed. “I know an apology in exchange for what you’ve done for me is a poor substitute, but it’s all I have for now. Just know if you need someone in this upcoming fight, because that’s exactly what it will be, I will fight on your side. Don’t fool yourself, Aphrodite. If the Twelve are involved in this, they will not back down.”
I was good at fooling myself, but Dionysus was right. A foreboding tingle started between my shoulder blades. “Very well, I will count you on our side.”
He nodded once, his face relieved. “Good. Now I must leave you. Ariadne and I have some making up to do.”
Ewwww, I thought. He winked as he took his lady love out of our home and went the gods knew where. I didn’t want to think about the kind of making up they were about to do.
“Gross,” Artie whispered.
“My thoughts exactly,” I sighed. “I’m ready to faceplant in my bed. See you in the morning?” I asked.
“Not if I see you first,” she said and disappeared in a haze of violet light.
I elected to take the stairs.
33
Chapter Thirty Three
An urgent voice penetrated my consciousness early the next morning. “Wake, Aphrodite. Get up now.” A firm warm hand shook my shoulder. I came out of my haze and looked into the concerned eyes of Typhon.
“What are you doing here?” I mumbled, trying to adjust my eyes to the dim light coming through the window.
“You need to wake up now. Enemies will be here soon and you don’t want to be here when they arrive.” Typhon sat on the edge of my bed looking more delicious than he had the right to at crack o’dawn early as hell.
I lifted my head from the pillow and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. “Enemies?”
Typhon groaned. “There is no time for discussion. Get up, use magic to get ready, get Artie and get the hell out of here. Do not under any circumstances tell anyone else where you are going. Do you understand?”