by April Zyon
There were a couple of coughs, and definitely more than a few snorts of derision around the table at his words. “Uh-huh,” Dieter said with a grin. “I think you would have had Mik as one of your generals personally. He’s got the same bad attitude as you do, and without coffee in the morning is more destructive than you could be.”
“Ah, yes coffee. It is a spectacular thing. Imagine once upon a time people didn’t have coffee. It really was a sad time.” Ares shook his head and shrugged. “And how do you know that I haven’t had you all in my armies before? There are many lives on the wheel of life for humans. Don’t forget that fact, my friends.”
“Maybe that’s why we’re all so mouthy with him,” Wyatt said. “We’ve had to put up with him more than once already. It actually clears up a lot of issues when you consider the possibility.”
“Oddly enough, it does,” Gareth agreed. “Though given what a prick he was back then I have the funny feeling we didn’t fare so well.”
“Probably revolted for there not being any fucking coffee,” Mik mumbled.
Ares just laughed. “I’m not telling you boys anything.” He held his hands up and leaned back slightly. “Now, I do believe that I have other things to attend to. I will see you all later. Check your e-mails. The information is all in there for you guys. Oh, and she has her own jet if you need to go from point A to point B as well.”
“Good to know we won’t be stranding you guys out in the land of fantasies,” Wyatt said. “Though you might enjoy it. Hopefully not too much that you forget to eventually get your asses all home so we can kick Hades where it means the most.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that, bro,” Thomas said. “We’ll be back. We still have work to do, and while it will be a nice vacation, it’s not home.”
“Oh, and so that you guys all know.” Ares leaned in once more. “Brooklyn hates what she does now. At first, she loved it, but now she hates what she does. She’s found that Hollywood isn’t at all like she had assumed. This is her last production. Two of you are going to want to talk her into coming home with you, so I’m just making sure that you know she’s ready for the change.”
“Thanks for that tidbit,” Stefan said with a nod. “We should head out first thing in the morning. Better get onto the homework before we need to leave.”
“This doesn’t get you out of doing dishes,” Gareth said. “Nice try, though,” he added with a grin. Chuckling, he got up from his seat and gave Camilla a hand up. “Come on, love. Let’s go see if we can find a movie we won’t watch all the way through.”
“I love how you think.” Camilla moved to Ares and gave him a hug and kiss on his cheek and then skipped off with Gareth.
Ares shook his head and just smiled. “I’m glad she’s so happy. Now, dishes need to be done, and I’m not doing them. So until later, gents and ladies.” He stood and bowed. “Be good,” he said and then was gone.
Chapter Four
“Oh, my God, it’s fucking hot here,” Thomas muttered. He was waving a newspaper in a vain attempt to cool himself off.
Not that Stefan was faring any better. He might have been born somewhere damn hot in the summer months, but he didn’t much like the heat of California. “Hopefully the A/C is working on the vehicles, and in whatever location we end up copping a squat in. Too much of this and we’ll bloody well melt under our fucking gear.”
“At least there’s no sand to work its way into the crevices,” Lincoln said. He then pointed to where their two trucks were sitting. “Those are ours.”
“Which means all we need to do is stay off the beaches,” Antonio said. He caught the keys Lincoln tossed his way. “Shouldn’t be too hard given her star status. I doubt she’s one to haunt the local strips of sand.”
Chuckling, Stefan followed him to the one truck and climbed in. Once the engine was on they stayed put until the A/C finally kicked in, and they no longer felt like they were cooking. “I don’t think we brought enough sunscreen with us.”
With a nod, Antonio got them out of the airport and headed for the freeway. For the next hour and a half, they inched their way along with the rest of traffic until finally, they were able to escape to side streets. With the assistance of their GPS system, they found the house Brooklyn Anderson had rented, or rather that Dionysus had rented for her.
At the gate, Antonio rolled the window down with a curse and leaned out to hit the button. A disembodied voice came through the speaker. “Yeah, we’re the hit squad sent out to whack some actress chick,” Antonio said.
The gate buzzed open.
“We need to get that fixed,” Stefan said. “No way in hell are we letting her stay here with something that lousy at the front gate.”
“We may need to do more than that, bro. Fucking hell, what era are those cameras out of?” Antonio asked as they crept up the driveway to the house.
Stefan didn’t know, but he did know one thing—they were definitely being upgraded. From what he could tell there was only picture, nothing else. The place was begging for an assault to happen, with a sign out front reading Come the fuck in.
They parked outside the front door and climbed out of the truck as Thomas pulled the other SUV up on their tail. Hopping out from behind the wheel, the man shook his head. “Did you see the shitty setup they have here?”
“We didn’t plan on this, so hopefully the party god is up to getting us a few items.”
“You called, and here I am,” Dion said as he walked out of the house. “So I see that you found the place. That’s always a good thing.” He put his hands in his jeans pockets and looked at the men. “Brooklyn is out back swimming, so you can tell me now what you need to have, and it will be yours.”
Thomas wandered up still scribbling in the notebook he had in hand. Pausing in front of the god he tore out several pages and handed them over. “Those exact models, no deviations. It’ll be a good start, but be ready for more once we get inside, and check out the back. Don’t know who sold her on this place but they really have no clue on security.”
“I rented it for her because it’s in a gated community, and she felt that was security enough. She wasn’t as famous as she is now. And now I don’t think she wants to be here any longer because deep down inside she’s a country girl and wants to be left alone.”
“Well, while we’re here we’re going to make it as secure as possible to keep everyone, and everything, out of here,” Stefan told him. “She’s famous now, and that brings an impressive array of problems. But she’s also more, which attracts the other sort of attention. You’d better introduce us to her so we can get to work without her freaking out to see us meandering around the place. Especially once we whip out the chainsaws.”
“All right, well, come through the house.” Dion moved to the front door and opened it. He walked in and waited for the men to join him. The sounds of water being displaced were heard when they walked out of the sliding doors. They could all see the woman in question. She was slicing through the water as if she were part of it.
“Brook, hey.” Dion crouched at the end of the pool and touched her head when she got to the edge. “Brooklyn, these are the men that are here to protect you. Come on out and meet them.”
“Holy smokes, they’re big,” Brooklyn muttered, which had the men chuckling. She grabbed one of the large towels and wrapped herself in one and took a smaller towel so that she could start to dry off. “Hello.” She offered her hand to the first man. “I’m Brooklyn. Thank you for coming to take over my protection. Dion says that you’re the best.”
Stefan took her hand and gave it a shake. Shock and awe assaulted him as his hand buzzed alive just from her brief touch, but he did his best to remain composed and introduced himself and the team. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am. I’m Stefan,” he told her before letting her hand go to wave at the others. “Antonio, Lincoln, and Thomas. Our goal is to keep you safe during your time here, without intruding too much into your life. For the most part, you won’t even see us arou
nd unless we’re traveling, or out in public for any reason.” Shifting his stance slightly, he rubbed his palm to the seam of his jeans. Damn hand still buzzed from the brief contact with her skin.
She was looking at her hand, mouth open slightly. “Did you just shock me with a joy buzzer?” she demanded finally. “Because that tickled, stunned, buzzed, whatever you want to call it.”
“No, ma’am,” he assured her. Stefan held his hand up to show her his bare palm to prove his point further. He could have said something about the dry air, static electricity, but he knew better. He’d heard about it from the others, and knew precisely what it was. This woman, Brooklyn Anderson, was his and Antonio’s. It made sense since Lincoln and Thomas had always seemed to be partnered up together, as he and Antonio were. He’d had a gut feeling before arriving, but that little shock only proved it. She was theirs. Likely a good thing. Dion would have killed Thomas inside of a month if things had gone any other way.
****
Brooklyn looked at the man’s hand with a bit of a frown. “If you didn’t shock me with one of those things then how in the world did you do that? I’m so confused.” But she found herself leaning into the large man. She had even stepped a bit closer to him while talking. “Stefan, do you know what that was all about?” she asked the man, as if he were the only one there with her at that moment.
She saw him throw her cousin a look before he slowly nodded. “I have a pretty good idea what it was. Not exactly something I feel super comfortable discussing with him glowering at me.”
“Who, Dion? He’s a pussycat. Dion, you wouldn’t hurt anyone, would you?” she asked her cousin. “Dion, you do look angry, why?”
“Yeah, Dion, why the angry face?” Thomas asked.
“You, puppy, do not have the right to call me Dion. That is reserved for Brooklyn alone. As for why.” He shrugged, and Brooklyn noticed the façade that he wore most days slide into place and said, “At least it’s not you. I only want the best for her, and we both know that won’t be you because you are far too cocky and simply not right for her. I’m angry because someone is out to kill one of my favorite humans.”
“What do you mean? At least what you said to Thomas?”
“Your men will explain it all. For now, they need to finish looking over the property and doing what they must to keep you safe. Don’t you, gentlemen?”
“Oh, Dion, you could have saved yourself so much heartburn by asking. I could have told you that weeks ago,” Thomas said with a smirk. “Lincoln and I will do the loop while you two chat. Come on, Dion, be a good little manager and show us around, will you?”
“He’s going to fry your ass,” Lincoln muttered with a nod to her. He gave Thomas a shove toward the house.
“Can’t, then it fucks up everything and out comes the big bad. He can’t do a damn thing to me until everything’s in order, and he knows it,” Thomas chuckled.
“I can make damn sure that certain parts of your body aren’t working, though. I know you enjoy making that little brain of yours work and the weekend parties that you have certainly say as much. So you see, I could very well make your life hellish.”
Brooklyn frowned. “I’m so confused. How could you do something like that?”
“That’s for later, cuz. For now, why don’t I get these shitheads out of your hair?” Dion walked toward the house with Thomas and Lincoln.
“You can’t do that, either,” Thomas said. “If you do then it fucks everything up, and you know it as well as I do. I’ve been paying attention, Dion. You mess with the little brain, and it can’t do what it needs to do to seal the deal.”
Lincoln threw her an apologetic look. “I’d apologize for him, but he’s only going to get worse while we’re here.”
Brooklyn just shook her head. She couldn’t think of anything else to do at that moment. Good lord, these men were like four-year-olds hyped up on sugar. “Are you guys serious right now? What in the world are they talking about?” she asked Stefan since the others were pushing each other into the house.
“It’s a long story,” he told her. He threw a look at the other man, Antonio if she recalled correctly, who stood silently watching her. “One that will take a bit of time to explain. To be sure though you should likely shake his hand, too. If you wouldn’t mind.”
Brooklyn turned to the other man and offered her hand to him. When she got the same shock again, she had wide eyes. “What in the world?” She was now looking at her hand, confused and feeling a little odd. “What is going on? I know it’s not static electricity because I just got out of the pool, so what was it?”
“The first indication of the bond,” Antonio told her. He was rubbing his fingers down the side of his leg with a slight frown on his face. “We have one hell of a whopper of a tale to tell you. It’s all true, but you may not believe us right away. One good thing to having Dion here, I guess.”
“Not like we can actually get rid of him,” Stefan muttered. “Let’s go sit down. You may want to have that stability in a few minutes.”
“Okay.” Brooklyn moved in just a bit closer to Stefan and then oddly enough found herself reaching out toward Antonio. Her fingers brushed his just a moment before she pulled her hand back. “Sorry. I don’t know what got into me.”
“It’s all right,” he said. He reached out to take her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Come on, let’s go sit down so we can give you the short version. Even at that, it’ll take a bit to get through it all. Then we’ll have to give you the proof you’ll need to fully grasp what we’re about to tell you.”
“Okay.” Brooklyn let them take her inside, and they settled on the couch together. She liked that they both bracketed her between them. She cocked her head to the side and watched them. “I’m listening,” she said and crossed her legs and waited.
Antonio pulled the throw off the end of the sofa, and shaking it, he settled it over her bare legs. “This will take a bit of faith for the time being. Go with it. We can prove everything we’re saying very quickly, but we need to tell it in a certain way. Can you give us a bit of leeway?”
She had to smile because of how touched she was at Antonio’s covering her with the throw. “Thank you,” she told him finally and leaned back. “Okay, I’m ready for whatever you have to tell me. Believe it or not, but I trust you both. Fully. I don’t understand why, but I do. Is that normal?”
Stefan rubbed his hands down his thighs before leaning forward to plant his elbows on his knees. “Okay, here we go. To answer your question, from what we’ve seen with the other women, or keys, is that they instinctively trust the men who were chosen as their mates. The shock you felt is one of the clues as to the bond that can form between the key and two of the men, or as the gods occasionally refer to us, the Knights. The bond is when all three souls merge for a moment during a time of real openness. This happens during sexual release, but that’s for later, and I’m getting ahead of myself.”
Blowing out a breath, he steepled his fingers. “Millennia ago, the gods had a bit of a turf war. You might recall it from history classes, and the study of the Greek gods. Most of that mythology is actually propaganda, but the basis behind it all is truth. Ares, Zeus, Hades, they are all real. They locked Hades down when he figured out how he’d been shafted when the gods split everything up. He was given the Underworld, but he didn’t realize that he’d be tied to it. That for him to live he had to have souls populating it consistently. Not just boarders, but a new influx almost constantly. And the bigger the sin that committed their soul to Hell the greater the surge of power. But he was also banned from entering the earthly realm as part of the deal, which for him was a deal breaker. Unfortunately, he didn’t read the fine print before signing on the dotted line.”
He shot her a look, and she gave him a slow, slightly shaky nod. “The universe has to have balance. Light to dark, good to evil, and so forth. And since the Fates hate Zeus with an undying passion they decided to throw in their own loophole to Hades’s curse. Zeus seal
ed him down there for all eternity, but the Fates gave him a way out. Six keys to be born into mortal women descended from the gods themselves. If he got all six in his realm before they bonded in this lifetime with their men, the seal would break, and he could once again come to earth. If he got the majority in his realm, and to see his side of things, they could break his seal. Or if he got the one key out of the six, the master key if you would, and could make her his with a full, willing bond, she could unlock the seal that keeps him out. He’s currently looking at a stacked deck in our favor. You are the fifth of the women marked by the Fates as a key. Which means he’s desperately using his acolytes to search for you, and the last of the keys. He knows that one of you is the master key. You with me so far?”
“So far, I think. I mean it’s a whopper of a story, but keep going.” It was a lot to take in, and she honestly wasn’t so sure that she believed in them. Cocking her head to the side, she rubbed her hands up and down the blanket that had been placed on her lap and nodded, trying to grasp everything they were saying. Then, when everything started clicking into place, she spoke. “And you’re saying that I’m one of these keys.” They had stated that she was the fifth key, but she had to hear it again. “And what happens if one of his acolytes gets their hands on me? There is no way that I would willingly tie myself to the devil, so what happens then?”
“He’s not the devil, not the one portrayed. He’s Hades, God of the Underworld, and of the Dead. Hades, like any god, has ways of altering your reality. He’s the only one that doesn’t play by the rules that Zeus and the others put into place centuries ago. And he can get away with it because none of the gods want to go into his realm. It’s pretty much a guaranteed ass-kicking if they do. His realm, his rules. And yes, you are one of the six women descended from Greek gods who were chosen to be a key to his seal,” Antonio told her.