by Gina Ardito
“Why should you?” Nemesis retorted. “You mortals have long forgotten the gods and goddesses of Mt. Olympus. Replaced by scientists and debates over the name of the one supreme being you believe responsible for all earth’s wonders, we have lost much of our influence over time. But we still exist, we still have our favorites, and we still involve ourselves in mortal lives when a whim takes us.”
Her lighthearted tone made the hackles on Shane’s neck flourish in indignation. “That’s all Adara is to you? A whim? A temporary entertainment to while away the time?”
Nemesis wagged a finger at him. “Do not dare to chastise me, Shane Griffin. You forget yourself. At a moment’s notice, I can destroy everything you love and leave you bereft and miserable. It is a task I relish when a mortal oversteps his boundaries. I will forgive you your transgression this time and attribute it to your concern for Adara. Therefore, now that you know the truth of things, it is time for you to answer my question. And remember, you vowed to speak honestly.”
“Okay, so, what’s the question?”
“Do you love Adara Berros?”
Not quite what he expected her to ask. And a question for which there was no easy answer. The breath left Shane’s lungs in one long exhale. Did he love Adara?
Her current absence bored a cavity into his heart so deep the Grand Canyon paled in comparison. But was that love? Or was it regret?
From the moment he first clapped eyes on her, his every thought revolved around her. But was that love? Or dedication to his job?
Just the memory of her touch made him ache, and envisioning her flawless porcelain skin had him hard as a rock. Was that love? Or lust?
One thing he couldn’t excuse away, though. If he never saw her again, his life would become an eternal suffering. Like hollowed driftwood, he’d float through his days, unseeing, unfeeling, merely existing hour by hour until, finally, mercifully, something swallowed him up, and it ended. But was that love?
“Well?” Nemesis prompted, slender arms folded over her chest in interrogation. “What is your answer?”
“Hell, yes. I love her.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The dazzling smile spreading across Nemesis’s lustrous face spoke volumes about her approval of his reply. With a nod, she touched his hand and drew him forward. “Come, Shane Griffin. There is much to do and little time.”
But Shane couldn’t hold back his impatience any longer, and he dug his heels into the carpet, pulling back. “Come where? I have to get back to the hospital.”
“Your family is safe and will continue to be so for the length of time we are away. Zeus has ordered Hygeia and Panacea to watch over your nephew. Demeter and Rhea will stay by your mother’s side to protect and comfort her. I promise you, no harm will come to them.”
Oddly enough, he believed her. His confusion from earlier almost dissipated. “Which one was the nurse in New York?”
“Hygeia saw to healing Adara after Ares tried to run her down with that mechanical chariot,” Zeus said. “Now they will do the same for the child.”
Under normal circumstances, he’d laugh himself silly for even going along with these two kooks, but hell. These weren’t normal circumstances. And Adara came first right now. “Where’s Adara?”
“She is in Aphrodite’s temple. There, Aphrodite hopes to convince her of their eternal love, binding their fates together in perpetuity.”
“I don’t understand. If this goddess loves her so desperately, why would Adara be in danger?”
“It is not Aphrodite who means Adara harm. Your battle will be with the god of war. Ares will attempt to destroy Adara in order to keep Aphrodite from rekindling her passion for eternity. You will need to fight the god of war, Shane Griffin, and you must win, or you and Adara shall both die.”
Yeah, sure. That sounded easy. “How? What am I supposed to do? Shoot him?”
Nemesis shook her head. “Your primitive weapons have no power against an immortal. Ares will not fight fairly. He will find your greatest weakness and use it against you. Therefore, you must prepare yourself. Do not see with your eyes or listen with your ears, for they will deceive you. Only one defense will defeat Ares from his quest, your love for Adara. Fight with your heart, Shane Griffin.”
“I’d rather have a more reliable weapon, if you don’t mind.”
Although one finely arched brow rose in his direction, Nemesis made no other reaction to his less-than-funny jest. In all fairness, it was nerves that drove him to make the comment anyway. But the glimmer of a smile sure would have gone a long way to boosting his self-confidence at the moment.
“We shall enter a new realm when we meet with Ares, Aphrodite, and Adara,” she continued. “There are three paths in this realm, Shane Griffin. A path to heaven, a path to Hades, and the path to a fortunate future on Earth. Choose the wrong path, and all is lost. Your heart must remain pure and your love for Adara Berros certain and unwavering.”
Great. Piece of cake. Victory would prove as definite as predicting the weather on the six o’clock news.
“You must not doubt yourself, Shane Griffin,” Zeus growled. “Self-doubt has destroyed more warriors than any other weakness known to mankind. Allow Nemesis to guide you, and you will, indeed, achieve victory.”
“Come.” Nemesis held out a hand. “We must go.”
“Go where? Where is Aphrodite’s temple?”
“In her homeland of Cyprus, of course.”
“Cyprus?” Crushing weight collapsed against his heart. Cyprus was halfway around the world from Florida. And Adara had a head start—a long one. They’d never make it in time to save her from this Ares character, or whoever held her. “How long will it take us to get there?”
Nemesis and Zeus shared a smile, Shane was certain at his expense. “Do not fret, Shane Griffin. We shall arrive within the blink of an eye.”
~~~~
“You have no right to be here,” Ted said coolly.
Benjamin Cherry puffed up his chest, his porcine gaze glinting like embers amid ash in the candlelight. “I have every right. You began this folly with your relentless pursuit of that unworthy mortal, Adonis. Now I shall finish it.”
Rooted to the spot with shock, Adara gaped at the two combatants. How did Ted know Benjamin Cherry? Only one answer came to mind, and the very thought gobbled up her heart, leaving her empty and numb.
Oh, God. Shane was right, after all. And she’d played right into Ted’s trap. Hot tears of regret seared her eyes. She never should have left the hotel suite. Why hadn’t she waited for Shane?
Because she wanted to be the noble one. She thought her sudden disappearance would protect the Griffins from Cherry’s vengeance. And while it had done just that, it also hastened her own death. She mentally slapped herself. If stupidity had an award, she’d win first prize, hands down. Idiot, idiot, idiot.
Now, Shane would never know how she really felt about him. So many times she’d run away from a blossoming relationship without a backward glance or the slightest twinge of guilt. Less painful to be the abandoner, rather than the abandonee.
Although she’d been the abandoner yet again with Shane—and with Tyler and Pauline, too—remorse overwhelmed her. Losing Shane wasn’t just about losing a man or ending a relationship. She’d lost a family. And her one chance for love.
Why hadn’t she told Shane the real reason she didn’t regret making love with him? Scared he might laugh at her, she’d feigned that easy, breezy attitude. Denying the truth, even to herself, so fearful he would cringe, or scoff, or worst of all, tell her he didn’t care for her “…in that way.”
Oh, God, if she could live that night over again, knowing what she knew now, she’d shout it out for every guest in the motel to hear: “I love you, Shane Griffin.” Wouldn’t that have set the normally implacable police detective off-kilter?
“So this is Adara Berros.” Cherry’s sneer shattered images of Shane’s surprise at her unexpected declaration. “We shall have done with this
nonsense here and now.”
Instinct kicked in, and Adara turned away. She took a quick step. Then another and another. She ran with no destination, no idea where to go, only the simple concept of escape spurring her on.
“Halt, Adara Berros,” Cherry shouted.
Immediately, her knees locked, and her feet stilled as if cemented to the floor. Terror enveloped her. What was happening? How did he manage to paralyze her? She struggled to raise an arm, a hand, a finger. But her limbs refused to cooperate.
Cherry stalked closer, a feral look sharpening his piggish face. He resembled a wild boar, and she became a rabbit, too frozen with fear to flee. Now what? Without the use of her legs or arms, no karate move could save her.
“Touch her, and you’ll bring the wrath of Zeus upon your head,” Ted warned. In two long strides, he blocked Cherry’s path, shielding Adara with outstretched arms.
“I do not intend to touch her,” Cherry snarled from around her guardian. “Just as before, I’ll simply allow her own weakness to be the means of her destruction. Do you remember, Adara Berros? Think back. The memory lies deep within you. Call it forward and remember…”
Pushed into her head by Cherry’s prompting, a new vision fueled Adara’s imagination. A forest glade, cool and green, spread out before her. From a short distance away, she saw a man, lying on the ground, bleeding profusely from a gash in his side. Leaves and moss, slick and wet with his life’s fluid, shimmered scarlet beneath the rays of a setting sun. A face hovered above the fallen body, a face of such exquisite beauty, grown men wept in her presence. Tears streamed down the beauty’s brilliant cheeks as the man gasped for his final breaths of air.
“I begged you to beware the hunt,” the beauty sobbed.
“Farewell, my beauteous one,” Adara heard the man’s voice rasp out. “I loved you as no other.”
Dots of blackness swirled before Adara’s eyes, growing larger and larger until they obliterated all light.
“Farewell, my Adonis,” she heard the beauty reply as the veil of Death descended.
Horrified, she squeezed her eyes shut, hoping to extinguish the vision and its meaning from her psyche.
“You remember, do you not?” Ted probed.
Eyes still tightly sealed, Adara shook her head. “No. Yes. I-I don’t know.”
“She remembers,” Cherry said. “She simply does not wish to believe it was real.”
That statement caused her to open her eyes in awe. “You mean, I…” No other words came forth. Speech became a task more difficult than one of Hercules’s labors.
“A long time ago,” Ted said, taking her arm, “you were my beloved. My dear Adonis. My inspiration for the anemone.”
From somewhere deep inside her will, she found the strength to tear away from Ted’s grip. Her gaze locked on his simpering face, and her flesh crawled as if a colony of ants had taken up residence in her body. “There is no Tedior Pha, is there?”
“No, my love. There is only Aphrodite. She who loves you above all others. And if you tell me that you love me still, no one will ever hurt you again.”
~~~~
Aphrodite’s temple in Cyprus might have been constructed from Legos for all the attention Shane paid to it. Only one thought reigned supreme in his brain: finding Adara, and getting the hell outta there. As Nemesis had predicted, they arrived in, literally, the blink of an eye. One minute he stood inside the hotel suite in Florida, the next he searched around the massive pillars and twenty-foot-high statue of Aphrodite for any sign of Adara. Every minute without a clue to her whereabouts drove another icicle of fear into his heart. “Adara!”
While his shout echoed around the cavernous temple, Nemesis shushed him with the effectiveness of a cross librarian. Heat crept up the back of his neck, but he pushed it down again, refusing to feel foolish for his concern. After all, Nemesis was the one who made him admit his love for Adara. Now she’d have to deal with the repercussions of her nosiness.
“You said she was here. So where is she?”
“Patience, Shane Griffin. You will not see Adara until you have defeated Ares.”
“Then how the hell do I know she’s even here?”
“She is safe, Detective,” a familiar voice said from behind him.
Shane whirled around and came face to face with Pha once again. Raw anger seethed in his veins and shot fire through his eyes. Here was the individual responsible for Adara’s current predicament. The one besotted fool who caused them all so much grief.
“You bastard. You couldn’t let her go, could you? After all this time, you had to keep chasing after some fantasy, risking the lives of your precious Adara, me, and two members of my family. How much time has elapsed, Pha? How long has it been since Adara was Adonis?”
“Five thousand thirty years, seven days, and sixteen hours.”
For the first time ever, Shane saw pain on Pha’s flawless features. His eyes squeezed shut, and his lips pinched together in a wince. The expression might have moved others in the temple, but Shane saw it as too little, too late.
“Over five thousand years.” He waited for the enormous figure to penetrate his tormented mind. “In five thousand years, you couldn’t find anyone else to heap such passion on?”
“You love her too, Detective,” Pha said. “Tell me. How long do you intend to love her?”
“For the rest of my life, if she’ll let me.”
“How fortunate for you, then, that a mortal life is only eighty years or so. What if you lived forever? Would you only love her for your eighty years? Or would you love her forever?”
“You’re twisting my words, Pha. I said, ‘if she’ll let me.’ If, after this is all over, I learn she doesn’t love me, I’ll leave her alone and never see her again.”
“You say that because of Cassia.”
Hearing his sister’s name from this rat’s mouth transformed anger into sheer hatred. His hands balled into tight fists, and he took a menacing step forward.
Ted held his ground. “Adara is not Cassia, Shane.”
“She’s not Adonis, either, Pha, or Aphrodite, or whatever you call yourself. Adara is Adara. Beautiful, funny, unique Adara. Who she might have been in another life has absolutely nothing to do with the person she is now.”
“Yes, on that we agree.”
“Enough of this,” a thunderous voice snarled.
Shane’s concentration swerved to the scowling stranger behind Pha. The long anticipated Ares, he supposed. “Where’s Adara?”
Ares snorted. “Look to the heavens to find what you seek, Shane Griffin.”
Shane’s gaze traveled toward the ceiling high overhead, and his heart sank. A large golden net suspended from the rafters, at least three or four stories up. Adara struggled inside the mesh confines, a beautiful fish wriggling to regain her freedom.
Jesus.
“Adara, are you all right?”
“She cannot speak, Shane Griffin. I have temporarily rendered her mute. I do not wish her cries to distract you from the business at hand.”
“You bastard. You think to leave her up there for eternity?”
Ares shrugged. “She may release herself at any time. I have given her a knife with which to cut the ropes that hold her.”
“And if she does, she’ll fall to her death on the marble floor.”
“Unfortunate, but true.”
Disbelieving, Shane scanned the other gods in the open atrium. Solemn faces met his gaze. No one moved. Even Zeus, Adara’s supposed father, did nothing. Some almighty gods these three turned out to be. Well, if they wouldn’t help Adara, he would. “Cut it, sweetheart,” he shouted up to her. “I’ll catch you.”
Without warning, the force of a speeding truck plowed into his side. Ares knocked him to his knees, jarring his teeth and nearly breaking his back. “Have you ever wrestled, Shane Griffin?”
“Yeah.” He quickly scrambled to his feet to keep Ares from pinning him to the floor. “In high school.”
“Our Greco w
restling bears little resemblance to your collegiate prancing,” Ares sneered, gripping Shane’s shoulders with vise-like strength. “Still, you have the stamina to make this challenging. The third time I pin you, you will die, mortal. I hope you’ve made peace with your life, for before this day is out, you shall be Charon’s newest passenger.”
Shane locked his knees to keep Ares from using his own weight against him. “We’ll see about that. The third time I pin you, you’ll release Adara and get the hell outta here and never come near us again. You hear me?”
Ares grunted. Shane took it as a sign of agreement—not a moment too soon because Ares barreled into him from behind, knees against his thighs, and thrust his head into Shane’s shoulder blades. Shane struggled to free himself, but the harder he fought, the tighter Ares’s hold became. In three quick seconds, Ares had Shane pinned to the cool marble floor.
Humiliation burned inside Shane, and he quickly got to his feet. If he wanted to win, he’d have to ignore the lessons from his coach all those years ago, forget about fighting fair, and simply fight to win. To save himself and Adara.
When Ares’s strength began to overwhelm him again, Shane unlocked his knees and wrapped one leg around his opponent’s thigh in a grapevine hold. Pushing with his arms while his coiled leg kept Ares off-balance, he thrust downward. The moment Ares landed on the floor with a thud, Shane pinned him there.
Ares retaliated by tossing Shane into the air, pinning him in thirty seconds flat. Shane countered with a foot prop, raising Ares’s ankle almost to knee height and knocking him backward to the floor.
With the score tied at two pins each, tension thickened the air. The smell of male sweat overpowered the floral fragrance near the altar. Ares, however, was no high school competitor, and the last round tried both men nearly to the breaking point.
After what seemed like hours locked in battle, every one of Shane’s muscles screamed in agony at the continuous exertion. Soon, Ares gave one tremendous shove, which sent Shane hurtling backwards and slammed him against a stone pillar, crunching his spine. Stars burst across his field of vision.