Morpheus (9 page)

Hercules turned the knob, it was open. That
was almost more worrisome than if it had been locked. Why would
they leave a door open? It made him think they might be expecting
reinforcement or they left it open purposely to see who it might
lure in. They were between a rock and a hard place, there was no
choice but to try to go in. He turned the knob all the way pushing
the door slowly. Once the door was open a crack, he peaked in
finding no one in sight.

He slipped inside, his heart pounding, not
out of fear of his own safety, but out of concern for Morpheus, his
mate, and whatever other victims might be found here. His eyes
scanned the room which looked like it had been used for storage at
one time. One empty shelf after the other filled two walls of the
room. There was a double wide doorway and that was what drew him.
He heard voices from another room, one was Morpheus.

“Where the hell is she?” Morpheus asked, rage
in his voice.

“Do you want her? Is she more fun than
Cutter? Maybe we’ll have the chance to find out?”

A loud roar of fury shook items on a wall.
Morpheus was pissed but restrained to where he could do them no
harm. “Hey, man. Maybe you should lay off him,” one of the other
guys said.

“Why, Shorty, you scared?”

“Yeah, Man, and you ought to be too. Look at
him, he’s built like a fucking bull and you want to play with him?
You’re a brainless fuck,” Shorty said.

Hercules looked at the wall where Morpheus
was chained and saw pressure cracks running along the wall. Shorty
seemed to be the only one with any sense because it looked like
Morpheus might pull free.

“Stop,” the stupid guy told Morpheus. “You
don’t want anything to happen to your woman, do you?” Morpheus
dropped back against the wall in utter defeat. He was unwilling to
take any chances with his mate.

Hercules felt raw rage bubble up inside him.
They didn’t know what they were doing when they pushed Morpheus
that way. His gift was the least understood of all of them. When
they were young, he had made a guard disappear. He just vanished
never to be seen again. Some of them had awesome gifts, but they
were scary too. How could you use a gift you couldn’t control? You
couldn’t, not and live with the possible results. Some of them had
gifts that were too powerful, too all encompassing.

Others, were lucky. Hercules had strength,
amazing strength, when he needed it. Some had speed, superior
hearing, eyesight, or touch. They could use their gifts now that
they were free. The deadly gifts, those were different and couldn’t
be used until they were mastered unless under the most serious
conditions. At that point the gift just kicked in, no conscious
choice was given anymore. Those fools didn’t know, had never really
known, what they were playing with.

A cry of sudden unexpected pain rang through
the air. It was female and carried a hint of fear with it. Not the
uncertainty of whether to be afraid or not, but the attempt to be
brave and hide the fear that threatened to overwhelm them. He saw
the look on Morpheus’s face as he drew the same conclusion, it was
probably his mate. He let out a roar that made Hercules go deaf
forcing his eyes to close. When he opened them, one of the guards
was gone. Had he left or had he been removed to somewhere no one
would ever find him at?

Morpheus strained and the wall made cracking
sounds. The veins on his neck and arms popped out as he continued
to push against the slowly yielding wall. “Stop it before they kill
her,” one of the guards told him. “What happened to Hamby?” he
asked the other guard.

“Shit, I don’t know. Chicken probably ran
when he saw this muscled up freak trying to get loose. I’m not sure
I blame him. I didn’t know what these guys could do physically or I
don’t think I’d have taken the job,” he replied.

“Don’t be such a puss, Ray. You’re getting
paid damn good for the little chance that you take.”

“Why are they messing with that woman? She’s
human and she told Dale that her family is in politics. We’re going
to have everyone after us if we don’t let that bitch go.”

“We already have everyone after us. Don’t
even think about ditching us, you’re in too deep.”

Hercules thought the insecure young guy would
be smart to cut and run, but it didn’t sound like he would. He had
his phone on including the camera but muted when the conversation
took place hoping Hades would hear and see all that went down. That
new guard wouldn’t put up much of a fight. Hopefully, some of the
other guards were also new and like minded. He didn’t want to risk
hurting any of the prisoners that they might have but even without
knowing what was going on, they would have to act soon.

Hercules moved back and unmuted his phone. He
whispered softly, “Hades, did you catch all that?”

“Yeah, that might help us. We need to locate
El now. Any thoughts on how to do that?”

“Sorry, too many guards between me and where
she might be.”

“I guess we’ll move closer to your location,
get Eres there beside you, and we’ll move in. Our times running out
and our choices are limited.”

“I’ll get Eres and wait for you to be in
position.”

He knew Hades and Lu would waste no time so
he moved to the back and motioned for Eres. Once Hades told them he
and Lu were ready, they moved in. There were only two guards with
Morpheus and Hercules and Eres took them out in a few seconds. The
look on their faces was priceless as they stared at them like deer
caught in the headlights. They knocked them both out, it was just
easier that way. Hades and Lu slipped in during the brief fray and
now they quietly discussed what to do. They decided Lu would scout
out the next room because he was the fastest of those there. Maybe
the fastest of all besides Hermes.

He moved with quick grace as he moved down
the short hall to the next room. The salon was a large building
since they had provided a multitude of services including massage
and tanning. Lu moved into the next room which still held tanning
beds. No one was in the room, but he could hear sounds from the
room beyond. It was probably the room with the massage tables since
it had its own entrance. He used his phone to signal the others.
The room was clear so they could join him. They would all be needed
to neutralize the threat in the next room.

They all moved in behind him and everyone was
silent trying to pick up clues as they listened to the noises from
the next room. A TV must be on because the words made no sense.
Hades nodded and Lu opened the door and rushed in. There was a
female tied to a bed, but he would guess it wasn’t El. This girl
had long black hair and a brown complexion. He would guess she was
Latina, and very pretty even though it was clear she had been
abused. She started to scream, but Lu shook his head and she
stopped. He started to cut the ropes that tied her. It was clear
that she had been tied up for a while.

“Do you know if anyone is in the next room?”
Lu asked. Her eyes were dark, they were large and he could fall
into their depths.

“Cutter,” she whispered. He felt the urge to
envelop her in his arms and protect her. He was sure she would
bring that protective instinct out in all of them. Instead, he
helped her up and motioned to Eres to take off his shirt. He handed
it to her so she would be able to cover herself. It was the first
step in regaining her dignity. Now he had to get back to the job at
hand but they would help her later if they could.

He signaled Hades who moved to the front.
Morpheus had joined them, but Lu didn’t think that was a good
thing. He’d heard Hades specifically tell him to wait and let them
handle things. They heard sounds from behind the door, but the only
voice he recognized was Cutter. They moved to the door getting in
place so everyone could rush the door quickly. It was the only
thing they could do at this point and leaving Morpheus’s mate in
the hands of someone like Cutter a moment longer wasn’t
acceptable.

Lu reached out to see if the door was
unlocked, it was. He turned the knob and slid the door open slowly
without catching the attention of Cutter or the three man goon
squad that was gathered around a female lying on the bed. He
thought it was a female judging by the moans coming from there.
They entered the room unseen until Lu stepped up closer after they
were all in.

Cutter looked up, surprised but not as
fearful as she should have been. “Did you all come to turn
yourselves in to me?” she asked with a smirk on her face.

“You’ll be lucky to live through this,
Cutter,” Lu informed her. Morpheus stepped up with vengeance on his
face. “No, brother, calm yourself. We may need her.” Lu had noticed
the female tied to the bed wasn’t El. He hadn’t seen El in person,
but this girl was completely different. She was a tall Amazon like
female maybe six feet tall and curvy. Her bright red hair made her
stand out but he couldn’t tell her eye color even though he
desperately wanted to know.

Hades donated his shirt this time. Origin
stripped people of their clothes as the first step in humiliation
which they felt would lead to submission. Sometimes it worked but
usually they went on to torture and other methods. Morpheus was
struggling for control and Eres laid a hand on his arm.

“We’ll find her, give us a chance. You should
take this girl, find out who she is and what they wanted her for.
They seem to have females instead of gods, we need to know
why.”

Cutter laughed like a crazy hyena. “Haven’t
you ever heard the saying about if you have the right females, the
males will come?”

“No, I haven’t,” Lu answered, but it made
sense. What didn’t make sense was how Origin would know who the
right females were. Were they guessing or did they have a test like
Doc did? Now that he had thought of Doc, he decided to call her
while Hades handled things here.

“Doc.”

“Hello, Beautiful. How are things going?” Lu
asked.

“You won’t believe it. We were attacked right
after you left, but the kids and I were able to capture them. I
have a team of humans here that Slay recommended and we have things
under control but I’ve been worried about you guys.” She spoke fast
and Lu barely understood her.

“I think you need to lay off the coffee,
Sweetness.”

“We’ve only been drinking a little. We had to
have something to do while we waited. So tell me what’s going
on?”

“They’ve hidden El, but we’ve caught Cutter
and several others. Now we have to apply pressure until she tells
us where El is.”

“Will any of the others know?”

“Cutter rarely shares. She’s distrustful and
with good reason, she’s had a few partners that got to her in the
past. We’ll try, but I’m sure they don’t know anything
important.”

“Maybe you should bring your team and the
kids down here. Seeing the young ones might help calm
Morpheus.”

“Give us your address and we’ll be there in
no time.” Lu gave it to her and they said goodbye. It was time to
get back to Cutter’s interrogation.

“Who were you talking to?” Hades asked.

“Doc.”

“No wonder it was busy when I called. What
did she say?”

“They were attacked but she and the kids got
the upper hand. She has a human team El’s brother sent and they’re
coming here.”

“Cutter says she doesn’t know where El is but
she gave us a number to call. She says her guy will trade El for
her and Morpheus.”

“What about her other people?”

“She says she doesn’t care about them and we
can keep them.”

“It’s probably time to pay them,” Lu
observed. Hades just shrugged. “When are we going to call the
number?”

“Eres wants to wait until we get Morpheus out
of hearing range and get it set up on conference call so Zeus can
listen in and record it. He won’t give Morpheus back, that’s a
given.”

“We have the solution to getting Morpheus
away from here.”

“Like that will be easy.”

“You’d be surprised. Doc’s bringing the
kids.”

“I have to admit Lu, you’re brilliant and
devious. We’ll send him away with the kids. It’s perfect.”

“There’ll be here soon and we’ll have a human
team to help with whatever plan we come up with.”

They didn’t have long to wait. Doc and the
team must have been loaded up already to make it there so quickly.
Hades moved toward the door quickly, hurrying but trying to act
like he wasn’t. When he caught sight of Doc, he gave up on
pretending he wasn’t in a rush and sprinted to her. He picked her
up into his arms and spun her around as he kissed her. An impartial
observer would think they’d been apart for months rather than just
hours.

It warmed Lu’s frozen heart to see his
brothers find there mates, but secretly, as much as he wanted his
own, he was terrified with the thought of finding her. What if she
rejected him? What if she didn’t but he lost her anyway? What if he
found this perfect, wonderful female and he simply wasn’t good
enough for her? He shook his head hard enough that it hurt and
banished all thoughts of mates to the very back of his mind.

A little waif stepped from the van they had
arrived in. Was it a boy? No, there was a pleasing curve to the
chest that screamed female. A hoody covered her head making him
think she was hiding who she was and trying to give a false
impression. She would fool a human, but not a god, at least not for
long. Three big guys stepped out behind her and then the kids. Lu
moved forward to meet the children. He really liked kids and these
two were young and would need reassurance.

“Hello, I was looking for the two big guys
that helped Doc take down some bad men,” Lu said.

“That was us,” Donnie said excitedly.

“Couldn’t be. I heard these bad men were big
and mean.”

“It was us alright,” Cassie said.