Volcanoes (25 page)

She frowned. "Aren't those only available around Easter?"

"Not when you're on Eas
y Street, lady. You can get them all year 'round."

That made her laugh. She gently hugged me and then stood up. "So, Zachary says he has a cure. I'm going to have him come in and inject you with it. Then we need to talk about what has been happening for th
e last few days. I'm at my wits
’
end. Pie is driving me crazy right now with his demands and posturing. I'm thinking about kicking his ass all the way back to Alancea."

"Yeah but then you'd miss him."

"Probably," she muttered.

"DIANA!" Zeus thundered as he
stepped into the room, bedecked in a suit. "What the blazes are you doing in here without a suit on? Do you
WANT
to die?"

I flinched with every boom. He was good at making noise. "My ears. You're going to make them bleed."

"Hush you," my mother said, patt
ing me on the hand. "I can stick up for myself." She turned her steely gaze on him. "If you didn
’
t come with an antidote to this virus, you can take your worthless ass right back out the door and come back when you do."

My jaw dropped open. Zeus just brist
led and muttered, "You don't tell me what to do. I'm the boss here."

Well that settled that. We all knew who the real boss was now.

"Well?" she asked.

"I've got it right here," he grunted and stomped over to shove the needle unceremoniously in my arm.

"M
other-son-of-a-biscuit-eater!" I screamed.

"Cutting down on your swearing, dear?" Diana asked casually.

I couldn't answer for a few moments. I was still reeling from the burning pain in my arm. "Did you have to do it so freakin' hard?"

As one they titter
ed and said, "That's what she said."

"I'm going to kill that kid. It was funny once. Now it's just getting annoying."

"I had to make sure I got through the bone into the marrow," he answered unapologetically.

"Whatever happened to cures taking root in the
bloodstream? Jesus." I rubbed my arm and continued scowling at them both. "As much as this hurt it'd better…
" And as per usual, I was out like a light before I could finish my sentence.

Maybe they just liked staring at me while I slept
–
making up for los
t time. I don't know. Honestly? I was getting used to it. It wasn't even pissing me off as much anymore.

Most likely, they were saving me from a lot of pain. Ever had your genes mutated while you were awake? Nope?  Me either and I didn't want to.

I did not wake up good as new. I woke up hurt, angry, lonely, tired and fifty pounds underweight. I looked at my bony arms and fingers and said, "So…
what? It didn't work?"

"Not exactly," Zeus said.

"It did more than we expected," my mother res
ponded, elbowing him in the ribs. "The good news is you are no longer contagious and the virus isn't spreading any further through your system or damaging any more cells."

"That
does
sound like good news," I replied agreeably.

"It would have been better i
f it had restored her to health." Zeus kicked the chair next to my bed and it went flying across the room.

"Hey, don't break my stuff. I'm going to be stuck here and it's not like I have a lot of comfortable furniture lying around."

"What do you mean you'
re going to be stuck here?" Zeus asked.

"Darling, why didn't you say something? We can decorate your rooms however you want. You never asked for anything outside of the standard setup so we didn't bother." Diana said at the same time.

Their combined voic
es were a cacophony of noise and I realized very quickly that I wasn't going to make any progress if they were both going to talk to me at once.

I held up a hand and waited for them to fall silent. "First, I can't answer both of you at the same time, so y
ou'll have to take turns. Second, you talking over each other is making my brain hurt. Stop it."

Diana narrowed her eyes and scowled at her husband.

"I cannot believe you're still mad at me for this."

"I wouldn't have to be mad if you didn't do idiotic e
xperiments that affect my child."

"I said I was sorry," he said in a petulant tone.

"You don't sound very sorry," I interrupted.

Diana nodded and he flung his hands out and started to storm out of the room when he remembered that I hadn't answered his ques
tion. "Wait, are you diverting attention away from yourself?"

"No?"

"Then why haven't you answered my question?"

"What was it again? I've forgotten in the ensuing drama."

He snorted in disgust. "Why are you going to be stuck here?"

"The police think I've k
illed my ex-husband and the extenuating evidence against me is piling up even though it's all wrong. To put it as simply as I can, they're going to throw me into jail."

"Well, we won't allow that," Diana interjected. "We'll just fix it."

"You fixing it was
what got me into trouble in the first place. They found his blood all over the house. I thought we had a cleanup crew."

She frowned, confused. "We do. That house should have been spotless."

"They also found non-human blood which they cannot identify. It's
like someone went in there and just fucking splashed all kinds of DNA over the hou
—
" I stopped and smacked myself in the forehead. "Oh. Of course. They've set me up. They're trying to take me out one way or another. Well they're not going to, damn it." I
pounded my fist on the bed for emphasis.

"Of course they aren't," Zeus said sympathetically.

"I know how I'm going to fix it, but I really need to get healthy first. If I
’
m not contagious, I'd like to get out of this bed. I'm probably getting bed sores at
this rate."

"I'll have the crew come in and remove everything," Diana murmured, pushing Zeus out the door.

So I was left alone. I wasn't going to die today and I was facing the very hard question of
–
'Where do I go from here?'

You'd think it would be ea
sy. Get up, go for a walk. Get my strength back.  But it
wasn't
that easy. I could barely move my arms without wanting to keel over in a sweat.

I needed Heph's magic elixir that had given me energy and electrolytes after I'd nearly gone nuclear in his for
ge. Yeah that would help me out. 

I'd ask my mother's minions when they came to unhook me. It didn't take them long to show up. At least they weren't wearing the suits. It made me feel like I was getting probed by aliens when people showed up in those thi
ngs.

I asked an attendant as she was leaning over me, pulling off sticky pads from my chest. She nodded but continued to rip and pull.

As if summoned, Heph appeared in the room just as someone was yanking out the catheter. I squeaked and covered my face
with my hands.

"That looked painful.”

"It was," I murmured from behind my hands. "How did you get here so fast?"

"What do you mean?"

"I asked someone to get you. I think I could use some of your magic water."

"My magic water?" The last word was drawn out
in confusion. Of course it was. Nothing seemed to be going very easily right now.

"Yeah, the stuff you gave me after I nearly incinerated myself in your forge."

"Oh! That stuff. Yeah, hold on and I'll be back."

I urged the people around me to hurry it up
. I didn't want him to pop back in while they were doing anything else that could be deemed humiliating.

They were just rolling the machines out the door when he re-appeared holding a jug.

"Do you have any glasses in here?"

I shrugged. I had no idea. I g
enerally didn't use this room except to sleep.

He went scavenging through the drawers and doors looking for a glass. Finally, coming up bare, he shook his head and popped back out of my sight again.

He was back seconds later with a glass and a straw. It
tasted so good that I wanted to gulp it down. "I don't remember it tasting this good," I said between sips.

"How long has it been since you last had anything to drink?"

"I can't remember."

"That's why it tastes so good," he said grinning.

I couldn't help
but smile too. "Any new news?"

"Which would you like to hear first?"

"Has anyone found Rose?"

"No. But we have narrowed down where they may be keeping her."

"Well, that's better than nothing. What about Adriana?"

"Better luck there. Poseidon went to their
enclave and raised holy hell. It sounds like Hypnos kidnapped Colin like you suspected and Adriana has been trying to fill in as best as she could as his daughter."

"Wait," I interrupted. "Adriana is Colin's daughter?"

"Yes, why?"

"It just explains somet
hing. Go on."

"Well, they were told that if they told any of us or assisted us in any way that Colin would be executed. In a last ditch effort to try to save him, Adriana was going to assist us in finding Hypnos and Lyssa. They couldn't take that risk so t
hey captured her. She was scheduled to be executed."

"Holy crap! Tell me she hasn't been killed."

"She has not been killed. They can't technically kill her without Colin's sanction. So she's been exiled."

"So, have we found her?" I leaned forward hoping he
would say yes.

"Yes."

"Wooo!" I pumped my fist in the air. Score one for team Olympus! We were making progress in the fight against
–
against what? Evil? Tyranny? Extinction? It was hard to put a definition on them these days.

"Where is she?"

"She's re
sting. She was beaten severely before they threw her into the Ocean."

"My God! I thought they were supposed to be a peaceful race."

"I guess they've learned to be ruthless," he shrugged. "Guess what you just drank?"

"Your special magic water? I think you'r
e slipping me coconut water by the way."

He chuckled. "I am, but that's not all. Adriana smuggled out the antidote. It's in your water."

I didn't hesitate. I gulped the rest of the glass down. “
I'm not feeling anything. Before when Poseidon and I were ther
e, I felt something."

I frowned and gestured for more of the water.

"Want the good news or the bad news?"

I closed my eyes and took a breath. "Bad news."

"Because it was able to mutate and Zeus' cure wasn't an exact match it's not going to be an instantan
eous fix, Grace."

Okay. I could deal with that. "What's the good news?"

"Your face is filling back out. I think your nanites are working again."

"That alone would be the best news ever. I think I can live without super powers. I can't live with the thought
of tripping and dying of an infection from a scrape."

"You won't be without super powers forever. It's just going to take a while for everything to come back into balance. Your nanites are going to be sluggish.  Repairing your body is going to tax them to
the extent of their ability to heal you," Diana said, walking briskly into the room.

"Even better news. Why didn't you guys give me Adriana's concoction first?"

"We didn't have it first," she replied. She walked to the bed and laid a set of clothing acros
s the foot. "I thought you might want to get up and take a shower."

"That would be amazing. I don't know if my legs will get me there."

"Here," Heph said before scooping me out of the bed. "I'll stick you in the bath."

"Haven't you heard? People can drown
in baths."

He grinned at me and I pinched his ear playfully. "I'll make sure you don't drown."

"I think not," Diana interjected. "I can make sure she doesn't drown. You have things to do?" She threw an arch look at him and he sighed.

"Yes I do."

"Excellen
t. Thank you for your assistance."

Once he had left us in the bathroom I turned to her. "What was that about?"

"He has a few things to take care of and he and I had a talk about his intentions and actions toward you lately."

"Oh dear."

"It wasn't that bad.
He needs to give you a break. Maybe when things settle down you'll be ready for his courtship. Until then he's got to leave it the fuck alone."

"Did you just say fuck?" I asked astonished.

"Where do you think you get your dockside floozy mouth, Grace?" S
he shook her head and tested the water. "Okay, kid. In you go."

I slipped out of the gown and into the water. It was bliss. I sank in to my chin and closed my eyes. "Perfect. I feel so grimy. How long have I been in that bed without a bath?"

She bit her li
p and grimaced. "A while."

"Well, thank goodness I can finally get clean. Hand me the soap would you?"

She did and I scrubbed at least two layers of skin off before I was done. We emptied the tub and filled it again just so I could soak. "When we get out,
will you shave my head? I'm not even going to bother washing the nasty clumps that are left."

She nodded with sadness. "You had beautiful hair."

"If I'm lucky it will grow back. If I'm not, everyone gets to see my lumpy head for the rest of eternity."

"Tha
t
’
s my daughter
–
ever practical."