Volcanoes (5 page)

"We need to get him down," I stated after my second glass.

"We do, but I want some of our people to look at the b
ody first."

"What are we going to do with it after?" It was a good question, a logical question. I couldn
’
t very well take it to the police station and say that it had been pinned to my wall by a psychopathic demi-god, now could I? On the other hand, dispo
sing of his body and letting the world think that he
’
d gone on an extended holiday didn
’
t seem fair. He had parents who loved him, a new wife that could be pregnant at this point.

Brandon had a real life outside of these walls and he would be missed. What
a conundrum.

"What would you like to do?" Heph wasn
’
t known for giving me options, so this threw me off balance.

"I- I don
’
t know. I suppose if we could make it look like an accident? Have him killed in a fiery car crash that hides the fact that his face is the only thing on his body with skin?" I gulped down another glass of wine after I said that.

Jesus, they
’
d flayed him.
I assumed alive because the look of horror was still pasted to his face. Even in death he hadn
’
t gained peace.

"We can do that. Since you
’
ll be here, you
’
re going to receive notification. Can you save the meltdown for then? I know it
’
s going to be rough,
keeping it together
–
but we need to do this for Dylan, too. He doesn
’
t need to know that his Dad was murdered like this. It will be hard enough for him to cope with, as it is."

I set my glass down and threw my arms around Heph
’
s solid frame. He got it. I
was so grateful that he was here with me. That he could help me get through this.  We may have our differences and he didn
’
t always take the most tactful path in teaching me lessons, but when it came down to it
–
Hephaestus always had my back.

He tensed a
nd then patted my back awkwardly. "There, there. It will be all right."

I could tell that he was uncomfortable with the appreciation and the embrace. If shit hadn
’
t been so crazy in that moment, I would have messed with him a little. But things
were
crazy
and we needed to get people down here so we could get this macabre show on the road.

"Hey, Heph?"

"Yeah, beautiful?"

Had he just called me beautiful? I was momentarily shocked into silence while my brain tried to process the fact that he thought I was pr
etty. Hey! I
’
m a girl. My head pauses when I
’
m complimented. Even when I
’
m mad, I
’
ll still take a moment.

"Um, I
’
m afraid to be here alone. Will you send my Mom down? I think that we need to have a discussion. And maybe she should check me out."

We
’
d both
forgotten that I was powerless and fairly helpless right now, it wasn
’
t exactly the best time for forgetting things like that. We
’
d have to be extra careful until we could find the sadistic bastard who
’
d done this and end
his miserable life.

"Yes, of cou
rse. I'll send her right down. Is there anything else you need?"

I wanted to break down and scream and cry and laugh and tear out my hair. In short
–
I wanted to have a complete meltdown. Was that on the menu? No. I
’
d have to wait until I got the call.

I
shook my head. "No. But thank you. Thank you for being here."

"It's what I do," he replied and gently kissed my forehead before teleporting back to Olympus.

Diana
’
s lips were pursed in a moue of disapproval when she appeared in my kitchen. I
knew this tactic. I used it all the time.
 
When she thought that she was about to be attacked on an emotional level, she
’
d go into passive aggressive mode. She
’
d start with a small dig at my home and then escalate into how I'd done a shitty job of keeping
Atlantis at the bottom of the ocean. 

I wanted to circumvent the entire thing so I guided her to my entry hall and showed her Brandon
’
s body.

"Oh no," was all she said before she turned and walked back into the living room.

I trailed behind her, thinkin
g of all of the things I wanted to say. What
did
I want to say? I was angry, hurt, scared and - most of all -completely at a loss as to what to do next.

This party just never stopped. I could say over and over that I didn
’
t know how I was going to get thr
ough this one or the next one, but somehow I did.  I suppose that instead of whining about it, I
’
d have to accept that this was it. The life I lived wasn
’
t going to be easy or boring ever again.

"I need a glass of wine," she began. "Do you have any wine?"

"Are you kidding me? I
’
ve already had half of the bottle." I shuffled
into the kitchen, grabbed glasses and the remaining wine and brought it back into the room where she sat, staring at the wall in shock.

"Here," I said, handing her a
glass filled more than halfway full.

"I never thought that Brandon would be a casualty. It just never occurred to me that they
’
d find out about your life prior to your time in Olympus."

If it was meant to be an apology, it was a shitty one. I told her s
o and then flopped onto my loveseat.

"It seems to me that you didn
’
t think a lot of this through, Diana. Here we are, babysitting the skinned corpse of my ex-husband. Ask me if I
’
d thought a year ago I
’
d be doing this. Hell, ask me if I thought a few
days
ago I
’
d be doing this."

I took a drink and a breath, trying to control my tears. "I asked Heph to put a guard on Rose
’
s family just in case."

"What about your adoptive parents?" She asked.

I looked directly at her without emotion and replied, "What about
them?"

"Oh."

"Yeah. I don
’
t know what your intentions were when you found me out on that forest path, but I
’
d like to imagine that this wasn
’
t it."

Her lip curled before she replied, "No, this was exactly it. I thought to myself
–
‘
Gosh I think it
’
s time
for me to completely ruin Grace
’
s life now. Let
’
s see if I can find her in the phonebook.
’
"

"You
’
re an asshole," I muttered before taking another healthy swig of merlot. I could suddenly see the attraction of becoming an alcoholic. If I just stayed drunk,
none of this would matter.

"Things didn
’
t go as I
’
d intended, Grace. I certainly didn
’
t plan on being kidnapped by your father or spending all that time waiting to make sure he was dead.  I wanted to guide you and make sure that you were ready for all of
this. Obviously that didn
’
t happen. And now this," she waved her hand in my general direction and sniffed.

Was that disgust I heard in her tone? I raised my eyebrows and asked exactly that.

"No, it
’
s not directed at you, darling. It
’
s this entire situati
on. What a complete cluster of a mess." She sighed and took another sip. "What is this I hear about you losing your powers?"

"Not a snap, crackle or pop," I answered with a grimace.

"Hmm, let
’
s see what this is about then." She stood up and moved toward m
e.

I shrank back into the loveseat and held out my hand. "Wait!"

She paused and rolled her eyes. "What?"

"Are you going to knock me out? I hate when you do that. Don
’
t knock me out."

"I won
’
t knock you out," she replied
–
right before she touched my foreh
ead and knocked me out.

I hadn
’
t been lying. I really hated when she did that because for the period of time that I was out, I was completely vulnerable. I didn
’
t sleep or dream. It was like I was just turned off. She flipped my switch and I was no longer
a real girl.

When I came to, I had drool pooling alongside my neck and a groggy hung-over
feeling. Oh, and I was pissed off. 

"You told me that you wouldn
’
t do that!" I yelled. Unfortunately, nobody was around to hear me. The house appeared empty.

"Did
you like my present?"

The voice surrounded me in baritone warmth that left me hugging myself.

So I
’
d been wrong. I
did
dream when she knocked me out. I
’
d heard this voice once before and found myself caught between anger and a fear so irrational that I
started pinching myself
–
trying to wake up as soon as I could.

It wasn
’
t working. "No. I didn
’
t like your present. Did you like the nice lava bath I gave your mom?"

My cheeky rejoinder was met with silence. "Oopsie. Did I piss you off?" What was the wors
t he could do to me in my dream?

Drew suddenly appeared beside me, his eyes wide with horror. "Did you just actually say that?" He hissed.

"Yeah. I did. So what?"

"Gr
ace," his voice was low and intense. I had to lean closer to him to hear his words clearly.

"He was known as the God of Dreams. You honestly think he can
’
t kill you in your sleep?" He grabbed a hunk of hair and pulled me closer to him.

It was getting a l
ittle uncomfortable and I told him so.

"Hey, jerk face. You
’
re hurting me. And no, actually
–
I don
’
t think he can kill me in my dreams. Wanna know why?"

"I
’
m waiting with bated breath," He replied sarcastically.

I turned as far as I could with my hair s
till trapped in his fist so I could face him as I answered. "Because, Hypnos. You would have killed Zeus when you trapped him in his sleep if you could kill me here. I
’
m afraid that your kind of violence is restricted to the waking world."

His eyes widened
in surprise and he stepped back
–
my hair still wrapped in his fist. "How did you know it was me?"

"I don
’
t dream about Drew anymore. Why would he, out of all of the people who could rescue me, appear here? You
’
re working off of old information, mi amigo.
"

"You
’
re acting very flippant for a woman who is in serious danger right now."

"Were you really expecting anything different? If you were, you don
’
t know me very well. Besides, my mother may have fucked a few things up, but she
’
s in here with me at this v
ery moment, checking out my body. I
’
m not just asleep, buddy, I
’
m under my mother
’
s protection. And guess who she really doesn
’
t like right now?" My smile held a nasty edge and he hesitated, looking almost nervous.

He should be nervous. Diana was doing so
me exploratory surgery on my body and she would know that my heart rate was accelerating - that something was wrong. Say what you will
–
wait, no
–
say what
I
will about my mother, but she loved me and she wasn
’
t going to let Hypnos do any permanent damage
to me.

"Hey, guess what?" I was still smiling and edging in closer, trying to break his illusion so I could see what he looked like.

He stepped away, releasing my hair and answered, "What?"

"My mamma
’
s gonna kick your ass." I winked and blew him a kiss
as a blinding white light exploded in front of us.

She appeared with a spear in her hand and was clothed in shining metal armor. Her crimson hair billowed around her backlit body.  At that moment, she was even more awesome to me than Wonder Woman. Hell, s
he
was
Wonder Woman.

It occurred to me right then that this was how I really saw her. None of her disguises had ever stayed with me in my subconscious. She was a shining beacon of light and protection in my mind and she would stay that way, no matter what
gripes I had against her in the waking world.

"Touché
." Hypnos smiled and nodded, ceding
this round of the battle to me. "It looks like we
’
ll have to take this up at a later time. I do look forward to seeing you again, Grace."

"I
’
m sure the pleasure will
be all mine," I said
–
smiling with the grace of a woman who
’
d just won. Who said I was a poor winner?

"Oh, dearest. The things I
’
m going to do to you will bring you absolutely no pleasure," he replied nastily.

"I
’
ve been threatened so many times this ye
ar that it hardly makes a difference anymore. You gotta come at me better than that, buddy, or keep your bad self on the porch with the little dogs." It was an overly used taunt, I
’
m sure. But honestly I was running out of sarcastic rejoinders. It had bee
n
a really long day.

The light around my mother had been getting brighter as we verbally sparred with each other and I was just waiting for her to blast him into Hell - but it was taking a damned long time.

Finally the explosion came, rocketing forth in a
burst of blinding white light. The shaft pierced through the core of Hypnos
’
borrowed form and exploded outward, filling his skin with holes. I giggled hysterically as I compared the image to a disco ball.

Jesus, I was losing my mind. Really
–
I feared f
or my own sanity at this rate.

Diana turned back toward me, her light dampening to the soft ethereal glow that her true form took when she wasn
’
t hiding it. "I sometimes wonder if I was ever as impetuous or as stupid as you are, Daughter. I think not. I t
hink that you inherited this idiocy from your father. Do you know what he could have done to you in here?"

"No…
" I sounded like a little kid with my reply and it made me angry. I wasn
’
t a petulant five year old for her to admonish. Of course I didn
’
t blood
y well know what he could have done to me in here because nobody had bothered to freakin
’
tell me!

I said as much, crossed my arms and walked to a bench that had sprouted up where my sofa had been just moments before. We were no longer in my living room bu
t in what looked like Acacia Park. The area was riddled with the trendy, the bar hoppers and the homeless. You could see it all downtown. I liked it here. I liked checking out the restaurants, the scenery and some of the shops that came and went with the
e
ver changing economy.

"He could have looped you into a nightmare that you wouldn
’
t have escaped from until he let you go. He could have done all sorts of horrific things to your psyche." She shuddered as she imagined the worst.