Hermes (Frozen Origin #2) (19 page)

“The buns are for today, but all we have to carry them on is a tray.”

Hermes sat with his mate until he had eaten one of each type of spiral and two of the big cinnamon buns. Everything she made was so good. They loaded a small tray with buns stacking them three high in each row. Those demons better appreciate all the trouble his mate had gone through to make these. He noticed every oven was full to capacity with cookies, pies, cakes, and appetizers. She would be tired by the time she was done for the day and he would try to help her relax.

He made it to the training room where the demons were waiting for their food. They fell over the buns like they had been starved for a week. He tried to hold it against them, but those were some tasty buns
, so he couldn’t. Most of them had finished eating when the alarm sounded. Everyone went to their stations and Fabian went to Lu’s rooms as he had been told to. The boy hated not being allowed to fight, but he showed maturity beyond his age by doing as instructed. Hermes was proud of him and he would let him know, later.

He rushed up to the level he worked on and checked with the two gods assigned to surveillance. There was no sign of any people. His radio buzzed, it was Hercules. “We found remnants of some kind of remote control device. They are testing us.” Hermes agreed and they would continue to test them until their guard was down. At that point the attack would be for real. What was this group after? Was it Sierra and Athena, Cher and Fabian, or Maria and her daughter? It was possible it was even an attempt to capture or kill gods and demons.

Not knowing would drive them crazy. Athena, Maria’s baby, and Maria herself as long as she was with child were the ones that required the most protection followed by Fabian. Sierra was a hell of a soldier and as much as he hated to admit it, Cher wasn’t bad herself. It would help to know who was targeted but he knew Origin. They were opportunistic and would take someone else if their favored target was not available, that meant no one was safe. Everyone over five needed to be armed. Cher had assured him that Fabian could and would use a gun if necessary so he would give him one to carry. He wouldn’t allow someone who could protect themselves to be taken just because they were unarmed.

It occurred to Hermes that Origin might believe Keven and his buddy were still on the premises. Once they had drained him of all the helpful information, they had cooperated with the US government and honored their request that the two men be turned over to them. They had asked for Cher and Fabian too, but they had been politely denied. Cher was about to marry one of the higher ranking gods and
Fabian was her charge. They had never explained what they wanted with her nor did it look like they ever would. They had just taken what they could get easily and ran with it.

Demons were heading outside in packs of four covering the area in a predetermined grid pattern. They would look for anything, biological or otherwise
, and their senses were even better than that of the gods. Their eyesight was better than any known animal, their hearing acute, their sense of smell even worked in the bitter cold climate where most god’s sense of smell wouldn’t.

Demons were perfect for patrolling the grounds since the snowsuits hid their extra assets. A small team of demons had been on duty when the attack was made but they spiraled out from the facility going up to five miles out at the furthest point in their patrol
and that was when the radio controlled device had been sent probably straight into the building from up high. No one could protect against that, but the demons on patrol were understandably upset anyway. The grid search found no signs of anyone on the ground and Hermes was sure that it was because no one had been on the ground.

Everyone inside returned to their duties except Cher who had stayed with the ovens. Hermes had been upset when he found out she hadn’t gone to join Sierra at her suite where they could both be protected. He had made some comments out of concern that she had taken wrong. Now she was angry with him and he wasn’t sure what to do to fix it.

He would never understand these females that now stayed at Olympus. He had known how to deal with the others that Origin had sent to them. These independent, willful females like his Cher, were so complicated. He went in search of Zeus hoping he might shed some light on what he had done wrong and how he might fix it. Zeus was in his office with Sierra getting reports on what had just occurred. Maybe it wasn’t the best time to get advice. His woman drove him so crazy he hadn’t even thought about Zeus being busy. He turned to leave but Sierra called out to him.

“Hermes, I can help you if you need something.”

Yes, maybe Sierra would be the best to help him with his problem. “Cher is angry with me and I don’t know why.”

“Let me guess, she stayed with the ovens and you
chided her for it.”

“Well not exactly. I told her she needed to show more sense and go where she could be protected.”

“That’s not chiding? Never mind, you should treat her more like another god than like a weak defenseless mate.”

“She is my mate.”

“Yes, your mate, not your child. She did what she thought was right and she is trained to protect herself. If you’re concerned, give her a weapon not a lecture.”

He thought over what Sierra said and decided he would try to remember Cher was also a warrior, not one that was as strong as a god, but strong as most humans. A weapon was a great equalizer and he
knew she was a good shot. He would have to give her some freedom but only until she carried his child, which for him couldn’t happen soon enough. He smiled to himself at the thought and headed back to the kitchen to find his irate mate.

“Back to chew on me some more?” Cher asked.

“I’m sorry. I was just worried about you.”

Cher looked at him suspiciously. He couldn’t really blame her, he had been furious when he had been told she had stayed in the kitchen. “Okay.”

“I need to ask you for a favor.” Hermes told her, noting the suspicious look was now combined with a cautious one.

“And that would be…?”

“I want you to carry a weapon with you. This one.” He said as he handed her a small pea shooter. She raised her brow at him. “It has to be small so it will go unnoticed but at close range, this gun can kill.” He assured her. She reached out to take it from his hand weighing it in her hand then checking the safety before sliding it into her pocket.

“It reminds me of my first gun when I was ten.
Dad always gave me the little guns but after he died I took a class to learn how to shoot the same guns as the big boys.” She smiled clearly proud of herself and he couldn’t resist smiling back. He examined her carefully and found no bulges where the gun was. He felt a little better about her safety now and he had avoided a battle he knew he would have lost.

He headed back to his office where he
did paperwork and checked in with teams that were on missions. They would all be back before the ball and all new missions were scheduled for after it was over. Three hours after the attack, the alarms rang again. This time the demons were all over the device within minutes. Baal saw it before the self destruct, it was an airplane. It just flew in and crashed into the door to the facility and seconds later, it exploded.

If Lu was the King of the demons, Baal was one of the seven princes which were Lu’s generals.
Demon hierarchy was similar, but a little different from the god’s. Lu was simply the top demon without equal. He had seven princes each with equal powers that took turns being in charge in the event he was unavailable, though that was rare. Each prince had his own areas of expertise and demons that he controlled. Other than Baal, Asmodius was the only other demon prince that Hermes spent much time with. They were the two most outgoing and the most like Lu.

The gods had Zeus
, who was their leader but he was technically over the demons as well. Hades and Poseidon were second to Zeus but they were not over the demons, only Zeus was even though they were all top level gods, or tier one. Hercules, Hermes, Apollo, and several other gods were tier two gods. Apollo was usually top of the second level, sometimes Hercules was, and Hermes had even been in charge when it suited Zeus’s purposes. Tier three gods like Hypnos, Erebus, and Aether, were usually squad leaders. Tier four was for all the gods not in clear leadership positions. The hierarchy had been set in place by Origin, but the gods and demons had seen no reason to change it. Everyone was comfortable in their assigned positions and even though it was generally recognized that with the desire and ability to, a god or demon could move up or down from their tier, no one ever had.

Baal
was as handsome as Lu was, but he didn’t have wings. Instead he had a backbone that extended out of his back nearly an inch. It was tough, giving his back a strength others didn’t possess. A rock could fall on it and it would simply bounce off. Even most bullets wouldn’t enter there. When he went about without a shirt, it reminded Hermes of a lizard’s back. He didn’t have a tail either but he had a tongue women would kill for. Again, it reminded Hermes of something a lizard might have. Except for his back, Baal had an unearthly beauty. Most demons had the look of fallen angels with a voice to match and Baal was no exception.

Since demons didn’t generally go on missions,
there were some exceptions such as Baal who when dressed could pass for a god, Zeus hoped they would eventually take over most of the guard duties here leaving the gods for missions. Even if Lu decided to develop a demon stronghold, it wouldn’t be large enough for all of them especially if some or most of them eventually mated and while Olympus basically had all of Antarctica, the demon’s facility had no room for expansion.

It was a shame that the ball couldn’t go off without troubles. Everyone was looking forward to it especially Zeus and Sierra who would have a secret wedding in public. No one but the gods, demons, and a few of Sierra’s relatives and close friends would know what was really going on.

Hermes only hoped an attack wouldn’t disrupt the ceremony. He also hoped they would only have to deal with one enemy at a time since they seemed to be collecting new adversaries every day. He wondered if the alarms would be set off all day and night. If that was the case he would have to make them silent or the guest that would start arriving late tonight, would be startled when they went off. He made some adjustments so that the alarm would buzz everyone’s radios and be heard over the earpieces most gods and demons wore on duty.

Three hours later the alarm went off again and
a remote control device was found at another location. It was now time for most of those who worked during the day to turn in. Guest had started arriving, a handful at a time. A plane was landing and another taking off just complicating things when the alarm went off, but this time it was no remote control device. It seemed one of the guests had ‘wandered’ into the computer room setting the alarm off instantly. She said it was just a coincidence that she wandered in the moment one guard left and the other one was in Hermes office. He was giving a team permission to return for the ball even though the mission wasn’t complete.

He came back into the office to find her sitting at the console. She hadn’t accessed it yet, but there was little doubt she would have, though proof was lacking. Zeus put a god on her to act as an escort but he was a glorified guard. Still the female in question was attractive
, so he didn’t complain. They had expected attempts at spying like this, just not so soon. Once that was dealt with, he went to their suite to prepare for his mate. He took a shower cleaning himself thoroughly. He put on shorts, leftovers from the days of Origin. They were comfortable and they didn’t make him think of Origin most of the time. He waited for her on their bed, but fell asleep before she came in.

He woke and it was morning, Cher was either already gone or she hadn’t made it home yet. It upset him to think she was working so hard. He got his radio and checked with Hercules.

“I know where she is, I’m eating a piece of pie with her right now. Oh, man. This is sooo good.”

Hermes didn’t waste a moment getting dressed and joining them in the kitchen.

“I told you he’d make good time getting here. Five minutes must be some kind of record.” Hercules chuckled.

Hermes said, “You came in after I went to sleep and left before I woke. You’re working too hard.” He looked at her accusingly.

“You don’t have to do everything, Cher.” Hercules said and Hermes felt an irrational annoyance that Hercules agreed with him and she seemed to listen to him.

“This just means so much to Sierra, I hate to disappoint her. I plan to finish up at noon and go home to take a nap before I get ready for the ball.”

It would have to satisfy him because his mate simply refused to do any less no matter what he said. He left feeling frustrated but he had duties to see to, the hair stood up on the back of his neck, and his spine tingled telling him he needed to be alert and aware or they would all pay the price. He checked in with the god that was assigned to their would be spy. It was all good there, he had spent the night in her bed and she was still in dream land. He had found out that she was a reporter, but he would make sure the only story she got was about incredible sex.

He checked in wi
th the demons who patrolled outside the facility until gods took their place before the ball started. Everything was as it should be, at least for now. He checked with the outside surveillance, the inside surveillance, the guards at the doors, the guards watching Cronos, and even the guards watching Maria, her daughter, and Fabian, and no one had anything to report but the feeling of impending doom or at least potential doom just kept rising in him. Zeus radioed him for a report followed by Hercules, apparently he wasn’t the only one who sensed something headed their way.