Rifts (23 page)

"Well, I've been able to - mostly - mask your power levels. But not fully, which means that you have a big bullseye on your forehead."

"This is different from the usual how?"

"There's a reason I sank Atlantis. It's not because I was losing my mind, Grace. I have someone buried there. She needs to
stay
buried there. With your unique DNA, you have the ability to fight her if she doesn’t."

"Who is she?" I felt like I was in a conversation with some quantum physicists and I was still in Kindergarten Earth Science. Listen, this was nothing new. I often spent time completely clueless. This seemed bigger, definitely something I should be trying to grasp.

"Nyx," Heph stated shortly.

"I…can't say that I know who she is."

Zeus walked over to me, grasped my forearms and quietly stated, "She is nightmares, Grace. Look her up and we'll continue our discussion.” He turned, “Heph, I need you to work with Grace on her teleportation skills. She's a sitting duck without them. With her power levels amping up, she's going to be even more of a target."

"Wait, I don't understand. I feel like I need more information," I began, but Hephaestus steered me out of the room.

"We'll get to it, Grace. In the meantime, keep this under your hat. Only your mother, myself and Zeus know for sure what we left buried in Atlantis. We need to keep it that way. Let's go. I think I have a way to help you grasp this."

"I'm glad someone does," I muttered. 

We ‘ported back to his forge and I adjusted my body temperature to match the sweltering heat. "I know why you keep it so damn hot in here now. Nobody in their right mind would want to be here for more than five minutes."

"When you have as many secrets to keep as I do, you see how difficult it is to be surrounded by people who can read minds," he replied tersely.

Okay, he had a good point there. If I had tons of secrets to keep and was living in proximity to a particularly talented group of mind readers, it would be pretty hard to keep them.

"One question. Then you can torment and train me 'til your heart is content."

"Okay, I'll hold you to that," he replied with a smirk.

"Why keep it a secret?"

"You got your question, let's get to training."

"Wait! You're not going to answer me?" I kicked the table in frustration. Damn it with this man evading my questions and leaving me in the dark. I should have been more specific.

"You said and I quote, 'One question. Then you can torment and train me 'til your heart is content'. You asked your question, now move your ass over to the forge."

See? I knew that I should have been more specific. I moved toward the forge with a scowl and immediately broke into a sweat. "I didn’t think it could get any hotter," I complained.

"Oh, it's about to get worse. Step into the forge completely, please."

That request stopped me in my tracks and I turned on him - mouth open in surprise and outrage. "What? Freezing me wasn't enough? Now you plan on melting my bones? What the fuck, Heph? You should just kill me and get it over with. That's what this about isn't it?"

He rolled his eyes at me, which just made me angrier. When was this guy going to start taking me seriously and treat me like an adult?

"When you start acting like one," he replied.

I gasped. "You
can
read my freakin' mind!" I screeched. There's really only so much
mental
I can take before I just lose it.
"
When did that happen? Was it before or AFTER you told me that you couldn't?"

He shrugged again. "I've always been able to read your mind. I just don't make a big deal out of it like Captain Awesome does. And even if I couldn't," he was standing very close now and I found it hard to breathe. "I'd read it on your face, Grace Murphy. Like I said, you are
very
expressive."

"Oh," I replied stupidly, backing up in an attempt to gain a sense of space and sanity. Something started sizzling and it took me a few moments to realize that it was my flesh. I was standing in the forge. "Damn it, Heph," I yelled.

"Okay, start raising your body temperature. You can't leave the forge until either your temp matches the heat within…or you can teleport out."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "I hate you."

"Yes, I know."

"If I die, it's on you."

"I know this, too."

"As long as you know, you dickbag." I finished with snark.

Hot, I thought. Hot was easy. I was already pissed off at this entire situation. Well, and other things, but I wasn't going to think about that right now. My body heat rocketed up and my skin caught on fire. I could see my reflection in Heph's eyes. It was a frightening and beautiful thing.

Let's be honest, my vanity was enough that I had been afraid my hair would catch fire and I have a lumpy head. I knew I wouldn’t look good bald. Oddly enough, the hair didn't catch on fire as much as it turned into a living flame surrounding my head in a fiery halo.

It wasn't enough. The heat of the forge was burning me up, even with my body set aflame. Why didn't I just walk out of the forge? The only thing stopping me was Hephaestus. While I was feeling pretty amped up on power right now, I didn't think I could take him in a fight.

But, the back of my mind whispered that if I could ‘port out of here past him, he'd never catch me. It seemed so simple and yet so incredibly hard at the same time. Where would I go? How do you get to that point? How do you materialize your body into another place? My mind frantically grasped at straws and just as I was about to grab one, it burst into flame.

It was so hot and my throat suddenly decided that it was very parched and an icy glass of water would be nice. On cue, the bastard picked up a glass that had beads of sweat rolling down the surface. It looked cold. It looked delicious.

I wanted to scream at him, but my vocal chords refused to work. Breathing was getting hard, too. The scorched air filled my lungs with every breath. I'd have berated him in my mind if I weren't concentrating so damned hard on staying a hairsbreadth hotter than the fire surrounding me.

"What was that, Grace? You're angry at me? It's really unfortunate for you that you're in there and I'm out here…in this cool room with this cold, cold water."

The smirk gave me an extra burst of rage, helping me maintain just a few minutes longer. "Think, damn it!" I yelled at myself. How do you blow apart every single one of your atoms and then pull them back together in the same exact composition? What happened to my soul in the process? Where did it go?

My body bent over, hugging in on itself trying to stop the burning pain from consuming me. I just wanted
so desperately
to be on the other side of the room. My head rose just long enough to gaze longingly at the spot on the other side of the table. If I could have just gotten there, I could have run away and never had to do this
ever
again.

My face met the hardwood floor with a meaty thwack as I collapsed. Blood gushed from my nose, seeping into the cracks. I couldn't actually see much. My eyes were swelling shut and my body was paralyzed with exhaustion.

"I figured that once you got out of your head, you'd be able to do it." His voice was quiet and gentle. He wiped down my face, arms and legs with a warm, wet towel. Steam hissed as the water hit my skin. "You just needed to stop thinking so damn much and let yourself
want
to be somewhere. Teleporting is a matter of will. You focus on where you want or need to be, and you go there."

I grunted. I couldn't do more. I wanted water in my mouth so badly.

"If I give you water right now it will make you sick. You need to cool down a little bit first."

My body shuddered a few times with heaving breaths. Even breathing was a challenge so I simply lay there, shaking weakly.

He stroked sweaty ropes of hair away from my face. "I know you're mad at me. If I could have thought of any other way to teach you how, I would have. You're so damned stubborn and stuck in your humanity you just won't let go enough to realize that you don't have those limitations."

I wanted to understand, but in the back of my head I was screaming that he'd just made me weak unto the point of death. I couldn't fight right now. If Hope showed up, I wouldn't be able to take her on. I was useless. He made me useless – again.

"You don't always have to be the strong one," he replied to my unspoken thoughts.

But I did. I needed to be strong for Dylan, my mother…all of the people that needed me. The pressure felt huge. I needed to be in my bed back at home, surrounded by familiar pillows and sounds.

"I'm going to pick you up and put you in the sitting room while I fetch more of your clothes. You're safe here. There will be a glass of warm water that you can sip. Don't gulp it. Just sip."

I barely managed a nod. His strong arms reached under me and hefted my dead weight into the air. He carried me - like I weighed nothing - into another room before setting me down in an overstuffed chair. It was cooler in here and I started shivering. I wasn't sure if it was shock or only the cool air hitting my still burning hot skin. 

As promised, a glass of water was next to the chair with a bendy straw floating lazily in the liquid. The thought of leaning forward to take that first sip felt like an impossibility. It couldn't have been more than 10 inches away from my mouth, but everything in my body protested the thought of movement.

The urge to be resentful was strong. I get why he did it. Drew had been encouraging, patient and kind while training me. Hephaestus went for brutal efficiency. Guess which one seemed to be getting better results? Damn, that straw was so far away. Fuck. Teleporting had been pretty easy when I'd stopped thinking about it.

Sometimes, you just needed to get out of your head. God only knows I’ve spent way more time there than I needed to. I analyzed the hell out of everything - down to whether or not my underwear was going to give me a wedgie if worn with a particular pair of pants. Yeah, I was that anal.

For most of my life, I'd been a dominating force - pushing my will around like a heavyweight fighter. I couldn’t remember when it was that my head had taken over and I’d begun fearing instead of doing.

He strode back into the room and stopped about five feet from me, eyeing me warily. Something inside me was pleased that he recognized I had the capacity to wreck him. He brought his hands up to indicate that he was holding another pair of pants and a shirt for me. I mouthed ‘thank you’ and then grimaced. I couldn't even get to the straw, how the hell was I going to get dressed?

"I'll help you. With both," he said at last.

My head nodded imperceptibly and he took that for the permission to help me out that I’d meant it to be. Knowing that I was proud and stubborn was a good survival skill for him to have. Quickly and efficiently, he dressed me. I'd never felt so much like a Barbie doll. I wondered if he'd braid my hair next. I was more grateful for what he actually did do, raising the straw to my lips.

The urge to gulp down the liquid was so strong, but I forced myself to take small, steady sips. Water had never tasted so good. It could have been ambrosia for all that I knew. With each sip, my limbs regained strength.