Rifts (28 page)

"Where am I?" he asked groggily.

"You're here with me. How are you feeling? Are you okay?"

"My throat hurts. What happened?"

"You were hurt in an accident, baby. It's okay, though. You'll be just fine."

"I feel sticky."

"I know. There was a lot of blood. But we'll get you in a shower as soon as you can move around without falling down." I gathered his body up into my arms and hugged him to me for all that I was worth. "I love you. I love you so much and I'm sorry that this happened. I promise that it won't ever happen again."

His arms weakly encircled me and squeezed. "It's okay Mom. I'm okay. You can't always be there to keep me safe. This is kind of the life that we live now."

I sat back, wiped my eyes and let out a bitter laugh. "When did you get so much smarter than me?"

"Uh, when I was five?"

"Har! You're a funny kid!" I hugged him tighter and he squeaked. "Oh, sorry. I just wasn't sure you were going to make it through this one, buddy." My voice broke at the end and the tears kicked back up.

"Mom, from what I understand, you're pretty indestructible. So I should be too, right?"

"Oh," I paused and thought about it. "Right." 

Zeus chose that time to come back. "I see that our patient is up and getting an eye shower."

"What's an eye shower?" Dylan asked.

"It’s what you get when your mom can't stop the waterworks."

I groaned at the absurdity of his joke and shook my head. "You are such a dork."

"What is this ‘dork’ you speak of? Is it fantastic?"

Dylan and I glanced at each other and he laughed. "Yeah, it's something like that," I replied.

"You need to stop bathing him with your ridiculous tears, Grace. The boy needs something to eat and I want to monitor him for a bit before I let him go."

"I know you're not kicking me out," I said with a raised eyebrow.

"Actually, I am. You have duties to attend to…and an explanation to give on a certain severed head," he replied with an eyebrow raised just a fraction higher than mine.

"And if I don't leave?"

"I've recently learned a new phrase, it goes something like 'Who's your daddy?' Do you want to test this?"

I thought about it. I really did. "No," I replied shortly.

"I thought you'd see things my way. I'll summon you when he's ready to return to your quarters. Then you can be as motherly as you'd like."

"As soon as he's ready," I warned.

"Yes. Yes. Now go."

I turned to my son and caressed his cheek. "I love you, bubby."

"Love you too, Mom." His color was picking up. That was a good sign.

Casting a final warning glance at Zeus, I popped out of the room and into Heph's forge. Teleporting was
never
going to get old. I just wished I'd had this ability years ago when I was struck with wanderlust and had spent a small fortune on air-travel. "So what's the scoop?" I asked without preamble.

"Zeus found more in her mind than we expected. It's not good," he answered.

"Tell me."

"Well, we already figured that they were trying to bring Nyx up. What we didn't realize is that they've been here for a hundred years. They were responsible for getting Geb into a place where he could manipulate your mother and take her out of the picture."

"Wait, who are ‘they?’"

"They happen to be a group of Nyx's children."

"Which ones? Did she know?"

Heph nodded grimly. "Yeah, she knew the big players. You took out one today, but Lyssa and Hypnos are the heavy hitters."

"Hypnos, why does he sound so familiar?"

"You may have read about his little feud with Zeus," he replied casually.

"Oh. Didn't he put Zeus to sleep or something?"

He laughed at me. "Did he put Zeus to sleep or something? Isn't that an understatement? He teamed up with Hera to try to overtake the powerbase here on Olympus and nearly killed Zeus. It ended with his exile and Hera's death."

My eyes were wide when I asked, "I'm sorry, did you just say he tried to take over the powerbase? Zeus is pretty fucking powerful. How scary is this Hypnos guy?"

"Not as scary as his mother, but I would admit that he is pretty damn frightening. He's not going to be easy. I can see why Hope is so damaged after spending time with him and the lovely Lyssa."

I stared at him, speechless. "I'm pretty sure I'm about to have a neurotic break. Are you serious with this? I'm new. I can't do this. I can't even paint my toenails and you want me to take down a guy that took down Zeus?!"

He crossed his arms and stared me down. "Yeah, you could probably use a break. Put on some street clothes. We're going out."

That made me laugh right out loud. I grinned, cocked a hip and said, "What, you're going to take me out to Karaoke and we'll sing a little Tenacious D? You don't think that maybe I should get some more training in?"

"Hey," he said with a raised eyebrow. "Don't knock the D."

Within ten minutes, Heph had ported us into the middle of Garden of the Gods. I laughed. It seemed appropriate in this situation. The tension in my shoulders melted as I stared at the sun setting on the Kissing Camels.

"And here I thought we were going clubbing," I mentioned sardonically.

"I can see when a woman misses her home and her sense of stability. I only
look
like a big lumbering jackass."

I laughed and shook my head. "Yeah, you're right. I do miss this place. Oddly enough, I rarely ever come out here, but I miss it when I don't see it. It's funny how we take things for granted."

He nodded at me and continued further into the park along the concrete path. Cliffs of red rock rose above us. The place was clearing out and I was certain that someone would be along any moment to kick us out. "I think the park is about to close."

He stopped, turned and raised an eyebrow at me. "
Really
?"

I rolled my eyes and walked past him. "Just because we're different doesn't mean we don't have to follow the rules," I muttered.

His reply was a bark of laughter and then all went quiet as we walked through the deepening shadows. This was place was peaceful. Every once and awhile I'd hear skittering through the grass, but dusk was falling on the Garden and this was a time of peace. He gave me thirty minutes to enjoy the silence. It was enough.

"So what made you think to throw a severed head through a Rift?"

With a sigh I replied, "I didn't know what to do to keep him dead. I figured that you can't live without your head and I was in a hurry. It was the obvious option at the time." I turned back to look at him and shrugged. "You guys haven't really taught me the important stuff, like, you know – how to keep someone dead."

"Mmm, true. To be honest, Hunters go through years of training. You've had what? Six months?"

"Something like that. It's just, I feel so powerless even with all of these powers. What good are they if I don't know how to save myself or the people that I love?"

"You're used to being strong all the time. Sometimes, it's okay to let others be strong for you."

"Yeah you guys keep saying that to me and my answer is - Are you fucking kidding me? 'Oh go slay the monster, Grace.' Or maybe, 'You're our only hope, Grace.' What am I, Obi-Wan Kenobi?" I threw my hands up and whirled back around to stomp it out. "You guys throw me so many mixed messages that I'm never sure which direction to take. Then SOMEBODY plops me into a furnace, then an iceberg and says figure it out. Yeah, that's what letting others be strong for me does."

"You're understandably upset. We haven't had this kind of situation before. However," and he grabbed my arm and spun me around. "Being a whiny bitch isn't going to get you far, here. So you need to pony up and figure out how you want to proceed."

My fist clenched but I didn't swing. That was the old Grace. Okay, maybe that was the three months ago Grace. "I want my son to be safe. I want to live a peaceful life where I don't dodge calls from my agent. I want to figure out who I am."

"I think you already know who you are. You just aren't sure how to proceed as this New Grace."

"Maybe." I kicked a rock with the toe of my shoe and it skittered off into the bushes. My head tilted. "Heph?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you heard
any
noise in the last thirty minutes?" I looked around, suddenly on high alert. "That rock should have flushed out at least some chipmunks."

He appeared startled and looked around. "No, I can't say that I've heard anything." He called in a pair of axes. I called my kukris in, as well.

"What?" I called out. "I can't even take a fucking walk in peace?"

"Grace, shut up. I'm scanning the area."

"No, I will
not
shut up. I am so fucking tired of this!"

A hand clamped over my mouth and he pulled my head back to whisper in my ear. "We need to get out of here
now
. Everything within two miles is asleep. Head directly to Zeus' Lab and alert him."

"What are you going to do?" I whispered against his hand.

"I'm going to the Forge. There's something I need to check on." I nodded at him. "On the count of three, go."

"Oh, how cute," the snide voice interrupted. "A lover's tryst in a garden made for gods."

"Lyssa," I mouthed against his hand. His fingers tightened before he shoved me forward with a bellowed, "’Port!"

I watched him engage her and realized that she was the distraction. I wouldn't leave him here. Not when they were here for me. The kukris felt solid in my hands and I whipped them around before calling out, "What, killing your brother wasn't enough? You're back for more?"

They both turned and gaped at me. I'm not sure who was more surprised at my sauciness. It didn't matter though. I sliced the blade along my hand, sped forward, opened a Rift and pushed Hephaestus through. "Surprise! Now it's just you and me, bitch."

She growled and rushed me.  My swords met hers with a resounding crash. I was lucky, though. She was an old school duelist and didn't expect me to punch her in the face. My left fist smashed into her nose, knocking her back.

Her hand shot up to stem the flow of blood and she grinned at me. "Oh, you're
fun
."

"So I've been told." I took advantage of her pause and slashed across her chest, leaving a line of blood running down the front of her white silken dress. "Who fights in a dress anyway?"