Rifts (29 page)

"You're not very sportsman-like, Grace. I didn't want to bring out the dirty toys, but well – let's up the ante, shall we?"

Then she did something that I never saw coming. Her hand whipped up and it wasn't a sword pointing me in the chest. It was a 9mm gun. She pulled the trigger before I could react and I felt the slug tearing through the bone and muscles to lodge in a lung.

The pain was excruciating. It was even worse than getting stabbed in the heart. The bullet tore and ravaged blood vessels, muscle and sinew. One of my ribs splintered at the impact and shattered, puncturing a lung which filled with blood. I couldn't get a solid breath in.  I fell to my knees in shock and pain. "Fuck," I gasped.

"Hurts, right?"

Why had I pushed Heph through that Rift? That could very well be the stupidest thing I'd ever done. The logical move would have been to tag team her. It occurred to me then that maybe I hadn't been firing on all cylinders. "Nope, it's not my lucky day."

Her figure blurred in my vision as she sauntered over to me and pulled out a dagger. "Cutting through my brother's neck is how you killed him, right? How did you do it, Grace? Did you slit his throat and saw? Or simply slash through to sever his head? I couldn't tell at the time."

My brain felt cloudy with pain and other thoughts – things that were filling me with shame. I'd failed my son, my mother and everyone I'd ever loved. Brandon was probably warm and not bleeding inside his new house, having sex or something equally wonderful. Everyone was better off without me.

"You feel so sorry don't you, Grace?" She asked me in a calm soothing voice.

I nodded in response. "I
am
so sorry." The tears came then. The wracking emotion hurt my chest so much, but I had to release the tears.

"Here, dear. Take this. You know what to do with it." She handed me the dagger. The shiny surface gleamed in the moonlight. I never thought that the darkness could reveal so much. The hilt felt right in my hand. All I needed to do was raise the blade and draw it across my throat. That would make it all better.

I raised my hand and felt the tip pierce the skin above the hollow of my neck, cutting deep. Finally, I'd have peace. The pain felt good. It felt like I was finally doing something worthy with my miserable life.

A glimmer of steel flashed in my eyes, startling me out of my trance. What in the Hell was happening here? I pulled the dagger from my throat and shoved upward as hard as I could in my condition and thrust the dagger into her sternum, pushing her back away from me.  "Stay. Out. Of. My. Head!" The volume was weak but the message was clear. It was hard to breathe and my rage was ramping up. God, I was so
tired
of people fucking with me.

'Heal' was the word at the forefront of my brain. I could feel the nanites working, but my body was weakened and I'd been pushing myself too far lately. It didn't matter. I smiled maniacally at her and yelled, "Flame on, motherfucker!" My skin was instantly ablaze and I lunged, knocking her to the ground.

High pitched screams filled the air as her clothing went up in flame. I drove my fist into her face again and again. Bone crunched with a sickening sound and I thought I'd knocked her unconscious, but her hand reached up to grip my neck. Her fingers dug into the small hole that I'd cut into myself under her influence. She pulled.

Blood poured down the front of my body in a waterfall, quenching the flames. I was feeling so tired. It took me three attempts to materialize my kukri and when it finally happened, my movements were sluggish. Bringing the sword up with all of the strength left in me, I lopped her hand off at the wrist.

I expected her to scream again, but she didn't make a sound. That frightened me more than a scream ever could. My head whipped around, looking for an accomplice – a reason she was so calm. That was a mistake. Her remaining hand fisted into my hair and slammed me face first into the walk. The bones in my cheeks and forehead cracked and splintered with the force of the blow.

It was a random thought, but I was pissed that I'd finally gotten pretty and she was fucking it up. I flailed backward with my sword, aiming for her arm. I'd cut the other one off given the chance. Steel met bone and she hissed. I couldn't help myself, I laughed, coughing up blood.

"You think that's funny? Wait until you see what I do next," she growled.  But I didn't want to wait. I wanted to get the Hell out of Dodge.

I didn't get the chance. White hot pain lanced through my back as she shoved something sharp through my spine, cutting off all feeling in both my upper and lower body. My arms and neck flopped to the ground. I couldn't breathe and my heart slowed to a sluggish rate.

All I’d wanted to do was go for a walk and the bitch was going to kill me. The lesson here is that exercise in any form is bad.

A thunderous crack sounded behind me, followed closely by a high pitched shriek. I desperately wanted to see, but couldn't move.  Voices were shouting but making out what they were saying was impossible.

I became weightless as arms lifted me from the ground, cradling me against a barrel chest. "Jesus, Grace. What were you thinking," he asked gently. "Don't die on me. You just got interesting and I'd really like to see what you do next."

Fingers brushed bloodied ropes of hair from my eyes and I stared up into his face. If I died, I wanted to remember that he came back to rescue me. I wanted to take back the hurtful things I'd said to him. I wanted to tell him that if there was a God, I'd ask her for a bit longer so I could get to know his complexities.

I couldn't do any of that. My mouth refused to move. I felt light – buoyant. He bent his head and gently pressed his lips against mine. "It's not your time yet. Hold on just a bit longer, sugar."

A tear leaked from my eye and trailed down the side of my face. Wow, he finally kissed me and I couldn't kiss him back.

"Why are you still here? Get her back to the Lab now!" Zeus' voice held panic. That didn't bode well.

All I wanted to do was close my eyes and sleep.

So I did.

Sometimes I wish I could read minds. It would make the story easier to understand…more real somehow. It took two weeks for me to recover enough from my Lyssa-inflicted wounds to even open my eyes. The first week after my collapse, my body stopped functioning, but Zeus wouldn't let them bury or burn me. He'd said he'd seen this happen before. He didn’t tell them that ‘before’ was the time he’d tried to kill me, just that my body needed to regenerate and the cessation of function was its way to preserve energy. Self-preservation was a strong instinct for both of us.

They let Dylan in to see me once, but it had started snowing and sleeting in the Lab. After that, they'd kept him sedated in his rooms. Athena and Drew alternated shifts to keep him calm enough to minimize the damage to Olympus' eco-system.

When he wasn't with Dylan, Drew stood vigil at my bedside. I'm still not sure what that was about. Just when I thought he was out of the picture, he casually stepped back in and completely wrecked my entire understanding of the situation.

Zeus videotaped the entire episode and watching it now still brings tears to my eyes. My heart clenches when I see this man hold my hand, lean over my bed, resting his head against my chest as he apologized for all of the things he'd done and said – all of the things he'd never be able to take back if I died.

My heart constricts in pain watching this. It makes me realize that you can't shut off love. He'd busted down my walls and planted hooks into the very core of my being. No matter how many hooks I thought I'd tugged loose, there were still a thousand more - clinging on. I never knew if they were on purpose or accident. I am afraid to ask, because I'm sure I won't like the answer.

...and then there was Heph. He sat at my bedside when no one else was around, but never touched me. He'd sit close, his hand a fraction of a breath away from mine, as if actually touching me would break him.

His hours were spent telling me stories and of emotions I'm certain he wouldn't have shared had he known he was being recorded.

He'd realized that something was wrong with me as soon as I'd pushed him through the Rift. Much like the severed head of Momus, Hephaestus flew through the portal and landed on Athena. From what I understand, she's got a bit of a grudge against me right now and thinks that I'm trying to take her out with flying projectiles.

After crashing to the ground, he sounded the alarm and the Hunters mobilized.  In my mind, the fight felt like it had lasted for hours. In reality, it had only taken a group of Hunters with Athena, Zeus and Hephaestus about 6 minutes to get back to the Garden.

Athena had immediately been sent to find Hypnos. Unfortunately, all she'd found was a park full of sleeping animals - both two and four legged. Hunters were dispersed to secure the area and seek out potential threats, to minimize any fallout damage from the resulting battle between Zeus and Lyssa.

Seeing me on the ground, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to get me back to the Lab and let loose a lightning bolt that struck Lyssa at the center of her mass, blowing off the arm I'd nearly severed. Sometimes when I'm sleeping, I still hear her high pitched shrieks. I see her maddened eyes and I wake up covered in sweat.

I am quite literally terrified of that woman. It isn't far reaching to think that at some point in every human's life, they think of cliff diving off a bridge and ending it all. Yeah, I've thought it once or twice but it had never gone so far as what she'd nearly made me do. It's one thing to randomly think, 'If only there was a gun nearby, I'd wrap myself in plastic, call 911 and blow my brains out rather than deal with this shit' and actually slicing a hole into your neck.

That kind of power is terrifying and it gave me a better understanding of Hope's mental fortitude. Hope was weak - there was no doubt in my mind about that. But even had she been strong, after a few hundred years of Lyssa's mental torture, even the most stalwart of women would have been completely batshit crazy.

But I digress. Zeus' bolt blew off her other limb and as he was going in for the final kill, an inky fog rolled into the valley between the rock formations, killing everyone's ability to see or hear. Even the best training can't combat the sudden loss of senses. Heph had already ‘ported out with me, but the remaining Hunters panicked. In the ensuing chaos, Lyssa escaped.

Tension was high and nerves were frayed. Everyone spent that time on edge, wondering how they were going to combat this threat when they'd barely gotten Hypnos off of this world in the first place. The reality that something was happening, bigger than anyone had ever expected, caused a moderate level of panic.

Athena had finally connected the dots between the disappearances of the Hunters and the episode with Lyssa. I could hear her in the background of the tapes, demanding that Zeus tell her what was going on, why they would be attacking us after so many years.

He dodged well, but even to my ears, his excuses were becoming weak. Poseidon, whom I hadn't met yet, also demanded answers. None were forthcoming.  It looked like Hypnos' initial bid to break down Zeus' powerbase was finally working after all of this time. People were losing faith in their leader and the only way he'd regain that trust and strength was to come clean.

How do you tell people that you've been secretly keeping someone trapped in a watery grave for a few thousand years? It was a tricky situation and I didn't envy him. I could only support his decisions and help him keep this planet safe. I wanted to tell him that we'd all commit to that task. By telling everyone the truth, he'd gain more support - but I wasn't certain.

There was a beautiful routine to the tapes. The mornings would start off with Zeus checking on my progress. Then he'd hold court around my seemingly dead body like some informal wake. They didn't realize that he was recording their expressions and words. It wasn't until I woke up that I found out why.