Rifts (4 page)

"Yeah, bitch; are you acquainted with my dog? It sounds like he doesn't like you so much."

She paled and looked to Drew for help. She found no comfort there. He crossed his arms and stared at her perplexed.

"Hope, you're better than this. What is going on?"

"Have you missed me?" She sidled up against him and ran a finger down his chest. I was pretty sure that I was going to throw up.

He opened his mouth to answer and she pressed her forefinger against his lips. "Shhh. I can see that you
haven't
missed your wife so much. You must be so proud – a son who is your very image. You must be so happy that the spawn of hell's daughter could give you what I could not in three hundred years."

She was his WIFE? "Hope, it's not what you think," he murmured around her fingertip.

My mouth dropped open and I could only stupidly stare at them. She thought that Dylan was Drew's kid? I got the wife part. But her brains were obviously scrambled beyond repair. No king's horses or men were going to fix this one.

"Lady, you're barking up the wrong tree. I don't care if you
are
my sister. Get the fuck out of my house and don't come back." I paused, connected with the earth and the wards around the house and called loudly, "You are a danger to my life and that of my family's. You are not welcome in this Sanctuary."

I still smile when I think about what happened next. As if pulled by a string, she flew backwards out of my house and into the street where she was dropped unceremoniously onto the asphalt. Drew followed her out and turned around to gape at me.

Smug smile pasted to my lips, I rolled over and climbed to my feet. Drew started to talk and I whipped my hand up cutting him off. "Oh we're going to talk but not just this second. You stay there. I'll deal with you in a moment."

I walked to the door and poked my head out. Smirking, I couldn't help but stick my tongue out at her before shutting the door. It would have been so much more satisfying if she hadn't called, "Grace! Ask him why he hasn't told you that he's the father of your child!"

If I could have un-heard that, I would have. I jerked the door back open and stared wide eyed at Drew.

Fury. Shock. Rage. Bewilderment. Every single one of these emotions rocketed around in my head, fighting each other for dominance. The ground began to vibrate.

It was fairly well known to everyone except Dylan and Brandon that Brandon was not Dylan's biological father. The problem was that I never really
knew
who was. It had been a girl's night out gone bad. A few too many Cosmos and too little common sense resulted in the best thing that had ever happened to my life.

I knew that Drew could glamour, but it couldn't have been him. I would have known,
right
? I would have fucking known.

"All you have to do in this second is say that it's not true. I'll believe you. That's all you have to do. I mean I'd never met you before. Right? Right??" My look was encouraging and I found myself nodding. I really wanted him to say that it wasn't true. I simply couldn't think of what it would mean for our relationship if he said otherwise.

"Grace, we need to—"

"Oh. Wrong words."

The ground erupted around him, spraying dirt and rocks before collapsing in, bringing him down with it. I could see it in the way his eyes tightened. He had lied to me. He'd never said he wasn't Dylan's father, but lying by omission is still lying. Fury enveloped me in fire.

Literally
, I was on fire. Flames licked up my skin with a delicious caress.

"You lied to me. You've been lying to me all this time." My voice was dead and my heart hurt. It made me angrier. I was tired of being constantly hurt. The fire grew hotter and the foliage around my door withered in the heat.

Something in the back of my mind told me that I needed to reign in the anger. I didn't want to be my father and this was the path to that level of crazy. When did my mantra become “Don’t turn into your father?” Luke…Luke…

"Mom?" The voice was scared and filled with confusion.

"Bubby, go back downstairs and call Athena. Tell her that we need a ride to Olympus. I'll be right there." I couldn't look at him. I was afraid of what he'd see in my eyes. The kid could look right into my soul and he didn't need to know what was going on in there right now.

"Oh… okay. Mom, I love you."

"I love you too, Bubby. Everything will be fine." The fire that had been licking up my body, surrounding me with the physical manifestation of my rage died down to a glow as I walked to Drew's half-buried body. I knelt down so we were at eye level.

"I don't understand how this happened or is even possible. But you could have told me the truth and we'd be okay right now. If you'd said something before I would have been pissed or confused, but I really believe that we could have worked through it. But you just can't share, can you? Everything has to be a damned secret. Does it make you feel more powerful? Do you think you're protecting someone by holding your cards so close? Well, you're wrong if you do. Drew, you fucked up."

I laughed without humor at my own stupidity. "We've been living like a family this whole time and I had no idea. I guess I didn't want to know." I stopped and ran my fingers through my hair. Shaking my head, I continued, "I can't do this anymore. I don't care where you go, but I want you out of my home and out of my life." The words were soft but laced with steel.

"Grace, we can talk about this. I can explain everything. You just have to trust me."

A surprised bark of laughter escaped my lips. "Trust you? Are you serious?" I shook my head and went into safe sarcastic mode. "What, you have a thing for Diana's kids and since you couldn't have the one, you settled on the other?"

"It wasn't like that."

"It feels like that. Why choose this-" I gestured down at my body, "when you had the paragon of virtue? Hell, I was even less when you pity fucked me. Christ, Drew." I ran my hand through my hair again and a mocking laugh burst from my mouth. "I was drunk but I would think I'd have remembered fucking you."

The anger turned to hurt and self-pity. I knelt down next to him so we were closer. My fingertips trailed over his cheek, the flesh sizzling where my skin touched his. I wanted one last look. I wanted to remember every feature because it was my intention to never set eyes on him again.

His oh-so-blue eyes stared at me, begging me to listen to him. But I wasn't having any of that. My eyes traveled across his plush lips that I wanted to perpetually kiss and down over the cleft in his chin that I daydreamed about. I'd buried most of the rest so that was as much as I was going to get. I sighed and closed my eyes to seal the memory.

"I haven't forgotten about you, bitch." My voice carried over her mad laughter. "You're on notice. If I see you again — if you come near my child again - I will kill you."

I looked up to gaze into her eyes. There was a new uncertainty that hadn't been there before. Good. She should be very afraid. I'm not going to pretend that I was tougher, faster or better than she was. But, I had a new determination and an unlimited supply of rage to fuel me.

My hand dropped from Drew's face and I stood up, taking one last glance before I stepped through the entryway to the house. Scooter circled around me before standing at attention in the doorway, an unearthly growl reverberating in his throat.

"You'll get your chance at her next time, buddy. Let's get packed."

I left Drew buried in the front yard. He wouldn't stay there. Like his father, he packed some serious juice. It said a lot about my mental state and how well he knew me that he'd stayed there in the first place. The heat from my skin evaporated the tears before they could reach my cheeks. Good.

The door slammed shut behind me with a force that rattled the windows. I pretended that I didn't notice Mrs. Johnson staring agape at my front yard. Crap.

***

"Let me get this straight, you
buried
him in your front yard. What are you…five?"

Athena was sitting on my bed kicking her feet as I packed and gave her the rundown on what had just happened. Saying that she was amused was an understatement.

"Like
you
couldn't have told me the what's up with the what's up? Why does everyone feel like they need to keep secrets?"

"Whoah there! When would I have had time to tell you
anything
over the last few months? Between training, trying to put LA back together and ferreting out the rest of Geb's minions, we've been a little busy, babe."

"Point to you," I said, slightly annoyed.

"Don't you think that you may be over-reacting a bit? I mean, they haven't been a couple for three hundred years."

I punched a pair of leggings into my gym bag with enough force to tear a hole in the bottom. "Crap. I don't know where my other bag is."

"You know you don't need any of this stuff. You have an entire wardrobe at Olympus in your chambers," she drawled.

"Yes, but packing angrily is dramatic enough to make me feel like I'm doing something useful with my rage."

"I see."

"I'm not pissed that they were a couple. I'm pissed because he just
happened
to knock me up one night and didn't bother to say 'oh hey, by the way, I'm your baby daddy.’
That
is what I'm pissed about. "

I dumped the bag out next to her and threw it under the bed. Now I had to find a new one. I had luggage - but packing luggage meant that this wasn't just some overnight stay. Luggage meant that I would be there for a while. Luggage showed intent. I wasn't ready to admit that I may be in Olympus for an extended period.

Athena's hand caught me as I was pacing around, looking for a replacement. "Grace, you need to pull your shit together and admit two things to yourself. One – you're going to be in Olympus indefinitely. You not only need to get Dylan's stuff addressed, but you need more training. I don't like that Hope knocked you around like a rag doll. It means that I wasn't training you right. And two — you need to recognize that you have some pretty strong feelings for your sister's husband and it's not just him lying to you about Dylan. There are other emotions running around in that crazy head of yours. The sooner you come to grips, the better."

"Sister's husband… Aww crap." I slumped against the bed in defeat. She was right. I hated how she was always right. But she wasn't the Goddess of Wisdom for nothing. "I've been trying to ignore those."

"Riiiiight. That's why you've let him play house with you for three months longer than was necessary."

I threw her a sidelong glance. Athena's humor was always fairly hard to decipher but it had been harder to figure out if she was being helpful or just a bitch lately. "Shut up and help me find my suitcases," I groused.

In forty-five minutes, the suitcases, the kid and the dog were packed and ready for the trip. We stood in the living room and I looked around at my home. The fact that I was running away from
my home
made me angrier than anything else could have. I'd worked hard for this. I'd fought tooth and nail for this patch of dirt and timber.

We'd been to Olympus a few times over the last three months but no longer than a night or two at a time. This felt more permanent. I was pretty sure I disliked that thought.