The Gods Defense (Laws of Magic Book 1)

by Amie Gibbons

  “Oh, thank God,” Henry said, slumping in his chair. I didn’t realize til now how quiet he’d been. “That woman terrifies me.”

  “She’s supposed to,” Apollo said before turning to me. “I’m sorry about that.”

  “I don’t get what just happened,” I said. “I mean, she’s supposed to be the goddess that protects women, hunts and scares men. She’s the woman goddess taking on male roles. I’m a lawyer! Talk about a woman in a man’s world. She should love me! Or at least not hate me.”

  “She’s protective. She hates you because I like you. That’s it.”

  “Wellllll,” Persephone said. “That’s not quite it.” She met my eyes with an apologetic smile. “She doesn’t like you because you’re mean to her brother and he likes you despite that. Or maybe because of it.”

  “I’m not mean!”

  Her and Hades traded a look. “You’re mean,” they said together.

  “But,” Hades said, “now that you’re his minkati, you two should be fine. Just give Artemis some time. Even my mother-in-law stopped hating me… eventually.” He placed a hand on his wife’s belly. “I think the grandchildren on the way have something to do with it.”

  “Don’t you two already have kids?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “I swear I remember that from mythology.”

  Persephone snorted. “That’s so off. You have no idea. For one, by the time they were writing down those stories that survived til the modern era, we were long gone. And they had a lot of really disturbing views on women. Lots of rape and incest stories.”

  “Yeah, that’s got to be… off-putting. To see stories about yourself where they say you were kidnapped and raped by your husband.”

  “They also got it into their heads that I was his niece, that Zeus was my father, which is one of many examples of incest there. I hate what humans did to us, but him especially.”

  She rubbed Hades’ arm and he grabbed her hand to kiss it.

  “We’re going to change the subject before she gets worked up,” Hades said. “We do need to talk plans. All of us are in groups, trying to figure out what to do about the defectors, and we’re going to bring back what we come up with to the full contingent tomorrow.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Bear with me, just making sure I’ve got this right. There’s a curse, it will explode sometime in the next week or so. There’s extra magic in this world, and you guys don’t know why.

  “That’s good because it means you have more power to counter the curse, bad because the curse also has more power and some gods are defecting from the plan because now they can. This is bad because then they’ll have a ton more power than everybody else, and could get abusive fast since no one would be able to stop them, at least not easily.

  “We need to bully them into joining so everybody’s equally weakened, still need to keep an eye on the curse because it’s bursting out magic early, and the defectors know all this so it’s not like we could trick them. Do I have all that right?”

  “Let’s hear it for the nutshelling,” Persephone said. “You got it.”

  “So you didn’t really need my power,” I said to Apollo.

  He shrugged with a little grin. “I’ll need you after the alignment. You won’t be depleted like we are. You’ll use magic and recharge. You’re like a battery.”

  “But, you weren’t desperate. You didn’t need me for the alignment.”

  “Yes, I do.” He held up a finger. “We have enough power collectively, but more can’t hurt me as an individual, just in case something attacks. And we need you on our side.”

  “See, we’re going back to that whole I can’t trust you thing. You said you needed me for the alignment and you really don’t. Begging the question, why?”

  He met my eyes. “I need you. I never lied about that.”

  I looked away first.

  Can you say intense?

  I pushed back from the table. “Hey, is there a bathroom around here? Do gods even have to go to the bathroom?”

  Hades pointed to the opening. “Go out, take a right, little pink hut down the path. You can’t miss it.”

  “Okay.”

  I hustled to the bathroom. It was a little hut, yes, but it was as nice as anything I’d seen in a law firm or nice hotel. Marble counter tops, shining obsidian floors, the toilet, glass encased shower and sink sparkling with a lemony fresh clean that must’ve been magical.

  Who’d they have clean this place? Maybe it was magic and cleaned itself? That’d be nifty.

  I did my business, washed my hands and opened the door.

  “Hi,” Apollo said, walking in with such purpose that I backed up.

  He closed the door, giving me a grin dirtier than my kitchen on Kelsey’s weekends to clean, and locked the door behind him.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “Apollo?” I backed up, hitting the wall, heart buh-bumping a drum solo.

  “Cassandra.” He stepped forward slowly, like he was a cat hunting and didn’t want to scare the rabbit.

  “You know,” I said, hands flying in front of me as Apollo took another step. “I was just thinking, we need to get more people in on this. More people should know. So instead of playing it close to the chest, why don’t you guys have magical humans help. Even if they told people, who’d believe them, right?”

  “You’re babbling.” He stopped in front of me, staring down as he trailed a finger over my hip. “Why?”

  “I’m panicking… kind of what happens when I panic.”

  He was too close for my hands to talk so I held them up against my chest, a pretty pathetic defensive stance if I’d ever seen one.

  “What do you think I’m going to do?” He rested his hand fully on my hip, a light weight that could be shaken off at any time.

  I flushed. I had a couple of ideas of what he could do. “Well, you’ve got me trapped in a bathroom, and have been hitting on me, and-”

  “I told you.” Apollo leaned in, towards the side instead of my mouth. He slid his arm around my back and stopped with his mouth by my ear. “I will not try anything without your say-so first.”

  His breath tickled the small hairs on my ears, making them stand to attention.

  “You’re trying something now,” I said, voice breathier than a cheerleader hitting on the quarterback, and I couldn’t even muster enough brain power to hate it.

  “Am I?” He moved his lips to breathe down my neck, again not touching. “I’m speaking with a friend and employee. Just very closely.”

  “Technicality,” I said, the word barely audible as he moved back enough to look me in the eyes, still bent over me, all it’d take was a push up on my toes to kiss him.

  He looked into my eyes, like he had all the time in the world to stare at me.

  I licked my lips, staring back. Here was Apollo. No tricks, no magic, no lies. Just a guy staring at a girl like she was the only thing that mattered.

  He had tricked me into working for him when he didn’t really need me for my expertise or my powers. But, he’d tricked me when he hadn’t needed me for those, but had needed me.

  My gaze jerked between his eyes and his mouth. The air danced with sparks that had nothing to do with magic and everything to do with chemistry.

  We’d had it since the day we met.

  He’d stared at me then, too, fixing his eyes on me even when he was talking to other people.

  That night we stayed at the law school, on a couch tucked into a back corner, long after everyone had left, talking about magic and what changes it might make in the law. He asked me out before we left.

  He hadn’t kissed me then and I’d wanted him to. He said later he was trying to be a gentleman and to wait for the first date to kiss me, and said I should’ve kissed him if I wanted to.

  I put my hands on his shoulders and inched in. It was like we were magnetized and I decided to stop fighting it. I hadn’t felt this way in years. Like I couldn’t not kiss someone.

  He bent in, no
t having to be asked. He smelled like soap and spices, with a touch of lemon. Or maybe that was the bathroom cleaner.

  I kissed him, a soft press of lips before I pulled back enough to angle my head. We kissed again, more substantial now. I slid my arms around his neck and opened my mouth to him.

  Hell, we were already going for it, what would another step hurt?

  Apollo took the invitation and kissed harder, sucking on my tongue. I made a small noise as my legs shook with keeping me on my tiptoes. He pulled back and scooped me up. I wrapped my legs around him as he whirled us to the side and set me on the sink.

  We went back to kissing. He pressed into me in little waves.

  “The one time you wear pants,” he practically growled, rubbing my inner thigh before squeezing, pressing his thumb into the middle, right into the bundle of nerves, sending a shock up my leg.

  My head tossed back and I groaned. “They really aren’t that hard to take off.”

  I pulled him in by my arms still around his neck and we kissed, all tongue and sucking. He rubbed the front of his slacks against me so I could feel how hard he was.

  He broke the kiss. “The problem with that is it gives me a second to think while I’m not pressed against you.”

  I kissed my way down his jaw to the little spot on his neck where the blood rode close to the surface and sucked on it.

  Apollo groaned. “And then I remember we have people waiting for us and I don’t want our first time to be a quickie in a bathroom. I really don’t want to remember that right now.”

  “Then don’t,” I whispered in his ear before darting my tongue in.

  “Okay.”

  Apollo picked me up and kneeled, lowering me to the floor.

  He kissed me as he pressed on top of me then moved to my neck. He found the same spot I’d gotten on him and kissed it a few times before going in for the kill, sucking on the oh-so sensitive skin.

  “Ahhh,” I gasped, pressing into him with little waves, my body singing a chorus of ‘Fuck me, fuck me now.’

  “I want inside you,” Apollo thought at me as he kissed me, taking my hands and pinning them above my head.

  “Works for me. Pop us back to your place? The floor’s hard.”

  “Okay,” he thought, then said, “Shit,” out loud, pulling back.

  He let me go and pushed off the ground to his feet, rubbing his face with his hands. I sat up, about to ask what was wrong.

  “I got completely carried away. They’re waiting for us.”

  I slumped back to the floor. “And I’ve got to get to the hospital to see my mom. Geez, what were we thinking?”

  He held out a hand and I let him haul me to my feet.

  “We weren’t,” he said, keeping a hold of me. “I was planning on kissing you and then going back.” He sighed. “That’s the most we’ve done since…”

  I nodded when it was clear he wasn’t going to say it. “Yeah. Since we were making out in my car and you said… what was it? You couldn’t wait to see what I could do. I thought you were flirting, but you said later…” I tried to remember. “We got to talking and you said who you really were and that you wanted to see what I could do magically.”

  “That wasn’t exactly how it happened.”

  “It was something like that.”

  He stepped in, giving me a light kiss. “I never lied to you. Not about anything important.”

  “Like your name, who you were, what you were.”

  “I withheld information, yes. But I was honest in my feelings. I still am.” He shrugged. “And now you know everything.”

  “We just have to be careful, not jump into anything.” I flinched. “Or not do anything stupid like have sex while I work for you. Do you know how bad of an idea this is?”

  “No, it’s not.” Apollo grinned and went for the door, holding it open for me.

  “Come on.” I went through the door, Apollo close behind. He walked to the side of me and took my hand. “Can you say don’t shit where you eat?”

  He gave me a blank look.

  “It means you don’t have sex with someone you can’t avoid if things go bad. You don’t date someone you have a class with or work with or are friends with.”

  “I disagree. How else do you meet people?”

  My mouth worked. He had a point. Which was why I hadn’t been on a date in months.

  “See?” he said as we came up to the hedges again and stopped me with a tug, pulling me around to look in his eyes. “We’re attracted to each other. Why assume it will end? Why not see where it goes and deal with it if it ends?”

  “I… I…”

  He kissed me, a quick peck, then dropped my hand and walked through the hedge opening, leaving me blinking.

  I’m a lawyer, I should be able to think of an argument. The internet! That’s where you meet people.

  Yep, should have said that.

  I went back in and sat at the table. Persephone and Henry were gone.

  “Nice of you two to rejoin me,” Hades said with a dry drawl, making me blush. “We’d like to start gathering more people to our cause. We’re thinking magical non-disclosures.”

  I raised my eyebrows.

  “They magically bind you from speaking about something.”

  “Okay,” I said. It made as much sense as anything else right now.

  “Why don’t we try this with a few of Cassandra’s friends and others we trust?” Apollo said. “Build up our base.”

  “My friends?” I asked as Hades nodded. “I have…” I searched my brain. “Two close friends who are magical in town. A few more lawyers I’m at least friendly with here.”

  “What about other cities?”

  “Off the top of my head? Maybe a dozen I’d say are friends who have magic.”

  “How about you call your friends, the people you trust, tonight? We’ll get the ones from out of town escorted into Olympus through doorways in their cities, and all meet up tomorrow and get them on board.”

  “People are going to need more than a day’s notice. But I can at least grab Tyler and Millie. I’ll call them tonight and then we can meet tomorrow.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Apollo said.

  “I’ve got to see my mom.” I stood and Apollo followed. “I will see you tomorrow,” I said, “and we can… see where things go.”

  He smiled. I turned and left before he could get it in his head to kiss me again.

  I didn’t think I would’ve left for a while if he did.

  # # #

  “Hey mom,” I said as I rushed into her room. It was a typical hospital room, with an adjustable bed, a few chairs and a TV, and painted a baby pink that was probably supposed to make it feel cozy but just made it a little too on this side of ridiculous.

  “Sorry I’m late.” I dropped my bag on the chair and half lunged over the bed, hugging her long and hard.

  “Mom needs to breathe,” she finally said, laughing.

  “Sorry.” I pulled back. “Okay, you wanted to be able to catch up on world events.”

  I pulled the tablet I brought for her out of my bag and set it on the tray next to her. She lifted an arm with the slow precise movements of a robot and rested it on the tray with a deep breath.

  I’d have to ask Apollo about healing her, make her recovery a bit faster.

  “This is a tablet,” I said, biting down my worry.

  The doctors said she was doing great and with physical therapy, lots of physical therapy, would get her muscles back to normal.

  Still, couldn’t hurt to get Apollo to look at her. “You can read books on it, get on the internet, watch movies, even write in it if you have it hooked up to a keyboard and download an app for it.”

  She looked it over. “You can watch movies on it? It’s like something out of a sci fi movie. Or a fantasy one. Is that related to this whole magic stuff being real?”

  I chuckled. “No. It’s just technology. It’s a little laptop, basically.”

  “Magic’s real. I
still can’t get over that. I swear I almost had a heart attack when the nurse first told me that.”

  “I know.” I sat next to her on the bed. “I considered pulling a Goodbye Lenin and hiding that from you for a few weeks, but dammit, your doctor walked in on four hooves and shot that idea to hell.”

  Mom cracked up. It actually was a student shadowing the doctor who was a centaur and by the time he came in she’d already been told about the whole magic thing, but facts have no place in the world of teasing mom.

  She already looked healthier after only another day. They’d showered her since yesterday so her black hair wasn’t all stringy, color was back in her cheeks and she seemed stronger, sitting propped up and able to move her arms and everything.

  My mom was fucking amazing after what she’d been through.

  “I’m still working out where to put you when we spring you from this joint. I have a lease for the next five months, but with my new job, I can afford to pay it and have another apartment. So I’m going to start looking when I have time.”

  “That’s okay, sweetie, take your time. It sounds like I’m here for at least a few weeks, and I can always crash on a couch or in a hotel.”

  “You are not spending your first days back in the real world on a couch or in a hotel. Actually, I could put us up in a nice one.”

  “How much is this new job paying you?”

  Apollo told me over email this morning to write up a basic agreement for him to hire me for… well, let’s just say I’d be able to live comfortably and pay off my student loans within about five years. And Vandy ain’t cheap.

  “A lot,” I said. “So much that I’m embarrassed to tell you right now. But it’s not just me being a god’s lawyer, it’s me giving him magic and helping design some of their judicial system. So I am going to be working a lot more, like if I was working in a law firm. He looked up how much law firms pay in Nashville and offered me that.”

  “That’s one hell of a boss you have.”

  I flashed back to him pinning my hands to the floor in the bathroom and tried not to blush. “Yeah… yeah, you could say that.”

  # # #

  “So we walk out of the bar, and I’m drunk,” I said, hands talking with me. “Not like falling over smashed, just drunk. And we run into my friend’s ex. I don’t quite remember, but I don’t think he saw us. We saw him and a girl across the street and they were wrapped up in each other, like near breaking laws into each other. And I hear this ripping noise. I look over and Millie’s so pale, I’m afraid she’s going to pass out.”