“This is an outrage!” Freya screamed. “Get it back! I can’t see without it!”
“Might I make a suggestion, Goddess?” Loki said, bowing his head respectfully.
“We need to call upon our allies and crush whatever world Ares and his whore are calling their home! We shall release the hounds of hell upon them and crush them where they stand!”
“Goddess,” Loki said again, “I may have a less bloody idea.”
“Oh, for Odin’s sake spit it out!” Freya told him, already gathering her feathers.
“Why not torture Ares as he did you? Why not first make him regret the decision to cross you?”
Freya thought it over for a moment. “Bring me Athena. Bring me this wife. Bring me anything and anyone that fool holds dear. I am going to torture and kill everything he loves until he is begging me for his own death!”
“Yes, Goddess,” Loki agreed, hiding his smile.
“And bring me Thor! He will pay for his apathy and promiscuous ways!”
“Yes, Goddess,” Loki agreed again. “I will need to take three warriors with me. We will search out and find these miscreants and bring them back to Asgard. This, I swear to you.”
“Then go,” Freya told him. “Here, take my feathers lest you need wings.” She shoved her feathers at him and Loki accepted the loan from the Goddess. She opened an apothecary drawer and retrieved a bottle of blue liquid. “This is a cloaking potion. It will last for as long as you need it to. When you return, I will reverse the effects.” She turned to walk away and when Loki didn’t leave, she asked, “Why are you still here?”
Loki bowed and then ran out of her chambers. This was all working out much better than he had anticipated. With Freya’s magical feathers in hand, he quickly went to the barracks to enlist three warriors to assist him.
He chose Lor, Tykir, and Rankor. Lor for his strength, he was massive, brandishing muscles of an ox, standing over seven feet tall, with the horns of a ram atop his head. His strength rivaled that of Thor’s and that made him useful. Tykir was the opposite, being the son of a dwarf, his small stature would allow him access to places others could not go. He was also skilled with an arrow like none other. Rankor was skilled in the art of hand-to-hand combat. His lanky build was misleading and he could have someone on the ground in a second. His eyes were sharp like a hawk, his metal feathered wings could slice like a razor. He was something out of a nightmare.
Loki led the trio of warriors, armed to the teeth to the bridge. Just before they would have crossed, he stopped them. “I am grateful for your service to our goddess and to Asgard. We will be traveling to Midgard and I must warn you, this world, they call it Earth, is different from any world we have ever traveled to. The inhabitants are odd and their ways are not our own. We must go in undetected and find Ares, Athena, and the human wife, Emma. Thor has forsaken us as well and must be found. Our mission is to find, capture and return.
He held out the potion. “You must all drink from this potion. It will hide you from human eyes until such time that we complete our mission and return home.” He handed the potion to Lor first, who drank without reservation. The other two warriors followed suit.
“I can still see us,” Lor said.
“It only works on humans,” Loki told him. “You will all be concealed. Find them. Capture them. Bring them back to our goddess for judgment.”
The four stepped onto the bridge. Loki felt the familiar magic pulling him over light years distance, the bridge, the stars, and all the surrounding details blurring into one multicolored light that stretched on forever but took mere minutes to travel. When the magic stopped, the four of them were standing in a desert on Earth. “Go,” Loki told his crew. He handed them all phones. “These are called cell phones. Here, take one. They are communication devices. Use it to contact me when you find one of our targets.” He pressed a button on one of the simple phones. “Press this to call me. Easy.”
The warriors grunted in affirmation and took off in three different directions, running into the night to complete their duties. Loki watched them go with pride.
Chapter Thirteen
“I’m not ghosting in,” Thanatos said. “The last time I did that they were in the middle of some freaky, freaky.”
“Well there is no cell service at the bottom of the Pacific,” Ares told him, “And I’m not leaving Emma again.”
Cody watched as they argued back and forth about who was going to go after the God of the Sea. What had he gotten himself into? Gods, goddesses and war? It was getting to be too much. He found that he liked these people, these gods, though. Sure they were arrogant and brash, but they were deities. How else were they supposed to be?
“I’ll go,” Athena said, standing up.
“No,” Thanatos and Ares said in unison.
“You have to conserve your power,” Sharalyn told her. “We don’t know how much you have left.”
“What do you mean conserve?” Thor asked, concern lining his face.
“You know? As in save it?” Thanatos answered.
“I know that,” Thor said, rolling his eyes. “But why?”
Athena brushed it off. “I have plenty of power.”
“The longer she is on Earth, the less power she has,” Sharalyn explained. “When the Olympians were cursed, they had to stay on Olympus or lose their power until they break their curse.”
“Is this true?” Thor asked Athena.
Athena shrugged. “I guess.”
“It is true,” Ares said. “It happened to me, to Thanatos and to Poseidon. It will happen to her too.”
“Then we must break her curse,” Thor announced. “What do we have to do?”
Athena shook her head. “It isn’t that simple. I have to break it.”
“Then do it, woman! War is afoot and we need you to fight!”
“I will fight,” she promised.
“Not without your power,” Ares said.
“How do you break your curse?” Thor asked, reminding them all of what he thought was most important. Athena without power just wasn’t Athena. It wasn’t right and it bothered him more than he was willing to admit.
“I have no idea,” she admitted.
Everyone was silent for a few moments. This could be very bad. Finally, Sharalyn spoke. “I’ll go and get Poseidon. Cody, you get the hell out of here. Thank you for everything you’ve done, but as a human, you can’t be here. You’ll only be in danger.”
Cody nodded, relieved to be dismissed. “I’ll just go home.” He turned to Thor. “If you need me though, you know where to find me.”
“Thank you, my friend,” Thor said, standing and holding Cody’s arm. “I will see you again.”
Ares led Cody to the door and then returned to the others. Sharalyn had already ghosted out. “This is fucked up,” he thought out loud.
“Yes, it is,” Emma agreed. “Let me see if I got this straight. Loki saw you and ran to Thor, only after insulting me and getting his ass kicked. He managed to free all of the gods on Olympus and set his big brother after you. Now, we have to be ready for anything. Did I leave anything out?”
“I think that about covers it,” Ares told her, sitting next to her and holding her hand.
Athena watched as her brother looked into his wife’s eyes. He loved her and it showed. The God of War was so gentle with her, so caring. It was as if she were his whole world. A pang of jealousy sliced her chest and she pushed it down quickly. She didn’t care. She didn’t want that. Right?
“What concerns me is the why,” Thanatos said.
“Why does Loki do anything that he does?” Thor asked. “He is a trickster.”
“But he always has an agenda,” Ares added. “What’s in this for him?”
“Thanks for waiting for me,” Poseidon said, ghosting into the room. “Sharalyn gave me the basics. So, what do we do?” he asked as he parked himself in Ares’s favorite recliner.
They tossed ideas back and forth for a couple of hours. Finally,
Emma stood. “I’m exhausted. I’m going to bed. You guys let me know when you figure it out.” Ares took her to bed and then returned.
“I think we should split up,” Poseidon suggested. “You and I need to go in search of any Olympians that we can find. Thanatos should check the underworld. Sharalyn will stay with Emma while Thor and Athena find Loki.”
“I don’t like leaving Emma,” Ares said.
“No one but us knows about Emma and the baby,” Thanatos told him. “And Sharalyn has every bit as much power as I do.”
“Loki knows about her,” Ares reminded them.
“But he doesn’t know she’s pregnant,” Thor added. “I will find him and I will teach him a lesson.”
“We will find him and take him to Odin for punishment,” Ares told him. Then he turned to Sharalyn. “Protect my family.”
“With my life,” she promised.
Sharalyn watched as the people who had become her family ghosted away before taking herself to Emma’s bedroom. It felt strange to be in there while she slept, but there was no way she was letting her out of sight.
After watching his warriors separate, Loki ghosted himself to Head Quarters to see Bella again. This time it was not personal, it was business. He sat in one of the barrel chairs near the stage and waited for her turn to dance.
Three girls took the stage before Bella and just before she walked out, he knew that she was there. He could smell her signature perfume. It wasn’t strong, but alluring. It was something standard that anyone could buy in a department store, but when it mixed with her own body scent, it was incredible. Loki leaned back in a relaxed pose as he watched Bella wrap her hand around the silver pole. She leaned out from it, stepping around it in a sensual circle before leaning back into it. Her breasts brushed against the pole as she took it in both hands. She lifted her body up using only her arms and wrapped her legs around the pole.
Oh, to be that pole, he thought to himself.
For centuries, Loki had found no interest in the opposite sex. It wasn’t until recently when he first saw Bella dance that his body reacted to anyone. He had begun to think that his dick was broken. As Bella slid down the pole and tipped her head back, Loki knew that wasn’t true.
Even though there was a raging fire inside of his body, Loki remained cool on the outside until she was finished dancing. As she stepped off the stage, Loki waited with a smile. She walked straight to him and straddled his legs. He knew that in public, he was not allowed to touch her. She moved against him in time with the music, effectively driving him insane.
“I was wondering if you were coming tonight,” she whispered in his ear.
“If you keep that up I will,” he whispered back, taking a nibble of her earlobe.
“Let’s go,” she said, standing up and holding out her hand. Loki took it, standing with her, and allowed her to lead him into one of the private rooms. Once the door was closed, Loki conjured a wad of money.
“I need a favor,” he said, unwilling to wait any longer to ask.
“Anything,” she promised.
Loki pulled the magical box from his pocket and handed it to her. “I need you to keep this safe. Do not try to open it and do not tell anyone about it.”
Bella looked at it. “That’s gorgeous,” she said, taking it from his hand. “What is it?”
“It’s a box containing a curse,” he said honestly. “I have to keep it hidden for now.”
“Sure thing,” she answered.
Loki handed her the wad of money, which she took and promptly tossed on the floor. She dropped to her knees in front of him and unfastened his jeans. Her hands felt like magic on him, but when she took him into her mouth, Loki dropped his head back and moaned.
“Where exactly, do you think a bunch of newly freed immortals would go?” Ares asked as they walked down yet another pedestrian filled street. “This is like searching for a needle in a haystack.”
“I agree,” Poseidon said. “Maybe we’re going about this the wrong way.”
Ares stopped walking and turned to look at his once enemy turned friend. “What would you suggest, Brother?”
“Well,” Poseidon scratched his head, “Let’s think for a minute. When you escaped the first time, why did you come to New York?”
Ares shrugged. “I was drawn here. I don’t know.”
“This is one hell of a violent place,” Poseidon mused. “Perhaps you were drawn to the constant conflict. You are the God of War. This human city reeks of war.”
Ares smiled. “So you think that maybe the others were called to similar places.”
“Ones that called to their natures.”
“Okay, so where do we start?” Ares asked more to himself than to Poseidon. “Gods are petty and selfish. They like to surround themselves with luxury and servants.”
“Somewhere they would fit in,” Poseidon agreed.
“I know where to go,” Ares said, his face lighting up.
Poseidon grinned. “Las Vegas,” they said in unison.
The pair slipped around a corner into an abandoned alley before ghosting themselves to the city of sin.
They materialized on the Las Vegas strip, just as night was falling. One couldn’t tell it, though. Bright lights lit the city from the ground up, flashing and glowing, beckoning all to come inside. People milled along the street, going from one place to another, some smiling, others not so much.
“Over-indulgence?” Ares asked.
“Check,” Poseidon agreed.
“Where to start,” he mused.
“I’d say right there,” Poseidon said, pointing at a building that was built to reminisce the old Greek palaces.
Ares looked where Poseidon had indicated and laughed. “Yep, that’s the place. Caesar’s Palace.”
The building was beautifully constructed with tall pillars and golden décor, but once they entered, that was where the similarities ended. Rows and rows of noisy machines filled the main hall, each with someone sitting on a chair, feeding it their coins.
The next room was filled with tables. Not the sort one would eat from, although there were many people drinking from them. These tables were meant for games of chance. Ares and Poseidon walked past them all, ignoring calls to join the games.
“Well hello, handsomes,” a tall, leggy blonde said, walking up to them and batting her eyelashes. She held a glass of champagne in her hand and a small purse in the other. “You boys looking for some company tonight?”
“No thank you,” Ares growled at her. She didn’t seem appropriately dissuaded.
“How about you, gorgeous?” she said, leaning against Poseidon’s arm. “I’m ready to have some fun tonight.”
“I’m sorry ma’am. We are looking for someone,” he told her.
“Come on,” Ares growled, grabbing the sea god’s arm and pulling him along. “You and that damned face of yours.”
“Aww don’t be jealous,” Poseidon laughed. “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.”
“Fuck off,” Ares growled. “We have work to do.”
Poseidon followed, laughing the whole time. It was no secret that the God of the Sea was something for the eyes to behold. His dark hair and crystal blue eyes had drawn in women and men alike for centuries and would for many more to come.
“What the—” Ares said, stopping dead in his tracks and backing up with his mouth hanging open. In one of the rooms, loud music thumped while women gathered around a stage. A man was dancing, only wearing a scant toga and sandals. His blonde hair shined brightly in the flashing lights above the stage and his tanned skin glistened as if it had been slicked down with some sort of oil.
“Is that?” Poseidon asked.
“Fuck me,” Ares grumbled. “Come on, let’s go get him.”
The two men marched straight to the stage where women were carelessly throwing money at the dancer. They were cheering and applauding with each and every move the man made. Ares slapped his hands down on the polished wood of the stage, causing a
loud boom. “Apollo!” he shouted over the music.
The Sun God turned his freakishly blue eyes in their direction and nodded but didn’t stop dancing for his crowd of drunken women.
“Apollo! We need to talk,” Poseidon yelled.
“I’m busy,” the Sun God answered, lacing his fingers behind his head and jutting his hips forward, eliciting a cacophony and squeals and applause from the spectators.
“Where are the others?” Ares demanded.
Apollo squatted down, spreading his knees and showing his manly bits to anyone who happened to be looking. Which Ares was, however unintentional. “Son of a bitch,” Ares spat, turning his head and covering his eyes. “There isn’t enough eye bleach on the planet to get that out of my head!”
The song ended and Apollo jumped off the stage, the money forgotten. He touched and hugged every female that he passed, even kissing a few who were in the right place. “What is so important?” he asked Ares.
The God of War could not look him in the eyes. Not after that.
“How did you get free?” Poseidon asked, pulling Apollo away from the stage as the next dancer took over.
“I jumped,” Apollo said with a grin. “The dragon slept and so I left.”
“Who came with you?” Ares asked. “Where are they?” Apollo grinned again. The effect his smile had was to light up the room, filling people with happiness and even light. Stupid fucker. “Seriously. Loki is about and starting shit again. All the gods on Olympus are gone.”
“They probably jumped as well,” Apollo offered. “The only one I have seen besides you is Aphrodite. She’s here somewhere.” Then he added, “What does Loki want, anyway?”
“To rekindle the war,” Poseidon told him.
Apollo huffed. “Well, I want no part of it. I have found my place in this world.”
Ares picked up a napkin and a pen from a server who was walking by. He scribbled on it and handed it to Apollo. “Here,” he said, shoving it at him. “When you come to your damn senses, this is where you can find me.”
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