by Crystal Dawn
Several of the other gods suspect they’ve found their mates but they aren’t sure yet. Some of them wonder if they’ll ever be truly free of Origin and if they’ll ever have the things that other people take for granted.
Frozen Origin 3-Hades
In Hades, more gods are freed and brought home. A new trend is developing with Origin. They are farming gods out singly to small groups and individuals making it harder to track them. Hades and Doc search for a god that was verified in the possession of an unidentified party. Their mission was largely unsuccessful and they returned to Olympus without the god they had searched for. Was he still alive? They believed he was but the search would have to start all over from scratch. They refused to give up until he was free or confirmed dead.
Frozen Origin Quickies-Morpheus
Farmed out to a particularly loathsome female researcher, Morpheus only wants to die so he can be free from the pain and the desire of the vindictive female who tortures him when he refuses to service her. Eventually his fellow gods find him but there are so many more out there in situations similar or even worse than his.
Prologue
Emma Norton, Dr. Emma Norton, looked into the eyes of the two year old child she had been raising as if she were her own. It was only fair since it was her fault that that her mother had died giving birth. It was just one of a long list of sins that she had to atone for and with the break down of Origin and the development of these small research groups as they were being called, now was the time to begin to plan the end. She’d not ever thought of herself as cold, but now she saw she had been and distant as well. It was like she’d thought nothing bad was going on if she chose not to acknowledge it.
Her parents had been the academic types completely absorbed by their work. She had been an accident but they had chosen to have her hoping she would take their work to the next generation and beyond. A living legacy of sorts but they would have been disappointed because she had gone into another field entirely, DNA. They had died when she was barely a teenager. Their study had turned deadly and they hadn’t left the volcano fast enough and their passion had literally burned them up.
She herself had also been a victim of their research. While they studied a volcano near a small primitive village, she had gotten an illness unknown of in the rest of the world. She had survived, but she was almost completely deaf. It may have been part of the reason she rejected their life’s work. An implant later in life had aided in her struggle to be part of the world around her.
Joy said, “Mommy.” She looked into that precious face and knew it was time. Now, before another moment passed. She picked up her cell phone. Not the one she usually used but the burner cell she had bought just for this purpose. She almost dropped it when someone answered.
“Hello, gods of Olympus hotline. This is Zelus speaking.”
Zelus
Chapter 1
Immunity
Zelus sat at his desk in the room where the hotlines were manned and his mouth was slightly open. The look of surprise was plastered on his face. The first thought was, this was a joke of some sort, but what if it wasn’t?
“Ma’am, I can give you immunity if your information and assistance leads us to reclaim two gods. The situation with the child is more than I personally can guarantee but I can get someone here that does have that power.”
“I’ll have to call you back. Tomorrow at the same time, okay? What’s your extension?” she sounded worried and nervous.
That was no surprise if she was betraying a group like Origin. All their high level officers were vicious and cold. As far as Zelus was concerned they were soulless fiends, capable of anything. Part of that observation probably came from being at their mercy most of his life. There were things he refused to do regardless of the encouragement and he had the scars to prove it.
“You can talk to anyone at this number.”
“No, you. I want to talk to you or I’ll just forget about it.”
“Don’t do that. It’s extension Z. I’ll be here,” he reassured her quickly.
“Thank you,” she said just before the line went dead.
Hades came running into the room and everyone looked up but it was Zelus he approached. “I want to hear it,” he demanded as he held out his hand.
Hades was responding to the button Zelus had pushed indicating they had a possible lead on a god. All the stations in the call center had such a button. The alarm was routed to whichever command level god was on duty at the time. Zelus handed him his ear phones so he could replay the conversation without interrupting the others taking calls from all around the world. While they had up to ten gods manning phones at any given time and they were kept busy, only a handful of calls in a week, led to anything worth investigating. Often, all the calls of worth were about the same case. This call was different since people just didn’t betray Origin. Once they were caught, that was different but this woman was free. It made no sense.
Zelus was sure, down to his bones, that the call was legitimate. His mind was like a runaway train as questioned ran through it and he couldn’t find a way to slow them down. Her voice had aroused him which made him ashamed. She had said she was bad, too dark a soul to redeem. What if it was true but he wanted her anyway? What if only part of what she said was true and she was trying to use him against his brothers? He knew so little except her voice called to him. Could he really want a female so morally corrupt that she sat by or even assisted in the torture of his brothers?
He looked at Hades who had set down the headphones and was looking at him thoughtfully. It was never good to draw Hades’s full attention. He pushed his worry to the side for now. Hades would make all the decisions on this case. His only part would be talking to her and even then, Hades or another higher level god, maybe even Zeus, would make all the decisions on any deal struck. He would just follow orders, something he was very good at.
“You make sure you’re here early tomorrow,” Hades said in his usual no nonsense way. The thought of bringing home two gods and a small girl child who was part god, was heartwarming. The thoughts he had about a female who wanted to betray Origin and hide among them, not so much.
Everyone made mistakes, but there were some mistakes so big and bad that you couldn’t come back from them, weren’t there? How bad had she been? Had she killed gods and innocents? Had she only helped and not killed them herself? Or was she only guilty of turning a blind eye and overlooking the pain and suffering others caused? He was glad he wasn’t in charge because they would be walking a fine line on the deal they needed to make. She would be suspicious, hell, she already was. He could just imagine the conversation in Zeus’s office right about now. He was glad he hadn’t been invited.
“Who the hell is she and do you think she really knows where two gods are?” Zeus growled. They were searching for the lost gods, but it was taking so much time, too much time. Teams of gods and humans were spending weeks sometimes chasing leads with little or no results. “What about this girl child? Do you think she’s really part god?” Zeus looked around waiting for someone to answer.
“It wouldn’t be surprising to find that the girl is part god. She certainly wouldn’t be the first,” Doc said. “There was something about the way that the woman spoke at the start of the conversation. I think she might be a doctor or an assistant.” The gods present all looked angrier. They blamed the doctors more than any except the top managers and owner of Origin. “All of you need to realize a doctor coming to us would be invaluable. She would know things we’ve only guessed at. She might be able to help save even more gods before they have time to switch them all around on us.”
“I understand you guys are resentful. You’d rather deal out vengeance than reward. That won’t work this time, we need anything she can give us. If you get her to come to you, others from Origin may see you treated her fairly and come to you also. The organization needs to crumble and the fastest way is to raid their people and turn them to your side. Being connected with Or
igin isn’t a popular place to be, put some pressure on them. Your searches haven’t been successful enough, get more information by recruiting former Origin managers. I know it seems like you’re rewarding their bad behavior, but the lives of some of your lost gods may depend on it. Start with her because it sounds like she has the reason she needs to change,” Sierra said adding her opinion.
“Enough, you two have made your point. We’ll go forward with a deal for the female when she calls Zelus. Anyone disagree?” Zeus took the time to look each person in the eyes as he went around the table. “Very well, dismissed until then.”
Gods jumped up and hurried out the door trying to get away before Zeus changed his mind. Sierra watched with a smirk on her face. It was fuckin’ hilarious the way these big tough gods hated to talk about anything but fighting and sex. She looked at Doc seeing a similar look on her face. She noticed Cherish just shook her head. She was still trying to figure the guys out, as if that was even possible. Zeus put his arm around his mate and lead her back to their room. Tomorrow would move the situation along and the decisions would be made as things progressed.
Sierra had noticed the female seemed to trust Zelus. She would be recommending he joined the team. She was sure he wouldn’t be pleased since he never went into the outer world nor did he like dealing with humans. It was good to push a god’s comfort zone and she did it often. She didn’t mind being called a pushy bitch, in fact she was rather proud of it. Now that he was on her radar, Zelus would find he was pushed often. It was a busy time with Thanksgiving behind them and Christmas ahead. They had celebrated an American style Thanksgiving on the same day as the US since most mates were American.
With today being the first of December, all the decorations and the tree were being put up with haste. She didn’t want to decorate for Christmas until the start of the month because the holidays tended to run together as it was. She liked each to have it’s own time so the reason for each holiday was clear and celebrated properly. Maybe she was being silly, but when it came to holidays, these gods were a lot like kids. They hadn’t been able to enjoy any of the holidays when they were growing up. She wanted to help them enjoy them now.
They were all so tense and worried about the lost gods and the possible children of the gods that were out there. There was Cronos too, who seemed to be on the verge of waking. It was exciting but scary too since no one knew what to expect. Sierra had a friend coming in who worked with ancient languages among other things. She would help figure out what to expect by translating the images around Cronos’s body. It wouldn’t be long since she was coming at Christmas break, the day after Christmas precisely. She was a professor and had duties to see to until then.
They were stepping up the missions to recover the lost gods because the longer they were gone, the less likely they would ever come home. They were using an untapped pool of a few hundred younger gods that didn’t run missions often. It was a calculated risk sending so many inexperienced gods into the outer world. Each team would have two experienced members, Hades and Doc were the two for the second team, a team made up of some surprised and even a few less than willing members but they had to help with team one as well. They were gods, they would suck it up and do their best.
They had been gone now for a handful of days. Team one was nearly ready to make their move and an unhappy Hermes, who had not wanted to leave his mate so she had insisted on going too, headed it. They had found out some information that team two needed. It seemed that Raker was using employees to breed more gods. These women were being used without their knowledge and would have to be helped somehow.
She went to the communications room and checked on the progress of all the teams in the field. Team one would be attacking the facility today. Hopefully they would find information that would help the teams still out in the field. They would all have to react fast once team one got their gods out. The clock would be ticking and every team would have to act quickly or risk losing their gods. No one was willing to risk that. A special team was assembling that would go after Raker and any of the other managers they knew about. Emma would be helpful when it came to identifying and tracking these people down.
Chapter 2
Making a deal
Emma had been as nervous as a whore in church all day no matter how hard she tried to relax. Her jumpiness would draw attention if it hadn’t already. Her change of heart was making her see everything in a different light and her need to change the way things were just grew steadily. Raker was pressing her to make some progress on an antiaging drug. She tried to explain that the god she was using for the study couldn’t give more samples without risking permanent damage or death. Raker didn’t care. She got a message from his assistant saying the she had a schedule to keep and she’d best keep it.
The other god was in breeding trials. She tried to give him time off and had managed for a little while. She even told the assistant being used to get pregnant that Rheus, the god who she was trying to breed with might have a serious and contagious illness. Hilda, the assistant had gotten concerned, for herself of course, and taken off a week. Now she was back, horny and bitchy as ever. She needed to make this call soon. She wasn’t going to last much longer and the guards had already teased her saying she had a weak spot for Rheus and Themus, the gods who were providing essence for the antiaging serums and the breeding materials.
The gods weren’t treated well and she feared they would be injured or destroyed before the deal was done and they were rescued. She went to her room for lunch making sure the door was closed and scanning for listening devices. She pulled out a new phone, she had bought a bunch last time she went shopping. She had it ready to dial in moments. She was getting good at this which was a sad commentary on her life. She had always only wanted to be a researcher and help people. When had her life gone so wrong and was it too late to fix it?
She fixed a bottle of juice for Joy. She had named her that because she brought her the only joy her life had. With Joy busy and everything secure, she dialed the number and pushed the extension she wanted.
“I don’t have much time. Are we in agreement?”
“Yes,“ Zelus said. “Give me the needed information.”
“We’re in Fresno, California. It’s a building that’s three stories high but it has two lower stories. The business is A New Dawning. It’s suppose to be a planned parenthood health center on the first level with housing on the top and a pharmacy and surgery center on the second level. We all know what happens in the basement. I need you to hurry, Rheus and Themus won’t last much longer. Raker is getting impatient and wants results even if it costs us the subjects.”
“We’ll..”
“Someone’s coming. I have to..” the line went dead. Zelus looked to Zeus and was thankful that he wouldn’t be involved in what looked to be a dangerous mission. He sighed quietly in relief and looked around at all the gods that were gathered. All of them were higher ranking, stronger fighters, and more experienced decision makers. He was a communications expert, the last thing this mission needed. Origin had trained him as a guard, but he had never embraced that so he had been kicked into communications. He spoke more languages then most and his other skills were all good but he was a genius when it came to computers. His experience in the outer world wasn’t great because he was younger than Zeus’s group and he didn’t go out often. He’d be glad not to go out this time because he had a feeling if he did, his life would become complicated. His shift was over and he started to leave.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Hades asked with a laugh.
“My shift is done and no one indicated that I was needed to stay.”
“Consider it indicated, now.”
Zelus sat back down. “Will you tell me what you need me to do?”
“You’re on the extraction team,” Hades explained.
Zelus was stunned, he hadn’t seen this coming. “May I ask why?”
“She seemed comfortable with you and we want this t
o go smoothly. She’s concerned about the gods in her care, we have to get this right the first time.”
Zelus wanted to argue, but he knew better. Hades had made up his mind and it was done. “When do we leave?”
A slow smile came over Hades‘s face. “First thing in the morning. Rest, pack, and eat early because anyone who makes us late will regret it.”
Zelus got the message loud and clear. They all knew he didn’t want to go but they didn’t care. He admitted he had mixed feelings. He had seen the trouble Hades had went through with his mate and it hadn’t been pretty. On the other hand, now that they were firmly mated, they were two of the happiest people he knew. He had often thought about how it would feel to be mated and hold that one special female in your bed, your arms, and your heart. He just didn’t know if he was ready for it yet especially if his mate turned out to have a black soul.
He couldn’t relax and even food held little appeal to him. He went to bed early but struggled to slow his mind so he could sleep. He tossed and turned, falling asleep just hours before his alarm woke him. Bleary eyed, he took a shower which chased the last bit of sleepiness away and hurried to the cafeteria to eat. Hermes’s mate, Cherish, slipped him a cinnamon roll. They were his favorites and she always seemed to know when he needed comfort food.
He would try not to worry because so far all the mates had been a perfect match for the gods they were with. He would try to have faith in fate even if both were foreign concepts to a god. He went to the meeting area and he was one of the first to arrive. Hades and Doc always rolled in at the last minute with smiles on their faces. He wondered how much longer Hades would let his pregnant mate go on missions. She was already swelled slightly with the child, but only someone who knew her would notice. It wasn’t like poor Cherish who waddled along like a duck. Of course he’d never tell her that and not just because Hermes would beat him, but mainly because she would deny him his treats. He loved those treats as all the gods did.
