by Grace,Viola
They laughed together, and despite the creepy circumstances, both were pretty happy with Minerva’s choice.
Chapter Twelve
It was a definite plus that the gown Norman had sent over covered her nipples. The jewels covered the important bits, but the translucence hinted at everything else.
Her mom helped her with her hair, and magic held it in place. Minerva hated pins.
The doorbell rang, and Deirdre smiled at her. “That is probably him.”
“I hope so, because I am tempted to order pizza and stay in.” She turned from side to side, looking at the dress that was part elegance and part tease.
It was just luck and a bit of enchantment that made her shoes a perfect match.
Her mother returned and smiled. “He’s here, Minerva. Have a nice time.”
She nodded and headed for the door. The appreciation and admiration in his expression made her surprisingly happy.
“Good evening, Zemuel.”
“My lady, you are radiant.” He bowed and his wings lifted slightly.
He was wearing a tuxedo that was slit to accommodate his wings, and the fit was perfect. “And you are striking.”
He took her hand and brought it to his lips for a kiss. “Thank you, but I pale in comparison to your beauty.”
She took in his added height that evening. “Are you taller for a reason?”
“To defend your strength and beauty. With a woman such as you at my side, I will need to be on alert.”
Minerva smirked. “Nice call with the strength comment.”
He released her hand and offered her his arm. “I wasn’t born yesterday.”
Her giggles continued as they settled into a stretch SUV, and it pulled away from her mother’s home. She felt like she was going to prom.
While Minerva had attended any number of formal gatherings in the past, she had never gone with a date. This evening was new territory for her.
The driver took them through town and to the museum.
When they arrived, Zemuel exited and came around to help her out of the vehicle.
She took his arm for stability as they walked on the thick carpet to the entrance of the museum. A few camera flashes blinded her, and Zemuel flexed a wing, wrapping it around her and keeping them from taking more pictures.
Spots dance in front of her eyes as they stepped into the building. “Thank you.”
“I am not a fan of appearing in news reports and tabloids, but they got enough of you.” His murmur was meant for her alone.
He presented two heavily embossed invitations to one of the security personnel, and the head curator escorted them through the halls and into the exhibit.
Daggers, cups and instruments of torture were only part of the exhibit. Ancient portraits and documents were of interest to Minerva. She saw a silvery dragon in one of the images and sought out a few others that had the same tiny beast in the distance.
“Is that you?”
He leaned in and checked the dates. “It is possible. I was in the general vicinity at the time. Wait, let me check on that.”
He leaned until he was nearly touching the image. “Yes, it is a depiction of me. I remember this artist. She did a number of portraits in my home.”
“She was a friend.” Minerva was surprised.
“She was. Her story was tragic, and I knew her only for a decade.”
“What happened?”
He gave her a sad smile. “Elsinor disappeared as silently as she appeared. One day she was out in the centre of the field, and ten years later, she disappeared from her studio in the tower.”
“Were you lovers?”
He chuckled. “No. She was firm on that point. I was not invited to her chamber and did not invite her to mine. She was a friend and companion, and I still miss her.”
“Do you think she lived a long life?”
Zemuel sighed. “No, but I think she is alive today.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“You have lived with extranaturals around. It makes sense if you look at it a certain way. I don’t know where she is, but I am sure she didn’t live long, and just as certainly, I am sure she still walks the earth.”
She reached down and squeezed his hand. She looked past Zemuel and spotted a dark-haired woman smiling at her. A moment later, the woman disappeared behind a cluster of people. There was something about her. It was as if she wanted to be seen but didn’t want to engage.
Minerva shook her head slightly, and they continued touring the exhibit. If the woman didn’t want to speak to them at this event, it would have to wait for another day.
The mayor and his assistant were holding court. Leo’s skill at dealing with unruly vampires was already legend in Redbird City.
Minerva had met Leo a few times in the last few months, and she was a polite and no-nonsense woman. It was an excellent foil against Matthias’s calm and brooding nature. She got things done; he thought about them. Together, they were unstoppable.
Leo’s calm demeanour made her an excellent assistant for the mayor. When surrounded by thrashing and hungry vampires, she didn’t get scared, she got angry.
Minerva smiled at her. “This is quite the event. The artifacts are wonderful.”
Matthias turned and smiled. “Leo picked them out. She has an excellent eye for what will draw the public to an event.”
Zemuel observed, “Not a lot here from your early days.”
“I was more concerned with survival then and far less with storing parts of my life for later admiration.”
Zemuel smirked. “And yet, I see several items from a period only a few centuries later.”
“Well, there is nothing wrong with going around to collect your past. I spent some time seeking out relics during the Middle Ages. They were venerated and easier to find then. My collection is in the Corudet Museum.”
“I think I would like to see that.”
He smiled. “I would enjoy showing you.”
Zemuel and Min walked through the exhibit together, and Minerva could feel the glances that they were drawing. She didn’t mind. Zemuel was the one catching most of the stares.
Minerva was surprised to see Lenora and Emile looking at the exhibits. Her mentor smiled. “It seems you have worked things out.”
“It is coming along.”
Lenora tugged her away from Zemuel and led her to a parchment outlining the first vampire settlement in the new world.
“Min, how are you feeling?”
“Fine. Why?”
“I have been reading the omens. There are eyes on you. Focuses that weren’t there last month.”
Minerva smiled. “Have you been checking up on me?”
“Of course. I check on Benny, you and Freddy regularly. I did my second doctorate in scrying, you know.”
“I know. So, what do the portents say?”
“Just that dark powers will seek you out. I have no idea what the outcome will be. There is a block there.” Lenora huffed in frustration.
Minerva patted her mentor’s hand. “It will be fine. I am aware of my surroundings, and if someone picks a fight, I will be ready.”
Lenora sighed. “This has been a rough year. I would hate for anything to happen to you or the baby.”
“How do you know about that?”
Lenora smirked, “I was looking into your future. Didn’t you hear that part?”
Minerva sighed. “This is getting weird.”
“You don’t feel it yet?”
“No. I can see the mark, but my body feels the same.”
“Give it a few months. You will feel the changes.” Lenora winked.
Minerva sighed and looked around. A few members of the gathering were looking in their direction, and one startling male had eyes that were solid black. He gave her a slight smile, and when she looked at him, he disappeared. No one around him even noticed, so she guessed she had been looking at a projection.<
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She was going to have to mention increasing the security protocols to the curator. If someone could project in, that was sloppy warding.
Four hours and two dozen hors d’oeuvres later, she curled up against Zemuel’s side as they were driven back to her home.
A note on the kitchen table said, I have gone out with Lima and Deara. I will be home in the morning. You have the house to yourself.
Zemuel chuckled. “That is very accommodating of her.”
Minerva looked at the note. “This is wrong. She hates Lima, and Deara died six months ago. Something has happened to my mother.”
He paused. “May I see the note?”
She nodded. He lifted the paper to his nose, sniffed it and tasted the ink.
“Deirdre was afraid when she wrote this, but why would someone take her?”
Minerva took the page to her workshop, her gown rustling as she moved.
Zemuel reduced size to follow her. “What do you think has happened?”
“I think someone has taken my mother. I just don’t know why.”
She set the page on the table, got a few bottles down and poured a pinch of revealing powder into her palm. With careful fingers, she sprinkled the dust over the letter.
Zemuel didn’t ask what she was doing.
She followed the one powder up with one for enhancing emotion and another for tracking.
When she was done, she covered the page with her palms an inch from the surface. She muttered the words of focus and activated the powders one at a time.
The paper curled at the edges as whatever had taken Deirdre fought to hide. She flicked aside their barrier, and she got the images she needed flowing through the air ahead of her.
“She is still on the property.”
Minerva nodded. “They took her to the temple.”
“Before we go and get her, how are your healing skills?”
“Excellent. Why?”
“Bring what you need in case they have injured your mother.”
She nodded and grabbed a belt that she filled with tiny vials. It clashed with the gown, but she didn’t give a fuck at this point. They had her mom.
They moved silently through the back yard under a cloaking spell. It took a lot of effort to hide Zemuel. His signature stood out like a firebrand.
The kidnappers had obviously thought that they would take the opportunity to be alone, because they ran into one of them on the path to the temple.
Zemuel stepped forward, grabbed the man and suffocated him until he dropped. Minerva had discussed it with him. If these guys were gods, they would give up power when they died. It was best to incapacitate them without killing them.
The crack of the leg bone made her wince, but it didn’t wake the unconscious man. He wouldn’t be following.
Zemuel returned to her side, and they continued on their journey to the temple in the woods. No other men got between her and the small building, but she heard raised voices when she got there.
“I did not go through all of this for you to kill off my acolyte, Zagreus.” Hecate was angry.
“I have been reborn, built by the gods as your new daughter was. I am destined to rule, and I will have a new pantheon to keep the humans in their place. What is one worshipper among the millions that will follow?”
Zemuel stiffened at her side and made a gesture to where he sensed Deirdre. She nodded, and they walked up to the temple, seeing her mother tied inside with panicked eyes and a gagged mouth.
She was lying in front of the alter in a perversion of the herbal sacrifices she normally made.
Minerva was furious, but she channelled her inner calm and dropped the concealment around her only. “Lady, Zagreus, Mom. It is an odd gathering for such a late hour.”
Zagreus jolted, his black eyes wide. It had been his projection at the museum that she had noted. He tried to cover for his surprise.
Zemuel was outside the temple, hidden from all senses. If Minerva hadn’t been holding the edges of the spell, she wouldn’t have known where he was.
Deirdre started to cry, but she kept her chin up. Minerva had never been more proud of her than she was at that moment.
The god looked behind her, and he frowned. “Where is Mercury?”
“Oh, was he the guy on the path? He had an accident.”
Zagreus stepped toward her. If she hadn’t been hanging out with a seven-and-a-half-foot dragon all night, she might have been slightly intimidated, but his six-foot-six muscled frame couldn’t compare with Zemuel.
She lifted a finger, and he was stopped in his tracks. He could not take one more step toward her.
Hecate looked at her in surprise.
“Daughter, I think it would be in your best interest to give in to Zagreus.”
Minerva looked at Hecate and kept her expression blank. “No. I give in to no one. You may go, Lady Hecate, if you wish to come out of this unscathed, but know that I will not forgive you for this betrayal.”
Hecate looked at Zagreus, and she disappeared. Whatever was in Minerva’s face was enough to tell her she had definitely erred.
Zagreus stopped trying to approach her. He turned and lunged for Deirdre.
Zemuel got there first; he ripped the back of the temple open with one giant claw and scooped Deirdre carefully into his embrace.
Minerva wished she had been able to watch him transform fully, but there would be plenty of time for that later. Now, she needed to deal with a petty god.
She stepped toward him. “Did you think I would just fall on my back with my legs open?”
Zagreus tried to bully her. “You are a young goddess. You don’t know the power you can wield with a little tutelage. I can give you that.”
“No. I do not need anything you have to offer. Now, prepare to defend yourself.”
He stared at her and made a final push against her barriers.
She swatted him back with casual disdain. She pulled two vials from her belt and flung the contents at him.
He flinched and flailed. “What was that?”
“Oh, a little cocktail I have been working on. Blood from a demon banished to the demon zone, and a spell to send you there in three, two, one, bye!” She waved cheerfully as the ancient god was sucked through a portal and it closed behind him.
She felt the flicker of energy as the broken god left her mother’s property.
Minerva ran out to the space where Zemuel was guarding her untied mother in his claws and under the shielding of his wings.
“He’s gone, Mom.”
Deirdre got up and sobbed, running to her. They hugged for a long moment, and Minerva looked at the proud and lizard-like head of her mate. His body was huge, and from nose to tail, she guessed that six city buses would have to be used as a measurement.
His skin had the mirrored texture of mercury, and she could only smile at the beauty of his form.
“You are lovely, Zemuel.”
He lifted his head and wiggled it at her compliment.
“I need to get Mom somewhere safe. Do you know of a place?”
The eye she could see lit up, and he bowed his neck. Minerva coaxed her mother into place where neck met shoulder and scooted in behind her, casting a warming spell and a securing spell as he launched into the sky. They were snug, warm and together. She trusted Zemuel to take care of the rest. Corudet City was about to become home.
Epilogue
“Mom, thank goodness you have come.” Zemuel seemed genuinely relieved.
Deirdre smiled. “What can I do for you, son?”
The wedding had been small but every extranatural being had been there when her daughter had wed the mayor-king of Corudet City. He insisted that she call him son, and he called her mom. It was weirdly cute.
“She won’t come out of the library. She keeps muttering that she has to be ready in case anyone attacks again, but she isn’t eating and hasn’t slept in days. It can’t be good for her.�
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“Or the baby.”
“She is more important to me.” Zemuel scowled.
Deirdre stifled a smile. “Have you tried taking her books away?”
He looked a little sheepish. He held out his hand, and the marks were evident. “She bit me.”
Deirdre pressed her lips together and patted his arm. She passed him and headed down to the research library that Zemuel had gifted Minerva with. It was a dangerous wedding gift. Deirdre knew how her daughter was around books and had been sure that it would cause an issue for Minerva to have exposure to unlimited knowledge.
The doors opened at her touch, and she walked in and looked for her daughter in the dim interior.
First things first, Deirdre went to the windows and opened the shutters, flooding the space with light.
The hiss told her where her daughter was, and she finished opening the windows and letting fresh air into the library. There was a distinct funk in the room, and it was coming from Minerva.
Zemuel was in the doorway but not coming in. It was better that way.
She hopped up on the table next to the books Minerva was poring over with her eyes glowing white.
“Hey, honey. I just thought I would let you know that with Zemuel’s help I have gotten a new temple underway in the centre of town.”
Minerva blinked rapidly and her eyes dimmed. “You are still worshipping Hecate?”
“Oh, no. It is for you. Minerva of Corudet, goddess of education and magic.”
Minerva put her pen down and looked up at Deirdre. “That is stupid.”
“I know, but we have to start somewhere, so I thought a local temple would be a good thing. Folks have already started praying. I am guessing that it is what has been driving you and keeping you from noticing that two weeks have gone by and you haven’t showered or eaten.”
Minerva blinked and sniffed. “That’s me?”
“Oh, yes. Now, go and take a shower, have something to eat and a nap, and I will tell you about the scholarship programs that you are funding and the request that the Mage Guides have for your appearances.”
Minerva got to her feet and swayed. “Mage Guides?”
“Yup. Little girls who want to talk to you about careers in enchantment. I am hosting a support group for human parents who have extranatural children.”
