Out of Sorts Aphrodite (The Goddess Chronicles Book 2)

by S. E. Babin

  Relax, I told myself. This isn’t high school. I paid for my meal and walked over to Marshall’s table. He looked up, surprised. When he saw it was me, his mouth tightened, but he gestured for me to sit down. It could have been worse.

  “Hi,” I said, taking my food off of the tray.

  “Hey.” Marshall took his cell phone out of his pocket and paid great attention to it.

  I shrugged and began to eat. He was nervous – I could tell by the slight tremor in his hands, probably not noticeable to a human. But we both knew I was far from human.

  Finally he focused those gray eyes on me and sighed. “I miss you.”

  Okay. I hadn’t been expecting that. I had been waiting for him to start throwing food at me. “I miss you, too.”

  “It’s hard to be with you.”

  The food turned to ash in my mouth. But he wasn’t wrong. “I know,” I said simply.

  “Do you really love me, Abby?” His eyes searched mine.

  I nodded. I shouldn’t love him. We both knew it. But I did. Marshall dragged a hand across his chin and reached for me. I curled my fingers within his.

  “What should we do?” he asked.

  “There are many things we should do. All I know is that I want to be with you. No matter how complicated it is. But I know it’s not the right thing to do, for you, me, all of us.” My head was screaming at me to break his heart, to walk away. But my heart was telling me to stay, to make it work no matter how hard it would be between us. No matter how dangerous. “I’m telling you it is dangerous to be with me. I’ve told you before, but I don’t know that you fully understand. And if we pursue this, it could get even worse. There are reasons we don’t mix.”

  Marshall squeezed my hand. “I know. I want to walk away from you, but I can’t seem to. Ever since I packed that suitcase and left I’ve been wanting to crawl back to you.”

  My heart broke for him. He truly loved me. Never had I used any glamour on him, no powers, other than dressing him. I’d broken gods before just by virtue of my powers. But here I was now, sitting in front of a man who had nothing to offer me other than himself and I wanted to walk away from everything and be with him. I was in serious trouble.

  My thoughts drifted to the bottle in my purse. To Hermes who would drop everything to be with me. I couldn’t lie to myself and say I didn’t want him, but there was something about Marshall, knowing him as well as I did and knowing he genuinely loved me no matter what I was, that made me want to risk everything to be with him for one more day.

  I was not the best girlfriend. I didn’t know that I would make a great wife. If we ever made it that far, our children would be different. I thought back on our short time together and realized I hadn’t immersed myself in Marshall’s world. He’d been at our house, doing the things we wanted all the time. We rarely had made time just for us. If we could work this out, I would try to change that.

  “I have a case right now that I can’t drop. It’s too important. But after all this is over, I want you to know that things will change between us if we decide to make this work.”

  Marshall blinked. A beautiful smile graced his face. “I would love that.”

  It wasn’t the time for me to talk about our future, not with my own so murky. But here I was. Strongly considering diving head first into a real, genuine relationship with a mortal. I could already feel the disappointment from those around me seeping through my bones.

  “Good,” I smiled and passed some of my food over to him. “Help me eat this. I need to go save the world in a minute.”

  11

  Chapter Eleven

  The Squawking Parrot looked suspiciously rustic from the outside. It matched all of the other brick buildings in the downtown area, but when I walked in I thought my retinas would burn off. Loud paint splashed every available surface. No matter what anyone wore, they would clash with it. It looked like an angry clown’s revenge. Pinks, greens, and blues splattered the walls. The stone floor was covered in pools of neon paints. Nothing in the room was safe. I hoped I never had to step foot in this place again once this was over.

  I headed over to the bar, my glamour in full force, noticing the admiring stares of the men. I settled in and caught the attention of the young bartender. He smiled easily, a dimple forming in the corner of one smooth cheek. I was old enough to be his long dead, too many times to count great-grandmother.

  “What’ll it be, pretty lady?” He wiped his hands on the towel he was holding and leaned forward to hear my answer.

  “Jack and Coke. And…” I leaned forward and smiled at him, “information if you have the time.”

  He leaned back a little, curiosity burning in his eyes. “You got it.” He focused on making my drink. I didn’t fail to notice he put double the amount of Jack in it. I snorted. He had no idea the type of metabolism running through my body. Maybe that was the trick to gaining information from him. See if I could drink him under the table once he got off work.

  He slid the drink to me, winked, and told me it was on the house. I allowed my glamour to slip a little, an unnoticeable action to humans, but I saw how his eyes lit up. My hair was a little blonder, my eyes a little bluer, my smile a little wider. “What time do you get off?” I asked him.

  His eyes flicked up to the clock above the bar. “Ten minutes.” He grinned at me. “I’ll buy you another drink.”

  I toyed with the rim of my glass, noting how his eyes focused on my fingers. “I’ll let you,” I said huskily. Our eyes met once again, his flashing with more than curiosity now. I had him. I just needed to keep him.

  The bartender’s name was Lucas. He was twenty-two. He liked long walks on the beach. I was trying to keep myself from yawning. Young girls still fell for this stuff. Someone as old as me had to stop her head from bobbing into her drink. I was about to give up and call it a night when Lucas said something interesting.

  “Sometimes we have the weirdest things happen in here,” he said, his words slurring a little as he struggled to keep up with me.

  I felt myself tense, but not wanting to appear too eager I slid on a flirty smile. “Really? Like what? Did someone dance on the bar?” I wanted to cringe. Men these days were so easy.

  He chuckled and slid a damp hand over mine. I was gagging inside. “That happens all the time.” He waved his drink around at me. “No, like this dude came in and like, for real, he strode up to a group of women and every single one of them stopped what they were doing and left with him.”

  Bingo. I giggled. “They knew him, right?”

  Lucas shook his head. He was frowning and I knew I was close to losing him. “No, I knew those girls. I never saw him before in my life.”

  I rubbed my ankle against his inner calf trying to keep him talking. Lucas’ eyes lit up. “So where’d they go?” I sipped my drink, my eyes locked on his.

  “That’s the thing. I don’t know. And I haven’t seen any of those girls again. It’s like they disappeared into thin air or like…I imagined it.”

  “Well, that’s weird!” I tossed my hair and discreetly took my hand back and wiped it on my jeans. Thousands of years of boyfriends and I still couldn’t get on board with sweaty hands.

  “Tell me about it. Anyhow, let’s talk about something more interesting.” A hank of Lucas’ blonde hair fell over one eye and he grinned at me. He was adorable, but it would be like kicking a puppy. I stood up and grabbed my purse.

  “Let me freshen up and we can get out of here. You up for that?” I had no intention of coming back.

  “I’m always up, babe.” Lucas winked at me. I winked back, cringing on the inside, and made my way to the bathroom. Once I was in the crowd I looked back to see if Lucas was still watching me. His eyes were trained on some other poor conquest who would do in case I failed to measure up. I tried not to let that sting as I wove through warm bodies on my way out the door.

  Hermes picked up on the first ring. Cell phones still weirded me out a little. It was the one device I had trouble adj
usting to.

  “It seems Typhon has been around, but no word on Dionysus.” I told him about my conversation with the bartender and felt a flicker of disappointment when I realized Hermes had wriggled the same information out of someone else. The thing no one could understand though was what Dionysus or Typhon wanted with the women and what happened after he was done with them. There were a few more bars I needed to get through to see if I could find him. We planned to meet up afterwards at one of my favorite local joints.

  There was no sign of Dionysus, but the same information kept coming through about Typhon every time I talked to someone about it. He would hit the bar, pick up at least one girl and take them home. So far no one was suspicious, but it would only be a matter of time before people started putting two and two together. Unfortunately Typhon was evasive and he didn’t hit the same bar more than once. It was both good and bad news for us. He’d run out of places to hunt soon.

  I slid into the booth at The Rusty Nail, one of my favorite places to sit and relax. I reached down to wipe the sawdust off my shoes when I noticed Hermes coming in the door with a bedraggled Artie.

  Thank the gods, I whispered to myself. I promised I wouldn’t ask her any questions. Her eyes looked haunted and she gave me a wan smile as she slid in across from me. Hermes sat on my side, his proximity doing funny things to my insides. I couldn’t have him around if I were going to be in a relationship with Marshall. He’d do nothing but cause trouble for me.

  We ordered drinks and waited for Ares and Keto to show up. Artie was quiet, but as the minutes passed I noticed she began to relax. I reached over and squeezed her hand. “Glad to see you back. I was starting to worry.”

  She smiled, sadness lighting her eyes. “Clotho took care of me.”

  That was probably scarier than what she’d done to Hestia. I nodded when she didn’t elaborate. “And Hestia?”

  Her mouth twisted. “She’ll live.” I didn’t miss the unfortunately she added under her breath. She scratched her nose and sighed. “How’s Keto?”

  Weirded out. A little scared. Wondering about the depths of Artie’s jealousy. I pasted a smile on my face. “He’s just fine!”

  Artie snorted, not believing me for a second. The door to the bar opened again and Keto came in with Ares. Both were wearing serious looks. Keto pushed in next to Artie, acknowledging her with nothing more than a nod. Her face fell. Those two had a lot of work ahead of them to get through this weird period. Ares borrowed a chair from one of the tables closest to us and pushed himself up to the edge of the table.

  “It seems we’ve all gathered the same intel,” Ares spoke up.

  I tried to lighten the mood a bit. “That Typhon is a man whore?”

  Hermes choked on a laugh as Ares glared in my direction. “We can always count on Abby to lighten the mood, can’t we?” But he said it in a way that wasn’t favorable. Ass.

  “Someone has to do it. The God of War is a sour puss.” I made a face at him and settled back to listen.

  He sighed with thousands of years of patience, so I grinned at him. “Anyhow,” Ares said, “I have a theory. Albeit a strange one, but it isn’t weird if it’s coming from us, right? It’s just a new normal.”

  Hermes motioned for him to go on. From the look on his face, he knew exactly where Ares was headed with this.

  “I think Typhon is attempting to impregnate mortals.” Ares looked at all of us, his mouth a grim line.

  I sputtered on the drink I’d just taken. “Why on earth would that happen?” I knew Typhon was in mortal form right now, but the idea of his other form trying to copulate with humans made me gag a little. If these girls only knew what hid behind the mask of that beast.

  I shuddered. Ares shrugged and continued.

  “Why not, Abby? We all know that being with humans creates demigods. What could be worse than humans running around with the powers of Typhon?”

  Silence fell at the table as we tried to imagine a race created by him. It wasn’t pretty. The real Typhon was a beast whose height graced the heavens. Legs made of vipers and several dragons’ heads perched about his sinewy neck would not make a cute baby. In other words, seriously creeptastic. It must have taken some serious magical mojo to shrink all that down into one human man who didn’t scare the masses.

  “If that’s true,” I spoke up, “then why is Dionysus involved? What could he possibly want with a race of Typhon’s offspring?”

  Ares chuckled. “I love how small your thinking is, Abby.”

  I bristled, but he lifted a hand to cut off my next words. “You don’t think in terms of power grabs. That’s an admirable trait and one more Olympians should embrace. But,” he raised an eyebrow and shrugged, “if you want to catch the bad guy, you have to start thinking like him, right?”

  He was right. I loved to argue with Ares because in most cases he was wrong, but this time he was right. I wouldn’t be successful unless I began to look through the eyes of the beast. “But how in the world is Dionysus controlling Typhon? I can’t think of a single person with enough magic to control him. Not even Circe.”

  Hermes shifted beside me. “Do not underestimate the witch, Abby. With her powers and Dionysus’ it is possible they could do much worse damage than we realize.”

  It was hard for me to comprehend. I knew Dionysus was dangerous, Circe even more so. But to control Typhon, the monster that almost had Zeus under his foot was difficult for me to come to terms with. If there was this much power floating around, what did Zeus have to say about it? I’d be searching for a way to get rid of it, if I were him. And yes that sounded bloodthirsty, but what better way to crush a rebellion than to get rid of it at the first inkling that it might occur?

  “If our theory holds water, Circe and Dionysus released Typhon from his prison and are forcing him to spread his seed among human women.” I shook my head. “It boggles the mind that they’d do something like this, knowing what happened the last time he walked the earth.”

  Artemis, sitting silent beside Keto, raised her head. “When people feel powerless, they often will go to extreme lengths for their voices to be heard.”

  Keto looked at her sharply. Artie was talking about far more than Typhon now. Before it could become a showdown in the bar, I nodded my head. “True, Artie. But I can’t help but think something besides a show of power is driving this.”

  Keto looked at me thoughtfully. “Does anyone else think it’s weird that Gaia woke up right around the time Typhon was released from his prison? Since Zeus believes she isn’t the one who woke him up, perhaps she knows what’s going on.”

  I felt my spine stiffen when Keto looked at me. “Uh uh.” I held my hands up. “You already sent me down to the Fates; there is no way I’m talking to Gaia! It’s like you all painted a kick me sign on my back and keep shoving me into a crowd of angry people.”

  “But you’re so good at it.” Ares winked at me and lifted his beer.

  “Why don’t we have Zeus talk to her?” I was pouting.

  “She’s Mother Earth, Abby. You were born of the sea. You’re like two peas in a pod, right?” Artie smiled hopefully at me.

  “Wrong. Let’s concentrate on the matter at hand.” My eyes flicked around the room and stalled on an unearthly handsome man chatting up a brunette at the bar. I leaned forward to Keto and whispered, “Twelve o’clock.”

  Keto casually looked over and I saw his eyes widen. I nodded. “Do you see his aura?”

  I heard Artie’s sharp inhale of breath. “That’s gotta be Typhon,” he whispered.

  “Or it could be another Olympian hiding under another pathetic disguise,” Artie said bitterly.

  “Snap out of it, chick. It’s a human aura, but the signature is all wrong.” Normally auras didn’t made me think twice. But this guy’s aura shimmered, sort of like when a rock drops in the water. It was highly unusual and judging by the way he looked, also highly suspect. “He sure chose a pretty form to walk the earth in, didn’t he?”

  “The be
tter to eat you with, my dear,” murmured Hermes.

  I studied the man. Blonde wavy hair fell into disarray around his head. Instead of making him look messy, it made him look rakish. I couldn’t see the color of his eyes, but tan skin stood out against the white of his collared shirt. He was sitting on a bar stool, but I’d bet he was over six feet tall and spent time in the gym…or at least the guy whose body he’d stolen had.

  Ares turned slowly in his seat, raked his eyes over the man, and turned back to us. “Abby, turn down your glamour and approach him.”

  “No way,” I hissed. “We’re supposed to be looking for Dionysus, not flirting with Typhon! Besides, he’s bound to smell a trap.”

  Ares shook his head. “I don’t think so. Not if they have him bound. I don’t sense any magic coming off of him right now, other than glamour. If I had to guess, his senses are dulled.” He leaned across the table. “And put on something sexier. You look like a housewife.”

  I huffed as Hermes snorted. What was wrong with blue jeans anyway? With a furtive look and encouraging nods from my friends, I let a little of my true self slip. The jeans melted away leaving me with a slinky black dress and sky high heels. The outfit danced dangerously on the border between slutty and chic. Hermes’ eyes were pools of desire as he stared at me. Before he could say anything I shoved him out of the bench seat and started walking toward Typhon. The girl he was chatting up saw me first and gave me an evil glare.

  I smiled at her – used to it – and sidled into the seat next to him. When the bartender came over to take my order, Typhon noticed me sitting beside him. I could tell the second his interest in me piqued and waned in the mortal. He slid a little closer to me and put his arm close to mine. I turned, acting surprised, and smiled at him, noting with satisfaction the way his pupils dilated. He was interested. Operation Kill Aphrodite with Stupidity was on.