Book Read Free

For Love or Vengeance

Page 19

by Caridad Piñeiro


  “No!” she wailed, and bent her head down against his. She kissed his face, his eyes, his lips. “You can’t die! You can’t!”

  Not now, when she had finally found the true meaning of love.

  Damn the punishment. She called up her goddess powers and sent a blast of healing energy to close his wound. But no energy zapped between them. No power filled her hand.

  Desperately, she summoned her special powers again. But try as she might, nothing happened. Sobbing, she reached deep inside, again and again, but no immortal spark came to life.

  And suddenly she realized why. The vow her father Zeus had demanded of her had been a trick.

  Helene had chosen Miguel’s way. Justice had prevailed, but not through her. She had deliberately chosen to fail her mission.

  And this was her punishment. Her time as a goddess on Earth was done.

  She had thought Zeus meant she would simply be banished to Mount Olympus. She should have known better. Her father had always been cruel and deceitful.

  He’d taken her powers as well.

  “No! This isn’t right,” she wailed.

  She held Miguel tight as his last stir of breath left his body and life fled from his parted lips.

  Desperation clawed at her chest. She lifted her head and cried out to the skies above, “This wasn’t supposed to happen!”

  But no one answered her cry.

  She looked down at the man she loved with all her heart. And she knew what she had to do.

  Taking a deep breath, she screamed her plea to the clouds of her father. “Please, Zeus! Father! I will do anything you ask if you just let him live!”

  Nemesis’s scream reverberated through the clouds, louder than the cries and shouts of the gods and goddesses gathered before Zeus and Hera.

  Miguel’s death on Earth had taken only seconds, but on Mount Olympus, those seconds stretched to days as Zeus’s immortals argued and debated Nemesis’s plea for her mortal beloved.

  Hera faced her husband. “It’s not right. You tricked her,” she accused, snapping fire at him with her eyes as he sat on his golden throne above the throng.

  With a shrug, he said, “It’s my way, wife. Anyone who deals with me knows the bargain may not always be as it seems.”

  But despite his words, Hera could see that he had been moved by their daughter’s cry as well as by the changes in her. Nemesis had always been hard and unyielding. The mortal man had brought out a different side of her.

  “You can see she has changed,” Hera argued. “Those changes will enhance her ability to mete out justice. True justice, not just vengeance.”

  “Listen to her plea, brother,” Hestia called out from beside Hera, where she was flanked by the other goddesses.

  “As if she would really sacrifice anything for him,” Zeus scoffed.

  “Offer her a choice. Her powers for his life,” Apollo yelled from the other side of the room. At his words, a chorus of cheers rose up from the gods around him.

  “You would all turn on me so?” Zeus challenged, rising and glaring at the men.

  Poseidon took a step forward and Hades came to Poseidon’s side. Hera was surprised to see her husband’s brothers there, especially Hades, since he rarely ventured out of his underworld. That he had done so spoke volumes about this revolt.

  A surge of optimism rolled through her.

  “Nemesis has served you well and deserves a chance for happiness,” Poseidon said.

  Hades was more to the point. “When you show her mercy, we can all go back to bedding our women.”

  Hera smiled. There was the real reason for the challenge from his gods. Bless Lysistrata.

  Zeus’s gaze pinned her and the goddesses surrounding her, looking from her to Athena to Persephone at the far end of the line. Not one goddess was missing. There were even some demigoddesses standing behind them for backup. The face of each and every woman held determination. To ignore them all would tempt the Fates, even for the king of gods.

  Turning to Poseidon, Zeus clasped his brother’s shoulder. “You are right. Nemesis has served me well. Although I am loath to intercede in human affairs, I will heed Apollo’s advice and offer her a choice as to what she desires most.”

  Holding her head at a respectful angle, Hera stepped forward, sensing victory. “And you will spare the mortal man?”

  Zeus laughed, and it sounded like thunderclaps throughout the chambers of Olympus. “Spare him? Only Nemesis can decide if the human will live,” he said.

  He reached downward. A soft glow began at his fingertips and grew stronger until it stretched the distance between the clouds and the Earth, then spread, creating a whirlwind of light centered at where Nemesis held Miguel in her arms.

  The light bathed them and whisked them up, up, until she was sitting on the marble floor of the throne room in Olympus, her lifeless beloved sprawled in her lap.

  “Hello, daughter,” he greeted her.

  Helene—no, Nemesis—looked up at her father and mother and the circle of immortals surrounding her, gods on one side and goddesses on the other.

  They’d heard her plea!

  Hope seared through her.

  Before she could speak, her father demanded, “You said you would give up anything for this mortal, Nemesis. Do you truly mean that?”

  She didn’t hesitate. “I do, Father. I would sacrifice anything, even my life, if only you will grant him his,” she said, and glanced in despair at Miguel’s deathly still face.

  Zeus just laughed.

  Anger poured through her. With shaking hands, she gently laid Miguel down and surged to her feet. Balling her fists, she said, “You think this is funny, Father? The pain? The loss?”

  “It is but the start of those things for you, daughter. In exchange for this man’s life you must live as a mortal and die as a mortal, suffer their pains, endure their losses.”

  Life as a mortal?

  At one time she would have disdained becoming a pitiful human. But she had learned so much from Miguel. She had learned what it was to love and be loved. She had learned that her strength came from within, from the choices she made, and not from the magical powers of a goddess.

  The choice was easy.

  “I will gladly give up my powers in exchange for his life, Father.”

  A roar of approval shot up from the gods and goddesses gathered around them.

  Her father’s voice boomed across the heavens. “So be it, daughter. Say your farewells.”

  A groan came from Miguel as he lay on the floor, and then a movement.

  Nemesis—no, Helene—rushed to the man she loved with all her heart and laid a hand on his chest. A strong and steady heartbeat pulsed beneath her palm. His eyelids fluttered open and he tried to glance around, but she cupped his cheek and urged him just to look at her.

  “All will be well, Miguel,” she promised, joy rushing through her whole being. “I just need a moment.”

  She pushed to her feet, and rushed to her mother. She threw her arms around her and hugged her hard, then stepped back to bid her farewells to the others gathered around. Finally, she paused before her father’s throne and gave him a respectful nod.

  Then she hurried back to Miguel and kneeled beside him. Looking into his awestruck eyes, she once again gathered him in her arms and said, “I am ready, Father.”

  The light became so bright it nearly blinded her, and for a moment they were falling, but then the ground materialized beneath them and she suddenly found herself kneeling on the floor in the room where Miguel had died, with him in her arms.

  Alive.

  A footstep sounded behind her.

  Diana hurried in, two uniformed officers at her back.

  “Oh my God.” She rushed to Helene’s side and kneeled beside her, shouting to the officers, “Call in an officer down. We need immediate medical assistance.”

  Helene touched the wound on Miguel’s neck, but there was no blood flowing beneath her fingers. Just a strong, insistent pulse, and Migue
l’s steady breathing.

  “We’ve got to stop the bleeding,” Diana said, reaching toward him to help her.

  Slowly, he opened his eyes and fixed his gaze on them, his look quizzical.

  “I’m…alive?” he asked uncertainly.

  “You’re alive, thank the gods.” She moved her hand away to reveal smooth, perfect skin where moments before he had been bleeding. “Are you hurt anywhere?”

  “I don’t think so,” he said, and sat up, though he reached for her to steady himself. He pulled his blood-soaked shirt from his chest. No pain. “Nope, I’m good.”

  “Okay then.” Diana stood and shook her head. Looking from him to Helene, she said, “I think it’s time I left you two alone. You’ve got about fifteen minutes before the ME gets here.”

  Miguel had to close his eyes for a moment as Diana walked away, herding the other two officers ahead of her.

  His head was whirling with disjointed images of bright light and being surrounded by a circle of men and women at some kind of toga party. Holy crap, it must have been some damn party. He’d hallucinated that he and Helene were lifted high into the heavens before spiraling back down to Earth.

  “How do you feel?” she asked, her face filled with concern.

  “Seasick. Damn, I saw some weird things. Really weird.” He blinked a few times. “Guess I was dreaming, but…” It sure as hell hadn’t felt like it.

  “Yeah. About that.” She cradled his cheek and made him look at her. “You have to promise to keep secret what I’m going to tell you.”

  He frowned. “Um. Sure. What is it?”

  “What you saw was Mount Olympus.” When he just stared at her, she continued, “And I’m actually Nemesis, the goddess of veng…um, justice. Well. At least I was.”

  Blank silence greeted her. Fear pricked at her. Had it been a mistake to trust him with her true identity?

  “Well, that explains more than a few things,” he finally muttered. “I thought I was going crazy. Hell, I still might be. That fucker hit my head pretty hard.” He touched the cut on his temple where Gold had cold-cocked him.

  “No. It’s all true.” She traced her finger across his cheek. “Please, believe me when I say—”

  “That you should have told me about this before now? Like maybe when you knocked me across the room without even touching me?”

  She blinked. Not exactly what she’d been about to say. “I couldn’t tell you. It was against the rules.”

  “But then again, would I have believed you?” he murmured, more to himself than to her. He shouldn’t believe her now. The idea was preposterous. Greek gods? Please.

  But he’d seen what he’d seen, and felt that elevator to the sky and back. It had not been any damn dream.

  “I never counted on meeting someone like you,” she said.

  “You said you were a goddess. No longer?”

  She shook her head. “No. I’m mortal now. Same as you.”

  He gazed at her in awe, thinking of what she had sacrificed to be with him. Her powers. Immortality. “You chose me, didn’t you.” It wasn’t a question. “You gave up everything to be with me.”

  She smiled. “So worth it.”

  He swallowed, completely humbled. “When we first met, I didn’t think you’d ever choose anything other than justice.” He raised his hand and tenderly stroked it over her disheveled curls.

  “I wouldn’t have,” she admitted. “My mission meant everything to me.”

  He looked at her, her feelings for him written across her face. “Until you met me.”

  She brought her lips to his and whispered, “Until I fell in love with you.”

  That was another thing he’d been sure he’d hallucinated. Helene telling him she loved him. Slowly, a smile spread over him, through his whole body, along with happiness that this amazing woman had chosen him over so much.

  Gently, he pulled her closer, his heart filled with love. “I love you, too, Helene. With all my heart.”

  She smiled and melted into him.

  He closed the distance between their lips, kissing her deeply, desperately, well aware of what they had almost lost.

  A loud cough broke them apart.

  It was the ADIC, with Diana and the ME.

  “Good God, Sanchez, you’re covered in blood,” Hernandez said.

  “Not mine,” Miguel said, and waved them off. He got to his feet, then helped Helene up, slinging an arm around her. “Come on. Let’s get out of here,” he said as the crime scene techs swarmed through the door and Reyes and their ADIC took over the scene.

  Together they walked out of the theater to where an ambulance was stationed at the curb, an EMT waiting for him. He allowed the man to check him out and patch up the cut on his head and the Taser burns on his neck.

  When the EMT was done, Miguel took Helene’s hand. “Let’s finish our reports so we can go home.”

  “Home? As in you and me, together somewhere?”

  He laced their fingers together and said, “You and me together. Wherever that happens is home for me.”

  Helene’s eyes sparkled with happiness. “I knew when I met you, my time on Earth would never be the same. Let’s go to my place,” she said. They started walking toward the car.

  “We just have to make one quick stop first.”

  She glanced up. “What for?”

  “Looks like I’m going to need another new shirt.”

  She laughed, whirling him around, and then he kissed her.

  Watching the scene from high above, Hera cooed, “Do you see that? Nemesis has finally met her match.”

  Zeus grumbled, “Finally.”

  She slapped his hands playfully. “Come now, husband. Maybe we’ll have some new grandchildren soon. It’s been so long since that happened.”

  Very long. Millennia, in fact.

  Zeus tipped his head and she could see a little of her excitement in his blue, blue eyes.

  He leaned forward with her, and together they watched their daughter and her mortal lover embrace and kiss before walking hand in hand into the FBI building. There was no doubt how they would spend the night, and many more to come.

  Hera could feel the lust from way up here in the clouds.

  No, not lust, but love. Nemesis was well and truly in love, never an easy road.

  Zeus grunted. “I better make sure he’s worthy of her.”

  Hera watched as her husband reached out and examined the mortal’s aura.

  He grunted again. “Forceful. Strong. Honorable. Nemesis has chosen well.”

  Hera nodded in satisfaction. Oh yes. It would only be a matter of time before their union yielded offspring. She snuggled up to her husband. “I don’t suppose you’d ever…”

  “Consider giving Nemesis back her powers?”

  She sighed. “You know me so well.”

  “I might,” he answered thoughtfully. “We could use some new blood to liven up the halls of Olympus, even if they will only be demigods or goddesses.”

  Facing her, he said, “Come here, Hera. Our offspring aren’t the only ones who know how to love.”

  With a playful smile, she sashayed toward him, knowing her ample body pleased him even after so many centuries. She could always awaken need within him.

  And something even more powerful, she knew.

  Love.

  Love was the one thing more powerful than the immortals. More powerful than anything on Earth.

  Epilogue

  It took several hours back at Federal Plaza before Helene and Miguel were done. Reports had to be completed about the Butcher, and answers provided about the shooting.

  But after that, ADIC Hernandez shooed them out of his office. “Go on. You both have had a tough week. Take the rest of the day off. Get some rest.”

  Only a week, Helene thought as she and Miguel walked out of the building and he slipped his hand into hers. Such a short time.

  Such big consequences.

  “Your place?” he asked.

 
With a broad smile, she said, “Sure.”

  As soon as they walked through the door to her Chelsea apartment they were in each other’s arms, kissing. Celebrating the miracle that they were both still alive.

  “I died a thousand times over when I saw you were hurt,” Helene whispered as she hugged him tight.

  “And I was terrified when you showed up.”

  She led him into her bedroom, then turned to face him. The butterfly bandage on his temple was bright against his olive skin. “So many bruises.” She winced at the sight of them.

  She reached up and lightly ran her fingers across his features, offering him comfort with her mortal touch.

  “Mmm. That feels good.”

  She smiled, a sexy knowing smile, promising him much more. “That’s just the start,” she said, lowering her hands to run them across his shoulders, then slowly undressing him.

  He did the same to her, rousing passion, creating an intense, almost aching need.

  “Helene, you’re so beautiful,” he said, and cradled her against him.

  “So are you, Miguel, inside and out. You are true and loyal, and your love is…honest,” she whispered.

  “It is honest,” he said. “I love you. Body and soul, I am yours.”

  She stepped closer still, and wrapped her arms around him. “As I am yours, my love.”

  He groaned and tightened his hold on her, held her for long moments as contentment and peace filled her heart. And as desire grew.

  She took Miguel’s hand and led him to her bed. She opened her arms and invited him to love her.

  As he joined her to him, their bodies one, something broke free inside of her, shaking her loose from the past. Only needing the joy and wonder of being in his arms, nothing more.

  She raised her hips, deepening his possession. Accepting the strong sure strokes of his body and the acceptance in his heart. For the first time in all her centuries of existence, she was loved for what she was. Fully and without reservation.

  Deep inside, something grew, something she had not experienced before—true peace and contentment. With that peace, and the gift of his body loving hers, something else rose before her—the promise of a future she had never envisioned, bright and filled with joy.

 

‹ Prev