by Crystal Dawn
“It’s certainly not all a bowl of cherries, that’s for sure. Hermes gets the worst of it.”
“Not true, you have it so much harder than I do,” Hermes said, love and devotion shone from his eyes.
“See,” she whispered to Sierra. “I’m so bad he’s scared of me.”
Sierra laughed at the thought that Hermes would ever be scared of Cher. He might be afraid of losing her or upsetting her, but that’s about as far as it would go. “I think he’s holding up just fine.”
“That’s because when I’m really bad, I bake him something special. Speaking of baking, I’d better get back to the kitchen.”
The two of them headed out the door leaving Sierra and Zeus alone. “We’ll have some answers in a few days.”
“I hope you’re ready for what we may have to do,” Zeus pointed out.
“At least one of them may have had a damn good reason for what they did.”
“And the other one?” Sierra just shook her head, what did she know about why people did what they did.
Chapter 6
Awake
“I think she might be waking.” Doc heard a voice, maybe Hades?
“Are you sure?” This was a voice from her past but she couldn’t place it.
“See there. Her finger just moved.” His voice sounded so hopeful.
“It may have been a reflex action. Keep watching her and talk to her. Let her know you’re here and you want her to wake.”
The noise was coming through louder and the light hitting her eyelids seemed brighter. Her eyelids fluttered as she tried to open them but failed. “Doc, Doc are you there? Please wakeup!” he said as he squeezed the hell out of her hand. She tried to tell him to ease up or he’d break her fingers but nothing came out.
She tried to wiggle her toes, it felt like they moved but no one said anything. She wrinkled up her nose, something smelled really bad. “What the hell is that awful smell?” Hades asked.
“I think they’re bringing the stuff from the lab up through here to dispose of it,” said an unfamiliar voice.
What stuff from the lab? You guys better not be disposing of anything without me checking it out! She tried to voice the objection but it just echoed through her mind. She tried to talk so much but only a low moan came out.
“Close the door Keelan. I think I heard her.” She heard the door close.
“I hope you’re right man, but I didn’t hear a thing,” Keelan replied. He said it like he felt sorry for Hades.
Hades ran his finger down her arm. She just knew it was him, hell, it better be him. “Sweetheart, just wake up for me, please,” he whispered in her ear. She wanted to so much, she tried again. She relaxed and rested. She hadn’t managed to do anything but trying had worn her out.
She tried to move her finger. Yes! That she could do, but nothing else. She had so much to tell him, she wanted to hold him. She tried to talk, this time she heard herself moan and he heard her too. “That was her, she’s trying to talk.”
That was the beginning of her fight to regain consciousness and control of her own body. She slowly worked her way forward, moving her finger then her hand. She moaned and then she whispered one word at a time. She even opened her eyes looking at her mate so happy to have him right there next to her. She looked next to him at a stranger. He was a god, she was sure but that was all she was sure of.
Hades helped her sit up and she could speak slowly and with effort. Her movements were jerky and uncoordinated. Her head felt like a cannonball had made a direct hit. She was up for maybe two hours when she was hit with a wave of tiredness. The doctor who looked so familiar but she couldn’t place, said she should rest but Hades should wake her regularly so they wouldn’t lose the progress she had made.
By the next day, she was able to carry on a stilted conversation and Hades had brought her up to date. The doctor came in to see her and now without the veil of terrible pain and misery filling her head, she recognized her.
“Rachel,” Doc greeted her with a raspy voice. “Origin caught you?”
Hades listened with interest though it didn’t surprise him that his mate knew the doctor. They were both in the same field and they were both considered experts. They would either know each other or at least know of each other.
“Not long after I spoke to you. I expect a few I told you sos but my choices were limited and my experience with the military wasn’t as golden as yours.”
Rachel had come to her several years ago because Origin was trying to recruit her and they had been very aggressive. They had been pushy enough that Rachel spoke to her about it since they were friends, even if not really close ones. Doc had suggested she go to work for the military but Rachel had had a bad experience with a military project so she stayed with her current job at a college affiliated hospital. Had Doc thought at the time that Origin would use criminal tactics, she would have found help for Rachel. Now she thought of all the geneticists she knew that had mentioned Origin’s recruiting methods in a negative way then ended up working for them later, there were a lot of them. Maybe she should have made the connection but she had been so career oriented then.
“How are you feeling?” Rachel asked.
“Dull pain, memory okay, but not quite myself yet,” Doc said using a minimum of words.
“You had us all worried for a while. I believe you’ll make a full recovery. The reason we didn’t do more for you is you are going through a change but it hasn’t fully completed yet. It seems to be helping your healing but I don’t know much about it. I was afraid to interfere with the healing properties you seem to be gaining. I’ve not been able to test my own changes because my lab assistants watch every move I make.”
“How’d they find two of them that were so loyal to Origin?” Hades asked.
“They didn’t. They were Origin soldiers that they trained to do the lab work.”
Hades got on his radio. “Lock up the lab assistants, now.” He turned to Rachel. “We left them free to help you.”
“I needed the help, but I can do without them now.”
“I’ll want to look at my x-rays and lab work,” Doc said.
“I expected that,” Rachel said as she handed Doc a folder. “You’ve not changed a bit, you always want to look at things yourself.” Her smile took away the some of the sharpness of her words. She was right, Doc knew she was and she tried to work on that personal flaw.
“You’ve changed too much,” Doc said as she took in the haunted look on Rachel’s face, the dark circles under her eyes, and the fact that she looked like she’d aged at double the rate since she had last seen her. Worry and concerns had started to mark her until then youthful face.
Doc had known Rachel, who was younger by a few years, since Rachel had graduated and decided to go into the field of genetics. They had worked together briefly but kept in touch since the work they did was so closely related and they sometimes contacted each other to get a second opinion on research results. At least they had kept in touch until lately. Rachel was good people and Doc would never believe otherwise even if she had been coerced into working for Origin.
“I know, I’ve learned too much about the dark side that used to be hidden from me.”
Doc wished Rachel would tell her more about what was going on here in her personal life and at the facility. Everyone that came in to speak to Hades looked nervous and seemed to be walking on eggshells. It was clear things were going on here they were keeping from her. It made her wonder what was going on and how she could find out. Right now, she was just glad to be alive after what she had gone through but they should know she was strong enough to be told.
Origin’s dirty dozen, there had been about that many at the start, had herded her in the direction of the facility but she’d taken out two of them and injured some of the others. The distraction, as two of their fellow soldiers screamed like girls, allowed her to break away from them and head in a direction they didn’t want her to go. Only two had continued after her and wh
ile it had seemed like a good idea at the time, it had almost cost her her life.
She looked up at Hades who sat holding her hand and looking at her with so much love she wondered how she could have ever thought he would do her wrong. She felt a warm feeling come over her as she watched him. His mind was elsewhere but he held her hand, his finger swirling patterns on her wrist. There was a knock at the door and Keelan came in with another god following close behind.
“This is Lander, he’s the one Rachel is mated to.”
Something in the way Keelan said it made Doc feel he disapproved of Rachel, the mating, or both.
Hades said nothing so Doc said, “Rachel is a great doctor and a sweet girl. You’re lucky to have her.”
Keelan looked surprised. “You knew Rachel before?”
“I’ve known Rachel for years. She’s good people and always has been.” Lander shot her a smile, he must have to defend his mate often. “I knew her when Origin tried to hire her and she refused. Had I known they were forcing scientists to work for them, I would have made sure that was stopped.”
She could see Keelan still wasn’t convinced. There was another knock and Rachel came in. “Just checking on my patient.”
The atmosphere grew tense between Keelan and Rachel, she clearly knew how he felt about her. Doc had no idea why except that Keelan probably considered everyone working for Origin the enemy. He must not realize that some of their employees, mostly the scientists that were top in their fields, were coerced into working for them.
“I need to know about the biological tissues that were here. Someone better tell me about them,” Doc demanded.
“Why don’t you asked your good friend, I think she had a lot to do with whatever Origin was up to,” Keelan said bitterly.
“If she hadn’t told me, I would have never known about it. There was an self destruct set on the storage cooler and had she not given me the combination, the evidence would be gone.” Hades gave Keelan an intense look.
“I’m sure it was a trick of some kind.”
“Why do you only see what you want to see?” Rachel asked Keelan.
“I’ve seen you hurting me and my brothers since you’ve come here. You’ve never seemed to care, never tried to stop them. All I’ve seen in you is cruelty and a willingness to do harm,” Keelan accused her.
“Damn you, Keelan!” she yelled as she turned away from him, but she didn’t walk away. Instead she pulled up the back of her shirt. Her back was scarred with deep criss-cross marks clearly made by a whip. She’d been whipped more than once because the marks were aged to varying degrees some barely healed. “Does this look like I did nothing?” She rushed from the room.
Lander started to follow her but Keelan stopped him. “You knew? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“She didn’t want anyone to know. The marks shame and embarrass her even though I told her they were a mark of her bravery. She’s fought for us many times but the first time she did it in front of Alex,” Lander said.
“Alex disappeared,” Keelan said.
“He was murdered and they said the next time she disagreed with her instructions in front of a god, that not only would that god die, but they’d choose another to die with him. She did what she could, but she had no choice but to follow their instructions,” Lander said.
“Did she tell you, Hades? Is that how you knew?”
“No, the sick fucks kept tapes of her beatings and watched them for entertainment. Argos found them when he went through their tapes looking for information. He informed me.”
“I’m sorry, Lander, I didn’t know.”
“Don’t tell me, tell Rachel.”
“I will, brother, I promise.”
“So now that we’re done upsetting the resident doctor, someone better tell me about the tissue samples,” Doc said.
Lander and Keelan looked clueless so she looked over at Hades. “Okay, I just don’t want you all worked up while you’re healing.”
“Too late. Now get on with it.”
“When I spoke to Rachel she described the experiments they were trying to do here. It sounded like the lab where we found all those embryos and fetuses before. She confirmed it was breeding tests and they had her working on some kind of mating drug. She slowed down the research and made mistakes on purpose. I think we found the source of the drugs I was given. The embryos were brought in and the drugs were tested on them.”
“What do you mean, mating drug?” Keelan asked outraged.
“Origin has been trying to find a drug that will cancel out the bond soul mates have and allow or cause them to mate with whatever female they are put with. They tested it out on me when a spy infiltrated Olympus but it only knocked me out. It didn’t effect my mating chemicals or my desire for my mate.”
“Shit!” Keeland said. “Why do they want to do that?”
“They want to breed more gods and they no longer have access to Cronos DNA,” Doc said. “The mating chemicals or lack of them, prevent fertility. They are doing two things, testing them on gods so they can breed them to whoever they want, and trying to add them to make god’s sperm viable. They are having just enough luck that an embryo forms but it lacks what it needs to survive and spontaneously aborts.”
“Father Cronos was just a tall tale they told us like the human boogeyman,” Lander said ignoring everything else Doc said.
“Don’t leave your bed at night or Father will get you. Eat all your food or Cronos will punish you.” Keelan said with a chuckle.
“No, Cronos is real and we have him at Olympus,” Hades assured them.
“I never thought he could be real,” Lander said in awe.
“Me either,” said Keelan.
“Well he’s real and he’s not human,” Doc explained.
“What is he if he’s not human?” Keelan asked.
“He’s something I’ve never seen before,” Doc admitted.
“I’d like to see him sometime, maybe talk to him if possible,” Keelan said.
“You’ll have to come to Olympus, and Cronos is in a deep sleep, but he’s still alive. His body has completely shut down except on a cellular level. I can’t call it hibernation because animals in hibernation wake sometimes when they need to eat because they are basically just in a deep sleep, while this is a complete shutdown…”
“Please, Honey, this is more than any of us need to know,” Hades said.
“Sorry,” Doc replied. She had been about to go into detail about Cronos’s condition and these guys were warriors who really didn’t care about those things. Medicine was her passion and Cronos was so unusual any geneticist, hell, any doctor would be interested not only in him but his state of being which human medicine couldn’t explain.
“I understand, it’s your area of interest. Rachel made samples of all the tissues she has so you can take them home to study. We will be going home soon, I called Zeus to let him know to send the copters after us. So far, Greenland hasn’t given us an answer on what they will do with this facility. Keelan, your gods can stay for now, or go with us when the copters arrive.”
“I’ll let my gods know and get back with you once everyone has made their decision. Right now, my feelings are mixed. I’d like to see Cronos and the other gods, our brothers, but I also have a need to claim this place and make it the home it always should have been,” Keelan explained just before he left.
“I’m with him, but I have a mate and need to do what’s best for her. My brothers have never made her feel accepted and I’m not sure they ever will. She did the best she could, but she was a victim every bit as much as we were,” Lander said sadly. “For now, we will stay, but don’t be surprised if we call to get picked up.”
“She’ll always be welcome at Olympus where I would be proud to have her as part of my team. I feel like I let her down. I never imagined Origin would coerce scientists in order to recruit them.”
“It’s okay, Doc. At the time Rachel came to you, she never thought they would do that either. They
stopped trying to recruit her, waited a few months until she forgot about them, then they took her from her home. She didn’t stand a chance and the only reason they didn’t do the same to you was you were military and you have some influential family. That’s what they told Rachel. They even told her they would have preferred you.”
“Now they are after her,” Hades said. “They aren’t smart enough to know if they come after her, they’ll die.”
“They’ve not shown much intelligence lately. I think all these attacks and losing so many facilities is making them act in haste. They will suffer for their bad decisions and eventually we will shut them down,” Doc said.
“You need to rest,” Hades said. He settled her in bed then laid down next to her. She would rest if he had to stay with her to hold her down. He cuddled up with her, wrapping his body around her. He had his nose in her hair breathing in the sweet shampoo Rachel had used on her. It mixed with her own tempting fragrance to both calm and excite him. He could hear her breathing even out and slow down. He fell asleep not long after she did.
XXXX
Far away on another continent, Mark looked at his disgraced brother. He wondered if he was really crazy or if there was some truth to the things he muttered to himself. He wanted to believe his brother wasn’t completely insane. He had to think things through reasonably and common sense said that if Kyler was right, the gods would have killed him or at the least refused to let him out of their possession. Mark admitted to himself if he were Zeus he would have killed the man who attacked his woman. That showed the strong influence Sierra had on him. Mark would never let his woman influence him like that.
His main reason for wanting Kyler back had been personal. No matter how crazy, stupid, or criminal he was, he was still his brother. That didn’t mean he couldn’t pump him for information. The whole situation with the gods, with the facility, and with their mates was too weird not to keep an eye on. Now that they had agreed to run some ops for the US, keeping an eye on them was even more important. He intended to tape Kyler’s ramblings and have one of his people listen to them. He just couldn’t stand to listen to them himself. The term bat shit crazy came to mind.
