by Nicole Thorn
Verin
Well, it only got more awkward with how long it went on. Some people would enjoy watching their stepmother going at it with a gorgon, but oddly enough, I did not. Sitting next to Juniper for it didn’t help, because her cheeks stayed bright red. Her fingers pulled at her shirt and she stared at her feet.
Not surprising that Persephone fancied the fairer sex, but a little surprising that she would do this in front of me. The gods didn’t really believe in cheating, since all but a couple acted like sex fiends for lack of a better word. She loved my father and he loved her too. It didn’t keep them faithful. Obviously, since I existed. They didn’t begrudge each other their little affairs. Persephone loved me, and she had never been less than kind to me.
“Um,” I said, clearing my throat. They still went at it, so I tried again. “Ladies? We have a problem?”
Persephone ripped her mouth from Medusa’s, blinking. She cleared her throat as well. “Sorry, honey. Just . . . had to say hi.”
I nodded. “I often shove my tongue into people when I greet them too. Ask Juniper.”
I turned to her with a smirk, and she glared at me. “I would kill myself with fire before I let your tongue anywhere near my body.”
“I like a challenge.”
“I challenge you to swallow bleach.”
“Done!”
“Kids!” Persephone said, rushing over. “Maybe fight later, huh?”
I stared at her, sighing my agreement. She straightened out her bright green dress. She didn’t dress like this in the underworld. For those long fall and winter months, she liked to wear white for the most part. She saved her favorites for when she came topside.
I didn’t like the exchanges between her and Medusa, looking at us like they knew something we didn’t. I generally didn’t like when someone knew more than me, but this felt extra annoying. If I asked what went through their heads, no one would tell me. I had one of those faces that made you want to lie, I supposed.
“Oh, how’s Kizzy?” Persephone asked Juniper. “I know that that issue was finally taken care of.” Darkness had leaked into her voice, and it sounded so wrong for her. Persephone had to be one of the most chipper people I knew, but I only heard hatred right then.
Juniper nodded. “Yes, all taken care of.”
“What was taken care of?” I asked. “What happened to Kizzy?”
Sullen, Persephone rubbed my back. “Don’t worry about it, sweetheart. She’s just fine.”
No, something happened that no one wanted to tell me. They all clammed up at the mention of furies, and now my own stepmother didn’t want me to know what happened to Kizzy. I suppose I didn’t know Kizzy all that well, and I didn’t have the right to ask. It didn’t make me want to know any less.
I changed the subject. “I assume you know about Cerberus?”
My stepmother frowned and cocked her hip out. “Yeah, some bastard stole our sweet little baby, and now I’m stuck topside, left without the ability to investigate down under.”
“A little early for you to be up, right?” Juniper asked.
“Hades let me go,” she said. “With everything going on, a couple weeks doesn’t really matter much. We just want our dog back . . . ”
I hugged her again. “We’ll get him back. We just need something that belonged to him so that Jasper can try and look into the past. Do you know who Jasper is?”
“I know the name.” She smiled. “Mom told me about him. She said that he’s really good for Kizzy, and that she’s good for him too. They seem to help patch up those wounds the other has.”
“Wounds?” I asked.
She waved her hand. “Never mind. Give me a second and I’ll get you something for Jasper.”
She walked away and sat in the middle of the room. Medusa stayed behind with us, watching Persephone as she closed her eyes and started chanting in Greek. I only caught a few words, because I didn’t have an easy time learning the language. Mum knew it well, and she tried teaching me as best she could. I just understood Persephone repeated something, and asked for remains.
“This is creeping me out,” Juniper whispered.
Medusa smiled. “Yeah, isn’t it great?”
Persephone started coughing when a plume of grey smoke showed up out of nowhere. She waved it away, cursing. “Hades, you dick! When I get home, I am SO gonna scuff your shoes!”
Medusa giggled and Persephone picked up something in the smoke. A human femur. Holy fuck. All right then . . . “This was the very first bone we gave Cerberus when we got him.” She smiled sadly as she brought it over to us. “He used to bring it to me before bed . . . ”
“Don’t worry,” I told her. “I’m bringing him home to you, and I’ll even try and keep his kidnapper alive so that you can torture him.”
She wiped a tear from under her eye. “You are so sweet.”
I nodded. “I am.”
Juniper rolled her eyes.
Persephone hugged me with one arm after she handed over the bone. “I know you’ll bring him back. Just stay safe, and if you need me, call.”
“I will.”
We said our goodbyes to the women, and then went back to Juniper’s car. I had the bone in my lap, trying to not be concerned with the fact that it used to be in a person. And that a sweet little puppy used to chew on it. I just hoped it would do the trick for Jasper.
“We should stop for ice cream,” I decided. I turned my head to Juniper. “Stop and buy me ice cream.”
“No,” she said sternly.
“Okay. Stop and I’ll buy you ice cream.”
“No.”
“Do it.”
“No.”
“Do. It.”
“N. O.”
I sighed. “If you keep fighting me, then I will only make this harder on you. Don’t make me unleash the full extent of my charm, luv. You’ll melt.”
She snorted. “How about you take that charm and shove it up—” A well-timed honk from the car beside us muffled her rude request, and I just smiled at her failure.
“Most people like me,” I said. “You’re the odd exception, and I find it concerning. What is wrong with you? Because clearly I cannot be the problem here.”
At the red light, she gave me a look that insinuated she thought I had gone insane. “So, anyone that doesn’t like you has a problem now? It can’t be that you’re irritating and rude?”
“No, because I am neither of those things.”
“Both, and so much more.”
We went on like that until we got back to her house. Zander’s SUV had been parked in the drive, so I guessed that everyone returned home. Goodie, so we wouldn’t have to wait. I’d like to get away from Juniper as fast as I possibly could.
We went inside, bone and all, to find the four others in the living room. Jasmine had some food for Nemo, and Zander pet one of his heads while she fed him.
“Is that a bone?” my aunt asked from the couch.
“Yup.” I held it up. “Fresh out of a hobo.”
Juniper rolled her eyes again and took it from my hand. “It belongs to Cerberus. Jasper can trigger a vision.”
Kizzy did not like that one bit, and I watched her shift around in her seat. She and Jasper communicated silently after he gave her a nudge. I watched carefully, attempting to read what happened. He smiled crookedly at her, and then nudged her gently again. Kizzy put her lips on his arm, and then tilted her head up for a real one. Jasper met her halfway, and everything about her body changed. Her shoulders relaxed, fingers uncurled, and her heartbeat steadied.
I felt the smallest pang of something in my chest, telling me to look away from perhaps the most intimate moment I’d ever seen between two people. So perfectly on the same wavelength that I almost couldn’t believe it could happen. I’d never seen a couple for longer than a few moments when out of the house. Mum hadn’t been with anyone since Dad, and I spent most of my time with her. Is this what it’s like to have a partner? Someone who could look at you, read every pain and fear i
n your being, and then just soothe it away like that?
“You sure you’ll be okay, Jasper?” Jasmine asked, leaving her boyfriend’s side to join her brother.
He stood from the couch, but kept Kizzy’s hand. “Yeah, shouldn’t be a problem. I might need a nap after.”
“Which you will take,” Kizzy informed him.
Jasper took the bone from Juniper and looked it over. “How did you get this? Medusa didn’t just have it, did she?”
“No, she summoned Persephone.” Turning to Kizzy, she added. “She says hi.”
Kizzy lit up just a touch at hearing from her sister. “Aw, I wish I got to see her. Maybe we can have her over after we find Cerberus.”
“Dad too?” I added.
Juniper glowered at me. “What makes you think you’re coming?”
I waggled my eyebrows at her. “My wonderful company would be missed. I make a lovely Jell-O that I know you would love.”
She stuck her tongue out at me. Like a child. Well, two could play at that game. I cleared my throat, and then poked her tongue with my fingertip.
“OH!” she shouted. “You are so gross.”
With the most deathly serious look I could manage, I stared at her. “You think that was gross? Watch this.”
Before she could stop me, I did something which in retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have done. But you know what? I had fun.
I picked up her tiny hand, that felt much softer than I thought it would be. And then I proceeded to lick her from wrist to fingertip.
First, Jasmine and Zander gasped, both covering their faces. Jasper’s eyes widened as if he just watched a chicken pop up from out of nowhere and offer him crystal meth and a blowjob, and Kizzy just looked horrified. All and all, pretty great.
Now Juniper . . . She let out something akin to a scream, and then ran out of the room and upstairs, stomping the whole way. It had just been a little bit of spit . . . you’d think she could handle it.
“Holy fuck,” Jasmine said, voice low. “Fucking fuck!”
“Fuck indeed, baby. Fuck indeed.” Zander hung his head and shook it. “We’ll never see her again.”
Kizzy blinked. “Oh gods . . . this isn’t good.”
Jasper turned to give me a death glare. “Don’t ever touch my sister again, or I swear, I will kill you. Do you understand me?”
Okay, so I guess I overstepped a line. I’d just been fucking with her, but everyone’s reaction told me that I’d done something bad. Juniper acted as if I hurt her, and it gave me one more piece to this puzzle. Something had to be wrong with Juniper. Jasmine had become an alcoholic, barely out of the cradle. And Jasper . . . Jasper had something in his eyes that made me wonder about him. Darkness lurked in an uncomfortable way.
Zander and Kizzy had something off about them too, but I found it harder to see. Kizzy shrank away from every touch that didn’t come from Jasper or Zander, even from the girls. I didn’t want to look too deeply into the reasons for that, because I already knew that it would be upsetting. And Zander seemed so protective over her. Every time they stood side by side, he would glance at her and then around the area. That felt like more than big brother stuff. Something happened, and I didn’t know what.
“I understand,” I told Jasper. “Should I go talk to her?”
“No,” he growled.
Juniper came back down much sooner than I thought she would, and she held a hard stare for me. When she got within a few feet, she put her hands on her hips. “Touch me again, you creep, and I will have Nemo eat you.”
Jasmine looked at her hydra, who perked up at the sound of his name. He looked happy . . . so I guess that meant he didn’t mind eating me.
I held up my hand and put the other on my heart. “I swear to you that as long as we live, I will never put my tongue on or in any part of your body, ever again.”
“You better not,” she said with a blush. She turned to her brother. “Can you look into that vision now? I want Verin out of my house.”
Jasper went to sit on the couch, and Kizzy followed him. She started to look worried again, and she did her best to hide it. Jasper obviously saw through it, because he kissed her temple.
“It’ll be quick,” he promised her. “The bone is loud.”
Whatever that meant.
Again, we all waited on a seer to have a vision. I knew little about how the whole thing worked, because I didn’t spend my time learning about the other magical beings that wandered around this planet. Mum honestly knew a lot more than I did.
This took much longer than Juniper’s vision, and Kizzy watched with tension as her boyfriend sank into it. When he finally came to, he blinked, and leaned a little closer to Kizzy.
“Are you okay, sweetie?” she asked him, putting her hand on his cheek.
He rubbed his eyes. “Yeah, but I might actually need that nap now.”
Jasmine took a step to him. “What did you see?”
Her brother took a moment. “I saw the Underworld, and I saw Cerberus asleep. He was still big, and in front of the gates. Then there was a man that came in. Six feet, blond hair. He looked kind of slender. Wiry maybe, but a little thinner than that. I couldn’t tell what kind of clothes he was wearing, or who he was. I think his eyes were gold.”
“Is that all you saw?” Kizzy asked.
Jasper shook his head. “He did something, and I watched Cerberus shrinking. Then the man grabbed him and took off.”
Kizzy looked up at her brother with weariness. “Who the hell would be dumb enough to steal him from Hades? And why would they want to? The risks of punishment aren’t worth it.”
Only a handful of people could go to the underworld and leave with ease. I said as much, and started picking names. “Persephone just left, and I obviously doubt she had anything to do with it. Nor Dad . . . I don’t like the name I’m left with.”
“Being?” Jasmine asked.
I shrugged. “I’d pick the messenger of the gods.”
Zander exhaled. “Hermes? Why would Hermes do this? He’s one of the Olympians, and he doesn’t have a grudge against Hades, does he?”
“Not as far as I know,” I said.
The doorbell rang, ending the conversation too soon. While Zander went to answer it, I attempted to figure out what motivations Hermes might have had. The man was a trickster, so he might’ve just thought this would’ve been funny. It would mean that in the name of a prank, he decided to risk lives and piss off my Dad. So not all that farfetched. I could believe that he would let people die so that he could get a good laugh. I’d met very few kind gods, and even they had their moments.
“Can we help you, ma’am?” Zander asked kindly.
I looked up to see Mum with a massive tray of biscuits that smelled fresh out of the oven. Oh dear, I would be eating most of those.
“Hello, luv,” she said with a smile. “My name’s Gwen Cooper. I own that.” She nodded at me. “I wanted to bake up some goodies for you all. I know that you’re hard at work, trying to find that sweet little pup.”
Zander invited her in, and Jasmine rushed up with a warm smile. “Very nice to meet you, Gwen. I’m Jasmine.” She went through everyone’s names, all of which I’d told Mum before, so I hoped she would remember well enough.
“Nice to meet you all as well,” she said. “I hope my son has been behaving.”
“He hasn’t,” Juniper mumbled under her breath.
Mum looked at her. “Oh no, what did he do?”
“Nothing,” I lied.
“He licked me.” Juniper turned to my Mum. “He just straight up licked me.”
Mum smacked my arm as Jasmine took a biscuit. “Verin! What have I told you about licking people?”
“Not to do it unless they ask,” I responded.
“Yes.” Mum shook her head and leaned toward Juniper. “You should have seen him when he was a little boy. I couldn’t keep things out of his mouth, the little monster.”
“Mum . . . ” I sighed, warning her to stop.<
br />
She did not. “He also used to take his trousers and nappy off, running ‘round the house declaring that he’s the pee pee king.”
Oh, I did not need that information out into the world.
Jasmine lost her mind, doubling over and laughing so much that I hoped it hurt her. Kizzy joined in, and the boys snickered.
Juniper smirked at me, looking all kinds of smug. “The pee pee king. Well . . . I know what your contact ID will be in my phone.”
“Thanks, Mum.” I stared at her with betrayal.
My face felt a little hotter, and I decided that this emotion had to be embarrassment. Something I didn’t have a lot of experience in, but I didn’t like it anyhow. One of the benefits that came with living almost alone was not having people around to hear stories about me. I knew I had been a little odd when I was young, and now Mum had people to listen to those tales. I just hoped she would keep quiet about the time I passed out naked after overdosing on chocolate milk.
She shoved a biscuit into my mouth and patted my cheek. “You were so cute, sweetheart. I just loved taking pictures of you. I should bring them by sometime.”
The girls declared their agreement. They would never live to see those pictures, because Mum had no boundaries. I had many pictures in the bath, and other various nudes that they would not be seeing.
“Why do this to me?” I asked my mother. “You bring over sweets in an attempt to make yourself look kind.”
Everyone but Juniper had taken one, and they descended to give her compliments to counter what I said. They all enjoyed what she brought, and the things she said about me. So, goodie for her, but I would have to deal with my new nickname until this mission ended and I could go back to my life.
“Do you not want one, luv?” Mum asked Juniper.
She shook her head. “Sorry, I can’t have sugar.”
“Oh, sorry about that. Next time I’ll bring something a little healthier. I make granola treats that perhaps you would like.”
Juniper smiled far too grandly for me to think she just wanted to be polite, and that actually made me happy. I liked people enjoying my mother, because she didn’t get too much time with other people. A shame, since she got along so well with everyone. The place we lived before had been so cut off from people, that we both had little experience with them. I went to school, obviously, but it had been six years of almost no interactions with other people, unless I went into town for something. Now they surrounded us, and it seemed to almost be working out.
