by P. C. Cast
Chapter Twenty-Six
"I can't believe Vulcan has been watching us. " Venus paced around Pea's office.
"Well, actually, he was watching me," Pea said.
"You know, this is very unlike him. "
Pea grinned at the goddess. "Love does that to some people. "
Venus raised a brow. "Indeed. "
"Yep. Speaking of - let's hear about Griffin. And don't scrimp on the details. I mean, you were gone all night, and you did say the L word. "
"Griffin is a spectacularly talented lover," Venus said.
"Well, that's great. But I'm assuming it takes more than that for you to fall in love with a man. . . or god. . . or whatever. "
Venus studied her hands. She couldn't believe how difficult it was to talk of her innermost feelings. For eons she'd been encouraging couple after couple to do that very thing. Finally she understood why they'd looked so uncomfortable. The goddess sighed and tried to order her feelings into words.
"You know how it is with you and Vulcan - how the two of you seem so much alike that you have the almost innate ability to understand one another without many words?"
"Yes, that's how it is with Vulcan and me. "
Venus looked up from her hands to meet her friend's eyes. She felt unusually close to tears as she continued. "That's how I feel with Griffin. It's ironic, really," she said, on a little sob. "He's an incredible man. He should have found love years ago. And me, I am Love, yet it seems I've not really known myself for ages. Not until I looked into that mortal man's eyes. Then suddenly I was found. " Venus wiped her eyes. "Foolish of me, isn't it?"
"Of course not!" Pea took her hand. "Why shouldn't you deserve a great love for yourself?"
"Pea, I've been so busy assuring that everyone else finds love that I haven't thought to save any for myself. "
"Then that changes now. "
"You think it can?"
"It already has. You've found him. You love him. He loves you, right?"
"He says he does. "
"Well then, what's the problem?"
"He doesn't know who I am. "
"Yes, he does. He knows you're beautiful and kind and intelligent and funny and sexy. That's who you are. "
"I am also an immortal goddess. One of the Twelve Olympians. My place for eternity must be on Mount Olympus. Pea, I can't leave my realm. How would the world survive without Love?"
Pea squeezed her hand. "It wouldn't. Griffin has to move to Olympus. That's all there is to it. "
"I already kind of asked him that. "
"Kind of?"
Venus looked chagrined. "I told him my work was in Rome and Greece and I couldn't leave it to move to Tulsa. "
"And?"
"And he doesn't want to leave his family. His sisters and his mother depend on him. He said we could have something called a long-distance relationship. "
Pea curled her lip. "Ugh. Totally not acceptable. " Then she brightened. "But it would be acceptable if he knew who you really are. I mean, you can zap yourself back and forth from Olympus to here, right?"
"Yes. "
"So can't you zap him, too?"
"Of course. But you hate zapping. Maybe he will, too. "
"Please," Pea scoffed. "He's a guy. He'll be fine with the zapping. And truthfully, if Vulcan has to zap me around so that he and I can be together, I'll take a Xanax and let him zap away. "
"Xanax?"
"Ambrosia in a pill. "
"Oh, good. " Venus nodded thoughtfully. "So you believe I should tell Griffin the truth. All of it. "
"I do. Actually I think it's the only answer. "
"What if he doesn't like the idea of being loved by a goddess?"
"Come on, Venus! What man wouldn't like the idea of being loved by a goddess? Especially the Goddess of Love. He should be overjoyed. "
"Well, being overjoyed certainly sounds reasonable to me. "
"When are you seeing him again?"
"Later today. He's going to be on duty, but he said if I come by this afternoon we could have dinner together in the park beside the station. That is, if no one sets anything on fire that he has to put out. "
"Perfect. Tell him who you are then. He'll be at work for the next twenty-four hours or so. Isn't that how their shifts go?"
Venus nodded. "He said they're usually on for a day, and then off for two. "
"So tell him today, and he'll have time to get used to it before he sees you again. Easy-peasy. "
"Do you really think so?"
"Absolutely. I mean, am I not the most mundane mortal you've ever met?"
Venus smiled at her friend. "You might be. "
"So if I can get used to loving an immortal, anyone can. "
"You know, you're really very wise. "
"I know. Now, you have a class to teach, and I have interviews to conduct. This evening you'll figure things out with Griffin and I'll. . . " She paused and waggled her eyebrows. ". . . with Vulcan. "
Venus laughed. She turned to leave Pea's office to head to what she was quickly considering her classroom, but was brought up short by the little mortal's next words.
"You know you could return to Olympus at any time now, don't you?"
Venus glanced back at Pea. "I - I haven't really given it much thought. I guess maybe I can. "
Pea's smile was warm and filled with the love she felt for the goddess. "Of course you can. You were only trapped here until you fulfilled my wish for happiness and ecstasy. You've made sure I've been blessed with both in quantities I'd never imagined. "
"Oh, Pea. I didn't bring those things to you. I just helped you find the way to discover them yourself. "
"Thank you, Venus, Goddess of Love," Pea said.
Venus tilted her head in regal acknowledgment. "You are most welcome, darling. " Then the Goddess of Love took her bag of vagina diagrams and, smiling, hurried to the classroom in which she would hold court.
Vulcan stood in front of the pillar of fire, hands on his hips, and he threw back his head and laughed joyously. He had found her and she loved him! She knew who he was and she accepted him. Never again would his life be a solitary pit of loneliness, where he'd simmer the eons away by himself. Instead he would be with Pea. He would love her and have children with her and watch her grow old and. . .
Vulcan came to an abrupt halt. He would watch his mortal love - the mate of his soul - grow old and die. Then he would be right back where he had been before he'd ever loved her. No! It would be worse. His centuries of loneliness had been bad enough before he knew her. Now they would be unbearable.
"No!" he shouted, and the fire flamed high and hot in response. "I will not live without her. " But what choice did he have? He could turn her into something - an ever-flowing brook or a meadow of eternally blooming wildflowers. Vulcan shook his head. "I cannot do that. Pea cannot abide zapping," he muttered, disgusted with himself for even considering it. "Plus, it wouldn't really be Pea, and we wouldn't actually be together. " No. Changing Pea wasn't the answer. So the answer must be that he had to change himself. Not long ago he had been eager to become a cold constellation to escape his existence as an outlander, which was why he'd turned his attention to the modern mortal world to begin with. He'd meant to discover a mortal man who would be willing to take his place as God of Fire for eternity. Vulcan rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Who was it Venus said she loved?"
A name seemed to whisper from the pillar of fire: Griffin. Yes! That was his name, Griffin. The God of Fire raised his hands and shouted a command into the pillar of flame, "Let me see the modern mortal Griffin!"
The order snaked from Olympus, sizzling down the invisible thread from one world to another, until it came to rest at Tulsa's Midtown Fire Station. Vulcan called a chair over to him and settled in to observe the mortal man.
In the shadowy stairwell of Vulcan's domain, Hera smiled smugly and padded silently back up the stairs.
"
Hey Capt! One of your sisters is here. "
Griffin looked up from the stack of inventory papers he was trying to make sense of. Why in the hell didn't the grocery money ever balance?
"What?" he barked. Had Robert said something about one of his sisters?
"Wait, scratch that. All of your sisters are here!"
"Shit!" Griffin cursed under his breath and pushed up from his dilapidated office chair. What were all of his sisters doing here? Like that wouldn't cause a damn stampede of testosteronefilled idiots. He checked the clock as he hurried from his office. Venus would be there in less than an hour. Plenty of time to get his sisters out of there, settle the men down to dinner and take a much-earned private break with her. But first things first.
He rounded the corner to see his four sisters sitting in Sherry's cherry red Mustang GT
Convertible - with the top down (did it have to be so damned warm for the end of February?), with half of the damn station slumped around the car eyeing the giggling, flirting girls like prime rib.
Well, in theory he had plenty of time. Time and his sisters often existed at the opposite ends of the world.
"Griff! Hey! We thought we'd come by to remind you of our date tomorrow. " Sherry waved at him and smiled like she was Miss America.
"How about you and I have a date tomorrow, sugar?" said a young fireman in a brand new spotless uniform.
Griffin glared at the new recruit. Damn punk had ears that were still dripping wet. He'd never so much as sniffed a real fire, and here he was coming on to Sher?
"How about you finish cleaning the latrine and then you and I will have a talk about why you don't call my sister sugar," Griffin said with a growl.
The new recruit shoved his hands in his pockets, muttered an apology to Sherry, a "yes, sir" to Griffin and hurried back into the stationhouse.
"Okay gentlemen, the show's over. Go on about your business. "
Reluctantly the crowd around the Mustang broke up. The men called good-byes to the girls as they shuffled slowly back to the cards and Sports Illustrated magazines they hadn't really been interested in to begin with.
"Griff, you're just a big fat ball of no fun. " Alicia pouted.
"And just exactly why can't that adorable young thing call me sugar?" Sher asked.
"Because, as you have explained over and over to me during most of the thirty plus long years I've know you, terms like sugar and honey and sweetie pie are derogatory to women. "
"I said that?" Sher asked Stephanie.
"Constantly. " Stephanie nodded.
"Was I talking about adorable young firemen?"
"Apparently not," Kathy said.
"I didn't think so, because I really don't feel degraded. So there must be exceptions to - "
"Why are you girls here?" Griffin interrupted before she built up any more steam.
"We were just passin' by, and like Sher said, we thought we'd stop in and remind you that you're supposed to change our oil tomorrow," Alicia said with a chirp.
"Our oil? As in four cars?" Griffin scowled at his sisters.
"You said you would," Alicia said.
"Not all in one day!"
"But, big brother, you can do anything!" Stephanie beamed at him.
"And I'm cooking," Kathy said.
"Ribs?" Griffin felt his annoyance begin to fade.
"Ribs with garlic mashed potatoes," Kathy said. "I also managed to get my hands on some early sweet corn for corn on the cob. "
"And I'm bringing the beer," Stephanie said.
"Import or that grocery store crap?"
Stephanie looked totally offended. "Import, of course. "
"I'm making pineapple upside-down cake for dessert," Sherry said. Griffin couldn't stop the slow smile. His sisters annoyed the crap outta him sometimes. They could be a pain in the ass. But they sure as hell knew what he liked.
"So, let's say my place, tomorrow at five-ish?" Stephanie said.
"Yeah, all right. You bribed me into it. "
His sisters laughed and broke into enthusiastic applause.
"Now get out of here before you make some poor, unsuspecting fireman lose his mind. "
Sherry put the Mustang into reverse, and as it rolled backward she called, "Hey! You can bring your new girlfriend. "
"Yeah!" Alicia yelled. "We like the goddess. "
"I'll see what I can do," he told them, and waved and shook his head as Sherry laid rubber on the street in front of the station.
Vulcan chuckled. Griffin's sisters were amusing nymphs, and they adored him. What would it be like to have a large, boisterous family where everyone cared for each other? Where sisters joked with their beloved brother and families ate together, loved together, raised children together and were there for each other as they grew old and passed on to the afterlife?
It would be wonderful.
Vulcan could see Pea fitting into a family like that seamlessly. Griffin DeAngelo was only a man. He didn't have vast powers he could wield at will. He didn't have a realm of his own. He wasn't an immortal. But Vulcan envied him with an intensity that caused the pillar of fire to crackle and hiss.
He also realized that it would do no good for him to consider this mortal man as his replacement. There was no way Griffin would want to exchange lives with him. And why should he? The mortal's life was filled to brimming with happiness and the magic of family. Things Vulcan was afraid he could only observe and envy.
