Rifts Read online

  "This thing weighs a metric ton of shit."

  "Yeah, it will lighten as you walk. Or it should, it's calibrated to my strength right now and it's obvious that I'm stronger than you."

  "You think?" My legs stretched and groaned in response to the resistance in the bands. She was right though, the further I walked, the easier it became. By the time I'd reached the far wall, it simply felt like I was moving through water instead of mud.

  "Okay, this isn't so bad. What's next?"

  "Materialize your Katana - I want to do some tai chi with you in the suit. The movements should take you through the entire range of your motion."

  The decorative sword appeared in my hands, and I began the flowing motions. Tai chi wasn't necessarily meant to be performed with a weapon, but it made Athena happy to see me practicing so I went with it. Both arms gripped the hilt, and I raised it in front of me before opening my chest and widening my arms to my sides. From there, my arms strained against the poles before executing the 'Painting a Rainbow' move.

  "Good," she ran her hand down my arm and straightened my elbow a bit. "How does that feel?"

  "I can definitely feel the resistance and it's not terribly painful. It's uncomfortable enough that I know I'm going to need a massage and a hot bath after, though."

  "Perfect. That's what is needed. If we can develop your strength as well as your balance, Hope is less likely to knock you flat on your ass the next time you take a shot at her. Drew did it completely wrong. Sure, you can survive an encounter but maybe not with someone who has training and strength. I don't know what he was thinking. Oh wait...yeah I do…"

  "What was he thinking?"

  "Less talking and more breathing. Legs should be shoulder-width apart."

  I rolled my eyes, adjusted my legs and continued twisting my body and the skeleton in a beautiful dance of motion.

  "He was thinking that he wanted you to stay alive and he didn't have enough time to do it properly. He was also probably thinking about what you'd do to his balls when you found out the truth of your son's parentage."

  I simply nodded in response.

  "Honestly, I'm glad it came out now. We can properly train Dylan by knowing what to expect from his power source. The kid's going to be seriously full of juice, Grace. We need to be careful with this one. Not only does he get your parentage, but he's got Dad as a source too. His humanity is so small that I'm surprised that he didn't start zapping people as a baby."

  "I'm grateful that he got the time to be normal. He's more likely to be humane in his decisions and use of his powers because of that."

  "I can't disagree." A short laugh burst from her lips and she nodded toward the door of her studio. "So, my brother has been standing patiently at the door for the last thirty five minutes listening to us. I imagine that I can spare him the torture and let him in…unless you're not ready."

  My shoulders slumped. "I have to do it as some point. May as well rip off the bandage."

  She nodded and the locks binding the doors closed while she was in sessions clicked open. Cool air drifted into the room and brushed against my skin, drying the sweat. I didn't look my best. This was probably a good thing. I didn't need to worry about how I looked with Drew. Okay, let me rephrase that. I didn't want to worry about how I looked with Drew.

  "You took your damned sweet time," he growled.

  "My studio, my rules. When you're done, Grace, I believe that Father wants to talk to you about starting Rift training."

  "Thanks ‘Thena. I appreciate the help."

  "Always, my friend." With that, she disappeared silently through the door into the sounds of training and children's whooping.

  I looked at Drew with a stony expression. "You have twenty minutes. Get to the point quickly."

  "Can you teleport yet?"

  "No, why?"

  "Good." He grabbed me and the world blinked.

  Son of a bitch!

  Chapter 8

  If I made it out of this little adventure alive, I was going to petition Guinness to create a category for most kidnaps in a lifetime. I felt like I had a sure win coming. Annoyance replaced fear as I realized that the only reason people were getting away with this was that I couldn't figure out how to teleport.

  Humans simply could not move their bodies through space and time from one point to another without a vehicle of some sort. It continued to escape me that I was nowhere close to being human. However - having been raised as such for the brunt of my life - there were some ideas about physics that I couldn't leave behind.

  "Crap, Athena forgot to take this contraption off of me before she left." I scowled down at the bands circling my limbs. I wasn't sure where he'd taken us, but it was likely that we were still in Olympus. The room looked familiar but wasn’t a place I remembered being in.

  "She probably did it so you wouldn't kick my ass again. Let's hear it for sisterly love."

  "Heh."

  "So I—"

  "Have twenty minutes and then I'm storming out of this room as fast as I can with this suit on." I interrupted.

  He grinned at me and it was hard to stay mad. The problem was that when he wasn't around to keep me grounded, something inside of me longed to have him near. I didn't want to think of those things - especially when he was in the room and could read my mind.

  "Right then, I guess I should get right to it. I owe you an apology."

  "Damn straight you do."

  He ran his fingers through his beautiful hair and I scowled. He wasn't allowed to use my bodily urges against me.

  "Sit still and talk," I grumped. When in doubt, use aggression. It's the Grace Murphy way.

  He pierced me with a look that told me instantly he knew exactly how he affected me. His eyes widened in surprise. Oh c'mon! Really? He knew from the start that I found him panty dropping gorgeous. I guess he was just blind or blocking enough that he didn't see the rest.

  "I'm sorry Grace. For everything. When I realized that Dylan was my son, things just started happening so fast. It didn't feel like the right time to tell you. And when it was the right time, Hope showed up complicating things further. The opportunity just didn't seem to be there." His look begged me to forgive him.

  "A – You shouldn't have knocked me up in the first place. And B – you shouldn't have lied to me. About anything. I'm not a child. I deserve to know what's going on."

  "Well, it seemed like the right place at the right time for A and B, there are things that you're not ready for yet. You need someone to teach you prudence."

  I snorted, "You think pretty highly of your skills."

  "Well, I am Adonis."

  "Yeah, not the time to get cheeky."

  "Right. Sorry." He did look chagrined. But not enough. I can't tell you what it was inside me that needed him to be begging at my feet. It's not like I wasn't a full participant in this ordeal. I can't even say why I felt so betrayed.

  It's hard being compared to another woman. I felt like he'd only gone after me because I was genetically linked to Hope, and that hurt. A lot.

  "Drew, Brandon did a number on me. He left me feeling like I wasn't good enough or pretty enough. Hell, he made me believe that I wasn't feminine enough. You helped make me strong again. I hate the thought that you are in the same league of guy that Brandon is. Lying to me or putting me in a place that I don't deserve to be in to make you feel better."

  "You know better than that. I'm nothing like Brandon!"

  "Aren't you?"

  "It wasn't like that." Oh the cut was coming. I could hear it in his voice. "Let's face it - you guys weren't very close at the time. We were all surprised he thought that Dylan was his, considering how long you'd gone in between."

  "Are you kidding me? You bring me here to jab the knife in a little deeper? You should leave this room and thank Athena that I can't move fast enough in this suit to chop your head off and stick it on a pike in the front courtyard."

  I was so furious. What had I expected - a heartfelt apology and
maybe some admission of undying love? My 'picker' was obviously off because I kept gravitating toward men who were idiots or cruel. Sometimes both.

  "I can't believe you're comparing me to Brandon. This has gotten ridiculous and you're being childish."

  "I'm being childish?" My voice raised an octave. "You're the one who let that woman knock me down twice without even lifting a finger to stop her. She waltzes through my damned door, crooks a finger at you and you come running regardless of the safety of our son. OUR SON!"

  "I'd never do anything to hurt Dylan and you should know that!"

  "Do I? Because I didn't see you do anything to prevent her from killing me at that house, Drew. She could have without even blinking before skipping down the stairs to finish off my son." My heart was racing at the memory of the fear I’d felt in those moments. There was nothing I could have done to stop her from killing my child and she knew it.

  "She never would have gotten that far. I swear to that."

  "But she still would have killed me first. I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I was playing pretend, thinking that we were a family. I forgot that you're just my 'protector.’ You're nothing else."

  "It's complicated." His voice trailed off.

  "Is it? Is it so hard to say whether or not you have feelings for me?"

  "Grace, you're blowing this out of proportion. Listen, you still need me to help you take care of Hope."

  "Actually, I don't. I don't need you at all. Your twenty minutes are up." My voice cracked and I could feel my eyes burning. How did this happen? How did things go so badly so quickly? "You are welcome to visit with Dylan because I'm going to have to tell him sooner rather than later that you are his father. God knows that nothing is sacred in this place and I certainly don't want him finding out from the gossip mill. But you stay away from me, Adonis. I don't need your brand of care any longer."

  "Grace." He didn't say anything else. It was a smart move on his part. I couldn't take any more.

  Instead of asking him to port me back out, I started yelling at the top of my lungs for Zeus. It only took him five minutes to pop in, take a quick assessment of the situation and port me out. The man was extremely useful in a pinch.

  ***

  "We need to get you trained in teleportation, missy. I can't just show up and rescue you whenever you get yourself in over your head."

  "I can't disagree with you. Sign me up."

  "Rifts first then porting. It may be in the same vein for you. I don't want you accidently opening a Rift when you want to pop over to the supermarket."

  "Your grasp of modern language is really improving. I'm super proud of you."

  "Thanks," he replied gruffly. "I've been spending more time among the people of this world. I think that was the mistake I made before. I didn't spend enough time surrounded by those I was supposed to protect. If you distance too much, you tend to forget how fragile they are or how important this world is."

  "That's pretty profound."

  "I have my moments. What in the world is that you are wearing?"

  "One of your daughter's new contraptions." I smiled. "She's working on improving my strength. I give it two months before she's marketing it to gyms across the world and making another fortune."

  "She doesn't go out into the real world enough these days," he said gruffly.

  "Why is that?"

  "Her story to tell."

  "Fair enough. Shall we proceed?"

  "Are you going to continue wearing that thing?"

  "Do you know how to get it off me?"

  "No."

  "Then yes," I sighed.

  He rolled his eyes and bellowed, "Athena!"

  She popped in within seconds. She saw me, laughed and ran her hand over the back rod. Not only did the skeleton release me, but it collapsed upon itself into something that could be easily carried.

  "Cool," I said.

  "Yes. You are welcome. Next time, try not to get kidnapped so I don't have to rescue you from the gym equipment."

  "You're a funny lady. Ever think of taking up Stand Up professionally?"

  "Who says I don't?" She winked and then was gone.

  "She's incorrigible and you should stop pandering to her," I groused.

  "Mmm, indeed. She's incorrigible."

  "Sir, are you insinuating that I may be less than perfection?"

  I smiled at Zeus fondly with a bit of sass mixed in. I had a small scar on my hip that the nanites had never quite healed from our past time together. It was okay. That small badge of honor was a testament to my survival skills. No matter what happened, it would never be that bad (I hoped) and he'd given me strength in the face of what would have made me a victim.

  It may not make sense to the average person. However, we weren't average and there was a keen understanding that no matter what, our relationship would survive anything. Part of it had to do with both of us watching my mother sacrifice herself for our safety.

  At that moment, I had the realization that Zeus didn't have to keep me. He could have abandoned me, killed me, or buried me on the moon. But he didn't. He’d kept me and was treating me as though I was family. It loosened something in my chest. Wow I had issues. I'd get to working through them, but we had more important things to handle today.

  I rubbed my hands together and announced, "Rifts! Let's get started. It's time to bring Mum home."

  "Damned straight it is."

  Chapter 9

  The last three months, everything had revolved around how I was going to get Diana back to us. After she’d pulled herself and Geb through a Rift, everyone went into crisis mode trying to figure out how to train me in a craft that nobody knew.

  Zeus had a modicum of understanding of Rifts since he'd been there when they had designed the first machine, but he didn't understand how to create one from a person's own power.

  I'd like to tell you that my motives at this point were all about getting my mother home. Hell, it was important, but something else had come up that was infinitely more crucial. Not only did I want to learn how to create Rifts, I wanted — no needed - to learn how to stop them.

  Hope's ability to create Rifts at will and escape through them made it easy for her to get in and out of places quickly without the fear of getting caught. That ability, coupled with the knowledge that she'd been to Olympus recently, made my stomach clench. I knew that Dylan was safe - but how safe? Who's to say that she couldn't pop in, grab him and go?

  Her strange attraction to my child made me nervous. Okay that was a lie. It made me sick. It wouldn't be difficult to sneak in and snatch him. If that's even what she wanted. It was quite probable that she simply wanted to kill him and exact some sort of twisted revenge on my father through me.

  I'd seen first-hand his inability to resist her. He'd turned into a zombie during their last encounter with no emotion, thought or reflex that she was dangerous. That terrified me. If we were going to be completely honest - she terrified me.

  "Okay, let's pretend that I've never done this before and you explain to me step by step how it's done," I stated exasperated.

  Zeus threw his hands up in the air. "If I knew how to do that, I'd have your mother already back home and in my bed."

  "Whoah! Too much information there." I gagged a little for effect. Yes, I was an adult but nobody wanted to think of their parent getting their freak on. Okay, maybe some people did - but last time I checked that shit was illegal.

  "You're incredibly childish."

  "So you've told me."

  "I don't know, your mother says a little mantra before she pulls one open. You only know she's saying it if you're listening for it."

  "So it's a magic word?"

  "I don't know. I guess."

  "Abracadabra!" I yelled, waving my arms around with a dramatic flourish.

  Zeus leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs and threw me a nonplussed look. "How did that work for you?"

  "Not well," I groused.

  "I don't know if it w
as a specific word. I don't recall her using one in particular. Maybe she was naming places she wanted to go and just threw her will into it."

  "Okay, sure. What did she say before she disappeared through the Rift with Geb?"

  "What am I - a voice recorder?"

  I raised my eyebrows at the annoyance in his voice. "I dunno… Are you?"

  "I should have drowned you at birth."

  "Probably less heartache for everyone," I muttered.

  "Um," he paused to think about the last conversation she had with us. "Okay, she said that you were a warrior," he snorted at this. "And that you were hers as much as you were his." He paused, stunned. "Could it be that easy?"

  "I don't hear anything in there that sounds easy. What's caught your fancy?"

  "It makes perfect sense! Of course she'd take him to the one place he couldn't escape!"

  "Still in the room here…"

  He grabbed my arms and shook me a few times before wrapping me in his embrace in his excitement.

  "She's taken him to Alancea. Because of the devastation that he wreaked on the second continent, all Rift travel was suspended. It means that while she could get him in, he can't get back out because the machine he used to come here was destroyed. His power in Alancea is virtually non-existent."

  "I'm sorry, I'm still lost here. So she took him back to the home planet. I thought he'd destroyed it."

  "No, he destroyed an entire continent and killed millions of people. However, there are two other continents on our world. She's probably at her father's."

  "So why hasn't she come home?" My question was quiet. We both knew that there was only one reason she wouldn't have come back.

  "There could be any number of reasons." His voice cracked at the end and I put my hand on his shoulder to give him my support.

  "You're right of course. I thought that Geb was from another world. I don't understand. I'm so confused right now."

  "He was exiled to the second continent but he was still Alancean."

  "I see. One day I'll get this whole incestuous mess sorted out. In the meantime, I know the name of the world. I still don't have the means to get a door open. Annnnnd," I continued. "Hope is still out and about getting her crazy on. I'm kind of tired of people trying to kill me and mine for past sins. It's getting old."