Rifts Page 9

  My hands pushed forward as I thought ‘move.’ What surprised me was the water pushing back. Someone was on the other side of that wall pushing the water in against me.

  "Hey, isn't Posy out there pulling the water back, Drew?"

  "Yeah, she's supposed to be. What are you feeling?"

  "Someone's pushing it in. I'm meeting a ton of resistance and it's not just the natural wave coming at me. Check it out."

  I looked at him, willing him to see what was going on in there and his brows knitted together in response. "Shit. That's not good. Let me check in with Georgie. Posy should have the juice to pull it back out, so something's wrong."

  "I'm starting to get really, really tired. I don't know how much longer I can keep it up. The wall won't move - it's there for good - but I'm not going to be able to push the water out if this keeps up. So, hurry."

  For having absolutely no idea of what I was doing, I guess I wasn't so bad at it. I did wish, though, that we had a couple of other Earth Movers down here. It would have made things go that much easier.

  Drew popped back in looking grim. "Nobody can reach Posy. She's just disappeared."

  "How can that happen? Where did she go?"

  He shook his head and started pacing. "I don't know. When Georgie has you tagged, you're tagged for good until she lets go of your presence. The only way Posy could have disappeared off that radar is if she's no longer on the planet…or if she's dead."

  "That doesn't sound good." I frowned. "Listen, I know this sounds like an asshole question, especially with a Hunter missing, but is there anyone available to help out here? I don't know if I have the juice to do it on my own."

  "No, I understand. Posy is one life compared to all of these. Poseidon is stuck out in the middle of the Ocean somewhere trying to ensure that the waves don't hit any of the other continents. Sinnan was helping put out the fires in Tangier. Let me see if I can get Poly out here. "

  "Hey," I reached out and touched his arm. "Thanks. Not just for this, but for pulling me out of the water. I appreciate it."

  He nodded and popped out again.

  The pushing presence dissipated and I took that as a good sign. I started moving tons of earth forward and was relieved to see the water falling back down to normal levels as the wall crept forward. A sigh of relief escaped and I sagged. Thank God. As the water pushed back, the destruction that had been wrought here became more visible.

  Cars and boats were upside down, piled on top of each other. Market carts - washed away by the flood - littered the streets like broken toys. The bodies were the worst. People didn't have enough warning or time to escape before being plunged into watery darkness. Tears flooded my eyes as I spied small broken bodies amid the wreckage. Whoever had done this was a monster.

  "Who is doing this Drew?" He hadn't been gone long and I was grateful. Being here left me feeling vulnerable.

  "I don't know. I don't know of anyone powerful enough to cause this much destruction at once. Well, I know powerful people, but they couldn't – no, they wouldn't do this."

  The smell of ozone surrounded me as Zeus materialized beside me. He put his hand on my shoulder and nodded at the wall. "Good job, kid."

  "Thanks. Is there anything else we can do for these people?" I couldn't take my eyes off of a small, mangled body in the courtyard below my position.

  "Grace, people die by the hundreds and thousands every day. We save the ones we can and mourn the ones we cannot."

  "Nobody seems to know who or what is causing this." I turned to him and stared into his eyes, searching for an answer. "Do you? Do you know who could do this?"

  He shrugged. "I don't know any one single person who could cause a tsunami and a raging fire at the same time. Whoever is doing this has help. We'll find them, though." His face was a grim mask of anger as he said those last words and I almost felt sorry for our culprit. "I need to find Posy. You're doing a good job here. Keep it up."

  I wanted to respond but it was too late. Zeus was already gone.

  "How are you holding up?" The question was quiet and tentative as though he was afraid that any moment, I'd turn into a raving lunatic.

  "I hurt. My body hurts from where your wife stabbed me in the chest yet again today. My heart hurts from the constant arguing with you. My soul hurts from looking at these people who just wanted to live a day to day life, but can't now."

  He grabbed my arm, fear lighting his features. "Hope stabbed you in the chest? Today? How did she find you?"

  "I was on my way back to my quarters from Heph's compound and she Rifted in."

  "Damn it!" He ran his fingers through his hair and began pacing back and forth. "I don't understand what's going on here. This isn't her. This isn't the Hope that I remembered."

  "Adonis, she's been gone a long time. God only knows where she ended up after what Geb did to her. She's not the same woman you knew."

  "For years, I prayed to anyone that would listen that she would just be delivered safely back to us. I'd given up. I guess my head wasn't on straight when she showed up after all this time. I'm sorry for that. I should have told you right away."

  I nodded. This wasn't exactly the place to have this discussion. I was torn between annoyance and gratitude. I wanted to tell him that I couldn't understand my anger, that I wanted to put this past us. There seemed like so many more important things we could be doing. The sounds of helicopters interrupted my thoughts and I peered out into the darkness.

  "Here come the troops," I said, my voice betraying my weariness.

  "They can't see us, but they will see your wall. You may want to lower it just a little, keep it a few feet above the water line."

  "What are we going to do about it long term? It's going to take a while for all of that water to recede."

  "Honestly? I don't know. Nothing like this has ever happened before."

  "Super." I lowered the top of the wall a little as it rolled forward, keeping my senses open to any water flowing over the top.

  "It looks like the water in the city is draining pretty well. If you can shore up the wall, we can get back to Olympus and find out if there are any further reports of who or what caused this."

  "Yeah I think we're good. Gravity is working now that Poly is handling the recession."

  "Okay, the humans will take care of the rest of the rescue efforts and we'll keep people on the ground to assist."

  I silently thanked the earth for its assistance and nodded to Drew. "Let's go."

  We re-appeared in Olympus soggy and exhausted. Others were gathered around the Situation Room listening to reports and watching News channels from all over the world - reporting on the devastation that had wracked the Northern coast of Africa. Faces were grim and body language ranged between anger and fear.

  I'd had all I could take from the day. My sweet, soft bed was calling me. Pink fingers of light were creeping up in the East. No way was it approaching dawn. I didn't have a watch and I was too tired to go hunting for a clock so I nodded to those I passed and shuffled to my room, where I collapsed and was asleep within seconds.

  Chapter 13

  "Mom?" Nudge. Nudge. "Mom! Wake up."

  "Go away. I've decided that I don't exist today." I rolled over and buried my head under the pillow.

  "Um, my Master wishes to know why you haven't shown up at the Forge yet."

  "Your what?" I popped upright, ignoring the sudden dizziness in my head.

  He scrunched up his forehead and repeated, "My Master?"

  "Since when did you become a slave? This is not acceptable. We're going home."

  "Mom! Chill! It's a title of respect. Remember? I've apprenticed with Hephaestus?"

  "Oh right," my body collapsed back into my nightly nest of pillows and I winced as prickles of pain shot up my back.

  Last night when I'd gotten back, I’d noticed what looked to be a pretty gnarly sunburn. I guess it was better than blackened flesh, but still. I didn't do sunburns well and the chances of having some Noxzema arou
nd were next to nil.

  "Mom, you look like a lobster. Did you forget to put sunscreen on?"

  "I wish. I accidently set myself on fire last night." I patted the spot on the bed beside me. "C'mere."

  He hopped on the bed - careful of my burns - then laid his head on my chest, listening to my heart beat steadily.

  "Hey, remember when the hardest choices we had to make were whether to eat oatmeal, left-over pizza or raisin bran for breakfast?"

  "Yeah," he said wistfully. "Those were the days."

  "It would be a little crazy, but you know we could go home. We'd just have to deal with flare ups and uh... maybe setting the house on fire occasionally."

  I won't lie. About seventy-five percent of me was really hoping that he'd go for it. I already knew that Hope couldn't get past the wards of the house. Oh sure, I'd become a shut-in and Dylan would have to have a personal supernatural body-guard every time he left the house, but maybe we could make it work!

  "I don't think we could make it work." He said, as though reading my mind.

  "Sure we could. I don't like allergy season anyway and you know Colorado. It's always allergy season. We just stay inside."

  "Remember that one time when I was getting bullied at school and I wanted you to home school me?"

  "Yeah?" I asked warily.

  "Remember what you said to me?"

  "Is it going to benefit me to remember?"

  "Mom." His voice took on an exasperated tone so reminiscent of Drew that I winced.

  "I told you that no matter how badly you wanted to give up, you couldn't let the bully win. I also believe I told you to pop that kid in the nose and he'd leave you alone."

  "Right. I stood up for what was right, Mom. That kid left me alone."

  "I don't think that this situation is the same, baby."

  "You're getting bullied and the first thing you decide to do is run away. You have to stop running away, Mom."

  "Whoah, when did you get so smart?" I hugged him close to me and planted a kiss on top of his head. I wasn't allowed many kisses and cuddles these days. He had people to impress.

  "I must have gotten it from Dad because you've been a total dork lately." He grinned and jumped off the bed before I could pinch him. "Heph says that if you're not there before breakfast, he's firing you."

  "Firing me as in letting me go as a student, or firing me as in setting me on fire? Cause there's a difference."

  He fidgeted a bit before answering. "I'm not sure, but you don't have much time. It took me twenty minutes to wake you up."

  "Crap!" I hopped out of bed and ran into the bathroom to do my morning business, then ran out with Dylan trailing behind me asking if I was going to go out in public looking like that.

  Something told me that Heph was the only person who was going to be able to teach me to knock Hope's teeth down her throat and I really didn't want to piss him off. So yeah, I was going to go out in public looking like this.

  I was halfway to his compound when I realized that I wasn't wearing shoes…or a bra. Too late to go back now. He'd have to deal with my unkempt state.

  When I burst through his open door, his voice reached out to smack me like a backhanded compliment. "I didn't think you'd make it in time. You even have thirty seconds to spare. Sit down and eat. After food, we'll start."

  "Swell."

  I sat down at the table and dug in. I tried not to think about the fact that I was sitting at a stranger's table with ratty hair and no bra. Nope, I wasn't going to think about that at all.

  Honestly, he probably didn't even notice. Hephaestus wasn't known for his people skills. I imagine that having only a handful of people to socialize with for so many thousands of years doesn't allow for a full development of niceties.

  Off to my side, my son poured juice into a glass and served me. My eyebrows shot up into my hairline. Was this my kid?

  "Thank you?" I may have looked around and peered intently into his face to see if this being was a doppelganger of my son. Again, I may have. I'll admit to nothing.

  Oddly, I was focusing on everything I could except for the man at the end of the table. He was still in the shadows and I realized with a start that I hadn't fully seen his face yet. It's something that you don't think about until it hits you as strange.

  "I just realized that I haven't seen you in the full light of day yet. That seems odd to me. Does it seem odd?"

  Dylan paused beside me, his eyes going wide. There was a slight shake of his head. Was he trying to tell me something? Of course he was. But I'd just woken up, hadn't had coffee and was behaving like an idiot.

  "What…are you horribly disfigured, or something? Why are you always hiding in the shadows?"

  A small keening sound made my head turn towards the source. Was my son making that noise?

  "Are you kidding me?" he hissed. "Mom, did someone scramble your brains before you went to sleep last night? Jesus! Shut up."

  "What?" I asked innocently. I was just curious. The guy was always skulking in the shadows. If I didn’t know better, I'd think he was a vampire. "Oh, are you a Vampire?" I called out. "I'm sorry! Didn’t mean to offend."

  A harsh rasping sound erupted from the other side of the table and my heart clenched. Oh God, had I given him an apoplectic fit? I could see the headlines now.

  Grace Murphy gives God Aneurism.

  Realizes that she isn't Funny.

  And then the rasping sound turned into booming guffaws. Dylan and I looked at each other, eyes wide. Pounding on the table turned my attention back to the man and my jaw dropped.

  Was he…was he laughing?

  "Grace Murphy, you are a smart-mouthed piece of work. Do you have any sense of self-preservation at all?"

  "No Sir?" What else was I going to say? Obviously, I didn't.

  "It's just as well that I'm training you, then. Your irreverence is going to get your ass killed." He stood up from the table and gestured toward the feast. "Finish eating and then meet me at the forge. Dylan, make sure she eats some protein and for the love of trees, get her some coffee so she's not as idiotic when we start."

  Dylan jumped and then nodded quickly. "Yes, sir!"

  "You don't have to be a jerk," I grumbled.

  "Holy crap, Mom," Dylan whispered. "Do you gotta piss off everyone who's more powerful than you are?"

  I didn't even call him on the swear word, which said a lot for my current state of surprise. "Yeah, I guess I do."

  "I'd uh…I’d like you to live long enough to meet the grandkids."

  "Wait, what? You're too young to start thinking about grandkids. Are you dating someone? I thought you were in the 'girls suck' phase of your life. I—I can't think about this right now. Run along and get some coffee for me, will you? I'll finish up here. Hey," I patted his bottom and then pulled him in for a hug. "Thanks for waking me up."

  "Yeah, I can't wait to tell the guys about this. They'll never believe it."

  "Get." I pushed him off and through the door so I could attack my oatmeal with the vigor that it deserved. Suddenly I was starving. I piled eggs and fruit onto my plate and dug in. Chances were that I'd need this fuel for the coming day. If it was anything like yesterday, I was probably doomed.

  ***

  The food was gurgling in my stomach when I sauntered into the forge. I shouldn't have eaten so much. Normally breakfast wasn't a huge ordeal and a bowl of oatmeal or some eggs and hash did it for me. I’d eaten half of the food on that table and still would have consumed more if I hadn't caught Dylan's face.

  He'd looked horrified by the amount of food I was shoveling into my mouth.

  "What?" I'd asked.

  "I've never seen you eat that much in one sitting. Where are you putting it?"

  My eyes narrowed in annoyance and I'd replied, "Never you mind. How do I get to the forge from here?"

  He'd given me directions and disappeared through the door in which we'd come.

  So, here I was, standing alone waiting for whatever it was that
came next. What happened to the days where I could anticipate the next move in my life? Gone. They were just gone.

  I stepped into sweltering heat and immediately broke out into a sweat.

  "Jesus! It's hotter in here than it was yesterday. Are you trying to give yourself a heat stroke?"

  There was a reason I didn't live in Vegas, despite my attraction to bright blinking lights. In the summer if you stepped outside, you’d singe your nose hairs, it was so freakin' hot. The same could be said for Texas, Arizona and L.A. Wait… there were a whole bunch of reasons to not live in L.A. I'd strike that from the list just because if the heat didn't kill you, the silicone would.

  "Raise your body temperature and you won't feel it."

  "If I knew how to do that, it would have been done already," I groused.

  "What was that display with Hope yesterday then?"

  "Panic? Rage? Panic?"

  "Heh. Maybe you should head back to your rooms then. I'll ask Zeus to stop sending me toddlers."

  "Are you always this much of a dick? Cause you know, if I'm expecting it…I uh - can expect it."

  My clothes were stuck to my body again, which was making me grouchy. Sweat was pouring off of me in pools and I suddenly remembered that I wasn't wearing underclothes. Modesty kicked in and I pulled my shirt away from my chest in an awkward pretense of trying to cool off.

  "I've seen breasts before, Grace."

  "Really? I was starting to think that you might be gay." What? Where did that come from? It was time to seriously consider buying a muzzle.

  A snort was my reply.

  "I don't know where that came from. It's got to be the heat. But, uh, are you gay?"

  "No, I'm not gay."

  "It would be okay if you were gay. Some of my best friends are." I had a feeling that I was just making it worse.

  "I can assure you that I am quite attracted to the female form."

  This seemed too good to let go. My curiosity got the better of me and my mouth went into overdrive.

  "Okay. So why haven’t you left your compound for so long? I haven't heard any rumors of booty calls, so what's up?"