Adonis and Aphroditus (2 page)

“Sir, are you aware gods man these
lines?”

The silence on the other end was surprising.
The line went dead and Adonis moved to the next call which was a
female who insisted she had something incredible she would show him
if he’d make a house call. He made it to lunch time where someone
came around relieving them each for thirty minutes so they could go
to the cafeteria and eat. He ate his food alone, not socializing as
he sometimes did. Tomorrow he’d be friendly, today he just had to
make it through the day alright.

He headed back thinking he had it made. Half
a shift and he was home free, that’s when the call came.

“Is this the lost gods hotline?” The voice
was sexy and appealed to him way too much. Maybe crazy was starting
to look good since he’d had so much contact with it?

“Yes, Ma’am. Do you have information you’d
like to give us?”

“No,” she said.

“I’m sorry Ma’am, did you say no? This
hotline is only for information on the lost gods.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t have information, I
said I wasn’t
giving
it away,” she explained firmly.

“So you’re saying you have information?”

“Yes, I do.”

“What do you want for this information?”

“This is a secure line, right?”

“Yes, Ma’am. This line is completely
secure.”

“I went to a fertility clinic because I
wanted to have a baby,” she said.

“Congratulations, but what does that have to
do with lost gods?”

“If you’d shut up and listen, I’d tell you,”
she said and the sexy voice turned a little peevish.

“Go ahead Ma’am, I’m all ears.”

“I doubt that but I’ll tell you anyway. They
used seed they had on hand to impregnate me and it was successful.
I noticed the baby seemed to develop quickly. It was getting too
big, too fast. I had to go in about six months and they delivered
the baby, but they said it died.”

Adonis had been interested in the story
because of the child’s fast development until she said it had died.
She was clearly suffering from a terrible loss, but she probably
needed a counselor to talk to instead of him. “I think you’ve
called the wrong hotline, Sweetheart. I can get you a number for
grief counseling if you want me to.” There was a moment of silence
and then she screamed so loud into the phone his ear went deaf for
a second.

“No damn you, I don’t need grief counseling.
They lied to me, the child is alive. They are fertilizing females
with god sperm and stealing the babies. I think they even have a
god on site, Perseus. They spoke about a project Perseus and the
children they have that they plan to sell.”

“Okay. What do you want from us?” he asked a
little subdued by her tone.

“I want my baby back. I want a promise that
you’ll get her back for me when you go in and save your god.”

“I’ll have to talk to my supervisor. Can I
get a number to call you back?”

“No.”

“No?”

“I’ll call you back and don’t try to trace
this phone, you won’t be able to and it will just piss me off.”

“Well, we wouldn’t want to piss you off,” he
said his tone showing his aggravation.

“I’ll call you back in two hours. Make sure I
get the right answer,” she exclaimed and she hung up.

Shit
! Hades was headed his way full
out. “Is she still on the line?” Hades yelled. Adonis just shook
his head and his eyes opened wide stunned by Hades anger. “That is
most likely a legitimate call. If she doesn’t call back, we’ll have
to try to hunt her down. Pull up the recording for me and play
it.”

Adonis hurried to pull it up and play it for
him. Hades looked twice as angry as he had in the ring last night
when he’d beaten the hell out of Adonis. He also was in full health
and ready to go. If Hades lost control it wouldn’t bode well for
whoever was nearest, right now that was Adonis. Hades listened
intently glancing and scowling once in a while. He finally set down
the headpiece and motioned to Adonis to turn off his hotline and
follow him.

Hades led the way into the office and Adonis
followed him in. Hades gestured to the chair and closed the door
which made Adonis a bit nervous. “I want you to handle her
carefully when she calls back. Agree to anything reasonable and get
her location. You don’t know much about the recoveries we made in
December, but Origin has been using fertility clinics to breed
human females with god’s sperm successfully.”

Adonis paled, he’d known Origin did fertility
work, but successfully breeding gods? They’d tried for years with
no luck at all. He knew he must look stunned at this news, because
he was stunned at this news. The leadership was being so secretive,
did that mean they feared leaks among the gods or did they just
fear leaks among the humans they interacted with? Adonis hoped the
latter was true because the thought a god could turn on their own
was monstrous especially after all they’d been through together. He
hoped the female would call back, he believed she would because she
sounded so desperate.

“Hades, I will do my very best to get what we
need out of her. But if she doesn’t call back tonight, someone else
will be on the line tomorrow.”

Hades gave him a harsh look. “No one but you
will be on that line until her call comes through. I don’t care if
you’re there for a week or more. Is that clear?”

“Yes,” Adonis said disheartened. “It’s
perfectly clear.”

Hades punched his arm lightly. “Don’t be so
upset. If this frees a god you’ll be rewarded. You’ll probably get
extra time off the hotline.”

Now Adonis smiled. That was what he was
talking about. He was just sick and tired of the hotline but he
knew it was necessary. A few gods were recovered and during their
recovery one or more gods found their mates. The fact that secrets
were being kept shouldn’t surprise him. Something was going on with
Cronos and had started just before the New Year’s Ball. Only a
short list of gods were allowed anywhere near his area, most of
them leadership level. It was the trust they all placed in Zeus
that made all of them go along with it and not asked any questions.
Well they had asked questions but Zeus had asked them to let it go
for now so they all had.

Some of the gods speculated that Cronos had
woke. That begged the question, did they put him back to sleep, did
he escape, or had he died and Zeus didn’t want the rest of them
disheartened. He was their leader, not really a father but more
like an oldest brother although Adonis wasn’t sure who was the
oldest only that Zeus had been bred to lead and no matter their
opinion of Origin, they always seemed to know what a god was best
at. Hades didn’t keep him any longer than necessary before sending
him back.

Even of the excitement had been more than
what Adonis liked, it had made the rest of his time move quicker
even with the crazy calls he still received. Now that it was nearly
time for
her
to call back, so Hades kept his phone line open
by having calls identified and switched to someone else. Adonis
began to sweat it when she hadn’t called back at the specified time
but maybe she wasn’t the prompt type of person. He waited on
tenterhooks for his line to light up. He’d thought about her a lot
and felt bad for her. It was wrong to steal a child from its mother
like that. It wasn’t the worst thing Origin had done but it was
just one more on a list of black misdeeds they had perpetrated.

The phone rang and his line lit up. “Hello,
this is the lost gods hotline. How may I direct your call?”

“I spoke to you before about the fertility
clinic. I recognize your voice. Have you gotten approval for the
deal?”

“I’ve gotten the authority to make you a deal
within certain limits. Tell me
exactly
what you’ll give us
and
exactly
what you want then I can tell you if we can do
it.”

“I can do that. I know where a god is being
kept as well as where there are ex-Origin employees breeding women
with god sperm. I’ll tell you where to go to free him, but you must
free the babies they are holding as well. I want my baby back and
I’m sure there are several other mothers who do too. Was that clear
enough?” She said the last part as if she thought he was simple
minded.

It annoyed him but he couldn’t show it. “Very
clear Ma’am. We can help you as long as your information turns out
to be correct.”

“Well it will be if you guys get off your ass
and down here right away. I’m in Tulune, Mississippi which is a
spot on the road that doesn’t even show on a map, but I’ll send you
the coordinates.”

They talked for thirty minutes with Hades
whispering in one ear as he listened to her in the other. The
female had a military mind and had given them some good
suggestions. He wanted to know more about her. There was just
something about her that called to him and made him want to meet
her. He knew that would never happen unless she came here, but that
was probably for the best anyway. The call finally ran down and
Adonis thought everything had been covered. They said goodbye and
he felt a slight ache at the thought he’d never see or speak to her
again. He shrugged it off, it just wasn’t meant to be.

“I guess I get out of hotline duty for a
while now?” Adonis asked smiling at Hades.

Hades smiled back but his smile didn’t make
Adonis feel reassured. “You sure will. You’re going on the mission
to free her daughter and Perseus. Congratulations, looks like
you’ve been promoted.” Hades slapped him on the back hard enough to
push him forward before he caught himself.

“Wh-what?”

“I know this is a lot to take in but you’ve
now been approved for a trip to Mississippi. You’ll love this short
getaway from Olympus and a chance to mix with humans. You’ll get
the chance to do things you normally don’t and experience human
delights. Go get some rest, we’re leaving in twelve hours. I’ll
send you an email listing what you need to know and how to dress.
Catch you later kid.”

Adonis hated that Hades still called him kid
even though he’d been grown for sometime now. Yes, he was younger
than many of the gods, but some of them like Hades were older than
they looked. Adonis was still nearly dizzy from the spin Hades had
put on an unwanted trip to the human world. Was hades trying to
become a politician? It was just so out of character for Hades to
be so upbeat. The old Hades would have told him he was going and to
suck it up if he didn’t like it. Could this be the result of
mating? If it changed a god’s basic self, maybe it wasn’t such a
good thing after all. Of course it was the only way to get
children, and
every
god wanted children.

Adonis went to eat supper and then he went to
his room to rest. He wanted to sleep, but he had so much running
through his head it took a couple hours before he settled down
enough for sleep to come. He fell asleep slowly, but he woke up
suddenly. He looked at the clock but there was no hurry. He had
been having the weirdest dream and in it he was talking to Lucy
Devlin the same female he’d spoke to on the phone. He’d been
talking to her through a door and he’d been about to pull the door
open and see what she looked like when he’d just woke up.

He felt a bitter disappointment that he’d not
gotten to see what she looked like. He didn’t understand it, but he
wanted to know everything about her. It must be because Hades was
making him go in this mission. That had to be why, there wasn’t any
other possible reason. He looked at the clock, he had plenty of
time as long as he got going now. Hades had no tolerance for anyone
who was late. He hopped out of bed and stretched his cramped
muscles. Oh yeah. That felt so much better. He walked toward the
shower ready to get clean. He considered giving himself a hand job
but the need wasn’t bad enough. He just got in and washed himself.
He rinsed and got out and dried. No big deal, everything was going
just fine and would continue to be fine.

He dressed in comfortable clothes since the
flight would be long. He didn’t really care about flying one way or
the other, except for the time it wasted. There was little to do on
the plane and even though the seats were comfortable, hours of
sitting wasn’t. He slipped an e-reader in his bag in case he got
too bored, but he couldn’t think of any thing else to take. He
brought his bag with him and went to the cafeteria to eat
breakfast. He’d bet most of the guys present were going on the
trip. Eudoras and Zelus were going which surprised him since they
were both mated and neither mate was present.

Hercules was there, but surely he wasn’t
going. He was in charge of security here and that’s where he was
needed most. Adonis knew he went on missions once in a while, but
this one wasn’t even confirmed yet. It was true, though, that
Perseus had been a close friend of Hercules and they were the same
age. Maybe that made this mission personal. In this new world they
were creating for themselves, all the gods had were each other.
Well, except for those gods with mates which was a growing number
but one that didn’t include Hercules.

Chapter 2

Getting There

The gods going on the trip gathered just
inside the doors each carrying a
go
bag,
having one
ready at all times was a habit Origin had instilled in them from an
early age. The bag held the necessities of life, just enough to
last a few days. It contained two full changes of clothing, a small
pack of field rations, a liter of bottled water with a filter, and
a selection of weapons. Cell phones, watches, and other small
necessities were carried on the person in case their bag was
liberated by the enemy. It was something a god would fight to keep
hold of, but shit happened. It happened more for a god than the
average human.

They trudged through the snow and ice in the
frigid temperatures that defined their new home. The climate here
made it harder for their adversary, Origin, to sneak in spies and
attackers. Not that it had stopped them completely but it had
slowed them down. The plane sat on the end of the airport that was
closest to their facility and all the snow had been cleared from
the runway and the plane had been running a while. It would be
comfortable inside and while it wasn’t necessary, it was
appreciated.