Immortal Devices (3 page)

            Cruces joined them at the window and Scarlett heard him groan. “Oh, for pity’s sake,” the vampire said, “what are those two doing here now? Of all the things that could show up at my gate…”

            “Are they a threat?” Scarlett asked. “Do you know them?”

            “Oh, I know them, all right,” Cruces said. “As for whether they’re a threat, the answer to that probably depends on what they want. You know, we could really do without this right now.”

            “So who and what are they?” Scarlett asked.

            “Let’s start with the what, shall we?” Cruces said. “They are immortals, and powerful ones. The Ancient Greeks worshiped them as deities. The woman is Aphrodite, the goddess of love.”

            Scarlett could believe that easily enough. “She is certainly very beautiful.”

            Cruces frowned slightly at that. “Yes, she is. Unfortunately, she is also very determined. Quite annoyingly so. She has a hard time believing that any man could say no to her.”

            Scarlett saw Tavian look over at the vampire. “You and her?” the fey man asked.

            Cruces shook his head. “Not for want of trying on her part, I should add. She took it into her head that a royal vampire would be just the thing to add to her list of lovers and… well, things got a little embarrassing after that.”

            “I’m surprised that a man with your reputation said no,” Tavian observed.

            “Yes, well, you don’t know everything about me.”

            Scarlett couldn’t help smiling a little at Cruces’ apparent discomfort. After all, the vampire spent so much of his time enjoying the discomfort he caused when he punctured social niceties. Still, she eventually decided to let him off. “If that’s Aphrodite, then the man with her must be her husband Hephaestus.”

            “Yes,” Cruces agreed, “that’s Hephaestus.”

            “Though I thought,” Scarlett continued, “that Hephaestus was supposed to be ugly.”

            “Don’t believe everything you read in the Greek myths,” Cruces said. “That particular one is just because of his limp. The Greeks had an obsession with physical perfection. The wealthy would spend their days at the gymnasia, working on their appearance. As a result, they regarded anything like Hephaestus’ foot as ugly. Frankly though, we have better things to worry about than whether you find Ancient Greek immortals attractive, Scarlett.”

            “I didn’t say that,” Scarlett countered. She blushed hotly even though she knew Cruces was simply making fun of her. “And he’s here with his
wife,
Cruces.”

            “That probably wouldn’t stop Aphrodite if she were in the right mood,” Cruces said. “Though I’m not so sure about Hephaestus. What worries me most is that they are here together. One thing you
can
believe from the legends is that they generally spend as little time as possible with one another. No, scratch that. What worries me most is that they are here, together, in London, on my doorstep, and they obviously want something.”

            “What though?” Tavian asked, still apparently unable to take his eyes from the sight of them. “What would they want here?”

            Cruces shrugged. “Well, assuming that this isn’t a social call, just dropping round to see their old friend Cruces and so forth, then it’s quite hard to say. They are powerful immortals, a good step up in power from both vampires and the fey. Take our little problem today. They do not need additional assistance to travel between worlds. They can simply do it. They have powers beyond anything I could dream of. People did not worship them as gods without a good reason.”

            “So there’s nothing they would need you for,” Scarlett said.

            “Exactly.” Cruces stepped back from the window. “I suppose that if they wanted to get involved in human affairs, they might need to appoint a champion. Their laws do say that they are not allowed to intervene directly in that kind of thing.”

            “So it’s like the
Illiad
and the older myths,” Scarlett said. “In those, the gods were always inspiring heroes to do things, but they never went out and did them for them.”

            Cruces nodded. “To be honest, I think they quite enjoy it. It’s almost a game to them most of the time.  Of course, since their laws specify a human champion for human issues, there is one painfully obvious difficulty with the explanation.”

            “You aren’t human,” Tavian supplied.

            “I wouldn’t sound so smug about it,” Cruces pointed out. “You aren’t human either. Which just leaves…”

            Almost as one, Tavian and Cruces turned to face Scarlett.

            “Me?” She shook her head quickly. “You can’t mean me. What would two Greek gods want with me?”

            “I don’t propose you hang around to find out,” Cruces suggested. “If you’re quick, you can be out of the back door to the house before they realize that you have gone. It’s the one advantage with these greater immortals. They know a great deal, certainly, but they aren’t quite as omniscient as they would sometimes like people to believe.”

            Scarlett raised an eyebrow at that. “You make it sound like it’s a bad thing that they might have come here for me.”

            “I just think that perhaps you have enough to deal with right now without throwing those two into the mix,” Cruces said. “Perhaps if Aphrodite were here on her own it wouldn’t be so bad. She would probably just want you to get two lovers together or something equally simple. With both of them here, though, I can’t think of anything that they might both want that isn’t going to be both complicated and dangerous.”

            “Well, what could that be?” Tavian asked. “We’ve already established that there isn’t much you could do for them, so what could Scarlett do for them that no one else could?”

            Cruces shrugged again. “It’s hard to be sure. Remember that I haven’t seen the two of them in a long time. And it’s hard to tell with immortals like them sometimes. It might be that they want Scarlett for something that only she could do, or it might be that they have something anyone could do, but they’ve chosen Scarlett for other reasons. Really, it could be anything.”

            Scarlett decided that she’d had enough. She set off into the hallway, with Cruces close behind her.

            “What are you doing, Scarlett?” he demanded.

            “I’m going to see what they want. It has to be better than standing about in here trying to guess.”

            “Not necessarily,” Cruces warned, putting a restraining hand on Scarlett’s shoulder. “Don’t make the mistake of assuming that they’re nice, Scarlett. Don’t misunderstand me, they’re not actively evil, but they simply don’t see things the way others do. Humans are so short lived and powerless compared to them that they don’t see them as important. They don’t mean to be cruel, but they
do
love to play tricks, and those tricks can end up having far reaching consequences. Just look at the position Aphrodite and a couple of the others put Paris in.”

            Scarlett tried not to shudder at that. She knew the story. The whole Trojan War started just because three immortals, one of whom was standing outside, tried to force a young Trojan man to say which was the most beautiful. Even so, she was not going to slip away, the way that Cruces so clearly wanted her to do.

            She strode to the door instead, trying to look as confident as she could. It wasn’t easy when Cruces was so obviously nervous, hanging back at her shoulder, obviously ready to try to protect her from whatever might be about to happen. Scarlett ignored that and opened the door, ready to call the two gleaming figures over.

            It turned out, however, that she did not need to.  Aphrodite and Hephaestus were already standing on the doorstep, obviously waiting for her. Up close, Aphrodite was even more lovely. Her eyes seemed to gleam and shift like oyster pearls, while the rose and honeysuckle scent of her drifted in as soon as the door opened. Even Hephaestus was an imposing presence, standing there behind her looking grim.

            “Ah, there you are,” Aphrodite said. “We were just about to press this curious device for attracting attention.” She indicated the doorbell. “Well, Cruces, are you going to invite us in?”

C
ruces stepped forward. Scarlett couldn’t help noticing that the movement put him between her and the two Greek immortals. The vampire’s broad shoulders meant that Scarlett could not even see around him to them.

            That did not stop her from hearing the melodic beauty of Aphrodite’s voice, though. The words came to her in English, but Scarlett had the feeling that they were being spoken in another language entirely.

            “You are looking well, Cruces,” Aphrodite said.

            “It has been a long time since we last saw one another,” Cruces replied, almost formally.

            “Oh, time. What is time when everyone here is immortal?”

            “Really?” From where she stood behind him, Scarlett could not see the arching of Cruces’ eyebrows, but she knew it would be there. “So you have just dropped in to see how I am? Together? Well,
that
is most kind of you, of course, but…”

“Where is the girl?” Hephaestus demanded. His voice was strong, and again Scarlett had the feeling that what she was hearing wasn’t in the same language it had been spoken in, but his voice lacked some of the beauty of Aphrodite’s.

Aphrodite sighed, and it seemed that she did even that prettily. “What my
dear
husband means is may we come in? We know that the young lady we seek is in there with you, Cruces. We are not blind.”

Scarlett caught the quick glance Cruces gave her, but he did not linger on her. “What is it you want with her?” he asked instead. “There must be a reason, if you are so eager to see her.”

“The girl is special,” Hephaestus explained. “We know that she has the ability to locate objects of supernatural origin. Even ones belonging to greater immortals like us. From what we hear, she can even handle them without harm. Or is it not true that she possesses the dagger of one of the god-queens of Egypt?”

“Scarlett owns a dagger, yes,” Cruces replied.

Aphrodite laughed. “Oh, you are being far too protective here, Cruces. Please, allow us in. What we have to say is not something to be discussed on a doorstep.”

Scarlett briefly wondered what would happen if Cruces said no. After all, beings powerful enough to have been worshipped as gods presumably wouldn’t be stopped by one vampire. Just that thought was enough to make Scarlett peer out from behind Cruces. She wasn’t about to hide behind him if it would get the vampire hurt.

“Ah,” Aphrodite said, with a smile that somehow brought to mind images of open meadows and summer days, “there you are. Our Seeker.”

That was not a title Scarlett had heard before. “What’s that?” she asked.

Aphrodite’s smile grew wider. “It seems we have a lot to discuss, doesn’t it? Now, if only
someone
would be courteous enough to ask us in. Come along, Cruces darling, you know it’s not like you can keep us out.”

Scarlett heard Cruces sigh. “Oh, very well. Just promise me that you will behave yourself for once, Aphrodite.”

Aphrodite raised her hand, looking from Cruces to Hephaestus. “Of course I’ll behave. For now, at least.”

Cruces stepped back to allow them in, leading the way to the dining room. There, Aphrodite and Hephaestus looked around. While they did so, Tavian moved over to Scarlett.

“Hephaestus and Aphrodite,” Scarlett whispered, “I’ll explain later.”

“There’s no need to whisper on our account,” Hephaestus said, still examining the room. The god seemed moderately impressed. “You remember the old places, then Cruces?”

“I remember a lot of things,” Cruces replied. “But yes, I remember Greece.”

“You should,” Aphrodite said, looking around at the marble busts lining the walls. “I think I prefer your old residence on Naxos, but at least some of the art here is nice.” She smiled at Cruces. “You really must return to the Greek islands some time.”

“So that you can enjoy me being chased around by every woman there thanks to your curse, Aphrodite?”

“Oh, that.” Aphrodite laughed the bubbling laugh of someone who had just forgotten some minor detail. “Well, you did need to learn a lesson, Cruces. Deciding that you were so irresistible you could say no to me? I simply decided that if you didn’t want one of the things I had to offer, you should have the others. Was it so very difficult?” She laughed again, like a naughty schoolgirl being caught out in a prank. “I thought you would
like
having women throwing themselves at you.”

Hephaestus looked over at his wife, before laughing and clapping Cruces on the back. “You’re the vampire who was able to resist her charms? I heard the story, but I hadn’t assumed it would be you. It seems you have more to you than I thought, Cruces.”

More to him than Scarlett had thought, too. She was under no illusions about Cruces’ reputation, and most of her time around the vampire had told her that it was well deserved. Yet he had somehow managed to turn down the Greek goddess of love. Not to mention, from the sounds of it, running away from Greece to avoid all the women who wanted him. That was not something the Cruces she thought she knew would have done.