Rifts (25 page)

I nodded into my bucket which was starting to stink and wallowed in my wretchedness.  It was a good thing I'd live for so long because I was as dumb as a rock sometimes.  Thankfully he was back before I tumbled too far into my darkness.

"All right. This water has electrolytes and proteins that will help in the regeneration of your nanites. I probably should have explained that first. It does not have all of the chemical crap that comes in a bottle of grape Gatorade. That stuff will make you ill and reverse any positive process that you've gained. So, drink it. Then try to eat more."

"’Kay," I croaked.  I sipped the water slowly, afraid that it would come back up again. It did make my stomach feel better once it hit.  I was surprised that Athena would feed me something that would make me so sick.

"Better?" He asked. I nodded and he pushed a plate at me. "Try to keep this down please? As it is, I'm going to be smelling puke for a week."

"You're a funny guy," I said between bites.

"That's what they tell me," he replied.

I rolled my eyes and settled back into the chair. "Athena doesn’t know, does she?"

He shook his head and reached for a strawberry. "No."

"I'd think that if anyone were to know, it would be her."

His eyebrows drew together in a frown and he put the strawberry back down. "Athena isn't like the rest of us."

"I don't understand why she isn’t."

"Zeus created her. She's a genetically manipulated clone. She has amazing personality, wit and wisdom - but sometimes there is something missing."

"I know that my brains are scrambled right now so I'm going to use that as an excuse. Heph, I have no idea what you're talking about. I've spent a considerable amount of time with Athena and she seems perfectly fine to me."

He sighed and leaned forward, grabbing my hand. "If you knew that giving Dylan Gatorade would make him sicker, would you do it?"

I slipped my hand out of his, sat back and exclaimed, "No of course not! That's ridiculous."

He raised an eyebrow in response.

"Oh," I said softly.

"I don't think that she means any harm. She just doesn't think things through. We can't take the chance that she'd decide that it was inhumane to keep Nyx in the depths and let her go."

"Yeah, that would be bad. Wait, can Athena read minds too?"

"Nope, she just hears really well."

I looked around, just in case she was in the area before answering. "This shit is heavy. I know that telling me felt necessary, but I can barely block Drew out. Obviously I can't block you at all. So what makes you think that I'm not going to let this slip somehow?"

"Actually, when confronted with someone who can read your mind, your mental walls are damn near impenetrable. I'm not sure why you think that you have a weak mind, Grace. The only reason I could read your thoughts is because you didn't realize I could. All you have to do is keep the mental shield up all the time and you will be fine. "

"That sounds exhausting."

"Eventually you won't even have to think about it. What do you imagine it to be?"

"It started off as a titanium shield. I upgraded it to diamond when uh," I paused. I was embarrassed to tell Heph that I didn't want Drew to find out that I thought I was in love with him.

He smirked at me. "Do you really think that you're in love with Captain Awesome? Isn't that so boring?"

I scowled at him and retorted, "No. Yes. Maybe. I don't know!"

I hated it when Heph laughed at my discomfort. He did it often. Granted, I was often in the state of discomfort around him. He threw me off balance.

"Grace, maybe you just need to get laid."

My face caught on fire. Not literally but the blush was so bright, it may as well have. "I gotta go. There are things to do…people to save and whatnot."

"If you're feeling well enough to stand, we have more training to do."

"Honestly," I looked at him through a veil of hair. "I've had enough of your training for the day. I'm going to find some clothes that don't smell like I've been on a bender, then find my son and try to be normal for a day."

"You do smell like you've been out carousing." His lips quivered and I burst up out of my chair.

"Douchebag, it's your fault." I stood there on wobbly legs, grasping the nearest chair for support. "I don't suppose you could ‘port me to my room?"

"Nope, you're going to have to walk it out. It’ll make you feel better."

"God, I hate you," I whispered.

"I know," he replied softly.

He helped me to the door and I winced as the bright light briefly blinded me, before a shadow crossed in front of us.

"I'll take it from here," Drew said quietly.

"Yes, because you’ve been doing such a stellar job of keeping her protected," Hephaestus responded wryly.

"Not now," Drew said.

"Listen," I interrupted. "I just want to go see my kid and change into some clean clothes. Put your dicks away for another day gentlemen."

They both nodded shortly and Drew gently guided me onto the path. "How are you feeling? Aren't you supposed to be in Med for the next few days?" I asked.

"Better. I wanted to thank you. Thank you for getting me back here." He still seemed vulnerable. I felt sorry for him but it was tinged with disenchantment. "I, uh, broke out in the chaos."

"What else would I have done Drew? Let you die in my front yard? I want to understand what’s going on here, but you aren't letting me in. Why would you just allow her to rip you to shreds?"

"You don't know what she used to be like," he responded quietly.

"No, you're right. I don't. I know what she's like now. I see you making excuses for her and letting her destroy you. I don't even know what has happened to you. You aren't the man who helped rebuild me. You aren't the man I thought you were. Not the man I thought I loved."

My words hit something inside of him and he stopped and stiffened. "What do you mean loved?"

"That's not what this is about, but I don’t anymore. And if you couldn't see it, then you were blind and stupid. Anyway, it's irrelevant. I don't feel anything anymore. I'm done with you." I walked a bit faster, as if I could outrun him and his questioning gaze.

"That's not fair to drop something on me and then run away, Grace."

"I thought you knew, okay? I thought you were just being kind." I still wouldn't look at him.

"You realize that you are so fucking passive aggressive right? I can't do this with you. We have more important things going on."

"Don't make this about how fucked up
I
am, Drew. You're the one who just let his wife nearly kill him." It was a low blow. I never claimed to fight fair. Actually, I wasn't even going to claim that I was working on it. The only thing I could control at this point was how far I went. I wanted to go further. I wanted to bite, claw and stab until he was as emotionally wrecked as I was by this entire relationship.

I didn't. I left those thoughts there and walked faster. "So that's it?" he called. "You're just going to walk away and not talk this out?"

"Yeah," I called back. "Was there something else you needed that didn't involve our relationship?" I didn't look over my shoulder. I just kept walking forward. If he didn't see my face, he couldn't see the pain or the hurt. He wouldn't know that I was lying to him when I said I didn't feel it.

A blur of color zipped through my sight and stopped abruptly in front of me, tripping and falling against my chest.

Luckily, I recognized Scott before I pulled in a weapon. He looked haggard and scared. "Grace, you have to come quick. It's Dylan."

I hadn't thought that this day could get any worse. I was wrong.

There are moments that define your life and who you are as a person. It was easy to say that I was a ‘tripping ass-backward through life one lucky happenstance at a time’ kind of girl - but in that moment, I gathered all of the strength and courage that I had and let it fill my spine like a rod of titanium, fortifying my entire being.

"Okay. I'm going to ask you a few questions before we go running off," I started calmly. "I want you to take a few breaths and tell me what happened."

"We were in the field. Suddenly, there was blood everywhere. This lady came in wielding daggers and she sliced Alton up pretty good. He…" he stuttered and nearly started sobbing. I squeezed his arms, willing some of my strength into him. "Alton was standing in front of Dylan…she just cut him down like he wasn't even there."

"Okay, tell me what happened next." Fingers tightened against my shoulder and I looked behind me to see Drew's paper white face, tightened in fear and anxiety.

"She started throwing her daggers everywhere. She caught Athena in the throat, but not before Athena stabbed her in the back. She was too late, though. She grabbed Dylan and opened some kind of freak portal."

My legs gave out. I couldn't stand. Gravity became too much to bear in that moment. I was so afraid of his next words that I wanted to throw up. Bile rose to my throat and I forced it back down. I had to know. I didn't want to know but I had to.

"Scott, did she take Dylan through the portal?"

He shook his head and I collapsed onto my ass in relief. I was able to breathe again. I hadn't realized that I'd been holding it in until I sighed with relief. "Okay. That's okay. That's good. At least she doesn't have him."

I looked at Scott and he was crying. "Why are you crying, baby? Everything will be okay."

"I don't think it will. Zeus zapped in at the last minute and stopped her, but not before she cut Dylan's throat." The last was half sob, half word. The relief I'd been feeling plummeted, along with any chance of me keeping my food down.

Bile spewed from between my lips and the world swam. "Drew."

I didn't need to say more. Within a blink we were spinning around, viewing the chaos that had become the Field of Bubbles. Red soaked earth gave the dreamlike scape a morbid quality.

I searched desperately for my son and found him cradled in Zeus' arms. Athena lay close by, her hand reaching for Dylan's. My body has never moved so fast. I was beside them in half a second, smoothing my son's bloody hair out of his eyes.

"Bubby? I need you to talk to me. I need you to pull it together and be okay."

"Grace," Zeus' hand caressed my chin, forcing me to look at him.

"NO. NO! You don't get to tell me that my son is going to die! We were fucking supposed to be safe here!"

I pulled out a knife and sliced open my arm from wrist to elbow, pouring my blood over my son's wound. It had worked for Drew, it would work for my only reason for living.