The Gatekeeper's House (7 page)

Hip appeared beside Than. “It’s not
safe. You just don’t’ get it.”

“
No.” She narrowed her eyes
at the god of sleep. “I guess I don’t.”

“
Then let me explain it to
you in ways that are too unkind for my brother,” Hip said, moving
closer. “Melinoe will get inside your head and cause you to howl
uncontrollably. While you are distracted, she will take you with
her whip. Then she will drain you of any residual free will you
once possessed and turn you into a vicious ghoul. You may retain
your mortal memories,” he continued, moving closer, his face inches
from hers and possessing a cruel and frightening expression that
made Therese take a step back, “but those memories will only make
you more miserable as you helplessly victimize everyone you love
who still lives on this earth. Do you want to see your aunt and
uncle, or worse, your baby sister, tormented by you and your
parents until they grow so mad they’re locked up in an institution
for the insane? And what about Pete and Jen and the other members
of the Holt family? Well, that’s what would happen, Therese. Every
minute you stand here and wait, you make yourself and your parents
susceptible to that evil thing we can hardly stand to call our
sister. So forgive us for never mentioning her before. You see,
each time we say or hear her name, it makes us want to
puke.”

Therese hardly knew what to say as she
looked back at Hip with wide eyes.

“
I’ve got Melinoe in my
custody right now,” Than said gently as he moved beside his
brother. “Go ahead and spend a few more hours with your parents.
I’ll come back for you when it’s time to return.”

Hip shook his head. “Sounds risky, bro,
but this is your call.”

“
Thank you,” Therese said,
wanting badly to throw her arms around Than, but not wanting to
give him any false hopes. “Thank you so much.”

***

Hip left the woods of
Colorado sucking up more souls with the siphon along the way,
wishing again he could find some lesser god or goddess to do this
boring, mundane work. What about that wind bag, Aeolus? It
shouldn’t be too hard for him, being the god of the gales, to carry
around the contraption as he blows. Hip laughed at his little
joke.
Yep. Aeolus, that wind bag, sure does
blow.

And what about Eos, or maybe the Muses?
He hadn’t heard any songs to the gods lately, so he expected the
muse Polyhymnia had some time on her hands. And at least one of the
fifty Nereids could help.

As he entertained himself with his
complaints, Hip made his way back to Greece, where he had started.
Since he was there, he could not stop himself from listening in at
the southernmost tip to his father’s interrogation of the
Malevolent.

He shivered at the scratchy sound of
her voice, which had been affected by the malformation of her head
in the womb.

“
Do what you like,
Father
. I have nothing
more to say,” the goddess of ghosts hissed.

“
I’ll learn the truth
eventually,” Hades reasoned. “Why not cooperate with me now and
avoid my wrath?”

“
You know you cannot hold
me,” Melinoe challenged. “You’ve tried enough times to know I have
my ways.”

“
Or allies,” Hades said.
“And believe me, you misguided creature, this investigation will
expose all. Once I learn the identity of your allies, I’ll be
better equipped to imprison you long-term.”

“
Your investigation will
come up short. I have nothing to fear.”

“
You underestimate the
strength of your sisters. And the Furies have at their disposal the
help of Artemis and Apollo.” Hades added, “Ah, here they are
now.”

Hip sensed the arrival of the Furies
and the twin Olympians, who must have been summoned by Hades. He
flew down to the cave’s entrance to get a look at what was
happening.

“
Hypnos,” his father said.
“Enter.”

“
Just thought I might help,”
Hip said without letting on his embarrassment at having been caught
out.

Hades made no reply but turned to
Tizzie, whose wolf sat at her feet and whose hands pinned back the
arms of Cybele. Meg helped Tizzie by flanking the other side of
their prisoner, and her falcon, it seemed to Hip, looked ready to
strike. Tizzie’s serpentine hair came to life, and the animated
snakes, like those of Medusa, hissed threateningly at
Cybele.

The next words Hades spoke were tinged
with disgust. “Why have you brought this detestable creature to me?
Is she a suspect, then?”

Cybele replied in her manly voice, “Why
are you Olympians so fearful of that which you do not
understand?”

Hip supposed she was once again
referring to the fact that she’d been born with both male and
female parts, and was called Adgistis until someone tricked her
into castrating herself. As Cybele, she’d gone wild and had no more
dealings with the gods. Rumor had it that she drove humans insane
in the same way the wine of Dionysus did the Maenads, but Hip had
also heard that some believed she was the mother of all gods, the
earth goddess Rhea, who’d been scorned and dethroned by Zeus, and
was powerless to defend herself.

“
She has information,”
Apollo declared.

“
Which I’m not at liberty to
share unless you grant me asylum,” Cybele said.

Hip’s mouth fell open. Why would Cybele
need asylum?

As if Hades had read Hip’s mind, he
asked, “From whom?”

“
First you must agree to
provide it, and then I’ll tell you from whom, but not before all of
these others.”

“
Stop this!” Melinoe
screeched. “You’re making a terrible mistake!”

“
Join with me, Melinoe,”
Cybele offered. “Together we can stand against him.”

“
Against whom?” Hades
demanded.

Cybele looked to the Furies on either
side of her. “I need a private audience with you, Lord
Hades.”

Hades cleared his throat. “Thanatos,
deliver Melinoe to Mount Olympus where she will remain a prisoner
until a hearing can be arranged. Artemis and Apollo, you may return
with them.”

The army of Thans dispatched with its
prisoner in tow, followed by the Olympian twins.

“
Alecto, make certain the
gates to the Underworld from this location have not been
breached.”

Alecto vanished.

“
Tizzie and Meg, help me
transport Cybele to my private chambers for further questioning.”
Then he turned to Hip. “Back to your duties, Hypnos.”

Hip soared away from the cave, sucking
up ghosts along the way, and then he delivered his souls to Charon
once more before returning to his duties as god of sleep. The
instructions from his father had been clear: every twelve hours he
must return to his duties so that the mortal population would not
suffer too long from poor sleep.

He made his usual rounds, checking on
any whose dreams needed mitigating, and then he sought the one he
most longed to see, as he did every chance he could get.

People slept at different times all
over the world. At any given minute during a twenty-four-hour
period, some population of people slept. Hip’s job might not be as
time-consuming and odious as his brother’s, but it did keep him
busy, even if it amused him most of the time. So his father had
made a deal with him. Hip could alternate twelve hours on duty and
twelve hours off for two weeks while he got to know the mortal
girl.

Of course, there was something Hades
wanted in return.

***

Jen followed Pete and Bobby all around
the outside of their house looking for coyotes or wolves or
something to explain the loud howling that resonated throughout
Lemon Reservoir and the San Juan Mountains around their home. Pete
carried his shotgun and Bobby his BB gun and Jen a baseball bat.
Their mother had been convinced it was the wind until she stepped
outside and found the trees barely moving in the light breeze. Then
she feared a tornado was coming and had opened every window in the
house and had pulled her mattress from her downstairs master
bedroom, instructing the kids to be ready to shield themselves with
it in her bathroom. But when she’d turned on the Weather Channel,
she could find nothing about a tornado warning.

Then, as suddenly as it had started,
the howling stopped.

After all that howling and the talk
about ghosts, it was hard for Jen to fall asleep. Therese’s crown
sat near her on the bedside table, reminding her of her best friend
and what a drag it was not to be able to talk to her on a regular
basis anymore. Although she was glad to hear the wedding was off,
she hoped Therese wasn’t depressed and would consider coming back
home. Jen didn’t have anything against Than; she just couldn’t see
how Therese could be ready for marriage when she was only eighteen
years old.

Plus, she missed her friend.

Soon her thoughts drifted from Therese
to the new horse handler. Hip was every bit as good looking as his
brother, and in some ways—maybe it was his cocky attitude—he was
more. Jen hoped Hip would be there to help with the horses in the
morning, as he had said he would. She couldn’t wait to see him
again.

She closed her eyes and tripped on a
root in the ground outside her house. When she regained her
footing, she realized she was outside in nothing but her t-shirt
and underwear. Although it was dark, the moon was full, and it
shone through the canopy of trees directly on her like a
spotlight.

So odd, she thought.

As she turned to make her way back
toward the house, she found herself face to face with Hip. Heat
rushed to her face, and she pulled her t-shirt down,
mortified.

“
Hello there,” Hip said with
an easy grin. “You’re looking lovely this evening.”

She looked down to see she’d stretched
her shirt tightly over her breasts, so that she may as well have
been nude. She let go of the hem and crossed her arms. “What are
you doing here?”

“
Looking for you,” he said
with a twinkle in his eye.

She swallowed hard as he cupped her
face in his hands. Then she stopped breathing altogether as he
pressed his lips against hers.

His mouth swept across her jaw and then
softly sucked on her bottom lip. She had never been kissed this way
except in her dreams.

When he lifted his head to look at her,
all she could say, in a breathless whisper, was,
“Wowza.”

He gave her a delighted smile and
kissed her again.

Chapter Six:
Questions

Than took his prisoner to Mount Olympus
and presented her to Zeus and the other gods at court. All were
present save Hermes, who continued to serve Than’s father in the
Underworld. Even the statues of Athena, Hestia, and his mother had
been brought to the hall and placed near their respective thrones.
Than thought this was probably for the best, for Mount Olympus was
the safest fortress in the world.

He wanted to remain to learn more about
the investigation. He also had questions, especially about the
goddesses who’d been turned to stone. How long before they would be
returned to normal? But as soon as he handed his prisoner over,
Zeus dismissed Than, and so he left.

Meanwhile, one of him had remained in
the woods outside of Therese’s house to watch over the souls of
Therese and her parents, who now sat on the wooden deck like they
once did when alive. The Malevolent may be in custody, but there
were other, lesser, deities who enslaved lost souls. Melinoe was
the worst and most prolific of them, but Than didn’t want to take
any chances.

All of the other souls in the area had
been safely returned to the Underworld. Than worked busily across
the earth recovering the remaining spirits and delivering them,
safe and sound, to Charon.

As the sun began to rise and night
turned into day, Than reluctantly told Therese it was time to go.
He could sense her body calling back its soul.

She left the wooden deck and stood
before him with the saddest eyes he’d ever seen. “Is there nothing
we can do to save them?”

He wished he could tell her anything
but the truth. “Their bodies are long gone, Therese. There’s
nothing I can do. Unless…” An idea popped into his head, but it was
outrageous.

“
Unless what?” she asked,
the excitement unmistakable on her face.

“
Well, I could put their
souls into something living, like a tree or a chipmunk. Do you
think they’d want to live for all eternity in the body of something
else?”

Therese’s mouth stretched into a wide
smile, and she circled her arms around Than. Although he couldn’t
feel them, he had to admit it felt good to be in her arms, even if
they were translucent. On the other hand, he wanted so much more
than gratitude from her. He wanted to know she still loved him, and
that she had always loved him, and that she hadn’t simply used him
to get this very thing—her parents back.

“
What about the souls
belonging to whatever we put them into?” she asked, pulling away
with a frown. “What would happen to them? We wouldn’t have to kill
anything, would we?”