Gods and Mortals: Fourteen Free Urban Fantasy & Paranormal Novels Featuring Thor, Loki, Greek Gods, Native American Spirits, Vampires, Werewolves, & More (124 page)

Therese was glad she had been able to help Jen, but she knew the situation around the Holt family would be tense for a while, maybe even forever. She didn’t know exactly what it was Mr. Holt had done to his daughter when he was drunk, but her imagination made her shudder. Bobby had said that Pete was the one who had told, so that meant Jen hadn’t. Therese now wondered how long Jen had kept silent. She also wondered how miserable it had made Pete to rat out his own father in order to protect his sister.

A low roar, like a train, came from the lake. Therese shined the small circle of light across the grassy field toward the reservoir. By the light from the stars and the half moon in the sky, she saw deer running away from the water, across the dirt road, and up the mountains behind the houses. The roar grew louder, like the train was upon her. Now chipmunks scurried across the road, and the ground beneath her trembled. An earthquake? She looked all around her as panic set in. She wanted to run like the animals, but her feet were like bricks, and so she stood there, waiting.

Then she had this thought: Maybe Artemis was angry that Therese had loaned her gift to Jen.

“Pete?” She shined her light toward the Holts’ driveway, but Pete was no longer in sight. She ran toward the driveway. “Pete?” Nothing.

She ran toward her house, the ground quaking beneath her feet. The dirt road cracked.

"Than!" Therese called. But before she could cry out his name again, a giant wall of cold water washed over her. It entered her mouth before she had gotten air. She lost her footing and dropped the flashlight. Underwater, she couldn’t see. Her body tumbled and turned, and her hair whipped and clung to her face. She frantically tried to gain control by swimming, but she didn’t know which way was up or down. Something like a tree branch scraped against her midriff, cutting the skin. She swam away from the force pulling her, but she couldn’t even tell if she was making progress, and she needed air and couldn’t find it.

Water entered her mouth and her throat burned and scratched, like sandpaper on fire, hard and hot and scraping everything it touched. She writhed in the water, as her father had the night he died.

All of a sudden she saw her parents drowning in front of her: her father turning his head side to side in a wild frenzy and her mother silently yielding to the terrible depths that took her. Therese called to Than in her mind as the darkness overpowered her, and she lost consciousness.

A
t the gates
of Mount Olympus, Than and his sisters had amassed an army to recapture McAdams from Ares and his sons. Than’s heart thudded with fierce determination, for he knew that if Therese could not avenge her parents’ death upon McAdams, she would never be his bride.

As soon as the Furies had left Peshawar, they had flown straight to their cousin Hermes, who had further solicited help from Demeter, Persephone, and Hecate.

But their greatest ally was Aphrodite, who stood in all her beauty, waiting for Ares, who loved her.

She was also the mother of Phobos and Deimos, who obeyed her.

When the god of war appeared at the gates with his sons and the prisoner, ready for battle, he was caught off guard by the beautiful sight of his one true love.

“Go, boys,” Aphrodite said. “This is between Ares and me.”

Phobos and Deimos vanished.

“Will you betray me?” Ares said gently.

“What you do is wrong, my love,” Aphrodite said.

“No. What you do is wrong. Don’t interfere. Humans can never rise to greatness without the challenges of the gods! Now stand back and let me through, you coddlers!”

Ares made to charge, but at once, Than and his sisters and his mother and grandmother, along with Hermes and Hecate, descended upon him in a cloud of determination and will, and it took every one of them to bind back the arms of the god of war and recapture McAdams.

Ares roared and pulled free and jumped up into the sky above them and laughed. “Take him. I have a better prisoner.”

At that moment, Than heard Therese’s cries from below. With bitter hatred, he narrowed his eyes at the god of war and shouted, “What have you done?”

“You’ll soon discover.” Ares disappeared.

T
herese awoke
on a cold hard rock in the middle of a vast, unending ocean. She and her rock were the only things she could see for miles. She was cold and wet. Her shorts and shirt stuck to her like glue, her sneakers were filled with water, and she shivered uncontrollably. Was she dreaming?

She stood up on the rock to see if she could fly, but her feet barely lifted from the ground, she lost her balance, and she fell backward into the cold, salty water. She resurfaced, spitting mouthfuls of the yucky salt water, and clambered onto the rock. Now she was even colder, and her teeth chattered, and she shivered even more than she had before.

In her mind, she cried for Than, and she asked what had happened. She asked him where she was and would he please, please, please come and take her home. She clutched the golden locket around her neck thinking she was the least powerful creature in the world right now.

Five feet away, a man emerged, waist high, from the water. His sun-bleached hair clung to his head and neck, and his sun-bleached beard dripped nearly down to his bare chest. He appeared to be about fifty. His eyes were the blue-green color of the sea and his lips sun-burnt red and his skin bronze. His nostrils flared with anger as he lifted his trident from the water, about to speak.

Therese could guess now who he was.

"I could kill you this instant!" he roared like thunder.

His voice had startled her, and she clutched the locket around her neck, but then she took a breath and calmed herself down.

Although she preferred to go to the Underworld as a god, she wasn’t as afraid of death as she had once been, before her parents were killed.
Before my parents were killed
. She had actually allowed herself to think the words she hadn’t been able to think in over a month?
My parents were killed.
It was a small victory, but it made her feel like maybe she wasn’t the
very
least powerful person in the world.

Poseidon raised his trident even higher, above his head.

Therese closed her eyes and waited. She couldn’t believe that Poseidon was her enemy, because of all the gods she had ever read about, he had been her favorite. As a swimmer and lover of ocean life, she had always thought of him as an imaginary guardian, certainly not the foe facing her now. She had chosen him for her sixth grade mythology project.

In her mind, she was talking to him without realizing it. “You were my friend,” she thought. “I’ve always looked up to you and aspired to be like you. I love the sea and marine life. I love to swim through water. It makes me feel so free. I used to think that if I had a past life, I must have been a dolphin, and my dream has been to go to Sea World in San Antonio and swim with dolphins. And I remember reading that you gave the horse to humankind. I love horses and help take care of my friend’s horses. We lost Dumbo last week. It was so sad and I’ll miss him, but I’m thankful to have known him, and I’m thankful that you brought humans and horses together. How can you, of all the gods, be my enemy? It seems unnatural. You’re my idol.

“But I guess if I’m going to die now, it’s fitting that it is in water. That’s where my parents died, and maybe I should have died with them. I realize now Dumbo also died in water. That’s strange. Anyway, I started this life in water, in my mother’s womb, and now I’ll end it in water. That’s almost poetic.

“I do wish I could say goodbye to my aunt. I wish I could find Clifford and bring him with me. I wish I could say goodbye to Puffy and Jewels and my human friends. I wish I could see Vicki and help her deal with her mother’s suicide. I wish I could be there to watch over Jen when her dad moves home. I wish I could spend eternity with Than as his wife.”

Oh, Than! She thought of his perfect face and his strong body and the soft touch of his hands. She recalled the pleasure he had taken with his face turned up to the rain, his body moving effortlessly through the cool water of the lake, his expression of delight as he tasted her salad, the sugared iced tea, the brownies, and the other foods he had tried for the first time. She remembered their first waltz and his eagerness to learn. And she thought of the joy they took together in watching three sunsets and a sunrise in a single day. She longed to be in his arms, safe in his warm embrace.

She stood there shivering on the rock waiting for Poseidon to kill her. Why hadn’t he done it yet? She opened her eyes.

Poseidon’s expression had changed. His nostrils no longer flared, and he lowered his trident back into the sea, his arms hanging limp beside him.

“I do not wish to be your enemy,” he said in a voice that wasn’t gentle, but wasn’t harsh.

I don’t understand, she said to him in her mind.

“I am obliged to Ares,” Poseidon said. “I swore an oath on the river Styx.”

Oh. So she
would
die in water like her parents. “Are you going to kill me?”

“No. I’m to deliver you to Mount Olympus.”

Therese should have been frightened by this, but she was elated.

“Before we go, I want to give you a gift, to prove I bear no personal animosity toward you.” He waved his trident in the air, and a herd of dolphins sprang from the water and surrounded her rock with their heads above the surface and their eyes on her. She wished she had Than’s power of understanding animal languages as they clicked their greetings to her. There must have been a dozen of them, with their mouths open in a perpetual grin, clicking their hellos.

“Hello,” she said shyly. Then to Poseidon, she said, “What a wonderful gift. Thank you for giving me the chance to see the dolphins up close.” She wished she could touch one, but she didn’t want to ask and appear ungrateful.

Poseidon laughed. “I appreciate your gratitude and humility,” he said, still laughing. “But my gift is better still. Would you care to ride on a dolphin’s back across the sea to Greece?”

“Would I!” she shouted with glee. And to think she had just wanted to touch one. She would ride one, like they did at Sea World, something she had read about on the Internet a few years ago. “Yes! Thank you very much! What? Do I dive in?”

Poseidon laughed again, and now that he no longer had a stern face, he appeared quite beautiful. “I’ve never seen a happier prisoner. Yes. Dive into the water.”

Therese was so excited that she dove in and swam the dolphin kick between the rock and the circle of dolphins. She added her butterfly arms so she could catch breaths of air in between her strokes, and then she swam up to the closest dolphin.

“You’re a skilled swimmer,” Poseidon noted. “It pleases me to see humans move so naturally in the water. I wish more were able. It bothers me that so many don’t even know how to swim. The Earth is mostly water, you know.”

She treaded water, her teeth chattering with the cold. “Y-y-yes. Th-thank you. Is th-there a p-p-articular d-d-dolphin I sh-should r-ride?”

“Arion there will take you. He’s named for one of my sons.”

The dolphin dipped his head to her in greeting.

Excited, thrilled, and totally overjoyed, Therese climbed onto the dolphin’s back. His skin was slick and rubbery and hard to grasp. Her bare legs kept sliding off. She wished she had worn jeans instead of shorts.

“Hold onto his dorsal fin,” Poseidon said, moving closer. “I will wrap a golden net around you and Arion’s body. The net will keep you attached should you slip. It will allow you to stay underwater for long periods of time. It will also keep you warm.” He raised his trident, and the net, like a fisherman’s net but golden, encircled her and Arion.

The warmth instantly soothed her, and a low moan escaped her lips. The relief from the chilling cold was itself a gift. Her muscles relaxed, she took in larger breaths, and she could actually enjoy the feeling of sitting on the dolphin’s back. She hugged him, circled her legs around him, kissed his wet rubbery skin, and said to Arion, “Thank you in advance. This is one of the most amazing moments of my life.”

Several other dolphins swam up to her and rubbed their bodies against her. She extended her fingers through one of the openings between the weave in the net and stroked them. They clicked sounds of affection, and in reply, Therese said, “This is heaven.”

“Are you ready?” Poseidon asked.

She was scared and excited all at once, and she was as ready as she would ever be. The golden net was surprisingly light and flexible. She lifted her head from the dolphin’s back to face Poseidon. “Yes sir.”

“We’ll stop at my palace at the bottom of the sea first. It is a halfway point between this rock and Mount Olympus. Do you know where we are?”

Therese shook her head.

“The Aegean Sea. My palace is at the bottom, you see. I want to fetch my chariot. I prefer to travel over land on it. It makes for an exhilarating ride.” He raised his trident. “To my palace!”

With that, Arion and the company of dolphins sprang into the air and dove down into the water with Poseidon in the lead. She could see him in front of her, swimming like a dolphin, his hair and beard flowing from his head and his green sarong flowing from his waist. He wore leather sandals that extended from his feet like flippers.

Below them the ocean world came into view. Her eyesight was improved, though she wasn’t sure how. Was it the golden net that allowed her to see so many details of this spectacular vision? Fingers of purple, blue, and gold waved to them, and fish of many shapes, colors, and sizes darted this way and that, some in large schools, and others, like the huge groupers suspended near the bottom, alone. Occasionally, she caught sight of a barracuda or a shark, but most of the sea life was nonthreatening. Sea anemones and coral decorated the ocean floor where the sunbeams barely hit. Oh, she could just make out a cluster of starfish. And, ah! Look at those jellyfish! And there! A manatee! The most curious to Therese were the sea horses and their curly tails.

As they swam closer to the ocean floor, she was able to see other forms of marine life burrowing in the sand and rocks. Sting rays there! Hermit crabs! A lobster! And over there, eels, like the figments in her dreams!

Arion dodged a rock formation full of shadows and fluttered over another city of coral. Then he turned sideways as they passed through a rocky tunnel in a matter of seconds. Past the tunnel was a deep drop in the ocean floor—so deep Therese could see nothing beyond the darkness.

Into the darkness they plunged.

Although the golden net kept Therese warm, she could feel a drop in temperature as they plunged deeper and deeper into the darkness. She held on to Arion, wondering for the first time if Poseidon planned to keep her as an underwater prisoner so that she would never see the light of day again.

Then she realized this is how it would be when she was the queen of death in the Underworld: dark, gloomy, airless. A shudder made its way down her spine, and she pressed her face against Arion’s back.

“I’m scared,” she thought.

A new vision presented itself to her. Bright golden lights came from the
bottom
of the ocean, illuminating an amazing transparent structure. Its walls seemed to be formed from clear crystals, and it made her think of an aquarium. This must be Poseidon’s palace. Without entering, she could see many figures inside of it—merfolk with tails and other, more human-like, people sitting among the furniture, eating at tables on golden chairs, and lounging on beds clustered in curtains of seaweed growing up from the ocean floor. At the back of the palace, the walls were no longer transparent and were made of something like shell, perhaps mother-of-pearl. Poseidon disappeared behind the shell wall as she waited on Arion’s back, and before she had a chance to scan over the other figures a second time, a flash of white bolted toward her.

Three white stallions the color of sea foam and wearing harnesses of gold halted before her, hurling a current of water all about her. Then Poseidon appeared. “Let go of the dolphin,” he commanded, after which he unwrapped the golden net from Arion and secured the net around her.

As Arion swam away, Therese cried to him, “Thank you!” and surprisingly, she could hear herself perfectly underwater. Then she turned to Poseidon. “That ride was spectacular. Thank you so much!”

“You’re welcome. And I apologize in advance for what I’m about to do.”

Despite the ominous sense of foreboding she felt after Poseidon’s words, she asked cheerfully, “What are your horses’ names?”

“Riptide, Seaquake, and Crest.”

“May I pet them?”

He nodded, so she reached her fingers through a hole in the weave of her net and touched the flank of each horse. “Hello,” she said softly. “How are you? You are all so beautiful.”

Poseidon led her into his golden chariot, and before she had even sat on the bench behind his large, standing body, they took off in sudden lightning speed.

Up from the depths of the ocean they went, and then they were riding along the surface of the sea as though they were in a boat and not a golden chariot being pulled by horses. The wind whipped against Therese’s face, and she squinted against it. For the first time since she had awakened, she could see land. Within minutes, they rushed onto a deserted beach and dodged past rocks and trees. When they neared a city, they rose above it, flying in the air. Therese peered down at the buildings and streets and cars and people below. She wondered if the people could see them flying over Greece. She looked ahead once again as a cluster of mountain peaks came into view. A light fog covered the highest of these, and the sunbeams against the fog created a majestic hue, a circle of light, like an enormous halo.

Mount Olympus, Therese thought as she gasped at the beautiful sight. And she hoped already there and waiting for her would be Than.