Broken God (11 page)

She grins at me,
her eyes laughing and wicked. "You don't think we can talk and fuck at the
same time?"

I laugh and shift,
dumping her out of my lap with a low yelp. "Definitely not," I say
firmly.

"You should
call Heath," I say, softly and her eyes narrow. Watching me, and the crazy
is beginning to seep back in. I reach for her hand and squeeze it in one hand.
"Here." I press a small round pill in her hand. "This. This will
help."

"Help
what?" she asks, arching an eyebrow at me.

"Call your
brother," I say again, and I sit back. Waiting. Patient.

She frowns at me
and nibbles at her lip, but she picks up her cell phone and dials.

A nurse answers.
"Heath
Greene’s
room," she answers briskly.

"Hey, Lyndsay.
It's Iris."

"Iris! Oh my
god, sweetie, we've been calling for hours. What the hell happened to your
phone?"

She frowns. "I
think it's dead. Why? What happened?"

A rough voice is
arguing and then, "Hey sis. Get your ass down
to
the
hospital, ok
?"

"Heath?"
She whispers and he laughs, soft.

"I'm here,
sis. C'mon. It's not bad."

Her gaze drifts to
me, and she says, her voice shaking. "I'm in the middle of
something."

"Lily
mentioned you vanished with a mysterious boy last night. Will I like him?"

She laughs then,
low and throaty and it's teasing and adorable. "You'll want to fuck
him," she says, and my head snaps up.

I've fucked twins
before. Usually sisters. Would I fuck my Oracle and her brother, the one whose health
bought my girl's sanity and brought her to me?

Yes. I'd fuck them
both in a fucking heartbeat.

"You're giving
that idea some serious consideration," she says, as I sit there, staring
at nothing. I shrug. No point in lying. She'll read the truth in me, either
way.

"I want to
make you happy, sweetheart. If making you happy means I fuck your brother, I'll
do it. It wouldn't be the first time I've fucked a man to make my Oracle
happy."

She blinks at me.
Blinks again. Opens her mouth to say something and decides against it.
Muttering to herself, she shoves to her feet and starts to do her hair and
gives me a petulant frown. "You are a very strange man, Apollo."

I smile.

Not a man at all.
And she'll learn that, all too soon.

We get to
the
hospital just
after lunch, and Iris is, shockingly, not falling apart. She is swaying softly
at my side, and humming under her breath, playing a beat over my fingers where
hers are tangled.

We stop at the
front desk, and she gets directions to the room her brother’s been sent to and
when she moves, she’s almost pulling me down the empty hallway.

“He was in ICU,”
she whispers and I glance down at her. Her eyes are hidden behind heavy glasses
and an oversized hat, but I can hear the excitement in her voice. “Why was he
moved?”

“You’ll need to
talk to his doctor, ma’am.”

She snorts at that,
but tugs me deeper into the hospital.

Lily is standing
outside a room, halfway down the hall, and my grip on Iris tightens.
"Sweetheart," I whisper and she groans, tugging against my hand
grumpily.

"I know. They
can't know I'm batshit and seeing the world lit up like fucking fireworks.
Trust me. I'll keep a lid on it." She twists her hand free and pats me on
the cheek. "I'm not sure I want to explain why fucking the nice boy from the
coffee shop managed to fuck me up so thoroughly, so I think
I'll
keep my shit
together and save that for another day? You've got nothing to worry about,
Apollo."

She smiles and it's
bright and almost sane.

Almost. But I let
her go and she almost skips away from me to where her sister is standing.

Lily's gaze darts
to me, briefly, and then back to her sister. "Really, Iris?"

"Do you have
something interesting to tell me or is today all about my bad life
choices?" Iris asks, poking out one hip and crossing her arms.

Lily makes a face,
but nods. "He wants to talk to you," she says simply. Iris shoots a
nervous look at me, and then she's darting into the hospital room and
I’m
left outside with
Lily and a shit ton of worry because what the hell is happening in that room?

I bite my lip and
shift on my feet, wanting to push past Lily and grab Iris in my arms.

I
can’t
protect her, can't
buffer her from the madness that threatens, if I'm not with her.

I can't do it that
well, if I am, but at least when I've got her close, I can shove my power into
her just as fast as the stream of visions and it can do something to combat the
crazy.

"What did you
do to my sister?" Lily asks, and I go still, my eyes wide and staring at
her.

"She's never
been the kind to take one night stands out for a test run the next day. And she
did one better with you. She brought you to meet Heath. She's never done
that."

I shrug. "I
gave her a ride."

Lily shakes her
head. "No. That's not enough for Iris. You did something to my sister and
if I find out you hurt her, I swear to god, I'll cut your balls off and feed
them to you on a fucking bagel, do you get me?"

I blink at Lily.

She just threatened
me.

A fucking god, and
she's scowling at me still, all fierce rage and over
-
protective
instincts firing.

I smile at her.

"I'm not
interested in hurting her, Lily. You don't have to think I have good intentions
when it comes to Iris. I don't expect you to trust me. But she does, and I do
think you should trust her. I'll earn your trust, in time. If you are willing
to give me that."

I stare at her, my
face open and earnest and I'm not faking that even a little bit.

I want Iris's
family to trust me. It will make this whole Oracle thing easier if they didn't
want to stab me on sight.

I smile at Lily.
“
I don't want to
hurt Iris. I know you don't have reason to trust me, but I only want good
things for her.”

Lily grunts her
opinion of that and pushes past me, into the hospital room, leaving me to
follow or not.

My Oracle is in
there.

I follow.

Iris is standing by
the bed, talking to the man lying there. She's abandoned the sunglasses, and
she's humming softly. Something I don't think she's aware she's doing. Her gaze
flicks to me when I step in and I give her a quick questioning look.

Are you sane?

A giggle, not quite
appropriate
,
bubbles up and over and both her siblings stare at her for a long moment.

“
This
is Apollo. He's a
new friend,” she says waving me over and her brother finally turns his
,
very suspicious
,
attention on me.

Heath is a pale,
sick echo of his twin. Dark hair and dark eyes, with sickly shadows clinging to
them.
Pallid
skin and fragile
bones poking at them, little skeletal fingers tugging him toward the grave.

But for all that he
looks five seconds away from Hades
,
his eyes gleam bright and suspicious and
his shoulders twitch square, a gentle posturing as he faces me.

“What the hell kind
of name is Apollo?”

I smile at him, a
quick flashing thing. “A very old one.”

“My sister likes
you.”

“I like her
,
too.”

He nods and tilts
his head. “
She
likes you. Doesn't
mean I trust you.”

She snaps his name
and he twists to look at her and I see it.

The power pulsing
through him, it's utterly familiar and I sway, watching it rush along under his
skin, twisting in a thick
,
shining ribbon around the threads of his life.

I did this.

I did this and stole
her.

Her
fervent
, thrown
-
away vow
from
the night before echoes
through me and it makes sense, suddenly. It all makes sense.

I have never made
an
Oracle without
intent. It is too difficult to do, even
with
intent. There are checks, balances, ways to ensure that no one is tricked into
the giving or receiving of power.

I have, over the
years, fucked a thousand girls, and just as many boys. And I have never woken
to a girl screaming without knowing it would happen.

Iris, as in
everything, shatters that rule.

I found Del on a dusty road in a forgotten corner of a fallen
empire.

It was remarkable only because she was there, with shining eyes
and a laughing mouth and too much knowledge in her direct stare when we’re
sitting on the side of the road, eating olives and
the
fresh
goat Artemis left with me when she slipped past my camp the night before.

Artemis was immersed in a hunt, and I left her to it. I was
immersed in Del.

She was like nothing I’d ever known, shy and sweet and wild and
defiant. She watched me sometimes, when I was playing my lyre, her eyes shining
in the firelight and I knew I was fooling no one. The pretty little girl with
dark hair and midnight blue eyes knew exactly who—
what
—I was.

She still welcomed me at her fire, in the tiny cave she slept
in, and, as the weeks wore past, into her bed.

She offered me something I’d never had. Friendship. The quiet
company that I’d only ever enjoyed with my sister, but it was different.

Sweeter, laced with a love and affection that could only be
called worship, and Artemis was a goddess. She had never offered that to me.
She couldn’t.

I fell in love with Del, in that endless summer. Wrapped up in
the scent of wool and the rocky cave we lived in, the moss of my sister’s
forest and the sea that beckoned. I fell in love with her whispers and too-loud
laughter and the off-key warbling song that sometimes rose to match the tune I
plucked from my lyre.

I fell in love with her smile and the sweet warmth of her body,
and the worried frown I would see when the Sight overwhelmed me and left me
aching and desperate. Lost in my mind and the world.

It was Del who said it first. A night when Artemis lounged in
our cave, her gaze arrogant and worried. I’d been tripping over the cusp of
madness for days, the swell of Sight cresting and cresting and cresting,
babbling out nonsense while Del fretted at my side and sang songs to soothe me,
until finally she prayed to my sister.

Maybe she sacrificed a goat. Gods only knows. All I know is that
when I was finally lucid enough to take in my surroundings, Del was at my side,
and Artemis was here, her hound pressed against my side.

“Sister,” I murmured and she
gave
me an amused, annoyed look.

“You’re a mess,” she
said
, precisely. I
grinned
at her, and
nodded.
Leaned
into her hound’s warmth.

It
felt
good.

Like home.

This place, with these people. Feels like home.

“Don’t get used to this, Apollo.” Artemis
said
,
her voice too soft to match the biting words.

“Why….
what causes this?” Del asks. “He is a god. Why
…”?

It’s the first time she’s acknowledged that I am more than I
claim to be. I am not just a village boy running from an unwanted marriage.

I wonder if she ever believed that or if she always knew the
truth about me.

Knowing my girl, she did.

“His power. He’s strong, Del. One of the strongest of us. He
could rule Olympus. But power carries a price.”

“Visions of the future. But he’s too crazy to influence it
,”
Del whispers and I feel a thrill of pride.

My girl is fucking brilliant. She shines like a
gods-damned
star
, brighter than any jewel of Olympus.