(Glory St Clair 11) Real Vampires Say Read My Hips (5 page)

Okay. That made me feel better. Part of a crowd. Not quite so obvious. Then I felt his eyes on me. They were ice blue. Cold and hard. Intent. I felt them probing my mind and I almost fainted from the way they scanned my every thought. Lucifer had done this to me once. Power, good or evil, hit me hard and I staggered. Mother’s hand tightened on mine. Strength flowed into me and I stayed on my feet.

“Come here.”
The command wasn’t spoken aloud, just in my mind. I couldn’t stop my feet from moving forward. My mother dropped my hand, as compelled as I was, I assumed. Soon I was alone at the foot of that massive throne. I stared up at him where he sat now, his elbows on his knees. He was handsome, masculine, with fine features and those light eyes that gleamed with a worldly knowledge and intelligence. They were two different things. Yes, he knew everything and he also knew what to do with it.

I couldn’t look away. His hair was dark and wavy, brushed back from his face and falling past his shoulders. He wore the short toga that all the men wore. It was belted at the waist with leather and a gold buckle. His sandals were leather too and he had neatly clipped toenails. Stupid to notice such a detail but I’d lost my nerve and couldn’t meet his gaze. Instead I found myself mesmerized by those perfect toes.

“Gloriana. So Hebe has finally brought you to me.”

“Yes, sire.” I managed to get that out but it was barely a whisper. Sire? Apparently my mother had told me to say that. I couldn’t remember.

“You are lovely. Look up here, girl.” His voice was kindly but it was a command, no doubt about it.

I raised my chin. He gestured and my mother stood by my side.

“Explain, Daughter.”

“It was a mistake, Father. Many, many years ago. I fostered her with Achelous. Then the bastard tired of her and cast her out into the world.” She raised her chin. “We should make him pay for that.” She was getting wound up but, at a gesture from Zeus, got back to the point. “By your great god’s own luck, she was made immortal. I found her again very recently and brought her straight to you. You are right. She is lovely, isn’t she?” My mother brushed my hair back behind my shoulders. “I hope you are pleased.”

“Pleased?” His voice thundered over our heads and crystal chandeliers that I’d been too freaked out to notice until now shivered and tinkled above us. The stones under my feet cracked. “You think I would be pleased that you hid such a beauty from me? A granddaughter?”

“I was worried. I’d betrayed my husband.” Mother bit her lip. I’d glanced at her to see her reaction. Plus she was holding onto me until I was afraid she’d break my hand. I wiggled my fingers and she finally let go. Good thing because she got a lightning bolt just then.

“There’s your wakeup call, you stupid girl. Since when do I care about marriage vows?” He was on his feet. He stomped down the steps toward us, stopping inches from me. “You have a child, you claim it. Have I not done so with all of my many offspring?”

“I have heard quite enough.” The feminine voice that rang out made Zeus’s eyes widen. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was cringing.

“Hera! My love. I didn’t mean--”

“To disrespect our marriage vows yet again and in a public forum?” The woman who appeared next to me wore her toga perfectly. I thought my diamond pin was beautiful. Hers had a central stone as big as a robin’s egg. She looked me over, then clasped me to her generous bosom. “Darling! You are the image of me.” She practically threw me aside to grab my mother. “Precious, how you must have suffered with this secret. You should have come to me immediately.” She glared at her husband. “Immediately.” She kissed my mother on both cheeks and examined her. “Lightning bolts? On your own precious child, Zeus? Barbarian!” She whirled and I thought she was about to throw one of her own. I backed up a step.

“Hera. We are not alone here.” Zeus spoke quietly and I felt sure the four of us were the only ones who could hear him.

“Ah,
now
you are concerned with the audience.” She faced the packed room. Clearly gossip had spread because more people had arrived since we’d first come. As a way to conquer boredom, a dustup in the royal family was obviously considered fine entertainment.

“Out! All of you. Leave us. If one word of our conversation goes beyond this room, there will be two weeks in the isolation rooms for the source. No exceptions. Even if it is from one of my children or my husband’s offspring.” She gave Dionysus a hard look. He’d reappeared in the back of the room. At that look, he hurried out again.

In less than a minute, every person had vanished. I wished I could have gone with them. I had no desire to be in the middle of a domestic dispute. I really should have read up on my mythology. I knew Hera and Zeus were married but that he’d had children by a lot of women. Of course any wife would be unhappy with the situation. I had forgotten that my thoughts were an open book around here when Hera suddenly eyed me, her smile disappearing.

“I, uh, totally relate. Unfaithful men. Disgusting.”

“Silence, Gloriana.” My mother tugged on my hand. “Mother, thank you for coming. You have to know how hard this has been for me. I regretted giving Gloriana up as soon as I did so. But her father, well,” Mother looked down at her silver painted toenails. “It was an awkward situation. I didn’t want to tell him I’d been careless. And I was already married to Hercules, of course. Unhappily. When he discovered the sons I gave him would never grow to manhood, Hercules swore he’d never lie with me again. I didn’t want to have more children either and assumed Gloriana would be afflicted as well. You can imagine my joy when I later discovered she grew to full adulthood.” She stared at me, her eyes shining. “I consider it a miracle.”

She meant it. She truly loved me. Whatever wrong-headed things she did, it was because she wanted me with her. To show me off, bring me into the world she knew. I was going to have to fight hard to get back where I wanted to be, but at least I knew what she did was from an honest effort to make me happy. My eyes filled and I wished for a tissue. The kink in this was that I had to convince her where my true happiness lay.

“Who is her father, Hebe?” Zeus was anxious to get down to what he considered the bottom line. “Does he know her? Has he acknowledged her and supported her since you found her? Where was he when you tossed her into Achelous’s hellhole?” His frown was fierce enough to make me shiver. I noticed my mother trembling too. “And, yes, I will deal with that situation. Be sure of it.”

“They have met but he didn’t know that she was his daughter. I never told him I was with child.” My mother glanced at me. “It’s Mars, Father. I see his spirit in her. I’m sure that’s how she survived living on Earth for four centuries.”

“By all the gods. A warrior. Of course.” Zeus slapped his thighs then looked me over again. “Remarkable. Yes, that pleases me, Daughter. But how did she become immortal while she was on Earth?”

I was too busy absorbing the fact that Mars, a man my mother had actually fixed me up with on a blind date, was my father. Impossible. Though I did like him. In fact, we’d had an instant connection, though no chemistry, thank God.

“I’d rather not say.” My mother had her face down and looked like she wanted to crawl out of the room. I figured she was desperately trying to block her thoughts. I had a feeling no one could block them from Zeus. I was right. Two pairs of eyes, both blue, one of them icier than the other were staring at me. My grandparents.

“You can’t be. Say it isn’t so, Gloriana.” Hera looked truly distressed and held onto my mother for support.

“I’m sorry. Well, I’m not really.” I wanted to run from the room but knew all three of these gods could freeze me in my tracks if I made the move. Of course my mother had warned me from the beginning that vampires weren’t on the guest list at Olympus functions. My grandparents stared hard at my mouth. Well, might as well get it over with. I smiled, showing them that my teeth were perfectly straight now.

“I’m not one here, of course, Mother changed me to goddess status, she said, when she kidnapped me--” I jumped when Mother pinched me. “Sorry, of course I didn’t realize how wonderful it would be to meet you or I’d have come sooner.” Babbling. My nerves were getting the best of me.

“Say it, girl.” Zeus growled, still hoping I’d deny it, I guess.

“It was how I survived, you know.” I lifted my chin. “I became immortal in 1604 when I was turned vampire.”

Chapter 3

To say that all hell broke loose would be an understatement. Hera, my grandmother, shrieked and half-dozen handmaidens ran in with everything from a chaise lounge to smelling salts. Zeus’s roar brought a dozen warriors into the room from all sides. They wore battle armor and carried spears, ready to annihilate whoever had caused their leader such pain.

I just stood there, waiting for my own lightning bolt. I’d been hit in the past and knew it wouldn’t be a treat. At the least it would take off the bottoms of my silver sandals. At its worst? You don’t want to know and neither did I.

Lightning popped and sizzled around the top of the room. The chandeliers rained glass until it looked like a crystal hail storm. A vein bulged in Zeus’s face and his fists were clenched in front of him. I actually took that as a good sign. At least he wasn’t pointing a finger at me.

“Father.” My mother sobbed and threw herself on the floor at his feet. “If I’d known…”

“How could you, Daughter? I lay this on Achelous’s head. Bring him to me!” The walls shook and five of the warriors disappeared, I guess to go after Achelous. Hera’s lounge chair jumped a good foot and she moaned.

“Must you be so loud? I have a headache.” Hera closed her eyes and one of the handmaidens laid a cloth across her brow.

“When have you not?” Zeus paced the floor. “Get up, Daughter. Do not debase yourself. We will deal with Achelous together. What punishment would make you happy?”

Mother practically leaped to her feet. “Really? I can name his sentence?” She glanced at me. “I must tell you, Father, that it is only Circe’s intervention that saved Gloriana from dying a mortal’s death all those years ago. It was the goddess’s hand that sent the vampire to our girl and gave her the gift of immortality.”

“Indeed.” Zeus paced in front of his throne. “Now this bears some thought. Why didn’t Circe just come to you or me and tell us the girl was in trouble? I think we must punish this vixen as well. She did not handle the situation as I would have wished.” He gestured and two more soldiers vanished.

“What will you do to her?” I didn’t like Circe. She’d played a role in having me tortured by Aggie when the siren had been a sea monster in Lake Travis. And I knew Circe hated vampires. So for her to make sure I became one meant she’d been sticking it to someone, even while she was making sure I would live. Zeus was watching me. He nodded.

“I see you understand the complexities here, Gloriana. Circe is forever scheming. Why did she have you made vampire, you wonder. There are other immortals she could have steered to you, or as I said, she could have come straight to me. I will toss her into a cell until she realizes she cannot get away with hurting a member of my family.” Zeus smiled and touched my mother’s cheek. “Does that please you, Hebe?”

“Yes, Father. Remember that she did finally tell me about my daughter and led me to her. So perhaps make it a short stay? I owe her a debt.” Mother knelt in front of him and kissed his hand. “As a favor to me. I would not want her to become a bitter enemy to either of us.”

“Wise. Alliances come in handy, do they not? I will be the villain here then and let her know you won her a reprieve from a long stay in the cells.” He pulled my mother to her feet and kissed her forehead. “As for Achelous? Do not beg for a lighter sentence for him. He has been a pain in my backside for a long time. I am delighted at the excuse to make him pay.”

“Can you make him mortal, Grandfather?” I spoke before I thought, but realized it would be the worst thing Achelous could imagine. “It’s what he did to me and seems a perfect revenge. No powers, getting older day by day. He will be as vulnerable as I was when he cast me out. It would be a joy to imagine him in the real world like that.” I smiled when I saw that Zeus liked the idea.

“Ah, you are certainly my blood, Gloriana. It is perfect. And I say we leave him there until he is ready for a mortal’s natural death. Then, if I think he has learned his lesson, I might bring him back. He is a god after all. But I won’t allow him knowledge of that possibility. Now hush, he is coming.” Zeus rubbed his hands together and sparks flew. Mother and I both backed away, afraid our togas would catch fire.

Achelous was carried in by the warriors who’d fetched him. One of them must have had the power to freeze him because he was stiff as a corpse in rigor mortis. They stood him up and Zeus clapped his hands.

“What is the meaning of this, sire?” Achelous looked around but, when he saw me and my mother quickly shut his mouth.

“Ah, I see you have figured it out. Surely you did not mean to leave my granddaughter to die when you cast her out of the Siren harem, did you?” Zeus couldn’t have looked more threatening and Achelous tried to back up. The soldiers at his back prodded him with their spears and he stopped.

“I had no idea she was related to you when I did that, sire. You cannot imagine how many immature females I have to watch over in the harem. Hundreds, nay, thousands. Keeping records on their origins is impossible.” Achelous waved his hands, growing more agitated as Zeus glared at him. “And the problems they cause. Some are insatiable. Always after my attention. Or they are like this one, refusing to do their jobs.” He pointed at me with a shaking finger.

“I have quotas. And needed to set an example. I admit I must have failed to check her parentage. If I’d known she was connected to the great house of Zeus…” He dropped to his knees. “You must understand, sire. All I knew was that she wasn’t bringing in the gold. And she had inadequate kill numbers--”

“Silence!” A soprano voice screeched and the crystal chandeliers couldn’t take it. One crashed to the stone floor. A dozen handmaidens appeared and quickly swept away the mess.