Hermes (Frozen Origin #2) (20 page)

It was closing in on noon which was when Cher would head home. He was thinking about joining her there. All he could do here was interrupt the gods doing their duty and worry himself half sick. He had just talked himself into doing just that when an alarm sounded over his earpiece. Code red for the kitchen. He jumped up running down the hall and without using the slightest caution he ran right into the room without any idea what he was facing.

Cherish stood there with a gun in her hands and a man was on the floor with blood dripping out of the wound between his eyes. “I didn’t want to kill him but he wouldn’t stay back.” She said with surprising calm. Gods started flooding in but they shouldn’t be here.

“All gods but Hercules return to your stations.” Hermes told them all. They turned around to go back where they were assigned as a code red attempted access of third floor by unauthorized guest in elevator sounded on the radio.

“I’ve got it covered.” Sierra said on the radio. “I’m already near there.”

The alarm went off again. This time it was the perimeter alarm. “Checking out perimeter breach.” Baal said. “Looks like a remote control device.”

Hegias stood next to Hermes. “I’ll put the body in the head cook’s office for now. Take your mate to your room and calm her.” Hermes nodded, the god was right. He was sure Cher had never killed anyone before and the other cooks looked pretty freaked out.

“Everyone please get back to work, we need everything to go well tonight.” Hermes told them and he could only hope they could calm down enough to pull it together. As he left, he heard Lizzie take over  issuing commands. He didn’t stay to see if anyone followed them, he had a mate to see to.

“Want to talk about what happened?”

“He walked into the kitchen looking for Maria. I told him she wasn’t there but he didn’t believe me. He pulled a gun and was waving it around at everyone. I pulled my gun and I told him to drop his or I would shoot him.
I don’t know if he thought my gun too small to hurt him or if he didn’t think I would pull the trigger but he started to point his gun at me and I just shot him. He’s dead, isn’t he? I’ve never killed anyone before, did you know that?”

She was calm, too calm. She was in shock, at least he thought she was. “Did he say why he wanted to find Maria?”

“Yeah, he said ‘that bitch killed my brother’. He wanted to kill her and he didn’t care if he died trying.”

“Well he did die
, but he deserved to. You saved Maria and who knows how many women in that kitchen that he would have killed trying to find her. We’ve had attacks and problems all day and I just don’t believe in coincidences. Someone has planned all these attacks and attempts to make it easier to get to us. This isn’t over yet, not by a long shot.”

Almost as if mocking him the radio went off again. Attempt at unauthorized entry was broadcast to all. “Remote device, attempt contained.” Baal said. If he survived tonight it would be a miracle. His fear for the safety of those he loved and his brothers made the area near his heart hurt.

He helped his sweet Cher into bed and gave her a chaste kiss. He hurried back to his office where he sat wondering what next. Nothing happened and he started to hope that nothing would. Hadn’t enough already occurred tonight and all before the ball? People wandered the halls already, many in costumes. That only complicated the matter since some costumes made it impossible to see if they were male or female, known or unknown. Why the hell had he agreed to a masked costume ball? Oh, yeah, because of his brother demons. Hopefully trying to do right by them wouldn’t be the death of them all.

Hegias
came into the office to speak to him. “I found this letter in the dead guy’s pocket. Someone set him up to come here.” Hermes read it:

David Elders:

Your brother’s killer is living it up at Olympus as he lies cold in the ground. If you are the man I think you are, you will use the enclosed tickets and information to find and destroy Maria Gomez.

A friend

“Holy shit!” Hermes said looking at the canceled plane ticket and the ticket for the ball. Someone had spent a fortune to send this man here. He radioed Zeus and told him what had been found.

“It’s unfortunate that some of the attendees are male. Way said if we tried to stop males from attending it would hurt our image. At least he won’t be causing anymore problems.”

It seemed for now anyway that everything was under control. He looked at the clock, time to get ready for the ball himself. He would go with Cher for two hours before he came back to work, possibly for the rest of the night. Hercules would stay leaving when Hermes relieved him. Half the demons had volunteered to stay for half the night while the other half agreed to go now and come back to relieve the others halfway through the night. It was not what they had hoped for when they had planned this event. Everyone had planned on the demons all being there for the whole event. Sometimes life just sucked and this was one of those times.

He walked into their suite and Cher was already ready. She wore a barely the
re dress that was nearly see through and silvery. It hugged her breasts pushing them up and it had slits on the side that showed off her muscular legs. Her hair was braided with silver ribbons shot through it. Her eye shadow was silver as well and quite dramatic. Her lips were another matter, they were red but not with the typical lipstick. They looked almost as if he had kissed and bitten them until they were red and swollen. So tempting, he just wanted to eat her up. He would guess she was a water nymph because the dress looked so fluid it made him think of running water.

He showered and dressed, not as elaborate as Cher, but he wore a toga and
a narrow gold crown. His sandals completed his simple outfit. No doubt the demons would be more embellished and attention getting. He couldn’t deny an interest in what they would choose to wear. Lu, Baal, and Asmo were especially colorful and would entice the female attention. He gave Cher his arm and they went next door to get Fabian. A god or demon would be his escort all night even after he was back in his room. Fabian was dressed like Hermes in miniature. It was adorable and Hermes felt honored that Fabian had emulated him. It gave him a taste of what it would be like to have a son.

“I thought you intended to be a vampire?” Hermes asked.

“That’s so last year. Lu told me what you were wearing and he also had me try out the fangs. They don’t feel so good when you wear them.”

Hades was with Fabian for now and Hermes wondered if he had truly given up his womanizing ways or he was simply hiding it better. He had told Zeus he had no interest in taking a female other than Doc to the ball, so he was assigned to stay with Fabian.
Hades seemed to like Fabian and said it wasn’t a chore to hang out with the boy. It was too bad that when they got there, Doc was with her current lover. It was clear she had given up any thought of ever being with Hades. Hermes examined her closely noting the white blonde hair and the same dark chocolate eyes Sierra had. It was an exotic combination and Doc had no trouble finding willing males to help her over the hurt Hades had caused.

The fact that everyone knew he had been an ass didn’t help his cause. If the fault had been hers, she would have found at least some of the men lose interest thinking her cold, but no, she had been the injured one. She had the type of body gods and demons alike longed for. She was a little taller than Sierra, maybe five foot eight. She was also quite curvy, but athletic. She took good care of herself and she was dressed like a flame or at least that was the impression the dress gave in its various shades of red and gold. Her fine hair had been braided into ropes and coiled on her head.

Lu was there dressed as the devil. A more beautiful fallen angel you couldn’t find and he was surrounded by females. Baal was dressed as a demon, all in black, with his choice of females too. They both loved women and it was no surprise when Lu picked a curvy girl with beautiful long black hair and dark eyes. Baal took the opposite, she had the lightest of blonde hair and sky blue eyes, but she was curvy too. liked something to hold on to when they got their freak on. Asmo was nowhere to be seen, probably on duty for now. Lu’s tail was going crazy rubbing up and down his date’s back. He always said there was nothing like a demon who knew how to use his tail and his wings. It looked like some females were about to discover that demons could do things that women couldn’t even imagine.

Trumpets sounded telling Hermes that the ceremony was about to start. He led Cher back to the hidden doorway where the wedding party gathered. Several couples would
start the procession, while Sierra and Zeus followed them to the flowered and ribboned area where they would take their vows. Doc came back with them, she would allow Hades to escort her because Sierra had begged her to. Baal moved over to Fabian filling in until Hades was done with the ceremony. Way would have come but she was back home taking care of some personal business that couldn’t wait. Maria and Erebus had joined them, filling out their numbers.

The procession started with two demons with large and beautiful red wings and elegant gold staffs, wearing loin cloths, their bodies oiled to show off their incredible muscles and male beauty.
The demons looked identical, they were probably one of the rare sets of twins Origin had bred. They headed out unhurried but moving steadily. The women cheered and tried to touch them as they walked by. One particularly bold or possibly drunk female reached her hand down one’s loin cloth and pulled her hand back with an ‘oh my god’. The demon smirked and winked at her. Demons loved attention and didn’t mind being handled.

Next Hades and Doc moved out dancing and twirling but keeping a certain distance behind the demons.
Hermes waited until they were at a certain point and then he and Cher did the same. He twirled her around noting how lovely she looked with flushed cheeks and bright eyes. He watched their pace to see they didn’t encroach on Hades and Doc, who for once didn’t seem to be arguing. Erebus and Maria followed, they wore matching purple togas and masks reminding Hermes he and Cher had forgotten theirs. The demons were now in place and Hades and Doc were almost to them. He and Cher twirled and danced right behind them.

It seemed like a pagan ritual, but Hermes knew it was a Christian preacher doing the service. He reminded Hermes of Julius Caesar, not surprising since he wore a toga. He stood under the flowers and ribbons that stretched down from the ceiling with
the demons beside him. Hades and Doc stood behind the preacher, Hermes and Cher slid into place next to them, and Maria and Erebus moved next to Hermes and Cher.

There was a brief silence as the air filled with a sense of expectation. They stepped into sight, Zeus wore a toga with gold ribbon and Sierra an almost sheer white gown with gold shot through it. Her hair was worn down with flowers and
shiny gold ribbon streaming through it. It fell down her back and flowed behind her as Zeus held her hand and danced with her. They didn’t follow the path straight to the waiting wedding party, they danced around in a circle. When they had made a turn all the way around, that was when they took their place in front of the minister with the wedding party all facing them and witnessing their complete commitment to each other.

The huge crowd was oddly silent waiting for the exchange of vows even though they thought it an act. The minister began speaking in Latin,
he said something about everyone gathered to witness the joining of a man and woman into one unit for the rest of their life. It was touching even though most people recognized little of what he said, the tone was clear. Sierra and Zeus each made their commitment in their own words to each other. It surprised Hermes that many of the females had tears in their eyes.

He hadn’t really thought it would be so touching, but the love in their eyes was visible for all to see. When Zeus kissed her, everyone broke out cheering and clapping. When the sounds died out, someone all in black stepped up near the wedding party. The two demons moved to push him back but the male removed his mask. It was Kyler and he was holding a grenade in his hands.

“You forgot to ask for objections and I have a few. She’s mine and I’ve come to take her back.”

The crowd clearly thought it was part of the show and started booing at him. Someone
called him a jerk and told him to go home. He was incensed and he told them to shut up before he killed them all. None of the guest were taking him seriously, but he was deadly serious.

“Give her to me or I will pull the pin and everyone nearby will die.” His words were received with boos and hisses as the audience got into what they thought was a good show. Zeus moved Sierra toward a door and Kyler followed. “Stop or I will pull the pin and throw it.” Kyler insisted.

“At this woman you claim to love so much?” Zeus asked. The audience roared their disapproval as demons and gods pushed them away from Kyler in case he exploded. They were taking a chance in pushing this crazy man, but they couldn’t give Sierra to him.

Zeus and Sierra were perched just at the threshold of a hidden doorway but if Kyler had watched the ceremony from the start, he knew that too.
Lu had pushed his way near Kyler and Hermes wondered it he was about to act. It all happened in a blur as Zeus pushed Sierra through the door and closed it and Lu instantly was on Kyler, holding Kyler’s hands still with his own hands and wresting the grenade away with his tail. He had wrapped his tail around the grenade like a vine and even though Kyler had tried to pull the pin, Lu’s tail had wrapped around it so tight, it wasn’t doable.