Sin City Goddess (5 page)

But that wasn’t what this was about. This was about my sister.

I swallowed hard and said, “My apologies, Mr. Mays.”

He nodded. “Call me Archer.” He looked at Zeus. The god waved his hand.

“So, as I was saying. I was an FBI agent. I was just beginning to investigate the abductions. Five women. All taken from the Shadow Bar within a five-week time frame, including your sister. That’s one per week. No one saw or heard anything. In fact—and this is the part that baffles me—some of the women weren’t even reported missing until a day or more later. Their friends, family members, boyfriends completely forgot they were with the victims at the time of the abductions. By the time they recovered their memory, the trails were cold.”

How odd. I looked at Meg. “Dark magic, perhaps?”

Meg, who had already told us everything she knew from the moment they had arrived to the exact point in time when she had last seen Alex, a few days ago, said, “It’s possible. Hermes, please check with Hecate regarding all mortal spell casting that pertains to the moon cycles. Particularly those of the dark arts.”

Hermes said, “As you wish” and dashed off.

“Is there a connection? Are they related? Same age? Race?” I asked Archer.

He hesitated, just for a moment, but I caught it. He shot a glance to Athena and said, “Can you please link to my computer and pull up the file titled ‘Shadow Disappearances’?”

We could link to mortal electronics? Athena must have forgotten to mention this. Not that I would understand the intricacies of the process.

Athena’s slender fingers manipulated a device that linked to the monitor, and within seconds, a yellow picture of a folder appeared on the screen.

“Go ahead and open it,” Archer said.

Immediately, the photographs of four women swooshed into view. Archer explained he didn’t have one of Alecto, for obvious reasons.

Next to me, Meg gasped. I floated toward the screen in shocked awe.

All of the victims, my sister included, looked exactly like me.

I slowly turned to face the gods, the soft buzz of the monitor the only sound in the room.

“When do we leave?”

Chapter 6

Athena explained to Archer Mays the various rules to follow when you’re the animated dead walking around on the outer plane. Things like “Don’t break the skin of this body, or the area will rot and fall off” and “If your true corpse is discovered, we’ll need to get you a new frame ASAP.” Then she jotted down the room number of the hotel at Caesars Palace where the high gods always stayed and handed Archer a card that apparently served as a key.

I sighed. So it was all set. Not only did I have to work with this mortal, but it looked like I might have to share space with him as well. I couldn’t help but think how cruel the Fates could be. They had to have seen this coming and hadn’t bothered to warn me. Figured. Those wrinkled old bats could sure hold a grudge.

You see, the Fates controlled the birth, life, and death of a mortal. Clotho spun the thread for birth, Lachesis measured the string that determined one’s life span, and Atropos cut the string that ended a life. Once that happened, they drew up a report on the individual. It included things like what his station was in life, where he lived, what he had accomplished, what he had failed to accomplish, and, of course, his sins. Once the soul traveled across the river Styx, Hades received that report. So when Archer Mays had showed up in Hades’s realm, the dark lord must have
known that the FBI agent might be important in finding Alecto. Unfortunately, from what I gathered, Archer had been killed before he’d had the chance to locate any of the missing women. I listened as he explained to Hades that he did have some leads, and that was where he intended to start once we arrived in Las Vegas.

Artemis got busy cloaking me for travel through the portal so that my appearance would be subdued immediately upon my entering the mortal world. She cast an invisibility spell over my wings, the source of all my power. Hecate had created the spell. I could tuck my wings away whenever I wanted, but the bones where they met my spine still protruded from my back. Hecate solved that problem.

“You simply apply the potion directly over the cartilage,” she explained.

I crinkled my nose. “That has a foul odor. What’s in it?”

“Virgin tears and cloud ether.”

Archer was looking on in amazement. I wasn’t sure if it was the virgin tears or the cloud ether that had him more perplexed.

“Virgin tears,” Meg said. “You best keep your distance, Hecate. Tisi might burst into flames where she stands.”

I shot her a hard look. “Who are you today, Megaera, the pot or the kettle?”

Meg said, “Need I remind you I am a mother now?”

Meg had given birth to twins a few years earlier. It was the reason she no longer looked as similar to me as Alecto did. Mothers gift their children with slices of their own attributes. Her hair, once as blue-black as mine, was now the shade of a coffee bean, with hints of pomegranate threaded throughout. Her eyes had faded to a mossy color, except when she was angry.

“Another reason I should take the mission, I suppose.” I was being sincere, not sarcastic, but she looked miffed anyway.

Archer, the lucky bastard, didn’t have to cloak himself at all. He would be returning to the mortal realm wearing a copy of the same vessel in which he had left it.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” he asked Athena. “I mean, won’t it look pretty strange if I show up and whoever murdered me sees that I’m walking around?”

She shrugged. “Whoever seems most surprised by your animated form will be the murderer. Would that not please you?”

The look on his face indicated he had not considered that possibility. Then he wrinkled his brow and asked, “So when I return, everything will be intact, correct? I mean, say I was shot in the head—it won’t show, will it?”

He didn’t know how he had died, and that was not something the Fates tracked. Carrying the negative energy of a violent death into the Underworld could lead only to chaos and heartache, especially in the case of the tragic passing of one so young. When the mortal life is shed, it is a chance for the souls to renew and move on, not cling to the old.

Artemis sighed. “For Hera’s sake, man, do you think we’re amateurs?”

“Sorry,” Archer mumbled.

“All vessels go through a cleansing process when a shade arrives in Hades. You were essentially wearing a replica of your original body when you got here. That gets stripped before you’re even aware of it. Then, once you cross the river, your new shell is prepared and perfectly adequate to wear.”

“Adequate?” he asked, glancing down.

Artemis raised an eyebrow, shot a look at Archer’s crotch, and said, “Adequate for a mere mortal, that is.”

Meg, Hecate, Athena, and Artemis all snickered.

“Ladies, stop teasing the human, will you, please? He’ll get enough grief from Tisiphone while he’s working with her.”

“I only hit him once,” I protested.

“Yes, well, don’t make a habit of it,” Hades said. Then he motioned for me to join him in the hall.

Archer was frowning at me when I passed him.

“Yes, my lord?” I said.

“Walk with me, my dark daughter.”

I wasn’t actually his daughter. My sisters and I were born from the union of Gaia and Uranus, but he thought of us as his daughters since we had served him so faithfully.

I followed him down the hallway and out the front door. He called to Cerberus, and the dog built like a teenage black-bear cub came barreling across the threshold. Hades silently approached the thick black gates and creaked them open.

The moon was still high in the sky, as always, its light reflecting off the threads of silver in Hades’s robes. He stopped to pick up a stick and tossed it for Cerberus, who couldn’t decide which head to use to retrieve it.

I would have asked him what he wanted to tell me, because there was something, I could sense it, but one did not interrupt a high god while he was deep in thought. They got distracted so easily.

We walked in silence for some distance. Finally, I heard the flow of the river.

Cerberus set his sights on a flock of crows and ran off to chase them while Hades watched.

After a moment, he turned to me. “Look at them.” He swept his arm ceremoniously across the embankment. “The Lost. Look at how they scramble for answers.”

I didn’t say,
I have been looking. For ages. It’s you who is blind
. Rather, I did as he asked.

We stood side by side, gazing at our subjects.

He said, “I know what you’ve been doing, of course. Paying their passage whenever you can. I know, too, how you’re getting the coins.”

I swallowed hard, hoping against hope that I was not going to be punished. Punishment was Tartarus duty, the realm that lay beneath the Underworld—the gloomy pit of nothingness where only the most depraved, vile, unconscionable sinners were locked away.

Hades glanced at me sideways. “Are you surprised, Tisiphone? Surely you don’t think that much happens in my kingdom that I am not aware of. I realize that our system is not perfect, that there is room for improvement, but these things take time. They take resources. They take strategic planning and must be in accordance with our laws. Which means they also take getting the Fates and the upper pantheon to all agree. And you know how frustrating siblings can be.”

“My Lord, I—”

He held up his hand. “I am not here to scold you, child. I am here to remind you that these are the people you will encounter on your mission. These souls—the ones you have such compassion for after they die—are the very kinds of souls in life who test your temper. Do not let their flaws cause you to lose sight of your task.” He looked at me. “Understood?”

“Yes, my lord.” I bowed my head in honor.

He was smiling, pleased. “Excellent.” Then the smile transformed into a grim line. He placed his hands firmly upon my shoulders, his jaw hardened, and said, “Now go get my Fury.”

Chapter 7

We made our way back to the war room, where Hecate was fiddling with the moonstone ring that would be my point of contact with the gods. There was a bandage on her pinky finger.

“Tisi, I’ve enchanted the ring with a receiving spell using a drop of my blood. I’ll look into the possibility of a dark-arts ritual that utilizes the mortal moon cycles. If I find one, I’ll send you a signal. It will look like this.”

Hecate licked her finger and smeared the saliva across the tattoo of her goddess symbol on her right arm—a three-pronged wheel with a star in the center—and the tattoo bubbled. After a moment, the ring lit up and a swirl of tides and clouds intermingled in its milky-white depths.

The sorceress said, “Tap the ring.”

I did, and words floated to the surface of the ring:

Stand by for a message.

Hecate looked over my shoulder and said, “Perfect. It works.”

I asked, “Will this work with other gods? Will Meg be able to send a message?”

Hecate said, “Artemis and Apollo will be able to correspond with you, since we are bound by blood, but I’m afraid that is all.”

The twins were Hecate’s cousins.

I thanked the witch. She nodded and vanished in a spray of blue smoke.

Athena said, “Are you ready, Tisiphone?”

I told her I was, and she looked at Archer, who nodded.

“Very well. Mr. Mays has a key and all the information you should need for lodging and currency. Hera often travels there with her servant Iris, so the room should be fully stocked with anything you may desire, as well as a map outlining the location of the portals around the city for transport back to Olympus. I’ve supplied Mr. Mays with a list of other gods visiting the mortal plane at this time and their contact information. His files from his investigation on Alecto’s disappearance will all be copied to the computer at the inn, so that should give you a head start on locating her. Any questions?”

I said, “Yes, I have a question. Who the hell put him in charge?”

It was bad enough that I had to work with a mortal. Now they wanted me to follow his orders?

Athena sighed heavily. “He isn’t in charge, Tisiphone. He simply came up with a plan while you were speaking with Hades, and we think it’s a fine idea. Now, there’s no time to discuss. Just trust that he is on our side.”