Sunburn (20 page)

They all stared, unable to speak, as Hades stabbed a chunk of baked ziti from the warming pan and inserted it happily into his mouth.

“The pasta here really is good,” he said. “Al dente. Can I beg a recipe from your chef before we vamoose?”

Apollo launched himself at Hades with a battle cry that sent shivers down Patience’s spine. “You bastard!”

Patience stared, horrified, as the two large bodies rolled around on the floor in front of the pasta station. And the weirdest part was no one in the restaurant noticed the dreadful commotion. She looked around, astounded, as happy tourists laughed and ate and lined up for more food.

Artemis leaned over. “I put everyone under a spell so no one can see this catastrophe of testosterone.” She shook her head as Apollo and Hades pummeled each other. “Men.”

“Shouldn’t we…?”

“Pull them apart? Nah. It’s better they tire each other out a little bit.”

Patience covered her mouth with her hand as Hades landed a huge punch on Apollo’s jaw. Apollo merely grunted and responded with a mighty undercut that would have sent a mortal man flying. However, both immortals merely growled and jabbed and rolled around some more, their bodies seemingly unhurt in the fracas.

Patience turned to Artemis, the woman she already thought of as a sister. A prickly, somewhat intimidating kind of sister, but a sister nonetheless. “Is it true?”

Artemis stared at her and her eyes glimmered in silver empathy. “You have to understand, Patience. We’ve all come a long way since then. We’ve all done things we aren’t proud of. Apollo was hurt. He’d never known hurt before, and it consumed him. He’s remorseful for every bit of pain he ever caused. It haunts him to this day. He’s the best of men now.”

The best of men and his sparring partner rolled right into the pasta station, causing a few rotini to jump out and onto Hades’ impeccable suit. Dozens of horrible images flooded into Patience’s brain. Visions of ancient people running from an angry, vengeful god of healing. He was supposed to be a healer, for Christ’s sake. And from the sounds of it, he’d relished in taking life. Lots of lives.

She blinked back tears of despair as she gazed upon her beloved. She couldn’t take a chance he might ever become that man again.

“I can’t do this,” she whispered, more to herself than to Artemis.

And before the goddess could question her, Patience escaped into the warm night.

Chapter 16

He found her on the deserted, moonlit beach. She knew he’d find her. He was a god. Of course he’d know where she was hiding.

Even still, he surprised her when he stood there by the lifeguard station. Even as a sun god, an entity who thrived and dazzled in the sun’s rays, Apollo still took her breath away under the twinkling stars. The soft glow from the moon cast a quiet light on his blond hair, making it shimmer. The tears in his eyes were also glinting in that pale illumination. His hands were clenched, and his shoulders were sloped. His eyes were downcast.

Apollo looked inconsolable. She wanted to run to him, to make him feel better, but she was frozen to her spot. The sand seemed to be trapping her toes, rendering her immobile.

What was she doing here? How did she get so caught up in this mess? All she’d wanted was to see a new hotel, eat some good meals, and maybe bring home a coconut necklace. Instead, she got chased and attacked by a demon time and again, was massaged to within an inch of her life by some crazy-ass Muses, and ended up falling for a man who was once a brutal, punishing divinity. And now the king of endless night wanted to shuffle her off her mortal coil.

When life sucked, it sucked big-time.

The lump in her throat grew more painful with each passing second as Apollo finally looked at her. He was so damned beautiful, even in his misery. It broke her heart. Inside her chest, there was a tight constriction. But as she sought to control the errant emotions making her breath labored, she knew the tightness had nothing to do with a sudden case of asthma.

“Apollo,” she whispered, unsure what to say next.

He took a step toward her. “All my life, I’ve been denying the fact I’m a monster. I’ve spent eons playing it down, justifying my actions, trying to pretend I’m something I’m not. Fact is, I’m worse. A monster can’t help what it is. It may be deformed or grotesque, but not by choice. I made some very bad choices, Patience. They were mine to make. I own them.”

She persuaded her feet to move one step closer. “Apollo, don’t.”

“No, I have to do this. My deeds of cruelty and rashness are my cross to bear, and I’ve never felt their weight as I do tonight. I would love to stand here before you and swear I am faultless, but I can’t do that.” He let out a bitter laugh of disbelief. “Funny. I’m unable to lie, and yet I’ve lied to myself for dozens of centuries! But I can’t lie to you, Patience. I love you too much, and I’ll share my sins with you, even if it means I lose you.”

She dragged her feet through the sand, bringing her still closer. “Whatever you did, I don’t need to know. It’s ancient history, right? You don’t have to say another word. We can just move on.”

He offered her the saddest smile she’d ever seen, and it made her want to burst into tears. “You’re too kind to me, but you need to hear this. I have to confess my crimes.”

She ran to him now, needing to touch him, desperate to relieve a sudden, irrational fear he might disappear at any moment. She clutched at his arms, his shoulders, made him look at her. “Look, we’ve all made mistakes. And we’ve all had times when we’ve been just terrible to another person.” Her own guilt, a guilt she’d been trying to forget, gripped her heart now, making the tightness in her chest even more severe. Her own tears poured forth. “I’ve been horrible, too. Right before coming to Helios. My mother came to me, stone-cold sober, and begged me for help. She wanted me to go to AA with her, to be with her because she was terrified. She said she’d finally accepted she’d messed up her life and wanted to change.”

“And?” He waited, hanging on her response.

A guttural cry shook Patience’s throat. “I said no! I didn’t want to help her. After years of disappointment and hurt, I didn’t believe her. Do you know how many times I heard the same speech over the years?” She stared at him, her eyes wide and sore. “I had to protect myself. I could have repeated her words back to her, I knew them so well. But what if this time she really meant it? What if she was finally ready to make a change, and I let her down? She gave me life, Apollo, and I told her to get the fuck out of my house! What kind of monster does that make me?”

“It makes you human.” He stared at her through tired eyes, ones that understood and didn’t judge her an ounce. And then his face changed: the angles grew harder and the lines deepened. “But, Patience, I’m supposed to be better than that. I’m supposed to be some sort of fucking role model.”

“I think you gods are more human than you were led to believe. Maybe we are all the same inside. Maybe you just got a few more bells and whistles, but no one thought to give you an instruction manual. It only makes sense something would break inside you.”

For a long time, he just stared at her, clearly considering that theory, if not quite buying it. But then his brow crinkled with remorse once again. He closed his eyes, breathed in and out, and slowly opened them again. “Tell that to Niobe.”

“Who’s Niobe?”

“She was an ancient queen, a little too big for her britches on the best of days. Soon after Daphne went to her death, we heard talk on Olympus. Niobe had been bragging about her family again. She had seven sons and seven daughters, all grown. Niobe compared herself to our mother, Leto, saying she must be greater because she’d been favored with fourteen children, whereas our mother only had Artemis and I.”

Patience couldn’t help grimacing. “Sounds like Niobe could have benefitted from a box of rubbers.”

Apollo didn’t seem to notice her little attempt at humor. Not even the corner of his mouth twitched in a smile. He just stared ahead, lost in thought. “If there was one thing we gods never appreciated, it was hubris in mortals. Artemis was enraged at the slight to our mom and so was I.” He paled as he spoke, looking white under the moonlight. “I know now I was just using it as an excuse. I was insane with fury over Daphne’s betrayal. After she died, it all came out. Her lies, her deception. I wanted blood on my hands, but Daphne was gone. Niobe provided me with that opportunity.”

Patience couldn’t stop trembling. She now remembered how this story ended but needed to hear it from his lips. She stood quietly by, her hands still on his shoulders, squeezing his muscles to comfort him as much as herself.

“Artemis took the women, Niobe’s daughters. I took her sons. In turn, without a care, we shot our arrows into their hearts, slaughtering them where they stood. The first few didn’t see us coming. They simply fell. The others realized what was happening when they saw the shower of gold and silver arrowheads. Some of them tried to run.” Apollo looked up at her, a broken man. “Patience, it was so very long ago, and I can still hear every single scream. I was supposed to be the supreme healer. I became Apollo the Destroyer.”

Patience held his gaze, sharing his pain. Somehow she heard the agonized cries as well. The sounds of men and women pleading for mercy. She fought for a justification. “You were grieving. You were defending your mother. And you weren’t alone. Artemis was there too. You’re not the only one to blame.”

He rubbed his head. “My sister has been doing penance for millennia, denying herself pleasure and love. People think she chose to be a maid, the virgin goddess. I know the truth. She’s purposely kept love out of her life because of what she did to Niobe’s daughters. She’s tried in her way to make it better. What have I done? Nothing.”

“Oh, Apollo, you’ve done penance in your way,” she whispered, pulling his head to her breast. “I know it can’t be fixed, but your regret speaks volumes. You’d only be a monster if you felt no remorse.” She covered the side of his face with kisses. “And besides, it was hundreds of lifetimes ago! You might as well have been a different man altogether.”

He wrapped his sturdy arms around her waist and held her tightly to his body. As the warm Mexican breezes caressed their trembling frames, Patience allowed him to cry over past sins, as he’d done for her. She forgave him, on behalf of those who could no longer forgive. And only after much time had elapsed there by the lifeguard station did she finally raise her gaze to him. She saw such sorrow in his eyes, a dry, stinging pain that hurt her as much as him.

“I’ve spent so much time running from the prophecies of the future,” he uttered. “I never realized I was actually running from my past. As young gods, we’d been told the world was ours. We were arrogant and proud. Mercy was for the weak, and justice was an acceptable, but feeble, excuse for devastation. I hate the man I was, Patience.”

“And I love the man you are now.”

He brushed her bangs off her forehead and kissed her there, in the spot where her scar had been. “I don’t deserve you.”

“Well, you’re stuck with me,” she said, cracking a smile. “When Hades first mentioned your past, I panicked. I wondered if you might turn out like Foster. But in two years, not once has Foster ever acknowledged his mistakes to me. You’re not like him at all. You’re kind and protective and loving. And you deserve a second chance.”

There was a sound behind Apollo. “Aw, that’s nice. Are we all feeling better now?”

Apollo turned, keeping Patience behind him. Hades stood before him, his hair restored to the perfect condition it was in before the pasta station brawl, his suit free of sauce stains. He pulled a pocket watch from inside his suit, glanced at it, and tucked it back into his inner pocket.

“I’ve been here in this hedonistic paradise long enough.” He gestured to Patience. “Shall we, sweetheart? This collecting of the dead is not really in my job description, and I’d like to be going. I’ve had enough of working above and beyond. Say good-bye but don’t make it lengthy. Clean breaks really are the best.”

She felt Apollo tense. “Didn’t you hear me the first time?” he demanded of his uncle. “You don’t get Patience.”

Hades smiled, or rather, his lips twisted into a mirthless line of inflexibility. “And why should I make an exception for her, hmm? Don’t you see the unfairness of your request, Apollo? You’re considered to be a reasonable man by many. Surely you comprehend what I’m trying to say.”

“I’m just asking for a bit of leniency. I know Patience will die one day. I’m just suggesting we postpone it for a little while.”

Hades broke into cold laughter. “You always were a selfish pig.”

Apollo narrowed his eyes. “This from the man who
abducted
his wife.”

“Please,” Hades responded, holding up his hands, finally losing his monumental self-control. “Have you
met
my wife? I’ve been paying for that one impulsive act all my life,” he shouted. “And I’m no spring chicken!”

Apollo turned away from the muttering Hades and laid a hand on Patience’s cheek. He smiled, his eyes glittering blue and gold, gently slicing into her soul and carving his name there. He leaned in for a kiss, soft and sweet and unhurried, as if they had all the time in the world. And Patience let him, soaking in his brightness and his sadness and absorbing his every pain. She let her tongue melt into his, and she was oblivious to Hades. Only when the heart-breaking kiss ended, did she notice him still standing there, observing them with a curious expression on his face. For a second, Patience thought those frigid eyes warmed, but was sure the moonlight was playing tricks.

Apollo thrust her behind him and turned to his uncle. “Take me, instead.”

“No,” Patience cried. She darted a glance to Hades. “You can’t do that, can you?”

Hades shrugged. “Zeus won’t like it, but a soul is a soul, as far as I’m concerned. And frankly, you’ve always pissed me off with all your …
Baywatch
good looks.”

Apollo advanced on him, ignoring the dig. “You will take me and leave Patience alone.”

“Apollo!” She cried his name, but he would not look back. She tried to run to him, but he waved a hand in her direction and his power held her fast. Once more, she felt stuck in a quagmire of sand, only this time she had no power to pull herself from it. She pleaded, but he ignored her. “Please, don’t do this!”