Upon the Midnight Clear (16 page)

She scoffed. “Anyone who says that isn't shopping in the right stores.”

Mori didn't comment on that. “I hate what's become of him. He is without a doubt one of the finest actors of his generation. I just wish there was something I could do for him.”

“You sent him a ham.”

Mori cut her a bored look. “Not for a present. When I first met him, he was so full of life and laughter. When other actors got jaded by their fame, he didn't. He always enjoyed it. Even the parts of it that made lesser actors crumble and fall. Now … now he's a soured recluse. If I had one single wish for Christmas, it would be to see him happy again.”

Aidan was amazed by the fact that Mori wasn't as cold-blooded as he pretended. Wow. His agent had been keeping quite a secret from him. There really was a heart buried under all that swagger.

But that didn't change anything. He looked up at the darkness. “Is this supposed to mean something to me?”

His answer came as the scene blanked out again and reemerged, not in his future as he expected, but rather in a place he'd never seen before.

It appeared to be a dark cavern with walls that were bleeding …

Faint screams and moans echoed as he walked toward a large opening, and when he reached it, he froze. There was Leta in a long, flowing white gown, standing before two angry men who glared at her while a third man in white stood to her left.

“You would ask me for mercy for her?” the tall blond man sneered at the man in white. “Do you understand what she has done?”

“Yes, Zeus. I do. But what she did, she did to protect an innocent human.”

Zeus sneered at the answer. “None of them are innocent. What's the death of one more human in this world?”

Leta started to answer, but the man beside her stopped her by putting his hand on her arm.

When he spoke, his voice was devoid of all emotion. “She was assigned the human by me and she carried out her assignment to the end. It was Dolor who—”

“Don't you dare defend her,” Zeus snarled. “Because of his death, we have a rupture in the universe. Have you any idea what could have happened? The world could have ended.”

“But it didn't.”

Zeus blasted him.

“M'Adoc!” Leta said, rushing to where he lay on the ground.

Zeus cocked his head at that. “Are those emotions I hear from you?”

Aidan saw the panic in Leta's eyes but since her back was to Zeus, he was sure the god hadn't noticed it.

Instead a strange look passed between M'Adoc and the dark-haired god standing beside Zeus.

“They have no emotions, brother,” the dark-haired man said. “She spent time with the humans and these are the residual effects.”

Zeus's gaze narrowed dangerously as M'Adoc pushed himself back to his feet. “Are you defending them, Hades?”

Hades shrugged. “Not really. If you want me to punish her I will. It's what I live for.”

Aidan frowned at the underlying sarcastic tone of the god's voice.

Zeus nodded. “Very well. Kill her.”

“No!” Aidan lunged forward only to run into an invisible wall.

The gods turned as if they could hear him.

Aidan slammed his hand against the wall. “Don't you dare touch her!”

He realized that they could in fact hear him as Zeus came forward to stare at him as if he were an insect in a jar. “Have you any idea who I am?”

“I don't care. Leta did nothing wrong and I won't see her hurt for me.”

“Nothing wrong?” Zeus asked, his nostrils flaring. “You stupid human. She could have destroyed the entire universe with her actions. The only thing that saved us was the fact that Dolor was in stasis and his powers restricted. Had he not been … We'll take a moment and be damn grateful for small favors.”

Even though a small voice in Aidan's head told him not to argue with an ancient god, he couldn't stop himself. “She's not the one who killed Dolor. I did it.”

Leta gasped at his words. “Aidan—”

“It's true,” he said, cutting her off before she contradicted him. “I killed him. So if you're going to punish anyone, it should be me.”

Zeus considered it.

“Ignore him, my lord,” Leta said quickly. “He's noble but foolish. I was the one who ignored your mandate to leave Dolor alone. I killed him here while he slept in stasis—against your will. Because of that I'm the one who should be punished.”

Zeus stiffened as if something offended him. “Are those emotions I hear in your voice? Have you feelings for this human?”

Leta shook her head. “No, my lord. It's only cold, hard logic.”

Her words tore through Aidan, who couldn't bear the thought of her being false with him. “Leta?”

Her gaze was empty as she met his. “How could I ever have feelings for a human when I'm incapable of them?”

Zeus turned speculative. “So if I killed the human, you wouldn't care?”

Aidan wouldn't have thought her face could get colder, but he was wrong.

Even so, she didn't answer.

“She wouldn't care,” M'Adoc answered for her. “She's not capable of it.”

“Very well. Since the human was supposed to die anyway…” Zeus shot a lightning bolt out of his hand, straight at Aidan's heart.

NINE

Aidan staggered yet remained standing even as his entire body was shoved backward. He looked down, expecting to see blood from Zeus's attack. But there was no wound. In fact, there was no pain.

Confused, he glanced around until he saw Leta lying on the floor a few feet from him. “Oh, my God,” he breathed, scrambling to reach her. She must have thrown herself in front of him to protect him.

He knelt on the floor and rolled her over, to see her struggling to breathe as blood coated her entire body.

“Leta?”

She coughed up blood before she spoke in a raspy tone. “I couldn't let you die, Aidan. I'm sorry.”

Sorry? Why was she apologizing to him for saving his life? It didn't even make sense.

Zeus turned on M'Adoc. “I thought you said she was incapable of caring?”

M'Adoc maintained his stoicism. “She must have gone Skoti without our knowing.”

Fury darkened Zeus's brow. He held his hand up and M'Adoc was instantly drawn forward into his grasp. “You don't make those kinds of mistakes.”

Hades made a sound of extreme boredom. “You're wasting your time, Zeus. You stripped their emotions so if you're trying to make him afraid now—”

“Shut up,” Zeus snapped at Hades before he shoved M'Adoc away from him. He stiffened before he gave M'Adoc a dire warning. “You better keep a wary eye on your brethren. I'm holding you personally responsible. You fail to corral them and it'll be your blood I bathe in.”

Aidan saw the fury and fear flash in M'Adoc's eyes before he straightened and faced Zeus. Then his face was as blank as it'd been before Zeus attacked him. “I understand, my lord. Your will be done.”

“You're damn right my will be done.” Zeus glared at all of them. “Now get that human out of here and clean up this mess.” With those words spoken, he dissolved into a light bronze dust and evaporated.

Still on the floor, Aidan held Leta close to him as she struggled to breathe. “You're going to heal again, right?”

“No,” Hades said as he stepped forward. “She was hit with a god bolt from Zeus himself. There's no coming back from that.”

Aidan frowned. “I don't understand.”

“She's dying,” Hades said in a tone that was devoid of all feeling.

It took several seconds for those words to permeate the fog in Aidan's head. “She can't die. She's an immortal goddess.”

“Who was just assaulted by the king of the gods.” Hades said in the tone of a teacher talking to a dense student. “Yes, she can die.”

Aidan couldn't breathe as he looked down at her. “Why? Why would you have done this?”

“I love you, Aidan,” she said as her eyes teared up. “I couldn't let Zeus kill you. I could never watch someone else I love die in front of me.” She lifted her hand to lay it gently to his cheek. “It was why I had to kill Dolor. I knew Donnie would only summon him again and I didn't want him to hurt you anymore. I couldn't chance it.”

His own tears swelled at her words. He crushed her against him before he looked up at Hades and M'Adoc. “We have to save her. Tell me what to do.”

Hades let out a tired breath. “Thunder-Bluster wants her dead. There's nothing we can do. We heal her and he will rain down on her all kinds of pain. The kindest thing you can do is let her go.”

“No! Save her!”

But the god wasn't listening. Hades stepped back and looked at M'Adoc. “Let's give them privacy to say goodbye.”

Aidan saw the sympathy in M'Adoc's eyes before he faded away. Hades followed suit.

Alone now, he breathed in the scent of Leta's hair.

“I wish I'd been born human,” she breathed against his neck.

“I would have changed nothing about you.”

He felt her smiling as she tightened her grip in his hair. An instant later, she expelled her last breath and fell limp in his arms.

For three full heartbeats, Aidan didn't move. He couldn't. It took that long for reality to set in.

Leta was dead. She'd given her life to save his.

He refused to believe it. Pulling back, he looked at her. Her eyes were partially open, her face grayish. There was no life in her eyes. Blood coated both of them.

“Wake up,” he breathed, knowing it was an impossible request. “Don't leave me, Leta. Please.”

But all the begging in the world changed nothing. She was gone and he was alone.

His heart shattering, he pulled her against him and did the one thing he hadn't done since the night his parents had died. He sobbed.

Rocking her in his arms, he held her for what seemed to be forever as he cried. All he wanted was to go back in time and change all of this. To start fresh and new.

To tell her he loved her too.

“I love you, Leta,” he whispered into her ear, knowing she couldn't hear him.

Why hadn't he said it earlier?

But then he knew. He'd been afraid to voice it. Afraid she would somehow use that to hurt him. Now she would never know just how much she'd meant to him. It was so unfair.

“She knows.”

He looked up to find a tall, beautiful blond woman standing over him. “Who are you?”

“Persephone.” She knelt by his side with sympathy in her eyes. “I'm sorry for your loss. Leta was a wonderful woman.” Pulling out a small black handkerchief, she wiped his eyes. “You need to return home now. I'll take care of her for you.”

“No!”

“Aidan,” she said quietly. “You can't stay here. Believe me, you don't really want to. I will make sure Leta is taken care of, but you have to go.”

Aching deep inside his soul, Aidan knew she was right. He pressed his lips to Leta's cold temple before he allowed Persephone to take her body from his arms. “Will you bury her with her family? She doesn't like to be alone.”

Tears welled in her eyes as she nodded. “You do love her, don't you?”

“More than my life. I wish to God she'd let me die in her place.”

Persephone sniffed as she took Leta from his arms. “Deimos,” she said, summoning the god to appear in front of them. “Can you take him back to his world?”

Deimos nodded before he and Aidan vanished.

As soon as he was home again, Aidan turned on him. “Why did you take me there?”

“I wanted you to know how much she cared for you.”

“Why? So that it would haunt me for the rest of eternity? No offense, Deimos, but as the ghost of Christmas Present, you suck. At least Scrooge was given a chance to fix his life. I can't fix this. Why the hell did you show it to me?”

Deimos shrugged. “Zeus was going to kill her anyway. As you told Persephone, she didn't like to be alone. I thought it would be nice for her if you were at least there when she died. She needed you.”

He was right, but it did nothing to stop the pain inside Aidan. “Thank you, Demon. For everything.”

He saw the sympathy on the god's face before he left.

Alone, Aidan stood in the center of his living room, feeling bereft. Closing his eyes, he could feel Leta here. Hear her laughter. Her jacket was still on his tree where she'd left it.

Needing to be closer to her, he walked over to it so that he could touch its softness. “I wish I had you back, Leta. If I did, I'd take better care of you than anyone you've ever known.”

And if wishes were horses, even beggars would ride.

Aidan pulled the small hat out of her pocket and lifted it to his nose. It contained her scent and that brought another set of tears to his eyes. His chest tight, he went to the mantel where he had pictures of Donnie, Heather, and Ronald. One by one, he plucked them off and tossed them into the fire where the glass heated and shattered and the pictures burned.

The only photo he left was the one of his parents. He set Leta's knit hat beside it and stepped back.

Yeah. That was his family, and only they deserved a place of honor on his shelf.

*   *   *

Aidan woke up to the sound of someone knocking on his front door. He looked at the clock … it was just after noon on Christmas Eve.

“Leta?” he breathed, tossing back his covers to run to the front door. Wearing nothing more than a loose pair of green boxer shorts, he threw the door open to find Mori and his wife with a medium-sized suitcase.

Shirley raked a hungry and amused look over his body. “I know it does nothing for you, Mor, but that just made getting on an airplane and coming to this godforsaken place worthwhile. Thanks!”

Mori rolled his eyes as he pushed past his wife and came into the house. “Merry Christmas, Aidan.”

Aidan stepped back and allowed Shirley to sashay in behind her husband before he closed the door. “What are you doing here?”