Dionysus (Greek God Romance Book 1) (23 page)

“Why did he send you?”

“He didn’t. I came on my own.” Obviously, this was a god side-stepping a question—
honestly
not a lie.

“I can’t believe that. How would you know?”

“Everyone knows, honey.”

She sneered, “
Everyone?”
She hated the idea of being the talk of a town, being the nine o’clock news for Olympus.

He nodded. “Yup. The whole damn town.”

“What’s that mean for me?”

“A whole lot of things I suppose. . . Going to skip town?”

She thought for a moment, just the slightest. “No. . . This is my home.” For Rebecca, she had finally carved out a happy nook out of life. The thought of traveling to the next town, the next city no longer looked appealing in any way. She may have flirted with danger, had her apartment wrecked and served drinks to “monsters,” gods and goddesses, who could shred her on a whim; but this was her home, and she wasn’t giving it up for no man—or god or goddess alike. “I’m staying put.”

“I like that. I can see why Dionysus loves you.”

“I was second fiddle.”

“Never. She was
always
second fiddle. Their relationship was second fiddle. He just needed to see that.”

“So what now?”

“Roll with it.” He shrugged. “I’m sure he’ll come up with something.”

“You mean, you’ll come up with something.”

“Oh, no, not my place to meddle.”

“Wait. If I am to believe that you’ll do nothing, what do you do as the god of love?”

He grinned devilishly. “Not a damn thing, isn’t it lovely?”

“What?”

“I just make sure the love is there. If it isn’t, I would steer one of you in a different direction.”

“And that’s all you do?”

“That. . . And I get high, and I like video games and movies, and of course, having sexual relations.”

Rebecca laughed to herself, shaking her head. “Don’t you feel inadequate with so many gods and goddesses having the powers they have?”

“Pfffff, more burden than not, I am completely satisfied. Not many can make such a statement here in Olympus.” He put his hand to the side of his mouth and leaned in, lifting his eyebrow and altering his voice, “Like Hera, uh, although. . . I guess many of the older gods and goddesses like myself feel the same way.” He pulled back and finished his glass. “You know, it’s the age thing.”

Rebecca cringed. “You feel fulfilled?”

“Fulfilled? That’s a damn illusion. Just live, baby. The rest will come.” He stood up, picked a coin out of his pocket and left it on the counter. “Come around if Dionysus doesn’t work out. . . You deserve the world, baby. We all do.”

WHATEVER WILL BE. . . WILL BE

Hera went back to the Roman Catacombs, book in hand. The ancient seal imprisoning the Minotaur to the Labyrinth could only be broken in person by reading the poem inside. In order to invoke the incantation, Hera spoke in a language that preceded ancient Latin.

A rough translation to the poem was:

Before there were gods, there were those who created.

Those who created made many a creature,

many remember the Titans,
 

 
they remember the Ancient Ones.
 

 
They remember the lands filled with their own Ancient Ones,

but what lies held,
 

 
what lies jailed,
 

 
were the imperfections.
 

 
The ones they experimented on,
 

 
the ones that know nothing but rage,
 

 
nothing but hate.
 

 
Nothing but a discard forever trapped,
 

 
until now. . .
 

 
Whom has read this incantation has released the one they call the Minotaur,
 

 
hear him roar,
 

 
hear the ground shack,
 

 
and watch in his wake.

Much like the poem suggested, the ground shook, a roar could be heard and a quake was felt in his wake. Hera cackled.

She said in the Minotaur’s wake, “Whatever will be. . . will be.”

It was said that Hera came up with the famous lullaby when she first sent the Titans to rip Dionysus apart as a young child.

ONE FOR THE LADY, BABY

Rebecca stared at the gloriously red ceiling. She stared and stared and stared while the memory of what her and Dionysus had, rampaged around her brain, turning over tables, demanding satisfaction.

Rebecca sighed audibly. She had no other recourse. She would take him back if he were sincere. She was
still
pissed though, which was her right. And she would let him have it.

Rebecca rose from her bed, went into her closet and grabbed jeans and a blue t-shirt to start the day. She felt like a walk, alone. It seemed like a mad thing to do given the circumstances, but she refused to give in to a manic goddess.
I will live to my own beat, damn it.

She tied her shoes and heard a rumbling, an odd shacking of the apartment. She knew that quakes weren’t a thing in Illinois—after what happened at the bar. It was Olympus and that seemed to defy all conditional norms. She shrugged and went into the kitchen.

Rebecca went to grab a banana when the rumbling grew in strength and glassware drying next to the sink crashed onto the floor. The fridge opened, and the banana she was reaching for tumbled off the counter. Seeing an opportunity to show off her agility to no one, she nimbly moved to the side and caught the banana. This movement saved her life because at the same time, the Minotaur charged through the back of the kitchen, horns smashing through the counter top, and kept going out the brick wall to the left of the front door. Rebecca wasted no time running out the door and jumping on her scooter.

Rebecca felt a gust of wind as she reached twenty miles per hour, she could feel the creature behind her. She looked frantically back and saw it charging. Knowing that it would catch up, she pressed the button on the middle of pole to disengage the bubble and her straps, jumped off the scooter, and watched the charging Minotaur plow through her lava scooter which then exploded. Lava covered the Minotaur as he stopped and bellowed, she stole another glance to find little clouds of smoke on his skin and puffs of air spouting from his nostrils—his large golden nose ring prominent and glistening in the sun.

He charged her once more. She jumped to the left, narrowly missing being hit as he took out a column of Medusa’s home. Medusa jumped out of nowhere, like a German Shepherd gunning for an intruder. Rebecca got up from the ground, peeked over her shoulder, and glimpsed snakes from Medusa’s head striking at the Minotaur. Medusa called a challenge to him, “Fight me, you old pissant. What type of a fight is one with a female mortal?”

He roared, flexing his muscles and arching up as more snakes bit his face then he flung his arm at Medusa who caught it in the stomach and flew back into her home. “One of obligation, Medusa. You are beneath me, but I will gladly feast on your soul after I am through with the mortal.” He pointed at Rebecca who got up and started running again.

She took a left at the first corner and the Minotaur galloped towards her, riding her tail and smelling her fear, tasting it. She was immensely glad for all the trips that Dionysus and her had taken around town, knowing that to the right, one block, was Heph’s shop.

She reached the shop, seeing the Cyclops standing in line for their shift. She ran and zig-zagged, barely being missed as he lunged and did an upper cut with his horns, catching the back of her shirt, ripping it and making a long cut up her back. She yelped in pain, stumbled and slid under the first Cyclops.

As if on queue, every Cyclops in line dropped their lunch boxes, massive brown bags and started attacking the Minotaur. At first, a bunch of them jumped onto him, being flung off the Minotaur a moment later as he howled in a rage. Then a few of the bigger Cyclops who were around thirty feet used their fists to slam down on the Minotaur like a mythological game of whack-a-mole. They hit and hit and hit until the Minotaur’s head could no longer be seen.

Rebecca stopped, taking in the scene unfolding behind her. The Cyclops who had bashed the Minotaur into the ground stood around the hole, scratching at the back of their bald heads then looking over to Rebecca and shrugging, while slobber slowly dripped down and created a pool over the hole.

Then they all felt a rumble underneath, the Cyclops panicked and started stomping around the ground. Rebecca saw pavement being flung upwards and, having seen the movie
Tremors
, opened the door to Heph’s Shop and ran inside.

The Minotaur ran underground gaining strength as he gained momentum. He jumped out of the ground inside the first door to Heph’s Shop.

Rebecca had gotten through the second door and was stopped by one of Hestia’s follower. “Will you be taking a tour today?”

She shoved the follower and yelled behind her, “Look out!”

The Minotaur launched the follower out of the way and barreled down on Rebecca; she dug into her pocket seeing him about to charge her. She felt the coin, clenched it in her fist and sprinted towards the door in front of her that led to Heph’s
real
shop. At the last moment, she leaped to the side, and the Minotaur barreled through the door.

He stopped himself after entering a private bathroom, busting through that wall and crashing through a sink. He slowly stepped out.

Rebecca approached the hole, squaring off with the Minotaur who snorted puffs of smoke out of his nostrils.

“You choose to accept your fate?”

“Fate? Who made you judge and jury?”

His voice turned more and more into a snarl, “You do not shake in fear?”

“
Answer me!”

“Your fate was sealed when I was visited.”

“By who? Do I need to even ask?”

“You already know the answer to that question.”

“Would appear so. . .”

“You may have ran like a coward, but I will make your death quick.”

She smirked then showed the coin in her hand. “I have other plans.” She flicked it at the Minotaur.

Rebecca had done this as a maneuver she thought a badass would’ve done, having forgotten the key to the coin. The key, luckily, and as
fate
would have it was to flick it in the air.

As the coin spun, all attention and focus between the Minotaur and Rebecca remained solely on that flicking coin, amiss the rubble and debris and gaping hole of a once functional bathroom. The coin started spitting out skeletons and minions, and other small riffraff of the Underworld that lunged at the Minotaur, clawing and wracking at his face and skin. He howled tearing them off, a few turning them into piles and piles of bones. Rebecca took the opportunity to run.

She headed to Heph’s
real
Shop and donned all the appropriate attire hearing the cacophony of the Minotaur’s growls and roars and the clamor the skeletons and little winged devils produced. She hurried, putting everything on and headed into the shop.

Heph was standing at the door, a hammer in hand. “I’ve been expecting you.”

Startled, Rebecca took a step forward and said, “Heard the commotion?”

He nodded then hooked his arm around her waist and pushed her out of the way. “There’s a door behind me, stand by it but don’t leave until he comes.”

“Why?”

“He will bypass me if you go now and head through a side. This way it guarantees he has to go through me.”

She caught her breath then said, “So I’m safe.”

He chuckled. “Hardly, he will get past me. I am ill-equipped to deal with the Minotaur.”

“But you’re a god.”

“And so is he.”

“I see.”

“Be brave, Rebecca. I bet all of Olympus is privy to the Minotaur now and the danger you’re in. You will not have to keep running much longer.”

“They will fight for me?”

“Don’t sound so surprised. Everyone raves about the piña colada and how you treat everyone fairly; although, I must warn you,
that
does not put you in the favor of some gods and goddesses.”

“Does that matter?”

He chuckled. “If you live, it will. Now, wait patiently back there, he will be coming soon. And so will your man, Dionysus. He will save you.”

Rebecca smiled at hearing Dionysus’ name and scolded him inside her head,
where are you, jackass?
She heard the rumbling again that came in the wake of the Minotaur. It seemed that Hades’ get-out-of-jail card had expired. Her heart pumped and pounded in her ear drums, she was anxious, wanting to resume this game of cat and mouse and desiring an end more than anything. If the residents of Olympus were going to help,
have them help already
. She was unbelievably tired, still attempting to steady her breathing.