Chapter Six
Two weeks later…
Rach inhaled the sweet scents of the night air and smiled. She sat on a porch swing with Dieter and Wyatt on either side of her. This had become routine for them since they’d arrived at the farm, all of them sitting outside on the swing with her after dinner. Unless it was their turn to clean up, in which case they’d all tidy the kitchen and then head to the media room to spend time with the family, as she had begun to call the men and women that lived there.
“I enjoy these times,” she whispered with her head on Dieter’s shoulder—this time. They switched up nightly; the one on her good side usually ended up with her leaning against them and head on his shoulder. She liked it, too. “Has Mikhail heard anything more from Uncle Apollo?” She had finally stopped calling him Adam. He and Ares were both seriously pissed because whoever had shot her had had help in a massive way. Their scent was hidden, and all traces of them were undetectable, even from the gods, and that meant another god was hiding them.
“Not yet,” Dieter said. “Apollo’s still working on a few angles, though. He and Artemis have a few associates of a questionable nature business-wise who they think might have heard something or could potentially dig up some information. Mik did talk to Ares after lunch to find out that the lead he’d been following was a bust. That’s one god I really hope I never piss off.”
“I still can’t get over the fact that he’s my great-many-times-over grandfather.” She smiled as she thought about the first time she’d met him. He had held her so gently and then told her all about the woman who had given birth to his progeny and how much like her she looked. He had been very sweet and since that moment had been extremely overprotective, something Camilla assured her he was excellent at. Evidently, he had protected her all her life, so now Camilla was a pseudo-relation. That was how the women were looking at it, at least, and it was driving the men batty. “I hope that they find something out soon. You guys can’t keep me hidden out here indefinitely.”
“Says you,” Wyatt muttered. He squeezed her thigh. “We’ll gladly keep you here until the end of time if you’d let us. And you can do pretty much all your work here. We definitely have enough space for you.” The house was massive, giving everyone room to be there without being under each other’s feet all the time.
“I know that you would, but I have work to do, and I would become seriously cranky if I could only stay here. I love it here, but I sometimes enjoy going other places, too.” Not a lot of places—Rach was boring like that—but she wanted to have more than just one home front. “Besides, you both owe me dates, and we can’t do that here, now can we?”
“True enough. While it’s a big house, privacy is not guaranteed around her. Especially when they all seem to know when someone’s looking for it. Don’t worry, as soon as you’re back to your previous fully functional state, we’ll take you on those dates. We’ll also see what we can do about getting you home eventually. Not until the threat is eliminated, of course. No way in hell am I sticking you back out there with a target still on your back. Next time, the guy might not go for a body shot.”
“Oh, I can work from just about anywhere, but home has my computers and my work room. However, that can be moved.” She wanted this life with them, definitely. It didn’t matter where they were or what they had to do; she wanted everything they had promised her. “So about those dates. Where will we go?”
“Several places,” Dieter told her. “We plan on properly wooing you so you can’t ever think of letting us go. Figured that might make it easier so when we tell you we’re going with you when you need to return home you won’t fight us about it.”
His comment caught her off guard. “You will be? Really? But what about your home here? Your family here?”
“We’ll be here a bunch of the time, but you have a home I’m sure you’d like to return to often. Friends, colleagues, and your work. Besides, the air miles will be nice to have for when we do other traveling of a more vacation-related sort. When it involves someone as amazing as you, they’ll all understand our absence from time to time.”
Her heart melted even more. “We could always ask Uncle Apollo for his jet. He has one, you know. Several homes as well.” She shrugged. “He even has a massive yacht that we could commandeer. I’m sure if we asked nicely, he would let us.” She was once more leaning against Dieter and stroking his and Wyatt’s legs while they swung. “My home is wherever you guys are.”
“Then why are you worrying?” Wyatt asked. “Don’t say you weren’t. I heard the change in your voice and saw the look on your face.”
“I thought that you guys were going to leave me there. I didn’t want that. I want to be with you two, but I don’t want to just be one of those needy women throwing herself at men.”
“It’s fine, Rachael. You know you’re allowed to ask for what you want. You don’t need to sit back and see if it works out. You’re fully capable of stepping up and telling us how you feel so do it. Admit you like us and can’t wait to have us naked to do with as you want.”
“I like both of you more than a little, and I’m beyond impatient for the both of you to think I’m healed enough to be naked with you both. Not to protect me from Hades.” They slept with her every night to protect her, and one of them was always close to reach out and touch her if she was pulled into that monstrous realm. They were her rocks. They had more than once pulled her out of the nightmares that Hades had trapped her in. Wyatt faced off against the Titan more often than not, surprisingly. “Thank you for that, for keeping me safe even when it can’t be exactly comfortable for the two of you.” The bed she slept in wasn’t huge.
“We’ve slept in much worse places. Trust me, it’s absolutely no hardship to have you snuggled up between us,” Dieter said. He pressed a kiss to her hair and then rested his cheek on her head. “At least there’s a bed. I can’t believe how I took for granted the pleasure of sleeping in a real bed. With pillows. A rucksack really does not cut it.”
“Would be even better if the bed was larger. I figured that you guys would have gigantic beds in this place, but the one we are sleeping in is only a queen size. What’s with that, anyway?” Rach asked.
“So we don’t get any bright ideas before we know you’re fully healed.” She hadn’t been expecting that answer, and yet she should have been. “Our beds are all custom-sized kings so there’s more than enough room for a small party to happen in there. The guest rooms are equipped with queens, though. With that size, it means we don’t let go of you.” Dieter spoke softly, as a reminder to them all.
“Ah, I do rather love being between the two of you. It makes me sort of mushy knowing that you both care enough for me to put yourselves into the line of fire, so to speak.”
“Not much Hades can do to us.” Wyatt shifted before getting them swinging once more. “We’re protected by all the gods who really don’t like him, so that’s a huge plus on our side of things. And anything we can do to keep you safe from him while annoying the shit out of him is a win in my book.”
“This is true. I’m sure that he is rather pissed right now, isn’t he?” She had no idea. Luckily, when she slept, it was now peacefully with both men touching her. “Hopefully, he will never find out that I’m not the last key. Then the poor woman who is the last key can have peace and not have to live through the pain of him.”
“I’m actually a little stunned by the fact our touch is working to keep him at bay. Ares is baffled by it as well, which is never good. He thinks that Hades is playing us,” Dieter told her. “Hades said it himself—without the bond, you shouldn’t be able to keep him out of your dreams. I think because you’re not the sixth key, the one he needs to break free, it’s working so far. But we need to be on guard as well. No one knows what he might pull out of his bag of tricks.”
“Great.” She had been living in bliss thinking these men were keeping her safe by their touch alone. “He did say that once the bond was sealed, I would be safe, but I don’t want to be with the two of you for just that one reason.” She wanted them to be hers simply because they wanted to be hers as well. Because there was real emotion brewing deep inside of their souls. She felt it with every touch and everything that they did for her; Rach just hoped that they felt it from her as well.
“We wouldn’t bond with you for the sole purpose of keeping you safe from Hades, sweetheart. That’s just a perk. You’re everything we’ve ever wanted, Rachael. So don’t go thinking otherwise. I can practically hear the wheels spinning in that head of yours as you wonder and contemplate.”
“How do you know me so well?” she asked Dieter with a small smile. “What about you, Wyatt?” She turned to look at him. “You’re very quiet. Are you okay?”
“Of course I'm all right, darling. Just thinking. Mainly about how lucky we are to have you in our lives, and that Apollo was there to pull your ass out of the fire. But also doing my own wondering about Hades’ motives. What if he does realize she’s not the sixth key?” he asked Dieter over her head. “It would explain why he hasn’t really gone after her yet. Maybe he thinks she’ll figure out who the last key is before we bond, and then he goes after her hard to get it from her. Because he has to realize that she’s really his only source of information from inside our camp.”
“Yeah, but no one knows who the last one is. The gods know who each of the women are, but until something comes up where we go to intervene and assist, no one knows where they fall in the numbers game. The only thing that I can think is that he must assume she’s now also somehow tied into Apollo since he pulled her from death. That had to have been some powerful magic he used to get her out of Hades’s hands. If the Titan thinks she’s tied into Apollo, then perhaps he thinks that he can follow that to the well of knowledge the gods share for who the keys are. This is all just me spit-balling here.”
“How did Hades find out about Rachael?”
She looked up at Dieter as he frowned and shook his head. “He shouldn’t have, but he obviously did.”
“How, though?” Wyatt pondered. “He’s banned from Olympus and isn’t in on the memos sent out by the circle that is working with us.”
“He has a mole somewhere in the ranks,” Dieter said.
“Is that really so hard to accept? Seriously, people have been turning on each other for all of time. It’s no surprise the gods or their people would turn against them. With the right incentive, most anyone would turn from another.”
“Yeah, but once the gods left Earth to its own devices, they closed ranks. There are absolutely no acolytes on Olympus. Only gods, demis, and a dozen other subdivisions all amounting to some percentage of gods’ blood in their veins. You must have it, or special circumstances, to be on Olympus for any length of time. It eats at a human soul until there’s nothing left. No clue why, but we were put into a different bubble of space around a section of Olympus when we were there. It was shielded with the powers of all the gods to keep us safe from corruption.
“They are also all tied to one another. To have one turn against the others, the level of deception would be monumental. I don’t think they’d get away with it for long. The only ones I can think of off the top of my head who aren’t restricted the same way by the Olympian laws are the Fates. As they are not Olympians, they don’t abide by the same rules,” Wyatt said.
“They really don’t like anyone all that much, but if the rumors we heard are true, they detest Hades.” Dieter looked at her when she squeezed his arm lightly. “Supposedly, Hades tried to kill one of them after they gave him a prophecy he didn’t like. They really, really hold grudges like no one you will ever meet in your lifetime.”
Well, Rach hoped she would never meet with the Fates and have no reason to know their ire. “There has to be someone. How do the gods watch over us? The human women, that is. I heard Ares and Apollo talking to Artemis, and she had said Athena was standing guard at the well, so maybe it’s this well? Does it leak or whatever?” Rach knew it was a reach, but there had to be a way that Hades was getting this information. She groaned inside of her own mind. If things weren’t so serious right now, she would find the humor in things because she was talking about Greek gods and surrounded by them on a daily basis and it didn’t bother her in the least. “Or perhaps someone was previously on Olympus but died and is now in Hades’s realm. Maybe he tortured the information from them?”
“The well is a one-way directional device. Think about it like your TV. You can get information in on it, but you can’t send out,” Wyatt explained.
”It’s more a one-way mirror. They can watch us, but we can’t watch them. As to a soul from Olympus dying, maybe. We should have Ares check on that. I’m wondering, what about the Elysian Fields?” Dieter asked.
“They are for the dead who were heroes. Technically a part of the Underworld, but we’d have to see if Hades can still access it. You’d think they would have shut him out.”
“Not if they couldn’t,” Dieter said. “If he’s God of the Underworld, and the Dead and Damned, then that means all the dead. Not just the ones in hell.”
“You have a point.” Wyatt nodded. “And the Elysian Fields connect directly with Olympus. There’s even a section where the dead who’ve fallen in heroic actions can walk and talk to the gods, which means there’s a part where someone could have heard something and passed it along without realizing the ramifications. Not like they get the news up there.”
“That’s what I thought,” said Rachael. “I’ve read up a bit on the mythology from some of the things that you guys have dug up, and if it’s correct, Hades does control all of the Underworld, including the Elysian Fields. If that is so, then perhaps he was able to get to one of those heroes? Heck, I don’t know. But if he did, he would have to go through bloodlines, lineages, and all of that because I seriously doubt a hero has fallen in the last few decades, and that’s the only way one would know about the women in this timeframe, right?”
“Not really. The prophecy has been around for a while,” Wyatt told her. “It’s all so very complicated. I try not to think too long on it so I don’t give myself a migraine. But I’ll mention it to Ares when he comes by for breakfast tomorrow. He can see what he can find. It might be nothing, but it’s a potential lead, so that’s enough for me.”
“Sounds good. For now, we will just enjoy our time out here watching the lightning bugs as they fly by.” She didn’t want to think about the ramifications if Hades had swayed a hero to his side. Rach only wanted to enjoy her time with her men. “So what were you guys doing today? When you were away from me, that is.” They never left her completely alone, but they had left in individual turns today.
“Mostly some training,” Dieter told her. “Though Wyatt did get pulled into helping Owen a little more with his hunt for our bad guy. He’s managed to find what he believes to be some footage of the incident. Sadly, it’s from a camera phone focused on something else at the time, but he believes he can get the resolution a bit better. He’s also using the city’s traffic cameras to hunt our foe. He’s managed to track him from the location of the shooting to an alleyway. From there, he loses him so, he’s digging around for other footage. It’s slow going since the guy seems to know where all the cameras are, how they are angled, and how to keep his face from them. Owen has to go frame by frame to find him since for obvious reasons facial recognition won’t work.”
“Damn. Why not focus on the vehicle? Or the VIN number on the dash? If his programs are good enough, he should be able to pull that, right?” Rach asked hopefully. “Because that’s something people forget—the VIN numbers on the dashboards, that is.”
“Your guy didn’t. He removed all identifying features, used Bondo to create a generic shape to the vehicle, and has something over the plate that makes it impossible to read on a camera. Owen is pulling his hair out. Poor guy’s likely to kill this asshole before the rest of us have a chance.”
“Damn,” she grumbled. “This whole thing was planned. It really sucks that someone wants me dead that badly.”
“I don’t think they wanted you dead, at least not for long. Remember, if Hades did hire this guy, he had to hit you when Apollo was on duty. Because he knew you’d drift between here and there giving him the chance to tag you. Then Apollo yanks you back, and now you’re his chosen key to getting him free. Which once again brings us back to why he isn’t pestering you more in your dreams. I feel like this is only making us spin our wheels,” Dieter said.
“I do, too, which is driving me nuts. How do you stop the God of the Underworld without collapsing the entire universe?”
“No clue, but we’re going to do our damnedest.” Pressing another kiss to her hair, Dieter gave her hand a squeeze. “Come on, let’s go inside. It’s getting late, and we should get you to bed. You’re still healing, so you need your sleep.”
“Yes, I do, because I am about to attack the two of you in our sleep one night. If I’m not healed soon, I’m going to say to hell with it and rip off all the clothes you insist we wear.”
Wyatt stood and helped her to her feet. “On the upside, your mobility is getting better. Dieter says you’re yelling at him less during the PT sessions he’s putting you through. So that’s got to be a good sign, right?”
“For him.” She was getting better, and they all knew it. “He’s such a hard-assed task master that I swear, sometimes I think he gets off on it.” She winked at Dieter as she spoke so everyone knew she was pulling his leg. “Although I would prefer a spanking. Naked. All of us. He won’t go for it.” She pouted.
“You’re not well enough for that. Plus, could you not say it so loud? You have a rather bad-ass god who can, and will, kick our asses to hell for messing with you as a relative. I’d like to live long enough to spank your tight, lovely, rounded ass.” Dieter gave her a light smack on her bottom for emphasis.
Rach all but purred in reaction to Dieter’s playful smack. “Gracious.” She was so lost over these men. She was down the rabbit hole and never wanted to go back again. “Yeah, but he can’t really bitch at you because you both are being very good, keeping me safe and still not screwing me six ways to Sunday. He should be proud of you guys.”
“I somehow doubt we’ll be getting points for not screwing you. Yet. He knows it’s coming eventually. I think he’s waiting for the day the doctor signs off, and then we’re in for it,” he told her. “He’s a very technical guy. Detail-oriented. Highly efficient and a deadly killer. I’m really not looking forward to whatever talk he has with us.”
“I’m more worried about where that talk’s going to take place.” Wyatt pulled the door open and held it for her. “I have a feeling it’ll be somewhere extremely unpleasant.”
“He wouldn’t really hurt you, right? He knows that the two of you care for me, and he should be aware how I feel for the two of you.” She had long discussions with both Ares and Apollo and both of them knew how she felt. “If he dares to try to hurt you, I will go batshit crazy on him.”
Wyatt snickered behind her. “Oh, yeah, I’m sure he’s terrified of you, darling. But go with the batshit crazy bit if he does anything to us. I doubt he will. He’s very careful with what he does down here. It’s the part where he takes us somewhere the others can’t see us that worries me most. Besides, don’t you think that the God of War would know how to inflict harm that couldn’t be seen in any way, shape, or form?”
“Then I’ll tell him it would make me very unhappy if he were to hurt you. I think that should do it, don’t you?” she asked quietly. “Because he’s been in my life all of two weeks and he’s trying very hard to make me happy with him.” They walked as they talked. “I do like him, though, it would be sad to have to be angry with him. He’s funny when he wants to be.”
“Ares won’t hurt them, but I might if they don’t stop dissing Camilla’s third-favorite person in the universe.” Mikhail wandered out of the pantry as they passed through the kitchen. “Give it a rest, you two. Ares won’t do anything to them, Rachael. At least until this issue with Hades is put to bed once and for all. Which means you two are perfectly safe until the sixth key is found and bonded to her men. After that…” He shrugged. “I’m sure he’ll give you a head start. Seems only fair. Night, all,” he added with an evil-looking grin. He whistled “Taps” as he left the kitchen with his snacks in hand.
Rachael began to laugh. She couldn’t help it.
“Really? You’re going to laugh at us?” Wyatt demanded. Clicking his tongue, he took her arm. “We will be talking about your weird appreciation of Mikhail’s twisted sense of humor later. For now, it’s time to get you to bed.”
“I think I probably need it.” She let them both pull her close rested her cheek against Wyatt’s heart. Dieter’s heat covered her back, and she sighed. “I could become so used to this.” She whispered that confession and then nodded. “Right, bed.” But she didn’t pull away.
Wyatt had his hands on her hips while Dieter rubbed her good arm. They stayed put for a few minutes until Dieter pulled back. “Come on, sweetheart. You’re already partially asleep standing here. Up to bed for you, and into your sleepwear. When we move to the other room, you can go naked—in fact, it will be encouraged, but not tonight.”
“Good, because I hate wearing clothes to sleep in. I feel as if I’m being strangled.” Lack of sleep made her eyes gritty, and she was more than ready to get into bed with her men. “Tomorrow, we can see if I can’t get Dr. Dieter to sign off on me being with the two of you,” she teased the man at her back.
It earned her another tap on her ass that had her moaning in need. “Enough of that, missy,” Wyatt told her. “Up to bed, now. Your eyes are at half-mast. Not a good look for you with the barely contained yawns you’re attempting to stifle.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She turned from them and accepted their hands in hers as they moved up the stairs and to the bedroom she was using. Once they were finally in bed and she was nestled close to one of the men, she let out a small sigh. “This is very close to heaven.” She pressed a kiss on his bare chest and was shortly sound asleep.
****
When she dreamed, Rachael was once more pulled into Hades’ lair, and this time even with her men holding onto her, she wouldn’t be able to wake.
“Don’t worry, my dear, they can’t tell that you’re here.” Hades paced around her. He didn’t touch her; he simply walked while his hellhounds growled at her. He had learned much from his friend in a very high place, including how to keep Rachael in his realm for the entirety of her unconsciousness.
“They’ll stop you.”
“Oh, they can try, but they don’t have the one thing that I do.” Hades stood before her now, a smile on his face. He could read her mind here in the Underworld and knew she wanted to punch him, to wipe the smug smirk off his face, which only made him snicker. Humans.
“And what would that be? Halitosis?” At least the girl had a spine. Most people would cower before him, but not this one, even if there was a bead of sweat dripping down from her forehead. Her sweat smelled of fear, something that made Hades very pleased. She was bright enough to be terrified of him.
“Oh, no, darling misguided girl, they didn’t have thousands of years to prepare, and they don’t have the friends and the resources that I do. While I might be trapped here, I can still influence the world.”
He laughed again. “As long as I don’t touch you, sweet descendant of Hephaestus and Ares, I can keep you here and they can’t pull you from my realm. I can also talk to you and you won’t recall a single thing.” He clapped like a giddy schoolgirl. “How delicious is that? My friend assured me of that little loophole last week, and you and I have been meeting every night since.” He watched her eyes widen in reaction to his proclamation and he smiled that devilish smile of his.
“No, they wouldn’t leave me here to you. Dieter and Wyatt would know if I were here and they would pull me out. They would never leave me alone to be here with you for any space of time. I trust them enough to know that.”
“Oh, Rachael, it’s going to be a pleasure to see you mourning the loss of your men. Too bad that you haven’t bonded to them. You see, when you bond, a bit of the power that you all have inside of you is shared. These are things that the gods can’t tell their lackeys. Did you know that your men, all of those men, were descendants of gods as well? The male line is called the Scion line. So much distrust, so much chaos, when that secret comes out. I get to watch it from here as well.” He cackled in glee.
“I can’t wait until they kick your ass. My guys are going to seriously come and hand your ass to you, I just know it.” Rachael told Hades firmly.
He cocked his head to the side and then sighed. “Alas, our time is ending. Ta-ta, darling Rach. I look forward to touching you again soon. Very soon.” Hades sent her once more into REM sleep, the nightmare of their encounter forgotten.