I was lost in my memories; the last thing I could call my own but didn't want to have. My mind played the scene over and over. The fight with Mother, getting drunk, and the car crash. All of it were the last hours of my big sister's life. The first and last fight my family had. All over a boy. I remembered the Crystal I knew. The one who played dress-up, whirled me off of the ground, who sang with me, taught me to swear over others heads, and taught me how to cross-stitch.
I cried. The first time I had since the funeral two years ago. I cried and cried, too tired to know that I was being rocked and reassured in the arms of the man who had kidnapped me. But finally, my conscious self came back and balked at being in the arms of someone who I knew nothing about. I didn't even know his name.
" It's Christopher. And we are meant to be together. You are my beloved and I will always love you." I looked up at the noise and was startled by the intensity of this man's gaze. It felt like he was staring at my soul, like he knew everything about me and still cared for me. No one had ever felt that way about me. This scene triggered the memory of my mother.
I was standing in the hallway outside Crystal's room. Mother had kept it exactly like it was. She never came in here, no one did except me. I kept it dust free and put away everything the cats knocked over. It was routine by now, nearly three months since Crystal's death. I heard footsteps and saw my mother in front of me looking at me like I was a kind of disease. She shook her head like she was clearing it of an unpleasant image. When she looked back up her eyes were cold and unresponsive. "It should have been you."
The hands around me shook me until my teeth chattered. My whole head was about to explode. " Now you listen to me. Don't you ever think that about me. I love you more than anyone. I will love you always." I cried again as I looked into those beautiful green eyes that were hard and furious at my mother for even thinking such a thing. The eyes said they loved me for me and not for the image I put out to dissuade people. Loved me for the person I was even all the unpleasant bits.
I stared at my face in the mirror of the bathroom. The face was haggard and weary of life. All the emotions were played into wrinkles and circles. The face hadn't slept or eaten in days and didn't care. All it cared about was gone. I turned my head to my father's razor on the sink edge. The face's ideas and mine were in perfect synchronization. I picked up the object as I had so many times before, but with a different goal in my mind than just moving it somewhere else. I had seen enough movies to know what to do. I slid the razor over against the inside of my wrists. With tears streaming down my eyes I put pressure on the blade and the sharp pain that greeted me was surprising but I didn't falter in doing the same thing to the opposite wrist. I sank into the tub that I had already filled with water and my blood and tears made the water turn red. My world had become pain filled and I welcomed the darkness I thought would break my misery. I became peaceful for the first time as I sank into an abyss.
I stared at the scars that still graced my wrists. Tears came to my eyes again as I thought of the reasons that I had tried to kill myself so long ago. The loneliness and the remarks from my mother, the guilt of having it be her to be the one killed, and most of all the pain of her being out of my life when Crystal was my life for so long.
I leaned into the hand that caressed my face. The hand was soft and strong. These hands would protect me and never go away. I closed my eyes as the memory came.
My mother stood above me with Crystal's flowers in her hand. She slapped me across the cheek with the flowers providing an extra sting. Father just stood there beside her and never lifted his big, strong hands to save me from the hits that came from the flowers. After about five minutes Father left the room.
My clothes had hidden the scratches I had gotten from that day. I still was beaten, always with Crystal's flowers in one hand and a switch in the other. Father never came back.
" I will never leave you my darling, never." I looked up into that adoring face. I didn't know this man. Had never seen him before in my life and I was betting the same went for him, yet he said he loved me and would never leave me. Why? And how was it that when I asked a question in my head that he answered like he could hear me?
" Well, to the first question the answer is that when we bonded in the hallway I saw you and not that person you had put out. I loved you then, I just didn't know it was you until I saw you. To the second question is that since we are bonded we can communicate mind to mind, telepathically. Now, any other questions that I can dispense with before we get down to business?" his voice wrapped me in warmth and swept away my fears.
" I have several questions. One, what are you? Two, what do you want with me? Three, who are you?" I had finally found my voice, but I might have well kept my mouth shut for the croak that came out. He seemed to understand though.
" I have several answers. One, I am a vampire. Two, I want to make you like me and for you to live and love me forever. Three, I am a stubborn, four thousand two hundred and fifty-seven year old, bookworm, lover, fighter, great cook, and I love you. Is that better? And don't worry about your voice, you have been out for a while so it will take a while to get it working properly." My brain had trouble processing all this information in such a short time. When I understood it I didn't know what to react to first. That he thought he was a vampire or that he wanted to keep me with him forever.
" Why do you think you are a vampire?" the question had popped out of my mouth before I could do a thing about it. But it didn't seem to faze him. He even made the answer a game showing off and the tone of voice he used was playful. His face was serious.
" Well, let's see…I have pointed teeth (big grin) that I use to get blood which I need to survive, the sun will kill me, and I have lived beyond many normal human life spans."
I wondered if he had other powers, I knew he could read my mind. He had already proved that. I looked at this man who I had just met and did not think that I knew him but deep down I knew that I trusted him. Even if it meant my life.
" I was wondering though, what is behind that door?" His face was still serious as he asked this strange question. I looked around trying to locate the door and stared in shock at the style of decorating. The room was a soft gray with speckles of white and light blue. All of it matched. The drapes and the carpet. Even the bedspread I was laying on. The light above our heads was covered with a light blue cloth that cast a strange blue tinge to the room below. Christopher's voice brought me back to his face. " I meant the one in your head. I couldn't get past it when we melded. Which is why I don't have quite as much control over you. You didn't give yourself up to me completely."
I felt my face harden as the reasons of the door came to me. I would never tell. Never. If I did no one would ever love me again, or care if I lived or died. Just like before. I didn't want it to happen again.
The memories wanted to get out, but I wouldn't let them. If they got out bad things would happen. I couldn't remember at the time what would happen, but knew it would be bad. Really bad. Never let the memories out. It was a rule that never could be broken.
" What is behind the door, Alexandra?" the tone said that I must answer and truthfully or risk his anger. I was starting to get scared. I hated people getting mad at me. That was why I never stood out (or tried to) among people, because they would get mad. "I am not mad dear, but it is important that I know. It is a matter of life or death."
I shook my head, I couldn't tell him. If I did something bad would happen. I couldn't. "Something bad will happen if you don't tell me. Sweetie, I am thinking of you. If I change you and you aren't perfectly melded to me, then you will die. Please, I don't want to force you to remember, but if you don't show me I will have to. I love you but I will not risk your life for a memory."
I started to shake with the effort of resisting him. His mind was pressing against the door to open it. I had to lock the door. I had never needed to before. Somehow I had to get around him to lock it. Thinking quickly I punched him in the gut and dodged his grasping fingers to grab the brass key and turn it in the lock. As soon as I pulled out the key the door vanished. No smoke, no flash, it just disappeared. I stared at the place it used to be then the pressure lifted from my head and I looked up to see that I was in the bedroom again. My hand was cold. I looked at the offending appendage and in my palm sat the brass key, rusted with age.
Chapter 3I stared openly at the object in my hand that quickly warmed in my sweating palm. It wasn't really pretty but it had a kind of attraction to it that was hard to ignore. It probably weighed about a pound, though it looked as if it should be much more than that. The wonders of the place came to me then as I looked up into an empty bedroom. Setting the key on the blue and gray bed, I got up and walked to the door to have a look around the house (if it was a house).
The place was a building that looked vaguely like a house but on a whole would probably be categorized as being a "mansion". And it was. It was huge. I walked out of the bedroom and into a hallway that you could drive a car through. The atrium wasn't any less as big. Nor was the sitting room, bathroom, kitchen, living room (with a wide screen plasma television screen), or any of the other rooms. After the eighth of truly huge rooms, I went back to the blue and gray bedroom and waited for Christopher to return from wherever he was.
I was drifting through was seemed like millions of years as I watched the first animals crawl from the water and walk. I waited while man learned how to use tools. I loved when man invented microwave ovens. But for all that time I had done nothing but watch and wait. Now was the time to act. I slowed down time and put on a different face, gathering myself together with the mere thought of "Come." I looked into the world I had helped to create and nourish and saw without a doubt that the family I would stay with would be...
I awoke with a start. I couldn't remember what had awoken me, but it seemed important. In trying to remember the strange thing that had awoken me from the all to familiar dream of me being "Goddess", I sat up to get my bearings on the world. Sitting up did not help for in my room was a man.
The man was not Christopher for I remembered him, yet he was familiar. He was pale with a square jaw and a sloping nose but the most prominent feature of his face was the mouth. It was in a hard line. So thin that a sharp pencil would be shamed. He was dressed in a fourteenth century dark purple outfit that was amazingly cute on his body. He had muscles galore. On someone else, they might have stood out, but it made him look just right. His eyes were a dark green so much that it seemed to me that a person could drown in them merely by staring too much.
Catching me staring, his expression softened and he looked down at me for he was a good seven inches taller. "I thought you would pick something different this time but you are still so predictable, my wife. " Predictable? Me? I thought with disgust. " No matter, let us go my dear so that the owner of this fine establishment will not notice that his mortal has gone."
I stared openly now. This man was crazy! He expected me to come with him at a moment's notice without a word to whom I care for and love (my mind refused to say who I loved) and never see them again? Yep, he was nuts. Wait… how had I known that he wanted me to do that? Give everything up is fine. But never coming back? A voice in my head decided then to speak up.
" Well, if you would open that stupid door you just handily installed you would know, but I will have to tell you. He is Hades, your husband. Actually, he is Persephone's husband but since she inhabits you, he is yours until she gives you up. She is the one who dreams the time-dreams and knows vampires and gods. That is why you were not afraid of Christopher when it was normal for a human mortal to do just that. All the things that are crazy in your life are probably caused by Persephone. Not all, but most. Oh, by the way…I am Hermes. My job to remind you of everything and all, but since you took that key out and locked the door no telling when Persephone is going to come out. Nevertheless, you might be able to talk to her in your dreams. Never know, but worth a shot. I got to go… Zeus wants me. Talk to you later!"
My mind whirled with the thought of a goddess inside of me. Then my logical side kicked in. No way do gods live or even exist! Not possible. Nope. So, why is a strange man standing in my bedroom? Uh…in Christopher's bedroom. At that moment, my mind just stopped processing anything, for in my listening to "Hermes", the man in the room had walked toward me and I caught a whiff of him. It was brief but man! What felt like a kitty cat woke up in my lower abdomen. It started purring.
"What is you name?" my voice was breathy, like I had just run three miles.
The man showed surprise for a second then his face softened, at the sound of my voice I think. He answered in what came close to a purr itself," My dear, my name is so old that it has been changed many times, but my name in the beginning was Ha'dez. My past is insignificant though. You are my wife and you will come with me." As he said this incredibly long speech, he walked toward me until I had no choice but to back up and spill onto the bed. He grinned at my movement. Just his face lighting up made the cat in my stomach purr all the louder. For a second I thought he heard it for the purely male look in his eyes. "If you had wanted to use the bed, why didn't you say so?"
The man came up to me with a feral look in his eyes. That look I had seen so many times before in the eyes of my algebra teacher. That look I was afraid of. " Now don't do anything stupid girl, like struggle? I am much stronger than you anyway. But it is easier on you if you don't. Eh?" His voce was like a growl of a purely predatory-raven wolf.
I didn't move, couldn't really. I was handcuffed to a bed. The handcuffs were lined with fur, I supposed they were made especially for this purpose. My legs were at the moment tied with rope to the end-posts of the bed. I was scared. Tears were streaming down my eyes. I didn't know what to think. My body was shaking from terror and exertion of trying to run away from this man above me.
The man pulled out a knife and started sawing at my tie-died shirt. The red, purple, green, and blue material spilled onto the bed when the last strand broke. He then slid the cool metal under the connecting fabric of my bra to free my breasts. With a flick of his wrist, the cotton broke and immediately he was upon me with fervor, palming my breasts and licking my nipples.
There was a loud crash as Christopher broke down the door to the room. Ha'dez simply looked at him with contempt. Christopher looked Ha'dez up and down then slid his gaze to me. " Are you alright?" his sweet voice sounded in my head like a shout. I winced. " Sorry. I am angry. Are you alright?" this time the voice in my mind was much softer and quieter. The cat I had almost forgot about started purring again. I blushed.
" I am fine, Christopher. But this guy says I am his wife and that his name is Ha'dez. Hermes said he was Hades but I am still in conflict that someone was speaking in my head that isn't you. Who is this guy? Am I crazy? What is going on? Are you okay? Where have you been? What is going on?" My voice at first was calm but as I started to talk more my voice became frantic and terrified. Yep, I was definitely scared.
" You seem to be making my beloved scared. Do I need to come over there and throw you out? Or do we need to leave? Well sweetie, it is your choice." Christopher's voice comforted me but Ha'dez continued to look at Christopher with disdain and somehow I knew that Ha'dez was just concerned about me. He was not afraid of Christopher at all. I wondered why.
" I am not going anywhere until someone tells me what on Olympus is going on?" as soon as the phrase was past my lips, I clapped my hands over my mouth in attempt to catch the familiar saying back into my lungs and keep it there.
Ha'dez's face softened, but Christopher's looked confused then alarmed. As understanding took hold he quietly asked a question. Though the volume was quiet, the tone was hurt and a little frigid while it waited for a reply. "Who are you, Alexandra?"
I hung my head in shame, for in the instant that I had said the phrase, memories had arose inside my mind of times in Olympus and with Ha'dez, with my mother Demeter. My heart was torn between two men who both loved two different sides of me. I decided that I couldn't stand it anymore. The stress of keeping so many things secret and never seeing my mother or any of my children, or my husband again. That was not acceeptable. " My name is Persephone. I am a Greek goddess, my mother is Demeter and my husband is Hades or Ha'dez depending on his mood. The information behind the door was of my identity. I was hiding from my family. I had to go away and collect my wits for a while before I could come back and be the Maiden of Spring again. I am so sorry.
Alexandra does exist, and she loves you with all her heart, but I don't know how to get out of this body until she dies. I am so sorry, for both of you." Tears were streaming down my cheeks and settling on my shirt. The next instant there was only air where I had lain on the bed.
Chapter 4I sat on the edge of a bridge, from Alexandra's memories I knew the name was Brooklyn Bridge. Strange name, but at that moment I didn't care about that. I was so focused on my emotions that I didn't feel the humans sneak up on me until I was already gagged, and tied up. My first reaction was to call for help, but after I thought about it, I didn't want help. I wanted to be left alone. I wanted peace from emotions and headaches. I wanted freedom.
Since I wasn't blindfolded, I could see the color of the guy's van and the make, model, and license plate number. I memorized all this without thinking about it. Memorizing was one of Alexandra's gifts. She had a photographic memory. Though it hadn't helped while she was growing up. She had suffered much because of me.
With that thought I started to cry. One of those cries where you not only couldn't stop but didn't really want to. I cried for every single thing that I had done wrong these past decades. My tears kept coming, never even seeming to stop. I didn't know what to do. The only thing going through my head, over and over again it repeated the same thing. " It is your fault and you know it. Everything you do is wrong. Everything you touch is dirtied by your filth."
The van stopped and the two men dragged me out by my feet and into a white house on the corner of a street. Nothing special about the house but I didn't memorize anything, I was caught up in grief and regret.
I was put into a straight-backed wooden chair. I looked around but could barely see anything through my tears. A cloth dabbed at my eyes and cleared them. The hand that held the cloth was male. Tan, but still had freckles. My eyes traveled up the hand, to a forearm, to a blue shirt, to a face. I didn't know the face, but Alexandra did. It was her father.
Chapter 5Christopher stared at the man occupying his bedroom. The man that his beloved had insisted was her husband. His mind was going in circles. Even though he was a vampire of many years he still couldn't understand that the one woman on Earth that he loved, the one woman who could save his soul was a goddess. One that was already married. He loved Alexandra. He loved every single thing she did. Down to the way she slid her hair over her ear. He loved her.
" We are in a pickle."
" Are we? I had not noticed." Ha'dez's response was unnerving. It never occurred to Christopher that he would disagree. " Oh, I don't disagree. I just didn't know which pickle you were refering to. Dill or sweet? The fact that we love different women trapped in the same body or the fact that…Persephone was just captured. By her father? Why would Zeus kidnap her?" Ha'dez was confused and it showed.
" She called to you for help?" Christopher was upset that she hadn't called him for help and it showed.
" No, she and I have a special bond. It takes extreme concentration for us not to know what is happening to the other, and Persephone is not in the mood for concentration." Ha'dez was frowning when he said that. He was obviously not paying attention to Christopher. Instead, he was concentrating inside, he was looking for Persephone's location. He shook his head as he spoke. " She didn't pay attention. I know the look of the house, but I don't know anything else. She was so hooked up in crying that she didn't concentrate on what was around her. Damn it to Olympus! I don't know how to save her."
He looked up at Christopher with tears in his eyes. It was obvious that he loved his wife deeply and with all his heart. He hated not knowing how to help and be the shining knight in armor.
Fortuantly, Alexandra was not crying. She was consoling. Persephone was a wreak. But she did have a photographic memory and she happily gave Christopher access to it when he came knocking at her mind.
" Took you long enough to get here." Christopher smiled at the voice of his beloved. His one and only.
" Coming as swiftly as I can sweet. Are you alright for the moment?"
" I am fine for the moment, Persephone is taking the pain and damage, but she was already weak. Now this. It isn't helping. What he is doing to her is terrible. I can't describe it. I can just hear her cries. She blocked out my sight. I can't see through her anymore. I need you NOW!"
" Alright Hades, or Ha'dez, I know where she is. We need to go now. They are hurting her and it won't be long until they break her. We need to work out a plan for when we get there. The last Alexandra saw, there were ten men who were guarding, all with machine guns. Plus another ten, for torture, and then another five women standing around. I don't know what they are there for, but we need to work together and hurry." While he was saying this Christopher had grabbed Ha'dez and was pulling him to the garage under the house. He needed firepower and a large engine.
Christopher hit the lights and the huge car garage lit up. At least twelve cars were there, all expensive and all had huge engines for racing. One whole wall was covered, from floor to ceiling with weapons. From hand guns to bazookas to grenades to smoke bombs. Everything that Christopher could think of to guard his house if the need ever arose. Every house he had had the same wall, all with the same kind of things on it. This was not the reason he got the weapons, but it would do. It had to do.
" Christopher! Persephone can't take much more. I am going to take over. I think that she might break and that would NOT be good. The pain will be terrible, fair warning."
Alexandra's cry had been to help him. Warning for what she was going to do. Not for him to talk her out of it, and Christopher knew it.
Christopher collapsed with the tremendous force of the pain that drowned his senses. It was ten times what he thought it was. But even though it hurt like hell and more, he knew that she could handle it. At least until he got there. She had had worse before.
Ha'dez helped Christopher to his feet. "She took over. I will do my best to make sure you have your wife." Then he took the keys to the only car fast enough for both of them.
Christopher had built her himself. It had 900 horsepower and handled fabulously. Though it had taken ten years to build, Christopher was not sorry he had built Star. He would never do it again, way to much work. He had also made a fortune selling the blueprints. The blueprints built a car with only 650 horsepower; he didn't want anything that could outrun him. Just in case.
Christopher hit the garage opener and they took off down the road. Ha'dez drove while Christopher gave directions through clenched teeth. Along the way they saw what looked like winter. " What is going on? It is April. Winter should be over."
"Persephone is the Maiden of Spring. You hurt her, spring ends. Demeter feels her pain and is grieving. She is the goddess of harvest. No harvest and winter is what is left." Ha'dez's voice was lifeless. He was concentrating on the road, and finding his love.
Within five minutes they were there. To Christopher it felt like five hours.
" I will take care of the guards and the women. You get our wives." Ha'dez slid out of the driver's seat with that announcement and got the weapons. He handed Christopher a smoke bomb and a .45 caliber handgun. He loaded himself down with a machine gun that was custom built to hold .357 bullets. " No mercy."
Christopher nodded and slowly snuck up on the plain white house on the corner of Forrest and First. Motioning to Ha'dez, he held up three fingers.
Three.
Two.
One.
Ha'dez slammed open the door and started firing. Didn't care what he hit. They knew where their wives were. Anything between them and her was dead. Didn't matter what species or what sex.
They killed everything in their way. As they neared the room where the girls were, they slowed and knocked down the door.
The first thing they saw was Alexandra against the far wall across from the doorway. She was naked except for a necklace. The necklace was a piece of amber. It was on a gold chain that hung to her navel. It was plain but it seemed to stand out against her pale skin. As she looked up at them, both drew in their breath simultaneously. Her eyes were not the color either was used to.
Ha'dez was used to seeing green eyes with streaks of yellow. Christopher was used to gray. At that moment, Alexandra/Persephone's eyes were a pure gold. She didn't even have a pupil. The gold color took over her entire eye.
" It is impressive isn't it? I thought I would die for a second when her eyes turned like that." The man who spoke was sitting in a La-Z-Boy chair with a gun pointed at both of them. He was dressed in a normal street outfit: black t-shirt and black jeans. But something about him made Christopher look closer. It was the man in Alexandra's memories. Her father.
" You are Alexandra's father? Why are you doing this to your daughter?" Christopher's reply surprised Ha'dez. He hadn't expected a human.
Most humans wouldn't go to the trouble of trying to seduce a god/dess. It takes one or more magic items against the powers of the god/dess for them to be able to keep them in one place without hurting the god/dess. It was rumored that it hurt tremendously to be cut off from your magic. From Persephone's face, Ha'dez was pretty certain that the rumor was correct.
" Well, considering that I am neither puts both questions out of office don't they? I am Alexandra's father's twin brother. He came to me a year and a half-ago and told me what your daughter did. I hate to see my brother hurting, so I planned to get even with 'Alexandra'. Imagine my surprise when I find that she is already kidnapped and the Maiden of Spring?" he said all this matter-of-factly. His expression never changed and the gun never wavered.
Chapter 6I hung there. Nothing else to do that was worth noticing. My whole body hurt. Hurt is a mild term, though. Fire. My whole body felt as if it were on fire. Burning my flesh off in stages and nothing that I did did any good.
I could see the three men's mouths moving, but I couldn't hear anything. I was terrified. So was Persephone, she was hiding in my head. I took over about half-way through the torture session. I started to laugh. I get that way when I am terrified and something not even funny comes across my path.
I remembered kids at school saying that classrooms were a torture session. Compared to this, class would have been heaven. They didn't know what could happen in the real world and they didn't want to know.