Goddess of Light (Goddess Summoning #3)(92)

"I have already been richly blessed," Eddie said, taking Artemis' hand and raising it to his lips.

Chapter 30

"So, the general consensus is that the snake bit you with little to no venom," Pamela said, sitting beside him on his bed. "Congratulations. You fooled them all."

Apollo shifted his weight restlessly and rolled his right shoulder. "I thought they would never leave."

"Hey, I liked Eddie's doctor."

"Dr. Kevin Glenn was too young and too smart. He could tell I was hiding something from his prying eyes; he just couldn't tell what."

"That's because you're not quite as good an actor as your sister is an actress."

Apollo grimaced. "I didn't think she would ever leave, either."

"Artemis is just worried about you."

He sighed and tried to find a more comfortable position for his bandaged hand. "I have never liked serpents. I know Demeter would be distressed to hear it, but ever since I battled Python, I have been uneasy in their presence."

"Was Python poisonous?" Now that they were finally alone, she dug through her purse for her emergency pillbox.

"No, but he was big enough to swallow a man."

She looked up at him. "You're kidding, aren't you?"

"Not at all."

Pamela shuddered. "That's gross." She picked out two large white pills and handed them to Apollo. "Hang on."

"This will help." She crossed to the minibar and pulled out an expensive bottle of chilled Pinot Grigio - none of those cheap little airplane bottles for guests of E. D. Faust - opened it, and poured them both a glass. She waited until he'd popped the two pills in his mouth and then gave him his glass of wine.

"Perhaps you should bring over the bottle," he said after draining the glass in three swallows.

She did as he asked, refilling his glass quickly. With just her in the room, Apollo didn't feel the need to mask his struggle against pain, and every time he grimaced or rubbed his shoulder, she wanted to shriek in rage at the heavens. Again.

"He shouldn't have left you in such pain," Pamela said, unable to keep the thought to herself any longer.

Apollo took a long drink and then patted the side of the bed. "Sit here by me, and I will try to explain my father to you. Zeus is our Supreme Ruler. He is generous and compassionate, kind and protective of his children. He never aids liars or oath-breakers. His voice can be heard in the rustling of the branches on the ancient oak trees. He is majestic and good. But he is also Lord of the Sky, the Rain God and Cloud Gatherer, who wields the awful thunderbolt. He is a passionate, jealous god, and when his temper is aroused his anger is a terrible thing to behold."

"He sounds like a paradox."

"He is what all of us are, not simply one thing or another, but a mixture of many."

"That doesn't sound like a god of gods; it sounds like a man," Pamela said.

"Exactly," Apollo said. "In the Ancient World the gods did not create the universe. It was the other way about; the universe created the gods. Think of the universe - the heavens and the earth, the sun and the moon. Are they, all one thing or another? It's much like the serpent today. It aroused my anger - so much so that I killed it - but it wasn't truly evil, though its venom feels like the burning fires of your world's hell."

"So what you're saying is that Zeus isn't evil, he's just imperfect."

Apollo smiled and lifted his glass to her in answer. Pamela watched him as he drained his second glass of wine. The day had taken its toll on his temporarily mortal body. Even if he wasn't in danger of dying, the dark circles under his eyes, the pallor of his skin, and the new lines of strain on his face were disturbing.

While Eddie's doctor had been examining him, Apollo had changed into a pair of drawstring pajamas. He'd left his top unbuttoned and loose so that the medical team that had hovered at his bedside for the past several hours could keep a constant check on his vital signs. Thankfully, they had all gone and taken with them their IVs, monitors, frowns of disapproval and the distinctive hospital smell that seems to cling to scrubs. Now Apollo looked like a normal, handsome man who had just been through a very difficult and long day.

And that's all she wanted to think of him as. Sure, they could discuss gods and the ancient world, but that all felt very abstract and surreal in the reality of his warm flesh and his kind smile.

But the truth was that on Friday he would return to Olympus. The portal would close, and he would leave her life. Her heart felt suddenly very heavy in her chest.

"What is it?" Apollo asked.

Her eyes met his. He looked so tired. She couldn't add to his pain, not tonight. She made herself smile at him.

"I just realized that I haven't thanked you for saving my life."

Apollo leaned forward and brushed his fingers against the gold coin she wore around her neck.

"I am pledged to protect you. I never break an oath." His touched moved from the coin to lightly caress the side of her long, bare neck.

She shivered.

"Are you cold, sweet Pamela," he murmured.

"How could I be cold with you touching me?"

His smile was filled with sunlight. "There, you see - I am the same whether I am mortal or immortal. You still feel my heat." He leaned closer to her and captured her lips with his. When she tried to soften the kiss and resist its erotic tug, he whispered against her mouth, "Help me to forget the pain. Let me lose myself in you."