Goddess of Love (Goddess Summoning #5)(88)

With a mighty will, Griffin forced words through his damaged body. "Does Venus know?"

Hera shook her head. "No."

"If I say no, I die?" he rasped.

"You will surely die, but you should know you have nothing to fear from death. You have been a good man. I can assure you a warrior's afterlife in the Elysian Fields."

Griffin's fading eyes turned to the god called Vulcan. "My sisters..." He gasped. Vulcan dropped to his knees beside Griffin. "I know of your sisters. I would cherish and protect them as if they belonged to me. They will never know that I am not their beloved brother."

"Your oath on that," Griffin said.

"You have my oath."

Griffin closed his eyes and whispered, "Then I agree. I will exchange souls with you."

Griffin heard Hera begin a chant, the words to which he couldn't understand, but the power of them pushed against his skin with more insistence than the flames that threatened them. And then he felt an enormous tugging, as if he had been caught in a terrible tornado. He opened his mouth to scream and scream and scream...and then he knew only the utter blackness of a night more complete than any he could have imagined as nothingness engulfed him. CHAPTER THIRTY

The ringing phone woke Pea. Groggily, she muttered, "Vulcan, hand me that, would you?" Then she remembered he was an ancient god and he probably didn't know anything about a ringing phone. She opened her eyes, expecting him to be smiling at her, perhaps a little confused, but sexy and rumpled and warm beside her.

He wasn't there. Except for Chloe, who was blinking sleepily at her from the end of the bed, she was alone in the room. Frowning, Pea reached for the phone.

"Hello?"

"Is this Dorreth Pea Chamberlain?" a tense male voice asked.

"Yes."

"Miss Chamberlain, this is Robert Thomas from the Midtown Fire Station."

"What time is it?" Pea asked the question without thinking.

"Five a.m., ma'am. Uh, I'm calling on behalf of Griffin DeAngelo."

"Griffin!" A horrible sense of foreboding flushed her body. "Has something happened to Griffin?"

"Yes ma'am, I'm afraid so. The captain has been injured on the job. He's at Saint John's, getting ready to go into surgery. His one request was that we call you and have you come directly to the hospital."

"I'll be right there."

She hung up and grabbed the jeans and discarded sweater that were lying over her vanity chair.

"Vulcan?" she called. No answer. "Vulcan!" This time she yelled his name. Pea hurried through the house. Had he gone back to Olympus? Why hadn't he woken her first? And why had he left in the middle of the night?

She threw the T-Bird into gear and gunned it out of her driveway. Griffin was hurt. Of course he'd had her called. Clearly he understood she was his link to Venus. So she needed Vulcan to get word to Olympus that Venus was needed back here ASAP. But where was Vulcan?

Pea's stomach felt sick. Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. She rushed through the emergency entrance of Saint John's Medical Center and almost ran straight into a soot-covered fireman.

"I'm Pea Chamberlain. They called me for Griffin DeAngelo."

"Right this way, ma'am."

Pea followed the somber young fireman into the bowels of the ER. A nurse stopped them.

"This is the woman the captain's been asking for," the fireman explained.

"Then come with me, miss. You must hurry. They're taking him to surgery. You'll only have a moment with him."

"How is he?" Pea asked, as she hurried to keep up with the nurse.

"It's not good," the nurse said, without looking at her.

She led her to a glass room that was alive with people. Pea was glad everything was happening so fast. If she'd had time to think she might have gotten sick or, worse, fainted. She would have never recognized Griffin. His face was black and bloody. His lips were cracked and swollen. The left side of his body from his waist down was tented, and she thought he had tubes and wires coming out of every unburned surface on his body.

"Two minutes, miss," the nurse said.

Pea made herself approach the head of the small ER bed. "Griffin? It's me. Pea."

His eyes fluttered twice and then opened. His blue eyes met hers and she felt a shiver of something...something she couldn't quite identify. She moved closer to him. His swollen lips began to move. Pea leaned forward.

"...love you, little one..."

She gasped as the truth slammed through her. "Vulcan!" She gasped. Relief relaxed his face. He smiled and closed his eyes with a contented sigh.

"I must ask you to leave, ma'am. We're taking him to surgery."

Numbly Pea let them show her to the surgical waiting room. She sat on an overstuffed chair and nodded automatically when a fireman asked if she wanted coffee. Griffin wasn't Griffin. He was Vulcan. Of that she had absolutely no doubt. But how had it happened? Suddenly she felt claustrophobic.

"I - I have to get some air." She ignored the concerned looks of the fireman as she ran from the room, down the hall and rushed out the automatic doors, where she leaned against the side of the hospital, drawing in deep breaths and trying not to throw up.

"You love him very much, don't you?"