Chapter 77

77

Persephone woke, her mouth dry and heart racing. Her hand was vibrating; her phone. She answered it before she realized it was an unknown number.

“Hello?” she held her breath, hoping it was Hades.

“Persephone?”

It took her a moment to recognize her friend’s dulcet tone. “Aphrodite? Is that you?”

Aphrodite’s voice sounded strained, weak. “I’m at the hospital.”

“Oh my gods,” Persephone swung out of bed. Cerberus’s ears pricked up and he raised his head. “What happened?”

“Mars got in a fight.” Aphrodite choked out. “I thought it was all fine. At the party, everyone took those pills and then it was, I don’t know—it was just like, free love, ya know? Everyone kissing and hooking up with everybody else.”

“A group of us went back to Mars’s place and I thought it would be more of the same. Mars was fine with it at the party. I mean, we all were. But this one guy started kissing me and Mars went ballistic. He punched the guy and they got in this big fight, and a couple other guys joined in?—”

She paused and Persephone could hear her crying. “And one of them started getting rough with me, slapping and hitting me. Mars didn’t even notice, he was so busy beating the shit out of that other guy.”

“Aphrodite, you’re going to be ok,” Persephone said, her heart breaking as she went to her closet to find shoes. “Tell me what hospital; I’m coming.” Cradling the phone between shoulder and ear, she stuffed her bandaged feet into her sneakers.

“I don’t want you to see me like this.” Aphrodite’s whisper was broken.

“Aphrodite, please. Let me come be with you.” Persephone was already grabbing a large purse and shoving some essentials into it.

Aphrodite told her the name of the hospital. “Don’t tell anyone yet, please.”

“I won’t.”

A Shade sat in a chair by the door, not Fats or anyone else she knew. His head snapped up as Persephone came rushing out of her bedroom, her designer bag over her shoulder, heading to the kitchen to put out food and water for Cerberus.

“Good boy,” she told the dog before racing to the door.

The Shade stood, his jaw set as if ready to stop her from leaving. She’d learned her lesson, though. She wasn’t going anywhere without protection.

“I need to get to Main Hospital, right away,” she said, and he blinked. Grabbing a jacket from the coat closet, she started out the door. “Come on.”

A hand caught her arm before she was half gone. She looked back to see the Shade frowning at her. “Charon said you need to stay here.”

“It’s an emergency,” she told him and watched orders war on his face.

“I drive,” he said finally and she nodded.

Her phone rang again when they were almost at the hospital. This time a blocked number. Hades, or Charon, calling to scold her. In the second of hesitation, a car darted out suddenly and Persephone slid forward in her seat. The Shade cursed, reaching over to keep her still.

“Buckle up,” he ordered.

Persephone clicked her seatbelt on, one hand on the dashboard. She silenced her phone with a swipe. As soon as they pulled into the emergency room parking lot a couple minutes later, she opened the door. “I’ll be right inside, you can find me in there.”

She ran for the building. The Shade wouldn’t be far behind and Persephone couldn’t stop replaying in her head how Aphrodite, strong, fearless Aphrodite, had sounded near broken on the phone earlier. Persephone had to see her. Now.

“She’s in room 210,” a nurse told Persephone. “We’re not supposed to let people back here, but she asked for you specifically. You’re her sister, right?”

“Right,” Persephone lied straight-faced. “Her sister.”

When the woman looked at her skeptically, Persephone straightened her shoulders and glared. “We have different fathers.”

The nurse nodded and Persephone hurried down the hall to Aphrodite’s room. She tried to brace herself mentally for what she might be walking into. What had happened to the man who hit Aphrodite? Who’d gotten her to the hospital? And what the hell was wrong with her supposed boyfriend that he would let a thing like that happen in front of him and not stop it?

The lights were out in the hospital room, but Persephone could still see the bruises blooming on her friend’s face, looking dark and angry.

Aphrodite’s lower lip trembled as Persephone approached. “Hey,” Persephone said gently.

“It was my idea to move the party back to Mars’s house. This is all my fault. I ruined everything.”

“Shhh,” Persephone shook her head. “No, honey, it’s not your fault. You have to know it wasn’t your fault.”

Tears rolled down Aphrodite’s face; Persephone held out a tissue. Aphrodite took it and mopped at her injured skin, wincing.

“It doesn’t look that bad,” Persephone said, studying the black half circle over the orbital bone.

Aphrodite laughed half-heartedly. “Thank you. You’re a bad liar.” She sniffed. “The doctors want to keep me overnight, to make sure I don’t have a head injury.”

“From the blow?”

“The guy also pushed me down. I hit my head. I don’t know, I came to and was seeing stars.”

“I’m so sorry, Aphrodite. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“I have to tell someone or else I’ll go crazy, but I don’t want everyone to know.” Aphrodite leaned back into the pillow, turning her head to hide the marred side of her face. Against the white pillow, her profile was perfection.

“After the party we went to his place… We were all having fun, drinking. Mars drank a lot. A few guys took some more of those pills we’d all had at the party. It seemed natural when our friend Nathan started kissing me. Like earlier. But Mars got pissed and started hitting Nathan. And one of Nathan’s friends decided it was my fault.” She shrugged, winced at the movement.

“And he just hit you?”

“I may have screamed that him and all his friends had tiny, limp little dicks. Then he just came at me.”

“Mars didn’t stop him?”

Aphrodite’s eyes went distant. “I don’t even think he could see me. He was consumed in this rage. There was no getting through to him. I thought he was going to kill the other guy he was busy pounding on. Someone called the cops. They showed up and pulled him off Nathan. It was only then he saw me and tried to get to me.”

Aphrodite slumped into the pillows. “It took two officers to drag him away, he was fighting so hard to get to me. But I was glad they were taking him away. I hate violence. I could never be with someone like that. It’s over between us.”

Persephone bit her lip. Hades was violent. She’d witnessed him beating someone to death and there hadn’t been any cops to pull him off Ajax at the last minute.

“I’m so sorry,” Persephone whispered, almost too low for her friend to hear. Pulling up a chair, she smiled at Aphrodite until Aphrodite finally reciprocated with a wan smile of her own.

“Thanks for coming. I feel better already. The doctors are going to do a CAT scan and keep me for the night.”

“That sounds really serious, Aphrodite.”

“Oh, it’s just my doctor being fussy.” Aphrodite raised her head a little and confided, “He’s a former client.”

“Ah. So you’re in good hands.” Persephone smiled and pulled her purse into her lap. “In that case, it’s good I brought you something to feel more normal.”

She pulled out a small camisole and pajama shorts, a toothbrush still in its case, and a book. “And I barely use this makeup.” Persephone waved a small case of eyeshadow and lip gloss.

When she looked up Aphrodite’s eyes were shimmering with unshed tears. “Thank you. For everything. It’s nice to have someone who cares.”

“A lot of people care about you, Aphrodite. Athena, Hermes, pretty much everyone who meets you loves you.”

“Not Mars.” Her voice wavered. “He never said he loved me.”

“Mars is a twisted, fucked up asshole.” Persephone surprised herself with her own vehemence.

“Wow. I’ve never heard you use curse words. I didn’t realize you knew any.”

“Come on, I lived with Athena for a month and a half.” Persephone grinned. “I’m a quick study. And seriously, Max Mars isn’t worthy of you. If there was any justice, someone would kick his ass and teach him how to treat a lady.”

Aphrodite nodded and sighed.

“Or tie him up and make him watch his own movies over and over,” Persephone said with a wicked smile.

Aphrodite laughed, and this time, it sounded hearty. “Now that would be truly cruel.”