I Love Luci

Chapter 13: Reclamation and Loss

I had been sure the shaking of the walls in Hades was surely Lucifer coming to rescue me. Even as Hermes, Eros and I scrambled into clothing once more, I could hear the sounds of shouting and battle. I don't know how I knew what the latter sounded like as I had never so much as been in a bar brawl, but it was unmistakable.

"Where is my Priestess?" The voice echoed all around and I felt as if some invisible rope was dragging me forward towards the terrible sound.

"Gwen?" Eros placed a hand on my arm and I raised my eyes to him.

"It's me," I assured him. "I think Ev felt like she could rest a bit with me in charge."

"I didn't think she would trust us so," Eros said seriously. "With you, I mean."

I raised a hand and gently cupped his face and smiled, showing him the depth of feeling I knew Ev and I both had for him. "I trust you. She does too." I looked at Hermes who was silently sitting on the bed, now fully clothed. "Both of you."

Hermes looked shocked. "But... I stole you from Lucifer."

"And you have fought to keep me safe in an impossible circumstance. You feel regret for your actions, and I do not think that is feigned. I forgive you the rest."

"But Herne may not," Eros said, his ear shamelessly placed to a small aperture in the door. He met my eyes. Eros and Herne had an unusual truce where I was concerned; I think they both feared losing me to the other. But Herne was the God I gave my vows of worship to; despite that Eros was an important God whom I adored working with, he did not have my fealty. Everyone was, in essence, borrowing my time and worship from Herne, with his blessing. Should he revoke that, I would have no choice but to comply or chance breaking my oath.

I had no idea what he would do to Hermes if he found the Messenger of the Gods to be ultimately at fault for my abduction.

"...we are losing the war—"

"This is an insult and an outrage, Hades. It will not stand!" Herne's voice was getting closer and I slipped back into my ballet flats, and double checked my dress was back in place as I faced the door and saw Herne duck and turn slightly to enter the room. It dawned on me I had never seen him indoors anywhere before. The additional height of his antlers made the room feel small and claustrophobic from the moment he entered, as if no walls were ever meant to contain him. His bow was across his body and he held an unsheathed blade covered in something between blood and oil in color and consistency. He paused and wiped it on a nearby tablecloth atop the side table, careless of the mess and sheathed the blade at his belt.

"Herne!" I rushed into his arms as I had into Eros's and closed my eyes for a moment as he held me to his chest.

"I felt you nearly slip into my domain, little one," he said softly to me, tilting my face up with his finger lightly upon my chin and searched my eyes. I could feel his familiar healing touch surround and enfold me the way no other being ever could. He felt like home, warmth, safety and protection. I wanted to just be absorbed into the safety of his energy and never leave. His energy, that felt so peaceful and calm... cool, like live grass on your feet, welcoming like an open grave...

"Not yet, my priestess," Herne murmured into my ear as he hefted me into his arms, cradled against his warm, strong chest. I could hear his heart, deep and steady, like the hoof beats of a stag across an open meadow. He smelled of green things and life, yet I could also smell the metal of hot blood and hear the whispers of the dead that followed ever in his wake, waiting to be called by him to Hunt once more.

"I am not relinquishing the girl," Hades growled from behind Herne as he followed in his wake, still clad in his chic black three piece suit, though looking a little worse for wear. "And psychopomp of not," he added coldly. "You have no authority here, Herne."

"You would willingly endanger the High Priestess of a fellow Death god just to spite a pantheon she has little to no contact with? Be reasonable." Herne said over my head. I should have been insulted to sit there and let two men talk about me like I was an errant child or some negotiable commodity, but in truth, it had little to do with the expected gender roles and more to do with the fact, to them I was less than a child. They saw in the span of millennia while I was a brief spark in their existence... a pet, at best. I stayed quiet. If Hades really wanted to hurt me, he could have obliterated me on the spot. He had not, which meant he saw my value. For now.

"May I make a suggestion?" It was Hermes who spoke and the room fell to silence as everyone looked at him, surprised. He stood up from trying his shoe, and the little stitched wings appeared to flutter in the dim light from the fireplace, and regarded them all, his face open and friendly as if two superpowers were not about to throw down ten feet from him. "Put the girl in a neutral, *safe* location where she won't expire while you haggle over who she belongs to."

"I trust you to take her anywhere about as much as I trust Hades to keep her alive," Herne said coldly. Hermes didn't seem to notice the frigid tone.

"I understand," he replied calmly, with a nod. "May I suggest a pantheon she isn't beholden for?"

"Why can't I just go home?" I asked quietly. "My family—"

"Will be taken care of," Herne said quietly. "I won't let your life suffer for this, even if Hades would have."

"You think too small," Hades said with exasperation. "It is about more than Lucifer. I don't give a damn what he does in his Hell. So long as it is in HIS HELL. But every time he sweeps off with this chit-"

"Ex-CUSE you," the words were out of my mouth before they checked with my brain.

"Ev." Herne leveled a look at me that said very clearly "let me handle this" and I felt Evangeline's presence slide back into the shadows of my mind as I regained control and nodded that I understood.

"And she is your bargaining chip with which you hold ransom over his very heart," Eros said, his tone disgusted. "You endanger not just a mortal woman but a priestess of another and aim to control us all by the love we bear her." He shook his head. "I am ashamed to call you family."

"Argue it all at your own pace," Hermes said with finality. "But not with her here lest you plan to begin a war you cannot with by killing this girl."

He wasn't wrong, and I could see Herne knew it. He sighed and looked at me, his face a mask of worry, anger and resignation. "Take her to the Egyptians. But not Bast. Bast... is too fascinated by her and it is never good when a cat grows overly fascinated with something that she could kill. Thoth will know a safe place for her and I trust Anubis to be an impartial judge of matters between the pantheons, even if they do still have a slight enmity with the gods of their former slaves."

"I play chess with Thoth regularly," Hermes said. "I know the way, but if you would prefer to send another..."

"She weakens," Herne said, and kissed me lightly on the forehead before handing me into Hermes's arms but pausing to add: "If I do not receive word from Thoth as to her safety, God of Thieves and Travelers, know you will be the first God to die for it."

"My lord," I murmured. "He did his best to fulfill requirements he didn't care to meet but could not disobey... and he helped ensure I lived to see you."

"And you are too forgiving, my girl," Herne said with some affection and released his hold on me, allowing Herne to take my weight. I looked up into the clear, pale blue eyes of the man that held me and there was something there that made my insides liquify a little, as my mind flashed an image of him naked, his hands on my body, and I felt a heated blush rise to my cheeks.

"Get me out of here," I managed breathlessly as he held me close and I felt that dizzying wind engulf me. I tried to remain calm, to not panic, but it was terrifying. I had no internal reference for time or space. The only thing making me feel like I wasn't a million tiny molecules hurling through empty space was the feel of his arms around me, and the sound of his breath in my ear as he stepped from from the spare bed chamber in Chez Hades and into the void.

"I have you," he would say soothingly from time to time and I simply clung to him, awareness of the precariousness of my situation hitting me full force.

When our feet found solid ground again, it was on the steps of a massive stone building. Hermes opened the door and set me gently to my feet.

Inside was the most amazing; a massive and opulent library as any I had ever seen. It seemed to go on forever and I stood in awe in the foyer of the huge temple to the written word, my eyes wide and mouth agape.

"It is a perfect replica of the Library of Alexandria," said a woman blandly from behind a desk situated near the base of a huge staircase that wound up to second floor, also piled high with walls and walls of books and scrolls. "I am Seshat. How can we help you today?"

"Gwendolyn, if I may present the patron Goddess of Libraries," Hermes said, with a smile. "One of Thoth's three companions."

"Three?" I asked, surprised. I had thought the Egyptians more monogamous, for some reason.

Seshat nodded. "We compliment one another, us four. Thoth and I love to read and write, Nehemetawy is a protector and caregiver and Ma'at keeps us all balanced. We work well together so we just... made our own little family. And a realm to suit us all. Ma'at handles the law section; Nehemetawy the medical library and social sciences; Thoth the magic, religion, philosophy and astronomy and I take care of the rest!"

"Oooh, so you're workmates!" I said, dubiously and she laughed.

"And bed mates," she said easily. "We're all on again, off again over the centuries. We are just all 'on' at the moment." She winked at me conspiratorially.

"We have need of Thoth," Hermes explained to Seshat. She picked up a phone from her desk and hit a button. "Sweetie? Hermes is by with a cute mortal girl... oh! Sure! I shall send them right down!" She hung up the phone and said to Hermes: "He is in his office. He said that Dionysus of Greece has made him aware of the situation and asks you both to join him." She pushed a button on her desk and an elevator, hidden behind a stack of books, dinged and as the doors closed, Seshat giggled: "Ok, so *almost* an exact replica... we may have made a few improvements over the years!"

I couldn't help but smile at her vivacious charm. I swear that giggle came with a wink that made my heart skip a beat. I stood silently beside Hermes as he seemed to battle with some internal conflict. Finally, he said, awkwardly: "I just wanted to say... I know this has been terrible for you, and even if you forgive me, neither of us will forget it. But I needed to just say... I hope it wasn't all terrible."

I felt my face soften at his awkwardness. I stepped up to him and laid a gentle hand on his cheek. He lifted his heavy-lashed eyes to meet my gaze, his such an icy pale blue it was startling so close. So close and darkened in passion. I felt my heart skip a moment and I was kissing him before I could do anything else.

In direct contrast to his hesitant words, once my lips touched his, his strong masculine hands gripped the flesh of my hips, almost bruisingly hard as he turned us and crushed my body to him, my back on the cold metal of the elevator door. He pressed my body into the erection that tented and strained against his black sacks, the zipper a rough, insistent pressure against my mound as he slid one hand down, grabbed my leg, and pulled it up the side of his body until he created continuous pressure against my clit as he ravished my mouth with heated kisses. I couldn't help rocking my body against him a little. After a moment, there was a tiny chime and the elevator came to a halt.

Calmly, as if his obvious arousal didn't exist, Hermes kissed me once more, quickly on the lips, and turned to the opening doors, putting a pleasant smile on his face as if I hadn't just been grinding my aching cunt against his granite hard cock a moment before. He escorted me out of the lift as we entered a room that looked like a strange melding of the Owlery at Hogwarts and a museum display of all the various tools for written communication from cuneform to a modern computer on a cherrywood desk set to a blogging website.

A tall, slender man with feather white hair was perched at a small writing desk, his hands furiously putting pen to paper as if he had a story all but pouring itself from his brain to his arm, through the focus of the plain Bic pen, and finishing as flourishes of ink drying into page after page in a five subject college-ruled spiral bound notebook. He seemed to have eaten through at least two subjects, by the tabs.

"Well, for once that old whino was telling the truth," said the man, picking up a pair of glasses and peering at me over his hawkish nose. "Aren't you unique?"

"Um..." I wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"...if a bit dim..." he continued dryly, and I felt an instant flare of rage deep within.

"Excuse me?" It was cold as ice and sharp as a blade, the demand as it issued from my lips and I felt control of myself fade away as Evangeline continued. "Well, do forgive the poor, slightly shell-shocked mortal for having a moment of mental fatigue! I fail to see how my uniqueness relates to any shared agenda that we may have."

For a moment, I was sure the tall crane-like gentleman was going to smite me where I stood... and then he laughed aloud. It was a rich, full hearty sound full of genuine mirth and surprise. "My apologies, you are quite correct. Please forgive my rude comments." He stood and walked around to the front of the desk and extended a hand to Hermes, who shook it immediate.

"Long time, Thoth," Hermes said with a nod.

"Too long, my friend. You still owe me for that last game we bet on." Thoth said and then returned his gaze to me. "And this is the woman at the center of all the chaos and controversy."

"And this woman has a name, and the ability to speak for herself," I said simply, uncertain whether it was Ev or myself that pointed it out.

"Yes," Thoth said with a nod. "It would be no shrinking violet that captured the Morningstar." I didn't know how to respond to that, so I remained silent. "And you are in need of shelter."

"Neutral territory," Hermes clarified. "Until the Olympians, Herne and Lucifer come to terms. And she needs to be in a realm of life. She is quite... susceptible to the energies of any environment... The Underworld nearly killed her."

"I see. And how do you feel here, in my realm, if I may ask?" This time he directed the question directly to me.

I considered. "Fine, actually."

Thoth nodded, as if a theory was just proven. "Intelligence, language, the written word are never bad. Language is benign and neutral in itself. It is the will of the speaker or writer that gives power to words—the intent focus of the speaker or writer directing and molding the energy that comes from it."

"I have no doubt Zeus will know she is here," Hermes said quietly, sounding concerned. "Thus far, he has not responded to this crisis or his brother's actions but I cannot wager her life that he is on any side but his own. She needs to be hidden. To use her natural gifts as camouflage."

"And I know just the Goddess to help with that," Thoth said with a smile. "And she never turns away a lost lamb."

——————

I felt different the moment I stepped onto Hathor's farm. I felt... slower, if that makes any sense. But I didn't think much of it, for I also felt extremely at peace. If I had to compare it to anything, it is that first settling in your body before a deep sleep sets in. Or the initial muscle relaxation just after the edibles have kicked in. I saw and heard everything but something fundamental was being altered in me as Hermes led me through the maze of stalls and out into a massive field where a figure was leaning over a fence, speaking softly to a young calf on the other side, offering it something to nibble from her hand.

"Thoth said you would be coming to see me!" Hathor hooped down from the short step stool she was on that made her tall enough to bend over the fence at the waist. On the ground, she wasn't much taller than I, but her figure was all round curves tightly fit into a pair of cut off Daisy Dukes with an almost cliche plaid shirt tied above her navel. Her massive breasts were scarcely contained by the flannel and the belly button that was visible didn't reside in the tiny midriff of a model with tone washboard abs, but rather in a soft fleshy middle that was no less sexy. Her ample hips swayed with each step and her sweet, round race was somehow alluring with massive dark eyes, much like a cow's, deep and soulful. It wasn't until she was nearly to us that I noted the tiny gold choker with a cow bell on it and that matching gold hoops hung on her ears... soft, large, chestnut furred bovine ears, only a shade or two lighter in hue than her rich dark brown hair, which was tied in a loose ponytail at her nape, with curls reaching her waist.

She charged Hermes and for a moment I sluggishly wondered if she meant to ram him as a bull does a matador, but instead she plowed into his open arms with a cry of happiness.

"Oof. Hey, Hatty," he moaned with a small grin and hugged her to him. "Long time, no see, sweetmeat."

"He's the only one who keeps up with me when I'm on a cattle drive," Hathor said to me with a grin. "Gotta keep the girls healthy, y'know?" She turned to me fully and walked around me, almost inspecting me like I was a steer for purchase. When she finally came to stand in front of me again, it was to Hermes she spoke.

"She is lovely and I can see why everyone is so intrigued. Does Thoth really think keeping her here is a good idea?" She took my hand as if it were a leash to lead me by and it didn't even occur to me to resist or complain about being excluded from the conversation. "He has to see what I already do..."

With that, she reached out and her small hand caressed my breast. The feeling of sudden fullness making my pussy pulse in response. "Not here five minutes and her body begins to leech the very magic out of the air. My own essence. It is already changing her."

Hermes's eyes darkened as he beheld me, under her small, strong massaging hand. The heat in his gaze made me want to drop to my knees before him and offer myself. But not to fuck. I wanted —needed— to be bred. I couldn't help staring at the front of his dark slacks, and knew he felt it. My mouth salivated. A whimper came from my throat unbidden.

"Poor girl," Hathor soothed me sympathetically. "You're just all sorts of pent up, aren't you? And what a pretty red mane you have! I don't have many russet colored girls in my current herd. I suspect she will both blend well and stand out like a jewel among them," she said directly to Hermes. Her ongoing touches on my breasts and nipples were making them feel more heavy and strained... and as the slow ache of discomfort grew, so did the responding ache between my legs. A moan seemed pulled from deep within my body, and it almost sounded... bizarrely like a "moo".

"Don't get too attached, Hatty," Hermes warned. "She isn't to keep."

"Yes, yes, I know." Hathor said dismissively, now massaging both of my breasts through the wrinkled halter of my dress, which was a little worse for the wear after the night's adventures. Why did the dress feel so *tight* around my breasts? I felt intoxicated, slow and dumb.

"There she is," Hathor said softly, delightedly, as her fingertips found my nipples and the sensation of *release* brought me to my knees. Hernes was there in an instant, his speed like something in a DC Comics television show. I found myself staring up at him, dazed. I could feel his erection against my body and without thought, my hands were entangled in the belt around his trim hips and sinking to my knees before him, mindlessly searching for the hard, heated flesh my body told me I needed, that I was incomplete without.