Chapter Eight
Allies

While it was extremely nice to know that Papa knew about everything, more or less, and was at least acting like he believed me – because let’s face it, the fact that he accepted the story entirely too easy didn’t really sit well with me.  Not that I didn’t want him to believe me, but even I needed a little more proof then ‘you’ve never lied before’.  Greek gods were a thing of myth, something that people used to believe, but realized they were being stupid about.  Yes, Papa had a strange fascination with the ancient religion, but that shouldn’t give him cause to believe any of this.  But at least he was doing what any proper father would do in this case, and just played along to help me feel better.  He might think I was insane, but I was able to function in polite society enough that I’m sure he figured playing along wasn’t really going to hurt matters.

Of course, after he managed to talk me into allowing him to speak with Eros right after our meeting, I think he believed me a little more.  I pointed out gently to him that I had revealed pretty much everything to my father, and poor Eros freaked out a little at the prospect of meeting my father now.  Papa highly approved of Eros when he thought he was a mere mortal like himself, but now that he knew the truth?  It was certainly going to make things more interesting.  I insisted on remaining at his side, mostly because I didn’t want Papa to lay too much into him, and it was a little strange to think that I was trying to protect a god from my mortal father.

Papa asked a few questions, of course, mostly pertaining to our relationship and what Eros intentions with me were.  He did bring up the whole kidnapping thing, which Eros attempted to counter with the fact that I had willingly agreed to stay, and that I had been able to leave at any time I wished.  I could tell Papa was still annoyed at this fact, considering we had ended up pulling the wool over his eyes for an entire week.  But in the end, he merely told Eros to be careful with me, because goddess or no, I was still his baby girl. 

But that was also the point when he started asking about Eros’ arrows, and Eros calmly materialized one for him.  Seeing an object appear out of nothing was usually proof enough for mortals that something wasn’t right, and I could tell the act sort of shocked Papa for a moment.  But only for a moment, since he was off with a million and one questions about the arrows and Eros’ job.  Eros seemed a little pleased about this, since most mortals, as far as I could tell, wasn’t that interested above the arrows causing people to fall in love with each other.  Maddie had asked similar questions when she first met Eros, but I think he considered that to be a little different.  It was Maddie after all.

But after the meeting, I was starting to feel a lot better about myself.  I still had a dark cloud hanging over my head, so long as Psyche was loose, but the fact that I never had to lie to my father about what was going on in my life brightened my mood significantly, and there was nothing that anyone could do to actually take that from me.  It was the first time I felt confidence without feeling guilty about it later.  Yes, feeling happy was dangerous, because even Psyche could take that as an affront, but that didn’t matter.  I could tell my father about it later.

It was one thing to be able to tell your best friend everything, but it was quite another to be able to tell a parent (in my case, my father).  I think it was just mostly because both people I cared most about knew, and that’s all I really wanted out of this.  Eventually, I would probably be able to tell my mother as well, but for now, Papa would defuse her.  Sure, it would look like favoritism, but he always had a way of taking the edge off for her.  He had always been the stricter parent anyway, even if he had never actually punished me before last weekend.  It was just because I had no desire to even disappoint him.

“That was…less scary than I thought it was going to be,” Eros remarked when Papa finally released us when he realized it was getting a little late.  “Why were we so worried about your father finding out?”

“Well, mostly because we didn’t have this crazy soul trying to take over my life to take his mind off what you are and what you did to be when we first met,” I pointed out, shrugging.  “He might be acting like an over protective father, but I can tell that’s really what’s weighing on his mind. I mean, she took over my body and made me do terrible things.  That’s a little more disconcerting than finding out your daughter’s boyfriend is a god.  And not just any god, but the god of love who happens to be completely devoted to her.  I’m sure it’ll take him some time to get used to, but he knows he already likes you as a person.”

“I noticed you failed to point out that I don’t actually have an apartment around here,” he smirked at me.  “I suppose you’re hoping that he’s just going to guess that I pop back and forth between here and Mount Olympus on a daily basis?  I wonder if he’ll catch on to the fact that that’s very difficult for us to do.  That’s why people like Zeus and Hera tend to have homes on the mortal plane since they’re leading mortal lives.”

I shrugged again.  “Clearly, he doesn’t know all the specifics of being a god just yet,” I teased.  “I’m sure it’s a common thought for mortals.  After all, they all know that the gods reside on Mount Olympus.  Unless you’re implying that you wanted him to completely freak out over the idea that you’ve pretty much been living with me for the past four months?  I didn’t think that would go over too well with him.  Did you want to be kicked out?”

He smirked.  “No, I was just pointed out that you seemed to be avoiding that subject to prevent me from being kicked out, that’s all.”

“I don’t know why this is a problem from you, Eros,” I said.  “You act like I would want to get rid of my sleeping aide.  I used to sleep well before, when all I needed was some representation of you in my bed with me, but having the real thing cuddling up beside me has been so much better.”

“I thought you might feel that way,” he said, poking me on the nose while continuing to smirk at me.

The following day had me up a little earlier than I wanted to be, mostly because I was excited about finally getting to sit down with Maddie and discuss what was happening in my life for the past week.  I don’t know why I was excited, but I suppose it was just the fact that I’d be seeing her without anything really interrupting us.  I had this strange feeling that life might get in the way of that, as it kept doing, but I couldn’t think of anything that would.  I came down and found my entire family, sans Phoebe and her new husband, sitting at the table.

“You must be bored,” I said to Penny as I took my seat.  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you up this early on a Sunday.”

“Shove it,” she shot at me.  I had a feeling she was only actually awake because the baby was somehow keeping her awake.  And she figured since she couldn’t sleep, she’d take advantage of the fact and go torment me some more.  “You have no right to be cheery anyway.  You know, Phoebe comes back at the end of the week.”

“Really?  I thought she was taking a longer honeymoon.”

“She was planning to,” Mom commented, “but there’s some clause in their contract that had her coming back sooner.  Something about needing to come back to film Penny or something.  She said two weeks was plenty of time, mostly because she was looking forward to her new life as Mrs. Nathan Greene, or something to that nature.”

“Although I’m sure after what you did to her, she’s probably regretting the decision.  I wonder; will she try to extend her honeymoon?”

“I pray not.  Do you know how much that would cost?” Nona demanded.

We both looked at her like she was crazy while both Mom and Papa didn’t react.  “Nona, I doubt that would be an issue,” I pointed out.  “Even if she didn’t have Papa’s money to spend, Nate’s not exactly poor himself.”

“Bah, waste of money,” she muttered.  “When I got married, I had two days alone with your grandfather before I had to be back to tend to the house.  A month long honeymoon indeed.”

“Didn’t Papou have a vineyard at the time?  And didn’t you get married right before harvesting?  That sounds more like poor planning, Nona,” I told her.  “I mean, yeah, a month is a bit excessive, but two weeks shouldn’t be too much of a shock.”

“You girls are too spoiled,” she insisted.  “That’s how you get away with so much.”

“Mama,” Papa said, glancing over his newspaper to give her a warning look.  “Psyche has done nothing wrong, and we won’t punish her for that.  As I’ve said before, this is a matter between Psyche and ourselves.  Please stay out of it.”

“You’re too lenient on the girl, Nik,” Nona insisted.  “If any of you kids ever acted like that, you’d have been grounded for a century.”

:So, if I had suddenly started to act completely out of character, you’d just punish me and not ask why I was acting in that manner?  Try to figure out what happened to cause me to act completely different?  Mama, I think you might have to rethink your parenting skills.”

Nona looked a little shocked at this, while Mom just looked a little confused.  Sure, Papa had been defending me before, but not to the point where he was getting defensive.  She was smart enough that she might have figured out that I revealed something to my father but not to her, but I hoped she was also smart enough to realize it was just something I wasn’t prepared to tell her yet.  It was one thing for my Greek father to easily accept the idea that Greek gods were real and walked amongst us, but it was entirely different for my Christian-raised mother.

Just she decided to change the subject.  “Do you have any plans for today, dear?” she asked me happily as Penny glowered at her tone.

“I was going to go and see Maddie,” I told her.  “I haven’t had a chance to really talk to her since, well, the incident.”

Penny snorted.  “So you’re going to reward her behavior and let her go see that degenerate?”

“Well, for starters, it’s not really strictly a reward to let her see her best friend,” Papa considered.  “And for another thing, I think Maddie has a right to hear what happened from Psyche herself.  It’s only fair, Penny.”

She glared at me.  “I think Nona’s right; you favor her too much.”

“You’re just mad because none of your friends are as awesome as Maddie is.  I mean, where are they now?  Phebes and Nate went alone to that island, so they should still be around to hang out with you.  But gee, it looks like they simply don’t care about you when the camera’s not around!”  It was actually more likely that they’ve come to realize Penny’s true nature, and are strictly Phoebe’s friends now.  And since Phoebe was gone, they had no interest in coming to the house.

She seethed slightly.  “I have friends.  I have friends in very high places, need I remind you?”  She gave me a pointed glare, as though reminding me that she had the means of destroying me waiting upstairs, which was most likely true.  I doubt she could convince Psyche to remain in her house.  I wonder if she and Eros managed to find each other, since I was pretty sure he was going to be stalking all the rooms now when we were separated.  Considering I didn’t hear any yelling, I had a feeling they were keeping far away from each other.

“Penny, stop acting like a jealous bitch,” Mom said sternly.  “Psyche, hurry up and finish your breakfast so you can visit Maddie.  I’m sure she’s already waiting for you.”

I wanted to laugh at Penny’s expression, although it was sort of hard when Nona was looking so betrayed.  I hoped Papa took this opportunity to smooth things over with his mother, although it might actually take a while for him to come up with a story that would make sense to her.  But I could tell he wanted her off my back as much as I did.  I didn’t really like having my grandmother annoyed at me, but there wasn’t much I could so about it at the moment.

“Did you find anything?” I asked when I when upstairs to get ready for the day.  He was sulking slightly.

“Thankfully, no, but I can’t tell she’s here, and that annoys me.  I know what she feels like now, but it seems she’s also avoiding me.  Which makes no sense.”

“She knows you’re beyond pissed at her, and knows what you’ll do to her if you find her.  She’s up here to basically steal you away from me anyway, so it sort of makes sense.”

“I’m just…it’s just…I’m sorry,” he muttered.  “I’m trying to protect you, but I seem to be failing.”

“Eros, I’ve already forgiven you for what happened at the wedding.  You didn’t know she was able to possess me, nor did you know where she was.  Baby steps, Eros, baby steps.  It wasn’t your fault.”

“You shouldn’t forgive me that easily.  I was so focused on finding her that I lost focus on what was really important, and in the end, it didn’t even matter.  That’s three months that I can’t give back, Psyche.”

I sighed.  “I forgive you because I love you, Eros, and you’ve already told me why you were doing it.  All I really wanted was an explanation.  Yes, we lost three months, but I was hoping we’d make them up somehow.”

He shook his head.  “You’re too good for me,” he told me.

“No, I’m exactly right for you.  I imagine you’ll be coming with me to see Maddie?”

“Naturally.”

“Then shut up and stop being so depressing.  It doesn’t suit well with Maddie’s personality.”

He smiled at that, and while I couldn’t get him to stop blaming himself for what happened to me at the wedding, at least I could get him to stop blaming himself out loud.

He wasn’t at my side when I rang the Douglas’ doorbell, but I could imagine he wasn’t too far behind me, if not already in her room.  Maddie managed to open the door before anyone else, sort of bouncing when she saw it was, in fact, me.  I didn’t know why she was so surprised – who else would be there that early?

“Well, I was sort of afraid,” she admitted as she led me to her room.  “I mean, I know you said you weren’t grounded, but I wasn’t sure if you’d be allowed to actually visit me, you know?  You were rather terrible at the wedding, Psyche.”

I sighed.  “I know, but Mom and Papa did come to the same realization that you did, that I wasn’t acting like myself, and they were letting me off the hook until they could figure out what was going on.  And, well…I also sort of ended up spilling the beans to Papa last night.”

She paused her outside her room, gasping.  “Oh my God, you didn’t?  Ha ha, you totally did, I know you.  Did he even believe you?”

“He claimed he did, but then he wanted to talk to Eros about everything, and now I know he believes.  Its nice, having him know.  It was great having you know, but Papa as well…?”

“You’re living the life, I know,” she smiled at me.  “You’re lucky; I doubt I could ever tell my parents about Zephyr.  It’s just lucky that he sort of has a normal job, and that he seems quite willing the play mortal with me, for the most part.  They don’t have to know, you know?”

“Yeah, well…I don’t mean to rub this in your face, Maddie.”

“Oh, no, I wasn’t implying that.  You’re circumstance is way different than mine.  I mean, you were born a goddess, and I was born a mere mortal.  The only life I hope to live is one of a mortal, whereas you were going to have to tell your parents eventually, you know?”

“I’m not a goddess, Maddie, no matter what you think.”

“That may be, but the fact remains that you have an immortal soul that realizes it’s immortal now.  You might not have the powers of a goddess – not yet, anyway – but I’m pretty damn sure you’ll have the longevity, and that’ll get suspicious after a while.  Not to mention you’re dating a god.”

“So are you, Maddie.  You ever consider the possibility that he’d ask you to become a goddess for him so you could be together forever?”

She blushed.  “It’s different for me and Zephyr.  We’d literally only been together for months, not centuries like you and Eros.  You guys know you’re soul mates.  It’s still up in the air for me and Zephyr.”

I smirked a little while I allowed that.  Sure, they were head-over heels in love with each other now, but that was just because the relationship was still very new.  Sure, Zephyrus hadn’t acted like that with any of the other girls – and guys – that he’s love before, but in the long run, that might not matter.  It was pretty much up to Maddie at this point, although I doubted she’d have an easy time letting him go if her feelings ever changed, just because she didn’t like the idea of crushing anyone like that.

As I suspected, the boys were already sitting in the room when we finally entered.  Maddie wasn’t as keen on the idea of letting Zephyrus actually stay with her as I was with Eros, although she was slowing getting comfortable with the idea as she realized he had nowhere else to go.  He did have his own place in the mortal world, unlike Eros, mostly because he had a mortal job.  But it was an apartment in New York City, and even popping in and out from there could take a toll on him.  He did it, of course, but I could tell he didn’t like it.

Maddie made a show of sitting me down so that I was in front of all three of them so I could relate my story like I was talking to an audience.  She settled herself down next to Zephyrus.  “Okay, I’ve been looking forward to this all week.  Go on and tell us what really happened last Saturday, Psyche.”

I felt a little self conscious sitting there with all of them watching me.  Eros already knew what was going on, but he just looked amused.  “I already told you, Maddie; I was possessed by the other Psyche.  I don’t remember a Goddamn thing about the wedding.”

She elbowed Zephyrus.  “See, what did I tell you?  Didn’t I say that it wasn’t really Psyche doing all those terrible things?”

He rolled his eyes.  I’m sure she mentioned this to him already.  “Yes,” he said pointedly.  “I get the point.  You were right and we were wrong.  Forgive us for not knowing everything about souls, okay?  It’s not like we’re Hades or anything.”

“You’re the only one who figured it out, Maddie,” I pointed out.  “Don’t rib on them too much.”

“I still feel like a terrible friend,” she sighed.  “I let them talk me into believing that was you.  I should have figured something was terribly wrong when you were outright ignoring me.  You wouldn’t do that.  I spent all of Sunday hating you.”

“Really?”

“Well, okay, I spent all of Sunday wondering what had gotten into you, as well as wondering if these two were actually right about you.  But hating you when I convinced myself that they were.  I just can’t believe that I actually thought you’d be that terrible.”

“I can’t believe that she thought ignoring you was the best way to get on your bad side,” I chuckled.  “She didn’t really know what she was doing, did she?  Then again, I think she was just running on Penny’s advice, and we all know how much she knows me.”

Both Maddie and Zephyrus gave me strange looks, so I quickly filled them in with my little adventure the night before.  “Wait, so she’s been with Penny this entire time!  That explains so much!  I mean, if you wanted to get revenge, I would certainly understand speaking out during the actual ceremony to make Phoebe look like a fool.  But all that stuff you did at the reception seemed way too much out of character for you to pull off properly.  It was so strange.  It was like looking at someone else completely.”

“Technically, we were,” Zephyrus said.  “As soon as Psyche takes over her body, she is a completely different person.  As far as I can tell, they’re souls are different, which creates different personalities.  This one, obviously, is the better one.”

“Naturally,” Maddie agreed.  “I just can’t believe she can possess you.”

“Well, actually, she can’t anymore,” I told her before going into the story about going to see Persephone and Hades about what was going on.  That dissolved into a talk about soul harmonics, and how the soul actually vibrates.  The body can only be attuned to one frequency, but sometimes other souls are close enough to that frequency that they’re able to take over another’s body, if only temporarily.  That’s how people would come to be possessed sometimes.  In my case, since I technically had two souls, one could be interchanged for another.

“So Hades changed the frequency?” she asked, clearly confused.

Eros nodded.  “Only he can actually do something like that, although typically he doesn’t have a need to.  I imagine, though, that he went and changed the frequencies of all the souls in the Reincarnations Chamber after we left as to prevent anything like this from happening again.  It’s a very slight change, and it doesn’t really do anything to effect to soul.”

“It just makes it difficult for Psyche to possess me anymore.”

“Okay, good, good,” Maddie said.  “Is there anything being done to actually stop Psyche now that she’s made her appearance?”

I shook my head.  “We’re not sure what can be done,” I admitted.  “Persephone and Hades are looking in on the matter, but I haven’t heard from them since they arrived.  But that might be because Hades was trying really hard to avoid his brother.”

“His brother?”

“Um, yeah.  I thought I mentioned this, but I guess I didn’t.  Came to find out that Diomedes Kalonimos is actually Zeus, and he was, well, visiting us last week.”

“Diomedes.”  I nodded.  “Is Zeus.”  I nodded again.  She was silent.  “Well, that certainly explains why he had to tell me I was pretty every time he saw me,” she said, shaking her head, probably trying to get the image out of her head.  Zephyrus just looked annoyed.  “But you said that Persephone and Hades are here?”

“Um, yeah, actually.  Came up Monday.”

“We should get them here and see what they have.  I think they’d be interested in finding out where Psyche’s been these past three months, don’t you think?”

“I could call them,” Eros mentioned.  “If you don’t mind.”

“Don’t mind?  Of course not!  I was the one who suggested it,” Maddie said brightly, probably looking forward to seeing Persephone again.

She jumped a minute later when they just appeared in her room.  Eros looked surprised as well, mostly because I think he expected them to at least ring the door bell.  But what was really surprising was that they weren’t exactly alone.  “Hedone, what the hell?” Eros demanded.

She looked sheepish.  “Well, they were asking me if I had any possible idea where Mama might be hiding when you called, so I decided to tag along.  No one’s freaking told me anything yet.  I had to hear from them that Mama possessed Psyche!  That’s terrible, Papa!”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Hedone,” I said to her as she looked indignant now.  “I guess with everything going on, I just…forgot that you wouldn’t know.”

She glanced at me.  “You’re forgiven,” she told me sweetly.  “Papa, on the other hand…”

“I don’t want to get you involved in this, Hedone.  Your mother’s been rejecting you just as much as she has me, and I don’t want you to get hurt.  You stay away from her, you hear me?”

She blinked at him.  “I never said anything about wanting to be around that half of Mama.  I’m perfectly content with this half.  Sure, she doesn’t see me as he daughter, either, but at least she’s nice, and at least she’s trying.”

“I still wonder about that.  I mean, if she put her love of Eros in me, maybe she put her maternal instincts as well?”

Persephine shook her head.  “It wouldn’t work like that.  The reason you feel nothing for Hedone is actually because she was conceived while her mother was still mortal, so the only thing the immortal half would feel is a sense of familiarity and a need to be close to her.  Which I’m sure you feel.”

“Sort of,” I admitted.

“But the reason why the mortal half feels nothing is because Lethe is actually able to wipe out memories and feelings we have towards children.  This is so…well, let’s say you die an early death, and decide to be reborn instantly, but you’re reborn in the same village.  It wouldn’t do to for you to have maternal instincts towards these people who are supposed to be strangers to you, right?  Its terrible, that it was a fail safe.”

“It happened once,” Hades remarked.  “It was interesting.”

It was only when he spoke that I realized that Maddie hadn’t said anything, but that was only because she was unknowingly gaping at Hades, and I realized that she had never seen him before.  Zephyrus seemed to realize this as well, smirking a little before reaching over to snap her jaw shut.  “Oh my gosh, you’re really Hades, aren’t you?”

He looked surprised at her.  “Um, yes?”

Persephone chuckled.  “I apologize.  Dear, this is Madeline Douglas, or Maddie, if you will.  Maddie, this is in fact the lord of the Underworld standing in your bedroom.”

“It’s an honor,” she said, bowing slightly.

Hades glanced at his wife, who shrugged.  “You get used to it, I promise.  So why exactly were we summoned, Eros?  Do you have a new lead on her whereabouts?”

“Yes, directly under your nose. Well, more or less, I guess,” he said, pausing when he remembered Penny wasn’t there when they arrived.  “She’s attached herself to Penny.”

“The sister?” Hades asked, shocked.  “How far away does she live?”

“A few houses down.  Does that matter?”

“Actually, it does.  Like I said, your living frequency was masking her dead one, and having her that close complicated matters.  Even if she wasn’t directly in the house, I still wouldn’t have felt her presence.  And I think she might know this.”

“She does know too much,” Persephone commented about a split second before the room was suddenly filled with the fragrance of rose petals.  This confused us mortals, but the immortals just looked alarmed.

“Crap, I’m sorry,” Hedone muttered before we realized that we seemed to have an extra person.  “I didn’t realize she was watching me.”

Eros had quickly stood to place himself between me and the newcomer.  “Mama, what the hell?” he demanded of her as we all tensed.

But there was something different about her.  She seemed a little slouched, staring at the ground in shame.  “I know, you have every right to be angry at me, Eros.  But I came to apologize.  To Psyche, actually.”

I peeked over his shoulder.  “To me?” I asked.  “What do you mean?”

She shoved her son aside so she could see me properly.  “I’ve wronged you with assuming that you were the soul that hurt my son so badly.  I hadn’t realized that there were two souls.  My quarrel is not with your soul, child.  I should have trusted my son, and not gotten involved, and for that, I apologize.  I know this is all my fault.”

“Damn straight it is,” Persephone muttered, crossing her arms. 

“So what, you’re saying that you’re not mad at me anymore.  Is that why you haven’t given me any trials?”

She nodded.  “I was so ashamed of myself when I found out that I was going after the wrong soul, I couldn’t bring myself to confront you about it.  But now that I’ve learned that she’s actually possessing you and trying to take over your life, I can’t sit back anymore.  I want to help, if you’d let me.”

I glanced at Eros, who just shrugged at me.  I was the one she wronged, so it was going to me up to me to forgive her.  I wasn’t sure if this was a trick or not, but her entire demeanor had changed.  I might not consider myself a goddess, but that didn’t change the fact that I could read people even if they trying to fool me.  And I was definitely getting the sense from Aphrodite that she wanted to make amends.

“Okay,” I said.  “I forgive you.  This entire situation is a mess, anyway.  As long as you learned something from all of this, then I don’t see why you can’t help.”

“Learn something?” she asked, raising her head.

“Trust your son,” I told her pointedly.  “He’s a grown man, and capable of learning from his own mistakes.  If he needs your help, he’ll ask.  Don’t go butting in anymore.”

She stared at me, glancing quickly at Persephone, who was smirking at her.  She sighed.  “I suppose you’re right,” she said.  “It’s just always been hard to look the other way when she’s involved.  But if he’s smart enough to fall for a girl like you, then I guess he has become his own man.”

“Great,” I said, smiling at her.  “Now the question is…what exactly are we going to do about Psyche?”

Chapter Seven

Cupid and Psyche Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine