Page 60 of The Chosen Two

Real Jake sits up a bit and scratches his head. “Um, what’s the Guardian?”

Without looking over to the bed I tell him, “I’ll explain it later Jake, when we’re home.”

He shrugs and disappears back under the sheet with the three goddesses still in bed with him, and the writhing resumes.

Callie pouts her luscious lips, and her graceful eyebrows slope downward as she humbles herself to show me pity. “Oh, Sweetie. I’m so sorry you think Jake’s going home with you. I was hoping to spare you this whole ordeal. Mortals are so fickle, and Jake’s no exception. Inthatregard. That’s why I sent you Lu in the first place, but I suppose I’m going to have to help you understand.”

My hand tightens on the handle of my mug as I try to keep my face neutral. “I am bringing him back with me. I am sure he misses us, his family, his life.” I wonder what her perfect face would look like with coffee splashed in it.

She sighs. “If only that were true. No father cares that much about his children. Do you know how many half-siblings I have? Besides, one of my specialties is helping people forget their obligations. Men want me for that very reason. Sorry about that.” She shrugs. Behind her perfectly shaped lips are teeth too large and five shades too white. I see them when she smiles at Lu and signals for him to make me a plate.

I refuse to eat this skank’s food, even if all I want to do is go home and bury myself in a pint of chocolate cherry ice cream. I try to keep a calm demeanor, but inside I’m contemplating what the downside would be to throwing myself off the side of this mountain. “Why do you even want Jake? He can’t bethatgood. I know. I mean, he’s great in every single way. I just don’t get why you’d choose him to be your sexual partner over every other man in the world.”

Her laugher is like the tinkling of wind chimes. I feel a little woozy. Then again, I did just scale a fucking mountain on my own…in clubbing clothes…to interrupt the orgy my husband was having with four goddesses. Perhaps that’s why I feel like I’m going to pass out.

Callie furrows her brow in sincere confusion. “Oh, you don’t know? Becauseyoudid, Guardian.”

“Come again?” Now I’m the one confused.

She shakes her head, looking at me with stars in her eyes. “You have no idea of your power, your potential. You can do so many great things. Really, you should give yourself more credit. More attention, too! I’ve seen so many Guardians come and go, and I’ve always admired their strength and courage. It makes me so sad that you’ve spent the years you should have been kicking ass stuck in a house, wiping runny noses and shitty asses. You really should try the pomegranate danishes; they’re exquisite.” She puts two pastries with red centers on my plate.

A few giggles jostle the bed, and Callie glances at the outlines of her sisters with the corner of her mouth quirked up. She leans back in her chair, crosses her long legs, and rests her delicate hands on her thigh. Her expression wilts. “Our powers are waning, Guardian. We are fading. Much as your powers have been wasted while you play house, ours are wasted because people have stopped needing us. We are already less than half of whom we used to be. Our sisters, Thalia, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Euterpe, and Urania, have faded completely. There’s nothing left of them. People forgot them, and the same is happening to us.”

When she holds up her hands, I can faintly see through them. I gasp, not because I’m surprised but because I can start forming a plan.

Callie, however, nods as if she’s gained my sympathy. “You see? I knew you’d understand. Guardians are protectors afterall.”

Her words make me choke on my coffee. Protector? Of her? Fuck no! But I keep my face emotionless so she continues her Bond villain speech and I can continue to plan.

Callie sighs. “No one needs the old gods and goddesses any longer. To them, we are fantasies. People find their own muses in the world around them. So I needed to try something, anything, to make me, makeus, relevant again. Make it so we stop fading away.”

“Okay, and how exactly does my husband fit into this?” I use my peripherals to search for Lu-Jake. He’s on the far end of the table, awaiting another command from his mistress. He looks completely bored, but he’s playing a good lap dog while eying the tarts.

Callie smiles while she places her elbows on the glass table top and leans her cheek against her balled up fists. “A Guardian’s never had a husband before. Guardians don’t tend to reach the age when they would want to get married, and if they do, they don’t want to drag anyone into their world with them. You’re…”

I mirror her posture and pretend I’m enthralled with her. I need to keep her talking until I can think of what else to do. “Special? Unique?”

She looks up, trying to find the right word to pull out of the air. “Selfish. You’re selfish.”

I drop my hands, feeling the sting from her word choice as concretely as if I’d just been slapped across the face.

Callie either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care, and she continues like nothing happened. “We decided Jake must be pretty fucking amazing if he managed to attract, and keep, a Guardian. But he served his purpose with you. He gave you your kids. So, you see why we need him more than you, right? We hoped that when Jake inevitably fell in love with us, he would prevent us from fading away. Getting him to moan our names has been invocation enough, and we’ve been able to manifest so much stronger than we have in centuries! But we need to stay close to him for it to work.” She lifts one eyebrow and smiles down at her coffee cup. “Even goddesses sometimes have to use sex to get what we want.”

I shudder. Okay, eww. “So you replaced my husband with someone who looks exactly like him because...?” I glance at Lu who makes kissy face at me, making my face scrunch up in response.

Callie catches my reaction and snaps her head to Lu. “You, behave!” She turns back to me and grins.

Callie grins. “Oh, dear Miranda! I had a Jinn whip up Lu’s amazing disguise tospareyou. You mortals have such a romanticized view of love, and mating.” She takes a tiny polite sip of her coffee.

I cross my arms and cock one eyebrow, appraising her. “You’re really going to tell me you did this all for me? Why, really?”

She taps her fingers on the glass table, but slowly, deliberately, controlled, with none of the anxiety my movements usually ooze. In fact, I bet she’s never been anxious about anything, ever.

“Oh Miranda, you can really be dramatic, you know? If your husband didn’t come home, you’d search for him or alert the police, and that would make it quite a challenge for us to take him anywhere public. That’s the first why.”

I nod. “And the second why?”

Again, that smile. “Did you know that every time an incubus seduces you, they suck a little of your life force out of you? Lu has been making you weaker, keeping you from achieving that true potential you were born with.” Movement on the other side of the table reveals Lu is making himself a plate of treats. He freezes and locks eyes with me before smiling awkwardly.

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