Page 49 of Monster Whisperer
“I can get more, little Hellspawn. It’s my fault Demeter was able to take over the Underworld. I’ll find a way to sneak into the Underworld and get it to you. This isn’t the last you’ve seen of me. I don’t normally get involved in this sort of thing, but seeing as how Demeter used one of my inventions to do this, I’m involved now. I’ll join this fight.”
“I thought you never left this volcano?”
“Oh, I’m leaving now, little Hellspawn. Now, let’s get you a God killing weapon to satisfy Demeter. Only, it won’t be used on Hades. We’ll be sending Demeter to the pits of Tartarus.”
Chapter 37
River
M
aking a God killing weapon took time, but Hephaestus was chatty. He also had cookies. I learned the real reason everyone thought he was so ugly. Zeus and Hera were fighting about one of his affairs when he was only a child. Hephaestus tried to intercede, and Zeus threw him all the way down to Earth and broke his back. He healed, as his people always did, but he walked with a slight limp. His people called him ugly and insulted him over a limp I barely even noticed it was so insignificant.
He was easy to talk to and funny. He must not get a lot of visitors here. He had all these little assistants in his forge made from pure gold, but they didn’t exactly talk. By the time I left with my weapon, I really wanted to see him again when he came to the Underworld to help out. Everyone was so worried about him being this grumpy loner who would not help, but he was pleasant and funny. He even played with Cerberus, and Cerberus didn’t have a single nasty thing to say about him.
He gave me this enormous hug and slipped something else in my bra before I left.
“You can communicate with me on this. It works between realms. Let’s just say I have witch friends too. Now, get out there and fool Demeter, little Hellspawn.”
Demeter wasn’t there when I exited the volcano, but her little army was. One of them pointed a gun directly at my head.
“Did you get it?”
“Yes.”
“Show me.”
Hephaestus had given me a beautiful dagger. It was lightweight with a blade that looked both silver and bronze, depending on how the light hit it. He’d wrapped the hilt in a buttery leather, and there was an azure stone inlaid at the end that seemed to swirl with the same white magic that was in the vial in my bra.
Another woman put her gun down and spoke into her earpiece. Demeter appeared in a flash of light with a gigantic dog. I’d never seen any dog like this before. She was as big as Cerberus with glowing red eyes and pitch-black fur. She looked like she could rip me apart, and she belonged to Demeter, but I wasn’t afraid of her. Not when she gave me this small bow of her head like she knew me.
“This is my new pet. Her demon owner tried to take over Hell and just left her at his estate. I scooped her up, and now she kills for me. She can sniff out treachery. She will give you a little sniff test, and if you intend to use that knife on me, she’ll burn you alive.”
So, this was the dog from the pits that the monsters were afraid of. Could I talk to her too?
“Are you with Demeter willingly?”
“No, child of Hell. I traded one terrible owner for another. I just want to go back home. I wouldn’t mind taking that sexy three-headed beast with me. You don’t belong here either. Your father is probably looking for you.”
“What is your name? And how do you know my father?”
“Lis. Everyone in Hell knows your father. What’s the handsome dog’s name?”
Lis circled me and sniffed me, but I already knew she would not burn me.
“That’s Cerberus. He guards the gates of the Underworld normally. My father is supposed to be coming here if he can get permission.”
“Yes, the kings of Hell only give permission to realm travel if it’s important. I know my previous master, Zepar, was plotting a coup and an assassination of all the seven kings of Hell. I knew even without him coming back that he would have failed. No one came for me except this awful woman.”
“I don’t know what my other half is. People here know, but they refuse to tell me because my father wants to have that conversation himself.”
“I’m not pissing your father off either. I’m just a Hellhound, and he has entire legions at his disposal.”
“I will help free you, Lis.”
“And maybe we could spend a little time together before you go back to Hell,”Cerberus said.
Oh, great. I had a three-headed dog and a Hellhound with crushes in the middle of all this.
