Without speaking, Apollo and Pamela walked slowly, hand in hand, along the sidewalk that framed the Bellagio fountains. At the moment, the water was quiet and dark, but the walkway around it was crowded with bright, chattering mortals, and the adjacent street was filled with swiftly moving cars. Apollo thought that their brazen honking and squealing was much more distracting than the glittering acropolis of buildings that lined the opposite side of the street. He ignored the ever-present pain that radiated from his hand up through his arm. It was unimportant - something that would soon end. And it was of little consequence when compared with the heaviness in his heart.
It was almost time for the sun to set. This wasn't his world, but he was eternally linked to the light in the sky. He could feel it as it awakened the morning, and he always knew exactly when it slipped beneath the horizon. His time was short.
He should stay. He could. It would be a simple thing. With the reopening of the portal his powers would return to him. He could fog Pamela's mind and then insert the suggestion that she had asked him to stay... Like an evil sprite, his mind spoke other possibilities to his heart... He could take her with him. Gods had been stealing away their mortal lovers for eons. Mount Olympus was a place filled with incredible wonders and limitless beauty. Surely she could be happy there. Surely she loved him enough to forgive him.
And then how would he be any different than her husband? If he had learned anything from Pamela, it was that love can not be dictated, demanded or imprisoned. He couldn't chain her to him; he could only love her.
Was it just a week ago that he had believed he had conquered love? How naive he had been. Mortal or immortal, love made no distinctions for rank or privilege. Love was a matter of the soul, incorporeal and not subject to the whims of man or god.
Apollo slowed and then guided Pamela to a nearby bench as the noisy group they had been walking behind came to a sudden halt. Like milling cattle they shuffled impatiently and called loudly to one another.
"It's the street; they're waiting for the light," Pamela said, sitting beside him and staring out at the dark water. She sounded almost normal, except that, like a dimmed lamp, the usual animation had faded from her face, leaving her pale and subdued. "The group's too big - it's backed up and it'll probably take two light changes for all of them to cross the street." Her sad eyes looked up at him. "After spending the week in the desert all these people make me feel kind of claustrophobic. Do we have time to sit for a minute and let them go ahead?"
"Yes," he said, putting his arm around her. She rested her head against his shoulder and snuggled into his side. "We don't have to be there the exact instant the portal reappears. We have time."
"How much time?"
"Not much. I do not want to anger Zeus any more by seeming to disregard his command to appear before him."
"What are you going to tell him?"
"The truth." He kissed her forehead. "That I found my soul mate in the modern world, and that my heart's desire is not to be parted from her."
"I hope you're granted your heart's desire as easily as I was granted mine." She lifted her face to his. As he kissed her, she breathed in his scent. His closeness soothed her. When he touched her, she could make herself believe that what he said so often was the truth - that all really would be well. Reluctantly, he ended their kiss, and her stomach tightened uncomfortably.
"It appears the crowd has moved on," Apollo said.
Pamela glanced down the suddenly empty sidewalk. "Looks like there must have been a big rush to get somewhere. It's a little weird." She felt a trickle of something lift the fine hairs on her arms and the back of her neck. Her intuition was telling her to stay there, seated on the bench beside Apollo. But before she could say anything, he was already standing up. With a thick feeling of resignation, she realized that she just didn't want him to go - that was all there was to her so-called intuition.
Distracted, the god shrugged off the strangeness of the deserted walkway. "We should go, too," Apollo said. He pulled her to her feet beside him. Keeping his arm securely around her, they walked slowly to stand alone on the curb while they waited for the light to change from red to green. It wasn't good-bye yet, he told himself. He would keep her close to him all the way through Caesars Palace and would not relinquish her until the portal was before him. Then their separation would only be temporary. Apollo murmured his next thoughts aloud to her. "My father will relent. He has been love's victim too many times not to grant our request."
"Love's victim or lust's victim?" Pamela asked.
He smiled down at her. "For my father, love and lust set the same banquet table, and Zeus enjoys the feast."
Pamela gave an unladylike, sarcastic snort. He laughed, hugging her against him. He couldn't lose her. She tilted her head up to him, and as he bent to kiss her again, the fountain sprang into life. They froze, staring at each other, and then Pamela's face blazed with happiness.
"Perfect!" she said through her laughter. "It couldn't be more perfect."
Once again, Faith Hill seemed to sing only for them.
"It is the best of omens! All will be well," Apollo said joyously. He turned and watched the dancing water.
Almost as if the music compelled him, the god walked to the railing. There was something in the air - something in which he sensed an immortal's hand. It had to be an omen sent from Zeus. Glancing over his shoulder, he grinned happily, motioning for Pamela to join him.
She smiled and nodded, but stayed where she was - just for another moment. Apollo was gazing at the sparkling waters as they geysered into the air in time to the magical song. He was so magnificent, this remarkable god who somehow was the other half of her soul. And suddenly, fiercely she believed that he would make everything right. The God of Light was her soul mate, and he would find a way to return to her.
"... it's... ahhh... impossible! This kiss! This kiss!
Unstoppable! This kiss! This kiss!"
Pamela lifted her foot to take a step forward, and a flash of movement caught at the corner of her eye. Frowning, she turned her head in time to see the car, but not in time to get out of its path as it leapt the curb and rammed into her body.
Filled with new hope, Apollo was smiling at the shooting water when he heard the first terrible screech. Insulated as he was by water and song, the sound seemed far away. Confused, he turned to see what was keeping Pamela. In wordless horror he watched as the metal beast struck her body.
"Pamela!" he screamed. The impact hurtled her to the busy street and directly into the oncoming traffic. Brakes squealed, and drivers veered, smashing into other cars as they tried unsuccessfully to avoid hitting her. Apollo surged forward. Dodging cars and people, he followed her bloody path to where she had finally come to rest in a crumpled heap in the center median.
Shrieking his agony, Apollo dropped to his knees beside her and pulled her broken body into his arms. His flashing, tear-filled eyes stared at the ball of light that still hovered low in the sky.
"Leave the sky!" he commanded the waning sun. "Return my powers to me!"
Pamela felt nothing, just an odd sense of wrongness. As if she had awakened in a dark room in a strange bed, she couldn't see and couldn't get her bearings. Then she heard a scream that tore through her soul. She knew it was Apollo. She tried to open her mouth and call out to him, but her body was no longer under her control. She fought against it, but her eyes closed an instant before the sun set.
Apollo knew when she died. It was one breath before the pain in his hand disappeared and immortal power filled his body. Panicked, he lay her carefully on the cement road and placed his hands on her bloody chest.
"Live!" commanded the God of Light, though he knew he was too late. Even with his immortal powers, he could not reset time. He could not undo what was already done. "No!" his tears mingled with her blood. "No!" he cried.
"Someone call 911!"
"Oh my god! Get an ambulance!"
"Is there a doctor here?"
Apollo heard the cries of the mortals around him. They would come and take her from him.
"No!" he screamed his rage. Standing, he threw his arms out wide. "Be silent!" His command shot like an arrow through the growing crowd, forming a wall of power that struck each of them deaf and dumb, turning the mortals into silent, openmouthed statues.
Then the God of Light looked down at his fallen love.
"No." He whispered the word this time. "It will not be." He made the decision quickly. He had to. If he hesitated now, it would be too late. Regardless of the consequences, it was the only way. Apollo stretched his hands out above Pamela's body. "Come to me. I command you not to depart this realm."
Beneath Apollo's outstretched hands, Pamela's body began to glow, and then a sphere of pure light lifted to hover between the god's palms.
"Apollo!"
He heard the cry behind him and, keeping the globe of light between his hands, he whirled. Like a sprite, Artemis ran through the smashed cars and silent, frozen mortals until she came close enough to see what it was her brother loomed over and what it was he held between his palms. She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. Moving with surprising speed, Eddie rushed up beside her. As his mind tried to make sense of the scene before him, the author's face drained of all color.
"You should not have lifted the spell from him," Apollo snarled.
"I didn't know... I didn't think... Oh, my brother. What have you done?" She stared from Pamela's body to the pulsing light he gripped possessively.
"I was too late," he said brokenly. "The sun was too late. They killed her."
Artemis approached him slowly, as if he was one of her wild woodland creatures. "But what are you doing? You hold her immortal soul."
Apollo cradled the light against his body. "I will not lose her!"
"Apollo - " she began.
"No! I will not lose her!" His angry cry caused lightning to spike across the sky. "Laws of the Universe be damned. Over and over it has been said that love is the strongest force in the universe." The god's wild eyes turned to the stunned author. "You are a bard in this world. Is that not what you proclaim?"
Unable to find the words to speak, E. D. Faust could only nod.
"Then I say my love for her overrules the Laws of the Universe!"
"Apollo, you can not keep her like this. Her immortal soul will not rest in this realm. You know that," Artemis said.
"I am not going to keep her in this realm."
Artemis' eyes widened with understanding. "Hades!"
"He will know what to do. He must know what to do," Apollo said.
"Yes." The goddess's voice broke. "Go to your friend, my Brother. I pray that he will have an answer for you. For both of you."
His expression dazed, as if he was just noticing the extent of what his power had wrought, Apollo looked around him at the crumpled cars and frozen people.
"I will make this right," Artemis said. "Go. Pamela needs you."
"Zeus?"
"I will appear before our father. It was because of me you entered this kingdom. I began this. I should end it."
Apollo shook his head. "It was not you, Artemis. Blame the Fates if you must. Pamela and I were destined to meet."
"Then you must take her to the Underworld and petition Hades for a resolution."
"Thank you, my Sister..." Apollo's voice faded. Still clutching the glowing soul, the god moved with speed that was impossible for mortal eyes to behold between the cars and into Caesars Palace to the portal that waited there.
With heavy steps, Artemis approached Pamela's body.
"How could something so strong be contained in such a fragile shell?" The goddess looked down at her friend as tears washed her cheeks.
"My heart was right all along," Eddie said reverently. He approached her and then, when he was beside her, he dropped to one knee. "You truly are the Goddess Artemis."
"Yes," she said, resting one soft hand on the author's shoulder, "but I do not feel like a goddess. I feel like a woman who has just lost a very good friend." She drew a deep breath and let it out on a sob. "Look at her, Eddie. She is all broken."
For a moment Eddie hesitated. Then he reached up and patted the goddess's hand reassuringly. "She isn't here, Artemis. She's with Apollo."
"You're right. I know. It's just that... just that I didn't have a chance to say good-bye, or I'm sorry, or even thank you."
"Sometimes," Eddie said quietly, "you don't get to say those things. That's what it is to be a mortal. We can only try to live our lives with enough joy and passion that when our time is finished we leave behind more good memories than regrets."
"I didn't understand that before, but I do now. I think there is a part of me that from here on throughout eternity will always feel a little mortal." She smiled sadly at Pamela's body. "I think it might be the best part of me."
On impulse, Artemis bent and grasped the coin carrying her brother's image, which still hung around Pamela's neck. With a flick of her fingers it came free and pooled in her palm. "Apollo would want me to keep this for her." She closed her hand, and the coin disappeared. Then the goddess knelt beside her friend's body.
"What will you do?" Eddie asked.
"What I can," Artemis said softly.
She lifted her hands, and they began to glow with the cool white light of a full moon. "Good-bye, my friend," she murmured as she passed her luminous hands down Pamela's body - changing - rearranging - and doing what she could to make it right. When the light faded, the mortal's broken body had been replaced by the body of a beautiful young doe.
Wearily, Artemis stood. "Walk with me, Eddie. I must return and face my father."
"Of course, my Goddess."
Tucking her arm within his, he led her carefully away from the body of the fallen doe. They had almost reached the sidewalk when Artemis suddenly stopped. Scenting the air like a creature of the forest, she turned her head and narrowed her eyes. The car was battered. The front of it caved inwards and bloodied with the clear marks of where it had hit Pamela's body. Artemis stepped closer and peered within the car. The woman frozen by Apollo's spell had both hands gripping the steering wheel. Strapped securely into her seat, she was uninjured, but her eyes were wide and filled with an unspeakable terror. Artemis drew in another deep breath.
The mortal's body reeked of liquor, and not just any liquor. Artemis' keen senses recognized the sweet scent of ambrosia mixed with lust and despair and addiction. The God of the Vine's mark was there, not clearly branded, as her bond to Pamela had been. It was more hidden, though no less binding. Artemis closed her eyes against the intensity of her anger. He would pay, she promised herself. She would see to it that Bacchus paid.
When she opened her eyes, she found Eddie watching her intently.
"You know what caused this."
"I do," Artemis said.
Eddie's face hardened in anger. "Make them pay, Goddess."
"I shall, my warrior. I shall."
Resolutely, Artemis turned to face the carnage that jealousy and spite had caused. She raised her hands. Voice magnified by her immortal power, her words shimmered throughout Las Vegas as the beautiful Huntress Goddess soothed, healed, and then destroyed the last vestiges of Bacchus' malevolent spell.
"Let their spirits be free
tonight no other shall die
the doe is the miracle they see
though they know not how or why.
"Upon their immortal souls my blessings shall rain
washing their memories - easing their pain. "
She dropped her hands, and pandemonium broke free around them. Shouts of "Can you believe it? It's a deer!" filled the night as people rushed into the street and the sound of an ambulance siren wailed in the distance. Through it all, Artemis simply took Eddie's arm. The two of them walked away, unseen, in a powerful bubble of immortal serenity.
"You did a kind thing, my Goddess." Eddie patted her hand as they made their way up the sidewalk that led to the main entrance of Caesars Palace.
Artemis smiled at him. "Thank you." Then she cocked her head, considering.
"Goddess?" the author asked.
"Eddie, I may not be able to return here. Olympus will find these events disturbing."
"I understand that." He hesitated and allowed his veneer of eccentric author to slip so that his heartbreak showed clearly in his eyes. "From the beginning I knew that you would not stay with me. Regardless of that, I chose to love you. I do not regret one instant of that choice. And I shall hold your memory close to my heart as long as there is breath in my body."
"Perhaps there is a way my memory would not be all you held close to your heart," she said slowly.
The author's eyes widened in surprise.
"Eddie, have you ever heard of a kingdom called Tulsa, Oklahoma?"