Frozen Holidays 1& 2 Eudorus and Zelus by Crystal Dawn Page A

What’s your extension?” she sounded worried and
nervous.
    That was no surprise if she was betraying a
group like Origin. All their high level officers were vicious and
cold. As far as Zelus was concerned they were soulless fiends,
capable of anything. Part of that observation probably came from
being at their mercy most of his life. There were things he refused
to do regardless of the encouragement and he had the scars to prove
it.
    “You can talk to anyone at this number.”
    “No, you. I want to talk to you or
I’ll just forget about it.”
    “Don’t do that. It’s extension Z. I’ll be
here,” he reassured her quickly.
    “Thank you,” she said just before the line
went dead.
    Hades came running into the room and everyone
looked up but it was Zelus he approached. “I want to hear it,” he
demanded as he held out his hand.
    Hades was responding to the button Zelus had
pushed indicating they had a possible lead on a god. All the
stations in the call center had such a button. The alarm was routed
to whichever command level god was on duty at the time. Zelus
handed him his ear phones so he could replay the conversation
without interrupting the others taking calls from all around the
world. While they had up to ten gods manning phones at any given
time and they were kept busy, only a handful of calls in a week,
led to anything worth investigating. Often, all the calls of worth
were about the same case. This call was different since people just
didn’t betray Origin. Once they were caught, that was different but
this woman was free. It made no sense.
    Zelus was sure, down to his bones, that the
call was legitimate. His mind was like a runaway train as
questioned ran through it and he couldn’t find a way to slow them
down. Her voice had aroused him which made him ashamed. She had
said she was bad, too dark a soul to redeem. What if it was true
but he wanted her anyway? What if only part of what she said was
true and she was trying to use him against his brothers? He knew so
little except her voice called to him. Could he really want a
female so morally corrupt that she sat by or even assisted in the
torture of his brothers?
    He looked at Hades who had set down the
headphones and was looking at him thoughtfully. It was never good
to draw Hades’s full attention. He pushed his worry to the side for
now. Hades would make all the decisions on this case. His only part
would be talking to her and even then, Hades or another higher
level god, maybe even Zeus, would make all the decisions on any
deal struck. He would just follow orders, something he was very
good at.
    “You make sure you’re here early tomorrow,”
Hades said in his usual no nonsense way. The thought of bringing
home two gods and a small girl child who was part god, was
heartwarming. The thoughts he had about a female who wanted to
betray Origin and hide among them, not so much.
    Everyone made mistakes, but there were some
mistakes so big and bad that you couldn’t come back from them,
weren’t there? How bad had she been? Had she killed gods and
innocents? Had she only helped and not killed them herself? Or was
she only guilty of turning a blind eye and overlooking the pain and
suffering others caused? He was glad he wasn’t in charge because
they would be walking a fine line on the deal they needed to make.
She would be suspicious, hell, she already was. He could just
imagine the conversation in Zeus’s office right about now. He was
glad he hadn’t been invited.
    “Who the hell is she and do you think she
really knows where two gods are?” Zeus growled. They were searching
for the lost gods, but it was taking so much time, too much time.
Teams of gods and humans were spending weeks sometimes chasing
leads with little or no results. “What about this girl child? Do
you think she’s really part god?” Zeus looked around waiting for
someone to answer.
    “It wouldn’t be surprising to find that the
girl is part god. She certainly wouldn’t