Hades by Crystal Dawn Page A

completely
abandoned, even Pedro found nothing of value. The worst part was
when they returned to the beach where they had landed. Origin hit
them with a full force, were it not for their tactical body armor,
lives would have been lost. Origin had only provided their team
with vests so they had lost several men. He had come so close to
losing Doc and in the end, it had been her ability to protect
herself that had saved her.
    He knew he was agitated, knew he needed to
calm down, but the ride back to Olympus had not helped his state of
mind. They had been waiting for them, how had they known? He had
two wounded gods and he might have lost his mate forever. Who knows
what Origin would have done with her and if the gods could have
even found her again. He wanted to kill each and every person that
worked for Origin and damn their souls to hell like the Hades of
Greek myths could. Unfortunately, he couldn’t and he wasn’t happy
about that, it made him feel helpless.
    “Calm down,” she whispered to him before they
headed into the meeting room.
    “I’ve tried but I can’t. I didn’t protect you
and I almost lost you. Those bastards almost took you from me and
you had to save yourself.”
    “I’m part of the team, sometimes I have to
help you fight. I’m a warrior too, you’re not alone.”
    “I don’t want you to have to fight, you’re a
healer.”
    “I am a healer, but I’m also a warrior, a
lover, a sister, a friend. I’m many things, Baby, and I’m strong
enough to be all of them.”
    He knew what she meant and he respected her
for her strength, but he had been scared to death he would lose her
and he still hadn’t recovered from that hollow feeling even just
the thought had given him. He had seen her during the battle
fighting her way through Origin soldiers while he was forced to
fight his own adversaries, unable to go to her aid until they were
all defeated.
    Zeus sat at the head of the table once more
taking the time to look at each person present. “Anyone have any
idea what happened and how it happened?”
    “They must have some inside information, they
were waiting for us when we returned to the copters. If we hadn’t
had our gear on, it would have been a slaughter,” Hades said. “The
place was a total bust, nothing of value at all. The only thing
there was a trap.”
    “If we have a leak, we need to seal it,” Zeus
said. “We can’t have another mission like this. Nothing recovered
and we had guys injured. It could have been worse, but we need to
get it together so no one gets injured.”
    “How will we find out where the leak is? No
one knew which location we were going to,” Hades pointed out.
    “Origin may have allowed the list to fall
into our hands. They may have teams at more than one location. We
need to take the time for satellite surveillance.”
    “It takes too long, our guys could die before
we get to them,” Hades growled.
    “The risks are too great, we have no
choice.”
    Hercules took charge of the surveillance
personally and less than a week later he had some information that
would give them something to think about. They sat in the meeting
room, just the core leaders and their mates. Mated gods and most
demons weren’t sent on the mission normally but Hermes and Cherish
had both been involved in the satellite surveillance since they
both had skills in that area. Poseidon, Apollo, and Ares would
decide which of the gods they directed would be sent on each
mission. Lu was there representing the demons who would also send
someone along.
    “Who are you going to send, Lu,” Doc asked
with a smile on her face. Hades fought with the ugly jealousy that
reared its head. If they were hot for each other, he knew they had
had the chance to explore it but they hadn’t. They were just
friends and he repeated that over and over in his head.
    “You guys got lucky.”
    “We did?” Doc looked confused.
    “My very best demon volunteered to go to make
sure things don’t go to