CHAPTER1
The potent scentof burned sandalwood and jasmine filled the air, along with the sounds of Rick Astley’sNever Gonna Give You Up,and Calliope sighed in earnest as she sipped her pomegranate martini.
“Try not to look so excited,” Hattie—also known as Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of love, music, and beauty, and Calliope’s closest friend—said with a hefty sigh.Calliope licked the tart liquid off of her lips, relishing in the bitterness of the alcohol, her nerves starting to settle barely a fraction.
Ever since Hades took over the financial adjustments, it seems the martinis are not hitting quite as hard as they used to...
“Forgive me, but I find it hard to appear excited when I am at my wit’s end,” Calliope mused dramatically.
Hattie shifted in her chair, adjusting the neckline of her dress—if one could call the amalgamation of linens and gold a dress with how little it actually covered the woman.
“I would think a woman such as yourself would be dying to eat up the mortals in this place,” she said, raising a brow at her friend.
Calliope shrugged, rolling her amber eyes at her friend from behind her bronze roman mask.
“The only thing I am dying to do, Hattie, is paint,” she said wistfully as she drained the last bit of her martini.She slowly shook the glass in the air, trying to signal the bartender, who, it seemed, did not see her.
It used to be quite different for her.Once upon a glorious moon, Calliope truly felt as if she had it all.There was a plethora of men—and women—for a muse to inspire.Playwrights and poets searching for their spark or that one piece that would make them renowned.Musicians seeking their big break or their next record-shattering hit.Artisans dying for a drop of inspiration so they could feel the high of notoriety, so they could feelsomething.And Calliope was always there to answer the call.As a muse, it was her destiny to inspire, and in turn, the benefits sated her in a way nothing else could.As they chased their muse, the muse chased the best feeling in the world.To be adored.Worshipped.And that itself, was the highest form of inspiration a muse could discern.The praise of those Calliope serviced or took under her wing fed her like blood feeds a vampire.
Although it seems nowadays, perhaps there are other things that could feed a vampire...
Calliope pushed the thought from her mind.She did not want to think about her vampiric student, Izzy, who had somehow found her mate—in this very establishment, no less—in a shy, sweet hellhound shifter with godly connections.Not that Calliope disliked the gods and goddesses, but her relationship to those who sat on their high thrones, with statues and monuments built for them, tended to be, in Calliope’s opinion, a bit full of themselves.And most gods and goddesses did not see her as an equal figure of adoration.She was amuse.Nothing more, nothing less.An immortal divine being meant to provide a service or gifts, rather than to be worshipped or praised.
Most gods and goddesses favored this opinion of Calliope, but Hathor and Athena considered her a friend, as well as Athena’s brother, Mars—who, after his near death experience seemed all too happy these days with Lorelai, her former student and friend.And of course, there was her cocky ex-lover, Chuck—as Pegasus referred to himself nowadays.While Calliope didn’t mind a good hook up once in a while, she knew better than to take up with a former flame.Especially one as self-centered as Chuck.She’d had more than her fill of his cock years ago when they were young, and though the sex was enjoyable enough, the art it produced for her was lackluster and downright embarrassing.She was rather glad when the paintings burned along with his temple.
The winged pegacorn shifter wasnota clear path to inspiration, even albeit a temporary one for the muse.No matter how lonely she got.
But Calliope knewsomethingneeded to change.Her canvas had been blank for far too long.Longer than usual, due to the fact that she had not found it within herself to seek a new patron after David had...
She sighed, not wanting to think about the man.Every time she did, all she felt was remorse, pain.Guilt.And while those things could be inspiring to Calliope, they were the opposite now.She wasblocked.Creatively, personally.Sexually.It was as frustrating as it was aggravating.
She was itching to paint, to create, but every time she stepped in front of her canvas, every time she tried to dosomething, nothing happened.Her mind was suddenly blank.It seemed quite ironic that a woman who taught painting Monday through Friday at the University of Southern California could not, in all actuality, find the muse within herself to paint.It was like a terrible joke, one that did not leave Calliope laughing.
First Mars loses his powers, and then David dies and my inspiration takes a bloody vacay without my consent...
Though in the case of Mars’s lost powers, he had revived them.With his divined mate’s declaration of love, of course, which gave him thewill to live.
Ryza was always the most dramatic Fate.
Even Izzy, her former student, had found solace with her hellhound mate, savinghimfrom certain death when she’d bonded him.And the two of them seemed positively enamored with one another now, which would be much more adorable if they could keep their hands off one another when they were working.At the gallery on campus Calliope now oversaw most of the time, with its owner, Professor Leehan, quietly transitioning into retirement while his son, Brian, transitioned to take his place.
But Calliope would not be able to divine anything from David Green, like Mars or Isabelle.Because David was dead.Which was her fault, clearly.After all, it was her gifts that drove him to the brink of madness before he took his own life.
Which was entirely the reason Calliope had let Hattie talk her into coming to this dreadfulspeed datingspecial event at Aphrodite and Eve’s DeLux Cafe.
Masquerade of Mystery, a one night only special event held at the luminous cafe where the mortals and supernaturals as well as the immortals like herself could partake in a moreintimatesetting than the typical Speed Dating sessions on Wednesday nights.
It had been Hattie’s idea, of course.The woman ravished impulsivity, and her idea of entertainment could often be as whimsical as her inspirations themselves.As a goddess of music and a patron of the arts, Calliope had garnered the idea sounded logical in theory—a little anonymity in an intimate, sensual setting, one that was not full of haunting memories, like theDen of Sin,could lead her to someone...even if it was just for a night.And knowing how many gods, goddesses, and supernaturals alike had found their mates within the DeLux Cafe, a part of her dared to hope that attending would bring her the same success.Even if it was just for one night.One night, one kiss, one spark was all Calliope truly needed, but now that she was here, in the DeLux Café, in her too-flowing silk toga with her bronzed mask and her dark hair piled atop her head, heart beating in her chest as she signaled once more for the bloody bartender, she wondered if she’d made a mistake.
What am I even doing here, truly...
“Oh, stop being such a square, Callie.”Hattie dismissed her with a wave as she drained her martini.
Callie sighed once more as Hattie motioned for the bartender to bring them a fresh round of drinks.She sighed in defeat as the bartender smirked and nodded at them as someone announced that the first round of the speed date would take place in twenty minutes.
“I am not a square.I am a circle of infinite inspiration,” she drawled as the bartender set a fresh pomegranate martini in front of her.Calliope did not think twice about grabbing the drink her friend had bought her, and taking a long steady sip.It was rather tart for her taste, but not bad.
Hattie chuckled beside her.“Then start acting like it, woman!”She smirked at her as she raised her glass.The goddess’s bright blue eyes glowed behind her petinae’d mask, the vibrant blue streaks and feathers in her hair shimmering beneath the light.“Quit pining over howuninspired you areand get your butt out there in the real world again.”
