Ricardo was in deep shit. He had to get out, and fast.

Sophia, his cult-division's overseer, would expose him. She'd borne witness (from the sly corner of her periphery) to the rosy glamour overtaking Ricardo's eyes with the transferring of Aphrodite's powers. The owl-eyed, mouth-hung state had been enough to tell him the game was up. She had left to speak with the Division Father moments later.

Akh! This is your fault!

I beg your pardon! You were the one incapable of a simple levitation spell. All I did was help.

Yeah, help me to get caught! Now they'll skin me alive!

Shoving the last stray clothes in his duffle bag, Ricardo wiped the sinking sweat from his brow.

Now he'd have to get out.

Oh relax my dear, teleportation is simply the easiest thing.  Now I prithee sit back, I shall handle this.

A sceptical creature backed in to a corner, Ricardo yielded to Aphrodite's blasée tone and dominating presence. He prepared himself for the still foreign sensation of looking in on the world through eyes belonging to a body not under his control. In the mirror opposite, Aphrodite ruffled the dull locks framing his face, giving them a little of what she would call 'va va voom', bringing forwards a few strands to lay delicately over the baby pink that glittered in his irises.

Hah, there we are. Gorgeous.

Ricardo's heart would have hammered, had it heard the great rapping upon the door. It wasn't his heart for the moment, though: it was Aphrodite's.

She rolled her eyes (like Ricardo's heart, no longer his) procuring a tube of lip balm from the top jacket pocket, dabbing it on the lips- that she'd pinched plump as she'd done the cheeks.

Oh no, in your own time! It'll only kill me!

A lazy flick of two fingers flung the door open while Aphrodite still touched up her look.

WHAT THE-

"You've had your fun Ricardo," Division Father Raymond boomed, impressive frame taking up the entirety of the doorway- only a few appendages of other cult members could be seen behind his robust figure, "Now come with us."

Smacking her lips, Aphrodite withdrew from the mirror passing a lingering eye over Father Raymond.

"Oh I'm sorry dear," her rolling tongue and elongated vowels distorted Ricardo's usual bass, "Ricardo's not here at the moment." She popped the lip balm back in Ricardo's pocket, something quite malicious spreading across her face (what might be confused for a smile).
"But here's a penny for your troubles." She swatted the air.

Father Raymond crumbled. Those behind him too fell, both under the weight of the man and the power of her godly magic. Pink sparks danced across their closed eyelids, a few sighs escaping lazy lips every now and again.

But you-?

Nothing wrong with a little dramatic flair darling, is there. The spell won't last them long- my magic is severely weakened in this body. How I long for my own lines and curves!

Lamenting at the unseemly state of her nails, Aphrodite snapped her fingers twice. On the second count, she shut her eyes. A pull in her gut told her all that she'd wanted to know.

They had arrived.

With a final satisfied huff, Aphrodite resigned the controls to Ricardo, taking her seat quite comfortable out of the action.

You're amazing Lady Aphrodite, did I ever tell you- AYYYYYY!

Ricardo slammed a hand over his eyes, frantically repeating, "Sorry-sorry! I'm so sorry! Uh...No hablo ingles! I didn't-"

Oh myyyyyy...

The woman had untangled an arm from the mess of limbs, holding the glowing digit out in front of her.

"Esir edalb!"

He held his hands up, the point of a knife itching towards his jugular, hovering in midair. Ricardo's eyes darted between the pair swathed in red sheets. The quilt threatened to dip dangerously beneath the man's waist, his bared chest meeting the night air as the witch stole the sheet for herself. She drew the fabric so that it draped just over her torso, a pale arm stuck out of it controlling the knife.

Coming to his wits, the blond man (legs buried beneath the covers) grabbed from the bedside table what appeared to be a necklace with a pale blue gemstone.

Fuck. Amulet.

He flung it at the intruder.

Jagged tunes ignited the floor around Ricardo, burning with a blue light; they didn't singe his clothes. A perfect dome snapped in place around him, confining Aphrodite's host to two square metres.

The knife clattered to the floor in front of him.

Breathless, the man reached for his underwear on the floor, shoving it under the quilt to put on. The witch spared no time for normalcy, snapping in to an unanticipated (for Ricardo) shit and tails, with the snazzy addition of fishnet tights.

Zeus' bolts look at those legs. Aphrodite purred. Now hurry up explaining yourself because I truly would like the prior entertainment to resume- gosh, were I in my own form... she fell back in to what Ricardo presumed was another one of her sex-flashbacks. He shook the thoughts out of his head.

"Who are you?" The black-haired witch (whom the goddess was in the process of swooning over) demanded, hands bared threateningly.

Hopping in to his trousers, the blond steadied himself on the bedside table. She gave him an unsurprised eye-roll, pinning her stare on Ricardo with an uncomfortably sensual glare: the intensity brought him out in a sweat, pasting his shirt to his skin.

Righting himself, the man, tilted his head, mouth smooshed (IDC if that's not a real word. It is now.) to on side. He ruffled his hair (a bit too much like straw for Ricardo to think he took good enough care of it), thoroughly baffled.

Ricardo's eyes flashed pink.

The godly presence was enough to shock Constantine and Zatanna out of theirs.

His partner taking a sweet moment to gawp, John began slowly, "You...you're Aphrodite's host. Big Greek sky lady...Aphrodite...that one..."

Zatanna dropped her hands, eyeing the encaged man dubiously, "Aphrodite's host, the informant for Cult numero uno?" She asked.

Cult numero uno? Ricardo was taken aback. Implying there was another cult? That would make things difficult if the other one didn't seem to have a name (which was not exactly the most important part of the discovery to consider, was it?).

Ricardo saw the benefit of not giving your organisation a name for more secrecy...but if two similar groups were nameless, that's would just be confusing. Recruitment would be much harder. And even- yeah maybe that's not the main point here.

You don't say?

"Uh yeah, hi, that's me." He waved.

Jesus, why did I wave? Pendejo...

Both staring blankly at him, Ricardo didn't see that tingly dome of magical force coming down. Perhaps more explanation was in order.

"Aphrodite brought me here."

Throw me under the locomotive why don't you!

"We're trying to get to Batman.My cover was blown." He thought that was the best way to put it (much more technical than 'help I fucked up'). "I guess she got the placing wrong,"

Traitorous heathen-

"I'm really sorry." Ricardo finished meekly.

A word, in what Ricardo suspected was an elvish tongue, dismantled the hemisphere. Constantine contemplated chucking on a shirt. This was not the way he had planned on his night going.

Running a weary hand down her face, Zatanna sighed, "Sorry, what's your name?"

The reader will not be surprised to hear that he replied, "Ricardo."

He wasn't about to say Shakira was he?

"Right, Ricardo, and Lady Aphrodite, it's late and sleep always makes life easier to process." She looked to who Ricardo presumed was her boyfriend or husband (something romantic-y).

He continued, "Look mate, there's some empty bedrooms just along the corridor outside. Crash for a few hours and we'll deal with this once I've gotten a few hours in. Understood? Cheers." John promptly flung himself on to the bed, face down.

How rude! But those shoulders...

Ricardo didn't even know their names. What if they killed him in the night?

He looked to the face-planted blondie. Yeah, that man wasn't getting up for shit.

The witch smiled apologetically. stifling a yawn, "We're friends of Batman. I'm Zatanna by the way." She chucked a thumb in Constantine's direction. "That's John. We'll sort this." She gave way to a whale-like yawn. "But first, sleep." And crawled under the covers, curling in to a feral shape and snuggling under the blanket.

That did seem like a good idea.

A.N:

Aww lil Ricardo and Aphrodite are back! How do you guys feel about this chapter? Two pairs here that I really enjoy writing! I know it's not a lovely Damirae chapter, but I hope I've been able to craft and hone characters so that you'll love reading them all the same ^-^

You are so precious my darlings xxx

-Bats :)