Starcrossed: Goddess Part 2

Andy screamed and whirled around. She saw a tall, beautiful youth crowned with golden curls. The edges of him twinkled in the thin sunlight of the chilly November morning.

"What are you doing here?" Andy said calmly. She blinked her sun-dazzled eyes and glanced around for another person. Wellesley College was an all-girls' school in the most blue-blooded, upper-crusty, and thoroughly traditional area of Ma.s.sachusetts. Unless this boy was a professor or a security guard, he was not allowed this deep into the campus without a visitor's badge.

"You're very talented," he said, moving toward her.

"You said you saw me, huh?" Andy took a step back, not liking this situation. "How could you see me in the chapel? I was alone."

He laughed, his voice dancing around the notes like a wind chime. "I wasn't in the chapel, of course. I saw you through that big window."

"You saw me through a stained-gla.s.s window? How'd you pull that off?"

"I could find someone as beautiful as you no matter where you hide. You're so radiant, I bet you even glow in the dark."

The way he said it didn't sound phony. He wasn't leering or rude in any way, but he was still moving toward her, even though she obviously didn't want him to. When he got closer, Andy saw something wrong in his eyes-something distinctly animal and not human at all. She remembered the sunlight hitting her face through the stained-gla.s.s window and figured out how he'd seen her. She knew who, or rather, what, she was dealing with now. Andy backed away quickly, her breath starting to rasp with real fear.

"Are you going to run from me?" the youth asked poignantly, like this had happened to him many times before.

"Would you chase me?" she asked, adding to her voice the seductive, hypnotic edge that could drive mortal men to their death. She needed to stall for time, maybe get him to follow her back to the path. There was sure to be someone up there to help her.

"Of course I would," he said, his eyes smoldering and his voice low. He was aroused, but not hypnotized-unfortunately for Andy. "Only the ones who run are worth catching."

Doesn't it figure? she thought with that desperate hilarity that only happens in the most hopeless circ.u.mstances. I spend my whole life deathly afraid of tempting a boy, and I end up getting jumped by one at an all-girls' school.

The light sparked off him again, catching his edges and making him look more real than real, like he existed in 4-D. Andy knew this was no trick of the rising autumn sun. She also knew this was no boy. Her mother had warned her of the possibility of something like this, but Andy had never thought it would come to pa.s.s.

"Hey, Andy!" called an intensely chipper girl Andy had met over a month ago at freshman orientation and avoided ever since. She eyed Andy and the boy uncertainly. The noisy cl.u.s.ter of girls behind her went silent when they saw that Andy was with a boy. "Are you coming to cla.s.s?"

"Hi . . . Susan!" Andy yelled back frantically, remembering the girl's name at the last moment. "I want to go with you!"

The beautiful youth smiled sadly at Andy as the chattering knot of young women moved closer to collect her. Then he turned and ran off toward Lake Waban.

"Where did your friend go?" Susan asked, perplexed.

"He's not my friend," Andy said, grasping at Susan's mitten-covered hand with relief. "We need to go to campus security right now."

"I can describe him!" squealed a girl in Susan's posse who had s.h.i.+ny black hair and cinnamon skin. She told the security guard, "He must have been freezing because he was only wearing jeans and a tight T-s.h.i.+rt!"

"He had curly blond hair, and he was really tan. Like a Malibu surfer boy," a chubby girl with stick-straight, blonde hair blurted out, like she couldn't contain her exuberance.

"He had really smooth skin, too. Like a dolphin!" t.i.ttered the cinnamon girl back to the blonde girl, and the two of them fell in a fit of snickers, drooling over Andy's almost-rapist.

Andy dropped her face into her hand and rubbed her eyes while she listened to more of the same from the rest of the witnesses-or "groupies" as she was beginning to think of them. She reminded herself that they couldn't help their response. They were only human.

After spending the next two hours with security, relating the entire experience, and walking the guards to the exact spot where she had been accosted, Andy had gratefully accepted a new fob for her key chain. She had an official stalker, one who had made it onto the campus, without a pa.s.s no less, and the guards were not about to let her wander around without taking a few precautions. The fob was a panic b.u.t.ton that would bring them to her in an instant. If she even caught sight of the boy again, she was to summon them. Andy wondered if she would really press it and endanger them all, or if she would face him alone.

Although Susan and her gaggle had stepped up and corroborated Andy's story, they all did so with a touch of confusion. Andy had reported word for word what the boy had said to her, and any one of them would have given her eyeteeth to have the same things said to them by such a hottie.

Andy couldn't explain that this wasn't romance. Men had always said things like that to her, but it had nothing to do with love. She went to all-girl Catholic schools her entire life and had run away from every man who'd pursued her, but that didn't stop them from chasing. She'd run away from the girls who had pursued her, too, and there had been plenty of those. After that horrendous experience in seventh grade when her best friend had tried to kiss her in front of Sister Mary Francis's history cla.s.s, she'd never even allowed herself to have girl friends.

Andy stayed away from people as a rule. It was for their own good. Her kind were too dangerous for mortals to be around.

Somehow, after several cla.s.ses, she managed to get rid of Susan and her entourage. Susan had looked at her with a mixture of worry and longing when Andy made it quite clear that she was ditching them. Andy felt bad about it. Susan was pretty and popular and seemed like a genuinely good person. That was exactly why Andy had to nip this relations.h.i.+p in the bud. She didn't want to hurt someone as awesome as Susan just so she could have a friend. Susan deserved better than that.

It was after 9:00 p.m. when Andy's astronomy cla.s.s ended, and she made her way past Paramecium Pond to her dorm. Her nose itched. She took her hand out of her pocket, letting go of the fob for just a moment, and felt thick, muscular arms grip across her chest from behind.

"Run," he whispered in her ear. "I love to chase."

Helen dreamed of dolphins, but this was no happy little dream about visiting SeaWorld. The dolphin Helen saw did not do flips or tricks. The dolphin in the dream was hunting a girl about Helen's age. The girl tried to swim away from it, but the dolphin kept pus.h.i.+ng her down beneath the surface, hitting her with its flippers and tail until she bled.

The girl swam for a buoy, bobbing out in the middle of nowhere, gasping and crying as she struggled through the waves. The dolphin attacked, but this time, instead of flippers, a man's arms wrapped around the girl and squeezed.

Helen's eyes snapped open and she gasped for air, feeling like a vise had clamped down on her chest. She awoke to darkness.

How many days had she been fading in and out? she wondered. She remembered her mother cleaning off the worst of the blood and dirt with a wet sponge, Kate spoon-feeding her soup, and Claire dividing an orange between her and a puce-colored Ariadne. She remembered Orion's scars, and her heart squeezed painfully for him all over again.

Helen remembered other things, too-things that had never happened to her, like tying a toga (Chiton, she remembered. The Greeks wore chitons, and the Romans wore togas) and carding wool. Helen Hamilton was d.a.m.n sure she'd never tied a chiton or carded wool in her entire life, but she remembered doing both.

Those "visions" of Helen of Troy always felt like memories, and now that she was fully awake, Helen was pretty sure that's exactly what they were. But how could she remember someone else's memories? It was impossible. And considering how horrible these borrowed memories were, what Helen really wanted to know was how she could make them stop.

"Lennie?" whispered Claire, somewhere by Helen's feet.

Helen looked down and saw Claire poking her head up over the back of the fainting couch that Ariadne had at the foot of the bed. Usually, Ariadne just threw her clothes over it, so Helen thought of it more as a place to pile outfits than something to sit on.

"Are you awake for real or just visiting for a sec?" Claire asked. Even in the bleached predawn light coming through the window, Helen could see the worry in Claire's eyes.

"I'm awake, Gig." Helen sat up painfully. "How long have I been out?"

"About two days."

That was it? To Helen, it felt like weeks. She looked over at Ariadne, still sleeping. "Is she going to be okay?" Helen asked.

"Yeah," Claire answered, sitting all the way up. "She and Jason are going to be fine."

"Orion? Lucas?"

"They're all right-beat up, but getting better." Claire looked away, and her brow furrowed.

"My dad?"

"He's been awake a couple of times, but only for a few seconds. Ari and Jason are doing their best."

That wasn't the response Helen had been hoping for. She nodded and swallowed the lump in her throat. Her father wasn't a Scion, and he'd come closer to death than any of them. It was going to take him a lot longer to recover. Helen pushed the thought that he might never fully recover out of her mind and looked at Claire.

"How are you?" Helen asked, seeing the sad look on her best friend's face.

"Wicked tired. You?"

"Starving." Helen swung her legs out of bed, and Claire got up to help her. The two friends wobbled downstairs together to raid the refrigerator. Even though Helen knew she had to eat as much as she could shove down in order to help her body rebuild itself while she healed, she couldn't take her eyes off Claire.

"What is it, Gig?" Helen asked quietly after swallowing only a bite or two of chicken noodle soup. "Is it Jason?"

"It's all of you. Everyone got hurt this time. And I know that this isn't the end of it," Claire answered, still uncharacteristically sad. "There's a war coming, isn't there?"

Helen put her spoon down. "I don't know, but the G.o.ds are free to leave Olympus and come to Earth again. Because of me."

"It's not your fault," Claire began defensively. "You got tricked."

"So? Tricked or not, I failed," Helen said in a matter-of-fact way. "I let Ares corner me, even though I'd been warned that something was going to happen."

She felt horrible, but she knew she couldn't allow herself to wallow in guilt, so she kept the self-pity out of her voice. The Underworld had taught her that indulging in negativity, no matter how justified, would never solve any of her problems. She filed that revelation away for some other conversation with Hades and got back on topic. "Have the G.o.ds appeared anywhere yet? Have they done anything?"

The image of a big, beautiful stallion running down a beach flashed in Helen's head. There was blood on his forelegs. The image made her shudder with revulsion.

"We haven't heard anything," Claire said with a shrug. "At least, no wrath-of-the-G.o.ds stuff."

"What has Ca.s.sandra foreseen?"

"Nothing. She hasn't made any prophecies at all since the three of you were brought back here."

Helen pursed her lips together, lost in thought. Just when the Scions needed an Oracle the most, of course, she'd be silent. That's the way Greek drama worked. Still, it bothered Helen. Greek or not, there still had to be a reason Ca.s.sandra couldn't see the future. "Because it's ironic" just wasn't a good enough answer for Helen anymore.

"Len?" Claire asked, her voice a frightened whisper. "Can you stop the G.o.ds?"

"I don't know, Gig." Helen looked over at her best friend. Claire was pale with fear and lack of sleep. "But if any of them try to hurt any of us, I'll fight them with everything I've got."

Claire smiled, finally relaxing a little. "Eat your soup," she admonished suddenly, like it just occurred to her.

Helen snickered and obeyed. She knew this was Claire's way of rea.s.suming her usual role as the boss, and she dutifully reached for her spoon while she thought about the G.o.ds. They might not be smiting any mountaintops just yet, but that didn't mean that they weren't out and about. After thousands of years in a prison, they had to be back on Earth, but where were they? The Scions were weak and scattered. If the G.o.ds wanted to fight them, now would be the time to strike. What were they waiting for? Helen took a few sips of soup before noticing Claire's wide eyes.

"What is it?" Helen asked around her food.

"You never picked up your spoon," Claire responded, her eyes unblinking as she stared at Helen's hand. "You held out your hand, and it just flew to you."

Helen looked at the spoon and tried to remember picking it up. She remembered reaching for it, but that was it. She put the spoon down and held her hand over it. Nothing happened.

"I think you need to go back to bed, Gig," Helen said with a dubious smile.

"Yeah. Maybe you're right," Claire said, but she didn't look convinced.

When Helen finished her large breakfast, Claire helped her back upstairs and into the shower. While Helen scrubbed away the last of the blood and dirt, Claire sat on top of the sink rubbing lotion absentmindedly on her legs and feet, keeping herself handy in case Helen got woozy.

"Are you sure you don't need help?" Claire asked for the tenth time.

"I'm sure." Helen laughed as she toweled off. "Honestly, I feel pretty good."

"You really are the strongest, aren't you?"

Helen looked away. Although she and Claire had showered together after track meets a million times and were not the least bit shy around each other, Helen suddenly felt naked. She didn't like Claire thinking she was some kind of . . . well, demiG.o.d. They were more than best friends. They were sisters, really, and Helen hated to be reminded that there was anything unequal about them.

"What makes you say that?" she asked in a tense voice. Claire pursed her lips.

"You should see the guys as soon as you're done."

"My dad first," Helen said with a definitive nod.

Claire helped Helen dress and then let Helen lean on her as they made their way down the hallway. The door was open so she could see Jerry lying in bed, and Kate sitting up in a chair next to him. Both of them were fast asleep. Jerry was so thin and wan that Helen didn't want to believe it was her dad. She had to remind herself that she should be grateful, but it was difficult to feel anything but fear when he looked so ill.

They walked a few paces down to Hector's room. Helen could hear deep, male voices behind the door. It sounded like all the guys were in there. They knocked and went in to find that Hector had moved Jason and Lucas in with Orion.

Helen had another vision or memory, or whatever it was. All the men were bunking together in a tent at the middle of a large, dusty camp-the siege camp just beneath the great wall of Troy. She shook her head, and the vision cleared.

"Aren't you all a little old for a pajama party?" Claire teased.

The guys laughed gingerly at Claire's joke.

"I got sick of running up and down the hall to check on them, so I just carried all the beds in here," Hector admitted sheepishly.

Hector the Protector, Helen thought. He could never bear to be away from any of his men when they were injured-whether they were indispensable generals like Aeneas, or simple foot soldiers. That's why every man in his army loved him and followed him to certain death.

Helen shook her head and tried to blink away the unwanted memories. They weren't even hers.

"I can't believe you're walking," Orion said to Helen. She could see that despite the adrenaline-fueled burst of energy when Orion woke them with his scream, he and Lucas were still bedridden. They were nowhere near as far along in their healing as she was, and Jason was completely wrung out from saving Jerry. The three of them could barely sit up without wincing in pain, let alone stand.

"Just trying to stick it to you guys. Make you look bad," Helen joked, trying to hide how worried she was about them all.

Claire went to Jason, and Helen automatically went to sit on the edge of Lucas's bed. She realized what she was doing at the last minute and changed direction to join Orion. Lucas watched her, a tight expression on his face to hide his feelings. Helen swallowed and forced herself to avoid his eyes. In this life they were cousins, she reminded herself, regardless of what she'd seen in her dreams.

She took Orion's hand and felt better. He smiled tenderly at her, and her heart tingled. She did love Orion, she thought as she swelled with pleasant warmth. So what if it wasn't the dizzy rush that she felt around Lucas? Maybe "dizzy" wasn't the best way to go through life, anyway.

"What are you all talking about?" Helen asked lightly, trying to tell herself that it would get easier someday to see Lucas wearing the blank look he adopted as he watched her hold Orion's hand. For a moment, Helen thought she saw a toxic, acid-green color flas.h.i.+ng underneath Lucas's skin. She blinked and looked away, hoping her eyesight wasn't totally messed up because of her damaged eye.

"We were talking strategy. The Scions need a plan, fast," Hector replied, his face hardening. "We're weak. Divided. This is the time to strike against us."

Helen breathed a mirthless laugh. "I was just thinking the same thing." Hector looked at her approvingly, and Helen considered the possibility that he might have made a soldier out of her after all.

"But we haven't heard anything. As far as we know, the G.o.ds are still on Olympus," Claire said, frowning with worry. Jason pulled her closer to him.

"Matt found some things. He's coming now to explain," he told her. Jason looked at his brother. "Where is he, anyway?"

"With Ariadne," Hector replied, testily at first, and then his tone changed. "He checks on her about a dozen times a day."

"It's not a dozen times," Matt protested as he came through the door, propping up Ariadne with one hand and carrying his iPad in the other. "Ten. Tops."

Helen nearly did a double take when she saw Matt. She'd watched her friend get stronger over the past few months. She'd even noticed that he was turning into quite the piece of man-candy, though the thought of Matt as a love interest was icky to her. But this was different. He looked electric.

"How're you feeling, little sis?" Hector asked Ariadne, but his eyes ticked up and down Matt, sizing him up. Whatever had changed, Hector saw it, too, Helen was sure of that.

"Ugh," she groaned comically as she plopped down next her big brother. "Like cud."