by Nicole Thorn
CHAPTER NINE:
THE Gorgon
Jasmine
Zander is a dick. Like the ultimate dick. Acting like I couldn’t go and see a friend of mine. I had my brother and sister with me. What more could he possibly want, and he acted like I drove towards a cliff, with my best friend Louise next to me, or something. Idiot. Dickiot. He had no right to boss me around, and he had no right to look that hot with a fucking sword in his hands.
Seriously. It wasn’t fair. What the hell was I supposed to do? Stay angry when he wielded a sword, and his shoulders bunched up, and his face looked so . . . Zander like. It was almost as if the gods worked against me.
He said something about knowing where the gorgon had gone, but it hardly mattered, because my brain stopped thinking about my near-death experience. I was sure I wouldn’t have minded being lawn furniture, because I’d be dead. Nope, my head went to a naughty place, one in which Zander still wielded that lovely sword.
My face grew red as about a million puns from bad romance novels shifted through my head. Oh, I couldn’t believe I even thought like that. If Jasper knew, he would lock me in the attic, and never let me out again. He’d only come up to give me food, and pictures of Nemo slowly becoming something other my beloved beta.
I shook myself into action as I noticed that everyone started to move. Juniper passed me, and I took her arm. “What’s going on?”
“We’re getting ready to go gorgon hunting,” she said with only a little attitude. Her eyes shifted from Zander to me, and she leaned in, “I can hurt him if you want me to. Just say the word.”
I smiled at the sisterly support, and kissed her cheek. “Not right now, but I appreciate the offer of violence. I’ve always thought you know someone loves when you when they’re willing to kill someone over a minor offense.”
Juniper shrugged. “Its what sisters do.”
She got halfway out the door before Zander said, “Whoa, wait. Why do you think you’re coming with us? Have you not been listening to me? I’m not about to take the three of you on a gorgon hunt.”
Oh, shit’s about to get real up in here. I put my hands on my hips, and turned to him. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” Zander said. “All of you are going to stay here, where it’s safe, and I don’t have to worry about getting all of you killed.” He set the tip of his sword on the ground, and glared at me, like I had done something wrong. I started getting really sick of being glared at.
So, I glared right back. “Seriously, Zander? If not for me, you and Kizzy would be dead right now, rotting in the ground, and you want to leave me behind? What kind of logic is that?”
“You have visions,” Zander said. “It’s not like that’s helpful in a real fight.”
“Hey!” I shouted. “What part of dead didn’t make it through that thick skull of yours. Let me say it slower so that maybe you’ll actually hear it. You’d be dead. If not for me. Dead. As in no more. As in your sister a pile of rotting meat on the ground. No offense, Kizzy.”
She didn’t get to say anything before Zander started talking again. “I think you are missing the part where the furies almost killed you and your siblings for getting in the way. You remember the injured leg? You remember being high out of your mind on painkillers and thinking there were rats in the ceiling?”
“Do you remember me telling you to stop babying me?” I asked.
Zander threw his hands up in the air, which was scary considering he held a sword in one, and all I could see was that blade getting closer to my face than I felt comfortable with. “You are human, Jasmine. You have a frail, fragile human body that could breakdown at any time. I’m not immune to a gorgon’s stare, but I heal a hell of a lot faster than you do.”
I put my hands on my hips, and stared him down. Then I smiled, and I felt that it didn’t look like a good smile. “Zander,” I said in a voice that sounded sugary sweet. “You are right. I’m sorry. I mean, I did go and see Callie without telling you, and I shouldn’t have. Sure, nothing actually happened on that trip, and I didn’t get hurt seeing the girl, but you’re right. It was too dangerous. Okay, yeah, the gorgon didn’t attack me until I was home. Until I was taking the trash out, and maybe I shouldn’t have done that either. We all know how dangerous trashcans can be. So, I’ll just stay home.”
Kizzy backed up, like she could sense what was about to happen. Zander, being far from stupid, looked a little concerned as well.
My smile turned up a notch. “I’m sure another gorgon won’t show up when you’re not here to conveniently plow into it with your car. And even if they don’t, there can’t be anything else after me, and they will never find where I live, right? My house is very hard to find. I’ll stay home. I probably won’t fall down the stairs, the house probably won’t catch on fire, I probably won’t choke to death on a ham sandwich, or fall in the shower and crack my head open wide. Someone most likely won’t drive through the wall and plow into me, and I’m sure Jasper could save us if some robber showed up wanting all our cash. Jasper’s good at tackling people, last I checked. Right, Juniper?”
My sister nodded.
“So, yes. You go. I’ll be perfectly fine here. All by myself. Without a demigod to make sure I don’t die.” Then I smiled, feeling proud of myself for successfully laying out all his fears, and using them against him. If he could be a dick, then I could be a bitch.
Zander tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling. I watched his jaw work, and knew I made him furious again. I would be hearing about this later, and I would probably regret what I’d said in this room, but sometimes you gotta play dirty if you wanna win.
When he finished having his staring contest with the ceiling, Zander looked at me again. “Fine,” he ground out. “We’ll all go.”
I cheered, and rushed out of the room, and into my own. I changed into a pair of jeans, because nothing about banana stockings could be considered scary. Then I came back out, and looped my arm with Juniper’s, who had just come out of her own room. “This is gonna be like old times. Danger, and potential death around the corner. Ah. Memories.”
“If you’re trying to make me feel better about this whole thing, don’t,” Juniper said.
When we got downstairs, she snatched the keys from Kizzy, and led us to the SUV. It was the only car that could fit us all comfortably. Zander got to sit in front, which meant I got squished between Jasper and the door. It was the only way that Kizzy would have been all right. Still, door, Jasper. He was big enough that we all got smooshed together.
Zander gave Juniper directions from the front. He still seemed pretty pissed. I could tell by how his jaw worked. A muscle popped out whenever he went too long without giving instructions. Hardly his fault that I outsmarted him. It was bound to happen from time to time.
Just like it would hardly be my fault when he screamed at me later, and I started crying. I hated being screamed at.
“Turn right,” Zander said, and Juniper did as she had been told. He frowned, looking down at the sword. “It’s moving. Going that way,” he said, gesturing to the other side of the street. “Make a U-turn.”
“I can’t make a U-turn here,” Juniper said. “It’d be illegal.”
Zander put his head back against the headrest. “You were trying to kill a gorgon earlier today. I think the U-turn would be the least of your worries. If you get a ticket, I’ll pay for it.”
Juniper grumbled something incoherent, but sounded derogatory nonetheless. “It’ll be easier if I found a place to turn around.”
“We could lose the trail,” Zander said. “Just make the turn.”
She frowned at him. “This is why I’m driving. Because you’d be going who knows how fast, making all kinds of illegal turns, and then where would we be? In jail, Zander. Do you want to go to jail? It’s not as pleasant as you think it’d be. Look, I’m sure there’s a place right up there that I can—”
“Just. Make. The turn,” Zander said slowly, and with enough irritation in h
is voice to shut up even Juniper. I frowned at him. He shouldn’t have been taking that tone with my sister. I knew it had been a long day, and everything, but none of us had even gotten hurt. Kizzy frowned at the back of his seat as well, and Jasper glowered.
Juniper made the U-turn, her shoulders curled in the entire time she did it. When she started driving the other way, those shoulders didn’t relax either. It hadn’t sat well with her. It didn’t sit well with me when the red and blue lights started flashing behind our car either.
A stream of curses came out of so many mouths that I didn’t even know who said what. The only one not cursing was Jasper. The look on his face could best be described as unsurprised.
“Hide the sword!” Juniper yelled.
“Working on it!” Zander growled back, trying to stuff the sword into the foot compartment, and under the seat. “Don’t worry, I’ll Charm them into letting us go. There won’t be any jail time, Juniper.”
“Hide the freaking sword!” she shouted again as she pulled over on the side of the road, and began slowing down. “And the arrows. Hide those too!” I could hear her breathing pick up, and knew she came close to having a panic attack. Probably by thinking about how poorly she’d do in a jail cell.
The cop car pulled in behind us as Zander finished stuffing the sword under the seat. “There. Breathe, Juniper. They won’t see it. Kizzy? Have you hidden the arrows?”
“Yes,” she said, stuffing her own behind her and Jasper’s legs. Cramming until everything fit, while my brother still looked completely calm. At least one of us could pull off that expression.
I turned around and watched the door open on the cop car. It slammed closed, and the woman started forward, a little swagger to her hips. She looked shorter than everyone in this car, but she managed to walk like she was a giant. Blond hair fell in waves down to her hips, waves that moved in the wind. No hat for her, but she had the rest of the uniform. Blue and gray outfit, sunglasses almost too big for her face. Her skin appeared so pale that it actually looked white. She stopped next to Juniper’s window, and waited for it to go the rest of the way down.
Leaning in, she looked at Juniper without removing the sunglasses. “Do you know what you did wrong?” she asked. Her voice sounded husky, and yet smooth. Dark. The kind of voice that men loved, and quite frankly, it wasn’t bad to hear for straight women either. All soft, and murky at the same time.
Juniper’s nerves came through as she said, “Yes. An illegal U-turn.”
The cop lady cocked her head, and nodded. “Yes, that’s what you did wrong the first time. Do you know what your second mistake was?”
I could hear the dry swallow that came from my sister’s throat. I wished we could switch places. I’d be able to handle that bitch like nobody’s business. Protective instincts aside, though, it was probably better for all of us if Juniper handled this, with her cool head firmly in place.
“No,” she said. “What was the second mistake?”
“Frantically hiding things, and assuming I couldn’t tell what you were doing. What’s under the seat, ma’am?” the woman asked, looking between Zander’s feet.
He leaned forward, and offered his best smile. His voice changed in that subtle way that it always did when he Charmed someone. “Nothing, ma’am. We aren’t hiding anything, and we didn’t violate any traffic laws. This has all been a mistake, so why don’t you go on back to your car, and catch someone who deserves it?” He had that winning smile on his face through the whole thing, and his eyes sparkled.
I wanted to believe him, and he didn’t even point that grin at me. I felt all my insides go gooey, and that wasn’t good. He looked so happy, and I knew he faked it. I didn’t want him to fake it. I wanted to climb over the seat, and make him laugh with me like he used to.
Out of nowhere, a wave of depression pulled me under, and I was helpless to fight it. I sunk under the dark mood, and wanted to cry, for no reason. Oh, I supposed there had to be a reason, but I had been trying hard not to look at it. I wanted to make Zander happy, and it became abundantly clear that I never would.
His eyes shifted to the backseat, but only for a second. He had to keep his Charm up for the lady, and that meant keeping her watching him. He couldn’t figure out what happened with me and keep us out of jail at the same time.
Even if he wanted to.
I wanted to sink back into my seat, and disappear. I didn’t like that Zander always knew what was wrong with me. Or that something was wrong. I liked being able to hide that kind of thing. I couldn’t do much for my brother and sister, but making them happy because I felt happy was one of the things I could. They always smiled when I goofed off, and they relied on me to be the healthy one, so I would do that.
I’d be the healthy one.
Even if, deep down, I couldn’t stop thinking about crawling into Zander’s bed, because I felt safe when I did. Or that he might like waking up with me on top of him. It wasn’t fair that I could want someone so badly . . . Only to have them out of reach because I had been born human.
He spent so much time trying to protect me that there wasn’t anything left for friendship, let alone something else. He wanted to wrap me up in cotton wool, and never let the world touch me, but then I’d be frozen. I’d be nothing, and that couldn’t risk that.
No matter how much it hurt sometimes.
“Ma’am?” Zander asked when nearly a minute went by without the cop lady saying anything.
“Are you trying to flirt with me, sir?” she asked, her dark voice dropping even lower. She shook her head. “What are you hiding? Is it some kind of drug?”
Zander blinked, nonplussed. He rallied his best defenses and tried again. “I’m not hiding anything ma’am. We’ve done nothing wrong. You should go back to your car, and drive to a different road, so that you can do your job properly. Leave us alone.” This last sounded like damn near a command.
She cocked her head again, and then shook it. “That’s it. Everyone out of the car.”
Juniper squeaked, and stared at Zander, but he looked confused again. He turned to look at Kizzy, but she shrugged. “I can’t feel anything,” she whispered back. A god or demigod might be immune to Zander’s charm, but a human shouldn’t have been. If they couldn’t tell who this lady was, then something must’ve been wrong with Zander.
“Everyone out, now!” the cop lady demanded, throwing the door open. Juniper fumbled with her seatbelt, and then did as the lady said. I scrambled out of my own seat, because I’d be damned before I let my sister stand out there alone. I took her wrist, and pulled her closer to me, so that I could properly protect her. Not that she needed it. I saw how she threw those rocks earlier. She could have killed someone with those things.
Jasper and Kizzy came around, and took Juniper’s other side. Zander climbed out of the car last, and he looked unsure of everything. “Ma’am, there is no reason to check the car,” he said, in a cool, calm voice. He smiled at her again. “We aren’t hiding anything.”
Someone who didn’t know him probably wouldn’t have seen how nervous he felt. How strained his smile had become. His voice sounded completely even, and his face had turned into a mask that scared me more than the idea of getting caught. Was he that good at hiding his emotions? What if he needed someone to see something, and they didn’t because of that mask?
The woman took out a baton, and pointed it at Zander. “You, join the rest of them, now.”
He came around the car, and stood in front of us. The woman climbed into the car, and started looking around. We all stared at each other. Zander leaned into us, “When she finds the sword, I’m going to tackle her, and the rest of you are going to run, okay? We’ll find the gorgon after we’ve taken care of this lady.”
Kizzy frowned. “Just let me wrap her in some vines. It’ll make everything easier, because no one will believe that she got trapped like that. But they might believe that some big, blond goon tackled her, and then they’d have a warrant out for you, Zander.”
He frowned over that. Before he could argue, the woman came out of the car. “What do we have here?” she asked, waving the sword around. “Pretty weapon you’ve got. What’s it for?”
We all stared at her. Kizzy took a deep breath, preparing to wrap her in some vines, I assumed, and Zander squared his shoulders, clearly ready to tackle him.
Then the woman’s face broke out in a grin. “Oh man! You should see the looks on your faces!” she shouted, pulling her glasses down. Her eyes were a shock of green, four different shades all swirled together, and laughing at us. While we stood dumbfounded, those blond locks started to move. They wound together, binding, and changing color so that it looked like they had . . . scales. Until her head became a writhing mess of pale blond snakes.
Juniper and I screamed while we ducked, trying to make sure we didn’t make eye contact with her or the snakes.
“Oh, relax,” the woman said. “They aren’t looking at you, and I’ve got my special contacts in.”
I looked up again, and right into her eyes. Nothing happened. “What are you talking about?”
She waved her hand, and her cop’s uniform changed to a pretty blue sundress that showed off every curve on her body. The cop car behind us turned into a VW bug. “I’m just fucking with you,” she said, grinning. “Don’t worry. I try not to turn people to stone anymore. Humans get so uppity, and then beg the gods to send someone down to slay you, and then that son of a bitch gets a big head on his shoulders for the rest of eternity. Even though he failed. Fame went to his head.” She sighed, and rolled her eyes.
We all stared at her.
The woman said. “This is yours. Please don’t behead me with it. It’d be quite rude.” She handed the sword back to Zander, who went to take it, but she pulled it back. “If I might ask, why do you have a sword attuned to gorgons?”
“Um . . . ” Zander said. “My mother gave it to me after a gorgon tried to kill my friend here.”