My Date From Hell (The Blooming Goddess Trilogy Book Two)

by Tellulah Darling

  Albeit, a lust-induced one.

  I could work with that. I grabbed Kai’s shirt front and tugged him closer.

  Someone moaned. Kai’s sharp inhale as he shoved his knee between my legs and leaned in led me to believe it may have been me.

  My lizard brain had taken over and was hellbent on satisfaction.

  And my oh my, did that boy comply.

  Beautifully. With a single, lazy, deep kiss that had me curling my toes and crumpling his shirt in my fist in an attempt to meld our bodies.

  He pulled away.

  I tried to follow and felt the rumble of his chest as he laughed. “I bet you eat dessert first.”

  I grinned at him. “Of course. And I bet you save it for after.”

  Kai blinked innocently. “I’m a very good boy.”

  I shook my head as I smoothed out his shirt. “Who doesn’t want treats first?” I placed my hands on my hips. “Will there be treats on this date?”

  Kai smiled. “Yes. Me treating you like a queen.”

  “Ooh. Nicely done.”

  He tilted his head in thanks.

  “But how are you going to do that while we’re tracking down Jack? Not sure you thought your little plan through properly, Kai.”

  “Hmm.” He scrunched up his face as he thought. “You have a point. I guess it’ll have to be a lesser queen. Of a poor nation. Or a deposed queen. A monarch on the run.”

  I smiled stupidly at his teasing. “I think you’re going to have to up your game.”

  Kai’s gaze swung between the fancy shower and me. He shot me a deliberately provocative look.

  “See, that would count as dessert,” I said. I turned and reached for the knob.

  “Sophie,” he said mildly.

  “What?” I asked, exasperated.

  I felt a tap on my right hand. Where was my hand? I gave a half turn.

  Crap. I was holding fast to Kai’s shirt. I hadn’t even realized.

  I forced my fingers to release.

  Immediately, Kai laced his fingers through mine. He glanced down at our hands. “Problem.”

  “Stupid freaking arrow,” I muttered. “Can you manage?”

  “I’ll try. But you’re welcome to rub up against me some more.”

  I swatted him.

  “Before we go out there. You need to know something.”

  I glanced up at him, worried by his serious tone.

  One lock of hair flopped into his eyes as he gazed down at me. “I’d never treat you just like a queen. Only and always a goddess.”

  Then he opened the door and stepped out, pulling me after him, attached and dazed.

  Danger, danger. He’d blindsided me big time. I was playing with the big boys now. I had to get back on top of this.

  But first we needed to deal with wherever we were.

  It seemed like a fancy schmancy corporate office. The walls were a subtle, muted taupe. Expensive art, like I think I saw a Picasso and it wasn’t a poster, hung illuminated by discreet spotlights. Massive yet tastefully framed posters of all Jack’s hit shows were mounted on one wall with the place of honor, dead center in the reception area, reserved for Endgame. Even the air smelled high end. Like wood and old money. No cheap plug-in fresheners here.

  The floors were dark wood, polished to a high gleam. Floor to ceiling windows ran around three sides of the room.

  I peered out of a pane so clean it seemed invisible and looked down dizzying heights to the street below, where churches and buildings that must have been several hundred years old shared a neighborhood with an enormous, crazy glass skyscraper that looked like a rocket. “We’re high,” I said, taking an involuntary step back.

  Kai squeezed my hand reassuringly.

  I squinted at a familiar red object. A double decker bus, far below, winding through the streets like a toy. “We’re also in London.”

  Kai sighed. “Be careful. Whatever security Jack has in place is going to mess with us physically and psychologically. Hermes is the master of head trips. God of Tricksters.”

  “And we’re in his lair. We’re at Wing Media corporate headquarters,” I asked. “Aren’t we?”

  “Just so,” said a woman in clipped British tones.

  We turned, still holding hands, and found ourselves before a stern-faced matron, dressed in a perfectly tailored navy suit, that had to cost as much as my yearly tuition. “I am unclear as to how you managed to get this far, but rest assured, I will be calling security unless you can give me a very good reason not to do so.” Her voice could freeze ice.

  “We have an appointment with Mr. Wing,” I said, attempting to brazen my way out.

  “Indeed?” She clicked across the floor to an equally polished massive mahogany desk, on which sat a sleek sliver laptop.

  We followed, stopping beside the desk.

  She sat down in her ergonomic chair and checked the screen. “So you are Ban Ki-Moon?”

  “Yes,” I said confidently.

  “The Secretary-General of the United Nations?”

  “Yes.” I tried to project maturity. Well, I was stuck with the lie now. Hopefully, she’d never met Ban either. I glanced at Kai and could tell he was trying very hard not to laugh.

  “The male Secretary-General.”

  “He’s male,” I said pointing at Kai. “Ban, I mean. I’m his assistant.”

  “The South Korean—” she began, frigidly.

  “All right, already. I get it,” I shot back.

  Kai laughed outright now.

  She hit a buzzer on her phone. “Security on—”

  Kai reached over smoothly and clasped her hand, cutting off the buzzer.

  “Mathilda,” he said, throwing the full force of his charm at her.

  Suddenly Kai didn’t seem like his usual seventeen-year-old self. He looked more bulked up. Older.

  I guess he’d let a bit more of his god-self show through.

  Mathilda blinked.

  I did too. Mostly because he wasn’t touching me any more and I was getting twitchy.

  “Forgive my friend. She enjoys practical jokes. Jack has told me how indispensable you are.” He gazed at her with utter focus.

  I barely refrained from snorting. Or ripping Mathilda’s throat out.

  “I do pride myself on my professionalism,” Mathilda said, clearly falling under Kai’s charm.

  “You’re too modest.” He gave her a slow smile.

  She smiled back dreamily.

  My hand bunched into a fist and reared back, heading for her nose.

  She rose to her feet, which caused me to falter, and before our eyes transformed from a pinched, middle-aged Executive Assistant to a beautiful young woman with dark ringlets and heavily lashed green eyes. I stared outright, fist hovering, punch momentarily forgotten.

  While not as va-va-voom as Aphrodite, there was no question this chick was stunning. And familiar. Before I could figure out why, she reached out a hand and stroked Kai’s face.

  Kai was momentarily transfixed.

  My heart broke as my fist dropped to my side. That stupid arrow. I had to have him look at me that way.

  I couldn’t help myself. Despite preferring to walk on hot coals right now, I flew into Kai’s arms and hugged him. My body silently willing him not to leave me for her.

  “Let go,” he said.

  “I’d love to. But. I. Can’t.”

  My verbal stupidity was compounded by the fact that my head was buried in his chest. I tried to pry my arms off him but they were locked in an iron grip.

  “Kyrillos?” Mathilda asked in a musical voice.

  “Don’t even answer that,” I snapped. “You are supposed to be in love with me.” I swear, someone else had taken over my vocal cords because no way in Hell did I just say that.

  “Like I could forget,” he said, his arms coming around me. He swore. “Great. Now I have to comfort you.” He began to stroke my back consolingly.

  “Release her!” Mathilda commanded.

  She wal
loped us across the room. We hit the far wall with a resounding crash.

  “Since when do Executive Assistant duties include pounding people to smithereens?” I asked, gingerly removing my face from the wall.

  “Mine,” Mathilda cried, lunging for Kai.

  “Head trip,” Kai said. “Jack’s outdone himself.”

  “How? Because he Optimus Primed her ass into a hopped up, mega Kai groupie? Nice psycho bimbo, you got there,” I said as we struggled to our feet, still locked together with Kai stroking my back. The gymnastics involved in getting upright were impressive.

  I saw Mathilda loom over us, fists transformed into iron hammers raised for the strike.

  We threw ourselves sideways. Kai still stroking me.

  ‘She morphed into you. Persephone.” He tried to shake me off. “Let go, Sophie, so I can fight her.”

  I twisted my head around at his words to look at her. No wonder she’d seemed familiar. Man, I’d looked good as Persephone. At least some of it had transferred with the awakening of my powers. But even so … Kai had never looked at me the way he stared at her.

  Enthralled.

  I felt numb inside. Did I have any chance at all against the love Kai had had with Persephone? Could he even move on when she was still present as a part of me? A constant reminder? Even if the world depended on it?

  Kai nudged me sharply. “Get out of your head. It’s just an illusion.”

  An illusion that could still dazzle Kai. I ignored the hollow feeling in my chest and planted myself in a firmer stance to help take her on. “Why would Jack have me, I mean Persephone, attack random intruders?”

  “Nothing random about it,” Kai said grimly, tensing as Mathilda charged us again. “Different images for different people.”

  “And maximum mind trip.” I pulled left, just as Kai pulled right. We ended up frozen in place for a split second and only Kai’s lightning fast reflexes kept us from being pancaked by this supernatural security alarm.

  “Pull back on the emotion so we can get free.” Kai ordered.

  He managed to contort himself to send out a blast of his pointed, scary black light, but it missed her and slashed into a wall, tearing through it like scissors in paper.

  “Comforting you is killing my aim,” he ground out as Mathilda picked us up and pounded us against the floor.

  Through extreme force of will, I managed to pull one of my arms off of Kai. It was the best I could do, but seemed to work. Kai held me in a half-hug and the two of us hit the offensive.

  Kai slashed her legs out from under her. They crumbled to toxic ash. But her torso and giant hammer hands kept coming.

  “I don’t look as good without legs,” I commented, as I tried to get a vine around her torso.

  “Most girls don’t,” Kai replied, dodging us out of the way of a strike.

  “Most? Seriously?”

  Bits of wooden floor flew with each pound of her hammers against them.

  “Well, there was this one—”

  Mathilda shot forward, slithering toward us like a snake, her arms extending and flailing as we backed up closer and closer to a wall of windows.

  Whatever I felt about Persephone, no one else got to rag on her. Or impersonate her. “You are defiling the memory of my hotness, you fraud,” I said, as with my free hand I shot a vine around Mathilda’s wrists, binding them together so they were trapped above her head.

  This allowed Kai to concentrate a nasty point of light which bisected her into halves. She shuddered and lay still.

  Still holding fast to each other, we sidled over. Kai prodded her with a foot.

  “Uh-oh.”

  We jumped back as her bits slithered together.

  Tensed and ready to battle again, we watched in amazement as the monster transformed herself back into regular, rigid Mathilda. She patted a lone stray hair back into place. “May I help you?” she asked in frosty tones.

  “God, no,” I said and slingshot her into a far wall with one of my vines, hard enough that she blacked out. We ran (stumbling, since that stupid half-hug didn’t make for smooth movement) for Jack’s executive office, shutting the door behind us.

  “You okay?” Kai asked.

  I nodded and separated myself from Kai. To my relief, we were able to let go of each other now that we felt a bit calmer.

  Cautiously, I pulled aside the damask drapes covering the office window and peered back into the reception area. Mathilda once more sat at her desk.

  The room was busted up, but she was fine. I was glad she’d returned to her normal image. I couldn’t have handled it if she’d remained in Persephone’s form.

  “He’s not here,” Kai said.

  I turned away from the drapes to look.

  The office screamed Big Cheese expensive comfort. All ergonomic yet tasteful furnishings, massive bookshelves stuffed with hardcovers, and walls holding art that was understated yet probably priceless.

  Jack must have heard us and bolted because the leather blotter on his hand-carved desk was cluttered with papers as if he had left mid-read, an expensive pen tossed haphazardly on top. To the left of the floor-to-ceiling window stood a small bar. On it sat a cut-crystal glass holding a finger of amber liquid, no doubt poured from the open decanter beside it.

  Oh good. A daytime drinker. Thanks to Felicia, I could handle those no problem. Except that he wasn’t here to deal with. “All that for nothing,” I sighed, scrolling idly through Jack’s call list on his landline.

  Kai came and leaned over my shoulder. “Anything?”

  I shrugged. “A bunch of international numbers. Just seemed the CSI thing to do.”

  “Hang on. Go back.”

  I glanced at the name. “Who’s Maia? New girlfriend?”

  “His mom. Who he hasn’t spoken to in ages. Their fight was epic.”

  Her number came up a bunch of times on the display. “So they made up?”

  “Or they were never actually fighting in the first place. Just a convenient cover story.” He took my hand and tugged on it. “Come on.”

  We strode past Mathilda, who didn’t give us a second glance, and over to the single elevator.

  I pressed the button. “Let me guess, we’re going to Maia’s for a little interrogation?” I put on my best tough guy face.

  We stepped into the elevator, which was as nice as the bathroom had been. More marble, classical music tastefully piped in, brass call buttons, and a comfy leather bench. Since we had thirty floors to go down, I oped to take it.

  A small TV screen discretely mounted in the corner streamed various business news items. It also showed the time. I did the conversion and realized that it was still Saturday morning back at Hope Park. We had almost a day until my meeting.

  Kai sat down beside me.

  I angled my body toward him, one hand splayed on the bench, the other casually draped on his thigh. Seriously, great thighs. Then I looked sideways at him, up through my lashes. I’d seen Bethany pull this move and it always seemed to work.

  A spark of interest lit his face.

  “You know, we don’t really know much about each other at all,” I said. “I don’t even know where you live.”

  A flash of sadness crossed his face. “I have a place where I like to get away from it all.”

  “On Earth? Or in some alternate dimension?”

  His lips quirked. “Yes, Sophie, on Earth.” The way he said my name, in a sexy flow with his slight accent, made me prickle in happy delight. “And you? When you’re not at school?”

  “I’m mostly at school.”

  Kai frowned. “You must see your mother at some point.”

  I gave him a tight smile. “Felicia and I make it a point not to interact unless absolutely necessary.”

  “That’s really sad.” I could tell his concern was genuine.

  I blinked a few times, willing my eyes not to get wet. I was used to Felicia and it didn’t hurt anymore. Okay, it was no longer a sharp constant pain that I felt as panic whenev
er the holidays rolled around. More like a dull, throbbing sorrow that overwhelmed me for a few moments on the odd chance that I thought about it. “When this first happened? I wished that Demeter …” I shook my head, sharply. “Nevermind.”

  Kai took my hand. “I used to be really jealous of what Persephone had with Demeter, too.”

  I glanced up, startled.

  He nodded with a rueful smile.

  “Thanks,” I said. “For sharing that. It’s nice to know.”

  “That I understand what you’re feeling or that we actually have something in common?” He poked me gently in the side.

  “Both.” It felt really nice to just sit here and talk. I wished I could prolong it, but we still had to find Jack and the clock was ticking. “Where are we going to find Maia? Wait, don’t tell me. Atlantis. We have to find a lost city under the sea.”

  “Please. That’s so 1800 B.C. Try again.”

  I tapped my index finger against my chin. “Florida. She’s a snowbird. Has a really purdy trailer with a gnome.”

  Kai laughed. “A big ole’ double-wide. Nope, sorry to disappoint, but she lives in Athens.”

  “How anticlimactic.” I grinned, my body relaxing like melted butter in this new and precious moment of being a normal, flirty teen girl. I liked it. Go figure.

  The elevator glided to a smooth stop. The doors opened soundlessly. Kai stood, his hand possessively placed on the small of my back. He guided me into the vast and very busy lobby.

  Theo, Hannah, and Festos came barreling in our direction. They grabbed our arms and led us toward the bank of exits.

  “Did something happen?” I asked, worried.

  “We’re your chaperones,” Festos said.

  Theo wriggled in between me and Kai. “One body width of space at all times as is proper.” With a gleam in his eyes, he produced a small plastic ruler from his pocket. “I will smack your hands if hanky panky occurs.”

  I stuck my free hand behind my back. “Hanky panky? Gee, Mr. Rockman, you gonna bring us to the soda shop for malteds?”

  “I’m just here as an observer,” Hannah said as we piled through the revolving doors and exited.

  The roar of the city hit me. London was so alive. Especially compared to my boring-to-the-point-of-comatose corner of Vancouver Island. Tiny cars zipped in and out between black taxis and double decker buses, while throngs of bright and beautiful people flowed up and down the streets, some with long, black umbrellas tucked under their arms. A wise decision given the heavy grey clouds overhead.