by Sam Cheever
I’d been pleased to take them on, realizing from the very first meeting how well matched they were.
Since then they’d been creating a fire of their own.
Now it was time for them to put the crowning touch on their relationship. The arrow ceremony would lock them on course for a long and happy life together.
The large doors of the firehouse were up and a couple of the firemen were sitting in folding chairs out front. They had mugs of something hot in their hands and were busy dissecting the events of the last fire alarm they’d responded to when I walked up.
As I approached they stopped talking and I watched casual interest spark into definite awareness. One of them, a big, burly black man, stood up to greet me.
A gentleman. Nice.
I was used to garnering interest from human males.
Though I’d remained loveless for over two hundred years of my adult life, I was not unaware of how I looked.
I was five foot nine, with shoulder-length hair of such a deep black color that it had blue highlights. My body was definitely feminine, with softly rounded hips, narrow waist and firm, well-developed breasts. Men tended to notice those things first, of course, before they fixed on my face, which was heart-shaped, with wide, olive green eyes, a long Grecian nose and full, perfectly shaped lips.
I knew I was beautiful.
Beauty had never been a problem for Cupids.
It was real, lasting love that escaped us.
“Good morning. I’m looking for Chad Roberts.”
Somebody murmured, “Lucky bastard,” and I smiled. “I’m supposed to meet him and Lila James here.”
“Oh.” The man who’d stood up when I approached glanced toward one of the fire trucks. “Chad’s on the truck, checking the hoses. I don’t think Lila’s here though.”
“May I?” I glanced meaningfully toward the fire truck in the first bay.
“Sure!” The man jumped to attention. “This way.”
I followed him into the spotless garage, my eyes taking in the painstaking organization of the place. Every tool, every object in that building had an assigned spot and it was there.
There were no stragglers in that garage.
Except for me.
Someone was clanking around at the top of the huge red truck.
“Chad. You have a visitor.”
A dark head popped up. Chad Roberts smiled down at me. “Ms. Googlios. How nice to see you.” He scrambled down and pulled me into a bear hug, amid murmuring from the other men in the firehouse.
I patted his wide back, enjoying his clean, fresh scent as I always did and smiled. “How are you, Chad?”
“I’m wonderful. Just wonderful. How about you?”
His small brown eyes examined my face closely. I knew he was cataloguing my emotions like other people catalogued inventory. Chad was an emotive, someone who could read emotions as easily as others read the printed word on a page. He wasn’t aware that he had the power. He had, in fact, been denying it all of his adult life but he used it with every human interaction.
It had made finding his one true love a real challenge.
Until he’d found Lila.
“I’m fine.” When he continued to stare hard at me, cocking his head slightly in question, I smiled. “Really. I’m just tired.”
He frowned just the tiniest bit and then smiled again. “That’s good. You look wonderful as always.”
“Thanks.” Chad Roberts always brightened my day. When he complimented me I knew he really meant it.
“Lila’s running a little late. One of her parishioners went into the hospital this morning and she wanted to stop by there first to visit. She should be here soon. Would you like something? Coffee? Tea?”
“Me?” offered a fireman nearby.
Male laughter rumbled through the building.
I laughed with them. I was okay with flirting. I liked flirting. “No thanks. I’m fine. I’ll just sit with you while you work if that’s okay?”
Chad’s smile widened. “Sure. That would be great. As long as you don’t mind sitting on the truck?”
My chest filled with childlike delight. Who wouldn’t want to sit on a fire truck? “Really? That would be cool.”
Chad laughed. “Come on.” He scrambled nimbly back up onto the truck and lowered a beefy hand toward me. “Put your foot there…that’s right…and then on that metal rung there…good.” He pulled me up and then, grabbing me around my waist, lifted me to the back of the cab like I weighed nothing.
“This hose is twisted somewhere and I’m trying to figure out where.”
I nodded, looking around. There were a lot more switches, valves and doohickeys than I expected. Apparently being a fireman was more complex than I’d assumed.
Chad and I chatted amiably for several minutes.
His cell phone rang and it was Lila. I could tell by his disappointed face that she wouldn’t be coming after all.
“Okay, honey. No, that’s all right. Maybe we can sign the papers individually. No, I’ll ask. I’ll see ya later, hon. Bye now.”
He hung up and looked at me. “Her parishioner is dying and Lila doesn’t want to leave her.”
I nodded, understanding, but still disappointed. I was there so that Chad and Lila could sign their paperwork, closing the case and officially kicking off their relationship. We refer to it as the arrow ceremony because that’s where I ping them both with the arrows that will lock their love into place.
The couple knows it as the launching ceremony. For them it’s a new beginning.
“Can we just sign the papers separately? Lila said she could come to your office later and sign hers.”
This created a problem because I needed the happy couple to be looking into each other’s eyes when I hit them with the arrows. But the big man looked so hopeful I didn’t have the heart to tell him no.
There was another way. “If I could just have a quiet place to sit for a few minutes to pull the paperwork into order I think that could be arranged.”
Chad nodded, smiling widely. “That would be awesome!” Before I knew it he’d scooped me up into another bear hug. I laughed as he swung me around, trying not to notice how far below my swinging feet the floor was.
“Put me down, Chad, I’m getting truck-sick.” I laughed.
He complied, scrambling down and helping me to the floor. “We have an office but it’s usually filled with guys this time of day.” His eyes landed on the truck. “How about in there? It’s empty and quiet.”
“That’ll work.” I climbed inside the large cab of the fire truck and Chad closed the door behind me. Settling myself on the bench seat at the back, I opened my folder to make sure I had everything I needed.
I needed to fill out a few pieces of information, which I usually tried to do in front of the couple to be matched. In this case the couple would have to consist of Chad and a picture of Lila.
If he was looking at the photo I had in my folder when I shot him with the arrow, the effects would be the same.
I’d just have to repeat the process later with Lila and a picture of Chad.
A bell clanged out suddenly and I jumped.
The garage filled with activity as firemen appeared, running from all directions, holding turnout gear in their arms and throwing helmets onto their heads.
The doors on both sides of the truck opened and men flooded in. I grabbed up my papers with a squeal of alarm and quickly found myself cocooned in large, fire-retardant males.
“Let’s go!” somebody shouted.
Sirens seared the morning, making me jump, and the truck surged out of the firehouse.
We took the first turn on two wheels and I gasped, reaching out to grab a thickly garbed forearm on either side of me.
The two men turned to me and grinned. “Hey, there’s a girl in here.”
Well, duh!
“Hope you like fires, gorgeous,” the fireman to my left said, “’cause this one’s a beauty.”
*
/>
It was indeed a beauty.
The building had been a hotel once. A beautiful old place. It had been converted to apartments about ten years previous. The old yellow stone of its walls had been weathered to burnished gold and covered with ivy. The doors had once been solid mahogany, lacquered and polished to a mirror-like sheen.
The stairs climbing up to the structure’s heavy front door were cut from granite. The railing was wrought iron.
It had been a stunning place. A highly desirable address in the city.
Now it was an inferno.
I stood across the street, out of the way, as firemen rushed around me, pulling hoses, breaking down doors and walking into the wall of flames to look for survivors. Despite the heat of the day, I shivered and rubbed my arms briskly.
Overhead, thunder grunted out a warning and the sky darkened.
I looked up, hoping for a strong downpour to help the firemen with their dangerous job.
The clouds overhead were strangely familiar.
A deep, husky voice from behind made me jump. “Hello, Athena.”
Jerking around in surprise, I was amazed to find myself staring at Damian. “What are you doing here?”
He smiled and the sight of those dimples made my knees wobble. “I was going to ask you the same thing. Do you know someone who lived here?”
I shook my head. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Let’s just say I was carried along with the tide.”
He nodded, his dark blue eyes straying again to the raging fire across the street.
I watched him carefully. He looked tense. “What about you? Do you know somebody who lived here?”
His eyes stayed locked on the inferno. His jaw clenched with tension. “My brother.”
I felt the blood draining from my face. I’d just talked to Peter the night before. “Oh my gods! Is he okay?”
Damian flashed me a look filled with questions. His beautiful, wide eyes narrowed on me. “He’s not here. He’s out of the…country…right now.”
“Oh, good.” I shivered under the onslaught of his penetrating gaze. Turning my head back toward the fire, I tried to ignore him.
It didn’t work. I could feel his eyes on me like a physical thing.
For that matter, I could feel his heat, smell his skin…I was more deeply attuned to the man standing next to me than I’d ever been to another creature.
It was discombobulating, to say the least.
Finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I jerked my head around. “What?”
He blinked. “Huh?”
“Why are you staring at me?”
He smiled that smile again and my thighs clenched on a wave of pure lust. I had to lean against the warm brick of the building behind me for support.
“You’re a beautiful woman, Athena.”
I frowned. “Okay…” I peaked an eyebrow at him in question.
He laughed softly. “You took that pretty well.”
Sighing, I looked away again. My system could only take so much of Damian Leandar or I feared I would explode from sensual overload. “I only meant, it wasn’t that kind of staring. You looked as if you wanted to ask me something.” My eyes slid back to him.
He took a step closer, leaned down until his lips were a hairsbreadth from mine and said, “I find myself somehow…drawn…to you.”
I jerked my gaze back toward the fire, fighting with everything I had not to give in to an urge to pull him into my arms and consume him with my lips and body. But I knew that wasn’t right. It couldn’t be right. I barely knew the man.
He didn’t move away. His breath against my face was a warm, sweet promise. I stopped breathing, trapped within my body’s raging need like a deer in oncoming headlights. I closed my eyes and prayed my stillness would help me resist. But it didn’t help. My body nearly vibrated with need.
He touched my cheek with his lips. “Athena.”
I whimpered slightly and turned, closing the distance between us, my lips melting hungrily over his.
As soon as our lips touched it was as if a spark had ignited and something exploded through me. The flash fire was more than heat, it was light and sound and incredible sensation.
His arms snaked around my waist, pulling me indecently tight against his body. His teeth drew my bottom lip in, nibbling softly before his tongue swept over the tingling aftermath and slid into my mouth to tangle with mine.
I slipped my hands under his t-shirt and up his smooth back. His skin warmed and tightened under my hands and the scent of him wafted over me, infusing itself into my senses like a drug.
The kiss deepened and held, pulling us both inexorably into our own place, our private niche, apart from the real world playing itself out on those streets around us.
An untouchable, incredible place.
I thought I’d stopped breathing. But discovered I was sharing his breath.
Between my thighs, a clenching wetness told me I wanted the man in my arms more than I’d wanted anyone in a long, long, very long time.
A warm, salty tear slid between our lips and Damian pulled away. “You’re crying.” He looked so alarmed I laughed.
“It’s okay. I’m okay.”
He stared at me for a beat longer and then lowered his head again.
I closed my eyes in anticipation of another kiss. Instead I felt his hot tongue, sliding across my cheek where the tears had been.
His hands fell away. The air around me grew cool again.
I gasped and opened my eyes.
He was gone. Leaving only a thought in my mind, which I was pretty sure had to be a figment of my imagination.
Take care, Athena.
*
When I got home I found my car sitting in the driveway. I parked the rental car, walked over to it, and stood, staring in amazement.
It didn’t even have a dent in it.
Not a scratch.
For a moment I thought he’d just replaced my mangled car with a brand-new one. I pulled the driver’s side door open and slid inside. Nope. The spot of red nail polish I’d deposited on the leather seat, compliments of a particularly nasty pothole, was still there.
It was my car.
Looking like it had never left the ground, spun around twice and crashed into a brick house.
I dialed Damian on my cell.
“Hello.”
“What did you do to my car?”
Silence. Then, “I had it delivered to your house. Is there something wrong with it?”
“No. That’s the problem. Why doesn’t it have any dents in it, or scratches at least?”
“I got a dent guy out here. It only had a couple of small ones. No scratches. Two of the tires were flat, we fixed those too.”
I was speechless. A man I barely knew had repaired my car for me and returned it to my doorstep better than before.
It was even clean.
“I don’t know what to say. That was incredibly nice of you. And fast.”
He chuckled. “Don’t worry about it, I take care of things. It’s kind of what I do.”
I headed into the house. “You’ll send me a bill though, right?”
His response was noncommittal. I would have argued with him about it except for two things, first he’d already hung up and second, I had three Fates standing in my living room when I entered the house.
Chapter Four
Visitors Abound
Clothos had chocolate smeared over both cheeks and was licking her elegant fingers. She looked up guiltily when I came through the door, pursing pouty lips and pushing a long strand of wavy blonde hair off her narrow face. “Hello, Athena.”
I smiled at her. “I see you found the chocolate bar I had hidden under the potpourri.”
She grinned. “You can’t hide chocolate from me, Athena. I don’t know why you even try.”
I shook my head. I’d had to try something. The goddess was eating me out of house and chocolate.
Lachesis’ perfect, heart-shaped face crease
d in a frown. “Sister, the world could be ending and you’d be nose deep in chocolate and never notice.” She tossed her head, flipping her soft auburn hair with disgust.
Knowing they’d help themselves anyway, I decided to offer first, thus preserving at least the appearance that I had some control over my life and groceries. “Would you ladies like some wine?”
Atropos’ eyebrows lifted with interest and her startling golden eyes widened. “I for one am parched. We’ve traveled far and done much today.” Her thick wave of black hair flowed to her shoulders in soft curls.
I smiled at her, motioning for them to follow me into the kitchen. “What are you doing here? Has some young god or goddess been foolish enough to defy you and get up to mischief?”
Clothos linked her arm through mine. “You should know, Athena. You saw them.”
I stopped, turning to look at the three beautiful goddesses. “The gorgons? They appeared again?”
Atropos sighed, pushing past me to get her own wine. The Fates were never shy when it came to refreshments. “They were at your fire today. You looked up at the sky so we thought you’d seen them.”
I fought a shiver. “You were there?”
Lachesis laughed, “Of course!”
“And we saw you with him again,” added Clothos in dire tones.
“Him?” I was more than a little afraid that I knew exactly who they were talking about.
Atropos handed Lachesis a glass of Cabernet and settled onto a stool at the counter. “You must stay away from Damian Leandar, Athena. We can’t stress that strongly enough.”
I frowned. “I can’t stop him from approaching me.”
Clothos lifted the lid off my cookie jar and pulled out a chocolate sandwich cookie with an exclamation of delight. “But you must, Athena. It’s imperative.” Clothos jammed the cookie into her mouth and licked crumbs off her pink lips. “The man is very dangerous right now.” Soggy brown crumbs shot out of her mouth as she talked. I grimaced, watching the crumb pile grow on my once clean kitchen floor as she grabbed another cookie and shoved it in.
“Right now?” I leaned against the counter and crossed my arms. “What exactly is wrong with him?” Aside from his nearly fatal charm, I added to myself.