“I’m not going to steal any of your precious teeth, okay?”
“Let me see that badge again,” he demanded, clearly beginning to doubt Selene’s credentials.
Theo wondered what gave her away. Her complete lack of professionalism? The way her fist curled like she was about to punch the scientist in the face?
Kim pursed his lips suspiciously. “Why was the entelodont tusk in your possession?”
“I’m trying to help you,” Selene said, her glare belying her words. “I am in law enforcement, I just do the enforcing a little differently. I’m going to catch whoever’s been stealing your stuff. Unless you get in my way. Then I may come back here and mix up all the specimens just for kicks. Put the dinosaur horns in with the walrus tusks.”
“You can’t threaten me,” he said, his small chin thrust forward.
In a blur of movement, Selene seized the keys from Kim’s pocket. “I don’t have to.” She smiled as she pushed him aside and unlocked the vault.
Chapter 21
THE FAR SHOOTER
Selene didn’t pause to admire the floor-to-ceiling shelves of carefully labeled tusks. She yanked open the window, then levered herself onto the narrow sill, her torso dangling precariously into the ether. She could hear Kim on the telephone, calling museum security despite Gabriela’s pleas for him to be patient.
“Selene, is this really necessary?” Theo asked from behind her. “I can see the headline now: PALEODONTIST PETRIFIED BY PERVY PROFESSOR.”
She didn’t respond. She had to see the crime scene for herself, even if she didn’t want to explain to Theo exactly why. She inched out a little farther and peered down. Six stories of large, rough stone blocks with deep seams. Enough for her to get a handhold, especially with her heightened strength, but not a mortal—unless he was some sort of champion mountain climber. She craned her head upward toward the egg-shaped sculpture that had provided the thief’s handhold when he swung onto the ledge. She looked for signs of grappling hooks, rope marks—anything that might have been invisible on the poor-quality video and could explain how he could enter so easily. Somehow, she knew she wouldn’t find anything. Her hunt for the killer had just gotten infinitely more complicated.
Someone grabbed hold of her foot.
“Careful!” Theo warned.
She slid back inside, too surprised to protest, and turned toward him. She wasn’t used to the look of concern on his face; no man had ever worried about her before.
“I’m okay,” she managed, trying not to sound defensive.
“Look, I appreciate your dedication to figuring out what happened, but I’d rather not have to deal with another dead friend quite yet, okay? There’s no need to risk your life hanging out sixth-floor windows.”
She was already his “friend”? When had that happened? She felt a shiver of something halfway between discomfort and pleasure. “We need to get out of here before the security guards show,” she said. “It’s going to look awfully suspicious if they find us up here.”
“That’s what I just said. But now that Kim told them we’re here, won’t it look suspicious if we leave?”
“Oh? Your girlfriend will rat us out?”
“My girlfr—Gabriela? She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Uh-huh.” Selene had recognized her from the photo in Theo’s apartment. She remembered the way they’d stood together, half-naked, on the beach.
“First off, she’s gay.”
“Oh.”
“Secondly, that’s just her way. If you knew her for a few hours and she liked you, she’d be all over you, too.”
“She wouldn’t like me.”
“You don’t know that. You’re really very—”
“Schultz.”
“Yeah?”
“We have to leave.”
Kim was still fuming in the other room, despite Gabriela’s efforts to soothe him. Selene stood behind him and dropped the keys on his desk. She placed her hands on his shoulders in what she hoped would seem a calming gesture. “We didn’t touch anything. It’s going to be just fine.” She tried to look penitent as she slowly moved her hands up his neck and used her preternatural strength to pinch his carotid artery. While Theo and Gabriela argued over what to do about the security guards’ imminent arrival, Kim collapsed with a thud onto the open book of ancient mammals, his cheek pressed against the drawing of the Caledonian Boar. Hopefully, he wouldn’t remember the details of the last few minutes when he awoke.
“Fainted,” she deadpanned. “Probably in shock. Poor guy.” She turned to Gabriela, who stared openmouthed at her unconscious co-worker. “You want to show us a quick way out of here?”
“The guards—” Theo explained quickly. “I’m a person of interest with the police, remember? This doesn’t help.”
“You’re going to run from the cops?” Gabriela asked, jaw falling farther agape. “What happened to my sweet Theodorable?”
“Come on, Gabi.”
“I’d help if I could, but all the exits have security guards.”
“Air shaft?” Theo suggested to Selene, looking surprisingly sanguine.
“And spend all night trapped in the museum’s ductwork while our killer strikes again?” Selene turned back to the Tusk Vault. “I’ve got a better idea.”
As he followed her inside, she told him to shut the door behind them. From her pack, she withdrew a steel-tipped arrow, a length of rope, and her disassembled bow. She knew she was taking a risk showing it to Theo, but she couldn’t afford to be caught by the cops. Not now, when she finally knew something about the killer.
Surprisingly, Theo had yet to comment on her stash of weaponry.
“Are you going to shoot the guards?” he finally asked as she finished screwing her bow together.
“Of course not,” she snapped, tying the rope to the arrow. “I don’t kill innocent people.”
“Just checking.” Another thoughtful pause. “Are you going to shoot me?”
“Only if you don’t shut up and help me,” she said, tossing him one end of the rope. “Tie that to something high. And sturdy.” She squatted on the edge of the open window and nocked the arrow. Over her shoulder, she watched Theo tie the rope to the top of a steam pipe. “You know you just made an overhand knot, don’t you?”
“A what?”
“You’re going to hold our weight with the same knot you use to tie your shoes.”
“We’re not really going to—”
She cut him off by marching over and retying the rope in a perfect boom hitch. “Tell your friend to release the knot as soon as we’re safe.” Theo nodded and shouted instructions through the door to Gabriela, who retorted with a muffled, bewildered assent.
Selene returned to the window, took aim, and let fly. With a satisfying thunk, the arrow pierced deep into the trunk of an ash tree just beyond the museum’s fence. The rope hung taught above their heads, stretching between the vault and the tree—a perfect escape route. She withdrew a small curved handle from her pack and hooked it over the rope. “Let’s go.”
Theo paused for a moment. She saw his chest heave in a deep breath. Then he smiled. “I thought you’d never ask.”
She sat on the sill, her legs dangling out the window. “Grab on to me.” She couldn’t quite believe her own suggestion, but she wasn’t sure what other option she had.
“Are you sure you can hold my weight?”
She glanced disdainfully at his lanky frame. “I’m sure I’ll manage.”
He started toward her, then hesitated.
“Won’t someone see us? I thought we were trying not to attract attention.”
She rolled her eyes. “First of all, we’re mostly screened by trees. Second, you’d be amazed how few people ever look up above the fourth floor or so of a building. And if they do, we’ll be moving so fast they won’t believe what they’ve seen. If I keep sitting here on the windowsill, on the other hand, someone’s bound to notice.”
He clambered into the window and sat b
ehind her, his legs straddling her and his arms wrapped lightly around her hips. “Like this?” he asked.
Selene grabbed his clenched hands and slid them higher, just below her breasts. His heart pounded against her spine. “Tighter,” she said, wondering why, this time, his touch didn’t disturb her the way it had in Helen’s office. He obeyed, the muscles of his forearms taut across her ribs. Without preamble, she jumped.
As they flew down the impromptu zip line, Theo nearly squeezed the air from her chest. She felt his mouth open against her neck in a silent shout. In less than a second, they’d slammed into the tree. Well, Theo slammed into the tree. Selene braced her landing with her legs, but they twisted on impact and Theo’s right hip smacked into the trunk.
She swung a leg over a thick branch and hoisted herself securely into the crook of the limb, hauling the groaning professor up beside her. She looked back toward the museum’s attic window, where Gabriela stood watching with both hands covering her mouth as if to repress a scream. Selene tugged at the rope, and the other woman gave her a weak wave before disappearing into the vault. A moment later, the rope tumbled out the window. Selene reeled it in, then reached up to yank the arrow from the trunk. Throughout, Theo watched, speechless, his knuckles white on the tree limb.
“Nothing to say?” she couldn’t help asking.
“I’ve got a million questions, but they all sound so crazy I’m afraid to ask.” Of course, as they climbed down the tree, he asked anyway. “Are you special ops? A Navy SEAL? Or just a superhero?”
“None of the above.” She arrived at the lowest branch, ten feet above the ground, and vaulted off without hesitation.
“Too bad. I was hoping you were Catwoman or something. Between you and our acrobatic tusk robber, it’s like I’ve entered my own private comic book.” From his perch on the low branch, his feet dangled above the sidewalk. He grabbed hold of the branch and dropped heavily to the ground, only tripping twice before he came to a halt.
“Wow!” came a high-pitched squeal from nearby.
Selene spun toward the young boy who stood clutching his nanny’s hand, staring up at Selene and Theo in wonder. “How’d you do that?”
Selene froze. She’d been hoping no one saw them.
“Science experiment. For the museum,” Theo said easily. “Velocity versus acceleration and their effects on the heart rates of normally sedentary men. Cool, right? Don’t tell anyone though, because we’re still working out the kinks.” The kid nodded eagerly. His nanny gave them a suspicious frown and pulled her charge away.
The sound of a siren wiped the grin from Theo’s face. “Shit. Security must have called the cops.”
They retrieved Hippo and hurried west along the sidewalk, hoping to put some distance between themselves and the museum. But for once, Selene had more pressing worries than the police.
She was far more concerned about the immortal who had broken into the American Museum of Natural History.
Chapter 22
GODDESS OF GIRLS
As Selene walked swiftly away from Natural History, her mind wouldn’t stop reeling. No mortal could have infiltrated the museum like that, she decided. And only Olympians knew the truth behind the Caledonian Boar. The cult’s hierophant must be one of the Athanatoi. But why? There’s only one reason an immortal would bother with a long-forgotten ritual…
“I see another cop car,” Theo said, interrupting Selene’s musing. He led the way north up Broadway, where the crowds of Saturday fun-seekers were thicker. “Come on, in here.” He gestured toward the AMC movie theater.
“What about Hippo?” she hissed after him.
He just waved her inside and dashed up to the teenage ticket taker. “Excuse me,” she heard him ask. “My friend here is epileptic. That’s her seizure dog. And I just wanted to know if there’re any flashing lights or quick edits in Last Woman Standing.”
“Uh… yeah…”
“Okay, so then we’ll definitely bring the dog in with us. That way we’ll have some warning.”
“You’re not allowed to bring—”
“No, no, she’s a seizure dog. For the disabled.”
“Shouldn’t it be wearing a sign or something?”
“We don’t believe in labeling people with disabilities, okay?” Theo said, with a glare that Selene could’ve sworn he’d learned from her. Before the teenager could ask any more questions, he was walking back toward Selene, grinning.
“What’re we doing here?” she whispered.
“Isn’t this what people always do in movies to avoid arrest? Hide out in movie theaters?” He flashed his dimples at her. “I’ve always thought it was just another way for Hollywood to plug itself, but it’s better than nothing.”
Selene had to admit, it wasn’t a terrible idea. Theo walked to a kiosk, tapped the screen with practiced ease, swiped a credit card, and retrieved two tickets from the slot. She watched warily. She didn’t own a credit card because it made her too easy to trace, touchscreens mystified her, and she hadn’t been to the movies since the 1980s classic Clash of the Titans came out. She’d taken her mother, and the two of them sat howling with laughter as the actors playing their family stalked around in glowing white togas and teased hair, maneuvering the mortals below by playing with poorly sculpted clay figurines. “Why didn’t we think of that?” she’d asked her mother. “Making voodoo models would have been so much easier than giving them cryptic prophecies and hoping they’d do the right thing!” Finally, an usher had asked them to leave.
She and Hippo followed Theo up the escalator and into a dark, nearly empty theater full of large red leather seats. Movie trivia and advertisements flashed silently across the screen. They took seats near the front, close to the emergency exit, just in case they were being followed. Selene eased herself into the wide armchair, a far cry from the cramped, moldering seats she remembered from her last cinematic foray. Next to her, Theo pressed a button on the side of his chair. The back began to recline while the front rose into a footrest. Soon, he lay nearly horizontal, a Roman aristocrat on his chaise. Cautiously, Selene followed suit. Hippo growled a complaint or two but finally wedged herself beneath the footrests with a sigh. Selene shifted restlessly, unused to such decadent comfort. Theo, on the other hand, sat with his head thrown back and eyes closed, more relaxed than she’d ever seen him. “That was close,” he murmured. “I have to admit, this whole running from the law thing is exhausting.”
Selene had barely broken a sweat, but she, too, felt the weight of the hunt on her shoulders. This isn’t what I wanted, she thought. I never meant to chase one of my own.
Theo’s eyes opened a crack. “Henry Thomas.”
“What?”
He pointed at the screen and read aloud. “Who played Elliott in 1982’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial?”
“Why do you know that?”
“More importantly, why don’t you? You might be damn handy with a bow, but we’re going to have to work on your cinematic education.”
“I’ve heard of it, just never seen it. It’s good?”
“One of the best. A little boy meets an alien from another world and they become friends. Then the cops are chasing them, but they escape.” He slid a glance toward her. She knew what he was thinking. It sounded a bit like a story about them.
“The little boy is one of the great heroes of film. Would brave anything, go anywhere, to save his friend. Sort of like the dedication you see in Odysseus, who risks his life a hundred times to make it back home to Penelope. My kind of hero.”
Selene couldn’t help comparing the man sitting beside her to the legendary adventurer she’d once watched fight his way across the seas. Odysseus had been a short, burly king inclined toward flatulence, and he’d never met a sorceress he wouldn’t sleep with. But he also possessed tenacity unmatched by any other Greek hero. He used every tool he possessed—brawn, brain, and bluster—to accomplish his goals. Theo might not know it yet, but she suspected he and Odysseus had that in common.
/> “You know why else I love movies?” Theo was saying. “Because, except for the very bad ones, you always understand the plot, at least by the time the credits roll. Unlike real life.” He sat up a little straighter and turned to her. “You’re going to have to explain the bow.”
“No. I’m not.”
He frowned, and she thought he’d protest, but he just sighed. “Fine. Then answer another question. Why’s someone bothering with all this? Breaking into two museums? Creating a cultic retreat in a hospital basement?” He pulled his coat tighter, despite the theater’s warmth.
The answer, which Selene had been formulating since she saw the entelodont picture, finally made sense: Because there’s someone out there who used to be a god and is trying to become one again. Cult worship and burnt offerings had sustained the Athanatoi for millennia, but once mankind had stopped such worship, the Olympians’ power began to wane. Selene and the others had long ago given up hope that men would turn away from Christianity and return to the worship of the Greek deities. They’d resigned themselves to living as neither mortal nor fully immortal, but stuck somewhere in between. Yet if someone could actually re-create a cult ritual—not just going through the motions but finding true believers to offer sacrifices to the Olympians—the gods’ power might be restored.
But how could she tell Theo any of this? Even if she did, he wouldn’t believe it. How would it sound? I know our killer’s an immortal because he’s probably one of my brothers. Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that your friend Helen had the right idea—the Greek gods are real and I’m one of them. Or at least… I used to be.
“Let’s just focus on the fact that, whatever their motivations,” she said instead, “we know what the mystai are doing next. If they’ve collected all the hiera, including one of the Hell Pig’s tusks, they’re going to be ready for the next step in the ritual.”
Theo glanced around the nearly empty theater and lowered his voice, “And the next murder.”
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