Suddenly Donovan rose from his chair and his waist came in view of the screen. A soft beeping went off in the background. “We have new activity. Three new blips from right in the casino. I’m on it.”
“I’ll be right there,” Alexander barked.
Donovan disappeared from the screen as the tires of Alexander’s car squealed on the pavement.
Chapter Sixteen
She was almost at the elevator that would take her to Alexander’s floor. Although she’d gone as slowly as she could, to help as many people along the way as possible, she’d inevitably made it there. Sighing, she slung the bow over her shoulder and reached out to push the button.
Before could make contact, both of her arms were grabbed from behind. She gasped with fear. She was roughly spun around and saw it was Donovan who held her. He stripped the bow and quiver from her and slung them over his own shoulders.
The blood drained from her face as she filled with dread. What did the gods do to mortals who stole their things? If mythology was any indication, she was in for big trouble.
“I was returning them. I swear,” she cried.
Donovan gave her a baleful glare and then ignored her as he typed a text message on his phone.
When he was done, he grasped her arm firmly and dragged her back the way she had come. “Donovan, you have to believe me. I never meant to hurt Alexander. I was bringing the bow back. I just wanted to help my parents. That’s all.”
“Along with a whole lot of other people,” he drawled, his voice cold as ice.
Chagrin stabbed through her. They knew. “I don’t know what happened,” she confessed. “After the first couple of arrows I just couldn’t seem to stop. But I didn’t do any harm. It’s love. If anything their lives will be better.”
He stopped in his tracks and scowled at her. “You little idiot. Love is not a game. You know nothing about it. Did you even notice that half of the arrows you discharged were arrows of hate?”
She blinked in astonishment. “Hate?”
He pulled two arrows from opposite sides of the quiver, she hadn’t noticed before that there was a barrier in the middle separating one half from the other, and showed her the tips. One gleamed gold and the other was a dull gray. “The lead-tipped ones are arrows of hate,” he said succinctly as if speaking to a dimwit.
Her draw dropped open. She’d used one on her father! How many others had she used them on?
He continued talking, “Did you even know that one must be skilled at reading auras in order to discharge these arrows properly?”
“Auras?” A sick feeling was developing in her stomach.
“Yes, auras. You can’t just shoot anyone you want, anywhere, at any time. They have to be shot at exactly the right moment to have the desired effect. When the auras of both parties are aligned.”
She cringed but not for long. Donovan snapped back around and continued to walk at a smart pace, dragging her behind him, returning the arrows to the quiver as he went.
A terrible worry gnawed at her. What had she done? Obviously there was a lot more to shooting the arrows than she’d thought. Now she wished she’d stuck around longer to see what the results were, but she’d been in such a hurry. She prayed that her family would be all right.
Alexander obviously knew of her deception now. Her heart ached at the thought of having to face him. What would he be thinking now?
A familiar face floated into her awareness. Cutting through her tortured thoughts, it drew her eyes to a man across the casino.
Alexander!
The look on his face said everything. There was loathing there, mixed with a radiating anger that pierced her heart. And that’s when she knew.
She was falling in love with him.
Time seemed to slow down as he started toward them. Donovan was walking in the opposite direction, pulling her along, and hadn’t seen Alexander yet. With each step Alexander took, every sterling, glorious memory of him floated to her mind.
The gentle feel of his fingers on her cheek. The way he’d pulled her into his arms for their first kiss. How wonderful and complete they’d felt together making love and then after as they’d lain wrapped in each other’s arms.
One by one each delicate image was snapped by the look in his eyes. Things would never go back to the way they were before. Her betrayal had ruined every wonderful, warm feeling that had been growing between them. He would never feel the same way about her.
Suddenly, it was too much.
Her energy drained out of her, misery setting in. There was nothing left; her world was destroyed. Her parents would never be back together, she’d probably ruined Jane’s life and Alexander was going to hate her. She wished she could carve the feelings out from herself and be done with them. She pulled her eyes away from Alexander and turned to stop Donovan, to tell him that his boss was there.
But the brightly colored fletching of the arrows bouncing along on his back caught her eye. The lead-tipped ones were arrows of hate Donovan had said. Arrows of hate. They had to be the cure for love. What else could they be used for? Hate was the opposite of love, which meant they had to be the cure for her pain. She knew nothing of auras and, at this moment, didn’t care. Things couldn’t get any worse than they already were. How was it possible that she felt such heart-wrenching emotions for Alexander, whom she’d known only a few days? Feelings so much more potent than she’d ever felt with Brad. And that’s when she knew. What she felt for Brad hadn’t been love. How could it be? The feelings she had for Alexander overshadowed them tenfold. And there was no way she could live her life with Alexander hating her when she was already in this deep.
Moving quickly, she grasped a shaft from the right side, where she’d seen him return the lead-tipped arrow, and yanked it out. Closing her eyes, she turned the arrow so the tip pointed straight at her chest. Holding in a sob, she plunged it toward her heart.
It was stopped centimeters from its target, her wrist firmly caught by strong fingers.
On the other side of them, Alexander’s blue eyes drilled holes into her.
His jaw was clenched and he emanated anger. His lightly sun-kissed skin and gleaming hair burned into her memory. He was breathtakingly beautiful, like an avenging angel.
“That would have been a big mistake,” he said.
He pried the arrow from her fingers and returned it to Donovan. Alexander murmured something to him and Donovan strode off.
His glacial eyes returned to her.
“How would you know? I think I would be happier without these feeling for you. I see the way you are looking at me now, and I can’t take it.”
“And you thought using an arrow of hate would make that go away? It wouldn’t, because hate is not the opposite of love.”
“It’s not?” Dazed, she followed him as he led her through a door marked Staff Only to an elevator where he pushed the top button marked R. Dread, confusion, and anxiety consumed her. “They’re not the cure? Then why do you have them?”
His laugh was cold. “I thought they were, too. I used one on myself once. That’s when I discovered that they are as closely related as two sides of the same coin. Your feelings would just have intensified, binding you tighter, but in a twisted way. One filled with bitterness and resentment.”
She could hear, in the flinty tones of his voice, that he spoke from experience.
“It is, in fact, indifference that is the opposite of love.”
The elevator stopped its ascent and Alexander walked her through another doorway to the roof of the hotel
She understood now; it made sense. Love was the highest and deepest feeling. Hate also was an extreme. Whereas indifference was lack of feeling at all.
“Well then, what do you use them for?” she asked. He was still very, very angry. She could see it in the way he carried himself but she couldn’t help the question from coming out.
His eyes glittered dangerously but he went ahead and explained. “Sometimes hate brings with it an intense phys
ical passion that opens the door to love. In certain situations it is better to use them initially to draw people together. In other cases they are truly used to cause people to hate each other.” He stopped walking and let go of her arm to stand facing her.
The space felt like a great chasm between them. “Alexander…I’m really sorry I took your bow. I was bringing it back. That’s why I’m here.”
He said nothing.
Her words caused no change in his expression. “I am sorry,” she said again, tears forming in her eyes. The impact of what she had done was penetrating now. She had really made a muck of things. “All those people…. How badly have I screwed them up?”
“Badly.”
“What do we do about it now? How can we fix it?” She sniffled, her sinuses beginning to fill up. “What a mess.”
“That doesn’t even begin to describe it. Do you know, at this very moment, your cousin and her bakery are surrounded by aggressive, fighting men? One of them tried to drag her off with him. She’s locked herself inside.”
She gasped. “No! We have to help her!”
“Help her? Why should I help her? You did this. It’s exactly what you wanted.”
“No! It’s not! I wanted her to be happy! To be loved.” A tear streamed down her cheek. “She could get hurt, Alexander!”
“She won’t. They were starting to fight with each other, so I sent Cole over there to prevent any bloodshed. He’s waiting for my order before doing anything else.”
That gave her some relief but the image of Jane cowering in her bakery was upsetting.
“Why are you so determined to interfere with other people’s lives? So determined to try to force love into being? I already told you what I know from my centuries of experience. It may as well not exist.”
“I can’t believe you are saying that. You, the god of love. If you don’t believe, then there is no hope for any of us.” Anger crept inside her, lending energy to her words.
“There’s no reason to believe! Even my own marriage to Psyche didn’t work out. What is it that makes you continue to believe in it? Why do you keep hanging on? And why shouldn’t I just hang up my bow and enjoy what this world has to offer? What good do all the damn arrows do anyway? Who cares if I help it along if it doesn’t last? People will just keep getting hurt. If it did exist, it wouldn’t need me in order to happen.” He turned away from her, breathing heavily, and stalked toward the edge of the roof.
She was shocked for a split second but then followed him. The light was beginning to dawn. There was a frustrated and hurt man inside of him. A man who had been burned by love and had his faith shaken just like any human. Him, the very soul of love.
She couldn’t believe it. Were the gods not so different from humans after all? “They don’t always get hurt. It can be as wonderful as we all dream,” she said in a low voice.
He exhaled heavily and didn’t answer.
His attitude made her angrier. Did he really need a pep talk? “You yourself told me before that it’s rare.”
“Okay, so it practically doesn’t exist. Close enough. You’re lucky I took care of Brad when I did; otherwise you would have been hurt even more.”
She froze in place. “What do you mean?”
Alexander ran a hand through his hair, frustrated with himself, and looked away. He hadn’t meant to ever tell her. Those last words came out without him even thinking.
“What did you do? What did you do!” Her fists were clenched.
His back stiffened. There was no turning back now. He would have to tell her. “I shot the arrow that made him fall in love with that girl.”
Raine’s mouth fell open, and she began to shake her head. “No! Why? Why would you do that to me, Alexander?”
Tears were running down her cheeks and her nose sounded stuffed up. He hated to see a woman cry, and he especially didn’t like it when Raine cried. His compassion flared and misery stabbed him deep in the gut.
“It was a direct order from Olympus,” he told her.
“Mount Olympus?” she echoed. “But then, Brad and I would still be together if you hadn’t interfered?”
“Yes, and no,” he said, already knowing it wasn’t a sufficient answer.
“What does that mean?”
He walked to the edge of the roof to look down at the city and she followed him. He had not wanted to be the one to deliver this blow. It would just add to her pain but she deserved to know the truth. She was watching him with pleading eyes and he knew there was no he could let her go on thinking that they would have been together if not for him.
“He had already been seeing her for two months,” he finally said. “At least, as far as I know, that’s how long we were monitoring him before I decided it was time to go.”
She seemed to deflate as the words hit her, and she looked down at the floor. He stepped closer and put his hands on her shoulders. A few quiet tears rolled down her cheeks but other than that she stood there in silence. He waited patiently for her to absorb it. After a few moments she lifted her gaze back to his. A breeze lifted a strand of her dark hair to dance across her lovely cheek, and her eyes glittered like peridot from the welling of tears.
“I think I already knew that,” she said.
His brows rose in surprise. “You did?”
“There were a lot of signs,” she said, “but I wanted to ignore them. I wanted the dream to be real. Actually, I’m glad you confirmed it.” She sniffled and wiped her face with her hands.
He pulled his handkerchief from his pants pocket and gave it to her. “You are?”
“Yes, at least now I know I wasn’t crazy to have all the suspicions I did. I’m trusting my gut from now on.”
“See, you should listen to me,” he said gently. But instead of the agreement he was expecting, she became offended.
“I cannot believe you!” she said. She lifted a hand and looked like she was about to swat him but then changed her mind. “Just because I got hurt doesn’t mean I’ve given up on love. It doesn’t matter if Brad didn’t feel it for me. I know it’s real because I felt it. I expressed it; I lived it. That’s proof enough that it exists. And you know what? It was worth every second.”
She said it like a dare, challenging him and, gods help him, he found he liked her fighting back. She completely disregarded what he said and was pushing him, shaking his beliefs. This was a whole other side of Raine he hadn’t seen yet.
He stared at her in amazement. “Even with all the pain you felt afterward? All the tears that soaked your pillow were worth it?”
“Yes, they were.” The words seemed ground out from her and her green eyes glistened with steely truth. “And if you never speak to me again, I will happily cry tears like that for you. We felt it the other night, Alexander. What we had between us was real. I’m falling in love with you. And that is something I’ll never forget.”
His breath caught at her admission and a warmth lit in his heart, like a match in the darkness. The feelings had consumed him as well. She loved him. The realization of it melted his frigid stance.
She took in a deep breath and lifted her chin, continuing her tirade. “I would rather live in a world where something so glorious is possible than one where it isn’t. When two soul mates find each other it is ten times more glorious than anything any of us know. I’m sure of it. So, I’m not afraid to keep loving. And I’m not afraid to love you.” She was serious; he could see by the flares coming from her aura. Deep emotions coursed through him. He wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her, tell her he felt the same way. But her betrayal held him back.
Her insight about failed love was a whole new perspective he’d never considered. How did she always manage to surprise him? He’d never heard anyone say such a thing in his existence. He’d never imagined that people felt that way. Especially those who had been wounded by his work. It was hard to wrap his mind around it. He stepped closer. “So let me get this straight. To you it was all worth it? Even though he didn’t lov
e you the same way? Even though it ended?” He cut a hand through the air for emphasis.
“Yes.”
Nothing about her wavered where she stood toe-to-toe with him and he found it rather sexy.
“Even though we might never see each other again?” he said in a low voice.
“Yes.”
She was strong underneath the tears and the pain. Strong in ways he’d never imagined, or valued, before.
Alexander raised his hands to cup her cheeks, his expression softening. Her aura at this moment was the most beautiful and brightest he’d ever seen. It radiated purple and pink, the colors of spirituality and love. So mesmerizing. They were colors he normally saw at weddings between the bride and groom. He had worked for so long to create them in humanity. And here they were, strong and vibrant in this one woman. She inspired him.
“You know I’m telling the truth,” she whispered.
Although he might be ready to give some thought to her beliefs he wasn’t ready to commit to them yet. He let his hands fall to his sides.
She searched his face with her eyes and he saw them lighten with some new, sudden understanding. “Oh my goodness. I’ve figured it out,” she in an amused tone. “You were an idealist before your divorce.” She poked his chest with a finger.
He stepped back. Affronted by such treatment. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She advanced on him again, finger still extended. “You are! That’s what the problem is.”
He continued to step back to avoid being poked and she continued to follow him. “You think that just because sometimes things don’t work out, that love doesn’t last forever, that none of it is worth it. And you know what? Just because you’re a god doesn’t mean you can’t get hurt like everyone else. Just because you and Psyche didn’t work out doesn’t mean it will never happen for anyone else.” She sucked in her breath, eyes wide, and snapped her fingers as if the magical answer had been delivered to her. “That was the first time you were in love, wasn’t it?”
Stealing Cupid's Bow Page 13