Stealing Cupid's Bow

by Jewel Quinlan

  He bumped into a wall when he stepped back again, which startled him, but he covered for it by crossing his arms in front of him and frowning down at her. Before he could formulate a starchy answer, she continued, speaking more rapidly now.

  “That’s it isn’t it? She was your first love and you had your heart broken. That’s why you’re so cynical!” She looked gleeful as though she had figured out a complex puzzle.

  “I do not have to stand here and listen to this.”

  And, although he could have been anywhere in an instant, he remained standing where he was. There was something about her that fascinated him; he didn’t actually want to leave. But, instead of entertaining her train of thought, he ended the conversation by changing the subject. “And if you want my help cleaning up the mess you made, we’d better get started.”

  “What? You’ll help me fix everything?”

  His sidetrack worked. “Well I can’t have anyone thinking I made this mess.” He refrained from saying and if it continues much longer, word will get out that I was foolish enough to let my bow be stolen by a mortal.

  He spoke Donovan’s name and had the wind carry the summons off to him. It blew warm and soft as it picked up the word and carried it away, playing with Raine’s hair as it left.

  Raine turned her head this way and that apparently hearing the echoes on the wind as it went.

  Within seconds, Donovan appeared through the doorway holding Alexander’s bow and quiver.

  “Did you load the other arrows?”

  “As you requested,” Donovan said.

  Alexander busied himself with unbuttoning his shirt.

  “What was that?” Raine asked.

  “He can speak through the wind,” Donovan answered her.

  “It’s more than that. I control it,” Alexander corrected, “in many ways. A useful skill for any archer.” He turned to Donovan. “Did you get a fix on Blake Jordan?”

  Donovan nodded. “They’re at Green Hills Chapel. It’ll be on your way.”

  Alexander shook his head. “Celebrities. Why do they have to run off and get married first? Why can’t they just go straight to their hotel room like everyone else?”

  “You got me.” Donovan shrugged.

  Alexander handed his shirt to Donovan and allowed his wings to unfurl after pulling the quiver and bow over to rest diagonally across his chest. He could feel Raine’s eyes on him, running over his body, and the corners of his mouth lifted with amusement. He liked the affect he had on her.

  He pulled her close against his side and wrapped his arm firmly around her waist. It was dark now and unlikely anyone would see them in the air.

  “What…?”

  Her words cut off as he beat his wings powerfully and lifted them from the floor. He had the wind pick up around them to support his lift off and headed toward the edge of the building.

  She clenched his arm in fear and squealed, “No, no, no! I can’t; I don’t like heights.”

  But he paid it no mind. “You have nothing to fear,” he said. His wings folded into a sharp V they dove straight down toward the street.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Aaaaahhhhhh!” Raine shrieked. She wrapped her arms around Alexander’s neck, clutching herself as close to him as she could. She squeezed her eyes shut, but it didn’t help, she could still feel the vertigo.

  They were falling! Falling straight to the street below. Terror filled her mind.

  And then he made a great curving swoop, his wings beating a couple of times to level them off into a glide.

  There was a strange shaking motion coming from his chest. She pried one eye open to see. His lips were sealed tight to hold back the laughter, but he didn’t do as good of a job concealing his smile. The corners of his mouth were curved up and his eyes were dancing.

  “This is not funny!” she raged.

  But he only laughed harder.

  It was irritating that he was amused at her expense. But, she grudgingly supposed she deserved it after all she’d done and said to him. Flying with him had to be a much better alternative than being smote by him.

  They were gliding away from the Strip now and she heard Alexander speak to the wind and ask it to arrange itself in an updraft to support them. As they continued to glide smoothly, her terror decreased fractionally, which was better than nothing. It still bothered her that there was nothing between her and the ground except Alexander’s arm. Which, considering whose arm it was, should have consoled her, but it didn’t.

  She peered down at the structures passing below them but could not figure out where they were going. The proximity of his body to hers was also becoming more distracting. It didn’t help that his shirt was off and his muscles were working. Her cheek was pressed into the soft skin in the nook between his neck and chest muscle and her whole body seemed to be intertwined with his. All of her senses awakened to absorb and remember every point of contact between them. With the eager response of her body to his she was finding it difficult to maintain her irritation with him.

  “Are we going to help Jane?” she asked tentatively.

  “Yes, after a couple of brief stops along the way. There are some other pressing issues we need to address first.” He glanced at her then returned his gaze to the streets below.

  She realized he was scanning them. Searching. “But, how do you know where to find them all?”

  “I can see them,” he said.

  “You can?”

  “Their auras,” he explained. “I can feel them, too, when I want to. My men are tied up taking care of all the ones in and near the hotel, so we have to go after some of the stragglers that came out this way.”

  “What do you mean ‘already taken care of’?”

  “They’ve reversed what you’ve done. As I told you, indifference is the opposite of love. After my problems with Psyche, and discovering that the arrows of hate only made things worse, I created arrows of indifference to cure myself. They came in handy later when I began training the others.”

  “The others?”

  He nodded. “Trainees make mistakes, too. Donovan and Cole for example,” he said.

  “Oh, right. How many men are there?”

  “I have offices worldwide and thousands of archers trained.”

  Her jaw dropped. “Thousands?” she echoed. “But you’re Cupid. Aren’t you supposed to be doing it?” She knew what he was going to say but the words came out of her mouth anyway.

  “I don’t need to anymore, nor do I have the desire, as you already know.”

  “So I suppose you and your men are the reason so many celebrities and politicians fall in love every day? Clients of yours I’m guessing?” she commented drily.

  He smiled. “Very good. Yes, most are clients of mine.”

  “So you’ll help them for money but you wouldn’t help me? I don’t get you, Alexander! You’re a god. You could probably snap your fingers and have anything you want. How come you can help people for money you don’t even need but you won’t help me?”

  “I like the challenge of running a successful business,” was all he said.

  He was so stubborn. But she could be, too. “I still think they would last if you were the one doing it.”

  He grunted.

  “It’s not right,” she returned.

  “Who are you to pass judgment?” he said. “You think you are any different from my clients? You’re not. You want me to help you make things the way you think they should be.”

  That shut her up. Briefly. “That’s not true. I am nothing like them.” She knew there was a difference but she just couldn’t seem to find the right way to explain it.

  “I am failing to see the distinction.”

  She stayed silent after that.

  ***

  He could feel they were getting close to one of the stragglers. To him it felt like a sickness. And, in fact, it was. A love sickness.

  “Here’s the first one,” Alexander said, dipping them into a tight circle.
r />   Raine clutched herself tighter at the shift in balance.

  They glided to the ground and then to a smooth stop. Across the street the man sat staring at a tree with a strange expression on his face. He could see the diseased tinge of the man’s aura. Instead of the strong, vibrant pink that is should have been from the arrow it was infused with the white of sickness making it a pale, salmon-colored pink.

  By his clothes, Alexander could tell he was homeless and Raine’s ill-timed arrow had caused the man to fall in love with the tree. He looked at it rapturously.

  This was just not right.

  From somewhere, the homeless man had found a length of flower-patterned cloth, which he’d wrapped around the tree and tied with several feet of cord to make a dress for it. All sorts of colored twine, ribbon, rope, and electrical cord hung from its branches. And it was surrounded by a multitude of mismatched flowers that had obviously been uprooted from other places by the man and delivered to the tree.

  Alexander readied his bow and pulled the appropriate arrow from his quiver. He drew back without hesitation and released the arrow quickly. It flew straight and true across the street and struck the man just to the right of his shoulder blade and between the bones of his rib cage so the tip struck him in the heart. He felt a curl of satisfaction at hitting his target precisely.

  The bow felt really good in his hands this time. It was like an extension of his body, an intimate part that he hadn’t used in a long time. Using it felt like stretching cramped legs. He wondered what made it feel so different this time in contrast to his other two recent cases. Why hadn’t this feeling come over him then? Maybe it was because he was righting a wrong, doing something purely for moral reasons and not financial or political ones.

  The homeless man had stumbled forward a few steps and was hunched over hands on his knees. He shook his head as if to clear it, gazing around in confusion. When he got his bearings, he collected his meager belongings from the ground and slouched away.

  “There. Done. Shall we move on to the next one?” Alexander said, turning back to Raine.

  She was watching the man walk away. “What did you do to him?” she asked.

  “I fixed what you did. I shot him with an arrow of indifference. Now he won’t feel anything for the tree at all. It’s been wiped out.”

  The expression on her face was strange, almost teary.

  “What? What is it?” He looked at the man then back at her.

  “I can’t help but think that today was probably the happiest day in that poor man’s life in a long time. I feel kind of terrible taking it away from him.”

  Alexander was astonished. “But he was in love with a tree!”

  “Still, I’m sure it was better than nothing at all. Better than the void his life has become.”

  “So…what? You want me to go shoot him again and let him continue his love affair with the foliage?”

  Raine turned her gaze to him and chuffed at him, the way all women do when men have been obtuse. “No,” she said simply.

  He was confused. One minute the woman wanted him to fix things, and then after he did she had the audacity to say she thought things were better the way they were before. He wished she would make up her mind.

  The separation that had formed between them bothered him. In the darkness of last night he remembered her turning over in her sleep and seeking him out so that she could snuggle her head on his chest. He had liked that feeling.

  He pushed the thought from his mind and stepped toward her. “We have to go.” Securing her to his side again, he propelled them up from the pavement, his wings pushing the air in strong thrusts.

  It wasn’t long before they arrived at Green Hills Chapel. It was a white church with a bell tower surrounded by one of the newer neighborhoods. He landed them on the roof. Raine stood and looked down over the street with him as he waited for any signs of activity.

  “Do you even remember all the people you shot?” he asked her idly.

  “Not really. Maybe if I see them. After the first few I don’t know what happened, it was as though I just couldn’t stop. It’s all a blur now.”

  “Sounds like its power got to you.” He’d dealt with it before with mortals. He’d tried to train a few in the beginning but it hadn’t worked out because of the effect the equipment had on them.

  “So it was the bow?”

  “And the arrows, too. Since you are human it’s almost impossible to handle the equipment without some of its power rubbing off on you little by little.”

  “What about you?” she asked.

  “Nope.”

  “Not at all?”

  He shook his head. But he wondered if he might be wrong. He had felt a slight something earlier. That stretching feeling.

  “Well. You’re missing out,” she said. “Because it feels good.”

  She was right. But he didn’t tell her that.

  “What about Donovan and Cole? They aren’t affected?”

  “They are demigods, the children of a human and a god. And no, they seem to do just fine with the equipment.” He’d actually never asked them since he’d seen no signs of ill effects. He decided to inquire of Donovan later.

  Alexander went back to evaluating the street. Cars were starting to pull up and people were getting out. People with cameras and notepads. They started to congregate around the front door of the church.

  “I wonder who’s in there?” Raine said.

  “The celebrity you shot earlier.”

  She looked surprised. “I did? Who was it?”

  “You don’t remember shooting Blake Jordan? He was one of your first victims from the taxi line.” The appalled look on her face was comical but he didn’t laugh. He would have to do something fast before they came out and the media were all over them. He had been hoping to shoot them as they left the building but that wasn’t going to work now with all the reporters there.

  “Come with me,” he said, walking toward the back of the building. She followed him. They stopped at the edge of the roof. It looked like there was a back entrance below and no reporters had shown up there yet.

  “We have to be quiet,” he told her. He put his arm around her and she seemed more prepared this time. She put her arms around his neck right away and didn’t squeal when he stepped off the edge with her. Her body stiffened in his arms, but she remained quiet.

  Spreading his wings wide, he angled the feathers just right so they cupped the air like a parachute and they drifted to the ground below. He tried the doorknob to the back door. It turned easily in his hand. He prepared his equipment and then went quietly in the door. Raine trailed behind him. He forgot that she could see him when he was using it.

  The back room was obviously some kind of office for the priest. To the right was another door that lead out into the church and he could hear the sound of voices and see the priest’s back where he stood at the altar. The wedding was already in progress.

  “Stay here,” he whispered to her. “They’ll be able to see you.”

  She nodded and stationed herself just to the inside of the door where she could peep out.

  He walked around to the side of the priest and the altar where he could get a better shot. Blake Jordan and a blond woman stood on the steps leading up to the altar giddy with excitement. They couldn’t keep their hands off each other and he could tell the priest was a little scandalized by their behavior. His men were definitely going to get a crack out of this one. After everything had been put to rights, of course.

  Luckily there was no one else in the church, but a low, creaking sound caught his ear. Someone was prying open the front door and positioning their camera lens through the narrow opening to get a shot. Damn it! He quickly commanded a strong gust of wind to blow the door shut and it banged the camera as it slammed. Turning his bow sideways he loaded it with two arrows at once. He released the string with a twang and each arrow found its target. Both of them rocked back with the impact and then looked at each other and then
the priest with surprise.

  The front door was starting to creak again and he figured he’d better warn them about the reporters before he left so they wouldn’t go out the front door.

  He stowed his bow and all three of them stepped back in shock as he appeared to them seemingly out of nowhere.

  “You’re making a mistake,” he said. “Go out the back door. There are reporters all over the front of the building.”

  There, that should do it. Best to keep the message brief. He left back the way he came and took Raine outside so that he could lift into the skies once again. He didn’t notice her suppressed laughter until they were airborne. She had her forehead pressed against his neck and he could feel the quivers from her chest.

  “What are you laughing about?”

  “It…it was just so funny,” she gasped out.

  “What? Me saving them from all the media attention?”

  “You think this won’t be in the media?” She giggled.

  He quirked a brow at her. “Why would it be?”

  “Well the priest for one is for sure going to spread the word that an angel appeared in his church!”

  He let out and exasperated noise. He’d forgotten to hide his wings. She was right. What else would they think he was standing there in his true form, wings and all? Well a story about an angel would do a lot less harm than what had really gone on. He just hoped the angels wouldn’t get offended when the news article came out.

  Chapter Eighteen

  When they rose into the sky for the third time, Raine relaxed. She was starting to feel quite safe flying with Alexander, although there was a big difference between riding in a nice comfy plane and traveling around latched to the side of Cupid. The movement the many muscles on his chest and around his shoulders when he stroked his wings up and down was fascinating. And sexy. The way he looked when he was shooting an arrow turned her on, too. He looked powerful and strong like a warrior. She wasn’t minding being pressed close against him either. A heat stole over her cheeks.