Stealing Cupid's Bow

by Jewel Quinlan

  “What were they doing at the time?”

  “They were having an argument.” She stood up and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

  Alexander processed that. Shooting people midfight was a tricky thing even for his advanced men. The correct timing of alignment could come and go in a split second under those circumstances.

  “And you shot both of them?” He sighed. What a mess. It really bothered him as he looked around. What had once been a warm and lovely home was now in tatters. Dishes had been broken in the kitchen and feathers from a busted pillow lay scattered. Furniture had been knocked over.

  She nodded. “Yes.” She looked at him with worried eyes. “I…I shot them both twice. Is that bad?”

  “Twice!” His eyes bulged. Now all the destruction was making sense. Two arrows each! And she didn’t know which ones her parents had received. “How could you do such a thing?” he raged at her. “Even if by some miracle the rest of the arrows were gold-tipped your parents are far beyond screwed right now. That’s more emotion than any mortal can withstand!”

  “I was trying to make sure it lasted,” she said miserably. “You wouldn’t help me and I thought if I shot them both twice….” Her words drifted off.

  He ran his hands through his hair and turned away from her. He walked out the door, his fingers curled into fists.

  She followed him pleading, “Alexander, I didn’t know what I was doing. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.” Taking hold of his arm, she stopped him. “Alexander, I still need your help. Please. If they are as screwed up as you say they are, then I need you now more than ever.”

  He turned to look at her. Taking deep breaths, he relaxed his fists and reminded himself that she didn’t know any better. “I’m still going to try and erase it. I’m just not sure it will take.”

  She looked taken aback. “What do you mean? Of course you can fix it.”

  She said it so simply, as if it were a fact, as if he had all the answers. She thought he could fix everything having to do with love. Well, he couldn’t and it was time she knew.

  “Raine, not everything can be rectified. I couldn’t repair my own marriage. Remember? I’m divorced.”

  A look of shock crossed her face.

  They stood in silence for a moment.

  “You were right before,” he said. “It was the first and only time I’ve fallen in love.”

  “Well, from the stories that have been told about it, it was legendary,” she said.

  He gave a bitter laugh. “It’s appropriate, I suppose, for the god of love to have had such an extraordinary romance. But no one, least of all myself, ever expected such a mundane ending.”

  “Then you are no different from the rest of us Alexander. I can’t tell you how many people get married every day who think they are going to ride off into the sunset, and then reality comes crashing in. But don’t you see? Haven’t you ever thought, in all this time, that that is all part of it? Maybe that’s one of the greatest parts of it you know? The struggle, the passion, the despair. It’s what makes love, love.”

  A new light was beginning to shine from her and with it a new door opened in his mind. He could see what she was talking about.

  She continued on, “Some make it and some don’t and then suddenly you’re at an old couple’s anniversary party and they give a speech saying how difficult it was. And then they always end that speech with the best part.”

  “Which is?”

  “They always say it was worth it.”

  “They do?” He’d never been to an anniversary party before. He had no way of knowing if what she said was correct but it made him hope in a way he never had before.

  “No one has ever spoken so honestly to me before.” She dared to speak to him as she would anyone else on the earth making him feel as if he belonged.

  “Must be a side effect of being a god,” she said.

  Her small joke pleased him. “You are not afraid to offend a god?” he asked but he knew that answer already.

  “No. Not you. I know you won’t hurt me,” she said.

  She knew him so well already, he thought. He was the last of all the gods to want to cause pain to others, perhaps a practical joke once in a while, but not pain.

  “And what about the others?” he asked her.

  “The others?”

  “The ones that don’t make it?”

  “If they look, then they may find love again. If they don’t, it’s not the end of the world. I’ve seen people happy without it.”

  It was something he’d never considered. He looked at her, wanting to believe the earnestness in her green eyes as she spoke her truth. But what did she know, mortal that she was? And so young in experience compared to himself.

  She took his hand. “We should go. I’ll never be able to live with myself if my parents are stuck living with what I’ve done to them.”

  “You should have taken you own advice and left them alone in the first place,” he couldn’t help saying.

  She sucked in a breath but nodded reluctantly but said, “Yes, I should have left them alone, but I’m still not so sure you should have.”

  He said nothing in reply. He was beginning to think she might be right. He escorted her to the car and they set off for the restaurant.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Upon entering Valentino’s, he knew immediately that something was wrong. Two of the waitstaff were standing at the door to the private room peering in and whispering to each other and the manager was headed across the restaurant toward them. Shouting could be heard from within the room and the other diners were beginning to stare.

  Alexander caught the manager by the arm before he made it to the door. “I’ll take care of this.” Alexander had helped him with situations before. They knew each other well.

  The manager looked relieved to see him. He nodded and then gestured to the staff to get back to work.

  Holding Raine’s hand tightly, he led her into the room and closed the door behind them. For a party that had just started, the situation must have deteriorated rapidly. It seemed two sides had formed. On one side Raine’s mother was crying. Raine’s Aunt Nora had an arm around her and was yelling at what he assumed was Raine’s father, who stood next to some other men.

  “You never were good enough to marry her,” Aunt Nora said.

  “Nothing will ever be good enough for that woman,” said Raine’s father.

  At the sound of his voice, a memory dredged itself up from the back of Alexander’s mind. He looked at Mr. Daniels more closely. He knew his face; he had seen him before. But where? And then the memory came clear. It had been one of those nights when he’d felt restless. He’d been flying over the city, finding solace in the feel of wind on his face. He remembered looking down at all the houses, feeling the various auras when one had called to him like a beacon. It was farther on the edge of town but it had been strong.

  When he’d landed to take a look he found it was actually two auras closely aligned. Both the most beautiful pink he’d ever seen, lit up with love. A man, Raine’s father, had proposed to a woman that night as he’d looked through the window. He’d only been able to see the back of her head but he’d seen Mr. Daniels clearly. His instinct to shoot had been potent, but his bow was in the vault back at the hotel since he didn’t use it anymore. But he couldn’t look away. After the woman, Raine’s mother, accepted the ring they had slow danced together in the living room. And somehow, here they were today. They’d had enough love to stay together for forty years, without his help. It was amazing.

  As he had expected, her parents’ auras were really screwed up. They were a muddy, sickly color that whorled and sputtered, shooting sparks from the entire spectrum of colors at random as they felt a host of emotions. Deep and irrational emotions. This was not good.

  Alexander could see that the power injected into Raine’s parents from the arrows was emanating from them and affecting others around. They were beginning to feeling hostile. Some of the
people toward the edges of the room had not been affected yet and they milled about not quite knowing what to do. But the ones closet were starting to mutter as they took sides. It was turning into a feud.

  Raine sucked in a breath in shock and stood watching, her hands lifted to her cheeks.

  “You never loved me!” cried Raine’s mother.

  “Then you have no idea what love is,” said Mr. Daniels. “After everything I’ve done for you, this is what I get? Women have no gratitude. It’s always more, more, more!” The men next to him nodded and muttered in agreement.

  It wouldn’t be long before full riot ensued. Alexander pulled his bow from his shoulder and reached for an arrow.

  Raine put a hand on his arm pausing him. She was staring at the crystal-tipped arrows in his hands. “Does it have to be that? There has to be something else you can do.”

  The look she gave him made him wish that he could. It reached down into his soul and grabbed his heart. At this moment he would have liked nothing better than to repair it all for her. But it was too late; they were far beyond that.

  He shook his head. “Raine, it would only damage them more. Look at them, they are already out of their minds with emotion; it’s far too intense. If we leave them like this, they’ll either kill each other now or commit suicide later. I have to take it away, every last bit.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he said with regret. “They have to be wiped clean. I’m sorry. It’s the only hope.”

  “But then, they’ll feel nothing at all for each other, right? Nothing. It will be as if they were never even married.”

  “They’ll have the memories, but it will be as if they are looking through an emotionless filter.” He knew from personal experience.

  She looked back at them and he could almost see a million different memories of her parents passing before her. A tear streaked down her cheek and she nodded. “Okay.” She took a step behind him and said no more.

  He loaded his bow with both of the crystal-tipped arrows and released them simultaneously. They flew true to their targets. And then he reached down and held Raine’s hand.

  They both jolted massively on impact. The brown, gray, and sulfur tones of anger, negativity, and depression that had been radiating from both of their auras disappeared with a flash. The tension in the room dropped several degrees. Raine’s mother wiped her tear-streaked face with a napkin and looked around with surprise, awareness coming back to her again. Raine’s father had reached a hand to one of the other men’s shoulders as he had stumbled to the side and he now had a hand lifted to his forehead.

  All around them the family members that had been affected blinked and looked around as though they had been awakened from a dream. Behind them the door opened and shut as Donovan, Cole, and Jane entered the room.

  An awkward silence hung in the air.

  “What’s going on?” Jane whispered.

  Raine looked at her and then at Alexander. She let go of his hand and walked to the front of the room where a microphone stood that was to be used for toasts. She stood there for a moment adjusting it and appeared to be gathering her thoughts.

  Finally she looked up and a smile appeared on her face that he could tell wasn’t genuine. He knew that, inside, she was dying.

  “Well, what kind of family would we be without the occasional fight?” she joked weakly. A small rumble of laughter rippled through the crowd. All eyes were on her, distracted from what had just occurred, and Alexander was moved by her bravery.

  “After forty years of marriage, you can guarantee that there will be no shortage of things to argue about. Just make sure you all take a lesson from my parents tonight and don’t hold anything in. Who needs the heartburn and indigestion? Tonight we are here again to celebrate all the good times that have led up to today, to this very moment. And let me tell you all those times that I’ve seen my parents loving one another are the ones that will be burned into my memory for eternity.

  “I know you’ve probably heard me tell you a lot of things about Mom and Dad already. But this year is even more special than the others. It’s a milestone in a marriage.” Her voice quavered and she paused to wipe a tear from her cheek. “So, I saved some things to tell you that I think are very special about them, so that we will all never forget.”

  She looked down and took a deep breath before continuing and Alexander could see that she was holding herself together by a thread. She wasn’t just making a speech. She was saying good-bye to her parents, to the end of all new memories for them, and it tore at his heart.

  “It’s the little things that form the glue that hold a marriage together, you know? To this day, my father still holds doors open for my mother and pulls her chair out for her. I often joke that my mother hasn’t touched a door handle or a chair back in years.” The crowd chuckled. “Every other week, without fail, my mother makes my father’s favorite dish. Spaghetti and meatballs with extra-garlicky bread. And every Christmas they have a special gift exchange, just the two of them, at night with candlelight when they think I am in bed sleeping.”

  She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “And to this day my parents still hold hands when they are out together. I must have millions of memories like those, and I wish I could share them all with you. But that’s not the point. The point is that I realized something about those small gestures that we all forget. I realized that it all happens because of love. They are the unconscious expression of your deepest feelings.

  “And my parents sure do love each other. A lot. They will forever be role models to all of us as what it is like to truly love another person.”

  Her parents were looking at each other now from their opposing tables. The crowd was silent, watching her. At the front of the room Alexander could see Raine glowing with her deep love for her parents. It was strong. She was surrounded by a pulsating cloud the color of a fine cabernet.

  Raine continued her speech, “So everyone please raise your glass in this toast to my parents. Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad. I love you both with all my heart.” All hands raised glasses and drank to the toast and then they started to clap and cheer.

  From behind him, Jane whispered, “Where’s the music? The music is supposed to start and they’re supposed to dance.” She looked around in concern but there was no waiter handy for her to speak to. “I’d better speak to the manager,” she said stepping back out the door.

  Cole and Donovan were watching him, waiting to see what orders he would give now. The arrows of indifference had been discharged. There was nothing more for them to do here.

  But he couldn’t leave yet. He turned back to look at Raine. She was standing there at the front of the room all by herself, looking very small, with a brave smile on her face as she tried to hide her sorrow. And he decided it wouldn’t be right for her to smooth things over all alone. Not when there was something so simple he could do. Lifting his hand, he snapped his fingers and music began to play, not just any music but her parents’ special song. The one that had played the night he’d seen them dancing together in the living room after Raine’s father had proposed.

  He hoped it would be enough. It was all he could think to do for Raine and her parents now. To give them a couple more memorable seconds before it all came apart.

  Each of them stood and walked to the center of the dance floor. All the anger was gone now and some confusion was evident but as they came closer a light of remembrance sparked in their eyes and they began to dance.

  Alexander could see the sadness in Raine’s eyes. He could tell she knew it was the last time she would see them together in this way. His shoulders drooped and he turned to leave. One more disappointment to mark against his bow. He raised a hand to push the door open but Donovan’s clapped a hand on his shoulder and stayed him.

  “Boss, look,” he said. His eyes were locked on something across the room. Cole was looking too, the same surprised expression on his face. “Whoa,” he said.

&n
bsp; Alexander turned.

  The large field of energy that Raine had been emitting was no longer with Raine. It was now moving, floating across the dance floor by itself. When it reached her parents, it enfolded them into its vibrating depths.

  Alexander could not remember ever seeing such a phenomenon. Auras gave off energy, yes, but he’d never seen one act in such a way before. He was mystified. It wasn’t dissipating. It was as if her love had taken on a life all its own.

  The dancing couple began to speak to each other and he used his control of the air to bring the words to him so he could hear them as well.

  “Well, guess this is it,” Mr. Daniels said.

  “I suppose so,” said Mrs. Daniels.

  But neither of them looked as though they could recall the reason why. To Alexander’s surprise the aura energy was now penetrating and infusing their auras. The indifference he had injected them with was diffusing and giving way to the red cloud.

  No more words were said for a moment as they continued to sway to the music and he saw new expressions coming over their faces. It was very subtle but Alexander was shocked to see an awareness coming back to them, as if they were waking up. The redness continued to merge and blend and penetrate until he could barely see the indifference anymore.

  Mrs. Daniels hesitantly looked at her husband. “You know, it’s actually going to be a very big change not being together anymore. Separate doesn’t necessarily mean better off.”

  “Huh. It’s going to be expensive, too,” Mr. Daniels grunted.

  They were silent for another few beats and then Mr. Daniels took a deep breath and said, “You know, I don’t even know how things got so out of hand. I know things have been rough since I retired but isn’t that usually just a phase? How did everything escalate this far?”

  “I don’t know,” she said with wonder.

  “Truthfully, Mary, I just want things to be the way they were. I recall a lot of good times between us. Don’t you?”

  “I do remember.” They were gazing at each other, their eyes shining.