Even then, considering the enormous feat before us, I wasn’t sure even that would help.
~ ~ ~
We took turns driving through the night, and arrived at the location of the Kala safe house by late afternoon the next day. The abandoned hotel laid in the outskirts of Corinth, in the run-down part of the city that had not survived the economic changes following the Second World War. As I had feared, it didn’t appear the most desirable of accommodations.
“There’s no way in hell we can stay in there,” Alec observed as he came up beside me where I stood in the parking lot, assessing the near-crumbling three story building from a safe distance.
I didn’t respond, but something on my face must have given me away.
“Oh, God . . .” Alec grumbled as he retrieved several bags from the back of the vehicle. “Forget the demigods. We’re all going to die under a pile of rubble in our sleep, aren’t we?”
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” I warned.
The outward appearance of the hotel had me worried about the status of the section the Kala had claimed. I hoped it had survived the degeneration the rest of the building had been subjected to. If it hadn’t, I didn’t know where else we would go.
We gathered our bags, and I led the group through the unlocked front door, it’s lock likely broken by kids looking for a cheap adventure a decade or more ago. Inside the lobby, we were greeted by an inch of dust that coated the floor and the sheets that covered the oddly shaped objects scattered around the grand room. I saw no fresh footprints, which meant two things. This was no longer a popular location for cheap thrills for bored kids, and Jared and Bruce hadn’t arrived yet with a—hopefully—generous army of soldiers.
I tuned out Alec’s complaints as I sought the door I needed. Finding it along the back wall, near the inoperable elevator, I shouted, “Over here!”
With the aid of the flashlight I had retrieved from my bag, I led the group down the cold, dark stairwell. An orange door, that might have been red at one time, waited at the bottom. A single padlock placed on the door—its key long gone—was all that prevented us from entry.
“We could blow it apart with a gun,” Alec suggested.
I nodded my head, having already come to that conclusion. As I reached for the pistol secured in the waistband of my pants, Kris’s hand stopped me.
“Or . . .” she started with a teasing smile. “Someone could maybe . . . magically unlock it, and save us all the headache?” With a pat on my arm, she added, “I know you like playing Rambo, but I got this one.”
Playing Rambo? I made a face as she stepped past me to place her hands on the lock. I heard Alec’s snicker behind me, and turned to shoot him a glare.
“Rambo,” he repeated with a chuckle. “I think I’ve got a new nickname for you.”
“What was the old nickname?” Lillian questioned Alec as she shot me an amused glance.
My mouth curved into a reluctant grin as Alec answered, “I had several names for him, actually.” He grimaced at the apparent memory before smiling sheepishly at Lillian. “None of them were very nice.”
Lillian glanced between the two of us. “What? You two weren’t always friends?”
Kris snorted loudly as she tried unsuccessfully to contain her laughter. At the same time, Alec shrieked, “You think we’re friends?”
Lillian shrugged. “It seems like it to me.”
I heard a soft click behind me, and turned as Kris removed the padlock from the door. She handed it to me, before addressing Alec.
“Compared to the night the two of you first met, and the many clashes that followed after that,”—she patted Alec apologetically on the shoulder—“I’d say you’re as close as brothers.”
Now it was my turn to laugh. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
Kris lifted a shoulder as she smiled at me knowingly—like she knew something neither Alec nor I were aware of—before she gestured to the door. “Shall we?”
“Yes, please,” Isatan grumbled from the bottom of the stairs. “I’ve heard enough bonding to last me the rest of this mission.”
I met Kris’s gaze with a nod. He really was an insufferable ass.
And something told me he wasn’t going to be impressed with the accommodations awaiting us in the basement of the hotel. Not that any of us were, actually.
The amount of dust that the flashlights illuminated appeared triple that of what we had found upstairs. The enormous open space was damp and cold and, without any windows, especially dark.
Other than that, it had what we needed, which I realized when I opened one of the doors along the left wall. The large pantry contained shelf upon shelf of nonperishables to sustain the small army I expected . . . for a few days anyway. The storage room next to it was filled with enough blankets and pillows to permit us some comfort.
“So we sleep on the floor,” Alec concluded glumly.
“Where else are we going to hide with a small army this close to the demigods?” I knew it sucked. We all did. But we also didn’t have another option. Not if we wanted to remain undetected until we did what we came here to do. “We can get a new lock on the door. Set a look-out in one of the rooms upstairs. Get some radios to communicate . . .”
“We can make it work,” Kris concluded.
She moved away from the group, disappearing into the shadows the flashlights didn’t reach. I started to follow, wondering where she could possibly be going, when a bright orange glow flashed in front of me.
Kris held a small ball of fire between her hands. I watched as her hands separated, and the ball grew in size and strength. Even from several feet away, I felt the heat radiating from it.
She placed it in the center of the room, and turned to me with a satisfied smile. “Now we have light . . . and heat.”
I glanced around to observe the open room—about half the size of a football field. Though the light was dim, it spread into every corner, illuminating the room perfectly in a soft glow.
I smiled as I wrapped her up in my arms, and planted a kiss to her temple. “You amaze me again.”
Chapter 6
~ Kris ~
We spent the remainder of the day, and the entire next day, making the basement a habitable sanctuary. While Alec, Lillian, Isatan, and I swept and scrubbed our lives away, Nathan and Permna gathered the necessary gadgets for the look-out posts they planned to establish on the top floor of the hotel.
Far too many hours passed by with Isatan barking out orders, and I was one “you shouldn’t do it like that” away from accidentally spontaneously combusting him.
“Natural leader my ass,” I grumbled as I took the towel in my hands to the dirty wooden table in front of me.
“What about your ass?” Alec chuckled as he came up beside me. He made a show out of tilting his head to the side to examine my behind before lifting his eyebrows in approval.
I hurled the towel at his head. He caught it easily, and hopped up onto the table with a laugh while I grabbed another one.
“You know . . . I’m kind of in the middle of cleaning that,” I pointed out.
“Who cares? What’s he going to do?” Alec jutted his chin across the room in Isatan’s direction. “Yell at us some more?”
“Good point,” I muttered. But I didn’t stop wiping the table around Alec. If I was expected to eat off of it at some point, I wanted it to be clean.
I felt his eyes on me as I moved around the table. When I came back to the spot Alec sat on, I glanced up and caught an uncertain look on his face before he covered it with a flashy smile.
Something was up. I inclined my head to the side with a silent question.
“Can I ask you something?” Alec wondered.
His suddenly sullen demeanor threw me, and I shifted uneasily under his gaze. But I would like to think that Alec could ask me anything, so I nodded.
“What would you think if I made a pass at Lillian?”
My mouth dropped without conscious thought before I could s
top it. “Wh—what?”
Alec shrugged. “She’s hot. She’s single. I’m single. I’m just wondering how you would feel about it . . .”
I tossed a quick glance across the room to where Lillian was busy sweeping the floor. “I uh . . .”
“No words, huh?”
I shot him a sympathetic grimace. “I’m pretty sure she’s still hung up on Nathan.”
“Story of my life,” he muttered under his breath, then grinned at the chastising look on my face. “I might not have been able to make you forget him, but I think I can make her forget him.”
“Really?” I slid onto the table beside him, and tossed him a playful smile. “You think so?”
“Uh-huh.” His eyes swung toward me, and the grin on his face dropped as he repeated, “I just want to know how you would feel about it first.”
“I mean . . . I’m not a fan of hers by any—”
“No,” Alec interrupted. “How would you feel about it?”
I decided that my legs swinging back and forth under the table were safer to look at, at that moment, than Alec. “What exactly are you asking, Alec?”
“Well . . .” he drew lazily, “the last time I hooked up with a girl, you got jealous.”
I looked up quickly. “I did not—”
His eyes slid to mine knowingly, effectively cutting off my protest.
“Okay,” I sighed. “Maybe I did a little bit. But . . .”
“But what?” Alec probed gently.
But nothing, I concluded. I had no argument, no hold on Alec, no reason to stop him from . . . being Alec. Even if that was with my old nemesis, if that was what Alec wanted.
I shifted to face Alec with a smile. “Go ahead. You don’t need my permission.”
Alec stared at me for a few heavy seconds, sans grin or smile. “I’m not asking for your permission, Kris.”
“Then what are you asking?”
His eyes narrowed fractionally before he looked away with a heavy sigh. “Hell, I don’t really know,” he admitted with a chuckle.
I followed his gaze across the room, where it rested on Lillian. Oblivious to the conversation we were having about her, she rested the broom she was using against the wall and pulled out a hair-tie to pull her long brown hair into. As she turned to retrieve the broom, her eyes swept in our direction before darting away timidly.
Complete opposite of the scowls I had been used to seeing on her face.
Despite the negative history we had, I knew she wasn’t a bad person. Not anymore. And I knew she was hurting . . . over a lot of things. Nathan had insisted that time would heal her. I was sure he was right, but . . . perhaps she needed a little push. Maybe she need to experience love again. Or whatever it was that Alec could offer her.
And, of course, I wanted only the best for Alec.
“Alec, I want you to be happy,” I concluded. “And if she can make you happy, then I would feel . . .”
“Happy?” he teased.
I smiled brightly as I nodded. “That’s all I want for you.”
Alec stared at me for a moment before he groaned. “Shit, Kris. I’m not asking her to marry me, or anything.”
It dawned on me exactly what he was saying. I smacked his arm hard. “You’re a pig.”
“I’m a guy,” he returned with a shrug. “I have needs.”
“Like I said . . . pig.”
“What is with you girls, huh? There’s nothing wrong with a little casual hook-up between two consenting adults.”
I nodded thoughtfully. “You think she’ll have the same opinion?”
“Well . . . she did just return from the dead to find her boyfriend is with someone else,” he mused. “I’m thinking my chances are pretty good.”
I waved a hand in her direction. “By all means . . . go get her, Tiger.”
He shot me a sideways smile. “You’re an adorable dork.” I shrugged as Alec turned to watch Lillian again, and the smile on his face dropped. “Oh, shit.”
“What?”
“Now I have to do something.”
“I doubt that’s a new experience for you,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, but . . .” He turned to me with a wary grimace. “I’ve been out of practice for a while.”
I patted his arm as I slid off the table. “I’m sure you’ll do fine. Now, get off my table so I can finish cleaning it.”
“Alright. I’m going in,” Alec declared. He stretched his arms over his head, as if flirting required him to limber up first.
And he called me a dork?
I shook my head as I leaned across the table to clean the area Alec had been sitting on.
Alec bent down so that his mouth was near my ear. “I’m still here if you ever need help with your evil twin. Don’t forget that.” He started to leave, then came back as if remembering something else. “And I’ll always think your ass is the nicest ass I’ve ever seen. That will never change.”
As he turned to finally leave, his hand swatted my rear like he was a football player congratulating me on a great play. I jumped and spun around in time to watch Alec come to a sudden halt in front of Nathan. Despite his arms folded over his chest and the hardness of his jaw, I wasn’t worried. I knew Nathan’s mad face, and this wasn’t it.
This was more . . . amused annoyance.
I turned back to the table with a small chuckle as Alec sidestepped the Nathan statue. A few seconds ticked by before he unfroze, and came up beside me to grab the towel I had thrown at Alec earlier.
“Should I even ask?”
My throat tightened as I recalled the initial purpose of Alec’s visit. What would Nathan think of a possible romance—or fling—between Alec and Lillian?
“I’m not sure you would want to know,” I returned drily.
Obviously, that was the wrong thing to say, and I realized it the second the words tumbled out. Nathan turned toward me with a furrowed brow, and I realized I should to tell him the truth before he started to think something else.
“It’s not . . .” I groaned at my own stupidity. “Alec’s thinking about making a move on Lillian, and he was talking to me about it. That’s all.”
Nathan’s head turned over his shoulder in Alec’s direction. “That’s it?”
“That’s it?” I repeated a little more shrilly than I had intended.
He didn’t sound bothered by the idea . . . at all. Nor did he look surprised. He turned back to the table with a dismissive shrug. “I figured it was bound to happen eventually.”
“What have I missed?”
“Alec’s been into her since . . . well, pretty much since she woke up,” Nathan explained. He took in my dropped jaw. “You haven’t noticed?”
I shook my head as I watched Alec pick up a broom and say something to Lillian that caused her to laugh. Huh. Though innocent enough, they certainly did seem friendly now that I was paying attention.
Nathan’s eyes were on me. “You okay with it?”
Why was everyone asking me that? I threw my hands up. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Nathan studied me quietly, and it dawned on me that he was asking me the same thing Alec had asked me. Except neither of them knew exactly what they were asking. No more than I knew the answer.
Finally, I sighed, “I just don’t want him to get hurt.” I had done enough of that already.
“I don’t think you have to worry about Lillian,” Nathan replied. I followed his gaze across the room, where Alec and Lillian both stood with brooms in their hands and smiles on their faces. “The attraction is definitely mutual.”
~ ~ ~
Nathan assisted me in cleaning while he filled me in on the progress he and Permna had made that morning. His hybrid crafting skills had enabled him to tap into the hotel’s shut-down water supply, and we now had a slow trickle of running water in one of the rooms upstairs—enough to use the toilet and wash up on occasion. They had also prepared two rooms, on opposing corners of the hotel, as suitable look-out posts.
Thou
gh the demigods didn’t know we were in town yet, we needed to be ready. Nathan and Permna had done all they could do to ensure that we were prepared for them.
When our stomachs started to growl, he helped me prepare a small meal—a disgusting powdery food that turned into something half-way edible with the addition of water—for the group. As we were cleaning up, a loud knock reverberated on the metal door.
“Weapons,” Isatan barked as he withdrew a shiny blade from the sheath around his waist.
“Might be our guys,” Nathan reminded him as we all moved cautiously to the door.
Nathan and Permna had also gotten a new lock for the door, which they had placed inside to keep unwelcome visitors out. Now, Nathan quietly entered the four digit code—0416—to disengage it.
I smiled to myself when the significance of those numbers registered. My birthday.
With one last glance behind him to make sure the rest of us were ready, Nathan slowly eased the door open.
“You better not shoot my ass.”
A familiar voice drifted through the crack, and Nathan opened it wider to reveal a grinning Jared.
Counting Jared and Bruce, a total of twenty hybrids spilled into the basement. I knew because I counted them. A few looked familiar to me, and I assumed that they were originally from the island that I had called home a few weeks ago. Seeing those faces now, after knowing that their base had been destroyed because of me, caused me to step back from the commotion.
Though Nathan insisted I had saved the base that night, I knew the truth. Temulus and the Skotadi had come there because of me. The Kala’s base had been destroyed because of me. Micah had been murdered . . . because of me.
I hovered in the background as introductions were passed around. Watching Nathan, I realized that he knew many of the hybrids unfamiliar to me, from the Australian base. They were easy to pick out with their thick drawls.
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