by Mila McClung
He fidgeted in his seat, turned his face from her, his eyes flitting from Aella to Kosmas.
“I’ve been watching you all night, Toby, hoping for a glimmer of attraction. I felt it very strongly back in Athens but somehow it seems to have vanished. It is humiliating to speak of these things in company. Please, could we go outside?”
“I’d rather not. And if whatever attraction I had for you is gone it’s because I’ve actually been listening to you!” Toby huffed. “You are so full of yourself it’s pathetic! I can’t understand now why I was attracted to you at all!”
He stood, swept crumbs off of his slacks, and shifted his jacket. “I see I’ve been wasting my time. Well, women are easily replaced. And I’ll get Moonsea somehow when it’s ready to be sold!”
“I won’t sell it then!” Toby shot back, infuriated. “I’ll never sell it to you! Or anyone! You see, Stephan, I have fallen in love … not with you … but with Moonsea!”
“Ridiculous! You’ll get tired of it in two weeks. Remember how bored you were in Athens?”
“That was because of the company I was keeping. I think you better leave now.”
“Yes,” Kosmas added. “Leave. Now.”
Stephan glanced at the man; saw a fierce glint in the brown eyes. “No need for histrionics. I’m going. But you will get tired of Moonsea, Toby, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll come looking for me.”
“When hell freezes over, yeah … maybe!”
Stephan glanced at her with stinging wet eyes. Something was not right about the situation. He was pretending to be suave and uncaring but inside he was in pain. Had he truly fallen in love with her? And his arrogance couldn’t handle her rejection? He kept staring at her, making her uncomfortable. She’d never been in a position to reject anybody, didn’t know what to do.
“Look, I’m sorry if we jumped all over you but Moonsea is a beautiful, unique place, as you said this morning. I don’t want to ruin that. I can’t understand why you would, either. And, as for me … well, I enjoyed your company in Athens. But you never hinted that you wanted anything more than friendship.”
“This has all been a terrible misunderstanding. Chalk it up to a difference in cultures and I’ll hopefully leave as graciously as I entered.”
“We’ll do that.”
He reached out a hand to each one of them. When he took Toby’s, he lingered, clasping it tightly. She felt a slight surge but it petered out miserably. He could tell he’d lost whatever promise there’d been between them, and it struck him like a fist.
“Goodnight, Toby. I’ll see you soon, I hope.”
“Oh, I suppose you will. You live on the far island, and I’ll go there at some point for shopping or whatever, I’m sure.”
“Of course. Goodnight.” He nodded to Aella and Kosmas; they acknowledged him coolly.
“Well, that was embarrassing!” Aella sighed as she cleared away the dishes.
Kosmas lit a pipe, sat by the hearth. “He must be crazy, thinking he had you in his pocket.”
“I didn’t realize … I mean, he seemed so distant, I never thought he could be serious about me.”
“Don’t worry, child. He’ll get over it and move on. Greece is full of pretty girls.”
“Aella, you belittle our Toby when you say that. She’s very special. Stephan will have a hard time finding anyone like her!”
“You’re sweet, Kosmas,” Toby smiled. “It’s been a long day! I think I’ll go up and read for awhile. Do you two retire early?”
“We watch the TV in bed for a few hours every night. The satellite has good reception but we don’t care much for these modern programs. We mostly watch DVDs. Kosmas loves his American movies!”
“So do I!” Toby laughed. “We’ll have to watch some together one night.”
“It’s a date!”
She hurried upstairs, stared out the window. Clouds had smothered the moon. The temple was dark. Toby realized she’d have to wait until the couple went to their room on the other side of the house before she could slip out. It was agonizing to think she still couldn’t go to Dio. He’d been on her mind all through dinner. Had he seen Stephan, and wondered about him? Was he lying in a warm, cozy bed, bare and pale, waiting for her to arrive? That thought sent tiny shockwaves through her – the anticipation was a sweet form of hell.
She removed her blue dress and heels, placed them gently into the armoire. Then she slid on a pair of jeans and a red T shirt and curled up on the bed to read.
After she saw the light go out underneath Aella and Kosmas’ bedroom door she flew like a silent bird down the stairs and out into the chilly, September night. The temple seemed miles away; she slowed down, not wanting to drain her energy on the trek. The goats complained as she passed their enclosure. She stood still for a moment, eyeing the house. It was still dark.
The wind whipped up, threw the olive trees about, creating hissing sounds in the leaves. She thought she heard feet walking behind her but when she stopped they did, too.
“Damned imagination,” she sighed. “I’ve been reading too many mystery novels!”
She stepped towards the temple, anxious to see Dio again, her skin prickling at the memory of his touch. A hand reached out of the darkness, clasped her mouth. She thought Dio must be playing – she took the hand in hers, was about to kiss it when she realized it was not his! It belonged to Stephan Cristos. Toby flung his hand away, drew back so she could get a clear view of him in the moonlight. His eyes were glazed with a strange fear.
“What are you doing here?” she cried.
“I … was exploring the island,” he said in a hushed voice. “I come here quite often at night.”
“Why? What are you looking for?”
“Nothing in particular. I thought I might find some small artifact worth selling. I’ve done it before.”
“You stole treasures from the island?”
“I wouldn’t call it stealing. Gregory knew I came here.”
“How can you prove that, since he’s dead?”
“I guess you’ll have to take my word for it.”
“What if I don’t? What if I call the police?”
“I don’t think you want the police to come here.”
“Oh no?” She pulled a cell phone from her pocket. “Let’s see … Aella told me the number to call … it’s …”
“Please don’t, Toby. I love you, doesn’t that count for something?”
“It might, if you told me the truth about why you’re here.”
“I can’t.”
“Then I have no choice but to call the police …”
He panicked, jumped for her. They wrestled over the phone, Stephan twisting her wrist until it felt like it would snap. She let go the phone. Then a flash of moonlight barred their sight. A hand shoved her out of harm’s way. Toby fell backwards, peered through the wind-tossed hedges surrounding the ruined temple – Dio was on Stephan with a vengeance, pummeling his ribs and kicking him. He slugged Stephan on the jaw; caught him as he dropped and set him on the ground.
Toby ran to him with clutching arms.
“Where were you? I was so afraid you wouldn’t come!”
“I was asleep. I drifted off, waiting for you. But then I heard voices … who is he, Toby? He said he loved you.”
“He’s Gregory’s attorney. I had no idea until tonight that he cared for me. Did you know he’d been coming here?”
“I have seen him before, yes. He was a friend of your father’s.”
“He said he’s been taking things from the island.”
“Yes, small things, nothing worth making a fuss about. Why was he attacking you?”
“I threatened to call the police. I wouldn’t have, really. I’m afraid they might find you if I did. I was trying to scare him off. He seems desperate. I suppose people reach a breaking point and then nothing matters anymore.”
“I know that feeling very well. What do we do with him?”
“I guess he has a boat round here.” She
searched the grey shadows below the cliff. “There it is, on that small beach. It’s a bit far. You probably can’t reach it. Maybe I could drag him down there. I’m fairly strong.”
“I can send him to the boat,” Dio whispered, “if he doesn’t wake and see how I do it.”
Toby puzzled at him. “What do you mean?”
“You don’t have to talk quietly. I’m awake,” a weak voice said. Stephan stood, eyeing Dio. “So, the legend of the moonboy is true!”
“Moonboy? What are you talking about?”
“I see now why you rejected me, Toby. You’re in love with him.”
“What do you know about me?” Dio questioned, his eyes flashing.
“I’ve heard the girls in my town, talking about you. ‘The boy who never ages.’ That’s what they call you. They and their mothers and their grandmothers all have seen you sitting up here on the cliffs at various stages of their lives, usually when they’re swimming or boating. You’re like some kind of mystical, romantic dream to them. I’ve been coming here, hoping to find some credence in their dreams, though personally I think you’re just one of a long line of laborers who come from the same family, so you all look alike. But Greece has a history of legends, and primitives love their history. I’ll be going now, Toby, unless you want to press charges. I wouldn’t blame you, I deserve it.”
“No, Stephan, it’s like I said. You reached a breaking point. Maybe now you’re past it you can find some meaning to your life beyond wanting to be rich.”
“But what’s the use, if I don’t have you?”
“You didn’t want me; not really. You wanted my father’s money.”
“You may be right. Goodnight. And Toby, thank you for understanding; I’m sorry I caused you all this trouble.”
He walked away. Toby stared after him then turned to Dio. “So, you’re a legend? I’m surprised he didn’t try to photograph you, like the Loch Ness Monster!”
“I know what that is. Aella brings me all kinds of books. But I’m not a hoax. I’m real.”
“That you are! I’ve waited all night for this!” She reached loving arms about his pale neck, kissed him hungrily. “Take me to your bed.”
CHAPTER THREE
Dio led Toby into a secret chamber behind the temple; it had one quaint little room with a welcoming fire in a plain stone hearth and a big, fluffy bed in the corner. To one side were a small loveseat, a bookcase bursting with volumes new and old, and a wood table with three chairs – his dinner dishes, now clean, sat stacked and ready to go. Toby noticed a bathroom attached to the side of the temple.
“A recent addition,” he smiled. “It has a self-composting toilet, and the water for the sink and tub comes from a cistern in the yard with a solar-powered heater. Gregory made all kinds of improvements to the place for me.”
“My father? So he knew about you? I mean, he knew who you are?”
“Yes. You see, his family was descended from Hera, and he wanted to try to make amends for what she did to me.”
“How could he be descended from a god?”
“My mother used to say ‘The gods are only sorcerers in disguise’. She was the moon goddess but her powers were not as strong as Hera’s so she couldn’t break my spell.”
“Is anyone strong enough now? Are there any sorcerers left?”
“There are. But they only use their powers for greed and political gain these days.”
“That figures. Dio, I’ve been thinking about my dream. Is it true that you could be freed if someone who loves you offers to take your place?”
He stared into her eyes, the emerald gaze emblazoned by the fire. “It is true. But no one has ever loved me enough, and even if they did, I wouldn’t allow them to throw away their freedom in exchange for mine. Long ago, when Aella was a young woman she grew to love me. I loved her, too. She felt ashamed because she couldn’t love me enough to take my place. I told her it didn’t matter, that we could stay here, together, until she died. But she couldn’t deal with the thought of being old while I was still young. She went far away, stayed gone for twenty years then returned, with Kosmas, to take care of me. Gregory begged her to come back. He knew he was dying, and worried about what would happen to me.”
“Is that why he never married? He didn’t want people to know about you?”
“No, he never married because he still loved your mother. And he thought she had abandoned him. He used to come here at night and talk to me until dawn. He talked about his Lauren, his psihimou … his soul. He had lost his soul to someone else, and would never be the same without her.”
“My mom thought he didn’t come for her because he’d found a new love.”
“He didn’t come for her because he heard that she had married. He didn’t find out about you until it was too late. I watched him die. He sat here, on this couch, until he couldn’t breathe anymore. That was the way he wanted it, to die here, surrounded by the island and the sea he loved.”
“He died in this room?” Toby’s eyes filled with tears. Dio walked her to the fire and eased her down in front of it. He tasted her tears then her lips.
“It’s all right,” he whispered. “He wouldn’t mind us being here, together. He wanted me to find my soul … and I have.”
He removed her T shirt and jeans, made slow, sweet love to her there by the fire. Toby let his kisses wash over her, warm in the firelight. Her skin absorbed his touch, drew strength and pleasure and belonging from it. She watched his face, amazed at the beauty of him. His eyes held centuries of sorrow, pain and suffering. She tried to imagine never knowing any other place, any other people but those who lived on the island. Wars and plagues and storms passed by a thousand times – while he remained young and beautiful. Yet he changed – he knew modern discoveries, he read books that could take him anywhere in his mind. He wasn’t alone, not really. No more than she’d been with her nose stuck in her books at school. But it was time for him to be out in the world, to see it as it really was. She knew then what she had to do.
“Dio, I’m going to take your place.”
He rose up from her breast, looked at her with questioning eyes. “I don’t understand you.”
“Yes, you do. I’m taking your place, here, so you can escape.”
He moved away from her. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“I do. I don’t think I’d mind it. I love the island, almost as much as I love you! Let me do this for you, Dio.”
He stood, began to pace. “You’re not thinking it through, Toby. You’d be lost here, forever! You could never see your mother, unless she came here. You would never know what it’s like to grow older and have children, and see your life come to a close. You would wish for death a million times. You would cry for all the pain that goes on endlessly in the world around you. I would never let you face that!”
“Not even if it meant you could travel, and age, and have children of your own?”
He knelt before her, peering deep into her eyes. “I would only want to do those things with you. You have brought me a love I never thought existed. You can’t know how happy that makes me. I could live on forever, and be content, if I can be with you. But you have to decide if you can watch yourself grow old while I remain young. Aella couldn’t handle it, not many people could.”
“I think I could. Age doesn’t matter much in this world. I see younger women with old men all the time, and vice versa. I only know I love you, and I must be with you for as long as the Fates allow.”
He smiled, and took her lips with his. The heat passed between them – they settled there again before the blazing hearth, their flesh merging, making them one. Toby cried out as the room exploded into a myriad of colors. Dio rocked inside her, moving in a way that brought her higher and higher into the rainbow. He grunted, shook all over. She enveloped him with all four limbs, drew him deeper within her, unable to see anything but the colors and the emerald fire in his eyes.
They spent the night in his bed, curled up like ba
bes in a womb. Toby listened to his breathing, took comfort in its rhythm. Her thoughts were dancing from one idea to another. She could see them living there together, reading and watching the sunsets, and making love. But then she wondered how she could tell her mother that she wasn’t coming home, wasn’t going to Stanford, or studying anywhere else. Moonsea was her home now – she wanted no part of the rest of the world. But would she always feel that way? What about ten, twenty years down the line, when she started to look older and Dio didn’t? And after she passed on, he’d be alone again. Who would take care of him then? Developers might come in, people like Stephan, and tear down the ruin. Oh, she could go nuts thinking about all the ‘what ifs’!
“Let your worries go,” Dio whispered in the dark. “Just enjoy us being together, while you can.”
He kissed her softly, he tasted salty like the sea. Toby was suddenly hungry again, urged him into a position to take advantage of his late-night hard-on. She bent down, took it full into her mouth; savored the flavor, licking it slowly until he moaned low. She drew him up into a thrilling frenzy, working him with her hands and tongue. She’d never done that before, only read about it in books – but she blessed them for teaching her how to make him growl with pleasure. He rose, centered her hips on the bed and dug his own tongue into her wet, pulsating skin. She squealed, gave herself over to vertigo, clutching the sheets to hold on while the shadows careened about her. Dio knew instinctively that she was on the edge – he jumped up and drove himself into her. The bed seemed on the verge of a breakdown, whining and creaking and buckling beneath their bouncing hips. The waves of a euphoric, divine passion shot through them over and over – each time sending them spiraling towards the ceiling. Then they’d crash and burn and go again. The end came finally, in a crescendo of colors and moonlight and deliciously hot sweat. Dio fell beside her, heaving like an old man having a heart attack. Toby matched him breath for breath, thinking if she died right then and there she couldn’t complain.
“Unreal!” she sighed, laughing at the workout he’d given her. “If you keep on like that, we might both die of ecstasy!”