The one that made his chest tight and his fingers itch to run through her hair.
“Did you make sure they didn’t call 911?” he asked Nina.
“I got it all covered. I told them she’s off her meds, and that’s why she fainted. They’re so diggin’ each other, it’s a wonder they even managed to see the fucking phone.”
Quinn’s head bounced upward. “I heard what you said to them, Nina. You said I had irritable bowel syndrome.”
“Oh, shut your piehole, Goddess-Lite. I had to think fast.”
Quinn began to squirm against him, her once limp hands struggling to brace herself into a sitting position. “Put me down, Khristos! I’m okay now. Whatever it was passed.”
Whatever it was. What the fuck was it?
No match had ever gone down like that. There was no pain involved in it—no suffering. He knew firsthand how the emotions felt. His mother had taught him well to know all the signs, see and feel all the highs and even the lows.
But none of them damn well hurt. Not the way they’d appeared to hurt her. Last night, she’d been smacked into the hard pavement and she hadn’t made a peep.
She might declare she was a chicken, but not when it came to pain—which meant, whatever happened back at that studio had to have been pretty bad.
“Did you hear me, Khristos with a K? Put me down!”
“I’m not putting you down until we’re back at your place. So suck it,” he said.
She twisted his nipple through his jacket. “Khristos! Put me down!”
He stopped in the middle of the busy sidewalk, Nina reaching over him to tighten Quinn’s scarf and make sure her hat was covering her ears. “Okay, but if you face plant again and get any more scraped up than you already are, I’m not responsible for what your mother’s going to do to me. You don’t want her to chew my face off, do you?”
“Jesus, kiddo. What the hell? You scared the shit out of us.”
Quinn hit her feet and wobbled a little, reaching for the brick wall of a store. Then she straightened and batted her eyelashes at Nina. “I scared you? You of the big muscles and cold, black heart? Know what that means, don’t you?”
“It means if you do it again, I take you out and I don’t have to worry about it anymore?”
Quinn grinned, but it was weak, and he sensed it. She tugged on a strand of Nina’s long hair. “It means I’ve grown on you. Maybe it’s only like mold or whatever bacteria, but I’ve grown on you. You really are a marshmallow just like Ingrid said.”
Nina growled under her breath and tipped her sunglasses down her nose so Quinn could see her eyes. “Walk, or I’m going to eat your skinny little bird legs right off your body and pick my teeth with their bones.”
Quinn reached upward with a notable shaky hand and patted Nina’s lean cheek. “Clearly someone didn’t paint away their discontent.”
Nina moved in closer and flashed her fangs. “Move or I’m hiking your featherweight ass over my shoulder like the sack of potatoes you are.”
But Quinn only chuckled. “If only my scale said featherweight. I might be short, but my hips don’t lie.”
Nina pointed in the direction of home. “Now.”
“On it, Boss.”
As Quinn turned to make her way down along the sidewalk, Khristos cupped her elbow, unable to let her too far from his grasp.
Yet, her excitement was uncontained. “So, OMG, right? Who knew those two should end up together?”
“Sometimes, the most unlikely people, people who appear so ill-suited it makes you cringe, are true soul mates. I tried to tell you.”
“Was that the part where you were clenching your teeth and you had that tic in your jaw?”
He laughed as he navigated them through the crowd. “Somewhere around there. You were so busy sharing your bad experiences and bonding, I worried you’d talk yourself out of their match. You have to be careful not to let your experiences cloud your judgment, Quinn. It’s important. Those two are going to do great things together for children in Doctors Without Borders.”
Her sigh was one of happiness, her eyes full of that special brand of Quinn wonder. “How unbelievably romantic.”
Then she stopped dead, her eyes wide in revelation. “I’m just like my mother. Oh, criminy, I’m just like her. Bitter and preachy,” she said on a groan.
He grabbed her hand, not just because she needed a reminder of how different she was from her mother, but because he liked how it fit in his. “No. You’re not that bitter. That takes time, and long, dark nights spent raging against life instead of living it. You have plenty of hope left in you, Quinn. I promise.”
She sagged against him. “My mother drives me crazy, but I hate hearing she was in such a dark place. If there’s one thing I want, almost more than I want a family and all the stupid things people razz me for wanting, I want her to find some measure of happiness.”
“She can find her way out of that dark place if she tries.” And she could. If she’d just open up to Quinn.
“I like your mother’s dark place. Nay. I fucking love it. It’s balls-to-the-wall stunning shit,” Nina interjected, her hand at Quinn’s back.
“But it’s not healthy,” Quinn reminded Nina. “I know you love all her sarcasm, but you also know complete happiness. I know you do. I see it with Carl and when you talk about your little girl Charlie. My mother doesn’t have that, and it hurts my heart.”
Nina’s face changed in the blink of an eye. “You know what, you’re right, Mini-Goddess. I lost my mother to drugs when I was a kid. I hate thinking she left this earth so fucking unhappy.”
Quinn shot the vampire a look of pure sympathy. “I’m sorry, Nina.”
Nina’s look was far away. Khristos knew well the pain losing her mother had wrought in her life, but her grandmother, Lou, had helped ease that hurt since she was a teenager.
Nina nodded. “Me too. She had some serious problems. But I’ve got my Nana Lou, and she’s pretty righteous.”
Quinn sighed with a forlorn shrug. “The problem with my mother is, I don’t know what to do about her unhappiness.”
Nina strolled beside her, her long legs eating up the pavement. “It ain’t up to you to do anything about it, kiddo. You can’t be responsible for her happiness. She has to be.”
Quinn appeared to give that some thought before she patted the vampire’s arm. “Sage vampire is sage. But let’s not talk about my mother anymore. There’ll be plenty to talk about when we get back to my place. Tell me about that couple back there. How do you know so much about these people and why don’t I know anything?”
Khristos dug out his phone from his pocket and held it up. “I get their information from the gods.”
Her eyes grew wide and round when she clapped her hands. “Oh! Can I see?”
“Uh, no. You’re not ready for the forums just yet.”
“The gods have forums?”
“We’re very twenty-first century, complete with wifi and everything.”
Quinn let her head fall back on her shoulders when she laughed. “If you have apps, I’ll just die.”
“Don’t start digging your grave just yet, but yep. With apps, too.”
This time she laughed harder, hearty and rich with texture.
He really shouldn’t like watching her laugh. He shouldn’t like the sound of it in his ears. It shouldn’t do that weird shift thing in his heart.
But it did.
Careful, Khristos. Be very careful.
* * * *
“Quinn! So glad you’re home!” Marty greeted her at the door, but it sounded more like, “Thank Jesus and all twelve you’re back. Here. Take your mother.” Her voice was tight and her eyes were bleary.
Ingrid sat between them, a consoling hand on each of their laps. She mouthed “help” to Quinn.
Aw, hell.
Wanda’s face was weary when she looked up from her spot on the couch, a cold pack on her head. “Hi, honey. How was your day?”
Quinn rushed
to the couch, ignoring the residual dull tremors still coursing through her body.
Her mother had struck. No one knew that look of total physical and mental exhaustion better than Quinn. “Don’t worry about me. How are you two?” She motioned for Ingrid to make room on the couch then grabbed Wanda’s hand and patted the space beside her for Marty to sit.
Wanda blew out a tired breath. “It would be a falsehood to say your mother is crazy hard to please.”
“I’m so sorry. I knew she’d wear even you two down. She’s difficult and critical and I shouldn’t have let you offer to take her to the other room, let alone a day of shopping and the bird sanctuary.”
Marty shook her head, tucking her mussed hair behind her ear and stretching her legs with a groan. “How did you do it, Quinn? That’s what I wanna know. Nothing satisfies her. From where we chose to take her to lunch right down to the way the bird sanctuary tour was set up.”
“She’s not exactly cookies and warm milk, is she?” Quinn said, patting Marty’s thigh.
“Oh no,” Wanda murmured, closing her eyes and pressing the cold pack to her forehead. “She’s shivs and testicle-hacking all the bloody way.”
“That poor man who mistakenly bumped into her in line to see the penguins. Do you think he’s scraped his ass off the floor of the sanctuary yet?”
Wanda giggled wearily. “Nope. But I bet he knows way more than he ever wanted to about male privilege.”
“It’s like she wrote it psalm and verse,” Marty said on a moan.
Quinn sat up and moved to the edge of the couch. “I’m really, really sorry. I knew she’d spoil things because that’s just my mom. It’s why I live in Manhattan in a rundown apartment and she lives in Jersey. We need that bridge to keep me from committing homicide.”
Wanda pulled the pack from her eyes. “You do know it’s not you, don’t you, Quinn? That you’re absolutely not the reason she’s so harsh and critical, right?”
Quinn shrugged. She’d tried for many years to convince herself it wasn’t her, but everything had changed once her father left. “Most of the time, yes. Logically I know her ball-busting has nothing to do with me. In my heart? Not always so much.”
Marty tilted her head and smiled, small lines of exhaustion wreathing her eyes. “Because you want her to find peace and it hurts to know she’s in so much pain. I get that.”
Guilt overwhelmed her. “You guys have done enough. I’d bet you want out of here pronto. So go home to your families. I’ll be all right. And I’ll handle my mother.”
Wanda shook her head. “That’s not how this works, sweetie. We stay for the long haul until we’re comfortable that you’re comfortable and all bad guys or the possibility of bad guys is eliminated. No man-hating mother can scare us off. It’s what we do.”
A commotion in the kitchen led to Archibald’s terse tone. “I believe I’ve told you, madam, I have the roast well under control. It must sit for ten minutes before one slices it. To do otherwise is unseemly!”
“Isn’t that just like a man to—”
“Mom!” Quinn was off the couch and around the corner to the kitchen where a harried Archibald stood, knife in hand.
“You’re finally back,” Helen said, readjusting her turtleneck.
Quinn held on to her patience—tight. “You say that as though I left you with Satan to the seventh level of hell. It’s not like I knew you were dropping in for a visit, Mom. I had plans today.”
“With your gay friend who couldn’t charm a woman if he went to charm school.”
Quinn felt that same old anxiety in the pit of her stomach her mother always stirred up. “Mom, please don’t be so rude. Marty and Wanda showed you a lovely time, and you’re in here harassing Archibald, who, by the way, is cooking you an amazing dinner.”
“Baby, you’re a firework!” Nina sang, gripping Helen’s shoulders and almost lifting her off the floor as she guided her mother out of the kitchen. “C’mon, Mama Bear. It’s time to yank that stick outta your keister and take a breather from your reign as Beatdown Queen. Even queens need a vacay.”
Her mother prepared to protest, but Nina shook her finger in admonishment. “Nuh-uh-uh, Bruiser. This kitchen’s too damn small, even for your mini butt. Now no more squawking. Get a move on, little doggie.” Nina pointed to the living room and Helen actually clamped her mouth shut and listened, letting the vampire lead her out of the kitchen.
Quinn blew out a breath of relief before she glanced at Archibald and Darnell, the latter of whom wiped his face with one of her kitchen towels. “I’m sorry.”
“Lawd ha’ mercy. She’s some kinda tornado wrapped in a hurricane, Miss Quinn,” Darnell said, leaning his elbows on the countertop. “You okay?”
“She’s done this all my life. I’m used to it.”
Archibald smoothed his hair back into place, straightened his suit jacket, and shot her a gaze full of tea and sympathy. “My apologies, Mistress Quinn. I was sharp with your mother, but she’d been quite vocal for over an hour about my roast—”
“And we all know Arch here don’t like nobody finaglin’ with his food, right, Foodie?” Darnell cackled, his large frame shaking with laughter.
Quinn held up her hands and shook her head. “It’s totally understandable. My mother could drive Jesus to drink. I’m sorry she’s been hassling you when you’ve all been so kind to uproot your lives just to make me feel comfortable and help me get through this.”
Darnell wrapped his beefy arm around her shoulder and squeezed. “It ain’t no thang, Miss Quinn. That’s what we’re here for.”
Archibald stared at her for a moment before his eyes became tender. “I simply cannot figure it.”
She rubbed his arm in “Helen Was Here” sympathy. “Figure what, Arch?”
“How someone as lovely as you came from…well, from someone so cross.”
Quinn beamed a smile at him and snatched a piece of the delicious bread Arch had placed in a basket. “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me, Arch.”
She popped the tasty morsel in her mouth and headed back out into the fire to find her mother sitting docilely at the table as Nina gave her the warning glare.
In all this, she’d forgotten about Carl. There were many things her mother might not question, being as wrapped up in herself and her anger as she was, but Carl—Carl Helen would take to task, and nothing, not even her mother’s sharp tongue, would let Quinn allow that.
Khristos waggled a finger at her from across the room, summoning her.
Every time she looked at him, her heart skipped a beat, and that had to stop. She was still so fresh from her breakup with Igor, why was she reacting this way toward him? It had to be rebound related.
Yet, she found herself crossing the small space between them and taking his hand when he pulled her into the bathroom.
Closing the door behind him, he said, “Talk to me.”
She backed up against the sink and leaned on it, attempting to create distance between them. There was hardly any space between them as it was, any closer and she’d pass out. “Wait, first, where’s Carl? I’m so panicked my mother’s going to find out about him and terrorize his sweet soul, he’ll wish that crazy witch doctor had finished him off.”
Khristos’s lips twisted into a smile of complete understanding. “According to Darnell, he took him back to Nina’s for the night—or at least until your mother goes home.”
She took another deep sigh of relief. “Thank goodness.”
“Now, that talk?”
“About?”
“About what happened today in art class.”
“Um, I found the core of my discontent. Damn monkey bars.”
He brushed her still tender cheek with his knuckles. “That’s not what I mean, Quinn. What happened when you made that match? You were in agony—in real pain. I want to know what it felt like. What was going on?”
“Like someone was sticking a hot poker into my guts? Wait. Isn’t a tough match supposed to
feel like that? I was kind of going with the theory of no pain, no gain. I mean, those two were hell on wheels. If I didn’t have this power, never in a million years would I have matched them.”
Looking down at her, Khristos shook his head. “No, Quinn. It’s never supposed to feel like that.”
Oh, good. Her stomach plummeted as she gripped the edge of the sink. “So that means bad guys?”
“I don’t quite understand how, but I’m swaying toward yes.”
Now her breathing hitched. “So what do we do?”
“We find my mother and figure this out.”
“You know, something’s been bothering me for a while now. Why would your mother put her powers in an apple, of all things? Isn’t that just a little crazy? I mean, for the love of God, she has the power to create life. It’s not like you should leave something like that just lying around. Because I’m here to tell you, I’m keeping mine on the inside, not storing them in, say, a bunch of bananas.”
Khristos laughed. It reverberated off the walls of her bathroom and landed square in her chest. “I guess in her defense, who’d think she’d stick the entirety of her powers in an apple? Because it is damn crazy.”
“Right. Hide in plain sight. So now we need to find out who wants them and why they don’t want me to have them. If that’s what this is at all. I mean, maybe it was just some intestinal thing.”
“Nope. Something’s going on.”
“Of course. Wishful thinking.”
“Now, one more question.”
Somehow, they’d managed to inch closer. Her body was just drawn to his like a magnet to a fridge, and there was nowhere else to go. “Shoot.”
“Where’s your father? Do you see him?”
Her smile was hindered by the fact that she didn’t see him as often since he’d moved to California. “I do. He’s remarried now to a really nice lady named Stella, and very happy. But he avoids my mother at all costs, and I avoid telling her I see him.”
“It must be tough to hide how you feel about him. Tougher still not to share your moments with him out loud.”
“Tough is an understatement. I can’t even speak his name without her biting my head off. I still don’t know why they divorced, but I remember the fights before they broke up. Epic. I know rationally they’re better off apart, but it was hard on me at the time. What about you? Who is your father, anyway?”
Accidentally Aphrodite (Accidentally Paranormal Novel Book 10) Page 14