by Kailin Gow
Aphrodite looked Scarlett up and down again. “Then perhaps we will see the bow again. I hope so. For one thing, it will mean getting my full powers back. I’m sure the young man here, Tavian is it, would appreciate the opportunity to be taken to the immortal realm by a goddess, rather than having to fool around with Devices.”
Scarlett glanced at Tavian then, and she wasn’t entirely happy to see that the gypsy fey’s eyes were locked onto Aphrodite. Cruces didn’t seem entirely happy about it either. Indeed, his expression right then was almost one of anger.
Chapter 5
“The sooner all this is done with, the better,” Hephaestus said. “Zeus is watching us carefully so that we do not use our powers, and has threatened to take them away if we do the wrong thing. It is severely limiting how we can act.”
“It would be worse if he actually did take them,” Aphrodite pointed out. “Bad enough that my son has lost the ability to affect mortals now that he has been stripped of his bow. What would mortals and others do when it came to love without my influence?”
“They’d probably be better off,” Cruces muttered under his breath, but not quite quietly enough to keep everybody in the room from hearing. Scarlett had to bite her lip to keep from laughing, while even Hephaestus seemed amused by it.
Aphrodite reddened with anger, though even like that, she somehow managed to be beautiful. “So you think that what I do isn’t important?” she demanded.
“I’m sure that’s not what Cruces meant,” Scarlett interjected. Apparently, it was the wrong thing to do, because Aphrodite turned to her with a thoughtful smile.
“Yes,” she said, “that might work. A little lesson for you all in the power of what I do.” She pointed at Cruces. “You, vampire, were so eager to reject me before, yet you want her.” She pointed at Scarlett. “So let’s make that clear. You will love her, with all your heart. Of course, she will now know that it is simply my power at work. And she will have other distractions, because she will love… ah yes, the beautiful gypsy boy. Such a sweet boy. I think he deserves your love more than the vampire, don’t you, Scarlett?”
Scarlett wanted to answer, but right then, it felt like the room was spinning. She struggled to sit down at the dining table, forcing herself to focus as she looked at first Cruces, and then Tavian. The vampire looked pained, even frightened. So fast that Scarlett could barely keep up with the movement, he rushed over to her, cupping her face in his hands as his eyes bored into hers.
“Please Scarlett, whatever you are feeling, fight it. I need you. I love you. I have spent so long trying to find you. Don’t let that go now. Kiss me. Kiss me and know that it’s true.”
Cruces leaned forward, obviously about to kiss her. For a moment, it seemed like the most obvious thing in the world, except a second later, she felt a tug on her arm, jerking her around to face Tavian. So close to him there was no contest. The vampire was good looking, but he was not the man she loved. He was not the man she needed with every fiber of her being right then. In that moment, Scarlett wanted nothing more than to throw herself at Tavian and kiss him until they were both exhausted from kissing.
The look in Tavian’s eyes told her that he felt exactly the same way. There was such love in his expression, such need, that Scarlett knew that they were perfect for one another. How could she have ever felt anything else? How could she have ever felt anything for some vampire when Tavian was there, and they both loved one another so much?
“Scarlett!” Cruces cried out, and the word was enough to get Scarlett to look back at him. What did the vampire want? Could he not see that she was busy with the man she loved? “God I wish I had told you everything about me and you before Aphrodite showed up with this crazy spell. If I had, you would know the Seeker and the Keeper are meant to be together, always forever. You and I. Not you and anyone else.”
Scarlett shook her head. It wasn’t like that. It couldn’t be like that. It was Tavian she was meant to be with. Tavian she wanted to kiss, and so much more, right there and then.
Aphrodite’s laugh cut through the room. “You’ve left it a little late for that, Cruces. Can’t you see that your Scarlett, the Seeker you have sought for eternity, is giving the gypsy boy the look of a woman who wants more than a sweet chaste kiss? I can practically taste the heat between them. Mmm… this should be fun.”
Scarlett found herself wanting to agree. It would be fun, if only all these people would go away and leave her alone with Tavian. Cruces didn’t seem to agree though. If anything, he looked ready to strike the Greek goddess. Scarlett did not want that, if only because the fight that would surely follow might injure Tavian. Thankfully though, the vampire seemed content to merely grit his teeth and clench his fists.
“What will it take for you to undo this?” he demanded.
“Why would I want to do that?” Aphrodite asked.
“I don’t want you to do it,” Scarlett pointed out.
Aphrodite smiled. “I know you don’t, dear. Come on, Cruces. Tell me why I should?”
Cruces pointed at Scarlett. “Perhaps because in her present state, Scarlett is going to be too busy kissing Tavian to bother retrieving Cupid’s bow? She certainly won’t get through the portal without my help.”
Aphrodite’s eyes narrowed at that. “You’re threatening my son?”
“I am making a proposition,” Cruces countered. “I will take Scarlett through the portal to retrieve the bow, and in return, you will undo what you have done to her, leaving her free to fall in love with me as she should have done before.”
“Please don’t,” Scarlett begged, moving to wrap her arms around Tavian. Aphrodite snapped her fingers, and although Scarlett found that she still loved the gypsy boy more than anything, she did not have quite the same urge to throw herself at him there and then.
“Just a little toning down,” Aphrodite said, “so that we can talk without anybody ripping off anyone else’s clothes. We wouldn’t want a repeat of Thebes, after all.” She looked over to her husband. Hephaestus nodded gravely, and Aphrodite pouted. “Oh, very well. You are to take Scarlett through to the immortal realm, assist her in finding the bow, and get it back to me safely. If you do that, I will remove my compulsion from the girl. Of course, who she falls for after that is her own affair. I make no promises.”
“Done,” Cruces said eagerly. “As long as I have a fair chance to win her over, it is enough. I know that with that, things will turn out as they should.”
“I wouldn’t be so confident, if I were you,” Aphrodite countered, “but that is none of my concern, so long as you retrieve the bow. It will be as you ask. Now, shouldn’t you be going? Your Seeker will tell you where to go through, of course.”
“Of course,” Cruces said. He turned to Scarlett, pulling her away from Tavian through simple strength. It was all Scarlett could do not to lash out at him. Tavian was less restrained. He yanked Scarlett back towards him, almost pulling her away from Cruces.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Tavian demanded.
“I’m getting ready to leave,” Cruces replied. “Scarlett and I need to be in physical contact when I use the ring to transport us.”
“And me,” Tavian said. “You are not leaving me behind.”
“I think you’ll find that I am,” Cruces said. “For one thing, there are the effects of this love spell to consider.”
“I am going where Scarlett goes,” Tavian snapped back. “She promised to find Cecilia with me before she agreed to find this bow.”
“I did,” Scarlett agreed, turning to kiss Tavian soundly on the lips. It was a pleasant kiss, and she was just starting to enjoy it even more when Cruces pulled her away from Tavian.
“I thought you toned the effect down?” the vampire demanded of Aphrodite.
“A little,” the Greek goddess replied, “but only a little. It wouldn’t be any fun otherwise.”
“Well then, Tavian will have to stay behind,” Cruces said.
Scarlett shook her head f
irmly. “No. He is coming with us. I am the one who is meant to find this bow, so I decide. I want Tavian with us. I love him, Cruces. I… I’m not going if you won’t allow it. I don’t think I could be apart from him like that.”
“Scarlett,” Cruces said softly.
“Cruces.” Scarlett tried to be firm. She could see that Cruces was obviously struggling against something standing there, but that was just the natural possessiveness of a vampire, wasn’t it? Scarlett was not going to allow herself to be parted from Tavian simply because Cruces thought he should be able to sink his fangs into her.
“You are as lovely as any goddess,” Cruces whispered to her.
“I really do not think that is appropriate,” Scarlett replied. “Not now that I have…”
Cruces raised a hand. “All right. Please do not say it.”
“Tavian can come with us?” Scarlett asked. She wanted to be certain on that point. Part of her knew exactly what Aphrodite had done to her, but that did not make the thought of leaving him behind any less painful.
Cruces hesitated for a moment, and then nodded sharply. “If he must.”
Tavian looked at him then, and patted the vampire’s shoulder in a brotherly fashion. “So where to?”
“That is for Scarlett to determine,” Cruces said. “Scarlett? What comes to mind? How will we find Cupid’s bow?”
“Cecilia and Gordon, too,” Scarlett said.
“Yes, of course, Cecilia and Gordon, too,” Tavian said.
For a moment, Scarlett did not know. She was not sure quite what it was she was meant to do. Then Aphrodite and Hephaestus walked over to her, placing their hands on her. Their touch was almost electric, and as it came, images came with it. They swam across her vision one by one. Images of a place where the skies were blue, where waves pounded against sandy beaches, and where buildings that were in an ancient style, but which still looked new and cared for stood.
“It looks like Athens,” Scarlett said, thinking back to some of her parents’ archaeological journeys overseas, “only it is different. It looks… almost like Athens would have been centuries ago. There are buildings where the ruins would be, and they have the same kind of columns, but they aren’t collapsing. It’s like they are brand new.”
Cruces nodded. “I know the place that you mean. It will not take much to get us there.”
He reached out to put a hand on Scarlett’s shoulder, and Scarlett saw him reach down for the ring that he wore with no warning. Did he intend to leave Tavian behind? Scarlett was not about to allow that to happen. She turned, trying to shout a warning to the gypsy boy, but it appeared that it was unnecessary. Tavian’s hand clamped onto her wrist in the instant before Cruces did something with his ring that Scarlett could not see.
The instant after that, the world around them changed.
Chapter 6
For several moments after Cruces did whatever it was he had done to the ring he wore, Scarlett felt like the universe was spinning around her. It was a strange feeling, both terrifying and curiously exhilarating at once, as if Scarlett was, for that moment, the focal point of everything around her. To step between worlds like this made her feel almost invincible, since she was doing something most girls simply could not dream of, and yet also curiously vulnerable. For the few moments while they were between worlds, it felt like the simplest things no longer applied. If they could do this, after all, how could any of the basic rules of the universe be real?
Then they arrived at their destination, and Scarlett no longer had time for that kind of thought. She was too busy staring around her. The houses looked… ancient was the wrong word. They were in a style that Scarlett’s mind automatically labeled that way, but they all looked new, well-cared for. They were like one of the places her parents studied that had come to life.
It all looked Greek, with the marble buildings and brightly painted statuary of the classical style. Columns rose up to support the roofs of the larger buildings, while the people there were dressed in clothing not a long way from the kind of thing that Aphrodite and Hephaestus had been wearing. They were in the right place then which was good news, but there were subtle differences.
It took Scarlett a moment to latch onto them. There was the way everybody was paying attention to one man on the edge of a crowd, who practically glowed with the supernatural. There was the way what looked very much like a spirit shot past, and people’s heads snapped around to watch it. People here were actually paying attention to the supernatural, like it was a part of their lives. That normalcy was far stranger to Scarlett than the supernatural ever was. It was one thing being told that they were going to the Greece of the immortals, and quite another to actually see it. For a moment she reeled, just trying to take the whole place in.
Cruces grabbed her by the shoulders, jerking her back just as a chariot thundered past, drawn by two white horses. The near miss was enough to jerk Scarlett away from her staring temporarily, and they made their way down the streets of the city they were in.
“This is Athens?” Scarlett asked, wanting to be sure.
“The Athens of this world, yes,” Cruces replied. “It is probably easiest to think of it as a mirror of the one that used to exist on your world, rather than as the original.”
They started to walk, and quickly found themselves in a bustling marketplace, where vendors sold everything from simple foodstuffs to elaborately dyed cloths. Scarlett’s eyes flicked from stand to stand while the owners shouted out to her. One oddity occurred to her: she could understand everything they were saying, as plainly as if they had been speaking English. When she mentioned that to Cruces, the vampire shrugged.
“It is a side effect of travelling with the ring. Now, have you seen anything so far that looks like it might be a bow?”
Scarlett almost laughed at that, but she saw that Cruces was serious. “You really think that Zeus would have placed something as powerful as Cupid’s bow in a marketplace where anyone could buy it?”
“He’s done worse,” Cruces said, and for a moment, his expression darkened. “Oh, he’s done worse. It would probably amuse him to see some poor mortal finding the bow and trying to handle its powers.”
“Even if it did not destroy them,” Tavian said, “they would abuse the power. They might do it unwittingly, but they would. The bow is not a tool designed with mortals in mind.”
“So Zeus and the others would have a good laugh at someone’s expense,” Scarlett said. She found herself looking over at Cruces. “Are mortals just playthings to the greater immortals, the way they seem to be so often to vampires?”
Cruces’ lips twitched a little then, and Scarlett got the feeling that he wanted to say something clever and witty as a response, but he did not. Instead, he leaned in close to Scarlett, speaking so softly that even she could barely hear the words. “You were never just a plaything to me, Scarlett. Never. And you never will be just that.”
Scarlett could practically feel the desire radiating from Cruces as he stared into her eyes. She had never seen his expression that intent on her before, not even on the occasions when he had kissed her. How much did that have to do with Aphrodite’s power? How much had those few simple words from the goddess done to make Cruces more passionate, rawer, and less able to control himself?
Scarlett did not know, and more to the point, she did not care. Right then, she simply did not feel what Cruces wanted her to feel towards him. She could remember a time when she had, and it wasn’t that long ago, but it was not like that now. Yes, she knew that was because of Aphrodite too, but that did not make what she felt any less intense. She turned to smile at Tavian, slipping her hand into his. Cruces groaned and stepped back, but Scarlett ignored him.
She was too busy kissing Tavian by that point, for one thing. Tavian bent his head down and captured her lips with his, holding her there for several seconds where it seemed that the market around them did not exist.
Scarlett was quite surprised when Cruces practically pulled them apar
t from one another. Tavian, meanwhile, didn’t just seem surprised. He was clearly furious.
“How dare you…”
“There’s no time for that,” Cruces said, though he said it with a smirk that made it clear ending the kiss was an added benefit of whatever he was doing. “Come with me, Scarlett. You too, gypsy boy.”
He pulled Scarlett over to a nearby stall, filled with bronze and iron work. Fragments of things that had obviously been found, or repaired, or well used. For a moment or two, Scarlett could not see what Cruces had brought her there for, but then she spotted it. There, in the middle of the stall, was a walking stick of very familiar design.
Gordon’s swordstick.
“May I see that stick?” Scarlett asked the vendor, who was a fairly young man with dark curls and a friendly smile.
“Yes,” he said, but he said it nervously, his eyes widening slightly. “Of course.”
Scarlett tried to understand that nervousness. It occurred to her that perhaps the young man was not used to women asking for things directly. From what Scarlett remembered, the noblewomen of ancient Athens in her own world had mostly been shut away from the outside world. Or maybe it was just the strangeness of the way they were all dressed.
Still, the stallholder recovered well. “Although I wouldn’t know why a beautiful girl like you would want an old walking stick.”
Scarlett took the stick and checked it over. The iron head of the cane was inscribed with Gordon’s initials, while a brief check with her back turned to the stallholder, confirmed to Scarlett that the blade within the cane was intact. It was better for now not to let him see something like that, because as far as she knew it was not an idea the Ancient Greeks had possessed. Even the steel of the blade, rather than their usual iron, would make the stick too special for the man to part with.
“This is Gordon’s,” Scarlett said to the other two. “He was here.”
“But he does not have it any longer,” Tavian pointed out.