by VS Winters
I quickly pulled my foot back up and maneuvered myself back into the bathroom as quickly as I could. I dangled from the windowsill, trying to find footing on anything I could, but eventually I just had to drop down, landing on the trash can. I groaned as my body revolted against me, finding even the blue tiled floor of the bathroom warm to the touch.
So, there I was, stuck in a mythological creature bathroom, and my only options were to go hang out with the far too friendly Cyclops, or be eaten by a three-headed dog. I wasn't sure where my life had made a wrong turn, but I was really tired of surprises. With no other choice, I headed back out to the lively bar, scooting back between the creatures until I found the couch again. The Cyclops was still sitting there, blinking his one eye as he looked around.
As I sat, I stared at the bread on the plate, wondering how long it had actually been down there. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Of course," he said happily. "My name's Grogg, by the way."
He stuck out his hand and I was not even the least bit surprised that he only had three large fingers like a cartoon character. I put my tiny hand in his and braced myself as he shook my entire arm. "Nice to meet you, Grogg, I'm Kora. Obviously, I was not conscious when I came in here, so I'm kind of wondering where the hell I am."
Grogg's breathing was as loud as my voice. "Oh, well, this is an underground bar for the Greek monsters and mythological creatures that are in hiding."
I lifted my brow. "Hiding?"
It seemed kind of ridiculous that any of these creatures would have to hide from anything. I was pretty sure if they wanted to, I could be killed and devoured within ten seconds. He nodded his head, taking a sip of whatever was in his ginormous mug. "Yeah, there's a lot of hate in Olympus right now. We're not necessarily the most wanted creatures. We can't be with the mortals, and we can't be there, so we have our own underground system to try to keep ourselves safe."
A realization reared its ugly head, showing just how mortal I truly was. I had never stopped to think about the creatures and beings that weren't mortals, but weren't gods. I had only ever thought about the Titans, the gods, and the mortals. There was an entire society of creatures that lived in between those groups. Some of them helped the Titans during the wars, some of them helped the gods, and some of them hid away, trying to say safe.
A bit of guilt simmered in my gut. "How long have you guys been hiding?"
He shrugged. "Since before the mortal war, but the gods weren't always like this. Everything changed with the force, some sort of deep darkness that takes our minds, and we haven't been able to figure out how to defeat it. We don't even know how it attacks."
I paid close attention to what he was saying, wondering if it had anything to do with the wars or the strange behavior leading up to them. He pointed across the room and I followed his stare. Mr. Strange and Sexy looked to be finishing up his conversation with the beautiful nymph that stood by his side. He looked over at me and nodded. The Cyclops continued talking. "He's the last Titan."
I looked at the Cyclops and then back at the Titan, even more curious as to what he wanted with me. "What's his name?"
Grogg shrugged again. "Don't know. He lived in Tartarus so long that he forgot his own name. He was the last one to come out when the door was unlocked."
How curious. Not only was he strong and handsome, but he was a wild rogue warrior too. Well, he didn't seem that lost and rogue. From the way the nymph rubbed her hand down his arm, it was obvious that they had history. But if he was tucked away in Tartarus, that relationship could've happened thousands of years before. That was a really long time to hold on to some feelings. And I thought I was bad when it took me a year to get over my ex.
Mr. Strange and Sexy smiled at the nymph and started to walk toward me. I couldn’t tell if the nerves churning in my stomach were fear or lust, but he definitely had a way of waking my senses. Hopefully he could see me right back to where I came from. I was mortal, and I didn't belong there. It would only be a matter of time until someone decided my welcome had worn.
Chapter Four
Every muscle in me clenched as the smile faded from Mr. Strange and Sexy. He approached us quickly, the ground quaking with his steps. I opened my mouth to protest…well, everything…but he grabbed my elbow before I had a chance to say a word. I was lifted to my feet without thought and before I could react, my feet were tangling beneath me as he dragged me through the crowd toward the hallway.
I was pretty sure I stepped on at least six hooves, a set of claws, and some abnormally shaped feet, but getting myself together to apologize was futile. I had long passed them by the time it even registered in my head.
As I stumbled through the doorway into the hall, I glanced down, finding the door to the little mermaids' room open. Had I had the chance to think about it, I was sure I would have contemplated a dive into the jowls of a three-headed dog, but Mr. Strange, Sexy, and Slightly Rude was too quick. He flung open a slatted wood door across the hall and pulled me through, slinging me into the darkness. I stumbled forward as he slammed it shut behind him, my hands out, patting the air. The place was so dark I couldn't tell which way was up, and I finally stopped in my tracks, slowly turning with my hands out.
After a few moments of blistering claustrophobia-induced panic, I felt the smooth, warm skin of the Titan beneath my palm. I probably should have flinched back but he was there, and I was fumbling for anything to grasp on to. Lucky for him he was a few too many steps away for me to lower my hand and hold on for dear life.
"You know, if you're going to rudely abduct a woman and shove her in some dark, mysterious room in the back of a saloon, maybe you should at least turn on a light," I snapped.
His arm moved out of my reach and I heard him snap his fingers. All along the dusty shelves of the small room, small flames erupted, flickering as they floated in midair. I blinked for a few moments, adjusting to the surroundings. My hands came back in and I crossed my arms over my chest, turning angrily to face him. As soon as his handsome face met my eyes my cheeks flushed, but I flexed my jaw, trying not to turn into a pathetic human puddle at his disposal. Even that felt like not too bad of an idea as I watched the flames cast dancing shadows across his sparkling skin.
"Thank you," I replied in a bit less angered tone. "Now, are you going to tell me why you dragged me in here?"
His shoulders stayed back and his chin up, making it hard to see his eyes with his height. "I wanted to speak to you in private."
I blinked several times and glanced around the room, finding a few dusty boxes, and a box labeled Mortal Crackers. My lips pursed and my eyes narrowed on the box. That was either a box of crackers to feed to mortals or crackers made of mortals to feed to the gods. I really didn't want to know which one. "I don't mean here…in this storage room. I mean to this bar in the middle of…of…well, I don't know where the hell we are. I just want to go home, fight my tweener rosebushes, and move forward with my life."
At that point my voice had broken into a whine and I watched the Titan roll his eyes. He pointed toward the door. "You do remember that you were attacked, right? That when that Fury touched you a light stronger than the core of a dying star came ricocheting out of you? Then you passed the hell out."
Suddenly Mr. Strange and Sexy had some sass to him. I wanted to hate it, but it sent a twist through my stomach and I shifted slightly to try to combat the heat I felt for him. "I remember, but it’s not something I purposefully caused. I don't even know what it was."
He dipped his chin and looked down at the leather bracelet on his wrist. A grunt came from his chest and I raised an eyebrow. After a few moments of snarling, his irritation returned. "There's some sort of a cleaning kind of light inside of you. It’s too difficult to explain to a mortal."
My lips pursed. "Does that translate to you don't know what the hell it is either?"
With a gruff sigh he turned back to me. "Just hand it over to us. We need it. Then, I promise, you can go back to your strange mortal
existence with your flowers and weird weapons. You don’t even know what to do with the power and I'm sure it wasn't meant for you."
The audacity. My mouth dropped open and my brow furrowed. "You don't know that, all high and mighty with your caveman leather pants and…strong…muscles." I shook my head. "Not the point. The point is, I didn't even know until the Fury that I had this kind of power inside of me. And now…now you want me to just hand it over to you. I don't even get to see what I can do with it?"
"What are you going to do with it? Use that sharp tool on people's backsides?" he replied.
I was about to reply as his words sunk into my head and I couldn't help but snort. "Look, I don't even know if I can give it to you. I don't know how any of this works."
He paced the floor in front of me and I was starting to wonder what plans he was making in his head. It was obvious he wasn't going to let me go until he had whatever light was inside of me, and I didn't want to give him enough time to think about alternative ways to get it out. "You know what? Fine. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I will give it my best shot."
I took a deep breath and watched as he nodded, reaching down to his belt and pulling out a knife. Immediately I pulled my hands close to me and stepped back. "Whoa, I said give you the light, not let you fillet me. Mortals don't fare well with sharp things. Besides, you're part god, why don't you use your magic to do it? You shouldn't need a knife."
His hand gripped the handle and his lips went straight as he stared at me expressionless. "Don't you think if I could have used my magic, I would have done so already? It isn't working. So, here we are. Are you going to give it a shot or not?"
Staring at him, a sudden worry floated through my mind. What if I was wrong about him? Sexy and mysterious did not mean the good guy. In fact, it usually meant the opposite. What if I was helping the bad guy get what they needed to hurt the mortals? He certainly looked the part, with his shimmering pecs, long silver hair, and constant scowl. But then again, the war hadn't been about the humans since the Titans descended. I wasn't one for endangering lives but the truth was, it wasn't my war to fight. I had no stake in it and I saw firsthand what taking sides in a war not your own ended in. Whatever was inside of me wasn't mortal which meant it didn't belong to me in the first place. Whether he was a good guy or not, he could get me out of harm’s way if he just pried it out of me.
Then, I could go back to my life, be the gardener I was supposed to be from the beginning. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, shoving my arm out toward him. I opened one eye as he grabbed my wrist. As soon as our skin touched, my face relaxed and a wave of heat moved over me. As if he could feel it too, his eyes shifted up to mine and for a moment, they softened, as did his fingers against my palm. For a tiny second in time, Mr. Strange and Sexy and I were deadlocked in an impenetrable stare, and that heat blasted straight through me, sending a red flush up my neck and over my cheeks.
My hand twitched in his, breaking the connection. He cleared his throat and looked down at my hand as I stared adoringly at the gentle stubble across his jaw line. It was like some sort of spell. A spell that ended abruptly as he ran the blade of his knife across my skin. I hissed and yanked my hand back, holding my wrist and watching as the blood bubbled to the surface. "Ouch!"
He looked at me, almost sorry for a second before grabbing my hand back and spreading his feet apart. "Hold still. I have no idea what this will feel like, but to your mortal sensibilities, it'll probably hurt like hell."
"Great," I grunted.
He breathed heavily through his nose and closed his eyes as he hovered his large hand over mine, swaying it in circles around the blood that was now flowing through the creases in my palm and over the edge, dripping down onto the floor. At first it was just warm, a strange sensation pulling from the core of me as if there were an invisible string tied to his palm, leading through me and into my chest. He balled and released his hand, sending a wave of energy out in all directions. As it blasted the cut, I could feel that string tighten until the pain became almost too much.
My eyes went wide and I clamped my other hand over my mouth, screaming out as my eyes clenched tightly shut. My breath was deep and labored and when I opened my eyes, I could see a small glint of light begin to seep up through the bubbling red blood. The Titan reached into a small satchel tied to his belt and pulled out a small glass bottle that he held up to the cut, taking care not to fill it with mortal blood. As he concentrated harder, the pain surged again and my knees wobbled back and forth. Whatever heat he had sent through me before was now replaced with an instant cold sweat.
I dropped my hand from my mouth as the world began to spin around me. My head tilted back, and the last thing I saw before collapsing was the Titan’s enormous arm reaching across me. Hopefully he didn't slice me open while I was unconscious. That would be a shame.
Chapter Five
A groan came from my chest as I twitched awake. My face rubbed against something scratchy, some sort of fabric, and everything looked sideways. The flame flickered wildly around the room, casting those dancing shadows again, for a split second scaring my unhinged, barely conscious mind into thinking the Furies were back. But then there was the Titan.
He sat with his back against the wall, his knees bent, and his arms draped over them. He was staring off into the distance, a contemplative look on his face. I shifted my eyes down, tilting my head just slightly to make sure I wasn't missing any organs, but everything seemed to still be intact. I rolled painfully over onto my back and lifted my hand up, finding a piece of bloodstained cloth wrapped sloppily around it. My hand throbbed like, well, like somebody had taken a knife and sliced it open. I could hear the faint roar of the bar crowd on the other side of the door.
"How did you know my name?" the Titan asked in a deep rumbling voice, still staring off into the other direction.
I groaned, forcing my body upright. Looking around me, I could see that he had laid me down on a blanket, which I guess was nice considering he had just cut my hand open. I glanced up at him, knowing he said something, but my mind was a bit hazy. "What?"
His eyes shifted toward mine, his pupils gray and stormy. "How did you know my name?"
My brow wrinkled, not exactly sure what he was talking about. I didn't know his name…or did I? I wiped my uninjured hand across my temple thinking back to the moment before I passed out. I had whispered something before everything went black. Again, my lips moved as the name swiftly came back to me. "Crius."
The Titan gripped his fist tightly and his body shuddered as if he were cold. He quickly pulled himself to his feet and began to pace again in the dimly lit room. "I don't understand. Up until this moment, I had no idea who I was. But when you say my name, when it comes out across your lips it makes me remember. When you say it, I know it."
I shook my head. "It doesn't make any sense. I've never met you. At least, I hadn’t met you until you were shacked up in the back of my van. You didn't tell me your name then."
Crius moved with a speed and agility that was beyond what a man his size should have. Before I knew it, he was right in front of me, his hands gripped tightly to my arms. He shook me gently, his brow furrowed, his eyes staring deep into mine. "Who are you? And not the mortal story, but who exactly are you?"
Pulled away from him, backing up into my body hit the shelf behind me. "I don't know what you're talking about. I’m me, Kora, just a normal mortal who hid from the great battle and just wants to go back to her life. What does it matter who I am anyway? You have what you wanted. You got the light. I could be Zeus himself and it wouldn’t matter at this point."
Crius stared at me long and hard as if he didn't believe what I was saying. He looked down at my hand and gruffly stood back up and walked away from me. He stood with his back to me, his arms crossed over his chest as he stood there silently. Very slowly, I reached up and grabbed the shelf, hoisting myself to my feet. I felt woozy, dizzy even, but had to shake it off. "You promised me that when yo
u got what you wanted I could go back to my life. So, take me back to my life."
He said something, but I couldn't hear him. I took a step forward, narrowing my eyes as I glared through the darkness, catching hints of his glistening silver hair and the flickering candlelight. "What?"
Turning toward me, he took his fingers from his lips. "It didn't work. What you saw and felt was the worst of it. I tried after you passed out, figuring maybe it would be better if you were unconscious, that whatever hold you had on this light could release and I could take it from you. But it didn't work. It was almost as if the light was attached to you, not the other way around."
I looked down at my palms, confused, unsure of what he was saying. "So, the light is still in me? What does that mean?"
He flung his hand in the air and shrugged. "I've no idea what that means. I have no idea who or what you are, or why you suddenly have this magical power."
"Maybe it's from the magic that was left behind on Earth," I offered as an answer.
"No," he said shaking his head. "It sank into the soil, which is why it's in the plants, but magic like that doesn't just infect mortals. It's not like that. You either have the gift and it runs through your veins or you don't."
I stuck out my hand covered in the bloody rag. "Until it does work that way, and a mortal is suddenly magical. But I don't understand it. I can't even help you take it from me."
