by Milly Taiden
They stopped at a restaurant — Dimitri’s Taverna — over a cliff. The view was spectacular, the terrace overlooking the jagged northern shoreline of Crete. The place was like an orchard, olive tree branches reaching over the tables, and a vine hung overhead, the grapes dangling like bunches of rubies.
A burly man came to greet them, his mustache huge and curling, his eyes twinkling. “My friend. How are you, Kai?” He slapped him on the back and motioned for them to sit. “Have a seat, miss. Wait here, wait here.”
They sat as he ran into the restaurant and bustled out with a tray bearing a jar of water, ice cubes tinkling inside, glasses and a platter of melon cut into bite-size pieces. “Here, start. Then you decide what you want. Very good fish today, fresh.” He nodded, smiling, and went off to talk to other customers.
“Is he Dimitri?” she asked.
“That’s him. Great guy.”
The melon was sweet and cold, and the fish that came after that delicious — grilled, drenched in olive oil and herbs. She hadn’t realized she was ravenous until she was chasing the last bits of fish from her plate and the sauce with her bread. She’d have licked the dish, but they were not alone.
“Good, huh?” Kai gave her empty plate a pointed look, his eyes twinkling.
“It was awful,” she said, licking her fingers. “I see you hated it, too.”
“It was terrible,” he agreed, checking the fish bones for any left-over meat. “Never had worse in my life.”
“So, good, good?” Dimitri approached them, rubbing his hands over his pot belly. “Best fish in Crete.”
“I believe you,” Olivia said.
“And now dessert.” Dimitri gestured at a waitress and she arrived bearing sweet gifts and a small bottle of Raki. Dimitri served them the Raki himself. “We make it,” he said proudly. “Our own grapes, our local press.”
“Best in Crete,” Kai said, raising his shot glass and winking.
“Best in Crete,” Olivia echoed, since it seemed to be the slogan of the restaurant, and gulped it down.
The world quieted, the colors mellowed. Whoa, this was good stuff indeed. The thought crossed her mind that Kai shouldn’t drink and drive — but maybe he had in mind to go down to this beach afterward.
Hey, his shot glass was still full. He hadn’t even touched it.
She was sipping her second shot when Kai left in search of a bathroom. Dimitri watched him go and turned to her.
“Good boy,” he said and grinned widely. “Big trouble. American mother. But his father, real Cretan.” He nodded. “Big trouble,” he repeated.
“What do you mean?”
“Old people, old traditions. Old fears.”
And old magic.
She suddenly felt way too young for this place.
Big trouble indeed.
*
“Are you sure you can drive?” she asked.
“Positive. I didn’t drink.”
Oh right. And she’d finished the small bottle. Figured. She slipped into the truck and pulled on her belt. “I feel like someone hit me over the head.”
“Raki. Food. The sun.” He nodded. “You can doze while I drive. The place I’m taking you is not around the corner.”
“Nah, I’ll be fine.” Don’t fall asleep in a car with a stranger. Basic.
He looked so calm and assured, and the glance he gave her was mellow like honey. “Trust me.”
She wanted to. “Okay.”
“Listen,” he said, “I’ll only bite you if you beg, how about that?”
“Bite? Is that what the old people think you are? A vampire?” A very hot vampire, his eyes dark and full of mirth.
“No.” He revved the truck. “Besides, you wouldn’t want a Greek vampire near you. They’re quite unlike the ones in Hollywood movies.”
She stifled a yawn. “Then how are they?”
“Living corpses feeding on people. Long nails. Bulging eyes. Vrykolakes are not a pretty sight.”
But you are. “Vrykolakes?”
“You’d know one if you saw it.”
“Now I’m reassured.” She settled back in her seat, her lids heavy. “Actually, what if you clipped your long nails this morning to deceive me?”
“Then you stand no chance.”
That was exactly what she feared, and yet she couldn’t help smiling as she sank into sleep.
She was woken what felt like seconds later by a hand on her shoulder, shaking her gently.
“Liv. We’re here.”
It was a creek buried in vegetation. Birds sang overhead in the branches and the water hummed as it trickled among the rocks. A small green pool formed below a tiny waterfall.
“Oh my god, it’s beautiful.” She jumped out of the pickup and walked on the rocks to the pool’s edge.
“Last one in is a loser,” Kai said, pulling off his t-shirt, and she thought the sight of his washboard stomach and wide chest would never get old. “It’s quite deep,” he said before bomb diving inside and splashing her.
She removed her salt-stiffened clothes and her sandals. She stepped into the pool carefully. The water was like ice, but it was welcome in the heat of early afternoon and she sank into it, shivering. She plunged under and when she surfaced, her head was clear from the cobwebs of sleep.
“How do you know this place?”
He swam close to her, his dark head sleek like an otter’s. “We’re in Atis’ territory. My family’s.”
“Did you use to come here as a child?”
“All the time.” He was nose to nose to her now. “One of my favorite spots.”
He put an arm around her and spun her lazily around, like a merry-go-round among the green and brown of the foliage and branches. “Do you like it, then?”
“Hm.” She didn’t want to speak and break the fairytale magic. It was as if her past was melting away. “It’s cold, though. I bet you chose the places with the coldest water to bring me today.”
He snorted by her ear, sending goosebumps on her skin. “Maybe I have.”
“Why?”
“I need the cold dash when I’m near you. I might ravage you otherwise.”
She turned around to face him. His hand was a warm weight on her hip. “Biting and all that.”
“Definitely biting. You’re delicious.”
Heat rolled down her spine. “So all that talk about wanting to see me smile was a pretext?”
He drew back, turning serious. “No, it was the truth.” His breath smelled of cinnamon and sugar.
“Are you...” She tried to collect her thoughts. “Are you happy here?”
“I am now.”
He dived under, coming up at the edge of the pool and pulling himself up on the rocks.
Well, she thought, gaping at his glistening torso, that was an effective way to stop the conversation. She’d completely lost the thread, watching muscles bunch and shift in his shoulders and his back as he stood.
Damn, he lived here. Soon she’d be on the other side of the world, where guilt awaited her. Nothing resolved. Nothing ending.
She climbed out and he returned to sit by her side with a bottle of water. He offered it to her and she took a sip.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I just want to know more about you.”
“And I want to know about you.” He touched her chin, wiping off a droplet. “I want to know why you’re sad. Is it because of the fight with your boyfriend?”
“He’s not my boyfriend.” It came out heated and she sighed. “Not anymore.”
“But you want to go back to him.”
“No, I don’t.” She felt the truth of it in her bones. “It was a mistake, being with him. I’ve made lots of mistakes.”
“We all do.”
They sat for a while in silence. Her feet splashed in the pool.
“Kai, do you think the gods — god — forgive us?”
He gave a rueful smile. “I think gods are more forgiving than people.”
“I made an error in judgme
nt. A horrible one.” Her voice thickened, her throat closing up. Damn, a year later and the pain was fresh like a bleeding wound.
He was silent, head tilted to the side; listening. “Can’t be that bad.”
“It was.” She nodded to herself. “I thought I saw things clearly. I thought I knew... how others think, what goes through their heads, how they’d react. I thought I was being supportive in my own way. I thought it wasn’t my role to hold someone’s hand to stop them from jumping off a cliff.”
“Did you push them off the cliff?”
“What?” She flinched. “No.”
“Then it wasn’t your fault.”
“It was. I should have been there. Should have held her hand.”
He didn’t ask who. God, she wished he did so she could tell him the rest, the whole horrid story. She had to wonder again why she was opening up to him of all people. Maybe it was because soon she’d be away and he’d not be around to keep judging and hating her for her mistakes.
“There’s this place I go sometimes.” He reached for her hand, clasped it. “Helps me think. The old gods are closer there. It’s not far from here. Come.”
“A temple?”
“Of sorts.”
Why was she going along? This was stupid. She didn’t believe in old gods and magic, didn’t think she’d find there what she needed.
But she got up anyway and followed him to the truck, pulling on her clothes.
“Hey, Kai...” She waited until he climbed in and closed the door. “What mistake did you make?”
He shook his head and a muscle jumped in his jaw. “That’s the big joke. I still don’t know.”
*
They drove a way up a hill among vast orchards where white houses peeked out through the green. The sound of trickling water followed them — rather, they were following the stream uphill, toward its source. They entered a village and drove past the coffee house where elderly men sat playing cards and backgammon and staring openly at them.
An old woman was feeding an army of cats on her doorstep. She looked up as they drove slowly by and started shouting something in Greek. Olivia caught the word ‘navagio’. She was sure she’d heard it somewhere but couldn’t recall what it meant.
They bypassed the small square with its fountain and playground, and wound among stone-built houses and past a chapel.
“The village is called Spili,” Kai said. “It means cave.”
He stopped at the beginning of a trail that snaked up the hill. Insects buzzed on the aromatic bushes and over the wild flowers. When they got out of the truck, he took her hand and pulled her upslope. She liked the way his strong fingers felt, wrapped around hers, the way he grabbed her around the waist when she stumbled. The faint smiles he gave her when she caught his eye.
She liked it too damn much.
The path evened out. Beyond a small pine grove, they found the dark mouth of a huge cave. The whole place seemed to hum with power. Kai stepped inside, moving with an ease born of familiarity, and she followed. It was pitch black, but Kai let go of her hand and fumbled with something making a small flame jump, then another.
Candles, thin and frail, a small forest of them stuck in a box filled with sand. Kai threw the matchbox back on a niche carved in the rock and turned around.
The roof was black with soot. Crumbling frescoes covered the walls, icons done in the Byzantine style with austere, long faces and sad eyes. A broken piece of a statue stood in a corner, an archaic figurine with arms crossed over the chest. Next to it lay a slab of a pillar, and a cracked ceramic pot held flowers. Fresh, as if picked that afternoon.
“People come here to worship?” she asked, her voice hushed.
“Sometimes.” He trailed his hand on the wall, moving toward the back of the cave where stalactites formed weird pillars and shapes. Another fresco covered part of the wall and she approached.
She stood silent, her arm touching his. “What’s this?” A mermaid, holding a golden trident, her wild, dark locks of hair undulating around her. In her other hand she held the crescent moon, and a golden halo encircled her head. “Who is she?”
He traced half-faded letters with his forefinger. “The Virgin of the sea, the mermaid. The locals call her Gorgona. There are many ancient temples to her in these parts. Derketo, they used to call her in past times.”
“And they still worship her?”
He shrugged, his body tensing next to hers. “She still controls the sea.”
“I don’t believe in this stuff,” she said, her voice faint and lost in the vastness of the cave.
He stood motionless for a long moment, looking at the picture, his face gone to shadow. Then he turned and walked out, leaving her with the brooding, fish-tailed goddess.
This was ridiculous. Was she supposed to pray here for forgiveness? To this alien creature, staring at her with baleful eyes as if daring her to speak? The flames on the candles flickered, making the mermaid’s face move.
Olivia thought she saw water ripple around her, red with blood. Her eyes burned as she stared at the mold-eaten fresco, at the bold strokes of blue and green that made the creature’s tail.
“I want to make up for my mistake,” she whispered, feeling foolish but still doing it. “I want a sign that I can move on. Please.”
Nothing stirred in the cool air that smelled of moisture. She waited, not knowing for what. The sign perhaps. “Tell me what to do.”
The mermaid’s eyes seemed to roll, to look straight into Olivia’s head, examining her thoughts and memories.
She shivered.
But nothing happened.
Of course not. She’d had too much sun, too much Raki. Old beliefs and superstitions. Nothing real.
Shaking her head, Olivia backed away and hurried out of the cave.
Kai was leaning against a tree, chewing on a twig. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, rubbing her arms. She felt chilled. “Yeah. I don’t know why you brought me here. I don’t believe in mermaids or any such stuff.”
He started down the path. “I didn’t either, but what if they believe in you?”
***
CHAPTER SEVEN
It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood.
Shakespeare
Wash blood with blood and pain with pain. It is the only cure.
Myra Crow
The ride back to the hotel was quiet. Olivia was tired, her chest a mass of conflicting emotions.
Kai dropped her off at the reception, his face unreadable, and Panos waved him closer.
“Come, come. You’re late! We prepare Greek night tonight, we need help with carrying things.”
“It’s my day off,” he protested.
“Day is over. Now is night.”
Kai frowned. He turned to her. “I have to go.”
“I had a great time,” she said. “Thank you.”
“Me too. Will you come to the beach bar later tonight?”
“Sure.”
Kai gave a faint smile, then jogged to the back of the hotel and vanished through a door.
Every part of her body leaned toward him, longed to follow him.
What’s wrong with you, girl?
Panos leaned over the desk. “Kai nice? He not do any bad things?”
Startled, she stepped back. “No. He was nice.”
Panos nodded, smiling. “He of good family. My family.” He thumped his chest. Did he think he was Tarzan or something? “Blood of my blood.”
“Special blood?” She wagged her brows.
“Special, strong blood. Many generations, go back to ancient times. Blood is old, this is a place of old—
“—magic, yes, I know.” Any minute now she’d start rolling her eyes. “I’d better go shower. See you later.”
Loud music blared across the beach when she came down much later. The party was in full swing. Markus and Kirsten were dancing at the bar. She waved at them and they waved back. She sat on a stool.
The blond
barman was there. “What can I get you?” He squinted at her. “You want a Kai, right?”
She laughed. “You remember. Is he around?”
“I saw him earlier, he was helping carry the drinks. He’s our strong man.” The man flexed his biceps and winked. “I’m Matt, by the way.”
“And you’re from England.”
“You remember, too. Yes, I’ve been ensnared by a Cretan woman. This family...” He shook his head.
“They’re something,” Olivia had to agree and hopped off her stool. “I’ll go walk around. If you see him, tell him I’m looking for him?”
“Of course.”
The beach was empty and the noise wasn’t quite as deafening there. A stone pier jutted out into the sea.
Kai stood there, bathed in moonlight. It shouldn’t surprise her he’d run away from the crowd. As she came closer, she noticed he still wore the same clothes as before, stained with salt and sweat. His hair had dried into odd spikes.
“Hey,” she said. “Done with work?”
“Done.” He looked tired. His hands hung limp at his sides. She slipped her fingers between his cold ones, entangling them.
He tugged her closer, turning toward her. “You’re so warm. Always warm.” He inhaled deeply, rubbing his face on her hair, her throat, his stubble burning her skin. His mouth hovered over hers, their breaths mingling. “Fuck, I really want to kiss you. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
She grabbed fistfuls of his t-shirt and molded herself against his hard body. “And here I am.”
“Here you are,” he breathed and swallowed hard. “But it’s a bad idea, isn’t it? You just had a fight with your boyfriend and I—”
“I’m not with him anymore. We broke up.” She wrapped her arms around Kai, feeling the corded muscles of his back, and stood on tiptoe to reach him. “Besides, it’s just a kiss.”
“Just a kiss,” he whispered, his arms coming around her, his hands pressing in the small of her back. “Liv...”
Then his lips were on hers, soft and demanding, sweet and a little salty. His tongue licked her mouth and she opened it for him, moaning at his taste. It made her body tighten, her heart hammer.
