Selena snorted and felt along the walls of the hotel room so she could head toward the bathroom. “How long have you spoken English? We need to work on your understanding of some of our words.”
“Hey,” Cameron protested, “I can be charming.”
“Doubt it,” Ukko mumbled.
Selena heard the door close and her room became quiet except for the humming of the air conditioner. She took a deep breath and steadied herself for a few moments as the adrenaline began to fade and her new reality set in: she was a prisoner of the New Pantheon and she had a pissed off Aztec god who would be looking for her to reimprison her. And he would kill the man she still didn’t trust but for some reason, couldn’t seem to stop thinking about in entirely inappropriate ways given their circumstances.
“You are such an idiot,” she scolded herself.
She felt along the wall until she reached the bathroom door and pushed it open farther. She found the rack that held clean towels and washcloths then sat on the edge of the tub and filled it with hot water. She kept her hand in the tub so she could turn the faucet off when it was full. She had no intention of getting out of this bath before the water got cold.
When the tub filled, she pulled her clothes off and lowered herself carefully into the steamy bath. She groaned when she realized how badly her body ached. Maybe Quetzalcoatl had been right: what kind of goddess or even demigoddess was she if she couldn’t heal herself? She could really use that ability right now. She’d never been so badly damaged in her life.
And healing was such a rare talent that she doubted they’d ever find someone to restore her sight. She could hope one of the doctors who worked with the New Pantheon could do something to at least give her some of her sight back, but it would probably never be the same. The flash right in front of her had been too bright and she’d been looking directly into it: her retinas were burned.
Selena grabbed the shampoo and conditioner bottles and washed her long blonde hair then her fingers felt along the edge of the tub until they wrapped around the bar of soap she’d placed in the corner. She scrubbed her body clean – twice – just to make sure there was no swamp residue left on her. When the water got too cold to stay in it any longer, she lifted the drain and grabbed the dry towel she’d set beside the tub.
She had no clean clothes to put on and she was pretty sure her old clothes constituted a biohazard at this point.
She’d just wrapped a second towel around her shoulders like a shawl when she heard someone knocking on her door. She wondered if an hour had really already passed and if Prince Charming was standing outside now. And here she was wrapped in two towels and nothing else.
These twenty-four hours just kept getting better and better.
“Cameron?” she called.
“Yeah,” he called back. “Thunder sex god is out here scowling at me. Think you can hurry up?”
Selena didn’t bother walking to the door. She opened it with her telekinesis and stayed hidden behind the wall.
Cameron closed the door behind him and she backed away from the short hallway.
“Um…” Selena stammered. “I don’t actually have any clean clothes.”
“So I just walked into a hot naked woman’s hotel room? I take it back: this whole ordeal isn’t so bad.”
“You think I’m hot?” Selena felt her cheeks flush and immediately wished she knew how to keep her mouth shut.
“Yeah, of course. Do I have to stay here near the closet, or are you going to let me in?”
“Wasn’t the whole point of you coming into my room to make sure I didn’t die in the bath? I’m alive. Cold and having to dress myself in towels but alive.”
“Towels were all the rage in Paris this Spring.”
“You are such a smartass.”
She heard his footsteps approaching anyway and she backed up until she bumped into the bed.
“See?” he said. “You can totally pull off the towel dress. Pretty soon, it’ll be all the rage in New Orleans’ nightclubs, too.”
“Actually, that wouldn’t surprise me here.”
“Me either. Sit down.”
“What? Why?” Selena pulled both towels around her tighter.
Cameron sighed and if she’d been able to see him, she probably would have seen him rolling those smoldering dark brown eyes at her. Stop it, Selena. God, woman, you’re out of your mind!
“You trusted me enough to get in my car, go into my camp with me, spend the night there, and run through a swamp to try to escape the Finnish asshole. I’m sorry I joked about your appearance or the towels if it made you uncomfortable, ok? Just sit down. Please.”
Selena slowly lowered herself onto the edge of the bed but her heart raced so quickly she felt deafened by its rapid beating. She was without her two most vital senses and for the first time since meeting Cameron, she was scared.
The mattress dipped as he sat next to her and she listened to Velcro being ripped apart.
“What are you doing?” she asked timidly.
“Taking off my gloves.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s a reason I always wear them. And I’m about to trust you with a secret I’ve never trusted anyone with. Ever.”
“Ok,” Selena whispered.
“Close your eyes.”
Selena closed her eyes. She felt Cameron’s fingers, not his gloves, but his fingers, trace gently across her eyelids and a strange, oddly familiar sensation filtered into her, filling her with something warm and comforting and regenerative. She gasped when she realized why this sensation was so familiar.
“You’re a healer,” she whispered.
“Yes,” he whispered back. “Open your eyes. Did it work?”
Selena opened her eyes and blinked. The blurry room around her gradually focused and she blinked again as Cameron’s handsome face settled into a clear image before her.
“Oh, my God,” she whispered again.
“I told you,” he warned. “You really need to stop saying that. It hasn’t worked out so well for us yet.”
He lifted her hand and ran his fingers along the deep scratch. Selena watched as it disappeared.
“That’s why you keep your whole body covered,” Selena said quietly. “People can tell if they touch you, can’t they?”
Cameron glanced up at her and nodded. “I didn’t want to end up running from the New Pantheon so I’ve never told anyone, not even the other demigods I know. But I can’t do what you can, Selena. From everything I’ve heard between you and Ukko, Alan was basically dead. I could have never healed him. Little things, yeah, but…”
“Did you know who I was before you met me? Is that why you followed me to New Orleans?”
Cameron placed her hand on the bed then pulled his gloves back on. “The New Pantheon has a mole. We found out about a year ago they were chasing someone who could heal and that she was powerful. As soon as he figured out who they were after, he told us who you were and we started trying to find you, too, because we know how dangerous a healer could be in their hands. And I know how dangerous even I could be in their hands. But you especially can’t be forced to work for them. So… yeah, I followed you to New Orleans. I’ve been following you for a while actually.”
“How? I thought you had a job?”
The corners of Cameron’s lips turned up into a sexy smirk, and Selena blushed again. “I do. I had to quit my day job, but there are enough of us who are trying to get rid of the New Pantheon. They’re hunting gods and demigods down and exterminating anyone who refuses to join them. So for some us, this has turned into our job. Doesn’t pay as well, which explains the Jetta and why I don’t have my Porsche yet.”
“If Ukko is psychic like I always thought, then doesn’t he already know what you can do? There’s no way you can hide this from him.”
Cameron shrugged. “I don’t know if he is or not. It’s not his primary power though, so it would be a weaker gift and he’d probably have to search for that knowledge specif
ically. He has no reason yet to suspect I can heal so he hasn’t bothered digging around my brain for that information.”
“He’ll suspect it as soon as he realizes I can see again,” Selena pointed out. “I could lie and say I healed myself, but knowing Ukko, he’d reinjure me just to test me.”
“True,” Cameron smiled, “which is why we’re not going to give him the chance. We’re breaking out of here tonight.”
Chapter Six
Cameron returned about an hour later with a bag of clothes from the gift shop. He handed it to her and grinned at her, that same sexy smirk, and Selena blushed and cursed herself again. “Hope you like black and gold clothes with fleurs-de-lis all over them.”
“Is this a football thing?” Selena asked, pulling the black yoga pants with gold fleurs-de-lis on them out of the bag.
“Selena… come on. You gave me a hard time for not knowing a G. I. Joe reference and you don’t know who the Saints are?”
Selena shrugged. “I don’t like football.”
“You know what? I changed my mind. This isn’t going to work out.”
Selena glanced up at him and smiled. “Will it be enough of a sacrifice to appease the angry sun god if I agree to wear it and pretend to be a fan?”
Cameron crossed his arms and studied her, and Selena felt her cheeks flushing again. She turned her attention back to the bag and dug out the t-shirt, equally black and with an equal abundance of gold fleurs-de-lis scattered across the front.
“Depends,” Cameron said. “If I ever take you to a football game, are you capable of faking the appropriate amount of enthusiasm?”
“Depends,” Selena responded. “Are you capable of buying me enough beer in order for me to fake an appropriate level of enthusiasm?”
“Alcohol does tend to help with fake enthusiasm,” Cameron agreed.
Selena snorted and grabbed her new clothes. “I’m going to get dressed in the bathroom. There are enough strippers in this city. It doesn’t need one more.”
“I’d make some comment like ‘Sure, but you’re the only one I’d pay to see’ but then things would just get weird between us.”
Selena blinked at him then rolled her eyes and told him it was too late: he was the master of making things weird.
She stepped into the bathroom, leaving a small crack in the door, and pulled her clothes on and asked Cameron what their jailer was up to. He flipped the television on and sat on her bed. She peeked through the small crack and found herself admiring, again, the way his dark gray long-sleeved shirt clung to his chest and arms as he leaned on one elbow and began flipping channels and the dark denim of his jeans stretched over his long legs. He’d already claimed he didn’t watch much TV: she had no idea what he was looking for.
He glanced up at the door and smiled and she backed away from the crack. Goddamn it, get ahold of yourself, Selena.
She really needed to figure out which god was good at damning things so she’d know who the hell she was talking to.
“I’ve been trying to remember,” Cameron said. “Who’s the villain in Ghostbusters?”
Selena finished dressing and pulled the door open. “Gozer. Made up. That god never existed.”
“Huh,” Cameron answered. “I mean, that’s good because he… she?... whatever was clearly evil, but I was going to nickname our new friend Gozer. Think he’ll catch the reference?”
“Yes. You didn’t answer my question.”
Cameron sat up and left the TV on a college football game. Selena stared at the television for a few seconds then at Cameron. “It’s Saturday?”
“Yep. And I’m going to miss all the games because some asshole thinks it’s totally cool to whisk people off to the Otherworld and some other asshole thinks it’s totally cool to expect servitude to help rescue her.”
Selena rubbed her head and wondered if Cameron could cure headaches because he was starting to give her one. She sat next to him and took the remote away from him. He protested but it was a feeble protest. She was telekinetic and there was nothing he could do once the remote ended up on the ceiling.
“Focus, Cameron. One: what is the Otherworld and how did I end up there? And two: how did you and Ukko get us out?”
Cameron glared at the remote on the ceiling for a few seconds then sighed and turned his attention to her. “It’s apparently where the gods used to live. Something happened though. Ukko wouldn’t tell me what, and now, the gods can’t stay there permanently like they used to. Quetzalcoatl would have eventually returned with you, but time passes differently there than it does here. It may have seemed like two months to you, but two hundred years would have passed on Earth.”
“Holy shit,” Selena whispered. “How long was I gone?”
“A couple of weeks. After you disappeared, I tried to find you on my own but Ukko quickly caught up to me and told me where’d you gone. He said only a god would be able to get me there and if I really wanted to save you, I’d have to accept his help. And I knew he was right, because I don’t know any other full-fledged gods to ask and there’s apparently a bit of danger involved in the Otherworld still, so they probably would have said no. Plus, they’d have a pissed off snake god to deal with.”
“Why are you doing all of this for me?” Selena asked softly.
Cameron shrugged and smiled at her. “Because I know why Ukko wants you in the New Pantheon and I can’t let that happen.”
Selena shook her head and reminded him if he were serious about keeping her out of the New Pantheon’s hands, then he would have agreed to kill her before they could capture her.
“You make it sound like it’s so easy,” Cameron retorted. “Would you be able to kill me to keep them from using my powers?”
Selena swallowed and stared back into those intense chocolate brown eyes. She finally shook her head slowly. “No. I wouldn’t.”
Cameron looked away from her and watched the football game for a few minutes before adding, “Besides. We’ve gotten out of some sticky situations before. We’ll get out of here. Don’t worry. I have a plan.”
“A plan…”
“Yep.”
“A secret plan?”
“For now.”
Selena grunted at him and let the remote fall from the ceiling into her hand. She hit the power button and Cameron protested again but she crossed her arms and asked him for the second time, “Where is Ukko now? Why is he letting you spend so much in here?”
For the first time since meeting him, Cameron actually blushed. He averted his eyes as the corners of his lips turned into a devilish grin. God, why does he have to be so gorgeous? She knew at least a dozen gods that was directed to.
“I, uh, may have told him there was something going on between us so I’d have an excuse to stay in here longer than he’d otherwise have let me.”
Selena opened her mouth expecting some witty comeback to fly out but the only thing that came out was another grunting sound. She gave up and tossed the remote back to him.
“What happened to ‘I never lie’?” she finally asked. “And you apparently don’t have ‘mad skills’ since the only thing Ukko is going to hear is Auburn beating the shit out of Georgia.”
Cameron gestured toward the screen and insisted, “They’re only up by ten points! What do you know? You don’t even like football.” He scowled at the television then seemed to remember Selena had called into question his “mad skills” as well. “And people don’t have to be loud to be having a good time. Want me to burn the hotel down? Would that make you feel better?”
Selena tried not to laugh but he looked so serious about it she couldn’t help it. “I’m sorry I insulted your… skills. Please don’t burn the hotel down to prove anything to Ukko. Although that’s what you get for trusting a Wikipedia page.”
“It wasn’t just Wikipedia,” Cameron teased.
Selena smiled and shook her head at him. “How long would be an appropriately masculating amount of time to wait before ordering room service because appa
rently, I haven’t eaten in like two weeks.”
“I don’t think masculating is a word.”
Selena shrugged and grabbed the room service menu. “If women had created our language, it would be a word.”
Cameron pulled the menu out of her hands and put it back on the nightstand. “I’ve only been in here like ten minutes. You’re not ordering room service yet.”
“Ok, then share this brilliant escape plan with me,” Selena said.
“Um… how exactly do you define ‘brilliant’?”
“Anything that gets us out of the reach of the New Pantheon and manages not to get us killed.”
“In that case, I have a brilliant plan.”
Selena opened her hands as if to say, “I’m waiting.”
Cameron’s eyes flickered away from the football game to her face then he sighed and turned the volume up, moving closer to her on the bed so he could talk quietly to her. Selena swallowed and hoped she wasn’t blushing. Again.
“All four of his buddies have shown up and they’ve got this room under constant surveillance. Two of them went down to the gift shop with me just to buy those clothes for you. Right now, there are three watching the doorway and two out on the street watching the window even though this isn’t a room with a balcony, which is kinda weird, isn’t it? Who knew there were hotels in the French Quarter that didn’t have balconies?”
“Cameron, focus.”
“There’s only one way we can escape. I actually could start a fire and get the hotel evacuated, but they’re going to be waiting for something like that. So that leaves us with the only other option: you’re going to spring us by opening up the ceiling then the roof and we’ll try not to fall to our deaths or at the very least, gruesome and painful and possibly disfiguring injuries.”
“I’m going to… what?” Selena looked at the ceiling above her then back at Cameron to see if he was wearing a “Ha! Gotcha!” expression. He still looked completely serious.
“As long as you don’t almost die, I can probably heal you. It’ll be fine,” Cameron assured her.
“Probably…” Selena repeated slowly. Well, if that didn’t reassure her that his plan was totally sound and foolproof.
Shadows of the Gods (The Unbreakable Sword Series Book 1) Page 5
