by Zoe Forward
“Next door to see Merck.” She held up the pie in her hands as if its existence answered all questions.
“To take him pie?” Eli’s eyebrows slowly rose.
“He’s had a rough few days and he did save my life twice. That deserves some pie.”
“Pie…” Eli nodded and silently stood. He led her out of the house. As he started the car minutes later, he asked, “You okay?”
Her grip on the pie plate tightened. “I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.” The concern in his gaze threatened the dam she’d erected while cooking, the one holding back her emotions. She kept a wall of confidence in place for fear of losing it in front of him or any of the other guys. She didn’t know what she was doing taking Merck pie. She only knew something prodded her to go to him, pie or not. The impulse had intensified into a must-do over the past hour.
“Maybe I’m panicking a bit with the clock counting down. Merck is the only one who’s offered sensible options to find answers.”
Eli rubbed his chin. She should’ve made Eli pie too. For being here. For caring so much.
The trip around the corner was short. Eli cut the engine in front of Merck’s house. She’d never been on this forbidden property. Never seen the house’s lawn with its impeccably maintained landscaping down to the wisteria creeping up an ancient fence. The white clapboard house had been well maintained. It wasn’t as large as the one on their property, but exuded Colonial-era charm. The raised foundation spoke of years of hurricanes and flooding that this structure had survived. Everything about it was beautiful, down to the black-shuttered windows. They were real shutters, which meant they functioned and weren’t the decorative crap used on newer houses. The gardens, the landscaping, the house…all of it was the opposite of the hard edges of Merck.
The one time she’d ventured across the creek, they’d met by accident in the woods. But she’d never seen his house, which was well off the main road, like hers. He’d never had a birthday party. There’d never been neighborly borrowing. She’d never been allowed to trick-or-treat here.
“Thanks for driving me over. I’ll be good from here.” She reached for the door handle.
“How do you know he’s home?” Eli gazed at the front door.
She pointed at the SUV. “That’s his car. I texted him that I was coming over.” She hadn’t gotten a reply, but the presence of his car gave her confidence he was home. The nagging feeling she needed to be here pressed her with its urgency.
“Your father wouldn’t want you here.” Eli shifted to face her. “This goes against everything I am to drop you off and leave. How do I know you can trust this guy? Are you really with him? Is he your destined?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have answers. I only know what’s real. Being here with him feels like where I should be. I jumped dimensions with him, which means something. We’ve known each other a long time. And I trust him.”
“All right. Level with me. What is he? I don’t mean what he is to you, but what type of magic does he have?”
Shannon slowly turned toward Eli. “I’m safe with him.”
“That’s not an answer. He’s not druid. He’s something else, isn’t he? What?”
The stubbornness etched into Eli’s face meant the easiest path was to answer. If she didn’t, he’d accompany her inside, which was guaranteed to be awkward, or he’d drive her home.
She cleared her throat. “This is between you and me. No sharing, not even with Dad. Merck is half god. Poseidon’s son.”
“What?” Eli’s eyes went wide. “First generation? A demigod?”
She nodded. “So, you can see his Poseidon connection makes him important in figuring out my dilemma.”
“Uh-huh. What about the fact he’s a witch hunter? Your father wouldn’t stop reminding us after you left with Merck this morning.”
“I’m sorry about how I handled this morning. Thank you for…well, you probably got him rational again. Merck fights evil beings who use magic and are a threat to humans. That’s his job. It means he does technically hunt witches sometimes, but only the really bad ones. I don’t know the extent of his abilities. What I do know is he’s never hurt me.”
“I can’t let you go alone. You understand that, don’t you?”
“Please, make an exception right now. I know this is hard for you.” She squeezed his forearm. “I don’t detect any evil auras here. The place feels protected. It’s probably like ours and he’s done some sort of spell or something on the property. I’ll be okay. If there’s trouble, I’ll pop away. I promise. If I need you, I’ll text or call, and you can arrive with guns blazing. It takes two minutes to get here, maybe less. I need to do this alone. He’s our only hope.”
“All right. I’m going to trust you. That doesn’t mean I trust Merck, though. If your father asks, I won’t lie to him about your whereabouts.” Eli picked up his vibrating cell phone. “It’s him. He wants a group meeting to discuss security protocols.” He met her gaze. “Shannon, your father lost his wife. We all know Charlotte wasn’t only his wife. He might’ve fought tooth and nail with her, but he loved her to the depth of his soul. There’ll be no replacing her for him. She ran his house. She ruled all of us and led all the other Pleiades ladies. He almost lost you as well on the day his wife died and he still might. His sons are dead. The man is unreasonable right now. I’m trying to stay neutral, but I think he shouldn’t be involved in you figuring out what’s going on with the Trident.”
“I agree, but he is…well, he’s Dad. If it was my daughter doing crazy stuff, I’d probably be a bit over the top too.”
“The pie you left in the kitchen will only buy you so much time.” He smiled weakly. “I’d say you’ve got a couple of hours, but you need to be visible by dinner.”
“How’d you know I was distracting him with pie?”
“I’m not stupid. Your mom only brought out pie when she wanted something. I went along because, God knows, whenever any of you make pie, it’s not to be turned down. Trust me, your dad isn’t stupid either.”
“Thank you.” She squeezed his hand and made a mental note to bake him a pie. With a hop, she left the shelter of his truck and navigated the brick walkway to the front door. She balanced the pie plate in one hand to ring the bell. Nothing. Eli, who was still waiting, looked indecisive on leaving.
She reached for the knob. Door open. Not a good sign unless Merck had some precognition ability and anticipated her here.
With a last wave, she went inside. Eli’s truck rumbled down the driveway.
Something wasn’t right. A person like Merck didn’t leave the front door unlocked. He seemed like the kind of guy who believed in safety and security. No alarm went off as she entered. A glance to the alarm control box on the wall in the hallway by the door indicated it to be inactive.
She’d told Eli she didn’t detect evil auras. That much was true. But she also didn’t feel Merck’s aura as strong as it usually was. She peeked through the window beside the door to see Eli drive away. Maybe she should’ve asked him to stay.
Her feet caught on a set of keys on the floor.
“Jason…Merck?” she called out as she slid the pie onto the kitchen counter.
No reply.
The back door, which exited the kitchen, hung open. Spots dotted the floor. Dark-red spots similar to dried blood. In a tearing rush she raced outside and burst into the wide-open space of his backyard.
Oh no. He lay sprawled, facedown, on the lawn. One of his arms stretched in front of him as if trying to get to the water, which was too far away.
“Merck,” she moaned. Nothing emanated from his aura, which could mean he was passed out or dead.
She knelt next to him and pressed two fingers into the side of his neck, not feeling anything. Then she saw his chest move. Thank you, thank you.
“I’m here.” With a lot of tugging she rolled him onto his back. A dark stain saturated his stomach. She shook him. “Wake up.”
A few s
hakes later, he still didn’t stir.
The water slapped against a small dock hundreds of yards away as if angry. She couldn’t drag him that far. Even if she did get him close, his healing power might not work if he was unconscious. Using her ability to move water to him seemed impossible. It was too far.
“You’re not allowed to die, Jason Merck. I need you here.” He looked vulnerable, not the imposing man who’d threatened Lola. Her heart clenched so hard she experienced physical pain. She rubbed her chest.
Lifting the hem of his shirt and peeling it away from areas where it stuck to his skin revealed a blackened area on his stomach. The discoloration emitted a dark energy as if it, itself, was a living evil. Poison? Magic, most definitely.
Even passed out his face didn’t look peaceful. She wished she could reach him and find out what he fought in his mind. Whatever internal battle he waged might not be pain free.
“I don’t know what to do.” She breathed hard as she glanced around. Her gut knotted into lumps. Should she call 911? They wouldn’t know how to deal with this. Maybe Eli? She could beg Eli to use his magical healing skills on Merck. Instinct dictated Eli couldn’t resolve the evil of this particular poison. Something that knocked out a demigod had to be supremely powerful and dangerous.
“You can heal the man destined to be your soul mate.” Another of her mother’s lectures to prepare her for a life as a Pleiades blasted through her mind. Could this man be the one for her?
She yanked out her cell phone and called Jen. When Jen answered on the second ring, Shannon rushed to say, “Oh, God, Jen. It’s a crisis again. I’m sorry to only call you when it’s bad.”
“Just lay it on me. It’s why I have a cell phone.”
“I saw you do that healing thing on Nikolai when he was almost dead. You did something to bring him back from the brink. I need to know how you did it.”
“What? Whoa, back up. First, you think you found your soul mate? The Merck guy? Second, he’s dying?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe what? You found your guy or he’s dying?”
“Both, maybe.”
“The full-body healing only works on your Gods’-chosen, meant-to-be forever man. No one else.”
“Did you know for absolute sure your now husband was it when you tried to heal him the first time?” This was wasting time she didn’t have. She needed information fast.
“No. I had a strong gut feeling about Nikolai, but you’re right. I didn’t know for sure. Guess you won’t know until you try. Then you get to live with the freak out of knowing for sure he’s probably your it if the healing does work. On the other hand, if it doesn’t work and he dies, then you know he wasn’t.”
“Merck’s down, unconscious, by what I think is some sort of magical poison. What do I do, Jen?” Panic clawed her throat, threatening a monster explosion.
“You’ve got to try it on him.”
“How?”
“This is a you-must-believe moment. Ask the Goddess to help you. When I say goddess, I mean you think about your descendant goddess. Then you make circular motions over him. When the power revs in you, give in to it. Let it work through you.”
“That’s it?”
“It’s all I can say to describe what it felt like. Let your heart guide you. It knows what to do”
“That’s it?”
No answer. The call had been dropped. She didn’t have time to waste calling back.
Let the power rev? Let her heart guide her? She stroked hair back away from his forehead, not that she needed to since it was so short. The act calmed her. She was linked to this man. She didn’t have answers on why or how. She barely knew him or at least who he’d become. Yet all those years since she last saw him, living so far away, she’d never really looked for anything special from a relationship. Maybe she wasn’t so different from him. Both of them bounced from one person to the next. That didn’t mean they were meant for each other, nor that he’d been waiting for her or she him. Their lives intersecting now was too coincidental.
He was her it. That she believed. She had to save him.
“Pleiades goddess, help me. I don’t understand any of this, but help me. Please don’t let him die. Not now or in a few days.” She closed her eyes and made circles over his chest, feeling silly but wanting to do this the right way. Warmth tingled inside her and spread outward, down her arms. Energized. Electric. Good Lord was it draining.
She kept moving her arms until it’d been several minutes and she was so exhausted from the energy depletion that she the circular motion felt like she was pushing them through drying cement.
With a final silent plea to the goddesses, she rested her head on his chest. “Come back to me, Merck.”
***
Merck faded in and out for a while until he realized he still lay in the backyard. He blinked up at the orange-hued sky. Sunset. Near eight-thirtyish. A few pelicans flew overhead. Egrets squawked from the marshes. Waves beat against the dock in a steady rhythm, assuring him all was calm. The ocean called to him as it always did, but this time she wasn’t screaming for his help to fix something hidden in its depths. It communicated reassurance and a plea for him to recover.
He wasn’t dead. His side no longer hurt. The whacky, horror-filled dreams were gone. But he was so weak, he could barely move.
Pressure compressed his stomach as if something lay on top of him. A body?
He looked down his front.
Shannon. Not moving.
She couldn’t be dead on top of him. His breaths came labored until his brain registered the soft movement of her chest. Up and down. Regular. Consistent.
Her face looked peaceful, not pained. Had she done something to him? Something to save him?
He lifted a shaking hand to touch her golden hair. She was so beautiful with her flawless skin, now pale from too long spent up north and indoors. She would tan if she spent more time in the sun.
He used his index finger to trace her nose. He liked its slight sloping and how it crinkled at the top when she concentrated. Too tired to speak, he thought to her, even though she couldn’t hear. “You must survive. I can’t imagine a world without you in it.”
Her shampoo smelled good. It reminded him of fresh and clean, and all that was good.
There were so many things he should’ve said to her before now. He’d run from their connection, even though he’d recognized it as something unique. Staying away from her hadn’t been entirely about his worry of the Enforcer job spilling into her life, although he’d tried to convince himself of this over the years. It hadn’t been about her father intimidating him. His reaction to her panicked him. It still did.
He’d faced off with the scariest of the scary without a second thought. Yet, this woman terrified him. The moment his lips touched hers each time he was sucked into a haze of longing and sexual need so intense he forgot everything but her. It’d blown his mind the first time and again the second time. The details of their long-ago moment that led to him pressed tight against her with her back against a tree were hazy. What he recalled was fear she held the power to control him and to hurt him. Losing the upper hand was against his mantra.
He didn’t need a shrink to untangle the web of why he needed control. He’d been smacked around by his “mother” and her friends when little until he got old enough to punch back. He’d been forced to do things he didn’t want to remember.
Their first kiss when he’d lost his mind, she never tried to manipulate him to the degree he worried. Sure, she’d used his weakness to get away from him yesterday, but not to hurt him or coerce him into doing something ugly.
So much time wasted. Now they had no time left. Although she’d stopped his immediate death today, she didn’t have the power to change the gods’ minds.
Her eyes blinked open and met his. “Hi.”
“Hey,” he croaked out. He wanted answers, such as why she was here and how she ended up on top of him, but right now in the wake of his relief that bot
h of them were alive, all he had the energy to do was to sling an arm around her waist and close his eyes. She didn’t complain, but burrowed into him. With the Armageddon shitstorm descending on them and their death countdown clocks ticking away, he should get in motion. He should ask questions and figure out the mysteries.
What mattered was her here. Them together was the only right now he wanted. The concerns pressing on his mind faded away as he relaxed.
Later when he opened his eyes, it was dark. “We should go inside.”
“Hmm?” She punctuated her drowsy question with a stretch.
He smiled. “We should go in.”
“Yeah.” She pushed off his chest to sit up, but the movement was gentle. Her gaze in the moonlight was filled with worry when it found his. “You think you can make it inside?”
“I’m fine.” He sat up, instantly dizzy. Maybe not as fine as he thought. His back ached, but it was more of a complaint from lying so long in one position with her on top of him. Even though the stab wound might be improved, possibly gone, he was nowhere near ready to jump up for a ten-mile run. Hell, he wasn’t sure he’d make the walk into the house.
He managed a kneel and staggered to a stand. She grabbed his biceps to help him balance as best she could considering she was so much smaller than him.
“Easy there.” She slung an arm around his waist. “Lean on me.”
Their progress inside was slow. He almost nose-dived on the six steps into the house, but she caught him.
“The den is good.” He chin-pointed to the sofa. Their progress to the sofa was slow. When within hopping distance, he angled to land on the soft surface, ending up in an inelegant sit-sprawl.
Head spinning. Stomach rolling. Yep, he wasn’t moving from right here with a plan to remain still.
“Hold on.” She walked out of the room.
The sound of her walking though his house made him realize how empty it normally was—and also how quiet. Usually there was only the sound of the waves lulling him or calling to him from a distance. There wasn’t any street noise in this rural part of Port Royal. No late-night traffic, no sirens, and no neighbors too close.
