“I’m starving. Could eat a small horse.”
Davin digs into his pack. “Didn’t bring one. Sorry.” But he does manage to pull out a blanket, a jumbo pillow, and two large insulated bags, packed with ice. One contains a six-pack of juice drinks, several bottles of water, sliced veggies, and some sliced cheese. The other is loaded with what look like sandwich wraps.
“Impressive,” I say. “So, in addition to being dashing and witty, you are a chef, too?”
“Not really. Thalia took care of the food. She’s a great cook. I’ve been known to wreak havoc in the kitchen.”
I chuckle. I can just see him—standing in a kitchen, wearing an apron, a look of sheer terror on his face.
I help him spread the blanket near the edge of the pond, between two large boulders. Positioning the pillow against one of the boulders, we create a comfy backrest.
“So what did you do in Santa Barbara?”
“I did a lot of sailing. And I used to surf a little.”
“You look like a surfer,” I say, recalling how I’d fantasized about him on a board.
“Thanks…I think,” he says with a wry smile.
“You must miss your friends.”
“I didn’t have very many.”
Hmm. He’s handsome, witty, and personable. How can he not have tons of friends?
“Really? You seem very friendly.”
“I was engrossed in my work…my studies. I really didn’t leave myself much time for friends.”
“Not even a girlfriend?”
“I did date someone, but we broke up before I left California.”
“I’m sorry. What’s her name?”
“Alex…Alexandra,” he says matter-of-factly.
I wonder. Is she pretty? Smart? “Nice name. It’s pretty.”
“Not nearly as pretty as yours, Ariel.” He speaks my name in a deep, sultry tone, lingering on the last syllable. He makes it sound pretty.
“Sometimes it makes me think of Ariel Sharon,” I say.
“The former Israeli Prime Minister?”
“Yes.”
“He’s dead, you know. And you’re a lot prettier than he was.”
“Smart-ass.”
“Well, you are,” he says.
“Thank you. How about a swim?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” Davin replies.
He rises and strips off his shirt, revealing a torso that would make Aphrodite blush.
I realize too late that I’m staring at him—at his chest.
“Ari…”
“Huh,” I murmur.
“Are you checking me out?” He narrows his eyes and shoots me a crooked grin.
“I–uh–no, I was just thinking.”
Yup. I’m thinking about running my hands across his chest and over his abs.
“You were thinking…about me?” His smile grows wider.
“I was thinking about something personal.” Mm-Hmm. Like I was about to dig myself a hole all the way from Edgewood to Australia, which I know is theoretically possible, because Ella and I tried it once, with a map app.
“I’ll bet you were.” He smiles like the cat that got the mouse.
I stick my tongue out playfully before stepping out of my shorts. Of course, he is staring intently, with folded arms, and a smirk plastered across his face. I’m so glad I decided to wear a one-piece suit. Calling on my nerve reserve, I take a deep breath and pull off my tee. Davin’s eyebrows arch slightly, and my face suddenly gets really warm.
“That’s a really practical swimsuit, Ari.” He smiles at me in a way that makes me feel naked.
Instinctively, I look down to make sure I’m not.
Davin turns, walks to the edge of the pond, and dives into the crystal clear water. His form is perfect, in every conceivable aspect—and from several different angles.
When he surfaces, it occurs to me that he looks as good wet as he does dry—and I want to get close to him.
“The water is warm,” he says.
“It’s fed by a hot spring. They’re all over the area.”
I take a small waterproof bag from my backpack and toss it into the pond. “Davin, would you grab that for me? There’s a blanket and some towels inside. See if you can fling it onto the ledge near the waterfall.”
He retrieves the bag and gently lobs it up and onto the ledge. I watch as it makes a perfect landing.
“Nice throw.”
“Ari…” He is staring at me again and smiling warmly.
“Davin…” I parry back.
“You really look very nice.” He gives me the sweetest grin.
The feeling is mutual. I smile from the inside out.
I dive in and swim in a playful circle around him. The water tickles me ever so slightly—as if it’s carbonated. Strange.
“Are you stalking me?” Davin asks.
“Maybe.”
I swim closer. He grabs my hand as I pass, and his touch sends a small shock up my arm. It is not unpleasant. “Thanks for a wonderful day.”
“It’s not over,” he replies.
“Let’s check out the waterfall. Follow me.”
The pond is oval and about one hundred feet across at its widest point. The perimeter is ringed by natural rock formations, with the backside forming a wide ledge that runs beside and behind the waterfall. I swim toward the ledge, which is about eight feet above the water line, and carefully climb up the rocks. Davin follows me.
I turn to check his progress. “Careful, the rocks are sharp…” I don’t need to say it because Davin is moving like a mountain goat. I’m the one who’s moving tentatively. I’m actually slowing him down.
We walk along the ledge and duck behind the cascading water. Looking out through the spray is like peering through a shimmering curtain. I’ve always found this place magical and I was happy to be sharing it with Davin. “It’s beautiful. Isn’t it?”
“It is,” he says, as he turns to face me and places his hands on my shoulders. “Ari, can we talk?”
His touch causes me to shudder. “Is there anything wrong?”
“No, nothing is wrong. I’d like to talk about what happened Thursday. Let’s go sit in the sun. Okay?”
“Sure.” My thoughts flash back to my adrenaline-fueled power surge with Luke. Does Davin think I’m weird…or dangerous?
We walk back out along the ledge and into the sunlight. The warmth feels good. I open my bag, take out my blanket, spread it out…and we sit. “So, let’s talk.”
Davin takes a deliberate breath and lets out a long sigh. “When you thought Luke was about to hurt you, how did you feel?” He draws out the last word for emphasis.
“I was afraid. Luke seemed different. I mean, he was never what I would call nice. But the look on his face…it was evil. Then I wasn’t afraid anymore. I was angry—so angry that I was shaking and tingling.”
“Stand up, Ari.” He rises to his feet and helps me up.
We stand, facing each other, and Davin takes my hands in his. I feel tingly. I feel…
“What did you just feel?”
I let go of his hands and reach up, grasping his shoulders. The sensation gets stronger—a lot stronger. Is he doing this to me?
I stagger backwards, losing my balance, and my right foot slips off the edge. I can’t stop myself from falling!
“ARI!” Davin lunges, trying to grab my hand.
He is too late. Using momentum to push off the ledge as far as I can, I manage to keep my feet under me. Just barely. But I can’t see where I’m going and my right thigh scrapes hard against the rocks.
“Ah!” I hit the pond feet first and sink toward the bottom. The water actually feels good, but when I kick off the bottom, my leg feels numb.
I break the surface, grasp the rock wall below the ledge for support, and nearly puke, as a wave of intense pain shoots up my leg. I look down and the water is red with blood. My blood. It’s gushing out in a steady stream. This is bad. Really bad.
“Davin, I
need help!”
He is beside me in an instant. “I’m going to lift you out, Ari. It may hurt.”
“Do it,” I say, through gritted teeth.
Davin lifts me, as if I’m weightless, making sure to avoid touching my wound.
“How are you doing?” he asks, as he gently lays me down on the blanket.
“It hurts,” I moan, as he positions a pillow beneath my head. “It hurts a lot.”
Davin grimaces, which doesn’t seem very encouraging. Blood is everywhere and I’m getting woozy.
He grabs a towel and presses it down firmly on the wound, making me cry out.
“I’m sorry. Hang in there, Ari.”
“We need to stop the bleeding—and I think I’m about to go into shock.” I’m going to die here.
“Stay as still as you can. Please trust me, Ari.”
“What…what are you going to do?” My voice is shaky. “I need a doctor.”
He lifts the blood-soaked towel and places his hand on my leg. Warmth radiates through his fingers—and then I’m hit with a wave of excruciating pain. My insides are on fire.
I look down and his hands are covered in a shimmering blue light—and so is my leg. I refuse to scream. I have a thing about showing weakness, but I also don’t want to attract every hiker in the park to the Falls. So I moan. Low, pitiful, mewing sounds. I’m not sure how much time has passed, but the pain slowly starts to fade, and everything gets fuzzy and blurry. I’m aware of my surroundings, but I can’t move, I can’t focus, I can’t tell if I’m asleep or awake.
Looking up at Davin through a veil of tears, I whisper, “What did you do?”
He exhales sharply and lies beside me, staring skyward.
“Davin?” He looks really worn out and there are tears in his eyes. “You need to tell me what just happened. Okay?”
“Give me a minute, Ari.” His breathing is labored.
For the second time in the past two days my ability to reason has been stretched to the breaking point. What happened was impossible. My leg looks horrible, but it isn’t bleeding anymore, and the pain has diminished to a dull ache.
I try to make sense of what happened, breaking things down to the simplest causes and effects—
Leg sliced open to the bone. Davin touches me. Blue light. Warmth and pain. Lots of pain. Leg stops bleeding. Pain stops.
Dear God! I have to see it. I have to see my leg.
“Help me sit up, Davin,” I say, holding my hand out.
Davin eases me into a sitting position and moves the pillow behind me.
“Help me clean my leg.” The words come out raspy.
Without speaking, Davin reaches over and grabs a water bottle. He empties its contents over my leg, then uses a towel to gently clean the blood away. It hurts a little—sort of like how your skin feels after a scab has come off. I examine my leg. All I see is a line of pink, new skin. I have to stay calm. If I want answers, I need to remain calm.
“Davin, my leg is healed.” I can’t manage much more than a whisper. “How?”
“You would have bled to death before help arrived.”
“The light. You healed me?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
He just stares at me as if he’s lost the ability to speak. I narrow my eyes and stare back. “Answer me, Davin.”
“Ari, it’s complicated.”
I lean in close and poke him in the chest. “Complicated? Seriously? You just did something that should be impossible. I don’t care if it’s complicated. I want answers. Are you human?”
“I think it would be safe to assume that I’m not.” He pauses to rub his temples. “But neither are you.”
All the breath is sucked out of me. This can’t be happening. Any minute, my alarm will go off and this whole day will start again, for real. “What?”
He just stares and shakes his head slowly.
Please don’t be crazy. “Are you crazy, Davin?”
“Ari, please calm down.”
“You’re trying to tell me I’m not human, and you expect me to calm down? Well, excuse me if I don’t.”
He takes a deep breath. “You have the ability to heal yourself. You have to know this, Ari. When was the last time you were sick?”
I never get sick. And cuts and bruises that should take a week to heal are usually fine in a day or two. “I’m not sure. A long time…”
“How long, Ari?”
A chill runs down my spine. “Never,” I say in a small voice.
“Your powers are not fully evolved. You would not have been able to heal yourself before you bled to death. I gave you my energy and you used it to heal your leg.”
“Huh?” Words and ideas are spinning like a tornado inside my head, but I can’t form a sentence.
“Ari?”
I hold my hand up, motioning for him to wait. “WHAT ARE YOU?” I wrap my arms around myself and stare straight ahead, holding back a torrent of tears.
Davin reaches out for my hand, and I unconsciously let him hold it. “Ari, please try to calm down. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Okay. I’ll be okay.” I take a deep breath. “Everything that’s happened. It’s all so strange. You need to tell me everything. Okay?”
He nods. “I was born on another planet. It is called Olympus.”
My mind shouts Nutcase, while my heart really wants to believe him. “Seriously? How on Earth does an alien world wind up with an ancient Greek name?”
“I am quite serious,” he says. “The mountain in Greece was named in our honor. We’ve been visiting Earth for a very, very long time.”
This is not what I expect. Not even close. “You said we were not human. So what am I? I’m pretty sure I was born in Virginia.”
“We’re not exactly sure. We know that you radiate energy. Enough for us to have detected you. Enough that you are able to do things that mortals should not be able to do.” He pauses to draw in a deep breath. “Ari, the Institute is run by my people. We detected you. We offered you a scholarship so we can keep you safe and learn more about you.”
What a unique idea for a sci-fi story.
“This is really a lot to handle, Davin. Let me see if I’ve got this straight.” I count off the points on my fingers. “I’m not human. I radiate energy. The Institute is run by aliens. They want to help me—hopefully without dissecting me…” I pause for a breath. “And, of course, we didn’t meet by accident. Right?”
“I’m an Olympian Warrior. I was sent here to assess you. To determine if you were good or evil.”
“What?” I grab my head and squeeze. “Were you sent here to take me out on a date or to kill me?”
“Excuse me?” Davin asks with more than a hint of confusion.
“Were you sent here to kill me?” I repeat.
“I was sent to assess you. And you are clearly not evil.”
Why didn’t he just ask me? “Well, I could have told you I wasn’t evil if you’d asked.”
“You did tell me—in a way. And besides, you don’t smell evil.”
I don’t know how to respond. I want to shout and slap his face. Instead, I narrow my eyes and shoot him an icy stare. “You smelled me?”
“To a Warrior, evil has a disagreeable odor. Your scent is very pleasant.”
“Well, I’m glad I used deodorant this morning.” I fold my arms across my chest and glare. “You’re a Warrior? Who are you at war with?”
“With evil.”
“Perfect. When you are done, could you take care of stupidity, too? Because I think that would be really useful. Then you could move on to lawyers and politicians. Of course there would be significant crossover because I know for a fact there are lots of evil lawyers and stupid politicians.”
“As well as evil politicians and stupid lawyers?”
“Yeah.”
He chuckles. “We are here to protect humans from some very evil people. People who should not be on Earth. Stupidity is another problem entirely.” He tak
es my hand in his. “Ari, your intellect has allowed you to make it through the past two days without breaking down. Trust your mind. Trust me. Please.”
“What would you have done if you had judged me to be evil?”
“You’re not evil, so the question is irrelevant.”
“Humor me. What would you have done if you had decided that I was evil?”
“I would have known it. You would have attacked me, or tried to run, and…”
“You would have killed me?”
“No. I couldn’t…” He takes a deep breath. “I would have incapacitated you. Captured you.”
For some crazy reason, I trust him. He’s answered my questions in a reasoned way. He’s given me no reason to doubt him.
“Why?”
“Because if you were evil, you would be dangerous—too dangerous for us to allow you to roam the Earth.”
Chapter 6
“I would be dangerous? Me?”
“Yes, you are an enigma, Ari. You should not exist, yet you do.” His expression softens. He must see the concern in my eyes. The fear. “But it’s not a bad thing. It’s more like discovering an exotic and beautiful new flower.”
“So you want to put me in a vase and sit me on your kitchen counter?”
“I think you need to be free and wild.”
“Ya think?”
Davin nods slowly, as a smile spreads across his face, reaching his eyes.
“So, show me something that only a Warrior can do.” I need more evidence.
“That you can beat up football players and heal wounds is not enough?”
I fold my arms and glare at him. He has a point, but I’m not going to admit it.
Davin pulls a knife—a big one—out of his pack, unsheathes it, and holds it over his arm.
“WAIT! What are you doing?”
“I’m going to cut myself so you can watch my wound heal.”
“Are you nuts? I don’t want you to hurt yourself and, besides, I’ve seen more than enough blood today. Can you do something else? Something that doesn’t involve self-mutilation?”
“I am not going to mutilate myself. It will be a small scratch. Would you like to do it?”
“No. Go ahead, but make sure it’s just a scratch.”
He smirks. “Just a scratch. But if I lopped off a finger, that would be more…”
Ariel Rising Page 4
