by Stormy Glenn
Yannis’s claws extended and started to dig into the underside of the wooden table.
“I know I’ve pissed off at least one former lover. According to the last guy that I dated, I have commitment issues. When he tried to move in, and I put my foot down, he started stalking me. I filed a restraining order, but he still believes that we are soul mates and I’m just being bitchy.”
Yannis’s fangs punched through his gums. The low growl coming from his throat turned fierce and feral as every instinct in his body telling him to grab Nikos and lock him in a room somewhere for his own safety.
“And let’s not forget that I have amassed quite the library on creatures of the night. In fact, I am considered one of the foremost authorities on things that live in the shadows. Not only have I made contacts all over the world that might want to see me taken down so that they had access to my research material but the creatures themselves might want me dead so that I cannot share their secrets with the world.”
Yannis suddenly had a picture of his future. He was going to spend the rest of his life trying to keep his Beloved alive. “Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing that I was trained to be a temple guardian. With all of the problems that you have, I believe you will need me to help keep you alive.”
Nikos chuckled as he picked his fork back up and speared some lettuce. “Yannis, honey, I’m not so sure you’re not part of the problem.”
Chapter 4
Nikos knew that was the wrong thing to say before the words even left his mouth, but he just couldn’t seem to stop them. He felt like a bigger monster than he accused Yannis of being when the man’s face fell.
He no longer felt hungry. His stomach had curdled, clenching with shame. Nikos set his fork down and pushed his bowl away. He grabbed his wine glass and leaned on his elbows, twirling the round goblet between his fingers.
“I didn’t mean that.”
“The words were in your heart,” Yannis murmured in such a heartbroken whisper that Nikos had the insane urge to stab himself with his own salad fork.
“I didn’t mean them the way they sounded.”
“How did you mean them then, Nikos?”
Nikos winced at Yannis’s stilted tone. He didn’t miss the fact that Yannis called him by his name either. He had really hurt the man’s feelings. That hadn’t been his intention, but that was exactly what had happened. Nikos knew he would need to explain why he was so afraid of things that went bump in the night. It was the only way for Yannis to understand—and maybe forgive him.
“My parents were killed when I was ten years old, Yannis, ripped apart right before my very eyes by something that could have only stepped out of a nightmare. I’ve spent my entire adult life searching for these creatures, for the things responsible for my parents’ deaths.”
“And I look like them?”
“No.” At least Nikos could give the man that much. “But you’re not human either.”
“And that makes me evil?” Before Nikos could answer, Yannis pushed away from the table and stood. Cold dignity created a stony mask on his face. “While you might have spent your entire life searching for creatures of the night, I’ve spent my entire life fighting them. You, with your limited human understanding, have no concept of what is out there, and I pray that you never do.”
Yannis turned and spun away before Nikos could reply to his words. Shock held him immobile as Yannis stripped the bathrobe off his shoulder and spread his wings wide. Nikos was too stunned to move as he watched Yannis flex his wings, the long appendages sweeping out through the air.
And then Yannis was gone, lifting off the ground and flying right out through the dining room window. Nikos raised his hands in the air to shield himself from flying glass as the window shattered. By the time he lowered them, Yannis was gone.
Nikos jumped up and raced to the window. He winced as he grabbed the window frame and broken glass bit into his skin, but he only had eyes for the sky, searching every bit of the darkness for Yannis.
“Sir!”
Nikos struggled against the hands that tried to pull him away from the window. He knew he couldn’t let Yannis go off into the night. He might never see the man again, and he didn’t even want to think of what kind of trouble Yannis could get into out there all alone.
Nikos wasn’t exactly sure what time period Yannis came from, but he was positive it wasn’t this one. The world had changed. As much as Yannis might like to think he was a big bad warrior, he had no chance in this world. He had no idea that the real monsters out there were most likely human.
“Stop it!” Nikos shouted when Sahm continued to try and pull him away from the window. “Yannis is out there.”
“There’s no one there, sir.”
Nikos’s shoulders slumped, a defeated feeling clenching in his gut. “We have to find him, Sahm. He has no idea how much danger he’s in.”
“Do you have any idea where he might have gone?”
“No, I—” Nikos snapped his fingers as he remembered something Yannis had said. “Yes, the Temple of Olympian Zeus.”
“The one outside of Syracuse or the one outside of Athens?”
“Syracuse.”
“Why would he go there?”
Nikos’s eyes snapped to Sahm. “Um…” He wasn’t sure how much to tell the former Army Ranger. Nikos had known Sahm his entire life. They grew up playing together when Nikos was home from boarding school.
They were friends.
“Yannis isn’t human.”
“Duh,” Sahm snorted. “Even Mama knew that.”
He should have known. Nikos had never gotten anything over on Althea. The woman had a keen wit and eyes in the back of her head. Nikos and Sahm had never gotten away with anything when she was around, and usually not even when she wasn’t around. She just always seemed to know when they had been up to no good.
On the flip side, they always knew they were loved and cared for. Nikos had been able to go to Althea and talk to her about almost anything. She was even the first person he told when he figured out he was gay.
She just laughed, patted him on the head, and told him that loving men was no different than loving women except for the equipment. And then she had laid down the law concerning condoms, safe sex, and not treating his lovers callously.
He might be able to talk to Althea about anything, but this might be stretching it just a bit. “Where is your mother?”
“Where do you think?” Sahm gestured over his shoulder with his thumb. “In the kitchen.”
“I should have known that.” Nikos patted Sahm on the shoulder and started to walk past him when the crunch of glass under his feet reminded him that his window was shattered. “Would you have someone board this up until we can get the window repaired?”
“He really went out through the window?”
“Yep, spread his wings and flew right out.” Nikos still couldn’t believe it and he had watched it happen. “I need to talk to your mother for a moment, but then I am headed for my study. I’d like you to join me there. We need to organize a search party for Yannis.”
“Shouldn’t we head down to the Temple of Olympian Zeus?”
“Oh, we will. I want to make sure that he’s not just out for a simple moonlight flight.” Nikos almost hoped that was the case, but deep down inside, he was afraid it wasn’t. Hell, he was so terrified he’d never see Yannis again that he could barely consider that possibility without throwing up.
He had messed up, and he knew it. He hoped he was able to find Yannis and fix things between them before it was too late. The ache that grew in the middle of his chest the moment Yannis disappeared from sight was growing bigger with each second the man was gone. As much as he was afraid of things that went bump in the night, he was pretty damn sure that he needed Yannis.
Nikos headed off toward the kitchen to talk to Althea. He needed a mother’s perspective. He was in no way surprised when he found the older woman standing over a large pot of red sauce cooking on the stove. Althea a
lways knew when to cook a large pot of food.
“Althea, I need to—”
“Get your head out of your ass.” Althea nodded as she stirred the sauce with a big wooden spoon, not even looking up. “Yes, son, I know.”
Nikos chuckled. “You know me well.”
“I know that you’ve screwed up somehow and now it is time to fix what you have done.”
“Yes.” Nikos brushed his hair back from his face as he leaned against the counter. “I’ve really screwed up this time, Althea. I’m not sure I can fix this.”
“Anything can be fixed if you truly mean it.” Althea tapped her spoon on the rim of the large sauce pan then shook it at Nikos. “The question is if you truly mean it.”
“Yes, I guess that is the question.”
“Do you?”
Nikos pondered that question as he watched Althea move about the kitchen, mixing a bowl of flour, sugar, and butter together. Little by little, she added ingredients until the mixture began to form into a lump of dough.
As he watched her pat it down, Nikos wondered why life couldn’t always be this simple. He remembered spending hours with Althea in the kitchen when he was growing up, making everything from homemade bread to cookies. The kitchen had been one of his favorite places, which kind of explained why he was there now.
It was comforting.
“I like him, Althea. I like him a lot.”
Althea dumped the dough into two separate pans then covered them with a tea towel, placing them on the counter by the window. “Considering what the two of you were doing upstairs earlier, that’s probably a good thing.”
Nikos felt his face flush. He knew he hadn’t been loud enough for Althea to hear him all of the way down here, so she must have gone up to change the sheets. That was the only way she could know exactly what he and Yannis had been doing upstairs unless she listened outside his door—and that was just a gross thought.
“I don’t know what he is.”
“Does it matter, son?” Althea asked as she grabbed a loaf of cooked bread and cut a few slices.
Did it? Would Nikos’s feelings for Yannis change if he actually knew what type of creature he was? Would it make the deep aching need he felt change to something else?
“What if he’s like the creatures that murdered my parents?”
“What if he is?” Althea asked as she went to the fridge and pulled a few more items out, setting them on the counter. “Does that make him evil?”
“No, I guess not, but—”
“But nothing, Nikos.” Althea pulled several slices of ham out of a container and folded them onto a slice of bread. She added a slice of cheese to the other side, and then a leaf of lettuce. “You wouldn’t condemn every pit bull in the world to death because of one that bit someone, would you?”
“No.”
“Nikos, you’ve been doing research long enough to know that most of these creatures of yours just want to be left alone to live their lives in peace. Yes, there are those that are evil, but not all of them. Why would you judge your friend any differently?”
“Because I’m being an idiot.”
Althea tapped the end of her nose then pointed at him. Nikos didn’t dare roll his eyes, no matter how much he wanted to. Althea probably knew that was what he wanted to do, too, if the smile that crossed her lips was anything to go by.
“Now go.” Althea made a shooing motion with one hand, holding out the sandwich with the other. “I have food to cook and you have a man to find.”
Nikos grinned as he leaned in to kiss the woman on the cheek, grabbing the sandwich as he strolled past her and out of the kitchen door. He was suddenly ravenous as he headed for his study. He had a search party to organize and a man to find.
Two weeks later, Nikos was pretty damn sure that he would never find Yannis. The man had simply fallen off the face of the earth. Well, that was probably not true. He could just be down the street and Nikos would have no way of knowing.
It wasn’t like he could file a missing person’s report on a statue with the police.
None of Nikos’s other leads had panned out either. Yannis was not at the Temple of Olympian Zeus outside of Syracuse. After going there himself, and then making contact with a few people he knew in the antiquities business, he was able to discover that there were no more statues at the temple. They had all been removed for renovation or to be placed in museums.
Some had been sold on the black market.
Through his contacts, Nikos let it be known that he was interested in purchasing several statues for a new Roman-Greco garden he was putting in at his villa, and he wanted only authentic statues.
He had already purchased three statues, but none of them were Yannis. As far as Nikos could tell, they were simply statues, real statues. Considering that he hadn’t seen Yannis in his stone form, he really had no idea what he was looking for, so he wasn’t taking any chances.
He bought everything.
“Nikos,” Sahm said as he walked into the study with a sheet of paper and his cell phone. “I have Stavros Siracusa on the phone. He said he found two statues at a little antiquates warehouse in Turkey, and he wants to know if you want him to purchase them and have them shipped here.”
“Yes!” Nikos jumped to his feet and raced around his desk, yanking the phone out of Sahm’s hand and holding it to his ear. “Stavros?”
“Nikos.” Stavros’s deep voice came through the phone lines, filled with curiosity and amusement. “What is this I hear about you buying up all of the statues in Greece?”
“Not all of the statues, Stavros. Just the ones that were discovered at the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens and the Temple of the Olympian Zeus, Agrigento, or any of the temples in the Province of Syracuse.”
“Wow, that must be some garden.”
“You have no idea, Stavros.” And Nikos would never explain it to Stavros. They had been friends for years and the guy was pretty damn nice, they had even done some good business together, but as far as Nikos knew, Stavros was oblivious to the hidden world that Yannis came from. Nikos wanted it to stay that way.
“Well, the two I found here in Turkey are in pretty decent shape considering how old they are. If you’re interested, I can send you pictures.”
“Yes, please.” Nikos felt like pulling out his hair. He hated having to play nice. He hated having to lie to his friend even more. If Stavros had any idea why Nikos was really trying to purchase these statues, he would think Nikos was nuts.
“Give me five minutes and I’ll call you back.”
Nikos started chewing on his thumbnail after hanging up with Stavros. Pacing sounded good. Drinking sounded better. Nikos hadn’t had a drink since the night Yannis flew away. He was too afraid he needed to keep his wits about him to drink.
Pacing it was then.
Nikos made several trips back and forth across the room as he waited for Stavros to call back. His nerves were totally shot, skating along his body like sharp razors. He nearly jumped out of his skin when his phone rang. He quickly answered it. “Yes?”
“Okay, I sent a couple of pictures to your tablet. Let me know if these are the ones you want.”
Nikos raced over to his desk and picked up his tablet, sliding the button that turned the screen back on. A couple of more buttons and a picture of two different statues came into view. Nikos recognized one of the white marble statues as a copy of Polyclitus’ Diadumenos. It was a pretty good copy, but there was a better one at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece.
The second statue was a marble character of a young male with a chlamys hanging off his shoulders. The rest of him was very naked. Despite the Greek Military attire he wore around his shoulders, Nikos knew immediately that it wasn’t the statue he was looking for.
Yannis was hung a lot better.
“The first one is a copy of Polyclitus’ Diadumenos. I want originals only. The second one appears to be authentic. I’ll take that one.” It wasn’t Yannis, but it was a damn
fine statue anyway. Maybe Yannis would appreciate having statues around him from his time period, assuming Yannis ever came back to see it.
The marble statue in the background behind the first two statues, though…that one interested Nikos a lot. He just didn’t know why. “Stavros, what is the statue in the background, just to the left of the second statue?”
“It appears to be a statue of Hermes from Atalante,” Stavros replied, “but I could be wrong. I’m not as well versed in Roman-Greco statues as you are. It does seem to be in really good condition for a statue from the second century BC.”
“Buy it.” Nikos had no idea why he said that. Some feeling deep in his gut that he couldn’t define was compelling him to purchase the statue. “I’ll take that one and the second statue you showed me. I’ll pay whatever the shipping costs are to have them here by the end of the week.”
“Are you sure, Nikos?” Stavros sounded skeptical and rightly so. It would costs thousands of dollars to have the two statues shipped from Turkey to Sicily by the end of the week.
“I’m sure.”
“Okay.”
“Stavros.” Nikos caught the man before he could hang up. “This garden is very important to me, but I’m on a very tight schedule. I need it up and running as soon as possible. If you come across any more statues like this, please let me know. I’m willing to spend the money to get what I want.”
“Is everything okay, Nikos?” There was concern in Stavros’s voice.
“Yes, of course. Why do you ask?”
“I’ve done business with you for a lot of years, Nikos. I’ve never known you to be so frivolous.”
Nikos was getting that a lot. Due to the nature of why he wanted to find these statues, Nikos had come up with a cover story that he hoped people would buy. “Althea and Jules will be celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary next month. Jules is asking Althea to renew their wedding vows. As my own parents died when I was a child, Althea and Jules have acted as my surrogate parents. I wanted the garden done so that they could have their wedding here at the villa.”
