Echo in the Hall

by Cricket Starr

  “Yes, of course,” she said slowly. “I don’t know what’s wrong.”

  Her not responding bothered him. He shook his head. “You’re probably just overcome with the situation. Worry about your arm, about your future.” Pan spoke decisively, as if trying to convince himself. “It will be better later, when we’re alone.”

  He glanced around. “Besides, this isn’t the most romantic place for a first kiss.”

  It was just outside this hallway that she and Alex had shared their first kiss, and that had been romantic enough, she recalled. Not that she’d tell Pan that. She shivered at the memory of how Alex’s lips had touched hers, igniting desires she’d long ago forgotten she had. Unlike Pan’s kiss, nice as it had been, Alex’s kiss had turned her to flame.

  She didn’t even feel remotely warm in the god’s arms.

  Pan released her and she realized that even without him touching it, her right arm hadn’t disappeared again. At least she was in one piece now.

  “Come with me, Echo, to Olympus. Your statue is there, at my home, in my garden. That is a more fitting place for our talk. You may return to the stone if you want, I won’t stop you. All I ask is a chance to show you that there is more to life than falling in love with a human man and giving up your natural divinity. It’s been a long time since you’ve been with the immortals and tasted our life. Give yourself a chance to experience it again before you make your decision. I’ll not take anything not willingly given. That’s my promise.”

  She could hear the sincerity in his voice and see honesty in his face. Pan was many things, but not a liar or a cheat. He’d taken her statue, but promised she could return to it if she wanted. Perhaps she should go with him.

  Chloe made her decision. She put one hand on his chest. “Okay, Pan, I’ll go with you on one condition.”

  He grinned at her obviously thinking that he’d won. “Anything!”

  “Call me Chloe. That’s my name now.”

  A contemptuous look came across his face. “The name the human gave you? Why should I use that?”

  Summoning her courage, Chloe raised her eyes to meet his. “Because it is my wish that you do so, Pan. I asked for a new name and got one, so use it, please.”

  Pan grumbled under his breath and Chloe was just able to make out the words. “Aphrodite said you’d say something like that.”

  “Very well,” he said in a normal voice. “Chloe, would you please come with me to my home on Olympus?” He gave her a gracious bow, with only a hint of mockery in it, holding out his hand to her.

  Chloe nodded her head in return. “I’ll be happy to, Pan,” she said and took his hand.

  Pan flicked his fingers and the room grayed around them, the preparation for the jump to Olympus, the gods’ dominion. Pan put his arms around her and Chloe braced herself. She didn’t see Alex and Nina enter the room just before the world winked out completely.

  * * * * *

  “Chloe!” Alex cried as she disappeared, but she didn’t turn to acknowledge him or give any indication that she’d heard him call her name.

  Gone! Chloe was gone, disappeared. She hadn’t waited for him to catch up with her as she’d asked in the note. Worse, she hadn’t been alone, but had been held in the arms of another man.

  She’d left her coat on one of the benches. Alex lifted it and held it close. It was still warm and smelled of her light scent. Despair hit hard, and he sank onto the bench.

  He looked over at Nina, still carrying her ridiculous guitar case. “She’s gone. What can I do?”

  She shook her head and for a moment Alex thought he saw sympathy in her eyes.

  “That was Pan with her. We talked to him before and he’d offered to help save her if she…” her voice trailed off and she coughed once, as if to clear her throat. “Well, anyway, she seems to be with Pan. That’s good since he can fix the spell she’s under.”

  Alex’s hope rose. “Fix it? You mean he can keep her from going back into the statue?”

  “Well sort of.” Nina hedged. “He’ll keep her from being a spirit, but he wants her to be a nymph again. She won’t be a mortal woman anymore.”

  Not a mortal woman? But then… “You mean she won’t be able to stay with me?”

  “She could if she wanted to, at least for a while. But nymphs have rules they have to follow and they can’t stay on Earth for long periods. She’d have to leave you eventually.”

  She’d leave him eventually. He’d expected that anyway. After all, Chloe didn’t really belong with him. It had been a fluke that she’d wound up in his arms and turned human. She hadn’t really wanted that. All she’d wanted was a bit of sex, same as he had and it had gotten out of hand. That’s all. He’d taken her in because she’d had no place else to go once she’d turned human.

  So what if it had been the best accident to ever befall him? Had it been the same for her? Wasn’t her returning to her former state as a nymph a good thing? She wouldn’t grow old and she’d never die. She’d always be beautiful and young. So full of life and laughter.

  So full of love. And none of it for him. He couldn’t stand that.

  He looked up at Nina, still watching him with her intense eyes. “What can I do, Nina?”

  “Why should you do anything? She’s in good hands with Pan.”

  “Because I want to. I need to.” He took a deep breath. “I want…that is, I need her back.”

  One of her rare smiles curved her lips. “You need Chloe back? As a human?”

  Alex set his jaw. “I know it’s selfish of me. She’d be better off as one of you, better off as a nymph. But I can’t help it. I want her back, Nina. I need her with me. Otherwise…”

  Nina held up one hand. “Spare me the rest, human. Chloe is the one to hear it, not me.” A grudging respect shone in her eyes. “There might be more to you than I expected.” She reached out to him with her free hand. “All right, I can get us both to Olympus and we’ll find them there. Take my hand and close your eyes. Transfer can be a little disorienting if you aren’t used to it.”

  Still holding Chloe’s coat, Alex stood. Heart pounding, he took Nina’s hand. It was cool and soft on his palm. As she’d instructed, he closed his eyes.

  “Start counting, Alex, and don’t stop until you reach ten.”

  He did as she asked. The light through his closed eyes was a dim glow.

  “One, two, three…”

  The light outside his eyes faded to black and he felt a jerk in the pit of his stomach. For a moment, he couldn’t feel Nina’s hand in his, or the rest of his body.

  “…seven, eight…”

  His body returned, as did the light. Alex took a deep breath. “…nine, ten.”

  Alex opened his eyes and gaped at his surroundings. It was if he’d been transported back to ancient Greece. They’d materialized in a small open temple-like building on top of a high hill.

  Around him stood tall, carved marble pillars, supporting a roof of stone. The interior of the roof was painted blue to mimic the sky and held small stars and a slender crescent moon. The ceiling reminded him of Chloe’s earrings.

  Down the hill he saw many buildings with similar characteristics, stone roofs and walls, sometimes fronted by stone pillars. Narrow streets set with stone wound down between the houses, separating them. The marble gleamed in rose-colored hues from the sun setting beyond the distant hills.

  Chuckling came from behind him and he turned to see Nina watching his reaction to his new surroundings.

  She grinned. “Welcome to Olympus, human.”

  “Where are we?”

  “Olympus? It’s a kind of alternative reality, home to the gods and minor mythological individuals you’ve heard stories about. This is the main Olympian transfer station. I can’t transfer directly to my home, or to Pan’s place. I don’t have enough power so I had to bring us here first,” she told him apologetically. “It’s just a short walk now.”

  He had to find Chloe before she decided to become a nymph forever,
and time was getting short. “Fine, we’ll walk. You lead the way.”

  Nina hoisted her guitar case higher in her arms and took off down the hill. Tossing Chloe’s coat over his shoulder, Alex followed close behind.

  Chapter Seventeen

  In the setting sun, the color of her statue was all roses and pinks. It had never looked so beautiful before as it did sitting in Pan’s garden. What a shame that it had to go back into the museum.

  That was one fault with returning to the stone. She’d be stuck indoors all day. The sun’s warmth touched her face and she filled her lungs with the garden’s air, perfumed by the flowers and the fresh grass forming a carpet under her feet. Back on Earth the time had been winter, but here it was late springtime.

  It was always late spring on Olympus. Chloe settled onto one of Pan’s garden chairs, appreciating that it was made of springy willow wood and not cold marble. Pan was the god of nature and his garden home reflected that. Flowering plants grew in wild abandon, not trimmed into unnatural formal forms but gently shaped to follow the contours of the overgrown flowerbeds. All the furnishings, including the chair she sat on and table nearby, were natural objects manufactured by the plants themselves to serve Pan.

  Around the edges of the space, bushes had grown together to form screens that provided privacy and in one corner a group of small trees created a secluded bower, which held Pan’s bedroom.

  Chloe eyed the opening to the bower uneasily. While she’d never been in there, she knew its reputation. More than one nymph had returned from Pan’s bower in happy disarray and with stories to tell. The god had stamina, imagination, and the equipment to fulfill any nymph’s fantasies. Those who hadn’t been invited to Pan’s bed dreamed of the day they would be.

  Now Chloe sat where so many of those nymphs had wanted to be, and all she wanted was to go home. She didn’t want Pan’s expertise—she wanted Alex’s warm, sweet, and sometimes clumsy touch.

  “Would you like some refreshments, Chloe?”

  She turned to tell him no, and her jaw dropped. Pan had changed, now wearing a short tunic that belted at the waist instead his loincloth, but it wasn’t just his clothes that were different. Gone were the fleece-covered legs and the hooves. Instead, strong man legs stretched to a pair of sandal-clad feet. She peered up at his curly sandy-brown hair and noticed the tiny horns were gone. Even his beard was closer trimmed, less wild in appearance. Instead of the god of nature, he now looked like a normal and devastatingly handsome young man.

  He noticed her stare and smiled with a little embarrassment. “I thought this might make you more comfortable. You’ve become used to a human appearance.”

  Chloe’s face heated. “It wasn’t how you looked that bothered me, Pan.”

  He shrugged and headed for the cool spring in one corner. From the water he pulled a basket and earthenware pitcher, then from a small woven cabinet attached to the side of a tree, collected goblets. He brought all back to her, setting them on the wicker table.

  The basket held grapes, ripe and icy-cold from the spring, and the pitcher a crystal-clear amber wine chilled to perfection. The simple stoneware goblets were exquisitely shaped, as were the basket and pitcher. The gods certainly knew how to live well.

  Pan poured wine for them both and raised his glass. “To new beginnings. May we both find what we want tonight.”

  Chloe doubted that what she wanted was the same as Pan, but she drank anyway. So far the god had been a perfect host.

  The wine tasted crisp and cold on her tongue, a perfect complement for the sweetness of the grapes. To her surprise, Chloe was hungrier than she’d thought as she nibbled several small bunches of the delectable globules.

  Pan laughed as she reached for a fourth cluster. “You certainly have an appetite, Chloe. I wonder, does that extend to all things or just your stomach?” He reached over to caress her hand. “I look forward to finding out.”

  The grapes she held dropped onto the table. “You said you’d let me return to my statue if I wanted to.”

  He folded his hands and stared at her. “Can you honestly say that is what you want? You eat and drink with too much enthusiasm for someone willing to give up her life. Can you really return to feeling nothing, to being no more than a shadow in the world?”

  Chloe toyed with her goblet, feeling the slightly rough texture under her fingers. Such an exquisite sensation, to be able to feel. She could imagine it was Alex’s face she touched, rough with his morning beard.

  She didn’t have to give it up. If she gave in to Pan, she’d remain alive, able to touch, to taste, able to breathe fragrant air like that of his garden.

  She’d even be able to love Alex if he took her back after she’d had sex with Pan. It wasn’t impossible that he would. After all, she’d had no choice. Would Alex really hold it against her?

  Of course she’d be a nymph and she’d been told that human men couldn’t resist minor divinities, but that hadn’t been her experience. Narcissus hadn’t had a bit of trouble resisting her.

  Of course, Nick was now hopelessly devoted to Violet. She remembered the look in his eyes when she’d watched the pair making love at the museum. If only she’d seen that look in Alex’s eyes, or heard the kind of soft words Nick had spoken from her own love’s lips.

  Why did she have to have fallen in love with Alex? It made everything so complicated.

  She looked up to see Pan’s serious regard. “What are you thinking about, Chloe? Your human lover?”

  No point in lying to a god. Chloe nodded. “I’m not sure I can forget him, Pan.”

  “I’m not asking you to.” A disgruntled frown appeared on the god’s face. He pushed his goblet away with an impatient gesture. “I’m not used to taking a woman who thinks of another. What does this Alex have that I don’t?”

  My heart, she wanted to tell him. Instead she chose silence as her answer.

  Pan stood and pulled her to her feet and into his arms. His hands were warm around her waist and his massive erection made a dent in her belly. She gazed up into his intense brown eyes. They were the same color as Alex’s and yet not the same. How could two pairs of eyes be so different?

  Pan’s brown eyes narrowed in irritation. “You still think of him, don’t you? Let’s see if this takes him off your mind.” Pan closed his mouth over hers in a demanding kiss. His hands kneaded her bottom, lifting her tight against his throbbing cock while he devoured her mouth.

  It was enough to take any woman’s breath away. Unfortunately, it only made Chloe lightheaded from lack of oxygen as the kiss lasted longer than her stored air. She gasped when he finally let her breathe.

  Now the brown eyes showed complete bewilderment. “What is the matter with you woman? Is there something wrong with me?” He readjusted his hold lifting her onto the table and spreading her legs so he could fit between them. Now his cock rubbed against her open crotch. The pressure against her clit finally woke it up and it throbbed into awareness. Chloe moaned in response.

  “That’s more like it,” Pan said, satisfaction in his tone. He leaned forward, intending to kiss her. “Now let’s try this again.”

  “Let’s not!”

  Chloe turned at the sound of Alex’s voice. He and Nina stood by the gate to the street. Alex looked furious and Nina was holding a guitar case.

  A guitar case? What was going on here? She pulled against Pan’s arms, and he released her.

  Chloe saw her coat across Alex’s shoulders. He dropped in on the grass and folded his arms across his chest. “So this is why you left me, to be with him?”

  “No Alex, I didn’t want to.” Her voice faltered. “I didn’t have any choice.”

  “No choice? Because of the immortality he can give you?” He seemed to deflate a little. “I thought…I read your note.”

  Her note, the one that said “I love you”? Chloe’s hopes soared. Maybe Alex did love her and would declare himself before it was too late.

  Pan grabbed her, one arm around her waist, his
hold possessive. He glared at the others. “What are you doing here? Nemesis, what made you bring this human to my home?”

  Her sister shrugged. “He wanted to come. Said he had something to say to Chloe before she went back into her statue.”

  “She’s not going back,” Pan said. “She gives herself to me and I’ll make her a nymph again.”

  Alex broke in. “I don’t want her to be a nymph. I want her to be a woman.”

  “You care what happens to her? Truly?” The god scoffed.

  “Of course I care.” Alex stepped forward. “Let her go.”

  Chloe twisted away from Pan. Jumping from the table she ran to Alex, throwing her arms around him. Her left arm landed against his back, but the right went clear through his body.

  She jumped back and stared at her hand. It was transparent once more. “No!” she moaned. “The spell is failing again.”

  Alex reached for her arm, his eyes wide as his hand went through it. “It’s like you were before, when you were in the statue.”

  She stared up at him. “I have to go back into it, Alex. The spell Aphrodite gave me is failing. If I don’t, I could wind up a loose spirit and be lost forever.”

  Alex grasped her left shoulder still solid under his hand. “What can we do, Chloe?” He turned to Pan. “You can help her, right?”

  The god’s sardonic smile gave him a devilish appearance, even in his human form. “I could. She knows what the price is.”

  Alex stepped in front of her. “You’d force her to sleep with you?”

  “Sleeping wasn’t what I had in mind, but sex is the price of my help.”

  “What kind of a man—or god—gets his rocks off this way, compelling a woman into his bed?” Alex’s contemptuous tone raked through the air and Pan’s face darkened in response.

  “Perhaps there is another way,” the god said ominously, stroking his short beard with one hand. “Would you fight me for her? A little wrestling match perhaps? You pin me and I’ll help her.”

  Alex stepped forward, clenching his fists. “Anytime.”

  “Alex, no!” Chloe stared at the pair, the human-looking god and her beloved offering to fight to save her. What was Alex doing? Pan was a god, for Hades sake.