“Yes. Remember the skills I taught you in the past.”
“You mean Cassandra.”
“You are Cassandra.” He leveled his gaze on her. “Whether in Cassandra’s body or your current temple, you have always been, and will always be the same courageous woman.”
“Me courageous?” She shook her head in denial. “I’m a math nerd living at home to please my dad and wearing clothes my mother insists on so I make the right statement. And I don’t know if I like any of it. I’m a coward.”
“I’ve seen glimpses of the exceptional woman hidden beneath this beautiful surface.”
Her eyes lowered from his face and focused on the table. “I’m great at languages, numbers and logic. If you need someone to balance your accounts, I‘m your girl, but this situation is beyond me.”
“You doubt my word. Lies hide in darkness. I’m the god of prophecy, music, light and truth. No shadow exists in me.”
She focused on him, her brows lowered in what appeared effort to comprehend his words. “I don’t recall your ever being called the deity of truth. Are you lying to me now?”
“I don’t lie. There’s a difference.”
“And what would happen if you did?”
“I would cease to be who I am.”
Cassie’s mouth curved down. “Maybe I’m not the same person you believe me to be. Is it possible that any courage I had was snuffed out along with Cassandra’s life? You said that I never got over it.”
“Your heart hasn’t changed, my love.” His blue eyes turned azure as his face softened. “Compassion drove you in the past, as it does now. You’ve subjected yourself to your father and mother out of love. Your desire to save people you don’t know is motivated from the same force. To sacrifice for another requires the greatest courage.”
“Sacrifice, huh. Is it too much to ask that I don’t replay all of Cassandra’s life?” She urged her mouth into a tremulous smile. “From what I remember, I didn’t enjoy that at all.”
CHAPTER NINE
John blinked into consciousness. “I have such a headache. If you don’t mind, I can get our order to go.”
Cassie backtracked to the end of their conversation before Apollo had made him a zombie. “Oh yes, we were headed to your apartment.” Apparently Apollo had wiped John’s memory before he left. A good thing too, she didn’t want to have to explain the last hour or her odd relationship to a god. “Food to go would be fine, but do you feel all right? Maybe you should rest. I can take a cab home.”
John squinted at her. “I’ll be okay after a few aspirin and some quiet.”
“If you’re sure?” She stared at the bruise forming on his head.
“I’m feeling better every minute.”
* * *
Cassie sat in John’s apartment: white walls, beige carpet and red couch. The red fit his bold personality. The leftover pizza and dirty glasses on the coffee table, combined with his boxers flung over a recliner, led her to suspect that Mr. Hunky Buzzcut didn’t live the average, well-ordered life of a computer geek and wanna be FBI agent.
There was another side to this man. She ran her hand behind the cushion pressed into her back and yanked out a half-eaten grilled cheese sandwich. Gross. She dropped the greasy crust onto the stale pizza. Dull, average and set in routine didn’t appeal to her, but this was disgusting.
He returned with their drinks. “Sorry, no clean glasses.” John handed her a can of cola. “I’m reheating our food, it’ll only take a minute.”
“Thanks.” Her gaze fixed on his eyes. No longer frozen as a dolls, but full of life. Would there be long-term effects from his stint as a zombie? She squeezed the frigid can, her fingers chilling. Damn Apollo.
She focused on the goose egg growing above John’s right eye as he sat beside her. He had to feel it. “How’s your head?”
“Much better.” He put his soda can on the table. Moisture beaded on the cold surface and trickled onto the dusty coffee table. Cassie quelled the urge to wipe away the grime and the water pooling around the can’s base. John rubbed his hand on the leg of his jeans, looking at her with interest. “I can’t believe you’re single. Has your dad scared off men or are they all just blind and stupid?”
The last thing she wanted to discuss was her romantic past. “Something like that.” She stared at the can as another bead of moisture ran onto the table.
He nodded. “Oh, the last break-up is still raw. I get it. My heart’s been ripped out a few times.”
“You?” Cassie felt her eyes bulge in disbelief. John Medina didn’t look or act like a man who had trouble with women. More likely they had trouble with him. He was too charming and sexy for a computer nerd. Most of those guys felt safe. Perched on John’s couch, Cassie wondered if he’d break her heart.
“Yep,” he sighed. “Maybe I’m too honest. I don’t know.”
“Honest or blunt?”
He lowered his dark brows. “Women say they want honesty, but that’s a lie. Most want a fairytale. I’m not that man. I live in the real world. I see what I want and go after it without apology. No pretending about it.” He ran his tongue along his upper lip. “Yeah, I don’t believe in wasting time playing games.”
Cassie didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t lived one hundred percent in the real world since Greece. But she wanted to. “Fantasy is overrated and a little goes a long way.”
“You’re not just blowing smoke up my ass?” He leaned toward her, crowding her space.
She smelled the clean scent of him. Cassie leaned back, but found the firm arm of the couch barring her retreat. “I was raised with logic and real.”
“I bet you were. When I first saw you, I thought you looked like a no-nonsense type. No games, just get down to it, be honest and tell it like it is.” His tongue made another swipe over his lip. “If I ask you something, will you tell me the truth?”
The back of Cassie’s neck tingled and her stomach knotted. “I guess.” Was this date with John a bad idea?
“Why did you agree to go out with me?”
“I liked you.”
His lopsided grin formed. “And why did you want to come to my apartment?”
“I, um. The restaurant was noisy and you had a headache.” Had she made a mistake in coming here?”
He leaned back against the couch and looked her up and down. “I see.”
Her neck prickled something fierce. Cassie recognized the danger signal, but didn’t know how to react. “See what?”
“Your story is a load of crap,” he said, and shifted closer to her. His brown eyes turned smoky. “If you wanted us to be alone, all you had to do was say so.” He slid his brawny arm around her and pulled her against him. “It’s always the serious ones.”
Her mouth went dry and her heart slammed against her ribs. “You have the wrong idea. I wanted…”
He cut her off. “And I’m gonna give it to you, baby.” His lopsided grin widened, but this time it didn’t release butterflies, it turned her stomach. “I can get into role-play if you want. I’ll be the big, strong government agent and you can be the enemy spy or a very naughty double agent in need of debriefing.” He wrapped his arms around her like a python.
“Let me loose.” Cassie shoved against him to little effect. “You bastard.”
He pushed her down on the lumpy couch and straddled her. “You want it a little rough? I like that. I have handcuffs.” He grabbed her wrists in one hand, yanked them over her head and retrieved the silver cuffs from his back pocket.
“No! I don’t want it at all. Get the hell off me,” she spit and twisted her body, but he pressed his weight on her. She couldn’t move. This couldn’t be happening.
“Oh you want it, you little tease,” he said against her ear, and then shackled her wrists. He shoved his knee between her legs, spreading them. “You’ve been after me to give it to you since we met.”
She quivered. Her lungs seized. Blood pounded in her temples. Cassie struggled beneath his hulking mass. “Let
. Me. Go,” she ground out between breaths.
“You’re good at this.” He laughed. “You’ve done this before.” He released the top button of her jeans.
“Apollo,” she shrieked. “Help.”
John clamped a meaty hand over her mouth. “Hey, I have neighbors. I like realism, but keep it down.”
Desperate, Cassie opened her mouth to bite the fingers stealing her breath.
“Ouch.” John pulled his hand from her lips and shoved a dirty sock between her teeth. “Go ahead, sweet meat, yell all you want.”
“Apollo,” Cassie grunted around the sock, and did her best to keep from retching and choking herself.
A flash of light.
One moment John’s weight crushed her, and the next his body was suspended flat against the ceiling. His eyes were wild orbs of fear, brown dots surrounded by bulging white, and his mouth did an excellent impression of a gasping trout.
Apollo shimmered with golden light as he stretched his arm in the direction of John. His fingers opened and closed in tight undulating action. John groaned with each fisted move from the angry god’s hand. White-hot lasers streamed from Apollo’s narrowed glare. The brown buzz smoldered, smoke wafted from the stubble on the sides of John’s head, and a blue flame danced over the tops of the fuzzy edges of his cropped hair. It sizzled. The scene reminded her of a marshmallow on a stick too close to the campfire. His hair glowed with heat. Apollo blew out a breath and snuffed the flame, leaving black soot in place of the buzzed strands. It was not a good look for him. John went limp. A glassy stare replaced his horrified gape.
Apollo strode to Cassie’s side and pulled the sock from her mouth. She grimaced and spit to cast off the taste of bad cheese. Her frame trembled from adrenaline and relief. “I’ve never been so happy to see anyone in my life.”
* * *
Apollo released her chains, lifted her off the couch and hugged her close. He quaked inside from fear of what might have befallen her. She flung her arms around his neck. Her slender shoulders shook from sobs wrenched from her gut. Choked breaths struggled between each wail. Tears flooded her eyes and moistened the top of his toga. Apollo hated seeing her in such anguish. It brought him back to Troy and all the torment she’d suffered. And again, the fault lay with him.
“Hush now,” he whispered over her dark hair. “I have you.” He took her away to a place of safety, the olive grove from her dreams.
Cassie snuggled against his chest and hiccupped a breath. “This place is real? I thought it was in my head.” Tremors continued to shake her until her tears were spent and she rested in his arms. “I’m sorry for being so stupid,” she mumbled into his robe. “I guess I should have known better than to come to John’s apartment.”
“You’re naive about men. It’s not your fault. You have little experience.”
She tilted her face up to him. Her eyes were red and swollen, and her skin blotched pink. “I’m old enough to have a brain,” she sniffed. “I’ve never had this problem. The men I’ve gone out with never tried anything. Maybe they were afraid of my dad. I don’t know. None of them stuck around.” She dabbed at her eyes with the gold embroidered edge of his cloak. “I just figured that I wasn’t attractive.”
He hugged her to his heart where he wanted to keep her safe. “That wasn’t it.”
Cassie stilled. Her gaze darkened from violet to purple. “You know something about this. Why has every man dumped me as if I had snakes crawling on my head, like I was cursed or something?”
“I…” He glanced up at a sparrow perched on a branch. Apollo hoped she’d appreciate the truth.
“Did you do something?” She scrunched her mouth together as if she’d sucked vinegar.
“It was for your protection.”
“What was?” She leaned back from him. “Did you curse me and make me disgusting to men?”
He’d tell her the truth, though for once he didn’t want to. “I’d never curse you, beloved.”
“But you did something?” She stared at him with accusation deep in her red-rimmed eyes.
“They were wrong for you. The first young man only wanted your body and you couldn’t see it. He would have used you. And that high school boy, he thought only of himself.”
“Oh, and you don’t?” She thumped him on the chest with her fist. “Did you ruin every relationship?”
“No. They weren’t relationships.”
“Ugh!” She squirmed in his arms and he let her go “You made sure of that,” she huffed.
“I made sure you wouldn’t be hurt.”
She swung her arm back and slapped his face. He barely felt it, but she cradled her hand and jumped around. “Ouch, ouch, ouch.” She glared at him. “Damn you. That hurt.”
He shrugged. “And you’re surprised by this?”
Cassie manipulated her wrist and rotated her hand, checking its condition. “I shouldn’t be surprised by anything you do.” She clenched her fingers as if considering another go at him. “I thought you were forbidden to interfere in the lives of men. What gave you the right to ruin mine?”
“Right? You belong to me. I knew what those men were. They couldn’t love you.” He breathed through annoyance. How could she accuse him? Didn’t she understand the danger those mortals posed to her? “Look at the singed rat hanging above. If I hadn’t appeared when I did, you’d be more than hurt. I’ve always protected you from creatures like that loathsome rodent.”
Her body stood rigid, her hands wrapped into tight fists at her sides. He waited for her to rail against him. “Send me back right now,” she spoke through tight lips.
“To that insect’s apartment?” Had the incident clouded her mind?
“Don’t be ridiculous. Outside will be fine.”
Apollo chose to let her go to cool down. He waved his hand and granted her request. Perhaps she wanted revenge on the creature.
Then he appeared inside John’s apartment and glanced at Medina hanging on the ceiling. The acrid smell from burned hair filtered over the room. Apollo considered taking out his anger on the man by chaining him to a mountainside for the birds to feast upon, but no matter how deserving this mortal was of punishment, Zeus forbade it.
The god raised his hand and the man fell to the ground like an over ripe fig. The mortal grunted, rolled over and blinked at Apollo. “What happened?”
Apollo stood over the puny mortal and denied the urge to make him a eunuch. “If you touch Cassie again, by Zeus, I’ll flay your hide.”
CHAPTER TEN
The otherworld of the gods had been Apollo’s retreat from humanity for thousands of years. It had been the haven he’d sought after Troy. Today, it held only irritation and dread. Zeus commanded his presence.
The abode of his father had changed over millennia. Going from the classical design of marble columns to baroque carved woods, and extravagant silk brocade, and back again. This current decoration included all that Zeus enjoyed from both. His father called it an eclectic mix of mortal talents. Apollo didn’t care for it, but he wasn’t fool enough to voice his opinion.
Apollo dressed in his robes and approached Zeus in the garden. His father clad in shorts, a t-shirt, and some rubberized covering on his feet. Zeus scowled at a sapling avocado tree.
“Still working on the problem of the size of the pit?” Apollo asked in casual conversation. Zeus spent eternities perfecting nature and it irked his wife, Hera. That was her realm.
“I’ve gotten the pit smaller, but the flavor of the fruit is hampered.” He held an avocado in his hand and turned it over with his agile fingers. “The balance is all wrong, but I’ll make it right.”
His father insisted on all creation following his commands, from the smallest water bug to the gods, and those that refused were dealt with. Apollo’s stomach knotted with apprehension. “You called for me?”
Zeus focused his sea-green gaze on him and Apollo saw a storm brewing in their depths. “I’ve been watching you,” said Zeus.
Apollo shr
ugged. His father might have a task for him or a reprimand. He’d wait and see before he spoke.
“You’ve come dangerously close to breaking my laws.”
Reprimand. “I didn’t smite the rodent or move him to another location, only hung him from a ceiling for a short time.”
“And what excuse do you give for cursing the man in public? People saw his catatonic state. And the guitar player? I understand that he lacked talent, but you acted before a room full of mortals.”
Apollo clenched his jaw to curb his tart reply. Best to ask forgiveness when his father was in a volatile mood. “It won’t happen again.”
“It had better not. Hades is eyeing you and reports all your misdeeds abroad. He wants to win your wager.”
“He won’t win.”
“Are you so sure? I watched your disaster with Cassandra. You admitted to interfering in her personal life. Another violation.” Tension edged his voice.
“Did you want me to lie?”
“I wanted you to keep the law and not dabble in mortal choice.” Zeus rumbled and squeezed the avocado until the soft green flesh escaped between his fingers. “You continue to ignore my decrees and I won’t have it.”
Apollo lowered to his knees and bowed his head. “Forgive me.”
“Forgive? With Hades proclaiming your defiance among the gods, I must punish you.”
“As you will.” Apollo’s stomach turned over on itself. Zeus was legendary for handing out creative punishments. Apollo lifted his head and dared to look at his father, hoping for his mercy but not sure his mood would grant it.
“And you best remember that.” Zeus cleansed the oily fruit from his hand in a shimmer of gold and stared at Apollo. His gaze softened from turbulent green to cool blue.
It gave Apollo courage. “Give me another chance. I will abide by your laws.”
“I must punish you, but I will be merciful—this time.”
“Thank you for your mercy, father.” Mercy from Zeus could be torture. Sweat moistened Apollo’s skin as he awaited the decree.
Apollo's Gift (The Greek Gods Series) Page 7
