by N. R. Larry
“I’m sorry,” Orion said as he pushed his foot down on the gas. He ran a hand over his hair to get it out of his eyes. “I never expected this to happen.”
She couldn’t get her heart to slow down. It thumped faster than the pistons of a race car, her blood pressure sky high. Yet she had to give the shoes credit—her feet did not hurt in the least. “I still don’t understand what’s going on,” she stated. Happy when her voice didn’t tremble.
“Cassiopeia.”
“Say what?”
“Cassiopeia. She’s causing a scene,” Orion clarified, his gaze ahead and his profile strong, striking. “Drama queen. She has coveted me since before Artemis pulled me into her employ. It seems she is still making trouble. She wants me for herself. We need to get you back to the lab immediately and work your equation before—”
Another crash behind them.
The words buzzed around the inside of Eden’s brain like angry bees and she fought to put them in a sensible order. “You’re trying to tell me that an ancient Grecian queen, famed for her beauty, is now a constellation in the northern sky and trying to kill us? Because we boned?”
Orion’s lips drew down in a scowl. “You make it sound like a joke.”
“Because I’m going out of my mind!” Surely he could cut her a little slack.
“Cassiopeia is collapsing space. That is the only way she could have gotten Scorpio free without some kind of divine interference. And if you are wearing the shoes, then odds are good the Gods know nothing of what she does, their focus being elsewhere. She will use their distraction to her advantage. If we don’t figure out a way to stop her then your equation isn’t going to do anything because the earth will no longer be here. She’ll stop at nothing to kill you. And me while she’s at it.”
“So why would that fairy godmother send you to me if she knew this could happen?”
“She did not know,” he answered simply.
Then pressed his foot harder against the gas pedal until the little Camry shook, its engine roaring and wheels shaking.
It didn’t take long for them to reach the imposing front gates of the structure housing the lab where she worked.
Where it seemed like Eden had been days ago, not hours.
She scrunched into as small a ball as possible in the passenger seat, knowing guards manned the gatehouse twenty-four hours a day, and though they didn’t know her by first name, they would certainly recognize her gate pass.
And the infamously bad picture she’d taken for the ID.
Not to mention she was currently stark naked.
Except for the scandalous red stilettos.
But Orion didn’t seem like he had any interest in slowing down.
“What are you doing?” she asked as the gate loomed closer.
He fixed his concentration on a point in the distance. “I’m making a plan.”
“Are you going to—”
Then squeezed her eyes tightly shut when he deliberately rammed the metal barrier.
Chapter 7
To her credit, Eden did not scream this time, not even when sparks flew and the hood of her car blew up and over the roof, landing on the pavement behind them.
“I’m sorry, Ron!” she yelled to the guard they passed, although odds were good he couldn’t hear her.
Orion pulled the car around in a circle with tires screeching. He gave her a questioning look and jerked his chin toward the twin buildings rising up to her left.
“Oh, uh… My office is over there, first floor.” Eden pointed.
He drove in that direction and didn’t stop until he’d pulled over the curb and banged the already decimated front bumper against the side of the building. Then paused long enough to turn to her and take her face between both his palms.
His callused thumbs traced light paths along her jaw, his sapphire eyes sincere and hard. “I’m sorry, Eden. I know this isn’t the fantasy you had in mind when you put on the shoes. But we have a job to do. When we get through this, I promise you I will make it right. Are you up for the task?”
It didn’t take her long to place her hands above his own, bending close to capture his lips in a fiery kiss. “If my formula can help us keep space from collapsing, then how can I say no?”
How can I say no when you look at me like that?
He smiled. “You will change the world, Doctor Daniels. I am quite sure of it.”
He placed another kiss on her lips before rushing out of the car, Eden following. At once the shoes weren’t as ungodly awkward as they’d first been. In fact, if she didn’t know any better she’d say the added height helped her frame become more balanced as she ran. Orion had the door open for her and together, naked, they bolted through the hallways toward the computer lab.
So much for her embarrassment. Focused on outrunning the scorpion, Eden pushed herself. Faster. More determined.
They paused only long enough to grab a couple of lab coats left on pegs outside of the break room, although Eden knew the covers were more for her sake than anything.
“This way,” she told him and headed toward her office which was midway down the long hall. They heard the crashing sound of glass shattering and metal bending and knew that they’d run out of time.
He stopped and turned his back to her to face his old nemesis head on. “Get the computer started! I’ll be along in a moment with the missing piece of the formula,” he shouted to her over his shoulder.
Eden skidded to a halt, looking around for something that would make a decent-sized weapon. Except there was nothing, and she had no idea how to fight to protect herself anyway.
“Tell me now.” In case he…well, just in case.
Because how does one fight a giant scorpion?
“Go!” Orion insisted.
Seconds later the hall seemed filled with a pair of pincers that looked like they might have been more at home in a junkyard crushing rusted truck bodies. Except these belonged to a thousand pounds plus mythological Grecian beast. Beady black eyes focused on Orion, and the air filled with a rattling hiss of breath.
Scorpio.
Eden didn’t wait for Orion to tell her twice. She turned to run as he launched himself at the monster, dodging the whip of its stinger tail to wrap his arms around its neck, his golden muscles bulging.
He’s a professional, her mind reasoned as she hurtled into the office, eyes going to her messy workstation. And trying to ignore the sounds of an epic struggle behind her.
He’d been through this sort of battle before. No matter that now he didn’t have a sword, or ax, or even a crossbow. She’d seen those muscles up close and personal.
She’d also seen the bite of the scorpion’s tail and how it nearly demolished her house in one blow.
Rounding on her desk, she pressed the button to turn on the computer, each wasted second while it warmed up holding the potential for the end. Not just the end of her life, but the end of existence.
Incongruous as it seemed, that’s what she had to remember.
“Come on, you piece of junk,” Eden muttered toward the screen. She pushed damp auburn hair out of her face. Then cast a fervent glance over her shoulder toward the brawl in the corridor.
This was the slowest startup she’d ever seen on her computer and somehow Eden didn’t think it a strange coincidence.
The office door blew off its hinges and sent her flying forward into her station. Her hip slammed painfully against the desktop on her way down and she landed on her hands and knees amid the rubble.
“Eden, watch out!”
Orion’s call came out a moment too late. A fist grabbed hold of her hair, pulling until she had no choice but to scramble to her feet, with tears burning her eyes from the pain.
Her gaze locked on a pair of honey-brown eyes containing more fury than she’d ever witnessed.
“You!” the woman hissed, sending Eden onto her ass with a swipe of her hand.
Magic. It had to be magic that sent her tumbling back in a sudden gust of
wind, her shoes a flash of red in a blur of motion.
And then Orion was there to lift Eden up, urging her behind him and to the side before the wind had him pinned down as well.
“Cassiopeia, stop!” he roared. “Don’t do this.”
His hand was pushing her toward the blinking monitor of the computer showing the startup screen as he stood between her and the furious flesh-and-blood woman. Eden didn’t need to be told twice. Or even once.
“I will not stop,” the old queen screamed. Her hands fisted at her sides, magic crackling off her skin. “Not until we are together, Orion. You belong to me and to no one else.”
“I have a feeling the goddess Artemis would beg to differ. And there is another in your path even now,” he told her with an enigmatic expression.
Orion was using himself as a distraction to give her time to log in, she realized. She spared a glance at the gorgeous woman in the gold gown, raven-black hair curling intricately around her face as she stared at the lover who would never be hers. Cassiopeia held out an arm, pointing at Orion as Eden scrambled toward the miraculously still intact keyboard.
An insect-like screech permeated the air. Wait a minute. Orion hadn’t killed Scorpio?
Chapter 8
Her fingers didn’t want to work, pressing the wrong keys multiple times before the computer accepted her password as correct.
Come on!
The screen flickered and Eden hoped it would stay on through the battle.
Orion did his best to keep Cassiopeia from Eden, his hands clamping around the queen’s wrists. Not one to be kept down or denied, Cassiopeia screamed, launching her fists for his face.
Eden tapped on the keyboard. Willing it to hurry up when the software program she used refused to load. The stupid thing. A chorus of screams and growls assaulted her ears. Everyone wanting to stop her.
How funny. The last few months she couldn’t have paid someone to be in the lab with her.
Finally she was in. The program loaded, showing her failed equation for space travel. The only thing she needed was the last piece from Orion. Eden spared a glance over her shoulder at the mighty titans, straight out of mythology, going head to head with magic she couldn’t conceive existed.
The ground opened up beneath her, both literally and figuratively, as she clutched the desk for support and stared at the screen. Orion had said he knew what to do to finish the equation. So it had to be something simple, right in front of her. A missed keystroke, a misplaced number—
Suddenly it felt like someone had plunged a red-hot spike through her torso. Magic crackled. She gasped from the sharp bite of pain, her vision blurring.
“No, Eden!”
When she glanced down, the tip of Scorpio’s barbed tail slithered back across the lab floor, leaving a trail of blood. He’d split open her side.
Heat climbed up her body from the gash along with the threat of lost consciousness.
At once Orion was at her side. “Hold on, Eden. Stay with me.”
Cassiopeia laughed. “Oh, ye gods. Did something happen to your precious little mortal?”
Eden’s breathing was labored as she fought to raise her gaze. “The equation—”
The words were hard, the poison already moving through her veins.
“The equation doesn’t matter if you aren’t here. Cassiopeia won’t stop. She will continue to warp and bend space until I succumb to her.” Orion pressed his hand against the throbbing wound in her side. “I will not leave you.”
Though she struggled through the movement, though she saw Scorpio pushing farther into the room with each passing second, she drew Orion down closer to whisper in his ear.
When he glanced up, his eyes were wide.
Cassiopeia took a step closer, the room shaking and warping around her. As though each molecule of air drew to her. Gravity bent, threatened to shatter, and Eden’s hair rose in a halo around her head.
“Poor girl,” Cassiopeia cooed amidst the falling rubble. “Working so hard for an outcome she will never achieve. Working her life away to prove herself to her dead father and the mother who couldn’t be bothered to stay around.”
Orion didn’t look away from Eden. His eyes searched hers. “Are you sure?”
She nodded, fighting to ignore the hot rush of agony. The way her blood seeped out of her. “Do it.”
Part of her thought kicking off the shoes would solve all her problems. Like an erase button. She knew better. The only thing in this case was to fight magic with magic. And Orion had already given her the missing part of the equation.
She’d just been too stupid to realize it.
Orion clicked the enter button as the computer screen went black.
The movement surrounding Cassiopeia stilled and her focus landed on the crumbling floor near the two of them. “What did you do?”
“Eden figured it out herself.” Orion laughed incredulously, pressing against her side until she gasped. “She finished the equation.”
“Impossible!”
Cassiopeia’s scream drew Scorpio. The giant creature moved farther into the room, clicking its pincers threateningly.
But Eden and Orion only had eyes for each other.
“I had the axis reversed,” she told him softly. Knowing he would hear her. “I had everything backwards.”
He bent to place a kiss on her forehead. “You did it.”
“Now what?”
“Now we use the data to send someone back where she belongs.”
It didn’t take long for Cassiopeia to fall silent. Eden pried her eyes open, staring at the fallen queen and her monstrous sidekick. Both she and Scorpio paused mid-motion. Magic swirled around them as gravity righted itself, wind whirling through the lab straight toward the rapidly growing wormhole in the exterior wall. Cassiopeia and the giant scorpion were being drawn into the vortex.
“Bye bye,” Eden whispered.
“This isn’t possible!”
The rage on Cassiopeia’s face was a thing of beauty to behold. Until she lunged forward at the last second and grabbed Eden by the ankle.
“I will not let you—”
The magic gave a tug and Eden screamed. Her muscles twisted, blood dripping. She too would have been sucked through the black depths of the wormhole…if Orion hadn’t held on to her.
“She’s too strong,” she tried to tell him. Fear curdled in her gut.
“It’s okay.” His face was oddly serene. “You don’t have to worry.”
“Are you kidding?”
Was she screaming again? Everything hurt.
“It’s all going to be fine, little one. Trust me. I’ve never met anyone like you before. And I know I never will again.” Orion smiled at her. “If tonight taught me anything, it’s to believe in fate. I was fated to meet you.”
What was he saying?
“Orion, what—”
Eden never got to finish her statement. Cassiopeia gave a final tug and one of the red heels slipped from her foot the instant the wormhole closed.
At once the wind died down; the lab became quiet; the pressure in her ears lifted. The pain in her side had disappeared.
And so had Orion.
Epilogue
Eden sat at her desk four weeks later, the lab completely silent around her and her brand-new computer. No more knickknacks. No more missed meals. No more late nights.
Although there were still plenty of odd and awkward looks from her coworkers. They’d found her car abandoned in the parking lot, and found her blacked out in the middle of the lab wearing nothing but a borrowed lab coat. As for the destruction…
Nothing.
The lab appeared perfectly normal except for her computer, which had been wiped of all its data.
Magic, Eden knew, worked in strange ways. Ways science could never hope to track.
Her formula had worked. It was the culmination of a lifetime of work.
It also took away the only man she’d ever cared about.
The oddities fr
om that night in the lab brought scrutiny from the board. Eden didn’t have answers for them. She didn’t have excuses. It was a miracle they’d allowed her to continue her work.
Eden twirled around in her chair, blowing out a breath. Refocusing on the screen.
Her equation worked, magic was real, and fantasy shoes had given her the best sex of her life. But none of it meant anything anymore. Scorpio’s physical attack did not damage her nerves, but it did leave Eden with a big blank spot when it came to her equation. And when the computer broke, she had no way of retrieving the information.
She’d have to start over.
Except her ambition was gone. Her head dropped to her desktop.
“What’s the matter, little one?”
Sometimes she still swore she heard the great hunter’s voice, like a low rumble of thunder. She certainly remembered the way he smelled. Or how his skin felt against hers.
“I don’t want to do this anymore,” she answered out loud.
“Then what do you want to do?” his voice asked her.
Well, was there any harm in indulging her delusion? A little make-believe conversation? Eden didn’t think so.
“I want to actually live. I want romance and passion and magic. I want someone who is going to protect me, keep me safe, trust me, and love me.”
A dark chuckle answered her. “Then why don’t you look up and tell me what you see?”
She finally raised her head. She definitely didn’t expect to see a large hand swivel her chair around. Blinking blurry eyes, Eden stared up, and up, and up until she met Orion’s eyes.
“You can’t be here,” she burst out.
He raised an eyebrow at her. Dressed this time around in a traditional hunter’s tunic and belt, he made her mouth water immediately.
“Why not?”
“Because I…I didn’t type in the right combination,” Eden floundered, trying to gesture to the computer. “The…ah—” What had Ari said the first night? “The right combination of letters and numbers and desperation.”
