What a Goddess Wants (21 page)

At least that’s what he thought it was. Or possibly the blinding light that surrounded him was screwing with his brain.

With a start, he checked to make sure his body was completely covered by Eli’s cloak, no skin exposed to the brutal sunlight pouring down all around him. He couldn’t be sure because he could barely see, but he didn’t smell burning flesh so he figured he was okay.

“You’re not supposed to be here.”

The voice startled him so much that he nearly tilted his head back to find the source. He caught himself just in time. It was a young voice, and he couldn’t tell whether it was male or female.

“I’ve come to ask for your help,” Cal said. “One of your own needs help.”

“One of my own?” A pause. “What does that mean?”

Cal’s head had begun to pound as the bright sunlight and the nausea that accompanied travel between the planes combined to make him feel like shit. But this was too important to allow his physical failings to deter him.

“It means Thesan, Lady of the Golden Light, is in danger and needs your help.”

Another pause, this one longer. “Who are you?”

Cal thought maybe the tone of that voice had gone just a little bit cold and decided to be a little more courteous. He dipped his head. “My name is Caligo, and I’m protecting Thesan from an attack by Charun.”

Dead silence.

With his eyes closed, Cal strained to hear anything, a rustle of clothing that would pinpoint the position of the person he was talking to, a whisper of breath, any sound at all.

He heard nothing.

“Hello? Did you hear me? Thesan needs your help.”

“You don’t have to shout. I am still here.”

What the fuck?
“Then maybe you could tell me what you can do to help.”

“Help? How?”

Okay, this was getting weird and he was getting pissed off. Probably not a good thing to do when you were talking to a deity. “Maybe by getting Charun off Tessa’s
ass
.”

“And how would you want me to do that?”

Cal opened his mouth to respond, but he didn’t have a clue what to say. Weren’t the deities supposed to have all the answers? This one sounded like a child who wouldn’t be able to find her, or his, way out of a paper bag.

Okay, maybe he was going about this the wrong way. “If you don’t mind my asking, who is this that I’m speaking to?”

His teeth clenched around the need to bite off his words. Or possibly snarl at the clueless wonder he was conversing with. But that was definitely a shortcut to getting his cloak ripped away and frying to a crisp before he could make it back to Cimmeria. Though he didn’t feel heat, cold, or pain, he certainly felt the internal heat of his frustration at the moment.

“I’m sorry,” the voice said, palpable sorrow in the tone. “That’s a question I can’t answer.”

Okay, this was just too freaking weird. Maybe Eli had pulled one over on him. Maybe this wasn’t Invol. Hell, he could be anywhere…

“I’m sorry I can’t be more help. It’s… complicated. And you must leave now, Caligo. It’s not safe for you here.”

“No! Wait—”

He felt himself being pushed toward the gate and was powerless to stop it. Air rushed by him as he flew through the gate at amazing speed. So fast he didn’t have time to experience the disorientation of passing through the planes.

And when he landed wherever it was he landed, he felt like he’d fallen to earth from the top of the Empire State Building.

Really fucking hard. On asphalt.

Not in Cimmeria.

The only lucky thing was that half of him fell in shade.

Cal heard the sizzle of his own skin and pulled his legs into the safety zone afforded by a dumpster. The stench of overripe garbage made his stomach heave, and he rolled onto his side, waiting for his breakfast to return.

After a few minutes of taking deep breaths through his mouth, he figured he wasn’t going to blow chunks.

That still left the little problem of where the hell he was and how the hell he was going to get back to Sal’s.

Cell phone. Where the hell was his cell?

And now he was rhyming and he wanted to laugh. Damn, must have hit his head harder than he’d thought.

He stuck his hand into his pocket and breathed a sigh of relief when he felt the smooth plastic of his phone. That was quickly followed by a low groan of disgust when he realized the damn thing was in pieces.

He must have fallen on it and crushed it all to hell.

Luckily, he still had the cloak. But he was gonna cause one hell of a scene on whatever street he happened to walk out onto. He’d be lucky if the cops didn’t pick him up.

Where the hell was he?

He looked around at the narrow alley surrounded by brick buildings. They looked somewhat familiar, but he couldn’t immediately place them. Might have something to do with the fact that he was still seeing double. Probably a slight concussion from the fall.

Not too far away, he heard the rumble of traffic. City traffic, lots of cars, horns beeping, loud music. Was he in Reading? Or had he been tossed somewhere halfway around the world? You never knew with deities.

He tried to force his eyes to focus, but before they did, he heard the distinct sound of a door opening and the wall in front of him parted.

A gasp and then the sound of footsteps approached. “Hey, are you all right?”

He couldn’t help himself. He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Do I look all right?”

Distinctly feminine laughter made his eyes narrow, because he thought he recognized that laugh. Tipping his head back, he tried to bring the face now peering down at him into focus.

When it did, he wondered if he should just take off the cloak and let the sun have its way with him. “Shit. This just isn’t my fucking day.”

***

“As you know, this could take a while, Lady,” Eric whispered. “Why don’t you have a rest while Flavia’s sleeping?”

Trying not to sigh in Eric’s face, Tessa forced a smile and rose from the side of Flavia’s bed. The
gianes
’s labor had appeared to stop and she hadn’t had any contractions for the past hour. Flavia had even managed to fall asleep a few minutes earlier.

It had to have been hours since Tessa had last seen Cal, and though her entire attention had been focused on Flavia, a small part of her brain had been waiting for Cal to walk through the door. And every minute that passed that he didn’t, the knot in her chest drew a little tighter.

“I’m fine, Eric, thank you. I just need to stretch my muscles. I think I’ll take a little walk.”

Eric nodded and she turned toward the door, knowing he followed her with his eyes the entire way.

Shutting the door behind her, she sighed as she leaned back against the solid wood. She closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths, trying to stave off the panic that wanted to make her heart pound out of control and her lungs gasp for air.

Where was Cal? Why wasn’t he back yet? Had something happened?

“Lady Tessa, are you okay?”

She gasped and her eyes flew open to see X grimace as he leaned against the wall on the opposite side of the hall.

“Shit. Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Have you heard from Cal?”

X shook his head, his expression turning grim. “No, not yet.”

Damn it, that was really not what she wanted to hear, and she didn’t want to discuss this within Eric’s hearing distance.

Pushing away from the door, she motioned for X to follow her and then walked the length of the hall to another room where they wouldn’t be overheard.

As soon as she’d closed the door behind her, she asked, “Should it take this long?”

X had already started to pace. “I honestly don’t know. Travel between the planes can be tricky, even for Cimmerians. It could take minutes or it could take hours.”

“And if something goes wrong?”

X’s expression didn’t change, but she swore she saw his brain working before he finally spoke. “Cal’s too good for something to go wrong.”

“That’s not an answer, and you know it.”

“It’s the only one I have.” He shook his head. “I don’t—”

A knock at the door dropped silence over them like a veil. “Tessa, there’s someone at the outside door to the house asking for you,” Eric said. “I think you need to talk to… them.”

She exchanged a look with X before she opened the door to address Eric. “Who is it?”

Eric just shook his head. “I have my suspicions, but they asked to speak to you and I don’t think my pay grade’s high enough to turn her away.”

“Her?” X spoke before she could ask the same question.

Eric gave him a quick glance. “There are two people outside. I only know for sure one is a female. The other is covered in a cloak—”

X shot out the door and ran for the end of the hall before he realized he didn’t have any idea how to get where he needed to go.

It only took a few seconds for Tessa to reach him and point out the door that led to the stairs to the upper level, the ranch house that served as Eric’s home and provided camouflage for the clinic.

They ran up the stairs, Tessa taking the lead as she headed for the front door. A small monitor by the door showed the two figures, one covered head to toe in a dark cloak. The other… “Shit.”

X ’s hand froze on its way to the door handle. “Tessa? What?”

She sighed. “Open the door, X. Just be prepared for the sugar overload.”

X raised his eyebrows but turned the knob and stepped back.

“Geez, I thought you were never going to open the door. Long time no see, Thesan. How’ve you been? Keeping busy, I hope. I have something who says he belongs to you.” The strawberry blonde who walked across the threshold didn’t look like she was struggling to hold up the much bigger man at her side.

“He’s a little worse for wear, but I can see why you might like him back. Very nice. Doesn’t have much to say, though.”

Tessa’s breath caught in her throat as she caught a glimpse of the man’s face beneath the cloak. “Cal! Oh, thank the Blessed Mother Goddess.”

X had already reached for his brother, slinging Cal’s free arm over his shoulders and taking his weight from the woman as Tessa moved to his other side.

“It wasn’t very hard to find this place, you know, for somewhere that’s supposed to be secret.” The other woman continued on without taking a breath. “When Cal asked me to bring him to you, I only had to call Salvatorus and he told me where to come. You might want to think about that. Not that I would ever say anything, of course. I wouldn’t. It’s just that if you don’t want anyone to know about it, you might not want to tell guys like this. I mean, if he told me, who knows who else he’d tell.”

As the other woman babbled on, Tessa and X helped Cal to the couch, and he fell into it with a rough sigh. His head dropped back onto the cushion, the hood falling away to reveal his haggard features. He just breathed for several seconds while Tessa struggled to get the cloak off him so she could check him for damage.

“He wouldn’t tell me what he was doing in the alley outside Ichy’s club in Philadelphia. He said a few really rude things and then demanded I bring him here to you. I think he thought I was Venus at first. At least, that’s what he called me. If he hadn’t said your name, I just would’ve let him expire. I don’t think he handles the sun very well, and if you ask me, that could be a problem, considering what you are.”

Cal groaned low in his chest as Tessa finally wrestled the cloak open so she could check him for injuries. She didn’t see any visible burns or bleeding but that didn’t mean he didn’t have internal injuries, and from what X had told her about Cimmerians, he might not even know he was injured until it was too late to help.

Tessa cupped her hands around his face, the stubble on his cheeks rough against her palms. “Cal, talk to me. Are you okay?”

“Wow, this place is
really
not what I expected when he asked me to take him to you. Do you need money, Thesan? I know things have been hard since I took over—”

“Jesus, X.” Cal’s voice was barely audible above the other woman’s incessant chatter. “Just shoot me now. She hasn’t shut up since she dragged me out of that alley.”

As X choked back a laugh, Tessa breathed a sigh of relief then threw her arms around his shoulders and clung.

“Whoa. Hey.” His arms circled around her, pulling her tight against him. “I’m fine, Tess. Really. Just a little unsteady from the travel but I’ll be fine in a few minutes. Unless my brain explodes because she won’t
fucking
shut the fuck up.”

Pressing a kiss just below his ear, Tessa felt him shudder just the tiniest bit in reaction and pulled back with a smile on her face. Not even the other woman’s noise could bring her down right now.

But Cal was tired. He needed rest, and he’d never get any with
her
here.

Standing, she faced the woman who was still talking and tottering around on four-inch heels, dressed in slinky black capri pants and a skin-tight red tank. She wouldn’t look out of place in a backwoods
Grease
road show, Tessa decided and then silently chided herself for the nasty thought.