Hunting Medusa: The Medusa Trilogy, Book 1 (29 page)

She glanced up at Kallan, who’d read over her shoulder. “Yes, it is.”

“I’m looking forward to meeting your aunt.” He touched her shoulder. “Would your mother know?”

Her smile faded. “I doubt it.”

He studied her expression for a moment. “What happened?”

She swallowed. “Long, ugly, old story.” She glanced away.

“I have time.” He kicked off his sneakers and climbed onto the bed behind her. He tugged her back so she rested on his chest. “What did she do, Andrea?” He slid his arms around her waist, securing her there.

She put her hands on his thighs, sliding her fingers down to his knees, then back. “You’d think a woman who was born into this family would be a little more sympathetic when her own child got the cosmic ‘tag, you’re it’, wouldn’t you?”

He exhaled sharply, then kissed the top of her head. “She wasn’t helpful?”

She laughed, but there wasn’t much humor in the sound. Her chest ached just remembering. “Not so much.” She realized her fingers were digging into his legs and forced herself to relax. “In her defense, I imagine she just never thought it would happen to her daughter. I don’t know why. It happened to her cousin when they were just girls, younger than I was.” She found a spot on one of his legs where the soft denim of his jeans was beginning to fray and picked at the threads for a moment. “When it was my turn, it was like she forgot. Maybe she
had
forgotten what it was like for Annis. We all grow up hearing the stories of the Harvesters, and the things that happen to the reigning Medusa. But when it actually happens to you, it’s different. It’s worse. And she never experienced it, so she didn’t know.” She realized she was making excuses for her mother and stopped. “She’s tried since then. I haven’t made up my mind to forgive her, though.”

Kallan rocked her gently for a few moments. “If she’s trying, maybe you should let her make it up to you.”

“I’m thinking about it.” She turned to rub her cheek on his shirt. “Thank you.”

His lips grazed her forehead. “No problem,
meli
.” He remained silent for a moment. “Are you hungry?”

“A little.” She inhaled his scent, feeling better. Now if only she knew she could safely go home and not have his cousin waiting to kill her…

“Let’s get some supper. Look at the castle with the lights on.” Still, he didn’t move.

“Okay.” Andi smiled, relaxing fully.

“Or we can stay in and order room service.” He inched one hand up from her waist to the underside of her breast.

So much for relaxed. All kinds of nerve endings came roaring to life.

She lifted her face to his, one eyebrow arched. “Really? You’re not tired of staying in?”

He cupped her breast against his palm and lifted his thumb to circle her nipple. “With you? Never.”

“Forget supper,” she said, twisting in his hold to wrap her arms around his neck and drawing his mouth down to hers.

While it was lovely to stay in bed with Andrea—he’d do it for days if he could—Kallan decided in the morning he could no longer delay their return.

He didn’t like it. Just thinking about it made his gut clench with fear and sweat pop out on his forehead.

But his Medusa was pretty well set on the idea. And she had a point: he didn’t have it in him to run for the rest of his life. Not even to keep her safe. At some point, he would have to face down his cousin. Or cousins.

He shut his eyes again and settled her nearer as she slept. He just hated going into a situation without proper planning. He didn’t know all the variables. Like how many of his cousins would be with Stavros? How long would it take Stavros to get back to Andrea’s? Had he actually ever left?

Goddess, he hated thinking about all the things that could go wrong. And he absolutely despised the thought that he might lose her.

She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder, making the blankets slide down a little. “You’re thinking way too loud for this early hour,” she said sleepily. She moved closer, so she lay halfway on top of him.
 

He smiled reluctantly. “Really?”

He felt her own smile against his skin. “Really. So tomorrow?”

His smile vanished. “I suppose so.”

“I wish Aunt Lydia had emailed me back. Even if Great-Aunt Celosia doesn’t know the answer, it would be good to know that too. Either we have the information and try to figure out how to use it, or we don’t and go in blind.”

“You’re amazingly lucid for someone who’s just woken up.” He kissed her head, breathing in the scent of her. Sweet and spicy.

“Dreams.” One of her shoulders lifted. “And I thought about it enough before we slept last night. We’ve run into at least one of your cousins here in Scotland, which I believe can’t be coincidental. Stavros hasn’t called you back either. I don’t like that.”

He didn’t either. It meant one of two things: Stavros was plotting and intended to keep his plans to himself, or he’d gone completely into the bottle and would be absolutely unpredictable and even more vicious. Neither was good.

“But we have to go. If we can run into them here, we’re going to run into them everywhere.” She turned to kiss his shoulder before she lifted her face. “Like it or not, Harvester. We have to go back.”

Kallan kissed her lightly. “I know.” He was already making tentative plans in his head. They’d need weapons, which meant they’d stop at his house, then make the drive to Maine from Baltimore.

“Stavros doesn’t have any other super-secret abilities, does he? Besides the spotting magic and undoing it thing?” Concern shadowed her blue eyes.

“Not that I’m aware of. He also doesn’t have the ability to sense another Harvester in the vicinity.” He frowned, thinking of the unknown Harvester he’d felt here in the city and wondering if it were the same person who’d been at Culloden. If it was, how had they found him?

“What about the cousin who was with him?”

“Vasily? Tracking is it for him. He’s very good at following ground trails, even over solid rock. But otherwise, he’s not much use in a hunt.” He considered that. Vasily surely couldn’t track once a person had left the ground, could he? It wasn’t something he’d ever asked before. Perhaps he should ask now.

“How many other talents are out there?”

He met her gaze, focusing. “More than I can count, probably.”

The shadows in her eyes deepened. “Could someone have tracked us here?”

He hesitated. “It’s possible, I suppose.” He didn’t want to lie to her. Not now. “We have people who are talented with computers who could, theoretically, dig into flight information. The false passports would slow them down a lot, but I can’t promise it would stop them dead.”

Andrea’s mouth tightened. “I guess it’s best to know.” Her gaze shifted to his shoulder, and she looked as if she were thinking. Then her eyes cleared. “It doesn’t matter. Aunt Lydia will find out about the curse, and we’ll deal with Stavros.”

He smiled at her certainty. “I love you,
agaph
.”

She smiled back. “Then you’d better feed me. I’m starving, and it’s all your fault.”

He laughed and rolled her off himself. “All right. Then we’ll make flight plans and a list of things we need to deal with once we’re back.”

She sat up slowly, still smiling as she pushed the blankets down. “I think we need a huge breakfast today.”

Kallan picked up his cargo pants from the suitcase and stepped into them. “Okay.” He booted up the laptop and took his old cell from his pocket. Still nothing from Stavros.

Andrea tapped the keys on the computer to bring up her email, and then her smile disappeared. “Nothing.” She sat back on her heels, looking as if someone had just snatched the last cookie from her.

“She’ll email you,
meli
.” He held out a lacy pair of panties. “I think these are yours.”

A sly smile curved her lips. “You should be sure they are. You bought them, after all.” She took them and rose from the bed.

“Turn around.”

She rolled her eyes, but she turned.

The cup was now colorless. Rather, the outline was still there, but only the outline on bare, creamy skin, still surrounded by the snake and bright flowers.

“
Agaph
.”

Her smile vanished. “What color is it now?” she asked, her voice a little unsteady.

“No color.”

“What?” She hurried into the bathroom and turned so her back was toward the mirror, then craned her neck to look over her shoulder. “Oh my Gods.” Her face whitened, and she leaned against the sink, staring at her reflection.

Kallan stood beside her, sliding one hand to her nape. “Are you all right?”

She shook her head. “I need to know what it means.” She lifted her gaze to his face.

He pulled her close so she could put her face along his throat, and he felt her heart pounding at a crazy pace against his chest. “We’ll find out.” He intended to keep that promise, no matter what.

Andi didn’t like the set of his mouth when she looked at him over supper in their room that night. They’d spent the day making their travel arrangements and plans for after they got back to the States. Now he was brooding again.

She almost felt like brooding herself. She still hadn’t heard from Aunt Lydia, and had found herself checking the mirror every time she went into the bathroom to see what her tattoo looked like. It was ridiculous, she’d decided after the fifth time.

But the tension was growing already, and they hadn’t even set foot back in the States yet. By the time they did, she’d be ready to go out of her mind.

“Have you worked with a sword before?”

She met his gaze over the table. “Not in years.”

His mouth flattened.

“I’m good with my dagger.”

One corner of his mouth twisted. “Unless someone gets your dagger hand wrenched up behind you.”

She stuck her tongue out at him, gratified when his eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“We don’t have time to spend training.” He frowned into his plate.

Andi reached across the table and touched his forearm. “Stop.”

He raised his gaze to hers.

“We can’t plan for the unknown. There are going to be a lot of things we simply don’t know when we go in. We’ll have to improvise, even though I know that’s not your specialty.”

He shut his eyes, a hint of a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. “All right. I get it.”

“Do you?” She tightened her fingers on his arm. “You’re going to have to relax, Kallan, or we’ll be in trouble before anything even happens.”

“When did you turn into a psychologist?”

She smiled a little. “Who hasn’t picked up a little psychology reading all those myths over the years? All kinds of issues there—people ripe for some intensive therapy.”

He took a deep breath and then let it out. “All right. Are you finished with your supper?”

She looked at her half-eaten meal. “Definitely.”

He gathered up the dishes and set them outside their door. “Can we run through this one more time before you kill me?”

“Yes, but that’s it for tonight.” She sat back in her chair, watching him cross to the laptop still on the bed.

He settled on the mattress, and propped himself up with pillows against the headboard. “Tomorrow, our flight leaves at nine, so we have to be at the airport by seven-thirty.”

“Check.”

He shot her a sharp glance, and she smiled as she mimed zipping her lips shut so he would continue. “Assuming everything is on schedule there, we should be back in Boston before lunch, local time, and on our flight to D.C.” He gave her a quick look to see if she was going to speak. When she didn’t, a hint of a smile curved his mouth. “If all goes well, we’ll be in Baltimore before suppertime, and can settle into my place overnight. Pick up some weapons. I still wish you were handy with a sword.”

“You have guns?”

He frowned. “Yes.”

“I can shoot.” She pulled one foot up onto her seat and propped her chin on her knee.

“You don’t have any guns in the house.”

Of course he’d searched. “No. I don’t own one, but I do shoot. I learned a few years ago, then decided having one in the house could be detrimental to my well-being if anyone from your family came calling when I was incapacitated.”

“Good call,” he murmured. “I’m not sure we want to drive across six states with guns in the car, though.”

He had a point. She frowned, thinking. “We could ship them, couldn’t we?”

“Ship them?”

“Yeah, overnight delivery or something.”

He considered that. “We can check into it.” He typed it onto the to-do list he’d saved earlier.

Andi waited.

“We need to be on the road the next day. I don’t want to make the trip in one day, though. If we drive straight through, we’ll be exhausted when we get there.” He shook his head. “We’ll still be dealing with the time change for a day or two. But we can’t stay in Baltimore too long either, or someone is bound to notice I’m back in town.”