Starcrossed (21 page)

was attracted to her. Maybe she wasn’t his type. Maybe he even

had a girlfriend back in Spain. Helen imagined a dark siren with

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long black curls, olive skin, and a sexy Spanish accent waiting for

Lucas to come back to Europe.

She flopped over in bed and put a pillow over her head, vowing

not to be the pathetic loser who chases after a boy she can never

have. She needed more information about Lucas, but since he was

new in school, and no one knew his previous history with girls,

Helen was going to have to see what she could get out of Ariadne

and hope she didn’t come off as too obvious.

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UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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Chapter Nine

“Keep sticking your chin out like that and I’ll knock it

off for you,” Hector yelled. He’d been doing a lot of

yelling over the past hour and a half.

Helen obediently tucked in her chin and lifted her

fists up to guard her face. She kept her center of

gravity low and moved her feet in sweeping crescents in case there

were obstacles on the ground that she would need to brush out of

the way. She circled Hector, watching his hips in case he shot in to

take her to the mat. She did everything he’d told her to. Then Hector

smirked and punched her in the face, his hands moving in a

blurry haze. She fell on her butt for the tenth time and after a moment

looked up at him through her ever-healing eyes.

“That was your left again, huh?” she asked mildly.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” he said in a voice that reminded

Helen of Mr. Hergeshimer. “You’re faster than me. Why

don’t you get out of my way?”

Helen shrugged and stood up, adopting a defensive stance again.

Hector immediately punched her in the gut, and she fell to her

knees.

“That’s enough, Hector,” shouted Lucas in a tight voice. Helen

held up a hand, gesturing to Lucas that it was okay as she stood up.

Again.

She wanted Lucas to stay out of this. For some reason, Helen’s

first real sparring session had turned personal for Hector, and she

wanted him to go all the way to the end of whatever trip he was on

so he could get it out of his system. The punishment hurt, but not

nearly as badly as her cramps, so she could deal with it. As soon as

she was back on her feet, Hector took them out from under her

again with a leg sweep.

“Easy!” yelled Jason. “She’s never fought before, you dickhead!”

Helen looked up and saw Jason place a hand on Lucas’s

shoulder, stopping him from jumping into the cage. “I’m fine, guys.

Nothing to worry about,” she said as cheerfully as she could, getting

up yet again. Hector did not appreciate her tone.

“Why won’t you take this seriously?” he shouted at Helen. She

bent down to spit out the taste of the blood in her mouth, and

Hector reeled back and punched her again in the head.

“Stop it!” screamed Cassandra from someplace beyond Helen’s

vision. “She isn’t a natural fighter, okay? When are you going to get

that through your thick skull?”

Helen felt terrible—she knew she must be a bloody mess to get

someone who didn’t even like her that upset.

By the time Helen had struggled back up to her knees, Cassandra

was no longer in the practice room where the Scions kept their

punching bags and fight cage. Helen swallowed a mouthful of spit

and blood and instantly regretted it when she choked on one of her

own teeth.

“May I have some water, please?” she asked Ariadne, who was

standing over her with a damp cloth.

On the other side of the cage, Helen saw Jason standing between

Lucas and Hector. Jason’s shirt was half torn off and blood was

running from a cut on his head, but still he fought to keep the two

larger Delos boys from ripping each other up like wrapping paper

on Christmas morning. Hector was yelling at Lucas, pleading his

case.

“She can take anything. Anything! I hit her harder than I’ve ever

hit anyone and she stood right back up! But she won’t hit back!”

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Hector roared, his voice cracking with passion. He saw Helen looking

at him and pointed an accusing finger at her. “You think you

can just stand back and let Luke do all your fighting for you?

You’re stronger than all of us combined, but you’re too good to

fight, Princess?”

Jason wrapped both his arms around his brother and held on as

Hector bucked and struggled.

“I’m not trying to get hit!” Helen lisped through her broken and

rapidly regrowing teeth. Ariadne put her own arms around Helen

and held her as she stared daggers at her big brother.

“How dare you, Hector? She wasn’t raised like we were, always at

each other’s throats. It just isn’t in her,” she scolded.

Hector seemed chastened by his sister’s tone and finally stopped

struggling against Jason’s restraint. He slumped against his brother

for a moment and then abruptly pushed him away. Then, with

one easy leap he jumped over of the fifteen-foot-high fence surrounding

the fight mat and landed with an intentionally loud slap.

“She’d better get it in her. Because I don’t want any of the people

I love to die defending her lazy ass,” he rasped. As he walked out of

the fight room, Lucas ran to Helen.

“I’m so sorry.” He reached out and took Helen from Ariadne’s

arms. “You don’t ever have to fight him again.”

“Why not?” Helen asked, pushing off his chest, her speech still

slurred from taking too many knocks to the head. “I may not be a

natural fighter, but he’s right. I need to learn this or someone else

could get hurt. Someone like my father, or Claire, or Kate . . . Those

women are still after me. They could hurt anyone I care about.”

Lucas caught her as she fell over. He looked over her mashed-up

face inch by inch as he carried her out of the cage and into a back

area that served as both locker room and medical facility.

He sat her on top of a stainless-steel table and left her for just a

moment to gather some gauze, a basin of water, and, strangely, a

juice box and a jar of raw honey. He didn’t say a word, but gestured

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for her to open her mouth, which she did, and then he started

drizzling honey onto her tongue. As soon as her taste buds registered

the oily sweet sunshine taste, she understood. Honey was

the perfect health food for demigods. A feral need kicked in, and

she grabbed his wrist with both her hands and held on until she

was licking the jar clean.

When the honey was gone she finally caught her breath. She

looked up and met Lucas’s eyes, and nodded at his inquisitive look,

as if to say that she was better now. Without a word, Lucas pushed

a plastic straw into the juice box and gave it to Helen to hold on to

as he started in on her cuts with the gauze and some hot water.

Helen was having a hard time seeing straight. Everything was out

of focus, and her eyes couldn’t seem to get a hold of Lucas. It was

strange. Her vision kept sliding off his shape, as if it was too slippery

for her gaze. She tried to watch Lucas’s expression as he

doctored her cuts, but it was almost impossible to see him. As the

minutes ticked by and Helen healed on her own, Lucas became visible

again and Helen could see that the grooves of worry dug into

his forehead loosened and went away. He dabbed at the leftover

blood and sighed.

“Why didn’t you get out of Hector’s way, Helen?” he asked softly,

breaking the long silence. “Why didn’t you block with your hands?”

“He’s faster than me,” she replied, but they both knew that wasn’t

the whole truth, and as she took in his skeptical look she continued.

“I knew if I started blocking him he’d just get angrier, and

then I would eventually have no choice but to hit him so hard he

wouldn’t be able to hit me back.”

“That’s sort of the point of fighting, you know,” Lucas said with a

touch of a smile.

“Then I don’t want any part of it,” Helen said seriously. “I don’t

want to hurt people, Lucas. Can’t you teach me something else?”

“Like what?” he asked, at a loss.

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“Like what you did in the hallway at school that first time we saw

each other. How you spun me around and stood between my legs

so I couldn’t get at you? That didn’t hurt me at all, but you still had

me beat. Or what you did on your lawn that night. Remember? I

was on top of you and then you did that thing with your hips?” she

said with building optimism. He nodded and looked away.

“It’s called jujitsu. It’s for hand-to-hand fighting and I’d rather

you never got that close to your opponents. But I’ll teach it to you if

you want,” he said quietly.

Looking up at Lucas, Helen realized she was still seeing spots.

She had to brace herself by putting her hands on his waist. As the

spots went away she could see the color rising in Lucas’s cheeks,

and she felt waves of heat coming off his skin. Helen could smell

his scent and it made her feel quiet and still, almost drowsy.

“And flying,” Helen said, suddenly breaking herself out of her

languid mood. “You still have to teach me how to get airborne.

Once I learn that, I can just fly away from the bad guys.”

“I’ll teach you how to fly,” he said softly, nodding his head and

looking down. Helen searched for his eyes, but he wouldn’t look at

her. She wiped a hand across her face and it came back streaked

with blood.

“Am I really that hideous right now?” she asked as she leaned

away from him, suddenly self-conscious. To Helen’s surprise he

didn’t reply, he just pulled her against him and held her.

“Promise me something,” he said into her hair. He waited for her

to nod before continuing. “Promise me that next time you fight

you’re not going to just stand there and let the other guy beat the

crap out of you until he’s too tired to lift his arms.”

“If I can avoid it, believe me, I will,” Helen said with a little laugh,

but Lucas pulled away from her so he could look her in the eye.

“I won’t watch that again. You understand me?” he said sternly.

She nodded slowly and saw his face relax a little. His eyes were so

intense she had to glance around for something else to talk about.

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“Your shirt,” Helen said, pointing to the bloody print of her face

on his chest. “Which reminds me. I’ve ruined these workout

clothes Ariadne gave me. Should I change into another set, or are

we done?”

“We’re done. You can put your street clothes back on after you

wash up,” he said briskly as if to banish the heavy mood he had

fallen into. He took her face in his hands one last time and examined

her former cuts. After a few moments he released her. “You

certainly do heal fast. But you’ll still have some impressive bruises,

so if I were you I’d avoid your father for the rest of the night.”

“I’ll just tell him you abuse me,” Helen said with a shrug. She

jumped off the examining table.

“And I’ll tell him you like it,” he teased back, his voice rich and

slow. Helen looked up at him, feeling drowsy again. For a moment

he was just a breath away from her, but then he backed away.

As he walked out of the locker room he stripped off his bloody

shirt and threw it in the garbage. Helen’s vision stabilized again,

and she watched his bare back moving away from her. The last

cobwebs clearing from her eyes, she decided that if Lucas was gay

then she was going to have to get a sex change operation. He would

be so worth it.

While she cleaned up she got a chance to examine her mouth.

Her left front tooth was still in the process of growing back in, and

Helen had to laugh at how ridiculous she looked. How Lucas had

managed to keep a straight face while he looked at her when she

was as gap-toothed as a six-year-old was beyond comprehension.

Then she realized he must have seen it so many times that he

barely noticed it. Helen thought about what Ariadne had said—that

they had grown up “at each other’s throats.” As if summoned by

Helen’s thoughts, Ariadne poked her head into the locker room to

check in.

“Do you need a hand healing?” she asked timidly.

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“No, but come on in,” Helen replied. Maybe she would get a

chance to ask if Lucas still had a girlfriend somewhere. “How’s

Cassandra?”

“Overly sensitive, but she’ll be okay. You’re the one that got a

Hector beat-down, and since I know what that feels like I’m going

to ask you honestly—is anything still broken?” Ariadne glided into

the locker room.

“Nothing broken. Well, not anymore,” Helen replied. Everything

about Ariadne was so feminine and round and lovely that Helen

simply couldn’t imagine anyone hitting her. “Do you guys do this to

each other often? The fighting, I mean.” Ariadne was shaking her

head before Helen had even finished talking.

“No. We spar together to stay in shape, but only the boys really

fight, and only when they need to get something off their chests.