Starcrossed (25 page)

Helen tried to shout something tough and ballsy after him, but all

that came out was a pathetic moan. He was gone in a second, and

she was left to lie there alone until she was noticed or until she was

well enough to walk away. Finally, she heard someone approach.

“Helen?” a familiar voice said as it neared. “Oh, no. It is you.”

“Matt,” Helen grunted. “Get Lucas.”

He came around into Helen’s field of vision and got down on his

knees in front of her. “Don’t you think the nurse would be a better

idea? Or maybe a paramedic?”

“Please. Lucas. Quick.”

He sighed once, rubbed Helen’s back in an awkwardly reassuring

way, and then got up and ran off. Once she got her breathing under

control, Helen could see enough around her to take in the fact that

she was practically in the school parking lot—much closer to the

school than she had realized. Still curled up in a ball on the

ground, Helen banged her forehead against her knees. She couldn’t

believe she had been that stupid. Her ear pressed to the ground,

Helen heard approaching footsteps that were a little too heavy and

a little too quick to be a normal’s and smiled to herself with relief

even though she was still in terrible pain.

“Thanks, Matt,” she heard Lucas say from somewhere behind

her. “Where are you hurt?’ he asked her as he came around toward

the front, Jason close behind him. Helen pointed to her stomach

and spoke with her eyes. Lucas nodded and looked around,

confused.

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“Did you see what happened?” he asked Matt.

“I think she was running after someone. I don’t know,” Matt said

skeptically. “I just heard from Gretchen that Helen was chasing

some guy, then she screamed and fell down.”

“Is that true?” Lucas asked Helen with a tense face. She nodded,

and he smiled back at her, his worried eyes softening for her sake.

He plucked some of her hair off her sweaty forehead and looked

back over his shoulder.

“I’m on it,” said Jason too quietly for a mortal to catch, and then

Helen heard his rapidly retreating footsteps.

“I should go with him,” began Hector’s voice from someplace that

Helen still couldn’t see.

“No, you shouldn’t,” ordered Lucas sharply. “I need you to get the

girls. They could have whatever sickness Helen has, and they might

need you. Right?”

“Right,” Hector said without bitterness, suddenly understanding

Lucas’s hidden meaning. Cassandra and Ariadne were unaware,

unprotected, and therefore in the most danger of being attacked by

the stranger. Hector ran off so silently that Helen couldn’t even

hear his feet brush against the grass, and she couldn’t help but be

both impressed and a little frightened by his skill.

“Matt, can you help me get Helen up? If you could just grab her

feet . . .” Lucas asked in an apologetic voice.

“Sure, no problem,” Matt said as he slipped his hands behind her

knees. “Jeez, Len, you smell awful! Did you have to fall into every

cranberry bog on the island?” Helen chuckled briefly, but it hurt to

laugh so she stopped.

Helen initially wondered why Lucas would ask Matt for help

when he didn’t need it, but as she listened to them talk and work

together to carry her to Hector’s SUV she realized that Lucas had

to be one of the smartest people she’d ever met. Not only did asking

for help make Lucas seem normal, but it also made Matt feel

needed. Lucas was treating him like a partner and, more

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important, like a man. Helen knew that if Lucas ever asked for

Matt’s loyalty, this simple gesture of inclusion made it more likely

that he would get it. A fresh bout of pain gripped her so tightly that

a sweat broke out on her upper lip. Helen blew out her breath

slowly, trying to navigate her way through the pain.

Lucas popped the back hatch of the SUV and laid Helen down,

then asked if Matt didn’t mind waiting with them until his sister

and cousins came back.

“If Helen gets any worse, I’m not going to wait for them, I’m just

going to take her to the hospital. If that happens I’d really appreciate

it if you stayed here to tell them where I went. It shouldn’t take

long,” Lucas explained.

“I’ll stay as long as you need me,” Matt offered with his usual

generosity.

“Damn, Matt. Aren’t you tired of watching over of my sick ass

yet?” Helen asked him with a half smile.

“You have no idea,” he said back with a smile of his own. It faded

quickly. “This makes it twice this year. You never used to get sick,

Len, not even that time we all got the stomach flu after Gretchen’s

birthday party in fourth grade. The rest of us were puking our

brains out for two days, but you were fine.”

“Oh, yeah! That was so gross! Hey, at least I brought you all Gatorade

and crackers, remember?” Helen said playfully. She was trying

to lighten the mood, but she was still in pain. She pressed on

her belly again and Matt frowned. He was worried, and so was she.

Her cramps had never lasted this long before.

“Maybe you should quit track,” Matt suggested suddenly.

“I think Matt’s right,” Lucas said, his face both surprised and

pleased that Matt had suggested it. “It’s obviously not good for you.

You should quit.”

Helen was too stunned to respond. She stared at Lucas with her

mouth hanging open until Hector, Cassandra, and Ariadne arrived

and ended the conversation. The girls got in the SUV with Lucas

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and Helen, and Hector took the keys to the Mercedes, saying he

would wait for Jason. Ariadne offered Matt a ride home in her

sweetest voice, but he demurred. Then, after a brief and very quiet

exchange between Lucas and Hector, Lucas got behind the wheel

and drove the three girls to the Delos compound, speeding the

whole way. As they drove, Cassandra climbed into the back and

perched next to Helen with a calm poise that belied her age.

“Did you get a good look at him?” she asked in a level, strangely

adult voice.

“Yes,” Helen answered.

“If I showed you some pictures, would you be able to recognize

him?”

“Like, mug shots? No problem,” Helen said positively. “I’m pretty

sure there aren’t that many guys in the world who look exactly like

a bigger, blonder version of Hector.”

She sensed the mood in the SUV shift.

“Creon,” whispered Cassandra.

“Are you sure?” Lucas asked, his head snapping up look into the

rearview mirror at Cassandra.

“Yes,” she answered with a dreamy look on her face. “And Uncle

Pallas followed him here from Europe. He’s at home.” Lucas apparently

didn’t need any more information. He fished his cell

phone out of his jeans and hit speed dial.

“Jase, come in. Cassie can see him now,” he said in a flat,

frightened voice. He listened for just a moment and then continued,

talking over Jason’s questions. “When we all get back home.

Your father’s waiting for us there.”

Helen felt like she had missed an important detail. “Who’s

Creon?” she asked Cassandra as soon as she was able to sit up.

“A cousin of ours,” Cassandra answered unhelpfully.

“He’s the one who attacked Hector in Cádiz,” Ariadne said, her

voice quivering momentarily. She glanced over at Lucas, who was

just about to interrupt her, and kept going. “Okay, they attacked

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each other. Creon is a radical fanatic, and he’s looking for a fight

with any of the moderates, not just us. But it’s Hector he’s really

after. Not even you can deny that, Luke.”

“That guy, huh?” Helen asked, folding her arms over her belly as

she tried to make a joke. No one laughed. Her right hand felt stiff

so she flexed it. A scrap of fabric fell from her balled-up fist.

“What’s that?” Cassandra asked.

“Um. It’s Creon’s. I caught up to him, and when I tried to grab

him I sort of ripped his shirt off,” Helen replied apologetically.

“You chased him, caught up to him, and got close enough to rip

his shirt off?” Ariadne said in disbelief. Apparently, Creon was fast,

even by their standards.

“He saw me trying to fly, okay?” Helen began, sensing that she

had done something very wrong. “I didn’t know who he was, I just

knew that he’d seen me jump about five stories into the air and I

had to get to him before he got away.”

“Great,” Cassandra said bitterly. “He came here to check on our

family and maybe pick a fight with Hector, but now that you’ve exposed

yourself everything has changed.”

“He was heading right for the school,” Helen said defensively.

“And what was he going to do?” Cassandra yelled back, suddenly

furious. “Attack a pathetic mortal? Use your head, Helen! For some

reason the two women who attacked you haven’t told the rest of

the Hundred Cousins that you exist, probably because they want

the glory of killing you alone so they can have a Triumph. Creon

might be thinking the same way, but if he isn’t, he will tell Tantalus.

That means half of the Family is going to be here in a few

days—and you can’t even hold a sword yet!”

“Back off, Cassie!” Lucas said heatedly. “We were raised for this,

and Helen’s had what? A whole week to adjust?” He looked at Cassandra

through the rearview mirror, and even in reflection his eyes

looked intense. Cassandra threw up her hands in surrender.

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“You’re right, Cassandra. I didn’t use my head,” Helen said, rubbing

her stomach. “Maybe we could talk to him.”

Ariadne made a strangled sound.

“What? Why are you all so scared of him?” Helen asked.

“He’s a Shadow Master,” Ariadne said ominously from the front

seat. “He can stop light. It’s unnatural.”

Helen though about the darkness that wrapped itself around

Creon and she knew what Ariadne meant. The sun wouldn’t shine

on him, and Helen had instinctively felt like there was something

wrong about that.

“Shadow Masters are rare,” Lucas tried to explain a bit more

calmly, but Helen could still hear the fear in his voice. “There

haven’t been very many of them in our House’s history, but every

one of them that we know about has turned out to be, well . . . evil.”

A few tense minutes passed with Cassandra cupping her hands

over her eyes in a posture of deep concentration. Finally, she

looked up at Helen, and with a determined smile she dispelled the

lingering negativity.

“Well, you’re safe for now. I don’t see any immediate threats,”

she said reassuringly, watching Helen cradle her still-tender midsection.

“Any idea which human saw you chasing Creon?”

“Gretchen. Don’t worry, no one will care. She’s always saying

stuff about me,” Helen said positively. “Wait a sec. How do you

know someone saw me?”

“These cramps you’re having? They’re the curse. Your mom

cursed you to feel almost unendurable pain if you use your Scion

powers in front of mortals,” Cassandra said with a shrug.

“Is that what it is? It’s been driving me crazy all week!” Lucas

said from the front seat as he turned down the long Delos

driveway.

“Of course you wouldn’t recognize them. You’re a boy,” Ariadne

said. “Curse Cramps are sadistic, really. I haven’t even read about

anyone doing it in centuries.”

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“My mother cursed me?” Helen repeated back to Cassandra, who

nodded sadly.

“Way back, hundreds of years ago, it was thought to be the only

way to keep women Scions in line with the society of the time.

Mothers would do it to their daughters to keep them from drawing

too much attention to themselves because women weren’t supposed

to be special or smart or talented.” Cassandra wrinkled her

nose, like she had said something that smelled bad as it came out

of her mouth.

Helen sputtered uselessly to herself for a few seconds, unable to

process what she had just learned. Cassandra took Helen’s hand

and smiled kindly at her. “If it’s any consolation, the curse probably

kept you hidden all these years.”

“As much as I hate to admit anything so barbaric could be useful,

I have to agree,” said Ariadne as she opened her door and got out

of the car. “If you hadn’t been cursed, can you imagine what your

mortal dad would have gone through when you were a toddler with

all that strength? He tries to punish you, you throw him out a window.

Bedtime would have been a bloodbath.”

“Well, when you put it that way,” Helen admitted as she climbed

out of the back, accepting Lucas’s politely offered hand. As she and

Lucas walked side by side behind Ariadne and Cassandra toward

the house, she started to laugh to herself.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I always knew my mother hated me, and now I find out that she

literally cursed me,” she replied, hearing her voice sound matterof-

fact. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything that made so much

sense in my whole life.”

“Your mother was trying to protect you,” Lucas countered

judiciously.

“Oh, you are such a boy! You’ve never had cramps,” Helen

muttered. They paused on the landing.

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“Maybe take your shoes off,” Lucas said, looking down at Helen’s