Stealing Cupid's Bow (14 page)

He hadn’t intended to take her into the bedroom but the look in her eyes, and her touch, had been irresistible. And when her aura had turned to the deep red of passion, like a fine Cabernet, he just couldn’t resist. In the end he had gotten to see it change into the color he had pondered before. The one with no name on earth. His heart beat faster in his chest.

He remembered the light touch of her hands on his wings and how erotic it had been. It was the first time since Psyche that he had revealed his wings to a human. Despite his carefree and casual manner about it that night he’d still felt a hesitation deep within. What if she didn’t like them? But the experience had been better than he’d expected. Much better. He wanted nothing more than to track her down right now and make love to her again. But he held himself back.

He’d had many experiences with human women but he’d never revealed his wings to them. It really hadn’t come up. Aside from her, most of his experiences with humans had been fleeting. Their life spans were so short he knew better than to get attached. But it still left him with a hollow feeling inside. Which was odd, since he’d decided that that was the most logical path.

When Raine had asked to see his wings, his instinct had been to conceal them at first but then he had thrown caution to the wind. What would happen if she knew? Better to find out right away if she would be revolted like Psyche. For some reason the answer had been important to him. And so, it had been a sort of experiment on his part, one that had really heated up. Her reaction had been more than he had hoped for.

He remembered his surprise when she had asked if she could touch his wings. The feel of her fingers had held him rooted as they traveled from the feather shafts, through his bones and straight to his viscera. He’d never been touched that way before. It had been highly arousing. And he’d found himself relaxing as never before under her admiration and acceptance. A tightness within him had uncurled itself and vanished and it had felt exceptionally pleasant to stand there in his natural form. Concealing his wings on earth had become second nature to him but sometimes, after a while, it felt similar to having a foot fall asleep.

He turned away from the papers, which he had been distractedly shuffling and tried instead to work on the computer, maybe he could focus on e-mail.

Psyche had never wanted to see his wings after the first time. In fact, she had insisted on him never displaying them while she was around. Her sisters had contaminated her mind with tales that he was some beast and she’d never been able to shake it. Even though Psyche had known he was a god, she’d become slave to the shame of her sisters’ taunting and accusations, which resulted in her treating him as if he were some kind of monster. Her rejection had hurt him deeply. He’d never felt the full depth of it until now, when comparing it to Raine’s acceptance.

All during their marriage Psyche had lived in denial of his gifts. He found it somewhat ironic that he was now living the faux-human life she’d wanted even after she became a goddess. Even after she gave birth to their child she’d remained so tied to the approval of her family and their dictates that he gave up trying to please her. It never mattered to her how he felt, only her family.

Their love became something twisted over time. A far cry from the beautiful energy it had been in the beginning when she was pure. A very far cry from the love that had driven her to withstand the trials his mother had put before her. It had been painful, very painful, to realize that she was so limited in her experience and vision of the world that she would never value all that he was and would only see all he was not. He was not human.

Realization was such a tame word. What it really meant was the death of hope. Being faced with an eternity in a relationship so narrow is what had finally caused him to create the arrows of indifference.

Prior to his marriage he’d never thought of creating such a thing. In those days he’d been rather idealistic about his role. In his quiver he had always only held arrows of love and hate and used them successfully. He’d thought they were the opposite of each other but he couldn’t have been more wrong. They were more like close cousins.

He remembered well the driving forces of anger, bitterness, and resentment that had led him to seek the far corners of Mount Olympus for answers. They had not been easy to come by but in the end he succeeded and the arrows of indifference had been made, forged by his own hand. His first real contribution as a god, he’d considered them his gift to mankind. The arrows gave him the ability to undo the pain and find relief, as he had found after using one on himself.

That day stood out with clarity in his mind. The power of his own arrow of love had finally been broken and he could see Psyche as she really was: a vain, spoiled brat. A very beautiful woman, but selfish and needy all the same. He had been glad to walk away from her. Thank goodness their daughter had already been grown by then because he’d needed to move on.

It was then that he’d come to live on Earth and take a new name. And he found it to be such a glorious freedom to come here, away from the gods. A place where there were constantly new people and new things to see. It was refreshing.

So was Raine.

She was nothing he could have ever imagined. So she wasn’t immortal, so what? He had to accept his new world and maybe this would be a good start. To finally just enjoy things in the moment as mortals did. Why deny himself what might be one of the better experiences of his life? And there was no doubt last night had been highly satisfying.

She’d looked so desirable this morning in his bed, so utterly innocent. He had almost canceled his meeting and joined her.

The weight of her request settled on him once again, filling him with guilt. It would be so easy to do what she asked. But it would just postpone what was eventually going to happen, he wouldn’t really be sparing any of them the pain. In reality he would be adding to it by allowing them more time to form memories that would be broken later. Regardless, she seemed to want this with all her heart. Perhaps he should just give it to her. A knock sounded on his office door.

“Come in.”

Donovan poked his head in and Alexander motioned him into the office.

“Boss, we have a problem.” He folded his hands behind him and stood at attention as was his habit.

“What is it?”

“Your bow and quiver are missing.”

Alexander stood immediately. “Missing?” he said, in a dark tone.

“Yes, I checked the apartment this morning, like I usually do after you’ve had guests, and they’re gone. So is the girl.”

Alexander lifted a brow. That was as close as his employee had ever come to an outright accusation. Donovan had been suspicious of Raine all along so it really was not out of character, but he would never bluntly contradict his boss’s opinion. He knew Alexander didn’t think Raine capable of such a thing.

“And you think Raine stole it?” Alexander voiced the thought for him.

“We know she did, sir. There’s some footage you should see. We have a problem. May I?” He gestured to the set of four large computer monitors along the wall.

Alexander nodded.

Donovan stepped forward and pressed buttons on the keyboard beneath them. The video he brought up was from one of the cameras that pointed out over the driveway where the taxis lined up. Donovan hit the Fast-Forward button. After a few minutes he hit the Play button, restoring normal speed, and zoomed in.

There was no denying that it was Raine coming out of the hotel and she was wearing his bow and quiver. “You’ll see it in just a moment,” Donovan said.

Alexander glared at the screen intently.

After a few moments of waiting in the taxi line, Raine reached for the bow and lifted it over her head. Then she reached beside her ear for an arrow. As soon as her fingers made contact with the shaft she disappeared from the video.

Alexander sucked in a breath. Somehow the full glamour had activated for her!

Donovan didn’t hit Stop, so Alexander continued to watch. Within a few moments Alexander could see the auras of people in the line changing wildly right before his eyes. Changing in the exact way they did when affected by his arrows. He’d seen it a million times. He knew. He punched the Stop button.

“Track the bow,” Alexander commanded. His system tracked them all.

“Sir, yours was the only one never linked to the system,” Donovan said.

Donovan was correct. He’d forgotten. His brows knit together. “Call all the guard and begin searching the grounds,” he barked.

Donovan nodded. “Already done. But there’s something else you need to know.”

“What?” Alexander snapped. His arms were crossed against his chest, hands curled into fists.

“There’s a large amount of unusual activity continuing to register on the system. She’s discharged more arrows than what we saw in the video. It looks like she’s still going.”

“Bring it up on the screen.” He felt cold. So ice cold with anger it could have shot from his soul, through his eyes, and shattered the screen.

Raine walked slowly down the street toward her parents’ house, her heart pumping. Inside she could hear the sounds of banging and slamming.

It had taken her forever to leave Alexander’s apartments. Forever because she was scared to death of being caught. Finally she’d gotten to her feet to move, driven by pure desperation. The bow was large and had caught on a step, nearly tripping her as she’d gone down the stairs. She’d made it to the front door and picked up her purse form where it hung on the doorknob.

But then she’d had to stop and take deep breaths to dispel her fear before opening the apartment door. She knew the lobby staff were there as security for Alexander’s apartments. He’d told her that last night. Were they archers or just regular mortals? Would they be able to detect if she had the bow? What would happen if she got caught?

She’d allowed herself three more deep breaths, she’d even counted, and then she’d jerked the door open and walked out into the lobby to wait for an elevator. Her parents needed her.

When she had passed into the lobby she’d done her best to smile naturally at the people working behind the desk before moving to the elevators. They smiled back and waved. Other than that they didn’t look at her twice. Still, her heart had pounded in her chest until the elevator arrived and it didn’t slow until she made it out the front door of the hotel. That’s where she stopped to think about what exactly she should do.

The bright sunlight made her blink. It was later than she’d thought. She looked around. The feeling of relief at having escaped the hotel was now replaced by doubt. Was she really going to just shoot her parents with these arrows? What if she injured them? What if they weren’t real?

She decided that the best cure was to practice with them. It was the only way she could be sure everything would go right with her family when she got to them.

Joining the crowed taxi line, she eyed the various people. Would now be a good time to practice? It wouldn’t get much better than now. There were tons of targets in arm’s reach.

She lifted the bow from across her chest and grasped the grip, wanting to make sure she was hidden while she did this. Then she removed an arrow from the quiver. Rather than actually shoot it with the bow she wanted to see if the arrows really would work. As the stories went, Cupid himself had been nicked with his own arrow and that had been sufficient to make him fall in love with Psyche. It hadn’t been shot at him with the bow. So, if her logic was correct, a simple poke with an arrow should do the trick.

Who to experiment on first was the question? Three steps in front of her stood a couple. A blond woman was leaning against a dark man who had his arms around her. She repositioned the arrow in her hand and quietly stepped closer. They were talking to each other. Perfect. Was eye contact important? The man had a long-sleeve shirt and pants on; did that matter? But the woman was in a tank top and skirt. She made a quick, two-inch scratch on the woman’s arm with the arrow. It disintegrated with a poof and shower of gold dust.

The effect was instantaneous; the woman leaned up to give man a kiss. For good measure Raine pulled another arrow from the quiver and did the same for the man. Now the couple became so heated that it was almost embarrassing, but no one else in line seemed to care, it was Vegas after all.

She walked out of the line and tried using the bow to shoot arrows at some of the other people. It was very difficult. She could barely draw the string back even though she heaved with all her might. And when heaving with all her might it was impossible to hold an arrow steady. Some of her arrows might have gone astray. Maybe. What could it hurt? She returned to her place in the line. No one seemed to notice when she put the bow back on her shoulder and reappeared.

When she was finally in a taxi, on her way to her parent’s house, she did her best to practice shooting with it from the backseat but that didn’t turn out well either. The car kept moving and shifting and the bow was too big and cumbersome for her to use while sitting. Several arrows missed their mark, no surprise there. One hit the pavement and disintegrated in to a shower of gold-and-red sparks, another flew into the fountain of a hotel, and the third hit a homeless man instead of the person she had been aiming at. The taxi went by so quickly that she couldn’t see what happened to him but she was able to acknowledge that he wasn’t injured, or even worse, dead. At least the driver didn’t seem to notice when she took the bow in her hands and vanished from his view.

They stopped at a light and she was able to hit several people as they crossed the street but only because it was a crowd. The arrows didn’t hit the people she’d actually been aiming at.

With each arrow she dispensed, something strange had also happened. A flush came upon her and it seemed to be building with each arrow she used. It wasn’t a heat flush, more of a…sexual tingling. It embarrassed to admit, even to herself, but using the bow and arrows felt good, very good. Was it was a side effect of touching the arrows themselves?