Thunder Road (Rain Chaser Book 1) (16 page)

Wonder where they got that from?

I wanted to get up, at least put myself on the same footing with Leo, no matter that he was almost a foot taller than me. The illusion of equality that standing would give me might bolster my certainty and put a little kick back into me. Lying on the floor was hardly a good way to have someone take you seriously.

But as I braced my arm on the lip of the toilet and started to lift myself, the weight of my body issued a protest, and I sank back down with a thud.

Interdimensional travel really takes it out of you.

“Fuck,” I grumbled. “Do you have any donuts?” Let it never be said that I didn’t know how to balance my priorities.

“Donuts?” He sat on the edge of the tub, bringing him closer to level with me. If the expression on his face was any indication, the man thought I was completely insane.

“Leo…” I propped myself into a more comfortable position and wheezed from the exertion.

“I didn’t say that was my name.”

“Yeah, you also didn’t tell me your shoe size, but I know they’re big. Some things don’t need verbal confirmation. You’re Leo Marquette.”

“You some kind of psychic?”

“I like you. You bypass
stalker
and go for psychic. FYI, I wasn’t kidding about those donuts. Do you have any?”

“Like, laying around? No. But if you want to get out of my apartment, I can point you in the direction of some beignets.”

Beignets.

His accent, and the sounds I’d heard coming from outside when I landed.

“So I’m in New Orleans.”

“Lady, are you on drugs or something? Do I need to take you to a hospital?” The terror I’d seen was gone, replaced with genuine concern. Which was kind of sweet, except the fear would keep him alive longer.

“Your dad sent me.”

“Julian?”

I paused, not comprehending his meaning. “Who?”

He stood up so quickly my head spun, and I briefly considered throwing up again. Instead I decided enough was enough, it was time to get down to business. I held out my hand to him, crooking my fingers.

Obviously a gentleman at heart, Leo grabbed my hand without hesitation and helped me to my feet. Standing in such close quarters with him I was reminded of the last time I’d shared alone time with a man in a bathroom.

“Hecate be damned,” I spat, suddenly remembering what I’d left behind. Cade and Fen were stuck with Mormo and Hecate, and I sincerely doubted they would give him any straight answers about where I’d gone.

I also hadn’t had the opportunity to take my bag with me when Hecate dragged me onto the night road, meaning my cell phone and wallet were back in Shreveport with the boys.

This night kept getting better and better.

“You said my dad sent you, but my dad died eighteen months ago.”

As if this guy didn’t know. He had to know. Demis had special powers; they had gifts. “Julian?”

Leo nodded, crossing his muscular arms over the broad expanse of his chest. My attention was briefly diverted. Seth made unfairly beautiful children.

“Leo, you know Julian wasn’t your real dad, right?”

Not that I’d ever doubted Seth was his father, but when I said this, Leo’s eyes darkened, clouding from light gray to a stormy-charcoal shade. “Get out of my house.” He yanked open the bathroom door, letting a wave of cool air waft in.

“You know, though. You must know.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about or who you are, but you don’t get to come in here and tell me my father wasn’t my father.
Get out
.” He grabbed my arm roughly and dragged me back into his bedroom, and kept hauling me through his apartment until we reached the front door. Before he could toss me on the street, I hurled myself at the door, leaning my whole weight against it to at least temporarily block him from getting the thing open.

He took a look at me, all of five-foot-seven and a hundred and thirty pounds, and gave a derisive snort.

“Yeah, okay, dude, I get it. You can move me. But first can you listen?”

“Suddenly you want to talk? I asked who you were in the bathroom, and you just avoided my questions.” He shook his head in two violent jerks of the chin. “Now you can go willingly, or you can go hard. I can tell you you’re not going to like the second option.”

Oh, so we were threatening now?

Bring it, son.

“I am Tallulah Corentine. I am the North American Rain Chaser, disciple of Seth. I control storms, and so help me gods if you
ever
threaten me again, I will shove a lightning bolt so far up your ass you’ll be sneezing pure energy for a month.
Am. I. Clear
?”

Now he was listening and no longer trying to get by me.

“Seth?” he asked.

“Your father.”

He took a step back, looking dizzy, and braced himself with a hand against the wall. “My father’s name was Julian.”

I shook my head, relaxing slightly now that I knew he wasn’t going to forcibly remove me from the apartment. The last thing I’d expected was that I’d need to play therapist and explain to Leo who his real father was. Demis usually knew.

Where was Sido when I needed her? Who better to explain the situation than Leo’s own half-sister and someone who knew what it was like to have a god for a parent? I had parents I hadn’t seen in twenty years. The only reason I knew they were still alive was because the temple sent them a gift every year on my birthday as thanks for providing them a new Rain Chaser.

I didn’t know if they wanted to see me or if they tried to communicate with me. All interaction between temple brats and their former families was forbidden. Guess they worried we’d go rogue and abandon our positions if we knew our parents missed us or something.

Or maybe they didn’t care. Maybe they were glad to be rid of us.

Either way I didn’t know how to empathize with what Leo was feeling right now. I had no frame of reference for this kind of emotional wallop.

“I assumed you knew.” I touched his bare arm tentatively, assuming he would pull away, but instead he leaned into my palm, still braced against the hallway wall.

“Are you trying to tell me the god of the storm is my father?”

Gently squeezing his biceps, I confirmed his statement with a nod. “He had a relationship with your mother. You were the result.”

“I’m thirty-two years old.” His voice had a faint, pained wheeze to it. “Why am I only finding this out now? Why…why are
you
telling me?”

No kidding, right? Who better to break potentially life-altering news to you than a complete stranger who appeared in your apartment without warning?

“You’re in serious danger, and I’m here to bring you to Seth’s temple. It’s important to him that you’re protected.”

“Now.”

“Yes.”

“I mean why
now
? It’s only important to him that I’m protected now? Where was he twenty years ago when kids were beating me up after school because I had weird eyes? They used to say my mom must have fucked a white guy because why else would I have such light eyes? Where was Seth then, huh? Might have been nice to be able to tell them my daddy was a
god
instead. Fuck.” He shrugged my hand off. “Or when we had no money for food and I was taking care of myself so the people who
raised
me could work double shifts at shit jobs to pay our rent. No, you don’t get to come here now and tell me my real father is a god. Fuck you, and fuck him, and fuck this.”

Yeah, playing therapist totally wasn’t a job I was equipped for.

“Leo, I really don’t know what to say. My parents dumped me at Seth’s temple on my seventh birthday because I was born with his mark. I haven’t seen them since. I have…” I stopped myself short. His emotional outburst had pushed me to a point where I almost said more than I meant to. “I don’t have a family. I don’t have friends. Not normal friends anyway. So I don’t know how to make this better.”

“As if you could fix it with a couple nice words? Lady, you are fucked in the head.”

“Yeah, and you’re kind of an asshole when you’re emotional.”

He pulled himself up to his whole height, projecting menace from every pore. It took him one big step to stand in front of me and look down on me with a menacing glare. His anger was like a weight trying to force me down, but as of this moment I was
done
being pushed around by outsiders. I had enough of that from Seth, and I wasn’t going to lie down and take it.

“Get out,” he snarled.

“No.”

“Get out, or I will throw you off the fucking balcony.”

This guy was a big fan of the physical-violence threats, wasn’t he? Like I was so imposing he needed to resort to convincing me how tough he was. I was totally quaking in my boots.

“I’m not going anywhere without you. Someone wants to kill you, and it’s my duty to make sure that doesn’t happen. Your hurt feelings don’t factor into my job performance. Seth doesn’t care, he just wants you safe.”

“Safe.” He snorted. “Like that matters to him.”

I was already missing the nice guy from the bathroom. That Leo had been a lot more reasonable.

“You’re an idiot. The goddess of death herself wants you dead, and you’re going to cry about your daddy issues. I should let her have you.”

Leo eyed me warily, seeming to weigh the merit of my words. For the first time since I’d mentioned the night road in the bathroom, he looked rightly nervous. “You’re not a very nice person.” The deep, intimidating bass of his voice was gone, and the soft, charming accent had returned.

“No, I’m not. Didn’t you hear the part where I said I don’t have any friends?”

“Not all that surprising if this is your approach to socializing.”

“Are you going to let me help you?” I asked.

“I haven’t decided yet.”

“Then can you at least take me for beignets while you mull it over?”

Chapter Seventeen

My fingers were so coated with icing sugar it looked like I’d gone on a cocaine bender with Pablo Escobar.

Leo, for his part, was somewhere between impressed and appalled while watching me eat.

I got that a lot.

“I’ve seen linebackers who eat less than you. Like…NFL linebackers.”

“I doubt any linebackers you know made a three-hundred-and-fifty-mile trip in five minutes flat. Don’t food shame me.” I licked the film of sugar off my fingers and pushed away my second plate of traditional beignets. After taking a sip of my chicory coffee, I let out a small, contented sigh.

At least now I wouldn’t slap him upside the head without really good cause.

“Yeah, about that…” He toyed nervously with his coffee mug. His big body looked incredibly out of place on the small chair, like he was an adult at a child’s tea party. I’d thought Cade was a big guy, but Leo would make him seem average-sized at best.

We were seated across from each other at a small green metal table at Café du Monde, the air around us abuzz with friendly conversation. Tourists snapped photos of the famous patisserie, and pigeons wove their way under the tables hoping for bits of dropped dough. Judging by their round, feathered bodies they must have done well for themselves on a nightly basis.

I waited for Leo to finish his thought. The last time I’d offered him any information he’d threatened to toss me off a balcony. Maybe that was the godly half of his temperament flaring up, or maybe he was just a shitty dude. Either way I didn’t feel like pushing his buttons again for the time being.

“You said you were on the night road.” He drank slowly and met my eyes. His expression was imploring and needy, but I wasn’t sure what it was he was hoping to get from me. The truth was all I had to offer.

“I did.”

“Were you being metaphorical?”

“No. Hecate told me she’d show me where you were, and she did me one better, it seems, by dropping me right into your bedroom. Sorry about that, by the way. And for all the puking.”

He lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “If I had a dollar for every time a girl threw up after seeing me naked…”

I snorted into my coffee, bubbles of hot chicory water spraying up my nose, making me cough in an incredibly unladylike manner.

As if any woman in her right mind had ever turned him down.

If someone told me his father was Eros instead of Seth, I wouldn’t second-guess them for a second. The man was a brick wall of stud muffin, and if it turned out my first impression of him was the right one, he might actually be a nice guy too.

Deadly combination.

I hoped Seth wouldn’t ruin him.

“You were telling me about the night road,” he reminded me.

Had I been staring? Drooling? Either was possible, but if it was the latter, I could play it off like I was still hungry since he already thought I was a human vacuum cleaner.

“Hecate told me about you. About your time there, if that’s what you’re worried about.” I realized as soon as I said the words that I could have been a bit more delicate about the reveal. Social interactions weren’t my strong suit, and that wasn’t altogether my fault. But I could have played those cards a bit closer to the chest, I suppose.

“Ah.”

“She was impressed with you.” Like this would boost his mood.
Hey, you tried to kill yourself, but at least the goddess of ghosts thought you were a pretty neat guy
.

I really never wondered why I was single.

“Anyway…it’s not the point of all this. She isn’t interested in you, just in me. Getting me here was an efficient way to get what she wanted from me.”

“Which is?” His attention was temporarily distracted by a group of middle-aged women at the table next to us. One of them laughed boisterously, and the purse balanced on the back of her chair fell on the ground. Leo darted in quickly, picking it up and dusting it off. He tapped her on the shoulder and handed it to her.

The look on her face when she saw him was priceless. She thanked him about a hundred times, touching his arm for emphasis.

“It was nothing,” he assured her, blushing sweetly.

When he turned back to me, I saw the woman look at her friends and make a fanning gesture.

I also saw Leo slip a credit card into the breast pocket of his button-down shirt. Smooth like butter. He must have realized he’d been made because he winked and held one finger to his lips in the universal symbol for
shhhh
.