Deer in Headlights (Hearts and Arrows 1) (Good god series) (17 page)

This ends now,
was the thought that consumed him as he stamped his hooves and charged the foolish man, his heart beating so fiercely with triumph and vindication that he felt he could rule the world.

Apollo pushed open the doors of Ares’ chamber with such force that they slammed against the marble walls, shooting a crack up the slab like lightning. Ares stood near the window, wiping blood from his face with wild eyes, his hair mussed and streaked with gore. His skin shone with a sheen of sweat and blood, and he smiled a wicked smile when he saw Apollo.

“He was not to die, Ares. You made a promise, an oath, you traitor.” Apollo’s voice boomed, echoing off the walls, and his skin glowed yellow-white.

Ares had the boldness to smirk. “Yes, well, I could not help myself. I promised I would punish him, but I never promised to let him live. I have not broken the oath, only bent it. The opportunity was too sweet to let pass.”

Apollo bared his teeth, screaming as he rushed Ares. Ares caught him when he neared, flipping him around to lock his arms behind his back in a swift, single motion.

“Ah, ah, ah,” Ares said through his teeth as Apollo struggled against him. “Now, remember who you are dealing with. What is done is done.”

He whispered, “I will not forget this, Ares. Never.” Apollo burned brighter and brighter until the light was blinding, and a scream ripped from his throat. A pulse of light shot out in a ring with a boom.

Ares dropped Apollo, shielding his eyes against the white light as it receded into Apollo, whose chest rose and fell with his heavy breath.
   

“I do not expect that you will.” Ares folded his arms across his broad chest. “Nor will I. I am indebted to you. You have given me a way to rid myself of a foe who has long been protected from me, and for that, I thank you.”

Apollo stood, dumbfounded and furious, staring at his betrayer for a long moment before turning on his heel and flying through the halls to his chambers.

As he paced his quarters, he tried to sort through it all, marveling at his foolishness. He should never have trusted someone so villainous, so nefarious. No, he should have handled the matter himself, because he was in the most precarious position, all because he had been so rash as to trust a snake.

And now … gods. Poor Aphrodite. I am to blame.
 

His heart sank as his anger fell away, and guilt pressed down on him as the consequences of what he had done came into focus. She had committed an act against him, against his son, and she deserved to be punished. But so severely? Apollo did not want him dead, only damaged, though at that moment, he wanted no retribution. His only wish was to turn back the clock.

She would never forgive him.
 

There was little he could do, other than offer her the comfort of blame. He would tell her what he could, which meant he would have to convince her that he killed Adonis. He wondered over how he could persuade her, thanking the gods that he was an actor.
 

The natural thing to do would be to act as Ares would — haughty and vengeful. Apollo straightened himself as he pushed aside the brush in the clearing where Aphrodite sat in the grass. Adonis lay in her lap, gray and still, and she wailed, her blood stained face wrenched in pain as Apollo began the longest ruse of his immortal life.

LEX FIDDLED WITH HER pencil as she stared at a blank page in her notebook, trying to concentrate. For the fiftieth time that night, she shifted on her stool, comfortable for only a second. Lex laid her pencil down in the crease of her notebook and rested her head on her hand to stare out the window.

It was the first night that she had to work since she’d started going to practice, and she didn’t want to be sitting in the quiet bookstore. Not when she could be curled up on the worn couch at the warehouse.

She wondered what he was doing, pictured him as he performed, thought about how she couldn’t keep her eyes off him. And how she should have been watching Travis.

The bell on the door dinged as it opened, and Lex jumped, relaxing when she saw Kara glide in. Kara walked up to the counter and leaned over to rest her forearms on the surface.
 

“You look absolutely thrilled to be here tonight.”

“Does it show?” Lex inspected herself for clues.

“Like a blinking neon sign. With an arrow.”

Lex’s phone buzzed on the counter with a text from Travis.
 

Meet at The Crow Bar at 1030? Band is going, text Kara?

She raised an eyebrow and passed her phone to Kara.
 

“Ooh, yes.” Kara’s face lit up. “I even wore my favorite shirt, see?” She shoved her boobs together with her arms to demonstrate.

“Classy.” Lex looked at her phone. 9:56.
Perfect
. She texted him back.
 

Just have to close up, c u there.

Kara plopped her enormous bag on the counter and pulled out her compact mirror. Her dark hair fell over her shoulders as she reapplied her lipstick.

Lex packed up her things and made her way around the store, flicking off lights and putting away books and magazines that were left out. She slung her purse on, grabbed her keys, and locked up, pausing to laugh at Kara making a duck face at her reflection in the shop window as she shimmied her boobs around in her bra. Lex slipped the keys into her bag and buttoned her jacket up against the cold.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Kara asked as they headed toward the subway entrance.

“Talk about what?”

“Don’t play dumb, Alexis. Mister Mesmerizing?”

Of course she knows
. She sighed. “He’s just so … I mean, you’ve seen him.”

“I have. He’s so pretty, it almost hurts to look at him.”

“Right? It’s practically criminal.”

“For real. His panty moistening skills are off the charts.”

“Gross.” Lex side-eyed Kara, deadpan.

“Seriously, Lex, does he light the fire of desire in your lady cave?”

Lex cackled, and both girls broke into giggles. “Oh, my god, Kara. I can’t believe you just said that.”

“Really? You’re
really
shocked?”

“No, actually. You’re right. I’m not.”
 

They walked in silence for a moment. “He’s a serial manwhore. You know this,” Kara said.

“Can’t a girl lookie-no-touchie?”

“I don’t know. Can you?” Kara laughed at her. “I saw you stripping him down to the tube socks with your eyes. You want to eat the man candy. With your mouth. On his—”

“Okay, okay. I get it. And yes, I do, but I won’t. I have a boyfriend.”

Kara shoved her hands into the pockets of her military jacket and turned to Lex, amused. “Do you think said ‘boyfriend’ sees your flames of passion for the Panty Wizard?”

Lex snorted. “God, Kara. No, I don’t think he sees it. I just don’t know what to do about me and Travis. I think I might need to leave him, but I’m afraid to hurt him. I mean, clearly it’s over, right? Does that make the decision for me if I’m lusting after a stranger?”

“I don’t know, does it?”

“You’re no help, you know that?”

“Yes, I do. Would you ever date Dean?”

“How would that work? The guy’s never even had a real girlfriend. He’s a quitter. Plus, he’s Travis’ bandmate, the same one that keeps boning drummers’ girlfriends. And anyway, why are we still talking about this?”

“Hey, you started it.”

“No I didn’t, asshole. You did.”

“Come on, let’s go get drunk. That’s sure to breed good decisions.”

Dean leaned on the old saloon bar as he waited for his drink. He loved the Crow Bar, not just because they had some great, little-known acts that played there, but because of the creepy circus look they had. He stood next to a taxidermy jackalope posing on its hind legs, its antlers stretching up into the darkness.
 

The bartender turned to him, her flapper dress swinging fringe as she slid his drink across the bar to him. The tall, red feather in her beaded headband waved at him as she tipped her head in acknowledgement.

He walked under old, beaded chandeliers and past a long wall of taxidermy crows mounted alongside old sepia photographs of Siamese twins and other carnival oddities. Dean paused at the stage backed by worn, red velvet curtains to watch the blues band that played there.

An old man sat on a stool behind the microphone with a standup bass player and a drummer on a trap set at his back. His coffee-colored skin gleamed with a thin sheen of sweat under the stage lights, and his gray hair peeked out of his porkpie hat as he crooned into the microphone and played his guitar, his voice gravelly and raw.
 

A small breeze pushed by, smelling faintly of flowers.
Roses?
His brow quirked as he turned toward the door.

Lex.

He was rooted to the spot, realizing distantly that he was staring. Lex set her bag down on the bar and pulled off her jacket to hang it on the back of a chair. Her tight jeans hugged her hips and lean legs, and knit socks peeked out of the top of her knee-high motorcycle boots. She looked like she could kick your ass, or kiss you, or both, and any would be fine. Her shirt was shorter in the front than the back, exposing a sliver of the snowy skin at her navel. He drew a breath.

She was always in his thoughts, in the dark of night as he tossed and turned, when he was riding the subway or writing. Everything he’d written since he’d met her was inspired by her.

And that was just when they were apart. When they were together he could barely function, his thoughts entirely consumed by her. The closer their proximity, the worse it was. It was baffling, especially given that he didn’t even know her. He’d barely even talked to her. They had only spoken a few times in passing, since it seemed both of them were actively avoiding each other. But every time they spoke, he wanted to know more, and it was getting harder and harder to walk away.
 

Dean didn’t understand how Travis didn’t see it. Roe definitely did, and Lex’s friend seemed to notice too. He’d even felt a pang of jealousy when he overheard Travis talking to Kevin about Lex and images of them together flashed through his mind. Dean couldn’t stand the thought of Travis’ hands on her, and couldn’t stand that he couldn’t stand it.

He was in so deep, he felt like he was drowning.

There was something about her. Part of it was probably because she was obviously trying to shut him down, but she was always giving him the look, though he knew she didn’t realize it. But even though he could see that she wanted him, she wasn’t pursuing him. Maybe that was the appeal.

But it wasn’t just that, and he knew it.

Lex smiled at a bartender in a bowler hat and suspenders, and he smiled back, his handlebar mustache quirking as he handed her the drink she ordered. She took a sip and turned to watch the blues band. The singer’s eyes were closed as he poured his heart out into the microphone and it spilled out of the speakers, into her.
 

She felt eyes on her and scanned the room to find Dean standing at the edge of the dance floor, watching her. A thatch of black hair had fallen into his eyes that were locked on to hers, and he ran his hand through it to put it back in place. Her heart raced as she gave him a small smile.

Remembering that the whole animal attraction thing they had going on was ridiculous, she tried to push her thoughts away. It took more willpower than she was comfortable with not to walk across the room and kiss him.
 

She felt spellbound, like she’d been hypnotized. Like Mina and Dracula, as if he’d somehow infected her, and logic and reason no longer applied. Ultimately, she didn’t get it and was torn because even though she knew she should stay away, she was equally fascinated, dreading and anticipating every chance she had to see him.

Lex had watched him at the warehouse a few days earlier before practice, bent over his black notebook with his long legs slung over the arm of an armchair. His face was bent in concentration as his pen flew across the page. She knew that look. It was the same look she wore when she wrote and sketched.
 

After the first practice, she downloaded all of their music and had been listening to it in a compulsive loop, finding that she understood his words somewhere in a part of herself that she didn’t speak to very often. Lex kept that little voice tamped down tight, only letting it out to write and draw.

Kara brushed her arm, and Lex shook her head, cursing herself as she broke the laser eyes she and Dean had on each other.

 
“I see Dean is here.” Kara waggled her eyebrows at Lex, linking their arms to pull her toward the pool tables. As they walked past Dean, Kara cat-called, “Hey there, hot stuff.”

Dean didn’t take his eyes off of Lex as he took a drink to hide his smile. Lex’s long eyelashes almost brushed her eyebrows as she looked up at him, her cheeks pink, a smile in the corner of her rosy lips.
 

A battle of will, indeed
, he thought as he took a long pull of his drink.

Lex and Kara set their drinks and bags down at a wobbly bar table near where Roe and Travis played pool. Behind them, Kevin was attempting to play darts with his face screwed up in concentration. He wasn’t having much luck. Mostly, they hit the board sideways, if they even got close. His skinny frame was clad in skinny jeans, Chucks, and a t-shirt that said
Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful, hate me because I’ll kick your ass at Street Fighter.