Starcrossed (14 page)

After a few moments of getting his breathing right, Lucas rolled his

head to the side so he could look back at Helen.

“I think the worst is over,” he said, squeezing her hand. She

hadn’t realized that they had joined hands, but it felt right to her.

She squeezed back gently and smiled. He looked horrible. Much

worse than Helen could have guessed.

“Piece of cake,” she said blithely, trying to distract him. “So what

are you doing next Friday night?”

“What have you got in mind?”

“We could try hitting each other with cars,” she suggested

cheerfully.

“Did that last weekend with Jase,” he said with mock regret.

“Go to the zoo and throw ourselves to the lions?” she fired back

quickly, desperate to keep him focused on her rather than his

caved-in chest.

“The Romans sort of wore that one out. Got anything original?”

“I’ll think of something,” she warned him.

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“Can’t wait,” he breathed, and then turned his face away as he

rode another shivering wave of pain.

“Hey! Little help?” Helen yelled, her voice sliding up to a shriek

as she watched Lucas shake. “Lucas isn’t doing so hot!”

“No, he isn’t doing so hot,” Cassandra said in a hoarse, bitter

voice from somewhere around Helen’s feet. Helen hadn’t realized

that anyone was in the hole with them while she and Lucas held

hands and cracked jokes, but she had the feeling that Cassandra

didn’t like what she had seen.

“Lower the boards down, it’s time to move them,” Cassandra

called up to her father, as if she was the one in charge.

Helen’s eyes widened in shock that any thirteen-year-old would

speak like that to her elders, let alone be obeyed, but the boards

were quickly lowered down without a word of comment. Jason and

Ariadne eased Helen and Lucas onto the long planks and told them

to hold still. The twins ran their glowing hands an inch above Lucas’s

body, and Helen saw him grit his teeth as they sped up his

healing. Just when she thought Lucas was about to start screaming,

the twins stopped, looked at each other in silent communication,

and then nodded exhaustedly. They had both lost so much

color their cheeks looked gray to Helen, but they also seemed

strangely happy, like nothing gave either of them more pleasure

than helping someone else. Helen tried to thank them, but Ariadne

told her to save her strength.

Helen and Lucas were kept level as they were raised out of the

crater and loaded side by side in the back of the same giant SUV

that Helen had had so many uncharitable thoughts about. Now

that it was her ambulance, she made a silent promise to never rag

on big trucks again.

Castor was behind the wheel and anxious to get moving. The

longer they stayed on the beach the higher the sun got, and the

more opportunity there was for them to be discovered. Cassandra

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came with them, but Jason, Ariadne, and Hector stayed behind to

fill in the crater and leave the beach looking as normal as possible.

“Can’t we just put a lump of rock in the middle and pretend it

was an asteroid?” Helen heard Hector ask, exhausted.

“Do you think that would work?” Jason put in, perking up at the

prospect of seeing his bed an hour or so sooner.

“No,” Cassandra said decisively. “This part of the island is a

nature preserve. There are scientists all over the place. They would

know the rock didn’t come from space.”

Jason and Hector gave identical groans and immediately went

back to work. Again, Cassandra’s opinion went unquestioned.

Helen had always tacitly assumed that Lucas was the leader of the

kids and that his father, Castor, was the leader of the whole family,

but now she thought maybe there was another, less traditional dynamic

at work in the Delos family. When Cassandra spoke, everyone

listened—including Castor. And apparently, Cassandra didn’t

need the influence of the Furies to dislike Helen. Which reminded

her . . .

“I don’t see the Furies!” Helen suddenly exclaimed out loud.

“None of us do,” replied Castor in a pensive voice. Helen heard a

leathery squeak as he twisted around in his seat to look back at

them. “We’ll figure it out later. You two need your rest for now.”

She couldn’t argue with that; in fact, she could barely keep her

eyes open. As soon as she heard the soporific purr of the engine

she nodded off exactly like a fussy baby on a car trip.

She woke up in a big, white bed as the sun was going down. The

room’s window framed the sky, which was doing things with color

that all the island painters had to be going bananas over.

She wiggled her toes. When that worked out okay she propped

herself up on her arms and got into a sitting position. Swinging her

legs out of bed, she realized that she was in someone else’s nightgown

and she wasn’t wearing anything underneath it. She knew

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she was recovering from a near-death experience, but she was still

bashful enough to blush. The nightgown was actually more what

Helen would call a nightie, as gowns were generally much longer

and more opaque. Testing her feet on the floor was enough to wipe

her modesty away, however, and her startled cry was quickly

answered with a welcome helping hand.

“Easy. Here, hold on to me,” said Ariadne. “Wow, I can’t believe

how fast you’re healing. But still, you should lie down for a bit

longer.”

She tried to get her to lie back, but Helen stayed perched on the

edge of the bed and took a few breaths.

“I kinda can’t,” she replied, looking up at Ariadne sheepishly.

“Bathroom, huh? Okay,” she tittered nervously. “I’ll carry you.

Just don’t pee on me.”

Helen laughed gratefully. Ariadne was making an embarrassing

situation as humorous as possible so Helen would feel more comfortable.

It was something Claire would have done. Helen was still

embarrassed, but with a few jokes and little bit of tact, they both

made it through.

“Is it all right if I check and see how you’re healing?” Ariadne

asked politely when Helen was settled back in the bed. “It would

mean that I would have to lay my hands on you, and I want to

make sure you’re okay with that.”

“You just watched me pee,” Helen responded with an embarrassed

laugh. “So, yeah, I’m okay with a checkup. But wait—is it going

to hurt?”

“Not at all. I’m just going to take a peek, not grow cells. That’s

what really hurts you. If it’s any consolation, it’s no picnic for me,

either. So exhausting,” Ariadne said with a smile as she pushed

Helen, making her lie down.

“Okay,” Helen said uncertainly. She rested against the pillows

and waited for the pain that she suspected was soon to follow, despite

Ariadne’s optimistic denial.

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Ariadne put her hands on Helen’s ribs and concentrated. Helen

felt a faint vibrating sensation, like she was standing in front of an

enormous subwoofer, but, as promised, it didn’t hurt at all. After a

few moments, Ariadne lifted her hands and looked at Helen.

“I couldn’t ask for a better patient,” she said with a beaming

smile. “After seeing how much damage you and Luke sustained, I

had my doubts. But you’re going to be just fine.”

“Thank you,” Helen said earnestly. “For the healing and helping

me . . .”

“And thank you for not peeing on me.” Ariadne laughed as a

beautiful pixie of a woman in her late twenties popped her head

around the half-open door.

“You two are having way too much fun to be in a sickroom,” she

said with a mischievous look in her yellowish cat eyes. Helen had a

feeling that those eyes were usually filled with some kind of

worldly mischief, and she instantly liked her for it. It reminded her

of Kate. She entered the room, tinkling like a shaken bag of loose

change. She had short, spiky hair. Helen noticed that her wrists

were buried under layer upon layer of glittering bangle bracelets,

and although Helen couldn’t see them, she could hear that the woman’s

ankles probably had a few bits of jewelry wrapped around

them as well.

“Helen, this is my aunt Pandora. Dora, this is . . .” Ariadne

rapped her fingertips on the bedspread like a drumroll. “The famous

Helen Hamilton!”

“Ta-da,” Helen replied weakly. Pandora sat down on the end of

the bed.

“Gorge-ous! I can see why she’s got Luke’s panties in a twist,” she

said with a cheeky grin.

“No! That’s all done with! We haven’t heard the Furies since we

woke up on the beach,” Helen said urgently. When Pandora gave

her a quizzical look, Helen felt like she had to keep going. “I don’t

want to kill any of you anymore. Just to be clear.”

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“Well, good, ’cuz I hear you’ve got quite the arsenal,” Pandora

said as if she was giving a big compliment. Helen had no idea what

she was talking about so she changed the subject.

“How is Lucas?” she asked cautiously, still surprised that she

could say his name without being launched into a fit of anger. Pandora

and Ariadne glanced at each other.

“He’ll be okay,” Pandora said firmly. She shook her wrists and

sent her bangles into a cascade of sparkles and jingles, almost as if

she believed the cheerful sound would banish all dark thoughts.

“It was close, but he’s healing,” Ariadne added with an optimistic

face. Helen couldn’t look at either of them. The tense moment was

broken by a glugging sound in Helen’s stomach, which lasted for

an inordinately long time.

“Well, you’re hungry,” Pandora said drily. “And I think you might

be able to come downstairs with some help.”

Helen was outfitted with a long terry-cloth bathrobe, which bore

the logo of a popular Spanish soccer team, from Ariadne’s closet.

Then, with a few more jokes about how Helen could use a little fattening

up, she was carried downstairs by her two new patronesses.

When they reached the kitchen, they were greeted with a heavenly

scent blossoming off of the stove, and Helen’s stomach

growled again. Hector heard the noise and cocked an eyebrow as

she was deposited gently in a chair at the kitchen table. He said

something to the woman who was orchestrating dinner, and she

spun around to look at Helen.

“I didn’t think you’d be joining us,” the woman said with a

startled face. “I’m so glad.”

“Thank you. And thank you again for the stuff you sent my father

and me,” Helen said. She knew immediately that this was Noel

Delos, and she could also tell that Noel was a normal woman

without an ounce of demigod strength. A big, bubbling pot of guilt

boiled over in Helen’s chest. She had threatened this fragile human

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in a family of superheroes—threatened her to her son and her

nephews, no less. Noel smiled knowingly at Helen’s penitent face.

“You’re very welcome. Now, first things first. How do I contact

your father to let him know you’re okay?”

“I’d rather keep my dad out of this,” Helen replied nervously.

“You’ve been gone all night and all day. Don’t you think he’ll be

worried?”

“He’s in Boston for the weekend. He won’t be back until tomorrow

night.”

“All right, it’s up to you, but I want you to know I think it would

be better if you and your father had a long talk about all this,” Noel

said with piercing eyes. Then she whirled around and got busy with

dinner. Helen had the feeling that she may have been granted a

stay of execution, but she wasn’t pardoned yet. “Are you ready to

eat now?” Noel asked, buzzing around.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been this hungry,” Helen replied

truthfully.

“It’s the heal,” Noel said, smiling at some internal thought as she

laid down bread, salt, and oil in front of Helen. She poured a tall

glass of milk before gesturing impatiently. “Eat. This isn’t the time

to be shy, Helen. You need it.”

Helen ripped into the bread like a medieval glutton with low

blood sugar. Noel smiled again and asked Hector to go get some

hard cheese out of the fridge. He grudgingly did as he was told. As

he put the cheese down he made a joke about being scared to get

his fingers too close to Helen’s mouth.

“You’re one to talk,” Pandora grumbled. “Just two weeks ago I

had to count the silverware after every meal to make sure you

hadn’t swallowed any of it.”

“You were healing two weeks ago?” Helen asked, and then remembered

that Hector and Pandora had arrived later than the rest

of the family.

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So much had happened in just a few weeks that Helen felt like

every day had telescoped out into a week in itself. As she marveled

at how much her life had changed, she noticed that a silence had

fallen over the kitchen. Apparently, Helen had stumbled on to a

touchy subject because everyone was exchanging nervous glances

over her head.

“Sorry. I don’t mean to intrude,” Helen amended quickly.

“No, it’s fine. It’s just that Hector’s recent heal is part of

something much bigger,” Noel said. “Right now, you eat.”

At first she felt the lingering reticence of a new guest, but as soon