My Date From Hell (21 page)

Festos swooned. “A man who gives looks like
that
.”

“Back to the plan,” Kai began.

I cut him off. “Look. Not only do I still have to complete the final challenge from a trickster god to get a dingbat goddess off my case, I have to do it in a tiny window before having to defend myself from stalking you off school property and begging not to be expelled. Not to mention everything else on my plate.”

“Stalking?” Kai asked.

“Bethany lies,” Theo said.

Kai nodded. “Ah.”

“So,” I continued, “if I want to take a moment to enjoy two cute boys falling in love, then we will all be supportive of the fact that I am finding the bright side and looking upon it. Got it?”

Kai just grinned. “You’re very cute.”

I narrowed my eyes. “We talked about this. I’m not cute. I’m deadly.”

“And cute.” He waved at Theo and Festos. “Stare away. I’ll wait.”

Theo frowned. “Now I feel like a zoo animal.”

“Here,” Festos said, “watch this.” He grabbed Theo and planted a hard, hot smooch on him. When it was done, Theo stepped back, a little dazed. “You good to go?” Festos asked me.

“Oh yeah,” I said, fanning myself.

“Life, so much saner before you came back,” Kai said.

The back door swung open. The crazy chessboard had replaced Deuk’s backyard.

My Theo and Festos happiness dissolved at the thought of Jack and what was going to potentially happen to Hannah. I felt awful for having stopped worrying about her for even a second.

Theo stepped through with a low, “Me first.”

Again, we were much, much higher up. The foyer looked tiny from here. Jack awaited us under an archway.

Without breaking stride, Theo stalked up to Jack and decked him in the jaw. Hard.

Jack staggered backwards and glared at Theo. “I did warn you,” He rubbed his jaw. “Greek. Gift. Sacrifice. Facing Deukalion was all those things.”

“Pretty tenuous hold on your self-righteousness, Jack,” I shot back. “Next challenge.”

Jack wasn’t done yet. He ignored me, speaking to Theo directly. “Sadly, you chose to throw the fight instead of battling properly. That will cost you.”

The door at the top somehow rushed down toward us again to reveal Hannah, still bound and terrified.

I gasped as the gold blade swung toward her neck, stopping just short of it. Hannah gave a muffled scream. The door once more rushed away. We heard it shut with an ominous thud.

My vines came out before I could stop them.

The cold expression on Jack’s face gave me pause. “You sure you want to do that?”

I wanted to obliterate him. But he held Hannah, and if I failed … I recalled my light.

“Smart girl.”

The expressions on Theo’s, Festos’ and Kai’s faces showed they felt the same as me. Had Jack not so obviously held Hannah’s life in the balance right now, I knew all three of them would have taken him on. They were furious.

“One more strike …” Jack said back in game show host mode, as if the tension of a second ago hadn’t happened. “And one final challenge. Queening.”

It was a pretty telling indication of how mad Festos was that he didn’t “insert joke here.” Even Jack looked a bit surprised.

“That means what?” I felt impatient to get this whole thing over with so I could tackle the rest of my ginormous to-do list.

I was out of time and patience for gods and their devious games.

“The promotion of a pawn to a queen,” Jack replied.

It was my turn. But I wouldn’t give Jack the satisfaction of seeing even a flicker of unease on my face.

“Nothing?” Jack shrugged. “Ah well. Have fun. And no taking the easy way out.” Once more, he disappeared.

This time, we’d barely taken four steps before a door opened and we were sucked through.

No problem. We had this.

I should have remembered that Jack was the God of Tricksters. And what he had up his sleeve this time was masterful.

We were back in the foyer of Hope Park.

Back on the familiar scuffed red and white tiles, with the noticeboard that no one ever bothered to read.

Bethany greeted us, in a short, slinky gold dress, with hair and makeup that looked like a team of experts had worked on it for hours. Which, knowing Jack, they may have. All the better to pimp her out for Kai. Pinned to her bodice was a small, black crystal broach in the shape of a crown.

“Welcome, bitches,” she said. “You’re going down.”

She put her fingers in her mouth and gave a loud whistle.

Students began to trickle in. Oddly, they were also dressed up in satins, flouncy dresses, and suits, if not totally glammed-out like Bethany.

Wait. Why was Theo
—
now cleaned up
—
also in a suit? As were Kai and Festos. Was this another illusion? Because I still wore my stupid tunic.

I’d had so many head trips that I was losing my ability to make the return trip to reality.

“Just in time for the dance,” Theo muttered. “Goody.”

Crap. The winter formal. With a horrific realization, I understood our final challenge. “He wants me to be crowned Winter Formal Queen,” I said quietly, so Bethany couldn’t hear me. “And I haven’t even run. How am I supposed to trump Bethany and the adoring masses dying to anoint her?”

“Devious enough for you
now
?” Festos muttered at Kai.

“It’s a start.” He kept his gaze firmly on Bethany, who tossed him a flirty smile.

I could have killed her. Literally and totally. But Jack had said I couldn’t take the easy way out. Funny how in this messed up world of mine, cold-blooded murder was now the easy way.

I wasn’t willing to risk the potential consequences to Hannah’s safety if I didn’t follow his stupid rules exactly, so win that crown it was.

I stepped closer to Kai and slung an arm around his waist, very clearly marking him as my territory. Kai shot me an amused smile and returned the gesture.

Good boy.

It was icing on the cake that Bethany so clearly hated it. She stepped forward to poke me in the chest. “Back off my boyfriend, skank.”

I wrapped another arm around Kai. “Nope.” I glanced up at him. “Break up with her. You can’t have another girlfriend on our date.”

Kai struggled not to laugh. “I was never dating her, Goddess. That was your assumption. You really need to quit making those about me.”

My eyes narrowed at Bethany. “It was more misinformation perfectly planted.”

Bethany didn’t need to respond, because a sufficient number of students had appeared for her nefarious purposes. She coyly batted her lashes and spoke to them. Nay, commanded. “A little favor, you fabulous fans.” They all gazed at her devotedly. “Get the gay, the gimp, and the fashion victim. But leave Kai for me.”

On Bethany’s nod, they swarmed us. Oh, look, she’d remembered she didn’t need to touch them to make them do her bidding.

I lost track of my friends as I was swarmed. Hopefully, they’d gotten away.

The first hands reached out to pull me under their trampling feet.

Jack was a bastard. This was Theo’s dilemma squared by infinity. Jack knew I wasn’t going to use my powers on my classmates, but Bethany would absolutely use hers.

It should have seemed like I was screwed except as they closed in on me like the stinky pubescent drones they were (you could dress ‘em up but you couldn’t wash ‘em off), I realized I could use Bethany’s power too.

“Bethany!” I cried in a voice of utter concern.

A hand slapped over my mouth, making the rest of my sentence mumbled gibberish.

Fingers that had been who knows where were stuffed inside my mouth.

I shuddered. It was beyond gross.

I bit down as hard as I could, hoping that goddesses were immune to rabies.

As soon as the fingers jerked away, I yelled, “She’s hurt!”

Nothing. “Bethany,” I glowered at Bella, who’s hand was reared up in claw mode, about to strike. “Help her.”

As I predicted, those stupid kids were as keyed to Bethany’s wellbeing as I was to Kai’s. Word of her “condition” rippled through them and en masse, they turned to check she was okay.

“Don’t listen to her,” she snapped.

The distraction allowed me to shove my way through the crowd and race down a hallway. I could hear music in the gym. The dance had started off with some mild rap. Was I glad I didn’t have to watch the guys pretend to be all gangsta. That was always such a treat.

I collided with Principal Doucette. Was he under Bethany’s influence now, too? Bethany had obviously amped up her hold, given the student body’s behavior. I’m sure at Jack’s request, but willingly none-the-less. How far did her control extend? And what a timely reminder it was of how dangerous she’d be if exposed to the world at large.

“We have to stop meeting this way,” I joked, both testing the waters and hoping Doucette would let me go.

He frowned as he looked me over. “Where have you been?”

Uh-oh. Had he learned I’d been missing?

I realized he was staring at my feet. I glanced down.

I’d totally forgotten that I was still in Jack’s too-short tunic and bare feet. The picture of a relapsed, runaway drug addict.

Perfect.

I managed a weak smile. “It’s a funny story …” I trailed off because it wasn’t funny and it also wasn’t a story I could share. “I lost a bet to Theo.”

Doucette’s eyes narrowed and he held up a hand to cut off anything else I might try to explain. “I don’t want to know. It’s Winter Formal and Bethany wants everything perfect for her crowning.”

Damnation! Doucette
was
part of the Bethany madness. I wondered if Jack had given Bethany’s mojo a bit of a boost. Just enough to complicate this challenge for me, since I couldn’t see Doucette mindlessly falling under her spell otherwise.

“Besides which,” he continued, “you have a very important meeting to attend tonight, so I suggest you go clean up.”

My eyes bugged out in shock. “Tonight? No! It’s tomorrow.”

He shook his head. “Felicia is leaving for Europe on a red eye. The only time she can make it is this evening during the dance. At 10pm. You’ve got two hours.”

Seems I’d spoken too soon before.

Now
things were perfect.

Perfectly screwed.

Seventeen

Eyes blazing, I ran back to my room. I’m amazed I didn’t waste the school in a giant temper tantrum. What was the deal with Felicia? Some people had an ESP sixth sense? That woman had a “screw Sophie” sixth sense. Unbelievable.

I was determined to take two minutes max to throw on the first thing I could that prettied me up. Except when I got there, I took five.

I knew Hannah’s life was on the line, but I also knew that if I didn’t look like I was happy to be here, Doucette would turf me out of school at the meeting. So I shimmied into my best dress.

A birthday present from Hannah, it was hot pink, with a fitted strapless bodice and full skirt in a tutu pouf. The dress had a fine purple mesh overlay with a large purple flower off-center on the waist. It was girly and flirty and so, so pretty.

I even threw on sparkly flats. No heels for me. I could barely walk in them, never mind run, and I wanted to be able to get myself out of any situation as fast as possible.

Quickly, I gathered my hair up into a twist, pulled a couple of strands down in front, and stuck a purple flower barrette in it.

A quick wipe of face and pits, some mascara, a swipe of shiny eyeshadow and shimmery lip gloss, and I was good to go. Now I looked like any ordinary girl about to attend her high school formal. Doucette wasn’t bouncing me out based on appearances. Or Bethany’s orders.

I raced down the stairs and yelped as a hand pulled me into a classroom.

It was Kai. He broke into that wolfish grin of his as he checked me out. “You clean up very well,” he said.

He did, too, in his perfectly tailored black pants and suit jacket. But his ego was big enough. Compliment not necessary. “This was not for you. It was for Doucette.”

“Something you wanna share, Lolita?”

I groaned in disgust. “So I look like everyone else and he doesn’t want to expel me at the meeting, which is now in less than two hours.” Kai admiring me was just a happy bonus.

Kai’s expression darkened at that news of our new deadline, but his eyes warmed as he appreciated me. “Goddess, you could never look like everyone else.” The combination of admiration and heat had my toes tingling.

At that moment, I wanted nothing more right then than to be that totally slutty chick who made out with her boyfriend in a classroom during a dance. “Right idea. Wrong time,” I thought aloud.

Kai shook his head, coming toward me slowly. Stalking me. “Very right time.” His voice was tight.

I backed up, thunking into the wall, and still he prowled toward me, his eyes hard and glinting.

Screw it. One kiss couldn’t hurt. I grabbed his lapels to pull him closer as he braced his arms on either side of my head. “One kiss,” I breathed.

Given that we didn’t break lip contact the entire time, technically, yes, it was one kiss.

Kai looked as mindwhacked as I felt when we pulled apart.

A flash of frustration crossed his face. “The crown first. This … later.”

“Okay,” I agreed happily, with only the teensiest bit of anxiety as to what “later” might entail. “Have you seen Theo and Festos?”

Kai shook his head.

“Any thoughts on how we do this?”

“I’m guessing taking your classmates out so there’s no voting population besides us is not on the table?” he asked.

I hesitated. Yeah, of course it wasn’t, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t fantasize about it for a second. Because under Bethany’s spell, they were just so irritating.

Kai’s lips quirked in amusement. “Bloodthirsty, I like it. Okay, we steal the crown.” His hands crept up my sides. “I have very nimble fingers.”

“Don’t make this harder for me than it is.” I pushed him away. “We have to win it. Otherwise, Jack will say we cheated and Hannah will die.”

“
You
have to win it,” he pointed out.

“How am I supposed to do that? Bethany’s charmed everyone to vote for her.”

“Stage a coup.”

I scrunched up my nose. “Would it work? With the entire school magicked into her?”

Kai massaged my shoulders. “We’ll stop her. One crisis at a time.”

No wonder Jack was the God of Tricksters. This entire quest to kill the campaign had been one tricky mess after another. Having Bethany as his very willing partner-in-crime only made things that much harder for me.

I arched my back as Kai’s fingers dug into one particularly sensitive spot, my knee almost jerking out in amazing sensory overload. Ooh, yeah. That relaxed me quite nicely.

Kai chuckled.

“Let’s find the guys then figure out how to overthrow her majesty.”

Someone jiggled the door handle from the outside. Kai put a finger to his lips and silently propped the outside window open. We jumped out.

It was freezing, especially given what I was wearing. “You know, Jack and Aphrodite really deserve each other.” The coast was clear. We raced around to the back of the school where, thankfully, we found Theo and Festos.

“I wanted to fry that skinny bag,” Festos said, “but ‘the gay’ wouldn’t let me. Nice dress.”

I gave a little curtsy. “You too, handsome. And check you out, Rockman. I can almost see why Fee thinks you’re cute.” Nah, I could totally see it.

Theo ignored me. “Much as I’d love to be Bethany-free, someone would notice she’s dead.”

Festos nodded. “Yeah. And breathe a sigh of relief.”

“Especially since everyone, and I do mean everyone, is under her influence.” I let them absorb that. “But for the challenge? Any
—
ooph!”

A loud BOOM! and the ground rumbling beneath us flung us all sideways.

The Gold Crushers and Infernorators were back, hammering at the wards.

Kai pulled me to my feet.

Theo turned to Festos with an evil grin. “Should we go meet them?”

“Oh indubitably.” Festos’ eyes hardened. “Stay here, kidlings.” The two of them headed toward the back fence.

“They’re leaving the wards?” I asked, incredulous, as the assault on the school continued.

Kai glanced up at the minions and then down to the two of them. “They’ll be fine.” He didn’t sound convinced. “Stay close!” he yelled after them.

A wave from Theo was the sole indication they’d heard us. I had to trust that they could handle themselves because time was running out for me to win that crown.

Before I could put any kind of idea into play, Anil tackled me to the ground in a bear hug. I landed hard on my right shoulder, all his weight on me. But not for long.

Kai lifted the poor dude up and flung him across the field. He crumpled like a rag doll fifty feet away.

I ran toward him, but only got about three steps before Kai pulled on the back of my dress. “I wouldn’t advise it,” he warned.

“It’s Bethany, you dolt,” I said, twisting around in his grasp. “She did this.”

His grip tightened. “She only amped up what was already there.”

“So he has a crush on me? So what?”

Kai let go of me and spun me to face him. “You were going after him. I’ve told you before, Sophie, don’t play jealousy games with me.”

I put my hands on my hips. “Don’t you dare pull that caveman act on me. I’m not going to be ordered around or dictated who my friends are. And Anil is my friend.”

Which oddly enough, had become true.

Light started to spark from Kai’s fingers. His eyes went totally black.

This was way over the top on the overreacting scale. Had Bethany done something to him, too?

No. Aphrodite’s arrow. He looked as crazed as I had felt when I wanted to kill Artemis.

Talking wouldn’t help. I rose up on my tiptoes and kissed him. Hard.

I didn’t know if it would actually work, but what a great test.

“Better?” I asked. Kai’s eyes had returned to their regular brown, which was good.

He stared at me, clearly unimpressed. “I’m rethinking the ‘no deicide’ rule. Aphrodite and Jack are really pissing me the hell off.”

“Good. I’ll help. Meantime, I have to check on Anil. Can I do that without you killing him?” I brushed the dirt off my dress.

His jaw clenched but he nodded.

I patted his cheek. “Back in a sec, my Prince of Darkness. Better still, go scout. Find Bethany and/or the crown.” I headed across the grass to Anil.

“Are you all right?” I asked him as he got to his feet.

He laughed. “Nothing a little duct tape won’t cure. I’m a wrestler. This ain’t no thang. Like one time
—
”

I held up a hand. “Don’t share.”

Before I could come up with some lame explanation for Kai’s actions, Anil took a step toward me, hands outstretched. “You look amazing.”

I took a step back. “Are you going to grab me again? Because I’ll fling you off myself.”

He laughed.

O-kay. If he wasn’t even curious about
how
Kai had managed to fire him across a lawn, it was probably safe to assume he wasn’t thinking clearly. “Do you want to go find Bethany?”

Anil frowned. “Why would I want to do that?”

Was I wrong? “Why indeed? Can you do me a favor?”

He looked a bit too eager. I felt bad.

“Go hang out somewhere quiet for the next hour? Please. And don’t ask me why.” I wanted him safely out of range of whatever might go down. Hope Park was supposed to be a safe haven. I had a terrible feeling that Kai throwing Anil might be the least of the harm my classmates would experience if I didn’t successfully complete this challenge and stop Bethany and Jack. Neither of them cared who they hurt in their quest to get what they wanted.

Anil took my hand. “What do I get in return, Bloom?”

I glanced over my shoulder nervously to make sure Kai wasn’t there, but he’d left. “My undying gratitude?”

“Not enough.”

A sudden noise made me pivot. More classmates. They swarmed us, picked me up, and began to carry me away, Anil still holding my hand and keeping pace. “Hey!”

Anil single-mindedly ignored my protests. “A date. With me.”

“You do see I’m being carted away, yes?” I slapped away the hands that were pawing at my dress.

“Yeah. To our date.”

Was this a spell? Or was Anil finally snapping into stalker mode?

The mob entered the school on the dorm side and jogged up the stairs. My head bobbed furiously, since these kids didn’t have a smooth system for toting hostages.

“Anil, listen to me. Forget anything Bethany has told you. Remember? ‘Doggy Style’ ain’t your thing?”

“B ain’t so bad. She set me straight on how you feel. I feel the same way. Tonight is about you and me, babe.”

And twenty-five onlookers. Bethany was such a bitch. She’d been able to manipulate Anil because he wanted it to be true. And while he maybe shouldn’t have believed her, it wasn’t his fault for wishing otherwise.

I felt terrible that my desire for friendly flirting had also played a part in this. I vowed to get out of it with the least possible damage to Anil. Physical and emotional.

I tried to raise my head and see where we were going since all the ceiling tiles looked alike, but one of the minions yanked my hair down, restricting my view. “How about a raincheck?”

“Nope,” he said cheerfully. “It’s now or never.”

Given the circumstances, I was willing to bet that “never” meant “do it or you die.”

“In here.” He led the students into his dorm room and motioned for them to set me down.

My first thought was that Anil was startlingly neat. My second was that I was in his room with the way out guarded by nine students and Anil was lighting a Santa-shaped candle in a misguided attempt to set the mood.

No wonder I’d never seen him with a girlfriend. One day, he and I were going to have a little talk about what girls really wanted, but until then …

I rushed the door.

The minions surged forward and threw me back toward the bed. I cracked my head on his wall.

Good thing I tended to heal fast because I’d been bruised far too much today.

“Not there.” Anil led me to his desk chair. “Sit.”

I crossed my arms.

He hit me with a killer smile, that combined with how well he filled out his suit, in any other circumstance (and without Kai’s existence), would have made me crush on him. “I dig the stubborn, girl. But I know your weakness.”

If he knew Kai was my weakness, why taunt me with him?

From outside his window, lightning snapped furiously as booms of thunder shook the grounds. I squinted into the dark hoping for a glimpse of Theo or Festos but all I could see were the evil fireworks.

Anil snapped his fingers. The door opened wide enough for a plate with a piping hot pizza to be passed through. He set it in front of me with a flourish.

“Dinner is served. And afterward,” he motioned at his laptop, “I have a most excellent selection of flicks for your viewing pleasure.”

Oh, the irony. I’d bitched to Aphrodite about a proper date with dinner and a movie, and lo and behold, here it was.

After a fashion. Except wrong time and definitely wrong guy.

I stood to leave.

“Anil. Let me out or I’ll hogtie your butt and stuff it in your closet.”

He chucked me under the chin. “You’re cute when you’re mad.”

That did it. I quickly calculated the number of bodies versus the square footage of the room, realized I had no clue what any of that meant, and opted for wrapping the door guards up in my vine and sweeping them out of the way so I could get out of there.