Painted Blind (20 page)

I lay back and closed my eyes. His voice echoed in my memories, but his face didn’t appear. Even in my dreams Eros remained veiled.

There was not a noodle or shred of cabbage left when Dad and I cleared the table. Whatever pamphlet Dad had on anorexia would probably be tossed in the trash. Soon my clothes would fit and my features would soften. Until then, I was enjoying the extra calories.

After dinner I found Dad’s stash of cookies and sneaked the package upstairs. I decided to give the sketch one more shot. I turned to what should have been the first blank page but there, staring back at me, was a perfect sketch of Eros.

He wasn’t angry. His eyes, though only rendered in pencil, were playful and matched the voice I remembered so well. A half smile tugged at his mouth. There was only one word to describe that expression: mischievous.

I’d never seen Eros’s face when he looked like this, and it made me ache. I stood considering the sketch a moment, then looked around. “That explains why Aeas isn’t here,” I said aloud.

One of my cookies disappeared.

I sniffed the air. If he kept his distance, I couldn’t smell him. Aeas must have told him what cinnamon did to me. I guessed Eros was showering at Aeas’s apartment, so he was more anonymous. He didn’t wear cologne anymore either. I would never have known he was there if it weren’t for the disappearing Oreos and the sound of him chewing.

I dug through the drawers of the desk and found a handful of colored pencils. I carefully adjusted the shading on the sketch to accommodate first the flesh tone, then the violet of the eyes. I sat there contemplating the hair color when a light brown pencil rolled away from the others.

He fluffed the pillow and laid his head on it. Then he slid an arm around my waist. Maybe he stared at the ceiling or at me.

I turned the page and started another sketch. Eros lying silently and invisibly beside me was soothing, but I missed his voice.

When Dad tapped on the door a few hours later to say good night, Eros didn’t stir. I thought he was asleep. I went into the bathroom and changed clothes. He wasn’t there when I climbed into bed. Deep sadness pooled in my chest until he leaned down and kissed my forehead. He set my phone on the pillow. A new message was on the screen.

I’ll be gone for a few days. Don’t get eaten by wolves
.

Chapter 21

Three hours before sunrise on Saturday morning I drove with Rory and Aeas to Livingston. There we exited the freeway and went south to Gardiner. This was the north entrance to Yellowstone Park and only a few miles from Mammoth. Mammoth Hot Springs was one of the few areas in the Park that was open this time of year.

I followed Dr. Bonner’s map and found the ridge overlooking the den. It was only ten degrees outside, but we came prepared with layers of winter clothing, shelter tarps and plenty of hot chocolate. An outdoor stakeout wasn’t my idea of adventure, but if we could fill that darn basket in one morning and be done with the task, I was willing to sit in the snow for two hours until the pack woke hungry and ready to hunt.

Wolves were unpredictable. Sometimes they hunted at night, but they could just as easily hunt during the day. They didn’t obey a set schedule, so our best chance of seeing them leave the den and not return for a few hours was right at dawn. As the light broke golden across the horizon, we heard a low howl and saw the first black wolf emerge from the den.

He wasn’t the alpha. That male was gray, but the black wolf was regal and alert as he made his way around the den’s opening, sniffing the air and the ground. This was why we were perched on a ridge a hundred yards downwind. One sniff and we would be given away.

The second wolf to emerge was the lone white in the pack. Beside me Aeas drew a breath. “Beautiful,” he murmured.

“She may be beautiful, but we don’t want white fur,” I answered. “We want gray.”

“Plenty of gray,” Rory replied as the rest of the pack sauntered out of the den stretching their legs and yawning.

We watched for another forty minutes as the wolves milled around. The younger ones playfully sparred in the snow. At last, the largest of the pack, a gray we identified as the alpha male, threw his nose into the air and let out a howl. Rory turned the binoculars to a distant meadow.

“Buffalo,” Rory murmured. “Maybe half a mile out.” He handed the binoculars to Aeas, who turned them on the herd.

“Well, let’s hope they put up a good fight. It won’t take the pack long to cover half a mile when they’re finished eating.”

“We’ll be quick. The basket isn’t that big.” I was trying hard to forget about the unsteady pounding in my chest. Wolves looked much more vicious in real life than in Dr. Bonner’s photo album.

The pack galloped through the woods toward their buffalo breakfast, and we jogged down the hillside to the den. I slid off one glove and clutched the pepper spray canister in that hand. It was a few hundred yards to the stream. The gurgle of the water told us we were heading in the right direction. The trail tunneled beneath a twisted blackberry bush, and there the bush had taken on a knotted, furry skin. From a distance, it looked like mold, but it was the winter coats of the pack, brushed off their backs each time they shimmied under the thorns heading for water.

Aeas dropped the basket at the opening, and we switched winter gloves for heavy leather ones. The bush tugged at our clothes as we gleaned the silver fur from its branches.

“No black or white,” I reminded them. “Only gray.”

We filled the basket, packed it down and filled it some more.

“That should do,” Aeas said finally. “Even Theron must admit this is full.”

“Then let’s get out of here,” Rory said warily.

“Don’t you want to see the stream?” I asked. “We’ve come this far. When will you ever be in this part of the park again?”

“Sorry, don’t care. I don’t want to be here when the pack comes back,” Rory replied.

“It’s only been half an hour. I’m sure they’re not in that big a rush to come home.”

“Let’s just go, Psyche,” Aeas answered.

“Okay, fine.” We started back toward the den. Rory took the lead and moved swiftly up the trail. Aeas followed carrying the basket. I brought up the rear. We moved through the trees toward the ridge. Just as we started the ascent, I felt the hair on the back of my neck prickle. From behind me came a guttural growl. Armed with pepper spray, I turned slowly. One member of the pack had stayed behind. It was a yearling male. He lowered his head and bared his teeth. His youth and size made him no less a threat. He was hungry.

“Bad doggie,” I whispered.

A tuft of fur on the back of his neck rose, and he growled again.

Aeas stopped. I heard his heavy breathing behind me.

“Not so pretty now, is he?” I murmured. I backed another step away from the wolf, who crouched. I didn’t wait for him to pounce. I opened fire with the pepper spray.

The dog’s sensitive nose took the hit. He sneezed, yelped and rubbed his nose in the dirt. Then he pawed at his eyes and tried to rub them in the dirt, too.

I gave Aeas a shove. “Run!”

We ran up the ridge and all the way to the car. Rory dived into the back seat. Aeas hopped in shotgun with the basket on his lap. I jumped into the driver’s seat and locked the door. Like a wolf could open it. We sat there listening to each other panting, then Rory erupted into hysterical laughter.

“That was too close,” Aeas muttered without so much as a smile.

Chapter 22

We stopped at a café in Gardiner for breakfast. The only other customers were two old men sipping coffee at a table in the corner. Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” blared through the overhead speakers, and a waitress stood at the counter rolling silverware into napkins. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee and frying bacon drifted through the air. Suddenly I was starving.

A sign instructed us to seat ourselves, so we took the window booth farthest in the back. Gold tinsel-garland had been taped around the window, and red balls hung from the top section. A sticker on the menu advertised eggnog and mincemeat pie through the month of December. I scanned the breakfast section, already knowing what I wanted.

The waitress came to our table carrying a coffee pot. She wore a plush Santa hat and had cork-screw curls that framed a narrow face. “What can I get for you today?” She gave Rory and I a quick glance, then her gaze settled on Aeas and stayed there.

Aeas, however, was preoccupied punching out a text message.

After taking Rory’s and my orders, the waitress lingered over Aeas. She gave him a pretty smile, but he didn’t look up to see it.

“Bacon and eggs, please.” His fingers continued moving over the buttons of his phone.

“Do you want hash browns and toast with that?”

Aeas nodded, pressing send on his message. “Yes, and orange juice.” He glanced up briefly and gave her a polite nod. “Thank you.”

The waitress grinned and blinked. “You’re welcome.”

While we waited for our order, the reply to Aeas’s message beeped through. He frowned at his phone and looked up. “Are you well rested?” he asked me.

“What kind of question is that?” I replied.

He waited.

“I guess,” I answered.

The waitress returned balancing our orders on her arms. She set a steaming plate of pancakes in front of me.

I poured huckleberry syrup on the stack with slow precision. “We got up early this morning, but overall, I’ve been sleeping better.”

“Of course you have,” Aeas murmured and began typing out the reply.

“You are looking better these days, and you’re eating.” Rory unwrapped a set of silverware. “Why is that?”

I shrugged, and Aeas gave him a sideways glance but didn’t answer. Rory didn’t appreciate having things withheld from him, but the fact that Eros was visiting me by night was none of Rory’s business. I wasn’t willing to share one moment of that time with either of them. Rory would assume, erroneously, that Eros and I spent our nights intimately. Aeas understood the magnitude of such an act for Eros if not for me, and while he probably wondered if we let our passions get the best of us, he was happy being ignorant.

The waitress lingered over Aeas’s plate until he looked up and met her eyes. “Can I get you anything else?” she offered.

“No, thank you.” After she returned to the kitchen, he excused himself to the restroom.

“What would that be like?” Rory stabbed a sausage. “Girls falling over you everywhere you go.”

“It’s not as great as it seems.” I should’ve been more compassionate, but I was tired of Rory’s self-pity and his jealousy. It wasn’t Aeas’s fault he was beautiful any more than it was mine. It wasn’t Rory’s fault he had acne. We all had cards we were dealt, and we played our lives with them.

He chewed bitterly. “Yeah, right. And he’s only fifteen. Think of what it will be like when he’s twenty.”

“Five hundred years from now?”

Rory’s jaw went slack. “I never really thought about that.”

My phone beeped the arrival of a text message. I was happy to see the now-familiar number of Eros’s cell phone. Aeas slid into the seat across from me as I opened the message.

Well done. Aeas has a message for you.

I looked up. “What’s going on?”

“He knows the final task already, and he’s preparing.” Aeas started to cut the bacon with a knife and fork, but I tapped his shin with my foot and made him use his fingers. With a shrug he relented. “We,” he said, motioning to himself and Rory, “aren’t allowed to accompany you. The task will take awhile, so you’re to make an excuse to your father. You need to meet Theron early in the day, so you’ll have time to complete as much of the journey as possible the first day.”

“Journey?” I set my fork down.

“I don’t know where,” Aeas added.

“How long am I going to be gone?”

He shrugged. “I’m waiting for instructions. Most likely I’ll get them after you see Theron.”

It would be mean of me to leave a second time and not tell my dad, and if I didn’t even know how long I would be gone or if I was ever coming back for that matter, what could I tell him? I hated hiding all of this from Dad.

My appetite waned. The thought of meeting Theron was enough to make me lose my breakfast without a dollop of deceit on top. I turned to Rory gravely. “If I can’t complete the task, and Theron really does kill me, you have to tell my dad the truth.”

“Me?” His eyes widened. “What about him? Let the demigod explain your disappearance.”

“Psyche, now is not the time for doubt,” Aeas said without emotion.

“Well, we ought to have a plan B just in case. I don’t want to be some face on a missing poster whose parents never know what happened. You guys know what I’m doing. Someone has to be honest with my dad if I can’t make it back.”

“We wouldn’t leave him wondering if you were never coming home,” Aeas said finally. “It won’t come to that.”

“I’ll be in the car.” I scooted out of the booth and left cash on the table. “We’re wasting time that I’m probably going to need.”

I sat alone in the Subaru and dialed my home phone number. Dad was at work and wouldn’t get the message until tonight. “Dad,” I said, “I know you’re going to be mad at me for taking off again, but there’s something I have to do. I wish I could tell you more, but you already want to have me committed, so…” I sighed. Finding the words was harder than I thought it would be. “I love you. I hope you know that. I’ll come home when I can.” I hung up as Rory and Aeas came out of the restaurant.

“Will he check your story?” Rory asked, knowing I had just called home.

I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll be halfway to who-knows-where before my dad gets that message.” It saddened me more than I wanted to say. My dad was a decent guy. He deserved better than this.

The dashboard clock read 9:40 when I pulled into the driveway at Theron’s house. Through the window I saw that furniture had been delivered since my last visit. It was trendy and perfectly placed, probably the work of a professional designer. I wondered if he would use the property as a lure for college girls, and the thought made my insides twist. It was a monumental injustice that someone so despicable would live almost an eternity.

I rang the doorbell, and an aging, butler-type person answered the door. I had never seen a household with a butler. It was beyond weird. “I need to see Theron.”

He gave a short bow. “Just a moment, please.”

When Theron appeared in the doorway, he was wearing faded jeans and a ribbed sweater that hugged the contours of his muscular body.

I offered him the basket without a word of explanation. There was no disputing it as completion of the task.

“Come in.” He lifted the basket from my hands.

“I saw enough of your house the last time I was here.” I tried to hide the fear in my voice. It was hard to look him in the eyes.

Theron set the basket on the ground, then crossed the living room to the fireplace, where he took something from the mantle. It was a small wooden box with an intricately carved rose on the top. A tiny gold lock held it closed. He offered it to me.

As I inspected the box, Theron pulled a card from his pocket and held it out between two fingers. Printed on the card was another set of coordinates: 28.7573°, 82.8588°.

“I’m to go to this location?”

“At high noon one week from today, Aphrodite’s associate will be at that location. If you are there, he will lead you to the woman who has the key to this lock. Inside is your reward. He will not wait for you. If you’re late, you fail.”

“Anything else?”

“No other companions may accompany you beyond the meeting point.” Theron looked over my shoulder and glared viciously at something across the lawn.

“And when I complete the task?”

“
If
you complete the task, we’ll know.”

We didn’t exchange parting pleasantries.

I climbed into my car ready to zoom home and Google the coordinates, but a text message rang through:
Go to the airport, private hanger #3.
Apparently I didn’t need to know where I was going, and I was leaving immediately.

The airport was only a few miles away. The clouds hung low and threatened more snow, but the roads and runways were clear. I parked outside the gate and jogged to the hanger, where I found an ultra-long range, high-speed business jet waiting.

True to Eros’s anonymous nature, the jet had no markings but a stylish black stripe down the side and its model, Global Express, stenciled under the cockpit window. The engines were warming and the stairs were down awaiting passengers. I had a hard time believing this was all for me until I saw Aeas jogging toward me with a duffle bag in his hands. He met me halfway to the jet. The bag in his hand was mine, and it was only lightly packed.

“I thought you weren’t coming with me?”

“I’m not. Here are some clothes.” From his jacket pocket he pulled out a wad of cash, which he put into my hand. “In case there’s something you need that we missed.”

“Where am I going?”

“Nepal.”

“
Alone?
” Europe was one thing, but Nepal? Did people in Nepal even speak English? I had no idea where the coordinates would lead me. “What about my passport? I don’t have a visa.” I unzipped the duffle bag and placed Aphrodite’s box inside.

“It’s being taken care of.”

“It takes months…”

“Money goes a long way in a country like Nepal.”

How silly of me. Eros would just bribe someone to give me a visa today, and I would land tomorrow.

Aeas moved me toward the plane. “Titus will fill you in once you’re in the air.”

“Who’s Titus?”

A young man appeared at the doorway of the jet. He was dark haired and uncommonly beautiful. He found me on the beach in Italy and carried me into Aphrodite’s palace. He returned me to the mainland after I signed my life away with these tasks.

I stopped dead. “Absolutely not! He’s one of Theron’s men. I’m not going anywhere with him!” I set my jaw obstinately, knowing full well that Titus could hear me over the hum of the jet engines.

Aeas took my elbow and turned me away from the plane. “When Titus returned to the Fortress, Theron beat him so severely that he abandoned his post and sought refuge in Eros’s kingdom.” He threw a glance over his shoulder and continued. “He told Eros about the tasks. Eros offered him a place in his household, but Titus refused to swear allegiance to Eros. Psyche, he’s sworn his allegiance to you. He’s your servant and bodyguard now.”

“Why would he do that? I’m a mortal. I don’t belong to your world.”

Aeas shrugged. “I serve Eros before anyone else. Eros said I would be useless to you on this journey.”

“Eros decided he’s sick of me, and Titus is going to murder me before we land?”

Dragging me toward the stairs of the jet, Aeas replied, “I assure you he will not. He knows what punishment awaits him if he murders his mistress.” When I balked again, Aeas grew irritated. “You’re wasting time. Go.”

Finally I trudged up the steps, but Titus had disappeared. He was probably veiled in a corner sharpening a knife. I tossed my duffle bag on the floor by the first leather seat.

The customized interior of the jet was nothing short of spectacular. From nose to tail the Global Express was nearly a hundred feet in length. Just under half of this was the cabin area. At eight feet wide and six feet four inches tall, the cabin might seat eighteen passengers, but this jet was partitioned to accommodate very few people. There were six leather chairs at the front of the cabin, then a narrow hallway through a full bath. At the back of the plane was the luxury stateroom, though I could see only part of it through the open doorway.

I sank into one of the leather chairs as the steps folded up and the cabin door closed seemingly on its own. Into the com system Titus murmured, “Package aboard. We’re ready for take-off.”

“Roger that,” was the pilot’s response. The “Fasten Seatbelts” sign lit at the front of the cabin, and the engines thundered.

“Titus,” I said, testing his obedience, “show yourself.”

Immediately he appeared, mid-stride as he moved to a seat across the aisle. “Lady?”

“Cut the crap, will ya? It’s Psyche.” I ignored the smirk he tried to hide with a bowed head. “What’s in Nepal?”

“The Himalayas.”

I swore without meaning to. “Of course, she’s sending me up Mt. Everest. Experienced climbers die trying to summit.”

“No, it isn’t Everest. The coordinates are farther west. It’s in the mountains for sure, but the location is at an altitude of only 4550 meters, about 15,000 feet.”