Starcrossed (35 page)

and placing a long lock behind her shoulder. “Sorry I was late.”

“Don’t sweat it,” she said, her voice still shaking with fear. She

took a deep breath to steady herself and pulled herself together.

“You messed him up pretty good. I’ve never seen Creon bolt from

a fight like that before,” Lucas said with admiration.

“I just softened him up for you.” She couldn’t resist smiling at

him, even though she knew she’d spend hours rethinking and regretting

it. “Did I miss anything while I was out?”

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“Just a trip from there to here,” he said, pointing over his

shoulder then to the counter. “And a quick call to Jason for

backup.”

“Lennie!” Claire shrieked frantically as she barged through the

front door. She gasped at the knocked-over furniture in the foyer.

“In here. Don’t freak out, I’m all right,” Helen called out to Claire.

Then she saw Lucas’s questioning look. “It’s okay, she knows some

of it,” she told him. She pushed him back so she could jump down

off the counter. Claire came in first, followed by Jason, who looked

like he was ready to strangle her.

“Sorry, Luke. I was at her place looking for Helen when you

called. I tried to come alone but Five-Two latched on to my arm

and wouldn’t let me go without her,” Jason growled, nearly tearing

his hair out in frustration.

“Um, excuse me? But she’s my best friend and I could tell

something was up,” Claire snapped at Jason. “How could this have

happened? You just flew out my window, like, two seconds ago.”

Claire grabbed Helen in a hug.

“You know about . . . stuff?” Jason asked, surprised, not sure how

much he should say.

“I told her,” Helen admitted as she pulled out of Claire’s enthusiastic

hug and rubbed her sore neck.

“But I’ve always sort of known. I just thought she was undead or

something,” Claire said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Believe

me, I’m much happier you’re all part Greek god instead of

part something disgusting like bat or wolf or mosquito.”

Jason and Lucas shared a look over Claire’s head. Helen explained

what had happened as quickly as she could while Lucas

took Jason outside to look at the tracks, but it was too late to try to

follow Creon. They came back inside with grim looks on their faces

to find Helen and Claire had switched the lights on to assess the

damage in the entryway.

“Are those pieces of a knife?” Claire asked.

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“Yeah. He kinda stabbed me in the heart,” Helen said tentatively,

not knowing how Claire would react.

“You can still do that? Stop blades?” Claire asked, unsurprised.

“What about the lightning thing? Can you still do that, too?”

“How do you know all this about me?” Helen sputtered. Claire

sighed.

“After I pushed you off the roof . . .” she began.

“After you what?” Lucas yelled.

“It was when we were seven! And she wasn’t hurt!” Claire yelled

back. “Anyway. I knew about the knife thing because, well, I tried

to stab you once, too,” she continued bashfully. “But I already

knew you’d be fine because of what happened with Gretchen and

the scissors in second grade. Remember?”

Helen grimaced. “Oh, yeah! Gretchen and the scissors! She really

was trying to kill me, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah, she was. She was crazy jealous of you. But I never wanted

to hurt you, I just had to be sure I wasn’t losing my mind. It was

scary, you know?” she asked apologetically.

Helen smiled, forgiving her instantly.

“I guess I can’t blame you. But how’d you know about the

lightning-bolt thing?”

“Remember when we were nine, we were going off island on the

ferry to see the Boston Aquarium, and that creepy guy with that

huge gut kept trying to talk to us? Remember how he kept ‘accidentally’

bumping up against you and stroking your hair?”

Helen did remember, even though she had spent a lot of time trying

to forget. There had been that horrible smell of burnt hair, and

the empty look in his eyes. Helen nodded, shivering at the thought,

and dreading where Claire was going.

“Remember how he just disappeared suddenly before we docked?

Well, he didn’t just disappear. He tried to grab you, Len, and I saw

an electric spark jump from you to him. It blew him right off the

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deck of the ferry. It looked like lightning, except it came out of

you.”

“I think I killed him,” Helen whispered, needing finally to admit

what she had done.

“Good! He was a child molester! You should probably get a

medal,” Claire insisted. Helen looked at Claire’s earnest face. The

man probably did mean to do something terrible, but did that justify

frying him?

“First, you don’t know that you killed him. Second, it was a reflex.

Whether he deserved to die or not isn’t the point. You

shouldn’t feel guilty about something that was done in self-defense,”

Lucas insisted. He touched Helen’s shoulder. She moved

away from him uncertainly, not knowing how to feel. Luckily,

Jason changed the subject.

“So you’ve always known she wasn’t entirely human,” Jason said

to Claire with a wry smile. “Didn’t that ever bother you?”

“I was a little worried she might try to drag me off to hell and

drain my essence at some point, but I figured that was still better

than having Gretchen for a best friend,” Claire said with just

enough honesty to get a laugh. “Plus, I don’t know if you’ve noticed

or not, but this island is full of white people. Not exactly easy growing

up Japanese here. But with Lennie around I always knew no

matter how strange I was, she would always be way stranger. So

that was nice.”

“And you never told anyone else over all of these years? You never

mentioned it to someone when you were little, even by accident?”

Lucas asked skeptically.

“Come on Lucas, I’m not stupid! I saw E.T., you know, and I

know what the men in the white coats did to him and Elliot,” she

replied with a disgusted look on her face. “I’d never tell on Lennie.

Or you, for that matter.”

“Thanks,” Lucas replied, a little confused by the alien metaphor.

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He and Jason shared another look, and this time there was obvious

admiration in their eyes.

“You know what I don’t get?” Helen asked, changing the subject.

“Why can she be around when I do Scion stuff but it doesn’t affect

me? All of these times she saw me use my powers over the years,

but I don’t remember ever feeling pain in my stomach.”

Helen explained her mother’s curse to Claire, but no one had an

answer to her question. They turned their attention to cleaning up

as best they could before Jerry got home. Claire offered to stay with

Helen for the night, in case she was too freaked out to sleep alone,

but Jason nixed that idea right away.

“And what are you going to do if Creon shows up again? Throw

your pocketbook at him and give him a piece of your mind?” he

said shaking his head. “Uh-uh. I know you two are like sisters, but

you’re not staying here.”

“I’ll stay. You take Claire home,” Lucas said, quietly assuming

control before Claire could start another argument with Jason.

“Let me know if you see anything around her house.”

“Right,” Jason said with a nod as he guided Claire toward the

door.

He didn’t seem surprised that there might be something dangerous

lurking around Claire’s house, but Helen and Claire were.

Helen lifted her arm to stop them from leaving, suddenly terrified

again. It was night and any shadow could have Creon inside it.

Sensing Helen’s fear, Lucas intercepted her hand and held it

tightly.

“Jase can handle it,” he told her confidently.

“Wait, what do you mean, my house? My parents are home,”

Claire said, her anxiety resurfacing as well. “You don’t think the

guy who did this . . .”

“Don’t worry,” Jason said with a sensitivity he usually reserved

for everyone in the world except Claire. “I’m not going to let anything

happen to you or your parents.”

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“Thank you,” she said slowly, looking a bit surprised that she had

any reason to say those words to him.

She turned and waved at Helen, who thought to herself that the

impossible had just happened. Claire had finally run out of nasty

things to say to Jason. Helen shut the door behind them and took a

deep breath. Then she glanced over at Lucas, and prayed to a pantheon

of gods that looking at him would get easier someday.

“You look tired,” she said, realizing it was true as she said it.

“So do you. I hear you’ve been having a lot of nightmares,” he

said back, completely unashamed to admit he was asking his cousins

about her.

“Why do you care? Please, Lucas, just go away,” she begged, rubbing

her face with her hands.

“I can’t. I won’t,” he said, moving forward and pulled her into his

arms.

She felt too fragile to fight him off. She melted into his chest and

rested there for a few moments.

“Why do you smell like the ocean?” he said suddenly, pulling

away from her to get a better look. He studied her bedraggled

clothes speckled with sand, and asked suspiciously, “What

happened to you today besides Creon?”

“How is that fair?” she demanded. She pushed him from her with

a bitter laugh. “If I lie to you you’ll know, and if I stay silent you’ll

assume something worse than the truth.”

“Then just tell me as much or as little as you want,” he said

quietly, stepping away from her to allow her some personal space.

“But tell me something. What happened?”

“I was dodging practice because I couldn’t bear to see you. Hector

found me hiding on the beach, I got in his face, and he nearly

drowned me to teach me a lesson in humility,” she blurted, tears of

exhaustion brimming in her eyes. “Then I went to Claire’s to cry on

her shoulder and tell her I was a Scion. Then I flew home, where

Creon attacked me, tried to break my neck, and stabbed me in the

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heart. You pretty much know the rest. Now I just want to take a hot

shower and lie down because I’m freezing cold and itchy and I

don’t think I can handle anything else happening today.”

“Okay. You go shower,” Luke said, nodding tightly as he stepped

out of her path. “I’ll wait for you in your room.”

Helen staggered up the stairs and ran into the bathroom. She got

into the shower and began to cry. Sitting down in the tub with the

spray fanning out all around her she couldn’t stop the tears any

longer. She tried to be as quiet as she could, and hoped that the

droning rush of water would mask the sound of her crying.

When she finally got it all out she dried off, put on a sweetsmelling

tank top and pair of sweatpants fresh from the laundry,

and went back into the foggy bathroom to finish her evening ritual.

As she flossed and brushed her teeth, she heard her dad come

home and turn on the TV in the living room. She went to the top of

the stairs and shouted a good night down to him. He grunted a

good night back, but he was too engrossed in the Red Sox race to

October to start a conversation. Helen went into her bedroom.

Lucas was waiting for her in there. When Helen saw him, lying

on top of her covers fully dressed with his shoes kicked off, she

stopped and stared at him from the doorway. He was too long for

her little-girl bed, but even so he looked just right lying in it. He

stared back at her for a moment before he swallowed painfully, lifted

up the covers, and motioned for her to get in. When she

paused, caught between arguing that her father could walk in at

any second and asking him to take his clothes off, he spoke.

“I only have so much willpower, Helen,” he whispered. “And

since you apparently sleep in the most ridiculously transparent

tank top I’ve ever seen, I’m going to have to ask you to get under

the covers before I do something stupid.”

The blood rushed to Helen’s face, and she immediately crossed

her arms to cover her chest. She ran and jumped under the covers.

Lucas just laughed and folded the comforter up over her as if it

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were some uncrossable line that would magically keep the two of

them from doing “something stupid.” As she snuggled down, he

wrapped an arm around her and rubbed his face into the back of

her neck.

“No need to be embarrassed. After seeing you in my cousin’s

nightgown, you’ve got nothing to hide. But why were you crying in

the shower?” he murmured into her hair. She could feel his lips

moving against her scalp, and feel the press of his hips through the

covers, but his arms were an unyielding cage. She tried to turn over

to face him, to welcome him under the covers with her, but he

wouldn’t let her.

“I was crying because I’m frustrated! Why are you doing this?”

she whispered into her pillow.

“We can’t, Helen,” was all he said.

He kissed her neck and said he was sorry over and over, but try

as she might, he wouldn’t let her face him. She began to feel like

she was being used.