9. Medusa
Medusa
W ith no other credible leads from Bob or his team, Medusa and Perseus found themselves with some free time.
“We may have found someone in Finland, but we’re still confirming a few things,” Bob had said when they called in the morning after the club.
“We’re also checking out your lead from Silas.
But I need you to sit tight for a couple days, there’s no need for you to come all the way back if we need you to go somewhere in Europe.
I’ll let you know when we have something solid. ”
“So, we sit tight,” Perseus had said once he hung up. “Any ideas on what we can do until then?”
“I may have a few.”
For the next three days, they barely left their little chalet, spending most of it wrapped up in each other’s arms, lost in a haze of fucking and sleeping.
She’d never known bliss like this, and her snakelets, too, were quite delighted, though perhaps that was because they didn’t have to stay hidden around Perseus.
In fact, they were so relaxed and content that they even let Perseus touch them one time, with Helios wrapping her tiny body around his wrist and rubbing her head against his palm like a cat.
Of course, between the rounds of sex and sleeping, they somehow found time to eat and find sustenance. While neither wanted to leave the chalet—or the bed—they had no choice but to head to the market after three days as they had run out of food.
“I’ve been too distracted to ask, but now I have to know: how did you learn to cook so well?” she commented as they sat down to dinner on that third evening.
Perseus had pan-fried some delicious rainbow trout fillets in some butter and herbs. She had already set the table and prepared the side salad and potatoes, plus a bottle of wine that had been chilling in the fridge the whole day.
“My family runs the largest seafood import and export business on the Western Seaboard.” He screwed the wine opener into the cork, pulled it out of the bottle, then poured her a glass.
“So I had to learn a thing or two about food. My father insisted we learn how to prepare our products in order to understand and sell them more effectively.”
She took the glass he offered. “How very smart of him.”
“That’s why he’s so successful.”
What about your other father?
The question was at the tip of her tongue, but she didn’t want to ruin the moment. Besides, the one time she asked him directly, he changed the subject.
He only has to say it aloud.
The people who kidnapped her sisters didn’t ask for a lot. It wasn’t like she needed to turn him into stone or hurt anyone he cared about.
She’d thought it was a simple enough undertaking.
When the request from Lord Eros came, she said no initially because she’d never been to the Upperworld, and it wasn’t as if she lacked the clients or needed the money.
The task to make Perseus admit he was the son of Zeus seemed rather absurd, though deceiving the brother of a powerful god’s mate was perilous in its own way.
If Lord Eros found out she had come under duplicitous circumstances, his wrath would surely be immeasurable.
But now, this “easy” task had turned complicated.
She shouldn’t have let their relationship get so far; their connection remained tainted by her deception, and he had no idea how it ensnared them both, like a constrictor’s body wrapped around them, pulling them closer but suffocating them at the same time.
“I see my culinary skills have stunned you into silence,” Perseus remarked as he peered at her over the rim of his wine glass.
She pushed those thoughts aside, something she’d had a lot of practice with the last couple of days. “This smells amazing.” Taking a bit of the tender fish with her fork, she popped it into her mouth. “And tastes amazing too.”
“I thought you should know, Bob just sent me an update while I was cooking.”
“Oh? What did he say?”
“Good news is he says they might be able to confirm the location of another geryon descendant for us.”
“The bad news?”
“It’s not in Finland. It’s actually an island off the coast of Svalbard, close to the Arctic Circle.” He raised a glass to her. “I hope you packed your fur coat.”
“Fur is murder, don’t you know?” she said with a teasing grin. “When do we leave?”
“The jet arrives in about forty-eight hours.”
“So we’ll have two days to ourselves.”
A line appeared between his eyebrows. “Yeah, about that…my brother also just messaged me. He’s here on business and wants to meet before we leave for Svalbard.”
“I see. You should go see him then.”
“Yes, but”—he reached over to take her hand in his and then kissed it—“you should come too.”
She blinked. “Me?”
“Yes. Theo and I are close, closer than anyone else in the family since we grew up side-by-side. I want him to be the first to know about us.”
“Us?” Medusa stifled the urge to swallow hard. “Is there an us?”
“I said we don’t have to name what’s going on between us or nor do we have to rush, but the last few days…” He trailed off, then inhaled a sharp breath. “Surely, you can feel this connection growing stronger, right?”
More like tightening, like the constrictor squeezing its prey.
Or a noose wrapping around her neck.
“Perseus, maybe it’s too early.” Her thoughts turned back to that text message. She’d wasted too much time already. Had she forgotten about her sisters? Each day she delayed was another day they were in peril.
The disappointment in his face crushed her heart. “I see. Maybe you’re right.”
“Perseus, don’t be like?—”
“It’s fine.” His gaze dropped to his plate, and he stabbed a forkful of fish before shoving it into his mouth.
Medusa could sense him slipping away, and desperation clawed at her.
“I’m just saying it’s too soon to introduce me to your brother.
We don’t even know much about each other.
Our backgrounds, for example.” She forced a chuckle.
“I mean, what’s your favorite color? Did you have pets growing up? Do you know if I had pets growing up?”
He paused, then slowly raised his eyes. “Green. And no pets, though I did take the class rabbit home for one weekend when I was in second grade.”
“We didn’t have pets either. Unless you count Claudius.”
He raised one eyebrow. “Claudius?”
“He’s our catoblepas. It’s like a bull with really big horns and a poisonous gaze, but somehow we gorgons are immune to them, as they are to ours.
Traditionally, we kept them around as our beasts of burden, but now they’re more like pets.
Big, stubborn, smelly pets who cause us headaches.
” One corner of his mouth tugged up, so she kept going.
“There was this one time, we couldn’t find Claudius.
He was just gone from the field, probably escaped.
My cousins and I searched all day, but there was no sign of him.
Then, around sunset, he just prances back home, looking mighty pleased with himself, without remorse, even as we scolded him about wasting our time.
He kept doing it. too, for the next couple of weeks. ”
“Did you find out where he was going?”
“Oh yeah. A few months later, we managed to catch him escaping and followed him, about twenty or thirty miles away at a neighbor’s home. He’d been romancing their heifer, Clara, and sure enough, the girl’s got a bun in the oven.”
“And what did you do?”
“What else could we do? We started sending Clara bales of hay and calling it ‘child support.’”
Perseus let out a laugh, and at least for now, the tightness in her gut and chest loosened. But Medusa reminded herself once more of the danger her sisters were in.
All she had to do was make him say it aloud.
It was so simple, and it wasn’t like he would be lying.
Then her sisters would be safe, and she could leave this place and go back to her old life.
That was the plan, right? Her sisters, her cousins, and her entire family were counting on her.
She could not let them down, no matter how she felt.
Though Perseus hadn’t brought up meeting his brother again for the rest of the dinner, Medusa couldn’t help but sense that something had changed between them.
He still made love to her that night after dinner with the same urgency and vigor, but there was something about the way he held her after—not as tight as he did, and he didn’t give her a kiss before going to sleep—that made her suspicious.
A distance was growing between them, like he was pulling away from her.
And waking up alone didn’t allay her fears.
“Perseus?” she called out as she padded out to the living room.
There was no answer nor any sign of him.
However, her nose did detect the faint smell of coffee, so she followed it to the kitchen.
The moka pot was on the stove and still warm when she touched it. Next to it was an empty mug and a note.
Went for a run, be back soon. P
Medusa worried at her lower lip as she poured herself some brew from the pot.
He had never left her alone in bed before.
Usually, he’d wake her up with his mouth or his fingers between her legs, getting her ready for a round of slow, lazy morning sex.
Did her hesitation at meeting his brother make him pull away?
Or worse, did he suspect something?
Wrapping her robe tight around herself, she headed down to the ground floor and made her way outside. Her snakelets protested at being out in the cold, but she ignored them. She wanted to be here waiting when Perseus came back, if only to allay her own anxiety.