CHAPTER 8
The Mercedes peeled away as if the driver hadn’t just hit a man. She raced to Cooper’s side, scraping both knees as she slid on the pavement. “Cooper? Please be okay… Cooper?”
He groaned. Thank the gods.
“I need to call 9-1-1.” She patted her pockets. Her phone. Shit.
Lia scanned the dimly lit parking lot. Finally, she spotted it on the ground at the curb near the back of the theater. “I’ll be right back.”
She started to stand, but Cooper grabbed her wrist, the strength of his body heat surprising her. It didn’t burn, but it also wasn’t comfortable. She turned back to find him…glowing.
Lia dropped to her knees again, her heart racing. “Cooper? What’s happening?”
He didn’t reply. His eyes closed, and tremors in his muscles vibrated all the way up her arm. She glanced at her cell, wishing she could stretch far enough to reach it. Dammit.
Suddenly, her knees started to tingle. She shook her head, a tear spilling down her cheek. “No. Don’t you dare heal me while you’re nearly unconscious in my parking lot.”
His voice rumbled, his eyes were still closed. “Let me be your Guardian.”
“You come first, right now.” Her voice cracked as she noticed the blood seeping out from under his head. “I’ve got to call 9-1-1. Now.”
His eyes opened, and the light radiating from him intensified. “I can’t…contain…it… Too…much power.”
Cooper’s body shook, seizing the way it had when he had brought Reed back to life. Lia struggled free of his grip on her wrist, about to race for her phone, but Cooper went still.
Eerily still.
“Cooper?” She cupped his cheek. He was burning up. “Wake up, Cooper!”
He didn’t move. She stumbled to her feet and raced for her cell. With trembling fingers, she opened the screen and called 9-1-1.
“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” the operator asked.
She knelt at his side again as Cooper stirred.
“Hit and run.” She gave them the address as she rushed back to his side. “He needs an ambulance.”
His eyelashes fluttered open, and his blue eyes met hers. “I’m okay.”
She shook her head. “No, you’re not.”
“They’re on the way,” the dispatcher said. “Can you find a pulse?”
“He’s conscious.”
“Keep him still until the paramedics arrive. He could have a neck injury.”
He rested a big hand on Lia’s thigh. “My neck is fine.”
She rolled her eyes and answered the dispatcher. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t move.” The line went dead. She looked at her phone and then at Cooper. “Great. My battery just died.”
He took her cell from her shaky hand. “We need to talk before the fire department gets here.”
“Okay.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “You were…you were glowing like a human nightlight.”
“I was?” He tried to look around. “Sorry about the flowers.”
For the first time, she noticed the daisies and sunflowers that were littered around her parking lot. “Were those for me?”
“Yeah.” He started to sit up, but she pinned his shoulders. “No moving, mister.”
He covered her hand with his. It wasn’t hot anymore. “I’m fine.”
“You were hit by a car, glowing, and burning up like the sun on a summer day. Then you had a seizure. None of those things equal fine.” A smile crept up on her. “You’re the paramedic here. You should know the definition of fine better than I do.”
He chuckled and winced. “Okay, I’m a little sore, but whatever was broken is mended now.”
She sat back on her feet. “You’re a horrible patient.”
“First responders always are.” He glanced at her legs. “How are you knees?”
She rolled her eyes. “I haven’t checked, but I’m guessing I won’t even have a bruise.”
“Good.” Sirens sounded in the distance. “We don’t have much time.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “I think the light I saw today was Apollo.”
“Like the Apollo?”
He nodded. “Sounds nuts, but I think so.”
A fire truck pulled into the parking lot, followed by an ambulance, bathing them in red and yellow lights. “I don’t think he understands I’m human, but if I can’t figure out how to make him understand, he’s going to kill me while he tries to help.”
Lia glanced over at the fire crew and paramedics. “That’s why you were so hot.”
“I think so.” He swallowed. “How am I going to explain my broken skull being healed already?”
“Miracle?”
He groaned. “We work in science, not miracles.”
“You have a better answer?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “You can’t tell them a Greek god healed you before they got here.”
The paramedics rushed over with a kit and a gurney. Lia stepped back to give them room as they went to work taking his vitals. Two police cars rolled in, and a uniformed officer got out and headed her way. Then a familiar face got out of the other car.
Nate instructed the officer to secure the crime scene and came over to her. “Are you all right?”
“Shaken up, but we’re alive, so I’ll put it in the win column.”
He looked at Cooper and the floral debris. “Your date?”
“My Guardian.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Does he know?”
“Yeah.” She shook her head. “I don’t think he realized how dangerous a job it would be.” She met Nate’s eyes. “He’s the paramedic who saved Reed at the fire. Seems his ability is healing.”
Nate dropped his voice low. “So he healed himself?”
“I’m not sure,” she said. “He thinks he had help.”
Nate pulled out his notepad and jotted down a couple of things. “Tell me everything you remember.”
Ted’s adrenaline rush hadn’t lessened much as he drove home. Bryce parked the Mercedes in Mikolas’s garage right where they had found it. They’d both been wearing gloves so there weren’t any fingerprints in the car, and they’d grabbed the Kronos masks before they left.
Everything had gone according to plan, except that they hit the paramedic instead of the muse. But maybe he was one of the Guardians from the prophecy. If they managed to eliminate a few more Guardians, it would be easier to get to the muses.
Either way, the mission was successful. Nothing would implicate him, and Mikolas could very well be in prison without bail by morning.
Ted parked his car and went inside.
“Is it done?”
He spun around to find Pamela in his kitchen. The lights were out, but she had a candle and two champagne flutes on the counter.
“How’d you get in here?”
She plucked a glass from the countertop. “This was your father’s beach condo while you were away at college. You apparently never changed the locks.”
He put his keys in the dish by the door and headed to the kitchen. He wasn’t sure if he was more unsettled or turned on by her surprise appearance in his condo.
“I didn’t realize my father gave you your own set of keys.” He took the second glass.
“Oh, he gave me whatever I wanted.” She took a slow sip of champagne, her dark eyes on his face. “I hope you’ll follow in his footsteps.”
“I’m not my father.” He knocked back a mouthful of champagne without savoring it, aching for the numbing buzz.
Her lips curved into a sexy smile. “I can see that.” She came closer, running a red fingernail up the buttons of his shirt. “Did you get me what I asked for? Is another muse dead?”
“Not yet. But once you encourage the Order to reinstate me as leader, you’ll have it.”
“You don’t give me orders.” She placed the crystal flute back on the marble counter, all traces of her smile gone. “I answer to only one being in this world: Kronos. No other.”
He moved in, sliding his free arm around her waist. He drew her to him, her curves igniting his senses like a wildfire. “We want the same thing, Pamela.”
Her breath teased his lips. “Do we?”
“Yes,” he whispered, aching to taste her.
Pamela ran her finger along his jawline. “Tell me.”
“The muses will die for killing my father.”
“And to punish theirs.” Her words were a caress, and then her lips fused to his.
Cooper glared at the fluids dripping into the IV, but there was no escaping it for now. His miraculous recovery was already raising eyebrows. The less fuss he made, the sooner he’d get out of there.
Lia dozed beside his hospital bed. God, she was beautiful. If his birthmark hadn’t burned so much, he wouldn’t have made that phone call to ask her to wait for him. His gut clenched at the thought of that car hitting her instead of him.
Her heavy eyelids fluttered. She stretched, her breasts pressing against the fabric of her shirt. He glanced down at his hospital gown. Another part of him was apparently uninjured.
She propped one of her elbows on the edge of his bed, her chin resting in her palm. “We’ve got to stop having these hospital dates.”
He chuckled. “I told you I was fine.”
She reached for his hand with her free one. “Do you think they’ll let you go when the morning crew gets here?”
“Probably after morning rounds. I don’t have any broken bones and no sign of a concussion.”
She lowered her voice. “I called Callie while you were getting the MRI and told her about the visit from Apollo. She’s a psychiatrist for the Navy. Anyway, she thinks she could hypnotize you, and it might allow you to communicate with Apollo in a safe space.”
“Yeah, if he could give me fewer seizures, that’d be great.”
She lifted her head, her laughter sounded like bells chiming. Damn. He wished he were funnier so he could make her laugh all the time.
Lia grinned. “So you’re willing to give hypnosis a shot?”
“What do we have to lose?” He pulled her hand up to his lips, his gaze locked on hers. “Would it be breaking some Guardian rule to take you out on a real date? What do you like to do when you’re not making people laugh?”
Her expression warmed. “Well, I always look forward to playing poker with the ladies at Blessed Mary’s Village.” She bit at her lower lip. “And…”
“And?” He waited, slowly realizing that he wanted to know everything about her. Her favorite song, favorite color, all of it.
“And I love playing games,” she said.
“Like other card games?”
“All games.” A flush of crimson crept up her neck, coloring her cheeks. “But I get super competitive. So never mind. It’s probably not a good idea.”
He caught himself grinning. “I’m a pinball wizard.”
Her jaw dropped, a spark in her dark eyes. “I love pinball.”
“Then it’s settled. When they discharge me, we’re going back to The Luna Brewery for a pinball tournament.”
Her smile was dazzling as she rose from her chair and brushed a tender kiss to his lips. She drew back but not too far. “Winner gets—”
“This is all I want.” He pulled her back in for another kiss. Her lips were soft and addictive.
She took in a slow breath, her eyes meeting his. “And if I win?”
He caressed her cheek. “What do you want?”
“I’ll tell you if I win.”
He shook his head, baffled to find himself smiling again. “Guess I’ll never know, then.”
“You’re that confident you’ll beat me?”
He brought his other hand up behind his head. “Oh yeah.”
She crossed her arms, but she couldn’t hide the sexy twinkle in her eyes. “Pretty cocky, Mr. Hanover.”
“If we’re going to trash talk with last names, I need to know yours.”
She ran her hand up his thigh. “That’s Ms. Youlos to you.”
He caught her wrist before her hand could get higher, his blood pumping south at a rapid rate. “Ms. Youlos, you’re going to have the nurses racing in here to check my heart monitor.”
Her gaze wandered down to the tent his body was starting to pitch under his hospital gown. When her eyes met his, her voice dropped to a breathy whisper. “Maybe we can get your pulse rate up after I kick your ass at pinball.”
He shook his head, laughing. He hadn’t laughed so hard in a long time. “Hope you’ll still want to after I win.”
She brushed her lips to his forehead, treating him to an up close and personal view of her cleavage, and whispered, “We’ll both win, no matter what the score is.”
Damn. Maybe he’d let her win, just to end the game as quickly as possible.
He glanced at the clock, willing time to move faster. He couldn’t get out of there soon enough.