Chapter 6

~ Kris ~

We spent the remainder of the day, and the entire next day, making the basement a habitable sanctuary. While Alec, Lillian, Isatan, and I swept and scrubbed our lives away, Nathan and Permna gathered the necessary gadgets for the look-out posts they planned to establish on the top floor of the hotel.

Far too many hours passed by with Isatan barking out orders, and I was one “you shouldn’t do it like that” away from accidentally spontaneously combusting him.

“Natural leader my ass,” I grumbled as I took the towel in my hands to the dirty wooden table in front of me.

“What about your ass?” Alec chuckled as he came up beside me. He made a show out of tilting his head to the side to examine my behind before lifting his eyebrows in approval.

I hurled the towel at his head. He caught it easily, and hopped up onto the table with a laugh while I grabbed another one.

“You know . . . I’m kind of in the middle of cleaning that,” I pointed out.

“Who cares? What’s he going to do?” Alec jutted his chin across the room in Isatan’s direction. “Yell at us some more?”

“Good point,” I muttered. But I didn’t stop wiping the table around Alec. If I was expected to eat off of it at some point, I wanted it to be clean.

I felt his eyes on me as I moved around the table. When I came back to the spot Alec sat on, I glanced up and caught an uncertain look on his face before he covered it with a flashy smile.

Something was up. I inclined my head to the side with a silent question.

“Can I ask you something?” Alec wondered.

His suddenly sullen demeanor threw me, and I shifted uneasily under his gaze. But I would like to think that Alec could ask me anything, so I nodded.

“What would you think if I made a pass at Lillian?”

My mouth dropped without conscious thought before I could stop it. “Wh—what?”

Alec shrugged. “She’s hot. She’s single. I’m single. I’m just wondering how you would feel about it . . .”

I tossed a quick glance across the room to where Lillian was busy sweeping the floor. “I uh . . .”

“No words, huh?”

I shot him a sympathetic grimace. “I’m pretty sure she’s still hung up on Nathan.”

“Story of my life,” he muttered under his breath, then grinned at the chastising look on my face. “I might not have been able to make you forget him, but I think I can make her forget him.”

“Really?” I slid onto the table beside him, and tossed him a playful smile. “You think so?”

“Uh-huh.” His eyes swung toward me, and the grin on his face dropped as he repeated, “I just want to know how you would feel about it first.”

“I mean . . . I’m not a fan of hers by any—”

“No,” Alec interrupted. “How would you feel about it?”

I decided that my legs swinging back and forth under the table were safer to look at, at that moment, than Alec. “What exactly are you asking, Alec?”

“Well . . .” he drew lazily, “the last time I hooked up with a girl, you got jealous.”

I looked up quickly. “I did not—”

His eyes slid to mine knowingly, effectively cutting off my protest.

“Okay,” I sighed. “Maybe I did a little bit. But . . .”

“But what?” Alec probed gently.

But nothing, I concluded. I had no argument, no hold on Alec, no reason to stop him from . . . being Alec. Even if that was with my old nemesis, if that was what Alec wanted.

I shifted to face Alec with a smile. “Go ahead. You don’t need my permission.”

Alec stared at me for a few heavy seconds, sans grin or smile. “I’m not asking for your permission, Kris.”

“Then what are you asking?”

His eyes narrowed fractionally before he looked away with a heavy sigh. “Hell, I don’t really know,” he admitted with a chuckle.

I followed his gaze across the room, where it rested on Lillian. Oblivious to the conversation we were having about her, she rested the broom she was using against the wall and pulled out a hair-tie to pull her long brown hair into. As she turned to retrieve the broom, her eyes swept in our direction before darting away timidly.

Complete opposite of the scowls I had been used to seeing on her face.

Despite the negative history we had, I knew she wasn’t a bad person. Not anymore. And I knew she was hurting . . . over a lot of things. Nathan had insisted that time would heal her. I was sure he was right, but . . . perhaps she needed a little push. Maybe she need to experience love again. Or whatever it was that Alec could offer her.

And, of course, I wanted only the best for Alec.

“Alec, I want you to be happy,” I concluded. “And if she can make you happy, then I would feel . . .”

“Happy?” he teased.

I smiled brightly as I nodded. “That’s all I want for you.”

Alec stared at me for a moment before he groaned. “Shit, Kris. I’m not asking her to marry me, or anything.”

It dawned on me exactly what he was saying. I smacked his arm hard. “You’re a pig.”

“I’m a guy,” he returned with a shrug. “I have needs.”

“Like I said . . . pig.”

“What is with you girls, huh? There’s nothing wrong with a little casual hook-up between two consenting adults.”

I nodded thoughtfully. “You think she’ll have the same opinion?”

“Well . . . she did just return from the dead to find her boyfriend is with someone else,” he mused. “I’m thinking my chances are pretty good.”

I waved a hand in her direction. “By all means . . . go get her, Tiger.”

He shot me a sideways smile. “You’re an adorable dork.” I shrugged as Alec turned to watch Lillian again, and the smile on his face dropped. “Oh, shit.”

“What?”

“Now I have to do something.”

“I doubt that’s a new experience for you,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, but . . .” He turned to me with a wary grimace. “I’ve been out of practice for a while.”

I patted his arm as I slid off the table. “I’m sure you’ll do fine. Now, get off my table so I can finish cleaning it.”

“Alright. I’m going in,” Alec declared. He stretched his arms over his head, as if flirting required him to limber up first.

And he called me a dork?

I shook my head as I leaned across the table to clean the area Alec had been sitting on.

Alec bent down so that his mouth was near my ear. “I’m still here if you ever need help with your evil twin. Don’t forget that.” He started to leave, then came back as if remembering something else. “And I’ll always think your ass is the nicest ass I’ve ever seen. That will never change.”

As he turned to finally leave, his hand swatted my rear like he was a football player congratulating me on a great play. I jumped and spun around in time to watch Alec come to a sudden halt in front of Nathan. Despite his arms folded over his chest and the hardness of his jaw, I wasn’t worried. I knew Nathan’s mad face, and this wasn’t it.

This was more . . . amused annoyance.

I turned back to the table with a small chuckle as Alec sidestepped the Nathan statue. A few seconds ticked by before he unfroze, and came up beside me to grab the towel I had thrown at Alec earlier.

“Should I even ask?”

My throat tightened as I recalled the initial purpose of Alec’s visit. What would Nathan think of a possible romance—or fling—between Alec and Lillian?

“I’m not sure you would want to know,” I returned drily.

Obviously, that was the wrong thing to say, and I realized it the second the words tumbled out. Nathan turned toward me with a furrowed brow, and I realized I should to tell him the truth before he started to think something else.

“It’s not . . .” I groaned at my own stupidity. “Alec’s thinking about making a move on Lillian, and he was talking to me about it. That’s all.”

Nathan’s head turned over his shoulder in Alec’s direction. “That’s it?”

“That’s it?” I repeated a little more shrilly than I had intended.

He didn’t sound bothered by the idea . . . at all. Nor did he look surprised. He turned back to the table with a dismissive shrug. “I figured it was bound to happen eventually.”

“What have I missed?”

“Alec’s been into her since . . . well, pretty much since she woke up,” Nathan explained. He took in my dropped jaw. “You haven’t noticed?”

I shook my head as I watched Alec pick up a broom and say something to Lillian that caused her to laugh. Huh. Though innocent enough, they certainly did seem friendly now that I was paying attention.

Nathan’s eyes were on me. “You okay with it?”

Why was everyone asking me that? I threw my hands up. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Nathan studied me quietly, and it dawned on me that he was asking me the same thing Alec had asked me. Except neither of them knew exactly what they were asking. No more than I knew the answer.

Finally, I sighed, “I just don’t want him to get hurt.” I had done enough of that already.

“I don’t think you have to worry about Lillian,” Nathan replied. I followed his gaze across the room, where Alec and Lillian both stood with brooms in their hands and smiles on their faces. “The attraction is definitely mutual.”

~ ~ ~

Nathan assisted me in cleaning while he filled me in on the progress he and Permna had made that morning. His hybrid crafting skills had enabled him to tap into the hotel’s shut-down water supply, and we now had a slow trickle of running water in one of the rooms upstairs—enough to use the toilet and wash up on occasion. They had also prepared two rooms, on opposing corners of the hotel, as suitable look-out posts.

Though the demigods didn’t know we were in town yet, we needed to be ready. Nathan and Permna had done all they could do to ensure that we were prepared for them.

When our stomachs started to growl, he helped me prepare a small meal—a disgusting powdery food that turned into something half-way edible with the addition of water—for the group. As we were cleaning up, a loud knock reverberated on the metal door.

“Weapons,” Isatan barked as he withdrew a shiny blade from the sheath around his waist.

“Might be our guys,” Nathan reminded him as we all moved cautiously to the door.

Nathan and Permna had also gotten a new lock for the door, which they had placed inside to keep unwelcome visitors out. Now, Nathan quietly entered the four digit code—0416—to disengage it.

I smiled to myself when the significance of those numbers registered. My birthday.

With one last glance behind him to make sure the rest of us were ready, Nathan slowly eased the door open.

“You better not shoot my ass.”

A familiar voice drifted through the crack, and Nathan opened it wider to reveal a grinning Jared.

Counting Jared and Bruce, a total of twenty hybrids spilled into the basement. I knew because I counted them. A few looked familiar to me, and I assumed that they were originally from the island that I had called home a few weeks ago. Seeing those faces now, after knowing that their base had been destroyed because of me, caused me to step back from the commotion.

Though Nathan insisted I had saved the base that night, I knew the truth. Temulus and the Skotadi had come there because of me. The Kala’s base had been destroyed because of me. Micah had been murdered . . . because of me.

I hovered in the background as introductions were passed around. Watching Nathan, I realized that he knew many of the hybrids unfamiliar to me, from the Australian base. They were easy to pick out with their thick drawls.

One of them slipped through the wall of bodies, and approached me with a lopsided grin. Combined with chocolate brown eyes covered by the longest, thickest lashes I had ever seen on a guy and a head of perfect blonde hair, he resembled a model in a Calvin Klein ad.

“Hi,” he drew.

Though his eyes appeared to be on me, I glanced over my shoulder to make sure he wasn’t addressing someone else.

“I’m talking to you, Strawberry,” he chuckled, and extended a hand. “I’m Jas.”

I accepted his hand warily. “Strawberry?”

His eyes moved to my head, more precisely my hair, and his hand quickly followed to twirl a piece around his finger before I knew what he was doing. “I always liked a—”

The very purposeful sound of a throat clearing stopped him from finishing his thought, and I peeked over his shoulder to find Nathan, again with that amused annoyance look on his face.

Jas immediately took a step back. He looked from Nathan, to me, then back to Nathan again. “Ah . . . this is your girl?”

Nathan softened the purposeful nod of his head with a sly grin, and I suspected that the two of them knew each other fairly well. Jas stepped away, undeterred.

“Moving on . . .” he muttered before zoning in on another new face in the crowd.

Lillian.

I watched him in awe as Nathan came to a stand beside me. “Is he Alec’s long lost brother, or something?”

“What?” Nathan chuckled.

“The need to hit on girls . . .” I nodded in Jas’s direction as Lillian ventured away from him, and he was left scoping for another female to close in on. “Looks like the force is strong in that one.”

The only new face left was Permna. Jas wrinkled his nose at her neatly-kept and reserved appearance, likely having come to the conclusion that he wasn’t going to get anywhere with her either.

Glancing around at the rest of the hybrids, I spotted another face I recognized. I groaned inwardly. Why did she have to come?

As if sensing my eyes on her, Kira glanced up to meet my gaze. In contrast to the taunting smile on her face the last time I had seen her, she looked at me now with indifference as she emerged from the storage room with an armload of blankets.

She slowed as she passed by. “Nathan,” she greeted with a sly smile. “I should have known you were involved in this vigilante suicide mission.”

Nathan shifted his feet—the only hint he gave that he was uncomfortable. I didn’t know the history between the two of them, and I was sure that I was probably better off not knowing. Especially considering the way Kira seemed determined to not go away.

“It’s not a suicide mission,” I sneered as I attempted to step around her.

She spun to catch my arm with her free hand. I glanced down at her hand in confusion, then turned to face her. Behind her, Nathan stiffened, visibly as confused about her intentions as I was.

“I heard what you did,” she said to me.

I scoffed softly. “You’re going to have to be more specific than that.”

“My little brother was in the dorm that night,” Kira explained quickly. “He was trapped by the fire. You got him out.”

I nodded slowly as the realization of what this was hit me. She wasn’t attacking me. She was thanking me.

“And . . . he survived that night?”

“Yes. I owe you for that.”

“You don’t owe me anything,” I returned politely before I turned to walk away.

As relieved as I was to learn that my actions that night had benefited someone, Kira’s gratitude only reminded me of the many others that had not survived the attack that night. Especially those that had been closest to me—Micah, Richie, and Kim. The tears that rimmed my eyes now started out of remorse for all the life lost. As I put distance between Kira and myself, and looked upon the familiar faces around me, those tears gave way to a wave of fresh, fat ones for the ones I had saved.

For the first time, I understood what Nathan had been trying to tell me. Though the attack had been spurred by my presence there, I had done something positive that night. While many had been lost, many more would have died without my help.

~ ~ ~

The basement was surprisingly quiet considering the two dozen bodies spread across the floor on makeshift beds made of blankets. It was perhaps the most uncomfortable situation I had ever been thrust into—well, aside from the days Nathan and I spent trudging through the Blue Ridge Mountains in the middle of winter.

Hushed whispers blended in with the low hum generated by the swirling ball of fire in the center of the room. It was peaceful, considering our purpose for being there.

The fireball lit the space with a dim glow, and provided just enough heat to keep us comfortable. Creating and maintaining the fire didn’t drain much energy. Whatever energy I did expend was well worth the small luxury it permitted in the midst of overwhelming discomfort.

I rolled around on my bed in an attempt to get comfortable. It didn’t matter what I did. Sleeping on a concrete floor was never comfortable.

The pile of blankets beside me was vacant. My gaze traveled across the room, to the cluster of tables in the corner, where Nathan stood with Jared and Isatan. Their voices were dropped and I couldn’t hear what they were talking about. From their body language, I doubted I wanted to know.

But I wished Nathan would come back. I found it easier to sleep on his arm than the deflated pillow beneath my head now. I smacked the sides of it with my fists in an attempt to even out the lumps as someone dropped loudly onto the pile of blankets behind me. I spun around to find Alec.

“Where have you been?” I asked him.

“It was my turn to use the shower upstairs,” he answered.

Isatan’s idea: to schedule shower times. We had enough running water to accommodate a third of us each day. That meant we were permitted to shower every three days. Tomorrow was my designated day, and I couldn’t wait. As long as I was one of the lucky ones who got warm water.

I’d heard the stories going around. Warm water wasn’t a guarantee. But Alec looked refreshed, so I assumed he’d gotten lucky with the shower roulette.

“So how’s it going, Romeo?” I nodded my head to the side, where Lillian slept on her own makeshift bed.

“It’s a work in progress,” Alec shrugged.

“You struck out, didn’t you?”

Alec lifted a hand as if to say, whoa. “I don’t strike out, Kris. I don’t even know what that would be like.”

My head tilted. “Umm . . .”

“I didn’t strike out with you,” he argued automatically. “As a matter of fact, I clearly remember getting safely to second base.”

I groaned. “You are—”

“Sexy and you know it,” he finished for me.

I contemplated throwing my pillow at him, but doubted it would have done any good. The thing only had like three feathers left in it. Instead, I rolled over with a sigh. I had to get some sleep.

“Hey.” Alec shifted closer, and I felt his breath on my neck. “Nathan told me you’ve been visiting Callie in your dreams.”

I rolled onto my back to peer up at him. “Since when have you two been into sharing secrets?”

“What?” His mouth twisted in disgust. “We’re not. Sharing secrets? Definitely not. No way.”

“Okay.” His extreme reaction to my question spoke volumes, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. They wanted to pretend they weren’t friends? Go ahead. The rest of us knew better.

“Anyway,”—Alec started—“he said that you took him with you a few times.”

“Yeah.” I was afraid to ask where Alec was going with this.

His head lowered. Before his face was hidden, I swore I saw a flash of something I had never seen on Alec’s face before—bashfulness. “Do you, uh . . . do you think you could take me with you?”

I stared at the top of his head in silence. Long enough for him to lift his eyes to mine. I saw it then. He was nervous. Like really, really nervous.

“What’s going on, Alec?”

“Nothing,” he answered quickly. “I just . . . I’d like to see how Callie is doing. That’s all.”

“She’s not exactly aware of what’s going on in the dreams,” I explained, but quickly realized that wasn’t all Alec was interested in. He simply wanted to see her. Like any good friend would.

“But, yeah,” I added quickly. “I can try to take you. I don’t really know how I was able to take Nathan, but it might be because he’s been sleeping right beside me.”

Alec’s gaze shifted across the room, where Nathan was still talking to Jared and Isatan. I saw a glimpse of uncertainty flicker in his eyes.

“Come on.” I patted the empty space between us before he talked himself out of it. “Pull your blankets closer. We’ll give it a shot.”

Though I had found that I didn’t need to repeat the spell every night for it to work now, I did it again in Alec’s presence for an extra boost. I placed the rosemary leaf between us after we laid down. Our shoulders just touched, and I hoped that was enough. I was usually wrapped all around Nathan when we slept, and I didn’t know if that closeness had pulled him into some of the dreams with me. I hadn’t been able to pinpoint the reason why he did some nights, and not others.

At some point, I felt Nathan’s presence nearby, and assumed he had finally come to lay down. Normally, I would have nestled into his side. Tonight, I resisted that comfort for Alec’s benefit.

If he wanted to see Callie, I would do my best to make sure he saw her.

~ ~ ~

She greets us on the sandy shore of Big Pine Lake. In Boone. At the last location the three of us were all together . . . before things got weird. Except this time, there is no raging party, and no bonfire. It is only us, meeting again on a warm summer day.

Callie slams into both of us with a cry of joy. Her slender arms wrap around our necks, and she pulls us in for a tight group hug.

I instantly know the difference. This Callie knows the truth.

I push her back to arm’s length to get a better look at her. She looks like her healthy, normal self. Not the lifeless shell of my best friend—the vision that has haunted me since the day I left the island, and her, behind.

“It’s about time you found a way to bring me into one of your dreams,” she says. “I was starting to think Micah had overestimated your abilities.”

I cringe at the mention of Micah, and Callie lays a gentle hand on my arm. “What’s wrong?”

“You’ve been unconscious for a while. . .” I start tentatively. How do I tell her that one of our own is dead now, and she slept through it?

Callie glances between Alec and me, and a flicker of understanding registers on her face. “Oh. Is uh—is everyone else okay?”

“We lost Richie and Kim, too,” I say.

“The rest of us are fine,” Alec adds.

Callie nods thoughtfully. “You’re all gone. I’ve woken enough to know that it’s just me and Gran now. She didn’t tell me what happened to the others.”

“Is she taking care of you?” That had been one of my requests upon leaving the island—that someone I trust stay behind to watch over Callie. Gran had been more than happy to volunteer.

Callie beams. “Like a pesky grandmother. She told me you are going to save me.”

“We are,” Alec states firmly. His tone forces my gaze to shift to him, but his eyes rest determinedly on Callie. “When this is all over, we’ll come back for you.”

The smile Callie gives Alec tugs at my heartstrings. As her eyes search his face, I fear that, despite Alec’s vow, she is preparing to say goodbye. That isn’t something I’m going to let her do.

We aren’t giving up. I’m not about to let her give up.

“How are you doing, Callie?” I interrupt. “Are you holding up okay?”

“I’m hanging in there, I guess.” Callie shrugs as she gazes down at herself. “This dream body is a lot better than my real body, I know that much.”

Alec snorts, earning curious looks from Callie and me. We both get the source of his amusement at the same time, and Callie smacks him in the chest with the back of her hand.

“Ow. That was a complimentary snort,” he defends.

“Complimentary snort?” Callie repeats indignantly.

“Yeah . . . you know . . .” His hand waves up and down her body. “Because it’s good. You’re good. Your . . . body . . . is good. Total compliment. No reason to get violent.”

Callie folds her arms in front of her as she stares him down. Several seconds tick by before her face breaks into a smile. “You have no idea how much I miss you.”

She pulls him into another hug, and Alec mutters, “I think I know.”

Callie’s hand snags my shirt, and she yanks me into their hug.

My two best friends. It’s sweet. It’s perfect. It’s heaven for a few hours.