Cameron returned about an hour later with a bag of clothes from the gift shop. He handed it to her and grinned at her, that same sexy smirk, and Selena blushed and cursed herself again. “Hope you like black and gold clothes with fleurs-de-lis all over them.”
“Is this a football thing?” Selena asked, pulling the black yoga pants with gold fleurs-de-lis on them out of the bag.
“Selena… come on. You gave me a hard time for not knowing a G. I. Joe reference and you don’t know who the Saints are?”
Selena shrugged. “I don’t like football.”
“You know what? I changed my mind. This isn’t going to work out.”
Selena glanced up at him and smiled. “Will it be enough of a sacrifice to appease the angry sun god if I agree to wear it and pretend to be a fan?”
Cameron crossed his arms and studied her, and Selena felt her cheeks flushing again. She turned her attention back to the bag and dug out the t-shirt, equally black and with an equal abundance of gold fleurs-de-lis scattered across the front.
“Depends,” Cameron said. “If I ever take you to a football game, are you capable of faking the appropriate amount of enthusiasm?”
“Depends,” Selena responded. “Are you capable of buying me enough beer in order for me to fake an appropriate level of enthusiasm?”
“Alcohol does tend to help with fake enthusiasm,” Cameron agreed.
Selena snorted and grabbed her new clothes. “I’m going to get dressed in the bathroom. There are enough strippers in this city. It doesn’t need one more.”
“I’d make some comment like ‘Sure, but you’re the only one I’d pay to see’ but then things would just get weird between us.”
Selena blinked at him then rolled her eyes and told him it was too late: he was the master of making things weird.
She stepped into the bathroom, leaving a small crack in the door, and pulled her clothes on and asked Cameron what their jailer was up to. He flipped the television on and sat on her bed. She peeked through the small crack and found herself admiring, again, the way his dark gray long-sleeved shirt clung to his chest and arms as he leaned on one elbow and began flipping channels and the dark denim of his jeans stretched over his long legs. He’d already claimed he didn’t watch much TV: she had no idea what he was looking for.
He glanced up at the door and smiled and she backed away from the crack. Goddamn it, get ahold of yourself, Selena.
She really needed to figure out which god was good at damning things so she’d know who the hell she was talking to.
“I’ve been trying to remember,” Cameron said. “Who’s the villain in Ghostbusters?”
Selena finished dressing and pulled the door open. “Gozer. Made up. That god never existed.”
“Huh,” Cameron answered. “I mean, that’s good because he… she?... whatever was clearly evil, but I was going to nickname our new friend Gozer. Think he’ll catch the reference?”
“Yes. You didn’t answer my question.”
Cameron sat up and left the TV on a college football game. Selena stared at the television for a few seconds then at Cameron. “It’s Saturday?”
“Yep. And I’m going to miss all the games because some asshole thinks it’s totally cool to whisk people off to the Otherworld and some other asshole thinks it’s totally cool to expect servitude to help rescue her.”
Selena rubbed her head and wondered if Cameron could cure headaches because he was starting to give her one. She sat next to him and took the remote away from him. He protested but it was a feeble protest. She was telekinetic and there was nothing he could do once the remote ended up on the ceiling.
“Focus, Cameron. One: what is the Otherworld and how did I end up there? And two: how did you and Ukko get us out?”
Cameron glared at the remote on the ceiling for a few seconds then sighed and turned his attention to her. “It’s apparently where the gods used to live. Something happened though. Ukko wouldn’t tell me what, and now, the gods can’t stay there permanently like they used to. Quetzalcoatl would have eventually returned with you, but time passes differently there than it does here. It may have seemed like two months to you, but two hundred years would have passed on Earth.”
“Holy shit,” Selena whispered. “How long was I gone?”
“A couple of weeks. After you disappeared, I tried to find you on my own but Ukko quickly caught up to me and told me where’d you gone. He said only a god would be able to get me there and if I really wanted to save you, I’d have to accept his help. And I knew he was right, because I don’t know any other full-fledged gods to ask and there’s apparently a bit of danger involved in the Otherworld still, so they probably would have said no. Plus, they’d have a pissed off snake god to deal with.”
“Why are you doing all of this for me?” Selena asked softly.
Cameron shrugged and smiled at her. “Because I know why Ukko wants you in the New Pantheon and I can’t let that happen.”
Selena shook her head and reminded him if he were serious about keeping her out of the New Pantheon’s hands, then he would have agreed to kill her before they could capture her.
“You make it sound like it’s so easy,” Cameron retorted. “Would you be able to kill me to keep them from using my powers?”
Selena swallowed and stared back into those intense chocolate brown eyes. She finally shook her head slowly. “No. I wouldn’t.”
Cameron looked away from her and watched the football game for a few minutes before adding, “Besides. We’ve gotten out of some sticky situations before. We’ll get out of here. Don’t worry. I have a plan.”
“A plan…”
“Yep.”
“A secret plan?”
“For now.”
Selena grunted at him and let the remote fall from the ceiling into her hand. She hit the power button and Cameron protested again but she crossed her arms and asked him for the second time, “Where is Ukko now? Why is he letting you spend so much time in here?”
For the first time since meeting him, Cameron actually blushed. He averted his eyes as the corners of his lips turned into a devilish grin. God, why does he have to be so gorgeous? She knew at least a dozen gods that was directed to.
“I, uh, may have told him there was something going on between us so I’d have an excuse to stay in here longer than he’d otherwise have let me.”
Selena opened her mouth expecting some witty comeback to fly out but the only thing that came out was another grunting sound. She gave up and tossed the remote back to him.
“What happened to ‘I never lie’?” she finally asked. “And you apparently don’t have ‘mad skills’ since the only thing Ukko is going to hear is Auburn beating the shit out of Georgia.”
Cameron gestured toward the screen and insisted, “They’re only up by ten points! What do you know? You don’t even like football.” He scowled at the television then seemed to remember Selena had called into question his “mad skills” as well. “And people don’t have to be loud to be having a good time. Want me to burn the hotel down? Would that make you feel better?”
Selena tried not to laugh but he looked so serious about it she couldn’t help it. “I’m sorry I insulted your… skills. Please don’t burn the hotel down to prove anything to Ukko. Although that’s what you get for trusting a Wikipedia page.”
“It wasn’t just Wikipedia,” Cameron teased.
Selena smiled and shook her head at him. “How long would be an appropriately masculating amount of time to wait before ordering room service because apparently, I haven’t eaten in like two weeks.”
“I don’t think masculating is a word.”
Selena shrugged and grabbed the room service menu. “If women had created our language, it would be a word.”
Cameron pulled the menu out of her hands and put it back on the nightstand. “I’ve only been in here like ten minutes. You’re not ordering room service yet.”
“Ok, then share this brilliant escape plan with me,” Selena said.
“Um… how exactly do you define ‘brilliant’?”
“Anything that gets us out of the reach of the New Pantheon and manages not to get us killed.”
“In that case, I have a brilliant plan.”
Selena opened her hands as if to say, “I’m waiting.”
Cameron’s eyes flickered away from the football game to her face then he sighed and turned the volume up, moving closer to her on the bed so he could talk quietly to her. Selena swallowed and hoped she wasn’t blushing. Again.
“All four of his buddies have shown up and they’ve got this room under constant surveillance. Two of them went down to the gift shop with me just to buy those clothes for you. Right now, there are three watching the doorway and two out on the street watching the window even though this isn’t a room with a balcony, which is kinda weird, isn’t it? Who knew there were hotels in the French Quarter that didn’t have balconies?”
“Cameron, focus.”
“There’s only one way we can escape. I actually could start a fire and get the hotel evacuated, but they’re going to be waiting for something like that. So that leaves us with the only other option: you’re going to spring us by opening up the ceiling then the roof and we’ll try not to fall to our deaths or at the very least, gruesome and painful and possibly disfiguring injuries.”
“I’m going to… what?” Selena looked at the ceiling above her then back at Cameron to see if he was wearing a “Ha! Gotcha!” expression. He still looked completely serious.
“As long as you don’t almost die, I can probably heal you. It’ll be fine,” Cameron assured her.
“Probably…” Selena repeated slowly. Well, if that didn’t reassure her that his plan was totally sound and foolproof.
Cameron nodded at her and turned his eyes up toward the ceiling. “We’ll wait until the sun sets. It’ll be easier at night. It would be even easier if the gift shop had any clothes in your size that didn’t virtually sparkle but we’ll ditch those for something… less likely to blind pilots... once we’re out of the city.”
Selena pinched the fabric of her t-shirt between her fingers and smiled at him again. “I don’t know. I think I pull off gaudy.”
Cameron snickered and smiled back at her. “Selena, you pulled off swamp water and algae.”
Selena felt her cheeks warm and cursed her pale complexion. Why couldn’t she have been born into a Mediterranean pantheon? Or pretty much any pantheon that would have blessed her with melanin in her skin to hide how often she blushed?
“Sorry,” Cameron said softly. “Made you uncomfortable again, didn’t I?”
Selena shook her head but she couldn’t meet his eyes. She was only embarrassed about her own constant embarrassment around him.
“No, it’s not… you have to remember I grew up mostly alone. My aunt raised me and she knew we were demigods but had turned her back on her heritage long before I came along. She was also telekinetic and that was easy to hide. She knew I couldn’t hide what I am though, so she homeschooled me. I didn’t have many friends and even fewer boyfriends. I just never had the chance to learn how to handle even innocent flirting.”
Cameron nodded in commiseration. “I went to school, but I told people I had a skin condition. So I stayed covered up so no one could even accidentally touch me. I got exempted from P.E., too. For the record, that’s not really a better approach. I only didn’t get the shit beaten out of me all the time because I convinced people it was contagious. That went over well.”
“Kids are terrible,” Selena breathed.
Cameron lifted a shoulder at her and offered her that sexy grin. She studied her hands as they played nervously with the pillow in her lap.
“I thought about dropping out in high school, especially since I actually could have kicked the collective asses of all those guys’ who teased me, but decided to graduate and went on to college. I met a girl I really liked my first year there, and she was the first person I ever told the truth to. Sort of, anyway. I mean, I kinda had to, you know?” Cameron added.
Selena nodded and ran her fingers over the stark white pillowcase. She’d never had the opportunity to go to college. Her aunt had insisted it would be too dangerous for her, so she’d stayed in her small hometown of Villa Rica, Georgia, and had gotten a job as a cashier at the Walgreen’s. She’d met her first boyfriend there. She still didn’t think he was the one who had turned her in to the New Pantheon. It’s not like she’d broken his heart or anything. He’d moved away and they’d decided a long-distance relationship wasn’t practical, especially since neither of them could afford the airfare across the country to see each other.
About a year later, Ukko walked into the pharmacy and waited in her line even though there were half a dozen people impatiently waiting for their cigarettes and candy and gallons of milk so they could hurry home after work. She didn’t pay much attention to him, assuming his empty hands were simply because he intended to purchase something behind the counter.
When he reached the front, he addressed her by name, which also wasn’t unusual since she was wearing a nametag, and asked her for a pack of Marlboro Lights. She didn’t know yet, of course, that he was a god and he didn’t smoke. She pulled the package of cigarettes from the rack and scanned them then placed them on the counter. She never handed a customer anything since she didn’t want to accidentally touch anyone.
But Ukko stared at the cigarettes then looked up at her.
“That’s not very polite,” he said.
Selena took a deep breath and licked her lips, glancing at the cash register before forcing a smile back on her face. “That’ll be $5.97.”
Ukko handed her the money then extended an open hand. Selena looked at it because this guy had already freaked her out. She was always careful when giving a customer their change, but there was something unnerving about this man. She slowly counted out the bills and plucked the coins from the drawer then held the bills at one edge as she always did. As she reached across the counter to put the money in his palm, he suddenly flipped his wrist and grabbed her hand.
Selena gasped and tried to call for help, but she had no voice. She wasn’t just too scared to scream; her voice had vanished. She stared back at the tall blonde man who smiled at her and let go of her hand.
“Nice to meet you, Selena,” he cooed.
He left his change and cigarettes on the counter and walked out of the store.
The next day, she found a letter on her windshield from the New Pantheon and brought it to her aunt who told her to run and to never let the New Pantheon catch her. Six months later, she met Alan and thought she’d found someone who was as desperate to avoid them as she was.
In so many ways, Cameron reminded her of those first days with this handsome stranger who told her exactly what she wanted to hear and promised her safety and companionship and, eventually, love. For eighteen months, he let her believe all those things.
Cameron reached over to her fingers that were still tracing patterns on the white cotton-polyester blend of the pillowcase. She jumped and looked at him.
He nodded toward the pillow in her lap. “What was that pattern you were tracing?”
Selena turned her attention to the pillow again but she hadn’t been aware she was tracing any pattern. “Nothing. I was just thinking. It was probably just random shapes like a person doodles on a notepad.”
Cameron didn’t let go of her hand and she was sure she was blushing again. God, she hated herself sometimes.
She didn’t know which god she was offering that information to either.
“No,” Cameron insisted, “it was a pattern. I was watching you.”
Selena shrugged and hugged the pillow to her chest. “I don’t know. I was just remembering the first time I met Ukko. Maybe it was something I saw on him.”
“Ukko isn’t stupid. He doesn’t wear anything distinctive so he doesn’t stand out and he certainly doesn’t wear anything that would identify his pantheon. He’s been chasing you for three years and you didn’t even know his name.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Cameron. I was just distracted,” Selena snapped. She closed her eyes and sank against the headboard, embarrassed this time over losing her temper with him. It wasn’t his fault so many painful memories had resurfaced.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
“It’s ok,” he assured her. “After everything you’ve been through lately, I shouldn’t push you. I was just hoping…”
Selena opened her eyes and waited. He sighed and pulled a glove off so he could run his fingers through his dark brown hair.
“Some things are just in us, you know?” he asked. “I was hoping it might have something to do with your heritage. The more we know, the closer we get to our pasts, the more it will help us.”
“After what Alan did to me, you have no idea how hard it is to even trust you,” Selena whispered. “You may be telling the truth. You may actually be risking your life for me, but if you are with them, then you already knew I brought him back. It’s not that much for them to ask of you.”
Cameron bit his lip as he studied her and she couldn’t help thinking he would storm out of her room and tell her she was on her own after all. But he didn’t storm out. He reached for her hand again and gently squeezed it, promising her, “I get that. But I don’t want you to bring me back. I already told you I’d rather die than become part of their pantheon. If it comes down to it, don’t save me, Selena.”
“Cameron,” she breathed.
But he shook his head and let go of her hand, reaching for the room service menu and dropping it between them on the bed. “Let’s go ahead and eat on their bill. It’s the least they can do for us. It’ll be dark out soon enough.”
Selena picked up the menu but none of the words made sense to her. They were just symbols on a page. If it comes down to it, don’t save me, Selena.
And what if she did save him? Would he ever forgive her? Would he become so embittered by her betrayal that he would decide to become one of the New Pantheon anyway?
“Are you waiting for me to recommend something?” Cameron asked, that devilish grin reemerging. “Fried crawfish po-boy. No, wait. That’s what I’m getting. I’ll let you try it and if you like it, you can have half. Order the shrimp and we can share.”
Selena blinked at him then looked at the menu again. “All this food, and you’re going to order a sandwich?”
“Hey,” Cameron argued, grabbing the menu out of her hands, “a po-boy isn’t a sandwich. It’s… a fancy sandwich.”
“Doesn’t sound fancy.”
“You’re a heathen.”
Selena snickered and shrugged, “Well, yeah, we all are actually.”
Cameron waved her off. “I mean about the stuff that really matters. No football, no appreciation of the art form of sandwiches. Don’t worry, Caterpillar. I can train you.”
Selena folded her arms and arched an eyebrow at him. He waved her off again. “You have the potential to be a butterfly, but you need some serious help first.”
“Give me your phone. I want to look up what gods waged battle by annoying the hell out of their enemies.”
Cameron picked up the hotel phone and grinned at her. “You’re my enemy?”
“Depends on if this fancy sandwich is really worth blowing my one opportunity to order whatever I want from a room service menu at Ukko’s expense.”
A knock on her door startled them both and Cameron dropped the handset. He cursed under his breath and picked it up, setting it back on the base of the phone.
“We’re kinda busy,” he shouted at the door.
Selena shot him a look that she intended to convey now-what-are-we-going-to-do-if-he-just-opens-the-door-anyway-and-sees-us-both-sitting-here? but she wasn’t sure all of that could actually be conveyed in a single look.
Cameron held his hands up, either because he meant to tell her he’d panicked or well-it’s-too-late-now.
“Order dinner,” Ukko called back through the door. “We’re leaving in two hours.”
“Two hours?” Selena yelled. “I thought you said I could have twelve hours here!”
“Things changed,” Ukko said.
Cameron and Selena looked at each other and he grabbed the phone again but leaned closer to her ear to whisper, “I’m going to place this order and then you’re busting us out of here.”