Each moment he got to spend with Tara, his feelings for her grew. Since that night they’d toasted and he’d seen his past with her, his dreams were filled with more images of their past lives together, glimpses into the lives they had shared. How their love had bloomed and grown into something so big, it allowed them to find each other in the beyond.
Each day when Tara worked, he sat in the coffee shop and researched all he could on… well, everything.
Currently, he was focused on Typhon, Tara’s father. Not only had he allegedly fathered some of the scariest monsters in mythology, but he had also created Cerberus, the three-headed hound of hell, possibly one of the scariest beasts in mythology.
Colt read all the myths about how he’d tried to overthrow Zeus but had been defeated by the god’s thunderbolts. He wondered vaguely if Tara knew how to throw lightning. He could just imagine her standing in her hiking boots, worn jeans, and flannel coat, holding a bolt of lightning between her hands as her blonde hair flowed around. For good measure, he had her skin glowing like it had several times when he’d pleased her.
“What are you smiling about?” someone asked. He glanced up to see Jacob sliding into the seat across from him.
“Just imaging this is Tara.” He turned his computer screen around and showed Jacob the drawing of Zeus holding his thunderbolt.
Jacob laughed. “I think you think too highly of your woman.”
“She’s not mine to have,” he said softly. “Not yet at any rate.”
“Oh, I’d say the two of you are totally gone for one another.” Jacob leaned forward. “Trust me. As a man who is totally gone for his wife, we tend to recognize one another.”
Colt smiled. “No kid today?” he asked, glancing around the coffee shop.
“He’s with Auntie Xtina. I’m heading into the office and just wanted to stop off for a quick pick-me-up,” he said moments before Jess set a cup and a blueberry muffin in front of Jacob. Jess kissed him quickly and then disappeared back behind the counter. “I love being married to a witch,” Jacob said under his breath.
“It probably does come with some perks.” He glanced over to where Tara was busy making a cappuccino.
“What about dating the strongest woman alive. Oh, and one that can fly. I bet that’s fun,” Jacob said after taking a sip of his drink.
“It does have some perks,” he said with a grin.
“Well.” Jacob started to get up.
“I had a quick question, if you have a moment?” Colt asked.
“Sure.” Jacob sat back down. “Shoot.”
“What happened to all of you…” he started.
“Which time?” Jacob asked.
“The last time, with Thanatos,” he added, trying not to let any of the other guests overhear them.
“Right.” Jacob motioned for him to go on.
“Liz mentioned she’d gotten help from another god,” Colt said.
“Hypnos,” Jacob added quietly. “I’m not one-hundred-percent sure the guy was good. He scared…” He stopped and shook his head. “Liz was positive that if it hadn’t been for him, we wouldn’t have been able to send the rest of them back.”
“Right.” Colt glanced down at his screen again.
“What’s all this about?” Jacob asked.
“Rhea,” he said, nodding towards Tara. “If she really is her mother and, according to everything that I could find on her, a good being, then maybe she’s coming to help with… what’s coming. Whatever that is.”
“Typhon,” Jacob said, shaking his head. “Sounds like one nasty being. Something tells me the man isn’t going to be alone.”
“Right.” Colt hadn’t really thought of that. Typhon was the father of monsters. Surely, he had a few of them trailing along for the ride.
“Now I’ve scared you,” Jacob added with a sigh.
“No, just presented another challenge. That’s all.”
“Good.” Jacob stood suddenly and slapped Colt on the shoulder. “Keep looking at life like that and you might just survive the week.” He chuckled as he picked up his coffee and his muffin. “See you later.”
“See you,” Colt said, looking back down at his screen. Okay, he thought, time to figure out what sort of monsters could be heading their way.
For the next two hours, he read myth after myth. He flipped through drawings, paintings, and descriptions of the monsters that Typhon had supposedly created. At least the ones that the ancient Greeks had taken notice of.
The most notable was Cerberus, who was, if myths can be trusted, still guarding the gates of hell.
But the thing that bothered Colt the most was that Typhon was in some places labeled as a Titan, like Rhea was, not a god. Titans were bad, worse than most gods. Why had Rhea and Typhon created a child? How was that even possible if Typhon was really a giant with snakes as legs and dragons and snakes as fingers?
The best description he could find of Rhea was that she was a beautiful goddess. She was often depicted holding a staff or a baby, since she was the mother of gods.
In one image, she was holding the staff and a crown while riding a lion. In the sky was a crescent moon and a bright star.
When he did a little more research, he found out that the Nemean Lion was a legendary creature. Its fur was impenetrable by the weapons of humans, making it virtually unstoppable.
What caught his attention was that the lion itself was described as a child of Typhon. So far, the drawing was the only thing he’d found that had linked Rhea to Typhon.
The closer they got to when Rhea was to arrive, the more frustrated and desperate he grew. He supposed he was grasping at straws at this point.
“What has such a big frown on your face?” Jess asked as she refilled his water glass.
He motioned for her to sit and waited until she took the spot across from him.
“Tell me your group has an ace up their sleeve?” he said in a low tone so that Tara wouldn’t hear.
Jess sighed. “It’s not necessarily an ace, but we do have each other. We’ve successfully gotten out of worse pickles.”
“Right.” He nodded. “Okay, so, there’s power in the numbers.”
Jess nodded. “There has been from the start of things.” She leaned closer. “Besides, I wouldn’t worry too much about our girl there.” She nodded towards Tara, who happened to glance over and look at them at that exact time. “She can lift a piano and fly. Who knows what other tricks she has up her sleeve?” Jess winked at him and stood up to go clear a couple tables.
He thought about Jess’s words as he helped them clean up and close the shop later that day.
They still had half the day to themselves before everyone else could meet and had yet to decide what to do with the rest of their time. As Jess was locking up, Tara came over to him and suggested they head back to the hotel for a few hours of rest.
He could see the weariness in her eyes, so he drove them back down the street to their hotel.
“Tired?” he asked her when they stepped into the room.
“No, just… restless. I wanted some time to talk before we met the others later.” She moved over and sat on the edge of the bed.
“Okay.” He walked over and sat next to her. “What about?”
“Us,” she said plainly.
Here it comes, he thought. Everything they had seen, everything she’d seen and told him about, most likely had finally caught up with them. He’d been doubting that she planned to stick around after she’d explained how he’d been the reason for each and every one of her demises.
“Okay,” he said a little slower.
She took his hand in hers. “Not that. I’m not… breaking things off with you,” she finished, and he relaxed slightly.
“Good, because”—he lifted her hands to his lips—“I really enjoy the taste of you.”
She smiled. “And I haven’t finished with you either.”
“What then?” he asked as she turned a little more serious.
“It’s about… my parents.” She stood up and walked over to the nightstand and pulled out a notepad. “It’s everything I can remember from the dreams,” she said as she handed it to him. “I know you’ve been researching them. Maybe this will help.” She sat back down next to him. “If you want, we can go over what you have so far, you know, to see if anything… jogs something loose.” She tapped the side of her head.
He pulled out his computer and set it on the small table by the window. He opened the software where he had all of the research so far.
“Wow, you’ve got a lot in here,” she said, looking over his shoulder. He moved over and pulled the other chair next to his.
Going over everything that he’d found out about her parents, about what she was, somehow was more difficult than reading it himself. Somehow, telling her all of the details made it a little more… real.
“Jess thinks there’s more to you than the powers you’ve shown us,” he said. “I know firsthand that you light up like a night-light,” he added with a smile.
She chuckled. “Only when I’m happy and good emotions are spiking.”
“Right.” His smile slipped a little. “Is there more?”
The way she bit her bottom lip and looked worried assured him there was.
Instead of answering, she glanced down at her watch. “We have another hour before we’re supposed to meet everyone. What do you say we go for a drive?”
Nodding, he shut down his computer and motioned for her to lead the way. When she grabbed her coat, he took his jacket, figuring whatever she wanted to show him would be outside.
“Want to drive?” he asked, holding up his keys, which she took easily from him.
For the next ten minutes, he sat in his passenger seat and watched the dull gray countryside pass by him.
In the week and a half since they’d arrived in town, most of the colorful fall leaves had fallen. Now, the leaves were in heaps on the ground, soggy, dull, and forgotten, leaving the countryside bare and boring.
When she parked, he realized she intended to go to the field near the silo.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked.
“Yes, it has to be here.” She looked out at the mist that covered the hay field.
He wanted to ask her what, but she was already getting out of the truck. He followed her for a while, through the tall wet hay until they stopped near the middle of the open field.
“She was here. They were both here,” she whispered.
“Who? Your parents?” He stood beside her. She nodded, while keeping her eyes on the horizon. “It was sunny and warm.” She closed her eyes. “They met here.”
“Met?” he asked, looking around. Whatever he’d imagined about two gods meeting and hooking up, it hadn’t been in a field in the middle of nowhere Georgia.
“Yes,” she said with a sigh. “This place, the land, it holds power.” She lifted her arms and he watched in amazement as she rose off the ground until she floated effortlessly almost a hundred feet above him.
As he stood there, under her, he saw a pulse of air shoot out from her in a circular motion. It created a wave that eventually dissipated at the horizon.
When her feet touched the ground again, he asked. “What was that?”
“A call.”
“To?” he asked, noticing a change in her eyes.
“Selene,” she said. “I thought I’d at least try, if she’s on this world. Since there’s more power here, I figured it would boost my signal.”
He wrapped his arms around her. “Is this the power you wanted to show me?” he asked.
She reached up on her toes, kissed him briefly, then dropped her arms and stood back. “No, this is.” She smiled briefly before vanishing completely in front of his eyes.
“Tara?” he asked, glancing around him.
“Still here.” Her voice came from directly behind him. When he turned, she was standing there.
“Teleportation?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Invisibility.”
His smile grew. “Wicked.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Not necessarily. When I use this power…” She frowned slightly. “It’s hard to describe. It’s like I slip into a different realm. One over this one. Yet somehow filled with…” He saw her shiver as she wrapped her arms around her. “I think it’s Tartarus.”
“Hell?” he asked, aghast.
She nodded and looked down at her hands. “The first time I discovered it, I didn’t realize I’d turned invisible. I had to record myself to find that out. The other thing about that power is that it’s as if the world continues to turn without me. When I reappear, I’m never in the exact place I had been when I’d disappeared. Close but never in the exact spot.”
“It’s why you were behind me instead of in front of me?” he asked, glancing up at the sun to ensure the theory.
“Yes.” She nodded. “When I discovered this, I had to hike almost a full mile back to where I was staying.”
“I guess it’s handy if you need to escape?” he suggested.
“If you don’t mind a short trip to hell,” she added. “It doesn’t freak you out?”
“Why would it?” he asked, noticing the worry behind her eyes.
Instead of answering, she shook her head and took a deep breath. “You amaze me.”
He laughed. “You’re the one who can fly, has super strength, and can turn invisible. Why on earth do I amaze you?”
She walked back over to him, once again putting her arms around his shoulders. “Because you take all this in and, each time I show you something scary, you smile and look at me as if it’s the most amazing thing in the world instead of freaking out and running for the hills. You’re not out here taking pictures and trying to expose me as a freak. You just…”—she shrugged slightly— “accept me.”
He winced when she mentioned pictures. After all, he had an amazing picture of her at the top of the silo with the moon in the background that he hadn’t told her about.
He sighed heavily. “I did take one picture,” he admitted, pulling out his cell phone. “For my eyes only.” He handed her the phone. “You can delete it if you want.”
She looked down at his screen and, to his amazement, she smiled and then laughed. “That is a really great shot.” She handed him the phone again. “Trust me, if anyone other than the group saw it, they’d believe it was a fake.”
He looked at the image and smiled. “You are pretty amazing.” He tucked the phone away, then pulled her into his arms. “I don’t think there’s anything you could do that would make me think otherwise.”
He felt her relax in his arms. “I used to wish I was normal. I mean, growing up I didn’t have any of these powers. I think the world my mother left me on somehow blocked out my powers.” She glanced up at the sky. Even though it was dusk, she could see the moon hovering in the sky over the field. “I don’t know if that has something to do with it, but I’m beginning to think it does. My world had two moons, not one.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” he said, but then he glanced down at his watch. “I want the others to hear my theory, and we’re going to be late if we don’t head on over to Mike and Xtina’s place.”
She stopped him from walking back to his truck by taking his hands. “Colt, I never expected to find someone… who would accept me. Then you came along, and we discover that we’ve been connected…”
“Forever,” he added with a smile.
She nodded. “I never imagined I’d be so lucky as to find you again.” She lifted on her toes and kissed him. “I guess what I’m trying to say is… I love you.”
Colt felt his heart skip a beat and then burst with joy. He’d never felt this way about anyone before. Never imagined he’d find anyone like Tara, anyone as unique and amazing. He knew without a doubt what he felt for her and easily allowed those feelings to flow from him as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her, making a point to tell her just how he felt.