Thorn Fall (36 page)

“Huh. Did he think
we
were part of the cult?” I pointed at Temi and myself.

“He thought you started it.”

“What? Really?”

“No, I don’t know. I tuned him out when I realized he was tuning me out. As for being dragged home…” He shot me a dirty look, but then his shoulders slumped. “It would be Redmond. Apparently, Marcus talked to a friend of a friend and got me a sure-thing job interview at Microsoft.”

“I… assume you’re not going?”

He wouldn’t, not when he was plotting an invasion of Eleriss’s home world, but for a moment, there was a shadow of a doubt in my mind.

“Of course not. It’s just depressing to realize my family doesn’t think I’m doing anything with my life and that I need help getting a job.”

“At least they’re trying to help you get a good job. Not the night shift mopping middle school bathrooms or something.”

“Please, you know how many hours a week those Microsoft people work? When would I have time to play
RealmSaga
?”

I decided not to point out that we had been so busy this last week that neither of us had logged in. I thumped him on the shoulder instead. “Once we’re done with the monsters, we’ll get our careers back on track.”

“Speak for yourself. I intend to make a few million off these monsters. I won’t
need
a career after that.”

“You will if all of those millions go into repairing your van.”

“Ha ha.”

The gate clanged again at the same time as someone in the distance yelled, “Sir? Sir?” in an alarmed tone.

When I looked over, I got an eye full of naked man. Alek strolled in with a towel slung over his shoulder and nothing else. The new scar on his side and the cuts on his face didn’t detract from… anything. He laid the towel on the foot of a lounge chair, walked to the water’s edge, and looked over at us.

“For bathing, yes?” he asked in Greek, pointing at the water.

I closed my dangling jaw and made sure I was looking at his
eyes
. “Yes, but—”

The man who had been doing the shouting raced through the gate, stopping himself with flailing arms a few feet behind Alek. “Sir,” he panted, straightening his uniform and tossing alarmed glances our direction, “this is a co-ed pool. You can’t be here without a swimming suit.”

Alek looked at him, then at me. “What?”

“Simon,” I murmured, “I see you still haven’t had the underwear conversation with him.”

“Please.” Simon was studying the sky and very pointedly not looking in Alek’s direction. “This is a whole different conversation. And it’s all yours.”

Temi was smirking around her margarita straw, clearly enjoying the situation. Or perhaps the view. Maybe I needed to stop trying to convince her that Jakatra was a bad guy, thus to ensure her interests stayed focused in that direction.

The employee stepped toward Alek, reaching out a hand, though he didn’t look any more enthused than Simon at the idea of dealing with a naked man. Alek’s eyes narrowed, watching that hand.

“It’s all right,” I called. “He’s European.” Oh, sure, that explained everything. “
Very
European,” I added at the clerk’s skeptical look.

“Well, this isn’t Europe,” the man finally managed. “He needs to…” He waved at Alek’s bare butt and the towel.

“I know. I’ll explain it. Thank you.” I repeated myself in Greek, so the guy would know I actually
could
explain it and wasn’t simply trying to shoo him away so Temi and I could admire some beefcake.

Grumbling under his breath, the employee left.

I padded across the pool deck, picked up Alek’s towel, and gestured for him to wrap it around his waist. “The world has grown more prudish in recent millennia.”

His brow wrinkled, but he covered himself up. I was going to have to check my history texts. I’d been under the impression that nudity and bathing, while common among one’s own gender, hadn’t been a co-ed activity in Ancient Greece. Maybe the Spartans had been freer spirits than the scholars had let on.

“Let’s go find that package Simon gave you. The one with the cloths you’ve been using for polishing your weapons.” I headed toward the gate, not certain the hotel would be that much more thrilled with Alek swimming in his underwear, but we hadn’t thought to shop for a swimming suit at Goodwill. “I wanted to talk to you anyway,” I said as we walked back to the room. “We haven’t had much time for research these last few days, but I did get in touch with a cousin who lives in Athens. She’s a history enthusiast. I gave her your name and the year and events you won in the Olympics. She promised to drive to Sparta over the holidays and see if there are any physical records, more detailed than what’s on the Internet.” The Internet genealogy sites, alas, had not been particularly helpful for tracing ancestry back more than a couple hundred years, not to mention the fact that we were trying to do the opposite of what the sites were designed for. We knew the antecedent rather than the descendant.

“I appreciate this effort you are making,” Alek said as we stopped at the room door.

I blushed. I had done so little, especially given how much he had risked to help us over the last few days. “It’s nothing. I hope… no, listen, I promise you this: one way or another, once this monster stuff is resolved, I’ll find a way to take you home. I mean, it’ll be totally foreign and changed since your day, but you’ll at least recognize the hills and the sea.”

He closed his eyes. I watched with concern, afraid I had said the wrong thing. Would it be too painful for him to go back? But he took a deep breath, and I realized he was just struggling to control his feelings. When his eyes opened again, they were brimming with moisture, and he gave me a solemn nod.

I nodded back. I wasn’t sure how the hell I was going to get him citizenship and a passport from somewhere, but I would make it happen. Or I would arm-wrestle Simon into making it happen, since that seemed like something his repertoire of skills could handle.

Since I was contemplating arm-wrestling, I wasn’t quite prepared when Alek bent and kissed me on the cheek. I was too busy gaping at him—for the second time in ten minutes—to think about hugging him or maybe giving
him
a kiss until he drew back.

“Thank you,” he said.

“You’re welcome,” I managed, though I wanted to kick myself for missing out on… something. Yes, he had lost his wife, and yes he had been forced to do who-knew-what for some elven master, and I probably shouldn’t even contemplate kissing him, but damn it, how often did a hot, naked guy give me a kiss?

A kiss on the cheek. A kiss of gratitude. That was it. Cool the hormones, Delia.

I swiped the key and pushed open the door. “Your stuff is in here, isn’t it?” I knew the shield and spear were still in the van but hadn’t kept track of his other personal items—it wasn’t as if he had many.

“Yes.”

“If you can put on one of the cloth garments, we can go back to the pool. They, uh—” I started to pantomime putting on underwear, but he held up a hand, a faint smile replacing his solemnness.

“I understand.”

Indeed, he returned shortly, the towel on his shoulder again and the tightie whities covering up… enough. Something about how fast he had donned those told me he had figured things out a while ago.

“You didn’t know what those were for all along, did you?” I asked suspiciously as we headed back for the pool. “You weren’t deliberately teasing Simon, were you?”

“This would not be acceptable?”

“Oh, it’s very acceptable.”

He gave me that faint smile again. “Good.”

THE END