Starcrossed (19 page)

“Ah, the News Store?” Helen offered with a shrug. “I don’t think

we’ll be able to talk there, though.”

“How ’bout this,” he said as he pulled into a chain restaurant that

was popular with the tourists.

Helen winced, but assented. There were other mom-and-pop

choices, but she knew all the people who worked in those places.

For this conversation she needed a little privacy.

They stood quietly together in line, waiting to sit before they started

talking. Helen tried not to stare at Lucas, but it was difficult. It

amazed her how comfortable he seemed wherever he went, as if

the whole world was as private to him as his own bedroom.

She tried to watch him out of the corner of her eye, maybe catch

him fidgeting or shuffling his feet the way she herself did in public,

but there was none of that. He really didn’t care if people looked at

him or not. He didn’t subconsciously apologize to the world for his

presence by slouching or crossing his arms or playing with his

keys. It unnerved Helen to see how he could just stand there and

not do anything else, but it also inspired her. Why should she

slouch and feel bashful for taking up more space than most people?

She stood up a little straighter while she stared at him.

“Had enough?” he asked, smiling at Helen’s brazen admiration of

his looks.

“Not yet,” she said, a matching smile breaking across her face.

“Good.”

As soon as they were seated, Lucas asked her what she wanted to

know, and Helen had to think for a moment. She wasn’t entirely

sure.

“I guess the first thing I need to know is who hurt Kate,” she said,

dreading the answer.

“We have no idea,” he answered, sounding earnest. Helen’s heart

sank. She knew from the night before that although Lucas couldn’t

133/395

bear to be lied to, it didn’t stop him from telling a few whoppers of

his own.

“That doesn’t make sense, Lucas,” she said carefully. “Your father

told me that I was the only one of . . . our kind . . . who was not a

member of your House. How can you not know two women who,

by that logic, are related to you?”

Lucas nodded, like he understood why Helen doubted him. “The

House of Thebes is very large. Our immediate family—those of us

who moved back here to the States—are a just a tiny splinter group,

but the main part of the House of Thebes is much, much larger.

They’re known as the Hundred Cousins, although there are a lot

more of them than that now, and they’re loosely led by my uncle

Tantalus,” he said, looking down at his coffee, his eyes far away. “I

have a lot of distant relatives that I’ve never heard of, let alone

seen.”

“If your uncle is the leader, can’t you just call and ask him which

of your cousins is trying to kill me?”

“Tantalus may have been the one who sent them,” he said darkly.

“But we don’t know that for sure yet. My uncle Pallas—Hector,

Jason, and Ariadne’s father—he went back to Europe after the first

attack on you to see how much Tantalus knows.” Helen studied his

face for a moment. It was all sharp edges and glittering blue eyes.

“You mean spy on the rest of the House,” Helen said, surprised.

He nodded. “But why would your family go through so much for

me? I’m grateful, but still. What else aren’t you telling me?”

He tore at his croissant for a moment and then let out a fast

breath.

“The Hundred Cousins are a kind of cult. They believe something

that my family doesn’t, and they believe it so fanatically that they

are willing to kill for it. That’s why we left Spain. Hector . . .” Lucas

trailed off, and then shook his head as if to clear it before turning

his focus back on Helen. “The point is that you’re in a lot of danger.

I’ve been following you since I first saw you, but I can’t guard you

134/395

every second. If either one of those women finds you without me

there, they’ll try to kill you, and you don’t know how to defend

yourself yet.”

“Well, it’s not like I’ve ever had to defend myself,” Helen said, at

a loss. “I mean, this is Nantucket. My dad and I forget to lock the

front door more often than not!”

“You’re very important to us. Much more than I can explain to

you right now,” Lucas said, leaning forward and taking her hands.

“I know you said you needed a few days, and I didn’t want to freak

you out by throwing all of this at you at once, but you have to start

training with us as soon as you can. My family will teach you how

to fight.”

“You mean like judo and stuff?”

“Sort of,” Lucas said, smiling reassuringly. “Don’t look so worried.

With your gifts you’ll be kicking ass in no time.”

“What gifts?” Helen asked doubtfully.

“You really don’t know, do you?” he marveled.

“Hey, Luke, what’s up?” Zach asked, entering the café. He was

smiling, but his smile faded as soon as he saw whom Lucas was

with. Behind him stood a few guys from the football team, all of

whom were staring, openmouthed, at the unlikely pairing.

“Hey, Zach. Getting some coffee. You?” Lucas answered, totally

unfazed. Helen gave a watered-down smile and untucked her hair

from behind her ears to hide her face. Lucas reached across the

table and smoothed her hair back behind her shoulder.

“Same, yeah,” Zach mumbled as he nearly tripped over himself to

get away, his eyes darting between Helen and Lucas with disbelief.

“See you in a few,” he called out before joining the other guys in

line.

Helen bit her lip and stared at her coffee cup, rubbing her stomach

under the table as subtly as possible. Please, no cramps, she

thought.

“What’s the matter?” Lucas asked, watching her.

135/395

“Nothing. Can we just go?” she pleaded, desperate to change the

subject, get away, maybe drop dead if at all possible.

“Sure,” Lucas said, standing up. He gave her a worried look. “I

know it’s not nothing, Helen, and I’d rather you told me the truth,

whatever it is. Ariadne gave all three of us guys a whole lecture

about women’s troubles years ago, you know. And by lecture, I

mean beating.”

“Well, I owe her one, but it’s not what you think.” Helen grabbed

his hand and pulled him toward the door.

Lucas waved to Zach on his way out. Zach waved back, but he

was still pouting.

“I think I’ve lowered your rank. Sorry,” Helen said as they got in

the little silver Mercedes.

“What are you talking about?” Lucas asked, backing out of the

parking lot.

“Well, Zach and all those guys saw us together,” she said, like her

meaning was obvious.

“And?”

“Zach and Gretchen aren’t my biggest fans, which makes me sort

of like popularity antimatter at school,” Helen explained sheepishly.

Lucas’s face cracked into a huge smile and he grabbed her

hand, but he had to let it go to shift.

“I’m going to have to start driving an automatic,” he mumbled to

himself before continuing. “You think you’re unpopular? The first

hour I was on this island I heard about the beautiful, perfect, heavenly

Helen Hamilton. You know that’s what the boys call you,

right? Heaven Hamilton?” Helen dodged his seeking hand, but he

eventually captured hers and held it tighter.

“Stop it, Lucas. This isn’t a joke to me. And what’s up with this?”

she asked, holding up their linked hands.

“I don’t know,” he said with a curious tilt of his head. “But it feels

right, doesn’t it? Look, why don’t you tell me what’s really

136/395

bothering you about being seen with me. Are you afraid of people

talking?”

“Yes and no. You don’t understand because you haven’t been

here long enough, but those popular people have something

against me, and some of them go out of their way to be mean to

me. I’ve never fit in with them.”

“And you never will,” he told her seriously. “No matter where you

go you are going to be different, Helen. It’s about time you got used

to it.”

“I am used to it! I’ve had my whole life to get used to it!” she exclaimed

as they drove into the school parking lot.

“Good. Now stop freaking out and listen for a sec. Those guys

weren’t staring at us because they hate you. They were staring at us

because they couldn’t figure out how the hell I convinced a girl who

tried to strangle me the other week to get in my car and go out for

coffee.”

“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that,” Helen said to the ground, getting

out of the car. She tossed her bag over her shoulder.

“And I’d like to go back to forgetting about it. If we never talk

about trying to kill each other again, it would be fine with me,” Lucas

said quietly. He took her hand firmly in his and pulled her up

against him so that her shoulder was touching his arm as they

walked into school.

Everyone was staring. The halls were lined with blank faces and

slack jaws as conversations were momentarily halted and then continued

twice as loud when Helen and Lucas passed. Helen tried to

pull her hand out of Lucas’s, but he resisted at first. Finally, he let

go when he realized that Helen was not just being modest, she was

about to panic.

“Lennie?” Claire called out warily. Helen smiled briefly at Lucas

and veered in Claire’s direction.

“Where were you all weekend?” Claire asked, eyeing Lucas

suspiciously.

137/395

“Did you try to call me?” Helen asked, grateful for an excuse to

pry herself away from Lucas and hopefully away from all the

stares.

“Like, five times. What happened to you?”

“My phone broke,” Helen said apologetically. Then she turned to

Lucas. “I have to stop at my locker before homeroom. Thanks for

the ride,” she told him bluntly.

“Okay. I’ll see you later then,” he said, accepting his dismissal as

gracefully as he could. When he was no more than three steps

away, Claire grabbed Helen’s arm and dragged her toward her

locker.

“What the holy hand grenade was that?” Claire practically

shouted. Helen shushed her as she wrestled with her locker

combination.

“We had a long talk,” Helen said quickly. “We don’t hate each

other anymore.”

“A talk? Yeah, right. I’m sure tongues were involved but for some

reason I don’t think much language was used.” Claire looked angry,

but Helen was suddenly angrier.

“Stop it, Claire! I mean it! I had a really rough weekend. I’m sorry

I didn’t think to call you last night but my father was pissed at me

for leaving him stranded at the airport.”

“Well, tell me about it now then!” Claire replied defensively. “Not

like you have to say anything. Everyone can see that you and Lucas

are suddenly a couple.”

“I don’t know what we are, but it’s not something I can sum up

with an easy label like ‘couple,’ okay?” Stressed, Helen shuffled

through her books and realized that she hadn’t done any of her

homework.

“Why can’t you just be honest with me? You slept with him,”

Claire accused her. Her eyes were hurt. Helen knew she couldn’t

shut her out entirely.

138/395

“Honestly? I did sleep with him. Twice. But not the way you

think,” she said frankly. She turned Claire around and steered

them both to Hergie’s. “We’ve never even kissed.”

“Rubbish!” Claire declared, stopping dead in the middle of the

hall.

“Ask him yourself. You’ve got classes with him all day,” Helen responded,

perfectly serious. The bell rang and they both had to run

the last few steps to make it through the door before Hergie closed

it.

Helen had a terrible morning. Several teachers considered giving

her detention for not doing her homework and every single girl in

school was furious with her for getting a ride with Lucas. Helen’s

relationships with the girls in her class had always been strained.

For years she’d gone out of her way to be nice to them, but she’d finally

given up when she noticed that if she kept her head down and

her mouth shut she could slide under the radar.

That was all over now that she had been seen coming to school

with Lucas. She had crossed some sort of imaginary line, broken

the truce that she had entered into by refusing to compete, and

they’d declared war on her. All day long, Helen found that if she

looked anywhere but at the board or her desk she was shot nasty

looks. To top everything else off, Gretchen was whispering vicious

rumors about Helen to anyone who would listen, and Claire was

still upset.

Helen couldn’t help but smile with relief when she saw Lucas at

his locker before lunch. He seemed to be the only person in the entire

school who would smile back at her.

“So you like me again, huh?” he said as she made her way toward

him.

“Not you too,” Helen moaned. “Is there a sign on my back that

says ‘kick me’?”

“It’s just gossip, Helen. It can’t hurt us,” he said, wisely deciding

not to tease her anymore.

139/395

“Maybe it can’t hurt you,” Helen muttered. She put a hand on her

belly. Lucas saw her do it and was just about to ask what was