Stealing Cupid's Bow (20 page)

Her pleasure made him feel good.

“How?” was all she could get out. She motioned at her clothing and hair.

“It’s like you said. I’m a god. I can just snap my fingers and have anything I want.” If only she knew how wrong she was. Even gods didn’t get everything they wanted.

“You look very handsome,” she said.

“Thanks. You look great, too. We’d better go,” he said and tucked her hand into his elbow.

Outside he led her to his Bugatti, which was parked on the curb where he had conjured it.

“Is that your car?”

“I thought you might prefer to drive rather than fly to your parent’s party so that your hair doesn’t get messed up.” From the thoughtful way she reached to touch her hair again, he knew he was right.

“Let’s go to your parents’ house first and see if anyone’s still there.”

He handed her inside and then tucked bow and quiver behind the seat.

When they arrived Raine’s sharp intake of breath said it all. The house looked as though it had been hit by a hurricane. Clothes and small household objects were strewn all over the front yard and a couple of the windows were broken. The front door stood ajar. Alexander followed Raine as she made her way inside. She gazed all around in astonishment and when they got to the living room she let out a small cry and went to gather some colorful torn papers that were scattered on the rug like confetti.

“What is it?” he asked with concern.

“Family pictures,” she said, lifting one scrap and then another to look at them. The devastated expression on her face tore at him. Her shoulders had slumped forward.

“I can’t believe I did this. I thought your arrows were love.”

He couldn’t believe it had happened either. The magnitude of destruction in the house was beyond what he had ever seen, even in cases where he himself had instilled hate. Perhaps it was a good thing, though. Hopefully they’d been focused on destroying the house and not each other.

“Do you remember what you shot them with?” he asked.

“Just the first one. I used a lead one on my father, but I can’t remember the others,” she said.

“What were they doing at the time?”

“They were having an argument.” She stood up and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

Alexander processed that. Shooting people midfight was a tricky thing even for his advanced men. The correct timing of alignment could come and go in a split second under those circumstances.

“And you shot both of them?” He sighed. What a mess. It really bothered him as he looked around. What had once been a warm and lovely home was now in tatters. Dishes had been broken in the kitchen and feathers from a busted pillow lay scattered. Furniture had been knocked over.

She nodded. “Yes.” She looked at him with worried eyes. “I…I shot them both twice. Is that bad?”

“Twice!” His eyes bulged. Now all the destruction was making sense. Two arrows each! And she didn’t know which ones her parents had received. “How could you do such a thing?” he raged at her. “Even if by some miracle the rest of the arrows were gold-tipped your parents are far beyond screwed right now. That’s more emotion than any mortal can withstand!”

“I was trying to make sure it lasted,” she said miserably. “You wouldn’t help me and I thought if I shot them both twice….” Her words drifted off.

He ran his hands through his hair and turned away from her. He walked out the door, his fingers curled into fists.

She followed him pleading, “Alexander, I didn’t know what I was doing. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.” Taking hold of his arm, she stopped him. “Alexander, I still need your help. Please. If they are as screwed up as you say they are, then I need you now more than ever.”

He turned to look at her. Taking deep breaths, he relaxed his fists and reminded himself that she didn’t know any better. “I’m still going to try and erase it. I’m just not sure it will take.”

She looked taken aback. “What do you mean? Of course you can fix it.”

She said it so simply, as if it were a fact, as if he had all the answers. She thought he could fix everything having to do with love. Well, he couldn’t and it was time she knew.

“Raine, not everything can be rectified. I couldn’t repair my own marriage. Remember? I’m divorced.”

A look of shock crossed her face.

They stood in silence for a moment.

“You were right before,” he said. “It was the first and only time I’ve fallen in love.”

“Well, from the stories that have been told about it, it was legendary,” she said.

He gave a bitter laugh. “It’s appropriate, I suppose, for the god of love to have had such an extraordinary romance. But no one, least of all myself, ever expected such a mundane ending.”

“Then you are no different from the rest of us Alexander. I can’t tell you how many people get married every day who think they are going to ride off into the sunset, and then reality comes crashing in. But don’t you see? Haven’t you ever thought, in all this time, that that is all part of it? Maybe that’s one of the greatest parts of it you know? The struggle, the passion, the despair. It’s what makes love,
love
.”

A new light was beginning to shine from her and with it a new door opened in his mind. He could see what she was talking about.

She continued on, “Some make it and some don’t and then suddenly you’re at an old couple’s anniversary party and they give a speech saying how difficult it was. And then they always end that speech with the best part.”

“Which is?”

“They always say it was worth it.”

“They do?” He’d never been to an anniversary party before. He had no way of knowing if what she said was correct but it made him hope in a way he never had before.

“No one has ever spoken so honestly to me before.” She dared to speak to him as she would anyone else on the earth making him feel as if he belonged.

“Must be a side effect of being a god,” she said.

Her small joke pleased him. “You are not afraid to offend a god?” he asked but he knew that answer already.

“No. Not you. I know you won’t hurt me,” she said.

She knew him so well already, he thought. He was the last of all the gods to want to cause pain to others, perhaps a practical joke once in a while, but not pain.

“And what about the others?” he asked her.

“The others?”

“The ones that don’t make it?”

“If they look, then they may find love again. If they don’t, it’s not the end of the world. I’ve seen people happy without it.”

It was something he’d never considered. He looked at her, wanting to believe the earnestness in her green eyes as she spoke her truth. But what did she know, mortal that she was? And so young in experience compared to himself.

She took his hand. “We should go. I’ll never be able to live with myself if my parents are stuck living with what I’ve done to them.”

“You should have taken you own advice and left them alone in the first place,” he couldn’t help saying.

She sucked in a breath but nodded reluctantly but said, “Yes, I should have left them alone, but I’m still not so sure you should have.”

He said nothing in reply. He was beginning to think she might be right. He escorted her to the car and they set off for the restaurant.

Upon entering Valentino’s, he knew immediately that something was wrong. Two of the waitstaff were standing at the door to the private room peering in and whispering to each other and the manager was headed across the restaurant toward them. Shouting could be heard from within the room and the other diners were beginning to stare.

Alexander caught the manager by the arm before he made it to the door. “I’ll take care of this.” Alexander had helped him with situations before. They knew each other well.

The manager looked relieved to see him. He nodded and then gestured to the staff to get back to work.

Holding Raine’s hand tightly, he led her into the room and closed the door behind them. For a party that had just started, the situation must have deteriorated rapidly. It seemed two sides had formed. On one side Raine’s mother was crying. Raine’s Aunt Nora had an arm around her and was yelling at what he assumed was Raine’s father, who stood next to some other men.

“You never were good enough to marry her,” Aunt Nora said.

“Nothing will ever be good enough for that woman,” said Raine’s father.

At the sound of his voice, a memory dredged itself up from the back of Alexander’s mind. He looked at Mr. Daniels more closely. He knew his face; he had seen him before. But where? And then the memory came clear. It had been one of those nights when he’d felt restless. He’d been flying over the city, finding solace in the feel of wind on his face. He remembered looking down at all the houses, feeling the various auras when one had called to him like a beacon. It was farther on the edge of town but it had been strong.

When he’d landed to take a look he found it was actually two auras closely aligned. Both the most beautiful pink he’d ever seen, lit up with love. A man, Raine’s father, had proposed to a woman that night as he’d looked through the window. He’d only been able to see the back of her head but he’d seen Mr. Daniels clearly. His instinct to shoot had been potent, but his bow was in the vault back at the hotel since he didn’t use it anymore. But he couldn’t look away. After the woman, Raine’s mother, accepted the ring they had slow danced together in the living room. And somehow, here they were today. They’d had enough love to stay together for forty years, without his help. It was amazing.

As he had expected, her parents’ auras were really screwed up. They were a muddy, sickly color that whorled and sputtered, shooting sparks from the entire spectrum of colors at random as they felt a host of emotions. Deep and irrational emotions. This was not good.

Alexander could see that the power injected into Raine’s parents from the arrows was emanating from them and affecting others around. They were beginning to feeling hostile. Some of the people toward the edges of the room had not been affected yet and they milled about not quite knowing what to do. But the ones closet were starting to mutter as they took sides. It was turning into a feud.

Raine sucked in a breath in shock and stood watching, her hands lifted to her cheeks.

“You never loved me!” cried Raine’s mother.

“Then you have no idea what love is,” said Mr. Daniels. “After everything I’ve done for you, this is what I get? Women have no gratitude. It’s always more, more, more!” The men next to him nodded and muttered in agreement.

It wouldn’t be long before full riot ensued. Alexander pulled his bow from his shoulder and reached for an arrow.

Raine put a hand on his arm pausing him. She was staring at the crystal-tipped arrows in his hands. “Does it have to be that? There has to be something else you can do.”

The look she gave him made him wish that he could. It reached down into his soul and grabbed his heart. At this moment he would have liked nothing better than to repair it all for her. But it was too late; they were far beyond that.

He shook his head. “Raine, it would only damage them more. Look at them, they are already out of their minds with emotion; it’s far too intense. If we leave them like this, they’ll either kill each other now or commit suicide later. I have to take it away, every last bit.”

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said with regret. “They have to be wiped clean. I’m sorry. It’s the only hope.”

“But then, they’ll feel nothing at all for each other, right? Nothing. It will be as if they were never even married.”

“They’ll have the memories, but it will be as if they are looking through an emotionless filter.” He knew from personal experience.

She looked back at them and he could almost see a million different memories of her parents passing before her. A tear streaked down her cheek and she nodded. “Okay.” She took a step behind him and said no more.

He loaded his bow with both of the crystal-tipped arrows and released them simultaneously. They flew true to their targets. And then he reached down and held Raine’s hand.

They both jolted massively on impact. The brown, gray, and sulfur tones of anger, negativity, and depression that had been radiating from both of their auras disappeared with a flash. The tension in the room dropped several degrees. Raine’s mother wiped her tear-streaked face with a napkin and looked around with surprise, awareness coming back to her again. Raine’s father had reached a hand to one of the other men’s shoulders as he had stumbled to the side and he now had a hand lifted to his forehead.

All around them the family members that had been affected blinked and looked around as though they had been awakened from a dream. Behind them the door opened and shut as Donovan, Cole, and Jane entered the room.

An awkward silence hung in the air.

“What’s going on?” Jane whispered.

Raine looked at her and then at Alexander. She let go of his hand and walked to the front of the room where a microphone stood that was to be used for toasts. She stood there for a moment adjusting it and appeared to be gathering her thoughts.

Finally she looked up and a smile appeared on her face that he could tell wasn’t genuine. He knew that, inside, she was dying.

“Well, what kind of family would we be without the occasional fight?” she joked weakly. A small rumble of laughter rippled through the crowd. All eyes were on her, distracted from what had just occurred, and Alexander was moved by her bravery.

“After forty years of marriage, you can guarantee that there will be no shortage of things to argue about. Just make sure you all take a lesson from my parents tonight and don’t hold anything in. Who needs the heartburn and indigestion? Tonight we are here again to celebrate all the good times that have led up to today, to this very moment. And let me tell you all those times that I’ve seen my parents loving one another are the ones that will be burned into my memory for eternity.

“I know you’ve probably heard me tell you a lot of things about Mom and Dad already. But this year is even more special than the others. It’s a milestone in a marriage.” Her voice quavered and she paused to wipe a tear from her cheek. “So, I saved some things to tell you that I think are very special about them, so that we will all never forget.”