She hadn’t dared try on the drive to Bellingham. Hadn’t tried when they’d stopped at that Walmart and Orpheus had dragged her in to buy a jacket and shoes so she’d blend in. Certainly hadn’t tried at the train station when he’d booked tickets, not with the way Skyla kept watching her as if her head were about to spin around. She wasn’t dumb. She knew Orpheus was right. Those hounds clearly had their scent, and if they stopped for any length of time, the monsters would be on them in a heartbeat. But that didn’t keep her from planning for a way out when they finally reached their destination. Wherever that might be.
They’d switched trains in Everett around noon, had gotten lunch and hung out in the dining car as long as possible, then retired to their stateroom to get some rest and—Maelea knew—to avoid curious eyes. It didn’t take a genius to see the three of them didn’t go together. Skyla with her model-perfect body, Orpheus’s sheer size and the dangerous air that seemed to hover around him, and Maelea, the quiet one who had a hard time looking either of the other two in the eye and wasn’t even sure what she was doing here.
The need to bolt overwhelmed her, but she calmed herself by thinking about the alternative. Hellhounds? No, thanks. She was not about to tangle with Hades. For the time being, she’d wait and watch and make tracks only when she was sure it was safe. She wasn’t wild about being with either of these two, but she sensed they didn’t have plans to harm her.
At least not yet.
No one had said much since they’d returned to the stateroom. There was tension among all three of them, especially between Orpheus and Skyla. Tension Maelea was curious about but didn’t dare question. Though she’d tried to doze as the train barrelled east toward the Rockies and dusk settled in, her mind was too full of images and sounds and the bitter reality that Orpheus was not the one she needed to kill after all.
The darkness she’d first sensed in him had diminished. How, she didn’t know, but during the last hour she knew for certain his death would not grant her the access to Olympus she wanted. And that realization pissed her off more than anything, because thanks to him she now couldn’t even go back to the sanctuary of her house in Seattle.
Stupid male. Stupid her for going to that concert in the first place. She was better off keeping to herself, but even knowing that, she couldn’t seem to stop looking. It was the one major malfunction in her brain—the light pushing her to seek out the dark when what she should be content with was slinking into the shadows.
“You’re staring at me, Siren,” Orpheus said in a low voice.
Maelea went still and listened. They definitely weren’t partners. He was marked with darkness from the Underworld; she was of Zeus’s light. Another irony that wasn’t lost on Maelea.
“I’m just trying to figure out which bones will be easiest to break when you try to take Maelea out of here without me,” Skyla said from the bottom bunk.
Now that was a fight Maelea would like to witness.
Orpheus chuckled. “So protective. One wouldn’t expect it, coming from you.”
“You don’t know me.”
“Not entirely. But I know way more than most. You’re thinking about it now, aren’t you? That’s why you can’t stop watching me.”
Skyla grew quiet. The air thickened. And Maelea’s unease at being in the same room with them jumped. Orpheus’s suddenly husky tone spoke of intimate knowledge, but she couldn’t imagine one of Zeus’s warriors lowering herself to have sex with a daemon.
Not that Maelea had a whole lot of experience with sex as of late. She’d pretty much given up on that whole part of her life as she couldn’t see the point in getting involved with a human when they’d eventually die. But she wasn’t a virgin. Or a prude. She had cable, after all.
Or did. Before Orpheus ruined that for her too.
“You’re full of yourself, daemon,” Skyla said from below.
“No,” he purred. “You were full of me. You’re wondering what that would be like again. You’re wishing you could have it right now. Admit it.”
Maelea’s skin warmed, and the realization that these two definitely had gotten busy hit her head-on.
Before she could stop it, her mind spun with images of their coupling. It would be fierce and rough. Both were warriors. No sweet lovemaking for these two. Judging by the power play between them before, it would be a fast, hard, animalistic struggle where one or both were eventually injured. And though she knew this was not a conversation she—or anyone—was meant to hear, for some reason she couldn’t stop listening. Couldn’t stop picturing them together. Couldn’t stop herself from craving something…just as hedonistic.
“I thought you said it wasn’t all that good,” Skyla tossed back.
The seat below creaked, and through half-lidded eyes, Maelea watched as Orpheus leaned forward to brace his elbows on his knees and clasp his hands while he stared toward the bottom bunk. “But it was for you, wasn’t it? I seem to remember you scoring my back with your nails and screaming for more. I felt it, when you came. Hard. All around me. I could make you come again, just as hard, right here, right now.”
No way. These two weren’t going to…Not with her in the room. Were they?
The chair creaked again as Orpheus moved forward until he disappeared from Maelea’s view. The bottom bunk groaned.
“Careful, daemon,” Skyla whispered.