Her eyes flew open. She looked up and saw he was intently listening to something.
The heavy footfalls outside registered for both of them at the same time. He climbed off her quickly and reached the door in three long strides. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
Theron exited the bedroom and closed the door firmly behind him. Dazed, Casey readjusted in the pillows, pulled her shirt down and fixed the sheets. Then listened closely. She heard Theron’s deep voice, followed by two other male voices she didn’t recognize. She couldn’t make out any of their conversation.
He’d said the daemons couldn’t get into Argolea. And that Nick had gone back to the colony. Whom then was he talking to?
The footsteps receded until all she heard was silence. She waited for Theron to come back into the room, but he didn’t.
Curiosity finally got the best of her. She climbed out of bed, fixed her clothes and headed for the door.
The bedroom opened to a long hallway. Skylights in the vaulted ceiling filtered in sunlight and cast shadows along the floor. Dark wood ran beneath her bare feet as she headed toward what she hoped was the main part of the house. As she drew closer, she heard voices again—Theron’s mixed with the other two.
The scent of thyme was stronger here. She drew a deep breath as she reached the end of the hall and stepped into a massive living room done all in masculine greens and burgundy. The ceiling was at least twenty feet high, made of thick pine beams and rustic materials. Another fireplace built entirely of river rock graced one whole wall. Next to it, a sea of windows looked out into a wonderland of woods made up of wild olive, myrtle and strawberry trees.
She gasped at the beauty, and stopped dead in her tracks. In her peripheral vision she saw movement, and swiveled her head in time to see the two men standing with Theron near the windows gape at her as if she were a three-headed beast.
“Holy Hera,” the blond one said. “She’s human.”
“Acacia.” Theron immediately crossed the floor to her. “What are you doing out of bed? You shouldn’t be up and around.”
“I…” She glanced around him at the other two, clearly as shocked by her as she was by them, and didn’t know what to say.
Both were nearly as big as Theron, with the same strange markings on the backs of their hands. The blond was David Beckham handsome, with a youthful face and a wicked glint in his silver eyes. His short hair was unkempt, and the thin mustache and goatee was damn sexier than she would have expected.
The other was dark and mysterious, with eyes she sensed saw way more than he let on. A thin scar ran over his upper lip, and his golden skin glowed in the light coming through the windows.
But it wasn’t their good looks that gave her pause. It was the power she sensed from both of them. As if it radiated off their bodies and swirled in the air around her. She knew immediately these were Theron’s guardian kin. Two Argonauts. Up close and in the flesh. Theron’s comment about women throwing themselves at their feet? Yeah. She got that now.
The blond marched toward her. Theron immediately put his body between her and the guardian and spoke in a language she didn’t understand. His words sounded oddly Greek, but were different at the same time.
The blond guardian stopped mere feet away. Stared at her around Theron’s shoulder with cautious eyes while Theron continued to speak in a harsh tone she hoped was a warning not to harm her. The other guardian stayed rooted in place across the room, still shocked and staring, but even still, Casey swallowed back a lick of fear. If one of them wanted to squash her like a bug, he could in an instant.
When Theron stopped speaking, the blond guardian’s eyes flicked from her face to Theron’s and back again. And then he did something she never would have expected. He dropped to one knee in front of her and lowered his head.
Casey’s eyes grew wide, but before she could ask what was happening, Theron wrapped a hand around the guardian’s arm and pulled him to his feet. “Enough, Zander.”
Zander stood to his full height but bowed his head one more time her way. “Many apologies. I didn’t realize who she was.”
Theron slanted an uncomfortable look her way before turning back to his guardians. He said something again in that native tongue Casey was coming to despise, and then the dark guardian finally spoke up.
“Leonidas wants to see you.”
Her father?
Theron’s eyes narrowed. “How did he know I was here?”
“He didn’t,” Zander said. “Cerek and I came to see if you were back. We were going to cross over and look for you if you weren’t, but I guess we won’t need to now.” He nodded Casey’s way. “You’re taking her, I assume.”
Theron quickly said something again in that native language, and both guardians looked bewildered. Casey didn’t have a clue what was going on, but she sensed when something wasn’t right, and big red warning flags were raised in her head.