She stared back into his gray-flecked eyes with a kind of horror.
Twice. He"d been twice enchanted now, once to love Blaise and once to hate her.
Oh, Eileithyia, it"s over. . . .
It was a crisis, and Thea responded instinctively. She reached for Eric, to sa ve him, to be saved herself.
She flung out a thought the way she"d fling out a hand to someone going over a cliff.Eric.
A connection . . .
Like dosing a circuit-and that was all it took. Thea felt a wave of ... some thing, something hot and sweet, more magical than Blaise"s magic. Distilled lightning, maybe. The air between her and Eric was so charged that she felt as though her skin was being brushed with velvet. It was like being at the i ntersection of cosmic force lines.
And it was all okay. Eric"s face was his ordinary face. Alive, alert, full of warmth-for her. Not zombie worship for Blaise.
Thea.
It can"t be this simple.
But it was. She and Eric were staring at each other in the quivering air and t he universe was just one big singing crystal.
We"re right together.
A yell shattered the silent communion. Thea looked toward the dugout and s aw that Blaise the vulnerable had disappeared.
"I"m wet," Blaise shrieked. "Are you crazy? Do you have any idea what wate r drops do to silk?"
Thea opened her mouth, then shut it again. She felt giddy with the sweetness of relief. She had no idea if Blaise really thought the elixir was only wat er-but one thing was clear. However strong Blaise"s spell had been, it was b roken now. And Blaise knew it.
Blaise jerked the zipper up and stalked off.
"She"s mad," Eric said.
"Well ..." Thea was still dizzy. "I told you she likes getting mad." She took E ric"s arm, very gently, and partly to steady herself. "Let"s go."
They"d only gone a few steps when Eric said, "Thank G.o.d you hit me with th at water."
"Yes." Even if the elixir hadn"t worked it had somehow broken Eric"s concentr ation or distracted Blaise or something. She"d have to see if she could figur e out what had happened to disrupt a spell as potent as the one Blaise had cr eated. . . .
"Yeah, because, you know, it was getting really awkward," Eric went on. "I ke pt trying to think of a polite way to tell her there wasn"t a chance, but I c ouldn"t. And just when I realized I was going to have to say it and hurt her feelings-well, you soaked us."
Thea stopped dead. She stared at him. He was serious.
"I mean-I know I hurt her feelings anyway. Or she wouldn"t have gone aw ay mad. Uh, are you mad now? Thea?"
She started walking again. "Are you saying you didn"t even want to be with h er? Not even just a little?"
He stopped. "How could I want to be with her when I want to be with you? I told you that before this whole thing started."
Maybe it"s because we"re soulmates. Maybe it"s because he"s so stubborn. But, whatever, I"d better never tell Blaise. She"ll have a whole new reason for k illing him if she finds out her spell bounced off like water off a duck.
"Well, anyway, it"s resolved now," she murmured-and at that moment she rea lly believed it. She was too happy to think about anything dreadful.
"Is it? Does that mean that we can finally go out? Like on a date?"
He sounded so wistful that Thea laughed. She felt light and free and full of energy. "Yeah. We could go right now. Or ... we could go in. Your house, I mean. I"d like to see your sister and Madame Curie again."
Eric made an "ouch" face. "Well, Madame Curie would probably like that. Bu t Roz lost her case- the court ruled that the Boy Trekkers are a private o rganization. And she is not-pardon the pun-a happy camper."
"All the more reason we should go see her. Poor kid."
Eric looked at her quizzically. "You"re serious? You have a choice of anyw here in Las Vegas and you"d like to go to my house?"
"Why not?" Thea didn"t mention that a human house was more exotic to her than anywhere else in Vegas.
She was happy.
It turned out to be a modest frame house, shaded by a couple of honest-to-go odness trees, not palms. Thea felt a twinge of shyness as they went inside.
"Mom"s still at work. And"-Eric checked his watch-"Roz is supposed to be in her room until five.
Home detention. This morning she microwaved her Barbie dolls."
"That doesn"t sound good for the microwave." Rosamund"s door was plaste red with homemade Signs. DO NOT ENTER. KEEP OUT AND THIS MEANS ERIC. FEMI NISM IS THE RADICAL NOTION THAT WOMEN ARE PEOPLE.
When Eric opened the door a piggy bank shaped like a skunk came flying tow ard him. He ducked. It hit the wall and, amazingly, didn"t break.
"Roz-"
"I hate everybody! And everybody hates me!" A hardback book came soarin g.
Eric shut the door fast. Bang.
"Everybody doesn"t hate you!" he yelled.
"Well, I hate them! Go away!"
Bang. Bang. Crash.
"I think maybe we"d better leave her alone," Eric said. "She gets a little moody sometimes. Want to see my room?"
His room was nice, Thea decided. Lots of books, some smelling of mildew-"I get them at the used book stores." Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy. De velopment and Structure of the Fetal Pig. The Red Pony. Most of them wer e about animals in some form or other.
And lots of trophies. Baseball trophies, basketball trophies, a few tennis t rophies. "I have to switch between baseball and tennis different years." Spo rts equipment was scattered carelessly around, mixed with the books and some dirty socks.
Not so different from a teenager"s room in the Night World. Just a person"s room.
There was a picture of a man on the desk, a man with sandy hair and a glorious, lightning-bolt smile like Eric"s.
"Who is it?"
"My dad. He died when Roz was little-a plane crash. He was a pilot." Eric sa id it simply, but his eyes went dark.
Thea said softly, "My parents died when I was little, too. What"s sad is that I don"t really remember them."
Eric looked at the picture again. "You know, I never thought about it, but I "m glad I do remember. At least we had him that long."
They smiled at each other.
By the bed was a tank that gave off a pleasant percolating sound. Thea sat ne xt to it and watched iridescent blue fish dart around. She turned off the bed side lamp to see the lighted tank better.
"You like it?"
"I like everything," Thea said. She looked at him. "Everything."
Eric blinked. He eyed the bed Thea was sitting on, then slowly sat at the de sk. He stuck out a casual elbow to lean on and papers showered to the floor.
"Oops."
Thea stifled a laugh. "Is that the U.C. Davis application?"
He looked up hopefully from gathering them. "It sure is. Want to see it?"
Thea almost said yes. She was in such a cheerful mood, ready to agree to a nything, be open to anything. But a moment of thought changed her mind. So me things were just going too far.
"Not right now, thanks."
"Well . . ."He put the papers back. "You know, you still might think about tr ansferring to the zoology cla.s.s at school. Ms. Gasparro is a great teacher. A nd you"d really like what we"re studying."
Maybe I could, Thea thought. What would it hurt?
"And if you were ever interested. Dr. Salinger is always looking for extra he lp. It doesn"t pay much, but it"s good experience."
And . . . what would that hurt? It"s not as if I would be breaking any laws. I wouldn"t have to use any powers, either, I could just be close to the animals ."I"ll think about it," she said. She could hear the suppressed excitement in her own voice. She looked at Eric, who was sitting with his elbows on his k nees, leaning forward, watching her earnestly. "And- thanks," she said softl y. "For what?"
"For . . . wanting the best for me. For caring." The light from the fish tank threw wavering blue patterns on the walls and ceiling. It made the bedroom s eem like its own little underwater world. It danced over Thea"s skin.
Eric stared at her. Then he swallowed and shut his eyes. With his eyes still shut, he said in a muted voice, "I don"t think you know how much I care." T hen he looked at her.
That connection again. It seemed to be drawing them together-an almost physic al feeling of attraction. It was exciting, but scary.
Eric got up very slowly and crossed the room. He sat by Thea. Neither of t hem looked away.
And then things just seemed to happen by themselves. Their fingers were in tertwined. Thea was looking up and he was looking down. They were so close that their breath mingled. Thea shivered with the electricity.
Everything seemed wrapped in a golden haze.
Crash.
Something hit the other side of the wall.
"Ignore it; it"s poltergeists," Eric murmured. His lips were an inch from hers.
"It"s Rosamund," Thea murmured back. "She feels bad-and it"s not really fai r. We should try and make her feel better." She was so happy that she wante d everyone else to be happy, too.
Eric groaned. "Thea . . ."
"Let me just go see if I can cheer her up. I"ll come back."
Eric shut his eyes, opened them, and turned on the lamp. He gave her a pain ed smile. "Okay. I have to water Mom"s outside plants and feed the rabbits and stuff, anyway. Let me know when she"s cheered up enough. I"ll be waitin g."
Thea knocked and ducked as she entered Rosamund"s room. "Roz? Can I just talk to you for a minute?"
"Don"t call me that. I want you to call me Fred."
"Uh, how come Fred?" Thea sat cautiously on the edge of the bed-or not the b ed, actually, the box springs. The mattress was across the room, standing on its side in a corner. The entire room looked as if it had been hit simultaneously by a hurricane and an earthquake, and it smel led strongly of guinea pig.
Slowly, part of a sandy head appeared above the mattress. One green eye re garded Thea directly.
"Because," Rosamund said with terrible maturity, "I"m not a girl anymore. Things have always been this way for girls and they will always be this way and they are never going to change. And don"t give me any of that B.S. abou t how females hear better and do better in submarines and have better fine motor skills, because I don"t care. I"m going to be a boy now."
"You"re a smart kid," Thea said. She was surprised at how smart Roz was, and at how much she wanted to comfort her. "But you need to study your history. Things haven"t always been this way. There were times when wome n and men were equals."
Rosamund just said, "When?"
"Well-in ancient Crete, for one thing. They were all children of Eileithyia, the Great G.o.ddess, and boys and girls both did dangerous stuff, like acroba tics on wild bulls. Of course ..." Thea paused, struck by a thought. "The Gr eeks did come and conquer them."
"Uh-huh."
"But, um"-Thea wracked her brain for human history-"Well, the ancient Celt s were okay-until the Romans came and conquered them. And . . . and . . ."
Human history was a problem.
"I told you," Rosamund said bitterly. "It always turns out the same. Now go away."
"Well. . ." Thea hesitated.
It was the excitement that did it. The giddy feeling of everything being righ t with the world. It made her overconfident, made her feel as if Night World law were a little thing that could be dispensed with if necessary.
Don"t, a part of her mind whispered. Don"t or you"ll be sorry.
But Rosamund was so miserable. And the golden glow was still around Thea, making her feel protected. Invulnerable.
"Look," she said. "This may not help much, but I"ll tell you a story, a story that always made me feel better when I was a little girl. Only you have to kee p it a secret."
There was a flicker of interest in Rosamund"s green eyes. "A true story?"
"Well-I can"t really say it"s true." And that"s true-I can"t. "But it"s a good story, and it"s about a time when women were leaders. About a girl called h.e.l.le wise."