Goddess (Starcrossed)

them the time.
    “Shut up!” Claire and Helen shrieked in unison. Jason laughed.
    “Some Scions can shape-shift into their god’s animal avatars,” Hector said, giving Helen a weird look. “How can you not know this?”
    “Nobody told me, and I’ve never been able to do it!” Helen shouted back. She rounded on Orion again. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “It’s not like it’s useful or anything,” he said with a shrug. “Think about it. How many horses do you see trotting around town these days?”
    “Yeah.” Jason chuckled. “And then when you change back, you’re buck naked. Try explaining that one. It’s crazy fun to be an animal, don’t get me wrong, but it’s rarely practical.”
    “Yeah, but . . . ,” Claire sputtered. “Oh my god!”
    “This is so unfair. I get all the miserable talents like descending and having freaky dreams, and you get to turn into a dolphin.” Helen pouted, throwing a pillow at Jason.
    “Okay, okay,” Matt interjected, holding up his hands to get everyone back on target. “But how many Scions can turn into an eagle large enough to carry off a woman?”
    “None.” Hector cocked his head to the side. “Okay, Matt. What do you think is going on?”
    “I think the gods are doing exactly what they used to do before they were locked up on Olympus—running around and raping mortal women. But this time, they aren’t leaving their victims alive.”
    “Huh.” Hector chuffed. “They aren’t taking any chances.”
    “No. Not this time,” Matt replied.
    “What do you mean?” Ariadne asked.
    “In every single one of the stories about a god appearing to a woman as a bull or a swan or a shower of gold, nine months later a Scion was born,” Hector said, spreading his hands to indicate all of them. “It’s like they never miss.”
    Lucas tactfully ignored Hector’s off-color comment and looked at Helen. “What else have you seen in these flashes?”
    “What other animals, you mean?” Helen said haltingly. She’d very nearly blurted out, “I keep seeing us , and we’re married!” but stopped herself just in time.
    Lucas narrowed his eyes at her, sensing Helen’s odd fumble, and opened his mouth to begin what she was sure would be an embarrassing interrogation.
    “I’ve seen an eagle, a dolphin, and a stallion,” she continued before he could start. Knowing Lucas the way she did, Helen was certain that she had only delayed his questions. He wouldn’t forget, and since he was a Falsefinder she had the choice of either telling the truth or staying silent. Lying to Lucas was not an option—which was a giant pain in the butt.
    “And the dolphin is Apollo , right?” Claire asked sharply, looking up from the iPad.
    “The dolphin, the wolf, the mouse, and the crow were all Apollo’s animal avatars,” Ariadne answered.
    Claire showed them the article she’d been reading about a strange attack at Wellesley College. They all leaned their heads together to read. A girl, whose name was left out of the paper, had been terribly injured by a young blond man the previous night. She fought off his savage attack long enough for campus security to respond to the silent alarm she managed to activate. The young man got away under “suspicious” circumstances. The Wellesley police were looking for leads from the public. They considered her attacker extremely dangerous.
    Apparently, more than one eyewitness on the responding security team reported seeing the young man fly away when he realized he was surrounded. The girl was recovering from her injuries at a local hospital.
    “And now for the real kicker.” Claire scrolled down to show a pencil drawing of someone who looked almost exactly like Hector.
    “Oh. That’s just great,” Hector deadpanned.
    “What does this mean?” Ariadne asked, fear widening her eyes as she looked around at everyone. “They’re not going to come looking for Hector, are they?”
    No one had an answer.
    “I know a few places where you can lay low for a while,” Orion offered quietly. “They’re not exactly nice, but the people in them have a hard time remembering faces.”
    Momentarily stunned, Helen studied Orion, wondering what kind of place he was talking about. All kinds of squalid images flashed through her head. For the life of her, Helen couldn’t picture Orion in some seedy flophouse or den of thieves. But she had to admit to herself that he was much more familiar with that world than anyone she’d come in