Page 13 of Claimed
“Totally not as sexy. But come on, come on, answer the question. Like, how old are you? Because you look about maybe 33 or so? Give or take?”
“Then I age well,” he said. “I actually present as 35 years old, but you're right, demigods do age differently than ordinary mortals. We are not immortal. We can grow old and die, but it takes us a lot longer.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “How much longer?”
“Children who are born with the blood of gods in their veins, age normally until their 20th year. Then, if they commit to serving as a demigod, they go through a brief ritual that changes their bodies, and simply allows them to age more slowly and stay healthier, not as susceptible to all the damaging impacts of the environment and the aging process.”
She stared. “You get healed? Like your bodies are healed of anything bad and you're given some magical mojo to slow down your biological clock?”
The question held an unusual urgency, but he'd experienced this before. He’d had a hard time wrapping his head around it himself when the option was first presented to him. “Yes, in amanner of speaking. Now for every 10 human years, my body only ages one.”
“One?” She scrunched her face. “Oh my god, you’re going to make me do math. So that means—no way. You’re actually 170 years old? No wonder I kicked your ass in swimming.”
Stefan barked a laugh, but his heart thudded hard, his adrenaline spiking. He hadn't realized how much he'd been tensing himself against Nicki’s reaction to his age. More than anything else, it proved difficult for people to handle, especially people he wanted to get naked with. But as always, she turned what should be a major revelation into a point of competition. And he was just fine with that.
“I seem to recall that wasn't exactly what happened.”
“Yeah, well, clearly after 170 years, your brain's not as sharp as it used to be, even if your body is still pretty fine.” She grinned. “So, okay, you're super old but don’t look it. What else? Obviously Dmitri is pretty built, but are you both equally strong? And can you fly? And who…like, what god are you dedicated to or whatever? Lauren said that Dimitri was one of Zeus's offspring, but I'm not getting a Zeus vibe for you.”
Once again, he couldn't help the smile. “Do I even want to know?”
“Well, let me think. You're smug, smart, cunning, and yeah, light on your feet. Super fit and good reflexes, always a plus. And you know a bunch of languages, I bet.”
“All of them, to some degree.”
“And so modest.” She rolled her eyes. “Do you work for a male or female god?”
“Male. As demigods go, they tend to present in the same sex as their patron. It’s not impossible for there to be crossover, but it’s trended that way.”
“And you would have had plenty of time to study those trends.” She made a face. “Seriously—a hundred and seventyyears? Like… that’s straight up Industrial Revolution, Victorian England, colonization all over the place, wars…like, all the wars forever. And you were adiplomatthrough all that, for royal family after royal family, fading in and out like a freaking vampire.”
He held up a hand. “Except I can function in daylight. And enjoy actual food.”
“And you’ve got a way better tan,” she agreed, tilting her head as her eyes unfocussed a little. “Still…”
Stefan watched her process it all, her mind rabbiting from detail to detail. She wasn’t the first woman he’d shared this information with…but she was the first in a very long time. He was beginning to remember why discretion had always seemed the better approach.
Once again, though, Nicki surprised him, shrugging off the monumental realization as she snapped her fingers. “I mean, we gotta go with Hermes, right? Because no way Poseidon would put up with your slow-ass breaststroke, and you’re too quicksilver for the rest of them. Am I right? I gotta be right.”
“Got it in one,” he acknowledged with a slight inclination of his head. “And before you ask again, no, I can’t fly, not in the sense you’re probably thinking. My affiliation with Hermes does help me travel quickly, but the only flight I can imagine is between realms.”
She blinked at him. “Realms? Like, Earth and…what, Olympus?”
“Yes, as well as Earth and the Underworld.”
Her eyes rounded. “Really? You can visit Hades whenever you want?”
“I can—though to be honest, Hades isn’t the best company.”
“You know, I think that’s totally unfair. He’s got access to all the world that ever lived, he is legit beneath the ground so he knows where everything is buried—including some kickasstreasure, I gotta think—and he’s like, all dark and mysterious and shit. He can’t be all that bad.” She grinned. “Could I meet him—him, or any of the gods?”
“You…could. Not Hades, perhaps. Mortals don’t trespass easily into his realm unless and until their time on Earth is up. But the others, quite possibly.”
“That’s socool!”
Despite himself, Stefan laughed. He decided not to share the other elements of Hermes’s abilities that he could tap: the luck, the manipulation, the uncanny ability to pick up another person's thoughts and certainly their emotions. That last had only happened a few times early in his journey as a demigod, with women he had loved and then watched grow old. He’d learned to become more detached after that, but that wasn't anything he wanted to share with the effervescent Nicki Clark. Not yet—probably not ever. He didn’t want any clouds to mar the sunshine in her eyes.
He jolted a little at the poetic thought, also very much unlike him. Clearly, it was time to refocus on the reason for this trip together.