Merido's Daughter by LJ Maas 1 page

Merido's Daughter by LJ Maas

Merido's Daughter by LJ Maas

DISCLAIMER: These are all original characters and are ©copyright devlin@xenafan.com. This story cannot be sold or used for profit in any way. Copies may be made for private use only and I'd appreciate if you included all copyright notices and this disclaimer. If you have a fanfic site, please drop me an email before putting this on your site (I like to keep track).

VIOLENCE WARNING: More talk than action, but it is here (come on it's Uber Warrior Princess). If you're a guy, however, you may feel the need to cross your legs and groan every once in a while!

SEX: Oh, please...you people should know me by now! Yup it's here! Hey, it's Uber Xena and Gabrielle, for cryin' out loud! It's quite explicit once it gets rolling, but it's not gratuitous. If the thought of two women in a loving/sexual relationship bothers youÖwell, as Xena said, "Bite me!"

HIGH ANGST WARNING: I was threatened within an inch of my life if I didn't start putting this disclaimer on some (all?) of my work. I will henceforth rate the angst content with sad faces, one being the lowest and four being the highest. This story earns:    (3 sad faces for those without TT Fonts)

UNDERAGE WARNING: Hey, the Supreme Court said in Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union (1997) that laws against making available, online, certain "indecent" materials for those under 18 was unconstitutionalÖlook it up! Besides, this is perfectly "decent." 

You may not only walk on the grass; you may also feed the bard here! I only know how others feel about my stories from feedback. Let me know what you think about it. Homophobes need not apply, however. I'm at: devlin@xenafan.com

Special thanks go to:

Laura, my research assistant. Her hard work in researching anything and everything about Greece makes me look like a better author than I am. Thanks, L. see ya in Florida!

To my x-mas misfits who seem to like everything I write & the Merwolf pack...a bunch of pups that have been more than flattering with their praise.

Finally, to that ever faithful one I have at home...the dark warrior of my own soul.

==== oOo ====

Tessa watched their reflections move behind her as she peered pensively out the window. The images cast back in the window were of a burly man being ushered into the office between Stefano and Alex. They pushed him into a chair and he sat there obediently. The tall, dark-haired woman waved her hand in a dismissive gesture at her two large henchman, but still she gazed out the window, her eyes the color of the Aegean Sea that lay below. The two assistants left her in the room alone with the rugged fellow and although her back faced the man, even he knew he was still lucky to be alive. Attacking her didn't enter into the picture.

She sighed deeply as she looked out onto the beautiful vista. The sunset was indescribable. The yellow-orange glow turned the blue-green sea below the same soft color and the muted hues bounced back at her from the whitewashed houses along the edge of the sea.

She pinched the bridge of her nose and wished she were anywhere else at this moment, perhaps at sea on her catamaran, nestled in the arms of a beautiful woman. She closed her eyes and could feel the setting sun on her shoulders as the Meltémi blew strongly from the north. She could almost feel the woman in her arms. She shook her head slightly and opened her eyes. This wasn't the time for dreaming. Besides, her business didn't exactly afford her the kind of relationships with the type of women who might enjoy fine wine and Milton on the sea.

She needed to focus to the task at hand. Running the slender fingers of one hand through her ebony hair, she swallowed down the longing and the melancholy, they would only make her weak. She needed strength for this business of Mr. Meridio's. After all, he paid her well to do what she was best at, enforcing Mr. Meridio's will.

Another deep breath and the woman with the soulful gaze disappeared. As she turned, the burly man looked into her face and what he saw there caused him to swallow hard. Her perfectly chiseled features spoke highly of her pure Greek heritage, but it was her eyes that had the man mesmerized. Moments ago she looked out onto the world with deep blue cerulean orbs, now she turned her gaze on the seated man and her eyes were as cold and pale as ice.

"Mr. Stefanopoulos...my name is Tessa Nikolaidis." She said in a low alto voice devoid of any emotion.

He swallowed again. He knew who she was. The corners of her lips curled upward slightly, watching as he crossed himself, hoping to ward off what he thought was surely the evil eye.

She couldn't stop the indifferent smile. The Greeks always considered women with blue eyes more capable than any of being able to curse someone with the evil eye. Besides that, there was only one thing that thrilled her more than seeing the look on a man's face once he realized who she was, and that was his fear.

"Miss. Meridio?" The flight attendant addressed the young blonde who had her eyes closed.

The attendant hated bothering first class passengers; they could get very testy, but this one seemed genuinely nice when she had come around to serve brunch.

"Miss. Meridio?" She repeated.

The petite blonde opened her eyes to reveal dark green irises, the color of a lush forest. She pulled herself up slightly; seemingly surprised she had fallen so deeply asleep. Wisps of golden wheat colored hair fell across her eyes and, as was her habit, she shook them away with a quick toss of her head. Quickly running her hands through her short locks she focused on the attendant.

"Yes?" She asked, looking up expectantly at the attendant who bent toward her.

"Miss. Meridio, the pilots have taken a message for you." The attendant held out a piece of paper. "Do you read Greek?"

"Yes, thank you." The blonde replied, opening the folded note and smiling.

Only her father would have the audacity to make the pilots deliver an emergency message to her when she was only fifteen minutes from landing in Athens. He told her his Karê would be at the airport to meet her. Casey folded the note closed again and wondered who his new right-hand man was. She never liked the man everyone called Tusky, but she remembered the sadness to her father's letter when he told her the large man she had grown up in fear of, had been killed in an unfortunate car bomb attack. That was five years ago. They blamed it on the Turks or the Albanians, much like they blamed everything bad that happened in Greece.

Casey stretched and leaned her elbow on the armrest of the seat, her chin resting comfortably in the palm of her hand. She looked out the airplane window and lost herself in the billowy white clouds. It felt strange to be going home again, although most people would not consider Greece her homeland, nor would they, at first glance, take her as a native. When she told the attendant she did indeed speak Greek, she answered with a very short, nai. The woman looked surprised, but said nothing.

Greece was Casey's home, in an eccentric sort of way. As the story was told to her, her mother was born to a Greek father and French mother. Her father went against family tradition by not marrying a woman of full Greek blood. The story got a little muddled after that. Neither her mother nor her father would ever explain much to her, but from what she could gather, when young Cassandra Meridio was only five years old, her mother took her daughter and left Greece for the United States, never to return. Casey now held dual citizenship in both countries.

It was always very civilized between her mother and father. Casey spent every summer of her life at her father's estate on the island of Mýkonos. The rest of the year she lived with her mother on Long Island. For the past six summers, Casey hadn't been to the Greek Island. College life had been too time consuming and every summer she traveled around the globe on an archeological dig. Finally with her Master's Degree in Ancient Civilizations in hand and the funding of the University of California behind her, she was returning to her father's home. She had been placed second in command of the dig, mostly because of her heritage and command of the language and area. It was a joint effort between the United States and Greece, and young Casey was going to make the most of her first opportunity.

She was a little nervous about seeing her father after so much time, but she really had nothing to worry about. Andreas Meridio cherished his daughter like a Goddess. His young daughter wanted for nothing growing up and on the day she graduated, she had a royal blue, BMW M3 convertible waiting in the driveway. When she told her father of her assignment in Chóra at the Archeological Museum, he insisted she come home to the estate to live. Casey's first thought was to make up some excuse to live on her own in an apartment, but since it had been six years since she visited the island, she decided to be pampered for a while at the estate and look for an apartment once she was there. A few weeks of vacation couldn't hurt, she thought.

The blinking of the cabin lights brought her out of her reminiscing and she refastened her seat belt. Hopefully, her father's Karê would at least be someone she could get along with while she lived there. She shuddered slightly as she remembered the unfeeling stares she always received from Tusky. Let's hope this one is a little more on the friendly side.

"What are you trying to do, get us killed?" The dark-haired woman hissed and grabbed the card that said Meridio from the chauffeur driver's hands. Turning it over so the name was hidden, she slammed it into his chest. "Vlákas," she cursed the man's stupidity.

"But, I don't know what she looks like." He stammered with a heavy accent.

"Don't worry...I do." She said.

Every day for the last five years she looked at the picture on her employer's large oak desk. The girl was all of about twelve with long blonde hair and braces gleaming on her teeth. She was a tiny thing, looking even smaller sitting atop a large black stallion. Tessa wouldn't have needed the picture to remember, anyway. She had the image of Meridio's daughter as a child burned into her brain.

After all, How much could one girl have changed?

Casey stood and stretched muscles that had grown tight during the seventeen-hour flight from California. She'd had a little bit of a jog rushing to catch the connecting flight in Amsterdam, but she fell asleep and barely moved since then. Making her way from the airplane, she was dreading the wait in customs, that coupled with the fact that she had no idea who she was supposed to be looking for, was already beginning to make for a stressful afternoon. Laptop case in hand, she moved through the busy airport like a seasoned traveler, unaware of the eyes that followed her every move. She was able to move swiftly through the East terminal to where the baggage reclaim area was.

She stopped a young man working as a skycap and surprised him by speaking in Greek, explaining it would be worth a large tip if he obtained all her bags and directed them to customs for her. The young man tilted his hat back and leered at the small blonde. When she held up a ten thousand Drachmas bank note invitingly, his eyes went wide, but suddenly his face froze, not on the money, but at something over Casey's left shoulder. His face went pale and he shook his head at the small blonde, trying to move away from her. Casey took hold of his arm to pull him back to face her.

"Ochi," the young man said forcefully and he pushed the hand away that still held the crisp bank note. As if Casey didn't understand the language, he repeated himself in English.

"No!" he looked up behind Casey and began to back up.

The young woman was quite surprised at the man's frightened behavior. He bowed slightly, turning and all but running away. Suddenly, Casey felt a presence behind her. She remembered the look on the young man's face and turned with one of her best American back off glares.

Neither woman would ever remember afterward if any words were exchanged in those first few seconds. It was as if every bad movie cliché came to pass and time simply stopped its progress for a few precious heartbeats. It felt much longer to the two women who stood staring at one another.

Casey stood looking up into the bluest eyes an artist could have ever imagined. The woman in front of her was easily six inches taller than the petite blonde was. She had long ebony hair that cascaded across broad shoulders and down her back, her dark bangs swept casually to one side. One eyebrow arched up under those bangs and Casey thought she saw a definite look of amusement, or was it surprise, in the stranger's contemplative glance. The woman looked suspiciously like an American Federal agent in a tailored black suit and white silk blouse. She seemed perfectly at ease as she held her hands, pensively folded, in front of her.

Tessa watched as the small blonde walked through the airport, ordering the others to stay behind. She saw her opportunity when the skycap attempted to hit on her. Once the young woman turned around, it took every bit of the taller woman's self-restraint not to laugh out loud at the look she was being given. Then Tessa found herself caught in a gaze that swirled with all the colors of the ocean. This was definitely not the twelve-year-old in that picture. This woman must be someone else entirely. The top of her head only came up to Tessa's chin, but her body was a work of art. All sleek muscle covered by skin that looked so soft, the dark-haired woman had to clasp her hands together to keep herself from reaching out and touching it. Then Tessa remembered who this woman was and as suddenly as her eyes had softened, her expression slipped back into its cold pretension.

"Cassandra Meridio, I presume?"

The voice startled Casey out of her haze. The taller woman's expression went from quiet contemplation to severe impassivity in the blink of an eye.

"Yes?" The blonde replied.

"My name is Tessa Nikolaidis, I work for your father."

Casey took the offered hand and for a second thought about not letting go. She couldn't understand the feeling when it was obvious from the dark-haired woman's indifferent stare that it was only a perfunctory handshake, Casey simply couldn't explain it. The funny thing was that the taller woman seemed reluctant to end the contact too.

"Please follow me, Ms. Meridio," the taller woman asked, then promptly turned and began walking, fully expecting the small blonde to follow.

"But...my bags..." Casey started,

"I've already taken care of your bags, Ms. Meridio." Tessa replied.

"Shouldn't I be in Customs?" Casey responded, slightly breathless from keeping up with the woman's long strides.

"Already taken care of." Tessa replied once again.

"Hold it!" Casey stopped and finally realized she was practically running to keep up. "How about we ease it down to a slow jog, huh?"

For the first time since the two met a small hint of a smile played at the corners of Tessa's lips.

"Sorry," Were the only words Tessa spoke as she indicated the door to the car.

The limousine pulled to the curb seconds before the two women walked out into the heat of the afternoon. Swiftly pulling open the door, Tessa let Casey enter and sat across from her next to a muscular young man in his thirties.

"This is Alex, also in the employ of your father. He doesn't speak English very well." She indicated the man seated next to her.

The beefy young man smiled shyly at the small blonde as Casey introduced herself in Greek. He shook the small hand and pulled away quickly, shooting nervous glances at the woman seated next to him.

Casey watched and listened to the dark-haired woman's English, but couldn't place the very slight accent. The inflection of her voice when she used English was just a bit off, as if she had learned English in England or Australia. She couldn't be American; she spoke the language too perfectly. Tessa looked over her shoulder and spoke to the driver in Greek, asking him to drive by the port road to the airfield. That's when Casey realized the woman was Greek. The throaty way she rolled her R's, a technique that had always been difficult for Casey seemed to roll off of the dark-haired woman's tongue with a natural ease.

Tessa picked up the phone on the first ring. She proceeded to conduct business, speaking sometimes in Greek, then in English. She held a black leather portfolio in her lap and constantly scribbled on the legal pad inside. All the while the dark-haired woman kept one eye trained casually on the petite woman seated across from her. The blonde seemed to take business dealings in stride and looked out the window, her chin resting nonchalantly in the palm of her hand. Tessa wondered how many of these rides the girl had gone on with her father, being ignored just like this, business always coming first. Suddenly the dark-haired woman caught an unguarded moment of pain in the small blonde's features. Then, just as quickly it was gone.

Tessa closed her notebook and turned off the phone.

"May I offer you a drink, Ms. Meridio?" Tessa asked, gesturing to the small bar.

"Actually, my friends call me Casey. I'd love a vodka if you have it."

"Indeed we do, Ms. Meridio. Ice...tonic?" Tessa replied.

Casey realized with that one response how it was to be between she and this woman. Extremely beautiful, but cold and distant, Casey understood that she would always be Meridio's daughter to the stranger who hid her emotions so carefully. She shook her head at the offer of additional amenities.

Tessa watched the woman's expression as the Karê poured the both of them a drink, purposely ignoring the offer to call her employer's daughter by her first name. She's a beauty, that's for sure, but this is the last thing you need in your life right now. No complications, that's what you promised yourself. And this one...Meridio's daughter...she could definitely make life complicated.

Casey took the offered drink from the dark-haired woman's grasp and a spark jumped between their fingers. The young woman pulled back her hand and looked at her fingers as though she'd been burned.

"It's dry this time of year," was the Karê's only explanation, but even she felt it.

It was more than static electricity; it was scintillation borne of a fire that burned deeply within each woman, but always kept in control. Neither recognized the cause, but each of them, quite suddenly, felt the incompleteness of their lives.

Tessa was tempted to smile and tell the young woman she would love to call her Casey and for a moment, she felt her lips part as if to speak the words. Gahmóh Toh!

What the hell has gotten into you, Niko...are you out of your fucking mind? What are you going to do...fuck the girl? You do and you'll be under the cornerstone of one of Meridio's new buildings. Get it together woman!

Casey watched the dark-haired woman's face as she sipped the refrigerated vodka. It was ice cold with a citrus flavor, yet it still burned slightly as it slid down her throat. The woman's blue eyes darkened and she appeared to be about to speak, the frown lines in her facing relaxing a bit. Just as quickly, the woman's tanned features hardened and the open look on her face slammed shut. She grabbed the phone once more and angrily flipped open the notebook in her lap, ignoring the small blonde completely.

The short flight to Mýkonos was uneventful and Casey found another car was soon taking them up the small hill to her father's estate. Overlooking Tourlos Bay, the medieval house had been situated on this modest bluff, looking out onto the bay for centuries. Casey remembered when she was a child always running away to escape for a few moments of solitude to the beach at San Stefanos.

There was an enormous amount of activity once they exited the vehicle. Some of the confusion was simply due to the fact that Andreas Meridio's only child hadn't been home in nearly six years. Much of the ensuing activity, however, surrounded around the tall, dark-haired woman. She answered questions as she walked and gave directions to workers, staff, and gardeners, while always seeming to keep one eye trained on the horizon, scanning the area for what, Casey didn't know. Finally it hit the small blonde.

Casey stopped and stood only a couple of feet from the taller woman. She fixed and incredulous look on the older woman and Tessa returned the frank gaze with one of her own.

"You...you're my father's Karê?" Casey asked in amazement.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Meridio, I thought I made that clear." Tessa replied flatly.

"You most certainly did not, but I think you already knew that. Did you enjoy taking me for a fool, Ms. Nikolaidis?" Casey asked with a hot edge to her voice.

For only the second time that day, Casey watched as the dark-haired woman came close to smiling.

"Miss Meridio!"

Casey turned and a bright smile lit up her face, her anger immediately vanishing.

"Olympia!"

An older woman, gray beginning to streak through her hair, rushed up to the two women. She wrapped strong arms around the small blonde and hugged her tightly.

"I've missed you in my kitchen." The plump woman laughed. "I have no one to steal Dolmádes from underneath my very nose."

Casey laughed and remembered the times she would help in the kitchen simply to sneak bites of the stuffed grape leaves the older woman made to perfection.

"Hey, I learned to cook, stealing food in your kitchen." Casey put on what she hoped was an affronted expression.

"Well, at least some girls learned how to cook," Olympia chided in Tessa's direction. "This one would burn water if you gave her a chance." She pointed in the dark-haired woman's direction.

For the very first time Casey watched as a small smile replaced the Karê's customary scowl. Tessa leaned down closer to the cook who was nearly as tall as the dark-haired woman.

"Why should I bother to learn when I can get beautiful women to do it for me?" She grinned.

Olympia laughed at the tall woman. "Someday you'll be sorry you didn't learn more."

Tessa leaned even closer to the older woman and grinned. "If I learned any more I'd be dangerous." She finished with a wink.

"Cassandra."

Casey knew the voice even before she turned around. "Pappa," she whirled and flew the half dozen steps to where Andreas Meridio's tall frame stood.

He hugged the girl and practically lifted her off the ground. The handsome man kissed his daughter's forehead and whispered something in her ear, to which the small blonde smiled and nodded, tears filling her green eyes.

Tessa and Olympia watched the exchange and the cook couldn't help but notice the change in the Karê's expression. For a moment the dark-haired woman let down her guard and smiled as the father and daughter embraced. She seemed to be a million miles away in her own memories, but it only lasted for a moment then her impassive facade was slipped into place again.

"Mrs. Karoubas, I hope you're planning something special for tonight, you know how my Máhtia Mou eats." He said with a smile, slipping an arm around the young woman's waist and pulling her closer.

"Oh, I see everyone has my number, eh?" Casey laughed good naturedly at the tall man, secretly enjoying the pet name her father bestowed on her as a small girl. He always told her she was his Máhtia Mou, his darling.

"Indeed I do, sir, all Miss Meridio's favorites."

"Excellent, thank you, Mrs. Karoubas." He dismissed the older woman. "I see you and Tessa have met. Tessa, join us for dinner, won't you? I'm having a few guests in. I'd like to welcome this one back home properly."

"Of course, Mr. Meridio." Tessa commented, realizing this wasn't a request, but a command. "If you'll excuse me, I have some work to attend to before then." The tall woman walked away toward the back of the estate without another glance at Casey.

Casey was only half listening to her father, her eyes following the uncommunicative Karê until the beautiful woman was out of sight.

Tessa watched the boats sail into Tourlos Bay, her back to the two seated men. They had been going over this report for the past hour. Andreas Meridio sat behind an antique Mahogany desk that, Tessa mused, must have taken ten men to carry in. Alex sat in a chair across from him. They were grooming Alex to be second in command, but he just wasn't a leader. If anything happened to her, Alex would be in charge, and Meridio would most probably be a dead man.

"Tessa, what do you think?" Meridio asked.

Tessa never turned away from the window. It seemed she spent a lot of time daydreaming out of windows lately. She tried to focus on the conversation at hand, but the vision of a pair of deep green eyes kept jumping to the forefront of her thoughts.

"I think it's her first day and you're pushing." She finally answered.

Andreas nodded and leaned back in the large leather chair. Tessa was the only person alive he would allow to speak to him in this manner. Her assessments were usually brutal, but always honest. He looked at the report the American investigator had faxed him. If his daughter saw the papers he held in his hand, she would probably be on the first plane back to America. He couldn't take chances and needed to know what his daughter had truly been up to in the last few years.

Again he perused the papers. She had a number of roommates in college, thank the Holy virgin they were all female. She didn't party to excess; rather she was more of a workaholic, like her father.

"Tessa, what does this mean when he writes about her orientation towards sex?" Andreas asked the silent woman.

The Karê allowed a smile to play at the corners of her lips. Personally, she thought this little tidbit was too good to be true. It means she eats pussy, you morons!

She waved her hand at the men behind her. "It just means she doesn't sleep around," she lied.

"Of course she doesn't." Meridio looked offended at the thought. "She's only twenty-five years old, for God's sake!"

Tessa's grin, hidden from their view, grew wider.

"She's a good Catholic girl, Mr. Meridio," Alex stated. "Says here she goes to Mass at least once a month and see, she even goes to confession. You know a lot of those American girls don't even bother anymore."

Yea, I bet the priests drop their teeth when that ball of fire comes in, Tessa laughed to herself.

"Alex. My daughter is Greek, not American." Andreas responded coldly.

Tessa could hear the edge to Meridio's voice.

"Oh, of course, Mr. Meridio. I was just saying--"

"Shut up, Alex." Tessa warned before the young man let his tongue get him in real trouble.

"Mr. Meridio, if you want my opinion, why don't you just let things lie for a while where Cassandra is concerned. Let her get used to being here again and see how she acts once she gets settled into her position at the museum. The family business need not concern her for a while yet. Take it nice and slow," Tessa continued, turning around to finally face her employer and putting on one of her most charming smiles. "No sense anyone getting hurt needlessly."

Tessa smiled at the older man as he nodded his agreement. He never noticed that her smile looked more serpentine than caring.

Perhaps two dozen people showed up to Andreas Meridio's dinner party. Casey was oohed and ahhed over until she escaped to the balcony for a much needed breath of air. She leaned over the parapet that overlooked the swimming pool and sighed deeply.

"What's the matter, you don't like being the heir apparent?" The low alto voice came at her from the shadows and she recognized whom the seductive sound belonged to immediately.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 840