The Game of Gods: Series Box Set

by Lana Pecherczyk

  Petra gasped. That was obviously news to her. It was certainly news to me.

  “Eve has decreed you a traitor to your kind and cut her ties. I’ve already caught bounty hunters loitering around the estate, waiting to pick you off for a reward. There will be more. Would you rather a quick death with me or to be handed over to them?” Cash inched closer, and the dog growled, salivating, waiting for a signal.

  Petra turned to me. Her eyes bled to black.

  “She’s channeling!” I shouted.

  Cash leapt forward, the dog attacked and howls erupted in the dunes beyond. Flames exploded into a crackling firework and sparks shot towards us. I jumped back, stumbled and shielded my eyes. Temporarily blinded from the flare, I lost control of my energy and released it in the direction of the snarls, and where I’d last seen Cash. The dog yelped.

  My vision cleared. The bloody familiar hung limp in Cash’s arms and he looked at me, bug-eyed. The dog was alive, the essence pushed out. It wriggled in Cash’s hands until he dropped it to the ground, then it yelped and ran away. Shit, I had come so close to hurting Cash again, or had it sailed right through? A wave of exhaustion rolled over me. I hadn’t meant to let so much go.

  From the corner of my eye, I spotted Aunt Lucy’s black silhouette racing towards the light of the festivities. The snarling from the dunes grew louder, and I burst into action, bolting after the witch. But my legs were leaden. I struggled with every step. Then it occurred to me, I could borrow energy, like I had with Alvin. A snippet here, and a scrap there—surely I wouldn’t hurt anyone, they had so much to spare with all their drunken dancing. I kept one eye on Aunt Lucy’s receding apparition, and the other—my mind’s eye—on the familiars coming towards us. Two came from the dunes and one from behind the tepee.

  The two from the dunes stopped. Their energy signatures hesitated and retreated. Something was changing. But Petra was getting away. I sprinted until I reached the row of tents. She was just in front of me. I slammed into a few patrons and turned to apologize, but they ignored me, like zombies. Maybe it was the alcohol. I scanned the crowd and saw Petra’s apron tails swallowed by the revelers on the sand.

  “Crap!” I ran after her and pushed into the mob, smacking into a thick wall of energy.

  Then, as if moving through jelly, I approached a circular gap—the epicenter. With a pop I penetrated the membrane.

  I’d entered another place, another dimension where time moved differently. The vibe from the happy dancers swirled inside my head and around my body. I swayed in circles, trying to focus, but the music pumped rhythm into my soul. Faster and faster it beat.

  “No, no, no.” I looked to the sky, sucking, gasping for fresh air. I shouldn’t have entered. Time slowed and energy leached into my body, down to my bones, down to my soul. I blinked at my arms. Losing control. My skin: gone. My bones: replaced with live, buzzing wires.

  Suddenly aware and, at once alive, I gaped at the bodies twirling around me in a swirl of arousing energy. They moved in slow motion, but strangely in time to the beat. My skin tingled in a never-ending anthem.

  It fizzed. It popped. It burst.

  I licked my lips, tasting the world for the first time. People laughed, and the universe echoed in their eyes. The stars winked at me, and I winked back.

  “Hey friends, hey stars.” I waved, smiling, intoxicated.

  The moon bathed me, the waves lulled me. They were happy. I was happy. I wanted to join them—to join my friends. I lifted my foot to dance and stopped. There was something… I should have been… but… I felt so light.

  I giggled. Dance. I just wanted to dance.

  I smiled at my new friends. My skin buzzed, and I hopped from one foot to the other. This close to the pulsing vibe, I could see auras smoke off bodies in curls of kaleidoscopic color. My eyes orgasmed at the sight. My hips moved without permission. I sashayed, I pranced, I moved.

  My hair felt trapped in its bun and I pulled it loose, slipping the elastic around my wrist. I balanced on my toes. My shoes were in the way. I kicked them off.

  The sand caressed the soles of my feet. I slipped my fingers into my hair. The pressure of my fingertips connected with my scalp and sparks flew across my body. My eyes rolled back from the pleasure of it. I moaned. Oh God, do that again.

  A pair of warm hands rested on my hips from behind, exploring my thighs, my waist. A body shimmied close to me, alive and thrumming, it closed the gap and moved with me. I relaxed back into miraculous warmth, feeling the pressure against the length of my body. My hands lifted to behind my neck to feel the amazing sensation of fuzzy hair along my fingertips, and my nerve endings rejoiced.

  Something niggled at me.

  I turned around into the embrace of an unknown, dark-haired man. I laughed. “I don’t know you.”

  A woman’s scowling face floated over his shoulder, and her aura stabbed towards the man groping my behind. She shouldn’t be sad, she should be happy—with him. I raised my hand and sent my energy flying into hers, sticking to its individual spark like glue. I tugged gently, coaxing, enticing and swirled her energy into the aura of the man in front of me. I made an aura cocktail. I giggled.

  Best barmaid ever.

  A charge exploded, filling the air, caressing my skin. I staggered backwards, away from the warm touch, then blinked. The girl and the dark haired man were kissing. I jumped and clapped my hands, whooping loudly. I’d done that! I’d made them kiss! My brain sloshed around my head and my arms rose of their own accord, higher and higher.

  This is what it should all be about—loving each other. It seemed like an eternity passed in a minute, a minute of touching and dancing and thumping music. I swirled around in tingly weightlessness, pirouetting on my toes.

  “La Roux.” A face floated into my vision. I knew that brooding face. Someone touched my shoulders. I looked down. Oh, they were his hands. I grinned. My skin felt great. It tingled from the inside. From the bone.

  Fizz.

  “My skin. My skin is effer-effer-va-vescing.” I laughed at my inability to say the word. “Can’t you feel that?”

  I presented my arm to him. His big multi-colored eyes didn’t seem to understand me.

  “Touch it,” I ordered. “Doesn’t it feel like sherbet?” I lifted my hair at the neck and sighed deeply, my eyes flickered to a close. “Ooh, I wonder if it tastes like sherbet.”

  “La Roux.” His voice penetrated my revelry, and he squeezed my shoulders. Ow. He was mean. “Snap out of it.”

  I opened my eyes. Why was he frowning? He should be happy. Grr. I frowned back and pouted then giggled. He was sad. I could fix sad. “Don’t let the elevator take you down,” I yelled over the music, then snorted at my joke.

  “What?” he shouted over the music.

  I needed to be heard. I drained some of the overflowing energy leaking off my friends and sent it into my voice. “YOU NEED TO BE HAPPY!” My voice boomed across the beach, sending shockwaves through every piece of furniture, every grain of sand, every atom.

  Whoa—who’d said that? I stuck my finger in my ear, trying to reach my itchy eardrum and jiggled. The vibrations sent little pleasure waves radiating from my shoulders to my toes. I flung my hands out, smiling. They swooped around in slow motion to land on his wrists over my shoulder. Ah, light as a feather. My eyes widened at the sensation of skin on skin. Oh, that felt good. My skin wanted to peel off and float away. I ran my fingers up his contoured arms, reveling in his fuzziness.

  “Oh, you feel good.” I swirled my thumbs in the hollow of his elbows and slid them up to his shoulders.

  He blinked. Such lovely eyes, an eternity of starry, midnight skies reflected in muddy waters.

  “I’m drawn to you, too,” I murmured.

  “Where is she?” he asked and, just like that, he was mean again.

  Where was who?

  “You talk too much.” I giggled and pulled on the energy quivering above the crowd. I sucked it in and fire erupted in my veins. I cupped his star
tled face between my hands and planted my lips on him. The current flowed from my body into his and I felt it searching for an earth, something to ground my call. His life-force woke like a slumbering lion. It uncurled, stretched and roared, enticing a response from my own animal instinct. He grunted as our energies collided and he seized my waist. Fireworks exploded across the insides of my eyelids. Was kissing always like this?

  I pulled back, panting, just a fraction from his hot mouth, our breaths mingling. His hot gaze pierced me, his fingers tightened around my middle, lancing pleasurable sensations down my arms. Yes, even the pain felt good. My lids fluttered, and I moaned, wanting more. His energy swirled into my body and I sent it back into him, through the gap between our mouths. More. We needed more. His eyelids lifted then dropped, he made a masculine sound deep in his throat, then lowered his lips back to mine and claimed me. The magnetic field between us snapped shut, our bodies slammed into each other.

  I couldn’t get enough of him. His energy fired back at me, popping candy in my mouth. My hands tangled in his hair. He lifted me by the hips and I curled my legs around his waist as he ground into mine. He tasted like rain. The music drifted away, and it was just the two of us. The nerves beneath my stomach quivered.

  But I couldn’t breathe. I thought I was giving him an energy boost, but he gave it right back, making me heady. I broke away, slid off of him and threw my face up to suck in the ocean air. His hot lips were on my neck, trailing from my ear down to my collarbone. My knees buckled, and he caught me. He planted one warm, wet kiss after another until he landed greedily in the hollow of my neck and suckled. Sparks flew from the moon.

  Then he stilled, muscles coiled tight like a predator, ready to pounce.

  “Don’t stop,” I moaned.

  His lips stayed on my skin, but the connection fizzled. The world kept turning, but we were still. We were the axis. My skin felt cold as he drew breath. His fingers tightened on my flesh. Ow. The music distorted like a warped record playing. Sadness lapped at the edge of my mind. My eyes watered. No. I wanted to be happy, damn it!

  “What did you do?” he accused.

  The warmth in front of me dissipated, replaced by a draft of cool air and I staggered.

  He was gone.

  The people around me spun—faster and faster. I searched for a place to anchor myself so I didn’t lose the contents of my stomach. I found a familiar face topped with graying shoulder length hair. She scowled at me, then smiled. She had gray teeth. I should know her. I stepped forward.

  The spot on the beach suddenly felt tiny, and the world closed in.

  “Roo!” Someone called my name. I smiled weakly. He had a nice voice. I needed nice. A boy with shaggy hair and pain in his eyes shook my shoulders. “Probie!”

  “Oh, my friend.” I grinned. Yes, I knew him. He was my friend, Tommy. The energy from the dancers became impenetrable. My lungs heaved. “You’re the bestest friend…” The words slurred, and I patted his cheeks. My mouth didn’t work and my lips were numb. He had such a nice face. I trailed my heavy fingers down his cheeks to run them across his satin lips. He pulled me through the bustling bodies.

  “I wonder what you taste like. Your brother tasted like rain, or smelled like it.” I licked my lips and stumbled. “I think it was your brother… I dunno.” I chuckled. “You can’t taste like rain, that’s impossible.” I pulled him back to me and patted his face.

  “It’s okay. I got you.” His lashes flared. “I’ll carry you if I have to.”

  Uh, oh. He didn’t look happy. He needed to be happy. He grabbed my wrist and yanked me up, then dragged me forward, stumbling. His wild eyes flashed over his shoulder, reflecting the sparkling light behind me.

  We left the sandy dance floor and headed into the dark. The dizziness ebbed from my mind with each step away from the crowd. The past few minutes fogged in my mind. I groaned, wincing as I touched my forehead. My head throbbed. We neared a wicker table setting on the perimeter where Cash sat hunched over with his head in his hands.

  What was the matter with him?

  The fresh air cleared my vision, but I felt like I’d been run over by a truck. I let go of Tommy and steadied myself on the back of a chair. The instant I let go, Tommy charged at his brother. He skirted the table, grabbed Cash by the shirt and hauled him off the chair, shaking him violently.

  “What the fuck, Cash! You kissed her? Can’t you see she’s been drugged?” His voice sounded garbled. I tried to shake water out of my ears. Surely that’s why I couldn’t hear properly. I must have gone for a swim.

  Just a minute—he said drugged. Was that why I felt so sick? The contents of my stomach churned. I could still feel the energy reaching out to me from the dance floor, pulsing and throbbing with life. It wanted me to go back in. It wasn’t drugs. It was life.

  “Fuck off, Tommy.” Cash’s dark voice sounded husky, and I heard him slap his brother’s hands away. “She did something to me, not the other way around.”

  Still leaning on the chair for support, I looked up. What had I done?

  Tommy shoved him and Cash flipped backwards over his chair. With the quickness of a cat, he rolled to his feet. Tommy put his camera on the wicker table then he ran after Cash and shoved him again, face contorted in rage, veins popping.

  “Stop it!” I called.

  They ignored me and grappled, big hands grasping at each other. Sand exploded where they fell. Each rotation took them further into the darkness. Tommy wailed on his brother as though he held a demon inside. He threw punches and Cash deflected them.

  I looked around for help. Despite the ruckus, nobody noticed us. They stayed mesmerized by the music. It was strange. The only explanation I could gather was that I must be in a nightmare. A twisted version of one of Leila’s recordings, or maybe my own.

  “Hey!” I stumbled, barefoot, after the boys. I’d lost my shoes. The wind cooled my skin as it hit the sweat on my face and neck, and a shiver crept up my spine. I stopped and looked back at the dance floor. My aunt’s face stared at me from the boundary of the festival, with a serpentine smile.

  Petra. We were supposed to capture Petra. But I’d screwed it up when I followed her through the dancing crowd. I looked back at the boys. We were wasting time.

  Tommy shoved Cash into the sand and was rewarded with a punch in the ribs, a left hook, then another jab in the gut. I stood between Petra and the boys. “She’s here,” I screamed and waved my arms. “Hey!”

  Cash’s eyes flicked to me, and he pushed his brother off like a bug. Tommy fell to the side and Cash jumped up with the grace of a wild predator. He scanned the shore until he found his target behind me. Then he raced towards me and whooshed passed, growling deep in his throat. He rushed at Petra, grabbed her head between his large hands and twisted sharply. A loud snap and she sagged to the ground.

  My hand flew to my mouth. What the hell?

  He’d killed her.

  “What have you done?” Tommy rushed past me to his brother. “Aren’t you supposed to drown her? You told me you had to drown her—that’s what you said, right?”

  “What the fuck do you know, Tommy?” Cash lashed.

  My legs wobbled. What a cock-up. My ass hit the sand with a soft thud and I watched as Tommy berated his brother. They argued again but without fists, this time. Had we really taken her down?

  The distance from the crowd had given me clarity, but I was more confused than ever. It didn’t make sense that Petra had allowed herself to be killed so easily. And why had she come back when she’d already gotten away?

  I studied my knotted fingers in my lap. We’d been loud and visible. The boys had kicked up sand, pushed over tables and Cash had just killed a woman—a witch. But no one had noticed. They danced.

  I watched the crowd. Some people drained wine from glasses around the tables, and the rest burned off recently consumed calories on the dance floor. What was wrong with them? The answer hit me like a freight train; the crowd was bewitched. It was the only answ
er. Urser Estate had supplied the wine and Petra probably hexed the selection, so the entire crowd would fall under her spell. No one would notice anything if she didn’t want them to.

  She was too smart to be captured.

  “Drag her to the ocean, quick,” Cash ordered Tommy. “Check her body. Is there a book?”

  I watched them drag Aunt Lucy’s body towards the water’s edge wondering why the smell of Lavender grew stronger when her body was getting further away? Something wasn’t right.

  Behind you!

  Pain lanced through my head and I fell to the sand. Agony spread to my extremities. The shutters of my eyelids closed once, twice, and then everything faded to black.

  Chapter 25

  Darkness.

  The tip of my nose tingled from the cold and my nostrils burned with a musty smell. The drip of water nearby set off a rhythmic echo. I was somewhere big, cold and hollow. I lay on my side on a damp, rocky floor and cried out when I rolled onto my back. My bones must have been removed because I found it difficult—no, scratch that—unbearable to move. I hurt all over.

  I peeled my eyes open, one at a time and blinked in the dim haze. Thousands of white stalactites blurred into focus—spiky piranha teeth ready to chomp down. I sniffed, then winced. My chest hurt.

  I was in a cave. What the hell had happened?

  “You were dead. I checked your pulse, and you weren’t breathing. I thought she pushed you too hard, but there you are as pretty as ever,” a raspy voice slid through my consciousness. My head swiveled to locate its source. White-hot knives slashed through my neck and bile rose to the back of my throat.

  I flexed my fingers and clenched my fists. The pain was receding. I was healing. I let my hands travel to my legs and bunched the denim. The fabric felt gritty, and crispy bits of something caught on my rough fingers. Probably dried blood. I pushed the tears away and concentrated on the drip, breathing to the beat. I can do this, I thought. But my body trembled.

  The last thing I remembered, I was sitting on the sand, watching Cash and Tommy drag my aunt’s body into the ocean.