“She’s going to beat the shit out of your mates for doing this to you though,” she adds casually, “They’ve both been around long enough to know better. They shouldn’t have put you in that situation at all.”
“My mates? What? I don’t have any mates?” I sputter, worry filling me at the idea that Santos and Dmitri might suffer for my actions.
Melinoe makes a face and looks awkwardly at the door.
“Uh. Well. I shouldn’t be the one having this conversation with you. This is hella awkward. Just.. forget what I said. It’s fine.”
I glare at her and sit up further. “No. Explain! Why do you think they are my… mates? I literally just met them a month ago.”
With another long look at the door, Melinoe sighs and then moves over to close it before hurrying back to my bedside. “Ok. I’ll tell you, but you need to promise that this conversation stays between us. You didn’t grow up with this shit so you’re at a bit of a disadvantage.”
I nod eagerly and offer her my pinky. “I will pinky swear. It’s a human thing.” Melinoe laughs and hooks her pinky around mine.
Done.
“Ok, so…. Where should we start? Um, relationships here are a little different than they are on the mortal plane. Hellhounds like Dmitri either serve a household as a military leader or they live in a pack. They are a matriarchal species and it is not uncommon for them to start their own packs with one female who has multiple male partners. So. There’s that. You’re clearly bonded to him, so the pack issue has already started. Angels are a different breed. They rarely form romantic relationships outside of their Choirs, but some field-angels, like the ones assigned to the Reaper Corps, have different rules. Again, they live in group-like arrangements. The reason I call them your mates is because they orbit around you like a mate would. That and the feathers.”
Melinoe speaks so quickly that I have a hard time following her. I latch onto the last word. “Feathers? What about Santos’ feathers?”
She looks at me in surprise. “Didn’t you notice? His feathers changed. Look at them when he comes back in here. They aren’t iridescent white all the way through now. It means that he’s formed a bond outside his Choir. It’s not a bad thing. I am a little surprised they haven’t talked to you about this. It’s really not fair to bond someone without talking to them first. I kinda hope Mom smacks the shit out of them for that, too.”
My mind is whirling. Bonds? Mates? Feather changes? It’s a lot to take in. It feels like I only just accepted my role as a Reaper. That I might have a pack or group or multiple mates is just a little hard to wrap my head around.
“And Thane in my head? What do I do about him?”
Melinoe looks thoughtful. “I don’t know, honestly. However, I have dominion over ghosts. I could try to call him to a ghostly form if you wanted. He could at least leave your head for short periods of time, but he’ll always be tethered to you. There’s no way that I know of to unmerge souls.”
Tell her I want her to try. Anything to give me some way to escape your brain, Kyrie. Please? You owe me that.
I sigh.
“Thane requests that you please try. He wants out of my brain.”
Melinoe eyes the closed door again warily. “Look, we should probably wait until the crew comes back and does a full eval on you. I don’t want to mess anything up.”
Thane thumps the inside of my skull impatiently so I send him an image of spiders and he recoils immediately. He always hated spiders. No one said I had to fight fair with the ex in my head.
Melinoe throws her hands up in the air and motions for me to lean forward. “You need to have a very clear image of him in your head. Do not leave any detail out. I am going to try to shift that image into a ghost form so he can move around. OK?”
I nod and dozens of images of Thane flood my brain. It’s difficult to pick only one. There was the one where he dressed up like a pirate for a party. That was a sexy look. The time he was in a tuxedo for the Beta Beta Mu Winter Extravaganza. Sexy as hell. Those bright yellow short swim trunks that bulged in all the right places? MMmm. Yes.
Melinoe places her hand on my forehead and starts chanting something. I am busy, lost in the memory of the trip Thane and I took to the Outer Banks and the section of the beach we found ourselves alone on…
A weird feeling spreads over my limbs, like they are too heavy to lift suddenly. A sharp pain, like a rubber band snapping over my skin, covers me and I scream.
The door bangs open, Santos and Dmitri rush to my side while Persephone drags Melinoe away. I am panting with effort and scanning the room for any evidence that our brief experiment might have been successful, but I see nothing.
“I guess it didn’t work,” I say mournfully, disappointed that all the pain was for nothing.
Santos and Dmitri don’t answer, they are just staring at a spot on the ceiling. The vein in Dmitri’s neck is pulsing and I am almost afraid to look, but I force myself to.
Thane, or at least a ghostly version of Thane is floating at the top of the ceiling looking down on me. He has a bemused expression on his face as he motions to his body.
“Glad to see where I stand, petit chou. THIS is how you wanted my ghostly body to look?”
Mortification floods me as I scan him. He got his body back, yes. His naked, erect, beach-ready body. Just like I remembered. Fuck my life.
It appears he already has, zvezda. And now we all can stare at his dick forever and always. Dmitri’s intrusion into my brain feels like a caress and I stick my tongue out at him.
“Mel, please tell me I can fix this?” I ask, willing myself to stop staring at my ex’s ghost-dick for a moment.
Melinoe is practically vibrating in her efforts not to laugh.
“Um. I’m actually not sure. I’ll look into it though. Sometimes my ghosts can change clothes. I’ll have to ask them how.”
Persephone clears her throat and we all turn to look at her.
“There remains the soul-debt, I’m afraid.”
All the levity in the room ceases to exist and that feeling of dread fills me again. “Soul debt?” I whisper, reaching across the blankets to grip Santos’ hand.
“They sent you to Reap a soul and instead you merged it with your own. A soul is owed. If you do not repay the debt by midnight on October’s final day, your soul will become forfeit.”
“Mom, she didn’t know. We should hold her guardians responsible. They didn’t tell her the risks. The one who assigned her Thane should be held responsible. This isn’t fair!” Melinoe’s outrage on my behalf warms my heart, but Persephone’s words are echoing in my skull.
“How do I pay back my soul debt?” I ask, terrified of the answer.
Persephone looks at me sadly. “You catch a rogue soul and bring it to us instead.”
I relax slightly. Having a plan has always soothed me.
“Um, ok. Where do I find one of those?”
Melinoe looks at Santos and Dmitri and then back at her mother. “You can find them in-between the planes. But you have to know something before you do that. The protection you get from your cloak, the diadem, and your scythe? They can’t help you there. Only a matesbond can help you. Otherwise, you have to do it on your own. It preserves the balance.”
Santos and Dmitri exchange a loaded look and I catch it, making note of Santos’ slightly pink-tinged feathers. I glare at them both before turning to Melinoe and Aunt Perri.
“If you two will excuse me, I think it’s time my mates and I had a little discussion.”
Mel and Aunt Perri both giggle and exit quickly, leaving me face to face with a tortured-looking angel, a stormy-faced hellhound, and a bare-ass naked ghost.
“Ok boys, start talking.”
Chapter 5
Having your ex-boyfriend haunt your every move as a fully erect, naked ghost is not something that I would recommend to most people, but it’s kind of working for me.
To his credit, Thane has been really rather decent about the whole thing.
I think we’re both just relieved that he is out of my head. Melinoe hasn’t been able to figure out how to change his outfit, but we figured out how to swirl the ghostly fog in the nether bits so his cock is less visible. It helps. Sort of.
Between Dmitri’s hatred of clothing, Thane’s accidental nudity, and Santos’ formality, I never know what I’m going to get. All I can say for sure is that time is ticking, and we’ve been throwing ourselves into the preparation to retrieve a rogue soul with everything we’ve got. But it’s hard to find time. School has ramped up in workload and I have to spend several hours a week with my Beta Beta Mu sisters to plan our Homecoming spectacle. Santos forgot to make himself invisible when the girls came over last time, so now he’s been dragged into the planning process too. The girls all think he’s dreamy. I don’t disagree.
The matesbond is the giant elephant in the room between the four of us. Dmitri and Santos tacitly acknowledged that they felt bonded to me when we were in Hell. Thane is soul-merged with me, which means that he’s along for the ride, but we’ve fallen into a holding pattern. I don’t know what I feel. I know that I am hyper-aware of them when they are around me. I dream of them at night. I crave their touch and I fantasize about it when I don’t get it. But I can’t say for certain that it’s a matesbond. It could just be an intense crush. Or the side effect of too many sexy men in the house and only the occasional episode of dream sex. Whatever it is, it’s bloody exhausting, and I’m tired of it.
Thane is the only one I can talk to about it. He’s adjusting pretty well to his life as a ghost, and being eternally bound to me has naturally resulted in a reassessment of our boundaries.
“You could cut the sexual tension in there with a fucking chainsaw, petit chou. Why don’t you just jump them? It might make it easier on all of us. This hide and seek thing is not healthy.”
I look up from my dust-covered book in surprise as Thane perches on the edge of my desk. From this angle, the pixilation is not covering his dick and I have to force myself to keep my eyes on his face. I grimace at his assessment and shrug my shoulders.
“I’ve practically thrown myself at them, Thane. I’m drawn to them in ways that are confusing and yet feel utterly right. Bonded or not, I feel better when I’m around them. But what if they don’t? What if this is a weird quirk of biology or something and they’re being forced into this? I don’t want that. I want someone who wants to be with me and who is excited by the possibilities of being that way… Ugh, I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore.” I rub my hands over my face in frustration.
Thane brings his ghost-hand down on my shoulder and I shiver as it passes through my skin.
“Kyrie, you’re one of the best people I’ve ever known. The way we ended? It wasn’t you. It wasn’t even that fucking bacon. It was me being a coward. I loved you so much it scared the piss out of me. So I ran away and made you believe that something as stupid as bacon grease could end a relationship. It had nothing to do with the bacon. It had everything to do with me being an insufferable prick who was afraid of losing you. I pushed you away because I was afraid you would push me away someday and I couldn’t bear it. I regret it. Deeply. I hurt you and you didn’t deserve that. You absolutely deserve to be with someone who loves you with the same depth that you love them.”
My jaw drops open and I put the book down to look at him fully.
“What? Being dead makes me all introspective and shit. Don’t look at me like that.” He shoves at me, sending that ice-cold-shivery feeling through me again, and he laughs when I shiver.
“Uh huh,” I roll my eyes at him, stretching my arms out in front of me before sticking my tongue out at him, “Whatever, asshole.”
He reaches over and brushes his hand against my cheek.
“Careful, petit chou… you remember what happened when you used to stick your tongue out at me before…” The veiled threat changes the tone of our conversation immediately and I am drawn back into my memories of a certain night Thane and I spent together over winter break.
We were all alone in the Beta Beta Mu house that night and it was snowing. We lit a fire and built a blanket fort in the living room. It was early in our relationship, when things were still deliriously happy and our chemistry burned so bright it threatened to engulf us.
We were always adventurous in everything we did. It was Thane and I against the world. With sex, that adventurous spirit flared bright. That night we had gotten the idea to role play. He played the part of the high-powered CEO and I, his adoring assistant that needed to be properly disciplined... My eyes glaze over when the memory of the way I had pulled the same stunt—sticking my tongue out him and sassing his orders. I shiver when I remember how he had pulled me over his knee and spanked me until my ass turned a rosy pink, before laying me down on the soft comforter in front of the fire and fucking me until I didn’t even know my own name.
I bite my lip as the memories play in my mind like a slow-motion movie. We always had that part down. Thane’s voice in my head feels extra intimate, and I wonder if the bond we have works the same way it does with Dmitri. I concentrate on the images from my memories and package them up in a little box, sending them towards the silver-grey light in my brain that represents Thane.
A pulse reverberates through me when he gets the brain-mail. Oh. Oh fuck, yes. This is incredible. His voice is practically a purr inside my mind and I smile, reaching out to rest my hand next to his. Together, we sit there and watch the memories of our old sex life play out in my brain. It’s the most intimate thing I can remember doing, ever.
Unfortunately, watching sexually charged memories while one is already sexually frustrated tends to leave one… extra needy. As the movie-version of my memory slowly fades to black and we come back to reality, I groan and let my forehead fall to the table.
Thane hisses in frustration as he hovers over me. “I’d help you out if I could, petit chou. I hope you know that.” he offers, and it makes me giggle.
“Would you now? I guess we never did that. We never did the ex rebound. Now I guess we never can. For what it’s worth? If it were possible? I’d be down.” I pause as the words come out of my mouth and I realize they are 100% true.
If Thane were standing right here in front of me, after what we just shared, I would absolutely want to try again. Fate is so unfair sometimes.
“Those fuckers better get with the program. They have no idea what they have, do they?” Thane looks legitimately pissed, and it makes me smile wider.
“I distracted them. Since I fucked everything up by soul-merging you, they’ve been hyper-focused on saving my sorry ass. I keep trying to remember that those actions are a way of showing affection, but yeah. I feel like we can be brutally honest after that little, whatever that was just now. I’m dying for some dick.”
Thane smirks at me, but the expression looks mournful too. He looks down at his permanently erect (albeit pixelated) dick and sighs. Without another word, he blinks out of the room. I hear a door slam and a shout of “What the fuck, Thane?!” come from Dmitri before something else crashes and more shouting comes from the kitchen.
I debate going out there but decide against it. Remembering Thane’s advice, I take matters into my own hands. Maybe he’s right. Maybe they need to be reminded of what they have. Reaching out in my mind, I identify each of the three bonds. Dmitri’s is the strongest. His neon orange light is bright and glaring, much like him. Thane’s is almost as bright after our brief interlude. His silvery-grey light shimmers. Santos is the one that is hardest to find. His is a pale rose gold light. Like the tint on his feathers.
I walk over to my door and lock it, knowing full well that it will keep exactly no one in this household out of my room if they want to get here. The point isn’t to keep them out. It’s to irritate them.
Opening the window, I carefully pop the screen out and edge out onto the ground. Having a ground-floor apartment has its advantages. Replacing the screen, I dart through the landscaping and make my way to
the parking lot. Looking both ways, I go back towards the cemetery. We’ve been doing quite a lot of work in an old crumbly mausoleum that doubles as a portal zone to the in-between. It’s the perfect spot to not be disturbed. I flare my senses out and I don’t feel any of the bonds change. Perfect.
Taking off at a jog, I run along the familiar path and put some distance between us. My legs are strong and make quick work of the run and soon find myself at the gate of the Sacred Heart Cemetery once again. Darting through the tombs, I make my way to the mausoleum and I stand at the entrance. I send little shots of arousal through the bond and smile when all three of them flare immediately.
First shots, Kyrie.
I figure I will have about five minutes tops before they use our bond to just shift directly to me, so I dart back out of the mausoleum and back out towards the back of the cemetery and run along the woods towards the training yard we’ve been using. Dmitri knows I’m not in my room. I feel the flash of alarm and then amusement ripple through the bond.
Playing hide and seek with a Hellhound is a dangerous game, zvezda. You activate our prey drive. I am compelled to chase you down and find you. He slips into my mind and it sends a jolt of need straight to my core. Gods, I want to be chased. I want it.
I arrive at the training yard and move over to the large shed we use to store the weapons we train with. I dig through my memories and find one of me modeling some very risque lingerie in the mirror. Giggling, I send that image through the matesbonds and am gratified when all three of them flare even more.
Come and get me, boys. If you dare. I taunt all three of them through our bonds and I can feel Santos and Dmitri closing in. I scramble, searching for a hiding place. Seeing the booth for the announcers, I quickly dart inside and lock the door, peering up over the top to survey the field. I imagine a closing garage door and place it between me and the bonds. The moment it closes, Santos shouts into my mind with worry.
Wicked Souls: A Limited Edition Reverse Harem Romance Collection Page 179