The Banished Gods Box Set: Books 1-3

by L. A. McGinnis

  “Syd. Baby. I’ve got you. Just breathe, honey.”

  She took a deep breath, realizing she was practically panting. But for once, Mir was touching her. His hand was on her thigh, rubbing, rubbing circular motions that seemed hypnotizing and stirring at the same time. “You’re safe. We’re in a car, we’re heading back to the Tower. It’s all going to be okay, and I’m going to take care of you.”

  Focusing on his words, she heard everything he wasn’t saying. What happened? Where were they coming from? How was it day, when the last thing she remembered was darkness? Why did she hurt so badly?

  “Was I in an accident?” Words seemed unnatural as if her mouth was unused to working.

  “No, not exactly. Just lay still and let me get you home. Let me worry about everything, baby.”

  For once in her life, Syd did just that. And home? Yeah, that sounded kind of nice, especially the way Mir said it. Like it was theirs. Something shared. Feeling the steady weight of his hand on her thigh, she drifted off, into the kind of sleep that made Mir check her more than a few times to make sure she was breathing.

  She didn’t wake up until hours later, wrapped up in a pile of warm blankets, alone in a strange bed. Sleepily, she sat up and drowsily scanned the room. “Hey.” Her eyes rested on Mir by the window, looking out over the lake, the water turning a dark shade of blue as the sun set. “Did I sleep all day?”

  “Most of it, but you needed it. I don’t know how long it’s been since you had a good sleep. So I left you alone. Hungry?” The corners of his eyes crinkled when he smiled, in a way that made it seem like he didn’t smile nearly often enough.

  “Starving. I feel like I haven’t eaten in days.” Her smile faded. “Please tell me it hasn’t been days, Mir.” When he didn’t answer immediately, the dark, empty place grew larger in the pit of her stomach.

  “Syd.” There was a helplessness to him that scared her even more. “I don’t know how…”

  “Just tell me what’s going on, Mir.” Her voice shaking, she added, “No point in beating around the bush, is there? Besides, you came for me, didn’t you?”

  Something like sorrow filled his blue eyes for a moment, making them seem to dim down, grow older and wiser. “You’ve been gone about twenty-four hours. You…disappeared.”

  All of that time, an entire day, was a void in her memories. “I left?”

  “No, you disappeared. In front of my eyes, from my arms, Syd. Into thin air. You vanished, with no trace.”

  Okay, that was totally freaky.

  “There’s more, Syd.”

  More she wasn’t ready for.

  “You were warning me, trying to tell me everything you knew, right before—”

  “I don’t know… I can’t…”

  “…the Orobus possessed you and snatched you away from me.”

  Yeah, she definitely wasn’t ready for that little piece of Intel.

  “You must have sensed what was about to happen. Because you were in the middle of warning me when you vanished.”

  “I can’t really remember…” Yet, she almost could. The moment was on the barest edge of her memories, that blurry, vague edge between dreaming and waking where things are so easily forgotten. “I know I remember talking about the circle, and then… It’s like everything gets kind of distorted or vague. So did I?”

  “Did you what?”

  “Warn you?” She couldn’t blink the tears from her eyes quickly enough. “Did I tell you what you needed to keep everybody safe?”

  Mir looked at her blankly, so blank that for a moment, her heart froze, fearing the worst. Until he ran a gentle hand over her arm, up and down, as if he was mesmerized.

  “Yeah, baby, no one got hurt. Everyone is fine. You did exactly what you needed to do.”

  Relief spread through her. At least she hadn’t hurt anyone.

  “Good. That’s really, really good.” Almost as an afterthought, she asked, “And the dolmens? Did you guys reset them?”

  For a moment, she didn’t think he was going to answer, but he slid those bright blue eyes to hers, and said, “No, we never got the chance. Too many Grim. We had to abandon the whole plan.”

  There was something odd about the whole thing, his voice, the words, those clever eyes, something she couldn’t place, but the exchange rang wrong. Gave her a sinking feeling in her stomach. Still…Sydney couldn’t mask the rising disappointment. She’d worked hard on that plan. Everything depended on them moving the timetable back.

  “What if I went with you? I could help?”

  “I’m not going to have you in there and get hurt, Syd. The entire place is crawling with those little fuckers. Besides, we decided to wait and see what the bastard does next. We need the extra week to round up enough arms and supplies to mount a good defense.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, Tyr discussed that possibility. Makes sense.” Then frowned. “But still, Odin was so insistent we try…”

  “Fuck Odin.” A ghost of a smile flitted across her face as he cursed. “Now. I know you’re hungry. What do you want to eat?”

  Later, watching her lick her fingers, Mir realized this plan of Odin’s had so many pitfalls it was probably going to get them all killed.

  It was certainly going to break his heart.

  If not now, then when Sydney discovered he’d been lying to her. And would continue to lie to her, until the Orobus was locked down for good.

  When she did, she’d hate him forever. Maybe longer than forever, if the Orobus managed to possess her and destroy all nine realms. Best not to go there. “One step at a time,” he muttered to himself, losing himself in the sight of her pink tongue flicking out to lick frosting from her fingers. One at a time.

  She raised those long-lashed, uncanny eyes to his, ran her tongue over her bottom lip, and then caught it between her teeth. She was going to be the fucking death of him, she really was.

  “Do you know what I wish?” she asked, pushing her plate aside, her gaze never leaving his as she strolled toward him. “I wish things were simple. And I wish I’d never found those stones.”

  Mir pulled her into his lap so she straddled him. “If you hadn’t, then you never would have come here. So I’m glad you found the stones.” He buried his face in her hair, savoring the silky brush of it against his face, its delicate, feminine scent. “And then you wouldn’t be right here, right now.” He pressed his lips to the base of her throat, felt her pulse vibrate as his tongue traced the hollow between her collarbones. She reared back, hands on his shoulders, and searched his face.

  “You said this was a mistake, Mir,” she murmured, her voice a breathy whisper, “that this couldn’t happen. So tell me now, before I make a fool of myself again.” Her hands gripped his shoulders tighter, waiting for his answer. “Is this a mistake you want to make?”

  “You could never be a fool. I was afraid. And it was never a mistake.” His hands drifted down her back then drew her closer, so they were pelvis to pelvis. “All I’ve thought about...” She trembled against his mouth as he followed the curve of her neck, the line of her jaw. “All I want…” He slid the gauzy, transparent blouse down her arm, the arch of her shoulder practically begging him to run his lips over it. Sink his teeth into it.

  Pressure building at his hips, she moaned, her hips rocking against him, friction and heat mounting. For a second, all he could do was watch her undulating in his lap, her body a flow of flesh, motion, and passion, with her head thrown back, her delicate, pale column of throat completely exposed to him. Drawing her in, he pressed his lips to the base of her neck, right where the pulse beat, then his teeth, felt them sink in, felt more than heard her moan as she rocked and rocked against him.

  Bed.

  He dimly thought he had to get her into bed and stood, her legs wrapping tightly around his hips, her arms around his neck. He walked them over, twisting at the last moment so they fell, side by side onto the mattress, him kicking tangled sheets to the side to make room.

  “I want to
see you,” he muttered, shoving everything off the side of the bed. “I want to look at you, damn it.” Layers of coats, clothes, rooms full of people, why did everything always come between them? For once, he wanted nothing between them. Nothing at all. Laying her flat, her hair a crimson wave across the mattress, Mir ran his hand down her body as she trembled.

  “Take your shirt off,” she whispered, reaching for him. But he drew away, quickly pulled it over his head, and was overtop her again, plundering her mouth, her hands on either side of his face, racing over his back, down his hips, quick, greedy bites of fingernails across his skin, raising goosebumps in their wake. “More, I want more. Take everything off.”

  Stripping, his eyes never left her face. Rapt, she watched every movement with such fierce intensity, a wave of lust rippled through him, the strength of it rocking him. He nodded to her jeans, the blouse hanging off one shoulder. “Your turn.”

  She pulled in a breathy little moan that made his cock jump and lifted the blouse over her head, threw it onto the floor. The bangles were thrown into a noisy stack onto the bed stand. Then Syd peeled the jeans off, leaving her in the smallest pair of underwear and lacy bra he’d ever seen. Against her pale skin, the line of tattoos on her left inner arm stood out starkly. A goddess. So perfect, Mir didn’t know where to look first.

  He was still deciding when she walked to him and ran her hand down his chest, tracing the line of dark hair that led to his cock, and grasped him there, her hand stroking him, while pulling his lips to her mouth. Her tongue tangled with his, every velvety brush sending a spear of need arrowing into him. He groaned into her mouth and pushed her back onto the bed.

  God, she was wet.

  Wet and empty, damn it.

  Need was building with a ferocity she’d never experienced, and if she didn’t get him inside of her soon…

  “I’m going to make you come,” Mir told her, peeling her panties off then pushing her thighs wide and sliding his hand up her pale, creamy flesh until his thumb brushed her clit. “Are you going to come for me, Sydney?”

  She strained against that delicate touch, body shivering in anticipation, searching for more. “Please, Mir. Please… God yes, touch me.”

  A wicked laugh and he bowed over her, pushed the bra to the side and took one of her nipples in his mouth, tugged, and pressed his thumb firmly against her clit. Pressure. Pressure and that tiny nip of pain had her bucking high, her hips lifting off the bed, only to have him press her back down. His thumb continued that exquisite, slow circular motion, his teeth the barest pressure on her nipple, his other hand anchoring her, holding her down against the mattress as the frantic, grinding need built and built and built.

  Inside of her, something broke, and she plummeted, the dive so steep and so sudden she couldn’t even scream, couldn’t make a sound at all. She could only throw her head back, arch her body off the bed, and push against that lovely, delicious touch as he slid a finger inside of her.

  “That’s it, go over, gods, you are so beautiful.”

  Whether it was the rough growl of his voice, or the touch of his hands, or the fact it had been so long, she did. The orgasm went on forever, a spiraling, quaking shudder that she couldn’t stop, couldn’t master, even if she’d wanted to. No one had ever controlled her like this.

  No one had ever tried.

  Before she reached the end, Mir angled himself over her, braced his arms and drove himself into her. One sure, deep plunge that filled her so completely, it was as if their souls intertwined, and her breath quickened as she watched him above her, the brace of those strong arms, the rock of his hips as she pistoned to meet him, this fresh invasion of sensation taking her higher, the need a gnawing, wicked thing. “Faster, more.”

  Her eyes fluttered as he pushed her legs wider, lifted her hips and drove deeper, longer, each stroke seemingly planting something of himself inside her as she watched, entranced. When the climax claimed her this time, Mir plunged with her, groaning her name, his voice rough in her ear.

  “More. I have to have more of you too, Sydney.”

  Chapter 15

  Four floors below, Odin swirled the bourbon round and round in his glass. Ruing the wasted effort it took, all of them scrambling around to buy a few days, weeks, months.

  Suckers.

  Thinking that somehow, they were all going to escape this inevitable doom. That the Orobus wasn’t going to swallow them up whole. Or the Dark God of Chaos. Whatever they were calling the bastard these days. It didn’t really matter, Odin thought, closing his eyes wearily and leaning his head back, the room swimming wildly around him.

  It always ended the same. Every. Single. Damn. Time.

  Better to just let it end and be done with it. Truly, what was the fucking point?

  “I would have a word with you.” Tyr’s voice, with its couldn’t take a fucking joke if I had to tone, nearly made Odin laugh. Sure, let’s have a word. Let’s have a bunch of words. Not going to matter. Throwing back the last of his bourbon, Odin slowly rose and crossed the room.

  There was another bottle in the oak cabinet, or at least, he hoped there was. “Speak.”

  “Mir has told her nothing. As you ordered.”

  “Good. Your take on this whole cluster fuck?”

  “The girl doesn’t know anything. When the creature takes her over, it is too strong for her mind to contain so reality, most likely, becomes a blur. Mir confirms this. However, we could use her to draw the creature out.” Tyr considered. “However, if she were to die…”

  “No.” Odin’s voice was firm. Three humans. Three of the immortal gods, in love. It wasn’t a coincidence. It couldn’t be.

  His foggy, drunken mind wandered back to the prediction, straight out of the girl’s mouth. When you all have something to lose. All of them. Even drunk as he was, a horrifyingly clear thought crossed his mind. One that seemed too strategically sound a concept for a god of chaos to have come up with.

  Tyr’s voice remained frosty. “It might be a cleaner end than having this creature use her, my lord. Fenrir said she’d been completely possessed, her eyes were…”

  “No. There will be not a hair on her ginger head harmed.”

  Tyr nodded. “As you wish, my lord.”

  “Oh, I wish it.” Odin chuckled. “I wish for a shit ton of things. But let’s stick with what we can control, shall we?” He considered this new, complicated possibility. The layers and layers it added to their current problem. “Keep her safe and alive. I don’t want her disappearing from beneath our noses again. We need to know how he’s planning on using these doorways. Sydney’s our best bet at finding that answer. In the meantime…”

  “Yes, my lord?”

  Since he was apparently out of Woodford, Odin lifted a bottle of Balvenie from the cabinet. “Let’s go drink ourselves blind.”

  Even Tyr had to agree with that strategy. Tried and true, it had never let any of them down.

  Odin savored the edge of drunkenness to his dreams that night. They lacked any kind of foresight, since he’d lost that skill set months ago. But what they lacked in clairvoyance they made up for with impending doom.

  He wouldn’t save any of them this time.

  Which, of course, was why he had such a burr up his ass. He’d spent his entire life shouldering such terrible knowledge. Of how this world ended. How they ended. It just never seemed like the end would arrive quite so quickly.

  What he hadn’t realized, was knowing what was coming and experiencing it were two completely different things. Odin tossed and turned, his mind sorting through the myriad of possibilities offered by these newest revelations. Mortals. The Orobus was using mortals to further chain them to this world.

  In case they sought to escape to another.

  Clever, really, considering the entity didn’t have an inkling of emotions or even mortality, for that matter. Still, binding them, one by one with a mortal chain, made certain sense.

  Flesh and bone did make the most perfect cages.
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  Chapter 16

  Mir kept Sydney in bed for the next day as well. Two days of fleshy pursuits he didn’t know he was capable of. She had a body made for sex. A mind made for calculations, hypothesis, and strategy.

  But, oh gods, a body made for sex.

  Pleasure. Pure and simple. Miles and miles of creamy white skin, flecked with the barest hint of dusky freckles. A mole high on her right thigh, another on her left shoulder that dipped and moved as he took her, mountains of gold-streaked red curls he fisted and held as he drove himself into her, and a mouth that cried and moaned. He shifted in his chair, watching her across the table, readjusted himself in his jeans as he observed her studying the latest report from the power plant. While the overall energy readings were off the chart, the actual nuclear signature remained a blip on the radar.

  Everyone agreed. The Orobus was still drawing power from the reactors.

  Growing, hour by hour.

  Her forehead knit as she studied the papers, a long leg thrown casually over the arm of the chair, her blouse slipping from her shoulders.

  He’d had her ten, no, a score of times, and it wasn’t nearly enough. He could hardly keep his hands off her from ten feet away. Her eyes flicked up to his before a dark blush stained her face. Cool, male satisfaction filled him. At least he wasn’t alone. At least it was the same for both of them. Lust, pure and simple. More than that, on his part, but no words of love had been traded between them. No promises, either. No guarantees of tomorrow or next week or next month.

  Only now. This minute and the next. It could be nothing beyond that.

  And they both fucking knew it.

  And what about your lies? The little voice inside him asked. What about the machinations going on behind her back? All the evasions and circumvention?

  What about all of that?