Awakened (Eternal Guardians Book 8)

by Elisabeth Naughton

  Her temper spiked. He was the last person she wanted to learn seduction techniques from, now or ever. “How did I get stuck with you? I want someone else.”

  “There is no one else. Everyone’s been paired up, oraios.”

  “Don’t call me that. We both know you use that on every female you seduce.

  He stepped closer. “Perhaps you’d prefer I call you thisavrós.”

  My treasure.

  Elysia stiffened.

  “Or chará.“

  My joy.

  The breath caught in her lungs.

  Resting his hands on the arms of her chair, he eased forward until he was a breath from her lips. “Or better yet, emmoní.”

  My obsession. He’d called her that on the beach. Just after she’d killed that recruit. When he’d come rushing up to help her.

  Skata, don’t remember that beach. Don’t remember your time with him on Pandora. Don’t remember anything about the slimy male.

  “Yes, I like that.” Warm breath with a hint of mint washed over her face and ran down her neck, bringing every nerve ending to life. “Emmoní,” he said again in that deep, sexy, titillating voice. “My obsession. That’s what I’m going to call you. Because that’s what you’ve become. A drug I can’t stop craving.”

  Elysia’s mouth grew dry, and behind her back, her fingers trembled. He was manipulating her. The same way he’d manipulated her on Pandora. She knew that. But her heart beat hard against her ribs just the same, and her skin tingled in anticipation of his touch.

  “You lie,” she whispered.

  His gaze held hers. Intense. Unwavering. Smoldering. His lips so close, she could almost taste him. And his hot breath cascading over her flesh only made her breaths faster and shallower and her heart race beneath her ribs.

  She wanted to kiss him. Wanted to hit him. Wanted… She didn’t know what she wanted. She couldn’t seem to think when he was close, and when he looked at her—really looked at her as he was doing now—the same connection she’d felt on Pandora flared hot inside her. A host of emotions rippled through his gorgeous eyes as they held hers, ones she felt all the way in her toes, ones she sensed he felt as strongly as her.

  He blinked, and the connection was broken. Cool air swept over her as he straightened. And though she knew she should be relieved, disappointment washed over her like a tidal wave.

  He walked around behind her chair and pulled the string of pearls from her hands. The strand broke, scattering pearls over the floor. “We’re done here.”

  Surprise rippled through Elysia. She pulled her hands together and rubbed her wrists as she twisted in the chair. “What do you mean, done? We haven’t done anything yet.”

  “Return to your barracks.”

  Panic tightened her chest. He was dismissing her? Just like that? Sure, she didn’t really want to stay and be seduced by him, but if she went back now, everyone would know she’d failed seduction just as she’d failed every other task assigned to her in this place. “But—”

  His gaze met hers once more, only this time it wasn’t smoldering. It was hard and cold and very guarded. “You’re dismissed.”

  Elysia slowly pushed to her feet as he moved toward the candles and blew them out one by one. A new sense of dread trickled through her.

  He was right. She couldn’t fail seduction. She did need him. “Damon—”

  “I said you’re dismissed, recruit.” He didn’t turn toward her, but in the dim light, she watched his jaw clench down hard. “Don’t make me say it again.”

  Dazed, Elysia stepped out into the dimly lit hallway, completely unsure what had just happened. All she knew for sure was that Damon was her trainer, and that sometime between the moment he’d untied her blindfold to now, she’d upset him.

  She ran back over their conversation. Knew there had to be a moment when something had flipped. She was the one who had every right to be upset, not him. Then she remembered the way he’d stared into her eyes as if searching for the truth, and her breath caught.

  She hadn’t been able to hide her disgust. Hadn’t even tried. And now he knew just what she really thought of him. But instead of reacting indifferently, as she’d expected someone like him to be, he’d seemed…hurt.

  Her pulse beat hard. She pressed a shaky hand against the wall. Tried to make sense of what was happening. Couldn’t, because he had no reason to be hurt, unless…

  Her throat grew thick, and the axis her world was perched upon tipped and swayed.

  Unless the connection they’d shared on Pandora truly had been real.

  “Elbow up.” Damon brushed by the redheaded recruit and nudged her elbow higher. “Draw the string back closer to your ear.”

  The recruit did as he said and released. The arrow sailed toward the target, striking the outer circle with a thwack.

  “Better.”

  The recruit—he couldn’t remember her name—lowered the bow and looked up with a flirty smile. “It’s easy when you have the best instructor.”

  Damon’s gaze skipped over her. She was dressed in familiar, tight Siren garb, and she was hotter than hot—hourglass figure, firm tits, with high cheekbones, a slim nose sprinkled with freckles, and full, pouty lips that drew attention straight to her mouth. But even with her fuck-me looks and come-get-me caresses every time he stepped close, he wasn’t interested. The only female he was interested in was a temperamental brunette. The same one who’d made it more than clear last night she’d rather slit her wrists than be anywhere alone with him ever again.

  His gaze skipped across the training field toward the far side where Elysia held a wooden sword and was currently getting her ass kicked by another recruit. Her dark hair was piled on the top of her head in a messy bun. Sexy, damp tendrils tickled her cheeks and the back of her neck. She swung out with the sword and completely missed her target. The other recruit—an Amazon Damon had already discovered had nothing but attitude—shoved her foot against Elysia’s lower back and pushed. Elysia fell to her knees in the dirt with a grunt.

  Damon cringed. Erebus was right. She was awful. After a month, she should be much further along in combat, marksmanship, and archery.

  Frowning, he looked away from her, still unable to stop thinking about last night. Could he really blame her for her reaction? She was right. He was a yes-boy for the Sirens. A slut for Aphrodite. He fucked Aphrodite whenever she called him. He fucked her slaves whenever she ordered him to do so. Then he went along with the sadistic goddess when she pimped him out to the Sirens so he could fuck their recruits. He was the epitome of a man whore, and they all knew it.

  Disgust rolled through him, a familiar disgust he tried not to analyze too deeply. So Elysia didn’t want him. He was no worse off now than he’d been before he’d met her. He’d always enjoyed his break from Aphrodite with the Sirens. Seduction training with the recruits wasn’t forced sex as it was in Aphrodite’s temple. Hell, he didn’t even have to fuck the recruits if he didn’t want to. He just had to teach them to be seductive. And if he wanted to fuck them and have a good time… Well then, that was up to him, wasn’t it?

  His gaze skipped back to Elysia, and he watched as she pushed to her feet, dusted off her hands, and lifted her practice sword once more. The Amazon waited until Elysia swung out, then hooked her leg around Elysia’s and dropped Elysia right to the ground.

  “Fuck me.” She was so getting cut at the first elimination, it wasn’t even funny.

  The redhead he’d been working with brushed her voluptuous breasts against his arm, drawing his attention her way. “What was that? An offer?” She trailed long, slender fingers down his arm and batted insanely long eyelashes up at him. “I’m game. If we slip away now, no one will notice.”

  Kadmos was her seduction trainer. Damon remembered seeing the male lead her out of the great hall last night. Kadmos helped Poseidon manage the oceans when he wasn’t with the Sirens, a much more interesting assignment than Damon’s lot with Aphrodite. And while the mortal was large and bu
ilt and alpha enough and could probably get any sea nymph he wanted, Damon had a feeling he didn’t need to do a lot of training with this recruit. She oozed sex appeal and was already trying to practice what she’d learned last night on Damon.

  Still not interested.

  He reached for the recruit’s hand and pulled it away from his arm. “Let’s stay focused on archery.”

  The recruit pushed out her lips in a sexy little pout and slid her fingers along his arm again. “Why say no when saying yes feels so right?”

  Damn, she was good. “Pick up your bow, recruit, and try again.”

  The recruit dropped her hand with a huff, but Damon barely noticed. His attention was already back on Elysia, pushing herself up from the dirt and dusting off her pants. Mud streaked her clothing, her face, and her arms, and sweat made her clothing cling to her soft skin. But to him, she’d never been more beautiful.

  No, she might not be interested in him any longer, but he still needed to make sure she survived the first elimination.

  Luckily, since they were forced to spend their evenings together for the next few weeks anyway, there was one thing he could do to make sure that happened.

  He just knew it would be pure torture for him.

  Emerging from the showers that night, Elysia found Sera standing in front of the full-length mirror hanging on the door of her locker as she clasped a chain around her neck.

  “Oh, hey,” Sera said as Elysia drew close. “I was just about to go looking for you. You better hurry up. You’re gonna be late.”

  Elysia’s gaze skipped over Sera’s revealing outfit—strapless top, short skirt, bare legs that seemed to stretch for miles in the four-inch heels—and a whisper of jealousy raced along her nerve endings. Sera’s hair was a mass of messy waves around her pretty face, and her lips sparkled with some kind of pink lip gloss Elysia knew would drive Erebus absolutely wild.

  Elysia tucked the towel tighter around her damp skin and dropped down onto her bunk. “I’ve got plenty of time.”

  That wasn’t a lie. She’d looked in the box Damon had sent over before she’d taken her shower. Instead of the revealing outfits and high heels all the other recruits received from their trainers, he’d sent her yoga pants, tennis shoes, and a plain white, short-sleeved T-shirt.

  There was absolutely nothing sexy about the getup. And considering the way he’d kicked her out of that private room last night, she had a feeling nothing sexy was going to happen tonight or ever.

  Rejection pulled at the corners of her mouth and left a hole the size of a crater in the middle of her belly. He didn’t want her. So what? She didn’t really want him. She’d already told herself that. And she didn’t care if she’d hurt him with her reaction last night or not. He’d hurt her by lying about who he was.

  So why in Hades was she bothered by the clothes in that damn box?

  “We didn’t get a chance to chat much last night,” Sera said as she checked her makeup in the mirror. “You were already asleep when I got in.”

  Actually, Elysia had been feigning sleep because she hadn’t wanted to discuss her disaster of a night. Or hear about how awesome Sera’s had been.

  Pushing to her feet, Elysia pulled underwear and socks from her locker. “Yeah. I was beat.”

  “If you’d been awake, I’d have told you what I heard. Erebus, my seduction trainer, is friends with the guy who was camped out with you on Pandora.”

  “That’s not a surprise since they’re both trainers here.”

  “Right.” Sera ran her fingers through her hair, still studying her reflection. “Turns out he got into some deep shit for staying with you. That’s why he hasn’t been around. Word is Athena gave him the choice between going back to Aphrodite’s temple or spending a month in the pit. He chose the pit.”

  Elysia’s hands paused in the process of pulling on her T-shirt. The recruits had all been warned about the pit when they’d first arrived at the compound. If any tried to leave the premises, if any decided not to follow orders they’d be thrown in the pit for an unspecified length of time. It was isolation, filth, extreme cold, and insanity by darkness all rolled into one, and Elysia had heard horror stories of past recruits who’d lost their minds after only a week in that hellhole.

  Elysia’s pulse sped up. “Wait. You’re telling me he chose the pit over Aphrodite’s pleasure palace?”

  “Uh-huh.” Sera looked Elysia’s way. “Sounds like you did a number on that guy. I guess you’re better at seduction than you thought. Hey, who’d you get paired up with last night? You never told me.”

  Slowly, Elysia lowered to her bunk again, the socks in her hand, her thoughts skipping right back to last night and Damon’s reaction when she’d accused him of being—she cringed—nothing but a man whore.

  “Lys?” Sera asked.

  Elysia blinked and looked up. “Yeah?”

  “I asked who you were paired up with.”

  Damon. She’d been paired up with Damon, which made zero sense. If Athena had been pissed enough to toss him in the pit for what he’d done on Pandora with her, there was no way she’d have let him anywhere near Elysia again. Unless…

  “Oh my gods.” Elysia pushed to her feet when she remembered her strange confrontation with Athena last night after all the other recruits had been paired off with their trainers. At the time, blindfolded and unable to read what was going on around her, Elysia had thought the eerie silence was a result of the way she’d stumbled in late. But now Elysia knew it was because Damon had been the only trainer left in the room. And that Athena had cued in to something Elysia was just now realizing.

  Damon had somehow changed the assignments so he’d be paired up with her. That was the only explanation that made sense. Their being seduction partners wasn’t a random coincidence at all. It was his doing because—she remembered the hurt in his eyes last night—because he really did care for her. And that meant the connection they’d forged on Pandora was truly real.

  Elation filled her chest, but it quickly deflated when she remembered the things she’d said to him in that room.

  A need to set things right pushed Elysia into action. She tugged on her yoga pants, shoved her feet into the tennis shoes Damon had sent over, and rushed for the door. “I have to go.”

  “But…” Sera turned to look after her. “You haven’t even dried your hair!”

  Elysia didn’t care how she looked. Damon had seen her at her worst on Pandora and hadn’t cared. He’d just wanted to be with her.

  “My obsession. That’s what I’m going to call you. Because that’s what you’ve become. A drug I can’t stop craving.”

  Her heart raced as she tore out of the barracks, crossed the courtyard in the dark, and rushed toward the Hall of Seduction, anxious to see him again. He hadn’t lied, not about what he’d felt. He’d been telling the truth. Just as he’d been telling the truth on Pandora when he’d said, “I keep coming back to this feeling that I was sent here for a reason, that our meeting was not a random coincidence.”

  Maybe it was reckless. Maybe she was setting herself up for heartbreak, but she didn’t care. She felt the same way. She’d remembered a lot about her life over the last few weeks, and she knew she’d never had an attachment like this to another male, and that she’d never wanted one. But she wanted Damon now. Needed him. Not because she was on the verge of failing as a Siren, but because he made her feel things she hadn’t felt before. And because she didn’t want to end up bitter and jaded like the females instructing her. She wanted to live. Wanted to love. Wanted to experience everything she could before it was taken away from her.

  Her sneakers skidded to a stop outside the private room Damon had taken her to last night. Drawing a breath that did little to settle her pulse, she lifted her hand to knock, then changed her mind. Grasping the door handle, she turned and pushed the heavy wood door open with her hip and stepped into the room. “Damon?”

  No candlelight met her eyes. The room was completely dark. A shiver of fe
ar rushed down her spine.

  “You’re late.”

  His voice was deep, low, somewhere to her left. Exhaling with relief, she turned toward the sound, desperate to tell him everything she’d just realized. “I know. I—”

  He stepped around her out into the light of the hall. “Follow me.”

  Confused, Elysia looked after him, already striding down the corridor away from her. Letting go of the door, she hustled to catch up. “We’re not staying here tonight?”

  “No.”

  He didn’t slow his pace, didn’t touch her, didn’t even look at her, and as Elysia lengthened her stride to stay with him, she realized he wasn’t dressed as he’d been last night either. Instead of lightweight clothing that was easy to remove, he wore the same fitted black fighting pants he’d worn in the training field earlier today, a black T-shirt, and a black hoodie that accentuated the width of his shoulders.

  Reaching the end of the hall, he pushed the heavy doors open and stepped out into the cool night air.

  Moonlight lit the path. Tall trees rose high above, their leaves rustling in the evening breeze. He didn’t slow his steps as he moved down a series of stone steps that led into the forests beyond the compound. Shivering, Elysia followed, wishing she’d thought to bring a jacket, wishing he’d stop so she could talk to him, praying he’d look at her just once so she could apologize and tell him she wasn’t the bitch he thought her to be. “Damon, where are we going?”

  He didn’t answer. Worry skittered along her nerves, but she fought it back. Was this part of her seduction training? Olympus was the playland of the gods. Was he taking her to a secluded waterfall? A hidden cottage? Excitement erupted in the center of her chest and flowed like lava into her belly, warming every cell along the way. Was he taking her to a place that had special meaning for him?

  They reached a clearing. Moonlight shone down from above, illuminating the short grasses and flowers along the ground. The forest closed around them in a circle. Damon crossed to the middle of the clearing, tugged off his hoodie, and tossed it on the ground.