by Tessa Cole
“The darkness,” I gasped.
Del jerked to his feet and grabbed my arm to help steady me. “What just happened?”
“You moved so fast I could hardly see you,” Rion said, grabbing my other arm. “You were only a blur.”
Only a blur?
Keph remained sitting. He wasn’t much good to anyone in confined spaces, always in danger of breaking something — which, in this case he already had.
My blood rushed through me and I felt more alive and energized than I had in a long time, but oddly not aroused which was when I usually felt alive and energized.
But that, of course, was because the darkness had attacked.
Except—
“Moving fast?” I searched the barely-lit living quarters for whatever it was that was coming after Goddess Annie.
But everything was normal, or as normal as this strange place had been before the attack, making me question if it had actually been an attack. Wouldn’t the darkness have kept going, pressed its advantage? We’d been helpless. So, did that mean something else had happened?
“You were all moving slowly. It was like time stopped or was drawn out or something.”
“For you maybe,” Rion said, “But for us, you zipped around the room, almost too fast to see. Definitely too fast to keep up with.”
I was fast?
Could what have happened actually have been me and not some darkness? It would explain why the attack had stopped when I’d stopped.
Okay, so if it was me—
I drew in a quick breath and tried running to the far side of the room and back as fast as I could.
Again, everyone froze, their gazes on the spot where I’d been and not following me across the small room.
I touched the far wall, then ran back to where I’d been as their attention, comically, jumped to the middle of the room for a second, confused, before jerking back to me at my starting point.
“What in the Heavens—” Del gasped, taking a large step away from me. Rion took a step back as well, both of their expressions shocked.
“That was incredible,” Keph said from where he sat. “I could barely see you.”
I grinned, unable to help myself, as the same rush of energy from before flooded me. I felt great, like I could do anything, and surely an attack from the darkness wouldn’t leave me feeling energized and powerful.
“When did you get so fast?” Rion asked.
I had no clue, but then—
Rion had been glowing earlier. He didn’t seem to be anymore and the room was growing quite dark as evening set in, but I was sure he’d been glowing.
“When did you start glowing?” I asked him.
He frowned. “Glowing?”
“You noticed it, too?” Del said. “I thought it was a trick of the light.”
Rion took another step away from me as if I was crazy and it was contagious. “Notice what?”
“When you came from the goddess—” And with just mentioning her, the rush of power flooding me vanished and I was brought back to my sad reality. “You were glowing.”
“I was?” Rion’s frown deepened, then realization flashed over his face and I knew, with his quick mind, that he’d figured something out. “I thought I’d noticed something when I was with the goddess. It was like something sparked within me even before the bonding, and I was glowing brightly when I was with her, but I thought it was an effect of coupling with a goddess.”
“Perhaps I should mention,” Del said hesitantly, “that when I was in the shower, something happened. The water… I could feel it.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “We could all feel it. It rains down upon you. Hard to miss.”
“No, I mean, I could feel where it came from, hidden in the walls and in the bowl of the self-washing toilet. Then… I made it stop and flow in different directions around me. I controlled it.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Rion asked.
“Well, why didn’t you say anything about glowing?” Del countered.
The muscles in Rion’s jaw flexed, but he didn’t argue back.
“We’ve come to the realm of the gods,” I said. “We must have all been granted powers, boons, whatever you wish to call them.” I didn’t quite believe it, but since it clearly wasn’t the darkness attacking, being granted magic was the next most obvious explanation. I turned to Keph. “What can you do?”
The large man shrugged, his massive shoulders rolling with the gesture. “Don’t know. Though… I have felt… lighter since I’ve come here.”
Lighter? Given how easily that chair had crumbled beneath him when he’d first sat in it, he couldn’t be that much lighter. But still—
“This is indeed a strange and curious place,” I said softly.
Too bad I wasn’t meant to stay. The goddess would send me back. She had Rion now.
And that brought to mind something else. Before a moment ago, I hadn’t much believed in magic, or powers. Now I’d been proven wrong, and I had clear evidence of strange forces at work. And if that was the case, if this world had granted us abilities, then perhaps there was magic in Rion’s bonding with the goddess. A true bonding. A mystical vow made with their lips.
I bit back a huff of frustration. How could he? How could she? She’d promised—
Well, no. She’d promised nothing.
She’d asked for us to pleasure her and it seemed she’d only needed one of us. She’d chosen her bonded mate.
Zeus’s balls.
I didn’t want to be furious with Rion, a brother, a friend, but in this moment, I couldn’t help it. Powers or no, I couldn’t stop thinking about how he’d taken a precious opportunity from all of us… from me.
The door to the goddess’s sleeping chambers opened and she stepped out wrapped in a strange pink fuzzy robe. She looked half asleep, and her lush lips spread into a silly grin as she looked over at us. With a giggle, she made her way to the next door over, the bathing room, then went in and closed the door.
We’d all been silent, following her with our gazes until she vanished once again.
From her actions, if I hadn’t known better, I’d have assumed she was drunk. Perhaps it was some effect of sex with Rion, or the bonding itself.
Perhaps the power of the true kiss had left her giddy. Certainly Rion seemed far giddier than he had before.
“You’re a lucky man,” Del whispered to Rion, and I could hear the disappointment in his voice. At least I wasn’t the only one.
That silence hung over us all until the goddess emerged from the bathing room.
She frowned. “Why is it so dark in here?”
“Goddess?” Rion asked as she turned to an odd piece of decoration on the wall next to her, a small knob protruding from the wall in the center of a rectangular plate no bigger than my palm. There’d been another one just inside the door of the bathing room, but I had no idea what they represented.
With a quick flick, she pushed the knob into an upright position and light blossomed from several sources around us. Except they weren’t torches or lanterns. They seemed like small balls of light, though it was hard to tell since I couldn’t look at any one for too long.
“Hounds of Hades,” Rion breathed.
“What an astounding magic,” Del added.
“It’s not magic, it’s—” Her frown deepened, her gaze ever-so-slightly out of focus. “You don’t have lights? No, I guess I didn’t see any in your world. But then how do you light your houses at night?”
“Torches or lanterns,” Keph said. “Though my people rarely require such things.” It was true. Stone titans had exceptional vision in the dark, which probably came from living deep in the mountains their entire lives.
“But no electricity?” Goddess Annie said, using a word I didn’t recognize, her voice slightly slurred. “Hunh.”
“This illumination, is it sorcery?” Keph asked, awe softening his deep rumbling voice.
“No, though it might take me a while to fully explain
it, and even then—” She sighed and offered a soft dopey smile. “How about we just say it is and move on.”
Keph grunted at that, nodding and accepting that, even though she’d just said it wasn’t magic.
Which, I supposed was for the best. Some of the wonders of this place had been easy to figure out like the flowing waters in the… what had she called it? Right. Shower. Or the cold box with food, even though it didn’t have any ice and wasn’t buried in the ground like it should have been, or the self-cleaning toilet. I suspected there were far more wonderous and amazing things in this world than any of us from Nikandra would understand.
And I wanted to learn all about them and the amazing world.
Except if I couldn’t have the goddess, then there really wasn’t a place for me here.
Goddess Annie drew herself up and that silly grin that made me frustratingly hard, lit up her face.
“So,” she purred. “Who’s next to pleasure the goddess?”
I stared at her.
Everyone did.
“But, goddess, we bonded,” Rion said, aghast.
“Yep, we certainly did,” she said, and her grin got larger. Gods, she was so beautiful. “And that was—” She released a low sexy sigh.
The sound went straight to my cock, and I had to drop my hands and shift to the side to hide my hard-on. Not because I was embarrassed, but because she and Rion had bonded.
“That was amazing. Thank you,” she said, her voice breathy with desire, and she slid a steamy, still slightly out-of-focused gaze over us, stopping at Del. “I think I’d like to try a triton next. Ohhhh, in the shower! That could be interesting.”
I could practically hear Rion’s heart crumbling. Poor erinai. The goddess had just casually dismissed him and requested another. For some reason the magic of the bond — if there indeed was any magic or bond for that matter — had no effect on her.
Perhaps gods and goddesses were immune to such things? They could claim a mortal’s soul, as she had done with Rion, and then go on to claim another?
Which would be cruel indeed. Torture for the mortal involved and yet I couldn’t help but smile.
The ways of the gods were strange to be sure, but that meant, there was still hope for me!
Chapter 12
Annie
Hazy, foggy darkness muddled my thoughts and I couldn’t get them to focus no matter how hard I tried. Apparently Rion had actually fucked my brains out. Blown my mind!
I giggled at that thought.
Yes, he had!
I felt like I’d had too much to drink. I was literally weak in the knees, using the wall to help support me, my vision was blurry, showing me double of everything, and I didn’t really know what I was saying. Words came out, and, as if from some echo, I heard them a moment later and only then known what I’d said.
Triton in the shower…
A shiver of desire rushed through me at the thought and Del certainly seemed up for it given his instant arousal at my words.
Yeah. Del in the shower was a great idea.
Still leaning on the wall to keep my balance, I carefully turned back toward the bathroom.
My thoughts tripped over that. Given shower sex involved standing up and keeping my balance, mixing it with how tired and dopey I was, it was probably a bad idea. Once the warm water hit me, I’d probably dissolve into a satisfied puddle of goo. Also, if all the guys had had showers, there might not be much warm water left and a cold shower certainly wouldn’t be pleasant.
“Actually, ah… maybe tomorrow?” I said, hoping that wouldn’t hurt his man-ego too much while attempting to reinforce my desire to have sex with him with a smile and a wink.
I did the slow turn back to my bedroom when another thought hit me.
I had my brother’s wedding tomorrow. And the thought of weak-knee-making sex before the wedding seemed like a bad idea, too. I didn’t want to feel sex-drunk and giddy for my brother’s special day.
But the image of me and Del in the shower was stuck in my head now and come hell or high water, it was going to happen… I just wasn’t sure when.
“After the wedding,” I said more to myself than him. “I’ve got to get ready in the morning. But we’re definitely having some sexy times in the shower tomorrow, I promise.”
All the guys kept staring at me as if I had two heads or something. Had I said something wrong? I didn’t think so. I—
My stomach gave a very loud and long rumble.
Oh… I tried to remember the last time I’d eaten. My thoughts stalled as I dragged them back in time. Not when we arrived at my apartment… not when I’d woken that morning in their world… not when I’d finished healing those people… not—
Holy fuck. I hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday morning! No wonder I was tired and loopy and hungry. “Also, I’m famished. Who wants something to eat?”
Except I knew I didn’t have much in my fridge, especially if the guys had eaten the last of that Chinese food. There were some other leftovers, but they were stale as hell by now and I just hadn’t gotten around to tossing them out.
I’d just order something.
What did I want? Pizza? Chinese?
For some reason sausage kept leaping to mind.
Way to be subtle, psyche.
Still, the thought made me giggle as I gazed at the sausage fest in my dining room.
Given my current state, it shouldn’t have surprised me that I then imagined each of the guys as a type of sausage. Aethan was a jumbo, Rion a foot-long, Del a thick kielbasa, and Keph a whole salami.
Oh, God. I was getting wet just thinking about their sausages.
I leaned back against the wall and the image of one of the guys — it didn’t matter which —pressing me against the wall, pulling up my housecoat, and fitting their sausage between my ample buns flashed through me.
I waited for a moment to see if the vision would come true, but alas, it didn’t. Still the thought of it made my knees so weak, I slid down the wall to sit on the floor.
My stomach rumbled again, but I was in no condition to even reach my phone. I’d have to crawl.
“Then again, maybe I’ll just go back to bed,” I said, my voice slurred and sloppy, like the rest of me. “I might need some help.”
But the guys were still staring at me like I had a third eye, which was far different from how they’d looked at me before… like a goddess.
And I still didn’t know what was wrong.
Del acted first, moving toward me, his expression filled with hesitation and worry. “Goddess, are you unwell?”
“Del,” Rion hissed, shooting him a look full of daggers and making him stop halfway between the kitchen table and me.
“I’m only trying to help her,” Del said. “You heard her. She’s not interested in me right now. You can help her, if that’s what you’d like.”
Except Rion didn’t move. He looked at me, his gaze sliding from my eyes to down my body and stalling on…
I dragged my gaze down to see what had captured his attention and realized I was sitting with my knees up and slightly separated, showing him and the others everything down there.
Swell—
Oh, well. They were all going to see it eventually.
I dragged my gaze back up as Rion jerked his attention away and Del huffed and finished hurrying to my side.
“What happened, goddess?” he asked, his voice low, although I was pretty sure the others could still hear him. My apartment wasn’t that big.
I snorted at him as he helped me stand, and turned me in the direction of my bedroom. If he wasn’t aware of what Rion and I had done, I was kind of concerned for my time with him. “We had sex, fish-man,” I said, my slurring drawing out the word sex, as I shuffled forward.
“I mean, what’s wrong? You seem unwell.”
“Nope, I’m very good. Super good. Uber good. Awesome.” I smiled up at him then lowered my voice, trying to whisper as well. “Is Rion upset? Did I… was I—”
Oh, God! Was I a horrible lay?
Rion had certainly seemed satisfied when he’d left me. I was certainly satisfied with his performance, but—
“Goddess, you chose him and then—”
“Yes, I did!” I proclaimed, forgetting to whisper. “And I’m choosing you next, but not until tomorrow, after the wedding.”
“But, goddess—” Del started.
“You all wanted to be with me,” I interrupted. I couldn’t figure out why he was acting so weird. “You asked me to choose. Did I choose the wrong guy first?”
“That’s not what I meant. You kissed Rion, on the lips, a true kiss, claiming him, didn’t you?”
“Oh, yes I did.” I’d definitely claimed him, and he’d claimed me. And what a glorious kiss it had been. Though I had just been given more orgasms at once then I think I’d had in my entire life so that might have colored my memory of it.
A shiver of remembered bliss swept through me, reigniting my desire despite my exhaustion, and a soft moan escaped my lips. “He kissed me in all manner of places before that.” The memory of Rion’s blond head bobbing between my thighs made my breath hitch and another soft moan escaped. “He’s quite good with his mouth.”
“So, you did bond with him,” Del pressed, “lip to lip, a sacred vow?”
A sacred what now?
Another flash of memory of Rion’s intense look at me just before he went down on me, stole the rest of my thoughts, and I stumbled.
Del steadied me before I fell and the feel of his strong hands on my hips made me think of Rion’s strong hands on me and how I’d felt and—
The memory of my last orgasm whispered through me, stealing my breath and making my world spin… again.
“But then you said you wished to be with me, in the shower,” Del said, his voice softer than before, as if he were far away and not right beside me.
“Tomorrow after the wedding,” I replied. Though I was seriously reconsidering waiting. Perhaps it didn’t have to be in the shower. Perhaps I could just lay exhausted on my bed and he could… “You’re strongly making me reconsider though.”