Seduced by Chaos

by Stephanie Julian

  He began to stroke her in time with her hand, letting her set the pace until he came to his senses.

  She’d wanted him to make her forget. She should be the one lost in sensation, not him.

  On the next downward stroke, Teo let his hands dip down a little further each time until he was caressing her ass.

  Her head fell back, eyes looking into his, asking him for…something. He lowered his mouth over hers again and she sighed, igniting his desire with her warm breath, and her hand tightened on his shaft.

  His groan made goose bumps erupt on her skin and she squirmed closer, the hand on his cock trapped between them.

  With an effort, the sound of running water a reminder of what she’d come in here for, he eased her away from him and quickly stripped off his clothes while she watched.

  A half smile on her face, she let him pick her up and set her in the shower stall, crowding in with her. The hot water poured over them, soaking them, darkening her brown hair and making her skin glisten.

  Kneeling in the confined space was difficult but he got down, his hands lifting to cup her breasts. Her skin felt like silk in his hands and against his tongue as he strung kisses from the spot just below her breasts to the top of her mound, covered with fine brown hair. She had no hair on her pussy and he spread her legs just enough to be able to lap at her clit with his tongue.

  Her hands sank into his hair as he teased her. She leaned against the tiled wall and sighed. That small sound eased inside him, calming whatever urge he may have had to rush her. Instead, he made a feast of her, licking, kissing, nipping. Taking his time to savor every sigh, every subtle thrust of her hips, every slight sting as her fingers tightened in his hair.

  She tasted amazing and he could have lapped at her all night but he knew she had to be tired.

  Rising, he caught her under the arms and lifted her, sliding her up the wall, watching her sleepy blue eyes crinkle at the corners as she smiled. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his waist, she relaxed into him, poured over him with the water.

  His cock slid into her sex as if he’d been lubricated, she was that ready for him. He seated deep and full, and she clenched around him with a firm grip that made his breath catch in his throat. He didn’t even want to move at first, just let her hold around him, milking him with tiny contractions.

  A slight whimper was her only clue that she was about to come. Then she turned her head, bit his ear and convulsed around him. Caught up in her climax, he barely had time to thrust once before he began to come in a rush of heat that seemed to start in his chest and move up and down at the same time.

  Groaning, shuddering, he tightened his arms around her as he felt her go limp in his arms.

  Chapter Seven

  With Teo asleep in her bed and a smile on her face, Lacey padded down to the bar’s kitchen to raid some of Fred’s fresh strawberries.

  Her stomach had been rumbling for the past five minutes and she didn’t want to wake Teo. The poor guy had to be tired.

  Her smile widened.

  Humming to herself, she had her head stuck in the fridge when the phone on the kitchen wall rang. She started, knocking her head against the top of the fridge, and frowned at it. Who the hell would be calling at—

  She lunged for the phone as it started its third ring.

  “Hello.” She barely got the word through the lump in her throat.

  No one answered right away and she held her breath. Vaguely, she heard the sound of breathing on the other end.

  Then… “Lacey?”

  Her heart began to pound so hard, she pressed her free hand over it. “Cara! Blessed Goddess. Cara, is it really you?”

  “Oh Lacey, it’s so good to hear your voice. I missed you so much.”

  Gods be damned, it was her sister. It had to be. It sounded just like her.

  “Where are you, Cara? What’s going on? What happened? How did you survive that fall?” Lacey felt tears streaming down her face and swiped at them with her free hand. “Can I see you? Where are you?”

  “Oh Lacey, I have so much to tell you but—” Cara broke off and the line went silent. Lacey’s throat closed in fear that she’d lost the connection but then her sister came back on the line. “Yes, I want to see you. And I’m close. I know where you are but I can’t come to you. I’m too—it’s just too dangerous. But I had to talk to you. I miss you so much and I’m so sorry I left you.”

  Lacey heard tears in her sister’s voice now and the sound tore into her chest like claws. “Where are you, Cara? Let me come get you. Just tell me where you are.”

  “I can’t. It’s not safe. But…I can bring you to me.”

  “What? How?”

  “Do you trust me, Lace?”

  Yes, she trusted her sister with her life. She’d had to.

  But that niggling doubt was back. Was this truly her sister?

  A sigh came through the phone line as she stayed silent. “Lacey, do you remember the dolls we got for our birthday when we were five years old? Do you remember what I did with mine?”

  Lacey closed her eyes and held her breath, her answer a bare whisper. “Yes.”

  “I shaved all the hair off its head because it was blond and I wanted it to be brown like yours. And I colored its eyes blue with a marker so it would look more like us.”

  Her mouth opened to gasp for air. “Cara.”

  “Yes, it’s me. Will you come, Lacey? Please. I need you.”

  “Yes. But—”

  “Stay right there, Lacey.” Cara sounded so excited, Lacey couldn’t help but get excited as well. “We’re going to bring you here. Right now.”

  “Oh wait—”

  The line went dead with a click. Stunned, she pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at the Caller ID screen again. No number, no name.

  She needed to run upstairs and tell Teo. Turning, she took two steps and felt her skin tingle as a spell wound itself around her.

  “Oh no. Wait—”

  Her body dissolved, transported into molecules that the spell moved through a hole in reality. In a few seconds, the spell transported her from the kitchen to somewhere else.

  When her body rematerialized, she blinked at her new surroundings, a living room with comfortable furniture and a color palette of browns and greens made the room seem safe. Warm.

  And the woman standing before her made her cry out with amazement.

  “Cara!”

  * * * * *

  “Lacey.”

  Teo pushed open the bathroom door, already knowing she wasn’t in there.

  Kitchen and living room, the same.

  Down the stairs in the bar, a spell rubbed against his arus in the kitchen. He recognized it immediately. Translocation spell.

  “Lacey!”

  Fear fell on his shoulders, crushing down on him.

  He stepped farther into the kitchen and tripped over the phone on the floor. Grabbing it, he hit the button to show the last call. It was blank where there should have been a name and a number.

  “Vaffanculo.”

  The amentia rose up with a black rush, choking him with its fury and his fear. She was gone. He didn’t have a clue where. But he knew there was only person who could have enticed her to leave.

  And he had no idea where to find her.

  His lungs strained and his hands ached. He glanced down to see his hands clenched into tight fists.

  Call Cam.

  The words cycled through his brain on an endless loop. Cam could find her. He could get her back.

  But Cam hadn’t even started looking for Cara yet.

  What if Lacey had left of her own free will? What if she really was with her sister? She’d hate him for interfering.

  Why hadn’t she told him she was leaving?

  Tinia’s teat, he needed answers. And he knew someone who might have them.

  * * * * *

  “Sal, you home?”

  Teo used the silver key around his neck to open the
door to the nothing-special row house south of Penn Street, several blocks from Lacey’s bar. From the small entry hall, he could see up the stairs to the second floor landing, back to the TV room and to the left into the living room.

  He didn’t see Sal.

  The amentia wanted him to panic, to scream and shout. He managed to wrestle it back to a manageable level and take a deep breath. In the silence that followed, he heard movement above.

  “Sal!”

  “Yeah, yeah, I can hear you, scassacazzo. You don’t need to yell.”

  The clip-clop of hooves on the wooden floor above sent relief shooting through Teo like adrenaline.

  And when the little goatman appeared at the stop of the stairs and began to stomp down, Teo wanted to meet him halfway and kiss the guy’s bearded face.

  An Etruscan salbinelli, Salvatorus had the lower body of a goat, the upper body of a man, tiny black horns sprouting from his head and the broadest New York Italian accent Teo had ever heard.

  He’d lived in Reading since at least the early 1800s and no one was sure where he’d come from before then. So the accent was a head-scratcher.

  Not everyone in the Etruscan community knew about Sal but Sal knew everything there was to know about everyone.

  “Teodoro de Feo, what the hell are you screaming about?”

  “Sal, I need to know everything you know about twin quercioli named Cara and Lacey.”

  Sal’s eyebrows rose toward the sky but he kept coming down the stairs. “What the hell are you talking about, kid? I don’t know anything about quercioli.”

  Teo slashed his hand in front of him, the amentia boiling, just waiting for a chance to erupt. “Bullshit. Do you know if Cara’s in town?”

  Sal stopped a few steps from the bottom so he could look Teo in the eyes. “Maybe you want to start at the beginning, because you lost me somewhere about the time you started swearing at me.”

  Fuck. He didn’t want to piss off Sal. A pissed-off Sal was someone who could turn you into a toad with one kick-ass spell. And then he’d never get the answers he wanted.

  Teo took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. Sal, I apologize for yelling but…I love her. Lacey’s mine. She’s gone and if I don’t find her, I’m afraid something’s going to happen to her. Please, Sal, I’m begging you. If you know where she might be, please tell me.”

  Sal’s expression never changed but his eyes softened. “Yours, huh?”

  Thank the Great Goddess. Sal wasn’t going to kick him out or punch him out. And he probably even knew where Lacey might be.

  “We met two days ago and I knew, even though I didn’t realize. I’ve gotta find her, Sal.”

  “And what makes you think she’s in danger?”

  A noise from the second floor caught Teo’s attention. Someone was up there. In all the years Teo had known Sal, he’d never known the guy to have a woman in his home. Or a man, for that matter.

  “Holy shit, Sal. I’m sorry. I didn’t kn—”

  “You don’t know anything.” Sal’s voice cut through his with quiet strength. “How’d you get in anyway?”

  “With my key.”

  Sal nodded, his eyes narrowing. “Guess I’ll have to make sure I reinforce the lock. You want some coffee, kid? You’re gonna need it.”

  Teo followed Sal down the hall, knowing Sal would spill what he knew in his own time. That didn’t mean he had to like it.

  In the kitchen, Sal headed straight for the counter. The scent of fresh-brewed coffee made Teo’s mouth water.

  “Now, about your woman.” Sal filled the two mugs already sitting on the counter and waved Teo into one of the chairs at the kitchen table. Sal sat across from him. “I’ll give you an address but—”

  Sal’s eyes narrowed down to slits and focused behind Teo. Feeling the air displace behind him, Teo turned his head to look over his shoulder. Someone had materialized into the room.

  He saw no one.

  “Sal, did you fe—”

  A beautiful woman stood next to Sal, her arms around his shoulders. She was taller than Sal by only a foot. And she looked…not all there. As if she were a ghost.

  Teo dropped to one knee before he realized what he was doing. Obviously some part of his brain had recognized and remembered to bow before a Goddess.

  “Hinthial, Lady of the Darkening Shadow. My apologies for barging in. I didn’t realize—”

  The Etruscan Goddess of the Spirit smiled. “No harm, no foul, Teodoro. Please have a seat. I certainly don’t stand on ceremony at Sal’s. This is a refuge for me as well as all others.”

  The hint of sadness in her voice made Teo’s schoolboy history lessons run through his mind. As an underworld goddess, Hinthial held dominion over the spirit, particularly over those spirits who got lost along the way to Aitás, the Etruscan underworld.

  Teo had never been honored by her presence before. He’d met three other deities of the Etruscan pantheon, including Selvans, God of the Forest. His brother Antonin had mated the god’s half-human daughter, Fiorella.

  Some deities were more social than others. Some only showed themselves on ritual days. Others had disappeared over the years. And the underworld deities, like Hinthial, rarely left Aitás.

  “Lady, I need Sal’s help. I need to find my mate.”

  “It’s never good to lose your mate.” Hinthial looked at Sal. “Do you know where she is, Sal?”

  Sal looked up at the woman and the expression that crossed his face made Teo look away. It was filled with so much longing, so much love and so much frustration it made Teo’s heart hurt.

  Well, shit. Teo had always thought of Sal as unmovable. A rock. Affected by nothing.

  Teo’s world tilted on its foundation. Sal was just as susceptible to love as everyone else.

  Sal turned his gaze back to Teo. “I can tell you where she is, kid, but you’re going to have to make some tough decisions when you get there. And it may not turn out the way you want.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Sal shook his head. “Not my place to say.”

  Fuck it, he didn’t need to know. “Fine, just tell me where to find her.”

  Sal looked at Hinthial, who nodded. “It’s his life to live. Send him.”

  “I’m gonna have to take him, Tilly.” Sal sighed. “His family’ll miss him if he gets himself killed.”

  Teo’s eyebrows shot up. Tilly. He called the Goddess of the Spirit Tilly.

  Sal sighed again and slid off the chair, his hooves striking against the tile floor. He lifted his hand to cup Hinthial’s face.

  Teo’s mouth dropped open. He knew he should turn, give them some privacy. He couldn’t. He was mesmerized.

  Sal’s face expressed a longing so frustrated Teo felt it like a blow. “Can you stay awhile?”

  Hinthial smiled so sweetly, tears sprang to Teo’s eyes. Blessed Mother Goddess, these two were in love. For decades. Centuries. Maybe forever.

  “I’ll try, Salvatorus. But you know—”

  “I know.” He leaned forward, both hands now framing her face—

  And in the blink of an eye, Sal’s body transformed into the body of a man. A naked man with muscular legs, slim hips and a raging erection.

  Whoa. What the hell was going on?

  Well, from the looks of that kiss, there wasn’t much of a question. They were in love.

  And Sal could become a man.

  He’d never known salbinelli could do that. Nothing in myth, legend or the oral histories even hinted at that power. Sal looked exactly the same except for the legs. And he was proportional for his now almost-six-foot height. Still had his horns though.

  Which the goddess was stroking with one finger, her other hand woven through his black curls.

  Now Sal had to bend to kiss her. As Teo watched, Sal wrapped his arms around her smaller body, her now-corporeal body, lifted her off the floor and flush against him. Completely oblivious to their audience, the couple kissed with a passion that should have been embarrassing
.

  It wasn’t. It was heartbreaking.

  Finally tearing his gaze away, Teo walked out of the kitchen, through the dining room, the TV room and into the living room at the front of the house.

  What the hell was going on? And why did it make his cheeks wet with tears?

  Teo sat on the couch, drew a shaky breath and waited. Less than a minute later, he heard the clip of Sal’s hooves against the wood floor. Out of the corner of his eye, Teo saw Sal moving into the room, his body returned to his salbinelli form.

  “Sal—”

  “We need to go now, Teo.” Sal didn’t look at him, just headed to the large cabinet on the wall and opened it, revealing a cache of weapons. “Your girl walked into a situation she’s not ready for. Are you prepared to fight?”

  “I am, but Sal—”

  “Not now.” Sal twisted to face him with a fierce expression and a razor’s edge in his tone. The two swords in his hands never wavered. “We don’t have the time. And it’s a long fucking story. With no fucking end.”

  Teo had never seen Sal angry. Sarcastic, caustic, amused. But never angry. And never sad.

  Now he was furious and distraught.

  Teo took the sword and swallowed his apology. He didn’t know what he would have said anyway.

  And Lacey was in trouble.

  “I’m ready,” he said. “Let’s go.”

  * * * * *

  Their arms wrapped around one another, Lacey and Cara cried and laughed, tears streaming down their faces.

  Joy warred with amazement as Lacey tried to form a coherent thought. It took her a few minutes, but finally she pulled back, her hands cupping her sister’s face.

  “Blessed Goddess, Cara, I thought you were dead.”

  Cara grimaced in pain, her eyes darkening. “I’m sorry, Lacey. I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to leave you but I couldn’t stay. I have so much to tell you.” She paused, biting her bottom lip.

  Lacey knew that look. She knew she wasn’t going to like whatever Cara had to say.

  Dread settled on her chest, as cold as ice. “Cara, are you okay? Are you well?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Then what’s going on? How did you get away? Why—” She couldn’t finish the thought. She couldn’t ask why Cara had left her behind.