Hate

by Gemma Brocato

  A squeaky cry built in her. “Oh Finn. Goddess, that’s good.” She ground her lush butt into his groin, striving to take more of him. “Go deeper. Harder.”

  “Anything you want, princess. Hold on.” Rearing back, he slammed back into her, his balls slapping against her thighs.

  The clamp and roll of her sheath gripped him, pulling him deeper with each grunting thrust. Slick, silky come dripped over his fingers as he held on and continued pounding her from behind. His balls burned like they were going to burst.

  “Fucking come for me, Aerie.” He sucked the skin of her neck, and worked her clit like he was thumb wrestling, determined to capture the nub and triumph, gratified when her inner muscles gripped him in a vise. “That’s it, princess. Give in.”

  She went still, her body insanely tense, and then arched back against him, panting and screeching as she released her grip on reality and crashed over.

  The rigid grip on his shaft tightened, milking a searing orgasm from him. He shouted in her ear and dragged her back against him, her back to his heated, sweaty front. Rocking his hips, he prolonged the climax for both of them.

  Aerie slumped in his arms, her head lolling on his shoulder. If he hadn’t been holding her flush against his body, he was sure she’d have fallen. His chest heaved against her shoulder blades as he supported her weight, his thighs quivering, his cock still tingling. Her torso shook as she sucked in a huge breath and let it back out with a groan, grinding backward on him, tugging him deeper. She twisted her head and he saw a trail of tears on her cheek.

  “Jesus, Aerie, please tell me I didn’t hurt you. Dammit, I was too rough.” He eased his grip around her tit and started to shrug backward out of her.

  She clamped her inner muscles hard around him and dug her hands into the flesh on his ass. “Don’t move,” she commanded, her voice soft but serious. “You didn’t hurt me. I love that you don’t think me fragile and breakable. Goddess, what a ride.”

  Relieved, and suddenly aroused again, he licked the narrow strip of sensitive flesh between her ear and jaw, then kissed the trail of her tears. “What’s this about then?”

  Her quiet sob rumbled against his chest as she arched her hips against him again. “I’m sorry. It’s not like me to be emotional.”

  Keeping one hand on her satiny smooth ass, he pulled out and stepped free of his trousers and briefs. He bent, tucked an arm around her knees, and lifted.

  She buried her face in his neck and bounced against his chest as he raced toward her darkened bedroom.

  “Hold on,” he ordered, keeping his voice soft. Finding the edge of the old-fashioned quilt, he swept it and the sheets down.

  The tears came harder, her shoulders shaking as he eased her to the mattress. She twisted her head, partially hiding her face in the pillow, one hand over her eyes. The sight of her anguish set his gut to churning. He jerked his shirt over his head and tossed it, not giving a solid fuck where it landed. His goddess was upset and he’d do his damnedest to fix whatever.

  “I’m just going to undress you. Is that okay, princess?”

  She drew a ragged breath and nodded her head. Slipping the tiny buttons free on her shirt was difficult with his fingers trembling. But he managed. “Up,” he told her.

  Keeping her face averted, she sat up and let him draw the fabric off her shoulders and down her arms. He unhooked her bra, and pulled that free as well. Before lowering her to bed, he kissed the gentle slope of her breast, but went no farther south. He unzipped her, dragged her up against him and pulled the narrow skirt off her hips. Swept the discarded garments off the side of the bed.

  Stretching out next to her, he hauled the quilt back over them, then wrapped his arms around her and pulled her partly on top of him, holding her tenderly. At least her tears had stopped.

  “Finn, I’m sorry.” Her voice was small and tentative.

  He gripped her tighter. “You have nothing to be sorry about.”

  “It’s just…”

  He waited, but it became apparent she wasn’t going to continue. Easing out a breath he asked, “Is it the challenge?”

  “There are a lot of unknowns, and uncertainty.” She sighed, her warm breath kissing his chest. “But that’s not it. Finn, I’ve lived something like one hundred and twenty lifetimes. In all those years, I’ve helped countless millions of mortals find love. But I’ve never found it myself.”

  Caressing her shoulder with a languid sweep of his thumb, he waited. He thought he knew where she was going.

  She toyed with the hair on his chest. “Now that I’m facing down eternity as a magpie, I find that…goddess Finn, I believe I’m finally in love.” She lifted her head and gazed at him, her violet colored eyes glowing in the dim light from the hallway. “With you.”

  He cupped her nape and slanted a kiss across her mouth. Not the fast and furious kind they’d shared earlier, but a sweet, lingering tender variety that caused his heart to leap in his chest.

  She loved him. A man who didn’t believe love existed. What an odd couple they were.

  Ending the kiss, he petted her hair, encouraging her to rest on his chest again. “How is it that the Muse of Love has never found it before? Is that part of the deal of inspiring others, that you give up that part of yourself?”

  “Not at all. In fact, I’ve loved before, but never really been in love with anyone. I was married in about half of my lifetimes, but the relationships were easy, comfortable. Never passionate. And I’ve never missed a single one of my husbands in any of my next lives.” She adjusted her leg over his thigh and snuggled in closer. “My sisters deal with missing the men they’ve loved and married. Polly married once and was so devastated upon rebirth for the next five lives that she never married again.”

  “But she’s happy now, right? Her man will come back with her in each existence, won’t he?” He’d heard a lot of information over the past few days about immortals. He needed a freaking spreadsheet to keep everything straight.

  “Yeah. The only truly good thing to come from this challenge is four of my sisters are deliriously happy.” Aerie’s voice held a hint of hurt.

  And that was probably his fault. He hadn’t told her how he felt. Mostly because he wasn’t sure. “Aerie, my parents were…Mr. and Mrs. America. Happy and supportive of each other. Two strapping boys, a house in the suburbs, the requisite black lab lying by the hearth. At least in public.” Behind closed doors, his life had been drastically different. Finn lifted an arm behind his head. “But when the rest of the world wasn’t looking, my dad turned into a monster. He was physically abusive with my mom, and verbally and emotionally abusive to my brother, John and I.”

  “Oh, Finn. If I’d have known, I would have come and speared love into your dad. That would have stopped him.”

  “Except when this was happening, it would have been during your dormant stage. You couldn’t have helped.”

  “True. So what happened?”

  “One day, when I was around eighteen, it was especially bad. I came home from baseball practice and found him pounding on Mom. He’d already broken ribs and her jaw. It was the first time I ever felt that sucking sensation like I was about to blackout. I tackled Dad, but he got the best of me, cold cocked me and dragged my unconscious ass to my room. Then he went back to work on my mom.” He’d awakened to the sound of his mom’s garbled sobs as she begged his dad to stop. Revulsion for his past swelled in his throat, damming up his breath.

  She lifted her hand and traced his jawline. “There’s a special place in Hades for people who abuse others. It’s a room where the shit is knee deep and everyone sentenced to eternity there must stand on their heads.”

  Laughter burst from him as the image formed in his mind. He felt lighter than he had since beginning his story. “Once my dad is dead and gone, I’m going to find peace in the image of him there.” He sobered. “When my mom got out of the hospital, she went back to him. Dragged John along with her. She actually got pissed at me, told me I had it all
wrong. My shitty old man was only hitting her because he loved her.”

  “Oh, goddess.” Aerie’s exhalation was harsh.

  “Yeah, how fucked up is that? I was old enough I left. Enlisted in the Navy to escape. I haven’t talked to them since.” His mom standing by his dad was the ultimate betrayal a mother could hand to her son.

  “Aerie, I have strong feelings for you. But I don’t believe in love.”

  “So you don’t believe in me?”

  He tensed. “That isn’t what I said. If love is like what my parents had for each other, I don’t want anything to do with it.”

  “Finn, I’ve seen the love you have for the Winstead boys. They’re like sons to you. You’ve never felt the urge to hit them, have you?”

  “Shit no! Those kids are great.”

  “And Lily and Rod love each other. I can tell just from talking to them what they have is enduring.”

  He truly hoped so. Lily deserved happiness after all the shit she’d been dealt by her ex.

  Aerie propped her elbows on his chest and lifted away enough to look at him. Her eyes were swollen and moisture trembled on her lower lashes. “I love you and that isn’t going to change. I’m going to help you discover love again. It’s my new mission in life.” Her face was somber. “At least until I transform to a magpie.”

  “We’ll win this challenge. I know we will.” He’d had enough of this heart-to-heart pillow talk.

  He flipped her to her back and stretched out on top of her, cradled by her hips. Claimed her lips and cupped her breast, rolling the nipple between his thumb and finger.

  As he slipped his tongue past her lips, the air around him tightened, pressing in.

  He lifted his head, scanning the room for whichever immortal dared to enter. Vibrant cobalt mist swirled in the doorway. Aerie shoved his shoulders, rolling him off her, and dragged the quilt up around her shoulder.

  “Dammit, Mars!” she shouted as the god materialized. “This house was warded, even against you. How the Hades did you get in?”

  “I have override powers in case of emergency. Which this is, Erato.” Mars’s tone brooked no defiance. “Get dressed, we have another situation on our hands. Hate has been spied at the DCU football stadium.”

  “There was a midnight rally for the team tonight, for homecoming.” Which meant thousands of people would be present, pressing in on them. A sense of danger and unease blasted up Finn’s spine and tightened his shoulders. He leaped from the bed. Mars looked at the ceiling as Finn sped past him, intent on getting to the pants he’d left in the kitchen.

  Two steps beyond him, Finn turned back and grabbed the Warbringer’s arm, dragging him from the doorway to the bedroom. “Let’s give Aerie some privacy to get dressed.”

  Her laughter rang out from the bed. “At least someone has a little sense.

  By the time Finn had stepped back into his pants, Aerie joined them, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. She tossed him the shirt he’d left on the carpet in her bedroom.

  “Ready?” she asked.

  At his terse nod, she gripped his hand and lifted them from the floor. As soon as Mars joined them, they misted into the Hollow and sped toward where Pierus and his Hate were causing havoc.

  Eighteen

  When they shifted from the Hollow, they arrived under the press box, undetected by the mortals present. The scene before her resembled something straight out of a horror movie. The stadium seats were filled with preternaturally still students dressed for a pep rally, signs and pompons held aloft, but not waving. Not a single cheer erupted from the assembly. The school’s cheery orange and blue colors decorated the grim scene. As the marching band paraded around the perimeter of the stands, Aerie heard snippets of three different tunes being played.

  A bonfire had been lit in the end zone. Red and yellow flames consumed the goal post. Smoke drifted on the breeze, burning wood, plastic and something else, something more stinky and pungent. Bile rose in Aerie’s throat but she choked it back. No time for that right now.

  On the field, a sea of people, wearing the black and gold regalia of tomorrow’s opponent, surrounded the football team. For some reason, those people carried cudgels and stakes and rocks. Jeers and catcalls sounded from the other team’s fans, competing with the discordant sounds from the marching band.

  The DCU team, dressed in full pads and helmets, stood back to back, moving like a school of fish trying to evade a large predator. Each time they’d shift one direction, the individuals surrounding them mirrored their movement, and tightened the circle.

  Black clad school security forces had deployed throughout the area, but most seemed oblivious to the threat to the team.

  “Give those guys a donut and they could apply for jobs with the police department,” Finn said, pointing to the squad of men and women standing stock-still. He started down the stairs.

  Mars stopped him with a hand on his arm. “We’ll wait for reinforcements.”

  “The security guards aren’t doing anything, and I don’t see any DCPD present. We have to do something.”

  “Finn, he’s right. Even if I link my power to Mars’s it would be a drop in the bucket. We have to wait.” Aerie laced their hands together. Tension quivered along his arm. “Hey, are you okay?”

  “Don’t like crowds,” came the terse reply. “Don’t like not doing something right away either.”

  She spared some of her power to push calming vibes into him. The point of contact between their hands flared heat against her palm. “Mars, how long until we can expect help?”

  “Any moment now.” Mars tipped his chin up just as the air around them solidified and tightened.

  A large cadre of Olympian warriors landed behind them, the long line of trained operatives stretching the width of the press box. As they lowered to the concrete riser, each guard placed their right hand on the shoulder of the next officer in line. Small bursts of light flared then settled between them as contact was made and power corralled. Their job tonight was only to mask whatever action Aerie and her sisters needed to take to conquer the situation.

  Phillip moved into place next to her, his hair mussed and his shirt buttoned wrong. “Someone’s timing sucks.”

  “Where are the Muses? Have they been summoned?” Aerie asked. The arrival of Mars’s security employees helped, but she really needed her sisters.

  The air concussed around them again. Mars grunted. “I believe their arrival is imminent.”

  Rainbow-hued mist shimmered, heaved, and swirled in front of Aerie as her sisters emerged from the Hollow. Vibes of encouragement and love stroked against her sternum, swelling her heart to the point of aching. She had always been able to count on her sisters. The challenge had brought them closer. She smiled at each in turn, laughing a little when she saw Lia wore her clown pajama pants. Lia was the only person Aerie knew who actually liked clowns.

  Callie had her requisite scowl in place. The events of the last two months had dogged her oldest sister, thanks to her misplaced sense of responsibility. Callie had been a fixer in all their existences, helping them with each little stumbling block they’d hit as they’d grown up. But this was something she couldn’t fix and it stuck in her craw. At the moment, she glared at Aerie. Taken aback, Aerie didn’t understand the unwarranted animosity. It wasn’t like she was in charge of timing on this stupid challenge.

  The ominous beat of the band’s drums escalated, drawing Aerie’s attention away from grumpy Callie. Right now, she had to stop the pep rally from becoming a melee. The fire in the end zone had died a little, but the burned odor intensified. Nausea seethed around Aerie’s gut.

  Swallowing hard, Aerie called out to her sisters. “Link up, ladies.”

  The Muses joined hands, creating an unbreakable wall in front of her. She placed one hand on Mel’s shoulder, the other on Corie’s. Drawing to mind an image of clear tubing snaking from her fingers, she slowly siphoned some of their power. Electricity glowed white hot through the imagined tubes, and tin
gled through her, viscous and alive. Her body swayed as she fought for control of their combined energy.

  Finn slipped in behind her, resting his hands on her waist. His touch balanced her as his powerful force climbed along her spine. Mars and Phillip added their force to the mix, laying their hands on her shoulders.

  Drawing a deep breath, Aerie centered the powerful surge in her torso, imagining a lasso to rein it all together, and merged it into one powerful image of a gigantic net. Rolling her head back, Aerie pursed her lips, and, picturing a glittering mesh covering the entire stadium, she blew the image out, over the assembly. Keeping her eyes closed, she willed peace and love into the fibers of the web covering the arena.

  Her thoughts bounced back to her in jagged shards, as if they’d hit a glass wall. She extended her arms, palms out and forced the energy through the heels of her hands. Small red dots pricked her knuckles, as if the rebounding energy had pierced her skin. “Something’s blocking me.” Panic shaded her voice as Aerie called to her sisters.

  “You have to get past the barrier.” Mars demanded, his voice uncharacteristically nervous.

  Holding her arms aloft, she considered her options. The void they routinely traveled through was nothing more than a steady flow of current. Highly conductive power. The electrical stream was the reason they were able to shift from one spot to another so quickly. “I’m going to draw voltage from the Hollow. Finn, I’m going to mist. Don’t let go of me.”

  Finn’s fingers dug into her hips. “I’ve got you, princess.”

  “Aerie, be careful. Playing with the power in the Hollow could harm our method of transportation. At least until balance can be restored,” Nia yelled. As the Muse of Astronomy, she’d know, because technically, the Hollow was considered part of the cosmos.

  The ends of Aerie’s hair whipped about her head, blown and scattered by supernatural wind.

  “Got it,” Aerie hollered back. “Everyone brace.”