Giving It Up for the Gods

by Kryssie Fortune

  Saul grabbed his arm. “Okay, my friend, no one’s touching your girl, so shove your demon back in its box and listen.”

  Chapter Seven

  Five minutes of pacing, sweating, and swearing, and Jase regained some self-control. He stared down at his ruined jeans. “I hate when I turn like that. All I can do is cling on to the small threads of humanity I have left, but it’s getting harder. I hate that too. Damn it. I hate my demon. Period.”

  Saul looked at the torn denim ventilating Jase’s thighs. “I don’t know. If you just turned green instead of red, I could hire you out as a lookalike for the Incredible Hulk. After he’d transformed of course.”

  “Screw you.” Jase grinned without rancor.

  “I think we’d both prefer it if you screwed the girl, but before you do, we should talk. Look, I’ll take Merc off somewhere and leave you alone with Lindy before the kid does any more harm. The thing is, I’d prefer you not to fuck her until the summer solstice and the feast of Neptunalia.”

  “And I’d prefer to fuck her tonight. At least then I can get her out of my system. She’s like a virus coursing through my blood, and the quicker I do the deed, the quicker I can recover. The last thing I need is to hang out one-on-one with a Siren, even one as drop-dead gorgeous as her. You know how I suffered because of their flapping tongues and preening egos. Besides, what if Neptune gets to her first?”

  “Don’t let him,” Saul shot back. “Look, he’s named Lindy as the solstice sacrifice rather than take any random Siren her sisters offered up. Big mistake. My revenge is a long time coming, but that slimy bastard is going down. And his brothers and sister are going down with him. Anyway, back to your Lindy. Her only way out is if she fucks someone else firs—”

  “Yeah, me. And that’ll be tonight,” Jase snapped.

  “That’s your cock controlling your brain. Come the solstice, whoever screws her first gets a hit of restorative power. Just make sure it’s you. Listen, when Neptune named her, it was like all the faces of a Rubik’s cube clicking into place. Her heritage and Neptune’s stupidity combined with Circe’s spell. Lindy will be ripe and ready come the solstice. Of course, you’ll have to duplicate Neptune’s methods, ropes, stone altar, blood, and all.”

  Jase considered a moment. “So why brush her off onto me? I admit that I want her, whatever her origins, but you could do with a bit of added oomph too.”

  Saul’s forehead creased, and his lips pursed. “Like I said, she’s not mine. Neptune and his siblings murdered their own mother—the woman I loved to distraction. Damn it, they should have just killed me and gotten it over with. I miss Lua every minute of every hour of every day. My children are monsters, and they were desperate to steal the power woven into my rings. I’d have given them the bloody things to save Lua. Instead, they left me dead inside and stole ninety percent of my power.”

  Jase wanted to say something comforting, but all he managed was a paltry, “Want to go at it in the gym?”

  “No. I want my rings back, and I’m going to start by reclaiming the one on Neptune’s index finger. Remember how humans say revenge is a dish best served cold? Well, I’ve had millennia to plan mine. If you and Lindy do this right, I can at least take down one of the bastards I spawned.”

  Jase pictured Neptune’s barnacle-encrusted fingers stroking Lindy’s flesh. Anger burned through him, rousing his demon. His horns itched, and heat seared his pupils. He knew if he looked in the mirror, he’d see red flames dancing in his eyes. As usual, he battled the change, but his demon roared inside him, demanding the sea god’s head on a plate. “He dies if we do this?”

  Time slowed as he waited for an answer. The air thickened with menace. Jase prowled, more demon than man. Saul wanted vengeance, but Jase wanted blood.

  Finally Saul promised solemnly, “He does once I get my hands on him. My Lua was worth a million of a heartless bastard like him. After her, I can’t even look at another woman. You know that. According to my informant, Neptune won’t even be able to lift his trident, let alone wield it unless he screws her while she’s still a virgin. Just wait until one minute past midnight on solstice eve. Whoever fucks her first gets her innate power.”

  “And Lindy? Will she be weakened or hurt?”

  “That’s the good bit.” Saul grinned. “Solstice power is building up inside her now Neptune’s specified her. She doesn’t feel it, won’t ever be able to use it, and she certainly won’t miss it.”

  Jase wiped the back of his hand across his face. “Then I guess I’ll spend the next two days with a permanent hard-on.” He groaned. No way did he want to spend the next two days protecting a loudmouthed Siren—not even one who touched the tender instincts he thought Pluto’s demons had tortured out of him.

  The Sirens had corrupted Cardea, the nymph Jase had intended to marry. He’d been young, stupid, and in love. Like an idiot, he’d thought she loved him back. Maybe in her own way she had, but her lies cost him centuries of beatings and burnings—endless torture that soured his soul.

  Cardea had been sweet and vulnerable, at least until the Sirens dug their claws into her. Now Saul asked him to protect one of the creatures that had damn near destroyed him. “You’re sure your informant’s reliable? And suppose Lindy’s not willing to wait?”

  “My informant’s come up trumps so far. She’s one of Circe’s handmaidens, I think. All she wanted in exchange for her information was my protection when I’m back at full strength. And as for Lindy, don’t tell her. Agree to fuck her but keep putting her off until the right moment. Think of it as a reversal of the chase Cardea led you.”

  Jase flung back his head and laughed. “I don’t think my acting coy and bashful will hack it. Leave it with me. I’ll think of something.”

  * * * *

  Lindy lay on the bed, but her thoughts wouldn’t stop whirring. Fury, frustration, and longing surged through her. She wanted to punch something—or more specifically, someone whose name began with J—that or crash about as she packed up her stuff. Except she had nothing to pack. Not even her clothes were her own, apart from the beer-stained belt around her waist.

  She grabbed the hairbrush from the bathroom and dragged it through her tangled curls. Not that she achieved more than some split ends and an aching wrist. Too restless to settle, she cut a thin strip of fabric from the discarded bits of Jase’s shirt and used it like a ribbon to hold back her hair. Still wide awake, she rested her elbows on the windowsill and stared out into the night. Then she saw them.

  Headlights ringed the building just outside the protective barrier that had made her shudder when she passed through it earlier. Whoever was out there—and she was pretty sure they were Neptune’s merwarriors—couldn’t get in, but that meant she couldn’t get out. So much for her resolve not to screw the men downstairs. Her best option was to march back to the sitting room and compel one of them to fuck her. Right here. Right now. One note should do it, and the way things were panning out, she’d even settle for Saul. Damn, the kid’s offer to do her was looking better by the minute, but cradle-snatching wasn’t her style. And could somebody please explain how a centuries-old god looks about sixteen but acts about twelve?

  Lindy squared her shoulders and headed back down the stairs. Her heart raced as she imagined Jase naked in her bed. Would he be a generous lover who stroked her body into orgasm after orgasm before he screwed her senseless? She certainly hoped so. Or maybe since she was Siren strong, she’d exhaust him. Yeah, and he was part demon, which meant he was supercharged with sexual power. Just thinking of dragging Saul into her bed seemed sordid when she wanted Jase so badly her nipples peaked. Those things out there left her no choice. Nothing would be as bad as being staked out naked over an altar for Neptune’s pleasure.

  She flung open the sitting room door. “Outside. There’s this ring of car headlights like monsters with glowing yellow eyes surrounding your protected area. Look, forget what I said about waiting. Could one of you please screw me? Like now. Then those fish folk of Nep
tune’s will up and leave.” Lindy couldn’t help herself. She yawned. “Sorry. I guess everything that’s happened has knocked me for a loop.”

  Jase grinned up at her from the sofa. “Then sleep now, screw later. Or maybe we could just leave.”

  “What? Just walk out through the door? You have got to be joking,” she squeaked.

  Saul’s smile was as condescending as his raised eyebrow. “There’s always the priest’s hole and tunnels.”

  Sirens hated dark places—not that they’d admit it. “A secret way out? Where? And is it well lit?”

  Mercury stuck his head around the door. “Is it safe to come in? Hey, Lindy, I bet you can’t find it. I couldn’t when they told me about it.”

  Siren to the core, Lindy rose to the challenge. “Okay, if I was an early Elizabethan with Catholic tendencies, where would I stash the priest so the Protestants couldn’t find him? I wouldn’t want to forfeit my home and my lands, so let me think. The paneling’s too obvious. What about the fireplace?”

  She started toward it but stopped when she spotted the smirks on the menfolk’s faces. Okay, not the fireplace. Think, girl, think. Maybe the bay window flanked by solid stone cylindrical pillars was an original feature. It certainly looked like it. She ran her fingers over the stonework and even lifted the blue cushion, but nothing jumped out at her. “Common sense says it should be here, but I can’t… Oh, hang on. There’s the tiniest crack in the stonework around this pillar. It’s somewhere around here. Right?”

  Jase sauntered across the room. Despite his arrogance, when he moved he was all fluid poise and come-fuck-me hips. “See, Merc, she’s got brains as well as beauty. Sit on the window seat and kick your feet back really hard.”

  She followed his instructions, but nothing happened.

  “You cheating, Jase?” Mercury asked.

  Jase held up his hand in mock surrender. “Would I?”

  “Yes,” Saul and Mercury answered.

  “Never.” Jase laughed.

  Gods, she’d been right. His smile was as devastating as the way his hips moved with gunslinger grace. Lindy resisted the urge to lick her lips, but their gazes locked as he stepped toward her. Her heart pounded, and her pussy clenched.

  He bent toward her, and she thought he meant to kiss her. Then the blasted man paused, his lips inches from her ear, and whispered, “Kick harder.”

  She’d expected something softer, more complimentary. And he knew it. I suppose I shouldn’t expect pleasantries from an uptight, supercilious demon. Angry that he knew just how to affect her—play her more like—she forced a smile. If she was going to kick anything, it should be him. Instead, she took out her frustration on the stone seat, swinging both her feet into it so hard she winced. One of the pillars swung outward. “Great. How wide is that gap? Eight inches? Didn’t the Elizabethans let fat priests conduct Mass?”

  Jase’s wicked grin said he knew he’d won that encounter. Her fingernails curved into claws, but she refused to rise to his bait. Well… If he offered, she’d still be his best, most-willing girl ever. Damn him, he’d rather torment her than fuck her.

  As Jase sat beside her, he said, “Maybe they didn’t all eat like Friar Tuck. Besides, once they were inside, the passage widens into a hidden room between the entrance hall and here. In a dire emergency, there’s a tunnel out to the barn.”

  Saul smiled at the teenager. “For a Siren, she’s got a good grasp of human history, not to mention a good dose of common sense.”

  Lindy blushed. “So, do we go now? Does anyone have things to pack?”

  Jase turned all bossy and protective. “We travel light and buy what we need as we go. Hey, Merc, you’re smaller than me. As edible as Lindy looks in my shirt, can you lend her some sweats and a pullover? A jacket would be good too.”

  Edible? Really? Only, how had he put it earlier—whether he wanted to or not? That definitely rankled. Suddenly conscious of her aching nipples and damp pussy, Lindy added, “Yeah, please. Anything’s better than his cast-off shirt.”

  A quarter of an hour later, Jase squeezed through the narrow gap.

  “Suck it in, buster. Good thing you’re a demon, not a priest. For a moment there, I didn’t think you were going to make it,” Lindy taunted. When she stared past him, she saw nothing but darkness. Her throat dried, and her gut felt like someone had coiled thick chains around it and yanked them tight. Steps down into a dark hole? So not part of the aspirational Siren lifestyle.

  The dark interior muffled his response, but she’d lay odds it was rude. Definitely insulting. Distraction was necessary if she wanted to move forward, and it felt good to abuse him. Score one for the Siren side.

  They gathered in the long, narrow room concealed within the walls. Lindy started when, as if of its own accord, the pillar swung shut behind them. She could barely see in the darkened room, but why hadn’t anyone brought a torch? She bit back a whimper, almost. Jase must have heard, because he gave her hand a squeeze. She didn’t see what he did, but she heard a soft rasping noise—stone sliding over stone—a hiss through the night. A tunnel opened like a black gullet, and a narrow stair led them down into utter darkness. Lindy had never wanted her cell phone more. Any light at all, really. Jase turned sideways, took her hand, and led her down an unlit stair.

  Again Jase squeezed her hand. “It’s okay, princess.”

  That tunnel? All right? Pitch-black and oppressive more like. Shaken to the core, she couldn’t muster a snarky response. She followed reluctantly, her free hand flat against the wall, her breathing jagged. The primordial fears every Siren hid from the world set her shaking. Even when she inhaled, slow and deliberate, panic kicked at her gut like a mule. Jase’s thumb traced small circles over the back of her hand, and that slight considerate touch calmed her soul.

  She tried to think happy thoughts as she stumbled forward. So not working. They waded through darkness so thick she thought blankets swaddled her head. Neptune’s balls, I’m suffocating down here. Can’t see. Can’t breathe. Can’t stop. Got to keep moving. She curled her free hand around Jase’s forearm and kept the other intertwined with his. Her grip would have crushed a lesser man. He was safety and protection, an anchor in the sea of blackness that engulfed her. She longed to wrap her arms around his waist, cuddle up close, and rest her head on his broad chest. Maybe that way she could pretend this wasn’t happening. Her claustrophobia was rising right along with a Siren shriek she feared would bring the roof down. She bit her lip rather than let it out. She’d done nothing to deserve this. As a distraction, she counted her steps.

  One hundred… Three hundred… Six hundred… One thousand… Would this tunnel never end? All the while, Jase stroked his thumb over the back of her hand and spoke soft, encouraging words.

  Finally the passage hit a dead end, and Jase stopped. Maybe there was another door or something. Whatever, Jase. Hurry up and open it. Please.

  He let go of her hand. “Stay here.”

  There he went with the order thing again. And where the hell did he expect her to go? Overhead, a chink of light showed—more the darkness of night than the stygian darkness of the passage she hated. It was the most beautiful thing ever. Then Jase stretched overhead and grasped a narrow ledge, pulled himself up, and vanished. Even though Saul and Merc were close behind her, she’d never so felt lost or alone.

  Those two minutes he was gone were the longest ever. Then he reached down and gripped her forearms. “Okay, princess, up you come.”

  As he hauled her up, he carefully avoided her wrists. One minute she dangled in darkness. The next she was snuggled in his arms, breathing in his frankincense essence and craving his kiss.

  His gaze was warm, as hungry as her body, and he leaned in for a kiss. He hesitated, his mouth almost touching hers. She parted her lips and swept her tongue over them. Finally he was going to kiss her. Then he shook his head and snarled, “You’re still a Siren.”

  Saul and Merc emerged from the tunnel. Part of her wondered why they walked w
hen they were gods. Invisible walls, lightning strikes, and winged helmets—they have powers. Why don’t they use them? Maybe Jase wasn’t the only one who hated Sirens. Why else would they torture her like this?

  Jase dragged her upright, surprised her with a brief touch of his lips against hers, and shoved her into a tumbledown barn. A beat-up vehicle—small, with no glass in the windows—rusted behind a patched-up barn door. Souped up with twin exhausts, it looked like something that had survived a demolition derby. She just hoped the engine was better than the chassis.

  “Get in and stay down,” Jase commanded.

  If Neptune’s goon squad wasn’t close by, she’d have told him where to stick his orders. Instead, she curled up in the rear footwell. Jase relaxed and shot her a grin that almost made her blood steam with need, but that stern look still lingered in his eyes. Damn it, I can’t take much more of his hot-and-cold thing. Still, desperate times, desperate measures, and for one night, she’d give it a go. She’d have to.

  The barn doors swung open without anyone touching them. Jase waited until the others lined up beside the car. “Okay, guys. Push.”

  Push? What’s the use of a car that doesn’t go? Then she realized they were sneaking off into the night. The instant Neptune’s fish-folk spotted them, Jase, Saul, and Merc would pile in and speed off. Then she’d finally get to fuck Jase.

  Chapter Eight

  Lindy woke slowly. Unsure where she was or how she had gotten here, she lay still and listened; then she gently tensed each muscle in turn. She heard the distant roar of traffic on a busy road and regular breathing close by. Her body was toasty warm, swaddled in a duvet, and she lay on a soft mattress. When she peered through half-closed eyelids, her surroundings—all cream-colored walls and cheap white furniture—shouted run-down hotel room.