Giving It Up for the Gods

by Kryssie Fortune

  “Much good it did me,” Lindy muttered miserably.

  “Giving up on your demon, honey?” Circe sipped her wine. “He hasn’t given up on you.”

  “One word for you. Cardea. I won’t embarrass Jase by hanging around like a bad smell.” As she spoke, Lindy realized Circe’s boudoir smelled of roses, not sulfur. She studied her self-proclaimed aunt—I suppose every family has a black sheep—and mulled over their strange conversation.

  A bellow echoed through the hell-realms. Jase, and he sounded seriously pissed. He was probably in a hurry to get back to Cardea. Lindy stifled the urge to run to his side and stroke his horns. It was a sure way to soothe his anger, and she’d…love it. Any chance to touch him, whatever his form, was something she couldn’t resist. But he’d denied her that right when he’d plunged down into Cardea’s prison rather than hers.

  Even though she was a strong, sexy female, Lindy needed a good cry sometimes, but if she let one tear fall, she’d cry a flood. Besides, she refused to weep in front of the Sirens’ greatest enemy. Suck it up and stand strong. I’m a warrior temptress. I can have my pick of men. But she couldn’t have the one man who completed her soul. Jase. He’d made that clear the moment he heard Cardea’s voice. No wonder he’d told her not to complete the claiming ritual back at Aldborough. She blinked hard, but her misery welled up inside her.

  Circe ran her finger down Lindy’s cheek. “Tears? For your demon? Shall I summon him?”

  Lindy raised her hand. “No! Don’t! He chose a self-centered nymph over me. She could have at least grown fat and flabby over the centuries, but no. The wretched woman was all dark-haired beauty and oh, Jase, protect me.”

  “Fat?” Circe laughed. “On a prison diet? Pluto punished her for being an empty-headed liar. Considering everything we know about Pluto, there’s a certain irony in that, don’t you think?”

  Lindy blinked hard and sniffed. “It doesn’t really matter, does it? Jase chose her. After all that’s happened, I just want to go home. At least Scopuli’s a safer place now I’ve bedded Jase instead of Neptune.”

  That was all she’d ever been to him—a quick screw to bring down his enemies. For her, it had been a take-me-forever fuck. Even tied down and naked on a stone altar, she’d loved the way their bodies melded into one. Damn it, her ideal man was a no-good louse—a user? Perfection. Jase is perfection, and he’s ruined me for other men. Her future…blank. Her heart…shattered. Her pussy…wet for a man who wanted another woman. Her stomach rolled, and she prayed she didn’t hurl all over Circe’s Barbie-pink carpet.

  Circe looked thoughtful. “I can send you home, but it won’t be pleasant. Imagine falling through a cold, endless night and landing who knows where. Close your eyes and picture it.”

  No way. Not after Sirens fell from the skies, but she was so damned sleepy. Then she was falling. Tumbling. Spinning out of control. Time lost its meaning. Then the darkness dissolved into bright rainbow lights that dazzled her. When she could finally see again, she was alone on her favorite beach in Scopuli.

  * * * *

  Jase’s demon rose, taking him over completely. He needed Lindy, and he needed her now. Even the red-skinned beast that seethed inside him knew that without Merc, he’d no chance of finding her. His demon backhanded Saul across the room and grabbed the teenager’s shoulders. He shook the kid until his teeth rattled. “Pull yourself together. Carry a message to Lindy. Now.”

  Suddenly, Circe stood in the doorway, strings of pearls woven through her waist-length blonde hair. Her wrists and ankles jingled with dozens of golden bracelets. Her sheer turquoise robe shimmered with rubies and diamonds. “The boy’s in shock. I can help, but you’ve got to calm your demon. Oh, and if you ever hit Saturn again, I guarantee you’ll regret it. Remember that.”

  Jase radiated fury the way a fire did heat. He tossed Merc aside and turned to Circe. “Or else?”

  “Or else I won’t help you find Lindy.” The sorceress’s bracelets rattled as she moved across to Merc. When she rested her hand on his forehead, his body stiffened and jerked; then he went limp. “Don’t worry, Saul, honey, he’s just sleeping.”

  Saul rubbed his cheek and rose to his feet. “Where is she?”

  This time, Circe’s smile was open and honest. “At last. Someone who actually cares for my niece. What? You thought she gained all that strength accidentally? Lindy’s safe, and she’s exactly where she wants to be. Back home in Scopuli.”

  Jase roared again. His demon demanded Circe pay with pain, blood, and death if she hurt his mate. He stalked forward, but Circe shot behind Saul. “You promised to protect me.”

  “Don’t look at me.” Saul shrugged. “I promised to watch over my informant, not history’s most evil sorceress. Although my Lua once thought highly of you. Okay, witch queen, get us out of here, and when the time comes, I will.”

  “Fuck that. Find Lindy,” Jase growled.

  Circe put her hands on either side of Saul’s waist and peered around him. “What would Cardea say about that?”

  “I don’t give a shit what some stupid nymph thinks. Where’s Lindy?”

  Jase raised a hand to punch Saul, but even his dumb-ass demon remembered Circe wouldn’t help if he thumped Saul again. Not that Saul didn’t deserve it. This whole fucking mess was his fault. And Merc’s. Without the oath they’d forced from Jase, he could have claimed Lindy long before things came to this. “I don’t—”

  “Oh, honey,” Circe interrupted, “the whole preternatural world knows you fell because you loved Cardea. In fact, you couldn’t keep your hands off her, but you paid a high price for your lust. Then when she called out from her cell, you rushed to her rescue, not Lindy’s. What’s my poor niece supposed to make of that?”

  Jase stared at the slender sorceress. Slowly, his horns receded, and he ran a hand through his hair. He fell to his knees as he shrank back to human size. His skin glowed redder than normal, and his demon rumbled. It wanted out. It wanted Lindy. And it wanted her now.

  His voice was a deep, unearthly rumble. “She doesn’t believe that. She can’t. Can she?”

  Circe’s hands lingered on Saul’s waist. “Oh, honey, believe me, she does. You broke her heart, and she just didn’t have the strength to face you. Not when she thought you were with Cardea. She told me it was time she went back to Scopuli and lick her wounds, so that’s where I sent her.”

  “Then send me after her,” Jase demanded.

  The sorceress moved out from behind Saul. “I can’t. Well, I could, but you wouldn’t thank me for it. Imagine tumbling through a dark vortex. Its every twist and spin would crush your soul. If you thought your fall from Olympus was bad, well, honey, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

  Jase shuddered and relived painful memories. There’d been no sound. No light. Just an eternity of cold that had crept into his bones, but he hated that he’d hurt Lindy. “I’ll do anything to get to her side. If you won’t help, I’ll wake Merc and slap some sense into his stupid brain. Then he can find her for me.”

  “Leave him alone,” Saul snapped. “And you, witch queen, just do it.”

  Circe stared at Jase long and hard. “Don’t hurt her again, or I’ll hunt you down and destroy you.”

  “And that goes double for you. Hurt Jase, and all bets are off. I’ll feed you to Pluto’s dogs myself,” Saul warned.

  “Too much talk and not enough action,” Jase growled.

  Circe raised her hand, and Jase’s world went black. The faint tang of sulfur vanished. Nothing touched him. Nothing moved. The only sound, the slow beating of his heart. Time stretched until he could count the hours between his heartbeats.

  Cold crushed him like icy bands around his chest. His blood chilled, and he felt like it flowed in slow motion. His soul screamed as he somersaulted through never-ending night.

  Memories of terror and pain resurfaced. Scared and hurting, he’d tumbled through icy clouds and fog. Demons’ breath, the absolute shame of it. He’d fallen far and fast, a warrior god
condemned for things he hadn’t done. Then demons did things to his body no one should ever have to endure. And now he was falling again.

  Too much. Too painful. Wounds too raw. Can’t do this again. His eyes rolled back in his head. His demon fought and clawed for freedom. Bigger and stronger since he’d fucked Lindy, it was filled with violence and pain. Jase didn’t fight it, just curled up in the darkest corner of his brain and gave up control to the demon lord inside him.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Lindy’s sisters converged around her, all asking what had happened and how she’d appeared from nowhere on the beach. A brief explanation of why she’d fucked Jase, not Neptune, and they cheered. They even declared the next day a national holiday. There’d be bonfires, cakes, and dancing, but without Jase, Lindy didn’t have any reason to party.

  Her feet dragged as she sought out her mother. They shared warm hugs and a huge pot of coffee. Finally, elbows on the table, mug cradled in her hands, Lindy sat at the familiar kitchen table. ”So, Aeetes? And you always said you couldn’t remember my father.”

  Her mother’s smile flickered out of focus as she remembered her former lover, and her voice throbbed with longing. “Back then he called himself Joe, and he had the bluest eyes I’d ever seen. His voice was music and melody, so magical I orgasmed the first time I heard him sing.”

  “Hello? Mother-daughter conversation. Way too much information. At least it proves Circe was right. You haven’t forgotten him.”

  Her mother slammed her coffee mug on the table; liquid sloshed out of the cup and pooled on the table. “That bitch. And we’re supposed to believe she helped you from the goodness of her heart? She’s after something. Remember how she stood by and watched us fall?”

  Lindy thought a moment. “Maybe we got things wrong. What if she helped us, and we didn’t know it? When the Muses stole our feathers and wings, we should have crashed down to earth. Instead, the legends say we tumbled slowly through the skies. Our lower bodies changed. We were no longer the birds from the waist down, but fully human and sexy as hell. That’s powerful magic.”

  Her mum grabbed a cloth and mopped at the table. “That’d be the same legend that tells how that bitch stood at Juno’s side and smiled when we fell from the heavens? Thought so. Whatever went on between you and Circe, and no matter what lies she told you, she’s evil personified.”

  “And yet”—Lindy grinned—“you screwed her brother?”

  “Me and half the sodding island. Joe—Aeetes, or whatever he calls himself now—is nothing but a man-whore, but that man can fuck. Procreate too. He left two others pregnant, but he screwed every Siren on the island before he vanished. When you call the Siren race your sisters, in some cases you’re right.”

  So much for feeling special. Lindy was a random outcome of sperm and egg meeting…along with two of the girls she’d sat beside at school. Neptune’s balls, which two? Questions bubbled up inside her, but her mother hustled her out of the kitchen. “Go relax while I bake for tomorrow’s celebrations.”

  Lindy poured another cup of coffee and wandered aimlessly around the house. She belonged here on Scopuli, but she wouldn’t be singing any strangers into her bed just to keep her race alive. Hell, without Jase, she wouldn’t be bedding anybody. She’d never felt so lost.

  Restless, she decided to take a walk along the beach. A cobbled alley weaved between houses, then stopped abruptly at the top of the cliff. A narrow path zigzagged down the sheer rock face.

  As a child, she’d loved this strip of golden sand, and she’d thought the white cliffs rose up to touch the sky. Some of the caves that dotted the rock face held relics of the first Sirens who’d washed up on the island. They’d made their homes in the cliff. Lindy and her childhood friends had mounted pretend expeditions to explore the abandoned caves. Back then, it had been an exciting treasure hunt. Her youthful adventures seemed tame now. No longer sure who she was or what she wanted, her whole life seemed out of kilter.

  Even her favorite beach seemed too perfect. The waves were soft ripples that kissed the sand. Back home in Yorkshire, waves thundered onto the shore and whipped the sands into a frenzy. And there were no clouds. She needed clouds. Not the white fluffy things that occasionally hovered over Scopuli, but a thick, gray layer that pressed down on her—as desolate as her mood. She kicked at pebbles, scuffing her shoes and hurting her toes. At least the pain meant she felt something.

  Tears welled up. Not again. I’m a feisty, tough Siren, dripping with sex appeal. Men should cry over me. She’d lost everything. Her job. Her Yorkshire home. Her heart. And her hope. All she wanted was Jase, but he didn’t want her.

  A young Siren raced along the beach toward her. Her fearful shout penetrated Lindy’s fugue. “Lindy! You’ve got to come. There’s a demon tearing up the central plaza square. The others tried to subdue him, but he’s a juggernaut. When I left, he’d wrecked the street cafés, and he was hurling paving slabs the way we’d skim pebbles on the sea. He hasn’t actually hurt anyone yet, but he keeps shouting your name. You’ve got to come.”

  Too numb to care, Lindy followed the youngster. But what if Pluto had sent one of his demons after her? Well, bring it on, pal. I’m up for a fight. And let’s face it; I’ve got nothing left to lose. Without a word, she marched back through empty streets until she neared the central square.

  A platoon of warriors blocked her way. Their leader, an original settler who’d turned immortal in her early twenties, ordered, “Stay back, sister. He’s feral. We’ve got bazookas, and believe me, we will take him down.”

  A roar echoed through the streets, familiar but resonating with wildness and pain. Jase! Here, in the heart of Siren territory…and he hated Sirens. His double standards were showing. Apparently he had forgiven Cardea but come for vengeance on Lindy. And fucking her had made him stronger. She elbowed her way through the ranks of women warriors. “That demon’s here for me. Let me pass, and I’ll find out what the hell he’s doing.”

  Her sisters looked doubtful, but they didn’t stop her.

  Another roar. Another demand. “Bring Lindy.”

  Okay, he sounded pissed. He’d reunited with Cardea, and it hurt that he intended to claim some stupid, lying nymph. Jealous much? Lindy wanted to slap Cardea senseless, but Jase loved his nymph too much to let anyone hurt her. The bitch doesn’t know how lucky she is. I’d give anything to have him love me like that. She supposed that after years of torment and suffering, he deserved a chance of happiness. And I don’t?

  Ahead, a rock wall ringed the plaza and blocked the prevailing wind. Siren architecture looked Greek or Roman. Except their plaza. It was an open-ended oval full of fancy coffee shops and teahouses.

  Today, Sirens beat a temporary retreat from the plaza rather than face the enraged demon’s fury. Lindy wished she could do the same.

  She remembered every moment she’d shared with Jase. Neptune’s balls, he bit me as I orgasmed at Aldborough. That’s his half of a spirit-bond in place. Now he was stuck in sexual limbo unless she bit him back—but she wasn’t the woman he loved or wanted. He’d made that clear from the start. While she lived, he couldn’t claim Cardea. While she lived. That was the crux of it. No way, pal. Much as I love you, this girl ain’t going down.

  A turn of the corner, and tables and chairs littered the plaza like dollhouse furniture. Shards of broken glass, the remnants of demon-shattered windows, covered the ground like a reflective river of light. Paving slabs stuck out from the rocky windbreak like badly thrown spears. Amid the destruction, a red-skinned demon paced back and forth in a familiar movement she expected from Jase.

  Tattered remnants of his jeans and T-shirt flapped around his elbows and knees. He stood over eight feet tall, plus an extra six inches for his ebony horns. Horns she needed to touch and stroke. He roared again. “Lindy. Fetch Lindy!”

  He seemed bigger and stronger—irresistibly male. Time to get this over with, and if all else failed, her sisters would use those bazookas. Still, if it came
down to her and Jase, she chose…Jase.

  She stepped out into the empty plaza. “Hey, big guy, you forgot to say please.”

  He turned in an instant. His gaze—like the laser-red sights on a rifle—targeted her. He tipped his head to one side as if checking whether she was truly there. One stomping step toward her, and he growled, “My Lindy.”

  Neptune’s balls, she wanted to be. But Cardea… “Yeah, I’m here. Can we talk properly? Calm your beast while I straighten a couple of chairs.”

  A roar that echoed over the island and another tilt of his head were her only answers, so she bent to pull up a seat. His ham-hock hand slapped her butt. Playful? My demon’s playful, not deadly. One red arm shot around her waist, and he pulled her close. His body heat scorched her. As he straightened, he lifted her from her feet, moved away from the broken glass, and sat down hard. Lost in his demon, Jase cradled her onto his lap. His hold was desperate and suffocating, as intense as his gaze. “My Lindy.”

  Yes. Please.

  She snuggled in against him. Her breasts pushed up against his solid pecs, and she murmured, “Good as it feels when you hold me, I’m having a little trouble breathing here.”

  He loosened his hold but still caged her in his mammoth arms. With a sigh, she rested her head on his shoulder. Flames glowed in his eyes, but his skin tone paled. She reached up and ran her finger down the ridges and whorls of his horns. Sexy, strong horns. Black as the night sky. And his gaze seems glued on me. Damn, but my demon’s one sexy male.

  Another rub of her fingers over his horns, and Lindy told him, “Jase, you’re scaring my sisters. Why don’t you relax in the sunshine? And if you turn back human, I’m sure someone will bring us some coffee. No wine, though, big boy. You’re not getting me drunk this time.”

  She watched his horns shrink and felt his cock grow harder against her thigh. He chuckled. “You were very happy drunk. You even offered to sing me a love song.”