by Marie Harte
Aaron grumbled something rude about tight places and dropped a shoulder against a boulder the size of their SUV.
They weren’t in a tunnel, or even underground, at the moment. The cave system followed a dried up waterway, meandering up above ground for stretches at a time before dropping back down into more tunnels. The trail wound around and over huge boulders caught in an ancient stream bed full of a variety of rocks and smaller pebbles. The walking was slow, agonisingly slow at times, and twisting an ankle or leg on the moss covering everything was a constant worry. Even if they mended quickly, an injury would still hold them back. The slimy, moss-covered climb left them all cursing and covered in sweat and mud. The only boon came when occasionally they could navigate upward between the cracks in rock piles for air. Still, the trip had been murky, moist, and bug-filled. The jungle stood so thick around them the few times they’d seen beyond the rocks, the sun hadn’t shown through the boughs. Now, they rested at another of those dark, vine-covered entrances they’d gone through several times already.
Tabithia tossed her lovely red hair over her shoulder and lifted her arm to rub her wrist over her forehead, giving the men her no-nonsense glare after she lowered her arm.
“Well, this is it. You all can rest here while I go on—”
“There’s not a chance of you going alone, woman. I’ll be going with you at the least,” he said, cutting her off.
She narrowed her eyes and glared up at him.
He held in his smile. She must have seen it, though, because her cheeks turned rosy. Her chin went up. Gods, she fascinated him.
“Fine. If you want to listen to the rules, you may go.” She eyed him suspiciously but he didn’t respond. He could sense a trap when he saw it. “Fine, so here’s the deal. She’s set this whole section up to fall down on us. I suggest just I go, but”—she held up a hand when he immediately opened his mouth to deny that option and dismissed him by turning her back on him—“I doubt you would like that, so you may go with me.” She muttered the last words over her shoulder at him. Turning back to the men, she said, “But only him.” She didn’t sound too thrilled with spending time alone with him.
He kept his face neutral, wanting to hear what else she had to say, but inside his heart had started tripping over itself at the mere suggestion of having her to himself.
Across from him, Narc grumbled, “What the hell are we supposed to do? We should stay together.”
He watched her long braid wisp back and forth against her back as she shook her head. Would she allow him to hold onto that braid and pin her down with his size, entering her in one massive thrust while he trailed kisses down her slender throat?
“You know, Narcie, I think they got your nickname wrong, Tabithia said.
Aeros quirked a brow at Narc over her head and watched the warrior straighten his back, more than likely gearing up for more grumbling.
“I think you should have been named Grumbly, A-Man could be Doc, and the Bard, well, he could be Sleepy, and oh, your mighty captain, Dopey. Whatdaya think?”
Aeros grinned at Aaron. The other man simply shook his head at Tabithia’s humour and chuckled dryly. “I always liked Snow White, but I don’t recall her being so tough on her men.”
“Ah, well, that’s where the fairy tale and reality part ways, A-Man.”
“Well, the reality is I might grumble, but at least I’ve kept my head attached to my shoulders. You’re asking us to go down a hole a rabbit would have trouble squeezing into.” Narc snorted and folded his arms over his chest, looking as if he had a whole lot more to say. Aeros gave him a look and the man swallowed and looked down at his boots.
“Mmm, well, this is the way. Sorry if you’re too big to fit.” Tabithia swung a look back over her shoulder at him but he shook his head, making sure his face was clear of any humour. Her green eyes narrowed, but she puffed her bangs off her forehead and turned back to the men facing her.
“Ah, so this is where you and Aeros go save the girl?” Ajax asked. His sharp light brown eyes flickered over Tabithia before he squatted down to examine the entrance.
“This is where I do the fetching, remember?”
Did Tabithia sound hesitant? He thought he heard something in her tone, something that gave him pause. Fear, perhaps, or uncertainty? Or maybe he simply wanted to hear that.
She anchored her hands on her hips and walked over to Ajax, who stood up and moved back from the entrance, giving her a look like she was a viper and might strike at any moment. He couldn’t blame him, he felt the fire building in her. No doubt his men did as well. She was itching for a fight. He was just as certain he wasn’t going to give her one.
“You would all just be in the way. Wait here for us, but quietly.”
She must have speared Aaron and Narc with a dirty look, because Narc appeared offended. She’d discovered the two warriors had been the ones to trip the cave collapsing spell and hadn’t yet forgiven them. Aeros swallowed a laugh at both men’s discomfort.
His grin grew when Aaron attempted to argue. “We should stay together—”
She cut him off with a hiss. “No, no, we shouldn’t. I do know what I’m doing. That tunnel is small, and I have no desire to be buried alive, again, thank you.” She slashed her hand across the air and turned her suspicious gaze on him.
“Damn.” Narc rubbed a hand over the back of his neck.
Aeros snorted and shot the men a glare.
“We’ll just hang out, cool.” Ajax shrugged and crouched down near a table-sized boulder.
“We’ll be an hour, tops,” Tabithia muttered.
He paused within touching distance of her. “An hour?” How did she know this?
She looked away, clearly uneasy with discussing more. Did she fear his anger? Maybe her silence had been because she shared his confusion. She’d been so surprised by his kiss. She had no idea how beautiful she was. How badly he wanted her. How she filled him with light and hope. And yet, she’d let him touch her, had even swum closer to him. Did she regret it? Or was she worried over how to save the woman trapped in the godhead?
“Tabithia, we need to bring the godhead back and survive. If you believe there is danger—”
The sound of a crash like half a coliseum falling down had the ground shuddering around them. Dirt rained down on their head and shoulders. He caught Tabithia to him and held her protectively in his arms. She tensed harder than the rock surrounding them, but he didn’t let her go. The boulders behind them rumbled and dust clouds of debris billowed up like a fire-breathing dragon getting ready to snack on his crew.
As soon as the dust settled, she shrugged out of his arms and tossed her braid over her shoulder.
“Ah, yes, that would be our little godhead.”
Around him, the men stiffened at her tone. What the hell had he been thinking? That he could win a witch, finish this quest, and return to life as normal?
Normal. What the hell did he know of normal?
Tabithia crawled carefully over the sand-covered tunnel, pressing herself down on her stomach to scoot under a jagged, low-hanging section of rock. How Aeros would manage the tight spot she had no clue, but she heard him crawling under the low ceiling, cursing in a low voice the entire time, behind her. Clearly he’d lost some skin on that one. The man was stubborn, though. He’d flat-out refused to let her go alone when the cave had turned into this tiny shaft. If she were honest with herself, she was glad of his company, even if most of the time they’d spent in the tunnel, he’d been silent. The constant low sound of water dripping, the darkness, along with the buzz of stinging flies, would have driven her batty without someone at her back. She hated this place. Well, most of it.
One glance over her shoulder revealed the bulky shadow of Aeros following closely. He’d stripped down to his black T-shirt and pants. His gaze met hers and stunned her once again with its intensity. Her heart felt like it trembled at that look. It was simply so heated, possessive—over her. The man never looked at her with anything oth
er than that intense look, as if he wanted to eat her up.
She darted her glance downward before he could say anything. She was screwed up. In so many ways she’d never believed she’d have a normal existence, but now? Now her mind came up with ideas for decorating her house so she could have Aeros over for dinner. Maybe make him dinner. Or, better, let him ravish her on the table, forget dinner. He’d grab her like he had in the pools. Pull her so close she’d never be the same without him. Then he’d shove the food to the floor and take her with such need he’d be unable to do more than unzip and thrust his thick cock inside her.
Goddess. The scenario did a fast replay through her brain, and her pussy practically wept.
Sweet Bridget, what would that be like? Can I do it? How am I supposed to let a man know I even want that? Better yet, how could I get a man to want me so badly he would do that?
Shit. I’m so screwed.
He’s going to hate me.
She’d be betraying him in less than an hour. She’d free Dare, they’d hoof it, and when she did see her handsome Spartan again? He’d not look at her like he wanted to eat her up. He’d hate her. How could he not hate her after she betrayed him? Especially when that loser Ares would punish him for not returning the chalice with Dare inside it. Oh, she had a plan. She’d return the chalice to Aeros, but empty.
His mission was perfectly clear, well-organised, and planned to a tee, except for one thing. He hadn’t planned on her—on her tricking him to free a witch. At least she hoped he hadn’t. Too often, outsiders thought of witches as the kind of immortals who would trade their sisters for a dime. How wrong they were. But many immortals still believed witches were shifty—dishonest. If Aeros thought the same, she didn’t want to know. She didn’t want to believe he had prepared himself for her to betray him—to take what she knew was a thin, very thin, hair and split it so that she gave him the godhead, but not what was in the godhead. She didn’t want to think he’d planned for her to be so… Sheesh, it was painful even thinking about it.
Mercenary. I’m a mercenary. Like some slave-dealer lowlife.
But how the hell could she let him take Dare back to that jerk Ares?
She couldn’t. Thus, the hair-splitting had begun. Soon, she’d be hair-pulling if she couldn’t get her stupid brain off the man!
The tunnel they were being forced down was narrow, small enough that she heard Aeros cursing as he struggled up to a crouch behind her. She had to admit he was being very sweet about their encounter at the pools. He’d stepped up to her as soon as they’d been alone and murmured another apology with a half-smile. Then he’d sighed and muttered that he’d not have missed it for the world.
He’d made it all so easy to deal with. He’d not even questioned her complete cold shoulder afterward. If she’d not ignored him, she just might have jumped him in front of the guys. No way could she do that. So, instead, she’d avoided him like the plague.
Her knee hit a sharp protruding rock and she cursed Dare for the hundredth time. Not out loud. Never, never curse someone—least of all with a god’s name—aloud. She wanted time to rub the sting out of her knee but hobbled along. It was a good thing she wasn’t afraid of small, cramped places, because the tunnel was enough to give her the willies. Even crouched down, her head came close to being knocked off several times. No way was Aeros comfortable.
He’d given her a disbelieving look, and it had taken a long time before he’d seemed to accept that he had to go in the small, too small, space the tunnel had become. She could almost see his mind figuring out how best to defend them, if something went wrong.
Right now, nothing was going wrong, but something would, and soon.
Dare had been silent since the mini-earthquake. The closer Tabithia grew to her, the more traps she should be sensing, but she wasn’t. She’d not run into a single one. Something was wrong—very, very wrong.
It was almost like the other witch couldn’t lay a trap. Like she was either too busy, or…too frightened.
“Something isn’t right. Be on the alert.”
“I am always on the alert. What do you sense? Should we turn back?”
Could they? No, not unless they wanted to scoot back the hour or more they’d crawled. They had to go forward. Dare was up ahead, close, but for some reason silent.
A breeze drifted down the tunnel, and with it came an unholy stench. Tabithia paused too suddenly, and Aeros nearly crawled over the top of her. He moved to the side and back, but she squeaked when his big, warm hand landed on the small of her back.
“Tabithia—”
“Shh, there’s…”
He moved closer, a reassuring, almost protective heat coming off him. Always ready, was he? Well, she could attest to that. Now that she knew what to look for, she realised Aeros had hiked the entire trip underground in a continuous state of arousal. The bulge was hard to miss, now that she knew what to peek at. So far she’d not been caught looking. She hoped.
“Tabithia, be still. I sense an animal ahead. Aiden, perhaps.”
Animal? She didn’t think so. Now she had got her first smell of the beast, she could sense a great deal more. It was almost like someone had opened a door to reveal something evil waiting for them. She couldn’t pinpoint what it was, but whatever lay ahead of them was wild, wild and desperate, though it wasn’t a mere animal. It was something altogether more cunning. Evil. Its essence swirled up the tunnel and sent a wave of unease through the jungle she could feel even beneath layers of rock. Was this the presence causing Dare to hold her silence?
She hoped not. She pulled loose her favourite knife and started out again with it clenched in her fist. Two inches forward and Aeros moved his hand to her hip. If he moved his big hand just a smidge lower? He’d be cupping her ass. Like before.
“Tabithia, I don’t want you using that.”
“I might have to. Whatever is down there isn’t natural.”
“All the more reason to let me go first, baby.”
‘Baby’. Goddess that was cruel. She liked him calling her that.
“I’ll go in first, I think we’re close to the end of this tunnel. If so, I’ll go first, light up the place and you can drop in. Deal?”
He reached up and caught her arm, holding her still and meeting her eyes in the dimness of the cave. “No, it could be simply there, waiting. I’ll be first this time. This creature is an animal, not magic, not in need of your spells. And most definitely not that knife.”
Well, he sounded determined.
“Listen, Spartan, I can—”
“You can let me protect you. You will do as I say, Tabithia. Now, put your knife away, and remember I go down first once we move out of this damn sardine can.”
A low growl erupted as soon as Aeros paused for breath. The hand on her arm stopped moving in a subtle caress, and tightened on her flesh.
Holy shit.
Aeros narrowed his eyes in a no-nonsense look. The captain of the Spartans certainly liked to take charge.
An image of him pinning her down and driving into her while she began to orgasm filled her silly head. She blinked and felt the heat hit her face.
“Tabithia—”
“Okaaaay. I’ll just hang back. You just let me know if you need the little witch to wave her wand, ‘kay?”
His grin really shouldn’t make her want to cup his face and kiss him, but yep, the tantalising thought filtered through her brain before she swatted it aside. He must have felt the same because suddenly he ducked his head and kissed her, hard and fast. Just as quick, he ended the kiss, saying, “Good. Now get moving.”
Geesh. Orders. He loved to dish them out. Still, she moved, not exactly certain she did so because he’d said or not. She had sheathed her knife again, though, and, damn it, she couldn’t remember doing that!
The stench grew worse the farther down they moved. It was overwhelming. If someone had taken rotten corpses and dumped them in the humid jungle and left them to decay, it couldn’t have smelt as bad as wha
t met them as they continued on.
“Shit, I hate you being in this, Tabithia.”
“Uh, trust me, I hate it too. Gah, what is that smell?”
“It’s going to get worse.”
“Yeah, thanks for that but”—she broke off when her knee snagged another painful rock—“move faster. We need to fetch and carry the hell out of here.”
Aeros rumbled a deep laugh, but gripped her forearm tightly to halt her again. “Stay close, Tabithia. Let me take whatever waits, then we can find the godhead.”
Her eyes watered from the overwhelming odour. Aeros sounded indifferent, but she gagged when it filled her mouth with nasty. The end loomed ahead of them like a lighter patch of darkness in the otherwise dim, almost black world they moved through. If only there was a no-smell spell. She giggled but caught herself and swallowed the sound before the captain heard her.
One low whisper and her illumination spell slowly filled the darkness. Aeros laid his hand on her shoulder, squeezing once. She knew the gesture was simply a reminder to follow his orders, but she still got a tiny thrill out of his big hand on her.
The passage began to ease slowly downward, forcing them into an awkward position, but the decline was helpful in speeding things up. She didn’t want to face whatever was down there while jammed in tight in a dirt tunnel.
She only hoped she could find an alternative way out of this mess once they had Dare. Once she had Dare. The thought sucked.
She pressed her fingers to the warm rock along the left and suddenly felt the edge. She stepped cautiously forward and still met nothing. Immediately she stopped and reached back to squeeze Aeros by the hand. To her surprise, he threaded his fingers through hers firmly.
“We’re at the end of the tunnel. I’ll flood the space with light, maybe blind the thing, but close your eyes tight at first or we will be as well.”
"Right, on the count of three," Aeros whispered, trusting her so completely she felt a surge of guilt hit her chest.
"Right, you count," she managed to choke out past the stupid lump in her throat.