“No, I didn’t,” he insisted, increasing hellfire’s influence on her. Finally, he saw the memory leaching from her brain. A bittersweet smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Now, when you snap out of this trance, you’re going to feel the customary mix of temptation and disgust for me, and pop out of here the same way you got in, okay? I’ll be on Zeus’ balcony as soon as the party’s underway. Leave the blade somewhere I can find it without too much trouble.”
“Okay,” she agreed. “So, wait, we didn’t make love?”
“Not as far as you’ll remember, we didn’t,” he repeated. “But we will. I promise you, I’m never going to stop coming for you, and I have until forever in Hell to find a way to win you. Tell your husband to enjoy the limited time he has to share with you. Now go.”
His charm on her must have been powerful, because, the next moment, her body dissolved and Marc found himself alone.
Chapter 29
“Oh, look, those must be red, rosy fingers of Dawn I’ve heard so much about.”
Anwen’s eyes cracked open to the sting of an amber glow. A heavy weight on her shoulders pinned her in position, yet she was oddly comfortable in the security she felt from being held down by him. As her vision adjusted and her other senses caught up, she pushed away from the seat, then settled back, only to repeat the process again. Dee’s chest, his breathing, his arm around her. She vaguely remembered Jerry offering to drive to give the two of them “a break,” and didn’t miss the hint of a smile in his voice when he said it.
Fingertips brushed her face and Anwen turned over. Dee’s sleep-encrusted eyes reflected the brilliant colors in the sky outside the car.
“I was right.”
Anwen arched her back, feeling a glorious stretch clear down to her hips, before she nestled her face against his chest. “I have a feeling you say that a lot. But enlighten me about the details this time.”
He swept a piece of hair from her eyes. “The Greek light suits you, especially in the morning. Jerry, how much further?”
“You tell me, Mr. Psychic. You seem to know we’re in Greece already.”
“Yeah? How do you know?”
Dee shrugged in response to Anwen. “Instinct, I guess. Every sense, every living cell feels it.”
Jerry laughed. “Well, tell your cells to check their calibration. We won’t cross the border for another hour.”
Anwen flicked at his nose. “What was that about you being right all the time?”
“I am right,” Dee insisted. “The sun rises in the west, and we’re coming from the east. So it is the Greek light, and you make it look absolutely breathtaking.”
Jerry fixed his eyes on them both in the rearview mirror. “Once the two of you actually do sleep together, you’ll be unbearable. Ow! Dee, you know you’re not suppose to use magic to attack another Pure Soul.”
“Wasn’t me!” His eyes passed to hers. “Did you do that?”
Anwen pulled back, sitting up and gathering her hair into a ponytail. “Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t know how to do any magic.”
“You made the flowers levitate.”
“Except for that!”
Dee grinned, sitting up and moving toward the teasing desire he saw on her lips. “You also made the flowers.”
“Did not, that was you.”
He air-kissed her over her lips. “No, Anwen, that was you. Maybe you have a little wiccan in you after all.”
Jerry clicked his tongue. “Hate to hear you demean yourself that way, Dee.”
“But no one in my family’s a wiccan,” Anwen insisted.
To her surprise, it was Jerry that spoke up next. “It happens sometimes. Creeps up in bloodlines where it never appeared before. Just like with your boyfriend there.”
“Dee is not my boyfriend!” Anwen protested.
“Honey, your auras are swirling together like two weather fronts meeting. It usually takes twenty years for that kind of bond to form. I’d be surprised if you go to the end of the day without admitting you love him, and the end of the week without becoming pregnant.”
Even if she could have done magic, she had no idea how to do it on purpose. Good thing, too. They’d probably have crashed if Jerry’s head actually twisted off the way she imagined it.
ATHENS; ITS FAME PRECEDED it. The Parthenon, the Acropolis, the men... Well, the men didn’t interest her so much, as it turned out. She had a perfectly good view of one particular man who filled out her itinerary pretty well. As for taking in the other sights, however, yeah, this wasn’t exactly what she had in mind.
“Dee, it’s a freight elevator.”
Jerry, apparently, had a knack for stating the obvious.
Dee leaned against the hood of the car, his arms folded over his chest. “But it’s also a well-hidden portal. This is the one you must have sent Riona through.”
“Riona didn’t go through any portal. She ported. All I did was make her say a bunch of mumbo-jumbo that in a half-angel’s brain would...” Jerry’s voice trailed off when Anwen’s eyes narrowed onto him. “Never mind.”
“Wait, your keystone witch is half-angel?” she asked. Jerry nodded. “But that’s impossible. Half-angels don’t exist.”
“According to most humans, we don’t exist either,” Dee said. “I think there’s more in the world than even we realize. You were attacked by a vampire two nights ago, after all.”
“Whoa, wait, what?” Jerry spluttered. “When did this happen? Man, vampires are the ultimate wingmen. They love to go after the more desperate.... And again, I’m saying too much. Dee, elevator-slash-portal? How does it work?”
Dee snapped his fingers and furrowed his brow. “We didn’t bring a goat along to sacrifice, did we?”
“What? A goat?”
“Just kidding,” Dee continued. “It’s really very simple. Anoikti!”
From the floor above came the sound of metal on metal, a clanging motor, and the rolling of a chain over a pulley. When the freight elevator door opened, Dee motioned for the other two to step inside before joining them.
“That’s it?” Jerry asked, incredulous. “All you have to do is say ‘open’ in Greek and the portal opens?”
Dee grimaced. “I keep forgetting you speak Greek.”
“I am Greek, you stupid jock.”
“Please, you were born in Egypt.”
“I was born in the Greco-Roman world. I spoke Greek before you were even a speck in your great, great, great, great, great grandmother’s grandmother’s eye. Homer was my homie.”
“If you’re going to be human again, you’ve seriously got to update your lingo. Unless you’re planning on fighting only demons whose cultural references are also stuck in the eighties.”
“Is ‘asshole’ too dated a term for you?”
“No, you bastard; that one is timeless.”
“Boys!” Anwen brought them under control with one word. She stepped into the freight elevator and stink-eyed the other two until they followed. “If you need to take a moment to whip ‘em out and see whose is bigger, please get it over with. Otherwise, I’d like to get to Olympus before nightfall, okay?”
Sulking, Dee pushed an unmarked button. “Just so we’re clear, it’s mine, okay?”
Jerry coughed a chuckle. “No argument from me on that, Dee. Between the two of us, you’re obviously the bigger dick.”
Anwen felt her eyes whirling in their sockets. “Men.”
Again, came the cacophonous squeal of metal scraping on itself, a banshee screech that pierced Anwen’s eardrums and made her cringe. A sensation of movement tickled her gut, but she had no sense of direction. She felt as if she were moving simultaneously across both vertical and horizontal planes.
“How does this thing work?”
Dee pointed at the unmarked button. “That’s actually a type of scanner. It looks for nephilim DNA, and if it detects it, the door opens up in Elysian Fields, instead of just carrying you to another floor in the parking structure.”
“W
hat fields?”
“Elysian Fields. It used to be a park in ancient times, but there’s so few living in Olympus anymore, it’s no longer maintained. Unfortunately, it’s gone to seed.”
A vague image of breeze-blown grasses, gently swaying shrubbery, dotted by random roses filled her imagination. She closed her eyes, relishing the vision, imagining the groan of the elevator diminishing into a birdsong. The scent of honeydew filled the air and sunshine warmed her face.
“Baby, open your eyes.”
Dee touched the inside of her wrist before lacing his fingers around hers. It was like he knew he was about to knock her off her feet. As her eyes adjusted to the brilliance of the sky – bluer than she ever remembered seeing anywhere – she felt her knees buckling.
“Pretty, isn’t it?” he said.
She smiled up at him. “This is exactly how I pictured the hotel room. Dee, it’s exactly how I... Isn’t that silly? I was about to say how I remember it.”
His eyes narrowed. “You’ve never been to Olympus before, right?”
“I’ve never been anywhere in the nephilim realm.”
“Well, then, you must have a very good imagination.” He lowered his lips to hers. “I bet that will come in handy in other areas too.”
“Oh, my god. The quicker you two fuck and get it out of your systems, the happier I’ll be,” Jerry groaned. “Can we please get going already? I’d really like to see my wife, and maybe, just maybe, consecrate my own marriage before the day is over.”
Dee blushed and pulled away, keeping his hand interlaced with hers. “Right, first thing is getting you officially sponsored. There’s usually some sort of guard on duty out here, but I don’t see anyone.”
Suddenly, a rustle in a patch of tall grass about ten feet away drew their attention. A man with a full, gray beard and piercing blue eyes emerged, sitting up from where he must have been napping. Dee seemed to recognize him immediately.
“Wow, you went gray.”
“And how surprising to find you still as buff as a bulldog and rude as a jackass.”
Dee offered the old, but frankly, svelte man, a hand. “What are you doing here, Mort?”
“Waiting to convey sponsorship.”
“Unless there’s been a dramatic change, I don’t need to be sponsored,” Dee said.
“And still a presumptuous git, too, I see.” The old man beamed at him. “Well, you expect me to bow? Or are you going to hug me?”
In a move that Anwen feared might squeeze the old man’s spleen out through his nose, Dee took the elderly gentlemen in his arms and hoisted him. “You look like shit, bro.”
Mort’s eyes squeezed shut. Apparently, Dee wasn’t as careful as he thought. “You would too if you were seventy-three and ate more lamb than the Big Bad Wolf at an orgy.”
Jerry practiced his long eye. “Wait, did you say bro? Like, in a friendly, California surfer-dude way?”
“No,” Dee replied. “In a, he-is-the-fruit-of-my-mother’s-womb way.”
“Different fathers, of course,” Mortimer offered. “Zeus invited me to live here with Dee and Mom after my dad died, and I never left. I can’t; the benefits are too good.”
Dee laid a hand on his brother’s arm, massaging it. “Damn, I missed you.” Then, seeming to realize what his brother just said, Dee added, “But if you’re not waiting for us, who are you waiting for?”
Mort went all straight-laced and mute.
“Oh, I see. One of Dad’s don’t-tell-anyone-although-everyone-probably-already-knows people.”
The old man’s laugh held an uneasy timbre. “I’d be surprised, in this case. Now, if the Crowned Prince deigns to take suggestions, I’d start hightailing it into town. Your dad has quite a shindig going on tonight. You don’t want to miss it.”
He looked at him askew. “What’s the occasion?”
“I think it’s a convergence of a few things. Don’t get all uppity; it’s not all about you, only partially.”
Dee hissed. “That’s good, because I’d hate to be the guest of honor and kick his ass in front of everyone at the same time.”
“Still not over that, huh?”
“Mort, he killed my wife.”
“He was trying to save her. You know—”
Dee’s hand crumpled the collar of Mortimer’s shirt. “You know we’re not going to break bread on that theory, Mort, so how about you just telling me how happy you are to see me, and letting me and my companions continue?”
“I was told if I ran across you, to tell you that you and your guests are eagerly anticipated.” Mortimer’s eyes went wide as Dee lowered him to the ground. “Go on then. I’m sure you’re father’s dying to see you.”
A few minutes onward, Anwen threw back her head and laughed. “What the fuck was that?”
“Family politics,” was all Dee replied.
“The more I hear and see about your nephilim family, the more I think it’s a blessing I never spent that much time with mine,” Anwen said. “But Jesus, Dee, I don’t care if that old man cut up your kittens and baked them in a pie. You don’t treat family like that.”
He stopped in the middle of the path. “What would you know about it? You’ve never had any family.”
She glared at him, wishing she could slap him just once or twice. “All the more reason I know the value of one. No one understands the value of a pound like a pauper; and no one knows the pain of not having a family like an orphan.”
The sinewy muscle of his jaw worked, grinding his teeth. “I didn’t mean to insult you. And for what it’s worth, I have nothing against Mort. He’s blood, but he knows I can’t be swayed on this.” He pointed in the distance, down a sloped lane where a small barn stood. “But I’ll never be able to forget that she’s buried there, and she didn’t have to be, and he had something to do with that.”
“And do you think she would want to you to carry on this anger like a heavy cross?”
He looked at her like she’d just grown a second head in the shape of Kanye West. “You don’t think my wife would have wanted me to be the least bit pissed off that she died?”
“Oh, I’m sure she’d have demanded that. You’re a person who’s completely driven by your passions to the extreme, for better or worse. But just imagine, Dee, if you could use that passion to honor her memory, inside of trying to avenge it.”
“You guys want to reschedule your little lover’s spat and speed up a bit?”
Good thing they couldn’t use wicca here, because Dee would have had Jerry lit up like a Roman candle.
“We’re not fighting!” Dee answered at the same time Anwen ground out, “We’re not lovers!”
“Sure you’re not.” About fifteen feet ahead of them, Jerry leaned against a tree, his arms over his chest, glaring. “They’ll be plenty of time later for the two of you to work out all your sexual tension in whatever manner you see fit, but I need to get to Riona ASAP. There’s something wrong with this picture. I’m scared she’s in danger.”
“Maybe your centuries as a demon have made you a little paranoid?”
Jerry rolled his eyes like he was throwing dice. “Me paranoid? Ray Charles had twenty/twenty vision compared to you. Remember: I spent two thousand years perfecting my sleuthing skills. I’m more adept at picking up on details than you are at spouting overused pick-up lines.”
His arms extended wide, bending at the waist in feigned obeisance, and Dee labored to keep himself from laughing. “Enlighten me, oh mighty bloodhound, what have I overlooked?”
“Mortimer was at the gate, but not for us. He was hiding, but expecting someone, and don’t forget, he said Zeus welcomed your guests.”
“My dad knows it’s going to take a miracle more profound than OJ’s acquittal for me to forgive him. Of course, he’s welcoming my guests. Trust me, he’ll be kissing my ass.”
“Oh, brother. And he says my cultural references are out of date. Did it occur to you, Prince Dionysius, that while you’re dad knew I’d be coming with you b
ecause Riona would have told him as much, there’d be no way for him to know about her.” Jerry extended an accusatory finger at Anwen, who shrank back in response. “Two possibilities: either Anwen didn’t just stumble into our lives as coincidentally as it seems; or, someone’s been feeding your dad information while we’ve been en route. Since the only creatures we encountered after leaving Boston were of the damned and hellish variety – not even Ramiel has checked in with us all week – what do you think that means, Dee?”
Anwen felt herself being pulled under Dee’s protective embrace in a blink. “Anwen’s not a mole, Romani. Insinuate she’s got anything against us, and I’ll see to it that Riona can continue being actively bisexual while remaining married to you, if you get my drift.”
Jerry threw up his hands. “Drift received. And for what’s it’s worth, I don’t think she’s a mole either. But that only leaves one other possibility. Now, who do we know here that would still have the kind of connections offering him a pipeline into Hell’s chatter, hmm?”
Like fireworks on Guy Fawkes Day, Dee’s knuckles popped in rapid succession as he alternately pressed one fist into the palm of the other. “Just another reason for me to knock that bastard into Kingdom Come. Come on, let’s go, but keep your eyes open. And Jerry?”
He turned back over his shoulder, already anxious to resume the journey. “Yeah?”
Dee gave him a thumb’s up. “That was a really good catch.”
“Ah, Dee, you’re going all soft on me now?”
Anwen giggled. “I hope not. Our tension will be hell to get rid of if he is.”
Chapter 30
“Riona, I wanted to see if you... Oh, my goodness, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to... I can come back.”
“Steph!”
The witch’s invocation stopped the goddess at the door. Riona turned around, looking at a blushing Persephone, refusing to be the least bit ashamed.
“You can come in.”
“But you’re naked.”
“Am not!” Riona retorted. “I have a necklace on. And aren’t you the same woman had sex with her husband right in front of my eyes last night? Now you want to be all about propriety? Help, I have no freaking clue how to put on a toga. I never did the Greek thing back in college, and I’m afraid I’ll walk out looking like a moving billboard for Macy’s white sale.”
Hex Goddess (All My Exes Die from Hexes Book 3) Page 20