“Some of the ladies have been talking to me,” she admitted.
Here it comes, Hux nearly groaned. I’ve been too forward.
“And they think you’re quite something.” She actually purred, then ran a well-manicured finger down his bare chest. “They’re beginning to ask if you might be available.”
Huxley fought down his panic. Available for what?
“Come, sit down.” She drew him farther into the room and pushed him down on a plush divan. “Drink.” She sat next to Huxley and with a finger to the bottom of his glass, tipped it up to his lips.
“I’m just a waiter, Mrs. Worthington,” he choked out, taking a long sip.
“Miranda, my dear. Call me Miranda.” She swirled her own drink slowly while watching him closely.
“M…Miranda,” he stated. “I’m not sure if I’m comfortable with all of this,” he stated honestly, taking another good swig. “It’s one thing working for you, but I don’t think I can do it for anyone else.”
“I’m glad you’ve made an exception for me, my dear, but don’t you realize how much money is out there? Money that could be yours for the taking.”
Huxley didn’t know why, but suddenly his tongue loosened, and he found himself telling her all of his plans for his own gym. He watched her face as he described what he wanted to do, and couldn’t be sure, but it looked like she nodded and smiled an awful lot. That must be good.
The next thing Hux noticed, his drink had somehow disappeared, and his hand was at Miranda Worthington’s breast. He was horrified. Had he done that?
“I’m so sorry…” he tried to say, but he couldn’t quite hear himself speak.
“Nothing to be sorry for, Huxley,” Miranda said. “As a matter of fact, by the end of tonight, I expect that you’ll make me extremely happy.”
****
Huxley roused from his pain-filled stupor as he relayed everything to Dani-Lee. Her face hovered and became fuzzy—just like Miranda Worthington’s had that night. But he only felt comfort in Dani’s presence.
“The next morning…” He frowned, remembering. “I woke up in her bed naked, and a large check sat on the pillow next to my head. I took it and vowed never to come back. But I was weak. Miranda realized how to appeal to me. The next time I met with her, I told her I was through, and she asked me how much I needed to buy and outfit a gym. When I told her the number, she didn’t even blink. She told me if I continued to be nice to her, and to a select number of her friends, she’d make me a loan and I could have my dreams come true.”
Huxley’s breathing became even more labored. Dani wept openly.
“Stop talking now, Huxley. You were young. Not even twenty. The woman knew what you wanted and took advantage of you.”
“No.” He shook his head. “I could have stopped, Dani. I could have stopped. But I didn’t.” He shuddered.
“I serviced five women over the next four years. I took the loan, I took their money, and I opened my gym. The only thing I had to do was pay her back over a period of years and make myself available on Sunday nights.”
He grasped Dani’s shoulders with waning strength. “Do you understand now, Dani?” He shook her. “Do you?” he asked in torment. “I’m a whore.” Tears came to his eyes. “Just a whore. I’m sorry I touched you, Dani,” he whispered, running out of words. “I’m so sorry.”
His eyes closed and he couldn’t get them to reopen.
“Ereshkigal.” Dani’s voice came to him one last time. “Hand me that knife.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Ereshkigal eased from behind the mattress where she’d remained, listening to everything Hux told Dani. The length of the queen’s chain allowed her to retrieve the blade where it lay on the floor. She handed it to Dani, who rapidly removed Huxley’s shirt.
“What are you going to do?” the goddess asked quietly.
“I’m afraid there’s not much I can do, but I refuse to just sit back and watch him die,” Dani-Lee said resolutely.
“There may be a better way,” the queen stated calmly.
Dani looked up distracted. Her mind already on the task ahead. “What options do I have, Ereshkigal? I can’t think of a single one.”
“Tell me, Dani. The amulet,” Ereshkigal questioned. “What is it doing right now?”
It was a strange question, but the queen might just be psychic. The damned thing had been burning a hole in Dani’s foot for the past half hour.
“Funny you should ask. If it hasn’t caught my sneaker on fire, it will shortly.” She had to admit, the heat went beyond comfortable.
“Look at it, Dani.” The queen used her imperial voice, the one that brooked no argument. But Dani balked. She was the boss in the midst of a medical crisis.
“Later, Ereshkigal. Okay? Right now I have my hands full.” She’d been palpating Huxley’s abdominal area and prepared to cut.
“Stop.” This time the queen’s voice rocked Dani back on her heels. “I think you can save him using the amulet.” This got Dani’s attention. She’d give Ereshkigal about a minute to explain.
“It seems clear to me now.” The queen gained confidence as she spoke. “I had Holly keep it, thinking Huxley might need it. The first time I met him, there was something about him. A human male with ties to a god. It was prophesied that such a man would save the royal line one day, and I recognized him,” she said, ringing her hands and trying to make Dani believe. “It has to be Huxley.”
Dani had her doubts.
“What do you have to lose?” The queen laid her hand on Dani’s where it held the knife. “You’re going to cut into him anyway. Just do it my way first.”
Dani rocked back from her knees before Ereshkigal had finished and unlaced her sneaker. She would give it a try, dammit, because the other option was worse than bleak.
No doubt that what the queen said had merit. The amulet glowed like a fiery, red beacon.
“See.” Ereshkigal was obviously agitated. “It wants him.”
Dani looked closely. Its intricate chambers remained empty, but its external light was intense. Dani’s sure hands quickly loosed the medallion from its anchoring.
Dani-Lee cradled the amulet’s burning intensity in her hand. She’d never seen one lit outside of a god’s body. Of course, the medallion glowed in the male’s shoulder during events of great stress—sexual or otherwise—when they came in contact with their future Chosen. But even during the amulet ceremony, which she had performed three times, the talisman remained calm until both male and female had their halves implanted. Then the glow would become intense and each half would regenerate into a whole once again.
But this? This was something new, and she worked in unchartered territory. Still, Dani didn’t waste any time. She handed the amulet to the queen, where it seemed to calm somewhat, picked up the knife, and made the first of the requisite H-shaped cuts. Blood pooled up weakly, which said volumes about Huxley’s deteriorating condition, but the doctor focused and simply wiped it away with Huxley’s shirt.
“Nothing sterile,” she muttered, sending glances over at Huxley’s face. He, thank goodness, remained completely unconscious.
“That won’t matter if it works.” Ereshkigal watched, her eyes bright. “He’ll be a god and not susceptible to your human pathogens. It will also cure his injury, as you well know.” The queen looked at the doctor and Dani gave her a nod. She remembered. “The first time I did this operation,” Dani worked rapidly now, cutting through muscle to find the place where the talisman would rest. “Tess had a severed spinal cord. I implanted her half of the amulet from Marduk, and I’ve never seen anything like it. It was unbelievable to watch. Within minutes, her injuries healed. Not healing. Healed.”
The amulet seemed to reignite as Dani-Lee took it from the queen. Excruciatingly hot to touch, Dani ignored the burning in her fingers. With great care she oriented the ancient artifact in Hux’s shoulder. From experience, she understood the implantation would only be successful if the amulet filled wi
th the blood of the recipient.
Dani closed the flaps of muscle and skin over the implant, then sat back. Now all they could do was wait. This part was always the hardest. She and the queen exchanged worried glances as the seconds ticked by and nothing happened. Their eyes focused so intently on the incision Dani made that they were unaware of anything else until Dani glanced at Huxley’s abdomen. She gasped.
There was a definite decrease in the swelling that had so worried her, and the cuts on Huxley’s arms and torso also started to close. They both jumped when Huxley took a gulping breath.
“What—” His eyes popped open and he tried to sit up. “Holy crap. My shoulder’s on fire.”
Dani threw her body across him to keep him immobile. “Hux. Stop. You’ll hurt yourself.” Her words seemed to penetrate and Huxley sank back. Dani released her hold.
“My stomach…” Hux sent a hand down to explore his midsection. “There’s no pain except in my fucking shoulder. Ouch. What did you do?” He looked at Dani incredulously. Confusion filled his face. “I’m fixed? But if that’s the case, why does it feel like I have a knife in me?”
Dani captured his hand as it headed for his shoulder and wouldn’t let him touch the area of the amulet. For some reason, the tissue refused to heal.
“We, umm, may need to talk about this.” Dani realized she’d just done something really huge and life changing without her patient’s consent. “I don’t want you to freak out or anything.”
Having heard his story, she appreciated that he didn’t like to be forced into anything. And this was some major “forcing.”
Ereshkigal was apparently not so hesitant, her level of excitement seemed to have shot sky-high. “Welcome to immortality, nephew,” she expounded with tears in her eyes. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to secure an heir for the throne.”
“Yeah, well.” Huxley clearly misunderstood. “Nergal told me all about the prince stuff, but it’s still a little hard to swallow. It’s not like I’m a full-fledged god or anything.” He patted Ereshkigal’s hand while he shifted uncomfortably. He sent a pleading look to the doctor. “Dani, since you fixed my other stuff, do you think you could dig out whatever knife or bullet is in my shoulder?” He looked pained.
“About that,” she tried again, this time shushing the queen, who was obviously dying to butt in again. “Ereshkigal, uh, she happened to have…she kindly supplied…”
“What?” He looked puzzled. Dani went for broke and let it all spew out.
“The queen had an extra amulet she gave to Holly. Holly gave to it me, and I’ve been carrying it around on the advice of, well, everybody, thinking it might be useful.”
Huxley’s eyes narrowed. “An amulet like…an amulet, amulet?” he asked.
“Yeah.” Dani corralled her thick hair away from her face.
“So are you telling me the pain…” he trailed off.
“Yeah,” Dani answered.
She watched his throat work. “You made me a god.” He paused. “An honest to god, god, without me knowing?”
“Well, yes,” Dani spluttered. “But in my defense, you were dying and beyond help.”
She was interrupted by laughter. Laughter. Huxley’s face not only cleared of worry, but his whole body shook with mirth.
“Hux?” Dani had expected any number of reactions, but this was not one of them. “Are you okay?” Maybe he suffered from hysteria.
“Oh, Dani.” He reached up with his good arm and drew her down close. “I’m more than okay. I’ve never told you, but I’ve always believed I was meant to be something other than human. All my playtime as a child involved gods and battles. My sleeping time was consumed with fighting in the immortal Underworld at the sides of the gods I now live with.” He looked up at her with unbridled joy. “So you want to know if I’m okay?” He laughed again. “Yes. The answer is yes. I’ve just had the biggest dream of my life come true.” He dragged Dani forward and kissed her, trying to be gentle she sensed, because her face hadn’t healed from the blow that Matthew had delivered.
Dani drew her head back after the sweetest ravishment her mouth had ever experienced, and looked at Hux in wonder. Apart from the kiss, which sent her head reeling, she’d never seen Huxley so open and alive. He wasn’t fighting himself as he’d kissed her, and she could tell. Just as her fuddled brain latched onto that, his brow furrowed.
“You must hate me now.” He pulled back. “When I believed I was dying, I told you everything about my past. No woman could stomach that.”
“No, Hux. I—” Now it was Dani who couldn’t tell Hux she loved him. He was a god, and she was a mere human. Pain tore at her heart. No way could they have a life together unless she was his Chosen, and what were the chances of that?
“Of course I don’t hate you at all,” she huffed, changing the balance of her sentence. She straightened up, patting his chest and putting some distance between them. “Like I said, you were very young, and what was your crime, really? To make a few women happy at your own expense?” She placed a hand on his lips when he would have spoken.
“No. I blame Miranda Worthington. It’s obvious she does this to a lot of young men, and even though you made the best of it, who knows how some of those young boys ended up.” She shivered, thinking of how that lifestyle might lead someone to desperate decisions. If Huxley hadn’t found the gods, where would he be? How long would it have been before he resented the gym for which he’d sold his soul?
She could see Huxley’s mind churning. “Maybe now that I’m a god, I can prevent Miranda from ruining any more lives,” he pondered. His gaze shifted to his shoulder and he gave a start. “Dani? Why aren’t I healing?” He looked a little spooked. “Shouldn’t the incision have closed up by now?” He, like Dani, had witnessed the ceremony before and knew how it was supposed to work.
“I don’t know.” Dani bit her lip. This was beyond her standard training. She didn’t know why it wouldn’t work properly.
“Well, wrap it up with something,” Huxley said. “I need to get moving. When I came here, I had a plan. I still don’t know if it will work, but I need to give it a try.”
He understood the curiosity on both of the women’s faces, but didn’t explain. He had the satisfaction of knowing that at least now, if his idea didn’t work, he possessed the powers of a god and wouldn’t be so completely at the mercy of Beletseri, Nedu, and Matthew.
Dani took Huxley’s T-shirt off the floor and ripped it into strips. It was already a bloody mess and beyond salvation. Now it would hopefully act as a compression bandage.
“Huxley,” Ereshkigal spoke up. “Why don’t you forget about us for a few minutes and mist out back to the compound. You can round up the troops and bring them back with you. It shouldn’t take you any longer than a few minutes.”
Huxley knew better. There was a learning curve to the whole popping in and out thing, and Hux, being a newbie, might end up any manner of places before he could make it to the compound.
“I’ve got something better, I think.” He stood up slowly and arched. His shoulder still felt like someone had poured molten lava into an open wound, but Dani managed to wrap him to keep his flaps from, well, flapping around. He flexed. His body felt strong, stronger than ever before.
He prowled around the room, peering into all the dusty corners, before he found what he’d been looking for. On one outside wall, a piece of the sheetrock had been carefully sliced open, and then fitted back into place.
“Do you have that knife, Dani?” He looked back over his shoulder to watch the beautiful redhead pick up the blade and bring it to him.
“What are you going to do?” she asked. Was she trying to keep her body from leaning into his? Good luck with that. If she felt half of what he did, they wouldn’t be at arm’s length for long.
“I think this is where the goddess has hidden some of the ore.” Huxley brought his mind back to the task, and used the knife to pry open the wall. Sure enough, a six-by-four-by-one slab of rock s
at in the recess, looking completely innocuous.
“Hold onto your hats, ladies,” Huxley warned, reaching out his hand. He picked the ore up and hefted it, giving a satisfied grunt.
“What?” said Dani. She’d been expecting something momentous the way he’d talked. “Are you going to throw that at the bad guys?” She turned to smirk at Ereshkigal, but was greeted by silence.
It looked like someone had sent the goddess through a clothes dryer. Small strands of hair stood up in a halo around her face and the space between her fingers arced with sparks.
“I don’t understand, Huxley.” The queen shivered involuntarily when she could finally speak. “How did you do that?”
“I don’t really know.” Huxley tipped his head, puzzled but also pleased. “On my way here, I remembered how Nergal’s idol reacted to my touch when we found it at our friend Irving’s house several months back. It sent out enough energy that every god felt it, including Beletseri in the Underworld.”
“Do you remember, Dani?” Hux said, turning to look at the doctor. “It was the reason Matthew wanted you, or another hostage to exchange for the idol, on the orders from Bel. She wanted any last bits of ore that remained.”
“Of course, I remember,” Dani spluttered. “And I also remember all the gods could tell where it was when you activated it that day. So does that mean…” Dani looked ready to cry with relief.
Huxley took over. “Yup,” he confirmed. “Within minutes, every god we know should be descending upon this room.
****
“Did you feel that?” Marduk almost doubled over with what looked like a punch to the gut. Candy glanced in the rearview at Enten and Nergal, and they did the same thing.
Candy regarded them as if they were crazy. “What did you guys do, eat something nasty for supper?”
Marduk ignored her. “It’s Huxley and the ore,” he cried out. “The last time our friend touched a piece of that rock, we felt it from miles away. There’s no time to waste. He’s made contact with Beletseri’s stash.” He turned to Candy.
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