Callie decided to settle for the next best thing. A long, hot bath in the enormous, round, sunken pool at the far end of the room. She dropped her clothes on the floor and perched on the stone ledge while the water flowed in from three separate spouts.
She rested her hand on her abdomen, amazed at the smooth, unblemished skin. Even being near immortal didn’t explain how she’d recovered without a scar. When the liquid was deep enough to cover her to her chin, she pivoted and dropped her legs over the side. She scooted the rest of the way off the ledge and welcomed the caress of the warm water.
Left undirected, her thoughts spun images from the attack on a crazed carnival ride with a sadistic operator. Bile rose in her throat, and her stomach twisted. He’d taken her organs out of her body and tossed them to the pavement like refuse. Hot spatters of blood and fluid had peppered her dress and exposed skin. The stench worsened as he punctured the walls of her intestines with careless swipes of his claws.
Callie levered her arms up on the side of the tub and crawled out onto the cool, marble floor. She ground her cheek against the stone, curling her fingers into it, scratching ineffectually at the smooth surface. The stone was too hard to be penetrated, and reminded her of the grotesque she’d been idiotic enough to fall for.
The memory snapshots changed, and the carnival ride worsened. Theo filled every frame. She’d managed to store years of drawing material in her memory in their short hours together. A gift and a curse. Endless hours to fill recreating him in every medium she could imagine, but she’d never see him in real life again.
The whole thing had been doomed from the start. Creatures that lived under water didn’t belong with those who soared above it. She’d opened her heart to him, and instead of returning her love, he’d compressed her heart into a lump of stone.
And she’d thought she’d learned all there was to know about men and relationships. What a dummy she truly was. The nymph with the reputation for never getting attached, who’d managed to never feel an ounce of jealousy over sharing Poseidon with hundreds of other women, had gone and lost it all in less than a day to a grotesque.
She got to her hands and knees, stood, and hobbled back to the tub, her thigh muscles quivering. She sank down until the water collided with her chin and let her mind go blank. The water’s caress over her healed flesh soothed her, helped wring some of the anxiety, fear, and grief away. Steam rose into her nostrils and she breathed deep, inhaled the healing drops of water so that it coated her inside and out.
“Hey girl. How you doing?” Petra’s voice called to her from across the room.
Of course. You were never alone for long in Poseidon’s castle. At least it was Petra and not one of the other nymphs. “Shitty. I hurt all over.”
“Yes, it is reasonable to assume that you will continue to be sore for at least a few days. When I stuffed the majority of your digestive tract back into your abdominal cavity, I noted that your musculature and connective tissues had been largely destroyed.”
“Ah, well, good thing I’m so durable then. Thank you for that informative little speech.” Callie kept her eyes closed. Any other time, her sister nymph’s nerdy, logical approach to everything—even being eviscerated—would have sent her into a fit of giggles. But not now. Instead, a river of wrath ascended from her gut. “Why did you make me do it, Petra? You could have gone alone. Why did you make me go with you?”
A splash sounded and then drops of water splattered Callie’s face. “Don’t splash me. Damn you.” She opened her eyes and shot her sister nymph a look of pure venom. “Tell me why you made me do it.”
Dark circles rimmed the other female’s eyes, and an aura of exhaustion veiled her pretty, soft features like a cloak. “Statistically speaking, if we went together, our chances for finding suitable males—”
“Cut the shit, Petra. I don’t want to hear your logic and your numbers. I’m not in the mood.” A large tan sea sponge rested on the ledge to her right. Callie grabbed it, dunked it in the water, and then crushed it with her fingers. “Why?”
“Because you’re unhappy here. And I couldn’t bear it any longer. I knew you’d never go on your own.” The brunette sighed, picked at her nails, and finally looked up to meet her gaze. “I meant well. And your grotesque loves you. Unlike mine.”
“Yes, well, you know that stupid staying about good intentions.” A crystal decanter filled with her favorite bath oil rested on the ledge. She retrieved the container, removed the stopper, and poured a generous amount into the tub. The heavy, cloying scent of gardenias and vanilla wafted into the air.
“Yes. I know it. In fourteen languages.” Petra perched on the marble and held her hand out. Callie passed her the sea sponge, she doused it with soap, and started to wash Callie’s back in slow, concentric circles. “And yet, for all my mathematics, study of planetary alignment, hormone levels, and careful data plotting of your sexual activity, I managed to get it wrong.”
Callie laughed in spite of herself. “You…you kept track of how often I had sex?”
“Oh yes. Of course. That sort of information is vital when planning an undertaking of this magnitude. I wanted to be sure I got everything perfect. Failure would never do, especially when considering that I love you best of all my sister-nymphs.”
Warmth flowed over her. “I love you too, Petra.” Water trickled across her shoulder blades and down her breasts as the other female washed her collar bones. “Um, Petra, were you even keeping track of positions?”
“Oh, of course. Positions, types of sex, location, time of day, use of props—”
A laugh tore from Callie, and she gripped her belly. A lightning bolt of pain shot from the area of her wounds into her chest. “Oh…oh…please stop. Don’t make me laugh anymore.”
“I wasn’t trying. Scientific research is no laughing matter.” Petra coaxed her hand from the water and soaped the limb. “Besides, I’m not sure I failed entirely. Theo saved your life. It seems I am only remiss in the algorithms I designed for my own quest to find a mate.”
“Theo threw me out like trash and one of his grotesque buddies went treasure hunting in my guts.” Water splashed over the rim of the tub and onto the floor, bubbles rising around her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to quiet her emotions before the liquid heated into a true boil.
“I think what he did, he did out of fear. The Aerie of New York is quite insular and traditional. I believe he was trying to protect you from them.” Petra rinsed the sponge out and placed it back on the ledge. She retrieved shampoo and moved on to scrubbing Callie’s hair. “Logan told me what happened to Theo. He was Censured and Shunned. Frozen as a stone lion because he dared to love a human woman and left his post when he was on patrol. They allowed her to be killed as part of his punishment.” Petra slowed her ministrations and rested her hand on Callie’s shoulder. “You know you were the first female he’d been with in over five hundred years. He hasn’t touched anyone since he was awoken. Many of the female grotesques desire him, but he keeps himself apart.”
“Of course they want him. He’s sexy as hell,” Callie growled. “And those damn females probably treat him like some kind of ride they can take a trip on then toss aside. They want him because he’s forbidden fruit. I’ve learned a little bit from you over all these years we’ve been together. Societies that treat their members the way Theo was don’t accept people they’ve punished right back into the ranks. After something like that, you never truly belong again.”
“And you want him because you love him.”
“Of course I do! Who wouldn’t love him?” Saying it aloud sent a spear of hurt straight through her heart. She shifted around, her butt sore from the hard stone beneath her. With little effort, the water buoyed her until she floated an inch off the bottom.
“If you love him, why aren’t you fighting for him?”
Warm water flowed over her hair and rinsed the shampoo away. She turned her face away from Petra and rested her cheek on her knees. “Because he
told me to go away. He doesn’t want me.”
Petra inhaled, but before she could speak, Callie shook her head. “I don’t want to hear it. Why are you here anyway? Last time I saw you, you were with Logan wearing your ‘I just had an amazing orgasm’ face.”
Silence stretched out until she pivoted to see if her sister-nymph still sat on the tub’s ledge. Tears coursed over Petra’s cheeks and dripped off her jaw. Her slim shoulders rose and fell with each hitching breath. Shock electrified Callie and she grasped her friend’s hand. Her mind raced as she parceled through their conversation.
“Oh, by Aphrodite’s sweet ass, Petra. What happened? You fell in love with Logan didn’t you?”
Curls bounced around Petra’s face and strands stuck to her wet cheeks. “He sent me away. He…he said….” Petra swiped under her eyes with her fingers and blinked until the tears cleared. “He said he would never accept me as his mate. That I was ‘unsuitable’ to be mated to a grotesque. I didn’t realize I loved him. And then I thought it must be a temporary madness of sorts. An infatuation. A hormonal surge, if you will.”
“Oh Petra. I’m so sorry. I’m starting to think these males must have rocks for brains as well as bodies.” She stood up in the tub and hoisted herself up to sit beside Petra. “What a pair we make, huh? The two hottest Nymphs in the harem rejected by a couple hunks of rock.”
“I don’t think your lot is as bad as mine. Theo loves you. He saved your life.” Petra gave her a shaky smile. “He brought you home, threw himself into the water to save you.”
“What?” Shock and surprise followed by hope rippled over her. “But grotesques can’t swim. If he stays in the water too long he’ll freeze into his hunting form and die.”
“I know. Poseidon was going to move him back onshore, but when he realized Theo mated you, he decided to leave Theo where he came to rest on the ocean floor. We thought it might help you heal faster if your mate was near.”
“I’m not mated.” A curious numbness froze her brain. Nothing Petra said made sense.
“You are, love. Look inside. You’ll find a thread of his magic.” Petra stood and helped her up. “I bet you’ve felt it before. An awareness of him, of Theo, inside you.”
Oh gods, should she? He’d rejected her already in the worst way she could have imagined. But Petra was right. Being in the harem only served to make her miserable. No, now was not the time to be a coward. She had to try.
The soft light of the room faded, along with the ocean panorama arching overhead. She squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated on Theo, on the place inside she thought she’d felt him before. The spot she’d grasped and found him, even when she’d known she’d die alone in the alley.
A spark of recognition, a thread so tiny and thin it almost slipped away, clung to the edges of her consciousness. Callie tottered to the door of the chamber on stiff legs, and hovered there, indecision warring within her. Finally, she gave into the urge to return to an ornate wardrobe constructed from coral and drift wood on the far side of the room. She retrieved a huge, fluffy towel. Theo wouldn’t want her running around the palace naked. It would bother him. Petra met her at the wardrobe and offered the bracelet Theo had gifted to her. A tremor overtook her fingers, but she managed to pick up the silver and gold band. The cool metal slid around her bicep with ease.
“Go get him honey.” Petra kissed her on the cheek, and Callie gave into the urge to leave the room. She strode through the open door and took a right. The farther she walked, the stronger the compulsion to continue on her course became until she broke into a jog despite her weakened state. Her feet slapped on the cool stone floors. The curved walls of the hallway soared to meet the domed ceiling high above her head.
When she arrived at the atrium, she skidded to a halt. The connection to Theo grew stronger with each step toward this point. The walls of the room were comprised entirely of water held in place through virtue of Poseidon’s magic. Endless blue pressed in from all sides. She dipped her fingertips into the water as she moved, tiny ripples moving over the smooth surface in concentric circles.
Schools of fish swam by with lazy flicks of their fins or in fast darts of motion. The frayed thread she’d followed to this place trembled and vibrated. She turned in a slow circle, confused and disoriented, tripping and stumbling over her feet.
The pull was so strong; their connection so tight here. But where was Theo? Maybe she’d imagined it all.
She glided over the floor to the far wall and sank her palm in to the wrist, unable to focus. Wet strands of hair clumped together and stuck to her cheek. Mere feet away, an enormous winged stone lion lay on the ocean floor, it’s front legs curled up as though it had cradled something, one wing bent at an unnatural angle beneath its body. Red and gold striations ran through the grey stone, but the colors were muted, a sign that Theo was succumbing to his hunting form and becoming more statuary than living being by the minute.
The thread of awareness blazed into a river, a flood that coursed into her, images crowded and overwhelmed her consciousness. Despair, loss, and grief gouged a hole in her chest and sent her to her knees in a heap.
“Theo!”
The walls of water all around her bulged out, then in, and Callie allowed herself to be taken into the bliss of the ocean’s cocoon. Her mate needed her.
Now.
Cool currents embraced her, ripping the towel away. Callie gathered all the magic she possessed in her solar plexus and cast it out in a surge at her mate. The schools of fish nearby fled as the statue vibrated and began to ascend to the surface. The strain of moving such a huge object weakened her, sucked out the energy she’d managed to regain in her healing sleep.
Theo plummeted back to the bottom. A cloud of sand plumed up around him and turned the water into a murky mess.
Damn it, she couldn’t give up now. Not after everything they’d already survived.
Callie swam to where the lifeless stone lay and caressed the ridge of his nose and brow and over the thin lines of his scars. Her fingers told her it was nothing more than stone, but in her heart she knew better. When her strength came back, she’d try again. At least she didn’t have to worry about him drowning.
Cool flesh skated over her shoulder and she jerked away. When her hair cleared from her face, she spotted Ephyra, one of her sister Nymphs.
The brunette smiled and clasped hands with Callie, then gestured toward Poseidon’s underwater palace. A steady stream of nymphs entered the ocean through the wall she’d breached to get to Theo and headed toward them.
Each female clasped hands until they formed a circle around the grotesque. Froth and bubbles sizzled in a rising column twenty feet in diameter. The stone lion levitated, and the circle of nymphs around it followed.
Callie concentrated on holding onto the hands of the sisters on either side of her, exhausted with the effort of trying to move Theo alone.
Her sisters kept her connected to the circle by lacing their arms around her back. The other nymphs supported her until they breached the surface. She’d lost the ability to keep her eyes open. A breeze kissed her cheeks. Strong, rough hands caught her up under the arms and lifted her from the ocean. She didn’t have the energy to care who now bore her weight into the air. Theo’s presence filled her with peace, and that was all that mattered to her. The male who’d retrieved her juggled her body around until he cradled her to his chest. Callie craned her neck trying to catch a glimpse of her mate and only managed to view a crowd of winged, multi-colored beings gathered in a circle over the water.
“Hey, whoever you are. Drop him, and I’ll kill you!” Poseidon was unlikely to allow harm to come to her or her mate; the god of the sea might have a sexual appetite that rivaled the satyrs, but he was loyal and protected his people. Even mated, Callie could still count on a measure of the sea god’s protection. But she needed to make her position clear on the matter at hand anyway. The aerie would learn she wasn’t someone to fuck with when it came to her mate.
The shout she’d intended fizzled out after the first syllable into something only a tick louder than a whisper. A masculine laugh rumbled in her ear. Well, someone had heard her. “Go ahead and try it, sweet heart. See how far you get.”
“Fine, I’ll draw rude caricatures of you all in public places.” She yawned and managed to open her eyes. A red T-shirt stretched over a well muscled chest filled her vision. “Seriously though, if you guys hurt Theo, I’ll spend the rest of my life stalking you and doing my damndest to make you miserable. I’ll freeze ice over you. I’ll find a crack in your hunting form, and then I’ll—”
“Chill out, darlin’.” He turned in mid-air so she could see the flock of grotesques taking control of Theo’s frozen form from the nymphs. “The aerie finally got their heads out of their asses and are doin’ right by him. Took them long enough.”
“Ah, good. I’d hate to have to force everyone to shower in cold water for the rest of their lives. I’m a busy woman.”
“I know.” The male holding her in his arms jiggled her around, the muscles in his chest flexing under her cheek. “Don’t worry. You can trust me.”
“You know that’s what the bad guys say right before they kill you in the movies, right?” A great gust of wind tore at her hair, and she realized they were flying. Callie felt her way along the threads of the bond she shared with Theo, and reassured of his presence; let her eye lids drop down.
“If I told you Logan sent me, would it help?” The wind ripped his words away from them, but Callie heard.
“Not really. You do know what he did to my nymph-sister Petra, right?” Wind tore at her hair and ripped tears from her eyes.
“I see your point. Well, you’ll just have to trust me.”
“I guess so, since I can’t fly. But don’t fuck up. I mean it.” She peeked at the ocean’s waves below.
“I got it. Don’t worry. Theo’s gonna be fine.”
A snarky comment attempted escape but she bit it back. Being bitchy to a young, cocky, flying, male wouldn’t do anything. Especially when he seemed to enjoy it so much. The group transporting Theo moved ahead and to the left of them. She kept her gaze trained on them and hoped the force of her glare sent a message strong enough to let them know how fucked they were if they hurt her mate. She’d never be caught off guard by a grotesque again.
Rock Hard And Wet (BBW Paranormal Romance) (Nymphs Of New York) Page 9