by LJ Vickery
“Anyone ever tell you that you suck at trash talk?” Hux kept his hands up, relaxed, looking for an opening.
“No trash, baby cakes. Just the god’s honest truth! If you’d looked at my handsome mug before you nailed it, you would have noticed we’re both stunningly beautiful in all the same places.”
“That is the most fucked up come-on I’ve ever heard.” Hux looked disgusted. “I’ve got news for you, buddy, I’m not gay and the only thing I want to do with your pretty ass is kick it into the next county.”
Marduk knew the very moment Hux’s attention was drawn away by Tess’s indignant squeals. The man didn’t like that his sister was in lock-down. Marduk could feel the thoughts coming off of the blond human.
He was speculating that Marduk was responsible for the stitches on Tess’s face, and was recalling a magazine article that gave compelling statistics where women often went from one abusive relationship to another.
Marduk felt the mortal’s adrenaline crank up an extra notch! He watched Hux light into Enlil with a roar, elbows flying, to nail him in the shoulder and head before launching himself to where Marduk had secured Tess.
Marduk didn’t know if his band of heretofore invisible gods would be able to touch Huxley—hell, all the rules they’d lived by for so long were getting tossed right out the window—but he barked the order to spare Tess from being in the middle of a melee again.
“Grab him!” The thunder god yelled, and the simple fight became a pig-pile on Huxley, who went down under a tsunami of linebackers.
“Don’t hurt him!” Marduk finally let Tess go. There was nothing she could do. He watched as her hands just misted through the gods that somehow covered Huxley’s downed body.
“Okay guys, up,” he ordered. “No fair eight on one.”
One by one, they moved off Huxley, obviously enjoying the hell out of having their hands on a new opponent after hundreds of years. Marduk watched them reluctantly get up. Enten hauled Huxley to his feet, freezing the human in place with his frigid stare. “Don’t even think about starting anything again.”
Huxley shivered and stilled as eyes devoid of heat pinned him in place. Tess managed to reach her brother and wrap her arms around him. Marduk combined his compelling forces with the strong will of Tess, and sent not-so-subtle hints to Hux that he should calm the fuck down. He watched brother and sister share a look.
“Just tell me you’re all right and these guys aren’t holding you hostage,” Huxley settled. Marduk shot him a head-full of images showing Tess’s easy smile back in the kitchen, and the feelings of safety she felt from the group. Huxley’s overt aggression finally shook loose as he faced a bigger truth. “Then tell me why I think I might be losing my mind.”
Chapter Seventeen
Dagon’s group had been very busy. Lenore, following up on the lead to Maine, had procured a cabin southwest of town in a remote wooded area that would escape detection, then she and Matthew had bellied up at the local watering hole and, as the evening wore on, learned everything they needed to know about Tess Abelard.
“So you’re still friends with her ex?” Lenore purred to the well-on-his-way-to-shit-faced local while stroking his knee. She didn’t even know if he was aware of her touch he was so far gone, but she didn’t want him to stop talking.
“You know that brother of hers chased the boyfriend right out of town, don’tcha? Drove him away from all of us frien’s.” He took another swig of his beer. “Now he can’t even come back to say ’ello. We have to go all the way over the mountain ’f we want ta see him.”
Lenore gave her best pout. “I’d really like to meet this Gage fellow,” she said. “But how can little old me possibly find him?” Gag, gag, gag. If any more sugar came out of her mouth, she’d soon be adding to the maple syrup industry.
In the meantime, Matthew was busy charming the ample bosomed waitress. “What does she do for fun?”
“Who, honey?” The waitress clearly had a short attention span.
“The girl we were talking about, Tess Abelard.” Matthew tried to remain patient.
“Oh, her!” The waitress once again became gossip-engaged. “She doesn’t live here anymore, but before she left, she worked at that hippie farm off Mountainview Road during the day, and went to the only other show in town, besides us, at night.”
“And what would that be, sweet cakes.” Matthew was not turned off in the least as he leaned in and caught the combined scents of bubblegum and gin.
“Why, the alcoholic’s meeting, silly,” she laughed. “Up here in the boonies, you either drink or repent. Some people do both!”
Matthew sat back, satisfied. They’d procured some very useful information. Now it was time to go.
Lenore’s phone rang.
“Yes, Dagon. We were just leaving.”
Chapter Eighteen
In the big gray barn at Tess’s farm, the temperature was far from balmy. Marduk and his gaggle of supreme beings were having a little trouble convincing Tess’s brother of their other-worldliness, their long lost blood ties, and the danger facing Tess…him…them. Whatever.
“You buying this, Tess?” Marduk rolled his shoulders as he listened to Huxley ask the question for the gagillionth time. The thunder god knew Tess’s brother still wouldn’t mind pounding Enlil. The smug ass had been standing apart, not saying a word, sending killing glances toward Huxley since the big reveal. He made it look like he didn’t care whether Huxley was on board or not. He wasn’t even trying to change the human’s mind. Damn it! Marduk was losing patience. Enlil was supposed to be their ancient ancestor. Why couldn’t he act like one?
“What’s it going to take to convince you?” Marduk looked carefully into Huxley’s eyes, hoping for a glimpse into his mind, a flicker of something…anything to help get him on board. There. There it was. Marduk relaxed. He had this now.
“Haven’t you ever felt different than everybody else? Like there’s something more inside you?” Marduk immediately saw the change in Hux’s posture. “I bet you’re stronger than anybody you’ve ever encountered,” Marduk ventured, “and when you get hurt, you heal more rapidly.”
The gods, as a whole, watched Huxley’s eyes glaze over, his breathing slow, and his knees buckle. Ninurta, the most highly muscled of the bunch, moved quickly to catch Huxley before the inevitable face-plant. Marduk knew what had suddenly overcome Hux as Ninurta lowered him gently to the ground. The others didn’t have to wait long to get his answer.
“I know you,” Huxley whispered in a guttural way that told Marduk he was trying to un-convince himself. The mortal shook his head, as if unwilling or unable to scrape the next words out of his mouth.
“That’s impossible, son.” Enlil held both hands up as Huxley glared at him. “Fine, fine. I won’t call you that anymore, but, not to burst your bubble or anything, up until a few days ago we were invisible for like fucking ever.”
“You…you,” Huxley swallowed convulsively. “You were the ones with me when I was a kid.” He looked up a Marduk. “What you said…about being different…when I was young, I did a lot of strange shit so other kids stayed out of my way. After I beat the crap out of a couple bullies that were about twice my size, everyone left me alone.” Marduk watched Tess nod, commiserating with Hux’s recollection.
“I lost myself in what I thought was a fantasy world.” He looked around again, awe and understanding spreading across his face. “A world of warriors and demons.” Huxley turned to Marduk. “And I remember you.” He stared around at the faces. “I remember all of you.” His shoulders heaved with such emotion that Marduk felt it in his own gut. He gestured to Enlil to reach out again to his descendant. This time Huxley grasped and held on to the lifeline it had just become.
Tess wondered briefly if any of this was connected with her and Holly’s nightmares, but she couldn’t remember any kick-ass gods showing up to save the day in her dreams, just ugly demon-things. She pushed the thought away.
But Huxley…Hux wouldn’
t be saying this if it wasn’t true. He was the last one to try and fool himself. So if he said he knew these guys, he did!
“So now we have to find out how we’re connected.” Tess managed to speak for herself and her brother, while everyone let the reality of what Hux said wash over them.
“I guess it’s time to have a talk with Dad.” Tess had a gut-wrenching feeling she knew where this was headed, and she wished she could spare herself, her father, and her siblings the anguish. But the situation was not going to go away. “I don’t think Pops needs to know that there are a bunch of invisible men here. He certainly doesn’t have to know you’re divine…”
“Why, thank you, Tess,” Anshar preened. “I haven’t been called divine in years!” Everyone gave a nervous chuckle, which dispelled a little of the tension.
“Let’s just tell him I inadvertently found a blood connection with Enlil, through…some DNA research thing we volunteered for, and came looking for some confirmation.” They all agreed that would be the best way to approach it.
With a break to put saddlebags in the bunk house, Tess and the group made their various ways inside the main dwelling. Looking back over her shoulder, Tess saw two blond heads, leaning close together, deep in conversation, and her heart spilled over at how beautiful and how right they looked together.
Her father was ready for them when they entered his study. He had a small file folder in front of him, and his hands were folded grimly.
“Daddy?” Tess wondered why he seemed so serious. The older man sighed.
“I’m not blind, you know.” He looked up when his son and Enlil entered the room. “I saw the resemblance as soon as he walked into the kitchen. Uncanny, isn’t it. You go all this time and think nothing will ever change. It won’t hurt if no one knows, and then bang. Right out of the blue, you have to tell your adult children that you’ve been perpetuating a lie their entire lives.” He seemed older and more tired than ever before.
Tess didn’t have to ask. Her father started right in.
“You’re mother and I adopted all of you when you and Holly were two.” He looked at Tess. “And Hux, you were just a newborn. We always meant to tell you, but the timing never seemed right.” He grimaced as if he knew he’d made a big mistake.
“By the time Huxley was old enough to hear the truth, he had started getting into trouble at school. We had always known he was bigger than other kids his age and that he had extraordinary strength for a small child, but we didn’t know how much it would set him apart. With the way he was feeling, so alienated from his peers, we felt he didn’t need to hear something else that would make him feel different. When he finally gained confidence training with the kick-boxing instructor who took him under his wing, your mother had died and you girls started in with those horrific nightmares, and well…you can figure out the rest.”
Tess knew that comment would raise red flags with Marduk. He’d be asking her about her nocturnal disturbances. There’d be no getting around it.
Her father looked so defeated that Tess came around the desk and put her arms around him.
“It’s okay, Dad,” she reassured him. “It doesn’t matter where we came from.” She hoped she was telling the truth. “You and Mom made us a family and that’s all that matters.”
She reached out to squeeze his hand.
“Here’s the file on your adoption.” He pushed the thin manila folder away from where he sat toward Tess. “There’s not much in it: the name of the agency in Bangor where we went, your names and ages at the time, where you were born. The family wanted a closed adoption, so we were never told the names of your birth mother and father.” He gestured to what little information he had and stood.
“I hope you’ll all excuse me now,” he said softly, and moved around his desk to leave. He stopped in front of Enlil and clasped the man’s arm. “Welcome to the family, my boy. I hope you figure out how you’re related,” he finished, leaving both Tess and a tongue-tied Enlil at a loss for words.
Tess moved as if to follow her father, but Marduk gently stopped her. “I think he wants to be alone, Tess. There’ll be time enough in the morning to talk.”
She knew he was right and brought her attention back to the study, which at least to her and Hux, was packed to the rafters with gods. “So now what?”
Shamash reached for the file on the desk. “May I?” he queried politely.
“Sure.” She didn’t want to open it right now anyway.
The curly haired god reassured her. “Tonight, I’ll go to Bangor and hack into the agency’s computer system. If they don’t have all this computerized, they’ll have ancient files in a dusty old basement.” Tess knew there was a high possibility he was right about ancient archives. “Just in case, Lahar, do you want to come with me and do the grunt work?”
Lahar quickly agreed and the others would, sans-bodies, position themselves around the property to guard against possible PP infiltration. Marduk and Enlil would bunk down in the guest house. Everyone was ready to call it a day. Well, almost everyone.
****
Marduk stood alone on the porch of the guest house and saw a flash of color move quickly between the back of Tess’s home and the barn. It was Tess, wrapped in a beach robe, shivering in the chilly night air. She was headed for the hot tub he had discovered earlier behind the barn. What was she thinking? How many times did he have to warn her about the danger she could be facing?
Marduk made sure his knives were all tucked in place and he moved stealthily out into the shadows, then over to the structure that stood well back of the house. Leaning silently on rough barn boards, he peered around the corner, weapons poised.
Holy shit! Tess had dropped her robe and was standing, naked and glowing in the moonlight. Marduk could only hold his breath and stare. Great, he moaned, now another weapon was poised and ready.
She obviously thought she was alone as she stretched her arms up toward the sky, lifting and offering pert nipples to the heavens. What he wouldn’t do to suck those tender buds into his mouth and tease them until she moaned and begged for more. Marduk scowled and looked around, making sure that none of his gods were attending the show. This was for his eyes only.
Now the real question…what to do? He watched Tess climb the two stairs of the tub, her taut backside teasing him as she crested the top, then blissfully sink down into the warm water. Marduk made up his mind. He couldn’t stand the thought of her wet and naked a moment longer. He backtracked and came all the way around the barn from the opposite direction, beginning an off-tune whistle as he approached the hot tub.
“Marduk?” Her small voice called his name tentatively into the night.
“Tess?” he replied as innocently as possible, considering the lust that threatened to choke him.
“Yes, it’s me.” To his ears, she sounded a little panicked.
He loosened his tense jaw and let his smile reach out to her in the moonlight.
“I’m in the hot tub and I’m naked,” she stated, as if that would deter him. He moved forward, steadily.
“Did you hear me?” She squeaked in that appealing way she had.
“I heard you.” Her voice made his heart jump and, when he was finally close enough, he pulled his shirt over his head.
“Oh no,” she squealed, “you can’t possibly think you’re going to come in!”
“I most certainly am.” Pop! He worked the top button on his jeans free.
Not looking, not looking, not looking! Tess hid her face in her hands as she heard him laugh and his jeans drop. The gentle splash of water alerted her that he had entered the tub. Her tub! He sat away from her and stretched his long, muscular legs across the expanse. His foot nudged her thigh and, at the same time, a rumble of thunder sounded across the field. She really needed to ask him about that. Tess scooted as far away as she could.
“I came out here to be alone.” Her breathless voice belied her next words. “You should leave.”
“Can you come a little close
r?” Tess heard the laughter in his tone. “I think I’m having trouble with my hearing tonight.” He tapped the side of his head innocently.
“Go away,” she said a little louder.
“What’s that?”
Tess wanted to scream, he was so infuriating!
“If you won’t come over here and tell me what you want, I’ll just have to come to you.” Marduk moved slowly in her direction and goose bumps broke out all over her skin. She didn’t know if it was the cold, the thought of him touching her again, or the underlying fear of what might or might not happen. She shivered as the god’s arms found her waist.
Before she could protest, he had pulled her onto his lap. He attempted to nudge one of her legs over his knees using his elbows, but she resisted. There was no way she was going to straddle him! The feel of his rock hard erection pressed against her hip was shocking enough. And shocking was just the right word. My God. He had to be enormous. A current of some kind passed between them that set her body humming. She pictured every nerve ending in her body standing at attention.
“Tess,” he crooned. “I want to touch you.” So far his hands hadn’t strayed from her waist, but she could feel his big thumbs inching up under her breasts. She was finding it difficult to draw a breath. She wanted him…badly, but she was so damned scared.
“Let me feel your nipples.” Tess felt his glance brush over her eager peaks and watched him lick his lips. “I can tell they want to be touched.”
“No. They’re just cold.” She protested, but in a much meeker voice than she intended. So, here it was again? Different this time because she couldn’t deny the fact that she was aroused, but still…a man, much stronger and more determined than any she’d ever encountered, was going to do things to her body, things she wasn’t sure she would enjoy. She stiffened, closed her eyes and waited…and waited. She opened one eye and peered up at him. He looked to be sitting, patiently.
“Wh…what are you waiting for?” Her voice shook with an emotion she couldn’t name.