by LJ Vickery
Her illness…her long-term illness, and that of her daughter was possibly on the verge of being solved, and all she could think of was the hot male and how hard he’d been under her questing tongue. Dammit. She should have given in to temptation and sucked him to orgasm. She might have climaxed from that alone without ever being touched. It would at least have scratched the desperate itch that now consumed her. As for coming from sucking him? That would have been a first. Verrie licked her lips.
“I know what yoah thinkin’,” Frank whispered and elbowed her in the ribs. “It shows all ovah ya wicked face.” She bit her lip to stop grinning. “Just wheah were the two of ya that ya both came back with crooked clothes and messed up haiah?”
“The hall closet,” Verrie whispered back, still reliving the entire experience. “And Aunt Frank…I attacked him.” She could hear the near-hysteria in her voice.
“And that’s bad becuz….?” Her aunt/mentor’s eyes held even more humor which calmed her a little. Frank continued. “Just ta let ya know, yoah not alone in your lustful thoughts. Theah’s one-a-them gods I coulda taken to a closet if he’d given me the time-a-day. Damned thing was, he didn’t glance at me once. I guess I’m too old faw him even though he looked about my age. I suppose he’s picky. When yoah a god, maybe ya can get young things even if you’ve aged outta the mahket.”
Verrie was nearly knocked off her pins. “Don’t be ridiculous, Frankie.” They now scurried to keep up with Dani and the two girls who moved away from the stairs and disappearing fast down a hallway. “You’re stunning, and any of these immortals would be more than lucky to have you.”
“Well, maybe it isn’t me. Maybe they ahn’t foolin’ around due to theah deadline to find these Chosen. Mistah grayin’ at the temples can’t be wastin’ time screwin’ off with just anybuddy if it means headin’ back to hell.” She’d regained her quick smile, but Verrie could tell Frank was still bothered—or more accurately, conflicted. She almost sounded pissed the god hadn’t looked at her. That was unusual. Frank wasn’t celibate, by any means, but Verrie had never known her to be interested-interested in any guy. She’d always been a bang-em and leave-em kind of girl as far as Veronica knew. Hell, she’d never, ever, even talked about her daughter’s father―Verrie was aware Frank never married and assumed the pregnancy had been a slip-up on her aunt’s part.
Frank clammed up, so Verrie didn’t pursue it any further, but she filed it away for conversation at a later date. She wasn’t about to let her aunt off the hook.
“Come in, ladies. Come in.” Dani hit the light switch and illuminated a room that would have made any high-tech clinician envious. As far as Verrie could tell, it was equipped with every machine and every amenity she’d ever seen during her long history of doctor office visits. She forced down a shiver of apprehension. Medical intervention had never been a plus for her, but she had to remember this was different. Instead of thinking she was crazy, these people…uh, immortals…were trying to get to the root of her problem. She forced herself to swallow back the bile that had risen in her throat. She needed to buck up and grow a pair.
Why are you distraught?
Verrie almost fell down. Dumuzi’s voice imperiously thrust itself into her head without warning. She was momentarily stunned. When she didn’t answer, he continued.
I sense great discomfort. Are you in need of my assistance? His deep voice growled which was an incredible turn-on. Or did her clenching insides have more to do with the fact that rather than think she was a nut-job, someone actually attempted to comfort her?
Nope. Verrie swallowed. Nope, I’m good. Just doctor’s office anxiety. That’s all. She’d forgotten all the gods and goddesses could hear her when she spoke into the ether, and she got Dani’s quick response.
Nothing to worry about, Verrie. A quick blood test which Enlil has said he will be gracious enough to analyze and a swab back-up which will be sent to a very confidential lab where I have friends. Then we’ll be done.
Mom. Chill. It’ll be fine. Sienna chose to do the head-thing too, and Riley wasn’t far behind.
Yeah, I’m with you on needles, Riles misunderstood. But in the interest of you and Sienna getting well, I can take it.
Okay. Okay. Everybody, out of my head. Veronica couldn’t help herself. She needed this over with. “Dani, here.” She sat at the chair with the little arm appendage thingy and rolled up her sleeve. “Do me first.”
Dani was quick and efficient, and Verrie shouldn’t have worried. Riley also proved herself to be a champ, and despite looking a little green during the stick, had weathered the needle just fine.
Enlil appeared in the room just as the doctor finished up with Frank, and Verrie’s attention was drawn to a rack of blood-filled test tubes.
“Enlil, I’m going to get a little scientific on you and do a blind test. I’ve set out several vials of blood, some from gods, some have come from our agent friends, and the rest have been drawn from our four visitors.” She indicated the rack, quickly adding Frank’s vial, shuffling a few others around in the process with notations made on her hand-held clipboard.
“Now, if you will proceed and tell me if they have a marker for a particular god, I’ll make note. When you’re finished, I’ll let everyone know what we find.”
Verrie watched, confused as Enlil moved forward and picked up the first vial. What was he going to do?
He raised it to his nose and sniffed.
“Phew.” He screwed up his face in mock disgust. “This one is Dagon, all over,” he gagged.
Geeze. The god could smell things in the samples.
Dani tried to hide her laugh while writing on her clipboard. “I told you I was using some of our banked blood,” she snickered. She followed Enlil’s progress down the line. He didn’t hesitate as he lifted them in order.
“This one is human, no god-traces. This one is…it has a faint essence of Sham. Not much, but distinctly him.” He picked up the next tube. “Candy with a dash of Sham sprinkled in,” he smirked, licking his lips at his wife’s blood. “…another with a small element of Sham, and…another?” Clearly, this confused him and Dani too, by the look.
Verrie cocked her head, trying to ascertain the cause of their consternation. They weren’t saying.
Enlil carefully replaced that tube and extracted another. “Completely human,” he intoned, but this time without the mischievous edge he’d shown before. “Emesh. Huxley with a dash of Marduk, and…” Here, he paused again. “…another of those faint Shamash samples.” Verrie could see the two communicating and shaking their heads.
“Okay, we’re finished.” Dani wrote something quickly on her chart and Verrie could tell―by the attitude the doctor held her head―she quickly tuned Enlil out and conversed privately with a different god, most likely Marduk.
Shit. Something was wrong. Goddammit. Nothing good ever came of her being in a doctor’s office…Sienna’s birth, excluded. She’d known that this was a bad idea. Verrie felt like hiding, and she didn’t want to know what they’d discovered.
“Tell us what ya found?” Frank had no such qualms. “You look like ya just swallowed a big friggin’ goose egg. Yawr all bulgey-eyed and shit,” she shot at Enlil.
“I’m not at liberty to say, but please,” he’d obviously noted Veronica was also freaked, “I’m certain the news will be very welcome to you.”
Wait a minute. Verrie replayed Enlil’s blood game of hide and seek, going over his succinct answers…and one and one suddenly made…four.
“Oh my God.” She reached for her daughter, then scrabbled with her other hand to touch Riley’s arm. “They found four samples of human blood touched with some of Shamash’s. That can only mean one thing. We’re not just friends…” She let that dangle a split second before Frank picked up the thread.
“Hell, no.” Her aunt’s face lit up. “It means we’ah related. Fah real.” She grinned from ear to ear. “All these yeahs and all these generations, it hasn’t been friends stickin’ togethah
, it’s been friggin’ sistah’s or cousins…or some such shit? Family,” she smiled. She turned to regard Dr. Dani. “How do we find out ouah exact connection?”
Dani sighed. She and Marduk had probably wanted to find the answer to that themselves before the cats got out of the bag. Verrie snickered. Cats. Out of the bag. She, Sienna, Riley, and Frank all had cat-god blood. Meow.
“That’s where a search of ancient records will have to come in,” the doctor confirmed. “As well as an interrogation of Shamash who will have to try to remember what…and who…he was doing in ancient times before he got sent to hell.”
All parties, back to my office. Right now. Marduk’s voice brooked no argument.
“It looks like summoning your demon voices will have to wait,” Enlil told Verrie, herding them all out of the infirmary. “Sham’s about to undergo a shakedown―god style.” He said it with more than passing glee, and Veronica could only imagine what that meant. Hell, these guys liked to tease the life out of each other.
Back inside the vast meeting area, Verrie was aware all eyes now greedily fixed on Frank. Her aunt hadn’t missed it either.
“Okay, guys. What the fuck?” Frankie wasn’t one to mess around.
Marduk cleared his throat. “Um. Since you’ve been shown to have Sham’s blood,"―the god of justice looked inordinately proud of the link that had been found― “like Verrie does, it’s possible you’re also a candidate to become a Chosen.” He looked at the three―as yet unmated―gods. “Lahar, Ishkur, Ninurta?” the thunder god questioned. “Have any of you felt…twinges of attraction for the lovely Frank?”
Hell, Marduk, Ninurta groused. It can’t be me. I’m not visible yet.
“True,” Marduk allowed. “Alright then. Lahar, Ishkur? Either of you feeling it? And be honest. If you don’t fess up, all we have to do is clear the house out of your descendants who are making you physical, and we’ll have our answer, one way or another.”
Lahar spoke first. “As much as I’d love to f…ahh, find out that Frank is mine,” ―his eyes danced over her taut, petite form― “I don’t have any god-tosterone screaming Mine which I know is how all the other gods feel…including Dumuzi who right now has sidled up so close to Verrie, it’s probably getting tough for her to breathe.”
Yeah, Verrie noticed that too. His body had moved practically on top of hers while Marduk spoke, heat permeating her every pore. She tucked her tongue between clenched teeth. Don’t purr, don’t purr, don’t purr, she chanted to herself, but Dumuzi must have heard because he sent back.
You’ll be doing more than purring by the time I’m through with you, he growled.
Dammit. Soaked again. Her panties had just dried out from their first go-round.
“That leaves you, Ishkur,” Marduk stated thoughtfully. Verrie noticed that, just like Frankie said earlier, the hunky older god’s gaze landed anyplace but on her aunt.
“Not interested,” he mumbled, raising curiosity in the room. “Well, sort of interested,” he huffed. “But not in the way that means she’s my Chosen, so I’m not going there. Been there, done that.” His voice turned to a snarl.
Before Marduk could comment, Frankie’s snarky voice entered the fray.
“And a good thing, too,” she hissed. “Because I’m not interested in addin’ yoah sorry old ass ta my list of willing and satisfied lovahs.” Then under her breath, but so everybody would hear, she added, “Some people just think theah too good for regulah folks.”
Everyone shifted uncomfortably before Dumuzi called things back to order.
“Okay. Fine. Marduk? Frank’s not a mate. Can we figure things out for me and Verrie? It’s only the beginning of June, and we have until September for Ishkur to get his head out of his ass and find his real Chosen.”
“Muze is right,” Enten added. “Let’s solve this one, first.”
“Agreed.” Marduk raised his brows as the normally equitable Ishkur stormed from the room. “We’ll leave him be, for now.”
“And ah’ll leave him be fohevah,” Frank stated assuredly. “At this point, he’d have ta beg me on bended knee befoah I’d have anything ta do with him.” Despite her own predicament, Verrie couldn’t wait to witness a showdown between the two. There’d be fireworks over Boston, for sure.
“Shamash, please step forward.” Marduk moved on with business. “I’m sorry to tell you I’ve called Nergal back to do this interrogation. He’ll be able to suck the memories out of you better than I can. He’s an expert, after all.”
“I thought you wanted me to head to Iraq. Shouldn’t I get going?” Sham shuddered.
“That can wait. This is important.”
Verrie, who only knew Nergal as the king in the Underworld, wondered if unlucky souls relegated to the lower depths had to undergo a mind-suck of sorts by the enormous deity?
Nergal appeared, and she looked over his stern visage and bronzed body. A mind suck wasn’t sounding so good, but another kind of sucking maybe…
Dumuzi’s arm came up around her middle and squeezed possessively. Shit. Was she never going to be able to have a private thought again? She cleared her mind and settled her body into his. And…major sigh…why was she thinking about Nergal? Muze felt better than good.
The god, Shamash didn’t look happy about his fate. He sat down heavily, and he’d lost his natural golden glow. Not only that, if Verrie wasn’t mistaken, long, sharp claws extended from the ends of his fingers and gripped the arms of his chair. His lovely petite wife, Quinn, stood behind him scratching the backs of his ears, trying to ease some of his tension—without success.
“I’ll try to be gentle,” Nergal attempted to calm the cat god. “Normally, I’m pulling information from reluctant…guests. You’ll be more of an open book.” He screwed up one side of his face. “Which reminds me.” The king looked at Marduk. “I need to tell you what I’ve finished extracting from Nedu.” He looked agitated before getting back to the cat god.
“So, Sham, if you don’t fight me, and you let me wander through your archives freely, I should be able to complete this quickly…if not quite painlessly.”
Shamash blanched further and nodded his head. “Let’s just get it over with.”
“Fine,” the king agreed, before confirming with Marduk. “I’m looking for a list of the women Shamash slept with before he was brought to hell in…240 BC. Is that correct?”
Shamash was the one to answer. “Unless I’m a complete idiot, I’d say you were looking for some of the last women I slept with.” He looked back at his wife and apologized with. Sorry, honey, but I did some serious catting around in my younger days. Even though Aya was my consort, she was not my only bed-partner nor I hers. We had what people now refer to as an open relationship.
It was clear to Verrie, Quinn would forgive him anything as she squeezed his shoulder in solidarity before he continued. “But whoever I fu..ah, slept with had to have gotten pregnant right before I left because if I’d made some women pregnant well before I was banished, you can bet I would have been called on it. There was no way any father back in ancient Babylon would have passed up an opportunity for his daughter to marry a god, especially one of justice and salvation.”
“Also,” he pinned Dumuzi with a compassionate stare, “according to Muze, his episodes began in 239 BC., the year I got sent to hell.”
“Okay, so the last year of your ancient life on earth, it is.” Nergal placed his hands on Shamash’s skull and everyone, including Veronica, held their breath.
Chapter Thirteen
Verrie watched carefully.
Shamash’s body went rigid, and his face took on a blankness that was scary…for everybody. The cat-god’s friends had ceased their teasing banter and wasn’t that just an indicator of how serious this operation was?
No one made a sound as Nergal’s jaw twitched and clenched. It was as if he devoured the information coming from Sham’s brain and found it not to his taste. When the king’s visage finally cleared, everyone took a deep breat
h. Dumuzi sent Verrie a private, brief explanation.
Nergal wound his way back through Sham’s memories and must have seen all the shit we went through in hell…shit that was mostly Nergal’s fault. I guess he didn’t like seeing his own handiwork which fucking serves him right.
There was a pause.
He’s past that now, Muze continued. See how his eyes are doing a REM-like movement, processing information? Oh. There. A grin. He must be on earth for Sham’s last year in Babylon. Seems like Nergal could be getting an eyeful. I’ll bet our god of justice is meting out something extremely x-rated for the king to be so amused.
And just like that, it was all over. Nergal came back into the present, sporting a huge smile. Sham, drained and shaken in the aftermath, at least hadn’t fallen out of his chair. That had to be a good sign, but everyone looked worried nonetheless.
It’s very dangerous to do a mind-suck, Dumuzi told her. If handled incorrectly, one can be left as nothing but a shell. He didn’t sound too worried, though, and Verrie gained some comfort from that. Nergal and Dagon are two of the best at it I’ve ever seen. Sham will be fine.
Marduk stalked over to the rousing god. “Sham. Can you speak? Do you know who I am?” Marduk placed a hand on the god’s shoulder, gripping tightly and looking concerned.
Shamash raised his eyes from under a suffusion of golden curls which had dropped into a face covered with sweat. “Yeah.” His voice was weak and raspy. “You’re the asshole who let Nergal plunder my brain. Fuck you, Marduk.”
“Now, now, Shamash,” Nergal chuckled, and Marduk broke into a big smile. “My trip through your gray matter was worth every minute of your pain.” The king looked extremely satisfied with himself, and as Shamash regained his equilibrium, his need to ask showed foremost on his face.