Marked by Death (The Godhunter, Book 4)

by Sumida, Amy

  The slap rang out in the silent room. I barely felt the sting, I was so shocked. And really, after all I'd just been through, it was nothing.

  “A bitch am I?” She was shaking in her anger, red faced with rage. “Well look who’s down on the floor in chains. The Godhunter enslaved, the great huntress is finally brought low and I for one intend to make use of it.”

  She brought her hand back for another slap and I stared at her with complete indifference, making no move to block or otherwise defend myself. I’d been tortured by the best and if I could stand being manacled to a wall while Aphrodite tore my back into ribbons with a whip, I could stand being slapped by Dementor.

  But before the slap could land, a hand shot out from behind me and casually caught hers. I looked over my shoulder in surprise. Anubis barely spared me a glance, he was too busy glaring at Demeter.

  “She’s mine,” his voice was cool, the breath of ghosts over the grave, with the threat of a thunderstorm beneath. “I’ve allowed you one strike, since your ego is so easily injured but that is the last time you’ll test my hospitality by damaging something of mine.”

  “I may be down now, Demeter,” I held my chin up, “but things change. When they do, I’ll be coming for you. For what you did to Kirill, to Trevor, and to Al. You’re going to pay.”

  Demeter turned red, sputtered, and was about to start raging again, when the lady on my right spoke.

  “I always found it easiest to be graceful when I’ve won,” she mused. “A goddess especially should show mercy in victory. Yes, victory is easy,” she turned and finally rested those black eyes on me. “It’s grace in defeat that’s difficult. In ruin, the true character is shown and I find that I’m struck in awe, not of your anger, Demeter but of her strength. Welcome to Death’s Door, Godhunter. I judge you worthy.”

  A shiver coursed over me, my eyes tearing to look full on the magnificent beauty before me, and I bowed my head slightly as I heard Anubis’ sharp intake of breath behind me.

  “May I forever honor that judgment by remaining worthy, Lady…” the formal words poured automatically from my lips, as if I’d been speaking them forever.

  “Ma’at,” she rested a hand on my head and I felt the whisper of feathers rustling against my skin.

  “Lady Ma’at,” I smiled, grateful to have found some bit of kindness in the midst of my nightmare.

  Demeter raised her head and turned away stiffly. She went back to her seat and sat down with a haughty sniff. Ares looked thoughtful but it wasn’t me he was staring at, it was Ma’at. He caught me watching him though and changed his look to pure hostility.

  “Ares?” Anubis filled the god’s name with a wealth of meaning.

  “You’ll have no issue with me,” Ares changed his expression to apathy. “It’s well enough that she’s caught and shall suffer.”

  “Good,” Anubis looked toward the end of the table, where a door opened and two servants entered carrying large trays of food.

  The servants barely spared me a glance, intent on setting down their heavy burdens. With them came the smell of roasted meat, which filled the room, competing with baked bread and grilled vegetables. Pots of butter, wedges of cheese, and pitchers of wine completed the meal. I sniffed again, the lioness in me picked up another scent beneath that of the food… jackal. The servants were all werejackals.

  Hmph, go figure.

  The gods helped themselves, setting to the food with gusto, and I tried to ignore the rumbling of my belly, since no one had thought to give me a plate. Anubis casually cut his meat and then took a thin strip between his fingers and held it out to me. I felt my teeth clench and looked up at him like he was the mongrel at my table. I was not about to eat from his hand.

  “You will eat from my hand,” his eyes swirled with light and color and I frowned. “Did you think I’d left your mind now that you’re here? I’m inside you now. I told you there’s no escape from death. Now accept the meat from my hand or I’ll control your body and force you to take it.”

  I looked down at the strip he was holding, feeling my pride, wither. I reached for my beasts, my magic, but felt nothing. It was as if the cold he’d driven out had actually just been driven into the core of me, into my magic. The beasts were there but they were cowed, the magic frozen.

  “Your magic is mine,” he lowered his face into mine, his midnight hair swinging against my cheek. The gold beads clacking together like bones. “You can’t use it against me. Now eat,” his eyes sparked and the colors faded away to black before his voice lowered. “Please eat, Miw-sher.”

  My heart fluttered, the heat he filled me with, spiking. I slowly bent my head, keeping my eyes on his, and took the meat in my mouth. My lips lingered on the tips of his fingers and when he sucked in his breath, it gave me an idea. I’d beat him at his own game. I bit his fingers lightly, pulling them into my mouth and sucking them clean. He wanted me to eat from his hands? Well then I’d do it like a lover, not a pet.

  His hand trembled slightly when I finally released it and his eyes filled with dark colors only, the jewel tones of passion. He sat up slowly, keeping his eyes on me and taking another piece of meat from his plate. He held it down to me and I took it again with the greatest sensuality, watching as his breath quickened and his pulse fluttered at his throat.

  “You have yet to ask what I think,” the thin Egyptian man broke the spell and Anubis reluctantly looked over at him.

  “About what, Thoth?” It made me smile to hear the quiver in Anubis’ voice.

  I caught movement in the corner of my eye and when I looked over at Ma’at, she was watching me shrewdly. I shrugged, indicating that I was doing the best I could under the circumstances, and she smiled softly and nodded. Finally, I’d found an honorable female adversary.

  “About your new pet,” Thoth’s words brought me back to the conversation. The God of Knowledge would undoubtedly have something smart to say… or smart ass, you never know. Either way, I didn’t want to miss hearing it.

  “What do you think, then?” Anubis’ expression became guarded.

  “I think it’s folly to have brought her here,” his thin neck looked almost too fragile to hold his head and I was abruptly reminded of the ibis he could reputedly turn into. “You’re much too fascinated by her, you have been since she set her teeth into you. What’s even more troubling, is that you’ve hid that fascination beneath the guise of vengeance. Who will be the prisoner in the end? I’m not certain it shall be your Lady Lion.”

  “There’s nothing troubling about fascination,” Anubis gave me a sideways glance. “A toy can be fascinating.”

  “Maybe, but be careful when you play with this one. She has a look about her.” Thoth peered at me but I refused to meet his gaze.

  “A look?” Anubis’ mouth twisted in a sly smile.

  “A look of victory, or even worse… fate. Be careful that she doesn’t change yours.”

  “I’m merely teaching the Godhunter that there are repercussions for attacking gods,” Anubis looked down on me but I kept my gaze on the floor. “Do you want some more, Miw-sher?”

  I nodded, still keeping my gaze on the black obsidian.

  “Then ask me,” he pulled a little on the chain and I looked up at his face, the sharp angles of his cheekbones, the regal nose, the firm lips. I tried to focus on his beauty, so he wouldn’t be able to read the anger in my mind. “Ask me to feed you.”

  “I want more,” I lowered my voice to a purr. “Will you give it to me, Lord Death?” I leaned in, softening my eyes and focusing on his lips.

  “Oh, yes,” his breath caught as he raised my chin and fed me a small piece of carrot.

  I rolled my eyes up to his and delicately licked butter off his fingers.

  “See,” Thoth threw his hands up. “She’s barely here an hour and now your toy is playing with you.”

  “I told you she’s a whore,” Ares gestured at me with his wineglass before taking a swig. “What do you expect?”

  I st
ood up and stared down the table at Ares. “Fuck you, Ares, cause that's what he's going to do to me,” I made it sound as neutral as possible, like I was talking about what color shirt he was wearing but everyone gasped, everyone but Anubis. “Well, you are, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” his eyes were rich swirling jewels again, “Repeatedly.”

  “Tonight?” I tried to stop my hands from shaking, my mind from screaming.

  “Yes.”

  “Then does it make me a whore to accept it,” I looked back to Ares, “to try and make the best of it?”

  “Yes, it does,” Ares sneered. “An honorable woman would fight him.”

  “I can’t fight him, he controls my body and turns it against me,” my whole body was trembling with rage, my lioness perking up her ears at it.

  “You seem to be doing just fine right now,” Ares leaned back in his chair and looked me up and down.

  “Because I’m allowing it,” Anubis’ hand stroked down the back of my arm and the cat inside me hissed.

  “You’re still a whore,” Ares ignored Anubis and concentrated on me. His eyes were gleaming and I knew then that he’d been biding his time, waiting for the perfect opportunity to torment me. “They say that you fuck Fenrir as well as his pup, that sex is the tool you used to get the Great Wolf to accept you as mate for his son.”

  The mention of Trevor and then Fenrir, sent me over the edge. My lioness rose up and slipped from my skin, turned me into the beast as I jumped over the table at Ares. I went for his throat but he blocked me in time and all I was able to get was an arm, an arm without a hand.

  In the back of my mind, I remembered Trevor biting off that hand during the last battle. I felt a large amount of pride in my mate and it urged me along. I tore at Ares viciously, never letting up, until I felt my body weaken and fall back.

  The collar had grown with me and I looked down to see that the cuffs were still in place too. Must be magic. I huffed through my feline nose and looked over my shoulder, to see Anubis holding the gold chain again. He pulled me away, a hint of amusement in his eyes. Ares was groaning and writhing beneath me, covered in blood. The scent of his blood teased me and all I wanted in that second was to finish the deed, to kill Ares and lap up his blood till it cooled.

  But Anubis led me away, his control of my body working just as well on my lioness form as it did on my human. I looked up at him as I walked down the hall beside him and mewled. He casually scratched me behind the ears and I knocked at his hand when he stopped.

  “You’re beautiful in both of your forms, Miw-sher,” he led us back to his bedroom and I cringed when the door shut with an ominous thud. “But I’d rather see your human shape now.”

  I felt the heat of him rip through me, sucking the lioness back within me with quick efficiency. In seconds I was human again, lying on his silky rugs, shaking with the stress his demand had put on my body. I could barely lift my head. So when he approached me, I just cringed, unsure of whether I could withstand a sexual assault in that state. But all he did was throw a pelt on me. The sweet scent of wolf musk filled my nose.

  “Go to sleep,” he stripped his clothes off as he walked to the bed. “I want you strong when I take you.” I felt him pick up the chain and heard a click as he locked it around one of the bed posts.

  A relieved breath escaped my lungs as all the candles in the room suddenly extinguished. That’s when I realized what I was holding, what he’d given me to keep me warm… a wolf pelt. I hugged the skin close, burying my face in the thick fur and letting the scent carry me away. I was home, safe in the arms of my Wolf Prince. I wasn’t on the floor of Death’s bedchamber, huddling in fear and mourning the loss of my morality and pride.

  I controlled myself until I heard Anubis’ even breathing and then I finally let go of my tears. I’d never see Trevor again and that meant more than my broken heart, that meant that he’d die and part of me would die with him. Fenrir would go insane and what of Odin, Vali, and Vidar? Were they searching for me? Would they realize who took me? What would become of my lions or Nick?

  I cried but even knowing Anubis was asleep, I was too proud to cry out loud in his home. So instead, I let the tears go as silently as possible and stifled the worst of my sobs in the fur. When I was spent completely, even more exhausted than I was before, I laid the pelt across my nude body and curled up, to fall into a coma-like sleep.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Trevor was touching me, waking me up in my favorite way, with his loving. His warm hands were at my throat, over my breasts, along my ribs, and finally between my legs. I moaned, rolling my head, too tired to open my heavy eyes just yet. I decided to enjoy the half-awake state of sensuality and spread my legs to bring him closer.

  I felt his thick body slide between my legs, his hands gliding up my thighs and opening me wider. Then he was over me, one hand propping him up while the other took my breast. I sighed as his face lowered to it and surrounded the crest of it in warm wet sensation. Then his mouth came higher, over my neck, to nibble at the spot he liked to mark, his tongue shooting out to taste the tip of my ear.

  “Wrap your legs around me, Miw-sher,” his voice sounded different, not as deep but more resonating, like power filled his every word. And when had he started calling me kitten in Egyptian? How did I even know what the Egyptian word for kitten was?

  My eyes shot open as Anubis plunged into me and I screamed denial even as my body’s liquid heat welcomed him. I felt him prod my mind, claim control of my body, and I screamed inwardly as he made me his. My legs lifted and hooked around his hips as he’d requested, my arms closed in around his waist and clawed at his shoulders with desire, and my lips searched for his, all as I continued to scream internally.

  His mouth was eager to claim, tongue immediately thrusting to meet mine, and lips sliding over me possessively. When he broke away, it was only to conquer another part of me. He bit at my throat, pulling sounds from it I didn’t want to make, and then he was pushing my breasts together so he could suck both nipples into his mouth at once. I nearly came off the bed.

  The bed, when had I got into his bed?

  It didn’t matter because then he was lifting my legs over his shoulders, my hips completely in the air, so he could slam deeper into my yielding body. With a sudden movement, he withdrew from me and flipped me over. I cried out, unsure if I was relieved or disappointed.

  Before I could get up, he had my wrist in his hand and was pulling my ankle up to meet it. I heard a click and when he let go, my limbs remained pinned.

  “What are you doing?” I looked back at him and saw he was doing the same to my other side. “I’m not fighting you. You don’t have to do this.”

  He flipped me back over, my knees coming up high, so my arms didn’t have to strain. Then he slowly pushed them apart, almost to the point of pain, and lowered himself between them. I felt him slide into me, going even deeper than before, and I whimpered.

  “I just like seeing you this way,” he looked down on me and the jewel tones were dancing in his eyes once more.

  A clicking warned me that he had a hold of the chain leading to my collar. I panicked, looking up at his hand, afraid of what he’d do next, and he laughed. It was a purely sexual sound and it rippled along my skin like soft fur. Then my head jerked back as he drew the chain through a loop at the head of the bed. Another click told me I was fastened tight and he smiled down at me as he pumped harder.

  I closed my eyes and tried to pretend it was Trevor, Trevor above me and inside me, Trevor’s new game of tying me up. Trevor, Trevor, Trevor, it became a chant in my mind until I felt Anubis screaming in rage inside my head.

  “Look at us,” he lifted a hand off the bed to angle my head down. I closed my eyes tight. “Look at us! Watch me take you, Godhunter. That’s my cock in you, the only one you will ever feel again!”

  He forced my eyes open, made me look at the thick length of him, slick with my passion, sliding in and out of me. I shuddered and felt my resolve
break. I just wasn’t strong enough for this. Anubis had studied me until he knew exactly which buttons to push and he’d easily manipulated me. It wasn't even about the sex. It was the humiliation, the loss of control, the betrayal of my love for Trevor, and those stupid damn chains that I always seemed to end up in. I did the one thing I swore I’d never do in front of my enemies, I cried.

  He rocketed into his climax above me, giving one last hard thrust before collapsing over me. His cheek landed next to mine and he jerked as he realized it was wet with tears. Pulling back, he looked at me strangely and I looked away. I couldn't bear to see his triumph. I felt him move above me, then at each side, and was grateful when my body eased free of the humiliating position.

  I rolled onto my side, going fetal and hiding my face from him. It didn’t really matter, he knew he’d won, but I'd keep as much from him as I could. I spread my hands over my face, feeling justified in all my previous kills. This was the face of evil. To infiltrate his way into my thoughts, make me comfortable enough to talk to him, tell him things I never should have, and then to use that knowledge to torture me, was the pinnacle of diabolical plots. This was the type of god I'd set out to stop.

  I might seem like a vigilante to some. Like some kind of unknown comic book hero who fights the villains in the dark of night for the common good. I'm so not that person. Yes, saving humanity was a pretty good bonus to killing gods but if I'm totally honest, it was all about saving myself.

  When I found out about the gods, after I'd made my first accidental kill, I barricaded myself in my house for days, maybe weeks, I don't remember much about that time. I was just so damned scared. Then I got tired of staring out my windows, waiting for the boogeyman to appear.