by Crystal Dawn
These people were just plain sick to do what they had to this man. She had always thought of herself as a decent and nice person. She would try to help this guy, she averted her eyes from his exposed goods but they were drawn back to his incredible body time and time again. She heard sounds from above and realized someone was finally there.
“It’s okay now, Hoss, someone’s here to help you. I’ll stick with you, too, until I’m sure everything will be fine.”
Two EMTs came in with their gear and one started to take vitals and ask her questions while the other opened a kit waiting to see what would be needed. The one squatting beside the kit was a female and El noticed her eyes were checking the patient out and she didn’t look at him in a clinical way either. It made her want to find a blanket and cover him up.
He was built like a Greek god, once you got past all the injuries and the dirt he had been left covered in. His odd Mohawk style haircut didn’t detract from his good looks a bit, it just drew attention to his strong facial features and made him look downright badass. She shivered, damn that man was getting to her in a visceral way. She wanted him, even though he lay there helpless as a newborn babe, but she also wanted to protect him, from everyone except herself. She had never felt more like a slut in her life. The man was hurt, not looking to get laid.
Once they cleaned his wounds, his healing seemed almost superhuman. The EMTs were amazed and speculating that someone was running an illegal lab researching healing medications using unwilling subjects. It actually made sense to her considering all that she knew, which admittedly wasn’t much. She rode with him in the ambulance and she held his hand so he wouldn’t feel alone even though the tingle that ran up her arm gave her an odd feeling. She’d never experienced anything like it, she hadn’t even heard of such a thing.
Lucy, the female EMT, had tried to discourage her from staying with the patient. It was against the rules for nonrelated individuals to accompany patients, but El’s cousin owned the hospital and her brother was the mayor. Lucy knew better than to try to force the issue. El didn’t trust that oversexed hussy with this patient, or any other gorgeous naked unconscious man.
The trip went quickly, they moved him into a private room and she moved to the visitor’s chair beside his bed. Why did she feel the need to watch over this man she had just found? Was it the fact that she felt drawn to him as she had never felt drawn to a man or the fact that she felt something for him, he was after all helpless and had been brutalized? Health care professionals came in and out, taking x-rays, blood tests, and checking his temperature and blood pressure. He was starting to react by moving away from any touch but hers, and making growling noises. She tried to talk to him hoping he wouldn’t wake angry and unaware of where he was.
He was slowly waking, she was sure it wouldn’t be long. She could feel him pressing on her hand so she pressed back lightly to comfort him. He moved and moaned, so she stood up stroking his cheek as she whispered to him. His hand tightened around her wrist and she looked down into wide gray eyes that glowed. She didn’t have the sense to be scared even though he reached up and pulled her down by her shoulders. He kissed her and she closed her eyes as fireworks exploded behind her eyes. Her whole body reacted to him on the most basic level as she shivered with need. She forgot where she was, even who she , for moments as the kiss deepened before he let her go and pulled away.
“Who are you and where am I?” he asked with a voice rough from disuse and a throat that must be very dry.
“I’m El, I found you in a house I rent out. They were doing terrible things to you. You’re safe now, just concentrate on healing so you can go home.” She searched his face, but the thought of going home didn’t seem to make him happy.
“No home. I need to leave, they’ll come get me,” he said starting to get frantic.
She didn’t know how to calm him so she said the first thing that popped into her mind. “When the doctor releases you, I’ll help you find somewhere safe.” Why had she made a commitment to him like that? She had her own crazy life to deal with.
El was a good person or at least she thought she was. Calling the police and staying by his side until he was awake had been enough, hadn’t it? Now she had agreed to help him get back to his regular life, whatever that was. She looked up as Doc Rains came into the room looking at the patient’s chart.
“Well, what do we have here?” he asked looking at this man who was nearly healed. He moved closer and started to touch a wound that looked a week old or more but had been fresh when he was brought in. The man growled low, deep, and threatening. The doc moved back quickly.
“I’m just trying to help you, but I understand you’ve been abused. Let’s just take this slow and we’ll see what kind of damage you have and what’s healed. Why don’t we start with your name?”
“No name.”
“You have amnesia? It’s not unusual in these type of cases. Do you remember anything at all? How long were you kept by them, what did they give you? Anything might help us help you.”
The man just stared at the doc like he was an oddity. “El, do you know anything about what they did to him?”
All she knew was he was being kept in sexual servitude and that wasn’t something she wanted to discuss. She knew her face was bright red as she shook her head. “I just discovered him in the basement of the house on the north side of my property. I called the police, the ambulance, and waited for them to help him. I was totally caught off guard by this whole thing. Some people are just nuts, total fruit, if you know what I mean?”
“I don’t think this was done because of insanity. They were cruel, yes, but they had a purpose in this. We think they were testing some kind of drugs on him. That might account for his memory loss. I’m afraid it may even be permanent,” the doctor said sadly. “Other than that, he seems to be healing rapidly and there is no permanent damage that we’ve found.”
“He wants to leave, so is he clear to go?” El asked.
“With what he’s been through, we’d really like to keep him overnight for observation.”
“No,” the man said.
“We can’t make him stay, but it would be for the best,” the doctor looked at El appealing to her to help him convince his patient to stay.
“He wants to leave so if you could speed up his discharge? I need to be home before the kids get there.”
“Okay, El. But this isn’t a good idea. We don’t know what he’s been through or what kind of drugs he’s been given.”
“I’m fine!” he insisted.
El examined him closely. He was calm and in control, she had no idea why, but she trusted him. He was a big guy, but his ribs showed because he’d been starved. They hadn’t fed him at the hospital yet, but he had to be hungry. If they could get him out quick enough, she’d get him some lunch. The doctor left clearly disappointed but El thought he just wanted to monitor the man’s healing and try to find out what he’d been given. Medical curiosity was no reason to keep someone in the hospital. El hated staying in the hospital herself, so she understood his desire to leave.
Someone found a pair of sweatpants that stretched enough for him but he had to leave shirtless and shoeless. He didn’t seem to mind, he was anxious to get out of there. They brought him forms, but with no name to sign, he had to put John Doe. The hospital would eventually write off his bill since the man clearly had nothing of his own.
He followed El out where her brother picked them up. He looked at the man with her suspiciously, after all he was trusting his little sister to his company. “Are you sure you should do this, El?” Slay asked. Slay was short for Slayten which was their mother’s maiden name. She had called him as soon as she was sure the hospital planned to release him.
“He needs someone to help him and I promised,” she said.
“He looks like he’s had it rough. Are you sure he’s stable?”
“As much as anyone I know, I’d bet.”
“Not saying much, is it?” Slay asked wit
h a chuckle.
She knew Slay worried about her, but he trusted her judgment, maybe more than he should considering some of the decisions she’d made as an adult. “No, we’re a crazy bunch around here.”
The man watched and listened closely, his eyes alert and full of intelligence. She shivered again, when she looked at him, she remembered she was a woman. It wouldn’t be long and Slay would drop them off, they’d be alone. It both thrilled and terrified her.
Slay pulled up in front of her house. She looked at it the way a stranger might who was seeing it for the for the first time. It was a three bedroom, two bath contemporary style brick home. It was about twenty years old, give or take a few years. There was a chain link fence around the yard that kept Buddy, their black Lab, inside, at least most of the time. Buddy was too smart for his own good and was constantly finding ways to get out when it suited him. He had even figured out how to open the gate when they had a simple hook closing it. It had called for tougher measures.
He barked as they drew closer and his tongue lolled out on one side of his mouth. His intelligent eyes glowed with happiness. She could always count on him to be happy to see her no matter what the day brought their way. He was truly her best friend.
“This is Buddy. Watch it because he’s very friendly and he will jump on you. It’s his way of greeting you.”
“Pretty dog.”
“Thank you. We’re very attached to him. What do you want me to call you? I can’t just say hey, you.”
“Morpheus.”
“Isn’t that some kind of god?”
“Greek god of dreams.”
Greek god, could he be? Maybe she would get online and contact the website. He probably wasn’t, what were the odds? Meanwhile she would settle him in and walk to the bus stop to meet her kids. She had really gotten behind and they would have to go to town to pick up some fast food. She took him to Cassie’s room. Cassie could sleep with her while Morpheus stayed with them.
“This is my daughter’s room, it will be yours until we get you situated.”
“Why can’t I stay in your room?”
El’s face turned beet red. “I’m just helping you out. I hope I didn’t give you the wrong impression, but we are not going to be sleeping together.”
“Why not? Are you with someone else?”
El choked. “No, I’m not with anyone and I don’t plan on being with anyone.” But if I did, dear Lord help me it would be him.
“Why don’t you rest while I pick up my kids.”
He sat on the bed testing it and it it held up just fine. He bounced a bit, like a kid might before he settled down and laid back on the pillows. She left him hoping he would sleep while she walked down the road to the bus stop. She worried about what her kids would think, about what her relatives might believe, and how complicated things might get before she figured out what to do with him.
Chapter 3
Morpheus
He’d fallen asleep, it surprised him. He’d dreamed of the life he had lived before and after he’d been separated from his brothers. His life hadn’t been easy, not ever and this little human female had shown him the only kindness he could ever remember receiving. She was beautiful, so much the female he had always wanted sent to him than those frightened scrawny females he had used because his sex drive gave him no choice. This one, he would find a way to have her, then he would keep her.
He moved restlessly in his sleep even when he remembered his childhood. He had been more a loner than the others, except for Hades and Lucifer who understood what it meant to be feared even by most of their brothers. They’d hid their curse from those who kept them in prison, but their brothers sensed those powers and knew they could spell death for them all. He and Hades had often been paired up in training and learning when it was necessary and even sometimes when it wasn’t.
Lucifer had hung with them, here and there, the king of demons, but he wasn’t allowed to be near most of them, demon or otherwise. Morpheus felt for him because he knew lonely better than most. He relived his first mission, he lead his own team and while they lost none of their own, he was certain they had killed innocents that day. He hated Origin and everything they stood for and he wouldn’t return to them, not alive.
His dream took an odd twist. It was El, he saw her clearly with her glossy long black hair. Her pale blue eyes looked into his with the same desire he felt. Her curvy body, voluptuous by any standards, wrapped only in a towel, a towel she dropped as she stood right before him. His mouth watered as he viewed her ample breasts, her rounded belly, and her full hips, he liked his females with a little meat on their bones and she didn’t disappoint.
Before he could pull her into his arms, she was gone. In her place was that bitch that had tried to force him to have sex with her. It was so real, for a moment he could smell her. Dread shot through his system as he feared his escape had only been a dream. What would he do if he woke up to find he was still captured? What could he do? His dream was taking on a scary life of its own as Cutter, the doctor that wanted to give birth to the next god, tried to force herself on him. She held a needle in one hand and a scalpel in the other, not the first time she had sat astride him in that exact way.
She seemed to be weighing which hand she would use to encourage his intimacy, as if that would work. The scalpel seemed to win out and her hand slowly lowered toward him. Sweat broke out all over his body, a conditioned response to the pain that was coming. His body tensed, even though he knew that would only make the pain worse. He looked into her cold, soulless eyes and saw the satisfaction on her cruel face. His body jerked in anticipation of the pain that would soon wrack him and there was nothing except sunlight streaming through a nearby window.
He was laying in a bed that smelled of sweet innocence. It was soft and somehow comforting, he reached next to the bed pulling a snuggly teddy bear into his arms. He must have pressed a button because the bear began to talk.
“Hi, I’m Mr. Snugi. Do you want to be my friend? I love you!”
Morpheus looked in wonder at the plush toy, amazed how much he relaxed as he listened to the message intended for a child. He held the bear in his arms and went back to sleep. He woke up maybe thirty minutes later to the inspection of a pair of pale blue eyes much like El’s.
“You can keep Mr. Snugli to sleep with while you’re here if you want. He gives really good hugs,” a serious looking young girl said. “My name is Cassie, what’s yours?” She inclined her head to show she was waiting for an answer. She smiled shyly as if she thought she might have scared him. He decided right that moment that he liked this girl. She was kind, like her mother, she looked a lot like her too.
A head pushed up from behind her with big brown eyes. “I would have shared my room with you, but Mom picked Cassie’s room for you.” He hadn’t said a word yet as he watched them watching him.
“Thanks,” he told them with a blink of his eyes. He’d never been around kids much. The generations of gods were largely kept separate by Origin.
“Cassie, Donnie where are you two?” he recognized El’s voice as she yelled for the kids.
They looked at each other. “Gotta go,” they both said in unison as they took off. He looked down at his chest where the bear lay in his stranglehold. He sheepishly put it back where he had found it. What would his brothers say? He flushed a little as he thought what their comments might be. No matter how much he normally scared them, they wouldn’t let something like this go. He chuckled to himself, if it happened to one of his brothers, he wouldn’t let it go either.
He got up and walked out of the room and into the kitchen where El was giving the kids a snack. As soon as she saw him, her cheeks turned a lovely pink and she went to get him a snack as well. He got the same apple slices, cheese chunks, peanut butter cracker snack, the kids did, but his was ten times as much. His glass of milk was much larger too and he got seconds. Maybe it wasn’t a big deal to most people, and he could see that El was the type of person that took car
e of others, but it gave him a warm feeling inside that she was looking out for him.
A feeling was coming over him that he had never felt before. It was warm and cuddly, but also hot and needy. It was strong, too strong to fight it but he didn’t know how to act on it. He was ready to have a home and a mate, and he had already picked one to create the other with. Now he just had to convince the lady in question to mate with a male who had nothing but a sordid past and people with unlimited money and resources out to get him. No big deal, huh?
Morpheus had never been a worrier, it wasn’t in his nature. He was, however, a planner, and a damn good one. He would see what information the kids might give him. He was pretty sure their advice could make all the difference. At their age, he had already been training to be a killer. He saw the way they both watched him and their mother with curiosity. Had she had men over before? Was someone else vying for a place at her side? He’d find out and then he would crush the opposition as he always did on his missions.
The kids finished eating and went outside to play. He finished eating and sat there watching her clean up. “There’s not much to do around here. You can go outside and the kids will show you around or watch TV in the living room,” El said. “When the kids go to school tomorrow, I’ll go to town and buy you some stuff. I’m sure you’d like some clothes, shoes, and other things like that.”
“I’ll go too.”
“Okay, If you want to, but we’ll have to get you shoes and a shirt before you can go in the stores.”
He went into the living room to play with the remote. El went into a room that looked like an office to catch up on some work. He was bored with the television, he really hadn’t ever watched much and when he had, it had been movies with his fellow gods. He peaked in and saw El was on the computer typing away. He decided to go find the kids.
They weren’t hard to find. They were in the back yard which was surrounded with a privacy fence that had locked gates. They had entered on the side of the house when she had brought him here, so he hadn’t seen the front or back very well. It was a habit he had, to look for exits and entrances. It came from years of hard missions where survival was not only not guaranteed, but sometimes unlikely. It was a nice set up she had for the kids. There was a basketball goal, a small pool that was covered and locked for the winter, a selection of toys that were age appropriate, or at least he assumed they were, a wooden playhouse that looked like it was built on site, and some playground equipment like a slide and monkey bars. He’d go so far as to say the kids were spoiled and they were clearly El’s priority as they should be.