by Brey Willows
Ama laughed. “Well, I figured you’d be starving, and it never hurts to have food when talking about how life should proceed.”
Dani and the others grabbed some for themselves before they fanned out around the table.
“Next step?” Kera asked after she’d downed her second piece.
Tis put her half-eaten slice down and looked at Zed. “We follow the constitution.”
He kept eating but looked at her contemplatively. “I’ll need to convene the high council. The things we put in place…it will be up to the three of you to carry out the verdicts.”
Meg raised her hand to speak. “Both councils. This affects everyone, and now isn’t the time to piss anyone off. Satan and Hades fought beside us, not below us.”
Zed sighed. “You’re right. I need to stop thinking like it’s the old days.” He turned to Dani. “I assume you’ll take your place at the table, now that you’ve achieved goddess status?”
Dani wasn’t sure how to respond. She’d been so busy learning how to be a god, she hadn’t thought about the politics of it all. “High council members, and low council, for that matter, are the oldest gods of the biggest religions. I don’t factor into either of those.”
Meg shook her head. “True, but not true. You run a department bigger than anyone else’s, that actually includes every follower and non-follower on earth, and you have for three thousand years. That makes you more powerful in a lot of ways than some of the high council gods.” She took a noisy slurp of Coke and continued. “Plus, now that you’re rebranding and working with every department, your opinion on things is going to matter a lot.”
Dani looked back at Zed, who simply grabbed another piece of pizza and nodded.
“Sure. Thank you. I’d be honored.”
“Okay. I think we’ve had enough insanity for one century. I’m going to convene the councils at an emergency meeting tomorrow, and I’d like all of you there.” He stood, and Ama stood with him. “We’re going to go show how grateful we are to be on the winning side. I suggest you all do the same.”
Meg turned to Dani. “My place?”
Dani stood and took Meg’s hand. “You lead.” Time alone with Meg was something she wouldn’t have contemplated as possible only a few short months ago. Now she knew she’d gladly trade her soul for the time they spent together.
* * *
Meg snuggled closer to Dani and listened to her steady heartbeat. “Do you ever wonder why we have heartbeats? And why we have bodily functions? Why we swallow, and fart, and cry?”
Dani laughed. “I think I get what you mean, but go on.”
Meg shivered as Dani traced gentle circles over her back and along the top edges of her wings. They’d barely made it through the door before they’d begun tearing each other’s clothes off, and Meg was only halfway on the couch before Dani was on her knees with her mouth over Meg’s clit. It had taken another hour and two more rooms before they’d made it to the bedroom. And when Meg had passed Dani the leather harness and dildo set, it had been another few hours before they’d finally collapsed, momentarily sated. “I mean, take you and me, for instance. We’re immortal, right? We live, we don’t age, we don’t die. Why bother with the actual physical element of being?”
Dani kissed the top of Meg’s head. “I wondered that a few centuries ago myself. But I never came up with an answer. Maybe it’s because we’re creations of the human world, to some extent, and they can’t conceive of beings without physical properties. And the longer we’ve been among them, the more that’s become true for ourselves as well.”
Meg pinched Dani’s thigh. “You sound like Selene.” She pushed up onto one elbow and looked at Dani. “And that, by the way, was amazing.”
Dani swallowed, her eyes glassy. “Her soul was warm, light. I guess I thought that as daughter of the moon and darkness, it would be cool, maybe even cold. But it was like handling spring sunshine dipped in poetry.”
Meg sighed and dropped back onto the bed with her head on Dani’s chest. “You say some of the most beautiful things.” She paused, thinking about what Dani had said and all they’d been through. “Can I tell you something?”
Dani started to shift to look at her, but Meg put her hand on Dani’s stomach and stopped her. “No, just listen, okay?”
“Is everything okay?”
Dani’s tone was soft, and Meg heard the worry in it. “I think so. I hope so.” She took a deep breath. Don’t be a chicken feather. “All my life, I’ve lived like there might not be a tomorrow. I’ve concentrated on being in the moment, and I’ve enjoyed every second.” Dani started to speak, and Meg stopped her again. “Wait. Let me get this out.” Dani settled, and Meg could feel the tension in her hand as she stroked her back. “But I’ve never once let anyone get close to me. I had my sisters, and they were all I needed when it came to people really getting to know me. I’ve had a lot of sex.” She giggled when Dani harrumphed. “And I’ve met a ton of amazing and not-amazing people.” Finally, she dug up some courage and moved to look into Dani’s beautiful eyes. “But now I think all these centuries, I was just waiting for you. No one could understand me, or want me, the way you do. No one else looks at me like I’m the only thing they ever want to look at again the way you do. And I like that. A lot.” She stopped, not knowing exactly what to say next, but knowing there was so much more.
Dani sat up and turned to face her. “Megara, I’ve spent centuries loving you. I’ve waited in the background like the most socially awkward teenager in recorded history, thinking I’m not good enough for you, that I’m too boring for you. That I could never match your passion.”
Meg let the tears roll down her cheeks and started to speak, but Dani squeezed her hands.
“My turn.” She smiled and kissed the tears from Meg’s lips. “But now, I think we’re pretty damn good together. Your passion heats my soul and makes me want to do impossible things just to make you smile. I think you’re an amazing woman, and the fact that you’d choose to spend time with me, for however long I can have you, makes me the luckiest being in any universe there is.”
Meg threw her arms around Dani’s neck and straddled her. She couldn’t get close enough to show her what those words meant to her. “I love you too. And if you’ll put up with me forever, then we’ll take the rest of this ride together.”
They held each other, and Meg sank into the feeling of rightness that enveloped her. When her stomach rumbled, they both laughed.
“Before I feed you again, I want you to know something else.” Dani held Meg’s face between her hands. “I don’t want to change you in any way, and forever is a damn long time.”
Meg frowned, certain there was a caveat coming.
“So when you get a hankering for a bit of Viking goddess, or a little taste of Indian Kama Sutra, you just let me know, and we’ll play those games together.” Dani’s grin was delightfully dirty. “And trust me when I say I’d be happy to oblige.”
Meg kissed Dani hard and deep. “See? You’re damn well perfect.” She moved Dani’s hands to her breasts and started to rock back and forth on her lap. “When that day comes, I’ll definitely let you know. But for the next decade or ten, I think I’ll keep you to myself.”
Dani pinched her nipple between her thumb and forefinger and tugged, just hard enough to make Meg moan. She slipped her other hand between Meg’s legs and pushed her fingers into her. Meg cried out and pushed against her. “More. Gods, Dani, give me more.”
Dani wrapped her arm around Meg’s waist and lifted her off her lap, only to push her back onto the bed. She pushed another finger into her and pumped hard, fucking her deeply. Meg loved the concentration, the adoration, and the near desperation in Dani’s expression as she made Meg come over and over again. After the third orgasm, Dani slowed and pulled out. Meg’s head and half her wings hung off the edge of the bed, and she murmured appreciatively when Dani kissed along her collarbone. Her stomach growled again, and they laughed.
“Okay, my beaut
iful firebrand. Let’s feed you.”
Meg fought her way free of the sheet and stumbled from the bed. “I’ve got a craving for buttermilk biscuits. I’ll make them, you pour drinks.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Dani went to the bar. “Vodka? Tequila?”
“With biscuits? Mimosa.” Meg pulled the various ingredients out and set them on the counter. Dani brought over the drinks and set them on the breakfast bar, where she took a stool and sat to watch.
“Babe, can I ask you something?”
Meg looked up from the flour at the seriousness in Dani’s tone. “Sure. What’s wrong?”
“Tomorrow, Zed is going to call everyone together, and they’re going to decide on what to do about the renegade gods. You and your sisters are going to have to deal with the outcome of that. Are you going to be okay?”
Meg kept kneading as she processed Dani’s question. “I have to be, don’t I? I mean, this is what I am. I couldn’t walk away from delivering justice any more than you could walk away from helping souls get to where they need to be.”
“I wasn’t asking if you’d do your job. I was asking if you’d be okay. You, Meg-the-woman-I-love, not you, Meg-the-fury.” Dani smiled slightly over her mimosa.
Meg cut the dough into two-inch circles and put them on the tray. “I’m both. Unlike my sisters, I haven’t doubted myself as a fury. Those gods knew they were starting a war. They knew humans would get hurt, and they didn’t care. One of my jobs has been to keep the gods in check, and if now isn’t the time to do that, then I don’t know when it would be.”
Dani nodded and walked around behind Meg. She nuzzled her neck and said, “Yeah, I thought that would be your answer. But it doesn’t hurt to ask.”
Meg leaned into Dani and sighed. She’d felt alone for more years than she wanted to count. She’d pretended to be strong, to not care about anything, but in truth, she’d needed…this. To have someone hold her and care about her emotional state, as up and down as that could be. Dani knew her better than almost anyone, and she still loved her for exactly who, and what, she was. The world had gone to hell, and they’d taken it on together. Things could only be extraordinary from here.
Chapter Twenty-five
“Hey! Tall, dark, and terrifying. Can I have a minute?”
Dani turned and waited for Kera to catch up to her in the hall. They were heading to the main hall where the emergency council had been called, and all the gods at Afterlife had shown up, whether they’d been invited or not. The building hummed with tension, and Dani wondered if Kera, the only human left among them, should be in the vicinity of stressed-out gods. Although Ama had healed the initial wound, she still limped slightly from the metal bar she’d taken in the leg in Rome, a reminder that of all of them, she was the most vulnerable.
“Thanks for waiting.” Kera looked behind her and up ahead, as though to make certain they wouldn’t be overheard. “I wanted to ask you for something.”
“Oh?” Dani liked Kera immensely, but she was also aware that Kera had been in business with some shady characters before hooking up with Tis. “I’m not killing anyone or taking a soul, if that’s what you’re going to ask.” She smiled to take the sting from it.
“Nah. The people I know who need that kind of thing will do it on their own. It’s something else.” She grinned. “I’ve got this problem. This mortality thing is really pissing me off. I mean, I’ve found a woman I want to be with until this planet literally implodes. But apparently, that card isn’t on the table, and the other day when I was up on that rooftop with a bunch of people who are exceptionally hard to kill, but I was the one bleeding out, I think I figured out a way around it.”
“You figured out a way around death?” Dani didn’t want to laugh in her face, but it was hard not to.
“Kind of. I’m going to come live with you.”
Dani tilted her head. “Nope. Not following.”
“I’m one of the souls you’ve been talking about. I’m not a follower of any one religion, but I know full well you all exist. That means I won’t have anywhere to go once I’m dead.”
Dani nodded, starting to understand.
“So, here’s the thing. When I go, I want to work for you. Well, not really for you. I’m the boss, right? But if you take my soul, then you could let it free, right? I could still run Afterlife with Zed but not get indigestion or migraines from working with him anymore. Right?”
“Um…” Dani hadn’t a clue what to say. She’d never thought about souls living outside the Deadlands. Would it even work?
“Don’t answer now. Just think about it, okay?” The building rumbled, and the lights flickered. “But if I die in some shit storm before you decide, just remember that I asked.”
“Of course. You do know it would be better if you stayed out of the way for a while, though, right?” Dani moved out of the way to let one of the Hindu gods pass, his arms waving as he hurried to the main hall.
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen. I can’t do what I need to do if I’m hiding. Just think about it, okay?”
Dani nodded, and they headed for the main hall together. It was an interesting question, and she’d have to talk to Idona about it once things had settled down a little. Hopefully, Kera could stay out of harm’s way until she was able to work it out. When they entered the main hall, they were met with a cacophony of noise.
“Order!” Zed’s thunder shook the hall, and his lightning sparked along the ceiling. The room grew quiet.
Dani followed Kera down the side of the room to the stage where the others were waiting. She’d spent some time in the Deadlands doing paperwork and answering prayers after she’d pulled herself away from Meg’s place in the early morning, and it had felt good to get back to doing some of what she loved. Now, though, she wouldn’t be anywhere but at Meg’s side.
“Thank you for coming. After the altercation in Rome,” Zed paused for the quiet laughter at his downplaying of the war, “there are some decisions that must be made.” He nodded at Tis, who stepped forward.
She held up a piece of paper. “Every head of department who works at Afterlife signed this contract when we began reorganizing. These rules were agreed to by majority vote and signed in front of witnesses. The rule set in place for those who went against Afterlife policy and willfully hurt humans was clear. Excommunication. They will be stripped of their powers, and they can stay among the humans, or they can fade.”
The room was silent, and Dani could feel the horror and sadness in the crowd. Many of the implicated gods were friends of those in the hall.
“The gods who sided with Chaos in the war at the Vatican will be subject to the rules set forth in this document.” Meg and Alec moved to stand beside Tis. “As has been the case at terrible moments in the past, it’s up to the three of us to deliver that punishment, and we’ll do what we need to do when those gods are found.”
Her statement was again met with silence, and Dani watched as Tis looked over the crowd of gods below her. Beside her, Meg looked like she was on full alert, but Dani knew the excitement and suspense of the moment was feeding her penchant for drama.
Zed took the stage again. “There will be no trials for the gods involved in the Vatican situation. If one of them was from your department, you’ll be contacted when the issue has been dealt with.” Zed looked down the row of people beside him. “Anything else?”
Dani stepped forward and addressed the crowd. “One last thing. As you may have heard, we’re changing the way the Deadlands works, to some degree. Thanks to a new type of non-believer, we’re going to be adding sections, and we’re looking for people from other departments to assist in building and running a new section on a cooperative basis. If you’re interested, please talk to myself or Idona about the new plans.”
Meg smiled widely at her, and Dani’s stomach flip-flopped the way it always did. She’d gladly spend the rest of her days trying to make Meg smile like that.
“That’s all. Go be with your believers, and an
swer as many questions as you can as simply as you can. Remember the Fates’ suggestion about being vague when necessary in order to keep from backing yourself into a corner. Help them understand what your system is truly about and give them things to ponder. Keep them focused and busy.” Zed waved toward the door. “Talk to me if you have issues, and we’ll be in touch about the other stuff.”
The gods burst into noisy chatter as they filed from the main hall and the group onstage came together. Zed rested his huge hand on Meg’s shoulder. “Well, let’s go round up some naughty gods, shall we?”
“Not you.” Tis shook her head when Kera went to protest. “Not just because you’re human, although I’m extremely aware of that now.”
“I’m fine—”
Meg took Kera’s hand in her own. “You’re more than fine, gorgeous.” She winked, and the tension eased slightly. “This isn’t about you being okay or even about you being human. This is about us doing what we do, and it’s a private matter. Zed isn’t going with us either.”
Zed looked surprised but shrugged. “Meg’s right. The furies are meant to handle this, and no one else can interfere. It’s best the rest of us aren’t there.”
“I’m going,” Dani said. “There could be gods there that decide to fade rather than live without power. I want to make sure they’re truly gone. And if something goes wrong and humans are involved, I want to be there to deal with things right away.”
Meg threw herself into Dani’s arms. “You’re so hot.”
The others laughed. Zed said, “You’d better get going. Good luck with your search, and let me know if you need anything. Kera and I will take care of things here.” He looked at Selene, whose glow had changed from sunlit to moonlit. “You?”
“My mom is here, and we’re going shopping. It’s a full moon, and she’s a little more talkative.” She gave Alec a lingering kiss. “Come home to me, hot stuff.”