He should do it, yet he couldn't. Maybe he was selfish, and gods knew he was a lustful creature of both a curse and his own making. But…
The phone rang, and he jumped at the sudden sound in the darkness in the midst of his brooding. The inn might not be haunted, and the Halloween decorations throughout the lobby not necessarily eerie, but he laughed at his reaction as he picked up the receiver and said, "Thank you for calling The Aegean Inn, this is Jacen."
"Theron is up to something."
He sat up straighter, humor dying as swiftly as it arrived. "Who is this? …Chrys?" Chrysander had been Hermes' informant the past few months after Calix had been taken. While the Arcadians considered him an ally and had gifted him a set of panpipes, they weren't exactly calling each other up and chitchatting for the fun of it.
"He's taken a vial of Priapus' blood from Dionysus' safe as well, as the Hephaestion steel axe," the Boeotian said in a grim tone. "He wants Calix. Last I heard, Theron assumed he was back in Savannah. Keep alert, and if I hear more, I'll let you know." He hung up.
Well, that didn't sound good. The axe was designed to kill Pan—or any satyr if given a mortal blow with it. With a long, sigh, Jacen pulled out his cell phone to call the others in for a meeting. The sooner they found Theron and stopped whatever he was up to, the better. At least Calix was safe somewhere for the time being where Theron couldn't torment him anymore. Would his friend even be the same when he came home? Another thought, even more disconcerting, circled the forefront of his mind. What the hell did Dionysus have Priapus' blood for? Did he think the fertility god's blood would work as an aphrodisiac on an immortal, or did he have more nefarious plans for it—that Theron had been privy to?
Ambrosia of the gods was the blood of Zeus and his children. Any other god's blood, considered false ambrosia, was as good as poison. So, why would a son of Zeus need a vial of false ambrosia stored away for a rainy day? Troubling, indeed.
4
Following a satyr into an abandoned house in the middle of the Georgia countryside probably didn't count as a smart decision, yet Sage was about to do exactly that. The old wooden home had seen better days, now withered from weather and falling into disrepair. If it looked bad from the road at a distance, up close it resembled a death trap. Holes speckled the porch and tarps covered two of the windows. Part of the roof suspiciously dipped inward at the left end.
"You really live here?" she asked as he ascended the steps ahead of her. There hadn't been signs of anyone residing here.
"Not by choice." Adonis' shoulders tensed, and he paused. "Circumstances are not the best right now."
"I get that." She tried to sooth his bruised ego. "Some months, my roommate and I have to eat a lot of ramen so we can make the rent."
"It's not a lack of money," he snapped, then didn't say anything else until he went inside and a light came on. Adonis raised a camping lantern and stepped back to give her room to pass. "In or out. It's about to rain."
Sage hesitated. She hadn't meant to offend him. Lightning flashed and lit up the area ever so briefly. Trepidation coursed through her in those milliseconds where she could see the dazzling blue of his irises. The best course of action would be to hike back to her car and pretend none of this happened. Unfortunately, she couldn't deny that impulsiveness; curiosity and stubbornness were her greatest downfalls, and as she entered the house, heading back no longer crossed her mind.
Adonis closed the door behind her as thunder boomed and rain pelted the roof. Somewhere out of sight, the clang of water splattering a cast iron pot indicated at least one leak. It wouldn't surprise her if there were more. Why stay in this dump? Did the place hold sentimental value, or was he in hiding?
"The water runs, cold only. The toilets flush…though you'll have to use lanterns or candles to see at night. There's limited food in the pantry." He wouldn't meet her gaze.
"You don't have to be embarrassed—"
"I'm not," he snapped, eyes flicking in her direction.
She kept making him angry, and again she couldn't decide if it was sexual frustration or if he didn't like her. "Sure could have fooled me." Sage stepped closer to him, forcing him to look down at her. "Why are you so determined to push me away?"
"I invited you in, didn't I?" He leaned against the wall, still hanging on to the lantern in the entry way. "Isn't that the opposite of pushing you away? Of course, if I had, you didn't seem determined to leave."
She snorted and shifted the bag on her shoulder. "You've been the very pinnacle of welcoming." Maybe a bit sarcastic, but he hadn't hidden any of his annoyance, so why should she.
"If you don't like it, go home." He turned his back on her and entered the living room area. In the darkness, not much was visible. A couch of an indeterminate color took up the middle of the room. An air mattress filled the corner next to a cellphone hooked up to a portable charger with a big solar panel on one side. A digital tablet rested beside those. That was really all there was of note. Bare walls surrounded them, some with nails sticking out where paintings once hung.
Sage set her bag down next to the couch. "I would go home, except I summoned you and I want to see this out to determine why. If not for sex, to know the reason why I was drawn out here to you. If Gaia didn't make that possible, something did. I would appreciate if you'd stop getting mad at me because you got yourself cursed."
"You did not summon me, and if you were cursed, you'd be pretty pissed when it kept messing up your life too." Adonis pulled a TV tray out from behind the couch and set it in the middle of the room. He placed the lantern on top and took a seat on the far end of the couch. He glowered at her. "I went for a walk, you were dancing in the woods next to my house, and if you were, in fact, dancing for a man or spirit to find you, that is how you chose to show yourself to me. I would have never even seen you otherwise. Gaia didn't do it, and sometimes coincidence is just that—coincidence."
She mentally rolled her eyes. "You don't really believe that." She sat on the couch, in the middle. He shifted closer to his armrest to get away from her. "What do you mean by saying I revealed myself? Like I was invisible then not? Or did you mean naked…"
He sighed dramatically, balling his hands into fists on top of his thighs. "Satyrs cannot see nymphs unless they want to be seen. You wanted someone in the woods to see you dance, so I did." His gaze dropped to her chest and shot back up. "So now I'll always see you whether you want me to or not—unless you frolic into a field of wildflowers and hide like the fantasy waifs in the storybooks."
Now he mocked her, and that wouldn't do. Sage wasn't conceited by any means, but it was hard not to feel like he found her grotesque and annoying. A crazy notion considering he was the one with cloven hooves and a bad attitude, not her.
Of course, she hadn't gotten to see his legs past the hooves since his jeans covered him all up. Did the hair go all the way up to his waist? Did he have a tail? A human—
"You're staring at my crotch."
She didn't blush easily, but her cheeks heated as her gaze shot up to his face. A muscle twitched at the edge of his extremely kissable lips. Like he wanted to smile or laugh but refused to allow it. "Habit. Sorry."
He blinked rapidly. "Uh…really?"
"Men look at my ass and my tits. I look at their ass and their crotch. Turnabout is fair play."
His lips parted, but he couldn't seem to come up with a response.
Sage grinned. Knocking his attitude down a peg or two would do him good. She gestured at his shirt, seeking to change the subject and hopefully his mood. "Like Led Zeppelin, do you?"
He shrugged. "They're all right."
That was all he had to say about it apparently. After a long moment, Sage tried to get him talking again. "Your dad's favorite band or something?"
"My father died long before the band existed." No hint of a joke was evident in his tone.
This time she was the one at the loss for words. "You don't look a day over twenty-one." In fact, one could easily assume he
'd escaped a fraternity house.
"Add another three thousand to that number, give or take."
Holy shit. "Why tell me that?" Was it even true?
He grunted in annoyance and slouched down against the cushions, hooking his elbow on the back of the couch, and faced her. "You're a nymph. Might as well give you a history lesson on your roots." He chuckled. "Roots."
Sage chose to ignore his amusement at his pun since she didn't understand what his age had to do with her history. Unless…"We aren't related, are we?"
At this, he laughed. It irritated her that even his laugh sounded sexy. "Most likely not."
"But…you don't know?"
"Little girl, even if we share an ancestor somewhere, it would be three thousand or so years removed." His smile quickly faded. "Not that it matters anyway, since we can't hook up."
"Yet."
"Ever." He scowled. "You need to come to terms with it because I already have."
She rubbed her temples and sighed. He was so frustrating. Truly, she had never met anyone whose stubborn streak was as strong as hers. "If all you need is a nymph and an eclipse to break your curse, why won't you let me help you? Is it because it involves sex?"
Adonis stormed up from the couch and started pacing. "I already told you. I'm physically blocked from being intimate with a nymph because I have an extra curse on top of the first one." He laughed again, but no humor warmed the sound, and he ran his hands through his hair, appearing slightly deranged. "On the one hand, I don't feel the effects of the first one, which is absolutely amazing, but on the other…I can't be free of the first one because of the second. I'm damned either way."
Sage leaned forward and placed her elbows on her knees. "Let's assume I understood half of what that meant. Why are you cursed at all?"
If she thought the sound of his laugh before had been cold, it was nothing compared to the stare he leveled on her now. "You do not want to hear that tragic tale, little girl."
He was impossible. "You're the one who wanted to teach me about my roots. And stop calling me little girl, old man."
The corner of his lips twitched. "Fine, since you want to know, maybe you'll understand why you shouldn't want to help me." He crossed his arms. "When the Satyroi were cursed, Apollo ensured that nymphs, our only way of breaking said curse, were hidden from us. If they chose to show themselves and have sex with us under a Satyr Moon, the curse would be broken. If a satyr and a nymph slept together before that, the satyr could never break his curse."
"Geez. What did you do to piss off Apollo?" As she said it, her eyes widened. Wait, the gods are real too? She'd assumed before, but now he'd as sure as confirmed it. It was possible Gaia had heard her in the woods and sent Adonis to her. Had kept drawing her to this place so they would eventually cross paths.
Adonis growled. Well, it sounded like a growl at least. "Pan pissed off Dionysus, who in turn pissed off Apollo, and then all the men present when it happened got punished for not stepping in. Like any of us mere mortals could have done anything against two Olympians."
"Whoa." She scooted closer to the edge of the couch. "So, what did Pan do?"
"Fucked the wrong woman."
Yep, sounded like a Greek god, all right. Almost all the stories had to do with someone sticking their prick where it shouldn't have gone. "And what did Dionysus do?"
Adonis leaned against the wall. The back of his head and the tips of his horns thwacked against the drywall. "Do you ever stop asking questions?"
"Nope."
What good would denying her the answer do if she would only keep asking different questions anyway? "Dionysus killed a nymph Apollo wanted to fuck. After nearly raping the woman Pan had just fucked and turned into a nymph—and before you ask, I don't know how he did it."
"And all of you…stood around and watched?" How horrible.
"A god of Olympus had been promised a virgin, and Pan had already fucked her earlier that day. The truth came out." He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "What would you have had us do?"
"Speak up? Riot in the streets."
Adonis didn't look amused. "It was on a mountain."
"Riot across the mountain, then."
As he stared at her, something haunted swept over his features. That night of the curse perhaps. He blinked rapidly and glanced away. "It's easier to decide how to act after something horrific occurs. The gods are cruel, self-righteous, and powerful beyond comprehension. Even if every man present had tried to take on Dionysus, we would have failed." Adonis returned his attention to her and gave her a pointed look. "I told you I wasn't worth saving."
Sage opened her mouth and shut it. She hadn't been there, and he was right. Not about his worth—which was still up for debate. But if the gods were real and had magical powers like in the stories, there wasn't much that could have been done. Still, maybe it was kinship to nymphs of the past, and maybe it was because women in modern times dealt with the same bullshit, but she felt that their curses were understandable. A little excessive…or perhaps not, considering she wasn't there to see how bad it was. And thank God for that, to be honest.
"What did you do to make Pan mad enough to add to yours?" she asked, worry finally sinking in that Adonis had done something far worse than not standing up for a woman caught between two wrathful gods.
"I'm not a good person, Sage." Adonis held her gaze. "I've spent centuries drowning in my mistakes and blaming others for them. Despite the stories about me that for the most part were rumors and lies, I am far from perfect."
"I don't…" Sage stood, unsure how to finish her thought. "I didn't assume you were that Adonis. You weren't a satyr in the stories." Could he really be that Adonis? Taking in his build and face, there was no denying the possibility. The man was absolutely gorgeous. And though she hadn't had her hands on him long earlier, he was fit and muscular under those clothes. Had he really been Aphrodite's lover?
He snorted. "Very little of the stories about me are accurate."
There were so many questions she wanted to ask, and all of them felt too personal—even for her. Before she could think of a way to phrase any of them, Adonis walked over to the bag at the foot of his air mattress and riffled through it. He chucked a wad of something to her. She caught it and looked down. Gray sweatpants and a long-sleeved thermal shirt in a darker shade. "What is this for?"
"The rain is going to flood the road, and you won't be safe to drive tonight. It gets cold. No heat." His thoughtfulness and grumpy attitude were at complete odds with each other.
"Thank you."
"No need to thank me. I'm tolerating you only because my non-reaction to you is cancelling out curse number one. I might actually get a decent night's sleep for the first time in centuries."
Geez, a simple you're welcome would have sufficed.
Adonis didn't think she would ever stop asking questions. Though it was his own fault since he'd brought up the curses and his background. After she had changed into his clothes, which were way too big on her lithe frame, he'd found her a pair of clean socks and attempted to get her to go to bed. Giving her his bed and blanket, and trying not to think about how he'd never seen a woman wearing his clothes before. He wasn't sure how he felt about it. He didn't…dislike it…
Still, he'd had to tell her all about the curse, the Satyroi, and even told her a bit about his farm growing up. He'd left out the fact that his brother had been cursed too. He'd seen the disappointment in her eyes when she heard about how he'd been cursed the first time. He couldn't bear to see her disgust when she found out about how he'd stalked his brother and the nymph who'd saved him. What he'd nearly done to his brother's wife…
He'd also refrained from discussing Aphrodite. It had taken a long time to realize he'd done nothing wrong in that relationship. That it had never been a relationship to begin with. Aphrodite had used and abused him, and she was a chapter in his life he'd closed and locked away long ago. When she'd refused to help him after the curse, that had been the worst heartbreak of h
is life. Reliving that pain would do him no good.
Now, Sage had finally fallen asleep, and Adonis twisted and turned on the couch as the rain continued to pelt the roof. He couldn't sleep. Not feeling the effects of the curse should help, but he was more agitated than ever. All he'd wanted since that dreadful night in Greece was for the curse to stop, even for an hour, one night, one week…and it finally had…but how could he sleep when there was a nymph who had actually offered to lift his curse for good…and he couldn't react to her carnally.
How did one become sexually frustrated by not being sexually frustrated? It made no sense. None. And it was making him furious. At himself. At the gods. Pan. The world. How did everything go so wrong for him all the time, every time?
Adonis picked up his phone and texted a quick message to Hermes then flung it down beside him on the cushion with a thud.
Where the fuck are you?
If he didn't hear back from the god by morning, he'd have to reach out to the Arcadians who ran The Aegean Inn for help. He couldn't tether Sage to his side permanently, and the longer he allowed her to hang around, the more questions she'd ask and the more irritable he'd be that his one chance at breaking his curse was worthless. As worthless as him. Not good enough for a goddess, incapable of standing up to her or others in her pantheon, and easily controlled and manipulated for years by Dionysus.
Adonis didn't blame the Arcadians for hating him. He hated himself as well. The longer Sage stayed in his company, the sooner she'd hate him too. They all did, in the end.
5
"I'm sorry, but could you please repeat that?" Chrysander stopped tapping his pen against his notebook and stared at the gray-haired man sitting at the head of the conference table. He hadn't gotten much sleep, and the early meeting didn't agree with him. "I don't think I heard you correctly."
All Hallows' Satyr (The Cursed Satyroi Book 5) Page 4