by L. R. W. Lee
“I never joke when it comes to ravishing you, my little harpy.” He gives me a purr of his own.
My stomach flutters for half a second before he’s making good on his threat.
Boy, does he. For an old guy, he’s relentless.
But when we’re done, he beams, stretched out beside me, clearly proud of himself, as he continues lazily running his fingers across my chest. “Ready for your lesson?” Those last two words come out a rumble, and my breath hitches.
Damn, he’s good.
He locks his beautiful gold and silver eyes with mine, his gaze intense.
I lick my lips, then nod, reaching for his manhood that I’ll give maybe one minute before it’s standing at attention again. He distracted me with his tickling shadows in the garden, let’s see how well he can teach me with a little distraction of his own.
What have you started, Pell? My inner minion’s voice wavers.
No idea, but I’m absolutely up for this because he will be too, in seconds. I snicker to myself.
Harpoc’s fingers brush a nipple as he says, “To listen in to my thoughts, you need to desire to.” Again he draws out a word.
Oh, I’m desiring all right.
I brush the tip of his manhood, earning a grin.
“Can you feel our bond?” His fingers again brush a pebbled tip.
I want to still his wandering hand, but I refuse to lose this game.
“How… how do I do that?” I run a finger down his manhood that is now standing tall again.
A corner of his mouth hitches. “I feel it in my chest, right… about… here.” His fingers dance in unhurried circles over my breastbone, conveniently straying to my breasts every pass.
I nod, then try to shut out his dancing digits as they resume their slow waltz and focus on sensing some connection between us, but after a full minute, nothing but the sensations he’s stirring up fill my thoughts. I still his hand.
“Better luck next time.” He leans forward and kisses my breast.
Arrogant bastard.
“I’m a god, I’m no bastard.”
I snort.
“Okay, try again,” he says. “Without distraction.”
Without his hand sidetracking me, I focus on the area between my breasts, but feel nothing, certainly no link between us. I shake my head.
He furrows his brow. “Then try just sensing our connection anywhere in your body.”
I think about my chest, then my neck, then chin and nose, but I don’t feel anything, not that I know what I’m searching for. But when I get to my temples…
“I… I think I feel something, here.” I rub the side of my head. It’s nothing glaring, and I’m not sure how to describe it. It’s more of a sense than anything, but words like firm and strong, yet gentle and calm spring to mind. It feels like him.
“Interesting. No idea why it’s different for you, but okay. At least you sense something.”
I bob my head.
“Imagine walking to me through that connection.”
I sit up and stare at the middle of Harpoc’s infinity rose tattoo, imagining taking step after step through a tunnel to reach his heart.
“I’m there,” I report a minute later.
“Now imagine walking up to my head and listening in.”
His words fill my head seconds later….
My heart is bursting with love for you. Welcome to my head, love.
I inhale sharply. This is wicked crazy…. It’s… it’s amazing.
He laughs. It is, but I will never complain.
So we can talk about people without them knowing? Mwhahaha.
He snorts. I suppose so.
This is how you’ve been listening in to everything I’ve thought recently.
He gives me a sheepish grin. Perhaps not everything…
I feign a pinched expression, like I’m annoyed, but my laughter gives me away. But a lot.
You’re quite amusing, as well as charming. He tweaks my nose.
I bat his hand away. Am I now?
I promised I will never lie to you again, and I mean it. A corner of his mouth hitches. You’ll know if I try.
But what about the secret you can’t reveal? Since we’re bonded, what will happen if I listen in as you’re thinking about it?
He blows out a breath. I don’t know what secret magic might do.
I’m feeling daring when it comes to the possibility of what our bond might reveal with that secret no one can breathe a word about, at least to me.
Think about that secret.
No sooner are the words out, than a shooting pain slices my brain, and I grab my head.
Harpoc grimaces.
Sunshine. Daisies. Trees swaying in the wind. I will the images to fill my mind, and a second later the pain disappears.
I exhale sharply. “Wow, secret magic even trumps our bond.”
A sinking feeling hits my gut. What in the universe am I part of?
Harpoc shakes his head. We’ll figure this out together, love. I promise you. There’s conviction in his tone, and I believe him. That aside, I’m looking forward to exploring our bond. Desire fills his gaze, but this time it’s not just sensual. No, it’s so much more.
The Ancient One has given us the gift of knowing each other as wholly and completely as two beings can. The thought makes my pulse pick up pace, just like it did when Harpoc told me. And just like him, I won’t refuse this precious gift even though I haven’t yet told my mate the three little words all lovers long to hear.
I want to understand them, and mean them, when I finally tell him.
My mate. I run a hand over his bare chest.
I will never tire of hearing you say that. He kisses my hand.
_______
We manage to dress, and not long after, I put my ring in my pants pocket and take Harpoc’s hand.
He gives it a squeeze.
“The café?” I ask because I’m head-trippin’ honcho today.
He chuckles. “Please.” I swear I’ve never seen him happier. It looks so good on him.
My shadows swirl around our feet, then swallow us wholly. A couple minutes later I smell coffee even before my shadows fade, and we step out of my swirls still holding hands.
“Ah, there you both are,” Aura’s wispy voice reaches me. “I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to stop humping each other.”
My eyes go wide.
Nuria snorts, barely keeping a sip of coffee from spraying her leathers where she’s sitting in her usual chair. She reaches for a napkin on the coffee table.
Aura draws a hand to her white strapless halter top. She’s endowed herself abundantly this morning and her cleavage jiggles without support above her thin, bare midriff. “Oh, pardon me, I thought that’s what they called it on Earth. Should I have said ‘fucking each other’? What do you call it, Pell?”
She’s serious; her features tell me as much, so it’s hard to keep a straight face. Harpoc doesn’t help when I hear him crack up through the bond, despite schooling his expression.
I squeeze his hand, which only makes him laugh harder.
Nuria chimes in. “No, they call it ‘getting booty.’”
I roll my eyes.
“I thought they call it ‘getting down and dirty’ or ‘doing the nasty’,” Idris says, his gray eyes dancing, where he sits across from Nuria.
Idris may usually be quiet, but he’s got a streak of humor, too.
Harpoc can’t contain a grin as he holds up his free hand. “You can call it ‘having wild and incredibly passionate sex,’ Aura.” He squeezes my hand.
I feel my cheeks warm at that.
Nuria slaps her knee, dying laughing.
Aura looks us over, then shrugs. “Very well. As long as you found it mutually pleasurable, I suppose it’s all the same.”
Idris, the consummate warrior, schools his features, but a second later, bursts out laughing.
Has no one ever taught her proper etiquette? I ask.
&nb
sp; You’d like to sign up for that, would you? Harpoc replies, grinning.
Harpoc excuses himself to get our breakfast since we were… a bit busy with “other things” to eat our cinnamon rolls before coming.
I take a seat beside Nuria, who’s still holding her stomach as she leans over, smiling. “Oh, Pell, thank you.”
“For what?”
“I’m—I think you call it, PMS-ing, on Earth—bloating, cramping, the works. Your exploits made me forget my discomfort, for just a minute.” She rubs her abdomen.
“While I’ve never yet had the—” I clear my throat. “—pleasure, glad I could help.” I laugh.
She glances at Idris and winks.
Her comment about him being embarrassed at such talk leaps to mind, and I glance over to see pink rising from the base of the general’s horns.
“He can joke about sex, but not about female problems?” I reply, saying it loud enough to ensure he hears.
His horns turn a darker shade of pink, and he suddenly becomes engrossed with his egg biscuit.
Harpoc returns and hands me a plate with a bagel slathered in honey cream cheese, along with a coffee, and places his own breakfast burrito and beverage on the coffee table.
Silence suddenly falls, and I furrow my brow as Nuria, Aura, and Idris rise and fix their gazes on me.
I didn’t ask them to do this. Idris informed me they were going to.
I scan their solemn faces, off load my breakfast on the coffee table and rise on shaky legs, my breathing laboring.
As one, they place a fisted hand over their hearts, then Idris says, “We will protect you with our very lives, as we do our emperor.”
I have no idea what to say. They want to protect little ol’ me? I’m an unemployed archeologist, not some monarch.
My mouth opens and closes. Harpoc offers no coaching.
“Thank you. I’m touched, truly I am.” I fist my hands. I feel so small and insignificant relative to them as I look at each of their ancient faces. “But instead of protecting me, could I just be part of your…” My voice clogs.
“The word’s ‘family,’ Pell.” Nuria gives me a warm smile, and I feel tears well up. I think I might cry.
A family. My family.
My lip quivers as I bite it.
“You can be part of our family, but we’ll protect you, too,” she adds.
“Thank you. Thank you, all.” Tears slide down my cheeks.
Nuria’s not a hugger. I hadn’t been before meeting Harpoc. But all his affection makes me want to hug her, so I close the two steps and throw my arms around her.
“You feel like a sister I’ve never had,” I say, sniffing.
She just pats my back, clearly uncomfortable.
I don’t care because I think I could get used to being more affectionate.
Harpoc chuckles through the bond.
I move on to Aura and give her a hug, too. Like Nuria, she needs coaching, but she’s softer than the lieutenant commander, and I get the distinct impression she might be easier to convert to being a good hugger. “Thank you for being uniquely you.”
She steps back with a questioning look on her face. “Who else would I be?”
I laugh, then move on to Idris whose gentle gray eyes are warm. “Thank you. I’m looking forward to getting to know you better.”
“And I you.”
He’s a bit stiff when I lean in, but he loosens up and holds me.
Another candidate for hug therapy.
Listen to you, Harpoc laughs.
I think… my family… needs to learn to hug, especially if I’m going to have a hug surplus.
He snorts. They’re all going to hate me before long.
He takes my hand and kisses the back as I return to my chair, beside him.
Nuria clears her throat, loudly. “Get a room.”
“Gladly,” he says, wagging his brows.
I can’t help but snort. “Be careful what you say. I’ve no doubt he’ll do it.”
Nuria’s face blushes. She actually blushes. It’s only the second time I’ve seen her cheeks pink, and it’s priceless.
I’ve never seen the general smile so broadly.
But as Harpoc finally calls our meeting to order, I spot the muscle in his jaw tense.
“The Queen of Scarabs has become a potential threat, and I am concerned for Pell’s safety.”
Chapter Forty-Six
I lock eyes with my mate. He hasn’t breathed a word of this to me, and I’ve been too busy with other thoughts to monitor his.
Harpoc recounts much of the tale of our time up at the court of scarabs while I fill in the parts he wasn’t awake for, until the whole story emerges.
“Why is the queen a problem?” I ask, not understanding his concern.
“She knows you and Harp are bonded. She saw your bond lock into place,” Nuria says, crossing her legs.
“Okay, and…” I’m still not getting it.
“If ours is a ‘typical’ bond, if one partner dies, the other dies, too.” Harpoc wrinkles his brow.
I inhale sharply. “Gods can’t die… right?”
“They’ve been known to be relocated to Hades, but it’s not me I’m worried about, love.” Harpoc fists the hand not holding coffee.
“You… you think the queen will try to hurt me, to get to you?”
Idris chimes in, “Probably not the queen, but she knows the value of information.” He takes a bite of his egg biscuit.
“Exactly. Between that and failing to seal the fact that her secret was leaked”—Harpoc thankfully doesn’t look at me, the culprit for revealing that to the queen, when he says it—“she has considerable leverage at the moment.”
I don’t hold you responsible, love. She would have eventually found out.
I bite my lip. But how much worse have I made things?
“How do you propose getting the queen to seal the secret of the leak as well as your bond?” Idris asks.
Harpoc sighs. “I haven’t had time to contemplate it.”
No, because you and I were…. So, I revealed the leak and distracted you from doing your job leading this empire. Guilt wells up.
Harpoc gives me a wicked chuckle. You are hardly a distraction, love. Everything in life must be cared for in harmony with the whole.
Aura suddenly sits up straight, her body stiff, and her eyes go unfocused.
Conversation ceases as everyone looks at her.
Several seconds pass before she ‘returns’ but when she does, she says, “The chimera has been spotted in the Twilight Zone. It’s raging in Ebenfront as we speak.”
I swallow quickly as panic bites down on me.
“Idris. Nuria. Aura. We’ll meet you there,” Harpoc says.
Everyone rises, any remaining breakfast forgotten.
While there’s urgency, they move with intention and control, and it settles me a tiny bit. They’re trained professionals. I pray they can kill the menace. Too many have already died in its flames.
Aura vanishes, and a second later, Nuria stops beside Idris and takes his hand. Black swirls surround both of them, and they’re gone.
“Nuria will drop Idris off to rally a small force,” Harpoc explains as his shadows engulf us.
A minute later, we step from his swirls.
Despite it being broad daylight in Mense, dusk looms over the rural countryside. But birds aren’t cawing, much less flying in dense flock-circles above us, like they were in Drystrand.
Shouts and cries reach us where we stand at the edge of a field of white-leafed, knee-high crops—they must be plants that require minimal light. My mouth goes dry as I scan the dim horizon. A musky-with-burnt scent fills my nose.
“Anything you need in your pockets?” Harpoc’s question returns my focus.
“What’s that?”
“Pockets….” He nods.
“Oh, right.” I grab my ring from my front pocket and slip it back on, then look down as secret magic brushes close. A second later, leathe
rs replace my long coat and pants. Harpoc’s changed into his battle gear as well.
We stride toward a group of seven beings who clutch each other as they look on, not far away.
“Stay with them, Pell. Help in whatever way,” Harpoc says, as my focus diverts to…
My brow furrows.
One, two, three… eight, nine, ten gryphons, wings tucked, materialize out of swirls, Idris among them—I’d recognize his horns and white hair anywhere. They and the riders on their backs are suited up in black armor.
Idris slides from his mount.
Another armored warrior drops a hand from the halter and steps away from each beast, drawing a blade. I spot Nuria’s long white braid swaying, as they all stride toward my mate.
I’m nearly to the villagers’ huddled group when a structure, a barn perhaps, collapses from the flames that devour it inside and out, drawing a cry from one of the women.
Harpoc reaches his forces, as I reach the villagers.
Fear fills every eye as they take me in against the backdrop of devastation.
“I’m Pell”—What should I call myself?—“part of the emperor’s Core. Is anyone hurt?”
A young girl clings to her mother’s skirts. A father hugs his son who’s wrapped his arms around his waist.
The mother whimpers, “We ran for our lives. Neighbors didn’t make it. That thing…”
A bellow pierces the din, then more flames leap into the sky.
The boy cries against his father.
The beast is still here.
I squint, making out three, no four, more running toward us.
Harpoc’s meeting adjourns, and Idris leads his troops skyward, while those warriors on foot disappear in dark swirls.
I’ve no idea how they plan to kill it, but I remember how that first chimera met its end.
I walk to the parents and look between the two children whose eyes couldn’t be wider as they gaze at the flames, no doubt devouring their home.
“How about I tell you a story? Would you like that?”
“That sounds like a lovely idea. Come.” The mother kneels, back toward the goings on, holding her daughter.
I kneel as the husband places the boy beside her and the child huddles close to his mother’s side.