“Kyra, I need you. I’ve always…” My voice deepened, took on a gravelly tone. “…needed you.”
“I’ve always been yours.” She bit down on my bottom lip and then bruised me with her kiss, her fingers dancing along my skin, driving me crazy, I couldn’t remember a time ever being so aroused.
“You are mine, Kyra, daughter of Apollo.”
“Yes.” She panted. “Yesss.”
I was out of control, almost feral as I gripped her hips and jerked her body closer. I was inside her in seconds.
One.
No longer a half.
A whole.
The sound of lightning cracking split through the room as I surged forward, unable to slow my thrusts or the screams of pleasure as darkness filled my line of vision.
Thousands of years.
I would wait more.
Yet for this. I would wait an eternity.
My soul wept and then it was like being reborn, soul touching soul, hearts aligned, and bodies in perfect sync as I gripped her hips.
Kyra’s eyes opened, and what I saw there was perfection.
Golden. Perfection.
Because I was a part of her now, forever.
Her lips parted as she found her release, and I followed, not realizing that there was more to our story.
Not realizing, until in a haze of sex we looked around the room… and found every single object incinerated to dust.
KYRA
Egypt, Valley of the gods
“I don’t understand.” My father was speaking, but surely I was misunderstanding what he was trying to convey. “Why would you do this to me?”
“I’m protecting you.” He wiped a tear. “The only way I know how.”
“By taking everything from me?” My hands shook. “You’re taking a gift that was given, you’re taking all the parts of you that I love, that make me yours!”
“The Creator is all knowing.” My father hung his head. “He gave me two choices. Take the essence of the gods that flow through your veins while your soul remains intact, or you’ll be used for evil. I can’t allow that, you are the daughter of Apollo! The granddaughter of Ra himself! A weapon I cannot allow in the wrong hands!”
“But—” Tears stung. I felt betrayed. “How do we know the worst is going to happen?”
“The worst,” My father paled. “Is yet to come. Don’t you see it? The gods are a dying race. Even now, they give in to their baser instincts! And you, you are the only one who can help them sustain this life, you are life itself, you house the sun!”
I smiled sadly. “A gift.”
He nodded. “One I am taking back until the right time.”
“How will I know?”
“Trials and tribulations.” My grandfather joined us in all his shining glory. “We have served the Creator for centuries and he has served us as well. If he says this is what we must do, we do it.”
My hands shook as I held them out.
It didn’t take long.
My skin was gold and then everything felt lifeless, cold.
“I’m sorry.” My father wept as he pulled immortality from my veins. It was like watching my identity get stolen in front of my very eyes as the shimmery gold blood from the gods was pulled from my skin in a thick mist. It burned from the inside out. I wasn’t sure what was worse the pain or the knowledge that I was no longer myself. When he was done, he pressed it into a necklace shaped like the sun and handed it to my grandfather.
It pulsed as he wrapped it around my neck.
“One day…” Grandfather winked. “You will thank us, I only hope we are around to see that love shine in your eyes. You won’t walk this earth alone, for your soul is matched with another. His strength will sustain you until the right time. He will awaken you in ways you cannot imagine. You will both suffer horrible tragedies, but you will one day be whole. Praise be to the Creator, let that day be swift in its coming.”
“He is fair.” My father nodded. “I promise you this.” He smiled brightly. “Your journey will one day have an ending that turns into a marvelous beginning. Consider yourself blessed, daughter of Apollo, Keeper of Light. Balance to the dark.”
Grandfather kissed his thumb and forefinger then pressed them against my forehead and whispered. “Amen.”
Present Day
I gasped. Timber stared at me with a blinding smile, and then he pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead. “Doing some time travel or just remembering?"
“Remembering.” My throat hurt, tears burned my eyes. “I knew he took the essence of the gods from me, I just wasn’t sure why. I though he wanted me to live a normal life. Instead, they were told someone would use me.”
Timber stiffened. “Set.”
“Yes.” I knew it in my soul in the twisted way he looked at me. “I could have restored his power.”
“How?” Timber frowned.
I reached for my ever-present necklace, touched it with my fingertips. “Because I house the sun.”
Timber grabbed the necklace and jerked it from my neck. Then, without asking permission or even speaking, he pressed it between two fingers, crushing it into dust and blowing it into my face.
I sucked in a sharp breath as searing heat enveloped me.
It burned down my fingertips, made me feel simultaneously hot and cold.
“Welcome back.” Timber grinned. “Daughter of Apollo.”
TIMBER
“So everything just went… poof?” Mason motioned with his hands while Serenity started pouring wine. The sound of kids playing was like a balm to my soul—again I’d take that to my grave.
The love I felt for the wives.
For their children.
I would protect them with my dying breath.
We’d only just gotten back to Ethan’s house. I wasn’t sure why everything was incinerated, and even though I knew I would catch shit for a lifetime—I told them what happened.
“Yes.” I shrugged. “Everything turned to ash.”
Alex held his hand up for a high five, earning an eye roll from Mason and a middle finger from Tarek.
Ethan and Cassius paced in the kitchen while Kyra played with the twins, making faces, and holding them, listening to Genesis telling her stories about demon bites.
Perfect.
I wanted to remind her… that part of me was gone, but she seemed interested, and dare I say aroused? Hmm, might revisit that.
“He’s glowing again.” This from an annoyed Alex.
I rolled my eyes. “Look, I know you have Ra’s essence in you, I’m sure you’re related and just omitted that part of the story, but look at her.” I pointed to Kyra, “She has more than you do.”
“She’s a pure blood.” Mason popped a berry into his mouth. “What?” Another shrug. “She’s the daughter of Apollo, the granddaughter of Ra, it’s not hard math. The only troubling thing is the fact that she can be drained… used.”
Even now, Kyra was glowing just like I was. It was more subtle, prettier, almost like something shiny you want to keep for yourself. No wonder Apollo did what he did; he was protecting her, not cursing her.
“Thanks for that,” I said dryly. “As always, Mason, so helpful.”
Tarek grinned from his side of the room. “You emptied the place, I’m impressed.”
I glared. “Tell me you listened and I’m murdering you, dog.”
“I would never!” He winked. “But I did take advantage of the fact that both of you needed more than one shot of alcohol and didn’t realize that just being around each other would make it happen within seconds, when you have your soulmate your body can’t say no. It’s a thing. You’re welcome!”
I narrowed my eyes. “You’re a hazard to my health.”
Tarek sniffed.
Ethan paused, “Is he crying now?”
“I like to be useful!” Tarek shrugged.
Immortals, can’t live with them, can’t live without them.
Cassius smiled, and then in an instant the smile was g
one as he grabbed his wife by the arm and gently squeezed.
“Stephanie.” His eyes went an icy white; the room dropped a solid fifty degrees. “Take the kids upstairs immediately. Genesis, stay with them. We’ll need Serenity. And guard Hope with your life, Genesis, understand me? Nothing happens to the last elf we have on this plane!”
“Yes.” In a blink Genesis was gone with Hope, Stephanie, and the kids. Serenity stayed behind, I imagined, because she was part goddess and was in this just as much as we were.
A hot wind picked up lessening the chill.
More angels?
Enemies?
The house shook beneath my feet.
And there, in an instant, stood my father, Set, at about the same time Horus came barreling into the room. “He’s coming!”
“He’s…” My father tilted his head in glee and spread his arms wide. “…already here.”
KYRA
I’d known fear several times in my life. When my parents left, when I realized that I wouldn’t have lasting relationships in this world, when I’d wake up in a cold sweat from dreams that seemed so real I could still smell the fragrance of flowers in the air.
This was a different sort of fear.
One that told me I wouldn’t survive.
One that told me this man in front of me was out for blood and would win regardless of how much we tried to stop him.
Set’s eyes had gone completely black which meant only one thing: his soul was dying. I wondered how much this had cost him, traveling into this space in time. I wondered what he had sacrificed in order to do it.
In order to use me.
The memories that had been fuzzy were now clear as day. My love for Timber, as weird as it seemed wasn’t weird at all, but a tethered connection, like an invisible rope between us that made me feel like I belonged.
He immediately shoved me behind him.
I loved him for that.
For being willing to put his life on the line every single time. I think that was what I had noticed about him first, his supreme control, his desire to do right over wrong every single time even if he suffered for it.
And then I had fallen for the way he cracked a smile when I pushed him too far. We’d had sixty days of love together, not just sex but love, laughter, talked of a family even though we knew it would be impossible to bring a child into a world we wouldn’t be a part of anymore.
And I remembered that night, being absolutely terrified, when he gave me one last kiss.
“I’ll love you forever.” The gold from his eyes had left, they were so black and flashed red scaring me to death as he closed them and before my very eyes grew two horns on his head.
“I did this to you.” I wept against his chest. “Our love did this!”
“No!” He roared his fangs descending like he couldn’t control them. “Our love didn’t destroy anything. We chose love, and Set chose to punish us because of it. Don’t worry.” He winced like something was breaking inside his chest.
I thought it was his heart, since mine was breaking too.
I thought wrong, as his soul slithered from his body in one last attempt to touch mine.
I reached out and grabbed it in my fingertips and watched his god-like soul die in the palm of my hand, turning to the black of ash.
And when I looked up, the Anubis I knew was gone.
A red tear slid down his cheek as his father slapped him across the face. “You don’t deserve the name of the gods!” Another slap. “From here on out, you will be known as nothing but Timber that burns day in and day out without ever truly disappearing, you are nothing but wood that refuses to burn out, and every damn time you wish for death, I’ll remind you of what you are! A Demon King from Hell!”
Timber fell to his knees and raged while I stumbled backward.
“As for you,” Set rasped. “Daughter of Apollo, I no longer have any use for you. But I curse you to walk this earth in search of the one you love who will never be reborn! I curse you to a continuous life in search for the very soul that died by your hand. And I hope you have nightmares of this life over and over again, knowing that in the end you could have been a queen! Instead, you’re nothing but a human with a good bloodline. I rebuke you in the name of the Creator!”
“Not so fast.” Ra appeared. “It is true, there are consequences to every action, but as her grandfather, I choose to offer a gift.”
Set glared. “Give your gift and be gone from my temple!”
“One day,” Ra pressed a searing hand to my cheek. “You will wake up and the world will not be filled with monsters. One day, you will find what your soul searches for. One day, a race will be restored, and he will make another choice that will set about something so wonderful your heart won’t be able to contain it. I will make it so.”
Set grumbled. “Only the Creator can make such a promise.”
“I know.” Ra smiled brightly. “Chin up, dear girl. Love is the strongest gift we are given! And it is now my love, my unconditional love for you, that gives you this gift.” He closed his eyes, and in a flash, I saw the very essence of the sun leave his body in tiny particles that lifted toward the heavens. “I sacrifice my life so that you have your future.”
“No!” Set roared. “She must be punished!”
Ra ignored him, and in a flash, his body collapsed against the marble steps.
A warm wind picked up as the sound of trumpets filled the air, so piercing I covered my ears.
At least three thousand angels descended, all wearing black armor, helmets so huge it would fit three of Set’s heads inside them, and in the very middle, a boy.
The small boy smiled at me and nodded toward two angels who very gently picked up my grandfather’s body and brought it to the middle of the circle.
“It is done.” The boy’s voice shook the earth beneath my feet. “Live well, daughter of Apollo—remember who you are, remember what you were created for—sacrificed for—life!”
I stumbled against Timber as the memory left and turned my attention toward Set.
I wasn’t sure how long I had been lost in the memory.
All I knew was that we didn’t have much time, and that Set was weak.
“You cannot have her.” Timber glared.
Set eyed him up and down. “Son, you’ve grown.”
“I am no longer your son. I am Anubis, Prince of Darkness, and you will bow in the presence of royalty!”
I almost cheered at the furious look on Set’s face. “I will always be more powerful than you.”
“You stink of sin,” Timber clipped. “After all, I would know, I’m the darkest sinner of them all. I roamed the earth for centuries, I killed, I destroyed, I fought wars in the name of the demon race. The earth was filled with blood from my hands. Believe me when I say, like recognizes like.”
Set ground his teeth. “It cost me everything to get here—to take back—” He pointed at me. “—what you stole!”
“You’re too late,” I said in a calm voice. “I’m already his.”
“You were promised to me!” Set roared. Black blood began oozing from his mouth.
Timber’s hand reached for mine. Energy surged between us.
Cassius took a tentative step toward Set. “The time of the gods is long passed, King Set. Even here, you feel your power dwindle, the Creator limits it during this time. It’s why you feel sick. You are weaker than a fly, and you are standing in a room full of the most powerful immortals in the known world. Do you truly think you stand a chance?”
“All I need is one chance.” Set’s red eyes flashed toward me. “All I need is her, and I can destroy each and every one of you.” His voice smoothed, grew cunning. “I wonder what you value most, the children upstairs? Or your wives?”
“That’s it.” Ethan’s fangs descended. “I’m killing him right the hell now.”
“Get in line.” Mason’s eyes flashed white.
Horus tightened his hands into fists as he moved closer, ready to pounc
e. I reached for my necklace only realizing that it was gone when I touched skin.
It was in me.
Timber had put Ra’s essence back inside me where it belonged.
Together, we were dark and light.
Both were good, both were powerful.
I smiled at Set. “I’ll go with you under one condition.”
“You’ll stay right the hell there!” Timber growled.
I was made for this moment.
Ra had died for this moment.
My grandfather, my family.
He was dead.
But I wondered in that moment, if someone else was alive. We had ancient gods in that room.
The more of us, the more powerful, right?
I closed my eyes and fell to my knees. “Creator, my Father, I ask for you to deliver my father and my mother.”
Set laughed.
I didn’t.
Because in a blinding blaze of white light, both my parents appeared wearing the same old weird clothes they always did.
“So…” My father nodded to Cassius. “It has come to this.”
“It has.” Cassius answered.
“Well.” My mom winked at me. “It has been a very long time.”
I frowned. They were my parents from this era, the twenty-first century, and they looked at me like they were powerful enough to do something instead of throw a punch and run in the opposite direction.
“The gods,” my father said in a voice that shook the house. “Do not intervene. I’m sorry, Kyra, we could only lead you in the right direction century after century. When you continued to be reborn we tried… We almost lost hope.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”
“We’ve been here the entire time, the entire journey, Ra’s last gift wasn’t just a sacrifice for you—it was for our family.”
My mom turned her attention to Set. “You don’t seem well. Rough journey?”
Set heaved. The black ooze left his mouth in a thick stream.
My father casually walked over to me and grabbed my hand then nodded to Timber. “I knew you’d find each other.”
Timber smiled and then grabbed my other hand. Slowly and surely every immortal in that room had joined hands against Set. Their power surged as the house shook. A dark mist started filling up the room as the light from the rest of us blinded Set’s face. He crumpled to the ground, screaming in agony. Alex was glowing orange and red while Serenity’s eyes had gone a scary looking blue.
Darkest Sinner Page 16
