He hiked his shoulders. “Whatever. Not like it hurt. Nothing broken.”
She had the feeling he was like Cal, always attempting to let things roll off his back and pretend they didn’t bother him, always masking his real feelings.
“You said you got a good look at your father’s attackers. That there was CCTV footage?” Cal pulled her back to him and she nodded.
“The police have it,” she said.
He glanced at the two large men standing to her left in the main part of the kitchen. “Marek, you think you could get hold of that footage?”
Marek, the one with the short dark wavy hair who looked as if he had just come from a beach vacation in his dark linen shirt and trousers, pursed his lips, a pensive edge to his roughly handsome features, and then nodded. “Possibly. I can give it my best shot. I just need to know which station has the footage on their servers.”
She told him the name of it, and then looked back at Cal. “What good is that footage to you?”
“We’re looking for someone else who might be involved with our enemy, but we don’t know what he looks like. You mentioned a man went into the house with him and never came out.” Cal inched closer, until she could feel the heat of his body and a need to tell him to take a step back ran through her.
She couldn’t concentrate when he was this close to her, making her aware of his body, how his hips were trim but his torso was packed with muscle. Her fingers itched with a need to stroke over his corded right forearm, tracing the blue ink on the inside of it.
Ink she remembered shining with blue light.
“Marinda?” Cal’s voice rang in her ears, distant as her gaze drifted down his biceps to his forearm.
“Is she gonna kiss him? Because I’d probably still puke.” Someone made a retching noise.
Snapping Marinda back to the room as effectively as a bucket of ice tipped over her head.
“The first man wore a suit. He was tall and the suit looked expensive. Tailored. He wore a hat too. I think he might have had dark hair… and his eyes…” She trailed off as she remembered the way he had looked at the camera, staring into it, as if he had known she would see him.
As if he had wanted her to see him.
To be able to recognise him.
She looked at the violet-haired one as he came to stand near the one with black hair who was still looking at her with a hunger for violence in his blue eyes.
“He had eyes like yours.” She stared into his golden ones.
“They’re my best asset.” The man fluffed up the longer lengths of his purple hair.
She turned back to Cal, ignoring the man’s playfulness. “The other man wore a long black fitted coat. He was tall too, and slim. He had black hair, but I didn’t get a good look at his face. The other man obscured him most of the time.”
She hesitated.
“What is it?” Cal asked.
She shrugged, but couldn’t let it go unsaid. “I think he wanted me to see him. The man with the golden eyes. He looked right at the camera. Not a glance. He stared at it for almost a minute… so I couldn’t miss his face. So I couldn’t forget it.”
“He wants you to go after him.” The bigger man’s gaze came to land on her and he pushed away from the counter, unfurling to his full height. She felt tiny as he towered over her, at least two inches taller than Marek and twice that over Cal. “Can you think of any reason why?”
She shook her head and broke into French as everything pressed down on her again, pushing her to her limit as panic surfaced once more. “No. Up until two days ago, I thought I was human. Now I don’t know what I am, and my father is dead, and things called daemons tried to kill me and two killers are after me, and I’m in a room with five gods of the Underworld and I think I’m going to pass out.”
“You’re not going to pass out.” Cal spoke in English, placed his hands on her arms and rubbed them through her jumper. “You just gotta breathe. We’ll find out what you are, and we’ll find those men, and they’ll pay for what they did to you. We’ll keep you safe.”
Marinda got stuck on the part about making them pay. That cold stirred inside her again and a feeling spread through her. One that disturbed her.
She was pleased.
She shoved back against it, aware that her mind was about to traverse paths she didn’t want to entertain. They weren’t like her at all. She wasn’t violent.
She wasn’t.
Cal turned to his brothers. “It sounds like the wraith, right?”
Marek nodded, and the one beside him followed suit.
The black-haired one’s blue eyes looked onyx as he glared at the floor, his lips compressed into a thin line.
“Esher?” The violet-haired man touched his shoulder. “We’re all good.”
Esher jerked his shoulder back, dislodging him. “I want him dead, Valen.”
Valen nodded. “And he will be. Just got to be patient a little longer, man.”
Esher bared teeth at him, canines that resembled short fangs. “I want him dead.”
His black-ringed eyes snapped to her.
“They want her. We use her as bait.”
Marinda gasped.
Cal stepped in front of her, his back to her as he held his arms out at his sides. “Not going to happen. Valen, Marek, back me up here.”
“Ain’t gonna happen, bro.” Valen shook his head, causing the longer lengths of his violet hair to sway across the right side of his jaw. He rubbed a hand through the short back and sides of it. “You know how well it goes when women play bait for us.”
“I have to agree with them. If they want to reach her, they can try, but she stays with us.” Marek drew the tails of his charcoal linen shirt back and slipped his hands into the pockets of his loose-fitting black trousers.
That still sounded like being bait to Marinda.
“I’m not a worm you can dangle.” She pushed out from behind Cal and he caught her arm and pressed her back.
Valen grinned wickedly. “Cal has a dangly worm. Sure he’d love to show it to you.”
Heat scalded her face.
Cal unleashed what she could only describe as a growl in his brother’s direction. “Lay off.”
“You’re disgusting,” she spat in French at Valen as she wrenched free of Cal’s grip and stormed across the room to the dining table, where she intended to remain.
As far from Cal as she could get.
“Hit a sore spot.” Valen turned his grin on the other men.
The big tawny one sighed, tilted his head back and pinched his nose. “Keras is lucky he isn’t here dealing with this immature shit.”
“Who’s immature?” Valen glared at him.
“You.” Everyone answered in unison.
Even her.
“Whatever.” Valen lifted his hand, extended his middle finger and swept it across the room for everyone to see.
Even her.
“Call me when you have something. Until then, my phone will be set to ‘fuck off’.” He disappeared, leaving eerie black smoke behind.
“Is it me, or is he getting worse again?” The big man looked to his right, at Marek.
Marek pulled another thoughtful face. “He’s been more on edge since Eva was injured in a fight at the Rome gate.”
“Megan healed her.” He dragged a hand down his face, revealing a weary expression as it fell from his stubbled chin. “I’m so damned tired. She’s up vomiting half the day, and wriggling like crazy the rest of it. I’m getting zero sleep. No rest for the wicked though, right?”
“The babe is well though?” Esher astounded her as she glanced at him and found concern filling his clear blue eyes. “Ares… the babe.”
“The baby is fine.” Ares smiled, a reassuring one that almost made her long for a sibling again. Almost. After the way she had seen these men acting tonight, she was grateful she hadn’t had one. “Just normal sickness. She’ll be better soon.”
The way he said that screamed that he wasn’t sure s
he would be, and that he was genuinely worried about this woman.
Someone he clearly loved with all his heart.
It was right there in his brown eyes, that same look her father had worn whenever he had been talking about her mother.
It dawned on her that several of them had mentioned women, and for some reason that made her feel a little more relaxed. Mostly because it made these gods seem a little more human.
A little less scary.
“I’ll let you all know if I manage to get into the server at the police station.” Marek stepped away from Ares and glanced at her. “It was nice to meet you, Marinda.”
He disappeared in a swirl of black smoke before she could respond.
“I’ll call Keras and fill him in.” Ares disappeared too.
Esher narrowed blue eyes on her. “You hurt anyone in this family and I will hunt you to the ends of the Underworld.”
Marinda’s spine stiffened, her blood turning to ice as that threat hit her and she could read in his eyes that he meant it.
He disappeared and she had to admit she was relieved to see him, and everyone else, go.
“Dick,” Cal muttered.
She looked at Cal, catching the concern in his gaze as he stared across the kitchen at her.
“You okay?” He kept his eyes on hers, drilling into her, rousing that awareness of him again.
And the fact they were alone now.
She swallowed. Nodded. Twisted the front of her burgundy jumper into her hands.
“I’m sorry about what happened. I can’t really control myself when… whatever it is… hits me.” And she hated that feeling of being a passenger in her own body, unable to do anything to stop what was happening.
He inched his foot forwards, hesitated and turned away from her, heading for the oven. “It’s fine. Like Valen said. No harm, no foul.”
“It isn’t fine.” She tried to swallow the thick lump forming in her throat. “I’m not fine.”
How could she be when she didn’t know what she was, and when she hadn’t recognised her own reflection?
Cal looked back over his shoulder at her, steely determination shining in his blue eyes.
“You will be. Whatever it takes, Marinda, I’ll help you find out what you are and I’ll get you through this.” Those words were a vow that she believed he meant to keep, even when she wasn’t sure that he could.
He crossed the room to her, lifted his hand and didn’t hesitate this time.
His touch was bliss as his palm landed gently on her cheek, heat flowing through her as he tilted her head back and gazed down into her eyes. His were soft, filling with something she wanted to name, but wasn’t sure what it was.
Not love.
This man didn’t love, she was sure of that.
For some reason, he had closed off his heart.
And she was determined to find out why.
Chapter 12
Marinda was driving Cal crazy. The huge townhouse felt too small with her in it. He just couldn’t escape her. Wherever he went, she was there a few moments later.
Even in sleep.
When he could sleep that was.
Most of the two days she had been sharing the house with him, he had lain awake, bone-deep aware of her where she slept in the next room.
Keras’s room.
That wasn’t helping matters.
He had offered her his own room, but she had refused, opting instead to set up home in his brother’s bed.
The thought of her sleeping on those sheets that smelled of Keras, his scent rubbing off on her, had him skirting closer and closer to the edge. He growled between gritted teeth as he slapped the orange juice carton down on the counter and crushed it in his fist, sending the ice-cold liquid shooting up like a fountain.
Cal bit out a ripe curse as it spilled all over the black marble, ran down the white cupboards and dripped onto the floor.
“Cal?” Marinda’s voice came from the living room.
He froze, unable to move a muscle as she entered the kitchen, her golden hair a shade darker than before as she rubbed a towel over it. Keras’s towel. A conservative wine-red v-neck T-shirt concealed curves he had been fantasising about non-stop since she had crashed into his life, and her faded blue jeans were loose on her legs, forcing his mind to conjure an image of what they might look like beneath all that saggy fabric.
She paused halfway across the room to him, her large blue-green eyes wide and luminous in the afternoon light. She was taking surprisingly well to sleeping during the day like he did, something that was necessary since all gate activity happened at night to avoid mortals seeing them.
Water dripped from the ends of her hair, soaking into her T-shirt above her breasts, drawing his gaze to them.
Hunger got the better of him, his focus slipping as it flooded him, whipping up a thousand replays of his wicked dreams of her, and he grimaced as his jeans pinched.
“What now?” he barked, a little harsher than intended, and called himself a dick when she flinched.
He clenched his jaw and subtly adjusted his hard-on, hoping the height of the kitchen island would give him some privacy so she wouldn’t notice what he was doing.
It was just lust.
He needed to go out and find something fast and fun, a swift fuck to clear his head.
He grabbed the paper towels, stooped with another grimace as his jeans tightened painfully over his crotch, and mopped up the spilled orange juice.
The scent of roses and lilac hit him.
Had his dick rock hard in an instant.
He froze and lifted his head, his gaze catching on her bare feet just inches from him. His eyes drifted up them, a groan threatening to slip from his lips as he realised just how close she was, and how easy it would be to rise up, wrap his arm around her and pull her against him.
He pushed that urge back down and denied it. He really needed a few minutes break from her, time enough to find someone to his taste and to purge this pent-up need.
Although that meant asking another of his brothers to keep an eye on her, and then there would be questions.
And he might end up hurting whoever he left in charge of her.
The thought of one of his brothers near her, alone with her, had his mood souring further, pushing him one step closer to the edge.
When his mind decided to picture Keras as the one taking care of her, he pretty much flipped his shit.
“I’m busy,” he snapped, tossed the sodden towels into the sink and tore more off the roll.
“Busy and in a bad mood,” she muttered and moved away from him.
Good. He was beginning to see why Valen preferred to be acerbic. It kept people at a distance, and right now he needed some distance from Marinda.
Something in the region of his chest called him a liar.
He didn’t need distance. He needed her as close as he could get her, wrapped up in his arms, her naked limbs tangled with his. His heart beat faster, a rapid drumming against his chest that had his cock throbbing with need. He twisted away from Marinda before she could notice it and cleaned the orange juice off the island.
“Are you in a bad mood because of me?”
He paused and looked at her. What to say? If he said yes, it would upset her, and she already looked as if she was blaming herself. And he didn’t want to upset her. If he said no, she would keep on probing, asking what was wrong until he admitted it was her.
He played it safe.
“Case of blue balls.” He grimaced as he let those words fly. Could have picked better ones. Probably should’ve just blamed his mood on his brothers.
“Blue balls?” An adorable crinkle formed between her fair eyebrows.
Oh gods, she would be the death of him, looking all innocent and sweet.
“I need to get laid.” Caustic seemed to do the trick. “Stuck here babysitting you, so no action for little Cal. Unless…”
She tossed him a disgusted look and hurried from the room.
> But he didn’t miss the blush that heated her cheeks.
He had half a mind to follow her and see if he could convince her that a little fooling around would be a nice way to pass the time until his brothers managed to get hold of the CCTV footage and called a meeting.
The other half called him a dick.
He settled for finishing cleaning up the spill instead, a sigh escaping him as he listened to her moving around in the living room, muttering things to herself.
What was he doing?
It wasn’t like him to be this wound up about something, and definitely not about a woman. She had him tied in knots, and whenever she was close to him, he couldn’t stop himself from bringing up a wall between them, attempting to keep her firmly on the other side of it.
Away from his heart.
Those four words hit him with the force of a gorgon in a really bad mood.
No. Nope. Not his heart. That had nothing to do with this. It wasn’t getting involved in any way. This was all just the result of a dangerous combination of lust, blue balls and the most beautiful woman he had ever seen being in his presence twenty-four-seven.
That was it.
He wanted her like he wanted any beautiful woman he met, but he couldn’t have her.
Why couldn’t he have her?
He needed a reason.
Cal absently palmed his aching shaft through his trousers as he searched for one and set the orange juice carton back in the fridge.
“I need to know how Marek is doing with that—” Marinda’s voice cut off. His gaze slowly edged towards her, his lips twisting in a grimace as he caught her staring at his hand. Her cheeks blazed crimson and she stammered. “W-would y-you n-n-not do that.”
His own cheeks heated when he realised his damned hand was still moving. He yanked it away from his groin and held both hands up beside his head.
Marinda’s eyes widened and she swiftly turned her back to him. “That only made it worse.”
He looked down at his pants tent.
He thought it was quite impressive.
His own eyes gradually widened as something slowly dawned on him. Unless.
Calistos: Guardians of Hades Series Book 5 Page 12
