“Oh? And how do you not exactly have sex?” The platinum-blonde’s green eyes spit fire.
“It’s more like the queen gets sad or…frustrated when Nergal rejects her overtures, which he did again right before I was summoned, and she calls one of her favorite gods for comfort.”
Lenore puffed through her lips. “Comfort? Is that what she calls it?”
Holly could tell that Enlil wasn’t used to getting yelled at or put on the spot, and dug for patience. She silently urged him to go on.
“Here’s the thing. Originally, we’d just let her cry, and she’d use us as sounding boards for her vexation, but slowly it morphed into something else.”
Lenore’s eyes still showed her displeasure, but she too, stayed silent while Enlil continued.
“In her chamber, she has this screen, and we put it between her bed and a couch she has across the room, so we can’t see each other, and then…”
“Yeah?” Lenore encouraged with obvious sarcasm.
“Then we talk her to an orgasm.”
“You what?” Lenore turned a nasty shade of purple.
“We tell her what we’d like to do to her and what we’re, uh, doing to ourselves…”
“You’re stroking yourselves off at the same time?” Lenore looked heavenward, as if seeking divine intervention…in hell, no less.
“Sometimes. It’s not necessary, but it helps set the mood.”
Lenore’s shoulders started to shake, and Holly waited for the next explosion when a bark of laughter erupted from the petite blonde woman’s mouth instead. She’d obviously thought of something funny that expunged her anger. “Oh my gods. It’s like phone sex…but without the phone. Fucking hell! The queen’s got some balls.”
At this point, Holly had to ask the question foremost in her mind. “Are you saying that Nergal is not in the room when you do this?”
“Hell no,” Enlil spat. “He’s such a sexual killjoy. He’d suck the fun right out of it. I doubt if the man’s had a dirty thought in his head in 4,000 years. If he can’t get it up for Ereshkigal, who’s pretty damned hot if I may say so, who could he get hard for?”
“Me?” Holly said tentatively.
“What?” Enlil and Lenore’s mouths dropped.
“I said, me.” Holly lifted her chin and dared them to contradict her. Then she decided to explain. “When Ereshkigal brought me to the Underworld earlier, the queen and I met Nergal in the throne room and he proceeded to bark off all these rules to her, including the one about Lenore being imprisoned and Enlil going home.”
Enlil did another “what the fuck!” double take. “Wait. Back up. Who’s going home…and who’s being imprisoned? Nobody said anything about Lenore being… Hey.” He paused and his eyes grew wide. “Is that what the cage was all about? Lenore? You knew about this? You knew you’d be put in a cell by that sadistic bastard and you agreed to come anyway?”
“Calm down.” Lenore studied her nails, not looking the least bit repentant. “It was the only way we could rescue Dagon. And who cares anyway. He has to release me as soon as Dagon and Holly make it to the throne room.”
“Shit, woman, Anshar’s going to have my ass when I show up at the compound without you. What am I supposed to tell him?”
“Tell him that I love him, and I’ll see him soon.” She stared at Enlil. “This is not a big deal. I can handle myself.”
“Sure.” Enlil snorted. “You can handle yourself against the king of the entire fucking Underworld—”
Lenore cut him off, “Hey, big guy. Can we leave this for now? I want to hear what Holly has to say. I think her story’s a lot juicier than my upcoming predicament.”
Holly sighed and continued, if only to stop the arguing. “Fine. So I stood there minding my own business, listening to Nergal blah-blah-blah the rules, when suddenly it occurred to him that, while Dagon and I are alone down here, we might…I could get pregnant.” Holly paused, wondering why that didn’t seem to bother her at all. Which was pretty fucked up considering she and Dagon hadn’t even gotten naked together yet. She didn’t wait for any reaction, but kept talking. “So he gets a stick up his ass.”
“I get it. He doesn’t want you two doing the nasty.” Lenore gave a knowing smile. “You’re right, Enlil. He is a sexual killjoy. Well, good luck to him, and good luck trying to keep you and Dagon from doing the double-backed demon.”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. He did figure out a way to stop it.” Holly was not the type to get embarrassed, but Enlil was like a father figure to her and it felt weird talking about her pussy in front of him. Since it was a little harder to face Enlil, she focused on Lenore as her story came out.
“Okay. Remember, I had no choice in this.” She took a deep breath. “Nergal and Ereshkigal put a locked ring on my…privates.”
Enlil’s face screwed up. “How the hell did they accomplish that?” Holly could almost believe she saw smoke emerging from Enlil’s head.
“Believe me,” Holly answered. “You don’t want to know the deets, but my…uh…opening is now pierced and closed for business.”
“That bastard! I’ll kill him. How dare he humiliate you like that. Fucking hell! That must have hurt like fuck.” Enlil shuddered, clearly imagining it.
“Actually…” Holly stuck out her tongue and wiggled the barbell around nervously. “I’m kind of used to piercings.” She rushed on. “So it wasn’t that horrible.”
Lenore looked flushed with interest, Enlil with anger.
“The interesting thing about it?” Holly continued. “They only had eyes for each other the whole time. I might as well not have been there. Once I…uh…once everything had been completed, they could barely remember to let me up. There was definitely something going on between them, and if the bulge in Nergal’s pants was any indication, he had an erection the size of Mount Vesuvius.”
“Well, I’ll be damned.” Enlil calmed down a bit as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Now that you mention it…” Enlil filled them in on what Eresh told him had occurred with her vibrator. He looked thoughtful. “I think our liege is on the verge of something he can’t control.”
“And just think,” Lenore added. “When I’m his captive, I can make it so much worse.” Holly could tell that Lenore was already scheming against the unsuspecting deity, biding her time before she was his—now willing—guest. But they didn’t have time to ponder it any further. The hairs on the back of Holly’s neck prickled.
Enlil must have felt it too. He quickly raised his head and sniffed. “Incoming!” He leaped to his feet.
Holly knew what he meant. She and Lenore quickly unzipped their backpacks, revealing various weapons.
“Is it the hard-to-incapacitate version or the impossible-to-stop demons? Can you tell, Enlil?” Lenore’s hand hesitated between knives and syringes.
Enlil took another sniff. “Smells like we have the easy ones first time out. Knives it is.”
Holly nodded and they grabbed weapons. The three arranged themselves with their backs toward each other.
“As soon as they’re all down, we have about two minutes to disappear before they regenerate and start looking for us again. If we’re lucky, and they’re the really dumb ones, they’ll get thrown off kilter and won’t remember what they were supposed to do before being taken apart.”
Holly gave a curt sign of agreement with her chin. She could smell them getting closer, and an idea struck her. “What if we inject one with a sedative to knock it out longer, and we do a quick dissection,” she said excitedly. “We can find out where their life essence is located, and then, instead of just putting them off for a couple of minutes, we can kill them.”
Enlil looked at her like she was a freaking genius. “That’s an awesome idea.” Then he cautioned, “But remember, this only helps us with these demons. Other species will have their own shit.”
Holly got down on one knee and rummaged in the backpack for the sedative.
Enlil kept talking. “After t
he demon is down, you’ll need to look for something that glows or lights up or seems to stand out from its normal body color. All right?” Enlil encouraged.
Holly nodded. “Okay. We can repeat the process every time we’re attacked by a new group.”
“Who wants to do the slice and dice honors?” Lenore cast a furtive glance at Holly.
“I know what you’re thinking.” Holly was only the slightest bit squeamish. “I’m the weak link in a battle, so I’ll do it.” She stood at the ready, syringe in hand. She’d barely made it back to a standing position before a group of five mud-colored blobs rounded the corner.
Holly did the best she could to control her gag reflex, but the stench emanating from the oozing flesh had both her and Lenore retching while attempting not to lose sight of their prey.
Fangs dripped spittle, and dirty, rust-colored claws slashed at the trio, trying to reach unprotected flesh. But they were no match for the long knives in Enlil’s hands or the machete that Lenore favored. The feisty goddess in heels took one down, cleaving it in two from the top of its head to its jutting jaw.
“This one, Holly!” Lenore yelled at her and Holly lost no time jabbing the hypodermic into the thing’s bulging midsection. The drug seemed to do the trick as the wretched creature ceased twitching almost immediately. Holly lowered her knife. Where to begin?
She shut out the sounds of battle above her as she hovered over the noxious body. She looked into the head cavity that Lenore’s blade had exposed. Nothing. Not even an organ that looked remotely like a brain, just a lot of loose, brown glop. Holly sliced into the creature’s nearest shoulder, dragging the blade the length of its arm. It flapped open. Nothing there either.
Taking her time, she moved to the demon’s other side and repeated the process. As with the first arm, Holly found no life force. The chest was next. She cut deeply across the sternum and straight down from collarbone to belly button. At least that’s what she thought the odd lumpish protrusion looked like. With one more long cut from hip to hip, she peeled back two flaps to expose the entire inside front of the being. There lay pulsing and beating bits of tissue that resembled piles of writhing worms, which made her skin crawl, but nothing that looked important enough to be the kernel that Enlil had described.
“Shit! I’m having no luck here. How are you guys doing?” Holly hadn’t spared them a glance before, but now she did. She wanted to know how much time she could afford to take.
“We have it under control.” Enlil sounded barely winded. “While two are down and regenerating, we incapacitated the other pair. Piece of cake.” He said the last as he jabbed forward again, spilling one onto its back.
“They should all be this easy.” Lenore had just used one of her lethal high heels to kick one where his boy parts should be. He went over…extra-easy. It made her think. “Duh. The crotch, Holly. It seems to be particularly sensitive.”
Enlil grimaced, his arm moving in controlled swings. “I don’t mean to belittle your theory, but that area is delicate on any species.”
True, but Holly had nothing to lose. She slit the ghoul across the groin and sure enough, out sparked a small green electrical charge.
“I’ve found it!” She inserted the knife deeper and dug out an arcing nugget the size of a walnut. She reached to take it in her hand and immediately dropped it to the floor. Fire-like shocks scorched her fingers and she lost the damned thing. It rolled in back of the battling god. “Enlil, behind you!”
The god looked down to see the glowing sphere and quickly understood. He brought the heel of his left boot down and crushed the offending orb. Instantly, the body of the downed demon disintegrated into dust.
“That was way cool!” Lenore whooped. “Do this one.” She twirled and toppled another mud-monster. Holly knew where to cut. She skewered its essence within seconds of it hitting the dirt, and poofed another one into oblivion. It took all of three minutes to dispatch the rest.
“I never would have thought to check the crotch.” Enlil scratched the back of his head. “All these years we’ve never killed one, and now we brought five down in the blink of an eye.”
“I think their essence-thingy was placed there for good reason,” Lenore said knowingly. “Guys have trouble doing damage to other guys’ junk because they empathize with the pain they’re inflicting. None of you gods ever thought to stab one there because you’d almost feel it yourselves.” Lenore must have guessed right because Enlil didn’t answer.
Holly grunted. “I wonder if it’s that easy with all of them?”
“Don’t count on it.” Enlil finally shrugged. “If it’s one thing I know about the Underworld, it never gives up easily.” He zipped and shouldered his backpack. “Time to get moving. This victory has bought us a few extra hours for travel.”
Yes, Holly tried not to get too hopeful, and a few hours closer to Dagon.
Chapter Seventeen
“You’ll be fine.” Huxley handed Dani-Lee the key to her room and pocketed the one that would let him into his, right down the hall. Dani wondered how safe she’d be in a room of her own. Not that she wanted to share with Huxley “Marduk told me”—he tapped his head—“that there’s no way Erra can find us since we have no god-energy.”
Dani remained envious that Huxley could hear the immortals.
“And Shamash let me know that while we rode, he set us up with rooms here. Now the good guys know where to find us, but Erra doesn’t have a clue.”
He continued as if she hadn’t been around the compound for a while, figuring out the rules. “In case you don’t know, gods can sense each other’s energy, but humans are a big blank. The only way we can be traced is if the PP scours all the parking garages and finds the bike, which is highly unlikely.”
“So we’re stuck in Boston without clothes until we hear that it’s clear to return?” Dani ignored his know-it-all, play-by-play. She lamented the one set of scrubs she had on her back.
“Yes on being stuck here, but I’ll go find a car, and then we’ll hit a few stores to pick up some necessities.”
“A couple of the clothing stores on Newbury Street would be fine,” she agreed. “There’s a drug store where we can pick up toiletries there too.”
Huxley flashed her a quick smile. “I’ll defer to your judgment. I’m just a small-town boy from Maine.” Whistling, he sauntered down the hall to the elevator, presumably to hit a rental place and procure a car.
Dani-Lee watched him go. She didn’t believe the small-town boy comment for a moment. Huxley had demonstrated a keen knowledge of Boston while navigating the streets that brought them to this nice, upscale hotel that had been Shamash’s pick. He hadn’t used his smart-phone once to help point the way. Hux seemed equally confident that there was a rental car company nearby. She’d have to see how much he relied on GPS to get them to Newbury Street. Heck, she’d been in the Boston area for over two years, having worked at Mass General for a while before taking the job in Quincy, and she still wasn’t as intimately familiar with Boston as he appeared to be.
It didn’t take Huxley long to reappear, nor as she had suspected, to find his way to their destination in the petite, lime-green sedan he’d rented. He dropped her off in front of the first clothing store she indicated.
“I’ll cruise up and down the street until I find a place to park, and then I’ll meet you back here.”
“Sounds like a plan.” She raised her eyebrows questioningly and glanced down at his wallet where it lay between the seats.
“Oh. Right. You need some money.” He dared a peak toward her pocketbook, and she gave an incredulous laugh.
“You can look all you want, but I’m not paying for any part of this little adventure. I didn’t ask to be homeless and without clothes.” The nerve of the guy. Enlil had given him a huge wad of money, and he was reluctant to part with it?
Dani hadn’t figured Hux for a cheapskate. It was an unappealing thought and had her wondering, until he peeled off several hundred-dollar bills with
out blinking an eye. What a strange dichotomy he was.
“If you need more, just tell me when we meet up.” He reached across the small interior space and pushed open her door, making light, momentary contact with her thighs.
Dani chose to ignore the delicious tingle she got. “Thanks. I think this should cover it.”
Dani entered the store and snagged clothing from the racks. She tried everything on, and miraculously, every piece fit.
“Wow. Whole new wardrobe for summer?” The clerk at the register removed hangers and folded the clothes with efficiency.
Dani grinned. “I’m going for a new look for…”
Huxley suddenly appeared beside her.
“For your boyfriend’s enjoyment?” The clerk finished for Dani, eyeballing Huxley in that awestruck way the doctor was getting used to.
“He’s not…”
“Ever disappointed with what she wears.” Huxley finished for Dani-Lee, with an impish smile, and draped an arm over her shoulders. “Are we finished here?” Huxley lifted the jam-packed bags while Dani handed over her cash. She winced. Huxley had that devilish look in his eye again.
“Next stop, the sexy-lady underwear store.” He whispered to the clerk. “I’m going to stick around for that one.” With a wink and a come-hither look at Dani, he dropped his arm and strolled his magnificent ass right out of the store.
Dammit. She followed him with as much dignity as her shaking legs could muster.
Dani wasn’t surprised to see that Huxley had procured a parking space right outside the store. He’d probably flexed his abs for some soccer mom in an SUV, and the woman had felt all fluttery letting him have her space. But what did Dani care?
Obviously, the man was a huge flirt, and it wasn’t like Huxley was hers or anything. They had simply been thrown together for this short period of time until the coast cleared to return them to the compound, at which time—she was sure—Huxley would go back to ignoring her as much as possible. This was just some fun for him, coming on to her in front of the clerk. She knew he did it on purpose. She just wasn’t sure yet whether she wanted to play along.
Going Deep Page 14
