Now she had a shift at Memory Lane and needed a tall cup of coffee before she could pull her eight hours.
Cold wind whipped against her cheeks as she hurried across the street with more than enough time to stop for a hot drink on her way into work.
“Hey, Esme, the usual?” the barista asked.
“Yeah, thanks, Carly.”
“Mind if I ask you a question?” the girl asked while she started prepping the drink.
“Sure, go for it.”
“I’ve sorta been expecting Patrick from Architectural Graphics to ask me out, but he hasn’t yet. I’m not sure what to do. I mean, you’ve seen the way he flirts with me, right? Or am I totally seeing something that isn’t there?”
She’d expected a question about an assignment, since they weren’t exactly friends. After a brief hesitation, she shook off the surprise, smiled, and thought back on the cute, freckled ginger in their class. He always managed to get grouped with Carly. “No, I’m pretty sure he’s into you, but I also know he’s kinda shy. Maybe you should ask him out instead. It’s the twentieth century, you know?”
“You think?”
“Go for it.”
Carly smiled and added extra whipped cream into the cup. “Thanks. Here ya go.”
“Anytime.”
As she headed back out onto Main Street, a euphoric sense of accomplishment filled her with a warm glow. Was this what being the goddess of love meant? Helping people out, giving them a little nudge when they needed it?
“Hey pretty lady, what’s your hurry?”
The stranger’s voice pulled her from her thoughts. A quick glance to the side revealed a dark-haired man pushing away from the wall of an adjacent building. Esme ignored him and continued down the sidewalk.
“Hey, baby. Hey. Hey, baby.” The stranger’s hastening steps crunched over the snow behind her. “Didn’t you hear me talking to you?”
Esme never acknowledged catcallers, but something about the venom in his words, the sheer arrogance in his voice, snuck under her skin and infuriated her. She whirled. “I’m not your baby. Can you take that tired BS somewhere else, man?”
“What, you think you’re too good for me?”
“I think it doesn’t matter why I’m disinterested. You should turn and leave me alone.”
He reached into his coat. “You’re ugly anyway, bitch.” The knife flashed in the dim streetlight as he drew it.
Esme’s eyes widened. When he thrust forward toward her ribs, she spun to the side and dropped her cup. His stab brushed past her into the empty space occupied by her body a mere second ago.
The rest happened in a blur fueled by fight-or-flight instinct and smoldering confidence. She gripped his wrist and arm, brought her knee up, and crashed both together. The snapping bone made an audible crack accompanied by a roar of pain.
Her assailant’s knife clattered to the snow-flecked sidewalk. Esme kicked it away, twisted, and drove her elbow back and up into his face. Her foot dropped next, bearing down on the top of his with her heavy and hard-soled snow boot. A second later, she crashed her knuckles into his nose and sent him sprawling.
A siren signaled the arrival of the police. She stumbled back from the groaning man on the ground and backed into the wall with her heart racing. Carly ran over and caught her before she hit the ground. Esme hadn’t even realized she was sliding down the wall.
“Oh my God, Esme, are you okay?” Carly asked.
“Ma’am, are you all right?”
She blinked up at Officer Frank, aware of him standing over her while his partner attended her bloody-faced assailant. They snapped cuffs onto him and hauled him up. She didn’t warn them that his arm was broken, and she didn’t pity him for the rough handling they delivered.
“I think so. My hand hurts a little.”
Officer Frank raised his brows. “That was some punch you dealt to him there.”
“Yeah, seriously,” Carly said. “How did you learn to do all of that?”
Her pulse still raced. She blurted out, “Self-defense lessons.”
Now that it was over, she wanted to puke all over the snow. Tears sprang to her eyes, and she hated them, because they made her feel weak in the wake of what she’d somehow accomplished when her life was threatened. Carly passed her a tissue and rubbed her back without pressing for any talk. After a few moments, the nausea passed, but the trembles didn’t vanish.
“How did you even see…?”
Carly held up Esme’s debit card. “You dropped this on your way out, and since I know you work down the street, I figured I could catch you. Then I saw that creep chasing after you, so I called the cops.”
“Thank you.”
“Miss, we’re gonna need you to come down and make a statement. Is there someone you can call?”
“Yeah…”
She made a call to Mrs. Robinson first, barely managing to keep from bursting into tears again. Then she called Luke. If she was going to be stuck at the police station, she didn’t want to be there alone.
It didn’t take long at the police station. There had been more than enough witnesses to corroborate her story since the man attacked her out in the open. In less than an hour, Luke had her back at his place.
“Thanks for this,” she said. “Marie’s gonna freak.”
“Yeah, well, she’s not the only one. I’m half tempted to grab the other two and give that asshole a little midnight visit.”
“No, you can’t do that. And you can’t tell the others.”
“Why not?”
“Beau will kill him.”
Luke snorted. “Alex would kill him too. Not sure yet if I won’t, to be honest.”
“Don’t. Something wasn’t right there. I don’t know what yet, but something wasn’t right.”
He nodded. “All right. Whatever you want.”
Luke ran her a bath and washed her back while she soaked with her knees drawn up to her chest.
It was quiet and intimate, his humming the only noise aside from the fizz of an Arabian Nights inspired bath bomb filling the steamy air with sandalwood, saffron, and spice. He had a great voice, one worthy of musicals, jazz festivals, or even R&B concerts. If the circumstances had been different, she would have melted and dragged him into bed.
“I’m sorry.” Her quiet words broke the silence.
“Sorry for what?”
“For this. It’s like every time we get a moment alone something’s always in the way. I feel like… like you aren’t getting a fair chance.”
His brows raised. “A fair chance at what?”
“Intimacy. Affection. I dunno.” She dragged her hand through the water and stirred up the suds.
“All right. I’m going to break the bro code for a second here and reveal how much we three share with each other by repeating what Alex told you. There’s more to intimacy than sex. Spending New Year’s Eve with you, taking you into our world, introducing our child to you—that is my fair share of your time. I don’t need to get my dick wet to feel like you care.”
“But I’ve, you know, slept with the others.”
“Right. I know. Alex is different now, and it’s good to see him smiling. And I always figured you and Beau would get physical early on, because that’s just the kind of relationship you had. I’m not upset about it. None of us are going to keep tally of how much we bone you.”
“I keep waiting for the jealousy. I guess the part of me that remembers the past isn’t ready to let it go.”
His quiet laugh snaked around her heart, warming her from the inside. “Would I like to make love to you? I would love to have you beneath me, above me, any way you fucking please, but I’m not in any rush to put my wants before your welfare.”
She nodded. The tension in her stomach unknotted.
“If everything goes the way it should, we have the rest of forever together.” He paused a moment, then leaned close, a wicked smile on his face. “Besides, you went down on me first, remember? I’m not ashamed to admit
I took pleasure in tossing that at Beau. We do tease each other a little, but I like to think it’s all fun now.”
The last of her uneasiness vanished with her laughter. If it had been anyone else, some mortal guy bragging to his buddies, she would have taken offense with his candor, but with her guys it was natural. She splashed a few bubbles at Luke’s face.
“I don’t deserve you.”
“Sure you do. Now, you finish soaking, and I’ll order takeout. Sound good?”
“Sounds perfect.”
20
Esme enjoyed nothing more than the warmth of Luke’s hand around hers, except perhaps their forays into different realms. He led her down a starlit path in a forest alive with fireflies of a dozen different colors.
Following her traumatizing experience of the previous evening, she’d crawled into bed beside him and slept warm in his arms. His morning treat had been to sweep her away from the mortal realm into a magical place of eternal night.
“What is this? Where are we going?”
He grinned at her. “It’s a surprise.”
“Olympus again?”
“Nope, but we’re almost there. Almost to where you really belong. In fact…” He leaned in, nose skimming against her ear before his lips found the ticklish spot on her neck. “Close your eyes.”
Her heart leapt with elation. She shut her eyes and listened to the serene chirp of crickets. Luke’s fingers drifted away.
“Now what?”
He didn’t answer.
“Luke? Don’t keep me in suspense. What’s going on?”
When the silence continued, Esme opened her eyes to find the starlit path had dimmed and the twinkling lights were gone. In their place, only dank and foulness remained, a dark marsh with skeletal trees looming above her, their branches swaying in the rotten winds.
“Luke!” she called.
Silence.
“Luke!” she called again, expecting him to appear at any moment, to laugh and apologize.
Hadn’t he said traveling in the In-Between could be tricky with mortals?
There was darkness all around, despair and grasping hands tipped with venomous claws reaching from beneath trees with molding leaves, and all the terrifying crawling, stinging, and biting things Esme ever feared were there with her in the impenetrable gloom. No matter how she ran, where she turned, or how she clawed at the bleak, heavy curtain of night, there was no sunlight here.
There was no Beau, no Luke, and no Alex to guide her way, no shining light of love or divine powers to save her.
When she took another path, the way before her stretched infinitely into shadow, but she still ran, petrified not of what she could see, but what was hidden from her sight.
Because something out there was coming for her.
Esme jerked upright in bed, screaming. Her pulse pounded in her temples with a ferocious migraine unlike anything she’d ever experienced before, and her frenzied heart beat against her ribs, a caged bird desperate to break free.
“Esme, baby, breath.”
Luke’s hands cupped her face, warm against her clammy skin. She focused on his voice, but her throat only tightened further. Each breath wheezed in and out of her lungs. Crushing pain compressed her chest.
“Hold on, baby, I’m right here.” Luke barked out an order for his phone to dial Beau. She wanted to tell him not to bother, that it would pass in time—that there was no need to worry anyone—but words were beyond her.
Nothing existed but all encompassing, crippling terror.
“Beau, I need you and Alex over here right now. I dunno. She woke up screaming, and I don’t know what to do.”
Luke set the phone down and returned to her. He held her in his arms, rocked with her, stroked her hair and murmured in his low, melodic voice, sounding more like a god than ever in those moments. But nothing alleviated the tenacious, soul-deep fear clinging to her psyche.
Nothing lifted it.
The others arrived after an indeterminable time. Her throat was raw and hoarse by then, and she was furious with herself for the loss of her control.
“Esme?” Alex’s deep, calming voice penetrated the dark haze. Then his warmth surrounded her and the placid thump of his heart beat beneath her ear. “Esme, listen to my heart. Listen to it and try to breathe.”
“We’re all here, Esme. You’re safe,” Beau said.
Surrounded by the three men she loved, the fear and panic began to subside. Beau rubbed her back and Luke stroked her hand, and little by little her tight muscles loosened. She dragged in a deep breath and released it on a sob.
“I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about.” Alex kissed her brow and continued to rock her. Eventually her sobs subsided, but she stayed where she was, spent and exhausted.
“I’ll go make some tea. That’s what mortals do, right?”
Until that moment, Esme hadn’t realized someone else was there. She looked up from Alex’s chest and blinked at the woman standing in the bedroom doorway. “Eris, right?”
“Yeah. Sorry, I was hanging with Ares when they called.”
Esme swiped at her cheeks. “It’s okay, but no tea. Luke keeps a vodka bottle in the freezer.”
“Sure thing.”
Eris stepped out of sight.
“You wanna talk about it?” Luke asked.
“I dunno. It was a dream.”
“Baby, it was more than a dream. You woke up screaming.”
She swiped her face again with her wrists, prompting Beau to pass her a tissue. “You left me, and I was alone in the dark. And… and something was there. Something wanted me. And… and I know it was all a dream, I know it was, but it’s like it won’t let go.”
Beau and Alex exchanged glances. Luke stiffened.
“What does that sound like to you?” Beau asked.
Alex growled. “Interference.”
Luke stepped into his jeans and shrugged into a shirt. “I thought I felt something, but I figured it was my imagination. That no one would be so fucking stupid—”
“What?” she asked.
“Something did this to you,” Beau said in a measured, controlled voice, though he clenched his fists. “Or should I say, someones.”
“That sounds extreme, even for them,” Alex said
“For who?” Esme asked.
“A couple of troublemakers. C’mon, Luke, we’ll go have a chat with them.”
“Beau,” Alex said in a warning voice. “Don’t do anything drastic.”
Beau’s stare could have curdled milk. “They’ll be fortunate if I stop at kicking their asses back to Olympus instead of dropping them in the deepest, darkest pit in the Stygian Marsh until they’re old enough to shave.” He crossed the veil, and Luke followed.
A moment of silence passed before Eris spoke up. “You should probably go after them, Heph. You know how those boys of his get him riled up.”
“Wait, Beau’s kids? You mean mine? Ours?”
Alex sighed. “The twins cause havoc and panic, and they’re real good at getting under Beau’s skin, even though they don’t mean to.”
“He won’t hurt them, will he?”
“Probably not.”
Esme pushed at his chest. “You should go make sure.”
“I don’t want to leave you here alone.”
“I’ll stay with her,” Eris said.
Alex looked between them, his brows drawn together.
“Go on,” Esme urged in a quiet voice. “If it was my kids, I’m sure they didn’t mean it. Don’t let Beau be hard on them. Please.”
“All right.” He kissed her brow again then stood. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Alex stepped through the veil and vanished. Remnants of her dream flashed through her mind, making her pulse spike for a moment. She closed her eyes and willed the darkness away, knowing they’d be back.
“Ready for that vodka?”
Esme opened her eyes and looked at Eris. She had the vodka bottle i
n one hand and two shot glasses in the other.
“Yeah. We can watch a show or something.” She left the bed but paused halfway to the door, then hurried back to grab the cuffs Alex had made for her off the bedside table. Their warm, solid weight around her wrists comforted her. Only then did she follow Eris into the living room. “Where were you hanging with Beau?”
Eris’s eyes twinkled with mirth. “Ares and I were taking a little break together in the south. Fun with a couple rival gangs in Los Angeles. They’re always embroiled in some kind of war, and it’s a nice change of pace from the hopeless slaughter in the east. It has a different taste.”
“I’m sorry your fun together was interrupted.”
The goddess waved off her concern. “It happens. Here, drink, you’ll feel better.”
Esme accepted a shot and tipped it all back in one go, the spicy bite of horseradish burning down her throat. Her eyes watered.
“Better?”
“Yeah, thanks.” She held out her glass for a refill. It went down smoother than the first.
“You know, I see her in you. Aphrodite could drink too. She didn’t like spicy though, so that’s new.” Eris sniffed the bottle before pouring her own drink.
“Not sure if the drinking thing is a compliment or not.”
Chuckling a low and seductive noise, Eris leaned back against the sofa cushions while crossing her legs. “No insult intended, promise. Drinking and feasting was the way of life in Olympus a long time ago. Some handled it better than others. I mean, Dionysus was a sloppy drunk. Still is, actually, but I consider him to be an operative drunk. I wouldn’t let him drive me in a car anywhere unless I wanted to spend a couple days laid up in bed though.”
They shared a laugh and another drink, clinking their glasses together.
“Thanks, Eris, I needed this.”
“That’s what family is for. You want another?”
“Not just yet. I’m gonna go wash my face first. My eyes feel all puffy.”
“Okay.”
Esme made her way to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. One look in the mirror showed her what she already knew—red eyes and streaky cheeks. Had it really been her kids to blame? She and Ares hadn’t spoken much about the children they shared, and she’d only met Dito so far.
Divine Ambrosia Page 21
