She was so vibrant, so full of life.
His little butterfly.
“Can she read?” Keras.
Esher absently said, “I presume so. Japanese definitely, but she’s studied English so maybe a little of that too.”
Keras huffed. “No. Read.”
He dragged his focus away from Aiko, settling it on Keras, and frowned as he thought about that.
“She must be able to.” Because he hadn’t told her what he was, and she had pinpointed Cal and Ares’s powers without witnessing them.
Which meant she was a Carrier, a human with Hellspawn blood in their ancestry. Megan, Ares’s female, was a Carrier too, possessing the talent to heal. Aiko could sense things in people, able to read the truth about them. The other form of Carrier could see the future in visions.
Keras plucked the damned bell from the table and rang again, and Esher’s gut tightened, his mood taking a nosedive as he realised what his brother was going to do.
He had tested Megan, and he was going to test Aiko.
Ares gave Keras a black look, one that relayed he was as happy about their brother’s plan as Esher was and he wanted to argue against it.
When Aiko arrived, all smiles and light, Keras stared at her, blocking him out, and said, “What am I thinking?”
Her face fell as she swallowed hard and glanced at Esher.
He tried to reach for Keras, wanting to punch the bastard for making her so nervous, but Cal caught his arm and held him back. A dangerous move on his little brother’s part. Holding him back was like trying to hold back a tidal wave. You just didn’t do it unless you wanted to get hurt.
“I don’t… invade… people’s heads like that. It is rude.” She shook her head, and he could see she didn’t want to do it, was afraid of what might happen if she did.
“Leave her alone,” he growled, and she looked at him, her nerves fading a little as their eyes met. He gentled his tone. “You don’t have to do this.”
She looked back at Keras, and gods, he admired her when she stood a bit taller and squared her shoulders.
She took a deep breath and stared at Keras for so long Esher started to get twitchy again, restless with a need to stop her from looking at his brother.
A wrinkle formed between her eyebrows as she focused harder.
“Books?” she said, and then shook her head. “Not books. I’m meant… to read… your mind?”
“Keep going.” Keras’s voice was dark, challenging, and the need to punch his brother grew stronger, because he was pushing her, ordering her around as if she belonged to him, or was his to command.
Megan found it hard to heal them because they were gods, and it was obvious Aiko was struggling to read Keras. It was taking its toll on her.
She glanced at him, gave a tiny dip of her head to say she was fine, one that did nothing to ease the need to give his brother a makeover with his fists, and then looked back at Keras and focused again.
Her eyes turned glassy.
“Your thoughts… hazy.” She swayed a little and reached out to grip the ebony table, leaned towards it and his brother as she peered deeper into his green eyes. “You are gods. I understand.”
She went deeper still.
“What’s in your pocket? You want something… in your—”
“Get out of my head,” Keras snapped and shadows whipped towards her, but Valen had her out of their path in an instant, tugging her towards him as she flinched and closed her eyes, her hand flying to her forehead as if Keras had physically struck her.
Gods only knew what would have happened if his shadows had.
Ares was quick to move aside, levelling a hard look at Keras. Esher was out of the booth and beside her in a heartbeat, taking her from Valen and checking her over, leaving no inch of her uninspected as a need to see that she was unhurt raged through his blood.
“Are you alright?” He smoothed his thumb over her brow as he cupped her head, across the point she had touched when she had flinched, and relief beat through him when she nodded and opened her eyes, and lifted them to his, and he saw in them that she was. He turned his head towards his brother, clenched his jaw, and bit out, “Happy now?”
Keras lowered his eyes to the table and didn’t respond. His hands gripped the black wood, so fiercely his knuckles were white, and Esher wanted to ask him what it was in his pocket that he desired and wanted to keep hidden from him and his brothers. What did he want to protect so much that he had been willing to harm a human to keep it secret?
Ares looked as if he wanted the answer to that question too.
If Keras dared to push Aiko around again, if he so much as looked at her funnily, then Esher was damned well going to find out.
He watched his older brother twisting the silver band he wore on his thumb around it, his eyes on it, a glimmer of something like pain in their emerald depths.
For now, Esher would let it go.
They were meant to be celebrating Cal’s birthday, not getting into a fight.
He shifted his gaze back to Aiko. “You’re sure you’re alright?”
She nodded and he reluctantly released her when a few of the waitresses started looking his way and talking to each other. Aiko moved away, but he didn’t miss the way she frowned at Keras before she went back to work.
Keras looked away again when Esher glared at him and slid back into the booth, on the edge of the red velvet seat this time, hemming Ares in against Cal.
“You serious about her? You seem serious. She seems a little young.”
“Valen!” Ares snapped.
Valen shrugged, his shoulders casually rolling beneath his tight black t-shirt. “What? I’m just saying what you’re all thinking. We all know Esher’s history with humans is as black as Styx. What’s the deal?”
Esher had thought they had agreed not to do this. He ignored them and continued to watch her. When she came with their drinks, he took his from her, and a thousand volts leaped along his bones when their fingers brushed. She stared at him, eyes wide deep dark pools that he fell into, forgetting the world for a heartbeat.
He leaned towards her, wanting to kiss her, and stopped himself at the last second, aware she was being watched again. She broke away, a blush staining her cheeks, and hugged the silver tray to her chest as she headed back towards the kitchen.
When she reached the other waitresses, they all burst into giggles.
“There’s no doubt she likes you.”
Esher turned a glare on Daimon. “I expected comments from them, but not from you.”
Daimon just smiled, a teasing one that said he wasn’t going to hear the end of this for a while.
“Are you serious about her?” Keras this time, and everyone looked at him again, seeming as surprised as he was to hear their older brother speak again so soon.
Esher looked back at Aiko and watched her as she talked with the other waitresses, all bright and beautiful. “She’s different to everyone.”
She made him see there was good in this world and gave him a reason to protect it.
When she took a tray of drinks and brought them to his table, setting them down in front of Valen, Daimon and Cal, he waited impatiently for her to be done. The second she lowered her tray, he caught her free hand, brought it to his lips and pressed a kiss to it.
She blushed again. “I’ll be scolded.”
But she didn’t take her hand away. She lingered, showing him that she wanted his kiss, needed his hands on her, ached for the contact as fiercely as he did. He groaned and relinquished her hand, and watched her go, that restless need gnawing at him.
He wasn’t sure how much longer he could go without holding her again, touching her again.
Kissing her again.
It was driving him crazy.
He felt his brothers watching him, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Aiko, barely heard them as they spoke, lost in her and the need spiralling through him, one more ferocious than he had ever experienced before.
&
nbsp; One that stemmed from the deepest place in his heart.
In his soul.
Ares’s words broke through, quietly spoken and with a teasing note that said he was being only half-serious, but they struck Esher hard as he felt the gravity of them and knew them to be true.
“I think he’s in love.”
Daimon’s muttered response echoed his thoughts.
“Gods help the world.”
CHAPTER 14
Aiko pointed to the sign on the street marking the basement bar. It was one of her favourites in the Roppongi district. The skyscrapers towered above it, bright in the darkness, and the street was busy even at the late hour, people coming and going between the entertainment establishments in the area. A black taxi pulled up outside the club and two women clambered out of it, said something to the driver, and disappeared down the steps.
As Esher’s brothers moved off ahead of them, blending into the night in their black clothing, looking like a group of deadly assassins as they prowled towards the steps that led down into the club, Esher slowed.
She slowed with him, a feeling growing within her with each step further his brothers moved from them, a heavy weight that pressed down on her and would only be lifted when they were alone.
When she could touch Esher again, could kiss him as she had been dying to all night.
She had caught the need that had flared in him from time to time throughout the night, an ache that had flared in her too, had made her burn whenever his eyes had followed her, or she had looked at him. It had blazed hotter than the sun when he had taken hold of her after Keras had made her read his dark mind, and again when he had kissed her hand.
She had never wanted to be alone with a man like this before, had never yearned with a need to run away and construct a wall around them both to isolate them from the world.
“I’m sorry about my brother,” Esher said in Japanese as he lingered on the pavement near the steps, watching his brothers head inside, and she didn’t stop him when he took hold of her hand. His was cool against it, but it warmed her, sending a pleasant hot wave rolling through her that had her stepping towards him.
Darkness reigned in his eyes, anger that she wanted to soothe.
“It was difficult, but… I did not mind doing it.” Because she had the feeling it had been important.
She just wasn’t sure why.
Before she could ask Esher, he tugged her towards the entrance of the club, leading her down the steps. He pushed the heavy door open and held it for her. Rather than moving through the crowd towards his brothers where they stood near the bar, gaining curious glances from many of the people in the club, Esher tugged her left.
Into the shadows.
Her heart leaped into her throat as he pulled her in front of him, beating frantically as he backed her into the corner and hemmed her in with his body, planting his hands either side of her head. He breathed hard, and she could feel his struggle. It echoed her own.
She caught hold of the sides of his dark grey shirt near his collar, tugged him towards her, and moaned when he dipped his head and captured her lips, his breath hissing from him as he kissed her.
Damn, she needed him.
It had been building inside her all night. She had been watching him too, putting up with her friends teasing, each second agony as she had counted the minutes until her shift would end and she could be with him again. More than once, she had wanted him to come to her, had wanted to sneak away with him into one of the empty booths and steal a kiss like this.
She opened for him, and he groaned and shuddered as his tongue tangled with hers. Her grip on his shirt tightened, and then she gave herself over to the need rising inside her, vanquishing her nerves. She released his shirt and pressed her palms against his chest, moaned as the feel of his hard muscles and his heart pounding frantically against her hands sent a warm shiver through her.
He pressed into her, kissing her harder, so hungrily that she got caught up in his fervour, forgot the world existed and they weren’t alone. He shifted his hips closer, and she trembled as she felt his hardness against her belly.
Her hands shook as a need went through her, a wicked one that had her blushing.
One she had to obey.
It felt as if her very life depended on satisfying it.
She skimmed her left hand down his chest, feeling the tempting ridges of his stomach as he tensed, his breath hitching as he kissed her, driving her mad with a need for more. She trailed her fingers over the belt of his black jeans and hesitated for only a second before turning her hand and cupping his rigid length.
Esher groaned and whispered against her lips, “Touch me. I need you.”
Aiko’s cheeks blazed, awareness of everyone crashing back down around her, but it didn’t stop her from doing it, because she needed to feel him too.
She rubbed her palm up and down his length as he kissed her, his moans quiet enough that no one would hear them over the thumping music, and the corner dark enough that she was sure no one could see what they were doing.
But damn, she wasn’t sure she would care if someone did.
All that mattered was satisfying the need that had been steadily building inside her all night.
“Fuck, you’re killing me,” he uttered against her lips, kissed her again and then pressed his forehead against hers, his breathing as ragged as her own. “Put me out of my misery. I want to leave right now… go to that teahouse… make love with you.”
She wanted that too, his words setting fire to a deeper need, one that had her leaning closer to him, trapping her hand between their bodies. She wanted him. All of him. It frightened her, but excited her more.
She tiptoed and kissed him, hard this time, unable to hold back any longer, needing to show him that he wasn’t alone and she ached for him too, wanted to fulfil that vision he had painted of them together at the teahouse, making love beneath the moon.
Aiko froze and broke away from his lips, her gaze scanning the crowded room as a feeling arrowed through her.
“Why did you stop?” Esher dropped his head to her neck, devouring it with kisses. His hands clutched her hips, drawing her against him. “I still can’t believe you know I’m a god and you want to be with me.”
“I’ve been able to sense spirits for a long time now.” She pressed her hands against his chest, pushing him back to stop him from distracting her, overloading her with sensation. The feeling grew clearer, her ability pinpointing his brothers and him, and something else. “That’s why I can feel something is wrong. There are new spirits here. Bad spirits.”
Esher immediately grabbed her and pulled her swiftly through the crowd.
His brothers jeered as they approached.
“Scatter, now!” His words seemed slowed in her ears as she spotted one of the spirits she had sensed at the entrance of the club.
The dark-haired male lifted his hand, his thumb coming down on something he held.
“Run!” Aiko shoved Esher hard, heart slamming against her ribs as adrenaline and fear surged through her.
A wave of heat and light rolled through the room, and Esher twisted her into his arms, pinning her against the bar and shielding her with his body. There was a deafening bang, the floor bucked hard, almost sending her to her knees, and then screams rang around her.
But the explosion didn’t reach her and Esher, or his brothers.
She stared at Keras where he stood beyond Esher with both hands outstretched in front of him, at the flames and debris that hit an invisible barrier just inches from him.
At the blood that rolled down it like rain on a window.
Her stomach lurched, the sickening stench of burning flesh and other things assaulting her nose.
She pulled back to check Esher wasn’t hurt.
Cold crimson eyes looked down at her.
And then he was gone.
Aiko sagged against the bar, heart frozen in her chest as Esher disappeared in a swirl of black smoke, only to reapp
ear on the other side of Keras’s barrier. He let out an inhuman snarl as he shoved the humans in his path aside, heading towards a second attacker. The fair-haired man fumbled with the detonator in his hand.
Before he could press the button, Esher had appeared behind him and had ripped the vest of explosives off him. The man frantically pressed the button as Esher held the vest up and glared at it, and then at him. A cruel smile twisted Esher’s lips when it didn’t detonate.
The man tried to run, and his feelings struck her. Fear. He hadn’t been afraid to die when he had been on the verge of detonating himself, but now he was terrified.
Because Esher was going to kill him?
Some part of her thought she should stop him as she watched him capture the man by his throat and lift him from the floor, that she should be horrified by what he was doing as he stared at the man, his eyes blazing scarlet but as cold as ice, but the rest of her wanted him to do it.
She wanted the man to pay for what he had done, hurting countless innocent people, and what he had intended to do, killing those now struggling to escape, clawing their way towards the destroyed exit or away from Esher where he held the man aloft, staring at him.
Do it.
It was wrong of her, but she wanted him to do it.
Esher’s eyes narrowed slowly.
The man began to flail, frantically kicking at Esher’s legs and clawing at his arms, a wild thing in his grip. A grip that slowly tightened, until the man was choking. No, she realised as she watched blood trickle from the man’s nose, appearing black to her, and from his eyes, and saw it began to creep from his ears.
It wasn’t Esher’s grip that was making him choke.
It was Esher’s power.
She could feel it rising in him, and it was a dark and terrible tide, fuelled by anger that had his lips twisting in a satisfied sneer as he watched the man bleed.
The man convulsed, shaking violently in Esher’s grip, but Esher remained unmoving, his arm steady and eyes locked on him, no trace of emotion in them as he watched the man bleed out. The man coughed up blood, thick streams of it that ran over his chin and formed a puddle below his feet where they dangled at least eight inches off the ground, splattering across the rubble and sending dust up into the air.
Esher (Guardians of Hades Romance Series Book 3) Page 14
