Instead, he forced himself to take a step back, physically and mentally, to shut down the emotions that threatened to make him lose the edge he needed to stay sharp.
He watched her close those beautiful eyes and lay her hands flat on the surface of the altar. She continued to chant or pray or whatever the hell she was doing, but her voice had dropped below where even he could hear it.
He thought about pulling on his clothes but didn’t want to disturb her, so he stood there, arms crossed over his chest.
Trying not to let his libido rule his brain, which shouldn’t have been so damn hard to do.
Time passed as he stood there watching her. Watching the firelight play over her skin, watching the rise and fall of her breasts, letting his gaze stroke down her body to the juncture of her thighs.
His gaze caught and held on the perfect triangle of curls on her mound. He wondered what she’d do if he lowered her back to the altar so he could feast on her again. With an aborted sigh, he forced back the lust and waited for her to open her eyes.
Several minutes later, she drew in a deep breath and then released it on a sigh before she opened her eyes and smiled at him. That smile made muscles tighten and flex all over his body. Hell, even his dick twitched and the damn thing should have been sated.
“Finished?”
He tried to modulate his tone to hide the fact that he wanted her again. Of course, his nudity shot that all to hell because he’d already started to harden.
“Yes, thank you.” She nodded but her smile had dialed down to slightly rueful. “For all the good it did. There was a time when our parents wouldn’t think of ignoring our pleas. Or the pleas of their people. Uni and Tinia weren’t fickle like the Roman and Greek gods. They were more…”
“Human?” Cal supplied.
“If you want to call it that.” She shrugged, making her breasts bounce slightly.
And making Cal’s libido crank up another notch. He really needed to watch that. Not her breasts. He watched those a little too much.
No, he had to keep his damn dick under control and not let it lead him, rather than the other way around. That meant he needed to take a step back. Focus on the problem at hand. Tessa’s problem.
“So what happened? What made them retreat to Invol and hide the gates?”
Her smile disappeared completely now. “No one knows. We all have theories, but…”
Cal saw her gaze turn inward and pain creep onto her face. Some emotion he wasn’t going to put a name to made his chest tighten, made him want to wrap his arms around her and comfort her.
And that would lead down a very dark path. He knew that for a fact.
At least, he should know that. He’d had enough experience with spoiled women, goddesses or not, to know that they really didn’t give a shit about the mortals who gave the deities the power to exist.
Still, Tessa seemed… different?
Damn, he must be going soft.
Thrusting a hand toward her, he watched as she considered it for a brief second before taking it and allowing him to help her off the altar. When she stood on the floor, he released her and turned to gather their clothes.
“Cal, would it be possible to make a detour on the way back to Sal’s?”
***
When Tessa had told Cal where she wanted to go, he’d given her a halfhearted argument but eventually he’d admitted the threat to her safety would be minimal. Now, if she were eteri, a regular human with no magical blood, then where she stood now would be extremely dangerous to her health.
Too narrow to allow cars, with one bare bulb shining midway down the dead-end passageway and throwing shadows all over the surrounding walls, the magical warding on this dark alley was designed to give an eteri a sense of extreme danger, enough to make even the most strong-hearted man turn and leave.
It beckoned Tessa to go further, to push through the darkness to the excitement that lay beyond. She wondered if Cal felt the same.
Though she couldn’t see his face, she felt tension rolling off him in waves as she reached for the door handle. Like at the temple, only someone with Etruscan blood could open this door.
“Tessa—”
“Have you ever been to Downbelow, Cal?” She cut him off before he could demand she return to Sal’s. She’d promised to follow his every order, and she wouldn’t break her word. Still, if he forced her to run away and hide, she might never come out again.
After a moment, Cal sighed. “No, I’ve never been. I’ve only heard about it.”
She turned to flash him a bright smile, which he probably couldn’t see anyway. “Then you’re in for a treat.” She pushed open the door and stepped into utter darkness. “Close the door tight. The lights will come on in a sec.”
Cal paused for a second before she felt him crowd in against her. As soon as she heard the click of the lock, the buzz of fluorescent lights crackled overhead and a dim glow suffused the hallway, a long stretch leading steadily down to an iron door nearly fifty yards away.
“The band will be on tonight,” she said as she started toward the door. “They’re truly amazing musicians. And I believe you’ll find the place itself interesting. I can’t believe you’ve never checked it out. Your Etruscan blood would guarantee you entry.”
“I’ve just never gotten here.”
“Because you’re half Cimmerian?”
“Because I’m not much into public sex.”
She laughed at his dry tone. “I think you know more about Downbelow than you’re letting on. Anyway, we’re still a little early for that part so we’ll leave before we offend your delicate sensibilities.”
He snorted and her smile spread.
“Babe, my sensibilities are far from delicate, but when I fuck, I don’t want an audience.”
She couldn’t understand why. The man was a master of sex. But mortals could be downright prudish about things she never understood. “If you know so much about Downbelow, then you know sex magic fuels the wards to keep the place hidden.”
“Yeah, I know that, too. Sounds like you come here a lot.”
Her smile turned rueful. “I did. Once upon a time.”
When Downbelow had first been constructed, nearly one hundred and fifty years earlier, she’d been a frequent visitor. The people, the dancing, the sex. The euphoria. It’d been better than drugs, which had no effect on her anyway, and she’d become addicted to the place.
For so many years after the Etruscan deities had followed their people across the ocean to America, life had been just that. Life. Not really living. Not like the old days, when their people had spent weeks, sometimes months, worshipping the deities, celebrating, sacrificing. Partying.
“Tessa?”
Blessed Goddess, she’d loved to party.
And the ancient Etruscans had adored her. Though she’d always been a minor deity in the pantheon—even before the Romans had risen and made most of the Etruscan deities obsolete—she’d been beloved by her people for her sweet and, yes, sunny disposition.
She’d laughed. She’d danced. She’d loved to make love. Hell, she’d loved anything that felt good.
But until Downbelow had been built, the Etruscans had lost their ability to play in the States. They’d been much more concerned with their survival, about fitting in and hiding their magic from the eteri.
The Etruscan deities remembered well the horror of the Inquisition and the witch hunts. With the rise of industry and science, their magic had become much easier to hide. No one believed in magic any more. Only in money and possessions.
“Tessa.” Cal laid his hand on her shoulder and gave her a little shake to get her attention. But that wasn’t what made her lift her gaze back to his. It was the warmth of his hand seeping into her skin. “We going in or not?”
She smiled over her shoulder at him. “Yes, sorry. Just…”
“Just what?”
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
His gaze narrowed as if he might be able to read h
er thoughts before he turned back to the door. “Fine. Just stay behind me when we get in there. I need to get my bearings before…”
Before what?
She didn’t ask. They both seemed to have thoughts they didn’t want the other to know. So she nodded as she pushed the door open and then stepped aside to let him through.
She had a second to breathe in the musky, earthy scent of his skin before the magic inside the club tugged at her senses, drawing her into the heady atmosphere of the city’s most exclusive club.
Cal had gone no more than a few feet into the club when he stopped. To his left, she watched his expression carefully, and though he showed no outward sign of amazement, she knew he had to be awed.
She still was every time she entered.
Who would ever guess that beneath the city of boxy brick and concrete was a perfectly formed amphitheater that looked like it’d been transported through time from ancient Etruria. Though the amphitheater was tiny in comparison to the architectural wonders built centuries earlier in Europe, Africa, and Asia, just the fact of its existence was amazing.
The builders had dug into the bedrock below the city, creating a magnificent space—from the walls carved to look like marble columns to the ten circular rows of stone seating that encompassed the arena. Light poured down from the domed roof, which was decorated with a dazzling mural depicting the circensis. The mural appeared to be the source of the light, each bit of glass glowing from within, by magic, and illuminating the action below.
During the spring and summer, the arena held the circensis, the arena games. The Romans had devolved the games they’d stolen from the Etruscans into bloodthirsty spectacles of mass human destruction.
Those displays had always appalled Tessa and made her physically ill. She’d never lowered herself to attend the Romans’ so-called “games.” But she’d adored the Etruscan circensis. Hand-to-hand combat could get messy, yes, but neither opponent was allowed to beat the other to death. At least, not anymore.
Today, the games more resembled the eteri’s mixed martial-arts matches. Battles were between equally matched opponents. And no shape-changing was allowed unless both had the ability.
Still, the Etruscans enjoyed a little blood with their entertainment. Tessa believed that hard edge had kept their culture from disappearing altogether.
In the center of the arena, the audience danced with complete abandon, the band on the wooden stage at the north end giving a rousing performance.
Gemma, the band’s strega, hadn’t yet started to chant the euphoria spell that would whip the crowd into a frenzy and make them furiously horny. When they paired off to have wild sex later, the energy they produced would fuel the wards on the arena and the light source.
The rest of the band played their instruments with blazing precision as the singer, Dilby, screamed out the words to a song Tessa didn’t recognize.
A tiny brunette with bright green eyes and a slender frame, Dilby could sing as sweetly as a child or scream like a metal god. To her left, lanky Caeles played his fingers over his guitar like he was caressing a woman. In contrast, Fosco raged at his guitar like a madman.
Nicolosa, on bass, had her eyes closed and no part of her body moved except her fingers, while Arruns sat cool and collected at the back, banging on his drums. Teresa held a tambourine in one hand and slapped at conga drums with the other, while Recco made his violin wail.
“Are they always this loud?”
She turned to see Cal’s face screwed up in an expression of disgust, which made her laugh.
“Not your style?”
“Not really, no. Big-band swing is the only civilized music.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Do you dance?”
“You’ll never find out here, Lady.”
“Well, I want to dance.” She fluttered her eyelashes at him and moved around him toward the floor. “So you either have to suck it up and dance with me or watch from the sidelines.”
“I’ll watch.”
She gave him a teasing smile over her shoulder as she moved closer to the dance floor. “Your loss, big guy.”
At one time, the arena would have been filled. Today, she walked halfway across the floor before she came to the outer edge of the crowd. She knew Cal followed behind her, but as she began to wade deeper into the dancers, he broke off to head into the stands.
There really was very little danger to her here. Most of these people didn’t even know who she was. The Etruscans no longer worshipped her as they once had, especially the more human Enu.
The Fata, the Etruscan elemental race, led longer lives and followed the ancient traditions more closely. The Enu kept the secret of their lineage, but for many, the worship of their deities no longer comprised a large portion of their lives. If they even thought about it at all.
Sure, they sensed something about her as she brushed by them. Something different, something other. Most gave her a look, a smile, and then wondered who she was.
A few, mostly the shape-shifting lucani, realized who and what she was and bowed their heads as she passed by.
Her smile grew with each step, and by the time she’d reached the edge of the stage, the lingering sense of doom hanging over her head had mostly dissipated.
On stage, Dilby wrung out the last notes of the song and fell to the floor in a heap as the crowd cheered and bounced and geared up for the next song.
Dilby’s head popped up, and she caught Tessa’s eye. The girl’s bright smile always reminded Tessa of someone, though she’d never been able to put her finger on who. And she’d never been able to figure out what Dilby was. Enu, Fata, or a combination of the two?
That didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. What mattered was Dilby’s uncanny ability to discern the mood of the crowd and to pick the right song at the right moment to keep the crowd on its feet and moving.
Dilby also knew exactly the kind of music Tessa loved and never failed to slip in a few of Tessa’s favorites whenever she showed up. Which hadn’t been often lately.
“All right.” Dilby spread her hands out to the crowd. “I know you know this one. Let’s get our groove on, people!”
***
Disco.
Christ, who the hell listened to disco anymore?
Cal had climbed into the stands and taken a seat high enough that he could see out into the crowd but low enough that he could be on the dance floor in seconds if he needed to be.
Tessa was right, though. Everything he’d heard about Downbelow made him comfortable enough to let her have a little space. All right, maybe the space was for him. Fuck it all, he needed a breather.
From the moment he’d met Tessa, his life had been turned upside down. The things he thought he knew about himself were no longer true. All because of one tiny blonde of the variety he’d sworn never to have anything to do with again.
So why?
Good fucking question. Now if he only had an answer. Hell, an answer to anything would be helpful right now.
Why had Charun targeted her specifically? How could he stop a god? And why did he feel the warmth of her body?
If he stood next to her now, if he went out onto the dance floor and pulled her against him, he’d feel the heat of her skin. That close, he’d be able to see if her cheeks had turned pink as she danced. If her skin was slightly damp from exertion.
He wanted to run his tongue over her skin and taste the sweet heat of her.
Shit.
He shook his head and forced himself to check out the crowd. Young and energetic, they bounced and swayed and danced.
But his gaze quickly returned to Tessa.
She kept to herself at first, warming up. Arms over her head, she swayed as the song started, her eyes closed as if immersing herself in the music.
Hell, he wasn’t even sure what it was. All he could make out was “last dance” and something about needing someone to hold her. He’d pretty much skipped the whole disco scene.
Fucking embar
rassment to all mankind, if you asked him.
But Tessa must have loved it. As the song got faster, she moved even more seductively, her body a pure representation of the rhythm. Drawing men to her like bees to honey.
At first, she didn’t seem to notice them. She just kept swaying by herself, as if lost in the music, even when one of those men put his hands on her hips and began moving his body along with hers.
Cal was halfway out of his seat before he realized he’d moved. Forcing himself to sit back down, he watched as she opened her eyes and looked over her shoulder at the man. Her smile made Cal’s hands clench into fists. And when the asshole dancing with her turned her in his arms, Cal nearly ground his back teeth into dust.
Christ, he really was an idiot. Just because he’d fucked her didn’t mean she’d pledged her undying troth. What the fuck was a troth anyway? And what the hell did it matter who she danced with?
Matters to you, you fucking imbecile. You want her for yourself.
He did. Even though he should know better.
You’re an asshole.
Yeah, he had to agree with himself.
Forcing himself to stay seated, he watched Tessa bump and grind with several men through the course of the song. She didn’t stick with anyone for long, and he had to admit she didn’t seem to be encouraging the men in any way.
She didn’t look at them the same way she looked at him, which made the primitive part of his brain want to beat his chest in triumph and the rational part want to beat his head against the wall.
He knew which one was right. The head beating might actually do some good.
The band didn’t take a break between one song and the next. They seamlessly headed into a hyped-up version of some song he’d heard playing on someone’s radio. Something about being hot in here and taking off their clothes.
Benny Goodman, now that was a musician.
Shaking his head, Cal forced his gaze away from Tessa and scoped out the rest of the crowd. No one seemed to be paying her any undue attention.
Hell, he’d expected these people to be fawning all over her. She was a freaking goddess. Most acted as if they didn’t know who she was.
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