And felt her mouth drop open for a brief second before she could catch it.
Well, now. Weren’t all the men of Cal’s family just too handsome for words. The man had dark hair so black that it had blue highlights and eyes a deep charcoal gray.
His face had more rugged angles than X’s or Cal’s did but, Great Mother Goddess, the man was gorgeous. She absolutely saw what had made his mate give up her place in the sun for him. Especially when Diritas’s mouth quirked at one corner. Yummy.
He still looked pretty pissed off. But, if she had to guess, she’d say the bad-ass stance was mostly a front because his eyes looked happy. Happy to see his son.
Then Diritas sighed and shook his head, arms crossing over a broad chest. “What are you doing here, Caligo? What trouble are you in?”
Cal stiffened, sucking in a short, sharp breath. She could tell he wanted to refute his father’s assumption, but he couldn’t.
“Actually, I would be the trouble.” Tessa slipped past Cal, her arm stretched out to shake his father’s hand. “Hello, Diritas. I’m Tessa.”
Diritas didn’t look at her right away. He kept his gaze on Cal, but when Cal did nothing, Diritas looked at her.
He let his eyes travel the length of her, not in any sexual way but missing nothing. He stopped at her grass-stained pants for one brief moment before lifting his gaze back to meet hers. And when she smiled at him, he let his lips tilt upward in an answering half grin.
Then he shocked the hell out of her by bowing.
“Lady of the Golden Light. Welcome to Cimmeria.”
***
Cal had never seen his mom flustered.
Serena had always lived up to her name. Today, she flittered between fussing over Cal and fretting over Tessa.
His dad… Hell, he didn’t know what the hell to think about his dad. Never in a million years had Cal ever thought his dad would give an Etruscan goddess the kind of respect he’d shown Tessa.
Cimmerian men weren’t exactly known for their manners. Most looked like overmuscled thugs with too little brains. While that last part wasn’t true, except in a few aberrant cases, their lifestyle typically made them less than polite. And, yes, Cal knew he could count himself among them.
Maybe his mom had finally succeeded in civilizing the man she’d mated more than a hundred years earlier.
“So, when did you start fucking goddesses?”
Or not.
Luckily for his father, Serena and Tessa sat at the dining table inside the house while Cal and Diritas had taken their talk outside. Cal’s hands curled into fists before he forced them to relax.
He was strong, but his dad was stronger and wouldn’t have any problem beating his son to a pulp. And Tessa couldn’t afford to have her guardian damaged.
Who said he wasn’t growing and learning?
Cal looked his father straight in the eyes. “What business is that of yours?”
“It’s my business when you bring your trouble home with you.”
“Are you telling me we should leave?”
Diritas snorted. “And where would you go? I assume you’ve exhausted all other options if you’ve shown up here after all this time. Now, are you ready to tell me what’s really going on?”
True, they pretty much had run out of options. But did he hear the slightest hint of affront in his dad’s tone?
Nah, had to be imagining it.
“I already did.”
“Horseshit. You told me she was being chased by a demon. I don’t believe a son of mine can’t take care of one lousy demon. Tell me the rest.”
Cal considered telling his father to shove his questions up his ass but… the guy was no idiot. Maybe he could provide some insight, find an angle Cal had missed. Which was why Cal had come here in the first place. To ask his dad for help.
Funny how old habits died hard. Even when you hadn’t spoken to your father in almost eighty years.
His father didn’t interrupt when Cal laid out the situation, beginning with Tessa’s arrival at his door and ending with their arrival in Cimmeria. He only left out the parts about the sex. There were some things that Cal could never imagine discussing with the man called Cruelty. Sex topped that list.
“So,” Diritas said when Cal had stopped, “why not just walk her to the gate to Aitás, pat her on the ass, and get rid of her? Let the deities take care of their own messes. Why get involved?”
Cal opened his mouth to answer but found he couldn’t. Because the only answer he had was that he didn’t want to be rid of her.
Diritas sighed and shook his head. “Son, I never took you for an idiot. I raised you to be headstrong, willful, smart, cunning, and invincible. And you threw everything I taught you out the window and fell for a fucking goddess. You’re screwed. You know that, right? There’s no way this is going to end well.”
Every word out of his dad’s mouth felt like a nail in Cal’s chest. Every breath hurt like being shot with shards of glass.
“No.” He started to shake his head and then he couldn’t stop. “No, I don’t believe that. There’s got to be something we can do. Something I missed.”
Cal stared at his father… and realized he was waiting for Diritas to come up with something Cal hadn’t thought of. He realized he was counting on it. Counting on his dad to come through for him.
“Hell, don’t look at me like that.” Diritas rolled his eyes and scrubbed a hand through his hair, looking nervous for the first time ever. “Like I kicked your damn puppy. Damn it. We’ll figure something out, kid. Just… give me a few minutes, will you? I can’t be brilliant on demand. I gotta work at these things.”
***
Listening to the drone of voices from the next room, Tessa lay on the bed where Cal had slept for the first five years of his life before moving to the barracks.
The mattress was not uncomfortable, surprisingly. She’d almost expected to find he’d slept on the floor without a pillow or blankets. She hadn’t expected the house to be as inviting as it was.
Probably due to Serena’s influence.
The aguane had the attitude to go with the name, but she must also have a steel backbone to have lived with Diritas for the past century without being completely subsumed by him.
Cal’s father commanded attention. He filled a room with strength and power and practically sucked all of the air from the atmosphere. He had Presence with a capital P.
No wonder Cal idolized the man. Not that Cal would ever admit it. Fathers and sons. Always such complicated relationships.
Cal and Diritas had been talking since they’d arrived. They’d talked for hours, hashing out her problem.
And she’d grown weaker with every second. Until she hadn’t been able to hide it anymore. She hadn’t wanted to make a big deal out of it. Had almost been able to pass it off as normal fatigue and slip out of the room before Cal could notice.
But then he’d narrowed his eyes and really looked at her. And his expression had turned to stone.
Which, of course, made his father notice. And demand to know what was happening.
Which was how she’d wound up here, banished to the bedroom to rest like a child.
Yes, she was tired. Okay, maybe she was too tired to hold her head up. But she couldn’t fall asleep. Fear refused to allow her.
So she closed her eyes, willing their encounters to play through her mind. Every breath-stealing, heart-stopping, thigh-clenching moment.
She remembered the look on his face the first time she’d felt his touch in his home in the woods. Remembered the feel of his hands on her skin, the strength of his kiss.
She saw him above her on the altar and below as she rode him. The slide of his cock in her sheath, his hands as they held her hips. The pinch of every single one of his fingers on her skin, the width of his cock as he spread her wide, the pleasure setting her nerve endings on fire.
Her hand slid beneath her pants and between her thighs, her index finger tunneling through the tight curls on
her mound to find her clit, already engorged and sensitive to the touch. A sharp sizzle shot through her sex and clenched her stomach as she ran her fingertip in tight circles over the jutting nub.
She closed her eyes tighter and imagined Cal’s finger on her clit, Cal’s hand on her breast, squeezing and kneading the flesh, pinching the nipple and rolling it between his fingers until she panted in frustration.
Her body needed the release, her sheath contracting around nothing in its fight to climax. She needed Cal.
“Hey, babe. Go ahead. Let go. I’m right here with you.”
Oh, blessed Uni. He’d come back to her.
Her eyes flew open, and with a glad cry, she wrapped her arms around those broad shoulders, clinging and not caring. His body crowded against hers in the small bed, plastered together from hip to thigh. Strength, confidence, and dominance poured from him.
His mouth covered hers, his lips hard and demanding. His tongue pushed into her mouth, demanding she give him what he wanted. His hand burrowed between her legs and his fingers took over from hers, stroking her, flicking at her clit, then dipping into her sex.
He touched her with reverence mixed with pure lust, a heady combination that made her gasp as her body shot into an orgasm that made all others seem tame in comparison. When she could open her eyes, she saw that Cal had stripped and was between her legs.
Wait, she didn’t remember him undressing. But she didn’t think any more about it when he fitted his cock to her slit and thrust into her.
She heard herself cry out as if from a great distance, heard her voice begging him to fuck her.
“I will, baby. I will.”
And he did, with an almost brutal force that made her arms tighten around him as her body welcomed the pounding. His hips slung back and forth in a rhythmic onslaught. His arms crushed her against his body, almost as if she was the one moving and he was just along for the ride. Which didn’t make any sense.
And his skin was cold. Not cool, like normal, but cold.
While her skin burned with the strength of the sun. She felt its heat, felt it rise from her like steam. It’d been so long since she’d led that burning orb around the earth that she’d almost forgotten what being so close to it felt like. It felt like heaven.
She soaked in the warmth, basked in the glow, and let it flow out of her and around until it encompassed her.
Cal’s scream shot her out of the bliss. He writhed next to her on the bed, his face a mask of pain—Wait, when had he moved? She didn’t remember him falling to the side—
“Oh, God, help me.” His voice cracked with agony. “Make it stop. It burns.”
Terror at his pain consumed her. She had to get help, had to get out of here and find someone to help her. Cal was suffering. All her fault. Had to make it stop.
She ran for the door, tore it open, and ran down the hall, headed for the door at the end. Help was waiting there for her.
***
Cool, misty air hit her skin, a slap against her senses, and Tessa realized her mistake as her eyes flew open.
“Oh, shit.”
She froze, blinking rapidly to accustom her eyes to the gray mist surrounding her.
Son of a bitch. She was so screwed.
“Yeah, that about sums it up, don’t it, Thesan. Charun definitely knew which button to push, didn’t he? But that’s what you get when you fall for a mortal. You get stupid.”
The voice of the Tukhulkha demon that had tried to take her before floated in the mist around her.
Gasping, Tessa spun in a circle, trying to spot the demon. She saw only the faint outline of massive tree trunks. No demon. No village. Nothing.
So… maybe the demon couldn’t see her either. Maybe it only knew her general location and needed to hear her voice to track her down.
“Are you scared yet, Lady? You really should be.”
Fighting to keep any sound to a minimum, Tessa forced herself to calm her breathing and think. If she ran, she’d make a racket and be easy to find. Still, she couldn’t sit here like a terrified rabbit, hoping the predator wouldn’t spot her.
“I’m going to find you. It’s just a matter of time.”
There. Tessa thought for sure the voice was coming from her left. So she needed to go to her right.
Go ahead, keep taunting, you bitchy blue SOB. And I’ll be long gone before you realize I’ve slipped away from you.
Creeping along, she made her way in the direction she believed the demon was not. The mist was so thick, she had to hold her hands out in front of her so she didn’t collide with a tree. Fortunately for her, there didn’t seem to be a lot of brush on the ground and that, combined with the sound-dampening properties of the mist, meant she could move relatively quietly.
“Relative” was the operative word, however. Every move she made sounded like a colony of angry monkeys attacking a herd of elephants.
“Running won’t help, though you can probably go a little faster if you feel like it. It won’t matter in the end.”
Damn, was the demon closer? She just couldn’t tell, not through the mist.
Which way do I go? Damn it, Cal. I’m so sorry.
There! Was that a break in the mist? Could that be the village?
Does it really matter at this point?
She took off at a run, barely managing to avoid tree trunks and limbs before they smacked her in the face.
With her heart pounding in her ears and fear making that beat insanely loud, she couldn’t hear anything else. And as the mist parted in front of her, she nearly tripped over the damn demon.
It lounged against a tree directly in front of her. Its blue skin and red-tipped, raven-black hair gleamed despite the lack of sunlight, while yellow sparks glinted in its black eyes.
Oh shit. Stupid. How could I have been so stupid?
She’d let her guard down and now she would pay the price.
I’m so sorry, Cal.
“Go ahead.” The demon shrugged. “Make another run for it. Won’t get far.”
So true. Even though her muscles flexed and twitched with the need to run.
“Besides,” the demon continued, its gaze darting around, “I kinda like it here. It’s cool.”
Unfortunately, the cool air was doing nothing to bring down her body temperature. Her skin felt as if she’d touched the sun itself.
There was no way she’d let the demon know that, though. She was still a goddess. And this creature didn’t have the right to frighten her. She should remember that.
Tessa drew herself up to her full height and stuck her nose in the air. “I’m not running now. I prefer yoga to running anyway. Running’s hard on the knees.”
The demon smiled, showing off a mouthful of sharp, pointed teeth. “Good run gets your blood pumping.”
“I don’t have any trouble getting my blood pumping.”
The demon’s eyes narrowed. “He must be good in bed.”
Oh, no, you don’t even get to go there. “You know Charun will never be able to accomplish his insane plan. Why are you helping him? What do you think you’ll get out of it?”
Laughing, the demon shook its head, the coils of its hair moving as sinuously as a snake. “Oh, please. Like I’m stupid enough to answer that. I’ve read the ‘Evil Overlord List’ on the Web. Good advice there.”
The demon pushed off the tree and started toward her. “Don’t make this difficult on yourself, Thesan. Just come along. I don’t want to damage you. You wouldn’t be much of a challenge anyway.”
Oh, now that was just cruel. Tessa narrowed her eyes and planted her hands on her hips. “Listen, you blue bitch-demon, don’t underestimate me. I’m more powerful than you can know.”
The demon snorted. “So disappear already.” It paused, eyebrows lifted. “What? No powers here? Not enough sunlight, huh? Then I guess you’re coming with me, considering your male left you unprotected.”
Her back stiffened. This was in no way Cal’s fault. What she wouldn’t give to c
law out the demon’s eyes for even suggesting that. “Before you serve me up to Charun, could you at least tell me your name?”
“Ah, yeah, really not that stupid.” One blue hand wrapped around her upper arm, the fingers long and skinny, nails filed to points. “Let’s go, blondie.”
Eyes downcast, Tessa followed for a few steps before twisting in the demon’s grip. She’d hoped to catch it off guard and twist out of its hold. When that didn’t work, she kicked and scratched and yanked at her arm.
The demon sighed and shook its head. “You know, I was trying to avoid this. But suit yourself.” Then it lowered its mouth to bite Tessa on the shoulder.
Tessa screamed as the cold poison seeped into her blood.
Cold. So bloody cold.
She screamed until the poison robbed her of her voice and her movement. That only took seconds, and then the demon threw her over its shoulder and began to run.
***
“You brought an Etruscan goddess here and plan to go up against the Etruscan God of the Underworld to save her? Have all those years in the sun robbed you of what little sense you were born with?”
Cal bit his tongue as Cuspis, leader of the Council of Elders, continued to question not only Cal’s sanity but his manhood. The old guy was almost three hundred years old and, as far as Cal knew, hadn’t left Cimmeria in more than one hundred fifty years.
“This council will not let you drag us into…”
As Cuspis raged on, Cal looked around the table and realized that probably most of the seven-member council shared their leader’s opinion.
They’d become complacent. Content to rule their tiny corner of the world as tyrants, conveniently forgetting how they’d once been a force to be feared. How they had fought those who were weaker.
Now, they hid in the shadows and pretended that they still were those men.
Hell, Cuspis didn’t even hide the fact that he probably couldn’t lift a sword anymore, not with the amount of weight he was carrying. They’d gotten fat and lazy and arrogant.
At least, most of them.
Cal let his gaze fall directly on Pavor. Juliana’s father had not aged well. Good.
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