But a cage wasn’t going to keep me. Not now.
Even if it could, I couldn’t let that happen. Because even if I was locked up with no immediate way out, Josie was here.
She would free me.
I knew she would.
And I would destroy her.
Gutted, I knew what I had to do. There was no more fucking around, no more bullshitting myself or Josie, especially not her. I should’ve done this the day I’d fed off her.
I knew I was on the wrong path, had been on the wrong path since the moment I saw Josie in the stairwell at Radford, but I hadn’t done anything about it. Now I would. I would do something about it, even if it pissed off Apollo and the other gods. I’d do it to keep her safe.
Safe from me.
I walked to the door and grasped the knob. Summoning the element of fire, I melted the internal gears. Metal gave way, rendered useless. The steel would’ve been good if someone was trying to knock the door in, say a mortal, but it didn’t stop me. They would’ve known that, so I knew on the other side there’d have to be a guard.
A distant part of me hoped it was Aiden standing guard, because I would have loved to knock his ass out for shits and giggles, but as I threw the door open, it wasn’t him.
Across from the room, Luke pushed off the wall, reaching for the thin icicle-shaped blade. “Shit.”
I sprang forward, faster than even he, an extremely well-trained Sentinel, could move. The power coursing through me had me feeling off the hook. Spinning, I swiped his legs out from under him. Luke stumbled, letting out another curse as I shot behind him. Whipping around, I folded my arm around his neck from behind. I put pressure, the right amount, on his throat. His hands flew up, fingers digging into my bicep.
“I’m sorry, man.” My voice was low, rough. “This isn’t personal.”
Luke slammed his fist into my arm, but I reached down with my free hand and grabbed the thin blade I knew was dipped in the blood of a Pegasus. Moving lightning quick, I dragged the sharp edge across his forearm.
The result was immediate.
Luke collapsed against me, bones and muscles struck useless by the poison. He would recover. In a few hours.
I pulled him into the cell and gently laid him on the cot, stretching him out. His eyes, full of fury, met mine. His silent, paralyzed glare promised retribution before his eyes drifted shut, giving way to the toxin. I had a feeling he wouldn’t be getting the chance.
Still holding the blade, I closed the door behind me and realized that I was in another room, one that was hidden. Hell, they’d dropped me in a panic room in the basement. I almost laughed as I climbed the steps. The house was quiet. I imagined everyone thought I’d be out longer than I was. Not smart. It would be so easy to sneak up on them, especially Deacon. He wouldn’t know what had hit him. Alex and Aiden, being demigods, would be harder, but no match now. I could easily—
I shut my eyes, jaw working. My head was a mess, as if there were a hundred voices speaking at once. I needed to get out of there. I headed for the front of the house, but stopped in the middle of the hall. Inhaling deeply, I lifted my gaze to the ceiling. I could sense restlessness in one of the bedrooms upstairs, but my attention was drawn to the room in the front—the library. She was in there, and the sick thing was, I only knew her exact location because of her aether.
It fucking called to me.
It reached inside, wrapped its thready fingers around every muscle fiber and taunted me, lured me. My mouth watered.
Footsteps approached from the kitchen and my head swung sharply in the direction of the opening. Gable stepped out, blond hair disheveled and pants wrinkled.
Bad time for a midnight snack.
Sleep clung to his eyes. “Hey, aren’t you—?”
I shot forward, clamped my hand over his mouth. I started to swipe him with the blade, but I didn’t know if it would kill him. So I shifted my hand until his nose and mouth were covered, and I held on until his legs gave out. I caught him and then tossed him over my shoulder. I figured Poseidon wouldn’t be happy with how I dumped his kid on the couch, but oh well. Could’ve been worse.
I could’ve done a lot worse.
Back out in the hall, I forced myself to keep going toward the front door, but before I even knew what I was doing, I was in front of the library and was opening the door, stepping into the dark room, closing the door behind me.
My heart rate picked up, responding to her proximity, and as I stepped forward, I had no idea if it was because of what coursed through her veins or just because it was her.
It was both.
But it was her.
Josie was curled up on the couch, and even in the pale moonlight streaming in from the window above the couch, I could see that she still wore the shorts I’d seen her in last. Her hair was free, falling over the side of her face and over her shoulder, tangling with her curved arm.
So freaking beautiful.
I need to leave.
I walked toward her.
I need to get the hell out of here.
I knelt by her side.
I need to leave her.
I reached out, brushing the tips of my fingers over her lips. They parted on a soft inhale, and a second later she stirred awake. Those thick lashes fluttered, sweeping up and revealing deep blue eyes.
Our gazes collided and locked, and in her eyes, I saw surprise and then—then I saw relief, and holy shit, that broke me.
Broke me right apart.
“I’m sorry,” I told her, repeating the last thing I’d said to her before the Titans attacked.
“Seth,” she whispered, reaching for me.
I don’t know if it was the relief I saw in her eyes, even after what I’d done, or the way she reached for me and said my name, as if it was a benediction, but all restraint within me broke.
Common sense dived face-first out the window, and in under a second I was on her.
Rising fast, I clasped the sides of her cheeks and tilted her head back. I kissed her, and there was nothing soft or smooth about it. She jolted in surprise and then grabbed my shoulders, her little nails digging through my shirt and into my skin. I nipped at her bottom lip, and with a soft moan, her mouth opened. I tasted her, drew her in as I dragged my hands down her throat over her arms. I wasn’t thinking. There wasn’t a part of my damn brain that was catching up to what was happening. Everything was focused on the way she felt, the look in her eyes, and the way she said my name.
I was lost in her.
My fingers brushed the edge of her shirt and I tugged the material, lifting it up. We broke apart long enough to get the damn thing over her head, and then everything else came off in a rush. My shirt. Her shorts. Mine. Then everything else. Nothing was between our hands or our bodies.
Pressing her into the couch, I moved over her and against her. There was no hesitation in Josie. No questions. No putting on the brakes. One of her legs wrapped around mine. Her hands slid down my back, to my ass. She grabbed me, pulling me closer. Our chests crushed together. Her small, hard nipples pressed into me, driving me freaking insane. The room was filled with the breathy sounds of her moans and the rougher ones of mine.
I shouldn’t be doing this. It was too risky. My emotions were all over the damn place. No restraint. All it would take is a second to tap into her, to pull from her, to do exactly what the Titans planned to do to her.
But the way she moved, the arching of her hips and how she felt, wet and warm against my length, drove me forward, beyond the point of return. She curled her fingers through my hair as she gripped my arm with the other.
“I love you,” she whispered in my ear as I settled between her thighs. “I love you, Seth.”
Those words gutted me, cut me right open. I didn’t deserve that. I didn’t deserve this, but I had to get in her, feel her, one last time, and the memory of this joining was going to have to carry me until the gods laid down their punishment. Reaching down between us, I wrapped my hand around my dick.
I groaned as I felt her readiness against the tip. There wasn’t a damn thing between us.
I didn’t stop.
Josie didn’t stop me.
It was foolish. Risky. Fucking idiotic. But as I slid into her, felt every inch with nothing between us, the sensation blew me apart, shot straight to the very core of my being.
Nothing. Nothing had ever felt like this before.
Stopping, I lifted my head and stared down at Josie. Her long neck was exposed, her lips red and swollen, eyes half-open. Her chest rose fast and deep. She smoothed a trembling hand down my chest.
Her touch. I couldn’t . . .
I caught her hand, pulling it away from me and pinning it above her head. Her eyes widened as I captured her other hand and drew it above her head, joining it with the other. I kept them there with one hand around her wrists and then gripped her rounded hip.
“Seth,” she breathed.
I slammed in to the hilt. Her head kicked back as she made this soft, keening sound that almost made me lose it right there.
Things were frantic.
My body moved against hers, in her, and her arms strained. She wanted to touch me. Gods, Josie loved to touch me, but I held her in place as I thrust into her. I felt her the second before she came. Her hips jerked up, her back arched, and those blue eyes were wide.
Josie’s cry was muffled as she bit down on her lip. She broke apart around me, her muscles clenching down, squeezing me, and I exhaled harshly, riding her until she fell back against the couch.
I wasn’t done with her.
Pulling out of her, I let go of her wrists and, using my grip on her waist, I flipped her onto her stomach. I moved over her, pressing my chest to her back as I slid my arm under her waist, lifting her hips. I entered her in one stroke, nearly undone by the tightness I felt.
There was no rhythm to how I moved then. My hips pounded into hers, and I kept going, almost as if I was trying to get myself in there so deep there would be no way of extracting me from her, so fucking deep that there was no her, no me, just us. She was so tight, so wet, and so perfect.
Sweat dampened and slicked our skin. The fleshy sounds our bodies made drove me to the brink. Shifting my hand under her, I found the tight bundle of nerves, worked her until she clamped down on me.
Release powered down my spine, raw and all-consuming, blowing my head right off me. Intense. Couldn’t breathe around it. Couldn’t feel anything else. Only at the very last second, I pulled out and folded my arms around Josie, sealing her body to mine as I came, cradled against her, my face buried in her neck. The world fell away for those precious moments, dropped off and stayed there as our hearts slowed and our bodies relaxed into each other.
“Seth,” she murmured, turning her head to the side. A couple of moments passed. “Are you . . . are you okay now?”
I closed my eyes. Everything would be. I spoke, my voice rough. Empty. “Yes.”
Josie tensed under me and then she looked over her shoulder. Concern pooled into her gaze. “Seth, we need to talk. They’re saying that you’re a—”
“Shh,” I murmured, shifted us onto our sides, until her back was to my front and my arm around her waist. “I just want to hold you right now. Please? We’ll . . . we’ll talk later.”
She was stiff against me for a moment. “Promise?”
“Promise.”
I lied. Add that to the list of fucked-up things I’d done, but she curled into me, pressing her cheek against my chest with both of her hands gripping my arm. Like she was trying to hold me there. Like she already knew on some unconscious level what was happening.
I held her until she fell back asleep.
I held her until I was no longer sure I could walk away.
I held her until it physically fucking hurt to ease her out of my embrace.
Leaning over her, my gaze roamed over her face. My hand shook as I carefully brushed the long, damp strands back from her cheek. I committed every square inch to memory. The natural arch to her brows. The height of her cheeks and the full, pouty bow-shaped lips.
I brushed my lips against her cheek and then again, lower, on her neck, over the faded tag the daimon had given her outside of St. Louis. Then I spoke the three truest words I’d ever spoken and the three words I didn’t deserve to utter, to give air, but I said them.
“I love you.”
Chapter 32
Josie
When I opened my eyes, Seth was gone and I was alone in the morning light, lying on my side. I stared at the closed door, wondering if I’d dreamt him. Quite possibly. I’d had some vivid dreams when it came to him, and there was a surreal quality about everything as all my senses came back online.
I looked down at myself.
Considering I was naked under the quilt, I was pretty sure I hadn’t dreamt him. And if that hadn’t done it, the dampness between my thighs was also a very good indication.
But Seth was gone.
Holding the quilt to my breasts, I sat up, wincing slightly as I moved my legs onto the floor. What we’d done—he’d done—on this couch . . . ? Wow. I felt a little shaky.
My clothes were stacked on the floor, as if Seth had folded them for me. Strange. My stomach dipped and twisted as I lifted my gaze again to the library door.
I love you.
His voice echoed in my thoughts. My heart stuttered over itself. He’d never said that before, but I swore I’d heard him. It was too real, his voice too heavy for it to be a part of my imagination, but where was he?
And had he let himself out of the room last night, or had someone else done it? If so, why hadn’t they come to get me? Closing my eyes, I swallowed hard, because I knew Seth hadn’t been let out on his own. Not after what Herc and everyone were saying. They were planning to summon Hephaestus, and they believed him to be the God Killer.
Seth had gotten himself out.
I just want to hold you.
With a sinking feeling, I grabbed my clothes off the floor and quickly changed back into them since there was no way I was walking through this house with just a thin quilt wrapped around me. I doubted anyone but Seth wanted to see that.
We’ll talk later.
Promise?
Promise.
The numb, cold feeling expanded. Things had not been settled between us at all before the Titan appeared. We really needed to talk before, and now it was imperative.
Once in my clothes, I walked over to the door and found that it had been locked. The sinking feeling hit me again. I unlocked the door and stepped out into the brighter hallway. I could hear footsteps upstairs and as I took a step forward, the door at the end of the hall opened.
Alex stepped out, a Covenant dagger in her white-knuckled grip.
The strained set to Alex’s face as she stepped into the hall and saw me was like stepping out into icy, winter rain. I knew it. In my bones, I knew it.
“Do you know where he is?” she asked, striding toward me. Every muscle in my body locked up. When I didn’t respond, she stopped in front of me. “Aiden just found Luke out of commission in the room we had Seth in, and I found Gable in the same condition in the living room. We can’t find Seth.”
“Oh God,” I whispered, leaning against the wall. I gave a little shake of my head, and it hit me fully then, what I already knew. The intensity behind the way he came to me. The heaviness in his voice. The reason he didn’t want to talk then. The softly whispered “I love you.” Oh God, what had he done? I lifted my head, meeting her gaze. “He didn’t hurt them.”
She nodded curtly. “Looks like he got hold of Solos’s blade, the one with the Pegasus blood on it. They weren’t hurt, but we need to find him. Do you know where he went?”
What I’d said hadn’t been a question, but Alex was wary—she had been wary of Seth the moment she set foot on Covenant University soil. So had Aiden, and Seth had seen that. None of that helped him, not when he got lost in his own head.
Pushing off the wall, I stepped around Alex. “He’s
gone.”
“Yes.” She turned to me. “He’s—”
“He’s left.” I drew in a breath, but it got stuck and it expanded in my throat. It hurt as emotion crawled up. I took a step forward and stumbled as pressure sliced across my chest. “Oh God.”
Seth had really done it.
“Josie?” Alex put a hand on my arm. “Are you okay?”
Stepping away from her, I wheeled around and headed for the front door. Alex was hot on my heels as I reached the door and threw it open. I burst out onto the stone porch, coming to an abrupt halt as I scanned the circular driveway.
One of the vehicles was gone.
My hands fell open at my sides as I slowly shook my head. He’d really left, and with a vehicle he had hours on us, and I doubted he was planning to stay in Southern California.
“Dammit,” I heard someone say. Deacon? I had no idea when he’d gotten there. “He’s taken the damn SUV.”
Something cracked in my chest.
Pivoting around, I walked back into the house and I kept walking, even when Alex called out my name. I needed space. I needed a couple of minutes where I could think. I needed to be alone.
I passed Aiden in the stairwell. He said something, but I didn’t really understand him. Climbing the steps, I headed into the bedroom Seth and I were supposed to share. On autopilot, I stripped off the clothes and left them where they fell by the bed. In the bathroom, I cranked on the hot water, waited as steam filled the room. Sliding open the stall door, I stepped under the pelting hot water, arms limp at my sides.
And I stood there for what felt like forever, my head bowed and eyes closed. I stood there until that wave of emotion that had been crawling up my throat finally broke free, burning my eyes. The tears came again and they didn’t stop. Not for a very long time.
Everything was a mess and Seth had finally told me he loved me.
The Power (Titan #2) Page 30
