Darkness Unbound

by Zoe Forward

  “I don’t understand.” She opened her mind to his, pushing images of her fantasy into his brain.

  With a curse, he shifted and dropped his head to her stomach. And then moved lower. His mouth latched onto her core. With raw, whipping need, she moaned and arched against him.

  “Oh, God, yes!” she cried.

  An animalistic sound ripped from his throat as his hand grasped her thigh and yanked it wider, allowing his fingers deeper access. She grabbed the edge of the table to anchor herself as he licked devastating patterns over her clit while thrusting his fingers. She couldn’t get close enough to him. Her whimpers turned into a plea, needing to find the ending.

  The incredible pain and anguish she’d locked deep inside her broke free. All the tension broke in waves and waves of shattering pleasure. She cried out her release, not caring if the world beyond the doors heard. His answering groan vibrated against her core.

  Gently, he relinquished his suction on her, and his fingers eased from her.

  Dismay set in as she realized she was far from done, but he’d withdrawn. She cringed at the emptiness.

  His expression remained unreadable, but the firm set of his jaw and tightness in his shoulders hinted he carried the same level of tension that needed to be set free. Yet, he made no move to remove his pants. Didn’t he want his relief as well?

  Apparently not. He stepped away.

  “That’s it?” she asked. Rejection beat a miserable path straight to her heart.

  Hoarsely he said, “We cannot. I refuse be a pawn in some deity’s game again.”

  “What game?”

  He worked his jaw back and forth, but remained mute.

  “Right.” Secrets. He didn’t trust her. She didn’t trust him. She began the mortifying task of relocating her underwear and clothes.

  “Astrid—”

  “Don’t,” she interrupted. “You can go now.” She struggled to focus enough to open his doorway.

  He reached for her, and she avoided his hands, shrugging off the one that grazed her shoulder. “Just go.” She pointed at the newly opened portal and exited the room. The moment he crossed and was gone, her partially mended heart shattered.

  ****

  Her shower lasted no more than three minutes. She jerked angrily at the tags on the new knit top and jeans before pulling them on, both stiff and unforgiving. One glimpse in the mirror, and she had no doubt Christian picked these. She plucked at the front of the scoop neck in a useless attempt to relocate it more than a few millimeters above her breasts. Maybe the loose girls Christian slept with wore shit like this, but in this pseudo-working environment she’d prefer not to have the guys boob scanning every few seconds. With a curse, she pulled open the bathroom door and stepped into a face-to-face with Dr. Kira.

  “Great, you’re done. It’s ladies’ night, and it just didn’t feel right not to have you there.” Kira grinned.

  “I’m not really in the mood.” She plucked again at the sweater, but stopped when she realized what she’d been doing.

  Kira smiled and laughed. “You must be suffering from post-traumatic testosterone bullshit. I like to call it PTTB.”

  Astrid cracked a smile. “It hit me so hard that I got whiplash.”

  Kira grabbed her hand and tugged her out of the room. “You absolutely must join us. You’ll like Julie and Shay. Julie’s been with her guy the longest, and she is a pro at handling PTTB.” She led down the stairwell, across the veranda garden and into the opposite side of the house, the side lived in by Eric and Julie’s family. “I’m not sure what’s on the agenda tonight. I vote we do dinner and then a good sci-fi movie.”

  The tall redhead she remembered from New Orleans appeared. With an Irish accent she said, “I prefer a romantic comedy. I don’t like the bullets.”

  “In most sci-fis, they’re ray guns,” Kira said.

  “I could do with some dinner,” Astrid announced.

  “Sounds good to me. I’m Julie.” The tall redhead held out her hand, which Astrid clasped. “I’m Eric’s wife. I know we didn’t get a chance for proper introductions before…well, before that hell. Eric’s got the baby tonight.” She smiled broadly.

  “I thought Scott was watching him,” Kira said.

  Julie shrugged. “It’s Eric’s night on duty. If he coaxed Scott into watching, then good for him.”

  “Is this the same Scott that does IT?” Astrid asked.

  Julie smiled. “Yes. He’s my older son. Sometimes Eric can coax him into babysitting, but his babysitting fee is hefty. Scott is not fond of little kids. He’s good with the baby, though.”

  “Let’s go into town and get dinner,” Shay suggested.

  “You know Ashor doesn’t like Kira leaving here…the whole her-being-the-akhrian-thing,” Julie said.

  Kira waved a hand. “Paah. We’ve got our own magus now for protection.” She grinned and pointed at Astrid.

  “So true! Awesome. Then, let’s get out of this prison,” Shay said.

  They piled into an SUV. Shay slid behind the wheel and scrolled through the nav system for restaurant recommendations, coming up with zilch. With a loud huff, she threw the vehicle into drive and headed out of the compound. “We’re on an adventure. I know there are at least three resorts in town. One of them has to have a decent restaurant.”

  “Good thing you speak Spanish,” Julie said. She slouched in the back seat beside Astrid. “You speak Spanish, Astrid?”

  Astrid nodded.

  A few minutes of road away from the compound, Kira announced, “Astrid is suffering from PTTB.”

  Shay groaned. “You poor thing. Don’t get me started. At least your guy isn’t stuck in the Middle Ages, like Dakar.”

  “He’s not my guy,” Astrid declared.

  “Ah, you’re still in that phase,” Julie said softly. “Who is your guy?”

  “He’s not here. Not of this time.” Astrid rolled her eyes and declared, “He really isn’t my guy.”

  Julie patted Astrid’s arm. “Don’t worry, it’ll all get sorted out soon. Kira and Shay went through this recently. Sucks. The gods do like to give us a bumpy ride in the start.”

  “Bumpy?” Shay asked. “They put Dakar and I through thousands of years of hell.”

  Julie said, “Eventually, the ride smoothes out, and if it doesn’t, then at least you’ve got fantastic sex to make up for it.”

  On the outskirts of town the two-lane “highway” was blockaded.

  “Great,” Shay announced, tucking a wild strand of auburn hair behind an ear as she braked.

  Astrid didn’t like the look of the two ex-army SUVs. The five or so gritty guys wore secondhand army combat fatigues and toted AK47s. Kidnappers, drug cartel, or worse. “Do not get out of the car. Let me handle this.” Crap, she wasn’t armed.

  “Do you want me to alert Ashor?” Kira asked. She tapped her head.

  “Give us a second to see if we can handle this. It’s not like he can magikally appear here to help out,” Astrid said.

  As the car halted Astrid rolled down her window at the driver’s side rear. She put on her best irritated-white-bitch smile. “¿Qué está pasando?” What’s going on?

  “Sal del coche.” Get out of the car. The leader with cigarette dangling from his lips sneered while waving his rifle.

  Four guerrillas approached her side of the car, but stayed a few respectful feet behind their leader. This went beyond kidnapping, especially given the ribbing and hey-heys going on between the clowns. These assholes planned rape and who knows what else.

  Astrid ordered quietly, “Ladies, on my signal you will exit through the passenger side of the car. Then go through the doorway.”

  “What doorway?” Julie whispered.

  “I will do my best to open one. I haven’t really tried this before on demand, but all of you must get out of here. Hopefully, I’ll send you home. No guarantees, though, on the destination.”

  “What about you?” Kira asked.

  “I’ll be right b
ehind you. I’ll distract them.”

  The leader flapped his gun about wildly. “Deja de hablar. Fuera!” Stop talking. Get out!

  Astrid focused for the portal energy. It revved in her chest and expanded out to her arms and fingers. She envisioned the courtyard through which she’d been tugged less than an hour ago. Without looking, she knew a doorway opened on the passenger side of the car, but didn’t have time to confirm where it led. With her luck they’d end up in Zannis’s world. She only hoped if she screwed it up or lost the portal before she got through it, she could find them again.

  “Go.” Astrid exited out of the driver’s side and held her arms up. “¿Qué es lo que quieres?” What do you want?

  The leader leered a salacious once-over that had her gut clinching with fury. Try it, she thought.

  He reached out and touched her cheek. She knocked his hand away and dodged the fist headed for her chin. She landed a throat jab and swiped his feet out from beneath him. Three hostiles moved in on her. She knocked the butt of the muzzle headed for her head away and tripped its owner, located to her left. She spun to gut punch the third closing in on her and nut crunched the fourth. With a pivot, she sped around the car. Automatic gunfire rang out.

  Her side burned. She resisted the urge to give into the stinging pain. Fury burned a hole in her stomach. These fuckers would pay. Shooting her? Planning to rape, possibly kidnap, and perhaps even to sell her into slavery? She needed Kane.

  The three ladies stood in front of the portal.

  “Go,” Astrid yelled.

  “What is that?” Kira pointed at the doorway.

  “Get through it!”

  She ran at the doorway amidst new gunfire, pushing the others ahead of her into darkness. She only hoped Zannis wasn’t on the other side. She’d rather go back into gunfire.

  As she stepped through the portal the abrupt light change disoriented her. She bumped into Kira as the portal snapped shut behind them. Everything was dim, shadowy, and mountainous. Not a single tree or plant dotted the cold terrain.

  No breeze, nothing living. Just spiky rock formations, dirt, and snow. And it smelled oddly reminiscent of decaying sewer refuse. The smell of a daemon. Shit. She definitely didn’t want to run into one of them right now. This clearly wasn’t where they needed to be. She reached for the energy to open a new doorway, managing no more than a dull sputter. Great. Marooned in who knows where hell.

  A skull-shuddering keening cry dropped her to her knees with her hands over her ears.

  “What was that?” Kira moaned, also on her knees.

  Astrid took in the spiky mountainous landscape around them. “No idea. Are any of you hurt?”

  A round of no’s confirmed the all-around okay.

  “Aside from where the hell are we, what was that doorway thing?” Shay asked.

  “So, my gifted power is a little weird,” Astrid replied. “I can open doorways.” A crash followed by rocks falling shuddered the ground. She jumped. A quick terrified upward glance confirmed no rockslide headed their way.

  She pointed at a small cave opening and led the way inside. A brief scan showed it to be shallow with no strange creatures hiding in its depths. “Get in here. I’m a bit weak on energy right now. I need to rev up before I can open a new doorway that will hopefully get us home. Let me take a peek up ahead to figure out what’s going on and where we are.”

  Shay blocked her exit. “That sounded a little too much like Dakar. I’m not staying in a dark cave with whatever made that god-awful noise out there. We stick together. If that means we will be hiding in here, then so be it.”

  “This will just take a second,” Astrid replied.

  “I’m with you, then,” Shay announced with a wry smile.

  “We just went from deep shit with guns to…I don’t know where we are, but my gut says it’s not good here. I will not be responsible for anyone getting killed,” Astrid said. “That means give me a few minutes while I determine what’s making the noise.”

  “I’ll give you three minutes, but that’s it,” Shay compromised. She clicked a few buttons on her digital watch. “You’re on a timer.”

  As she exited, Kira said to her back, “Did you ever watch action movies, Astrid? It’s always the idiot that goes and looks that gets killed or kidnapped.”

  “I’m not going to get killed or kidnapped. I promise, I will be back.”

  “That’s what they always say,” Kira muttered. “You know, I preferred to watch a movie tonight rather than be in it.”

  Astrid crept up a steep slope to a spiky rock corner that towered hundreds of feet above her. Her side burned. One touch and her hand came away with blood. Right, the gunshot. She hoped this magus condition would give her enough healing resilience to open a new doorway. She could ask Kira to help, but she wouldn’t.

  One peek around the edge of the rock mountain, and she sucked in her breath.

  Zannis.

  Definitely the wrong place to bring everyone.

  He fought a monster snake that made all movies with anacondas seem comedic. The snake’s head had to be the size of a train engine. Its eight-foot fangs were headed straight for a very disoriented Zannis, whose head must’ve absorbed most of the recent rock crash. That thing planned…hell no.

  Running on adrenaline and instinct, she hefted the largest rock she could manage and launched it with her enhanced magus strength at the monster’s head.

  A midnose hit! Hot damn. The thing reared upward and emitted high-pitched wail. She dropped to the ground gripping her head. The creature hissed and poised to strike.

  “Go away,” Astrid ordered, unsure why her gut instinct demanded she simply address the creature.

  Remarkably the creature closed its mouth, slithered backwards and away.

  Zannis yelled something and ran for her. He scooped her up on his way around the jutting rock corner, setting her down on the other side. “Why are you here?”

  “I ran into a bit of trouble in my world. I was trying to get us back home through a doorway. You did suggest I could go somewhere other than to you. But now I’m here, which means you’re wrong.”

  “What kind of trouble? Did you face a daemon again?”

  “No. There were these guys that held up our car and then started shooting. I opened a doorway, and it brought us here.”

  “What’s a car and what does shooting mean?” Zannis screwed up his face, confused.

  “My God, you really are from some past time.”

  “Who is us? Who else is here?” His eyes scanned the area.

  “It was a girls’ night out.”

  Zannis’s face blanched. He whispered, “You’ve got all the senariais here?”

  “Yeah, I know that’s not good. I’m not really sure how to get us back.”

  “How did you get your whore here?” asked a lyrical feminine voice.

  Zannis’s body snapped upright. He stepped in front of Astrid, effectively blocking her view of whoever had spoken. In a calm tone he asked, “The real question is how did you get permission to visit me here? This is supposed to be my afterlife.”

  “But you are not actually dead, my darling, now are you?” Feminine laughter rang in the air.

  Astrid placed a hand against Zannis’s back. Every muscle was flexed tight, ready for battle. Yet, his tone suggested complete ease. Is she some sort of evil goddess? she asked on their mental pathway.

  She’s evil. Only half god, like me and you. Careful. She can hear our thoughts.

  “Well, introduce me to your whore,” the woman commanded.

  “She is not a whore,” Zannis gritted out, low and deadly.

  “Mistress? Does that work? Inform her your wife would like to meet her.”

  Astrid’s gut clenched. She moved around Zannis, proud to stand a head taller than the stunning Egyptian woman wrapped in billowing white fabric. Golden bangles jingled on her arms and an intricate necklace hung from her neck.

  Zannis roped his arm around Astrid, and pulled her
tight against him. Even though her body sung sweet relief to be in contact with him, she remained tense, unsure what threat this Egyptian half-god woman posed.

  Zannis ground out, “It is ex-wife. You seem unable to remember that. Ibioni, you have no currency with which to cast stones—oh she-who-fucked-her-lover-before, during, and after we married.” In her mind Astrid heard his voice advise, Don’t say anything to her, rouhi. She’s terrified of you and of what you represent.

  What exactly do I represent to her? she asked.

  Ibioni shrugged a delicate shoulder. “Now, what would the gods think of you having your mistress with you in hell?”

  “How do you know they did not grant her passage? Apparently, there’s some sort of prophecy that requires I impregnate someone.”

  There’s a prophesy about that? Astrid thought.

  Ibioni’s face scrunched up in rage. All beauty vanished. She ran at them, a knife appearing as if out of nowhere into her hand. She screeched, “It shall never be her.”

  Zannis rolled Astrid out of his arms, twirling her well out of harm from strike. He caught Ibioni’s wrist just as she descended on an arc that would’ve landed a perfect heart hit on Astrid. He wrenched the knife from her and head locked her with the knife at her throat. “Give me one reason not to kill you.”

  Ibioni laughed. “You can’t do it. If you could, you would’ve done it eons ago.” Her eyes connected with Astrid’s. “I feel his arousal growing against me. You are but a passing interest. He will return to me. He always does. No one else can pleasure him as I do.”

  “You disgust me,” he said.

  Ibioni stabbed him with a new knife that materialized in her left hand—a deep hit into his thigh. He grunted and released her. She ran for Astrid.

  Zannis launched the knife he’d just pressed against her neck. It landed deep into Ibioni’s back and dropped her to the ground inches from Astrid.

  “Get away from her,” Zannis ordered.

  Astrid stepped backwards.

  Ibioni disappeared.

  “Will that kill her?” Astrid asked, still staring at the now empty space Ibioni had occupied.

  “No. But it’ll piss her off. A lot.” He yanked the knife free of his thigh with a grunt.