“You like?” Kadar posed for her, flexing his muscles and Showing Off. His thick penis hung down his thigh, and Sybil noted that it wasn't engorged. What did it look like when he was aroused? Then she noticed the ridged, bumpy flesh surrounding the base with thick spines reminiscent of a sea urchin and gulped.
“Told you I had a huge member,” Kadar murmured, grinning at her. His teeth flashed white and sharp in the moonlight.
“Very impressive,” she assured him.
“Enough clowning.” Kenric made a sharp gesture at Kadar. “We have decided what is to be done with you, witch.”
“I'm all ears.” Sybil fought to sound calm.
“You threw yourself on Inanna's mercy. She wishes to grant it. Therefore, we are agreed. You will accept her mark and serve her.”
“Let me think,” she said. Is it better to be at the mercy of a goddess, or demonic spells bent on turning the world into chaos? Kind of a no-brainer. I accept.”
“You should hear the terms first,” Kadar said. His grin widened with a humor she found alarming.
“Fine. Tell me the terms.” She sat straighter and folded her hands in her lap.
“Transference of her mark and her power mark can only come by way of her chosen.”
Kenric made the statement as if it should make sense. Sybil's brow furrowed.
“Huh?”
“He means the five of us,” Kadar said. “We are Inanna's chosen, the Shadow Guardians entrusted with the mark of her power and bound to use it in her service.”
“Okay, Fine. Transfer the mark.” Sybil stood up and brushed herself off. “I'm ready.”
“Are you?” The tallest one, Ronan, asked the question.
“Don't sound so eager” Abaran said. “You’re the last. If you damage her, we don't have time to wait for her recovery.”
That sounded bad, “How, exactly, is the mark transferred?” Sybil's mouth went dry as she waited for further explanation.
“I told you. By the five of us.” Kadar moved closer and stroked her arm with a knowing touch. “You will go to each of our beds in turn, and we will mark you?”
Her jaw went slack Tor a speechless minute. “You mean, I'm supposed to have sex with all of you?”
“Yes.” He read her thoughts and chuckled “She is a sex Goddess. What did you expect?”
“I thought it was just, you know, like getting a tattoo.” Although she should've known better. It couldn't be anything so simple. Something so permanent would mean ritual magic. Sex magic made perfect sense, given whose power she'd be taking.
“It is not made of ink,” Kenric broke in. “It is a living mark, not merely an emblem of the goddess's power. It is her power conferred. Accepting the mark will give you power to control the demon magic inside you, and to undo its work. You will be able to close the gate you opened”
“Ah.” She nodded slowly. “That would be good.”
“We'll be good, too,” Kadar purred.
“I'm sure.” Actually, she didn't doubt that the sex would be mind-blowing, considering the taste Kenric bad given her. Or she'd given him. Whatever. Still . . . “Isn't there another way?”
Kenric shook his head. “Not to transfer the mark to one living. She marked each of us with raw power in the netherworld, then returned us to life, such direct transference isn't an option for you.
Sybil swallowed. Their deaths had provided the means for their marks. Sex magic beat death magic if she had to choose which way to power the ritual. “Will it hurt?”
“She's the goddess of sex and war.” Kenric stated.
“Yeah, that's not exactly an answer.” She looked at Ronan. “Why'd Abaran say you might damage me? Are you a sadist?”
“I long to punish you' He sounded utterly sincere and terrifyingly intent. His pale blue eyes lit up, and his lips curved with sensual cruelty.
“Sounds like pain to me.” She turned back to face Kenric, ignoring the way Kadar was toying with her hair. “How much is it going to hurt?”
“Compared to taking demon magic inside yourself?” He raised a brow as if to underscore his point, then continued, “I took the mark after death. You are living. So I can’t say what you’ll feel, but I don’t imagine it could be worse then what you've already endured.”
“Right.” She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering at the memory. Well, she'd survived that. She'd survived ghost fire eating at her skin without consuming her.
So, what was a little sex in comparison?
“Not a little,” Kadar murmured, correcting her thought. His hands closed over her shoulders and he pulled her back against his chest, letting her feel his growing arousal.
“You will belong to each of us for a full day and night to satisfy out needs.”
“Okay, more than a little sex” Sybil said out loud “Five days. Five nights.” With five supernatural men, all stunning in their own way. How bad could it be?
“You will soon find out how it will be” Kadar said, stroking the skin at the base of her throat with one thumb she could all too easily imagine as a claw. “You will be chained to a rock inside my cavern and we will see if you are sufficient to appease my appetite.”
She had no answer to that. Her eyes went to Kenric's. “Kadar wants me to play dragon sacrifice. Ronan wants to punish me. What do you want?”
He didn't answer, just stared unblinking at her, sexual intent gleaming in his golden eyes. The loaded silence should have alarmed her, but the memory of his mouth on her brought a shiver of sensual anticipation instead.
“What about you?” She looked to Abaran next, taking her eyes Off Kenric with an effort.
“I'm a demon. I crave human.” His black eyes glittered with a hunger that made her stomach knot.
“A demon?” Sybil squeaked, her gaze shooting back to Kenric's. “I thought they were the bad guys.”
“Not all.” Kent re answered. “His kind alone stood with us against the shadows.
And now he is all that remains of his race.”
“Adrian, that leaves you.” She sought out the short haired man. “So far we have a demon, a dragon, and a werewolf. What are you and whit do you want to do to me?”
He moved closer. “What am I? A vampire. What do I want to do with you? All that I please.” He let her see the bloodlust that gleamed in his deep brown eyes, and smile took on a predatory edge.
She swallowed and felt her knees weaken. It was a good thing Kadar was subtly supporting her. She didn't want to look like a fainting maiden. Or a snack.
“You didn't ask “What I am.” Ronan spoke again, drawing her attention.
She licked dry lips. What are you?”
“Daoine sidhe.”
The hard, masculine voice spoke with the music of Ireland, rolling out the syllables as deena shee. People of the mounds, Sybil thought with a shiver of wonder. The fae.
That explained the height, the long, silver hair, the sharp, exotic features.
“Oh,” she said.
“You should tell her the rest of it/' Kadar prompted.
“What rest?” Sybil wasn't sure the wanted in know, but if there was more, she supposed she should heat it.
“It won't be only for five days and night.' Ronan answered. “Once ours, always ours.”
“Always?” She stared at him in consternation, then found herself looking to Kenric again. “Like, any of you can have me any time you feel like it, for the rest of my life?
“We won't take you unwillingly.” Something like a wolfish smile touched his face.
Probably remembering how willing she'd been with him already.
“Thoughtful of you.” Her voice sounded as faint as she felt. “Can I point out there are five of you and one of me? It seems a tad inequitable. Am I supposed to be enough to go around or will you be amusing yourselves with me along with your other lovers?”
“We will have other lovers,” Kenric answered without hesitation.
Was that good or bad? Sybil tried to sort it out. On the plus
side, she wouldn't be expected to satisfy all of them by herself indefinitely. On the negative side, what if she didn't like it with one of them? The rest of her life was a long time to have to stand ready to sleep with a man she might not like.
“Do you honestly think any of Inanna's chosen wouldn't know how to give pleasure as well as take it?” Kadar asked, openly amused by her thoughts.
“That mind-reading trick is getting really old,” Sybil grumbled without heat.
“Okay, wise guy, answer this one. Suppose I fall in love someday? Is my Mr. Right supposed to understand when I go off to screw you all periodically?”
“Yes.”
“Yes?” She twisted around to gape at him in disbelief.
“Yes. Your bond to us predates any future commitment He will have to understand that.”
“That's going to really cut down on my dating pool.”
“As opposed to the wide array of option currently open to you?” Kadar raised a sarcastic brow.
Sybil winced. “Point.”
He caught her hand, turned it over and nibbled at her palm.
The fact that she enjoyed it only increased her apprehension. “Besides, once marked you can only be mate to one of us.”
All the air left her lungs and her head went light. “Excuse me?”
“Any of us can claim you as mate,” the dragon said.
She swallowed around the hard knot in her throat “I see. And if that happens, does that mean I'm no longer expected to sleep with the others?”
“No. It means you'll he wife to one and a sort of a junior wife to the rest” Kadar flicked his tongue over the pulse point at her inner wrist and laughed when she yanked her hand away.
“Do you still accept?” Kenric asked from her.
Sybil turned to face him. She met his golden gaze without flinching. “As our dragon friend so charmingly reminded me, I don't have a lot of choices here.”
Especially after asking the goddess for help. Refusing the form that help took struck her as a greater risk. Sex really wasn't the worst thing that could happen to her.
Although it was hard to look at the five of them and remember that. Did they have to look so intimidating?
“Is that a yes?” Kenric prompted.
Sybil searched his features for any hint that Clue her in to his feelings about the deal and found none. Did he want her to say yes? Either way, it was the only answer she could give. “Yes. I still accept.”
“She was ready to accept you at the oasis,” Kadar said.
“A gentleman would keep his mouth shut,” Sybil said in a voice like sugar laced with arsenic.
“I'm no gentleman.”
That went for all of them, Sybil felt sure. These weren't civilized men. If she was honest with herself, that held a certain appeal. Sex with them would be primal and raw.
She didn't see any of them rolling over to fall asleep five minutes after getting started.
Then again, holding their undivided attention had a downside. Was she really up to the task?
Heat seared her skin and that answered her question. She'd better be. The alternative was . . . bad. And not just for her. She had a responsibility to reverse the harm she'd unwittingly done, to turn back the chain of events she'd set in motion by finding that book.
Do I start with you?” Sybil asked Kenric.
“Yes.”
She nodded, trying to at least appear brave, “So, how do we do this?”
He reached out to her, fingered the fabric of her shirt. “First, you run.”
“From you?”
“Later, yes. For now, from them.” He made a gesture to her left. Sybil followed it with her eyes and felt her knees turn to water at the sight of a cluster of dark-winged things swooping down out of the night.
“Oh, shit,” she whispered.
“Run,” Kadar repeated Kenric's command. “Go here.”
Her vision blurred as an image formed in her mind. An underground cave system.
An entrance. A path, that way. Got it.”
Her feet took off without conscious direction, pounding against the ground in tandem with her pounding heart. Sheet-terror gave her speed, but sustaining it made her muscles and lungs burn with effort. By the time she spotted the rocky hillside entrance that matched the picture in her head, her breath came in gasping gulps that would have drowned out the sounds of pursuit behind her. That thought made her look over her shoulder, and she tripped, half-falling into the cavern.
Behind her, a dragon swooped and a wolf leaped. A silver-haired form moved faster than her eye could follow, sword flashing She couldn't see Adrian or Abaran in the melee, and found herself straining until she caught sight of each of them.
Sybil stumbled back deeper into the shelter Kadar had sent her to, her heart in her throat. Fear shot through her, not just for herself and for what might happen if the uncontrolled power inside her fell into the wrong hands, but for what might happen to the five strangers who intended to be her lovers and now fought to protect her.
Five
Sybil cursed her uselessness as she searched the cavern for something she could use as a weapon if any of the creatures broke through and found her. Not trained as a fighter, not trained as a witch, Just a massive liability.
Not for long, she vowed, and contemplated the stalactites overhead. They glittered like ice, narrowing to sharp-looking points at the ends. Icicles made from limestone.
Could she break one off to use as a sort of knife? Of course, she'd have to find a way to reach one first.
“Maybe you could just mate a bomb out of lipstick and tissue, Ms. MacGyver,” she said out loud. Her voice echoed off walls that glittered with phosphorescence and unknown minerals. A now-familiar burning itch ate at her hands, and Sybil looked down at them with narrowed eyes. If only all that power was good for something.
Of course, it was demon power and chaos demon power at that. Inherently unstable.
Sybil hovered between the battle outside and the possibility of getting hopelessly lost inside. The need to know what was happening won. She compromised by staying in the cavern's opening, a position that gave her shelter and a clear view.
Dark-winged creatures filled the, air like stormclouds. Kadar stood out in vivid relief, his metallic hide flashing bright. His tail swept a patch of air clear, and a burst of flame from his open mouth cleared a much larger space. Dark, bodies rained down and lay still.
Don't piss off the dragon. He breathes napalm.
Ronan and Adrian fought with swords, cutting down swathes of winged intruders as they moved like mad threshers bent on a bloody harvest. The agile form of a wolf leaped in and out of sight, fangs and claws tearing his enemies apart. Abaran swooped above them, driving the dark creatures within reach of the ground fighters and gutting more with some weapon that looked like a three-pronged spear.
When the invaders attempted retreat, the five fanned out to form a ring. There was a searing explosion of light. When Sybil's vision cleared, only the five guardians remained.
She wasted no time getting back out into the open. The giant black wolf came to meet her. The memory of Kenric in battle made her hesitate halfway. He hadn't meant it literally when he'd said she should run from him later. Had he?
The wolf backed up a few steps, Sybil took a cautious step forward. Then another.
When it didn't leap at her, she relaxed a little of the tension that held her taut.
“Bad guys all gone?” Her voice squeaked a little, and Sybil winced at the sound.
The wolf looked at her as if she was an idiot for asking the obvious.
“Right.” She cleared her throat. “So, um, what now?”
The wolf crouched down and stared at her. The attentive, alert gaze and the readiness in the pose alarmed her all over again. He wanted to play chase? After he'd fought off alien beings from the twilight zone?
A low sound rumbled in the wolf's chest. It sounded like the word run. Her pulse skipped and adrenaline flooded her system al
l aver again.
Wolves liked to hunt. Now apparently he wanted to hunt her. Werewolf foreplay?
Or was the animal in him looking for new prey?
For the second time that day, Sybil bolted. Kenric took off behind her. They knew she couldn’t outrun him, but when he didn't bring her down in the first few yards, determination kept her going-The wolf at her heels could catch her without even trying, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to put in an effort.
After a while, the rhythm of running became a soothing candence while a sense of inevitability built. Kenric would put an end to this chase sooner or later. He'd catch her.
And then what? A Kaleidoscope of sexual possibilities spun through her head.
As the distance grew, Sybil realized running was hard work. The strain on joints and ligaments, the jarring from a hard-packed, uneven surface, the ragged panting that passed for a full breath. She didn't have to look behind her to know that Kenric wasn't even starting to tire. Dammit. When she felt the pull of a stitch in her side, she gave up and collapsed onto the ground.
“Okay,” she gasped our when she could spare enough air to feed her voice. “I get it.
You're my new drill sergeant, and I'm the most pathetic excuse for a new recruit you've ever seen. You're going to whip me into shape.”
“Something like that.” Kenric's voice didn’t sound strained at all, as if he'd just been out for a casual stroll. He'd shifted back to human form stood over her, naked, with his hands on his hips. His golden eyes burned with heated intent.
He looked like a predator ready to enjoy the prize he'd won. Sybil forgot to take in air.
“Breathe,” Kenric told her.
Right. She tried to take deeper breaths and hold them in a little longer. The stitch in her side had eased as soon as she stopped running.
“Better.”
Sybil made a face. “Glad you approve.” Then she blurted out, “Are you glad I said yes to the deal?”
His jaw tightened. “Are you asking if I want you?”
She made a gesture with her hand. “I'm clarifying. We had a moment there, at the oasis.”
Claimed by the Wolf Page 4
