by Sam Cheever
He sat down across from me, motioning for me to eat. Then he sighed.
“It’s a long story.”
I shrugged, indicating that I had the time.
He watched me eat for a moment and then sat back, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that Peter and I are the guardians of the gorgons.”
I nodded and tried to swallow. My throat was swollen and it hurt. But the food felt good in my stomach.
He stared at me a moment, probably trying to decide if we wanted to get into the whole “demon” thing at that moment. Finally he went on without mentioning it. “We lost them about a month ago and followed them here.”
“How’d they escape?”
He looked sheepish. “A rare moment of miscommunication between Peter and me. I’d rather not discuss it.”
I narrowed my gaze at him. “Did they hit you over the head with a rock and escape?”
He snorted. “Hardly!”
I chewed and thought. “Did they seduce one of you?”
Damian’s face clouded. “Bleurgh! Of course not!”
I barely hid a smile. “Then what?”
He blew out a frustrated breath. “The Succubus Sisters.”
I grinned. “The who?”
He stood up and walked over to the refrigerator, pulling out two beers. He handed me one and flopped back into his chair, touching the cap of the beer to pop it off and taking a long drag.
I was still grinning and waiting when he cast his gaze back my way.
He sighed, realizing he wasn’t going to get out of telling me. “The Succubus Sisters, Simone and Sidra. They have a pleasure house on Olympus. That night, Peter and I both had appointments with the sisters, each thinking the other one was guarding Medusa and her sisters.
“As soon as we discovered it—”
“How?”
He frowned. “What?”
“How did you discover it?”
He glared at me and I cocked an eyebrow.
He sipped his beer again.
“Hello?” I said.
His glare deepened. “We ran into each other in the bathhouse.”
I snorted. “Wearing towels?”
Damian gave me a look.
“Okay, I’m just trying to get all the facts.”
He shook his head. “Anyway…as soon as we figured it out we returned to the compound but the gorgons were gone.”
I nodded, using my power to pop the cap off my own beer and sipping it gratefully. It tasted wonderful.
“We’ve been hunting them since that night. We discovered they’d come to Earth about a week ago and managed to capture Stheno a few nights ago. Medusa and Euryale have been trying to get her back from us.”
I nodded. “So that’s why they didn’t kill me?”
He nodded. “They thought they could use you to get me to release her.”
I suddenly felt very cold. If I’d been responsible for his unleashing another one of those monsters on the human world… “Please tell me you didn’t release her.”
“I didn’t release her.”
I sighed, nodding. “Good.” I tipped my beer back, enjoying the way the cold liquid felt on my sore throat.
“I killed her.”
Beer sprayed everywhere. Damian swiped his sleeve over his face to remove beer droplets and stood up to grab a towel.
When I’d gotten over nearly choking to death on my beer I went for a clarification. “You killed her? Are you sure?”
He snorted. “I’m pretty sure, yes. Unless she can grow her head back.”
I thought about this for a long moment. Then shook my head. “Medusa’s gonna be pissed.”
He snorted again, nodding.
“Why’d you kill her?”
“She tried to take you.”
Then I realized, it must have been the night the gorgons had come to my home. I frowned. “But there were two of them. Didn’t the other one know you’d killed her?”
He shook his head. “Peter had drawn her off.”
“Peter was there too?” My voice was embarrassingly high pitched. I cleared my throat and sipped my beer, trying to pretend I hadn’t just shrieked.
Damian’s lips twitched. “Yes. He liked your jammies.”
I scowled at him. “Wonderful.”
We sat in silence for a moment, sipping our beers. Then I realized he hadn’t answered my original question. “So…how did you find me today?”
“Snuggles.”
I chuckled. “Snuggles?”
He smiled. “My Harpy. She tracked them there.”
I nodded. I knew harpies and gorgons were natural enemies but I hadn’t known harpies could track them across distance.
I thought about this for a while and then smiled. “I’m starting to like your Harpy.”
Damian frowned. “Don’t. She’d eat you in a minute. I was serious when I told you to stay out of my basement. Snuggles is incredibly dangerous.”
I stared at him. “Unless you’re a demon?”
He held my gaze, never flinching. Then he shrugged. “Not all demons are evil, Athena.”
I looked away. “No. But most are.”
A sigh slid between his lips but he didn’t respond. There wasn’t too much he could say.
I knew why demons were used to guard the gorgons. It had been that way for millennia. Demons aren’t susceptible to a gorgon’s deadly gaze. They didn’t turn to stone when they looked into the gorgons’ eyes. And they were strong and…morally flexible. It was a good match for the purpose.
I wasn’t sure it was a good match for my purposes though. “Did you know I was a Cupid when we met?”
Damian shook his head. “I knew you were different…but I wasn’t sure how.”
I frowned. “Why?”
He shrugged. “Little things. You said ‘gods’ a couple of times, instead of God. Humans don’t do that. Then when Stheno tried to take you out of your house and you didn’t even mention the fact that it was a monster. I knew you weren’t human. That was when I checked out Cupid’s Arrow and discovered what you were.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t already know about us.”
“It’s isolated in the compound. I’m not always aware of what the gods and goddesses are doing.”
“Compound?”
He nodded. “Where we keep the gorgons. It’s a remote area on Olympus. It’s been specially magicked to keep them in. The place is covered by a giant…bubble.”
“Like Atlantis?”
He nodded.
I thought about this, realizing that, even if he weren’t a demon, his job would keep him away a lot. He and I could never have any kind of long-lasting relationship. Guardian to the gorgons was an incredibly lonely and isolated job. Which explained the sad look in his eyes when I first met him.
The thought made me sad too and I fell into a brooding silence.
After a few moments I looked up and found him watching me. “So what now?”
“I have a plan.”
Nodding, I got up to grab us two more beers. Handing him one, I sat back down across from him. “Let’s hear it.”
He shook his head. “You’re not going to be involved, Athena. It’s too dangerous.”
“Yes, I am. I can take care of myself.”
“Yeah, I noticed that on the beach.”
I scowled at him. “That was low.”
He shrugged. “These creatures are very dangerous, Athena. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Why?”
He stopped in the middle of lifting his beer and looked at me like I was crazy. “Why? Why what?”
I shrugged, peeling the label off my beer. “Why don’t you want me to get hurt?”
He stood up and walked over to the sliding doors that led out to a deck overlooking the ocean. “Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to, Athena.”
But I thought I did. It suddenly felt very important for me to know how he felt about me.
I
stood too and walked up behind him. Standing there, I could feel the heat of his body and smell his clean, male scent. My hands twitched to touch him. My brain told me he was a demon and I should stay as far away from him as possible. Demons were a lower life form. I’d been taught that all my life and I’d had no trouble believing it…until recently. Very recently. The stories I’d heard about them…well…let’s just say they functioned from a different perspective than I did.
But Damian’s body called to me. His sadness called to me…his loneliness. If we had one thing in common, demons and Cupids both understood loneliness. In his case his calling demanded it. In mine, the interference of the Fates and millennia of tradition combined to create an existence filled with lovelessness. Which was why I was willing, I decided, to overlook Damian’s demonic nature for a short time to ease some of my loneliness…and yes…his too. Though I knew we couldn’t have anything permanent together. I suddenly knew I wanted to explore what we could have for as long as possible.
“I want you to say the words.” My voice came out in a husky whisper.
Damian swung around, looking surprised to see me standing so close. He took a step back, through the door.
I followed him, feeling like a predator and kind of liking it. He looked so vulnerable. I let the blanket slide off my shoulders and placed my hands on his hips. Lifting up onto my toes, I settled my lips over his.
Damian slid his hands into my hair and pulled me more deeply into the kiss, his hard body pressed against mine.
I whimpered and grabbed his perfect, denim-covered buns in both hands, pressing the long, hard length of his cock into my belly. I rotated my hips and Damian groaned.
He reached down and slid his hands under my thighs, lifting me so that I could wrap my legs around his waist. He walked with me into the bedroom and settled me onto the bed, bending over me so that our lips never parted.
Sliding the sweats I was wearing off over my hips, he lifted his mouth off mine. He pulled his clothing off and reached for my sweatshirt, leaving me naked and ready beneath him.
I lifted my hips and gasped as Damian plunged into me, driving deep and hard. I grabbed his hips, stopping him.
He threw his head back and groaned but stilled in my hands.
“Say the words.”
He reached down and grabbed one of my hands, lifting it to slide a finger into his mouth.
As he sucked gently on my finger, my eyes closed in ecstasy.
He let my finger fall away. “I…” his lips found the pulse at my wrist and pressed a sweet kiss there, following it up with a trail of kisses along the tender skin of my inner arm. He stopped at the inside of my elbow. “Care…”
His tongue came out and swirled over the skin there and I shivered, my thighs clenching violently in response.
His tongue slid up the inside of my arm and across my shoulder. “About…”
Warm cream wet my thighs.
He left my shoulder and pulled a rigid nipple into his mouth. The wet heat of his mouth was soothing to the painfully expectant nub of flesh and exciting at the same time.
I tugged on his hips, urging him to move inside me.
He complied but kept his rhythm slow, driving his thick length slowly over the sensitized skin of my sensual core until my body tightened toward release.
He lifted his head from my nipple and took my mouth in a featherlight kiss. “You,” he said against my lips.
He plunged hard and deep. I threw back my head and screamed. “Again! Oh my gods! Say it again!”
He plunged deeply into my body and bit my throat gently. “Gods, Athena! I do care about you.” His voice was husky with need, his body covered in a fine sheen of sweat as he drove faster, harder with every passing second.
I built toward that wondrous peak, my body tightening delightfully with every deep stroke and each tender nip of his teeth on my flesh.
My body throbbed and pulsed, frantic with need. I tangled my fingers in his hair and pulled his head down to mine, consuming his hungry lips with my own sweet fervor. “Damian!” I screamed.
He lifted my hips and pounded into me, biting my shoulder as his body tensed and rolled over into release. I followed him over, screaming into violent climax as my body wrapped his tightly, pulling every sensation to the top of my awareness.
Every smell, every sound, every sight burned through me like a drug, until all that was left was a throb of feeling, rippling through me and leaving me soft and wrung out beneath him.
Damian collapsed over me, taking care to hold his weight off me as he did.
I ran my fingers through his sweat-dampened hair and kissed his face repeatedly. He closed his eyes and breathed heavily.
“I care about you too, Damian.”
His eyes flew open, bathing me in a dark blue gaze. He pulled back, looking as if he wanted to say something.
My gut tightened in despair at what it would be.
Suddenly a voice rang out from the front of the house. “Damian! We’re here.”
Peter.
I looked at Damian. He smiled, breaking the spell.
He jumped off the bed and pulled me off with him, wrapping me in a quick embrace before kissing the tip of my nose. “Time to put my plan into action. Get dressed, I’ll see you in the living room.”
I watched him pull on jeans and walk away, wondering what revelation we’d just averted. And trying not to notice how relieved I was that we had.
Chapter Nine
Best Intentions
Peter was standing before the fire with his hands on the mantel. He was wearing butt-hugging, faded jeans, a cream-colored sweater that molded his broad back and muscular arms and a woman.
Or, to be more precise, a succubus. She was draped all over him like a cheap, horny suit.
I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw her and looked at Damian. He grinned widely.
“I assume this is one of the sisters?”
He nodded and placed a hand in the small of my back, guiding me into the living area and indicating one of the loveseats.
I sat down in the same spot I’d vacated earlier when Peter had been there and tucked my feet under my butt. I was glad for the soft, oversized sweats Damian had given me to wear. Damian sat down next to me.
Peter extricated himself from the succubus long enough to return Damian’s back-slapping hug and then settled himself…and his succubus…into the loveseat across from me.
The sex-demon sprawled alongside him, nearly in his lap and proceeded to suck on his earlobe. He tried to flick her away but she grabbed his hand and growled softly. Peter gave me a sheepish smile.
I grinned back. “What’s your girlfriend’s name, Peter?”
“Simone.” She tried climbing into his lap but he grabbed her arm and pulled her off. “Simone! Stop it! Say hello to Athena.”
The demon turned her almost painfully perfect features in my direction and spoke. Her voice was soft and had a slightly lispy quality that was oddly endearing. “Hello, goddess Athena.”
I opened my mouth to correct her, I much preferred to downplay that whole goddess thing but Damian grabbed my hand and squeezed it. I looked at him and he shook his head.
I did a mental shrug and sat back to enjoy the show.
Damian turned back to Peter. “Is everything in place?”
Peter nodded. “The gods reopened Cupid’s Arrow so we could use it to draw the gorgons into a trap. Simone has made contact with the agency and she used her wiles with the Cupid to get a meeting set up with you.”
I sat bolt upright, my mouth flying open in surprise. “What? Damian?”
He squeezed my hand again. “We’re going to try to lure Medusa out by convincing her that Simone is my match.”
Peter pulled Simone off his shoulder again and sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
Simone immediately climbed his back and wrapped her arms around his neck, feathering the back of his neck with kisses.
He sighed and tried to ignore her.
“We’re going to lure her back out to Damian’s house. Hopefully we can trap her there and get her back to Olympus.”
I frowned. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t you do that the other night? When I was there?”
Damian smiled and pulled me close, wrapping a warm, heavy arm around my shoulders. “Because you were there.”
I thought about this for a moment. “Okay, then why that house? Couldn’t you do the same thing here?”
Damian shook his head. “That house is a portal to Olympus. It’s protected by extraordinary warding and built on special ground. If I can get Medusa and Euryale into the basement we’ve got them.”
“You didn’t need Simone. You could have used me to lure them.”
Peter shook his head. “No offense, Athena. I know Cupids are decent fighters in a pinch. But dealing with this type of monster is a little out of your realm. Succubi are excellent fighters.” He glanced at Simone. “And a bit more…shall we say…expendable in case the worst happens.”
I frowned at this. Yes, Simone was a lust demon. Yes, she was without morals or a sense of right and wrong. Yes, she’d probably done horrible things over the course of her lifetime and had never given it a second thought. And yes, she would probably kill me in a heartbeat if she thought I was interested in Peter…okay, yeah, I was starting to see Peter’s point.
But it didn’t make me feel good about myself to realize it.
“Okay, so you got Simone a meeting with Damian. How are you going to pull that off with Cupid’s Arrow a pile of ashes on Main Street?”
Damian lifted a dark blond eyebrow. “Cupid’s Arrow isn’t a pile of ashes.”
“Of course it is. The Furies and the gorgons destroyed it. We saw them do it.”
Peter laughed. “You underestimate the gods, Athena. Reality can be altered in the blink of an eye when it suits their purposes. And trust me, getting Medusa and her sister rounded back up definitely suits their purposes.”
I nodded, he was right. It was highly probable that Cupid’s Arrow was sitting where it always had and looked as if nothing had ever happened to it. “Okay, so what’s the plan?”
