She shook her head. “No. This is not what I want. How long are you going to keep us here? And don’t lie to me. I’m not stupid, and I’m not that afraid of you.”
“But you do fear me some. I could kill you, with one touch. I could cause your body to flame until nothing is left of you. There are many ways I could kill you. Mostly I can keep you in my bed for centuries.”
She wouldn’t let him terrify her. “I’m not without my own powers.”
He laughed, a low, rich sound that went straight to her gut. “Girl, you are just a little Witchling in a world populated by gods now. Think you can ever stop me?” He wrapped his hand around her neck again. She hoped he couldn’t feel her pulse racing, but he probably could. “I can do whatever I wish with you, for as long as I want.” He trailed his fingers down her front until he could fully cup her breast in his palm. Teagan shivered. When he touched her she didn’t want to fight him, did she?
“But why would you want to? If you are such a great god, why do you want someone like me? You told me yourself I wasn’t worth the time it would take. Just get me out of your hair and your life. I’ll take my children and we’ll go…somewhere. Anywhere away from you that you want. Why do you have to make this so complicated? You threatened me and my children. I did what I had to do to protect us. Why is that so wrong? And why are you doing this?”
— — —
He felt her confusion, felt the pain behind her words. Acylias softened toward her—a bit. He looked at her again, this time truly looking at her.
There were dark circles under her eyes. Her body was thin, and he didn’t think it was all due to a Nellana’s natural build. She was underfed, tired, and confused.
Suddenly the play he’d wanted with her, the something to give his life a bit of excitement—he hadn’t had much since the attacks on Levia four months earlier—seemed cruel. Unjust.
As the god of retribution that gave him a nasty taste in his mouth.
He wasn’t used to second guessing his own actions. At least not since he was a small child more than twenty-five thousand years ago. The idea of her out there alone with all that was happening in the worlds actually…terrified him.
How was that even possible? Acylias tightened his arms around the Witchling.
Nothing had frightened him in thousands of years.
Yes, when the world he loved had been invaded and attacked four months earlier he’d felt a bit nervous.
But fear?
No. He almost didn’t recognize it when he felt it.
He feared for her. For her. This half-human/half-Witch girl had made him feel.
He scooped her up even though she protested. Warm naked female in his arms—how could he not love the feel of that? “Be silent. There is much you need to see before you think you will take off in this world.”
“Why do you keep saying that?”
“Darling Witch, you are not in Gaia anymore.” No, she was in Levia—the world he had created.
“Gaia?”
How much had she missed? “That lovely purple cloud that surrounded us earlier? It brought you here. To my world. Levia. I created it so long ago we won’t mention it. There are layers that separate different realms from each other. We stepped through from yours to mine.”
“But…that’s not possible.”
“But it is. And it happened.” He carried her to the window. Her fingers were on his shoulder, and he felt the ice of them against his skin. Acylias warmed her quickly. He sat her on her feet in front of him.
He threw open the shutters that separated them from the outside world.
He was a raptor shifter, and preferred to be high above the world. That was reflected in his home, as well. His suites were in the portion of the castle that towered over the forests of Levia. He could see clear across the near city of Av. “Look there. That is what remains of the great castle that my brother lived in for three thousand years. It was destroyed four months ago when the barriers between all the worlds were changed. The worlds, all of them, are under threat. Threats so great that that damned Zar demon that almost took you will look like a fucking mouse. Do you understand, little Witch? You and your children will just be as fleas to those creatures. There is nothing you can do to protect them. Your Kind, and your children’s, were ordered to evacuate a while ago. There is no reason you should have been missed. Unless you hid yourselves that skillfully?”
He knew what she saw when she looked over his world. It had been ravaged months earlier, and Eiophon’s castle still smoldered. And probably would for a very long time. Centuries, perhaps.
It had been a nasty battle that Acylias hadn’t thought they would be able to win. But they had—at least temporarily. He knew it wasn’t over.
There would be another attack, possibly on this very world. It was just a matter of time.
And when he caught up to the dark sorcerer responsible, there would be true retribution upon that bastard.
He’d killed Acylias’s cousin’s mate. She had returned as a Laquazzeana, a being so powerful they were the creatures the gods feared. Lothonos had been damned lucky to get his Nelciana back at all.
And no one touched his world. For that alone, Acylias would see the dark sorcerer paid.
“This world is at war. As are so many others. It is only a matter of time before your precious Gaia is next. Here, you and your children will be amongst your own Kinds. Your own family, if you choose. Safe, protected.” For always.
He held out a hand and a thick robe flew across the room to him. Acylias wrapped it around her quickly.
— — —
Overwhelmed. That was all she could say. The trees were the oddest she’d ever seen. There were purple trunks and large palm-like leaves. Thick and tall, the forest separated this house, or castle, or whatever it was, from the sprawling city. There were more castles, or very large houses; she couldn’t judge the distance accurately, surrounding the houses below.
So many of those houses were just rubble now, and the smoke from that one castle was thick above the streets.
And those houses and streets looked positively medieval to her. Beautiful, but old.
It wasn’t what she was used to, at all. Perhaps he wasn’t crazy? Perhaps they had stepped into something straight out of a Tolkien novel?
“I don’t understand. What am I supposed to do?” She whispered the question, and she didn’t expect him to answer.
But he did. “The best you can. This is a safe place for now. You can keep your children here, with your own Kinds. They will be as safe as anyone can make them.”
“I need to be where they are.”
“They are here, at my home.” He was at her back, tall and strong and burning. He nipped her shoulder lightly. “I will take you to them, later.”
He reached for her, again, and turned her quickly. His head lowered, and he kissed her.
TWELVE
Teagan didn’t step away.
What was she doing?
She had never acted so recklessly with anyone before. Yet having his hands on her made her completely stupid, didn’t it? Or maybe it was because he was doing something to her, something some type of god-power that she couldn’t fight?
Teagan didn’t like that idea at all. He was messing with her will somehow, wasn’t he?
Didn’t she read something like that in school? The Greeks and Roman gods? Weren’t they always capturing women?
It would be just her luck to get kidnapped by a horny god, wouldn’t it?
“Yes, I know…Feels good, doesn’t it?” He murmured the words against her neck. Teagan’s skin heated where he touched.
Why was he so hot? And she didn’t mean in appearance. No, he burned. Like heat.
“We need to stop. My children…”
“Don’t take up all of your time.” He dropped a hand to cover her stomach. He lifted his fingers up, so damned slowly. Until he brushed against the underside of her breast. She shivered. “You have time for this…”
&nb
sp; “I don’t know you. I don’t do this with guys I don’t know.” In fact, the only guy she’d ever done this with was one she’d grown up with and had known for fifteen years before they became lovers.
And that had lasted all of two weeks before something she’d done had scared him off.
That guy’s touches had felt nothing this. This god had to be doing a curse or a spell or something. “Don’t do this.”
“Do what? Enjoy you? I find you fascinating, little Witch. And I don’t know why. I have never been drawn to one of your Kind before, though you are all quite beautiful. This hair, your eyes…they pull me. And I do not know why.”
THIRTEEN
Acylias regretted wrapping her in the robe. It hid the flesh he so wanted to taste from him. “Your choice, little Witch. This world or the one you left behind. Here I can guarantee food and shelter for your children. For you. And I will do my damnedest to protect you all from the threats that will inevitably come to all the worlds. I am the god of the Solestru, you know? Every male warrior in this world will heed my call to protect you. Even the trees and the earth were made for my command.”
Green eyes looked right at him, and he felt admiration for how she had faced her fears since the moment they had met. She did not realize how brave she was, did she? “But why? What am I to you?”
He knew. But he wanted the opportunity to find out more of her. And Acylias was long experienced in creating the opportunities he wanted.
This would be no different. “Because you intrigue me, little Witch Taniss. And it has been a long time since I have been able to say such. Let me touch you, taste you. Perhaps that is all I need to be able to puzzle you out.” He trailed his finger under her chin. Her skin was so beautifully soft. Pale. He wondered if she was that color all over. Wondered how long it would take him to thoroughly enjoy her. Wondered how long it would be before he grew bored of her.
Somehow he didn’t think that would be possible. Not her. He had waited too long for her…
But why couldn’t he remember what they were doing here? Why were they in his room? His head was actually hurting…
It took him a moment to shake the cloud that surrounded his brain.
He looked down at the female, and that’s when it sank in.
She was using those damned Witchling tricks of hers to cloud his mind.
Him. The god of retribution.
She would so pay for that. With a blink, he had the robe that covered her skin melting away.
She was naked in front of him once again. She squealed.
“Hey, I felt the touch of your powers against me. That is not allowed in this game between us.”
“There is no game between us.” She searched frantically around the room, obviously looking for something to cover that exquisite skin. She backed away from him again until half the room separated them.
He could smell her flesh and the essence of female that was unique to every woman. Oh, yes, there was nothing more he’d ever wanted than the female in front of him.
Acylias stalked across the small distance between them until he had her in reach again. She feinted left. He followed her. “You cannot escape me, Teagan. I can and will track you to the ends of every world.”
“But why? I don’t understand why I even matter to you. I’m just a woman doing my damnedest to stay away from everyone, yet these creatures these demons keep finding me wherever I go. You think you’re the first? There was this one who nearly ripped me in two, just trying to take my youngest son. I killed him, and I protected my family. And now you. And I don’t know what you want. Or even why!”
He was so ready to show her.
He scooped her up against him. “Because…because you are mine. Forever.”
FOURTEEN
He kissed her again, and she kissed him back. What was she thinking? Teagan’s fingers tightened on his shoulders when he shifted her. He wouldn’t drop her, of that she was almost certain.
He wore thin pants and she felt the muscle behind the cloth press against her. Strong and ready. And he wanted her.
But she didn’t have to let him. Not if she didn’t want to.
She had never let any man that close to her before. The last time she had even been kissed was at least a decade earlier. But that didn’t matter.
She wanted to kiss him.
He had to be doing something to her. She pulled back enough to breathe. “What are you doing to me?”
“I would think it was obvious though I know you have not been with a male often.”
“You can’t know that. How do you know that?”
“Because, little Witch, you smell so innocent. And delicious. And a god knows when in the presence of ignorance. Especially when that god is anxious to debauch.” He smiled, then shocked the hell out of her when he sank his teeth into the skin over her shoulder. The bite felt almost strong enough to have drawn blood.
— — —
He had waited a lifetime for this female. “You are mine.”
“You bit me.”
“I tasted you. And I learned something.” This female changed his very world. His very existence.
This female was the mate he had been destined to find. And found her, he had. Now, how was he to make it clear that she belonged with him?
“What? Put me down, and I need some clothes.”
“Why would I want to cover this body? I want to spread you out over my bed, and enjoy every perfect pale inch of you.” He grabbed the flesh of her ass and shifted her to press against the part of him that was hard and ready for her.
The only thing that separated him from her was the thin material of his trousers.
She squeaked, and he wondered how many other ways he could make his mate sound just like that. “We must…talk…you and I.”
“I need to go, need clothes. Need to get…out of here. Something.” Her words were faint, soft. Hesitant. Confused.
That was the only thing that stopped him from making those trousers disappear and claiming his mate forever.
He was the god of retribution and nightmares, but he did not want his mate confused and frightened—especially of him. “One more kiss, and then I will return you to your foundlings.”
“My children. They are not foundlings, they were never lost. They were meant to be with me.”
Which meant they were his now, also, weren’t they?
FIFTEEN
He kissed her again, a soft almost sweet gesture. Different than the other kisses. Then he stood up and left her alone. He waved his hand and before she realized it, and a dress appeared on her body. “There, now you are covered. And I am in great sorrow. You are beautiful. Surely you realize it?”
Teagan just stared at him. She’d truly thought he was going to seduce her or use some kind of god-trick on her to get her into his bed. Instead, he’d dressed her and stepped away. She rolled off the bed, but what was she supposed to do next?
“I…my children. I need to find them.”
“Of course you do.”
There was something different in the way he was looking at her now. He stared at her.
She stared at him right back. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to think. Or where I am or what is supposed to happen next. This morning I was supposed to be building a greenhouse in hopes of being able to feed my children a bit more than I could before and now I’m supposedly in a different world with a god. Tell me what I am supposed to think or feel? I don’t even know if this is real.”
“It’s real. I am real. I can promise you that. As real as the power that flows within your veins. This world will be your own. I created it for the mate I would have one day. It is not in the condition that I wished for her now. But it will be again. This I can promise you.”
There was something too formal in the way he spoke now.
He scared her. Not because of any physical threat—though he probably could kill her with a blink—but because of the way he was looking at her.
With longin
g and hope and pride all rolled into one. Like she was…special to him.
The guy was as crazy as she’d ever seen.
Either that or she’d hit her head and was dreaming this whole thing. That was entirely possible.
He held out a hand. “Come. Let me show you this world that I created. And let me take you to your children. They wait for you in a sitting room just down the hall.”
— — —
Was she under a spell?
She didn’t think so. But she couldn’t be certain.
He led her through the hall that definitely looked like it belonged in the house of a god. He opened an ornate, purple-paneled door.
And then they were there, her children. They were clean and clothed in similar garments to the god. Acylias, she should think of him as his name, shouldn’t she?
Fayden ran up to her and threw his arms around her. She hugged her son back tightly. He was always so sensitive to the world around them. “I am glad we are here. It’s where we are supposed to be.”
“Are we? Are any of you hurt?” Not what she’d expected as their greeting. She touched each one of them, reassured herself that they were safe and whole. And real.
Mason shook his head. “Scratches. The younger ones are still struggling to understand what they saw. I think we all are.”
“I think we will be for a very long time.” All she had ever wanted was to give these children a good life. A safe one. One where they were appreciated for how different they actually were, rather than ridiculed and targeted for how unlike everyone else they appeared.
She’d failed at that. Teagan took Jacob into her arms and rocked him. He laid his head on her shoulder like he had hundreds of times before. She rocked him back and forth, comforted by his little body and the empathetic gifts he possessed even at his age.
She looked at her children, every one of them. Was it true? Were their others like her children here?
Sugar, Spice, and Shifters: A Touch of Holiday Magic Page 32
