by Honor James
“Give her more coffee, too,” Viper commented. He was still watching her.
“Right,” Ladon muttered. He went to the kitchen counter and came back with a carafe from which he poured more highly addictive liquid into her cup. “Drink, eat, quickly, though. We have things to do, things to see, and things to read.”
“Sounds good to me, and yes. Coffee. More coffee is perfect,” she told him with a grin. “So that I can hopefully wake up a bit more and be able to handle looking over that paper, or rather, papers?” She wasn’t certain how long the prophecy was, so she was just guessing here.
Ladon stared at her, looked at Viper, and then back at her. He set the carafe down in front of her. “You may want to finish that off,” he muttered. Shaking his head, he went to the counter and began to clean up.
“Hey, leave me be, mister man. I mean seriously. I can’t help the fact that I look at both of you boys, and I want and need both of you with every fiber of my being. I can’t help that I want and need you both with every single breath that I take. Seriously,” she said and began to sip at her drink, the coffee tasting wonderful to her tongue.
“That wasn’t why he left you the entire pot,” Viper said quietly. “Apparently the sheets of paper that Drake gave me were only the guide to reading the prophecy with ease.” Getting up, he went to the counter and came back with a dozen sheets of paper. Next he went to a box, dug inside, and returned with a book, eight inches thick and dropped it onto the table. “That’s the prophecy. Couriered here first thing this morning.”
“Holy shit balls. This whole thing is about me?” There was no way in hell this whole book was the prophecy about her. No way in hell. “Seriously, you are kidding. Right?” She hadn’t recalled it being this long at all. She only recalled a single paragraph about her finding her mates and dying. This, however, damn, this was more like a history than a possible future.
He shot her a look as he settled back in his chair, his hand resting on top of the book. “This here is all about you. The prophecy is only one piece of it. But because you have a prophecy tied to you, everything you’ve ever done and likely will do is in this blasted thing. We have to review your entire past according to Drakos to see if there’s a clue to undoing the prophecy or, in his words, short circuiting it.”
“Viper nearly killed the courier when he hefted that at him. Had I not had my jaw on the floor when I got a look at the size of it, I might have assisted in killing the little smiling shit,” Ladon muttered.
“I can fully understand that,” she said quietly. “I can understand him wanting to kill him, because right now in this moment in time I would dearly love to track him down so that I could break this book over his head myself,” she said with a frown. “Good lord.” She sighed and opened the book. “So I guess it’s all about reading through all of this, huh?”
“It’s written in the old Draconian language,” Ladon said. He had turned to look at her again. “I hate to say this, Violet. But this is going to be a lot harder than any of us thought. While I can speak it, I can’t read much of it. Viper at least was forced to learn it all.”
“That was years ago,” he muttered. He was leaning forward to look at the book. “Whoever wrote this, though, has one hell of a sick sense of humor. The very first line reads that whomever reads this shall forever know what death tastes like.” He looked to her and shrugged. “Directly translated.”
“Son of a bitch,” Violet whispered and looked at the book. Once more, she reached for it and let her hand hover over the book. Closing her eyes, she reached for the inner part of herself and whispered quiet words in the original Spiryte language. Words of power, words that would lift the truth of the matter from the book. At least a small bit. “Not a twisted sense of humor,” Violet whispered. “He was being completely honest. The words that he wrote down were all truth. He had no sense of humor. At all. He was a Draygon, one of the Priests,” she told him. “If that tells you anything at all about the man who wrote this book.”
Ladon snorted at that. “They have some of the sickest humors out there. While the words are truth, I don’t doubt you there, that first line is part of one of the oldest jokes in our Realm. Anyway, the point of all this is, that for the most part Viper’s going to have to read it since I don’t know enough of the written language. Unless you can do your thing and change it all into English.”
“I can’t do that, sadly. I can ensure that the words are truth, but I can’t change the words of a Draygon Priest. It sucks, like crazy, but I can’t.” Oddly enough, the Draygon Priests were beings she couldn’t sway or change their written words to. Sadly.
“Crap,” he muttered. “Sorry, Viper.”
Viper rolled his shoulders and sighed. “I’ll get started after our walk. At least the Priests were direct in their words, there won’t be a lot of flowery crap to wade through. That’s what will let me know when I hit the prophecy at least. It’s the only thing that will be out of the norm in the book. Unfortunately.” He sighed and made a face. “There’s a lot of book to get through.”
“Sorry, Viper. I know how dry and how asshattery that the Priests were.” She had spent a bit of time with one, before wanting to fry him. Literally. Instead she pushed him off of the falls and into the water. Asshole. But that’s what he got for trying to grab her ass. Idiot. “Yes, there is a lot to get through, but the good thing is that we can take our time in reading it.”
“Unless we can’t,” he said softly. “The clock is already ticking, Violet. The moment we came into contact with you, began the bonding for our mating, time started to slide away from us. If what you know of the prophecy is true. It could be worse, or better. Until I find it, we’re not going to know one way or another. For now, finish your breakfast, and let’s go for our walk. I want to clear my head before I start reading this monstrosity.”
“That sounds good.” Violet slipped her hand into Viper’s and gave it a squeeze. “I wish that I would have taken language lessons but sadly the Draygon language bored me to tears. No offense or anything but seriously it drove me batty.”
“No offense taken,” he said. He squeezed her hand back, even leaning in to kiss her fingers gently. “It’s a brutal language to try and learn if you didn’t grow up speaking it. All Draygons learn it from the cradle, but not everyone learns the written word since it’s very difficult, harder than learning the spoken tongue.”
“It’s very hard. It’s all the small intricacies in the language that make it so hard. And if someone had the smallest hint of a shake when they were writing, it sucked because it could change the entire meaning of everything. And god help you if you found someone that tried to write that had a lazy eye or was drunk.”
“I know,” he said. Squeezing her fingers, he let her go and pointed at her plate. He sat back and let out a breath. “I don’t plan on worrying about it until I actually have to read the damn thing. For now, we will have a nice lazy morning before we do anything at all.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Violet said with a smile. “That makes the walk seem even better. I’m looking forward to every moment with you,” she said happily. “And seeing our home since all that I’ve seen so far is just walking inside.” She had been far too eager to get them inside and naked.
“Well, you did get a bit of a tour last night, inside. How much you managed to retain I doubt we’ll know for a while. You were pretty focused on taking us to the bedroom rather promptly,” Ladon commented with a grin.
“Yes, I was, wasn’t I?” She wasn’t even in the least bit sad about that fact. “I happen to really like the fact that I was able to do that, as well. I really love the fact that you both were more than happy to get me there as well.” For now, she just wanted to focus on doing normal things, things that they all needed to do.
“We’ll get you back there again, later. Are you done eating or do you plan to finish up the last of that?” he asked. He moved closer to her, indicating her plate. “If not, eat now or forever hold your peace.”
“No, I’m done.” She pushed the plate away, but she did finish her coffee. “Okay. Now, then.” She leaned back and watched both men. “I’m ready to go for that walk before we figure out just what kind of hot mess that both of you mated. You poor, poor men.”
When they made it around the one lap, she stepped from between them and grinned. “Okay, so we have seen the property, now it’s time for us to go and have a look at the prophecy so that we can beat this bitch and have our happily ever-freaking-after.”
“A determined woman, nothing sexier,” Ladon said. “Unless it’s a naked determined woman, that’s most definitely sexier. Shit, now all I can think of is you naked. Maybe you should get naked while Viper reads that ginormous book in there. It would at least keep me occupied.”
“Nope, clothes are all staying on until we’ve read as much of the book as Viper can handle. I mean it. I’m determined here.” It was her life, a life she damn well wanted to live, now. She wanted to have every single moment that she could with these men, and if it meant breaking a curse or whatever, then so be it. And she would damn well think with her head on this one, instead of her heart and pussy. Damn it.
“Uh-huh, we’ll see,” he said with a mischievous grin.
Chapter Ten
Six hours later and Viper was still nose in the book. Every ten or fifteen minutes, the sound of heavy paper could be heard as he flipped a page. Ladon had given him refills of water now and again, and they’d even gotten a sandwich between him and the book at lunch. For the most part, he just kept reading and reading. Six hours and he hadn’t said a thing.
Sadly, he was only halfway through the damn book. Of course, he’d had to flip back a time or two, a frown on his face as he muttered to himself. Other than that, she and Ladon had been left to their own devices. Truth be told, she could have run around naked, because she seriously doubted he’d have noticed.
With a groan, Viper straightened up from his hunched position and stretched.
“Anything good?” Ladon asked, once more refilling the water glass near Viper’s hand.
“Depends on your definition of ‘good,’” he muttered. “Fucking Priest talks about everything and anything since the dawn of the Draygons. There’s little weird references here and there that I’m not quite getting yet. I know it means something, but there’s no fucking context to it. For the most part it’s fucking stale reading, but now and then pops in these odd phrases, strange words and general… Fuck, I don’t know. I’ve been marking them so I can find them again, but right now I’ve got nothing except the urge to find the bastard that wrote this and strangle him.”
“Damn,” Violet muttered with a frown. “I don’t like that at all. Wonder if the asshole is still alive?” She asked with a frown. “Because I’m telling you, if you are ready to kill him, then I’m sure that I’m more than ready to kill him, as well.”
Ladon snickered and shook his head. “Wait until he’s finished the book first. What if we have questions and you guys went and offed the bastard?” he asked. He shot them a look and held his hands up in a what are you going to do move. “Finish reading that thing and then kill him if you feel the need. If you can find him, of course. If he isn’t dead, as well. Because he could be you know.”
The look Viper slid toward Ladon said he might have just found a replacement for who he felt like killing off. Of course the snarl with a bit of Draygon teeth definitely helped that imagery along.
“Okay,” she said with a smile. Taking a deep breath, Violet closed her eyes and then said, “We will get the book read, and then we will do whatever it is that we have to do. We will get this all worked out, because I want and I need to have a life with the two of you. Period.”
“He’s rather touchy, isn’t he?” Ladon said in a mock whisper. He grinned and snickered softly when he got a vicious sounding snarl. “Hey, for dinner, you feeling up to a cookout? I thought we could get a fire going in the pit and do hot dogs or something like that. Keep it lazy. Maybe do up a couple salads as well, cold drinks, fresh air, warm evening breeze on our skin.”
“Hey, as long as I can get food I’m good with it. Hot dogs and hamburgers?” She didn’t know that they had those on this side of the Veil, but that made her all kinds of happy, actually.
“Whatever you want. Come help me do up some salads, will you, sweetheart? Maybe a nice potato salad, can’t go wrong with that. We’ll do a fruit one for dessert, cleansing and chilled, it’ll be good to nibble on after a heavy meal.”
“That sounds like a plan to me. We all know that I’m pretty easy to please.” She tried to be, at least. She liked being able to be there and with these men. “I’m happy, I just want both of you to know that. I’m happy with both of you close to me. We will worry about everything else later, okay?”
“Good to know,” Ladon said. He caught her hand and tugged her with him toward the kitchen. “Let’s let him decompress just a smidge, shall we. While I don’t mind pissing him off to no end, I like my balls where they are. Ditto with my head. Now, should we do something beyond the potato salad? We have many options after all.”
“Yes, I rather like you put together as you are right now, as well,” she said with a grin. “Okay, I will help you with the potato salad, and I’m thinking that maybe a lettuce salad as well would be good. Maybe we can put together some fruit juice and put it into a freezer?”
“Oh, now there’s an idea,” he said. He stopped in the middle of the kitchen and nodded. “Yeah, that’ll work. All right. Let’s do the juice thing first, and then we’ll worry about the salads. There should be a bunch of fruit in the pantry if you want to poke around. I’ll dig what we have in the fridge out, and we can figure out what combinations we want to do.”
“Sounds good. That way we will be able to enjoy a frozen treat after we’ve had dinner. They were always so good on Earth, so I figure why not here? We have all the technology that would be needed to make them, so why not, right?” She loved popsicles. Always had and likely always would.
“Not sure what we’ll put it in, though,” he said, making a face. “Maybe we do it up a bit like sherbert instead?” he asked her. His attention went from her to the door.
“There should be some little cups in the cupboard. We had them leftover from the one party on Earth, we used them for shot glasses. They were a little big, so we ended up just bringing them back with us. A little hot water around the outside to loosen the frozen treat, and with a wash they can be reused,” Viper said quietly.
“That sounds good to me.” Violet said with a smile and moved to Ladon’s side, moving so that she could help him put together the frozen treats for them. “What kind of fruits would you like in yours, Viper?” Since he was cooking the meats, she would make sure that he had the treat he wanted.
“Whatever you want is fine, I have no favorites,” he told her.
Ladon handed her a couple with a wink. He didn’t say anything, but she got the message. While Viper might say he didn’t have a favorite, obviously Ladon knew his preferred fruits out of the many.
“Son of a fucking bitch!” Viper let out a snarl and went to the book. Something had clicked in his mind as he looked through the items pulled from the refrigerator. He flipped it open to where he had marked a page with a slip of paper, then to another and then another. “You sneaky, no good, devious, son of a—” he snarled and slammed the book down. “He hid the fucking prophecy throughout the damn book. It’s not just in one place, it’s all those weird ass passages I keep running across.”
“What?” Violet turned now to look at Viper. “What do you mean?” She asked with a frown. “And how did meat make you think of that?” She was completely confused, no doubt about it. “I don’t see how meat would make that connection, or am I just off my rocker?”
“It didn’t,” he muttered. “I was staring at the packages, thinking about what I was going to do with the meat, wondering about mixing something up. My mind went to thinking about a piece of this, a piece of tha
t, then the words came back and it smacked me in the damn face. He hid it, in plain sight, by making it seem like random bits of insanity through the book.”
“Shit.” Violet felt her whole body shake slightly. “Shit, so that means that we have to sit down and try to pick apart where he put things together.” She sighed. “How the hell do we figure out what is prophecy and what is just bullshit?”
“I’ll have to write it all down, translated obviously for those of you who don’t read the language.” He shot Ladon a dirty look.
“Why are you only looking at me like that? She can’t read it either,” Ladon said.
“Because she’s sexy, she gets away with it. Plus she didn’t grow up here, unlike someone who really should have learned it from the cradle,” Viper said. “Once it’s all written down, then we piece it together. Hopefully it’s in order, but for some reason I seriously doubt that. The biggest problem is, not all the words of the Draconian language translate across easily or in just one way. Depending on how it’s in a sentence changes the context.”
That had her sighing, and she felt as if her head was going to explode. “Okay.” She looked at Viper and smiled. “And thanks for saying I’m sexy. I happen to think you are pretty damn sexy yourself.” Her hand moved over his forearm, however, and she added, “Honey, why don’t you grab the book and start to decode it and Ladon and I will work on food for us?”
“No, food first, no more reading tonight,” Ladon said. “I can see the headache building, Viper. I know that much reading is hard on you, and it’s all old handwriting. Take a break tonight,” he said. “Tomorrow will be soon enough to get back at it, especially now that you know what you’re looking for.”
Viper let out a breath and nodded. “All right, I’ll give it a rest tonight. It’s going to take all of tomorrow to find the passages and translate. I think I’ll write them all out in the Draconian tongue and then translate from there. It’ll be best, because if something doesn’t fit I’ll have it all written out where I can adjust the meaning of the word as we go.”
