Red Mortal

by Deidre Knight

  Ari grinned. “This is why you’re king and I’m the jester.”

  “A jester with the power of life and death in his hands. I shudder to consider the potential ramifications.” Leo shook his head with mock exaggeration, then added, “Oh, and Daphne stays.”

  “Of course,” Ari said, a bit of a gleam in his dark eyes. He knew—they all knew—that Leo was in love with their Oracle, even though he’d worked to keep the relationship a secret. Ari had discovered the truth months ago, but Leo had asked him not to share with the others—and he hadn’t. No, Leo himself had given the secret away because he’d been unable to hide his true feelings anytime Daphne was nearby—or far away, for that matter—when he’d mooned like a lovesick pup.

  Leo turned to face the cadre. “It seems that our surgeon general is going to operate on me,” he said. “Hopefully he won’t saw off my head in the process. Nevertheless, given what we know of Aristos’s power, all of you should leave until he’s finished working his dark art.” Leo gestured toward Daphne, who had begun, along with the others, to rise and leave. “Daphne, please,” he said simply, and she moved right to his side.

  Leaning up onto her tiptoes, she planted a kiss on his cheek. “Wouldn’t it be lovely if Ari solved our problem so we could keep our date? The one scheduled for your chambers later tonight?”

  “Why do you think I rushed everyone out of here?” he murmured under his breath.

  After a moment, the others had filed out of the library, and Ari closed the double doors behind them. It was strange, but now that he and Daphne were alone with the other warrior, Leo’s heart began to beat rapidly. He feared that the process wouldn’t work, and almost as much he feared that it would, and he’d begin to hope too soon.

  Ari strode to where Leo sat at the antique desk, tensed and waiting. “I’m going to be quick about it.” Ari rubbed his hands together. “Shouldn’t hurt. But can I just tell you, sir? It’s gonna feel mighty good to do this for you. I’m bucking to trounce Ares’s wicked ass. That god is like the Swiss Army knife of evil . . . soon as you beat him at one thing, another screwy plan pops out.”

  Ari placed his big palms atop the crown of Leo’s head, his eyes drifting shut. “Won’t hurt at all, sir,” he repeated, his voice more distant, practically humming with energy.

  A strange warmth began at the very top of Leo’s head, like warm bathwater, just as soothing. The power that came rolling from that touch, however, was anything but gentle or timid. It was like a roaring avalanche begun by hurling a tiny snowball, growing, expanding, gaining strength.

  Leo began to shake so hard in that seat that his teeth chattered, his skin alternately blazing hot and freezing cold. Daphne knelt at his feet, gathering his trembling hands into her steady ones. “It’s okay,” she said soothingly. “It’s just a lot of power to receive at once. But you’re fine. Everything will be all right.”

  He swallowed and nodded. His face burned, the skin suddenly tighter, especially about his eyes. He blinked at the sensation, squeezing Daphne’s hands to settle himself. She was his lifeline; he would focus all his attention on her. That way the shockwaves spiraling through his body wouldn’t be so intense.

  The sensations changed then, becoming milder as the otherworldly heat began to subside. He didn’t lose the erection, however, and he briefly wondered if Ari had spiked him there as a joke.

  “Okay. We’re done! Let’s have a look at you,” Ari said, moving from behind Leo.

  The Spartan beamed, whistling. “A regular beauty queen! Damn, I’m good.” Ari gave Daphne a triumphant glance. “I’d say he’s more like thirty-two now that I’ve worked him over, wouldn’t you? Who needs face-lifts when Aristos Petrakos can give you a life lift? Bet I could make serious money in Hollywood . . .”

  Daphne beamed just like Ari did, only even more so, and her eyes shimmered with tears. “He’s as gorgeous as always.” She stood, wrapping her small arms about Ari’s massive torso. “Thank you, Aristos. Thank you so very much.”

  Ari looked a little bashful and muttered something about going to find Juliana, leaving them alone once again as he vanished through the library’s double doors. Leo sat in the chair, staring down at his hands. Even they looked younger. “Dare I look in a mirror,” he laughed.

  Daphne slid onto his lap, kissing him. “No, my love. You need only look into my eyes.”

  He felt . . . alive. Like a tiger, with energy coiled and hot inside his veins. He was still highly aroused, but it wasn’t as if the library was the place to do anything about it. He was entertaining the idea of hauling Daphne down to the glass gazebo by the water, when a dreadful thought occurred to him.

  This was too easy. Ares would never allow himself to be defeated by any method as simple as this one. How many times a day would he need to ask Ari to revive him? And how long would Ari’s power even remain effective against Ares’s curse?

  History and military strategy had taught Leo many things, and chief among them was to be leery of overly simple solutions. They almost always brought even bigger problems. But for now, at least, this cure had given him more time with Daphne—an opportunity he intended to take advantage of before reconvening the meeting.

  Chapter 9

  Leo had always been an excellent planner, which could be an immense help in matters of romance, especially when it came to improvising with said plans. After Ari had given Leo what he jovially termed a “life lift,” they’d received an urgent call. Turned out that one of Jamie’s Shades had spotted a demon legion in the historic district, a regular gang, on foot and terrorizing Bay Street.

  Jamie and his crew needed to deal with the threat expeditiously, before mortals were harmed or even killed. With Leo’s aging currently arrested, the group had agreed to suspend the meeting for a few hours. And that was when Leo had instigated his plan, one that he’d dreamed up during the long months while Daphne was away. It involved the perfect destination, one that didn’t even require leaving the Angels’ property.

  He clasped Daphne’s hand now, leading her through the dark bushes and rangy overgrowth that surrounded the path. He wondered if she even knew about the glass gazebo, hidden down by the winding river. It wasn’t far from the dock, yet it was hidden in the forestlike trails of the Angels’ wandering property, so clandestine that few of their cadre had ever heard of it.

  “Where are you taking me?” Daphne asked behind him now. “You’re being so mysterious.”

  He laughed, guiding them through a particularly knotty section of the path. “No. I’m simply withholding our destination.”

  She squeezed his hand. “Have I ever remarked on your Spartan economy of words? That I’d be fine if you wanted to use at least a few more syllables in daily life?”

  “No.”

  “Ha! You illustrate my point precisely.”

  Leo grinned in the dark. “Yes.”

  She swatted him on the rump and he spun to face her. “Careful how you tease me.” He wrapped her close within his arms. “I’m a man of two and thirty now, remember? Younger than you’ve ever known me. And full of raging appetites to match my newfound youth.”

  Nothing but the darkness and the night sounds enveloped them, the plants and bushes on either side of the path creating even more privacy—as did the leggy live oaks surrounding them. Spanish moss swayed in the thick night air, some draping almost to the top of Leo’s head.

  Daphne pressed close against him. “I can feel those appetites. Most impressive.” She slid a delicate hand and shocked Leo by giving him a single, slow stroke through his pants. His cock leaped at her erotic touch, which she obviously hadn’t expected. Her gaze snapped to his, a little wide and surprised.

  He nodded his encouragement, swallowing.

  With a coy smile, she stroked him once again—and he leaped again, his groin so tight with desire that he was amazed he didn’t lose himself right inside his combat pants.

  “I think I like Aristos giving you some of his power.” Her eyes sparkled as she smiled up
at him.

  He couldn’t help frowning slightly. “Let’s hope I don’t need to ask for it again.”

  Daphne’s smile didn’t fade, but her expression grew slightly somber. She always tried to put on such a brave show, no matter what trouble they faced.

  She lifted a hand to his beard, lightly rubbing her thumb along his jaw. “Your beard is as dark as it’s ever been, my lord. Your hair as well. And your eyes.” Her smile broadened. “I have always loved your beautiful, sad eyes.”

  “Sad eyes?” He snorted. “That hardly sounds attractive.”

  She lifted onto her tiptoes and kissed him on first his left eye, then the right. “I used the wrong word. I’m trying to say that your eyes are lovely, but also wise . . . and a bit wistful. You’ve seen so much in your years, so of course that shows. There’s a reason for the cliché, about the eyes being the window to the soul. You know, maybe that’s the word I wanted. Your gaze is soulful.”

  Taking her face within his palms, he tilted it upward until their eyes locked. “What do you see in my soul right now, fair Daphne?”

  She grinned up at him. “Ah, so you’re asking me to speak your mind? Saving your words again, are you?”

  He brushed a kiss across her lips, clasping her upper arms and dragging her much closer. “I’m asking an Oracle for a reading.”

  She studied him thoughtfully for a moment, then glanced away. “Your eyes are filled with heat, Leonidas. Heat and . . . something else.”

  He knew he should stop the teasing, but for some reason he wanted to hear her say it. “And that is . . . ?”

  “There is love in your glances, my lord.” She still wouldn’t look at him.

  “Love for you, Daphne. You. As long as I’ve lived, as much as I’ve endured in my centuries of roaming this earth . . . I have never cared for another as I do you. I fear it a sin, sometimes, the way I love you beyond reason.” He slid fingertips beneath her chin, tilting it upward until their gazes locked again, wanting her to remember the words, always. “No matter my fate, even if I am walking the fields of Elysium soon, my love, I will take those feelings with me. I will not forget you if I am forced into the next life, beyond the one we share here now. No matter the distance, I will hold you in my heart.”

  Daphne buried her face against his chest with a sharp cry. “Leo, please don’t talk like this.”

  He stroked a hand over her twining braids, tenderly toying with one of her ribbons. “I don’t want to upset you, only for you to know my feelings. I may not be with you much longer, that’s a fact. There are things I must say . . . you must know the depth of my love, before I go.”

  “No!” She stepped out of his embrace, shaking her head adamantly. “No. I refuse to believe that we won’t solve this problem.”

  “The possibility of defeat is a consideration in any military campaign.” He gave her a rueful smile. “Why do you think I took my three hundred bravest and strongest to Thermopylae? Defeat was inevitable, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t turn that fact to our advantage.”

  “This isn’t a battle—this is your life, Leonidas.” She placed an earnest palm over her heart. “And my life with you. We can fight together.”

  Leo smiled. “Fight? So then it is a battle.”

  “Oooh, don’t be so frustrating.” She stomped on the sandy path. “I am saying that we are not powerless here. I’m a demigoddess; you are one of the greatest warriors who has ever lived. We have tools and comrades and even Olympian gods we can beseech.” She lifted both hands toward the night sky. “And the Highest God himself! He of all, Lord of all, might take mercy.”

  “I’ve prayed that He would bring us together for a year now.” Leo grasped her hand, slowly beginning to lead the way to the gazebo again. “And for most of that time, I’ve been without you.”

  “But we are together, a couple, so He did answer your prayers.”

  Leo wanted to confess it to be the cruelest fate of all that God had given him Daphne, only to reveal that he would lose her for eternity. But a part of him still held faith that perhaps there was a grander design, one in which he would indeed have Daphne for good. And that maybe, if they were blessed enough, Ari’s handiwork could stanch the flow of mortality’s tide.

  But he told her none of that. For once they were happy and together. He planned to capitalize on that boon.

  “I’ve upset you and that wasn’t my intention. I have something beautiful to show you.” He led her farther along the path. “Come with me now.”

  Daphne stared at the moonlit structure, blinking in surprise. Never in all her time visiting the Angel Plantation had she seen the gazebo. It was bathed in pale light from the nearly full moon overhead, gleaming and twinkling like a crystal chandelier. It had turrets at the top and seemed to be made entirely of glass, like something out of a fairy tale.

  “Leo, it’s magical. Breathtaking.” It was like a small diamond temple, here in the deepest part of the American South, a mysterious place where it seemed anything might happen. “Maybe wood nymphs dwell inside it.”

  “Ah, this would explain my urge to show it to you, my lovely nymph.” He slid a hand about her waist from behind, splaying his big palm along her belly. “Do you want to go inside?”

  She turned in his arms. “Can we? Or should we ask the Angels first?”

  “Jamie is the one who showed it to me.” Leo smiled faintly. “Told me of its romantic appeal, and of its useful location . . . so far removed from the house.”

  She laughed. “In other words, he brings Sunny down here.”

  “Apparently our young newlyweds visit rather frequently,” he answered, stepping around her. “But not tonight, as our host is away. So we will be all alone, out here in the darkened woods.” He gave her a significant look, then opened the door and held it for her.

  Inside was just as breathtaking, with shards of light dancing off the river and onto the glass panes, then reflecting that moonlight in every direction. She stared up at the high, pointed ceiling. “It’s like an ice castle. That’s what it reminds me of.”

  Leo’s arms came around her from behind. “I have you where I wanted you all night . . . alone and in my embrace. That’s the best part of all.”

  “You’ve been randy as a bull ever since Ari healed you.” And she liked that fact. Very much. His arousal pressed into her backside, and the strong hands he held about her waist moved easily upward. He cupped her breasts in both hands, just holding them for a moment. She heard him draw in a tight, excited breath; he slowly released it against the top of her head.

  He said nothing aloud, in his usual hushed Leonidas kind of way, but spoke volumes with his touch and his body. With shaky hands, he slid the sleeves of her gown off her shoulders. The garment, loose to begin with, cascaded to the floor. She stood naked in the moonlight, Leo breathless and poised behind her. Closing her eyes, she waited for what he would do next, and was answered with the scratchy, tickling bristles of his beard along her nape. He kissed her at that tender spot, which was fully exposed because of how she’d worn her hair atop her head.

  He trailed hot kisses from her neck and down across her right shoulder, bending low from behind her. “Your skin tastes like the morning dew . . . or what I’d imagine it would be like. Fresh, sweet . . . exhilarating.” He rested his cheek against her bare shoulder, sighing lustily. “And you still smell like peaches.”

  He was clearly eager to touch and arouse her, but she wanted to give him something, make his body sing as he’d done hers earlier in his study. A glass gazebo in the woods wasn’t precisely the best place to make love for the first time, but it was a grand spot for pleasuring a man. And given how he was already trembling with intense arousal, she could only imagine how he’d respond in her arms.

  Without worrying about her nakedness, she spun in his grasp, facing him. His eyes were like dark pools, gleaming in the moonlight, filled with a kind of raw lust she’d never seen in his gaze before. Desire she’d glimpsed there, yes. Longing, too—sometimes
even painful longing. But right now there was an almost primal hunger blazing in Leo’s dark eyes, perhaps because the two of them were finally so close to making love. Or perhaps because his body still hummed with supernatural power. Either way, she loved how overheated he’d become.

  But he still wrestled to keep himself under command, she could see it in the way he struggled to regulate his ragged breathing. But the thing was, she didn’t want him to calm down, or rein himself in.

  For once, she wanted Leonidas of Sparta to do something he so rarely did. To lose control of his senses, his reactions, his words. She wanted to take him beyond the place where he kept himself disciplined. She wanted to love and pleasure him until he became loud. Loud in his moans, loud in his need . . . and loud as he cried out her name.

  Leo, of course, wasn’t yet privy to her plan. In fact, he cupped her cheek, and bent downward as if to kiss and pleasure her some more. She pressed lightly against his chest. “No, Leo,” she told him huskily, “this time it’s your turn.”

  His dark brown eyes flew open, filled with shocked excitement. He swallowed, hand still touching her cheek. “My turn?”

  “Turnabout is fair play, my king,” she said with a flirtatious smile, already reaching for his belt.

  Daphne was in command of him. A new experience, a highly charged one: Leo was allowing a female to rule him in an act of intimacy. He, a king, ruled by a woman. Not just any woman, of course, but the one he’d desired for more than a year now. She’d made quick work of his pants and shirt, and then indicated a wicker settee with cushions. It was a lounging chair, unusually large, and now he lay sprawled across it, as she’d requested.

  His legs were slightly parted, his thick cock pointing upward like a compass to the stars in the sky above.

  “There. You’re just where I wanted you,” she whispered, settling beside him. He tensed immediately, his body barely held on the tightest leash of desire. Any moment and he knew he’d lose it, perhaps before she touched him.