by A Lonergan
Perfect.
It would not be good if I lost control over the situation at hand. A blood thirsty, out of control bear was something I feared the most when it came to Beast. I needed to stroke his ego fast or things would get squirrelly even faster. I repeated positive mantras through my mind and he started to calm down. My chest rattled with a pur and if I were in the skin of a man, I would have been blushing.
Cristoff spoke first, “I understand your pain. I understand your grief but we can’t be enemies if we want to take back control. Monsters have been feared and destroyed for far too long. Isn’t it time that we live in harmony? Isn’t it time that we stick up for our people and what is right?” Cristoff hopped off of Freya and started to bridge the gap between our parties. “We have all lost someone. We have all felt the pain that these gods keep pushing upon us. Why can’t we take back what is rightfully ours?”
Martha turned up her nose and sniffed. “Take back what is ours? How will we do that? My child lost his life, I can’t get that back.”
“I know there are more Cyclops in Apollo’s prison. I know that you can and will get you dignity back. You will free more of your people and that is something. That is better than nothing.” Jessa’s words were just as powerful as Cristoff’s.
Martha smoothed her light, mousy hair on her scalp and gave us all a cool, indifferent look. “What makes you think we want that?”
“Why wouldn’t you take the chance to free more of your people?” Jessa furrowed her brow and straightened her spine. I could see the gears working in her mind and they were definitely getting worked up.
“So we can lose more people?” I watched as the Cyclops behind Martha started to nod their heads in agreeance.
“Then you are no better than the gods. You belong with them in this twisted world.” Jessa cleared her throat and hopped from Sibil’s back. I moved forward to offer her support but she glared at me. She straightened to her full height, which was many feet shorter than Martha and looked her dead in the eyes. “Do you think I want to go back to the place I was tortured? To the place I was scarred emotionally and physically? No! The place haunts my nightmares. It ruined my body and tried to take my soul. Why in Hades name should I go back there?” She shook her head and gave all the Cyclops a look of disgust before mounting Sibil.
Jessa looked to us all and frowned. “We don’t want them to fight with us. They don’t have a reason to fight for what’s right, even though they should. Maybe we’ll have more luck with the Centaurs.”
Sibil turned around at her words and walked in the opposite direction. Jessa didn’t look back to see if we followed but at her words…
I would have followed her anywhere.
Chapter 24
Jessa
Pissed was an understatement. I couldn’t believe the Cyclops hadn’t joined our ranks. I knew my speech was damn good too and it should have recruited them. I scratched at the scars crisscrossing over my chest and tried to think of something different.
We had stopped for the night hours ago but I couldn’t bring myself to join the others. We were surrounded by Unicorns and it was magical to witness but I couldn’t bring myself to enjoy it. It was getting harder and harder to see the joy in anything at this point.
“You’re letting it get too personal.” Crawley’s voice made me jump.
I wasn’t expecting to hear it so soon. I had been certain he would have stayed in his bear form till we met up with the Centaurs. He had a flannel shirt buttoned half way up and the other half was giving me a great view of his well-defined pectorals.
Get a grip.
I averted my eyes, afraid of what I was going to think or say next if I wasn’t careful.
“Do you know what happens when you let it get personal on the battlefield?” Crawley leaned against the tree beside me and picked my hand up in his.
I shook my head.
“You die.”
His blunt words kicked me from my hazy, horn dog thoughts. “That’s one way to put it.”
“That’s the only way to put it.” Crawley shrugged his broad shoulders and leaned his head back on the dark bark.
“Military pep talk?”
He shrugged again before responding, “Nah, that part of me isn’t entirely still here. Sometimes I feel like my military training was another life, another time.”
“Then what was it, if it wasn’t a pep talk?” I bumped shoulders with him and tried to keep it light. It had been too dark lately. I needed something to keep me going. The darkness would destroy me if I let it.
“Just the truth. I don’t want to see you die out there, where ever there is.” His sad words sliced through me like a knife.
“What if I don’t make it?” I thought I would have let emotion slip out but my words were void of it.
“You will.”
“Don’t be so sure. I’m terrified of going back. I’m terrified of being face to face with the man that tried to break me.” My voice broke on the last words.
Crawley was usually predictable and loved a good argument but what he did next surprised me. He wrapped his vast arms around me and pulled me close. The sun had set and we were sitting far enough away from the camp fire for us to be chilly and his body was practically a space heater, it was perfect.
It had been too long since I had been comforted like this. Far too long since I had had human interaction like this. I snuggled in closer to him and felt the rumbling in his chest. Beast was content, which was interesting and scary all at once. I hadn’t exactly had the time to put it all together and find some feelings on it.
It was starting to feel natural.
Normal.
Home.
I jerked awake and searched around me in a panic. I didn’t know what had startled me but I was wide awake now. Crawley had his arm around my waist and was drooling into the blanket that had been underneath us both and he was actually kind of cute. I shook my head and tried to clear the treacherous thoughts forming there.
Apollo and his games.
I ran my fingers through my tangled mess of hair and was about to snuggle into Crawley when I noticed movement on the other side of the camp.
I saw the one eye and knew it had to be Martha. I stalked across the camp like the underworld was on my tail. She gave me a sheepish smile and looked down to the dirt submissively.
“We like you. You are a strong leader without fear. We don’t fight. We aren’t beings controlled by violence but you are different. We fight because we follow you.” Martha put her closed fist over her heart and bowed low to me. “You will free our people.”
A male Cyclops came from behind a tree and bowed with her. “You will free them all.”
I didn’t know what to say or do, so I looked to Crawley across the way and smirked as he jerked awake just like I did. Instead of him frantically flailing about like I had, he looked down at the place I had been sleeping and frowned. When his eyes met mine, I lifted my hand to wave to him. He smiled before wiping the drool from his chin and ruining the moment.
I couldn’t help but laugh. He would make someone incredibly happy one day…
I wanted to slap myself at the thoughts I was having. It shouldn’t have mattered if he was going to make one woman happy or a million. We had a mission to complete and here I was swooning like a school girl.
When I peered back at Martha I noticed her noticing me and my wandering eyes.
Ugh.
“For a human, he is very handsome.” Martha shrugged.
“He is anything but human.”
Her unibrow raised curiously. “Is that so?”
“Yeah, he’s the bear you about took out with your club.” It was my turn to shrug. “I’m pretty sure he’s indestructible though. He took on a hoard of zombies like no one’s business.”
The male Cyclops jaw went slack. I just knew Crawley was getting so many brownie points from the Cyclops and I couldn’t help but give myself a pat on the back. We needed them on our side as much as possible.
After two days on Unicorn back, I was exhausted. My thighs were chaffing and my back was aching like it never had before. I was desperate for a car and a bed but there were no complaints from me. All the complaints came from the Unicorns, surprisingly.
The first complaint was about the Cyclops’ odor but there wasn’t much I could do about that and Cristoff already said he couldn’t mask it. It was magically stuck to the monsters forever.
Yuck.
They complained that the Cyclops shook the ground and made it harder on them to travel and they complained about other things that made it completely believable that Zeus had punished them. They were annoying and I wished they didn’t have voices at all but we were stuck with them.
Except Cristoff.
He had concocted some type of spell that made it to where he was happy. He smiled too often and acted more than comfortable even though, I was sure he was just as sleep deprived as I was. Crawley had been a beast for two days straight and sleeping next to a bear was a very new experience. It was interesting to say the least. I knew no one would be messing around with us, that was for sure.
After listening to Freya argue with one of the other female Unicorns for about an hour, I was done. I had had my fill and was about to shout my limit to the sky when Sibil stopped. She flicked her head forward and spoke almost reverently, “We are here.”
The Cyclops were the first to ask questions. “Where exactly is here?”
“This is a waterfall, I could use a bath!”
“I’m tired.”
“I’m thirsty.”
“I need to take a pit stop.”
“Will you buffoons shut your mouths!” Sibil shouted into our minds. I winced at the volume of it. “We are at the public portal, lower your voices. You never know who or what will come out of it, or come with you to the other side.”
I stared into the waterfall, fully expecting to see something, at least a little bit of something magical. But all I saw was a below average cascade of water.
“Jessa and I will be the first to enter. Please follow through in a single file line.”
Crawley was having none of that and immediately sifted back into his human skin. His bones popped and cracked and there he was. Birthday suit and all.
“No, if anyone goes with Jessa, it’s me.” He crossed his arms over his naked chest.
“So be it.” Sibil rolled her eyes at him and continued forward. I braced myself for the spray of water that would hit my face but nothing happened. Even when we went under what appeared to be water, I felt nothing. Crawley refused to leave my side and held onto my pant leg as we went through.
It was unlike any portal I had ever been through. It was like we had walked through a wall. When we came out the other side, it was a mirror image of the first waterfall. But I could tell we weren’t in Kansas anymore.
The trees were different. The air felt dryer and the elevation was much higher. Crawley yanked a pair of sweat pants out of the saddle bag resting behind Cristoff. He yanked them on just as quickly and when he noticed me watching him, he gave a slow wink.
I could have died and instantly checked to make sure no one else had seen the exchange between us.
I let out a big breath of air and tried to think of any way to distract myself from the brute of a man that just kept coming back for more.
Damn Apollo and his tricks.
Chapter 25
Crawley
If it wasn’t making me hot and bothered seeing Jessa watch me, I didn’t know what would.
Every time her eyes landed on me, they changed. Her pupils dilated, the grey color stretched darker and her lips parted in the most sensual way. When her tongue darted out to wet her bottom lip, I was done for. If we hadn’t been surrounded, I would have lost mind in her lips.
And each time I had these thoughts about her, I wasn’t sure if they were sincerely mine or Apollo’s. My beast didn’t mind at all. He was gung ho for her and it would have drove me mad if I didn’t see all the fantastic characteristic she had. She had grown up and wasn’t the same snobby girl I had tried to pick up in front of her high school.
She had turned into a woman and I hadn’t missed a second of the transformation. Sure, the Unicorns were magical. They were rare that was for sure but she was something else. She was everything. She was fire and lighting and heaven all wrapped into one and I couldn’t stop my thoughts from venturing toward her because her mind had me entrapped.
The way she spoke had me captivated. The way she handled these games had me on a different planet and I didn’t know how to get back. Maybe the shift had been when she had tried to rally the Cyclops. Her speech had hit something inside of me that I didn’t know was there.
She was starting a revolution and it didn’t matter what side it was for, I would be following it and it frightened me. It downright scared me but as I stretched out my blankets for the night, my eyes followed her around the camp site. She delegated like a pro.
The centaurs wasted no time. They didn’t hide from us or give us the run around. They were always known to be war driven creatures and they protected their own. A female and a male met us through a clearing and bowed low.
His power boomed over us when he spoke, “I am Centaurus. I am the king of my people. What can I help you with?”
At his words hundreds of centaurs poured out from the wooded areas behind him. I didn’t know how it was possible.
Jessa and Cristoff moved to the front of our hoard and bowed as well.
Cristoff spoke first, “We are here to ask for your aid.”
Cristoff looked to Jessa.
“Your son, Cent, he offered help to our cause when we storm Apollo’s Prison.” Jessa’s words were interrupted.
“Say no more.” Centaurus turned to his people. “Cent.”
Cent came forward and bowed to his father. He was a stocky male with his dark hair knitted up in dreads. He had a black eye and scarring all over his torso, similar to Jessa. He had been tortured for information as well it seemed.
Where I expected him to be hesitant, he ran to Cristoff and Jessa and over looked them, as if he were checking for mortal wounds then hugged them both. The hug was so fierce it lifted Jessa and Cristoff off of the ground and about 3 feet into the air. Jessa let out a strangled laugh and Cristoff didn’t look amused, big surprise.
Cent dropped them to their feet and must have remembered his place. He backed up to his father’s side and lowered his head. His father was anything but disapproving. There was amusement all over his face, same with the woman standing to his side. It was time for the woman to step forward and where I thought she would be submissive, her power washed over us in the same manner as Centaurus.
“I am Magnese, Cent’s mother and Centaurus’ mate. Jessa is the one who saved him, is this correct?” She looked to Cristoff for answers.
Cristoff nodded his head enthusiastically. “She saved many of us. Though, at the end of it, there were only 4 survivors.”
Magnese lifted an eyebrow and tossed her long honey hair away from her naked breasts. She was the most muscular woman, er beast, I had ever laid eyes on. The Cyclops were more pudgy than lithe.
“And why is this?” I had a feeling Magnese already knew the answers to her questions.
“Jessa ran away.” Cristoff was starting to sound and look uncomfortable at all the attention.
“Why would she do a thing like that? Certainly, there is strength in numbers, no?” She spread her arms wide and I didn’t think it was possible but more Centaurs poured from the woods.
“I was going to use her as leverage against Apollo. A trade per say.” Cristoff stopped ringing his hands like a school boy and looked to the mossy, forest floor, in defeat.
“That was your mistake.” I felt like I was in court rooming, that Magnese would punish him. But I knew watching those in his custody die had been enough punishment.
Before Cristoff could reply, I stepped forward. I was done with the game of cat and mouse. �
��We have all made mistakes. There is no use in dwelling on them. He is here now, he is here to fight for what is right and that’s what matters. You cannot change the past, no matter how hard you wish you could. There is no point in trying.”
Magnese looked amused at my words though, Centaurus was not. His brows were furrowed in anger that I would challenge his mate, though I didn’t care. Cristoff wasn’t a terrible creature. He had made a mistake like everyone else in their lives. It was time to move on and accept it. Accept the past for what it was.
“And who are you? I don’t recognize your scent.”
I rose to my full height and walked to join Jessa and Cristoff. “I am Crawley, the beast of Zeus.”
My title hadn’t been important. It had never changed who I was, so I never used it. I didn’t like superiority, until it came to these situations. I wasn’t just anyone, I had come from the loins and the power of the father of the gods. My title meant everything and nothing all at once. Jessa looked to me with wide eyes, I had never bothered with my title around her. The unicorns around us started to band up at my words and march in place, almost as if they were dancing at my acknowledgement to my heritage.
Whispers coated the forest where the rest of the centaurs resided and I knew gossip was flying around but it didn’t matter. I got the reaction I was looking for.
Magnese grinned and cocked her head to the side. “The Fates do indeed whisper your name, it may be faint but we hear it. We hear nothing like the unicorns though. They are the wonder but then, so is their company.” She bowed to Jessa again and turned to her people. They parted as she made her way back.
Centaurus looked curious but I knew he still wasn’t happy with me interrupting his mate. “Powerful company you keep, Jessa The Demi God. We must speak to our elders about this union.” He paused to take in the sight of the Cyclops. “Don’t feel defeated. We have plenty of food and drink to feed you all, please join us and feast. Tonight, we will delegate.”
