All Hallows' Satyr (The Cursed Satyroi Book 5)

by Rebekah Lewis

  She came back.

  Wait…

  Something wasn't right. He attempted the knob again, shaking it. "Sage?" he whispered. When there was no answer, he called out again, louder this time. "Sage!"

  Still no reply, but some kind of commotion on the other side of the wall caught his attention. Pounding? Muffled yelling?

  Adonis took a step back, assessed the door a moment, then plunged into it with his shoulder. The wood cracked and strained, ultimately giving way. He pushed the broken panel open and stepped into the room. Sage wasn't in the bed, though she'd clearly been in it at some point. The television was on, and her things and room key were on the table.

  So, where was she?

  More banging had him turning to the right, and he gawked. Sage stood on the balcony, naked, hammering on the door with her palm. She whirled around and flipped the bird at someone on the street below.

  Not worried about the how or why she'd gotten herself into such a predicament, he spanned the room in a few long strides and opened the door. She ran inside, stopped, flipped off the jeering idiots on the street again, and then stormed into the room. Adonis didn't know what to say. So he shut the door and locked it, then pulled the curtains for good measure.

  "What—?"

  Sage spun around, a crazed look crossing her features, and she looked up and down his naked body. His satyr form didn't seem to repel her even though the fur from thigh to ankle and the bend of his calves were different than a human's. "What are you doing here?"

  "You left."

  She blinked. "Ah, I forgot you would know that. Sorry it took that to get you to check on me." Bitterness sharpened her words, and he didn't like it.

  Adonis clenched his jaw and took a step forward. A floral scent, all too familiar, surrounded Sage, and he stopped dead. Trepidation coursed through him as he became fully aware of the situation. Sage hadn't left; she'd been taken. And he knew exactly who had taken her. "Aphrodite was here."

  Memories assailed him of a time when he'd been so naïve to believe in love with a goddess who had cuckolded her own husband. Who cheated on Ares as well with the likes of him. A farmer's son. A goddess who couldn't look at him in his satyr state when all he needed was someone to comfort him and tell him it would be all right. He'd gone through all of it alone. The uncontrollable lust. Being unable to return home to his family. He hated Aphrodite, and if he never saw her again it would be too soon.

  Sage growled, actually growled. "If that bitch comes near me again, I'll—"

  Adonis blinked, taken aback at her reaction. It was so…visceral. "What did she want?" Clearly it hadn't been anything good, not that it could have been. Fury began to twist its way through his blood at the thought of Aphrodite taking Sage away from him. Gods, was this about her or about him? Did she not want him to move on? Adonis had not had a relationship since her. Only sex. Only when necessary.

  Sage crossed her arms. "You're dense sometimes, you know that? She wanted you. Tried to make me agree to give you to her like you're a piece of property in exchange for helping us get around...this." She gestured in the direction of his dick, lifeless as ever.

  He expected jealousy, not wanting him to move on. He didn't expect this. Did Aphrodite seriously think he would be stupid enough to want her again after how she'd left him to fend for himself in the most frightening moment of his life? "Oh."

  "'Oh?'" Sage's eyebrows raised into her hairline. "All you have to say is 'Oh?'" She marched toward him, shoulders tense as she poked a finger against his chest. "I was yanked from my bed and sexually harassed by a goddess. She wanted me to trade you to her by implying she could help me out so she could have you." She jabbed him hard on that final word and he swiped her hand away.

  Adonis barely heard what she said after being derailed by two words. "She sexually harassed you?" What the hell had Aphrodite done? If she had hurt Sage in any way—

  "Whoa, calm down." Some of her own anger dissipated as she stepped between him and the door. "Nothing big. Just wanted to show me she could trick my body, and I am assuming yours as well. She touched me and made me like it." She shuddered. "Then the bitch left me naked for a couple of drunk idiots to jeer at."

  Sadly, it didn't surprise him. "That's more than mere harassment, Sage." What would have happened if she had taken the bait? Thank the gods she hadn't. His heart swelled. She so easily could have fallen for Aphrodite's bullshit the way he had, and even now could be setting him up as the lamb for the slaughter for that goddess' amusement. "Sage," he started, softening his tone, wanting to tell her how proud he was of her for being stronger than he was against Aphrodite, but she cut him off.

  "And then you come up here to see me because you thought I left?" She shook her head. "To think I believed you might have actually cared."

  Irritation snapped his handle of control. He slammed a hand on the top of a dresser, the sting of it small compared to the thwack that reverberated through the room. "I do care, damn it. I came up here because the moment the lust overcame all sensible reason, the only person I wanted to fuck was you. And what's more, Aphrodite wouldn't have bothered you if sex was the only thing on my mind."

  Sage's mouth dropped open, and if he wasn't mistaken, her nipples hardened. "You…what?"

  "You heard me." He stalked forward, herding her toward the bed. "The bitch is jealous of you, but she made a big mistake. Because, by removing you from the inn, all I could think about was folding you over the first surface I could find and having my way with you. No one else. Just you."

  "Wanting to have sex with me isn't exactly caring." She pouted.

  Wasn't that exactly what she'd wanted from him? No, Aphrodite had offered her that. She hadn't accepted. Why were women so fucking difficult to understand? "It is when it overrides caring that, not only were there two women in the rooms next to and across from me, but all over the city." He inched closer. "The curse doesn't give us a choice when we get to that point."

  Sage's legs hit the back of the mattress and she couldn't go any farther. A compelling flush alighted along her collar bones. "You would have tried even if it ruined your chance at breaking the curse?"

  "I didn't care about that. Only this." He reached out and wrapped one hand around the back of her neck, the other he placed on her waist. Dragging her against his body, he leaned down and kissed her. Sage melted into it, running her hands through his hair. Her tongue slipped into his mouth as though she was famished and needed to consume him to survive. The fires that should have erupted in his blood were absent, and that frustration grated. A need did remain, however. The need to keep this woman in his life and not for the sole reason of holding his curse at bay.

  "Adonis," she whispered. "I thought you didn't want me."

  "Just because I'm frustrated doesn't mean I don't want you." He pushed her backward onto the mattress. She bounced when she landed, and his gaze homed in on her breasts. Gods, he wished he could feel desire when he was with her. It felt as though part of him was missing. That didn't mean they couldn't be intimate, and perhaps it was a blessing since he couldn't get carried away and lose his chance at being human again.

  As he pulled her hips to the end of the bed, he crouched down on the floor and spread her thighs wide. He licked his lips at the beautiful sight awaiting him, and then he flicked his gaze up to her face. Her purple hair cascaded over her shoulders, over her heaving chest as she breathed fast and erratic in anticipation.

  "Do you want this?" he asked, knowing by the increasing moisture at the junction of her thighs that she did. By the slightly crazed look in her eyes, the parting of her lips, the way she gripped the sheets at her sides. A shiver coursed through her body, and she bit her lip in anticipation.

  "Yes." The huskiness of her voice made him grin.

  That's all the confirmation Adonis needed as he slid his hands around her thighs to drag her against his face. Sage shuddered as he kissed the warm flesh on either thigh before taking his time to slowly lick and kiss at her center, making her
moan. When was the last time he'd performed this act and did it because he wanted to? Because he felt anything for anyone?

  The answer was simple: Aphrodite. But the bitch had used him and broken his heart. He had nothing more to say to her, and she damned well knew it if she had gone through Sage and not him. When he plunged his tongue inside Sage, he was a bit rougher than he'd anticipated, and a keening sound left her throat that urged him on despite the fact that, still, his hateful anatomy wouldn't respond to it. Thoughts of the bitch goddess quickly left his mind, where they could rot and fade, as far as he cared.

  Now, he focused his attentions to Sage's greedy little clit, and she writhed and screamed in ecstasy with the first of the many orgasms he intended to bestow on her before this night was through. If she remained sensitive to his touch, he would give her no reprieve, wanting to hear, to taste, every last ounce of her pleasure.

  Clarity struck him as his nymph shuddered and moaned at the aftershocks he wouldn't allow to fade, not yet. Doubt ended tonight. Her belief that he didn't want her, and his fear of rejection by her would, too. It didn't matter that he couldn't take his own pleasure. By the time dawn came, she would be his.

  11

  Halloween, one day before the Satyr Moon

  Jacen groaned as he blinked open his eyes. His head, his whole body really, felt like it had been used as a set of drums. How many times had they hit him? A comfortable warmth at his side made him look down the length of his body. London was hugged tight against him, sound asleep. Despite his pain, a smile pulled at his lips. The love of a good woman made everything better. If that's all he had in the world, it was enough.

  As though feeling his gaze on her, London opened her eyes and yawned. "You're awake," she said happily before squeezing him in a tight embrace, but not tight enough to hurt his bruises. "I was so worried."

  "You know I'd never leave you…willingly." She would have been fine, his friends would have seen to that, but it hadn't been his intention to get jumped by Boeotian satyrs in the middle of downtown Savannah.

  "Don't even joke about that, Jacen." London sniffled and hugged him again. "What happened?"

  He wished he knew. "I was on the phone, not paying attention to where I was going. You know how I tend to wander while I talk on the phone." At her nod, he continued, "I finished my call, turned to head back to see you. I—" Oh, Shit. He lost the purse he'd bought for her. "I had a gift for you. They stepped out from a building and came at me. I must have lost it in the alley."

  London blinked rapidly and wiped at a tear she failed to hide. Then she kissed his cheek. "The only thing I need you to bring home to me is you. Alive, well, and happy."

  He really wanted her to have that purse. Maybe he'd buy a new one once he healed. "You would have loved it."

  "I love you."

  He didn't deserve her. "Help me get up. Ribs got broken." If he tried to move it would hurt like hell, and though his body healed faster in immortality, it couldn't heal fast enough with Theron around.

  London pushed herself into a sitting position and scowled at him. "Absolutely not. You are staying right here until those ribs heal."

  "But—"

  "I don't want to hear it. I'll strap you down if I have to."

  Though sore and injured, that got his body's attention sure enough. "Mmm. I wouldn't be opposed to that. After I talk to Melancton."

  "He can talk to you in here." She said, letting her gaze travel to where the bedsheet had tented. "After you are more comfortable." His woman tugged the bedsheet down and glanced back up to his face mischievously. "It is breakfast time, after all."

  His breath hitched as she bent down and took him into her mouth, teasing him with slow and deliberate strokes of her tongue. "I think I need some breakfast too," he gritted out. She had worn panties and a nightgown to bed, probably in case Melancton or Daphne checked in on them. Since he was naked, he had to assume his bloody clothes had been washed if at all salvageable. "Take those panties off and sit on my face."

  London chuckled around his shaft and didn't follow his command.

  "I said…" He laced his fingers through her long, dark hair as she bobbed up and down. "Take—"

  She raised her head to grin at him. "You need to stay rested, and maybe, just maybe, if you behave yourself today, I'll let you do whatever you want tonight."

  Somehow that made him even harder than he already was. He hadn't expected her to take charge like that. She'd never denied his sexual requests before. On the other hand, he'd never gotten his ribs shattered during the time they dated before. Gods, the two of them had been taken hostage by Apollo and Bremusa together and still…this was a first.

  "Speechless, I see. Good. Maybe you'll listen to me." She returned to her task, taking very little time to get him off." When she sat up again, she grinned. "By the way, Adonis is here with another nymph."

  It was like she spoke in an entirely different language. He couldn't comprehend what she'd said, and it took far too long before the words actually sank into his post-sex brain. "What?"

  "Yeah, he came to get some of Nestor's pills and was going to help look for you, but Melancton brought you home right after they arrived."

  "Again…what?" He looked around as though the answers were going to leap out of the walls and smack him in the face. Jacen didn't need a mirror to know his expression likely showed his bewilderment. "Does Pan know?" What's more…does Ariston?

  Wait…did London say Adonis brought a nymph with him? Where had Adonis of all people found a nymph? His brain had lost all functionality, either from his run-in with Theron or the morning blowjob, or both. Probably both.

  Laughing, London slid out of bed and started getting dressed. "You can ask all your questions when Melancton comes to talk to you because I want to go check on Sage if she's awake yet."

  That must be the nymph. Finally, his brain was catching up with the conversation.

  About fifteen minutes later, London abandoned him as she let in Melancton. The tall Boeotian satyr stared at him expectedly and stood just inside the room after the door was closed behind him.

  "Please, sit." Jacen nodded to the armchair across the room. Melancton took it and let out an uncharacteristic—for him, anyway—sigh. "Rough night?"

  He gave him a look that spoke volumes.

  "What? It couldn't have been worse than mine." Three against one was never a fair fight. He could have probably stood a better chance against them had he been armed or prepared.

  "I must ask a question you aren't going to like." When Jacen didn't comment, he continued, "Did Theron or the others force you to drink anything?"

  "Drink…what are you talking about?" As he asked it, his meaning made sense. "The false ambrosia."

  Melancton nodded once.

  "No, not that I am aware of, anyway. Nothing when I was conscious. I'm immortal though, not human." Had he been human already, what could they have done to him? It was a question he didn't want to know the answer to, but he had the feeling they would know soon enough what Theron had planned for that vial of Priapus' blood. "They didn't use it on me."

  Some of the tension eased out of the room and Melancton's shoulders relaxed. "London informed you of Adonis' arrival?" the Boeotian asked, an eyebrow arching.

  Dear gods, what happened? He was only there one night. Jacen tried to sit up, but his broken ribs throbbed with pain and he quickly gave up on that idea. Damn it. "What has he done?"

  Melancton shot him a look that all but implied there were far too many answers to that statement to go through. "Well, we have to replace a door on the third floor…"

  "What?" He closed his eyes and silently berated himself for getting injured. They never should have allowed—

  An odd sound startled Jacen out of his indignation.

  He turned toward Melancton, who was failing to cover a laugh behind his hand and proceeded to fake cough instead. "This is funny to you?" he asked

  Melancton continued as though he hadn't laughed at all. "Sage
locked herself on the balcony. He had to break into the room to let her back inside."

  "That's…all?" Why the hell weren't they sharing a room to begin with… Unless they couldn't sleep together until the eclipse…shit. Shit! Had he missed the Satyr Moon? All their planning would have been for naught…until next year's first lunar eclipse. "When is—"

  "Tomorrow."

  Some of his panic eased. So, Adonis had found himself a nymph. Imagine that. "He really wanted to help look for me?"

  Melancton, having recovered from his amusement at Jacen's expense, nodded. "He truly wants to make up for his actions. Pan has been informed, though no one has called to tell Ariston."

  Not going to be me. "Someone will have to, if he's staying around."

  "Perhaps let us wait and see if he can break his curse at all tomorrow evening. Then we bring it up."

  Ah, the good ol' ask for forgiveness, not permission trick. "Probably a good idea. Wait…" He narrowed his eyes. "Why wouldn't he be able to break his curse if he has a nymph and they weren't sharing a room last night."

  Melancton seemed to find the threading on the chair arm extremely interesting all of a sudden. "He did share a bed with her last night, quite loudly, but it will probably be fine since he cannot, how should I say this…perform. Because of Pan's added curse after the events with Lily and his brother."

  Wow, he must really have been befuddled since it took a moment to process all that information. And still he had questions. "He can't…perform?"

  "Pan provided unto him a mystical chastity belt. That only happens around one nymph. His nymph."

  Jacen blinked. "I honestly don't know if I want to laugh about that or be horrified."

  "Precisely." Melancton ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. "He might not be able to break his curse at all."