“You didn’t give me two weeks’ notice.”
That’s what this was about? “Delilah would have helped you with a smooth transition to a new Executive Assistant.”
His lips pinched and he crossed his arms. A sure sign of major irritation. “Would she help me find another nymph?”
She glanced away, her jaw tight.
“One who has the ability to see straight into my soul? One who challenges me with her refusal to back down or let my ego take over? One whose kisses brought me out of a thousand-year sleep?”
She turned her head, eyes wide…hope, doubt, and fear all warring for dominance inside her. “What are you saying?”
He stepped closer, crowding her. “I’m saying I don’t want to lose you. Don’t walk away.”
“I’m a good assistant, but Delilah can find you another.”
He took her by the shoulders and gave her a shake. “I’m not talking about losing my assistant.”
“I’ve only been something…more…to you for a few days.”
He stole her move and rolled his eyes heavenward. “You’ve been more to me for months. Perhaps even a year.”
Was that true? No. It couldn’t be. She stepped back, crossing her arms. His wife was the more in his life, as proven by his track record with dating the last year. “All those other women would agree, I’m sure.”
Leia wanted to pull the words back the second they were out of her mouth. Where had that jealousy-ridden question come from?
“Every woman I’ve dated since I met you can tell you things never got past kissing.”
She frowned her disbelief.
“I haven’t been a saint since my wife died,” he admitted. “My interest this past year was just hijacked by a blonde, blue-eyed nymph. In fact, the last thing Pamela said to me when I ended it was I should marry you and put everyone out of their misery.”
Her heart surged, but before she could respond or even gather her thoughts, a deep voice interrupted. “How sweet.”
She and Castor both whipped toward the sound of Kaios’s voice. The ancient werewolf stepped out of the cover of the dark woods.
Dammit. “This is what I was trying to keep you out of,” she hissed at Castor.
“Trying to protect a demigod?” Kaios, whose keen ears had picked up her comment, pulled his lips back in a sneer of derision as he advanced toward them. “You always did have an overblown sense of your powers, nymph.”
Behind him, out of the darkness, a line of werewolves, already shifted into their animal form, advanced upon them. There had to be at least thirty. A low growl rose from a few, while others pulled back their lips, baring their teeth in snarls meant to terrorize. As far as she knew, Kaios wasn’t an alpha, so where had they come from, and why were they helping him?
Castor stepped closer and took her hand, presenting a united front. Above them, the skies darkened with the warning of his wrath, swirling with dark clouds.
“Oh, I have a way to deal with you.” Kaios turned to signal someone over his shoulder. A woman with deep red hair stepped out of her hiding spot. She raised her arms, and whispered words Leia couldn’t catch. The clouds cleared in an instant, returned to the blue skies of moments before.
Castor’s hand twitched in hers.
“What’s she doing?” she asked under her breath.
“Best guess is she’s a witch.”
The woman closed her eyes, her face a study of regret. Leia got the impression the woman would rather be anywhere than here right now. If the witch could control nature, could she keep Leia from using her own powers? Being located near a large body of water hadn’t been coincidence. Closing her eyes, so Kaios couldn’t see them glow, she reached for her powers, and slammed into a mental wall. Her eyes flew open.
“I’m sorry,” the woman mouthed at her, misery pinching her face.
The woods were eerily quiet—no bird chirped, no animals scurried through the underbrush. They’d all gone into hiding. Were her fellow nymphs equally disabled?
“Your brothers and sisters will be no use to you now, Lyleia.”
There was her answer, but Leia wasn’t worried. Yet.
“Why don’t we make this fight a tad more even, first,” Marrok’s voice boomed from behind her. Together, he and Tala stepped out of the line of woods behind her, along with their own contingent of werewolves—at least fifty.
Kaios’s smug smile fell. “You’d fight one of your elders?”
“We’ll kill you if we get the chance,” Tala snarled.
At an unseen signal, both sides of werewolves burst into a dead run, straight at each other. Before her eyes, both Tala and Marrok shifted, the action immediate, rending their clothes and accompanied by their twin yelps of agony as their bones realigned. In seconds, chaos reigned all around them.
Cas grabbed her and slung her onto his back. “Hold on tight.”
Before she could even squeak a protest, he took off. The glen, then the forest, blurred around her as his phenomenal speed took them down to the pond. He deposited her at the edge of the water.
She tugged on his hand. “You have to knock the witch unconscious.”
He leaned down to plant a quick, hard kiss on her lips. “I know.”
And he was gone.
“We can’t use our powers.”
Leia spun around to find Calliadne and ten other Naiad sisters standing hip-deep in the pool behind her. “There’s a witch.”
Calli scowled. “I swear the Mages are asking for a war.”
“I suspect this one is being forced to cooperate with Kaios against her will.”
“You always were a smart girl.” Kaios stood at the edge of the trees, not ten feet from her. He must’ve guessed where Cas had taken her and followed.
Sounds of the violent battle above them echoed off the peaks of the mountains all around—snarls and growls, yelps of pain and howls of rage. She tried to sense the water, pull it under her control, but nothing happened. Cas had to find that witch. Soon.
She kicked off her flip flops, her feet squelching into the mud as she stepped back. The water lapped at her ankles, then her knees, plastering her jeans to her legs.
He paced at the edge of the trees, not coming nearer the pond. “One night together. Was that too much to ask?”
Was he seriously still thinking about the night they’d met at a werewolf mating ceremony? The man was obsessed.
He continued his pacing. “Then you go and ruin my perfectly good plan to keep Tala and Marrok from gaining too much power. But after your little display of nature, all the werewolves think those two are blessed.”
“Killing me won’t help. Even if you win today, you’ll be hunted down by the wolves. They may have tolerated you, but the entire community of nymphs and the Banes and Canis packs of werewolves, and all their allies, are all going to want your blood after this.”
“I’ve been alive much longer than you, little girl. Feuds pass, anger fades. I’m still here.”
Is this what time did to a person so obviously and utterly alone? The werewolf was clearly not playing with a full deck.
The tips of her fingers tingled with an achingly familiar sensation. Castor must’ve been successful. Expression carefully neutral, she backed further into the water, closer to her sisters. They had to time this right. They’d tried to drown him before and failed.
Leia gathered her power inside her, secretly whispering her will to the water surrounding her, using it to whisper instructions to her sisters. They communicated better fully submerged, but even being up to her waist, as she was now, helped.
“Do you want to know why I rejected you?” She needed to distract him a bit longer.
Kaios turned a bored expression her way. “No. I want you to die.”
Without warning, he held up the gun she hadn’t seen in his hand, pointed it at her, and pulled the trigger.
A wall of water surged up in front of her and turned to solid ice in an instant. The bullet lodged in the block. She dropped
it into the pond with a splash. Before Kaios could react, she and her sisters worked together. They tossed a wave up around him, and tendrils of water lilies wrapped around his legs and arms.
They dragged him, kicking and screaming, into the water, pulling him to the center of the pond, where they forced him under. His scream turned into a gurgle of terror as his head submerged. They held him under until the thrashing stopped, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he stopped his struggles. To be sure he was dead, they kept him under even longer, until the water reeked with the taint of death.
Leia closed her eyes, waiting for relief or perhaps a sense of justice served. But she was numb.
“What do you want us to do with him?” Calli asked.
“I don’t care.” Leia trudged back out of the water, inexplicably exhausted. Kaios’s death, and her revenge, had been a long time coming. Most of the time, she’d doubted this time would ever arrive. Now that it had, other than knowing he couldn’t hurt anyone else, she just didn’t care.
She flopped down at the edge of the pond, her clothes once more dry as a bone. The fight up by the cabin must’ve wound down, because the sounds of the battle no longer rang through the trees.
“What will you do?” Calli asked.
Leia considered the last thing Cas had been saying to her when Kaios appeared.
“Find a new job.”
“What about Castor?”
Leia ran a hand over her face. “Do you think there’s a chance for a son of Zeus and a failed nymph?”
“I think love is worth trying for.”
“I’m not worthy of his love.”
Calli floated out of the water, her own diaphanous dress of white drifting in the breeze, also instantly dry. Her sister sat beside her and took her hand. “We weren’t worthy of your love. I should have been there for you. We should have supported you all these years. We’re family.”
Leia blinked away unwanted tears. “I always understood.”
“That doesn’t make it right.”
Calli wrapped her arms around Leia’s shoulders. “You are worthy, sweetie. The question is, is he worthy of you?”
Chapter Seventeen
“Lyleia, can you come in here, please?” Cas’s deep voice sounded on the intercom on her desk.
She frowned at the tone to his voice, one that didn’t seem quite right. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but he sounded almost…nervous. In over a year, she’d witnessed him in multiple types of situations, but not once had he ever appeared fearful. She didn’t like it. What had those gods been saying to him?
After the fight with Kaios, Castor had taken them both home to Austin. While he had once again insisted on sitting beside her, he’d been surprisingly quiet during the trip, and he hadn’t brought up their earlier conversation. For once, Leia’d had no clue what to say, so she hadn’t said anything either. Back home, he’d driven her to her apartment.
He hadn’t come in. “Do you trust me?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“I need to arrange something. After that I’d like us to have a talk, but it might take me a day or two to wrap up this other thing. Will you wait—don’t make any plans or run off again—until then?”
“We can’t talk now?”
He gazed at her with a strange urgency. “No. This other thing needs to happen first.”
She’d frowned, but agreed.
“Come into the office like normal tomorrow.”
Even weirder, but okay. He escorted her to her door, which had a fresh coat of paint and a gleaming new lock. She raised her eyebrows, and he shrugged. “I may have broken your door the day you left.”
He’d been that desperate? She shook her head, holding back a smile. “You and that Superman complex of yours.”
He chuckled, then leaned down and feathered a ghost of a kiss across her lips. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She’d watched, confused and lost, as he walked away, hands stuffed in his pockets, head bowed. Something was seriously wrong with Castor. Was he regretting those words to her in the glen? Their nights together? His kiss gave her a small amount of hope that regret wasn’t his issue. But if it wasn’t, what was?
Those questions had kept her up half the night. Her apartment, usually a place of comfort for her, had been more like a cage, and time her enemy as she waited for whatever came next.
Then this morning, she’d come into the office as requested, both eager to see him and dreading how he’d treat her. Cas was already there, the door closed between them. She resisted the temptation to barge in and demand what was up with him. He’d asked for her trust. So she’d gotten down to the usual routine, checking through a week’s worth of emails from her absence.
Around nine a.m., two gods she’d recognize anywhere had shown up in her office—Zeus and Poseidon.
The hairs stood up on the back of her neck as pure power pulsed through the room. Contrary to popular movies, they didn’t wear long robes and sport grey beards. Nymphs had a hard time resisting gods for a reason, and the power they exuded, a strong aphrodisiac by itself, wasn’t the only draw. Both appeared as young men, in their early thirties at most. Both had broad shoulders, trim hips, and likely sported six-packs under those immaculate suits. Both were devastatingly handsome, though Zeus was dark—black hair, deep brown eyes—where Poseidon was fair—blond hair and green eyes.
They did nothing for her.
Leia sent Poseidon a hate-filled glare, then moved her gaze to Zeus, head held high. “May I help you?”
“We have an appointment with my son,” Zeus said, his voice a rumbling roll of thunder. So that’s where Cas got his sexy, deep tones from.
“Come on in, Dad,” Castor called from his office.
The gods gave her a polite nod before entering Cas’s office, closing the door behind them. They’d been in there about an hour before Cas had called her in. Now, she smoothed the slim skirt of her deep red suit over hips and checked the V of the jacket, which showed just enough cleavage. She’d forgone a blouse underneath this morning when she’d dressed, determined to remind Cas what he was missing. With a soft click, she opened the door and the three men all standing together in front of Cas’s modern glass desk, turned to face her.
Cas’s expression gave nothing away. God, he looked amazing in her favorite black suit and maroon tie. With effort, she pulled her gaze away. Zeus appeared amused, if the quirk of his lips was anything to go by. Poseidon, she refused to look at. That was until he crossed the room to stand before her, surrounding her in a cloud of salty sea air.
“Kaios caused a lot of problems for you.”
She raised her eyebrows pointedly, and he held up his hands. “Granted, I was part of the situation. Now he’s dead, I would like to make amends.”
She crossed her arms. “Oh, really?”
His mouth tightened, but he didn’t say anything about her rudeness. Gods didn’t take sarcasm well most of the time. “Yes. His death negates my deal with him, an agreement bound by an unbreakable oath. Now I am no longer beholden by my word, and I can release your spring.”
Her arms dropped to her side even as her mouth dropped open. “What do you mean by release it?”
“You assumed it buried and gone, but it’s simply deep underground. I can raise it to the surface again.”
“You’re saying I can…” She swallowed. “I can go home?”
After almost fifteen hundred years without it, hope was no longer an emotion she attached to her life’s purpose as a nymph.
She glanced at Castor but encountered a stony expression. He was keeping his thoughts close. She pulled her gaze back to the god standing before her.
“Yes. Would you like that?”
She was tempted to roll her eyes at the fatherly tone to his voice and patronizing expression on his face. He thought he was doing her a favor. After all this time. Gods. They never changed.
She considered his question. Would she like that? Up until a year ago, she had been desperate for her
spring. But now…
Another glance at Castor told her nothing. I guess that tells me everything. She turned back to Poseidon, her gaze steady, which was more than she could say for her shaking hands. “Yes. I would like you to bring my spring back.”
He inclined his head. “Consider it done.” He paused expectantly.
“If you’re waiting for me to thank you, you’ll be waiting fifteen hundred years. That’s how long it’s taken you to put this right.”
His eyebrows drew low over his eyes, but she tipped her chin and stared him down. Eventually, he turned to Zeus. “I’ll wait for you by the elevators.”
That’s right, buster. Run away. She glared after his departing back before turning to Zeus. “I assume I have you to thank for this?”
He crossed the room and took her hands in his. “I may have suggested my brother consider this action.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. Thank my son.”
Her heart sank at the realization that Castor was trying to get rid of her. “I will.”
Zeus studied her, those sharp eyes taking in every nuance of her appearance. “I can see the appeal.”
Rather than worry she had yet another god on her tail, she could tell he meant it as an impartial observation. “Thank you.”
“You’ve been good for Castor. I thank you.”
She glanced between the two men with wide eyes. “All I’ve done is keep his business life organized.”
He shook his head. “You’ve done much more.”
“Father.” A warning note deepened Cas’s voice.
Leia didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing.
Zeus tipped his head. “After my brother releases your spring, you still have a choice, you know.”
“I know.” She did. She’d lived without her spring this long; she was fully aware what her options were.
He searched her eyes. What he found there must’ve pleased him because he gave a satisfied nod. Then he drew her forward and kissed both her cheeks. “Castor is not made of steel, though he’d like you to believe he is,” he murmured in her ear.
She wasn’t entirely sure where he was going with that comment, but she also knew the truth behind the words. “I know that, too.”
My Paranormal Valentine: A Paranormal Romance Box Set Page 90
