CHAPTER EIGHT
Ash woke up in a cold sweat as fragmented, displaced images shifted through his mind like a broken kaleidoscope. Sitting up naked in bed, he could hear desperate voices calling out to him with unspoken pleas...
And then he felt it. The cold, demanding hand on his bare shoulder that jerked his senses away from the nightmare.
"Come back to bed, Acheron."
Ash raked his hand through his long blond hair as he tried to center his attention on the loudest voice he'd heard. But it was lost now... drowned out by all the others until all the pleas were nothing but a dull roar that rang in his ears. "Something's happening."
Artemis made a sound of disgust deep in the back of her throat-a sound that was completely unbecoming for a goddess who had created an army supposedly to protect mankind from the Apollites and Daimons her twin brother had fashioned in his own image and then endowed with godlike powers. Then again, she'd immediately abandoned that army into Acheron's care and then used them to tie him to her forever.
"Something's always happening," she said in an aggravated tone. "When the cat's away, the rodents will scurry."
He let out an exasperated breath as he turned to look at her over his shoulder. She was lying back in bed, her body covered by the white, gossamer sheet that was softer than the most finely woven silk, and it left nothing of her body hidden from his gaze. Her red hair fanned out around her in perfection, but in spite of being a goddess, she was the furthest possible thing from perfection. "The mice will play, Artie."
She turned instantly huffy with him as she tried to pull him back into her arms. "Whatever."
Ignoring her, Ash got up and headed for the French doors that opened onto a golden veranda at his approach. He stepped through them to lean against the cold stone banister and stared out at the rainbow waterfall. It was truly beautiful here on Olympus and yet he cared nothing for it.
His thoughts were on the future that taunted him with scattered images that he couldn't bring into focus no matter how hard he tried.
Something was happening and it would affect those he was close to. He could feel it with every fiber of his being. Damn it.
"What are you up to, Stryker?" he asked in the faintest whisper, knowing there would be no answer from the other side.
Stryker had set something evil into motion. For thousands of years the Daimon lord had remained dormant. But something had happened four years ago to bring him back into the open. Now he was determined to hurt Ash any way he could.
Artemis moved to stand behind him. She placed one cold hand on his right shoulder while she nuzzled his left with her cheek before she nipped his skin with her teeth. "Come back to bed, love."
That was the last thing he wanted at the moment... well, honestly it was the last thing he wanted period. But long ago, he'd reconciled himself to the fact that he would never be free of the prison Artemis had damned him to.
Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and counted to ten before he spoke a plea that stuck deep in his craw. He'd never been one to beg for anything and yet she managed to degrade him to this every single time they were together. "Let me go, Artie. My men need me."
Her nails bit deep into his shoulder blade as her temper flared and singed him. "You promised me a week of service if I let that woman's soul go, although why you wanted the soul of a Shade, I'll never understand."
That's because she had no concept of compassion and she never would.
"And you can release me from my word." He turned his head to look down at her uncaring expression.
She raked her nails painfully down his spine, no doubt laying his flesh open in vicious welts. Welts that would close instantly if not for her using her powers to make sure they stayed fresh and painful. His face stoic, Ash stiffened as his back burned. He knew what had always gone unspoken between them. She hated the fact that she loved him, and for the whole of their relationship she'd punished him because, in her mind, she couldn't live without him. Even though he would really, really like her to try.
She wrapped her hand in his long, blond hair and gave a vicious yank.
Bored with her childish games, he sighed. "Are you through?"
She gave another jerk before she released him. "I should have you whipped for your insolence."
Why not? His back was still sore from her last beating-part of the price she forced him to pay for Danger's soul. She'd always been sadistic that way. The fact that he could take a beating without flinching had always turned her on. But then he'd been weaned on brutality. Reacting to it had only served to worsen his punishments, so he'd learned early in life to suck it up and move on.
"Whatever makes you happy, Artemis."
"Then come back to bed with me." She brushed her hair back from her neck. Her long, graceful hand stroked the only part of her body that held any appeal to him. "I'll let you feed if you do..."
He could feel his incisors growing at her invitation as his stomach rumbled with need. It'd been almost a month since he'd last eaten. That more than anything else was what had forced him to stay with her for a week. He had to eat from her soon or he'd turn into the very thing he hunted. "Don't tease me, Artemis. I'm too hungry for that."
She moved closer to him. So close that he could smell the blood that flowed through her icy veins. She nibbled the line of his jaw as she gently cupped him in her hand, and yet his body didn't stir in the least. "Give me what I want and I'll give you a small reprieve to check on them."
Ash clenched his teeth. He truly hated it whenever she bartered with him for sex. He'd rather be beaten. Again.
But then he was nothing if not her whore. For a semblance of affection, for the novelty of a gentle touch on his flesh, he'd sold himself to her eleven thousand years ago. No matter how much he hated it, no matter how much he hated her, he knew that he couldn't exist without her. Not if he wanted to maintain his compassion and live with his emotions under his control and not become an instrument for an even more selfish goddess.
He'd truly damned himself for something so trivial that he now wondered why it had seemed so important all those centuries ago. "I want your word that I can feed and then leave for twenty-four hours."
She licked her lips as she ran a hot gaze over his naked body. "Give me six orgasms within one hour and you can have ten. I swear it on the river Styx. "
Ash laughed softly at that. Even after all these centuries, she still underestimated his abilities. Six orgasms and a feeding. Good. He'd be done with her in less than fifteen minutes...
Susan sat, bathing Ravyn's hot brow as he whispered unintelligibly in his sleep. Otto had helped her clean up the earlier mess and now they were alone again while Ravyn drifted in and out of consciousness and she skimmed through more information in the handbook that Otto had also brought for her.
The Squires seemed to have an affinity for the monstrosity and were insistent that she learn every nuance of it, and she was anxious to learn absolutely everything. But she also didn't mind taking a break whenever Ravyn came to.
The hardest part though was whenever he was awake, he was either groping her or leading her hand to parts of his body that she really did want to explore-but not while he was this far gone. Something about it just wasn't right. Even so, she had to admit, he was scrumptious and while under the influence of the drug, he was also extremely affectionate. Very catlike.
He opened those deep, dark eyes to pin her with a lusting stare again. He pulled her hand from his brow so that he could nibble her fingertip, then the back of her knuckles. Each sweep of his tongue sent a razor-sharp spike of pleasure through her. This man knew his way around a woman's senses and how to elicit pleasure with the smallest move or stroke. It was what made pushing him away so difficult. That evil part in the back of her mind was dying to know what he'd be like naked in her arms.