Chapter Eleven

Aliana’s POV

Something woke me!

I couldn’t describe the feeling, but it felt like a cold breeze suddenly washed over me, turning me cold from the inside out. I tried to move, to see what was amiss--- but instantly regretted it!

Oh boy, did that god do a number on me!

My whole body was aching, the soreness a reminder of what had happened only hours before. My legs felt like lead, the lingering warmth there making heat curl low in my belly. My skin still tingled with the ghost of his touch, and my body still remembered the weight of him hovering over me as he thrust inside me over and over again. Then there was the fire he had started deep in my veins until I’d burned alive in his arms…

Without thinking, I reached out for him--- only to find him gone!

Once more, I felt that cold feeling wash over me; the cold sheets beside me felt like a betrayal. It didn’t make any sense! I didn’t love him--- hell, I’d barely known him for a freaking day! Yet, my chest ached with a sudden, startling devastation I hadn’t expected.

And then I felt utterly stupid!

Of course, he was gone! Just like any other human male, apparently this god – or whatever the heck that horned beast was with eyes of fire, lips that could kiss me into freaking damnation, and whose touch still lingered all over my body – would vanish like smoke when I woke up.

Shit!

Shit, shit, shit!

I pulled the sheets around me, curling them between my legs where my sore pussy still ached and throbbed from the massive pounding. Stupid me for thinking that he’d be different. For thinking this would be something I wouldn’t regret. For trusting the feelings he awoke in me so blindly. Clinging to the fabric, I pressed my face into it, wishing it would hide my shame and embarrassment.

My eyes stung.

And I hated myself for it...

That was when I heard it!

A crash – sharp and jarring! – splintered the silence. My head jerked up, and before I could think, I was sitting upright on the bed, ready to fight!

With a pillow – but what the fuck ever!

I was NOT about to go down without even trying to save myself!

Only--- there was nobody there!

I looked around, but like before, the room was shrouded in darkness, the only light coming from star-like glows in the wall, bathing the room in a dim starlight that was as warm and magical as a night. The only thing that broke that night was the light spilling from the bathroom.

Suddenly, the door light flickered, casting long, broken shadows across the walls...

My heart jumped!

“Who’s there?” I snapped, my voice cracked in the silence.

No answer…

Maybe---?

“Ani?” I called out carefully, all while praying that the beast had gone up to take a dump or something in the middle of the night--- or something! Because thinking back on all those mythical creatures I’d read about and the freaking dragon I’d met at the entrance, I didn’t want to join the long line of women who all met their maker skewered or mauled.

Still no answer!

So, what to do now?

All the horror movies I’d ever watched told me it was best not to investigate. Although those same horror movies also told me that even if I didn’t, I’d die in some other horrorific jump-scare type of way…

I’m screwed either way, I thought bitterly, clinging to the sheet that gracefully draped around my body. My legs trembled as I forced my body out of bed--- stifling a grunt of pain when my body decided to remember that I’d just been fucked within an inch of my life!

Perfect timing, body!

Gritting my teeth, I tiptoed toward the light anyway, dragging the sheet around me. I passed what looked like some kind of candlestick and grabbed it just in case. So now that I was armed with a sheet that seemed dead-set to be tangled around my feet no matter how I tried to secure it, and a candlestick I highly doubt would harm anything harder than wax, I kicked the door open with a warrior's scream.

Ready to fight!

But the sight before me had my heart sinking...

Lifeless on the floor was Dikaios, face down and eyes closed. The god who had torn men apart like paper, who had looked at bullets as if they were toys---! He was sprawled against the marble tiles, barely conscious.

“Shit!” I exclaimed, rushing to his side. I checked his breathing, and to my enormous relief, he was still alive. But his breaths were shallow and ragged. And when I touched him, his skin was unusually cold!

“What the hell happened to you?” I asked, my voice frantic and shaking. He didn’t reply, and maybe it was stupid of me to expect one.

The man was out cold!

I searched his body for clues, more or less expecting to find proof of some kind of struggle. Wounds, blood, anything to explain why he looked broken! But other than a fresh pair of pants, there was nothing! Nothing to explain his current state!

Nothing---!

I frowned, wondering if my eyes were deceiving me. If this was another trick of the light or--- I leaned closer, my fingers tracing the faint line until I realized what they were.

Letters!

His skin shimmered with black markings, curling and shifting across his back and arms like something alive. Ancient Greek letters, moving as though written by invisible hands in liquid night. They flickered, fading in and out so I could never catch a full sentence. But I could clearly make out two words. And they had my skin turning cold with fear...

ἐκδίκησις

αἷμα

Vengeance!

Blood...

My heart hammered against my ribs as I once more remembered...

Dikaios!

Justice...

But not the gentle kind. Not the kind you called for fairness or balance. It was the cry of the desperate! The scorn and furious...

The vengeful!

The word screamed when you wanted someone destroyed…

I shivered.

I couldn’t help it. I looked down at the man, unconscious and helpless, and my stomach twisted. Was he really the savior I had thought him to be? Or was he something else entirely?

A god of blood and vengeance, cloaked in shadows and fire.

A god who smiled at me like a lover even as he devoured souls...

Was I even safe with him? If he truly was a god like he said, I wasn’t safe with him by any means. The ancient gods had never been merciful. They were liars, manipulators. Selfish monsters who played with mortals like toys. If I were smart, I would run. Now, before he woke back up. Before I was pulled any deeper into this nightmare…

But go where?

I didn’t know how to get out of this realm, and even if I did, out there, Kodra was waiting. Still, just thinking about leaving had my chest aching, feeling hollow and cold. As if someone had reached inside me and sucked the heat out of my veins.

As if leaving him meant leaving my soul…

Which was so fucked up!

Nothing made sense, nothing---!

A sharp sound pulled me back. The horned beast groaned, low and guttural. His body convulsed, and his eyes cracked open, glowing faintly red before fluttering shut again.

“Ani! What the hell happened to you?” I called out, shaking his massive body, hoping to snap him out of his fluke. His response was another growl, the sound rough and strained. His hand jerked up, weak but insistent, pointing toward the massive bath.

“Have you lost your mind?!” I scolded him, not understanding why tears were pricking my eyes, and wished I could slap him upside the head. “You need a doctor, not a bath!”

His lips curled into the faintest, strangest smile. A hoarse chuckle rattled out of him, mocking even now. Then his body went slack in my arms…

“Shit! NO! ANI!” I shook him, panic flaring like white-hot pain in my chest. “You son of a bitch! Don’t pass out now! Come on!”

No response…

He had completely passed out!

Fear slammed into my chest, clutching around my throat until I could barely breathe. I opened my mouth to call for help--- but who the hell did I call? Nyla was a freaking dragon! She wouldn’t even be able to fit in here. And Corvus--- well, let’s just say I didn’t completely trust that bird! Not with those beady, knowing eyes…

I glanced over at the water, noticing for the first time that it looked bigger than before. It was more the size of a pool now, steam still curled lazily from the water, hot and fresh as though it had been drawn moments ago.

Shit!

I swallowed hard and hooked my arms under his, straining to drag him across the slick marble floor. He was impossibly heavy, his body solid as carved from stone. My muscles screamed, already sore and aching from before.

And now my arms were trembling as well!

“You’re completely impossible,” I muttered through clenched teeth, not understanding why tears were streaming down my face. “You save me, you kiss me, you ruin me for any other man out there! And now---!”

He couldn’t leave me!

Please!

I still needed him…

I needed him in my life. I didn’t understand why, but my heart – my soul – knew I needed him! Like I needed air to breathe, or blood in my veins...

Please!

Inch by inch, I managed to pull him closer to the bath. And with a scream of frustration, anger, and being pulled into this unknown world I didn’t understand, both of us tumbled forward into the steaming pool. The water closed around me, the silk sheet curled around my body, dragging me down. Glancing up, I saw Dikaios’s body over me…

All while I was being pulled into the darkness!