"What happened?" Ink was talking to the notebook open on his worktable.Tapping the pen against his teeth, he examined the sketch he'd done of the Marking he'd put on the no-fur who called himself Spitfire. The stories from his service were disconcerting. Some no-furs enjoyed the ritual. It was designed to bring pleasure with the inevitable pain. But, if the stories he'd heard from the Hares were true, Spitfire had reveled in it. The Hare who had led the ritual, Nickel, refused to talk to him. But the others were more than happy to gossip about how the no-fur had challenged and insulted Nickel.In another situation, Ink would have loved the gossip and material to harass the stoic Hare. But Nickel hadn't been seen on deck since the ritual. Priest had excused him from his duties for an entire day. How bad had the ritual gone? Because it wasn't just Nickel hiding that had Ink going over his work.Priest had stopped the ritual after the first stage. There was a second stage to it that all
There was a certain comfort in the muffled sounds coming from the ship as Agent lay in the narrow bunk and tried to pretend he wasn't sulking. Because gods didn't sulk. They didn't have these complicated and quite frankly ugly emotions.He had come to the space Captain Priest kept for him so he could sleep and recover his strength. But dreams of King had chased him out of sleep and left him in misery. His mortal body ached, but because of his stupid choice to throw himself into the cycle of reincarnation, Tricksy couldn't leave it. He was trapped as Agent, for the time being.The only answer that existed for his current predicament was to defeat the Orangelo and get his full powers of Chaos back. Once he had possession of his full god powers, then Tricksy could manipulate the mortal shell to accommodate the modifications he'd made to it. Once that was done, he could reclaim his lover from the Fates."King," Agent moaned, rolling onto his side.How he ached for the touch this body had
"I thought I told you I..." Lexi was cut off as his breath was stolen from his lungs. His body reacted to Agent's words. He felt the change coming on a bit differently than normal. Almost like the auric magick was similar to Jinx's, but his body was allergic to it. "Stop. Whatever it is you are doing, something's wrong." Lexi tried to reason with Agent as one auric signature summoned another and Jinx's lingering aura joined in the battle with Lexi's own body to fight off Agent's Chaos powers. Ears were trying to shrink and grow back at the same time, arms were re-forming but entirely too short for a tom. And then the bones started breaking and resetting. "Really, please! I don't think it's working right! You can't just tell my body what to be. It is fighting you." The pain was growing so quickly Lexi was seeing white and black spots before his eyes. He felt everything go numb and then some of his parts were bubbling away with the invasive magic like he'd been dipped in acid. The en
In some ways, the ritual calmed the nameless no-fur currently occupying Doll's body and mind. Hearing about it in whispers and not being able to ask Spitfire about it, he had imagined something far worse to come from something referred to as the "draining".In truth, he'd been spoken to with understanding as the one called Ink marked him. It was odd and different than back where he came from. The Orangelo was cooing and soothing as he did his work. He made the small god feel like he had purpose and value. And when Ink showed him the finished Marks in a broken piece of mirror, the nameless no-fur had never felt more beautiful.Then he had drifted off into a blissful sleep and awoken feeling like he was floating in mid-air. Once he realized he hadbonds securinghim, he had no fear of crashing to the ground. The robed tom that was the high priest of the ritual didn't hide behind a hood like the others standing in the circle. Appropriately called Priest, the gra
There was a certain way Priest screamed his name that made Ink run. Instinct said he should be running in the opposite direction, but practicality made him ignore instinct. Something had gone wrong in the ritual because his name was being called from the room set aside specifically for the draining.Ink generally avoided that room, especially when it was in use. While he understood the necessity of the brutality of the ritual, Ink didn't want anything to do with it. Even making the Markings for Priest to use was more than he would have done in other circumstances. But Priest had appealed to his desire to be challenged and before he knew it, Ink was deep into this whole process. The challenge was good,but he was starting to reconsider sticking around much longer. He'd already stayed longerthan he had anywhere else since he left home in his youth.Rounding the final corner, Ink skidded to a stop, all of his thoughts crashing to a halt as he saw Priest carryin
On what had to be his hundredth prowl around the helicopter, Jinx stopped and swore.Where were the other two? Hades had gone off as their ambassador and then Guru had muttered something about needing to go find Hades. He'd taken off too and neither of them had come back. It was close to an hour since he'd seen either and Jinx was starting to worry. Despite his long friendship with Hades, he didn't have the kind of connection that his friend seemed to suddenly share with Guru.Not that Jinx was jealous of that. He really wasn't. But it was weird. Hades didn't get close to anyone. Even Jinx was kept at arm's length, despite their history together. That was fine. Jinx was much the same. It worked for them. Or he had thought it worked. So why was Hades suddenly snuggling with Guru? Purring at him to calm the big tom's nerves? Exchanging looks that Jinx struggled to understand.Hades couldn't be in love with Guru. Not when he was bonded and absolutely devoted to Doll. But then again, many
Being paralyzed had made Hades easy prey for his insane ex. It also made him an impossible burden to move from the field to the wagon where Sight lived. He was dragged, rolled, and finally carried the hundred yards or so to the wagon, where he was left leaning against one of the large wheels while Sight scrambled inside to prepare it for him. The entire time, Hades tried to find the weaknesses in the paralyzation spell. It seemed to be crafted specifically to catch hex magick users. Which made Hades worry about Sight's intentions with getting so good at this particular spell. Had it only been a matter of time before he was going to have to deal with this psycho? Before he knew it, Hades was pulled up the short ladder and dropped unceremoniously into an opening in the floor of the wagon. It was dark inside, but that made sense. A blind tom had no reason to light a candle or leave the door open for sunlight. Hades started digging really deep, trying to find the way he could break out o
Liam knew he had to keep his wits about him in a situation like this. Ambrosia might be willing to go along with everything now, but circus folk were legendary for their subterfuge. He had to remember this was different than dealing with a rival family's don.The codes of the mob had to recognize other families within their city, whereas circus folk didn't have a home city and their code came from a different place. They didn't worry about the politics of multiple families which meant they were more unpredictable and extra dangerous.Sure, Ambrosia might be on the up and up, but he had time powers and might be looking for where to put his throwing knives in each of their backs. Liam ran through his mind what kind of deal they could strike or how fast they could get some leverage if they needed it."Guru, you say? As in 'come on, you can give me just a little more today' ridiculously famous and gorgeous Northern tom, Guru?" Ambrosia tapped his foot. Liam noted the Hare seemed to do tha