Bedeviled (20 page)

Chapter Thirty

R
yker led Kyana onto the wide deck at the back of his house where the sea breeze caressed her face, lifting her hair and blowing it about wildly. Thank Zeus the waters Below hadn't been affected yet by the trident's disappearance. Here, the smell was still fresh and salty.

She eased onto a bed-sized swing on the farthest side of the deck, testing her weight with a slight bounce, then swung her legs up and lay down on her side, propping herself onto her elbow so she could watch him prepare dinner.

“I think I'm beginning to see why you like the beach so much. This is kind of nice.”

He grinned and lifted the hood of a stainless steel grill parked on the other side of the deck. It was such a human appliance; seeing it here in a magical realm, being used by a god, was surreal.

“The sea is the most unforgiving place in the world,” he said. “If you don't handle it just right, you die.”

“And you like a good challenge?”

He eyed her, and she had her answer. If he didn't like a good challenge, he would have given up on
her
a long time ago.

She sat up and walked over to the railing to stare out at the sea. “We're not as different as you'd like to believe, I think.”

“You mean as
you'd
like to believe. I've always seen the common ground between us.”

“And what's that?”

“Pretty much everything. You just haven't figured that out yet.” He turned back to the grill. There was a click, and then the scent and low hum of propane igniting as he pulled a tray of kabobs from the tiny fridge under the sink.

She liked the way the wind caught beneath his shirt and puffed it out, occasionally revealing a strip of belly or back. The hiss of meat hitting heat produced a cloud of the best-smelling smoke Kyana had ever caught whiff of. He was dropping small beads of ambrosia onto each piece of chicken, steak, tomato, pepper, and onion. The pink liquid instantly disappeared inside each morsel, absorbed and ready to do its work.

“I can't believe they're letting you stay away from Olympus for so long.” Technically, even Kyana was supposed to have returned hours ago. She was surprised no one was coming to drag her back.

“They'll deal. Besides, you caught Haven so the major danger has passed.”

The mention of Haven soured her stomach, and she quickly searched for a new topic. “Learn anything cool yet?”

He grinned, flashing his pearly whites and making her breath hitch. “Look up.”

She obeyed without question and watched as the dark blue sky lit up with a single lightning bolt that flashed directly overhead. The bolt zipped through a cloud, and she squinted to make sure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing.

“Is it . . . Is it
spelling your name
?”

“Pretty cool, huh?”

“Yeah,” she said. It reminded her of the flare gun she used to gain access into the fort Above. It was charged to spell the name of its user, so that if it was stolen, the culprit could not disguise his identity. “But not very useful, is it?”

“That? Nah, but the skill itself is. It's supposed to be used to call the other Olympians together at Zeus's temple.”

Kyana raised her brow. “They're not like, going to come racing here now, are they?”

“They would if we were on Olympus. But here, no. Only those Below can see it.”

She snickered. “Bet the humans on the beach are pretty freaked out right about now.”

“You didn't hear?” He lifted the lid again and turned the kabobs. Kyana's stomach growled and she all but drooled as the smell was released from its prison.

“Hear what?”

“The humans were taken Above this afternoon. Most are headed to military bases around the state, but some were sent out to start rebuilding. Construction workers, people with skills that are actually useful right now.”

Forgetting the pleasant aroma of dinner and the lighthearted intent of the evening, she felt her eyes practically bulge out of her head. “What? Why? Just because Haven is Below doesn't mean we've got all the Dark Breeds.”

How could the gods be so stupid? And since, technically, she was one of them now, why hadn't she been in on their decision?

“The people who'll be working the streets are going to be well guarded. There's at least one member of the Order guarding each group of humans. They have to start rebuilding their world sometime, Kyana, and we're never going to quarantine all Dark Breed. That's impossible.”

As soon as she opened her mouth to protest, Ryker popped a piece of chicken into it. She sputtered, the meat burning her tongue, but it took only a second before she began to chew and forgot what she'd been objecting to.

“Good?” he asked, grinning.

She nodded, swallowed, and went right back to her tirade. “We've got to come up with a better way to keep humans safe. Even if Cronos never comes back—”

“He won't.”

“Whatever. Like you said, Dark Breed have been causing trouble since the beginning of time.”

“I agree.” He pulled the kabobs off the grill and set them on a platter between the swing and the couch. They sat, each plucking a skewer from the plate, and began to munch while they talked. “Geoffrey and I are going to talk to the Ancients tomorrow. We think we might have an idea.”

“Oh?”

He shrugged, studying her as though to judge whether she'd be happy with what he was about to say. This made Kyana uneasy. She shifted, waited, chewed.

“We're considering a treaty.”

A piece of onion flew out of her mouth. “With Dark Breed?”

“If we can find a way for humans and Dark Breed to coexist, the Order can focus on more important things than tracing impudent shits like Leeches, who are, for the most part, completely harmless. Witches and Mystics can come out of the closet and practice in the open . . . Imagine the benefits of having them work with humans.”

Kyana couldn't even begin to wrap her brain around what he was suggesting. “Right, and what are the benefits of allowing Vampyre and Lychen to coexist with the animals they prey upon?”

“You know better than anyone that they don't have to be predators to survive.” Ryker chewed the last tomato on his skewer and grabbed another from the plate. “They can learn to find other ways to feed. Hell, most have been doing that anyway. The Lychen and Vamps who've lived Above all these years have been subsidizing their diets with animals and blood banks for centuries just like you have. They know if there's a rash of killings that we come hunting. They don't want that any more than we do.”

“So we stop hunting them altogether?”

Geoffrey, especially, should know better. He was, or had been, a full-blooded Vamp. Weaning him off humans had been even more difficult than weaning Kyana.

“Not altogether. Some will want to join the Order if given the chance. They'll be weaned under supervision, just as you were. Others will be given a choice—continue being hunted, or enjoy their lives by signing a treaty.”

“You expect those who've lived and hunted in the dark to follow our law just because they signed their name on a piece of paper?”

Ryker gave her a look that suggested she might possibly be a little bit stupid. “Whoever signs it will be blood-linked with a group of tracers. Those tracers will be able to find the ones who sign under them any time, any place. They'll know the minute they have broken the laws of the treaty, and they will be found and dealt with.”

Kyana's face must have shown her disbelief because Ryker's took on an expression of irritation. “We don't have all the kinks worked out yet. But at least our way, most Dark Breed will be unable to hide.”

“Kinda like human pedophiles,” she muttered. “That doesn't stop them from preying on children either.”

Ryker sighed. “This was supposed to be a relaxing evening.”

“Since when did you and Geoffrey become bosom buddies, anyway?” she grumbled.

“We're not. We just find ourselves in the same boat at the moment.”

“And Silas is in that boat too, I guess? What does he think about all this?”

“All he cares about is passing on Poseidon's power to the right Chosen and getting back to his meaningless life.” He tossed the empty skewer down and leaned back, folding his arms over his chest. “What were you thinking, sleeping with him? He's . . . Why would you . . .”

“What makes you think I slept with him?”

Ryker's scowl deepened. “He told me. Several times.”

“It was a long time ago.”

“Six months isn't
a long time ago
. When he could talk again, he told me you were the best he ever had.”

“What do you mean,
when he could talk again
?”

He shrugged and made his way over to her swing to drop beside her.

“You're jealous.”

“Shouldn't I be?”

Kyana reached up and cupped Ryker's jaw, forcing him to look at her. “If it helps,
he
isn't the best
I've
ever had. Judging by how you know your way around my body, I'm guessing you were no virgin before me either. Virgins aren't that good at screwing.”

That thought soured her mood. She'd never pictured Ryker screwing someone else, and she suddenly had the urge to do real violence to someone.

“Don't say that.” Ryker pulled her into him and she laid her head on his shoulder.

“Don't say what?”

“That I screwed you. I didn't screw you.”

She liked the way the words sounded on his lips. She liked the naughty little tingle they set off inside her. She rubbed his thigh and nuzzled his neck with her nose.

“Why not?”

“Because it cheapens whatever this is between us. I'm not Silas. I don't want to be—what did he call it?—I don't want to be a booty call.”

She rose onto her knees, sending the swing into motion, and straddled him, locking her gaze on his. “What exactly
do
you want, Ryker?”

He kissed her nose, her cheek, her lips before pulling away. “Whatever you're willing to give me tonight. Tomorrow, I'll want more.”

“And the day after that?” She slipped her shirt over her head and reached behind her back to unfasten her bra, loving the way his gaze dropped and his tongue flicked across his lips.

Her bare breasts in his face, he cupped one. “Hmm . . . what?”

“I said, what about the day after tomorrow? What will you want then?”

He tightened his arms around her back. “Everything, Ky. I'll want everything.”

Chapter Thirty-One

A
s the sun peeked out of the orangey sky outside Ryker's bedroom on the morning of Haven's trial, Kyana strolled naked to the window and watched it rise. He came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her hips as he pressed his groin against the small of her back. He was ready again, and as much as she wanted to turn around and wrap her legs around him, she couldn't. Now that Haven's cleansing had been going on for nearly two full days, her trial could take place at any moment.

Kyana had spent more than a day wrapped up with Ryker in his bed, trying to stop thinking about what was to come and desperate not to go crazy in the meantime. But the time for play was over. Reality had stepped back up to take its place in her world, and she was going to greet it with the biggest damned sword she could find.

“Can I borrow your shower?” she asked, turning in his arms to offer a kiss to his stubbled chin.

“So long as you don't mind company.”

“We don't have time for that.” She nudged him gently away, but the image of Ryker slippery with soap and water made her naughty regions ache. “I'd never have guessed you would be so insatiable.”

“Only for you.”

Though she'd never admit it, she liked the way he looked at her at times like this. As if she was the center of his universe—the princess he was meant to save from the dragon. She didn't often enjoy being a damsel in distress for any knight, but she'd be lying if she said she didn't wish, for one moment, that it was as easy and simple as a fairy tale.

“I know you're preoccupied with what's going on with Haven, but don't get so lost in it that you forget other crucial matters. Like tonight.”

“What's tonight? National orgasm festival?” she teased, knowing precisely what he was referring to but not wanting to go there.

Ryker wouldn't take a hint if she'd wrapped it in a bow and covered it with naked Nymphs.

He took her face in his hands, his expression serious and solemn. “You're going to have to go to Artemis soon. She's going to need to prepare you for what's coming at sunset.”

She blinked. “Prepare me? We've already completed the ceremony. I thought it was just a waiting game now for my old powers to die out completely and hers to take over.”

The sympathy shining in his eyes conjured a big cloud of dread over her head.

“It is, but Artemis can help ease the transformation like Hades and Poseidon did for Geoff and Silas. Like Zeus will for me when my seven days are up. You saw what Silas went through before Poseidon arrived to assist with his change. I don't want you to go through that too.”

Damned right, she'd seen what Silas had gone through. The convulsions that had overtaken him, the eerie stillness that had passed as though he'd died for an instant before Poseidon's blood had revived him. She'd been hoping that experience was solely for Vessels, not Chosen.

She swallowed and worked her way out of his arms to head to the shower. She didn't want Ryker to see the fear she knew was in her eyes. She wasn't afraid of pain or of becoming a goddess. She was afraid of losing the powers she'd known for two hundred years. Afraid of changing and becoming someone else. A stranger.

“You okay?”

She paused at the bathroom door and without looking back, said, “I will be. I always am.”

G
eoffrey stood outside Haven's cell and watched her dark silhouette rock with frantic motion in the corner. He didn't trust her. Not by a long shot. But by the gods, when the sentinels told him she was begging to see him again, he hadn't been able to stay away. He'd come to her just after she'd been brought in, and she hadn't seemed to recognize him. It had broken his heart, devastated him to see her like that. The chance to see her normal just one more time before her trial had brought him back here now.

No matter what Haven had become, he couldn't simply stop caring for her just because her fate had taken a wonky course.

“Geoffrey?” Her voice seared through the last of his defenses, and he took another tentative step forward.

“Lass,” he heard himself say. “What have you done to yourself?”

Her shadow shifted, grew larger as it crawled toward the invisible barrier separating them. Then he was looking down into green eyes that had once been blue, but had now mingled with the yellow that came from the Dark Breed inside her. “You came.”

The way she drew out the word
came
sent a chill over his arms. There was a serpentine quality to the way she spoke, as though she still hadn't become accustomed to maneuvering her tongue around her new fangs.

“What do you want, lass?” He knelt, staring at her through the sporadic blue flashes of energy that held her prisoner. “What can I do to fix you?”

He could do nothing, he knew, but damn, he wished he could.

She dug her nails into the earthy wall and clawed her way to her feet, swaying a little as she faced him. “They purged me, Geoff. I'm going to be better soon. I feel it already.”

The hope in her voice tightened his chest. Kyana hadn't been fighting all this time for nothing. Perhaps all hope for Haven wasn't lost . . .

“Sit with me, Geoff. Please?” She fell to her knees in a heap and began to sob, peering up at him through filthy hair and dirt-smudged skin. “Hold me until they come for me. I'm too frightened to be alone.”

“I can't do that, love. The purging is too fresh. You're still a risk—”

“Please, Geoff. His voice. I hear it . . . everywhere.”

He froze in his intent for retreat. If he turned his back on her now, he'd be the worst sort of asshole. Just because she'd been purged of Cronos's possession didn't mean he couldn't find another way to make her crazy.

“You have a key,” she whispered. “All the gods do. You could open the cell to come in and lock it again. I wouldn't be a danger . . . I just want to be held.”

He didn't turn around. He couldn't. If he looked at her now, he'd weaken.

“I'm so scared, Geoffrey.”

“Blimey.” He pressed his palm to the wall and squeezed his eyes closed. “Haven, love, you're killing me. I can't open that gate. You're too—”

“All right,” she whispered. “It's okay. I . . . understand.”

His heart in his throat, Geoffrey closed his eyes to block out the image of the pain in hers. “I'm sorry—”

“You look different,” she said, her voice hiccupping. “Still beautiful, but different.”

She lifted a hand as though to touch him, but as it neared the barrier, she withdrew it. “There's silver in your hair. Just above your ears. A trait of Hades? I never met him, you know.”

“Haven—”

“It's okay, Geoff,” she repeated. “I just didn't want to be alone. But I'm a big girl. I'll be fine.”

He truly was a damned idjit. He was actually considering ways of going to her safely. He was a god now. Above such things as love when duty was supposed to reign over everything. But turning his back on Haven at this moment felt wrong. If he walked away and didn't offer her whatever comfort he could before her trial and possible execution, he'd never forgive himself for abandoning her.

“Guard!” he bellowed, slipping the five-pointed key from his robe.

A sentinel appeared, and Geoff handed him the key. “I don't want this back until I've exited and the gate's been locked again. Understand?”

The sentinel gave a nervous glance at Haven and nodded.

“Open the gate and lock me inside.”

“My lord—”

He cut off the sentinel's protest with a sharp, reprimanding glare. “Do it.”

And with obvious reluctance, the sentinel obeyed and Geoffrey stepped inside.