Bliss (2 page)

With her face in flames, Kassandra
took a step back. “Thanks for sharing that info.”

“She doesn’t mean anything by it, Ka
s. Look, we just wanted to help.” Melissa pushed Mr. Beefcake off her.

“Yeah, well
, thanks girls. I know. But, I’m calling it a night. Touch base with me tomorrow, okay? Take her home, Mike,” she added. Even though she wasn’t happy with Sarah at the moment, she didn’t want to see her fall flat on her face, either.

“That’s the plan
,” Mike said easily. “Come on, Sarah. It’s time to go before you really regret it.”

With a quick goodbye
, Kas fled the bar, happy for the long weekend ahead of her. The cool summer breeze caused her to pause. It signaled the end of one season and the beginning of the other. She could smell the salt from the harbor, a fact she rejoiced in daily. The small city of Halifax was home now. After years of wandering the continents with her military parents, it had finally been the Atlantic coast that lured and snagged her. Her parents found it hard to fathom why anyone would want to live in one place for eternity. But that was exactly what she wanted.

A career, home, white picket fence, a husband, and let’s not forget kids.
But kids meant first getting laid. That thought sobered her, until she realized that with advances in medical science she could get artificially inseminated. The idea did not appeal. “Yuck!” she said loudly, causing people to turn and stare at her.

O’Reilly’s Bar was a good three blocks from her cozy apartment. Staggering slightly as the effects of the alcohol made its way into her system, she realized something that had been eluding her all night. Finally, the strange etchings on the ancient book made sense. A smile lit
up her face. She had done it—decoded the symbols on the book she had found… and taken the liberty of sneaking home with her for the long weekend.

“Damn, those tequilas were good for something after all
.” Muttering to herself, she attempted to walk straighter and faster back to her apartment.

“Now, let’s see. I know it’s in here somewhere.” Kassandra shrugged off the backpack. Task completed, she delicately removed the precious cargo.

“Ahh, here it is.” Setting down the ancient book she slowly unwrapped it from the heavy brown paper she had cased around it. Upon first glance
, it looked like it had colorful pictograms written on it. Now she knew what they were. Mirror images of the ancient Sumerian symbols for the planets, the sun and the moon. In the middle of the book, surrounded by a circle, was another symbol, but it wasn’t Sumerian. It was the ancient Greek symbol for water and it was etched deeply into the cover. Tracing the etching with her finger, she was surprised when the paper cut her deeply, causing her to bleed all over the book.

“Aww, shit.”
She scrambled to find a tissue, or anything to stop the flow of blood before it ruined the book. Nothing was immediately available, so she ended up placing her finger in her mouth to suck on the cut. A warm sensation overtook her. Turning, she watched in amazement as the pages of the book opened of their own accord. Then a flash of bright yellow light filled her small apartment. When next she opened her eyes, she laughed.

“Finally I
’ve gone to oblivion and beyond.” She chuckled to herself as she gawked at the naked Greek Warrior standing in her living room. Then with a powerful thump, she fell to the floor and started to snore.

And why is my body not healing itself?
The only good thing he noted was that the ancient book was here, directly in front of the strange woman, who had gawked, laughed and then collapsed at his feet.

“Humans,” he muttered, grabbing the book. He ignored the searing pain from his wound and shook his head to clear his vision. It was still blurry. The sea dragon brand on his body burned his skin. Realizing he was
losing too much blood, he snatched a nearby pillow to stem the flow. Now, to find a way out of here.

Then h
e paused. He couldn’t just leave without making sure the woman was okay. He knelt awkwardly to examine her. She had a large bump on her forehead but otherwise it looked like she’d live. A small grin lit up his face when he realized she was snoring. The smell of alcohol and lavender perfume assaulted his sensitive nose. Even though his eyesight was no longer perfect, he couldn’t help but notice that the shirt she was wearing did nothing to hide her perfectly round breasts. Long, wavy brown hair spilled out around her.

Deciding she would probably be better off in her own bed
—and unable to resist the urge to touch her—he scooped her up off the cold floor. He tensed when her arms automatically encircled his neck. And he cursed silently at himself when his heart accelerated with pleasure as she snuggled her face into his chest.

“Umm...you smell yummy...a bit
salty...but yummy all the same.” The woman slurred her words as she snuggled closer to his body.

Get a grip, Darius!
He shook his head as he fought the urge to lean down and kiss the woman who was cuddling into his body like a sea lion. Looking down, he noticed she had long, dark eyelashes, and full, sensual lips. But by far her best feature was her long, pale neck. A neck that begged to be kissed, bitten and licked. Groaning, he headed into the opposite room hoping it was her bedroom. Dumping her not-so-gracefully on the double bed, he left the room, hating his body for betraying him. He was rock hard for a woman he didn’t even know. A woman who was unconscious. A woman that Darius knew was drunk to the world.

Discarding the pillow, he grabbed a bathroom towel to hold against his bleeding stomach as he took another look at the woman sprawled on the bed. He was sorely t
empted to leave her like that—uncovered. Instead, he did the honorable thing. Grabbing what had to be the ugliest yellow knitted blanket he’d ever seen at the foot of the bed, he spread it over her. Remembering she had bumped her head, he grimaced, knowing full well he couldn’t leave her like that, either, as the nasty bump swelled to egg proportions. Before he could stop himself, his lips were lightly brushing the swell on her forehead as he willed the bruise to heal.

Great, my healing powers work on her but not on me. That just makes my day.
His hand absentmindedly moved a strand of her hair from her forehead. His eyes couldn’t help but notice her bare skin, as the purple shirt slipped lower revealing lush, milky white breasts that caused his breath to hitch. Inhaling deeply, he breathed in her womanly flowery scent. Long legs clad in tight blue jeans bucked under the blanket, while his own throbbing arousal answered her call.

Cursing and groaning at once
, he dipped his head lower. His tongue licked at her neck while his hands inched out to feel her silky skin. A smile of satisfaction lit up his face when her nipples peaked immediately to attention. A small moan escaped her lips and he stilled. Shaking his head, he backed away from her inviting form.

What by Zeus am I doing?
He ran a shaky hand through his hair, willing sanity to return to him immediately. Eyeing the bathroom door, he wondered if a cold shower would do the trick as he eyed his rock-hard state. Another moan of protest escaped the woman’s lush lips as she turned onto her belly, giving him a remarkable view of her round ass. His hands burned to imprint themselves on her perfect cheeks.
Wishful thinking.
The woman had a figure that a goddess would envy.

Turning quickly from her, he grasped his own erection to force himself to leave the room.
Definitely a cold shower.
Realizing his naked state wouldn’t go unnoticed as a human, he searched her hall closet until he found a brown trench coat. Wrapping it around himself, he belted the coat, all the while grinding his teeth in frustration. He vowed to find out what had happened. Grabbing the book, he stepped out of the woman’s apartment and proceeded to walk down the stairs.

Halfway down the stairs
, pain caused him to double over. Shaking his head, he straightened and looked about, trying to figure out what had almost caused him to fall to his knees. A prince of the Royal House, Darius wasn’t any ordinary Titan. Belonging to the Spawn of Oceanus—the first Titan clan to rule the waters outside the Pillars of Hercules—his body had centuries of warrior training and was well equipped to deal with most things. Pain that came out of nowhere, especially pain which almost knocked him off his feet, was unsettling to say the least. And a pain that robbed him of breath was unheard of. Three more steps and he felt his breathing become even more ragged as he gasped for air like a fish out of water.

What by Hades is going on here?
Cursing at his own limitations and weakness, he felt the hairs on his body tingle to stand on end. His nostrils flared when a familiar scent caused him to madly look around.

“I know you’re here
, Rylan. Show yourself!” Forced to grab the banister to stop from tumbling down the rest of the stairs, he growled in frustration.

“Now before you get mad, I mean really mad, just remember I was trying to help,” came the scratchy, pubescent sound of Rylan’s voice, as he materialized four steps in front of Darius.

“Just what by...” Darius paused. Cursing in Zeus’ name probably wouldn’t earn him any points from the god’s nephew. “Spit it out. What have you done now? And what the hell happened to you? You aged at least ten years.” He pulled his weary body up to stand to his full six and a half feet.

“
Why thank you. I’d age more if Zeus would let me, but he’s sort of mad at me for the moment. And, before you scream at me...just remember, I was trying to help save you from that sea monster. I mean, how was I to know this would happen? Really, someone should put those little itty bitty clauses written in that tiny, miniscule writing much larger. I mean, if I had read that first, I wouldn’t have chosen that particular spell. Really, when I look back on things I probably should have read it more thoroughly, but time seemed to be of the essence,” babbled Rylan as he moved back and forth and up and down the stairs. His constant movement caused Darius to feel queasy.

More than anything,
he wanted to grab the kid by the scruff of the neck and deck him. Anything to shut up his useless prattle. But that wouldn’t help his case in the least. Forcing his anger down, he motioned the kid forward with his finger and forced him to sit still before the constant bobbing around made him pass out. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re
… umm...bound to the book and the woman upstairs...and umm...I don’t know how to fix it. I mean, I’m sure I will. It’s just a matter of time. But for now, I honestly don’t know. To be truthful, I didn’t even think the spell would work. One minute that sea monster had you in a headlock that was sucking the life out of you. And in the next instant...really, it was quite fascinating as your body dissolved into mist and got sucked right into the book. So, I grabbed the book and hid it. But then things got complicated.”

“Complicated
how?” groaned Darius, feeling the weight of the world settle upon him.

“I lost it. I mean
, I lost you. I mean, I lost the book
and
you, and it wasn’t until that woman upstairs...and I’m not even sure how she did it...I mean she must be really special...because there was this really hard riddle...”

“Stop! What are you saying?” Dread washed into ever
y cell of his body. Looking up at him with very blue, human-looking eyes, Darius couldn’t help but tremble as the full force of the semi-god’s words took meaning.

“I mean you can’t leave her...that woman upstairs...or the book...which is good because you were looking for the book, right? Well, anyway, if you leave
her or the book both of you will die. But this is better than having Aphrodite’s claws into you, right?”

An
echo of silence filled the stairwell, followed by Darius’ animalistic bellow of outrage.

Darius wanted to slug the kid
, then slowly and methodically beat the shit out of him. Those were the first thoughts resonating through his head… and probably radiating out of the cold fury in his eyes, because after that strained and very painful admission, Rylan vanished.

Alone and with his body cramping up in pain
, Darius cursed in the ancient tongues. He could have sworn he heard the Fates laughing in his head, which wasn’t a good sign. But the idea of having any weakness, and him being a Titan, a being worshipped by humans, caused another wave of anger to roll through him. As it was, he already harbored one secret. And, he’d be damned if he was going to let anyone know about that. He knew what that would entail – a pity party. Pity, a useless emotion. One he had no time for.

Groaning, he examined his options. Leave and die, which meant not returning the book. Go back upstairs to that woman’s apartment and then
…what?
Explain who I am...like that’s a possibility. Hell, she’d probably end up calling the police. And could I blame her? No, not really. What type of freak will she think I am?

A very naked one
, he realized, wishing humans weren’t so bound to their clothes. Not that he didn’t appreciate their clothing, but there were times, like right now, when having to wear clothing was a royal pain in the ass!

Decision
one was made for him. He certainly wasn’t going to let himself die. Marching back up to the apartment, he slammed the door and proceeded to find the woman’s phone. Looking down he noticed his bleeding had finally stopped, but he had a huge slice cut directly across his midsection. The rational part of him realized that if his own healing powers weren’t working on him, he’d have to resort to the old fashion system. Needle and thread.
How barbaric.

He was about to dial a number he knew by heart when
he realized he had no idea how long he’d been trapped in that book. Was it just a few days, weeks, months, a decade? He searched for anything with a date on it. Finding none of the usual human paraphernalia, like TV, radio or even a blasted newspaper, he ended up rifling through the woman’s writing desk. He found a simple postcard with a picture of a sandy beach from tropical Bermuda with a man wearing a snorkel and mask. The postcard said, “Wishing you were here with me.” Probably the woman’s boyfriend, Darius thought. A quick glance at the top, where it was stamped and dated caused him to reel - October 14, 2013.

I was locked up in that blasted book for a decade. Ten long years. What
by Hades had transpired while I’ve been gone?

Ten years ago he’d been on a crusade of sorts to find and keep safe all the writings pertaining to their undersea world. And
a decade ago he was sure he’d have found a clue in those writings on how to stop the deadly plague that was raging like a tsunami through his kingdom, killing his
mardom
, his family and friends. No royal blood Titan and Siren born within the last four hundred years was safe from it. If you caught the disease as a freshling, you died. It was that simple. The unimaginable was happening to his race—they were on the verge of extinction.

The fact his twi
n, Seth, had found his Sokhan—his true soulmate—and married another royal blood Siren and now had a son, Reece, his first nephew, had made the race against time even more poignant. Now a decade had passed and a new sense of dread engulfed his senses.
What if? No! I’m not even going to think that.
Stubbornly, he refused to think that the worst could have befallen his family.

Grabbing the phone he punched in the number
, hoping against hope that someone would answer it. By the tenth ring he hung up. Not even a welcoming answering machine. He cursed. The rational part of his brain reasoned that the phone had still been working, which meant someone was taking care of his safe house.

After all
, he’d set-up his house for all types of emergencies. And this definitely counted as an emergency. His instructions had been clear. If something happened to him another Titan, chosen by Seth, was to take over watching the property. Who that was, Darius couldn’t even begin to speculate. He hoped it was someone with the good sense not to redecorate his house. Now more than anything he wanted to rapture into Titan form and go home. Find out what had happened while he’d been cursed into that blasted book and then get on with his life. Then it would be payback time for Rylan, he mused, cursing the day he had met Zeus’s half-human nephew.