Blood Stained Tranquility (23 page)

“Something like that. He’s a
Hyren
.”

Chapter 17

“A what?” Eve asked.

“You would consider him a werewolf. An animal shifter to be exact, but due to his genetics, his animal form is a wolf. Because of that, he can’t go more than a month or two without sex. His body actually
needs
it or he starts to lose control to his wolf side and becomes rabid. And a being with his power, rabid? Not a good thing.”

Eve heard him, but one thing kept repeating over and over in her head.

“A wolf?” It sort of made sense. He was the God of the Hunt, after all, so his being part animal wasn’t that surprising. But, really? Part wolf? “Why a wolf, specifically? You said something about genetics . . .”

“His father was one.”

“Is Ianythi a wolf, too, then?”

A slight hesitation, then, “No. Not exactly. Nythi is . . . something else.”

She’d get back to that one later. “Is anyone else I know a . . .
Hyren
?”

Zeniel nodded. “Cyake, Zex, and Keiros, as well as their brothers, Crius, Lucifer, and Hades.”

Her brain exploded. Blinking at him, she tried to clarify the mess in her head.

“So the triplets are werewolves, and they have three other brothers? And Crius is one of them . . . and
Lucifer
? As in the
Devil
?
Really?”

“They all have the same father. The triplets have one mom, and Crius and his brothers have another.”

She was so not touching that one right then. Maybe later she’d get details. The word
infidelity
banged around her noggin.

“Aren’t Lucifer and Hades the kings of all evil?”

“Watch who you say that in front of. As the oldest of those three, Crius claims that title for himself. And the story you’ve heard about those two isn’t one-hundred percent accurate.”

Well, duh
.

“I’m figuring that out. But back to you. My brain can’t handle the apparent overload of information that comes along with knowing our friends.”

The stare he gave her felt like a probe, going too deep. “Most humans don’t speak the way you do. Actually, most don’t
think
the way you do.”

Her skin shrank in on itself. A familiar, and totally unwelcome, blanket of awkwardness settled over her. An entire lifetime of being an outcast reared its head, leaving her with the uncomfortable, painful feeling of not being good enough.

“I’m weird. I know . . .”

“You’re fucking amazing,” he snapped.

Eve jumped in his arms, staring at him in surprise.

He shifted so he could peg her with a hard stare. “The fact that you aren’t like everyone else is one of the greatest things about you. The majority of humans spend their entire lives trying to be like each other, desperate to fit in. And for what? Most of them are, to steal a version of your term, epic failures. It takes bravery to be yourself.

“It goes against your entire brain’s basic programming to stand out from the crowd, and it’s painful. That’s another thing that you, my
R’ma
, have tons of. Bravery.” Yeah, right. If she had been half as brave as he believed her to be, she’d have had the guts to tell him how much he meant to her. How much she loved him. Then and there, when the emotion was suffocating her.

But, despite his claim, and despite the fact that she had no doubt he meant it, she was a pussy. So she settled for changing the subject.

“Please finish telling me.” Eve flattened her hand on one of his pecs, loving how he purposely flexed it just for her pleasure. “So, you knew the first Buddha, and you and Ianthen spent time as his followers. What was that like?”

He nodded. “He didn’t know I was a God. He thought I was just another man that had joined his early followers. I spent a decade traveling with him as his teachings started to spread. Ianthen stayed with us as well, although he had to break his vow of celibacy within the first two months. He did try to behave, and for a period he didn’t take as many lovers as he otherwise would have.

“After the first ten years, we had to leave. People were beginning to notice something was different about us . . . well, aside from our coloring, which was considered even more unique back then.”

With a stretch, he pulled her closer and leaned back on the pillows—one long, hard line of masculinity that she was suddenly very eager to have again. His nostrils flared, and considering they were both naked, she knew why. She could go for another round, but learning more about him consumed her. She wanted to know everything. Every detail. She had an idea of what he’d gone through as Mavrak. It was Zeniel that she barely knew.

“Tell me about it.”

He shrugged one big shoulder. She let go of his pectoral and latched onto his shoulder, instead. Smiling, he looked at her hand, then back at her face, looking absurdly pleased.

“Ianthen and I weren’t aging. So we had to leave, as I said. But I continued to watch the Buddha’s life from afar. I was grateful that he got to live to an old age, and that he accomplished as much as he did.”

It was kinda pathetic that the more he talked, the more she loved him. She couldn’t tell if it was learning about his past, or if it was that voice of his, or if it was simply watching the different expressions cross his face. But she was sick. Downright lovesick and getting worse every moment she held it in and didn’t tell him.

Whole, Eve. You want him whole. He needs to know while he’s whole.

She just hoped she could last until then.

“You couldn’t, you know, tell him in secret what you were?”

Looking up at the ceiling, he shook his head, then looked back at her. “No. It would have changed his entire belief system, and he needed to believe what he believed in order to teach what he thought.”

“How did you first meet him?”

“Nylicia actually pointed him out to me. Siddhartha made one of the largest sacrifices known to man. He gave up his kingdom, got up in the middle of the night, kissed his children and wife goodbye, and ran away to become practically a beggar. And I have a feeling Nylicia was involved in that decision.”

“His children must have been hurt that he left,” she said softly, drawing patterns on his shoulder.

“They were. And in that respect, I don’t understand what he did. But he also knew, deep down, that the best way to reach a higher state is to cut yourself so deep, open yourself so wide, that nothing is left. Sometimes, out of intense pain, a more intense understanding and purpose is born. He’s taught millions of humans, millennia after his death, to accept suffering as part of reality. And that by accepting it you learn to accept that pain is the touch point of all progress.”

Amazed that he understood that, she gave him a look that clearly said, “Come on, now.”

“Do you realize what that means when it comes to you?” When he tensed, she rushed on. “I’m just saying. What you were born as has led to what you are today. You are the male you are because of all that’s inside you. Oh, and you can thank
Mavrak
for that one, because he’s the one that helped me see that.”

He pinched her ass, then gave her cheek a light swat when she yelped. She bared her teeth at him. He licked his lips in return.

Her eyes locked onto those lips, and arousal began pumping through her system in painful waves.

Zen pulled her half on top of him, twining his legs with hers. His thigh slid against her pussy, as if it was made to be there and was coming back home. She choked on her next inhale. Rolling them, he slid her beneath him, making sure his thigh stayed between her legs.

Poised over her, he stared into her eyes—intense. Every time he gave her that stare, she felt way too much, too deep inside her, and she couldn’t properly explain what emotion she saw in his gaze. It reminded her of the look that Mavrak gave her while studying her, without the red and black eyes or the lines that marked him as a war demon.

“You are wiser than you should be considering your species and age. It makes me proud to be your
R’mann.
”

What the hell? Was he trying to make her cry? He ran his index finger down the side of her face, soothing her as if he knew.

“It kills me knowing the price you’ve paid for your understanding, though.”

Blushing, she looked away. “Nah. I’m not so wise.”

His tone playful, he said, “It’s the fucking truth, and if you even try to insinuate it’s not, you’re calling me a liar. Do I need to beat your ass for calling me a liar?”

Her shock knew no bounds. He’d remembered.

Did he even realize what that meant? She was so happy that she couldn’t even dredge up the necessary annoyance at his threat. Playing along, she scrunched her face up at him, when all she wanted to do was cry with relief.

He’d heard her. Even while Mavrak had been in control, he’d heard.

“Do I have to kick your ass for threatening me?”

He smiled down at her happily, the type of smile that gave her a glimpse of the kid he must have been once. And as disturbed as she apparently was, the moment she saw it, her body opened wide, aching to accept him.

Ready to give him a child right there.

“I like when you get all tough on me,” Zen said.

“Do you?” Oh yeah, she was definitely primed for sex. Her tone said it all. “Do you like it enough to do something about it?”

His lips lifted in a smile, and he breathed in deeply.

“I love your scent right now.” He leaned down so that his lips were against hers. “I definitely plan to do something about that situation you got going on there.” And he fed her one of those dominating kisses of his, pressing her into the bed and taking over every inch of her.

Sunlight hit her closed eyelids. Even in the deepness of sleep, her brain reacted enough to demand that she turn her head away. She did, but the action alone was enough to activate full awareness.

Fuck. Finding a way to extinguish the sun, the life forms dependent upon it be damned, seemed pretty fricking attractive just then.

She almost punched the bed in her frustration. Then she remembered how easy it was to break. Hell, she and Zen had broken it again the night before. They’d ended up back outside, because apparently, that was the only safe place around there for them to have sex.

Safe for the house anyway. Another tree had become collateral damage due to their fucking.

Poor trees.

Reminded of her mate, she raised her head off the pillow. The sun declared all-out war on her pupils, but she’d deal with that fucker later. First she had to find Zeniel, who was nowhere to be seen. Where did he go?

She flashed off the bed, grateful for her powers. Dragging herself to her feet was the last thing she wanted to do. The moment she touched down on the sleek, wood floor, she closed her eyes and extended her senses as far as she could.

She couldn’t feel him anywhere. But that could’ve been simply because she wasn’t that good at sensing things yet. She flashed to the door in the blink of an eye. Once there, she stopped, looking between the bed and the door, and judging the amount of distance she’d just traveled in less than a second.

Eve couldn’t help it. She gave a little fist pump.