Goddess in the Middle (5 page)

Adrenaline pumping, muscles straining, she lifted the sword as far as she could, only a couple of inches from the ground. It would have to be enough. She just hoped like hell she didn’t hit Rom or the wolf.

The tangle of bodies rolled again and the wolf lost its grip on the demon. The demon shoved at the wolf, raking its claws along its flank.

This time, Remy’s wolf wasn’t faking the injury. He struggled to maintain his feet but he couldn’t get his left back leg to move properly.

Still, the wolf went back at the demon, biting down on its arm and trying to drag it away from Rom. Which only caused Rom to cry out in pain, because the demon had its claws sunk in his side.

Seeing her opening, she pointed the sword at the demon’s back. Ignoring the fact that she was about to cause mortal injury to another living creature, something that went against every cell of her being, she stabbed the demon as hard as she could with the pointed end of the weapon.

The demon roared as it lashed out, grabbing the sword and trying to rip it from her hands. Stupidly, she held on and was tossed to the ground along with the sword.

The demon howled, the evil sound cutting through the night like a siren. Surely someone had heard that and would come to investigate.

Would they believe what their eyes were seeing? Maybe it wouldn’t matter.

“The sword. Lady, get me… the sword.”

Rom’s voice sounded strained and weak but he reached out to her with one hand. The other barely held the demon’s snapping jaws at bay.

As fast as she could, she got to her knees and crawled toward him, pulling the sword along with her. It seemed to have gained a hundred pounds since she’d first picked it up.

Remy’s wolf made another lunge for the demon, catching onto one of its legs with his teeth and holding on, even as the demon kicked and flailed.

A scream ripped from the demon’s throat as Rom grabbed the sword from her hand and maneuvered it until he got the point stuck into the demon’s side. Skewered, it thrashed as Rom forced the blade farther into its body.

With a grunt, Rom shoved the demon onto its back, keeping one hand firmly on its throat and the sword buried in its side.

Amity heard only the sound of her own breathing echoing in her ears as the demon weakened from blood loss until finally it lay still on the ground.

With a hard sigh, Rom rose to his feet.

As Rom stood over the creature, she turned toward the wolf, lying on its side and panting heavily. Though her healing skills worked best on humans, she could extend them to all living things.

Pushing to her feet, she stood for a second, just to make sure she wasn’t going to keel over. She crossed the distance to the wolf, who lay on the ground watching Rom with glazed eyes.

“Will you let me examine you?” She kept her voice low, not wanting to startle him. “You’re bleeding pretty badly. I can heal your wounds enough for you to shift, if you’d like.”

The wolf spared her a quick glance then huffed, shaking his head as he turned back to Rom.

Amity followed his gaze, just in time to see Rom lift the sword and swing it down. With a gasp, she closed her eyes just in time.

She couldn’t see what Rom had done. But she heard the sound of the blade as it cut through flesh.

Shaking with the aftereffects of fear and swallowing against the bile rising in her stomach, she drew in a deep breath.

“It had to be done, Lady. And it was our right to kill the demon.”

The air shifted around her and she opened her eyes to the sight of Rom’s broad chest directly in front of her. A tight, dark T-shirt stretched across the expanse, the fabric ripped in places.

Tilting her head back, she looked into his eyes.

She’d thought him handsome before. Tonight, he looked fearsome. His short, dark hair stood up in tufts, and dark scruff covered his jaws and chin, so very different from last night’s clean-shaven businessman. So masculine. She had the almost uncontrollable urge to cup that jaw in her hands and let his whiskers rasp against her skin. Between her breasts. On the insides of her thighs.

Her blood heated just looking at him. Even after the terror of the past few minutes, she couldn’t help but look at him and want to have that hard body pressed against hers on the soft sheets of a huge bed.

The sword made a heavy thump as it fell out of Rom’s hand and dropped to the ground next to him. He would’ve followed it down if she hadn’t grabbed him around the waist and held him up.

“Damn, I think I better sit down.” His voice sounded slurred and husky. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I’m stronger than I look.” And she was, though he must weigh almost a hundred pounds more than she did.

Glancing around, she spotted a park bench not too far from them and began to guide him to it.

The wolf whined, causing both of them to stop and turn back.

“We’re not going far, Remy,” she said. “Just to the bench.”

It took forever to get Rom to the bench. Closing her eyes, she ran her hands over his body, from his head to his shoulders and chest, down his stomach to his thighs and shins.

“You’re bleeding internally. I need to stop it now or you’ll die, Rom.”

The tear in his femoral artery wasn’t big but he was already starting to show signs of blood loss. Praying she had power to heal him after such a long day and the damage inflicted by the demon, she smiled at Rom, infusing it with as much confidence as she could.

“I want you to lie still, Rom. Close your eyes now. And let me work.”

As her power worked through touch, she let her hands settle onto his thigh.

Tinia’s teat, this wound was deep. The demon had cut into the muscle, all the way to the bone.

Healing Rom would drain her. She’d need help returning home afterward. She had to hope Rom and Remy would be able to get her there.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and let her power rise.

His pain hit her first. It always did. She gasped as she took it in, accepted it, although it made her nerve endings scream and her muscles tighten.

She kept her hands steady and let the power seep from her into Rom. It sought out the pieces of him that needed healing.

She replaced the chips of bone that the demon had broken off, not a difficult task but necessary. Then she tackled the muscle tears. That required a delicate hand. And though she was out of practice, she thought she did a respectable job. She was confident he would regain full use of them.

Moving on to the rips in his skin, she knit them back together, making sure she left no scars. She didn’t want him to have a constant physical reminder of this encounter.

She didn’t know how long it took. She only knew that when she opened her eyes, the sky was pitch black and she saw the flashing lights of a police car as it stopped at the top of the hill, less than a quarter of a mile from where they were.

“Oh, dear.”

The cold, wet swipe of a wolf’s tongue brought Rom back to full consciousness with a shudder.

“Damn it, Remy. What the hell?”

His cousin nudged him with his cold snout as he heard a woman’s heartfelt sigh.

“Oh, thank the Blessed Mother Goddess,” Amity said. “I was afraid the police were going to come down here and find you all bloody and unconscious and arrest me for assaulting you.”

Sitting up, Rom instinctively grabbed for Amity as she trembled on her knees next to him.

“Are you okay?” he demanded. “Were you hurt? Bitten? Are you bleeding?”

She shook her head though it seemed an effort. “No, but you nearly died. And Remy’s injured as well.” She nodded to the wolf sitting and panting beside him. “We need to get out of here before the police see us and decide to investigate.”

He’d nearly died? Is that why he felt like he could sleep for a week?

Didn’t matter. Right now, he needed to find the strength to get the three of them away from here before anyone noticed that they looked like survivors of a massacre.

Standing, he pulled Amity to her feet as he glanced around.

They’d gotten lucky so far. The clouds hid the moon and the museum had no guards at night. It’d just been dumb luck that they’d ended up in an area of the park that had some cover from bushes and trees.

He didn’t know how long it’d been since Amity—that wasn’t her real name, was it? The woman who’d introduced herself last night as Amity was really the Goddess Munthukh. How was that for a twist in their screwed-up tale?

Well, it wasn’t one he could spend any time thinking about right now. They needed to get back to the car.

Remy bled from several cuts on his body. Amity looked pale and disheveled and shaky. Rom looked down at himself. He looked like he’d just killed something and bathed in its blood.

Great
.

Remy’s wolf gave a low whine, his eyes vaguely dazed. No help there. But at least Remy was alive.

Focusing his attention on the goddess swaying in front of him, Rom reached for her, drawing her close to him and holding her tight. He couldn’t believe neither he nor Remy had recognized her last night. His only excuse was that, for the past several years, he and Remy had been single-minded in their pursuit of the demon now turning into a pile of ash a few feet away.

They’d had no time to attend the rituals still held at Uni’s Temple just across the Schuylkill River in center-city Reading.

But why hadn’t Amity told them last night? Surely, she’d known they were
lucani
, Etruscan wolf shifters.

“Rom,” Amity’s voice sounded even more weak. “We need to get out of here.”

Time for questions later. She was right. They needed to get moving.

He looked into his cousin’s eyes and relief at his cousin’s clear gaze flowed through him like a shot of fine whiskey.

Thank
the
Gods.

Shaking his head, Rom sank his fingers in the fur around the wolf’s neck. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Lady, may I carry you?”

“Last night it was Amity.” Her voice was barely a whisper and he heard a weakness in it that worried him.

“Yeah, well, last night, I didn’t know you were a goddess.”

“I can walk. Let’s just get out of here now. Remy has injuries as well. He needs to be healed.”

Fine. She didn’t want him to hold her. But she still needed his help to the car.

With his arm around her shoulders, Rom pointed her in the right direction. She didn’t fight him. He’d like to think she trusted him but it was probably because she was too tired. She felt delicate against his side. Too damn breakable.

If the demon had hurt her…

Well, it hadn’t. Though why a
tukhulkha
demon would be after a goddess, he didn’t have a clue. It didn’t make a damn bit of sense.

Remy whined and Rom’s gaze snapped down to his cousin. Clutching Amity, Rom drew in a deep breath and stared into Remy’s deep blue eyes, searching for reassurance that his cousin was okay. If anything happened to Remy…

The wolf huffed, shaking his head. Remy knew what Rom was thinking and he didn’t like it. Remy hated when Rom worried about him. Which just meant Remy was pissed off most of the time.

Shoving those thoughts away, Rom started walking, careful not to go too fast for Amity.

As they passed the demon’s remains, he noted they’d already shrunk into a pile of almost unrecognizable ash. When the sun hit it, the remains would disintegrate and blow away with a stiff breeze.

It seemed almost anticlimactic.

All this time, he and Remy had been chasing this demon. All these years spent tracking it and coming so close but always just a step behind.

They’d finally done what they’d set out to do almost twenty years ago: wiped the murdering scum who’d killed their families off the face of the earth.

And saved a goddess in the process. A beautiful goddess with sable brown hair and a lush body.

“Remy.”

His cousin had walked over to sniff at the remains, growling low in his throat then stomping on them with his paws, scattering them.

“Remy, we need to go.”

The wolf gave one final growl, glared at the pile of ashes, then lifted his hind leg and gave them one final indignity.

When Remy limped to his side, he looked up at Rom. In his cousin’s stormy blue eyes, Rom saw the fierce light of anger still raging.

He’d hoped once the demon was gone, Remy would lose that look.

Rom tried not to let disappointment rise. Hell, he probably still looked bloodthirsty too.

A good night’s sleep and they’d be able to get on with their lives.

Yeah, and what exactly does that mean?

Rom shook his head, trying not to think about that. But now that he had, he couldn’t contain it.

First
things
first.

Get Amity somewhere safe. Although now that the demon was dead, she wasn’t in any immediate danger.

They made it back to the car without being seen, though they were nearly caught by an early rising dog walker whose dog had to water every damn tree on the block.

And there were a lot of frickin’ trees.

Remy wanted to sneak up on the little mutt taking its own sweet time to round the corner and bite it in the ass. Rom sent him a wordless threat to stay put, which Remy reluctantly obeyed. Though Remy did give him a look that Rom knew was a mental middle finger.

He had Amity stand beside the front passenger door while he retrieved the key from the magnetic lock box hidden in the passenger-side front wheel well then opened the doors and got her settled in the front seat while Remy hopped into the back. With a sigh, she slumped into the seat and stared out the window.

Shit, she didn’t look good.

Closing the doors, he hurried around to the driver’s side and slid into the seat.

Behind him, Rom felt the pull of Remy’s
arus
against his own as Remy recalled his pelt. His cousin’s body began to contort in pleasurable pain as he retook his dominant human form.

Rom had to fight the urge to let his own wolf come to the surface as their blood connection kicked in. Since they’d been children, growing up together with their families in the forests of northern Pennsylvania, they’d had that connection.

It’s what had led to their parents’ deaths and driven them for the past twenty years.

And now that they’d killed the demon… What did they do with their lives?

“Rom, knock it off.”

Rom turned and found Remy staring at him with stormy eyes and a scowl on his scarred face. Grown men had been known to run the other way when Remy turned that look on them.

Rom glared back at his cousin. “Get dressed before someone sees you,
scassacazzo
. I don’t want to get stopped by the police with your dick wagging all over the place.”

Remy just raised one brow before he took his sweet time pulling on clothes as Rom buckled Amity into the seat. She seemed to have fallen asleep, which was fine by him.

Dressed, Remy moved forward so he could let his hand stroke along Amity’s disheveled hair.

Rom started the Jeep, wincing at the loud growl from the engine.
Vaffanculo
, he needed to get this thing tuned up so it didn’t make so damn much noise. Or maybe he’d finally buy a new car since they wouldn’t be battered and bloody so damn much now that they’d killed the demon.

“And there you go again, thinking too damn much.” Remy’s voice held just the right note of sarcasm to fire up Rom’s ire. Remy was the only one who could do that so fast.

Rom prided himself on being relatively calm, cool, and collected during most situations.

Even in a fight, he never let his emotions get the better of him. Remy had enough for both of them.

One of them needed to be thinking ahead to the aftermath. Remy often lost himself in the fight, in the heat of the battle.

Even in the thick of things, Rom was thinking ahead to how to dispose of the bodies.

“It’s a damn good thing one of us actually does think.” Rom deliberately poked at Remy to see what he’d do.

Remy surprised him. He only gave Rom the finger then returned his attention to Amity.

“Why the hell didn’t she tell us who she was?”

Rom put the Jeep in gear and pulled out onto the street, careful to keep to the speed limit as he drove away from the hospital and deeper into Wyomissing.

“No idea. Now I feel the vibe coming off her, like a low-level energy current. I didn’t feel that at all yesterday.”

On the off chance the demon hadn’t been alone, he turned left onto Reading Boulevard, meaning to wind through this sleepy little borough just long enough to make sure they weren’t being followed.

“Me either. Are we taking her back to her place or the house?”

“Ours. If there’s another demon looking for her, they’ll look there first.”

Remy sighed and ran a hand through his shoulder-length, light brown hair, making a mess of the already tangled strands.

“Shit. Do you think there is?”

Rom cut around the traffic circle on Wyomissing Boulevard then headed west, out of the borough.

“I don’t have a clue. We’ll take her back to the house and take care of her until she wakes. Hopefully she’s not injured.” He shook his head. “Who the hell would hire a
tukhulkha
demon to hunt down a deity?”

“Someone must’ve hired the thing because someone has to pull their strings.” Remy let his head fall back against the seat rest and breathed out a sigh.

Gritting his teeth against his increasing headache, Rom turned to take another look at Remy. With Remy’s eyes closed, Rom saw the teenager Remy had been the night their families had been ripped apart by the demon.

At the second he thought about them, Remy opened his eyes. “How bad’s your head?”

That damn psychic connection cut both ways. “Not that bad.”

“You must’ve had internal injuries. She was worried you were gonna die.”

Rom chose not to think about that as he drove the winding road to the home they’d rented in the wooded hills of Bern Township. It was far enough away from the city to avoid the radar of the thousand-or-so Etruscans who still lived in the city, and from the resident
lucani
pack in Rockland Township.

If the
lucani
knew they were here, the pack would’ve insisted they stay with them, would’ve wanted to know what brought them.

Rom hadn’t wanted anyone to interfere with their vengeance.

Not that he thought the
lucani
king would’ve denied them the right to kill the demon. But King Colerus, from what Rom knew of him, would’ve demanded they take backup.

And neither Remy nor Rom had wanted that. It was their kill and only theirs.

“I’m fine. How are you?”

Remy hesitated a split second too long. “I’m fine.”

“Bullshit. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

Remy could be a hardheaded
scassacazzo
when he wanted. Rom gave the Jeep a little more gas.

Silence ruled for the rest of the ride as Rom pushed every speed limit. He didn’t want to get pulled over, but every second that passed made his tension level rise and his headache worsen.

Behind him, Remy stared out the window, his mouth drawn into a straight line of pain.

When Rom finally pulled into the dirt lane leading to their small house, sweat coated Remy’s forehead and his skin had taken on the pallor of ashes.

“Son of a bitch.”

Tearing out of the car, Rom yanked open the back door and reached for Remy, just as his cousin’s eyes closed and he listed to the side.

Rom felt his chest contract in on his lungs as he carried Remy through the door and into the house. He didn’t bother to turn on the lights. They’d rearranged the meager furniture that came with the place seconds after the real estate agent had left, her memories of the time spent with them altered by one of Rom’s spells.

He had a straight shot from the front door to the bedroom at the back and he didn’t stop until he set Remy on the bed. He looked like shit and that scared Rom. Remy was his only family. If anything happened to him…

Amity would fix him. She’d fix Remy like she’d fixed him.

He raced back out to the car, flung open the door, and reached in for her. She roused as he curled his arms around her.

“What’s wrong? Where am I?”

“You’re safe, Lady.” He hurried back into the house. “Remy and I killed the demon. I was injured and you healed me, but then you passed out and now Remy’s unconscious.”

It took her a few seconds to process what he’d said, but he knew she’d understood him when she turned her head to look around the room.

She saw Remy and gasped, immediately struggling in his arms. “Put me down. I need to see to him.”

Which is exactly what Rom wanted. Instead, he hesitated. “Lady, you’re in no shape to help him.”

“He’s injured. He needs me.”

“And I want you to help him. But you’re gonna do yourself major harm if you try to heal him now.”

She hesitated for five long seconds. “Then I need you to have sex with me.”