The Morrigan: Damaged Deities (23 page)

“I’m not just anyone.”  She reached her arms over her head and stretched lazily, as though she had just awoken from a pleasant nap and not slaughtered him on the chessboard.

Feeling as though he smiled from the very center of his being, Kade knocked the board away, sending kings, queens, bishops and their ilk scattering and bouncing and grabbed her around the waist, yanking her against him. 

She yelped and laughed as he wrapped his arms around her waist and sunk back into the sofa cushions, tucking her to his side.

“Aye,” he answered softly at her ear, growing warmer when she snaked her arm around his chest and settled snugly into his shoulder. “Ye’re no’ just anyone, lass.”

Kade couldn’t stop smiling. 

Holding Morrie in his arms, her legs pulled up so that her gown spread out beneath her, their bodies pieced together perfectly.  It felt just…right.

He ran his hands up and down her side, warming her little body.

“Ye have a wonderful way o’ making a man forget his troubles, lass.”

“That was my full intention.” Her fingers trailed across his forearm.

His grin grew more crooked. “Ye can’t…pet me.”

“Yes, I can.” She smiled.

“Okay, ye can, but ye shouldn’t.”

“I should.” She looked up at him, one eyebrow arched.

“Okay, fine.” 

Kade sighed deeply and pressed his cheek against the top of her head.  He closed his eyes, falling into a well of contentment and happiness and possibly something much, much more.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY

“You’ll find no one there to measure against him—for youth and vigour, for apparel, horror or eloquence; for splendor, fame or form; for voice or strength or sternness; for cleverness, courage or blows in battle; for fire or fury, victory, doom or turmoil; for stalking, scheming or slaughter in the hunt; for swiftness, alertness or wildness; and no one with the battle-feat—none like Cuchulainn.”

Táin Bó Cúailnge

Lightning struck the last tree standing on the battlefield, ripping from it what remained of its twisted and charred branches in an explosion of splinters and sparks.  The sky had been flayed by the gods of light, the perfect cover for the bloody battle that came to an end on the earth below. 

Morrigan’s sword dripped. 

Bodies lay split and rendered at her feet.  Adrenaline coursed through her body, the force from which she drew her power, unlike any of the other gods. 

Those deities needed attention, they needed to be worshipped, but should the adulation ever fade, so, too, would they.  Humans would never stop worshipping war and Morrigan would continue to feed on that fury. 

Badb and Macha were elsewhere, likely stirring what remnants remained of the warlust and strife. 

The Tuatha De Danaan were victorious in this small initial battle and their hero strode across the dead, glory and a stormy sky at his back. 

Her lust raged like the thunderous clouds, her need only increased by the fight. 

Chulainn hadn’t touched her since their first kiss. 

Though he spoke often of what he would do to her body, his actions never followed his words. 

He was a warrior hardened by battle, bent on war and conquest and she was intrigued by him.  Needed him more because of it.

 She found his stoicism attractive.  No matter how infuriating and frustrating it could be. 

But now he had his sights set on her, she was his next battle.  His spoil. 

“I’m goin’ tae make ye come with just the tip,” Chulainn growled before grabbing her by the neck and bringing her mouth hard against his. 

In an instant he had her stripped naked, exposing her milky skin to the cold wind and light rain that started to fall.

She could use her magic to cloak them, she could spirit them away to somewhere private, but she wanted him to take her on the fields of glory.  She wanted to lay in the blood of the fallen. 

She would do nothing to disturb the moment she became his.

The sun burned through Morrie’s eyelids.  She blinked up at the blinding light, her mind still racing from last night’s events and the dreams that followed them.

After a surprisingly fun chess game, she had fallen asleep on the outdoor sofa with him. 
Slept
with him! 

She might as well have just fucked him.

Morrie glanced over her shoulder.  Kade still slept, his body cupping hers.

She couldn’t believe she’d been so weak.  With just his kiss she had abandoned her loyalty to Chulainn and now both men warred in her brain.  It wasn’t respectful to Chulainn and it wasn’t fair to Kade. 

Morrie had to get away.  She had to get out of this mortal mess she was in. 

With renewed determination, she knew she had to get back to the manor, to the loch, find the horse, and get the hell out of Scotland. 

Morrie eased her way off the sofa, her dress rustling softly.  She paused long enough to see if her movements had disturbed the man and when satisfied he still slumbered, she slipped away.

With cold and precise movements, Morrie dressed and packed her bag.  Checking one last time on Kade, she opened the door as quietly as she could and left.

It had been easy to convince the pilot to return her home without Kade.  No one at the manor questioned her when Morrie opened the front door. 

Danny and Lorna sat around the kitchen table hovering over mugs of tea and talking like thick thieves, but only returned her quick hello as she passed them on her way to the stairs. 

Once inside her room, Morrie shut the door, dropped her bag and sank down onto the bed, burying her face in her hands.

She felt foolish for running away, betraying her very nature.  And yet it was the only option she could think of while working through her feelings and doubts.

Surely Kade was awake by now and wondering where she went.  She hadn’t left a note or anything, but she felt he would figure out that she returned to the manor. 

Would he follow her or would he let her go? 

She didn’t know and would be on edge for the next few hours, waiting.

When the Eagles blared their witchy ruminations, Morrie jumped. 

She looked wildly around the room, only then realizing she had left her phone behind. 

Yanking the bedside table drawer open, it clattered to the floor.  Her phone tumbled out and slid across the hardwood.  Morrie took a deep, calming breath.

Kneeling on the floor, she picked up her phone and answered it.

“Hello?”

“Where the fuck have you been?” Bev cried on the other line, but gave her no time to answer before she continued with expletives and hyperboles. “I’ve been calling you nonstop for the last two fucking days.  You go off to Scotland, doing gods know what with whom, probably all keeping to your code of mortality which means your little ass could get hurt and then you don’t even have the decency, the fucking consideration to answer my goddamn calls??”

“I’m sorry.”

Morrie’s meager reply managed to shut Bev up.  Her tone switched from one of anger to concern.

“What’s wrong?”

Dropping on her backside, Morrie brought her knees to her chest, wrapping an arm around them.  She rested her chin on her knee and closed her eyes.

“Bev, I’m so fucked up.”

“Well…yeah,” Bev agreed in a soothing way. “But why do you say that now?  Has something happened with the brother Scot?”  Morrie’s silence was all the answer Bev needed. “Holy fuck on a trampoline, something did happen!”

Realization had happened. 

It had hit Morrie on the flight home, every time she thought about Kade, how kissing him had felt right. 

How his fingers insider her had felt right. 

Hell, how playing chess and simply talking had felt
right
.  At just the thought of being near him, her insides turned to liquid, like warmed butter or hot chocolate. 

She melted for him. 

 “He makes me melt!” Morrie cried her confession, equal parts surprise and revelation.

“What?” Bev breathed on the other end.

Morrie barely heard her.  She was still too lost in her discovery. 

She had never melted for Chulainn.  He was the famed hero she wanted, a thing to take.  He had been a conquest. 

Morrie buried her head in her arm. “I don’t know what’s happening to me,” she answered in what sounded like way too much of a whine.

“Tell Sissy all about it,” Bev cooed. “Leave no detail out. Sissy’s here to help you.”

Morrie looked up, scowling. “Only if you stop referring to yourself as Sissy.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Bev turned serious. “So what happened?”

“Enough,” Morrie sighed. 

“You fucked him?” Bev whispered, unbelieving.

“No, that’s just it.  We didn’t even get too physical.  We just…spent time with each other.  I know it’s been a long time, but I know that whatever that was, it was something different.”

“Something special,” Bev added softly, giving voice to Morrie’s deepest thoughts.

“But I kept seeing Chulainn in my mind and I felt like I was dishonoring his memory.  That somehow, being with Kade was tarnishing that history with Chulainn, destroying that past.  No matter how much closer I wanted to get to Kade, I couldn’t stop thinking of Chulainn.” Morrie rubbed her hand down her face. “He’s haunting me.”

“Morrie…”

“But that’s not all.  We spent the night together…we slept in the same bed together…”

Bev whistled, understanding the implication that act meant. 

Gods didn’t like to be vulnerable and they were most so in slumber. To sleep with a human meant trust.

“And it was great, but then I woke up this morning and felt awful.  I…” Morrie took a deep breath. “I slipped away without him knowing.  I came back here.”

“You ran away?” Bev asked and Morrie understood her disbelief.

“Yes!” Gods, she was a fool.

“You’ve never run away from anything or anyone….I gotta meet this Scot.”

“What?” Morrie wasn’t sure she’d heard her sister correctly.

“He must be something else to send the great and powerful Morrigan sprinting for the Highlands. He must really mean something to you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, we only just met.  Kade is just a mistake…” A big, beautiful, wicked mistake that had Morrie acting more human than goddess.

“You care about him.”  Morrie sat up at Bev’s declaration, confused.

“How did you get that from what I just said?”

Sighing, Bev explained. “If you didn’t care about Kade, you wouldn’t be so vexed by Chulainn.  That’s why you ran.  If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t give a shit.  You wouldn’t feel so torn.  It’s because deep down, dear sister, you feel like this may be the end of you and Chulainn.”

“Bev, that ended eons ago.”

“Did it? If it had truly ended, then why have you spent the last two thousand years as chaste as a nun?”  When Morrie didn’t reply, Bev continued. “And now you’ve met someone who makes you feel again.  Who, in your subconscious mind could vanquish Chulainn from your thoughts, replace him in your heart.  And that scares the shit out of you.”

The Morrigan feared nothing…right?

But what if Bev was right?  A thought Morrie never thought could ever occur.