Two for Tamara (18 page)

Malcolm snorted. “I think we can manage.”

“We will split up in teams. I’ll go in the first trip with Rafe, Vin, Colt, and Gray. Mal, you, Blade, Uri, Dimitri, and Vasilis will be on the second drop. As long as there is no danger we will wait where we are. For obvious reasons we will ghost but will stay connected.” Max tapped his head. “Rafe, Vin, you try to connect with Tamara when we are on the same level. Who knows how Cronus’s block works. I know when Mal and I both were within the same space as Selena, we were able to mind-speak with her.”

Bakra grabbed Max. Rafe walked over to Ezra, leaving Vin and the rest to piggyback with the other demons. Vin didn’t care who got them close to Tamara.

* * * *

As Rafe touched Ezra he saw her memories of touching his Fated. Her description was spot on, which relaxed him. His Tamara wasn’t hurting, and if anything she was stronger than when she’d been taken. Good. She was going to need it from what he understood the level of Hell they were heading into was. He didn’t understand why Akra didn’t flash them out the same way the demons were flashing him and the Ravens down. But as he searched the unsuspecting demon’s mind, he could find no trace of deception.

“I will return shortly.” Bakra stated.

Rafe nodded, even though what he really wanted to do was find Tamara and get her somewhere safe where nothing could ever harm her again.

True to their words, the demons were back with the rest of the Ravens within seconds.

“Why can’t Akra flash herself and Tamara out of here the same way you just flashed us in?” Max finally asked.

“The binds that held them sucked much of their abilities. They will need time.” Bakra began walking.

He didn’t hesitate to follow. Turning the first craggy corner, the demon came to a hard stop. With the Ravens still in what they called ghost mode, they fell back and let Bakra and Ezra lead them.

Having been created by Zeus, they were able to decipher any language on Earth and Olympus. However, the noises that came out of the thing they encountered were unlike anything they’d ever heard before. Bakra and the other ladies talked their way around the beast while the Ravens held back, making sure they weren’t followed.

A scream rang out.

He tore off after the sound to find the demons surrounded by more of the misshapen things with green scaly skin. They had converged on the smaller demons, sinking their fangs into exposed areas with the intent of killing them.

Rafe and his brothers didn’t hesitate to enter the fray. He materialized in a flash, holding his favorite choice of weapon, two short swords.

There was no battle cry to alert the beasts of their presence. They were silent as wraiths, as they always were. They charged the enemy in unison, choosing the best place to hit their opponents. They’d trained together for thousands of years, and learned to share what the strengths and weaknesses were of the enemy without having to think, a skill that served them well now.

Luckily for the demon women, the beasts stopped attacking them immediately. It didn’t take the Ravens long to kill them with a few well-placed blows, and with a few slices of their blades, the big things fell. Bakra and Ezra, along with the other demons, were no worse for the damage they’d sustained.

“Come. We underestimated them. It won’t happen again.”

“What do you mean?” Vin asked.

Bakra looked over her shoulder. “The first beast was kind. I assumed these would be too.” She turned forward. “I’ll hack off their heads next time and then ask if they are friend or foe.”

Ezra grunted.

Rafe actually agreed with their way of thinking.

The last thing he wanted was collateral damage, and losing even one of the demon girls would be a loss he didn’t want to think about. Or explain to his Fated.

Inside, the tunnels were pitch black, but with their abilities Rafe could see clearly. He and Vin had decided they would take the lead instead of the standard formation of Max and Malcolm in front. This was a rescue mission for their Fated. The farther they travelled the hotter the air became. It was easy for the Ravens to adjust their body temperatures, but for Tamara it wouldn’t be the same.

They were getting closer, so close he could feel her in his bones. The path beneath their feet began to show signs of the extreme heat, with not only the smell of sulfur and smoke but red embers lighting the pathway.

Small alcoves broke off into larger areas, and Rafe dismissed each one along with Vin. They kept up the brisk pace, only slowing when the passageways became so narrow they had to fall into single-file lines.

Rafe held his fist up. The walls looked to be covered in blood as if many battles had been fought, or thousands of beings had been used to carve the very pathway they were on.

Up ahead he sensed more than one heat signature, meaning there were enemies ahead. At this point they’d all decided they weren’t assuming anything down there was a nice guy or girl.

The black body armor that fit like a second skin was virtually weightless, but strong enough that most things couldn’t penetrate the hard shell.

Vin and Rafe were the first to round the bend, and as they’d expected there were two creatures in the large cavern. Only they hadn’t expected them to be sea-like creatures.

“Dude. I’m thinking this is where the movie
Sharkasquid
came from,” Malcolm mumbled.

“Is that really a show?” Uri asked.

“Don’t ask him that shit. He’ll make us watch a marathon of Shark Week for the next five years,” Max groaned.

The sound of steel slamming into their wet, fleshy bodies filled the cavern. The creatures stood on tentacles, with their jaws of row after row of razor-sharp teeth snapping at them as they got close. They lashed out with their eight arms, and each time they cut an arm off, another grew back.

“Fire. Light ’em up,” Bakra said joyfully.

He looked at the fighting, into the heated space they were in. “Wouldn’t a little freeze play work better?”

Bakra shook her head. “Trust me. These are similar to what you have on Earth, cold-water carnivores.”

Their powers didn’t hurt each other, a gift granted to them from the gods. So when he linked with the other Ravens, it wasn’t to warn them to back up, it was so they’d add their flames to his blast of fire. Each man holstered their weapon of choice, and their hands shot out with streaks of white-hot fire, bathing the shark beasts in dull orange and blue flames. Shadows danced eerily while the beasts screamed in agony. They tried to run away from the heat, but with all the Ravens herding them in a tight circle, they had nowhere to go. The stench of the burning had the demon women gagging.

“Menka, you throw up and I swear I will tell Akra.”

Rafe wasn’t sure which demon gave the dire warning, and honestly he didn’t care, he just hoped she listened.

After they were sure the things were good and crispy, they pulled their flames back into themselves. Whatever Zeus had given them seemed to have magnified all their strengths. Usually when they’d expended a lot of one type of energy they’d feel it lagging. Rafe actually felt like he could burn up another dozen beings, without the burned flesh stink, preferably.

“Remind me to bring the marshmallows next time.” Bakra winked as she stepped over the burned corpse.

“Eww.” Ezra screwed up her face.

“You always say eww,” Bakra accused. “How do you know marshmallows are bad?”

“How do you know they’re good?”

Sighing, Rafe and Vin left the demons to follow, or argue. More than likely both.

“Be glad they don’t live with us.” Vin looked behind them. Bakra and Ezra were both slapping at each other.

Rafe lifted his head as the scent of his woman hit his nostrils. The wonderful smell was overlaid with the foul stench of rotten eggs and decaying things he couldn’t describe.

The cell they came upon was empty save for what was left of shackles. He wanted to roar.

Vin did roar, shaking loose rocks and debris. “Where is she?”

Bakra tsk-tsked at him. “With that bellow you are sure to wake the dead. Look.” She pointed at another archway across the cell.

“Why can’t our woman stay put for us to rescue?” Vin followed Bakra.

The other demons muttered as they passed the stinking pile of dead demons, or shark shit as Ezra had named them.

Rafe wondered if Tamara was scared.
Be strong, man.
The last thing Tamara needed was him to break down.

The farther they travelled down the newest corridor, the hotter it became. Why the fuck was Tamara and her merry band of demons travelling farther down into Hell?

“Akra would know they couldn’t get past those shark things.”

What?” Rafe nearly ran into the demon.

“You just asked why they were going farther into Hell.”

Rafe would’ve sworn he hadn’t said that out loud. “Would she know the way out?”

“Um, that would be a no. But she’s very good at deduction.”

The air was so thick it made breathing hard.

“Our woman is fierce. She is more apt to save us than wait for us to save her.” Vin’s voice was laced with pride.

“Damn right I am.” Tamara ran out from behind a boulder.

Rafe was floored at the exuberance of their woman. She looked better, if that was possible, than she had when they’d last seen her. He was rock hard for her as he watched her lick Vin’s lips. But that was nothing compared to how he felt as she launched herself into his arms.

She fit him perfectly.

“Goodness, Akra. Was she attacking you like that?” Bakra stared, wide-eyed.

* * * *

Vin sucked his bottom lip into his mouth, watching the demon Akra lift her right and left hand in the air. She then rolled her right hand in a circle while slowly bringing her middle finger into the air.

“Goddess, but I think I want to take them home with me,” Vasilis said.

Max rolled his eyes. “Break it up, kiddos. Let’s get the fuck out of here before you mount your woman,” Max said to Rafe.

“Why does he want to take us home with him?” Ezra asked.

“’Cause he does girls, duh.” Bakra laughed.

Vin had to hold back his own grin.

“Do you think we can flash ourselves out of here now?” Malcolm stared around the cave.

“I want to take my girls with me.” Tamara held Rafe’s hand in one of hers and Vin’s in her other.

Akra gasped. “What do you mean, go with you?”

All the Ravens went ghost. That gave them the image of privacy. “We can’t leave them here. Had I not been able to break the chains, Akra and the others would’ve been locked in that hole forever, or until something came to eat them. Cronus doesn’t care about anyone or anything.” She turned to look at the demons. “I’m sorry. I know you love him, but he doesn’t love anyone other than himself. He’s tried to kill his own granddaughter. He actually left a helpless baby in a trashcan.”

“We know the story. We only wanted to stay in his good graces for our protection. As you see, when he’s away his mice will play.” Akra’s face twisted in a grimace.

“Tamara, we don’t know what they…eat.” Vin winced at his own inane choice of words.

Ezra looked affronted. “We eat meat like you.” As several Ravens stepped away from them she giggled. “Not meat like you. But the same as you.”

“Flash us out of here, Rafe. I’m really quite…horny.”

Vin jerked. He pulled her so every inch of her lay against him. “God. Don’t say that when I can’t be buried inside you in .5 seconds.”

Snickers could be heard from his fellow men.

No matter how much he wanted her, no matter how right she felt in his arms, he realized something was off about their Fated.

“Rafe, we need to get Tamara out of here now.”

Each Raven grabbed a woman, figuring they’d decide what to do with them later. Or let Zeus. He could worry, Vin thought.

* * * *

Vin and Rafe each held a part of Tamara as they dematerialized from the Hell realm.

There were times that Vin was glad he didn’t need to explain to his friends why he and Rafe weren’t sticking around to enlighten Zeus about what had happened. This was definitely one of those times. Their Fated was rubbing up against them like a cat in heat.

It was a damned good thing they could make their clothes float away. Tamara had the most perfect mocha-colored skin he’d ever seen. She backed away from them, moving slow and seductive like a sensual feline, and he wanted to be the one to rub against that lean yet curvy body of hers. She was the total package from head to toe. She licked those lips that even put Angelina Jolie to shame.

Standing before them, naked as the day she was born, she ran her hand down her torso. She lifted both arms in the air, dancing to a song only she could hear.

He and Rafe glanced at each other then back at their seductress.

Still dancing to her own tune, her body moved in a rolling hip motion that Vin could imagine her doing with him deep inside her.

They knew something wasn’t quite right with their woman. Oh, she was their Tamara, but this sex kitten was off the scales.

Vin swallowed at the seductive movements of Tamara’s body. She ran her hands over every dip and curve of her body that he wanted to trace with his lips and tongue.

Not to mention the fact his feet were moving before his mind could tell them to. Smart feet.

How was a man supposed to keep a level head when a woman like her was naked in front of them?

They weren’t, that was the answer.

An angelic glint taunted him from the midnight depths of her eyes. “Dance with me.”

Who was he to deny her?

Rafe stepped up behind her while he was in front. The three of them swayed to music only she could hear.

There was nothing he wasn’t fascinated about when it came to Tamara, and he knew this new side to their woman was different, but he couldn’t find it in himself to put a halt to her seduction.

Chills spread over his body and even though he could regulate his temperature, his body heated up immediately. It’d been forever since they’d touched her. In their minds, he’d feared they’d never get to know how good she felt again.