Immortal Need (7 page)

“So very true, but not everyone deserves the gift only I can give. I thank you for caring for me.”

“I’ve had enough of your flattery, Valerie. It does not suit you. You serve my needs, but that is all. That time will come to an end, and what then?”

“I will be tossed to another god, I’m sure,” Valerie answered, knowing that Freya would like the answer.

“Exactly, you are but a tool, a goddess without any true worth unless she’s used. Never forget that. Now, what is it you want?”

“I propose a trade.”

“What could you possibly offer me?” Freya asked, sitting up in a seductive slide of limbs. “I have almost everything, and in seven days, I’ll have even more.”

Valerie didn’t know what Freya would have, but the statement she logged for later. If Freya ever wanted to eliminate the Watchers, then all she had to do was stop Valerie from feeding them her seeds as she was supposed to every fifty years to keep their souls immortal. As they had been human, they couldn’t live without her seeds. The dwarfs that Sif had given immortality had angered her, and had been denied more seeds. Valerie had watched them waste away to dust. She would not watch her boys do the same.

“I do not begin to think that I could know your mind, Freya. If you say it shall be so, then it shall. But there is something you have wanted from me that I have never given. We both know that it can only be given if I want it.”

Freya stood up then and clothed herself in a white, flowing gown with a thought. Her hair lifted and twirled as if carried by wind, and her eyes came alive with the very essence of her immortal soul. Her skin smoothed and then hardened until she looked like living pearl. This was the real Freya, the goddess. Valerie acknowledged the shift and changed as well. Her hair changed from blond to the white of moonlight. Her eyes, she knew, appeared as soft as the gray of a storming cloud, and just as electric. Gone was her golden skin, replaced with the ash bark of the tree of life. In this moment, at least, Valerie was the goddess she was meant to be. She’d long ago stopped showing her true self. The sight had made Alexander, Lei, and Sevani uneasy during their first years under Freya. They’d been more comfortable with her blond hair, her sun-kissed skin, and her voluptuous figure like a pinup girl’s. She’d tried different looks until she found the right combination of beauty and brawn. She now felt more comfortable as their Valerie than what she really looked like.

“Well met, Goddess of the Seed,” Freya greeted formally. Gods and goddesses had to meet as equals in order to make a pact.

“Well met, Goddess of Life, Wealth, and mate of Odin, All-father,” Valerie greeted just as formally.

“You have finally decided to give me the apple? What boon do you request?”

“I will give you the apple for the span of one month, but you must not use it against Alexander, Sevani, Lei, or me. It will return to me. And you will let us reside on Earth during that time. We will also be able to flash.” The ability to flash would allow them to move more easily through the worlds. It would allow them to be anywhere with just a thought. They would need to be able to get what they could to assist Sevani. She knew that she was asking a lot, but she knew that Freya wanted her apple enough to give it to her. At least she hoped so.

“Impossible. There are women and men they must acquire. I cannot give you what you ask.”

“Then I will not give you the apple.”

“I didn’t say I would not compromise,” Freya said quickly, flicking her hair to one side.

“What is your compromise?” Valerie asked, not wanting to show her eagerness.

“You will give me the apple for eight days, and I will allow you all to reside on Earth. I will not use it against Sevani, Lei, Alexander, or you during that time. I will give it back at the end of the eighth day, but when you return, I will deserve a boon.”

“What is your boon?” Valerie asked. She would do anything to protect the Watchers, anything to help them. If Freya asked for a boon within her power, she would give it to her. It was only her luck that Freya hadn’t realized that she could ask her anything to save them that Valerie still had the apple to barter now.

“Oh, nothing that would hurt any of you, I assure you,” Freya returned.

“Then ask, and the deal will be struck.” Valerie had to get to Sevani.

“Then I have your word that the pact will be sealed when I ask?” Freya asked, extending her hand.

“As a goddess, yes.” Valerie felt her blood zing through her body as power suffused her. She gasped, bearing the pain. She would have to honor the pact, no matter the terms. There was no turning back, but she didn’t regret it. If Sevani needed her, then she was coming. It was that simple. All any of them had to do was ask. Freya grasped her hand, and the power rushed down Valerie’s arm and into Freya and then returned. The current ran back and forth through them until they sank to their knees together.

“Then this is the boon I ask. When the eight days are up, when your apple is returned, and your men safe, you will choose one of them to be mine.”

“Be yours?” Valerie managed ask through clenched teeth.

“Yes, mine. I grow lonely as my husband travels the world, always needing to know more. I grow cold at night with no one to warm my bed. What better than a man tested through the fires of battle, trained by my own hand, and terrified of the consequences of saying no to me? You will choose which man shall be my consort, warm my bed, taste my flesh, and leave the Watchers. This is the pact. As I say, so shall it be.”

“You said it was nothing that would hurt any of us.”

“It won’t hurt, not physically. You should have asked for clarification. You should have asked what the boon was before you agreed. You’ve been too long out of politics, my dear, and it shows,” Freya said, laughing as she stood. Valerie struggled to rise to her feet, her mind whirling.

One of them will have to take Freya as consort. What have I done?
Valerie thought, groaning inwardly.

“You know better than to double-talk during a pact. It will make it null,” Valeria argued.

“Does it? You felt the power. Our bond is struck. Think I didn’t notice your penchant for protecting them? That I couldn’t tell that within that useless flesh bag of blood and bones, you harbor in your weak little heart a flame for Lei? I see all in this domain. You should have thought of that. You should have been careful, but instead you delivered them to me. Perhaps I will make you give me Lei. Oh, the tortures I could imagine if you dared to refuse me.”

“Please,” Valerie begged. “Please don’t.”

“It is already done. There is nothing I can do for you, and I don’t want to. Yes. I think I like the thought of him in my bed. You will give me Lei. I’ll make sure of it, and you know how…imaginative I can be.”

Chapter Five

“Would the fact that I just became a millionaire help?” Ayah heard Sevani mutter sarcastically over and over as he paced through her house. She swore she even heard him adopt a jaw-dropping falsetto as he repeated the statement.

Everyone’s a critic apparently.

She was sarcastic when she gave him her response. Of course the millions could be the issue. Money was the root of all evil for most people. What she hadn’t expected was that the man who had kissed her with enough passion to singe her soul was now stomping around her house like an overgrown two-year-old. She had seen enough temper tantrums in her line of work to recognize a major one, and Sevani was damn near in meltdown mode. True, he was easy on the eyes through it all, and she’d never had a man touch her like that. She wasn’t a prude, and she had her share of fun in her life, but since her father had gotten ill, she hadn’t given much thought to romance. Now she couldn’t possibly seem to think of anything else.

Sure, it may not be the best time since someone was trying to kill her. She figured it was a coping mechanism, a way to shy away from the fact that her life was in danger. She had never been cruel to anyone, never hurt anyone intentionally, or went after a soul. Her brothers considered her a veritable Goody Two-shoes, and she was fine with the title. Unfortunately, when money was involved, that didn’t matter much.

But that’s what
he’s
here for,
she thought to herself as she followed him through her house as he checked each room, window, and door. He even felt around the walls for some unseen threat she couldn’t hope to imagine. His hands were like works of art, calloused in an oddly erotic way that had sent heat shooting through her bloodstream. His shoulders were broad enough to set the world on, and his hips narrow. She just couldn’t stop thinking about what making love with him would be like. Though he was a large man, he moved with grace through her home, barely making a sound. If she hadn’t been watching him, she would have never noticed he’d left. His chiseled features were set along serious lines as he secured her home. But she couldn’t have cared less. What she wanted was to feel him again, to have his mouth on hers, his body hard and satisfying her, preferably with no clothes between them. Now that she’d had a taste of him, she wanted more. And watching his butt as he walked through her house wasn’t helping her equilibrium either.

Ayah was never one for fanciful thought. She wasn’t beautiful like her sister, or nearly as socially controlled. She was a quintessential wallflower, and she was fine with that. Sometimes it was good to work from the sidelines. Her friends viewed her as dependable, and her family relied on her in a way that made her feel warm and secure. They needed her. Her more subdued lifestyle didn’t hurt her. She wasn’t weak, though. There was no way she would be able to do her job if she was. Any person who could corral a group of rowdy five- and six-year-olds, after recess no less, was a study of self-control and command, she would swear to it. But children were children, and Sevani was far from a little boy.

No, he was a man, one who was able to set her blood on fire. She’d never met a man quite like him in her life. No man had ever touched her like he had, or looked at her with so much emotion brimming in his eyes that she nearly choked with it. Just the looks he gave her made her want to melt into a puddle at his feet. Really, what was a girl to do when she was looked at by a man as delicious as he was and saw burning desire in his gaze?

But it’s not for you.

Her subconscious decided to add to and scramble her thoughts. It wasn’t for her. Sevani had told her that, once, long ago, she belonged to him, and she believed him. There was no other way to explain the connection she felt when he looked at her, the driving need to touch him, to know his possession. It was as if she had woken from a dream when he touched her, as if she had been sleeping all of her life, waiting for someone she hadn’t known existed but her soul knew was coming one day—a soul she now knew was not entirely her own. It was her soul Sevani was reacting to, not her. He had loved the woman her soul had previously inhabited. If his reaction to seeing her was anything to go by, she could assume she even looked like the woman.

Nila, she had been called. That was the woman he had loved and lost. Suddenly the kiss they had shared saddened her. Had he been kissing her, or reveling in the chance to kiss his long-gone wife? She feared it was the latter, and the thought pierced her deeply. He’d gotten under her skin. Somehow, the past knowledge that was locked away deep inside her had taken over when he first touched her. Her body had come alive, awakened at his touch, but it was not her he wanted. He was here to protect her from some threat. That she believed, but she could not allow herself the trappings of a long-lost love. He was not hers. She could not even know if the passion she had for him was her own. He returned to her side in the living room after securing the house, and her heart raced in her chest. He was so virile, so much more than any man she had ever come across. She wanted to reach out and smooth his brow, run her fingers through his hair, but she resisted the urge. She had to know if it was Nila he wanted, or her.

“Sevani?” Ayah called.

“Yes?” he answered over his shoulder as he checked another window.

“Did you kiss me because you wanted me or because I was Nila before?” she asked.

He stilled and then stood to his full height before he turned and stared at her for a moment, and her heart sank. Well, there was her answer.

Told you,
her conscience tossed at her.

“Forget I asked. Silly question,” she said and turned away, not wanting to look at him. Warm hands grasped her arms and turned her around to face him again. She was insane for wanting to lean into his body, absolutely insane, but she did it anyway. She couldn’t fight the shaky breath that left her body when he palmed her cheek.

“Ayah,” he began, but then froze suddenly. “We have company. We’ll talk about this later.” He didn’t appear particularly worried when he turned to face an empty corner in her living room, but she stepped a little closer to him nonetheless.

There was no flash or great light marring her vision, just three other people standing in the room with her and Sevani. The lone female in the group was absolutely exquisite. Her platinum-blond hair was perfect, and her gray eyes were captivating. She had the perfect bow mouth and striking features of a model. That was until Ayah looked at the rest of her. The woman was the perfect example of a pocket Venus. Nothing reed thin about her. Her shoulders were slender and framed heavy breasts tapering into a trim waist that accentuated her wide hips. Her legs went on forever, something Ayah could find envy-worthy. Her choice of clothing, tight black leather pants with a black camisole, enhanced her shape. She was obviously no weakling. On her hip was a handgun. With two wicked blades strapped to the outside of her thighs, another blade was on her back, but Ayah could only see its hilt.

To the woman’s right was a blond-haired, green-eyed Adonis. That was the only way Ayah could describe him. He was tall, very tall, maybe just an inch or so shorter than Sevani, with black cargo pants much like Sevani wore, with his black T-shirt tucked in. But instead of knives like Sevani, this man was armed heavily with guns. He had two handguns strapped at his waist and two more to the outside of his thighs. Under his arms and shoulders were harnesses holding two more handguns. A strap across his chest told Ayah that he most likely had another one strapped across his back. His thick military boots also showed the butts of two small handguns.