Of Gods and Wolves (29 page)

I moaned and rolled over, surprised to find myself unchained for once. I was in an empty room. Wow, unchained and no one around to torture me, things were looking up. I took a more relaxed look around.

Wood paneled walls and hardwood floors… even the ceiling was made of wooden beams. I stood up and tried the door. Why not? You never know.

It was locked so I slammed my weight against it. It didn’t budge. I gave a big harumph and folded my arms while I tried to think. My gloves were gone, along with all the other knives I’d hidden on me and my sword had been lost on the battlefield. I could only hope that someone had picked it up. I was most likely Nyavirezi's prisoner since it was her lion who punched me and I didn't recognize the room as one of Blue's.

“Hey,” I kicked the door. “Lion lady! Blue Balls! Open up, you chicken shits!”

I heard some movement beyond the door and then rapid footsteps. After awhile I heard approaching footsteps and then the door was flung in, leaving me faced with the lion goddess and Blue. He was still wearing that stupid get-up. Like it even mattered at this point.

“Well, it’s about frickin’ time,” I crossed my arms. “Where’s my gloves?”

“
She
is
arrogant,” Nyavirezi looked at Blue like she was shocked to find that some vicious rumor was actually true.

“
Blah, blah, blah,” I sighed, making a talking motion with my hand. “Can we get this over with? My neck and arm both hurt like a bitch.”

“
You want to get this over with?” Nyavirezi sneered. “Fine, it’s your death.”

Nyavirezi started forward but Blue stopped her with a hand on her arm. The lion goddess looked back at him in shock and he shook his head. Hmph, guess he wanted to kill me himself. Or maybe there was some little piece of the good Blue left. I'd seen inside his heart when I healed him. I knew he had the capacity for good.

“Blue, don't do this,” I tried to get through to him. “I know you don't want me dead.” They both looked over at me, paused, and then went back to glaring at each other. “How can you even think about doing this to me?”

“
She's mine,” Nyavirezi growled at Blue, who hadn't even acknowledged that I spoke again. “She killed my lions.”

My gut clenched. I just couldn't believe Blue could be so cruel to me after all we'd been through. Was my ability to judge a man's character so broken that I could be so wrong about Blue? I had actually believed him when he denied being a part of this. Yet there he was, arguing with a lion goddess over me.

As they fought over who got to kill me, I was so touched by that, I weighed my options. I knew I didn’t stand a chance against both of them. I could drain Nyavirezi but Thor had warned me that draining another goddess may be too much power for me to hold and I was pretty sure Blue was just plain too powerful. It didn’t look like I had a choice though, the love magic would be useless against these two. Even though it had previously liked Blue, now I felt it curl up and hide inside me, another damning mark against him, and the idea of using sex magic against them was just plain gross.

I was about to center myself and reach out for Nyavirezi's magic, when their fighting ended. She grabbed me and yanked me out the door. I elbowed her in the face and she went down hard. Blue reached for me and I knocked his hand away before I booked it down the hallway.

“Darius,” Nyavirezi screamed, “grab her!”

I hazarded a glance over my shoulder but the two of them were alone. Where was this Darius person? When I turned my head back to the front, I had my answer.

A gorgeous dirty-blonde stepped out in front of me from a side room. He was your average hot blonde except for his bright turquoise eyes. Those eyes pushed him right over the edge into Josh Holloway territory. They leaped out of his face like they were trying to make contact, and they made you feel like they wanted that contact with you alone.

Or maybe that was just because he’d been
ordered
to make contact with me. I stopped short and looked over his wide chest. He was only wearing a pair of jeans, and suddenly I remembered where I’d seen it before… the chest not the jeans.

“
You again,” I pointed at him accusingly. He was the jerk who punched me. “It’s not polite to hit ladies.”

“
It was either that or rip your throat out,” he said softly and then raised his voice, “I don’t see any ladies here.”

I blinked a couple times and cocked my head to the side. Following his gaze over my shoulder, I saw Nyavirezi getting to her feet as she wiped blood off her face. Holy shit, he didn’t like her. Maybe I had some kind of a chance.

“Alright then,” I smiled, “hitting a bitch may be okay but hitting this one isn’t too smart.”

He chuckled a little before he dove for me. I sidestepped and knocked him with my joined fists in the back of the head. He grunted and fell but with a roll he was on his feet again, grinning.

“Not bad, Godhunter.”

“
I get better when I’m bad, Darius is it?”

He bowed quickly before resuming a fighting stance. I watched his muscles bunch and flex under all that golden skin. He wasn’t as big as Trevor or Thor, maybe six-foot-three, but that still made him a foot taller than me and I wasn’t sure I could take him down quickly without my claws. I lowered myself into a crouch and shifted to watch him better. That’s when the second guy grabbed me from behind.

“Fuck,” I cursed under my breath. I’d made a beginner’s mistake. Never lose sight of your surroundings and always be on guard for someone coming up behind you.

I felt hot breath on my neck and looked over my shoulder to see a man who looked remarkably like LL Cool J, smiling at me. The resemblance was so uncanny; I actually looked down to see if one of his pants’ legs was rolled up(yes, he used to do that, google it if you don't believe me). No luck there, just tight jeans all the way down and bare chest behind me. It must’ve been the uniform.

  “Boy, you guys don’t come in
ugly
do you?” I eyed his toned chest.

The man holding me raised an eyebrow over a hazel eye. Okay, he was hotter than LL. There’s nothing quite like a dark-skinned man with light eyes. Darius laughed loudly, drawing my attention away from Mr. Rap-Star-Good-Looks.

“Thank you, Godhunter,” Darius winked at me, “I didn’t know you noticed.”

“
Call me Vervain,” I lifted my leg and brought my foot down on LL’s knee. He cried out and let go of me as he went down. “I’m sure we’re going to be the
best
of friends.”

I saw a flare of admiration light Darius’ eyes before I ran past him and down a corridor to the left. His boots hit the floor hard behind me and then another set joined in. I guess LL was a fast healer or had a high pain tolerance. Then came the worst sound ever. Rising above the pounding footsteps and my pounding heart, was insane feminine laughter. Nyavirezi. I was really starting to dislike that bitch.

The pounding was coming closer, damn lions were fast, faster than wolves I’d wager. As I thought that, the little wolf in me rose up and I found myself skidding and turning into a curve that left me crouched and facing off with my pursuers. I snarled and growled a low warning that stopped the boys in their tracks. They gave each other a quick, shocked glance before looking back at me.

“
Surprise, surprise,” I continued to growl, “Red Riding Hood has a little wolf in her.”  

“
We don’t want to hurt you, Vervain,” Darius whispered. “Please don’t make this difficult.”

“
There’s no way out except through the tracing point,” LL was crouched low but held his hands up pleadingly.

“
And why would you care about hurting me?” I stared hard at Darius.

“
I’ve no quarrel with you,” Darius looked back over his shoulder. “We only carry out her orders.”

“
Yeah? Well if you don’t like her so much, why don’t you just leave or revolt or something?” I wasn’t about to buy this crap. “Viva la revolucion!”

“
She made us,” he looked cautiously at LL, “she can destroy us.”

“
Made
you?” I frowned, “like she’s your mother, ‘I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it’ kind of thing?”

“
No,” LL rumbled, “like she’s our goddess and can kill or torture us with a thought.”

“
The Intare are made through magic, not birthed like Froekn,” Darius shook his head. “We don’t have time for this, she’s coming.”

I heard the click-clack of heels on the wood floor before Nyavirezi rounded the corner. “What’s taking so damn long? Grab her… now!”

The men shot me an apologetic glance, then leaped forward. I was suddenly off my feet, dangling by the arms, which each man held one of. I fought and kicked but it was useless, they both had a hell of a grip. The wolf rose up along with my Nahual and I felt my body tense in response. All sorts of growling sounds were coming out of my throat. I sounded like a cornered animal, which I guess I kinda was. Well, more like caged.

“
Take her into the common room,” Nyavirezi waved her hand down the opposite corridor and then followed after us.

We turned and walked through a doorway, well some of us walked one of us was carried, which opened onto a huge room. It was heaven. Maybe they’d already killed me and I just hadn’t realized I was dead yet.

Gorgeous men were everywhere; the room was filled with them. I could have sworn I heard the Weather Girls singing about ripping the roof off and staying in bed. Then suddenly it made sense. If Nyavirezi turned men into lions, she’d pick the best of course, and wouldn’t you know it, there wasn’t a single female in the lot.

“
Hallelujah,” I shook my head. I could still hear the chorus to
It’s Raining Men,
when what I needed to be singing was
I Will Survive
. Come on Gloria, do your thing. But Gloria Gaynor wasn’t in the mood to sing. I looked over the man buffet and all I could think was,
I’m gonna go out and let myself get, absolutely soaking wet
. I would’ve started tapping my toes, except for the whole dangling in mid-air thing.

“
Intare,” Nyavirezi called as she came up beside us. “You fought well today and though we lost the battle, we took their Queen. The game can still be ours!”

“
Oh good, a chess reference,” I sighed. “How original.”

Nyavirezi shot me a heated look. “Maybe you should have studied the game yourself, Godhunter,” she snapped. “Then you’d know a little about strategy.”

“Oh here we go again,” I groaned. “Can you just do what you’re going to do, without all the stupid babble?” I got a vicious slap for my comment and felt Darius’ hand twitch a little on my arm.

“
Fine,” she smiled wide, “you don’t want to hear my babble? I’ll be short and sweet.” She turned back to the men who eyed her warily. “Just this once, my babies, you can have another woman. As your reward, the Godhunter is yours. Just try not to kill her. We have other plans for her.”

Blue had his arms crossed over his chest. I still couldn't see his damn eyes and for some reason, that really bothered me. I should have been able to look him in the eyes while he betrayed me. I think I at least deserved that. He wouldn't even raise his head though, just stared at the floor and then turned away, walking from the room stiffly.

“Nyavirezi,” I called as I felt myself go cold. She turned back to me with an arrogant glare and I met it steadily. “Ever notice how you come across somebody once in awhile you shouldn't have fucked with? That's me.”

“
Toss her in,” Nyavirezi shouted.

The men looked at each other and Darius gave me a gentle squeeze before they threw me to the waiting men. I had a brief sensation of weightlessness and a moment to wonder how bad the sudden stop was going to hurt, and then nothing. I never hit the ground. Big hands grabbed me everywhere and lifted me up. There were so many faces, I couldn’t focus on any single one, but I felt the heat of them closing in. None of them said a word, they just moved me carefully back into the room until I felt myself lowered to the ground.

“Goodbye, Godhunter,” Nyavirezi laughed. “Turns out, I'm not going to be the one fucking with you after all. Have fun. Some of my men haven’t had sex in years. I’m sure they’ll show you a good time. I’ll be back to check on you tomorrow.”

I wouldn’t scream. I wouldn’t scream. I wouldn’t scream.

Darius was gone and so was LL, though I wasn’t sure if either of them would help me anyway. Hell, they might just be getting in line. I almost started laughing hysterically. Instead it came out more like a hiccup. The hands pulled back at the small sound and I was able to sit up and look around me.

They were all crouched in a circle, all those hotties that were about to rape me… probably repeatedly. One or two of them, I might have stood a chance, but even if they were gentle, I wouldn’t live through what must’ve been close to eighty men. One woman can only take so much. I jumped up in a crouch and they leaned back, wariness fighting with eagerness in their expressions.