Skin of a Goddess (Goddess Ascension Book 1) (22 page)

“Are you okay?”

Peitho looks in my direction, but sees right through me. Her back suddenly bows like she’s been thrown, her eyes starting to glow with greater intensity. Peitho’s mouth opens in a silent scream, eyes closed in ecstasy or pain.

I scramble on the bed, reaching for her, but I’m suddenly thrown backward. It’s like a pulse of power slams into me, throwing me away like I’m weightless. Peitho’s body glows so brightly, I can no longer stare at her. I shield my eyes as the pressure of power reaches a crescendo before disappearing like it never happened.

“Peitho!” I get up and rush to where her body is crumpled on the bed. “Tell me you’re okay!”

Her eyes open lazily, stretching and rolling her body. She gives me a satisfied smile. “I never thought it would be like that.”

“What happened?” I ask, carefully gathering her to my chest.

“I’ve finally ascended. I’m no longer a daimon, or the minor goddess of anything. I’m the Goddess of Persuasion and Seduction, and every bit as powerful as an Olympian. We heard it was possible, but I never really thought it would happen. The power … it’s intoxicating.”

I can feel the faint hum of magic still clinging to her, making my hands tingle where they meet her skin. “What does this mean? How did it happen?”

“It means I’ve brought us one step closer to the goal. I’ve ascended to my power while here on Earth. That means my magic is bound to this dimension. Once the others ascend, we’ll be the most powerful force on Earth. Even more powerful than the Olympians. Already, I can no longer feel their presence in the back of my conscience, weighing me down. I’ve broken ties with them,” Peitho explains. “Your complete acceptance of what I am helped fuel the transformation.”

I look at her in wonder. “I helped you become a goddess?”

She grins at me, the depth of emotion in her eyes making my breath come faster. “You helped me accomplish something I thought was just a myth.”

We hear muffled shouts in the hallway. “Was that an earthquake? Go check on the master!”

Peitho and I share a grin.

“What happens now?”

“I’ll have to tell the girls. They’ll know what it means, and what to do next,” Peitho says with utter confidence.

“Does this change things between us?”

“What do you mean?”

“Does it affect the handfasting?” I clarify, my heart in my throat as I wait for her answer.

“No, I’ve just amped up my strength. Nothing else has changed, and no one besides the girls can know,” Peitho explains.

“I won’t tell anyone,” I promise.

“When we’re done with this mess, we’ll figure it out.”

“Until then, I’d really like the chance to worship my goddess,” I say solemnly. Before she has a chance to respond, I pick her up and twirl her in my arms as she lets out startled bursts of laughter.

I set her carefully on the bed, slowly raising the hem of her dress.

Her hips arch and lift slightly, eagerly. “You’re on your way to becoming a favored subject.”

I let a hand slide up her leg to stroke her through her panties, already feeling moisture there. It makes me want to bury myself deep inside her, but sometimes it’s not about me. Sometimes it’s about pleasing her. She squirms under my hand as I lightly rub her right where I know she enjoys it most.

“Hunter,” she scolds and glares at me, “stop teasing!”

I grin at that, pushing her dress farther up until I can see her pale panties and slim waist. I hook my thumbs around the edges of the dainty fabric. Not much fabric at all, really. I slowly push them down to her ankles so I can grab her thighs and thrust them apart with my hands, baring her to me. She looks so perfect. Lightly pink with moist skin and a swollen little bud just begging for licks.

I bend my head down and gently nuzzle her for a moment before letting my tongue run all the way down her, from top to bottom. She still hums with energy, bringing her body to an extra-sensitive state. I feel her jerk beneath me, and place my hands on her hips to hold them down. I glare up at her to behave, but her eyes are closed and her head is back.

Knowing that she’s enjoying herself, I let myself spend several moments flicking her clit quickly with my tongue. She moans in response, her legs starting to shift restlessly. I move down slightly to dip my tongue inside her, as deep as I can go. She gasps, and her legs spread wider apart for me.

I can’t help but smile at what’s to come. I slowly fill my nostrils with air, and ever so gently blow out into her, feeling my tongue heat up.

“What is … what are you?” she starts to ask, stopping when I drive my heated tongue inside her.

Peitho’s leg suddenly starts shaking, and I know for sure that it’s not just dragons that enjoy this little exercise of power. I continue to gently heat myself as I drive my tongue in and out of her before bringing it up to once again tongue her clit.

“Hunter, don’t stop! About to …” Peitho says in a breathless voice.

I drive my tongue in her just in time to feel her spasm flood with moisture. Her body briefly flashes with inner light as she has her moment of release. When she’s finished, I leisurely lick her clean and then slide myself back up her body, pulling her into my arms. She limply melts into me, burying her head against the curve of my neck and wrapping her arms around my waist.

“I did
not
know you could do that.” Peitho grins up at me.

I smile down at her. “I wasn’t sure you’d like it.”

“Like it? I loved it. I knew this whole dragon thing couldn’t be all bad. I want that again. Every night.” She laughs.

I feel myself puff out a bit. “You do, huh?” I tilt her chin up slightly so I can brush my lips against hers. She responds instantly, pressing her mouth full against me and boldly wrapping her tongue against mine.

“Mhmm, and if I’m a really good girl, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to deserve it.” She winks.

I twist my hips a little so she can feel me against her leg. “I’m pretty sure you can too.”

Peitho laughs but looks pleased. “Really, Hunter, you think he needs some attention?”

I can’t help but grin. “I think he wants to go swimming with his friend.”

Peitho sits herself on my waist. “Lucky for you, she’s already wet.”

Chapter 16

I can’t help but think this is pretty much the opposite of how I like to start my day. Usually, being with a group of bloodsuckers would be fun for me. Or at least interesting. The appeal is taken away by the fact that seven of us are piled in a van, with two others following. Of course, Loren has a private one with his human and vampire, complete with a driver. Do I? Of course not. Instead, I’m squeezed between Hunter and hulking vampire muscle.

The morning had started with such promise. I’d been firmly nestled in the curve of Hunter’s body, where he kept me anchored by a large, heavy arm. I couldn’t help but think he looked peaceful, and even I felt content. More than content. Happy.

I still can’t believe I’ve come into my complete powers. I try to keep a tight rein on my abilities, but I can tell I’m failing. When we first joined the others, it’s like no one could keep their eyes off of me. Hunter growled at the men who stared, but they just couldn’t help themselves. My new magic affects everyone in ways I’ve never been able to before.

Sure, when I let myself go gold, I can mesmerize people. Despite not having tried it, I know with utter certainty that with a glance, I could bend wills to my bidding. I feel persuasion and seduction hum within me like the most intoxicating drug.

The vampire next to me says, “We’re getting close to the property.”

Too bad for us, when we were told that they had a lead, we thought they actually had one. Hunter and I were excited and eager to set out. Then we learned that they have a list of six properties to check out in the broad area. We’ve already been to two of them, and it was a total bust. There was evidence of someone having recently been at the first property, but other than that, nothing.

“Here’s the cottage,” the man next to me says.

We pull up in front of the house, apparently not bothering with discretion, and start to pile out of the vans. As I watch, large men and women seem to come out of the vehicles from nowhere, like it’s a clown car. I pull myself gracelessly from the hulking machine and then tug at the borrowed clothes I have on.

“Hopefully this isn’t a dead end,” I say to Hunter, trying to ignore the group of strangers surrounding us.

Loren, of course, is in the middle of the mob, with Celeste trailing after him. He dramatically holds out a hand for silence, and we all turn to him.

“I can sense my human here,” Loren finally says after closing his eyes with an intense look of thought, or constipation, before opening them again.

I jump with excitement. “Can you tell if other people are here, or if he’s here right now?”

Loren gives me a snobby look down his increasingly hawk-like nose. “Vincent’s the only person I have a connection to. I’m able to smell others, but I can’t tell who or what, with the smell of wet dog overshadowing any others. The fact that he has a werewolf here is as good as an admission of guilt.”

I can’t help but shrug at that. “Plan of action?”

He looks put out that I didn’t give him time to call an exaggerated huddle and discuss strategy. “We’ll go in the front with four others, six will go in the back, and three groups of two will patrol out here, in case they escape us. If Vincent is smart, he’s keeping them in the basement. I’ll be able to sense where in the house he is and lead everyone there quickly.”

“That’s it?” I clarify.

“Of course, if he has hostages, the closest individual will take him out. It’s not as if Vincent can put up a fight against any of us.”

Probably true, since he’s human.

“What if one of his supernatural partners is holding a hostage?” one of the other vampires asks.

“Try to take the partner out, and if you can’t, then what happens, happens,” Loren says dismissively.

Loren quickly splits up the groups that will be going into the home, and makes teams of the vampires left over. All of their faces are stoic, as if they don’t care one way or another about their assignment. Their whole “non-feeling” thing, in the face of Vincent’s crimes, is really starting to irritate me.

“All right, everyone in my group follow me. Everyone else, take your positions. I’ll signal when to enter the house. Once inside, scent your way to people. Everything clear?” Loren asks, making eye contact with all of us.

Hunter gives me a little nod as we follow our group to the front of the home. We walk up the steps gracefully, not making a sound, then huddle behind one another, watching a nearby vampire for the signal that everyone’s in place. He holds up a hand, swings it down, and Loren breaks down the door easily, all of us spilling inside.

Loren leads the way through a hall to the kitchen. “I smell blood and my human. The basement, like I thought.”

Loren has dropped fang, eyes starting to turn a feral red. I can see the other vampires in our group affected by the scent of blood and the hunt, but not as fully as Loren seems to be. Most likely because he’s giving himself up to his beast and the others are working to hold it back. Servants don’t have as much luxury as the master.

In the kitchen, there’s a door with a lock kept on the outside. Loren goes straight for it, quickly and quietly opening the door. The group of vampires that had come in the house through the backdoor meet with us in the kitchen. They wait their turn behind us, so Hunter and I go down the wooden stairs with vampires at our front and our back.

There’s a moldy, decaying scent in the air that I’ve smelled many times before. It lets me know, even before I look around, what I have to expect. The sound of flies buzzing around and rats scurrying is all that I hear. Then I focus on the breathing. Some ragged, others relaxed. They don’t know that we’re here yet.

All hell breaks loose a few seconds later, and we’re in the middle of it. Loren goes down the steps in a blur that humans wouldn’t be able to follow. My mind goes on autopilot, focusing on who needs to be neutralized. I do a quick body count of people who aren’t bound or otherwise incapacitated. There’s Vincent, Austin, and a human I assume is Cammy. There are three others who smell of shifter.

Loren takes them all by surprise, quickly and effectively. He comes up behind Austin and removes the prospective threat with four quick twists of his wrists. Suddenly, Austin is writhing on the dirty cement floor with both legs and arms broken, weapons quickly removed.

The others turn to us in surprise.

“Brandon,” Hunter growls at one of the shifts.

Brandon’s eyes twitch to us as his hand moves down to the waist of his pants. I assume that he has a gun and react instantly. I’m instantly in front of him, moving with supernatural speed that I’ve never before possessed. I give a swift and clean punch to his throat with my now-hardened skin. When he falls back with a sickening thud, I know he won’t be getting up.

“You motherfucking bitch!” Cammy says, flying at me with an abandon you find in the mad and desperate.

Cammy hits me in a flurry of her little fists, trying to beat me into submission. Of course, she cries out when she lifts her hands up to find the knuckles broken and bloody, my skin still rock-hard. She falls down by Brandon’s body, screaming out with anger. Cammy lifts him up to shield her. I look away when the blood from the back of his head starts to gather in her blonde hair.

“Are you all right?” Hunter calls over to me, kicking away the limp body of one of the shifters I don’t recognize.

“I’m not hurt.”

It’s the first time I’ve had a chance to really look around. It’s a large concrete room without windows, and seemingly soundproof. One wall is lined with shackles and chains hanging from the ceiling. Two women are currently restrained by them. Both dirty, naked, and bloody. They cower, possibly unaware, but definitely very weak.

There’s a table in the corner, a large rectangular one that’s rough and basic. Maybe the sharp instruments littering the table are what make it look rough. I recognize some as old-fashioned torture utensils. There are pincers, knives, and all sorts of objects that I wouldn’t want near me. A good number of the ones on the table are bloody from use.

Near where Vincent is standing, beaming at Loren with no restraints, is a special little chair. I’ve seen variations of it before, though I wish that I could say otherwise. The high-backed chair has a restraint for the head, complete with a built-in gag. There are also restraints for the waist, upper arms, wrists, and legs. The chair’s legs and restraints are created to give the victim a wide and open stance. I try to ignore the stains of blood.

It’s what’s in the back of the room that disturbs me the most. Hanging from hooks on the ceiling are the bodies. There are three, and none that I recognize. All three corpses are naked, with cuts along their bodies. One has had her breasts removed, a puddle of blood on the floor below her. Her eyes are open, glazed over with a bluish haze.

The other two have their eyes closed, thankfully. One looks so peaceful, like she’s only asleep. There are precious few marks on her dark body, face relaxed, and head turned slightly away. Her hair hides the possible bite marks that may rest on her neck. The sickening twist of her neck speaks of something other than sleep.

“Vincent, what have you done?” Loren asks, as if not seeing anyone or anything else in the room besides his people.

The human in question looks at Loren with adoration. He fairly glows, though there’s nothing that he should be so happy about. “Master, I’ve shown you how loyal I am!”

“Indeed,” Loren says the one word, though it seems to carry the weight of the world.

Vincent’s smile finally begins to waver. “Aren’t you pleased? I’ve helped get rid of the lesser creatures. They think they’re just as good as us, when they’re clearly inferior. I’ve raised money for the coven too!”

“What did you do to them?” he asks.

Vincent looks slightly uncomfortable, as if he’s not sure what the right answer is. “I fed from them, like we do with our captives. Then I sold them and got money for the coven.”

“Who are all of these mutts?” Loren asks with distaste.

“I was going to kill them once I got enough money! Really, I was. I’d never keep this kind of company unless I had to. The werewolves overpower people easily, and the human coaxes them away,” Vincent explains.

“You said you fed from them?”

“I drank their blood and emotions, of course,” Vincent says with a little laugh and wave of his hand.

“You’re human.”

“No, I’m not. You made me a vampire when you gave me your blood,” he denies.

“I’ve told you before. I’ve explained it to you plenty of times. You know that drinking my blood cannot make you a vampire. Nothing can make you one,” Loren tells him simply.

Vincent cries out in pain. “You know that’s not true. If I prove myself—”

“He’s clearly guilty. I, as the leader of his coven, sentence Vincent Cole Williams to death,” Loren says solemnly, before adding, “You may at least die like a vampire.”

“Wh-what?” Vincent mumbles.

Knowing how vampires are killed, I turn away as a large, sharp sword is taken from the table so he can be “taken care of.” When I hear a slick snap of the sword and a thud, I know that he’s been decapitated. Hunter moves closer next to me and takes my hand. For once, I don’t fight it, and let my fingers lace into his as if it’s the most comfortable thing in the world, in the middle of the most uncomfortable of situations.

“What are you going to do with me?” Cammy comes up to our group, face and hair bloody, streams of tears down her face, and eyes full of hate.

The vampires all turn to one another as I look to Hunter. He appears strong, but I know this upsets him. Hell, it upsets me too. Seeing this level of pain never gets any easier, no matter how many times you see it.

“How did you get involved in this?” I ask her, actually curious.

Cammy’s face darkens. “A werebitch killed my brother. She could have bitten him and made him better, but she didn’t, and he died.”

“Werewolves and wereanimals can’t transfer the were gene. If she’d bitten him, he wouldn’t have gotten any better,” I point out.

She shakes her head violently. “That’s what they all say, but Vincent told me the truth.”

“Right,” I say, trying to keep myself from pointing out just where that got him.

“We’ll take you back with us,” Loren finally says.

Loren gives a henchman a subtle nod. He removes a gun from his waist and shoots her three times in the head. Then he turns to the still-howling Austin and pops him a few too.

“I’m going to have to get a team out here to clean things up,” Loren says, looking around with distaste.

“I’ll make a few calls,” one of the henchmen says.

Loren turns to me. “You’ll tell the hotel, enforcers, and convention that we’ve taken care of the matter.”

“I’ll make a few calls,” I confirm.

Loren nods. “Very good. If I start back home now, I won’t miss dinner!”

“Should we get the enforcers out here now, unless you want to have to identify the bodies and notify families?” I point out.

He gives that some consideration. “You’re right, they might want to take care of this instead. See that it’s done.”

Henchman number two takes out a cell phone. “They’re on their way.”