Blood Revolution (God Wars, #3) (29 page)

"Nah, I'm not into drool," he teased. "I just tell 'em to stay quiet or the hand descends."

"Huh?"

"I can spank. I don't mind doing it."

"I bruise easy," I pointed out. I didn't add that he and Jayson had already tried that tactic, with bad results.

"I know. If I spanked you, I'd ruin it by kissing your little ass afterward."

"Too bad Jayson didn't feel the same way," I muttered, huddling against Hank. It wouldn't do to go too far down that road; I was already trembling slightly.

"Hey," Hank tightened his arms around me. "This is just pillow talk. Nobody's gonna hit you, I promise."

"Yeah?" Jayson stuck his head inside the door. Hank had obviously sent mindspeech.

"Come here, Rome." Hank said. "You need to kiss Bree's ass for spanking it," Hank said.

"What?" I struggled in Hank's grip.

"Baby, he owes you more than that. Lie still, now."

"No," I thrashed against Hank.

"Hey, I'm not gonna hurt you," Jayson settled on the edge of the bed and leaned over to tug on the waistband of my short pajamas.

"See," Hank said as Jayson slowly pulled the fabric down, revealing bare skin. "Now," Jayson breathed against me, "I get to kiss this." He did. Several times. And then the pajamas came down more. Hank took my hands and kissed them before sucking on my fingers. Jayson pushed me over on my back, pulled the pajamas off and buried his head between my legs.

"Hank," I whimpered.

"It's okay, baby. It's okay. Jayson's gonna take care of you."

"God, you taste good," Jayson murmured against me.

"Bree, there's nothing to worry about. No need to feel embarrassed. This is natural. Normal, with multiple mates," Hank still held onto my hands, kissing them between words.

"Move aside, bro," Jayson pulled himself over me. Hank scooted out of the way. "Yeah. I get a kiss. Finally," Jayson locked his mouth onto mine, and his body joined mine at the same moment. "See? I can treat my girl good. Yeah. So good. So tight. Like heaven."

* * *

 Did I say I felt like a shameless hussy before? That was like the snowball that started the avalanche. I'd been in bed with Hank and Jayson, all night. We may have gotten four hours' sleep. Maybe.

Hank and Jayson didn't seem to think anything of what we'd done the night before. I couldn't believe I had so little willpower. I told Hank that.

"Bree, willpower has nothing to do with it," Hank said, running fingers through my wet hair after we'd gotten out of the shower. Yeah, Jayson was there, too, and showing off the tattoo of a black rose on his left hip. The rose looked like leather. Who knew?

"It has everything to do with love, caring and affection," Hank added. 

"And embarrassment," I huffed.

"You're not embarrassed are you? Bree, I want to fuck you all day long," Jayson settled beside me on the dressing bench. "I had no idea anybody could clench that hard in a climax. That pussy is like magic."

"Jayson, please shut up." I covered my face with both hands.

"Bree, bite him," Hank said.

"What?" I dropped my hands and stared at Hank's image in the mirror.

"Go on, give him that."

"Will it hurt?" Jayson asked.

"Says the man who likes to swing a whip," I huffed.

"I've never been bitten before," he pointed out.

"Fine. Jayson, I won't hurt you," I cupped the back of his neck in my hand. "I'll be gentle," I added, leaning in to kiss the skin covering the artery. Jayson moaned. "Shhh," I soothed, before sinking my fangs in his throat.

* * *

"Breanne, please bite me every day. Please," Jayson begged after coming back from the most intense climax (according to him) he'd ever experienced. I'd swallowed a mouthful of blood with difficulty, but I'd done it.

"Hon, you don't need to give up the blood. Every three or four weeks is acceptable."

"Not to me," he pouted. "I can't believe we wasted so much time, when you could have bitten me at the start."

"I've created a monster," I sighed and went to find something to wear.

* * *

"I knew I wanted this house before, but this is amazing," Winkler hopped out of the indoor pool when Jayson, Hank and I walked in. He was right—the house was huge and had everything, including ten bedrooms, a game room, the indoor pool and spa, plus a kitchen that most people could never hope to afford.

Bill sat on a lounge chair nearby, reading reports on a tablet. "Hey," I walked over to him and leaned down for a kiss.

"Sweetheart, sit here with me," Bill pulled me down beside him while Hank and Jayson dropped into the pool for laps. "Have a good night?" he asked before kissing me again.

"Yeah. I think so."

"Did you enjoy yourself?"

"I think so."

"Breanne, stop thinking in outmoded terms," Bill said, setting the tablet aside and pulling me against him. "This is how multiple mates works. Everybody knows each other and gets along. That's how it is."

"How many conversations have you and Hank had about this?" I asked.

"Several. You can't expect us not to communicate about how to make this work, Bree. We want you happy. We want to be happy, too, and if we don't get along or talk to each other, there could be problems."

"Great."

"Look, talk to us. We'll listen. It's not like we're ganging up on you or something."

"Really?" I leaned back to watch his face. "It seems to me that you all make the decisions now, and I get left out of it."

"Bree, what are you saying?" Hank stood at the edge of the pool, his black hair wet from jumping in and swimming a few laps. His elbows rested on the slate tiles as he studied me, his dark eyes unreadable.

"She's saying that you're men, and you're going to do what you're going to do, no matter what. She can talk all she wants, and you'll pretend to listen, but at the end of the day, you'll always believe you're right." Opal's bare feet pattered on the tile as she walked toward the pool. "Even if you're not right," she added, "you'll only say you're sorry afterward, instead of considering that you ought to pay better attention next time."

"Opal, I hope you're not right about that," Bill said. I pulled away from him and stood up.

"I'm going to read for a while. Feel free to argue amongst yourselves," I said and walked out.

* * *

"Dee, I don't feel right," Gavril complained.

"What? Do you need a healer?" Dee jerked his head up to stare at Gavril. "I thought you weren't susceptible to disease." Gavril had wandered into Dee's office after ignoring a report on dwindling resources on Campiaa.

"No. It's not that. I just feel—empty. I think I'll go for a walk."

"Take one of the warlocks with you," Dee said and watched as Gavril strode out the door.

* * *

"It's the Founder, Teeg San Gerxon." Yes, he heard the whispers clearly. He had vampire hearing, and it worked perfectly. His mind, however, could no longer be trusted. It wandered. Blanked out at times. He had no idea what might be happening to him. In fact, he'd forgotten for a moment that Dee had said to take a warlock with him before he'd misted away from San Gerxon Palace and landed in one of the casinos.

Gavril didn't even know which casino he walked through. His thoughts were almost empty. Bare. There was no joy in anything. No sorrow, either. Or guilt. Nothing. A fleeting moment of clarity informed him that this had started years earlier, but it had been so gradual, he'd barely noticed. The tipping point had passed long ago, however, and he'd only realized it recently.

"May I get you anything, Master San Gerxon?" someone asked.

"What?" Gavril turned to blink at the man. "Do I know you?" he asked.

"We've met," the man smiled and plunged a knife into Gavril's heart.

Chapter 14
 

Lissa's Journal

"He's dying, despite our best efforts," Karzac's eyes held worry. Larentii were inside the bedroom with Gavril—they were the best healers, and even Karzac couldn't compete with their ability.

"Karzac, you have to save him," I wept. Gavin stood nearby, completely silent. He'd been mostly silent lately anyway, and I couldn't explain that. Didn't want to think about it, even, while our son was dying.

"What about the Wise Ones? Can't they do something?" I was about to unravel, and I needed to keep my sanity.

"Let me see if I can do something about this," Conner appeared, flanked by Graegar and Barrigar, her Larentii mates.

"What?" I blinked at her.

"We need to see him—Gavril. There's something we suspect, and if it's true, even the Wise Ones can't save him."

"What do you suspect?" I wiped tears away to clear my vision.

"That Gavril's soul has been leeched away by a former self."

"What?"

"I told you before that some were being pulled away from the other side. This is something else that can happen," Conner said grimly. "If someone with sufficient power goes back in time and pulls your former self into the future, where you also exist, only one body will get the soul. Without power of your own, or permission or protection from the powerful, both of you can't exist at the same time."

"Are you saying that Gavril in a former life was brought forward, and now he's losing his soul to the other one?"

"Because the first one gets priority," Conner nodded. "And he's not losing his soul. If I'm right, it's already gone."

"But how long?" I blinked at her in confusion.

"If the person is strong, it can take years. At times it will be so gradual it can appear natural, unless someone powerful enough to see the soul notices, anyway. Gavril hasn't been what I'd term himself, in a long time," she added.

"If we find the other one," I began.

"You'd have to kill him, and that would be the same as murder—he likely hasn't done anything wrong. I suspect he's a prisoner, wherever he is. If you carried him back in time, he'd still retain the soul. And if you did kill him, there's a good chance they'd both die anyway."

"Lissa," Graegar spoke gently, "It is my hope that we can salvage the other. He will hold the soul—and the memories—of your son, in addition to those memories he had before. It may weary him at times, but the soul will be the same one—it will merely have grown since he held it before."

"You're saying I have to let my son die?"

"Lissa, he's dying. There's nothing we can do about it. What we can do is search for the other one, because he'll die too, the moment they learn that Gavril is gone." The Guardian had appeared in Conner's eyes and blinked at me with god-like sternness.

"What happened?" Reah had arrived, with Tory, Ry, Aurelius and Edward. Edward cradled Lexsi in his arms; it was easy to see that Reah was trembling.

"Too much," I whispered and let darkness take me.

* * *

Breanne's Journal

I'd started three books and stopped reading all of them after only a few pages. Something was wrong—I could feel it. Of late, my prescience seemed to be unreliable, too, and I didn't know what to think about that. The thick, padded headboard of the bed was at my back as I sighed and tossed my e-reader onto the bed in frustration.

Breanne
, the voice came. Graegar.

What is it, honey?
I asked.

Breanne, I feel we need your help. Gavril is dying, and there is nothing we can do to stop it, even if we Change What Was. His soul has been pulled away, and we need your help to find it
.

Where are you?
I sent, crawling off the bed and preparing to leave. Hank would be pissed, as would everyone else, but this was what bothered me, and I hadn't even gotten any signal from it.

At Lissa's palace
, he explained and sent me the date. Bless Graegar; he knew I wasn't in the same time period.

On my way
, I sent and bent time.

* * *

I didn't need an explanation—I read it in Graegar the minute I set foot inside Lissa's palace.

"How in hell is that even possible?" I breathed and shook my head.

"We have to save the one from the past, because he holds Gavril's memories as well as his soul." I stared at Conner as she spoke.

Yes, she'd been a Shining One once—a messenger for the One. She still ferried souls to the other side—if they couldn't find their way or refused to go. Now, she appeared human, with long, blonde hair, blue eyes and a faint resemblance to Kiarra. They were half-sisters as humanoids.

"Any idea where to look?" I asked.

"I can locate the soul," Conner sounded determined, "Now that I know which one to search for. But I'll need your help to get him away, more than likely."

"I can't tell you how much it scares me that they can do this," I pointed out.

"Usually they can't, because only a few have the talent to discern who somebody was in a former life. Lissa named Gavril appropriately. He was Tybus in his former life."