Unchained: An Eternal Guardians Novella (6 page)

His hands captured her face, slid into her hair, and when he groaned against her, she opened to him, drawing his tongue into her mouth and his heat and life deep into her soul.

He tasted like mint. Like heaven. Like sin and paradise all rolled into one. And she was desperate for more. Desperate to touch and taste and know him as no one ever had. Desperate to lose herself in him for as long as she could before reality dragged her back to the abyss.

His tongue stroked against hers, inundating her with long, wet, deep kisses she felt everywhere. Her breasts grew heavy, her nipples tight, and an ache built between her legs, one she knew only he could assuage. Groaning into his mouth, she moved closer, until their bodies were plastered together from chest to knee, and his growing erection pressed hard against her belly.

Gods, she wanted him. More than she could ever remember wanting anyone in her 2200-year life. She hadn’t lied. She’d been a conniving witch before Zeus had trapped her on Olympus. She hadn’t cared who she’d hurt in her quest for power. She’d seduced immortals who could grant her extra powers, then tossed them aside when their usefulness to her was spent. And she would have done the same to Zeus if he hadn’t double-crossed her. But imprisonment had taught her a very valuable lesson. That all life had value. And when she’d stopped scheming, she hadn’t even missed sex or companionship. Until now.

“Keia...” He whispered her name as he changed the angle of their kiss, as his hands slid down her hair, over her shoulders, and along the length of her spine.

Keia. His whispered word penetrated her hazy mind as his hands reached her waist and he pulled her tighter to him. Not Circe. Not her name. He didn’t even know who she was. He was falling under her spell, and she was letting him. A spell she’d cast for her own gain, just like all the other spells she’d cast before her imprisonment.

Her hands drifted up to his shoulders and over to his pecs, and she groaned at how hard and carved he was beneath her palms, but she told herself not to be distracted. Somehow she found the power to push against him and step back, breaking the kiss she only wanted to get lost in.

His face was flushed as he looked down at her, his lips swollen from her mouth, his eyes glazed and so close to gone. “What’s wrong?”

“I...” Her heart cinched down tight, sending pain rippling along her ribcage. A pain she’d never felt before, not even when that shade had attacked her.

She had to tell him the truth. She couldn’t go through with this lie. If she did, she was no better than Zeus. If she did...it meant she’d not learned a single thing in the thousand years she’d been trapped on Olympus.

“I can’t—”

The unmistakable sound of claws scratching against stone sounded somewhere close, shooting Circe’s pulse into overdrive. She darted a look to her left, not seeing the gazebo or forest but seeing the bars of her cell in the bowels of Olympus.

“Keia?”

“I have to go,” she said quickly, stepping further away from him. “I can’t stay any longer.”

She broke the feed and swiveled toward the sound. Prometheus’s frantic “Wait,” faded in the air. The gazebo dissipated. Dank rock walls appeared around her. She jerked back, knocking the bowl she’d been using to conjure her magic from the pedestal in the middle of the room. It clattered against the hard stones. The flames snuffed out. Hot, red cinders scattered across the floor and paled until they were nothing but cold black coals.

Her heart raced as she flattened her body against the rocks and prayed he moved past, that today she’d be spared.

Her cell door clanged open. She closed her eyes and held absolutely still, knowing there was no use in fighting. Remembering when she’d struggled yesterday and the blinding pain that had followed.

Before she had time to conjure a protection spell, he snarled and lunged. His big body slammed into hers, knocking her head against the hard stones. Pain ricocheted across the back of her skull. Even though she told herself not to, she tensed and cried out. His fangs sank deep into her throat, ripping through her flesh.

She somehow forced herself to relax so he wouldn’t tear her to pieces. As the shade feasted on her blood, tears streamed down her cheeks. Tears of horror. Tears of agony. Tears of blinding, bitter madness.

This was her fate. To be punished day after day after miserably long day.

Just, she remembered as her vision darkened, as Prometheus had been punished so long ago.

CHAPTER FOUR

He couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Prometheus paced the length of the library in his lonely castle, his blood humming with lust as he remembered the kiss he’d shared with Keia in the gazebo. She hadn’t appeared to him in two days. Not in his dreams, not in his waking hours. Hadn’t once called to him in all that time, either. He’d yet to hear her voice since she’d poofed out of his arms in the early morning light, and he was going nuts waiting for her to contact him again. Not only because he didn’t like the thought of her anywhere near Zeus, but because he itched with the need to touch her. To taste her. To feel her everywhere.

This need was stronger than anything he’d ever felt. Not just lust, he knew, but something more, something primitive, something so all-consuming it was all he could focus on.

His mind skipped back over the blood he’d found in the gazebo, and his steps slowed as he remembered the way she’d abruptly left him—twice now. She’d told him the blood had been animal, not hers, but he couldn’t stop wondering if they were somehow connected. She’d said she was a prisoner. He, better than anyone, knew how the king of the gods treated prisoners. He thought back to her creamy flesh in the low-cut green gown and her flawless face. She hadn’t appeared hurt when she’d come to him, but she knew how to use magic, and if Zeu—

Voices sounded from the corridor, bringing his head around. His heart picked up speed when he realized one voice was female. Was it her? Was she back? He stepped toward the door, excitement burning like fire in his blood, only to draw to a stop when his daughter Natasa and her mate, Titus, appeared at the threshold of the room.

Disappointment swept through him, a disappointment he tried to mask.

“There you are,” Natasa said with a smile as she crossed toward him, slid her arms around his waist, and pressed her cheek to his chest. “Hi,
pateras
.”

Pateras
. Father. He didn’t feel much like a father. He felt like a failure when it came to her.

His arms drifted around her slim shoulders, and he hugged her back, but when he looked down and caught sight of her flame-red hair—red thanks to the fire element he’d hidden from the gods in her blood hundreds of years ago and which had caused her intense pain until she’d been reborn in the flames—the guilt he always felt around her consumed him again.

She was safe, he told himself. No longer suffering. And she was happy. His gaze drifted to Titus, standing with his hands tucked into the front pockets of his jeans, his dark wavy locks tied at his nape with a leather strap, a bemused expression across his face.

Titus loved Prometheus’s daughter. Would do anything to protect her. Their bond was strong and real and deep.

His gaze drifted back down to Natasa. To her flame-red hair. Hair that was as red as Keia’s.

Urgency pushed in again. He needed to find Keia. Couldn’t go on waiting. Why the hell hadn’t she appeared to him yet?

Natasa eased back and looked up. “We came out to invite you to dinner tonight.”

His daughter was speaking to him but he could barely make out her words. All he could think about was the witch.

“
Pateras
?” she asked. Then, “Titus?”

Footsteps sounded close, followed by Titus’s quiet voice. “He’s blocking me. I can’t tell what he’s thinking.” Then louder, “Prometheus? Dude, are you feeling all right? You don’t look so good.”

Prometheus blinked several times and finally focused on his daughter’s worried face, then looked past her to her mate’s narrowed hazel eyes. Titus stood behind Natasa, his hand resting on her shoulder, the ancient Greek text that marked his and all the Argonaut’s forearms visible in the lamplight.

The male wasn’t wearing his ever-present gloves. Titus had the ability to not only hear others’ thoughts, but to pick up their emotions through touch. That ability, Prometheus knew, was one Titus had always considered a curse. But with Natasa he liked knowing what she was feeling. One look at his daughter’s face told Prometheus she was feeling fear and confusion...all because of him.

That knowledge jolted him out of his trance. Fixing a relaxed look on his face—as relaxed as he could manage considering his focus remained locked on Keia—he smiled. “I’m fine. How are both of you?”

Natasa’s worry fled, and she reached for her father’s hand. “Good. Titus has to leave on a mission in the human realm with the Argonauts day after tomorrow so we thought we’d cook dinner for you tonight. It is your birthday, you know.”

His birthday. He’d totally forgotten it was his birthday. At his age, one didn’t celebrate birthdays anymore. Especially when one’s life was as empty as his. A birthday was just a reminder of the passing years and the life he wasn’t living. But today he wanted to celebrate. Just not with his daughter and her mate. He wanted to celebrate with Keia.

A renewed urge to find her rushed through him. To see her. To touch her and taste her. To make sure she was okay. If she wasn’t going to come to him, he needed to go to her. He’d go back to the gazebo. Find a way to contact her. There had to be something in that gazebo that could draw her back to him. He didn’t know what but maybe if he used his Titan powers he could—

“
Pateras
?” Natasa said again. “You’re starting to worry me.”

Prometheus blinked again and looked down at his daughter. But inside, his heart was racing.

“No need to worry.” Grasping Natasa at the biceps—careful not to graze Titus’s fingertips in the process—Prometheus pressed a kiss to the top of her head and released her. “Thanks for the invite but I actually have plans tonight. And I’m already late so I should get going.”

“You do?” Natasa’s brow lowered as Prometheus stepped around her and Titus. “With whom?”

“With a female.”

Surprise and approval lit Natasa’s eyes as she looked up at her mate, then back at Prometheus. She knew he never made plans. “Who is she?”

Stopping at the threshold of the library, he looked back. “A witch. And before you say anything, I know what I’m doing.”

“I’m sure you do. Have fun, I guess.” A wry smile spread across Natasa’s lips. “And don’t do anything stupid.”

Before he knew what he was doing, he smiled back. “I won’t.”

And he wouldn’t. Because what he planned to do with Keia wouldn’t be the least bit stupid. It would be hot and wild and, if she let him, mind-meltingly satisfying for both of them.

* * * *

She couldn’t keep doing this.

The reality of Circe’s situation was a heavy weight on her shoulders as she focused her powers to bring the gazebo into focus. Zeus’s shade had hit her again just as her strength had returned from the attack that had pulled her away from Prometheus two days ago. She never knew when the shade was going to come, which made it impossible for her to prepare herself for his assault. If she had any hope of surviving this nightmare she needed to spend her time focusing her powers to protect herself rather than wasting them building this fantasyland.

That knowledge caused an ache to spread out from the center of her chest. Not because it meant she was going to disappoint Zeus by not getting him the element he wanted, but because it meant no longer seeing Prometheus.

She’d thought long and hard about this decision while her body had been healing. When she was stronger, when she knew how to fight the shade, then she could come back and find Prometheus again. But right now she needed to protect herself or she’d never have the strength to go through with her plan.

“Keia.”

Fabric rustled behind her in the fading afternoon light. Startled out of her thoughts, Circe turned to see Prometheus rising from the chaise and striding toward her. Her pulse shot up as he drew near. His hazel eyes were a little bit wild, a whole lot hot, and when he reached her and his hand brushed her elbow, electrical impulses shot from the spot straight into her belly.

She swallowed hard, told herself to be tough. That she’d come here to say good-bye for now, not get lost in his immortal good looks and fabulous scent of pine and citrus. But her resistance wavered as he pulled her in, as his long, lean body brushed hers, and his mouth lowered to draw her into a blistering hot kiss.

His lips were just as fierce as his eyes, and the moment his tongue dipped inside to stroke against hers, all the reasons she’d told herself she couldn’t have him faded in the ether.

Her hands slid up his chest and around his neck. Her breasts tingled as she leaned into him, as she kissed him back, as she melted in his arms like honey. A moan rumbled from his chest, and he tightened his arms around her, drawing her even closer to his heat and energy and life. Her fingers drifted into the silky hair at his nape. Desire turned to a frantic urge she couldn’t resist. In a haze, she realized she was moving, being drawn forward as he moved back, but she didn’t care. All she could focus on was his desperate kiss, his commanding hands turning her in the gazebo, the way his erection pressed against her with a heedless need of its own.

“Gods, Keia.” His fingers found the line of buttons down her spine as his lips moved to her jaw. Shivers rushed over her as he breathed hot across her skin and pressed a wicked line of kisses down her throat. “I haven’t been able to think about anything but you since you left.”

His hands made quick work of the buttons on her dress as she trailed her fingers down his muscular back and up and under the black T-shirt he wore. Sparks of desire coiled in her belly, made her thighs tremble in anticipation. Her eyes slid closed as she traced the carved lines of his abs and savored the sensation. “Me too.” Oh gods, she couldn’t think when he kissed her like that. “I mean you. Titos...don’t stop doing that.”