Chapter Eight
Aaron woke up sandwiched between two bodies. One large, the other one bigger than him, but gangly. Leo and Kaleb. Aaron inhaled, instead of the rich spicy scent of Leo and the sweeter subtle smell of Kaleb, there was the cinnamon musk of a different god and a lighter honey flavor mixed with herbal soap.
Aaron was not in Sanctuary. He was in Purgatory. The god he slept next to wasn’t the Chimera but the bull-god, with his furred body, wide horns, and tail.
It flicked landing over Aaron’s hip.
The boy in Aaron’s arms rolled over. Yeven blinked his eyes open. His confused expression was momentary. The boy’s sad smile matched his soulful gaze. Aaron couldn’t help but wonder if he wore a similar expression when he thought of his god. They’d both lost one but for different reasons.
“I haven’t slept that good since I can remember.” Yeven snuggled closer, and Aaron held him. The boy’s sigh was warm against Aaron’s chest. How strange for someone so tall, to burrow under his chin. It gave Aaron a sense of strength he’d never experienced. He kissed Yeven on the forehead.
“He isn’t coming to get me, is he?”
Aaron knew who Yeven meant. He hugged the boy tighter.
“What will happen to me?”
Taurus lay with his eyes closed, one arm behind his head, the other over his stomach. His tail flopped over Aaron’s thigh.
Aaron made Yeven look at him. Us. Aaron pointed to himself and Taurus just in case the Doxie couldn’t read his lips.
“A god can’t claim two Doxies.”
Well, they could, but Leo had been unusual. Two beings, one body. But one god, even an extraordinary one, had never been allowed. Most couldn’t stay loyal to one Doxie, let alone two.
Aaron couldn’t understand how anyone could quit loving another person, but then he was a Doxie and not a being gifted with rare and sometimes impossible abilities.
Unless of course sucking cock was special. He didn’t think so. Aaron let Yeven’s chin go, and he lay his head back down on Aaron’s chest. The other Doxie’s warm caress glided down to Aaron’s ass, then back up. Yeven’s fingers moved in a zigzagged trail over Aaron’s scarred side. He pressed his face against Yeven’s wavy locks, inhaling the subtle scent of soap, real soap, clinging to his skin. They’d bathed in the heated pools after spending time with Wren and their gods. Of course, they’d wound up teasing each other as they lathered their skin.
It didn’t take long for the room to fill with onlookers as Aaron and Wren, and Yeven all took turns, sucking, petting, fucking each other. By the time they’d collapsed in exhaustion, they’d gotten dirty again.
That’s when Taurus and Malum allowed the other gods to tend to them. So many hands, so many places, gentle touches, hesitant in a way that said they feared the loss of the gift in front of them. Aaron was pretty sure he was the cleanest he’d ever been in his whole life.
At least he’d had enough strength to stay awake. It wasn’t easy, and he was sure he fell asleep while they took turns rubbing ambrosia cream over his skin and lubricating his hole.
Mostly because that last part was fuzzy in the back of Aaron’s mind. But he knew it happened because of the oil greasing his ass cheeks. He slid his fingers down Yeven’s crack to his hole. Lubricant squelched when he pushed in the tip of his finger.
Yeven moved closer and his cock pressed against Aaron’s leg. He removed his finger, and the other Doxie whimpered. Yeven raised his head, but he wasn’t looking at Aaron.
Aaron turned. Taurus’s eyes were open, and the points of his canines peeked out from under his upper lip.
Outside the door, shouts echoed up the hall. Taurus moved over both Aaron and Yeven, almost vaulting from the bed.
The bull-god stopped at the door. “Do not leave this room unless I come and get you.” Then Taurus was gone.
Aaron sat up, and so did Yeven. The shouts climbed higher, angry, violent. The door flew open and two gods Aaron didn’t know rushed in. They snatched Yeven off the mattress. Aaron dove over the end of the bed. His shoulder slammed into the floor, jarring his bones, knocking his teeth together. The god with the long white hair grabbed Aaron’s ankle, he kicked, but the man blocked it, then Aaron was off the ground.
His yell was nothing more than a hiss of air. With all the shouting and screaming, Taurus would never hear him. The other god had Yeven around his ribs and his mouth covered with his other hand. Aaron was carried into the hall. He thrashed and twisted. The arm bracing him tightened until he couldn’t take a breath.
At least half a dozen gods, some Aaron had served at Taurus’s command, were piled on the bull-god, wrapping him in ropes. A few held metal pipes, others had small knives. Weapons were not allowed in Purgatory, but somehow, they’d acquired them.
Aaron was pretty sure he knew from who.
Taurus lunged, catching one of the attacking gods in the side with a horn. The man screamed as his ribs were torn from his body. Another struck Taurus in the face, a third slashed at the back of his legs, aiming for his heels. If they cut the tendons there, he’d go down and have no chance of surviving them.
The largest of the men had dark red hair and brown skin. What looked like freckles dotting his back and shoulders glittered in the low light. The knife he wielded was no longer than his hand. He shoved it into Taurus’s side over and over. Blood stained his fur black. He turned, seizing the man’s arm.
Taurus’s angry gaze met Aaron’s. Tears blurred Aaron’s vision, and he beat his fists against the man carrying him up the hall.
Rage flared in the dark pools of the bull-god’s eyes. He clenched his fingers around the wrist of the god holding the knife. The bone in the god’s arm snapped. Taurus roared. Dust rained down from the ceiling, small pebbles pelted Aaron’s skin. The two gods who snatched them skittered to a halt. It was almost as if everything stopped moving as the ropes biting into Taurus’s hide strained, the braids snapping. He rose up to his full height, men were yanked from the ground. One fell in front of him, and he brought his foot down on the god’s chest. Crimson erupted from the man’s mouth, cutting off his scream. There was a knife stuck in Taurus’s shoulder, another in his side, and deep gashes across his abdomen. But he seemed completely unaware of the wounds as he bulldozed his way toward Aaron. The man holding Aaron ran, his friend leading the way. They cut up the hall and slid into a narrow passage Taurus would never fit through.
Aaron lost sight of the bull-god as he ducked into a different hall on the opposite side of the corridor. Was he going to find Malum?
Yeven cried out.
“Shut up, Doxie.”
Aaron’s arm scraped against the rough stone, and his heel caught a rock jutting from the side. He hissed and swung at the man holding him. Aaron’s hair was pulled hard enough to make his scalp scream.
“Do that again, and I will break both your arms.”
The darkness of the side tunnel gave way to bald light bulbs and fluorescing moss. The sickly green and flat yellow light fought a losing battle with the shadows.
“Up here.” The god leading the way took a right and ascended the stairs. The man carrying Aaron followed only to knock into the back of his companion when he stopped.
A low growl shook the air.
The man holding Aaron turned around. Taurus stood at the top of the steps. Blood dripped from his hands, mixing with what he lost from the wounds marring his skin. Somehow, he seemed even bigger.
“Fuck.” The man holding Aaron backed down. The one in front started to follow, but he lost his footing. Taurus shot forward, catching Yeven before he fell while the god who’d been holding him flipped head over heels down the steps. A flailing arm caught Aaron in the cheek and then his abductor stumbled before regaining enough balance to run. He got to the bottom of the steps, turned.
Malum blocked the hall, his wide shoulders left very little room on either side open for escape.
The man holding Aaron let him go and he hit the floor. Air whooshed out of Aaron’s chest, and grit sanded his knees. He was on his feet by the time Taurus emerged from the stairwell. He set Yeven down, and the other Doxie ran to Aaron. He held Yeven while Taurus stalked the other god. There was only the dead end of the hall a few meters away.
The assailant held up his hands. “I’m sorry, he made me.”
Malum walked past Aaron. “Go to my chambers, first hall on the right.” Then joined Taurus.
“Please.” The cornered god went to his knees. “Please, I had to. I didn’t have a choice. I had to do what Wolf said, or he would have killed me.”
Aaron pulled Yeven down the hall. He didn’t want to see what was going to happen.
“You should have let Wolf kill you.” Taurus’s words came out on a growl. “At least you would have died quick.”
The broken scream from the god on his knees chased Aaron and Yeven down the hall as they fled.
*****
Wolf. Fucking Wolf.
Taurus walked down the hall dragging the broken body of the god who’d taken his Doxie. Malum followed. The man Taurus towed made pitiful gurgling noises every time he hit a ridge on the floor. With his entire lower jaw gone along with his tongue, he couldn’t do much else.
Smears of red traced Taurus’s path as he headed toward Wolf’s chambers.
“Are you going to kill him?” Malum said.
“That depends on what he does.”
“You should.”
“If I do, we’ll be stuck here.”
“Like I said before, we’ll make Sol get us out.”
Taurus spit a glob of bloody saliva on the floor. “Sol is a puppet. A pretty bed piece. He has no power. He’s a lapdog who has his nose up the ass of the god he thinks has control or will have control.” And the bastard did not have a lick of honor. He’d been the one who had seduced the Oracle and helped Wolf.
Taurus had hoped Alton would find out. Considering Sol was still sticking his dick into Doxie ass, Alton obviously never did.
“We have to play Wolf’s game.” No matter how much Taurus hated it.
“Then when it is time to kill him, I call dibs.”
The knife in Taurus’s shoulder ground against the bone. He wanted to pull it out, but then it would bleed, and he’d already lost enough to make the air tingle when he inhaled.
Taurus entered Wolf’s chambers. He stood by the fire with a drink in his hand, dressed in one of his perfectly tailored suits. “I expect that you—” He froze, eyes on Taurus then slowly going to Malum and finally falling to the bag of broken flesh in bones in Taurus’s grip. He flung the god at Wolf’s feet, and the man rolled and flopped, slinging blood droplets across Wolf’s perfect white slacks. The abductor still had enough life in him to wheeze out a scream. He tried to move his arms and legs but only succeeded in pushing the jagged bones of his destroyed limbs through the tears in his flesh. It was amazing he was still alive. Maybe one of his abilities was surviving such damage. Pity for him, because he was going to be healing for a long-time. No one was going to give the man ambrosia. Taurus would make sure of it.
Wolf stepped back. “What are you doing here?”
The knife in Taurus’s shoulder grated with bolts of pain when he inhaled. “Don’t you mean, what am I doing still alive?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
If Taurus hadn’t known Wolf as well as he did, he might have entertained the idea he was innocent. While the man could not hide his emotions, he could hide his lies. Each and every one of them falling from his lips and ringing with the toll bells of truth.
No wonder he’d been able to talk Sol into something so stupid.
“Do not test me, Wolf. I could spend weeks breaking you only to heal you and break you again.”
“You touch me, and you will never see the light of day.” Wolf stepped forward. “I command the Sphinx. He will lock you in here if I tell him to. He will lock everyone in, and you’ll be left to rot with no food. And when you’ve eaten each other, all you’ll have left are your Doxies.” The venom in Wolf’s tone was no bluff. Taurus had seen him almost destroy the existence of Doxies once before. How Alton was able to save them, he’d probably never know, but he had. It had been hundreds of lives then, here there might have been half a dozen, if that.
Taurus turned. Malum cut him a look, and Taurus gave the barest shake of his head. Malum followed Taurus to the door, where he stopped. “My supplies.” Taurus didn’t look at Wolf when he said it. “I want them tomorrow. If I do not have them tomorrow, I will pick my teeth with your ribs.”
Wolf laughed. “Keep making threats Taurus, and we’ll see who has control. You have one Doxie, and I have the key to freedom. Which one do you think the men in Purgatory will favor?”
“They will not follow you.” Wolf was not strong enough. Years down here had changed the gods. There was an order, a line, a set of unspoken rules, each followed or they died.
“I don’t need them to follow me Taurus. I only need them to kill you.”
“Then where would you get your army?”
There was the slightest twitch in the man’s eye. “There are millions of humans I could gather.”
“But that takes time. Time, I don’t think you have. Because if you did, you would have never given me the boy. You would have never wagered on my honor to obey.”
Wolf’s expression hardened.
Taurus curled his lips. “You need me, Wolf. Maybe you thought taking Aaron would prove your strength when in truth it proved nothing but how much of a coward you are. You need me, as much as I need you. My supplies. Tomorrow. Do not make me wait.”
Malum still watched Wolf. The man glared at Malum. If Wolf could cause damage with his anger, he might actually be dangerous. “Go on, get out.”
Malum didn’t move.
Taurus waited.
The crackle and pop of the fire filled the room. Then Malum said, “I do not need your help to leave Purgatory, so your threats mean nothing to me.”
Wolf sneered. “If you could leave, you would have done it.”
“That’s where you have made a grievous error. I would suggest you do as Taurus asks. And if you ever put another scratch on a Doxie, cause them to shed a tear, even threaten them in your sleep, you will curse the woman who gave birth to you, and you will curse the hell I will drag you into kicking and screaming to burn for eternity.”
Malum turned and walked past Taurus, and he followed.
Nothing was said until they were heading back to the level where Malum’s quarters were located.
“Can you really leave Purgatory anytime you want?”
“Yes.”
“Then why don’t you?”
“Because Wren would never survive the cold of the ocean.”
“You’d swim?”
Malum laughed a little. “I cannot swim, but I can walk along the bottom until I get to land.”
“You don’t need air?”
“Only when it suits me.”
“Have you ever thought of leaving without your Doxie?”
Malum stopped. His ebony gaze all but burned. “Never.”
“Most gods would not have that kind of loyalty.” No, most gods, even those that thought they could love a Doxie forever, failed.
“I am not most gods.”
They started walking again. “What if Wren could survive the cold?” Taurus had been topside. All the gods had. No one wanted to believe leaving Purgatory was impossible. Surrounded by black water churning up chunks of ice where there was no sign of land, and the night was so cold, it was almost impossible to withstand it to catch a glimpse of the stars to figure out where they were.
Gods did not escape Purgatory. They left only when allowed.
“He can’t.”
“I don’t believe that. You are too resourceful. You could find a way.”
Malum slowed his steps until he was still again. His gaze was on something down the hall or maybe even something not in Purgatory. “If I leave, my brother will kill me.”
“You fear him?” And from what Taurus had seen of Malum, he feared nothing.
“Everyone fears him.” Malum put a hand against the wall. For the first time, his black on black eyes held emotion. Sadness, regret, it was impossible to know.
“What happened?”
Malum huffed. “I saved his life.”
“And now he wants to kill you?”
“I harmed a Doxie doing it.”
And no god worth the air he breathed would do that. “Your reason?” Because he had to have one.
Taurus waited.
“The boy was in love with a god, and the god told the boy he would only love him if he killed Marud. So, the boy went to serve my brother and slit Marud’s throat.”
Something told Taurus that would not be an easy task. Malum had taken nine bullets to the chest and had not flinched or bled.
“I threw the boy off Marud. He was badly injured. And the god he looked to abandoned him for failing. He could not be consoled. He gave up the moment the god pushed him away. Within a day he threw himself off a cliff. My brother blamed me.”
“But he didn’t kill you.”
“He came close, but Wren stopped him.”
A Doxie stopping a god? It shouldn’t have been possible, yet it made sense.
“Marud will not take a god from his Doxie, only because he doesn’t want the Doxie to suffer. The goddesses sentenced me to Purgatory, I went, and Wren followed. I stay…” Malum shrugged. “You know the rest.”
Taurus realized then what he saw in Malum’s eyes, both regret, and sadness. Only it wasn’t for himself, it was for Wren.
“One way or another, we will get out of here.” Taurus put his hand on Malum’s shoulder. He straightened up, and for a moment Taurus thought Malum might shake off his grip.
Instead, he returned it, putting a hand on Taurus’s shoulder as well.
*****
Thick fur surrounded Kaleb protecting him from the ground. He ran his hand over the pelt to where it ended becoming ridged hide. Moonlight glinted off the scales and made blue streaks in the fur.
He sat up. A pelt, a hide. Both were unmistakable.
His heart leapt into his throat.
The white orbs of the Chimera’s eyes glowed from the shadows. It stepped forward, its glossy mane reflecting the light from its eyes and the tiny illuminated hairs glittered down its sides.
The Chimera was bigger now than it had been hours ago.
Kaleb ran his fingers through the fur again. He realized he lay on a shed skin. The Chimera chirped and cocked its head. Kaleb stood and pushed against its chest. The wonderful spicy earth smell of its body filled his lungs.
“I’m sorry.”
It rumbled.
“I didn’t want to go.”
The thump in its chest was almost a purr, but too deep.
“But I don’t have an excuse for being with the other Doxies.”
It is as it should be. Bursts of purples, greens, and reds, followed the words drifting through Kaleb’s head. Every time the Chimera spoke, he couldn’t help but wonder if he’d just lost his mind, but then it would look at him, and its brutal gaze was the exact same expression Leo wore so often. A look that could mean so many things but no matter what made Kaleb hard.
The Chimera settled onto the ground, and Kaleb sat on its front legs, leaning against its chest. He’d forgotten about the plug until the movement jostled it. A bolt of pleasure made his insides cramp.
The Chimera jerked its head back.
“Sorry.” Should he take it out? Leave it in?
The Chimera knocked Kaleb over with its muzzle. He tried to sit up, but it put a hand on his back, pinning his belly to the shed skin.
“What are you…” And why the hell was he even asking? Kaleb hid his face in his arms as the Chimera sniffed him from head to ass. It nosed the plug, and Kaleb jerked. “Yes, I’m wearing a plug.”
Silken heat slid in two lines up Kaleb’s hip. He raised his head. The creature danced its forked tongue around the plug.
“Please, I’ll just take it out.”
The two strands of muscle wrapped around the plug then slithered under the base. A tickling crawl rubbed over Kaleb’s entrance where it was stretched, then pushed past the ring of muscle. The Chimera could thin out the forks until they were no more than a hair’s width at the ends or flex them and they’d be short and thick. It wasn’t the first time it had used the technique to wiggle its tongue into places Kaleb didn’t—but did—want it.
He shuddered as the length passed the plug. The squirming movement reminded him of that horrible monstrosity Leo had made him wear to the first Gathering. Was the Chimera’s tongue his inspiration for the moving plug?
Maybe if the god had known the beast could be real, it might have been. But Leo had been as shocked about the Chimera’s presence as everyone else. Kaleb knew the beast could see through Leo’s eyes, it watched him sometimes while Leo delivered punishment and pleasure. It wouldn’t have surprised Kaleb to find out the Chimera could do more than watch, that it could influence.
Pressure grew near the base of the plug, the slippery feel of those forked ends thickening the base just inside Kaleb’s hole. The width pressed against Kaleb’s prostate and he yelled. Cum soaked the shed hide under him. The Chimera purred.
“Please…”
Kaleb wanted to crawl away somewhere and die.
The Chimera retracted its tongue and bumped him with its muzzle. Kaleb nodded. He pulled his legs under himself, putting his ass in the air. The Chimera bumped him again. Kaleb reached back and pulled out the plug.
A shadow fell over Kaleb and the heat of the Chimera pressed against his back. It walked over him, the end of its cock pressing against Kaleb’s entrance. Shame warred with want. Need fought with humiliation. The thin tip of the Chimera’s cock slipped into Kaleb’s ass, first shallow, then deeper. He cried out as it stretched him wider, pushing more of itself inside him. Then it stopped, the quick thrusts were short but more than enough to ignite the fire in Kaleb’s balls, and he yelled, rocking back, trying to force himself to take the beast deeper.
The Chimera pinned Kaleb in place with a front claw.
“Why?” Kaleb wailed. “Why do I want this?” Why did he ache? Why did he crave? Why did he allow the Chimera to fuck him?
I am your god.
Kaleb shook his head. “Leo’s dead.”
I am your god.
Tears seared Kaleb’s cheeks. The Chimera’s movements stuttered. No matter how many times Kaleb tried to prepare himself, it never worked. His only comfort was the pain, and it was almost gone now. What frightened him more was the anticipation, the almost drug-like hunger rising inside him.
Jets of hot cum filled Kaleb’s ass, running down his crack over his balls as the Chimera continued to thrust. Not too deep, just enough it felt like Leo’s cock. As if it knew Kaleb’s limits. The second release burned hotter, and Kaleb clenched his eyes shut. The sharp jab to his prostate had him shooting cum all over the shed skin.
“More!” Kaleb clawed at the ground. “More, more, pleeeease.” He tried to ride back not caring if he impaled himself, tore something, punctured his insides, he simply had to have more of the euphoric rush, the thought numbing high, the blistering pleasure.
Sound brightened, the light burned his eyes, the feel of the Chimera’s touch static shards piercing his skin. The poison burned hotter than the creature’s release.
The Chimera withdrew. Kaleb yelled. It flipped him over and covered his cock with its mouth. Sharp points teased Kaleb’s skin. Every thrust of Kaleb’s hips made those contact points flare. The Chimera sucked, and Kaleb lost himself, over and over, until his release was nothing more than a fog he couldn’t escape.
He collapsed, and long soft strands of silken mane fell over Kaleb. He was jostled to the right, then left as the Chimera tucked him under its chest and curled around his body.
It is done.
What? What was done?
The creature’s eyes glowed in the darkness created by the flight leathers of its wings.
You will be protected.
Kaleb didn’t understand. He wasn’t sure if his confusion was because of the buzzing sound in his ears or the constant throb of his heart echoing through every cell of his body.
You will be protected when the Tide comes. You will be protected when the sky falls. You will be protected when they come for you. All of you. All of you will live.
Kaleb wrapped his arms around the Chimera’s muzzle and drifted into a dreamless sleep.
End.
Book Eight is due out by May 10, 2018. Sooner if possible.
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