13
“There are no second chances to kill at first sight.”
—Eternal Truths for Every Man
Cameo sensed a change in Lazarus as soon as his soldiers came into view. Any hint of softer emotion evaporated. He became a man without a hint of vulnerability. A man determined to kill anyone who might detect one.
What she’d learned from his fight with the griffin: if he decided to strike, his opponent wouldn’t survive.
Never, in all her days, had she seen more aggression, darker rage or twisted brutality. And she’d lived with eleven demon-possessed immortals!
Did Lazarus realize he’d smiled while he’d ripped the griffin to ribbons?
She’d been mesmerized by the beauty of him. His array of tattoos—the ones she could see on his arms, anyway—had glowed with life and vitality, and she’d longed to see the rest of him stripped bare. He’d moved swiftly, so expertly, and with such fluid grace he’d appeared to glide on water.
If he could mete such violence without a corporal form, what feats could he perform if ever he rejoined the land of the living?
At his shout, his men loaded up the tents in record time.
“Mount up.” He stored the griffin heart in a satchel hanging from his winged horse and leaped upon the saddle.
Cameo offered her hand, and he yanked her in front of him.
The wounds in her shoulder and midsection throbbed, but she swallowed her wince. No reason to make him feel bad—the way Misery always did to her—when he only wanted to help her.
“Where are the children?” Viola spun in a circle, her delicate features contorted with worry.
“Your future husband is here, goddess.” Urban trotted his horse to her side.
Ever rode behind him. “Your crush is officially creepy, brother.”
“Agreed,” Viola said, even as she exhaled with relief. “I don’t want to brag, but I would only ever agree to marry...myself.”
“I’ll change your mind,” the boy insisted.
Lord help the ladies when he became an adult.
Since their birth, Urban and Ever had been sheltered from the rest of the world. With their abilities, they’d had to be. Plus, whenever they were angered, horns sprouted from their heads and claws extended from their fingers. Bronzed skin morphed into colored scales, and their eyes turned neon red. As young as they were, they had little control of the transformation.
“You’ve got the ring. You can use it to take everyone to the portal. I’m going to meet you there.” Viola waved them on. “Go. Now!” Then she vanished before anyone could protest.
“Viola can flash.” Lazarus snapped the stallion’s reins. “Good to know.”
He collected information about others, just in case ally ever became enemy, she would guess.
I’m learning him, Cameo realized.
“I don’t want to use the ring while the griffins are so close,” he said.
“Agreed.”
As he led the charge away from camp, and the creatures out for their blood, she decided to monitor the battle and threw a leg over the horse’s head, careful not to impede his wings. Then she kicked her other leg around Lazarus’s waist, straddling him. Palming her semiautomatic, she scanned the sky and gasped.
Sky serpents and griffins collided with so much force a blast of heated air exploded, shaking even the ground. Fangs slashed. Claws cut. Griffins utilized their metal-tipped wings. Sky serpents used their tails like whips, sometimes lashing, sometimes wrapping around snouts, necks and limbs to wrench and break.
Before, the threat level had propelled her into survival mode, drowning out the demon. Now Misery demanded what he considered his due.
Sky serpents hate you, and yet they fight to protect you, simply because Lazarus demanded it. Many will die today. The survivors will blame you. And rightly so! How long will Lazarus’s desire for you last, then, hmm? One day you’ll look back and comprehend this is the moment you traded his affections for safety.
A pang of sorrow nearly sliced her in two. They protect him, too, she retorted.
Misery flashed an image inside her head. The last scene Cameo had spied in the mirror: Lazarus walking away, never looking back.
The sorrow redoubled.
“Are you literally watching my back?” Dark amusement layered Lazarus’s voice.
“Sir, yes, sir. Sergeant Cameo has reported for duty.”
“Duty...or desire?” He was hard, long and thick between her legs, his erection rubbing against her heating core as the horse galloped.
She moaned, unable to escape the delicious friction, the constant pressure.
“You are too precious, sunshine.” He bit into her earlobe, igniting a wave of shivers inside her.
Her? Precious? Not a description anyone had ever used for her. She softened against him. His beard stubble abraded her cheek. Her breasts swelled for him, and her nipples beaded. Shocking heat stole through her, languid and sultry.
So easily seduced. He wants his night, nothing more...
Her hands clenched on her daggers. Demons ruined everything!
“Tell me,” Lazarus commanded softly. “How did Misery cock-block me this time?”
“Why don’t you read my mind like usual?”
“Because I suspect you’ve got a bomb in there.”
Hooves thundered, faster and faster. She caught sight of a man who appeared in the midst of the sky serpents. Sky serpents he ignored. He arrowed through the griffins, using his wings to slice and dice limbs from those in his path.
He wore a loincloth. His muscles were bigger than Lazarus’s and the top half of him sapphire, the bottom half of him emerald.
He spread long feathered wings, only to retract them and arrow through the beasts. In each hand he clutched a small hatchet.
“Who is he?” she asked.
Lazarus cast a glance over his shoulder and frowned. “Don’t know. But I will allow him to live since he isn’t harming my pets.”
True. Even though both griffins and sky serpents treated the newcomer as an enemy, biting and slashing at him.
“I wonder why he’s helping you,” she said.
“Or you. Perhaps he’s another of Hades’s emissaries.”
“Another?”
He disregarded her question, saying, “Perhaps he’s lulling the sky serpents into a false sense of safety. No matter. They’ll defeat him, too.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“My father trained them just as he trained me.”
So...they had been dropped into dangerous situations and left to fend for themselves? “I know Queen Hera—”
“Former queen,” he snapped. “Her title has been stripped.”
“Right. The former queen hid your father, yes?”
His expression twisted with a flash of rage. “Yes.”
“Tell me.” She rubbed her cheek against his. “Please.”
“He...lost mobility. He could walk, barely, but he couldn’t swing a sword. She swooped in and killed my mother while he and I watched. He was unable to do anything about it, and my efforts were ineffective. Then she flashed him away.”
Telling him You were only a child wouldn’t alleviate his guilt. Guilt always found a way to poke and prod at a heart that sought absolution.
“You’re no longer a boy,” she said. “You’re a man. The strongest one I know.”
A heavy pause. Then, with clenched teeth, he said, “I’m just like my father.”
“How?”
“I am—I don’t wish to speak of this any longer.” He adjusted her more firmly against him, his thumbs brushing against the undersides of her breasts.
A distraction? Too bad. She ignored the resurgence of heat in her body. “The queen I remember loathed the male species. Why would she keep your father?”
Oh, Cameo had heard the rumors. Zeus had locked Hera in his tower, enslaving and impregnating her. Then, when he’d broken her at long last, wedding and releasing her. Over the ensuing years, Hera had proved unbroken, sleeping with any man the king of the Greeks considered an enemy—or friend. She’d made secret deals with other powerful queens to ensure the most powerful males of myth and legend lost everything they held dear.
Had the formidable Typhon and his wife gotten caught in her crosshairs?
“A trophy, perhaps,” Lazarus finally replied.
She rested her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around him, offering comfort. “I’m sorry.”
“Typhon’s relationship with my mother weakened him.”
Cameo heard bitterness...and accusation? Did he think she weakened him?
A perceived weakness could be the reason he demanded a single night and eschewed anything more. To win him, she’d have to prove she strengthened him.
Did she? Could she?
He added, “Hera had no desire to hurt a child, or so she claimed, but she knew I would grow into a man. She used the Paring Rod to clip off a sliver of my spirit. Meaning, the owner of the artifact had the power to control me. When I was older, she gave the Paring Rod to Juliette. Gave the Harpy a piece of me, as if I were property.”
Her grip on him tightened. “I’m sorry,” she repeated, tears welling in her eyes.
“I will punish both females. I must.” Hatred laced his words, giving his tone frightening ferocity. “I, too, will keep a trophy.”
The demon purred with delight, sensing what Cameo hadn’t. The “need” for revenge was just another form of misery. As long as Lazarus remained focused on the wrongs done to him, he would never see what was right.
Poor Cameo. Never the priority. Always the consolation.
I’m not his consolation!
But...wasn’t she? Lazarus would never put her needs above his desire for retribution. With him, she would always come in second place. If she ranked at all. And wasn’t that a depressing thought.
For once, Lazarus didn’t try to tease her out of her bad mood, and it worried her.
Buck up! His view of me doesn’t matter. Thanks to Viola’s ring, we’ll be parting soon. In fact, we might never see each other again.
The pep talk failed to cheer her up.
As their group motored on, the only sound to be heard was the thunder of horse hooves and panting breaths. Eventually they were far enough away from the action—and the griffins who would surely try to follow—to open a new portal. One that led directly to the portal home.
Lazarus had to open the portal again and again to allow the entire contingent of soldiers to walk through. He and Cameo entered last.
“We’re here,” he said, his voice flat.
Already?
To his men, he called, “Halt.” He dismounted and helped Cameo and Ever do the same before draping the satchel that contained the griffin heart over his shoulder.
Viola appeared as promised, the stolen metals nowhere to be found, her arms cradling Princess Fluffikans.
Urban refused Lazarus’s aid and hopped down on his own to bow. “My most beautiful majesty.”
“Laying it on a little thick, kid.” Viola gently tapped him on the chin.
“I’m not a kid, I’m a warrior.”
Fetid air wafted to Cameo, and she wrinkled her nose. A dreary, gray landscape surrounded their group. Bare trees stooped over, as if they had been defeated by life and had just given up. At least fifteen different animals were scattered across a bloodstained ground, each in a different stage of decomposition. Insects crawled through empty eye sockets and hollowed torsos. Small, misshapen creatures chewed on the bones.
Viola’s brows knit with...confusion? “Something’s off. Well, no matter. I’ve braved through worse.”
Ever clapped and rushed forward, her arms outstretched. “Look! A puppy! Can he come with us? Please?”
“Ever,” Cameo called. “Stop!”
Lazarus linked their fingers and squeezed. His other hand remained in his pocket, jiggling whatever he’d stored in there. “The girl is fine, I promise you. At least physically. Anyone else would have run in the opposite direction.”
He led her forward and...the terrain changed in a blink. Cameo gasped. Here, the sun shone from a gloriously blue sky. Trees stood tall, leaves lush and amber. The color of happiness, just like Lazarus’s eyes. She inhaled deeply. The air smelled clean and fresh.
The carcasses were gone. So were the insects and the creep-fest of animals.
Ever stomped her foot. “No fair. I want my puppy.”
“Aunt Katarina will find the perfect dog for you,” Urban told her. “She vowed it, remember?”
“How is this possible?” Cameo demanded of Lazarus. He was responsible, guaranteed.
“You know of my ability to read minds. I’m also able to...affect minds. I can create illusions. Usually those illusions work,” he added drily.
Was there nothing this man couldn’t do? “So you created the rotten terrain?”
“Yes.”
Of course. Because who in their right mind would want to continue on?
“Where is the portal?” she asked. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to go.
He motioned to two towering trees, the air between their trunks shimmering like a diamond-dusted cloth.
The moisture in her mouth dried. The vision had come to life.
“Let’s send your friends home.” Lazarus strode to the portal. He peered into the distance, one minute bleeding into another.
Thinking of keeping me?
He must be. His words implied she was to remain in the realm. Her pulse points raced.
He removed the griffin heart from the satchel and a blade from the sheath at his waist. With a single flick of his wrist, he sliced the organ in two. Black goo dripped from the chambers.
Glimmering hands shot out from the portal and snatched one half of the heart. The diamond-dusted air undulated with more force, ripples rolling from top to bottom. He stored the other half in the satchel. For Cameo to use tomorrow?
“All right, you little terrors.” Viola placed Princess Fluffikans on the ground and clapped. “Are you ready to go home?”
Ever pouted. “I guess.”
Urban shrugged. “If we must.”
“You must,” Cameo said. “Your parents have probably burned Budapest to the ground in an effort to find you.”
Both children flinched.
Viola linked an arm with Urban and an arm with Ever and glanced at Cameo over her shoulder. “Give Lazarus a kiss goodbye for me...and use tongue. I would.” She winked, then marched forward with her charges in tow.
They passed through the portal, Fluffy at their heels, and vanished.
Tremors racked Cameo as Lazarus spun on a booted heel and pinned her in place with his hot gaze. “Stay. One more night.”
“I...” Want to. So badly.
She longed for pleasure-filled nights, erotic mornings and blissful days. The consequences be damned. Thanks to the mirror, she knew exactly what would happen if she traveled that path.
When she and Lazarus parted, and they would part, Misery might let her keep her memory, as he’d done in the first vision...or he might erase it, hoping she’d made the same mistake again. Curious about an immortal named Lazarus who might or might not be the key to her happiness, who might or might not have contemplated killing her before she left him.
And then there was a completely unknown path. Spending a single night with him. What would happen then?
She had no idea if humiliation, rejection and danger awaited her...
Without great risk, there was no reward.
I’m going to roll the dice. I’m going to take a chance on the second vision.
There were things she wanted to do in the mortal world. Things for Lazarus...
“No,” she croaked, then shook her head for emphasis. “I won’t stay the night.”
Sunlight stroked his features as he cupped her cheeks. He was just so beautiful, with those sardonic dark eyes, eyes so black they suddenly appeared blue. With that thick fan of lashes. Those sharp cheekbones. That blade of a nose. Those soft lips that were made for kissing. Correction: made for kissing her. The dark stubble on his jaw.
His Adam’s apple bobbed, a sign her scrutiny pleased him—which pleased her. “I can force you to stay,” he said. “Can hold you here until the portal closes.”
Oh, no, no, no. Her friends often acted like dictators, and it ticked her off. Her fantasy man would treat her as an equal. “And I can use your heart to reopen it.”
A small smile, quickly gone. “We aren’t done, sunshine. One way or another, I will see you again. I will find you. I will always find you.” The words were thrown at her, but she loved them, anyway. Loved them as much as Misery hated them.
She reached up to toy with the ends of Lazarus’s dark hair. “I might return...for the box.”
He gave a jerky shake of his head. “The box isn’t here.”
“You can’t know—”
“I do. It’s not hidden here, I swear it.”
“Rumors—”
Once again he cut her off. “Rumors claim the box is in a spirit realm. There are thousands.”
Well, shit. This was it, then. The end. “Will you miss me?”
“I will,” he grated.
Satisfaction flared...died. This couldn’t be the end. “I’ll make a pact with you. If you find a way through the portal, I’ll reward you. I’ll kiss you—” She traced a fingertip down the center of his chest. “Anywhere you desire.”
His pupils expanded, pinpricks of light blazing deep, deep in their depths. “Kiss me.”
Yes. She rose to her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his. He opened without hesitation, rolling his tongue against hers, tasting her as if she were a fine wine but also claiming control—claiming her. He sucked and nibbled, slid hands down her arms, around her hips, and cupped her bottom.
With a forceful yank, he tumbled her against him. Mmm. He was hard and strong and he held nothing back. Each glide of his tongue offered a hint of the satisfaction to come, and teased her with a glimpse of contentment.
And...and...happiness glimmered inside her, pure and incandescent, the only flame in a world of darkness. The light she had forever craved, but had always been denied. The sweetness she had never known, not even with Alex.
Lazarus had no illusions about who or what she was. He knew her, and he liked her, anyway. For that alone, she lo—liked him right back.
Misery fought her, deluging her with sorrow, drowning her lust.
Crying out, Cameo broke the kiss and stepped back. Lazarus reached for her, but she stepped back. “I’m sorry.”
“Cameo.” The growl had returned to his voice. “You’re mine, and I want what’s mine.”
So possessive. Shivers cascaded through her, sweeping away the sorrow. Welcome back, lust.
No more kisses to fuel her dreams and drive her wild, maybe even mad. She forced herself to walk backward, widening the distance between them, and closed in on the twin trees.
“I think your kiss got me pregnant,” he said. “You had better stay until we know for sure.”
“If you want me, darkpit, you’ll have to come get me.” Anything is possible.
“Stay.”
Tempted, oh, she was tempted. If she stayed, either long or short term, they had a present but maybe not a future. I want a future. This is my only hope.
Another step backward. “Remember your reward.”
Expression agonized, he followed after her. “I won’t be forgetting. Will you?”
Ugh. What if she did forget him? “It’s a risk we have to take.”
“Why? Why do we have to take it?”
“Because I want more than one night.”
“You can’t have it.” His hands fisted at his sides. “Stay here,” he insisted. “Your nipples are hard. I bet your panties are drenched. Let me ease us both before you leave.”
Lust tangled inside her, and her knees nearly buckled. Required all her might, but she shook her head, grabbed the other half of the heart from his satchel, blew him a kiss and raced through the portal.