Chapter Fifteen
Addie-May heard the raised voices before she entered the kitchen. Should she go in? What she really needed was solitude, peace, and quiet to squelch all the hormonal surges and longings zinging through her body for the first time in years. She’d been able to keep Dorian from her bed for two nights due to her unexpected period, but what would be her excuse when it departed? And did she want an excuse? His body which had kept her on edge even at her advanced, grandmotherly age, now called out to her at every opportunity. Damn, if the man didn’t present a mouthwatering physique.
The witch hitched in a breath and walked through the kitchen door. Talk ceased as the all-female assemblage got a good look at Addie. She’d been lying low with her new, youthful visage, but she’d become damned tired of hiding.
“Gram. You really look fantastic,” Lenore gushed. “Gramps has outdone himself this time.” There were a lot of agreeing nods.
“Let’s not go there.” Addie glanced in the pan at two unclaimed pancakes. She speared them both onto a plate and headed to the table to join the women. “Meeting of the female minds?” she asked, taking her first bite and chewing slowly.
“Meeting of the Goddess League,” Tess corrected. “But don’t worry. We’re an equal opportunity, all-immortal group.” The ladies laughed. They’d formed the GL over several glasses of wine one night, complaining the men were getting a little high-handed. Hence, the women had banded together to lay down a few edicts of their own.
“So, what’s on the docket this morning?” she asked.
Candy unearthed a thick piece of parchment from behind her back and didn’t look apologetic in the least. “We thought you might be one of the guys,” she explained. “No need to get them involved until we make some decisions.”
Addie waited patiently for her to continue.
“I got it yesterday from Stave. You remember him? The Underworld king’s secretary and Candy’s friend. We’ve been taking turns with it.” She waved the scroll about.
Ahh. Addie-May caught a glimpse. The damning document that would send the gods to Hell.
“We’ve gone over the language in this agreement again and again, and we all concur. But we need an attorney or someone more knowledgeable to make sure.”
“What’s the verbiage in question,” Addie asked. “My mother had her law degree, and I spent many years working in her office as a paralegal. Maybe I can help.”
“Shit. I forgot about Great-Gram being a lawyer,” Lenore smacked herself in the head. “I’m an idiot.”
“No, dear, you’re pregnant. There’s a difference.” Addie had the ladies snickering, at least the ones who were or had already experienced what they all fondly termed ‘mother brains.’ “Now, pass it to me.”
Addie took the document and groped for her reading glasses…and, where were they? For a moment, confusion reigned. They weren’t hanging from the neck of her shirt. Color came up in her face at all the amused looks from around the table.
“Right. I forgot I don’t need them anymore,” she said, sheepishly, and the table broke up in laughter.
“And that one’s a big perk, unlike your monthlies coming back,” Lenore quipped. Addie chuckled right along with them. The joke certainly was on her.
“Alright then, where is this clause?” Amazing that she didn’t have to shift the paper out to arm’s length. The letters were crisp and clear, right up close.
“Look at paragraph seventeen,” Candy instructed. “That’s where the fucking bitch," ―she spoke of the goddess, Beletseri, who had become their biggest enemy― “put in the time constraints on finding Chosen.”
“… and the aforementioned deities will have eighteen months from the execution of this contract to fulfill their obligation to find and formally mate the individuals who are their Chosen. If said obligation is not completed by each individual named in the period allotted, the gods herein will all be immediately relegated to the Underworld without their Chosen. The gods will, thereafter, reside in hell for eternity.” Addie pursed her lips and turned her face back up to the women. “It appears pretty cut and dried to me.” She shook her head at the finality of it all. “What is your question?”
“It says that they will immediately be sent back to the Underworld without their Chosen,” Lenore spoke up, excitedly. “But it never says we can’t follow them to Hell at a later date.”
Addie paused, thoughtfully. Her face brightened. She reread the wording.
“You’re correct. It only says they will be sent back without you… but it never states that they are to remain without you. The way this reads? I would say they have to be sent back at the very moment the contract states, but if the bunch of you up and move down later, at your own behest… that doesn’t breach the contract at all.”
“We could have Blue Hills compound, part two, down below,” Candy grinned. “Holly,” she turned to look at Dagon’s goddess. “You have a direct line to Ereshkigal. We need to run this by her. Can you give her a call?” Holly nodded, enthusiastically, and retreated deep into her head to contact the queen of everything below. The goddesses all adored Ereshkigal, and it felt only right she become part of this discussion.
“She’ll be here―” Holly got cut off because the tall, dark-haired goddess poofed in at that very moment.
“Ladies.” the queen enthused, reaching to the nearest goddess for a hug and receiving many before she finally sat down. “I’m so glad you called. Nergal has been an absolute pain in the ass about letting me out of his sight, but he left for a quick meeting.” She bit the inside of her cheek, looking mischievous. “The perfect opportunity for me to slip away. Won’t he have a fit when he finds me gone?”
Addie wouldn’t want to tangle with the angry king, but Eresh had a way with her husband who had become aggressively overprotective since his wife became pregnant. Immortal males, she scoffed. She remembered how overprotective Dorian had been as she grew large with Angie.
“How far along are you?”
“Four months and counting,” the queen chirped. She radiated satisfaction and glowed.
“Some goddesses have it easy,” Glory moaned. Looking awkwardly large and exhausted, she stood in the doorway, eyeing the assemblage. “I’m headed into my seventh month and can’t wait to get these little monsters out,” she quipped. Glory walked to the cereal cupboard and actually poured a good-sized bowl. The goddesses shot each other incredulous looks. It was the first time they’d seen her interested in food since she’d started throwing up in the fifth week of pregnancy.
“And don’t say anything,” she admonished. “I’m actually hungry this morning, and my twin devils might let me eat.”
Addie wondered if the shift in hormonal hell might have something to do with Glory’s mother and brother being found. The experts always mentioned stress as a huge factor with negative physical manifestations. Hopefully, finding her family would be the solution to Glory’s woes.
“We’re having Addie-May read the eviction notice for the gods,” Candy filled the late-comer in. Glory had already taken her turn going over the document. “She thinks we may have a valid point.”
Addie saw Ereshkigal’s ears go up.
“What point is that?” the queen asked.
“Well, that’s why we called,” Candy supplied. “We think the words in the ‘send the guys to Hell’ contract leave a loophole. That although we can’t go right to the Underworld with our husbands, there’s nothing to stop us from following at a later time. And by later, I mean the next day.”
The queen’s face lit up. “May I see the document?”
Addie handed it over, pointing to the codicil in question. The queen read it, again and again. She raised her face to the women around the table. Clearly, she could barely contain her excitement.
“You know what this means?” she asked.
Everyone looked expectant.
“This means I’m going to have a whole lot of new neighbors,” she practically squealed. “If it comes down to the guys being taken below, count on me to open up a two-way passage to get all you women to the underground and back, whenever you want.”
Until this point, admittance to Hell had either been for doomed souls or by direct invitation from the king or queen―although the nasty Beletseri had found a way around the rules. Eresh talked about opening a portal to let the women and babies have two-way access. She continued excitedly.
“With the help of your technological expert, Shamash, and our group of glowies who have been absorbing everything he can teach, I don’t see why we can’t have a password protected entry…or a thumbprint recognition doorway; something that will let you live in both places. Your men can’t possibly object to that.” The large group of iridescent beings known as glowies―freed from banishment by Dagon―had proved to be magic in regard to current technology.
Faces around the table fell. “Yeah…well. One would think,” Candy groused. “Enlil’s been on my shit-list for days since I mentioned I might find a way to join him.”
Addie tilted her head, confused and waited for a full explanation.
“He says there’s no way he’s going to risk me, let alone our baby down below with all the demons.” All eyes dropped to Candy’s flat stomach. She showed small, straight teeth in a shit-eating grin. “Yup. Doc Dani confirmed it yesterday,” she beamed. “I’m due at Christmas.”
Congratulations flew around the room, and as far as Addie could tell, the advent of one more offspring made the ladies even more determined.
“Screw that,” Holly decried. “There’s no way I’m raising my baby without Dagon if I can join him in Hell.”
Both she and the goddess Lenore were due in a month. A chorus of like sentiment grew around the room.
Oh dear. Addie didn’t know whether to grin or wring her hands. The guys were going to have a huge war on their hands if they tried to combat this one. And combat it they would. An all-out battle would ensue. Immortal males did not put their mates in danger. Ever. It was ingrained in them. Hardwired. Addie-May knew it from experience and wondered how this would play out.
As the goddesses continued to plot and plan, Addie experienced a compelling aura from outside. She’d spent the night at the big house in a room with Kate; twin beds in a space that used to be a closet, but still bigger than any room in her Plymouth home. Everyone decided that until Douglas arrived, Kate shouldn’t go back to a cottage―one of two on the property―where only Addie and Angie lived to make sure she kept to the compound. It had failed, miserably, once.
Dorian and his cousin Obedience had resided in the other cottage, but now that Bee-Dee mated Kulla, Dorian lived there on his own. From that dwelling, Addie experienced the draw.
Damn him. He used a compelling spell again, and she found it difficult to conjure resistance. Why had she mated such a powerful warlock? Oh yeah. Right. Because he embodied everything she’d ever wanted in a husband; smart, brooding, dark, muscle-packed, and…damn…unbelievable in bed. Why did her mind keep wandering back to sex? This hormone thing annoyed the shit out of her.
Addie had once come to Dorian a sassy but innocent young witch, and had been, happily―and more than adequately―deflowered. In the years that followed, she’d been satisfied in oh-so-many wicked and delicious ways. Surely, her memory had to have made half of them up. But one thing remained quite certain. Dorian had never left her unsated. Her happiness had always come first.
Not that she’d neglected her husband. She’d learned to give as good as she got, and that alone should have made her confident after her divorce. A sad epiphany? She’d never taken another lover. Dorian had ruined her for wanting any other male. Many opportunities had arisen and fizzled. Her own fault. She’d measured each and every date against her warlock, and all were found lacking.
Addie dug her fingernails into the table-top to anchor herself and keep from being drawn away by Dorian’s spell. But she wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.
“So,” she tried to enter into the conversation again, “when do you think you’ll spring this on your gods?” Her eyes were bright as she attempted to hold back the tears of frustration that threatened. How dare Dorian do this to her in front of friends and her granddaughter? Speaking of Lenore, she could see the goddess’s eyes narrowing in her direction.
“What is he doing to you?” she asked, with no preliminaries on who might be causing Addie-May’s turmoil. The witch snorted.
“What do you think? He’s ‘spelling’ me to come to him,” she griped, then figured, what the hell, none of these other women pulled punches. “I…um…might have made the mistake of agreeing to have sex with him again,” she admitted. “Now, I’m terrified that every time he calls, I’m one step closer.”
“So. Period over?” Lenore queried, snorting.
Addie nodded.
“Damn. It must have bought you a few days, but now you’re vulnerable again.” She looked at all her cohorts, “I’ll bet we can come up with something that gets you out of his clutches.” She studied her grandmother carefully. “Unless you want to do the wedded bliss thing.”
Addie-May paused for a moment. She’d brought this up, and she needed to be honest. Did she want Dorian again? It took about half a second to beat down the naysayer in her brain. Hell, yes. The bigger question, however, had her fighting mad. Did she want to go on his terms or her own? A complete no-brainer. If Dorian forced her to comply by using a spell, she might never forgive him. Oh, she’d enjoy herself, but he’d be asshole number one for the rest of eternity. No. She wanted to pick the time and place, an unreasonable expectation and selfish, considering she’d been the one who’d severed their previous relationship, but she wanted to choose Dorian again, not be forced into something. She attempted to explain.
“I want to be with Dorian,” she admitted out loud. “He’s…well…you all have immortals for husbands. I’m sure you know how good they can be.”
Rapturous looks wafted across every face. They got it.
“But you also know how overbearing they are, and how, sometimes, you need to feel like you have a modicum of control.”
“You said it, Gram,” Lenore agreed. “So, bottom line is you want to pick the time and place.”
Addie sighed and nodded.
The queen offered a solution.
“You know, Addie, I think it might be nice to have some female consultation on the upcoming living quarters for our immortal families down below.” Her eyes sparkled mischief. “Since all the other ladies are somewhat engaged,” she swept her hand over many burgeoning bellies, but even the non-preggers nodded agreement, “you would be the best candidate to help me survey the possibilities.” She oozed goddess energy. “Would you care to join me in Hell?”
Addie's nails lost their grip on the table top, and she didn’t hesitate. “I’d love to.”
Almost before the words left her lips, she misted out to be taken below. A sigh of relief crossed her lips.
****
Dorian sat upright in bed. What the hell just happened? One minute he exerted the most glorious pressure on his wife, beckoning to her, assured she would be joining him. The next minute, zippo. Nada.
His cock―which tented the sheets in anticipation―deflated. His plans had somehow gone awry. And what plans they’d been.
He hadn’t been able to decide whether he would taste her first or fuck her hard and fast. It would all be in the way she presented herself. If she put on that subservient shit again, he would fuck the hell out of her to get a reaction. If she showed up feisty, he’d lick her hot little slit and nip her tiny bud until she screamed completion, a reward for her spunkiness. He’d laid there remembering her unique flavor, licking his lips in anticipation. No choice. He’d definitely be tonguing her first.
But now what? Where had her energy gone? The warlock leaped from his bed. He tried and tried but couldn’t reach her no matter where he probed. It was as if she’d been wiped off the face of the earth. His gut clenched, and his prick lost the last of its fervor. Had the regression been too much for her partly human body? Had his wife…died? Dorian ran from the room, yanked on pants, and frantically spelled himself to the main house.