Chapter Twenty-Nine
Soiled sheets were discarded and trips to the bathroom for additional cleanup were done. Emesh and Douglas cuddled back under the blanket, blissfully holding each other in the aftermath of sex…which for them had been far more than sex.
“So, you love me, hmmm?” Douglas prodded, clearly eager for the words to be repeated with Emesh more than willing to comply.
“You are the best, most yummiest…”
“I’m not sure yummiest is a word,” Douglas ran his fingers up and down Emesh’s back in an absentminded way, cradling the god’s head to his chest. Emesh could hear his Chosen’s heart beating strongly under his ear.
“It is, and I’m not finished,” Emesh admonished with a mock sniff. “Where was I. Oh, yeah. The most yummiest, finely bodied-est, most compassionate, brave, and selfless man I’ve ever known.” He raised his head and nipped at Douglas’ chin. “And I love you with every inch of me, for now, and eternity. And I mean that. Eternity.”
Time to really talk.
The fucking had been more than Emesh could ever have imagined, but he needed to know what his intended had been told about god-ness, and what had been left unsaid.
Douglas had to know it, too.
“So, this eternity thing,” he questioned, clearly easing his way into the subject. “If I’ve got things right, there’s a ceremony where you give me half of that light-up Christmas ornament that someone stuffed into you, and we live happily forever and ever after.”
Emesh snickered. “Something like that,” he said, then pondered what he’d missed the previous night. “But before we get into that," ―Emesh wanted to avoid the inevitable but couldn’t help himself― “fill me in on how you guys found me and what happened to the ghouls and that spooky Miranda chick.”
“Fine.” Douglas let himself be sidetracked. “After you told me to run from my cabin, which I still beat myself up over,” ―Emesh pinched him in admonishment, but continued to listen intently― “I made it to my truck and drove here to the Blue Hills.”
Before Emesh had a chance to ask how he found the house, Douglas offered that part of the story.
“I sat up on Chickatawbutt Road and blew my air horn, over and over, while calling to your god-buddies in my head. Luckily, I did something right because it didn’t take long before a group of enormous guys walked out of the woods. If I hadn’t seen Enten and Dorian, I would have believed my ass to be in big trouble, but as soon as I got a load of those two, my time-released adrenaline finally gave out, and I collapsed. Next thing I knew, a red-headed angel hovered over me, administering an IV of saline.”
“Dani-Lee,” Emesh grinned. “We have some pretty hot looking ladies on site.”
“True. And the men aren’t hard to look at either.” Douglas waggled his eyebrows and received a punch for his sassiness. He continued, completely unperturbed.
“So, Marduk started filling me in on how we were going to rescue you when your brother…your real brother, Enten, suddenly…appeared.” Douglas stopped as if reliving this impossible happenstance before starting his tale, again. “Tough taking that in while Marduk educated me about the peculiarities of an incubus as easily as if we discussed a variety of canine. That’s when I knew I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.”
Emesh gave Douglas a huge squeeze. Nothing better than a Wizard of Oz reference to win over his heart.
“Then I got told a bunch of stuff about imprinting, pheromones, communication skills…and Nergal―who I’m still not quite clear on―before Anshar wanted to know if we’d already fucked.”
Emesh growled thickly under his breath and sent off a quick message.
Your balls are mine, later, asshole.
As if you don’t already have someone else’s in your hand right now. Anshar’s sent back cheekily. And grabbing my balls wouldn’t be the worst thing, as long as my asshole isn’t yours later, too, answered the irreverent god. And by the way, congratulations. With all the noise coming from your room, I’d say your butt-cherry has finally been popped.
Anshar cut communication before Emesh could rip him a new one, but the god of summer would make sure to sunburn blondie’s smug ass, later.
“Are you going to let me tell the story?” Douglas smirked, and Emesh narrowed his eyes. His partner knew what had occurred. The god would have to censor his transmissions more carefully.
Emesh nodded.
“The goddess Candy came in with all the other women and basically told Marduk to take a flying fuck.”
“That sounds like Candy.” Emesh could easily picture it.
“She didn’t pull any punches giving me the skinny. I got the full gamut of gods, goddesses, warlocks, Lauernley, DEA agents, Mesopotamia, Hell, demons, Chosen, light up shoulders, and amulet ceremonies…and oh, yeah. You, my lover, are the freaking god of summer.” Douglas gave Emesh a deep, appraising look, and stopped to catch his breath. “If there’s anything else I need to know, I’m sure you’ll think nothing of fucking me up even more. But at this point, I can take it.”
“You’re a brave man, Douglas Wingfeather.” Emesh wanted nothing more than to roll around on the bed again and have Douglas’ hands all over him, but other than sending a few of those mildly pornographic pictures into his Chosen’s head, Emesh still wanted to hear more of what had happened, and Douglas complied.
“Okay. Where are we? Uhh, once Dr. Dani ascertained I’d be good to go, most of your gods traveled to Leverett the easy way while Marduk, Dorian, Enten, Candy, and I drove in my truck. As soon as we got close to my parking spot, they sensed Trask’s minions, and all but Dorian joined the others at a remote location. Dorian became invisible, and I faced the ghouls.”
Emesh caught his breath. “My friends used you as bait?” Now he’d truly light some heads on fire.
“What choice did we have?” Douglas shrugged. “Trask was using you to lure me in, and he would have been scared off by your friends. Don’t worry. It sucked, but I remained safe the whole time. Dorian made himself invisible and never left my side.”
Points for the warlock.
“Creepy Miranda chained me up in this van while she and some ghouls drove me to Belchertown. Trask had set up a makeshift underground lair on the grounds of the old asylum.” Now Douglas looked uncomfortable.
“This is where it got tricky. As soon as the van stopped, we realized you had to be within one hundred yards. Nobody figured it would be underground, but you still weren’t giving off any communication.” He shook his head, remembering. “While Dorian spelled me out of my chains, the ghouls ran, and the gods started a frantic search for you. It took a few minutes… a few minutes too many, before we finally located you several levels down, under the earth.” He looked apologetic, but Emesh relieved his guilt.
“Don’t feel bad. Nothing happened except a little ugly foreplay.” Emesh blew a tight breath out through his nose. “Wretchedly distasteful, but nothing like what you had to endure.” The god gazed deeply into his Chosen’s eyes. “And speaking of which, Dagon can help you purge those memories if you want.” He waited for Douglas to speak.
“Marduk pointed out the possibility to me earlier, and I’ve thought about it. But I’ve decided to keep my memories. I’ve mostly moved beyond them, and I figure I might not be as strong as I am now if the bad stuff got taken away.” He hugged Emesh a little tighter. “Can you understand that?”
“I can.” Emesh recalled all the things he’d endured over the years and wondered if those were the building blocks that propped up his present-day life. Would he be the same if his parents had let him kiss the pool boy all those years ago and he hadn’t been sent to Hell? He doubted it.
“Sometimes we need a reminder of the bad to know how lucky we’ve become,” he agreed and landed a kiss in the fine nest of hair at the midsection of Douglas’ clavicle. “Besides, once you’re a god, nothing is ever going to touch you again.” Emesh quickly amended that. “Although we do have a few enemies who are trying to take us down, and that’s another discussion altogether.”
Emesh pondered that for a moment. Strange. Where were their arch enemies, Beletseri and Matthew? They hadn’t been seen or heard from since the explosion in the Underworld when Kulla had been rescued, but like a bad penny, the gods figured they’d turn up sooner or later. An epic, cataclysmic event wouldn’t stop the evil goddess and her consort from trying to undermine them.
When Emesh finished talking, Douglas continued.
“The rest you know,” he interjected. “Although you were pretty out of it,” he shook his head. “Your friends taunted Trask until his lust and fear blew him up. Then they embarked on a ghoul hunt where Candy single-handedly caught and delivered five of them to Nergal.”
Emesh figured Douglas would ask about the king again, but he was wrong. His mate skipped right over it, obviously, content to wait.
“And the lovely Miranda got dropped off on the doorstep of a local hospital where she babbled about incubus and ghouls and invisible beings. I’m sure they committed her for life.”
“Now tell me about this mating thing.” Douglas made it clear he’d finished with the tale. Clearly, he had other things on his mind. “How do you know it’s for us, and how does it work?”
Emesh relaxed, entirely comfortable now. He’d been a chicken, and his friends had done the dirty work of breaking the immortal news to Douglas, but he felt calm filling in the small blanks.
“Each of us has one fated partner out in the world. One for all eternity. Until we meet that person, our amulet lies dormant within us. They beat like a heart but have no color. As soon as we find our true Chosen, or when we finally admit to ourselves we’ve found our eternal mate," ―Emesh pondered over Enlil who had fought the realization for a good long time― “the amulet gets juiced up, blazes an irrefutable trail, and we regain our bodies.” Emesh dropped the humor and got serious for a moment.
“That’s the good news. But the bad news is there’s this contract. Nergal drew it up, and if all of our original thirteen brothers don’t find their Chosen by the middle of September, we get sent back to Hell…for eternity.” The god looked around the bedroom and at how the sun blazed in the mid-morning sky outside. He lamented what it would be like to have that taken away again. Emesh raised his head to Douglas who chewed this over.
“I knew there was something about that Nergal guy I didn’t like,” he pondered.
“Uh, actually it turned out to be his secretary’s fault, but I’ll give you all that crap later.”
Douglas nodded and focused on the other part of what Emesh said. “How many of you are left without these partners?” he questioned.
“Once you and I have completed the ceremony, there will be Lahar, Dumuzi, Shamash, Ishkur, and Ninurta left unmated.”
“Shit. That’s one a month,” Douglas barked.
“But look at you and me,” Emesh reminded him. “It only took us a week to find each other and fall in love.” Emesh blushed, but Douglas looked at him, dumbfounded.
“You’re right,” he swallowed. “How could it have only been a week? It feels like I’ve known you forever.”
“Luckily, that’s the way it is with most Chosen.” Emesh gave a firm pat on his mate’s shoulder. “So, it’s not impossible, the task we’ve got before us.”
“Well, count me in,” Douglas sounded certain. “If you need me to load you guys into my truck and drive you through every fucking city in the country, I’ll do it. We’ll beat this Nergal guy. I promise.”
“Okay. About that…” Emesh sighed. How would he explain the spoiled rotten king and his long-suffering queen to Douglas? Hell, they all liked the guy since he’d come around and reconciled with his wife, Ereshkigal. He needed to make Douglas understand that the real villain and the real danger came from the absent, yet still lurking Beletseri who made Trask look like a roll-over puppy dog.