A heavy arm is draped over me when I wake, the hand attached to it lightly cupping my breast. It takes only a moment for the events from earlier to filter back through my memory, and I smile, thinking of the last conversation I had with Vesh. He’s risking the wrath of Chaos to have me here.
But even more astounding is the fact that he stayed. Mr. I-Don’t-Sleep actually stayed and slept with me. He even spooned me, which I could definitely not have predicted. His dark and broody demeanor did not suggest he’d be inclined to such tenderness. But it feels really good. I sigh and just enjoy it for a few more moments before taking stock.
I have no way to gauge time in this place, but I feel rested. It’s dark in the room, but faint light rises from an unknown source. A tickling awareness in the back of my mind suggests it isn’t just any light; Erebus has been here watching and senses I’m awake.
“Were you here the whole time we slept?” I ask, reaching out for the now familiar entity who’s turned darkness into a comfort, not just a cold and lonely place to wallow in while longing for a different life.
“Yes. I admit I was more concerned about my brother, though. He hasn’t slept in a few thousand years. This is highly irregular.”
Vesh’s breathing is still deep and even, his arm limp and heavy across my side. I carefully roll over to face him, pushing up onto one elbow. The once severe, intimidating face is smoothed and peaceful, not a line in sight besides a faint dimple in one cheek. The indentation makes it look like he’s smirking about something, and it gives him a playful demeanor he doesn’t have when awake.
“Can you read his thoughts? See his dreams?”
“No, but you could, if you bonded fully with him. You could have the same with Typhon too. And Asterius. All you need to do is drink that.”
I crane my neck to look as a silent swirl of darkness spirals around my head toward the night stand, clearing away to reveal the dark goblet resting there, filled to the brim with milky liquid.
“I’ve already swallowed your semen. Is that why I can speak with you like this so easily? I thought our first kiss did that.”
“It did. Then a deeper bond was formed when you tasted me for the first time. You’ve tasted Pan too, but he’s too chastened to try to reach out to you. We are yours now, Nemea, and you are ours. Fate brought us together for some reason we still can’t discern, but the bond will make us all stronger and will help you control and understand your powers. Drink.”
I wrinkle my nose. How long has that been there? But I’m curious, so I carefully roll over again and sit up, swinging my legs off the edge of the bed. I remember several hushed conversations with Rachel, Simon, and Audra, relaying rumors about how dragon jizz tastes like ambrosia. Audra mentioned that she’d heard ursa semen tasted like honey butter, and in retrospect, I’m pretty sure she was speaking from experience. Does god spunk taste good too?
“I know you’re there,” I whisper. “Judging me for hesitating.”
Silent laughter filters through my mind. “Take your time. I can’t speak to the flavor myself, but the prison naturally preserves anything perishable. Not that it would go bad; blood and the fertile essences of gods and demigods keeps forever.”
I suppose that’s a relief. At least this stuff is shelf stable.
I reach for the goblet and lift it to my nose, taking a careful whiff. It smells faintly like licorice, but the aroma shifts to berries on the second sniff, then something else enticingly herbal. I dip a fingertip in and lick it. The flavor of strawberry ice cream floods my tongue, and my stomach rumbles at the sweetness.
I suddenly get the sense I’m being observed by more than just Erebus lingering in the darkness.
“Who is there?” I ask, reaching out with my mind to whomever is listening.
“I am here,” comes the voice of Typhon first. Then a lewd flash of the void glass dildo gives away Pan’s presence. A more cautious, respectful impression sinks into my mind and Asterius says, “I am here too.”
“And drinking this will strengthen the bond between us? Is this how you bonded with Vesh the first time?”
A mix of horror and laughter reverberates through my mind. Then Pan’s deep, melodic voice says, “Live inside a man long enough, and you will be bonded to him whether you like it or not. We will not be inside you in quite the same way, Nemea. This is a very different sort of bond—a mate bond.”
I take a deep breath, having sensed that’s what this means, but needing to hear it to know for sure.
A mate bond.
Simply being drawn together by Fate wasn’t enough on its own. But I can already sense my power reaching out to them all, even the ones I haven’t been intimate with yet. It reached for them before I even knew what it was—my sketchbook is testament to that.
But nine mates? Is that even humanly possible?
“You aren’t strictly human,” Asterius reminds me. “You never were.”
“I know. I’m Bloodline, but it’s never been completely clear what that means.”
“Drink, and then you can come down to the library for a history lesson,” Asterius says.
“Any chance that can include actually getting to know all of you with my clothes on?”
I sense laughter through the bond, strongest from Pan and Erebus, whose seed I actually swallowed quite a bit of already. It’s fainter from Asterius and Typhon. And through the link, I can easily sense that the two I’m closer connected to are very keen on the idea of me being naked more often than not.
“Well, bottoms up.” I clutch the goblet in both hands and bring it to my lips. The aroma is now toasted pecans and caramel, like it’s making its way through a coffee shop menu. The instant it hits my tongue, I taste coffee and nearly choke from surprise. But it’s tasty, so I gulp it all down in several swallows. It’s cool and thick, but goes down easily.
When I empty the goblet, I lick my lips and an involuntary belch escapes. Vesh stirs behind me at the sound. I peek over my shoulder, chagrined.
“Sorry.”
He lifts his eyebrows and gives me a sleepy smile. The man is downright adorable, all mussed with a pillow indentation on one cheek.
“You drank it. I was worried you wouldn’t.”
“It tasted pretty good, actually. I didn’t think it would.”
His brows scrunch together. “What did it taste like?”
“Like a Frappuccino. Why? Should it not have tasted like that?”
“It’s semen. It typically tastes like semen. But the prison anticipates the needs of its residents, so I’m assuming it altered the flavor for you.”
I stare into the goblet, frowning and trying to decide whether I should be grossed out. But I feel fine. Better than fine, in fact.
I set the goblet down and Vesh reaches for it, absorbing it into himself the way he did the shards of void glass when I arrived.
He scoots closer and props himself on one elbow, drifting his fingertips up my spine. “How do you feel?”
Closing my eyes, I take stock again. I enter the increasingly familiar dark landscape where I greeted Typhon earlier and find the handsome young man waiting with a huge smile. But this time, it’s more than a sense of his presence that I feel. My limbs tingle with the immensity of his power, the space we share luminescent with it.
Then it’s as if doors open around me, swinging wide before falling away to expand this mental space. On one side I find Asterius, waiting like a solid, watchful sentinel. On the other is Pan, in a space I sense was there all along just waiting for me to discover.
I don’t need to look to know the other two are waiting behind me; I can simply close my eyes and feel both Vesh and Erebus looming larger than the other two, their power as potent and affecting as Typhon’s. Between the three of them, the landscape is altered, becoming more than just a nondescript space that was once empty and black. The darkness acquires weight, architecture blooming from the earth like a garden, except where Pan stands an actual garden appears, complete with a trellis of roses arching over him.
The most surprising thing is the excitement I sense from the five of them. I turn and find Vesh standing to one side, and on the other is a man I almost don’t recognize.
“Erebus?” I walk toward the imposing, armored man with dark skin and black hair flowing around his shoulders. The black armor covering his body is ornate, with gold designs etched all over it, glimmering with light that is the antithesis of who he is, but perhaps a better reflection of the state of his soul. He has human features here, though, not the angular visage he shows when he isn’t simply pure darkness.
“It’s me.” He looks down at me, then at Vesh, both of them wide-eyed with wonder. “I don’t know what I expected, but it isn’t this.” He waves his arm at the entire scene, encompassing the other men and the elaborate palace still forming in the distance past the garden. “Or them. You’re connecting us even deeper to one another, Nemea. I didn’t think that was possible.”
A touch against my shoulder makes me turn, and finding no one there, I realize it happened in the real world. I open my eyes and turn to Vesh, only to have my face gripped between both his hands before his mouth lands on mine. His kiss is intense, the sheer gratitude in it confounding. When he pulls back, he stares into my eyes.
“Thank you. I always believed we were as strong as we could get as a team, but you are making us even stronger.”
“Um, you’re welcome, I think? I admit I don’t really understand any of this, but I’m excited about it too. Just as long as it doesn’t mean you all spy on me on the toilet or anything.”
He chuckles and shakes his head, then reaches up and taps my temple lightly with a fingertip. “You’re in control up here, Nemea. You can create the environment you choose, and we will exist within it at your whim. Think of it as your own personal Tartarus.”
“Are the others very upset that they haven’t been included yet? They know they will be, right?”
His brows twitch and his fingers tighten possessively on my hip. “You don’t have to…”
I cut him off. “Yes, I do. I’ve spent years trying to figure out who I am, what my purpose is—if anything. I’ve had this gaping hole in my soul ever since the night I learned I was Bloodline, but never knew what it meant. It turns out that this is what I’ve been searching for. You are what I’ve been searching for. All of you. For the first time since that night, I feel… calm. Like I actually fit. We are a puzzle, the ten of us, and even though five mates sounds like a lot as it is, I know I’m not close to finished yet. Just look…”
I clench my eyes shut and drop into my personal sanctum. It feels like home, knowing it’s mine and that I can invite them to it or not. I spin until Vesh appears, noticing while I do that the others are now absent. Pan’s garden remains, though, and I wonder if there’s a library somewhere within that still-growing palace where Asterius might retreat if he chooses.
But there is still a swath of blank emptiness on one side that I could only feel in the outside world, but is actually visible in here. There is only the barest glimmer of other doorways, with dark keyholes waiting for me to unlock them. I don’t know whether they know they already have a place waiting for them here, but I intend to show it to them soon.
I open my eyes again to the real Vesh, who watches me with consternation. He harumphs, and I squint at him.
“You’re jealous, aren’t you?”
“No.”
I grin. “You know Pan found me first.”
“That’s what I said!” comes a strident voice in my head. I can’t help but laugh at the indignation I feel through my bond with the satyr in stark contrast to the irritation on Vesh’s face.
“Don’t remind me,” Vesh grumbles.
“You sure didn’t seem to mind being mashed up against his dick inside my pussy,” I tease, gratified when his cheeks actually redden. “Maybe we should revisit the whole scenario that started this again.”
He gives me a heated look, and I sense Pan’s avid interest, though it’s tinged with caution. I send an inquisitive thought his way.
“I am on my shift,” he explains. “Besides, I don’t want the others to think you’re playing favorites.”
Vesh sighs. “As much as I’d love it—and am not jealous—I have a meeting to get to. If we’re going to recapture the Titans, this is crucial.”
“What can I do?” I ask, sitting up straighter as he pushes past me and stands. I get one brief, delicious glimpse of his naked body and all its coiled, ropey muscles accented by dark hair and whorls of iridescent purple tattoos. His usual outfit of black materializes around him as he turns to look down at me.
“Practice holding onto your magic and bond with the others. I’ll be back when I can.”
With that, he disappears.
I flop back on the bed with a frustrated sigh, staring at the ceiling while I try to decide what to do. “Bond with the others” means the ones I haven’t bonded with yet. I’ve barely even met them, yet I’m certain this is the right path. And except for the one they call Alcides, I’m pretty sure the other three feel the same way.
But Asterius promised me answers to a question I’ve had for a long time. How did the Bloodline even come to be?
“Right. History lessons it is,” I say as I sit up. Before I can even waste a thought on it, my clothes appear on the bed beside me, neatly folded and smelling fresh and clean. I wonder if I can do what Vesh did when he dressed himself?
Instead of manually putting on my clothes, I stand and stare at them, willing them to just appear on my body.
All I get is the strongest impression of amusement coming from the shadows. I huff and grab my pants, stuffing each leg in.
“You don’t have to laugh at me,” I snipe.
“I’m not laughing. Perhaps you can learn to use your magic as he does. I suggest starting smaller. And remember the magic comes from within you, not from without you.”
I’m not sure how to interpret that yet, so decide to tackle one thing at a time as I head out the door and down the staircase outside the tower, aiming for the library below.