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The moment the creeps were gone and the door was closed, I fell to my knees on the fur rug near where Chike and Rhys had been chained to the immaculate white stone wall. Rhys still looked gray, and bruises were slowly blooming over Chike’s neck and a spot on his cheek where he must have been struck at some other point in their ordeal.
“How are you here?” I said, reaching for them desperately, part of me wanting to know they were real, while another part prayed desperately that this was all just a bad dream. But I knew how they were here. I knew I was to blame. “I’m so sorry.”
Chike wrapped an arm around my waist from the side as we knelt there, turning to press his forehead to my temple as he let out a hoarse, tired sigh. But Rhys shied away from my touch. I gave the vampire an unimpressed look. “I said I’m sorry. I don’t know how this stupid power of mine works. When I wished you’d find me, I didn’t mean for you to get captured.”
He just shook his head and closed his eyes, the long column of his throat working as he swallowed. “Not your fault. You just smell too good.”
Oh. I pulled back and squeezed Chike’s hand, looking between them as Rhys struggled to stay sane. “What did they do to you? You need blood, don’t you?”
Chike raised an eyebrow at me and opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was a croaking wheeze. He made a pained face and clutched his throat with a shaking hand. Rhys opened his eyes at the sound, and his pallid face twisted into a furious expression. “I’ll make them fucking beg before I kill them.”
I patted Chike’s back, sending a bit of my godspark toward him, aiming to speed his healing and ease his pain. He closed his eyes in obvious relief and swallowed a few times. Then he waved a hand at Rhys, opening his eyes to quirk an eyebrow at me. I nodded. “I know. But he’s a stubborn idiot.”
One corner of Chike’s perfect lips quirked up in a smirk and he shrugged, as if agreeing and saying “Yeah, but what are you gonna do?” at the same time.
I reached out and grasped the heavy gold chain that was attached to Rhys’s neck, giving it a little tug. I wasn’t surprised in the least bit at the magic I could sense infused into the metal. “Stop trying to get away from me. You can’t escape, vampire.”
He snarled at me like an angry dog. “I’ll hurt you, Troy.”
I shrugged and tugged his chain again, nudging him closer. “Probably. But I deserve it. I fucked up. And it’s up to me to make it right. Now get over here and bite me, asshole.”
He shuddered, but gave in and shuffled over to me on his knees. Gripping my waist, with the length of chain pulled tight between his wrists, he pulled me up against his hard body, but he didn’t dip his head to feed. Instead he reached out and beckoned to Chike. The siren rolled his eyes, but joined us in our awkward hug. “Don’t let me lose myself,” Rhys said to the other man, his voice all growly and commanding. I shuddered at the animal sound of it.
Chike just nodded, then patted Rhys on the shoulder, pushing him closer to me. The prick of Rhys’s fangs sliding through my skin was rougher than usual, and the hand holding my hip squeezed so hard I’d probably have bruises. But I wasn’t scared. This was Rhys. Even riding the edge of bloodlust, he’d never really hurt me. That was one thing I could easily believe.
I lifted a hand and tangled it in his golden waves, stroking and pressing him closer. “It’s okay,” I mumbled. “It’ll be okay.”
He pulled at my neck and I sucked in a breath. The pleasure was still there, but I could also feel his desperation, and the pain peeked through as he lost some of his usual finesse. I breathed deep and slow, trying to steady myself so I could find my center, my godspark. Then I pictured the golden healing light in me leaving through my blood and infusing Rhys with power and health. His hands at my hip loosened a bit, the touch becoming less desperate, gentler, as he tried his best to stroke my side with his bound hands.
Then Chike was there, pulling at Rhys, forcing him to break our connection. The vampire licked the bite clean, then turned to the siren. Chike looped his shackled hands over Rhys’s neck and pulled him downward, tilting his own head in silent invitation.
Rhys hesitated, his eyes clear of the haze they’d had before. “Are you sure? I don’t want to weaken you after those assholes roughed you up.”
Chike gave him a mutinous look and mouthed “Not weak.”
Rhys sighed. “Of course you’re not weak. That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” Then he bent to feed from Chike, more careful this time. When he finished, the vampire already looked healthier, his skin losing the gray sheen and returning to its usual golden glow. Chike kissed the edge of Rhys’s jaw, then withdrew, awkwardly removing his chained hands from around the vampire’s neck.
I moved to sit cross-legged on the floor, refusing to enjoy furniture when they were bolted to the wall like animals in a nightmare circus. “Now what do we do?” I asked, completely at a loss. I had only gained their continued wellbeing by promising to try to use the powers I had no idea how to use. It was a temporary solution. I sure as fuck wasn’t going to actually help the gods who had imprisoned me and fucked up my guys.
Rhys mirrored me, and Chike lay down with his head on Rhys’s thigh. “You said you think you brought us here. With your power?” Rhys said as he absently stroked Chike’s hair. Gah. Even in the midst of this, they were so fucking cute. Rhys was clearly feeling all bent out of shape because he couldn’t protect Chike. And Chike was obviously making an attempt to soothe the overprotective monster by staying close and pretending to be fine. The poor siren must be freaking out inside, cut off from his siren song this way.
I forced myself to focus and answer Rhys’s question. It was just so hard, when I was so relieved not to be alone anymore. “I’m pretty sure I did,” I said with a shrug. “Apparently, that Apophis asshole—who is completely bonkers, by the way—was trying to manipulate me into wishing Derek White here so he could murder him. But he didn’t realize that I don’t have that kind of relationship with that jerk, so instead, I ended up wishing you guys were here. I was so damned sure you’d come for me.” I shook my head in frustration. “And I guess you’re here, aren’t you?”
Rhys frowned as he thought this through. “So you wished we were here and we just happen to get snatched by gods the moment we leave Ontonagon?”
I picked at the seam on the thigh of my jeans. “It’s more than just wishing. I think I have to believe it’s going to happen. Like, I had to meditate and just...pour my power into my intent.”
Rhys’s eyes lit up with a wicked light. “If you did it once, that means you can do it again. You can use your abilities to get us out of here.”
I groaned in frustration, fear stabbing me in the heart. “But look what it got me! You were both injured and now you’re trapped here with these psychos just like me! What if it’s like some twisted fairytale story and every time I wish for something, I get it, but in a really terrible, ironic way?” I clenched my fists against my knees. “What if next time I try to use my powers, I fuck it up even worse. What if someone is hurt again, or...killed.” Heimdall had implied it was my own power that led to my sister’s death all those years ago. I wanted to dismiss his words, told myself it was all just one more manipulation. But...could I be certain he wasn’t right? With how out of my control my powers seemed to be, how easy would it be to lose my temper and say something awful in a fit of rage, only to accidentally make it come true? What if one little slip was all it took to kill the people I loved?
Chike sat up and patted my hand where it rested on my knee, his lavender eyes intent. His voice was barely more than a wheezing whisper as he forced it through his damaged throat, and it took several tries for me to figure out what he was saying. “Wording,” he said, lifting his eyebrows in question.
Rhys nodded. “What exactly did you think of when you brought us here?”
I looked down at my hand as Chike squeezed it. “I...I thought you’d come for me. That you loved me as much as I loved you so there was no way you wouldn’t come for me.”
Rhys quirked a brow at me, his expression wry. “And? Did you happen to also say we’d rescue you, or save you or something?”
I gaped at him in horror. “I...fuck. No, I didn’t.”
Thor’s scrotum, were they trying to say that not only did I have some amazing, awful ability to affect people’s fates, but that I also had to play fucking picky semantic word games with the damned power in order to get it to work right?
“We’re so fucked,” I breathed when I thought of all the ways this could go horribly, horribly wrong.
Chike waved his hands in front of my face frantically and Rhys reached past him to grip my shoulder and give me a sharp shake. “No!” Rhys snapped. “Don’t even think things like that.”
I blinked at him.
He shook his head in exasperation. “We just talked about how you think you have this power to...will things to happen, and how you’re wording might be important, then you go spouting negative thoughts about our chances of escape?”
I let out a huff of disbelief that turned into a full-fledged case of stress laughter. I wiped at my eyes and shook my head. “Great. So now I have to sound like one of those cheesy positive affirmation recordings.”
Chike smirked at me. “Oh, don’t give me that look, Ariel,” I told him darkly. “If our roles were reversed, we really would be screwed. You couldn’t manage to mumble out a positive comment if your life depended on it!”
He shrugged and glanced at Rhys. The vampire was ignoring our interaction as he thought furiously. “What if you just do what the demon wants? What if you give him White?”
“What?” I managed. “You want me to just try to hand Dumuzi over to the enemy on a silver platter?”
Rhys and Chike stared at me. “What?” I demanded, crossing my arms like a petulant child.
“You just called White by his demon name,” Rhys said slowly.
I waved a dismissive hand. “Did I? So what?”
Rhys’s light green eyes were piercing. “So, I never said you had to deliver him up as a victim. Maybe with better wording you’d get a better outcome. But...why are you suddenly so protective of the arrogant asshole you hate so much?”
I looked away, not sure what to feel. “Because I remember now. I remember what he was to me. Who he was. And I’m pretty sure he didn’t kill my sister.” I marshalled my courage enough to look at Rhys, then Chike, registering the surprise on their faces. “I...think I was entirely wrong about him.”
Once upon a time, I’d loved Dumuzi more than life itself. But now I had Chike and Rhys...hell, maybe even Orion. I had no idea what Derek even was to me anymore.