Blood Flows Deep in the Empire (16 page)

Hearing her saying his name was like being thrown straight into the highest fucking dimension, where only light and pleasure and happiness ruled.

Dyletri shivered from head to toe as she melted against him. With every thrust of their hips and every pass of his cock against that tight, wet promise of heaven, he knew he was close being the first male to dive deep and hard into her. Close to making her—

“Dyletri!”

Ismini gasped and jerked upright.

“That wasn’t me.”

Her sudden movement almost caused Dyletri’s cock to slide right into her, and he wanted to howl in frustrated rage at the near miss.

“I know it wasn’t, these fucking Gods be damned.”

He clenched his eyes shut and took a few ragged breaths, desperately trying not to grab her hips and take her right then. His dick throbbed and remained dangerously close to entering her even as he lifted his head and roared at the ceiling. “What the fuck do you want, Cy?”

“Get your ass out here, big man. We’ve got serious problems!”

“Problems bigger than me ripping your arms off and shoving them up your ass?” Ismini let out a soft giggle at his words, and his dick twitched in response. Despite how monumentally pissed he was, his mouth curved into a half smile. At least it did until he heard Cy’s response.

“XreakLi is here, asshole. Make of that what you will!”

Fuck.
XreakLi?

Xreak was the main
Sesengt
in charge of watching over the planetary dimension. Specifically, the Earthen sector. Guardians and gods in their own rights, the
Sesengt
had been assigned to watch over the dimensions at the beginning of the Universe, when a reason for the gods to fight had emerged. Dyletri hadn’t seen Xreak in a long time and knew it had to be bad if he was here.

Still, he slammed his head against the pillow a few times for good measure. He was dying to ignore all the shit and get lost in the girl on top of him.

“Dyletri?” she asked, her voice small. “What’s going on? Who’s . . . Xreak—
Lee
?”

He couldn’t answer her right away. His thoughts were racing. Half of him was hellbent on staying in the bed with her. The other half had already started asking questions, putting together the pieces, and the conclusion staring at him was not fucking pretty.

Xreak watched over Earth, and
Ismini
was from Earth. Whatever was going on, he was almost positive it had to do with Enteax and Lisrn.

Rage pummeled through Dyletri’s system, the memory that those two had been after Ismini mixing with his frustration. As much as he wanted to stay with her, there was no way he would be able to, especially when he knew that those two might still be causing trouble.

And there’s no way I’m letting them lay their filthy hands on her.

He sighed and moved her off him, amazed at how his insides shrieked with outrage. The beast inside him burned him like acid, its roar so loud Dyletri could see the world around him pulsating.

“He’s a Guardian,” he finally answered, sitting up and cupping his pounding head.

“Dyletri, are you okay?”

Hearing her concern for him was like being submerged in liquid hydrogen. For a split-second everything froze solid. Then his thoughts began to thaw. He wanted to tell her that, no, honestly, he wasn’t fucking okay.

She’d caused something to rise up in him that would be absolute hell to pay. But he didn’t say that. He just sat up and rematerialized his jeans, looking over his shoulder at her.

“I have to go and see what this is about. Are
you
okay?”

“I’m . . . I’m fine. Could you perhaps . . .”

He made her clothes reappear on her body, turning and avoiding her stare as he left the bed. He had a moment of extreme light-headedness that had everything to do with the amount of blood still being utilized elsewhere, but he kept walking.

He was too fucking out of it, his thoughts racing. He didn’t even have enough concentration to flash himself into the main hall where he felt the energy signatures of the others gathered. Thanks to what the girl had done to him, he was forced to open the damned door like a mortal and
walk
out of his room.

With each step he put between himself and the girl in his bed, his reemerging powers slammed into the middle of his head, making every inch he put between himself and Ismini that much more painful.

Realizations were dawning, becoming a backdrop for the guilt that blossomed and stabbed him. Guilt at what he’d just done to her. Guilt at having broken a promise he’d upheld for millennia on end. A promise he’d made to the woman he loved.

Because he loved Dimithinia, didn’t he?

You know the answer to that.
He hadn’t even been to see how Dimithinia’s soul was faring. Not since Ismini had come into his life. Almost all of his thoughts had revolved around her.

Dyletri shook his head, trying to clear it. Worse than hearing that voice telling him his emotions were shifting, was the memory of the hunger he’d felt for Ismini’s blood. A hunger that was still burning inside him. A hunger that had been burning inside him for days.

You know what that means, as well.

No. Fuck, no
.
It couldn’t be.

Yes. Go back,
the thing within him demanded, ignoring his higher thoughts, what he desired.

She’s it.

Bullshit! She couldn’t be.

Besides, something was about to go down that must have involved the two assholes that had been after Ismini.

I don’t care about any of that, go back!

Dyletri slammed his fist into the nearest statue as he passed by. The thing broke apart before coming back together, one molecule at a time. It didn’t do anything to ease his temper or the pain tearing apart his cells and whispering in his ear.

Hell, he almost fucking forgot to rematerialize his shirt and shoes before stepping into the hall.

You want her blood. You know what this means. You
know.

All the Gods were in the hall waiting for Dyletri, standing in a circle around the massive form that was Xreak. With long, dark green hair and aquamarine eyes, the man was something females either loved or ran from.

To Dyletri, Xreak was an adroit warrior who was only kept from becoming psychotic by his sense of morality.

Dyletri tended to avoid eye contact and kept his mental barriers at their strongest whenever he was near Xreak. Xreak’s mind was not a pretty place. He had every reason to be half-insane. Not that any of them had ever had rosy lives, but Xreak and Crius got along famously, and there was a reason why.

Go back to the girl. You know what it means.

Dyletri ground his teeth together and told himself to fuck off. There wasn’t time.

“Dyletri,” Xreak said, inclining his head when he saw The God of Fertility walk in.

The others in the room turned to stare at Dyletri, and their thoughts may as well have manifested themselves in the form of neon lights on top of their heads. He could practically see the words flashing from where he was standing.

Say what now?

Oh really?

Asshole.

Details!

Ignoring the looks, including the raised eyebrow Cy was throwing in his direction, he addressed their guest directly. “What are you doing here, Xreak?”

“We have a very serious problem, as I’m sure you can surmise from my presence.”

“And that is?” Ian asked, sounding all ready for battle and shit.

“A
Kystm
has been ripped open.”

“Which one?” several of them asked at once, their voices on edge. The
Kystm
were the veils between the dimensions, and if any of them were ripped open, it was a problem, to say the least. Depending on which dimension was on the other side, it could be an all-out apocalypse.

“The ninth one, boys. I wouldn’t be here if it had been any other.”

Apocalypse, it was.

While Crius’s
Renentr
and all the other Underworlds were located on the eighth, the ninth was the darkest and vilest of all the dimensions. For its
Kystm
to have been ripped open . . .

“Who did it?” Dyletri asked.

“We don’t know. But some bad shit’s pouring out of it and into the other dimensions. Specifically, Earth.”

All of the gods let curses fly. Dyletri took a step closer to Xreak, ready to shake him and force answers out of his mouth.

XreakLi held up a hand, looking calm despite the panic he’d just induced in all of them. “Get those battle weapons ready, you retired fucks. It’s about time you made your asses useful again.”

Chapter 14

The moment Dyletri had walked out on her, Ismini was in agony. She’d had to remain on the bed, biting down on her knuckles and trying to hide the sheer rage that had reawakened in her cells. The pain had multiplied with each step he took, and as if that weren’t enough, about thirty seconds after he’d walked out the door, a punch of raw energy had flung her back against the headboard.

Ismini had all but suffocated herself to stop her sharp intake of breath. She knew that if he had heard her, Dyletri might have returned to investigate, and that was the last thing she needed. Not with the way her neck had begun burning, the lines of the mark branding her skin once again as they reappeared.

So Ismini stayed like that, fighting back the need to breathe even as she fought the need to scream. It took a while, but she realized that his sheets were making the situation worse. His room. His presence remained in the form of his scent. It clung to everything.
Everything
.

Stomach heaving, she shot up off the bed. She stumbled and landed on the floor in a heap. Just when she thought she was going to either puke up a lung or pass out from the pain, her brain seemed to split in two.

Ismini wasn’t given a chance to brace herself before visions started pouring in on her, whispers of a voice she now knew so well.

It was Dyletri. And she felt his guilt. Felt his pain. His confusion. She could feel and hear ghosts of his anger because he believed that he’d
betrayed
Dimithinia.

A sob broke out of her, the sound unstoppable. Ismini clenched her eyes shut, everything in her hurting as the ancient beauty’s face crept into her mind through Dyletri’s. It felt like her soul was trying to escape her body to get away from his thoughts.

She damned herself to a million hells as the tears began, leaking out hot and fresh. She just prayed that no one would hear her as more small sobs escaped against her will. Desperate to get out of the compound before they heard her, Ismini tried to drag herself across the floor.

She was doing one hell of a job of it, too, when she heard someone walk in behind her. She was halfway between the bed and the exit to the balcony. She stiffened, afraid it was Dyletri before realizing it couldn’t have been him. Her agony was intense, but Ismini knew if he had walked in at that moment, her pain would’ve multiplied and killed her.

“Ismini!”

It was Vedlyl. She felt him appear next to her and bit down on her lip hard as he lifted her. More pain racked through her.

“Forgive me. Please. I need to—”

“
Shhh.
Please . . . he . . . he can’t know . . .” She coughed, hating the fact that she couldn’t keep her traitorous body quiet.

“They left. They all had to leave. There’s an emergency back on Earth. By the Gods, damn him. His scent is all over you. What was he thinking if he still plans . . .”

“No, I . . . I tempted him, Vedlyl. I . . . Salicyar. I think I met Salicyar.”

They rematerialized into the medical wing just as she managed to get out those words. She felt Vedlyl pause in his steps before he continued. “Stupid son of bitch. I warned him.”

He practically growled, taking Ismini by surprise. She’d only ever known the God of Medicine to be calm, even when he was concerned.

By the time he laid her back on her bed, Ismini was so cold she was shivering. Which was the least of her worries. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Evesse run in, and the horror of her witnessing this was almost too much for Ismini’s poor tortured body.