Bliss (11 page)

“You ain’t seen nothing yet, sweetlips,” he snarled, grabbing her hand
s from his engorged member to turn her around, locking her arms behind her back. He bent her over so that her round ass was his. The slip of white lace resting between her cheeks did more to arouse him than he thought possible. He wanted to rip it to shreds but knew better. Instead, he grabbed his throbbing erection in his hand and slid it between her cheeks. He could feel her dampness seep onto him as her smell took over his senses. He stifled a groan of satisfaction as she leaned back to match his rhythm. The tip of him was wet, and the sea dragon’s brand on his skin was blistering with intense heat.

He was so close to rapturing it hurt to breathe. It took every ounce of willpower to not give into his
sexual drive. As it was, he was dangerously close to going over the edge.

A splash of cold water from one of the dolphins brought sanity rushing back to him.

In one fluid movement he lifted her hips. “In we go,” he said, hoisting her above the yacht’s railing to drop her into the cold Atlantic Ocean. He heard her gasp of surprise, as he prepared to dive in. Flexing his feet on the railing, he dove straight up from the boat’s rail into the sea, hoping against hope rapturing wouldn’t kill her or him.

In a millisecond
, the sea’s powers claimed him as he dove deeper into the cold water. He couldn’t hesitate another second. Finally, he gave into the pulsating need and raptured. Strength and power flowed through his veins as his body reveled being back in its original form. The sea dragon’s brand burned hot into his skin, but this time it was a welcome relief. The brand gave him more strength when he was in his true form. He sensed the thoughts of all the sea beings and, more importantly, he was finally able to telepathically speak to his
mardom
, to his family. A splash from above brought his attention back to Kassandra. To the woman who was quickly turning his world upside down.

With a long sweep from his tail he swam upwards.

I always wanted to swim with dolphins. I just sort of pictured doing this...oh I don’t know...how about in
Florida, with trained dolphins.
Kassandra looked around for the umpteenth time for Darius.
You are so going to pay for dumping me in this freezing water. Just you wait.

However, waiting was beginning to become a problem for her. She had watched spellbound as Darius, in all his naked splendor, dove head first into the
sea. Honestly, how long could a human hold their breath? She forced the sweep of panic from taking hold. The rational part of her that had been drilled with years of survival training, all thanks to her military father and her naval reserve training, told her she had lots of options. Like swimming back to the boat, getting out of the freak’n cold water, and hightailing it out of here with the motor at full tilt.

Another, irrational part of her screamed,
Where is he and are those
sharks
in the distance?
Getting tired of treading water, she eyed the boat again, thinking he might have crawled back into it.
I wouldn’t put it past the weasel.
Her teeth started to chatter as the chill of the water seeped into her body.

Then she sensed movement in the water. Something was
coming for her and fast.
Okay, mister, that’s it. Time’s up and I’m out of here. So what if we are bound together, obviously you don’t care.
Kicking her feet into high gear, glad she’d taken the time to put on the blasted flippers when Darius had thrown those overboard also, she moved, only to feel something warm and satiny brush past her legs. Her entire body shivered from the warmth of the contact. She felt as if she was immobilized. She forced herself to take a calming breathe.

Then Darius
shot up out of the water, looking for all the world like what she imagined the sea god, Poseidon, would look like. His hair was wet, slicked back from his forehead, falling well past his shoulders. Shoulders she could have sworn were larger and more muscular than before, as if that was possible. His magnificent chest was something else entirely. He looked bronzed and chiseled all at the same time, and worse, he was grinning like the weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders. And it was that grin that made her heart lighter. She loved his smile. It brought out that inner-child in him who liked to play while the man he was hardly seemed to know the concept of the word. He was all about duty and honor and while those were great traits, it was his playfulness that she enjoyed the most.

He
splashed water in her face and that did more to make him loveable than she liked. Cold, tired of treading water, and reminding herself that she was mad at having to wait for him to come back from who knows where, she fought to remain pissed off at him. Unfortunately, that idea vanished from her mind with one look at his sexy, charming smile.

“Are you okay?” he asked, gliding next to her.

How he could tread water without using his arms remained a mystery to her. “Sure, I’m fine. Who doesn’t like to swim in the cold, Atlantic Ocean every day? Give me a break, Darius.” She slanted her eyes at him hoping he’d think she was still pissed.

“Glad to hear you’re okay. I’ve got to go to that island. I’ll try not to be long. Stay here.”

Oh, he must be insane. I know he takes me for an idiot, okay a drooling, sex-starved idiot, but help me god he can’t be serious.
Before she could say anything, he was gone. A swish of movement from below was the only warning she got before his upper body, head and all, once again disappeared below the surface. Again, her legs felt the brush of a strange, warm, satiny something...a really long something.
That must be seaweed
, she tried to reason with herself, vowing to kill Darius for playing that trick on her. She was angry he just assumed she’d stay, as she treaded water in the middle of nowhere. However, her scattered thoughts got diverted as four dolphins leapt directly over the top of her.

So much for Florida? Smiling with her ring side
seat, for what had to be the best sea water show she’d ever seen, she forgot all about being cold and mad.

Twenty minutes later it all returned to her. She ran her hands up and down her arms attempting to add warmth but truthfully she knew her body couldn’t stand another second of being submerged in the water. Her shivering had taken on convulsing proportions, and she knew her lips had to be blue. Hell, even my nipples hurt, she mused, trying for the third time to rub some sensation back into them with her own hands.

Just as she was about to latch onto the boat’s side, the side with the dangling rope that thankfully Darius had thrown overboard, she felt a hand grab her ankle. She screamed and kicked her flippered feet at whatever was attempting to grab and haul her back into the sea.

“Darius, you dimwit, stop that!”

The man surfaced inches from her. “Darius...I don’t think so. What, pray tell, is a silly little human female doing swimming in the cold Atlantic Ocean?”

Kassandra’s entire body clenched in fear. More than ever she wanted to get on the boat, out of the water, away from the danger she sensed from the man, who eyed her like she was a morsel ripe for the picking. The man had a chest that rivaled Darius’ but his skin was as dark as Saad’s. A bald head gave way to two piercing blue eyes and from his left ear dangled what looked like a fish-hook. He was handsome and worse, she sensed he knew it. White teeth gleamed at her as he smiled, but it wasn’t a genuine smile. It was the type of smile you see on a cat just before it pounces on its prey.

“I heard that Darius had a female, and I had to see for myself.” His eyes raked over her, and it was then that she remembered she was practically naked. The…being… actually licked his lips. She felt his hand back on her ankle and this time she didn’t hesitate. She kicked him for all she was worth. However, it was obviously not much. He simply grabbed her, chuckling at her feeble attempt.

“Look, I don’t know who you are, but get away from me.” Even to her own ears
, the words sounded pathetically weak.

“Feisty little human aren’t you
? I like that,” he said. “I can see why Darius is attracted to you, but it won’t last.”

“What won’t last?” Like that was smart.
Blathering idiot that I am.
Kassandra hated herself for talking to the man who was scaring the pants off her, that is, if she had been wearing any. Inwardly, she was screaming for Darius to get his butt back here this instant.

“You won’t last. Darius likes variety. You
’re a treat, but trust me, little lady, he’ll use you and then abuse you. I on the other hand only want a sample,” he said, grinning as he attempted to pull her in closer to his body.

Sweat poured off Darius’ body. For the fifth time he yanked on the metal chain. Chain! He screamed in fury while shaking his head. The violent movement caused the heavy, rusting chain to rattle and clink. Around his neck was a black, iron collar cinched as tight as possible. Tiny iron spikes from the collar were embedded into his neck, preventing him from rapturing into any type of sea creature. He yanked again in frustration, knowing he had to get out of the dank underground cell he’d been put in before time ran out. His heart thundered when he thought about Kassandra. What must she be thinking?

Things had been going good as he swam like a mad
Titan to reach
Miradith’s
entrance. That had been the easy part. After he had engaged in much pleading, even bowing in reverence to the living entity, she had finally granted him entrance to her Great Hall. Thinking the mission was almost over, he’d momentarily let his guard down.
Now, here I am back to where I was at the beginning of this mess.
He gritted his teeth in agony as the taste of the metal spilled into his body.

“Enjoying your nice, new surroundings,” said Muroka
, ambling forward.

Ten years h
ad done a lot of damage to him. While Darius was glad his former opponent didn’t look as impressive as he had a decade ago, he did wonder how the Titan had ended up with those nasty, jagged scars etched into his face and his chest. There was even a gaping hole where his right eye used to be. Why Muroka’s Titan powers hadn’t healed him remained a mystery to Darius. The only other scarred Titan he knew was his twin, Seth, but that had been a deliberate punishment inflicted by their father’s Triton. As far as he knew, the Triton was the only thing capable of scarring a Titan. He highly doubted, though, that his father had had anything to do with disfiguring the infamous Titan slave master.

“You look
as charming as ever, Muroka. Why don’t you go take a bath, or better yet, brush your teeth?” he taunted, eyeing the large Titan as he moved closer to Darius.

Muroka punched him in the chest, causing him to double over in pain. The chain, embedded deep into the sea yanked him back as
he almost toppled over. Muroka grabbed his hair, tearing the roots out and causing his eyes to sting. Inches from his face, the slave master sneered at him. Darius fought the urge to gag. The slave master’s breath smelled like rotting fish.

“I saw you looking at me,
freshling
. I consider myself lucky. For ten years I’ve searched these waters for you, and now,” he chuckled with a sound like someone rinsing a bad taste out of his mouth, “she’s going to do things to you that even in your wildest dreams you couldn’t have imagined.”

So that’s how he got the scars. Aphrodite can be a bitch, but I
didn’t think she was that bad.

“Look, Muroka, what happened ten years ago
wasn’t my fault. When have you ever known me to shy away from a good fight?” He grinned, hoping to catch Muroka’s attention. After all, he knew the slave master loved a good fight as well. Pushing his luck, he said coaxingly, “Look, let’s you and me pick up where we left off a decade ago. A good clean, fight.”

“No,” answered Muroka, giving another hard yank on the chain. “I promised Hera I would bring you to her for your...um,” he chuckled again,
giving Darius another whiff of his rotten sea breath, “your punishment.”

“Hera? What does Zeus’ wife have to do with me? I thought
it was Aphrodite was mad at me. I haven’t even seen Hera in over a century!” He frowned, trying to figure out how he could have insulted Zeus’ touchy wife.

A rough yank on the chain by Muroka unhooked it from the sea floor. Then
he dragged Darius unceremoniously down the long corridor. The so called Great Hall
Miradith
had let him enter. Traitorous entity.

“You sneered at Aphrodite
.”

It took Darius a moment to realize that Muroka had answered him.

When he did, he fought to haul his upper torso off the crusty seabed cutting into his skin. “What! What are you talking about? I didn’t sneer at Aphrodite.”
Did I
? “I simply had something more...something more important to do”
...like run in the opposite direction…
“but I most certainly did not sneer.”
Do I sneer?
“And, what by Zeus”
...okay, bad choice there…
“What does that have to do with Hera?”

“She took offense
at you. And you might as well stop your sniveling,
freshling
. She will enjoy filling you in as much as I’m sure she will enjoy inflicting pain on you,” said Muroka, dragging Darius down the long corridor.

She took offense
at me. By all that’s reverend. Somehow I’ve managed to piss off Hera when she’s obviously on a woman rampage. The last time she went on one of her famous rampages the Trojan War broke out. And just who is he calling a
freshling
? I don’t think so
. Darius felt his anger rising like never before.

“You there. Just where do you think
you are going?” said a booming voice from the end of the corridor.

While his
blurred eyesight he could not see the figure clearly, but he immediately recognized the voice. Already regretting what he knew was going to happen next, Darius looked madly around for an escape route.

“Drop him. You are not to come any nearer with your foul body. I will take the prisoner from here.”

“But Hera said I...” began Muroka, only to be cut off as the figure loomed closer.

“Are you disobeying my direct orders, slave
? Need I remind you of the consequences?”

Darius watched
, mildly amused, as Muroka’s body actually shook in fear. He felt the heavy chain drop, allowing him the dignity to move his tail underneath him to propel his upper body up off the floor.

“Enjoy yourself,
freshling
,” taunted Muroka, making his way back down the long corridor.

Darius watched until Muroka was completely gone before he made a grab for the figure. “What are you doing here, Rylan?” he demanded, grabbing the kid by the scruff of the neck.

“Rescuing you...you’re…um…choking me, Darius,” said Rylan. Back was the scratchy voice Darius recognized.

Releasing his choke-hold on the kid, he backed up, allowing Rylan to remove his disguise.

“I was visiting with my Uncle, and it was a good thing, too, because he’s got this whole new plan. You should see it...I mean it’s really good, not like the last time, when, you know, he accidentally started that little war,” blathered Rylan, as he finished taking off the cumbersome Titan disguise.

Darius felt his eyes roll back in his head. Why
didn’t he magically spell the disguise away? Thinking about that made him realize it was probably safer for him if Rylan didn’t use his powers. Every time he used a spell, something went wrong. Seriously wrong. Case in point, his current predicament.

There had been one moment when
he’d felt actual joy at seeing Rylan, and being freed, but that feeling evaporated the minute he had mentioned Zeus’ name.
He is a babbling idiot.
Darius attempted to sort out from Rylan’s spiel what was important.

“Enough, cut to the chase, Rylan
,” he yelled, causing the kid to jump in fright. “But before you do that get this blasted collar off my neck,” he added in a slightly quieter tone.

In a blink, the collar and chain were gone.
Ahh, the joys of being a semi-god.
Darius eyed the kid warily.

As if there
had been no interruption in his monologue, Rylan continued to blather away, “So, anyway, in walks Hera, and well...we all know to leave the palace the minute she’s anywhere in sight, but I hid behind this large pillar and overheard her talking about you. Well, I couldn’t believe my luck, so here I am. What’s our mission?

Darius crossed his arms over his chest and counted to ten. Then he closed his eyes and started to name all of the sea creatures he’d transformed into over the centuries. Finally he opened his eyes and looked at Rylan’s hopef
ul gaze.
What do I do with you?
The kid was a freak of nature, but he realized at that precise moment his options for help were limited.

With his hands crossed over his torso, Darius said slowly, hoping Rylan would get the
gist of what he had to say the first time. “The only mission you have, Rylan, is to find a way to break that spell. Remember.” His eyes stared directly at Rylan’s shifty gaze.

The semi-god
focused his eyes on the seabed. “I haven’t forgotten....in fact...I think I’ve almost found a way to break the spell. Of course there was that little bit about having your body dissolve for all times, but that’s not really a big thing,” rambled the kid, unaware of the fury building in Darius.

He
wanted to take Rylan by the shoulders and give him a good shake or pummeling right hook. In fact, decking him was starting to sound really good, as he absorbed what Rylan was saying.

“...so anyway, Hera said she was going to castrate you and...”

“What!” bellowed Darius, his eyes wide in disbelief. “The goddess actually
said
that to Zeus. She said she was going to...?”Darius couldn’t bring himself to say the word. It was an abomination. His whole body was rigid with shock.

“You know that was the tame part of what she was saying to my Uncle, who I have to tell you was laughing so hard he almost fell over,” answered Rylan, crossing his arms over his chest to mimic Darius.

Zeus falling over. That I’d love to see.
Darius swam nervously back in forth in one spot. He needed to get to the High Court of Cabiri, get back to Kassandra, and then he’d find a way to torture Rylan for doing this to him. First thing first, getting to the court.

“So what’s with that woman you were with?”

That stopped Darius cold. “What do you mean?”

“Why did you leave her swimming in the
Atlantic? On my way here I saw her latching onto Rajheb,” said Rylan walking ahead of Darius down the long corridor.

No longer in
Titan form, Rylan looked like a typical human teenager. Clad in ripped jeans, he wore a simple white shirt and sneakers and a gold necklace. Once again Darius was reminded this wasn’t just any kid he’d gotten saddled with. It was Zeus’ half-nephew, and half of him was a bloody god! The kid could move at will through all the realms, including his undersea kingdom. That knowledge infuriated him.

Taking s
tock of what Rylan had said, Darius did a double-take.
What!
His heart clenched in fear. There was no way in Hades’ Kassandra would latch herself onto Rajheb. More likely the rake was trying to latch onto her, wanting to sample a human female for a change.

Every cell in his body went into overdrive. He had to force himself not to turn and swim for all he was worth back to her location. As much as it killed him
, he did have a mission to fulfill. Get to the court, talk to them and try to find a way to stop the plague from killing his
mardom
. But, he vowed silently to himself, if Rajheb touched one hair on Kassandra’s head, he’d kill the Titan with his bare hands.

Ten minutes later task one was accomplished. He’d meet with the thirteen Cabiri members
, and now he knew what he had to do. Only find a missing relic called the
V’talat
, which could be anywhere within the seven seas, would stop the plague.

That’s just great. Nothing
could be easier. Just find an old forgotten relic, which none of them could even describe and—guess what, Darius—you’ve got all the time you need - two days! That’s it. Two blasted days! Or that plague that’s killing all your mardom in the north seas will in all likelihood start to consume all the seas.

That had been it. No advice. No
wishes for good luck. Simple instructions that could have been delivered by one of their pitiable servants.

D
arius saw red. It was an impossible task, and he’d try to tell them so. His words hadn’t mattered. There was no argument, no debate. Just simple instructions and then all thirteen divine beings had vanished back to wherever they came from.

“So what did they say?” asked Rylan for the umpteenth time.

Darius couldn’t speak. He growled a low warning to Rylan, hoping the kid would get the hint: Shut up.

He swam to the entrance – the Main entrance this time – avoiding M
iradith’s Great Hall – as the entity shifted in another one of her attempts to block his exit. As the opening loomed in his sight, he gasped. Blinding pain sliced through every cell in his body. His chest constricted as his body started to rapture back into human form.

“No!” he shouted, fighting the rapture that was taking over his body. There was no way
in Hades he’d survive in human form this far down under the sea. The pressure would kill him, let alone the water, in which he’d drown as a human. Now if the Fates didn’t think that was ironic they sadly lacked a sense of humor.