Blessed (38 page)

“Eliana.” Aiden's rough voice rolled over her like velvet.

“Aiden, I did it.” She rubbed her throat and grimaced. Her voice sounded huskier than it used to. The incredible meeting with Bes filled her thoughts, and she opened and closed her mouth. How could she make him understand how amazing her meeting had been? How could she put into words being in the presence of a god?

Blinking against the bright light from the bedside lamp, she turned her head and groaned. “Ow!” Her face ached, and it was hard to concentrate with the low throb of pain that filled her head.

“Eliana, are you all right?” He watched her with an intense expression on his handsome face, his dark green eyes rimmed with red. She realized he had been crying, and her heart hurt for him.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Reaching out, she took his limp hand in her own. “Really, other than being beat up, I feel better than I ever have before.”

He still didn’t say anything, but his thumb stroked against the back of her hand with a butterfly-soft touch. The sensation of his caress made her gasp softly and stare at him in wonder. Then he smiled at her and she realized those intense emotions were a dizzying mixture of joy, relief, and love.

“Your body is changing. You will feel things more intensely now, both pleasure and pain. It sounds like Bes has changed your voice a bit to make it more...seductive.”

He stroked his hand down her arm, his soft touch merging with the throb in her face in an odd combination. The pleasure and pain seemed to balance each other on a razor-sharp edge. All she could do was stare at him and try to absorb the intensity of her new sensations.

“Did Bes show you his mark?”

“No, I...I think I passed out before it was complete. Can you pass out in a vision? Isn't that redundant? How did you know about Bes?” She had to resist the urge to clear her throat. She still sounded like herself, but her words had the edge of a sensual purr. “My eyesight is blurry, too.”

He chuckled and smoothed her hair back. Giving her a wink, he pulled the blankets back from her legs. The feeling of the sheets sliding across her legs was unlike anything she had ever experienced. She could feel the uneven places in the wave of the fabric if she concentrated.

“Your eyes will soon adjust. Your body in changing, and your vision is being enhanced. When they clear, you will have perfect vision. I didn't get that gift, but I'm not the Chosen of a war god so I didn’t need the battle enhancements that you’re getting.”

“Battle enhancements? Wow, that’ll be handy next time I have to kick some Destro ass.” She twitched her shoulders as her lip throbbed. “How long am I going to be hyper-sensitive like this? The pleasure part is awesome, but the pain part I could totally do without.”

“You’ll learn to control it.” His eyes darkened again, and he took a deep breath then let it out with a soft hiss. “Your psychic scent is stronger now too. Gods, you smell delicious.” He leaned closer to her on the bed, studying her intently.

“What is it?”

“I was just reminded of how empty and desolate my world would be without you. The thought of never wrapping your scent around me again is the worst thing I could imagine.” The tenderness of his voice held a note of steel, and she smiled at him as best she could.

He inched up the long white nightgown and revealed the top of her thigh.

“Really, Aiden. I admire your stamina, but now is not the time.”

Rolling his eyes, he used the tip of his finger to direct her gaze down. A rampant lioness flashed her claws into the air on her thigh. Rather than ink, the tattoo looked like liquid gold.

“Oh, man. That is so bad-ass!” She ignored his snicker and turned her leg in the light, marveling at the mark of Bes. “Better not let my mom see this. She’ll kill me.”

Gently, as if she were made of glass, Aiden stroked his lips over hers. “I love you. You're everything I have ever prayed for, even when I didn't know what I wanted.”

Running her hand through his thick hair, she whispered against his lips, “I love you too. I have so much work to do for my god. I could not have a better man at my side to help me save the world.”

Exquisitely gentle, he stroked his lips over hers again and whispered, “Eliana Marie Shay, will you marry me?”

Joy burned through her body and soul, bright and clear. “Really?”

“Yes, really.” Peace filled his eyes, and he knelt next to the bed. “You are the greatest blessing the gods ever gave me.”

Despite the pain, she couldn’t help but smile. “You’re the love of my life. Of course I’ll marry you.”

He gently scooted next to her on the bed and pulled her close. In his eyes, she saw their future, filled with magic and love.

Devon took a deep breath and looked at his assembled team of Temple Guards, all suited up for battle. “Okay, we’re going to do this quick. Who knows what kind of fucked up weapons Linda and Dillon have inside of their apartment, so our only chance to grab them is going to be after they leave. The building they live in is too heavily populated to go in and try an extraction anyways.”

From the com-link in his ear came Jack’s voice. “Their limo has pulled up out front.”

“Roger that.”

He moved to the edge of the alley across the street from Linda and Dillon’s high-rise apartment building in New York. It had taken him close to a month after Eliana’s abduction and attempted murder, but they’d finally found Linda and Dillon and the pair had a multitude of sins to pay for. Across from Devon a Chosen of the goddess Diana, Flavia, checked the string of her bow. Hopefully she’d be able to assassinate them without having to engage in a full on battle with the pair. Apart Linda and Dillon were lethal, but put them together and Devon feared that he would lose some people he considered dear friends in the ensuing battle.

“Movement from the lobby,” came Jack’s voice again.

The other man was currently watching from a room in the building across the street from Linda and Dillon’s home above a comedy club. Jack was using the club to cloak his presence, allowing him to watch without being detected. It was close to midnight, but New York was truly the city that never slept and far more people walked the streets than he would have liked. The street was still filled with traffic and Devon’s gut knotted at the logistical nightmare ahead of them.

“There’s Dillon,” came Jack’s voice, “but no Linda yet.”

“I’ve got movement at the back entrance,” another member of their team said through the link. “It’s Linda. She’s looking around the alley for something. She’s walking over to someone…it looks like a bum sleeping next to a dumpster. Oh shit, I think she’s going to kill him. Fuck, I have to stop her.”

Panic raced through Devon and he had to keep himself from yelling as he said into the com, “Bill, fall back. Do not engage, fall back!”

“I can’t let her kill him,” the other man said in a low voice.

Devon looked over to Flavia and she nodded. “I’ve got Dillon, go.”

Hoping his cloaking talisman would shield him, Devon ran across the street, unsheathing his sword as he went. Behind him came the high pitched scream of a man and he glanced over his shoulder, satisfaction filling him as he watched Dillon trying to pull out a silver arrow from his chest just as another one pierced him through his eye.

As he rounded the corner a woman’s scream of rage shook the very walls of the alley, bits of dust and debris raining down over his body armor. He caught sight of Linda with her arms raised up in the air, chanting something that had his stomach twisting into knots, he gasped. She screamed Dillon’s name and began to chant in a language not known to him as Destruction energy built around her in a towering inferno of dark fire.

Then her gaze landed on him and all of that negative energy came crashing down on Devon in a tidal wave of evil.

Pain lanced through his bones and he dropped to his knees with a sharp scream. She focused her gaze on him and the pain intensified, rendering him totally immobile, helpless before the approaching woman. Dressed in a sleek black raincoat and high-heeled boots, she pulled a long, curved blade from her purse as she continued towards him, her lips peeled back from her teeth and madness shining in her eyes.

He strained to move and caught sight of the crumpled body of the Temple Guard that had been watching the back entrance, his heart constricting with grief that he’d failed to protect the other man. Gathering the last of his strength he prayed to Mentu, begging his god to give him the strength to at least take Linda with him. There wasn’t a doubt she would kill him, help was too far away and the death of Dillon had obviously driven her insane.

For a brief moment disappointment filled him for all the things he would never do, never experience, all the people he would never see again. But by far his biggest regret was that he’d never known true love and he screamed in agony as the evil began to attack his soul.

Through his blurred vision he watched as Linda began to make this hideous sound that was a mixture between a laugh and a scream, even more negative energy filling the space around him until he was sure he was already dead and in hell.

Even though it was futile he held on, fighting as best he could, using everything he had to try to summon enough strength to do something, but all he did was prolong his pain, yet he refused to give up. Praying with everything he had he managed to keep the evil out of his soul, but he couldn’t stop Linda as she stumbled towards him, her face sinking in on itself as her teeth grew into long, pointed fangs.

The sight terrified him and if he’d had any control of his body he would have been crawling away from her as fast as he could, but she had him pinned to the ground like a bug with a needle through its body. The fear fell away from him and he began a litany of devotion to the Gods of Creation, a thanks for his life, for all that he’d been able to experience, for the joy and their protection of his people. While his life may be over, his soul was returning to the Creator of them all and it was impossible to be afraid of returning to the source of all love.

From behind her something disturbed the darkness, a brief point of light. That light grew and to his shock the homeless man that had been sleep stood and began to glow like a start in the darkness, a single point of burning light. The weight smothering Devon lifted the slightest bit and he took in a deep breath of the thick air, struggling to move, but all he could do was watch as Linda slowly turned, her body shivering and morphing, contorting before his eyes into that of a demon.

To his shock the homeless man morphed as well, his beard vanishing and revealing deeply tanned skin and a regal face. The double crown of Egypt appeared on his head and the regal robes of a pharaoh covered his body. Devon’s heart stuttered as he realized he was looking at Amun-Re, the Egyptian god of many things, including the poor. From what he knew of Linda one of her favorite victims had been the homeless and a fierce satisfaction filled him as he realized the time to pay the price for her crimes had come.

Linda, or whatever the hell she’d turned into, screeched in fear. Before she could move Amun-Re reached out and casually snapped her head from her neck like a child popping a flower from its stalk. A rumble filled the air, the ground, and the marrow of Devon’s bones as the dark energy began to pour back into Linda’s corpse, filling it, bloating the shape until it exploded into nothingness. For what seemed like an eternity fresh air roared into the space left by the departure of all the evil and Devon stared at the god looking patiently back at him.

He struggled to move as sensation filled him, but managed to roll over onto his stomach in the filthy alley, going prostate before Amun-Re.

A sense of divine peace moved over him, tinged with pride, and tears burned his eyes as the realization that he was going to live swept over him.

The sense of the divine slowly faded and by the time his people found him in the alley he was on the verge of passing out.

Jack reached him first, turning him over and frantically searching his face.

“Holy fuck, every inch of his body is bruised.” Jack peered into his eyes. “Devon? Can you hear me?”

“Yeah.” Fuck, even his tongue felt bruised.

Jack frantically shouted for a healer before lowering his voice and turning his attention back to Devon. “What the fuck happened? We tried to get to you, but some crazy fucking strong shield kept us out.”

“Don’t know,” he whispered even though his body felt like it had been beaten with a thousand hammers. He strained to remember what had happened, but his memories of the event were slowly draining away. “Linda…did something. Then…then….I don’t know.”

“Take it easy, okay. We’ll figure it out.” Jack screamed again for a healer. “Just hang in there man, okay?”

Devon tried to nod but his energy was almost completely exhausted. “Tell…Shay she can sleep now.”

Shaking his head, Jack moved to the side as a healer finally reached him. “Just hang in there, man, and you can tell her yourself, okay?”

“Tell her…wedding present. Better get lucky…with…hot bridesmaid.”

“I’ll tell her. Just relax and let the healer work.”

He closed his eyes, too tired to keep them open anymore. The soothing touch of the healer helped deaden his pain and he took a deep breath as the pressure around his lungs eased. Exhaustion pulled at him and as he drifted off a fragment of a memory reached him, the sense of despair of never having known true love. He sent out a final prayer, a desperate plea that the gods would bless him with a woman to call his own.

Look for more of The Chosen in Dreamer, coming soon.

Thank you so much for reading
Blessed
! We’re so happy that you had a chance to look into the fantasy world of The Chosen. We do hope if you liked this, that you would please leave a review from where you purchased this or on another platform. Not only does a review spread the word to other readers, they let us know if you’d like to see more stories like this from us. Ann loves to hear from readers and talks to them when she can. You can reach her through her
website
and through her
Facebook
and
Twitter
accounts. You guys are the reason we get to do what we do and we thank you.