God of the Abyss (51 page)

Sammy nodded, turned, and walked out of the room. He
was definitely my son in spirit, even if he wasn’t in blood. Vivian went after
him, but Ron stayed. He was my son, too, as well as Divina’s.

“Daddy, can you give us a minute?”

Mordon and I stepped outside and I shut the door
quietly, then took Mordon’s arm and let his fire flow into me. I closed my eyes
because I didn’t want to see anyone’s soul, but my senses strengthened to match
Mordon’s. With a dragon’s hearing, my son’s words were crystal clear through
the door.

“Nano, you are a friend to my dad. You looked worried
about the darkness in me, that I would turn out evil. I hope you will give me
the chance to assure you. I want you to know that this is me, not the dark
speaking. Do you understand that this is me?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I just didn’t want there to be any
misunderstanding about who exactly is talking to you. You know my dad pretty
well, I think, so peaceful and forgiving until you mess with his family. You
know my mom, so powerful and so very creative with her punishments. Now I think
you should know me. I’m Ron, son of a god and the most powerful Noquodi ever
born. And if you ever hurt my brother, there will be no corner in Hell in which
you can hide from me.”

Tiamat

My story began in blood, for I was born at war.
Vretial and the others think I forgot my past, but I remember everything.
Everything from my early years, anyway. I was born, not “created” like my
siblings, and I was abandoned. I was a mistake, an experiment gone wrong, for
no other reason than that I was female. The Iadnah had their faults, namely
greed, but also vanity. They never considered a female could be the warrior
they wanted. So with my engineered superior power, penchant for mischief, and
soul, I was left to fend for myself on a backwater planet, which had been as
neglected as myself.

At first, I thought I was being tested, but
eventually I realized I was just forgotten. All around me, the Iadnah were
fighting. I never considered them my people. In fact, I wanted to destroy them
all. Not for power, that was silly; I just really wanted them all gone.

I still don’t know why.

At the end of the war of my people, I was found,
sniffed out for my power. I was still so young, but I had spent my entire
existence using magic to survive. I played the innocent and naïve orphan he
thought I was. One of the Iadnah tried to take my power, but he took me into
the Land of the Iadnah to do so. It was there that I turned the tables. I
destroyed him, not to survive or anything, just because he was there and I
could.

I was nearly lost again when another Iadnah found me.
He offered me compassion, and at first I didn’t know what it was. His kindness
saved him, though. Instead of killing him, I let him take me with him. I didn’t
understand why he was pushing me towards another Iadnah, or why Vretial took me
into another universe. At first, I thought he meant to abandon me, but he never
left. Instead of imprisonment, I faced eleven Iadnah who showed me benevolence
and acceptance. They never knew I was different.

Vretial called me his sister. He made me one of them,
and soon, everyone except for Vretial forgot. I had forgotten, too, for a long
time. Then, after absorbing the power of Vretial’s world, my memories returned.
Every gory detail that I lived. Who could forget that I was created to destroy?
I was never one of them.

I lied enough that sometimes I forgot what was truth
and what was not. I lied to my brothers, myself, and even to my mate. Dylan
trusted me despite the fact that he knew. It was always more difficult to lie
to him with Mordon around, not because Mordon was a dragon; it was child’s play
for me to trick a dragon’s senses. It was more difficult because when they were
together, their souls connected. The path became clouded when they were
together.

I could’ve told Dylan the truth and he would still
have trusted me. He was my mate, so his soul was a match for mine. Which was
funny really; I was born to cause destruction and he was born to stop it. Our
son had it so rough.

I rolled over and observed Dylan as he slept deeply
and without fear. I wish I could have been so fearless. The fact was I loved
Dylan. Of all the variables deliberated in my design, my heart was never
considered. Dylan was the one being in the entire universe I could never harm;
he was the one who made me calm and happy.

Unfortunately, I knew what path he would face. I had
seen Dylan’s death…

Mordon had been warned, for the young seer had told
him not to return to his father’s castle. It was never about his father, but
the dragon girl. Samhail saw Mordon’s fate on Lore without her and the boys
believed they had to make a choice between Emiko’s innocence and Mordon’s life.

However, my children, young and untrained, couldn’t
see the true consequence of their actions. Mordon ignored the warning and saved
Emiko from a poison, and the boys acted impulsively when Samhail saw her saving
him. For all their efforts to save lives, they couldn’t see that they were
sealing Dylan’s fate. 

Samhail had great potential; he could feel the paths
even when he couldn’t see them. When he saw the crystal staff, he knew it had
to be destroyed, but he didn’t know his father like I did. Dylan always had a
plan and he never took anything on blind faith. I knew Dylan didn’t destroy the
staff.

The unfortunate truth was that Dylan had inherited
his father’s ability to see the paths, but I got to him before it developed and
was able to suppress it. Dylan was too strong a force already without that
ability. The Sight combined with his raw power would be more destructive than
it would be useful.

Dylan’s breathing sped up a moment before he opened
his eyes. He smiled at me as if I was as much the light of his life as he was
mine and then he kissed me like I was everything to him. I pulled away when I
needed air.

“Good morning,” he whispered between more light
kisses.

“It will be in a few minutes,” I answered.

He laughed and rolled over. “No, it won’t be.” He
threw the covers off the bed and stood with an uncalled for joviality. It was
freezing. He continued to laugh as I snatched the covers up and pulled them
over me. “Come on, or we’ll be late. You wanted the human experience.”

“Not at the crack of dawn.”

“It’s nine in the morning.” He stuck his hands under
the blankets and latched onto my ankles before pulling. I grabbed the headboard
to resist, but let go when he yanked the covers back off me.

“You are a sadist!” I yelled.

“Say that in Italian, my love. Now get dressed.”

“We can’t even take a shower first?”

He leaned over to kiss me as he pulled his pants on.
“You’re going to want to shower when we get home,” he said.

Suspicions arose, but by the time I tried to read his
mind, his magic was already in place, protecting his thoughts.

*          *          *

Half an hour later, we were sitting outside a tiny
café, hidden away from the tourists, enjoying a fantastic Venetian breakfast
with coffee. Dylan said Italy was known for their coffee, so I agreed to try
it.

Come to find out, Dylan had an entire day planned,
beginning with a boat tour after breakfast. We went to an art museum, which was
not really our thing, but we never lagged for conversation so it was plenty
enjoyable. We had lunch overlooking the sea. Shopping followed, where I picked
out a light blue dress that was more in Dylan’s taste than mine. Honestly, I
always chose my clothing for him; I had no interest in my own attire. The dress
was light and pleasant for walking in though, so I wore it for the rest of the
day. We went to an amusement park and I realized I enjoyed roller-coasters.

How odd.

We were walking to Dylan’s next surprise destination
when he stopped. Spotting something in a flower shop window, he asked me to
wait for a minute before running inside. The sun was getting very low in the sky
and I figured he was taking me somewhere for dinner. Detours were interesting
so far. We had found many interesting places that were not in any tour book
Dylan had studied since learning where I wanted to go for our honeymoon.

He returned with his hand behind his back. When he
reached me, he pulled a bouquet of dark blue roses from behind him and handed
them over.

“What are these for?”

“They match your eyes perfectly. So I think…” He
looked at me. “They have to be the most beautiful roses of any world.
Therefore, it is only right to give the most beautiful roses to the most
beautiful woman in the universe. Ti amo.”

“You tell me you love me every day. Why learn it in
Italian?” I asked.

“Because we are in Italy. I want us to travel all
over the world together and visit every good country. And in every country I
will learn the native tongue for ‘I love you.’ And as soon as we return to
Duran, I want to visit each continent with you and tell you in all three
languages the same thing. Then I want to travel to all the worlds and learn it
in their languages and say it to you. Then I want us to go to the Land of the
Gods, where I will say it in Enochian. So that no matter where you go, you will
know that in every language, in every country and land, on every world and
beyond, I love you more than anything else.”

I was a goddess, older than dirt and not romantic in
the least… but I blushed. He was so unbelievably romantic, and I was falling
for it. His words would have been cheesy, but he somehow pulled it off… or maybe
it was his complete and utter sincerity.

When did the sweet, naïve dork I fell in love with
become so smooth? “We are already married; you don’t have to woo me.”

“To woo, or not to woo? No way would I give up the
chance to be romantic on our honeymoon. You are a goddess, but you are still a
woman. You are a beautiful, intelligent woman with unimaginable powers… and you
still put up with me.” He looked away as if trying to figure out how it was
possible. “I mean, you should be rewarded for having to listen to my rambling
alone.” He looked back at me. “You haven’t gotten sick of me yet, but that
doesn’t mean I shouldn’t always treat you like the treasure from Heaven that
you are. Ora prendete il vostro bel culo qui e baciami.”

I laughed and kissed him, since he asked so nicely.

We had a very nice dinner at a beautiful restaurant
with good wine and great food. I got suspicious when he left for the bathroom
for ten minutes, but I figured he probably flashed home to check on the boys.
He had promised he wouldn’t, but I couldn’t fault him for worrying. When we
returned to the hotel, however, I realized I was mistaken. I first noticed the
rose petals on the bed and fancy deserts on the glass table in front of the
window. The prepared bath was hot and full of bubbles and oils. There was a
gift box on my pillow wrapped in silver paper.

“That bath looks too good to waste. But we’re nowhere
near dirty enough to warrant bathing. What should we do about that?” I asked.

He put his hands on my waist and pulled me closer to
kiss me. Then he let me go and sat in the chair by the window. “Take off your
clothes,” he said.

Oh, the romantic play was over and the fun had begun.
Outside the bedroom, I was a goddess and mother. I had an important and serious
roll to play that everyone respected. In the bedroom, I was Dylan’s wife. He
was in charge and I couldn’t have been happier to give up my power to him. He
always made me happy and took care of me like I was really his treasure.

I undressed myself as slowly as possible before
ridding him of his clothes, mostly with my teeth. We were just about to head to
the bath when he grunted. “Tell your brothers to bug off.”

“Who is it?” I asked.

“Vretial.” That was all he could handle. His head
dropped back and I knew he was pulled to a meeting with my oldest brother. I
dressed myself, furious that we had been interrupted, and flashed to my mate.

“How nice of you to join us uninvited, my dear
sister,” Vretial said. He wasn’t looking at me, though. When the Noquodi were
summoned before us astrophysically, they appeared in the same clothes they were
really wearing. Dylan, of course, was naked. Instead of hiding himself, he
crossed his arms over his chest and glared. He had nothing to be ashamed of,
but I didn’t want him showing off what belonged to me. And Vretial was seeing
far too much.

“You interrupted my night with my mate. Why? And stop
looking at him!”

He gave me a knowing smirk. “I called Dylan here to
ask him if what I heard was true. Your son mentioned to me that you both had an
extremely foolish idea to go away for a week-long honeymoon.”

“How is that foolish?” I asked.

His smirk was gone. “Did you bring Mordon with you?”

“Why would I bring my brother with me on my
honeymoon?” Dylan asked. I was of like mind, but Vretial sighed.

“When you are away from each other, you cannot be
balanced. That is the reason you grew up with the universe acting against you;
you were too powerful and didn’t have him. How did you get it in your head that
being separated for any real length of time was a good idea?” He spoke to Dylan
as if explaining something to a slow child… but he had often used that tone on
my brothers and me.

“I’m with Divina. That should be enough.”

“When you are away from her for long periods of time,
you will be unhappy. When you are away from Mordon for long periods of time,
you will be dead. The balance is inside your youngest son and he’s not strong
enough to control himself. The longer you are away from Mordon, the more the
balance will push Ron to kill you.”

“I can handle my son,” I said.

He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “A family of
fools, the lot of you.”

“You seem to think you can just return to the way
things were before you took Avoli’s world,” I told my brother. “But that is not
how this works. I will never trust you like I did. Your advice means nothing to
me.”

“Then at least you married a man who can see reason,”
he said.

Dylan shook his head. “In matters of the gods, I will
always side with her.” Vretial opened his mouth, but Dylan interrupted him.
“I’m not saying I won’t take precautionary measures. I trust my son will not be
so driven to destroy me that he actively hunts me down. I also trust that being
around Mordon will restore this balance. So I will spend my week-long honeymoon
with my wife as I had planned, and then I will spend the next day at Mordon’s,
playing cards or hunting sheep or whatever my dragon brother wants to do. He
did just gain the ability to shift after all…” He turned to me. “We need to
import sheep. Dragons love chasing sheep in the movies.”

“Talk to Erono, love, Duran is his world.”

He regarded Vretial again. “After I have spent the
day with him, I’ll go home and everything will be fine.”

“Is a vacation worth the risk to you?”

“Spending time with my wife is worth the risk. If I
can’t outsmart the universe, I’m not all that fit to be with her anyway. Now,
if you don’t mind, I think the bath water is getting cold and I want to get my
wife wet and covered in bubbles before it is. Do you have a problem with that?”