Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

Death

I jolted awake.

It was quiet—too quiet.

My arm shot out across the mattress. Nothing. It was empty.

No Zinnia.

Only cool sheets. She'd been gone a while. Bounding out of bed, I stormed out of the room, not giving a fuck that I was naked, and leaped up the stairs and onto the deck. "Zinnia!" My roar echoed through the night, causing the demons asleep up here to startle awake. "My consort! Where the fuck is she?" I demanded.

"I haven't seen her," one of the demons said as he scrambled from his pallet.

Rushing him, I grabbed him by the throat and shoved him against the mast. "Where the fuck is she?"

He shook his head, trembling, the smell of piss reaching me. "I-I promise. I haven't seen her. I didn't do anything."

Shoving him away, I strode back the way I'd come, jumped down the stairs, and kicked every cabin door open, yanking back covers and flipping beds. She wasn't here. I knew it deep down; I felt her absence like a festering wound in the center of my chest. The same as when she left me, when she left Limbo to go back to her family for a month, and I was left counting down the fucking weeks, days, hours, minutes until she returned.

She was gone, but she hadn't left me. Someone had taken her, and when I caught up with them, I would tear them to pieces, until they were nothing but bloody chunks of meat wriggling on the ground.

"Everyone, up!" I bellowed. "Get me to the docks, now."

* * *

Zinnia

The captain of the Fetid Slug , Sig—I mean, it was as if the ship had been named especially for him—sidled up to me again, like he had been with increasing frequency since I got here, and pressed his face to my throat, sniffing deeply. He made a weird, excited little noise.

"Does she still smell like his lordship, Sig?" one of the other demons asked excitedly.

"Oh yesssss, and her cunny is still ripe from his tupping. His seed marks her," the captain said.

It took everything in me not to gag. That this creep was smelling me and, by the looks of it, getting off on it was more than I could stomach. "Bring your nose anywhere near me again, and as soon as I get the chance, I'll slice the fucker off." They'd at least removed the gag. They seemed to be amused by my threats. Little did they know, they weren't just threats. I would deliver every one of them, slowly. Unfortunately, there was some kind of ward on the ship, and my magic was bound tight.

Another demon dropped to his knees and crawled closer.

"Back the fuck up," I snarled.

He ignored me and kept coming. If my legs weren't tied to the chair, I'd kick the ugly fuck in the face. I jerked and fought, but it was hopeless, and he dragged his bulbous oily nose along the leather of my pants all the way up, until he was pressed between my thighs, and dragged in a deep breath.

"Oh yes," he said and laughed excitedly. "His lordship has used her. The scent of his seed is strong. She is the right female. The mistress will reward us."

They all giggled their weird fucking giggles, eyes flashing with glee.

"When I tell his lordship what you just did, asshole, he'll tear your face off and feed it to the fishes," I snarled. "That is, if there's anything left of it when I'm through slicing your ugly fucking face to ribbons."

They laughed again, uproariously.

Sig picked up a piece of my hair and pressed it to his nose, breathing deeply again. "You are a weak female. Your words are stupid. Your threats are false and make us laugh."

"And your breath smells like shit and makes me want to puke," I said, probably foolishly, but I didn't give a fuck at this point. I was usually good at controlling my temper, my emotions. I'd had to be with a mother like mine, and with my line of work, you learned to lock it all down. So when I did lose it, when I let that side of myself take hold, it was hard to get control back, and these ugly pervs had pushed me so far past my control, there was no coming back.

Sig's face darkened with rage a moment before he balled up his sledgehammer-sized fist and slammed it into the side of my head.

* * *

When I regained consciousness, I was being jostled, carried unceremoniously by the demon who'd sniffed my crotch and one of his buddies. It was dark, and I blinked, trying to clear my fuzzy vision. He'd hit me hard, and the side of my head still throbbed.

We were off the boat and moving across rocks and stones toward a massive temple surrounded by forest—the same kind of forest as the one we'd walked through in the Outer Realm. The towers on either side of the temple looked like the demon lighthouse we'd stayed in.

It wasn't hard to guess who was so desperate to meet me that she'd had me abducted off our ship.

I tried to fight, but it was no use; I was still trussed up and gagged again.

The massive stone doors swung open as I was carried toward them. The demons strode inside and continued on through an enormous entranceway. The tile floor was black obsidian with flecks of opal. Everything else was dark and cold. The only light was coming from a giant chandelier made of bone and huge charred antlers from some kind of otherworldly creature.

Another set of double doors opened as we approached, and I was carried into a room full of demons, and other creatures I'd never seen before in my life. They all went silent as I was brought in and dumped on the floor. The crotch sniffer undid the ropes around my wrists and ankles and tugged off the gag as the crowd gathered around, looking at me as if I was the oddity in the room. I tried to flex my magic, but the temple had the same ward, binding my powers here.

My hands and feet throbbed as blood rushed back, and it was hard, but I dragged myself to my feet. I was more than outnumbered, but that didn't mean I'd give up. No, I'd make as many of them bleed as I could before they took me down. I slid my blade free, gripping it tight, and turned in a slow circle, waiting to see who struck first.

Several of the demons laughed, one of them jerking forward, trying to scare me. I slashed fast with my knife, surprising him, and sliced through the side of his face, splitting it open. He shrieked and bared his bloody teeth, about to lunge.

"Enough!"

A voice echoed through the room, and it had the same kind of resonance as Death's. I locked my knees and turned to face Nox as the crowd parted to let her through.

"What do you want?" I said through gritted teeth, bracing for anything. I couldn't win, but that didn't mean I'd just lie down and die.

There were hisses and gasps around me at my question. Perhaps addressing a goddess the way I had was considered rude, but so was being kidnapped and knocked out.

"Forgive her. She is a witch and ignorant. She means no offense, I'm sure," Nox said as she finally emerged from the parting crowd.

She was tall and willowy, her skin like mother-of-pearl, her hair a glossy black waterfall down her back. She wore a long, flowing black gown in a sheer fabric, and her hands were folded in front of her, tipped with long, pointed black nails.

She blinked, staring at me with large black eyes, no white to be seen. It was the same way Death's and Somnus's eyes looked when they changed, looking like the sky on a starry night. On Death, it could be unsettling; on Nox, it was terrifying.

"I honestly don't care if you're offended," I said. There was no surviving this. If Nox wanted me dead, I was sure she could click her fingers, and I'd be splattered all over the marble floor. I wasn't going to bow down to her.

"I can hear your weak little mortal heart pounding in your chest, witch. Best you speak to me with respect, or I will rip it from your chest and crush it in my fist." She smiled, revealing bright white teeth. "But none of us want that now, do we, Zinnia?"

"I have no idea what you want."

Her eyes narrowed, but she smiled wider. "Oh, you are delightful, so full of fire, even when it can be so easily extinguished."

"The fact you can easily kill me isn't lost on me. You're a goddess, and as you pointed out, I'm a witch, one who has her powers currently bound by you. I know I can't win here, but if you think that scares me, you're wrong. I've faced fiercer monsters than you before, and if I die today, I will do it fighting."

Nox blinked at me, then threw her head back and laughed. The peanut gallery joined in, laughing with her uproariously. When her chuckles finally died down, she wiped away an invisible tear. "My dear, I only wanted to meet my son's consort. He can be…" She waved an elegant hand through the air. "… so possessive of his things."

"I'm not a thing."

"Of course you aren't, dear." She smiled wide again. "I want to get to know you, that's all. You've arrived just in time for dinner, so we can sit and talk." Her gaze slid over me, her mouth twisting with distaste. "We dress for dinner here," she said, then waved her hand toward me, and my leathers were replaced by a long black gown, my weapons vanishing. I looked down at myself. The dress brushed the floor, and the lace was like a delicate black spiderweb that covered nothing. My naked body was totally visible beneath. The gown was old, extremely fragile, and smelled slightly musty.

I ran my hands carefully over my hips, and a strange feeling filled me—a weird kind of excitement, a rush of happiness. I was getting something off it, vibrations from the past, from the female that had worn this before me; there was no other way to explain what I was feeling.

"Something wrong, dear?" Nox asked.

I looked up. "Give me back my things."

She ignored me and glided forward, toward a massive table. "Sit, Zinnia, it's time to eat." I had no choice but to follow. She sat, and a demon rushed ahead and pulled out a chair. I reluctantly took my place beside her. Was she going to kill me by poisoning my food? Poison could be nice and fast or slow and drawn out. Nox wouldn't enjoy clean or fast. She'd want to take her time; she'd enjoy my screams of pain. I grabbed the steak knife beside my plate and gripped it tight.

Nox glanced my way and shook her head with a tittering laugh. "Are you going to stab me with that, witch?"

She said witch with mockery in her voice, as if I were so insignificant, it was hilarious, and I supposed I was to her, but the demons still gathered around, sizing me up, were another story. "If any of your friends come any closer, they'll be losing an eye."

She chuckled again, then clapped her hands, and the food was brought out.

"Are you planning on poisoning me, goddess?"

She gave me a sidelong glance. "Poison? How very boring. No, my dear, the food is quite safe."

"You would say that."

She shrugged one elegant shoulder. "Suit yourself. Go hungry if you must."

I would be. No, I didn't really think deadly wolfsbane in the soup or hemlock baked into the bread was her style, but I wasn't going to take her word for it.

"So how have you been getting along with my son?" she asked after swallowing a spoonful of wolfsbane soup.

"Why don't you ask him that yourself when he gets here?" I said, because Death would be coming, and he would be furious when he arrived. "I'm sure he's worked out who snatched me off our ship."

Her smile turned indulgent. "Mors can be rather possessive, can he not? An independent female such as yourself must be finding it hard to adjust." She broke off a small piece of hemlock bread and popped it in her mouth. Then she held out the basket. "Are you sure you won't have some? It's very good."

"I'm sure, thank you."

"Did you know there were others before you?" she asked, turning on her seat to face me.

Bitch . "I did, yes."

She did her tittering laugh. "Of course you did. Do you think you're different? That you'll be the exception, Zinnia?"

"Why not?" I said, because I knew it would annoy her. She liked to be the most arrogant monster in the room, but I could be arrogant as well. If nothing else, it'd amuse me to piss her off. "I'm no goddess, but I am a powerful witch, and your son likes me very much. He doesn't seem that fond of you, though, for some reason. Why is that?"

The amusement in her eyes vanished, quickly replaced by vicious glee. "Do you want children, Zinnia?" she asked, ignoring my question.

Every part of me stilled. She knew. She knew my deepest, darkest secret. "I'm not sure. I haven't really thought about it."

"You probably should. My son has always wanted a child—a lot of them."

Nausea swirled in my belly. "We haven't talked about it," I said, trying to stop my hands from shaking.

Her black eyes bored into me, sinking deep. "Perhaps you should, dear." Then she turned, her gaze sliding to the main doors a moment before they flew apart, the wood splintering into shrapnel.

Demons ducked for cover a moment before Death strode in, expression like thunder. He was shirtless, his leather pants straining over his thighs. His stomach was taut, and the fist of one hand was clenched around his staff as shadows swirled, gathering around him, turning into his cloak. My heart thundered in my chest at the sight of him. His face was transformed, the shadows turning it into a skull, but instead of dark eye sockets, his blue gaze glowed out from under the hood of his cloak. "Zinnia!" he roared.

Nox waved her demons forward, and they instantly and stupidly ran at him.

"It's better if he blows off some steam before we converse," Nox said to me, completely unaffected. "He seems agitated."

He looked ready to tear the temple down around us. The demons ran at him, and he smashed his fist into the first one's head, crushing his skull. He spun his staff, slamming into them as they attacked, slicing and hacking them to pieces, but they kept coming, essentially committing suicide, one after the other, blindly doing as Nox bid them.

Death was smeared with demon blood and ash, veins bulging, jaw clenched, rage rolling off him. It didn't seem as if mutilating a roomful of demons and other creatures was helping calm him down; in fact, it seemed the opposite to me.

I stood so he'd see me over the chaos, and his gaze sliced to me instantly. He strode toward me, swiping demons out of his way with one brutal swing of his staff after another, until he reached me. He didn't spare his mother a glance; he hooked his arm around my waist and hoisted me up so I was partially over his shoulder.

"So sensitive," Nox said with a sigh. "You always were my sensitive boy."

Death's grip on me was bruising and kind of humiliating, but I didn't say a word or try to get down, not when fury sparked off him like a live wire ready to set everything in his path on fire.

"You know why we're here, and if you try to stop us, if you come near my consort again or have your demons follow us, I will slaughter every demon in your realm. You know I can, and you know I will."

Her lips pursed, and the look in her eyes turned nasty. "You're wasting your time with this one—you know as well as I do. She's not fit to rule beside you, my son. She's as weak as the others." She tilted her head, a look of fake sympathy rearranging her features. "Maybe next time?" She stood and lifted her hands palm up, and shadows began to swirl above them, so thick and dark, it was like she held the night in her hands. Power snapped from her, making the hair on the back of my neck stand up. "Let me end this for you now. Let me end this before you grow attached to her and you're hurt when this ends as badly as the rest."

"No," Death roared as he slammed his staff onto the floor. The marble cracked, a fault line snaking across the entire room and out of sight. "You are not the only god in this room. You may have limited my powers here, but I am not powerless. Attempt to take her from me and see what happens. You're not as strong as you once were, whereas I grow stronger with every passing day. Make a move to hurt her, and I will destroy you."

Malice lit her face, but she dropped her hands. "It was only a suggestion. I care about you, you must see that?"

"Do not follow us," he snarled, ignoring her bullshit, and pointed a thick, tattooed finger at her. "I'm warning you now, and I won't do it again—I will strike you down." He strode from the room into the massive entrance hall, then out the doors.

As soon as we were outside, he lowered me to my feet. "Are you injured?" His eyes narrowed. "Your face. They hit you?"

"I'm fine."

His fury ratcheted back up. "I told you, more than once, do not leave my side."

He was roaring again. "Stop yelling at me," I bit out.

"It seems it's the only way to get you to listen to me. ‘Do not leave my side' means exactly that, or are you hard of hearing?"

I scowled. "If I wasn't before, I am now. Lower your damned voice. If you said, ‘stay by my side because my megalomaniac mother will send crotch-sniffing demons to abduct you,' then I would have stayed in bed and ignored my need for fresh air."

"What? They did what?" he roared again, then spun back to the temple doors, about to storm back inside.

I grabbed his arm. "I'm fine. And I'm pretty sure you decapitated the offending demons back there already, so punishment has been meted out."

Death's gaze sliced down my body and back, and a strange stillness moved over him. His brows lowered. "Take that off."

"What?"

"The gown, take it off." He didn't yell this time; no, his voice was low, tight.

There was a note to his voice I'd never heard before. "My clothes are back in the temple."

"Take it off, Zinnia, now." Then he grabbed the front of the dress, holding the delicate fabric in his hands… and tore it off my body.

"What the hell are you doing?" I tried to cover my nakedness as he stared down at me, nostrils flared, panting like a furious bull.

His hand shot out, and using his weakened powers, he summoned my leathers and knives from inside. They appeared in his hands. "Cover yourself."

If I weren't cold, I'd ignore him and stay naked just to piss him off. "What the hell is your problem?"

"Put them on," he growled.

"You're an asshole, you know that?" I said as I snatched my clothes from his hands and quickly pulled them on.

Death watched me the entire time, his gaze sliding over my bare skin until I was finally covered. Then he tilted his head back and made a strange throaty sound. A moment later, a creature appeared at the edge of the forest in the distance and headed straight for us.

It was similar to Zuri and Raze but also not. It was stockier, its legs thicker. It trotted over and stopped beside Death.

He ran his hand down its side. "Thank you for your service," he said, then grabbed me around the waist and tossed me up before he swung up behind me as well.

Then the beast took off.