16. Diana

Diana

R aven’s lips were at my throat, sliding across the flesh reminding me of just how good things could be between us, reminding me of how he’d held me up and feasted on my body as if it were the only thing in the world. My fingers were wrapped around his cock, and I squeezed as I dragged my hand up and down his hard length, knowing exactly how it would feel when he drove into me, hitting sweet spots only he seemed to be able to reach. Feeling the wetness flood between my legs, ready to take him in again. I threw my leg over his hip and scooted closer as he curled one hand over my ass cheek, his fingers sliding down to find their way around to dip into that warm, wet?—

“You awake?” Myrr stuck her head into the tent, and I jerked away from Raven with a gasp, as if we were teenagers caught by a parent. I sat up, feeling the heat in my face and chest bloom as a blush whipped across my skin. Myrr just stood there, unblinking.

“Gods, Myrr!” I snapped at her, not sure if I was mad or embarrassed. Maybe a bit of both.

Raven rolled onto his belly and groaned. “Fucking Oracle.”

She grinned and winked at me. “That fellow with the golden eyes is back. And he brought more food! Thought you’d want to talk to him. I mean, you could stay in here, but that might be considered rude.”

As much as my skin and body were flush and craving attention from the vampire who lay in my bed, Nefir was the key to finding Jade. He’d sent us here to the desert, and I had to believe he would help us on our way.

“Yeah thanks, Myrr.”

I yanked the silken sheath dress I’d worn the day before over my head and hurried from the tent, doing what I could to calm the need raging through me. One touch and my body had been ready for him.

Damn it.

Shake it off, woman. Focus.

The sun had barely risen in the east as I made my way across the open section of the oasis, where all the lounge chairs had been the day before. This morning there was a long table with enough seats for everyone, food weighing it down so heavily I was surprised that the wood was not groaning.

Nefir at the head of the table, dishing food onto his plate. Eggs, roast meat, steaming fresh flatbread, more dipping sauces than I could identify. Fruit of every kind—pomegranate, huge red berries, guava and enormous dragon fruit dominating those baskets. Yogurt, nuts, crepes stuffed with different jams and creams. Jugs of cold drinks, and several steaming carafes that beckoned to my sleep deprivation.

“Come, come eat! Then we will discuss whether I can help you further.”

I gripped the back of the chair closest to me. “Wait, yesterday you said?—”

He waved a fork at me, cutting me off. “Yesterday was yesterday. Today is literally a new day, and I am unsure if it is in my best interest. As entertaining as you all are, I must keep my loyalties to my family, you know. If not, there could be…unpleasant consequences.”

Letting go of the chair, I stepped to the side and slid into the seat, disappointment and anger warring to lead the conversation. Which would help me best win him back over? I went with both.

“So you won’t help us? Are you a liar then?”

One by one the others joined us, but I barely paid them any attention, my focus solely on Nefir. We needed him, and the fucker knew it. We had nothing to offer him either. No boon we could give, no treasure to trade. Nothing. Raven had been right to remain suspicious.

Kevin slipped up to my side and tucked his head under my hand, likely sensing my frustration and anxiety. I scratched him behind the ears, mind whirring as I tried to think of some way to persuade Nefir to support our cause.

Nicholas sat across from me and I tipped my head in Nefir’s direction. I’d seen the way the god had ogled the young vampire. Maybe he could get close? Put his hand on Nefir and learn something that could help us?

Nicholas grimaced, but he stepped up to the conversation. “Why? What’s changed from yesterday?”

Nefir gave the young vampire a slow smile, his eyes roving his body. “Well, you see we said her name too many times and she took notice. She sent me a message last night. That’s not good for any of us.”

Her.

Lilis.

“She threatened you?” I forced myself to put food on my plate. My mouth was dry as ash, but I knew I needed to replenish my reserves as much as I could while we were here. Because with or without Nefir’s help, I was going to find Jade.

I dug into the food, eating quickly and I motioned for the others to do the same. Because it was highly likely that we would be striking out again back into the desert that had nearly killed us.

Nefir’s smile seemed off as he looked back at me. “Something like that.”

Raven approached the table, the last to join us. The scent of his desire washed over me first, and I wanted…oh damn it. I stared down at my plate, focussing on the food as I got my hormones better under control.

“Enjoy the water last night?” Nefir said with far too much innocence.

My head whipped up and I stared at him. He gave a slow wink, the insinuation clear.

He’d watched Raven and me in what had to be one of our most intimate moments. Not just because of the sex, but because of what we’d said. What had passed between us was not something to be mocked or shared with anyone but each other.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who picked up on what Nefir was throwing down.

Raven was a blur as he went over the table and tackled Nefir out of his chair, pinning him to the ground.

“Holy shit!” Theo gasped. “What got into him?”

Mav groaned. “Now we’re all going to get fried by a god because that macho prick can’t keep his anger under wraps.”

Myrr cackled. “Was only a matter of time, I saw that coming!”

I scrambled to get around the table as the others offered their thoughts on the situation. What I knew was that Mav was right. Raven had physically assaulted a god, seemingly without provocation. Surely, whatever rules of nature that bound them from killing us outright didn’t apply here. Nefir could end us all.

He could end Raven.

“Stop! Raven, let him go!”

I reached them just as Raven spoke, snarling and low, one hand wrapped around Nefir’s neck, the other holding his dagger to the side of the god’s head. “The stars are always watching you, you piece of shit, and they know your filthy fucking heart .”

Nefir paled, his already pale skin going snow white. At first, I thought it was anger and then I realized it was something else.

Fear. His throat bobbed and he managed two words that meant nothing to me. “ Bessan fatin .”

“Raven!” I grabbed him by the bicep and pulled him off Nefir. “Not worth it. We still need him.”

He turned to me, turquoise eyes softening from the hardness he’d been giving to Nefir. “Yeah, yeah it is worth it. He fucking tried to make it foul. And it wasn’t.”

I swallowed hard; chest tight as I clung to his arm. “Nothing can change what it was. Not even a god.”

Nefir dusted himself off and got to his feet as Raven gave him space. “Well, that changes things.”

I did a double slow blink. “What do you mean?”

“Well it seems your blood… sucker …here had a chat with one of my parents last night. I owe…no, it does not matter why. Bessan fatin. It will be done. I will help you.” He sighed and clapped his hands. The table and food disappeared, and I stumbled back as if I’d been shoved, a hot wind snapping around my body, tugging on my limbs.

I looked down. My sheath dress was gone. In its place was loose khaki pants, a white long-sleeved top, a thin white material that went around my head and around my neck in a long looping pattern.

Across from me, Theo pulled the bottom part of his head wrap up and easily covered his nose and eyes. “A keffiyeh. This will help in this heat and against the blowing sand.”

Solid leather boots on my feet that rose well over my ankles. By the looks of things, everyone in our party had been outfitted the same—prepped to traverse a desert.

“Come. We cannot magic our way to the girl. My sister would sense it immediately. As it is she will be searching for you. And if she knows where the girl is, if the girl has used her power…well she could be waiting.” He turned and the oasis slipped away on a spinning cloud of sand as if it never had been.

A dream within a dream. A place that had never truly existed.

I pulled my keffiyeh up over my mouth and nose and tugged the portion on my head low over my forehead. While I wouldn’t say it was cool, it was a hell of a lot better than what we’d entered the desert wearing the first time.

Catching up to Nefir, I fell into step beside him, determined to make the best of the time we had with the god. “How far is she?”

“Maybe a day’s walk. Could be less, could be more. I’m not sure.” He looked straight ahead, all his charm and lightheartedness gone as if Raven had washed it all away with those few words.

The stars were watching. When I’d thrown the coin, I’d said, “To whoever might be listening while we float under the stars, please guide us…” Was that why he’d taken notice? I had a feeling it was, even if I didn’t fully understand what it had to do with the stars. Maybe stars were another name for gods?

“Tell me about your sister, please. I have learned that it is better to know our enemy, to understand why they do what they do if you can. It’s the only way to stop her.” I looked sideways at him. Nefir’s mouth was set in a grim line, not a smile in sight. Maybe I needed to start smaller. “At least tell us how she is watching us. You said because we used her name?”

Nefir led the way, heading northeast by what I could tell, though the desert was throwing me off.

I ignored the grumbles of Myrr behind us.

Raven fixed it. “Kevin, let her ride you. She’s nothing but a bag of bones despite what she eats.”

“Brat boy!” she snapped, but she stopped her pissing and moaning. A quick glance showed me that Kevin had indeed allowed the old Oracle a ride at Raven’s request.

Through it all, I didn’t feel Nefir so much as take a breath to answer me. When he finally did, it was slow and methodical as if he weighed every word.

“I will tell you what I can. As I said yesterday, I have been…away. I do not know all that has happened in my absence.”

That wasn’t quite what he said, but I wasn’t going to contradict him. Not if he was going to speak up about Lilis.

“She is vain. Saying her name calls her attention. As you’ve seen. She has the ability to see through those who have tied themselves to her. Binding their souls to her purpose. That could be a human, a demon…anyone who claims her as their goddess.”

Mav joined us. “Does she leave a mark on them? Something we can identify easily?”

Of course, he hadn’t been with us in the graveyard when we’d had to put George to rest. He hadn’t seen the swirling, spiral tattoos with the spiked edges on the chest of the Vanators. Ice cold to the touch…

“Your Wolf Queen knows that mark. But it is always hidden. She does not announce herself. So unless you wish to strip everyone you meet, it is unlikely you will easily detect her worshippers.”

Well at least that confirmed we’d been right about the Vanators.

His eyes never shifted from the horizon, and he walked with such purpose he seemed like a different god than the jovial free spirit we’d met just the day before.

I had to push him, to get him to tell us more. Because no matter what he’d said so far, there was no way he’d told us all of it. This was his sister…

“She wiped out hundreds of mermaids in the waters just off the shore of the demon territories. Female, male…children. Infants, Nefir. Their bodies were torn to pieces, it was no accident. Whatever she was before, whoever she was, she is a monster now. Please…please help us stop her.”

“She was not always like this,” he whispered. “She was kind, and just…always fair. She was always fair before. I don’t…” He kept walking but he closed his eyes. “I can only tell you what I think drives her, because I do not know for sure. But to see her change like this? To see her as a monster that in the past she would have fought against? It can only mean one thing…”

We were at the top of a dune, and below us a barren plain spread out, the sand gone, just hard packed rock without a single living thing sprouting from it. Pockets of darkness, caverns that fell into the earth below were scattered as far as the eye could see, waiting to swallow us whole. In the distance were mountains that spewed gouts of fire and smoke. Of course, Jade would be all the way across this plain of death.

Myrr sighed as she sat swaying on Kevin’s back. “This looks like less and less food.”

The others joined us at the top of the dune. “Shit,” Maverick grumbled. “We gotta cross that, don’t we?”

I turned to the god who would help us, ignoring the others. One problem at a time. “Nefir, what do you think drives her? How can we stop her?”

His eyes were solemn as he took us in. “Revenge. Revenge is what drives her. And as to stopping her? I don’t think you can.”