Chapter 26

26

Nemea

T he orgasm explodes inside me so violently I’m paralyzed, a harsh cry echoing around my sanctuary that I don’t realize is mine until it fades to a whimper. But they’re only just getting started.

Erebus grips my shoulder with one hand, my hip with the other, and jacks into me again with a violent thrust. Typhon’s face has taken on a fierce intensity, and I just cling to him, burying my face in his neck while they pound into my pussy and ass like their lives depend on it.

It’s only when I let myself surrender entirely that I feel them both in my head, checking in on my state of mind. I’m not coherent enough for a proper acknowledgement, but it’s enough, and I want more.

They fuck me harder, faster, pushing me to another orgasm that cascades into a domino effect of me crumbling to pieces between them both. Tears stream down my face, but they’re inside me deep enough to know they’re tears of pure pleasure, of being broken just the way Erebus promised, nothing but an object for their pleasure.

“You are more than that to us, Nemea. Your satisfaction was the goal. You wanted to forget, so we filled you up with our cocks so there could be nothing else to think about but how we make you feel. Do you need more?”

I can’t answer because I don’t want it to end, yet at the same time, I don’t think I can bear any more. Typhon tilts my face up to his and studies my wet eyes, then nods to his brother.

Their silent exchange results in a more frenetic pace of both their cocks slamming deep, hard and fast. Then they’re both spilling into me, Typhon with a harsh cry that sends his head back against the pillow and his fingers tangling in my hair, Erebus is utterly silent, but his sharp fingertips dig painfully into my hips as his climax overtakes him.

He bends over me, hard chest pressed to my back, and sinks his teeth into my shoulder, right at the junction of my neck.

Pain blossoms for the first time, flooding my body with a bittersweet counterpoint to the intensity of the pleasure that still grips me.

Red fills my field of vision, and I rise enough to watch in fascination as my blood drips and pools at the hollow of Typhon’s throat. His eyes widen when he looks at his brother.

“What the fuck did you do?” he demands.

I hear nothing, but feel a gentle lick of Erebus’ soft tongue against the bite mark. Then he pulls away, his cock’s ridges bumping past my opening as he withdraws, each one sending a tiny spasm of pleasure through me, extending my orgasm even longer.

“What is it?” I ask, lethargic but sated.

Typhon clears his throat and meets my gaze. “He wants me to taste your blood. Something about bonding us deeper.”

“Doesn’t that only matter if we trade?” I ask, recalling some vague passage in one of the many books in the libraries of Tartarus that Asterius had me read.

Erebus reclines by his brother’s side, licking his lips. My blood stains his white teeth, a surreal contrast to the dark sheen of his skin.

“You are leaving us again. To what end, I can’t discern. I wish you would tell us, but since you won’t, this is the alternative. If something happens to you, I will be able to find you more quickly if we taste each other this way.”

He raises a talon and swipes it over his wrist. His blood is nearly as black as his skin, but still tinged with crimson. He glides a finger across the cut, gathering the thick fluid and raising it to my lips.

“Taste, Nemea.”

I open for him, taking his finger into my mouth and sucking. The world around me goes dark for a moment, and a sense of weightlessness overcomes me before the light floods back in, grounding me again.

Typhon finally lifts his head and presses his mouth to the bite on my shoulder. His tongue is soft and hot, and arouses me again as he sucks, drawing even more blood out of my veins and into his mouth.

My pussy clenches around him, and he groans then falls back, licking his lips. His eyes flash with purple light and his cock swells inside me.

“You taste like eternity,” he rumbles.

“I want to taste you now,” I murmur, beginning to fuck him again, slowly.

“If you can make me bleed, you can have your fill.”

I dig my nails into his chest, but to no avail. Other than making Typhon groan and fuck me harder, all I manage to do is leave crescent-shaped impressions in his pale skin.

“Can you…?” I ask, turning to Erebus, who is alert but relaxed, simply watching me ride his brother. A faint, dark shadow that wasn’t there before extends from him to me now, occasionally crackling with purple light.

He lifts a finger, the sharp claw at the tip glinting and razor-sharp. But when he draws it across Typhon’s chest, all it does is leave a faint pink line without breaking skin.

“He has the hide of an immortal dragon. Only his own fire can weaken it.”

“Kiss me,” Typhon says.

I bend and press my mouth over his. Heat instantly coats my tongue, faint flickers of flame escaping from between our lips. I let out a startled squeak and try to pull back, but he grasps the back of my head, holding me to him.

Then he bites down, but it isn’t my tongue his teeth sink into. A second later, hot liquid floods my mouth, metallic but sweet.

This time it isn’t darkness that surrounds me, but wind and water and fire, like a violent storm with brilliant purple lightning cracking and thunder rumbling. Where Erebus’ essence was utterly dark and silent, Typhon’s is pure noise and power.

I gasp when he finally releases me, his lips smeared red in stark contrast with the marble perfection of his skin.

I sense him reaching for me a split-second before he rises and wraps his arms around me, lifting me up on his cock only to slam me back down again.

“Fuck, I feel even deeper inside you than I did before. Do you feel that?”

“Yes.” I cling to his shoulders while we fuck, our pace now even more frantic and desperate, the connection creating a feedback loop of pleasure. The deeper I stare into his eyes, the more attuned I am to what he feels, which is a crazy mix of obsession, love, and desire.

When he comes again, I follow swiftly, and we cling to each other, our torsos streaked with blood and our souls melded so deep he may as well have knotted me the way Cerberus did.

I go limp in his arms, my arms slung around his neck and my head on his shoulder. Erebus fades into darkness, and I almost protest his departure until I feel a soft blanket wrap around us both—the tenderest embrace filled with nothing but love I wouldn’t have thought possible from such a terrifying creature.

Both brothers are deceptively sweet. Sweet, and possibly the loneliest men I’ve ever known.

But maybe not as lonely now as the third of the Brothers Bane, although Vesh is going to have to come to me if he wants to fix that. And where I’m going, he’ll have to work for it.

We remain in the strange embrace for several long moments, Typhon and I wrapped together in the cocoon of his brother’s darkness.

I absorb the new sensations of the deeper bond with them, the tethers tugging at my chest with each deep breath. It’s the nymphaea who practice the blood meld, which was outlawed for thousands of years until very recently. If my memory is true, it grants the mates access to each other’s powers.

I’m not ready to test that yet, but knowing they’re even deeper inside me is a comfort, considering what I need to do.

Erebus slides away the moment my sense of urgency rises. As little as I relish the idea, it’s time for me to go. And even though this is the first time I’m finally claiming control of my own life, it’s difficult to take that final step.

Typhon protests when I try to rise and extract myself from him. His brows knit, and he has the most heartbreakingly dejected look when I slip off the bed.

“This isn’t forever,” I say, even though I have no idea what will happen next. All I know is that I can’t let them keep sacrificing themselves for my sake.

The last thing I need to do is clothe myself. I curse my lack of planning, because I left literally every stitch of clothing back in Greece and don’t trust myself to go back and get it now.

I hold my arms out, focusing on them at first, and willing clothing over my body. The power surges forth the way it did when I rebuilt the wall I destroyed at the compound, what feels like an eon ago. Dark sleeves form over my arms, soon followed by dark boots and jeans covering my legs. They aren’t even an illusion; I can feel them hugging my body, sliding against my skin.

When I relax, I’m fully clothed again in what has always been my most comfortable outfit: simple black jeans, a black Fate’s Fools tee, and shirt of black stretchy lace, open in the front. Even my boots feel like the real things, which I know are still stashed in my locker in the barracks ever since I switched to the training boots.

My stomach flips because I’ve drawn this out long enough and now it’s time to follow through. Both brothers are still on the bed, and for the first time they truly look like brothers, their mannerisms and expressions so similar in the way they look like they want to object, but are thankfully holding back.

I want to go to them. To kiss them goodbye, but I’m afraid if I touch them again, I’ll let them keep me here forever, and that would serve no one.

Instead, I take a deep breath and shove my hands in my pockets.

“Tell Vesh I forgive him. You should forgive him too.”

With a thought, I am gone, enveloped once again in heat so cloying not even the massive fountain in front of me can cool it down.