Page 1 of Taken By the Blood God

Chapter

One

Minerva

I couldn’t sleep.

Since I’d woken up on the floor of the cave after Ally healed me, something just wasn’t right. I felt restless and uneasy, as though I was missing a vital part of my body or memory.

I turned over in my bed again, trying to find a comfortable position. To find the peace that I usually felt every night.

But it wasn’t possible.

Finally, I sighed and tossed back my blankets, climbing out of bed.

I would make myself a cup of herbal tea. My own personal blend that I drank when the voices in my head got too loud and the world seemed too bright. It always helped me relax and eased my anxiety.

I slipped a light cotton robe over my silky nightgown and left the bedroom, my footsteps nearly silent on the stairs.

I walked through my quiet house, listening to the peace of the spring night. Devil Springs wasn’t always quiet at night, especially during the week of a full moon, but tonight, it was perfectly calm and still.

Almost unnaturally so.

When I entered the kitchen, my steps stuttered.

He was there, stretched out in one of the chairs at my kitchen table, a glass of milk and a plate holding a huge slice of chocolate cake in front of him.

“You’re up late,” I murmured, getting over my surprise as quickly as I could.

“I wanted something sweet,” Talant replied, his velvety voice filling the kitchen even though he spoke softly.

The way he said it made me think the sweet thing he wanted had nothing to do with cake.

I didn’t want him to know when he caught me off guard. Or that he affected me at all.

It wasn’t because he was a god. And not just any god, but one of blood magic. The magic that I had a strong affinity for.

It wasn’t even because he was so beautiful that I could barely look at him. His eyes were everchanging—dark gold one moment, amber the next. When he was angry or calling his power, they went bronze, streaked with deeper red tones of ruby and garnet. His face was composed of sharp angles and tawny skin surrounded by thick black hair that nearly swept his shoulders.

He should have been too pretty, almost feminine, but he wasn’t. His body was built with hard muscle, lean enough to move quickly, but large enough to intimidate. I knew because he rarely wore a shirt or pants. He tended to walk through the house in nothing more than a pair of cotton athletic shorts. If he changed them out for a loincloth, he would have been declared an ancient barbarian god.

None of that truly unsettled me.

No, it was because there was something familiar about him. As though I’d known him my entire life. And maybe for lifetimes before that.

It was clear that I couldn’t ask him about that. Any time I tried to learn more about him or his past he would shut me down or change the subject, but never in a nasty way.

No, Talant would flirt or smirk or say something unbelievably arrogant to distract me and then pretend I’d never asked him anything at all.

His evasiveness combined with my lack of visions was making me edgy. And I didn’t like to feel edgy. In fact, I strove to be in constant control of my emotions.

It had taken me two decades to harness my magic. I didn’t feel as though the premonitions and the intuitive magic were driving me insane. It had also taken me that long to recognize that my abilities with blood magic were nothing to be ashamed of. And that the stigma attached to it by the coven in Devil Springs was unfounded.

I had finally settled into my power and into myself. I had created my place here, and I was happy with it. And with myself. But Talant’s presence was stirring all of my emotions up again, making me question myself and my control—making me anxious and knocking me off balance.

I set about making myself a cup of tea, taking the smoked glass jar that held my special blend out of the cabinet next to the stove.

I ignored the shiver that wanted to crawl down my spine and put the kettle on to boil.

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