Page 60 of Desired By Eros

I have to make this right.

Hopefully, it wasn’t too late. It had only been what—a few minutes? He would explain to her that he’d been confused and scared. That he didn’t want to sleep with Marge or anyone else, and if she was angry at him for hurting her, then he would spend whatever was left of his life here on earth asking for her forgiveness.

Razorblades slashed at his throat as he dashed toward the exit. He ignored all the calls from the others, his mind laser-focused toward one destination—the cabin he shared with Psyche. A sigh of relief escaped his mouth as he saw the light was still on through the window.

“Psyche!” he called as he threw the door open. “Psyche, I was wrong. Please forgive me.”

Eerie silence filled the cabin, the air still and heavy. His gut instinct told him something was very wrong. “Psyche?” His gaze landed on the bed, where Psyche lay prone, still wearing her usual work attire, dirt-covered work boots and all. “Psyche?” He walked to her, his gut screaming at him. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was even, yet there was something about the stillness that just was not right.

“Hello, Eros, God of Love and Desire.” The voice came from over by the sliding door that led to the outside. It was open and a figure in the shadows stood just outside.

“Who the hell are you?” Eros exclaimed as the figure stepped into the light to reveal itself. “Bob?

The site manager flashed him a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Yes, it’s me.”

“What are you doing here?” Alarm bells rang in his head, so he watched his words carefully. “Did you just—”He called me Eros, God of Love and Desire.“What the fuck is going on?”

Bob laughed. “Let’s not play games anymore, Lord Eros. Yes, I know exactly who you are. I’ve known who you were since I was born.”

Eros glanced over at Psyche again. She appeared asleep, but .“Psyche!” She didn’t stir, and he knew something was definitely amiss. “Psyche, wake up!” He only managed to take one step toward her when he heard the distinctiveclickof a cocking gun. “You did this, didn’t you? What did you do to her?”

“Just a little sleeping spell—Stop!” He tsked when Eros attempted to go to Psyche’s side again. “Don’t move a muscle, my lord.” Bob stepped aside, and another man entered, pistol in hand, and pointed straight at him. “Or my bodyguard will shoot you between the eyes. It’ll be quick and painless, now that you’ve lost your immortality.”

How the fuck did this middle-aged manager know who he was and that he had lost his immortality? He was sorely tempted to tackle him and take a chance, but then there was a chance a stray bullet could hit Psyche.

Time to change tactics.

“Alright, looks like you’re ready to give your villain speech,” he said in the driest tone he could muster. “So, can you be done with it? This is getting boring.”

“Villian?” Bob cried, waving his hands maniacally. “You think I’m the villain? When it wasyourmother and her lover who deprived me of what is rightfully mine?”

“Just what the fuck are you talking about, Bob?”

“You really don’t know? You gods truly are selfish.” He whipped his shirt off and turned around. “See that?”

“What do you—” His mouth snapped shut as he saw what Bob was referring to. It was faint, but it was there. Two long lines like scar tissue ran vertically on his upper back. “This is where my wings are supposed to be.”

“Wings?

“I’m a geryon. Or at least I’m supposed to be, until your mother trapped Cyncus’s magic and locked it away.”

That name made his blood boil, and the edges of his vision turned red. “He deserved that and more. Do you know what he did to me? To my mother? She had no choice. It was the only way to get us away from that bastard because of the blood spell he cast on me. The only other way she could get me away from that monster was to kill every single one of his family members, which my mother would never do. Maybe she should have. Then you wouldn’t be standing here now.”

Bob’s eyes blazed with fury. “Didn’t you think of what would happen to all of us—your family, by the way—when you trapped his magic and left him powerless? How it would affectallof us?”

He remained silent.

“No, you didn’t,” he sneered. “All those millennia ago, when Aphrodite trapped Cyncus’s magic in the pyxis, he not only lost his powers but so did all the geryons in his bloodline. Dozens of them—men, women, elderly, children—all suddenly lost their magic and the ability to hide their wings. With their powers lost, the other geryons revolted and took the throne, then cast them out. They had to live in the lowlands with the other creatures, and of course, they had nothing and barely survived. Their descendants, too, had no magic, and over the centuries, as we mated with other creatures and humans, we lost our wings too.” He shrugged his shoulders. “We lost everything because of you.”

“How do you know all this?”

“As the branches of our bloodline splintered and separated, they eventually forgot who they truly were. But, my branch of the family retained the knowledge through generations. The information was passed to me, from my father, and his father before him, and so on, so that one day, we may find a way to get our magic back.” His eyes narrowed into slits. “Over the centuries, my family amassed wealth with only one goal in mind: revenge.”

Eros swallowed hard. “H-how did you find me?”

“We’ve been tracking you over the centuries, taking note of when you appeared on earth. And last year, when the whole Winged fiasco came to light, my instinct knew you had something to do with it. And so, I had my people keep a close watch on the situation. They found a photo of you and the CEO vacationing together in Santorini, and we were able to match your face to the various paintings and photos we have of you over the last couple of years.”

Eros groaned to himself. He had asked Winged’s social media manager to delete that photo, but it seemed he didn’t do it fast enough.

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