Page 30 of The Secret Shape of Worship
And then there was a shift. A growl, low and dangerous, rose above him. Mina looked up, and his stomach sank. Anubis was not looking at him. Instead, his eyes were fixed on the figure, hidden in perfect darkness, that had underestimated the eyesight of a jackal—the intuition of a god.
The green fire blazed brighter,lighting up the room.
There, barely visible behind the statue, was Devon’s soft outline. His pants unbuttoned. His hands rubbing. Stroking.Watching. Mina’s breath caught in his throat as he felt Anubis’s teeth release.
If Mina hadn’t been terrified he was about to see his classmate be devoured on the spot, he would have had to laugh at the sight of Devon’s deer-in-the-headlights face as he slowly removed his hands from inside his unzipped seminary khakis.
“Um. Mina?” he said, his eyes growing wider. Without having to look, Mina knew what was happening. He could hear the stretching of bone and skin. He could feel Anubis growing heavy above him, the bed creaking under his increasing weight.
Mina looked up at the form of the jackal hovering. Snarling.
“Anu, it’s fine. It’s ok.” Mina reached up, placing a hand on the jackal god’s neck, hard and hot as iron and thick as a small tree trunk. “He’s just one of my classmates who got separated from the group.”
“It seems the temple has delivered a replacement soul,” Anubis growled.
“Mina…” Devon’s voice shook.
“Before I drag you to the underworld, I will remove each limb from your body. Deceased souls are easier to manage than attached ones.”
A strangled sound came out of his classmate.
“It’s ok, Devon.” Mina stroked Anubis’s neck, ran a hand up his jaw to his ear, rubbing the point between his finger and thumb, staring at the god, willing him to look down. “Anubis won’t do that, because he knows it’s not what I want. Right, Anu?”
Finally, the low growl subsided, and Anubis looked down.
“You are ok with this mortal interrupting our mating?”
Mina cleared his throat. “Um. Well. No. But that doesn’t mean you need to tear him limb from limb. He’s a student like me. And he’s obviously like me in other ways too,” Mina said,as the sound of Devon pulling up his zipper echoed through the room.
“Sorry,” Devon said sheepishly, staring down at his shoes.
“You remember what a mess I was when you found me. People like us, we’re lucky if we get a chance to find and accept who we really are. Whether by accident or not, Devon showed a true part of himself to someone else today. And now he doesn’t have to shoulder that burden alone. This is a good thing, Anu.”
Anubis’s eyes softened. A wolfish smile pulled at the edges of his mouth. “Your heart is remarkable, Mina. Mykianga.I love you.”
“I love you, too, Anu. Now, maybe we should figure out what to do with Devon that doesn’t involve ripping his arms off and throwing him into the abyss.”
“That sounds awesome,” Devon said, stepping out from the shadows. A tentative smile hung on his lips, but his tanned face was flushed as he wrung his hands like he’d had too much coffee.
Anubis and Mina climbed down from the bed and walked over to Devon.
“So,” said Devon, “I obviously have a lot of questions like,Who is that?Andwhat the hell?Andwhat were you two about to do?Andwhat the hell?”
“It’s ok, Devon.” Mina reached out, taking Devon’s hands in his to stop their endless wringing.
Devon looked at the floor. “Did you mean it?” His hands twitched in Mina’s. “About…you know…me? And not being alone…or whatever?”
“Yeah, Devon. I meant it.”
“Because I’ve been kind of a jerk to you. I don’t know why. I guess I’ve always known that I’d never be able to fully accept this side of myself. And I’ve always guessed that you were like this, too. And maybe I thought you were more accepting of yourself somehow, and that made me feel jealous.”
Mina snorted. “You jealous of me? You’re joking…”
“Mina.” Devon dropped his chin to his chest, leveling his eyes at Mina with one quirked eyebrow. “You’re so goddam hot. And you ooze sexuality. You can’t tell me you don’t know that.”
Mina felt his own cheeks blaze. “Yeah, um. No.”
“The way you bend over in your desk when you go to get something from your bag. The way you look at other guys like you want to swallow them whole. There’s just this palpable heat that comes off of you sometimes, and it makes me crazy.”
