Page 29 of A Subtle Scar
Clearly, I needed to end this conversation before they got busy or any more busy than they already were.
“I see. Any final tips on getting rid of the immortals?”
He laughed nervously. “Uhm. I…I mean, why they want you doesn’t matter, does it? Oh! But at least Hermes seems to be an alpha god.” Someone mumbled, as if their voice were muffled by clothing. “Right. Charon might be, erm, an alpha god in lace clothing. Which is probably what Lucy would say if you asked him about that. If he w-w—oh! If he were here. In here. With me.”
Yup, they were fucking. “Okay, one alpha god, one alpha god in lace. I’m not sure what to do with that.”
“You—you just, you know. Direction. And…with-withholding sex, that is effective.” I heard growling from Lionel’s end. Sure, what he was doing sounded very effective, so effective. “But I mean, when you hint you don’t like being outside in a downpour, alpha gods will buy you a castle, so that’s neat. I don’t explain it well. Sephy is better. I—I! Think I need to go. The horses. The horses are coming.”
“I wasn’t going to have sex with either of them, but thanks all the same. Take care of that stallion of yours,” I said and hung up.
Damn. That had been the opposite of helpful.
I logged on to my alma mater’s online library to research immortals, the individuals who were after me in particular.
There wasn’t much on file. Hermes had a reputation for seducing people—court magicians, as magic users in the service of royalty were called a few hundred years ago, had written countless reports about him. About the nights they’d spent with him. Not that Hermes targeted magic users. My understanding was, he was undiscriminating about whom he wanted to…cook French toast for.
Which wasn’t actually a bad thing, if I thought about it. I didn’t have anything against spending a Friday night getting my world rocked really hard if that got Hermes gone by Saturday around noon, and all of a sudden, it all made sense.
I leaned back in my desk chair and stared at the mother-in-law’s tongue that managed to thrive on my filing cabinet in the corner.
“They want a threesome, that’s it.”
And really, they could have just said so. I wasn’t sure why I had to go through the Academy of Magical Arts and Studies Library when they could have just said so. And outside of an orgy, I might have even agreed.
“Why the fuck make this so complicated I could turn it into an investigation?” I asked the plant.
I shut my computer down and went about the rest of my day—dinner, laundry, putting the leftovers in the fridge with a nice stasis spell after dinner.
By the time I put the sheets which were still warm from the dryer on the bed, I was ready to get to sleep myself, so I made up the couch and slipped into my sleep clothes.
After not getting all that much sleep the night before, I was out like a light. The banging on my door pulled me right out of the dream I’d sunken into, and because it wasn’t normal to bang on anyone’s door in the middle of the night with that kind of force, I activated all my defensive wards with a small dash of magic.
On my way to the door, I turned on the light in the bedroom, then half closed the door, so I would be able to see what was going on.
I considered not opening the door, and on account of it being almost pitch dark in the hallway outside. I had no idea who was out there, the peephole showing only black and a glimmer from the emergency light by the stairs. But then the banging started up again.
I quickly wove a defensive ward in front of myself with a few whispered words, then pulled power for something more offensive. And I opened the door.
My apartment was just bright enough for me to see the two figures outside my door. My jaw might have dropped a fraction of an inch.
“We worked it out,” Charon said. He looked like he was made of shadows, and in the darkness, he seemed decidedly less human and more like an immortal, even without my mage sight. He was smiling, just a small, humble quirking of his lips.
“Yes, it’s actually quite easy if you think about it,” Hermes said. His dark topaz skin shimmered as did his golden locks, both of which gave him a statuesque look. And Hermes’s smile was beaming with the force of a fog light. Then he looked into my apartment over my shoulder, and that smile faltered. “What in the—”
I wasn’t shoved out of the way so much as bodily moved from one set of hands to the other, sort of gently. I was six-three. I did not generally get moved unless I wanted to move, gently or otherwise.
Hermes stormed my place, and he was growling. It reminded me of what I’d heard over the phone earlier when I’d talked with Lionel.
“Ronny, you said you watched the door. You were supposed to make sure the damn herb witch didn’t come near our human, but do you see this?” Hermes pointed at the couch on which I’d just been happily and blessedly passed out until a second ago.
“What in the fuck are you doing wandering into my apartment?” I said, much too late.
Charon made a sound that was both dismissive and annoyed. Then he patted my shoulder. “I was supposed to watch? We were watching together, you ass.” He nudged me forward.
I realized too late the nudging had happened so Charon could close the door behind him, and I blamed all of that on being woken from sleep.
“I’ll find him,” Charon said.
