Awakened (Eternal Guardians Book 8) (24 page)

Elysia’s heart raced beneath her breast. Eyes locked on his, she leaned back on her heels, positioned his cock between her legs, and drew the tip through her wetness. He shivered beneath her. When the tip ran over her clit, she joined him and groaned.

Power crackled in her veins. Damon’s hands landed against her thighs, sending shards of heat all through her limbs. He flexed his hips as she stroked her sex along his cock. Lifted to give her more friction.

“That feels so fucking good,” he groaned.
 

So did he. But it still wasn’t enough.

“Watch,” she whispered. “I want you to watch as I take you.”

His gorgeous gaze drifted down her naked body, the lust in his eyes making her nipples harden and her stomach quiver. Watching him as he watched where their bodies touched, she drew the head of his cock to the opening of her sex and slowly pressed down.

A muscle in his temple pulsed, and his mouth fell open in a silent groan as she slowly took his thick, steely heat inside. She wanted to keep watching him, but the sensation was too delicious, the way he stretched her and filled her so completely too much to resist. Closing her eyes, she gave in to the desire and dropped all the way down, tightening her muscles around his rigid length until they both groaned.

“Oh fuck,” he gasped.

Electricity sizzled inside Elysia. Pressing her palms against his pecs, she lifted until the tip slid almost all the way out, then dropped down, taking him deep in one quick thrust.

“Oh
fuuuuck
,” he groaned.

The energy gathering inside snapped and popped. Elysia lifted again, lowered once more, squeezed his cock as she rode him. Every rock of her hips dragged the head of his cock along her sensitive walls, making her tremble. Her pulse raced. Perspiration formed along her forehead and spine to mix with the rain falling faster from above. She shifted until he hit that special place. Until every thrust was a repeat stab against her G-spot. Until everything else faded away and all she felt was him, this, them, exactly where they were joined.

Her head fell back, her eyes slid closed. She rode him harder, took him deeper…wanting, needing, craving, begging for something she couldn’t name.

“Ah gods,” he gasped beneath her as he drove up to meet her. His fingers tightened against her hips, lifting and lowering her in time to his thrusts. “Don’t stop.”

Thunder crashed above. The rain grew heavier, dragging Elysia’s eyes open. She looked down at Damon and the rain pelting their bodies in large, fat droplets that slicked their skin and rolled down Elysia’s cheeks. A heady rush of energy mixed with desire and heat rushed through her, making her fuck him with longer, deeper, tighter strokes. He gasped again, but she couldn’t stop. She felt drugged with an erotic hunger she couldn’t sate. One that took control of her body. Pushed her faster. Overwhelmed her with a power she’d never felt before.

“Elysia…” He groaned her name, thrust up harder to meet her downward strokes. Lightning flashed in a series of white bolts across the dark sky, illuminating the columns of the temple, the altar beneath them, Damon’s tensed and gorgeous face dripping with water, and, finally, her wet hands braced against his hard, muscular chest. Pressing down one more time, she squeezed as hard as she could, and when her orgasm hit, it sent a blinding wave of heat and energy and light straight from her core that consumed everything in its path.

Even her.

D
amon blinked up into the rain as Elysia lay limp against his chest. The drops slowed their relentless pounding and faded to nothing more than a light mist. Above, he watched the clouds roll and part until the twinkle of starlight once again filled the night sky above the temple.

Holy Hades. No, holy…fuck.
That
was not at all what he’d expected.
That
had not been normal. Considering whom he served, he’d done just about everything there was to do sexually, but he’d never done
that
. He’d never felt
that
. And the pressure suddenly condensing in his chest—a pressure so intense it stole his breath—wasn’t helping him decipher what the hell had just happened. Neither was the strange voice in the back of his head whispering…
she’s the one
.

He tried to breathe through it, told himself he was only reacting to what he’d seen. To the image of Elysia naked and riding him in the midst of a storm that seemed to come out of nowhere—lighting flashing behind her, rain pelting their bodies while her hair flew around her face in a wild, angry tangle. But it was the look in her eyes he couldn’t forget. The way her dark irises had glazed over. As if she were in a trance. As if she were on fire. As if she were possessed. Only somewhere deep inside, he knew that look wasn’t causing the pressure now in his chest. This pressure was from something else. Something bigger. Something he had no frame of reference to explain.

She’s the one.

“Wow.” Elysia shifted her head against his chest, sending her damp hair skipping over his bare skin. “
Wooooow
.”

The pressure turned to a full-on panic that snaked all through his ribs. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t breathe. He needed space. Needed to go.

His hands shook as he grasped her arms, rolled her off him, then scooted out from under her and slid off the table. His bare foot hit the edge of a step he’d forgotten was there, and he stumbled. His weight went out from under him, and before he could stop himself, he fell flat on his ass on the hard, cold floor.

“Damon?” Elysia gripped the edge of the altar and looked down at him. “Are you okay?”

He sucked in a deep breath as he met her gaze. And the moment he did, he had another flash of her climaxing in the middle of that rainstorm with the lightning and thunder around her. Of the way her orgasm had triggered his, and the rush of emotion that had sucked him under, chewed him up, and spit him back out.

His head grew light. Tearing his gaze from hers, he stumbled toward his clothes. “I’m…”

Holy fuck, he was
not
okay. He was wrecked. Seriously fucking wrecked. From
sex
.

Which made no freakin’ sense, because he did not
get
wrecked from sex. He had more sex than most of the gods, and he never felt a damn thing besides a quick release. His fingers trembled as he pulled on his damp pants and tugged on his soaked shirt, then sat on the steps and fumbled with his boots.

He needed space. Needed to think. Needed—

“Damon?”

—her. He needed
her
.

Blinking several times, he looked up to see Elysia standing next to him in her dress, her hair still wild and tangled, her eyes now drawn and worried.

“Are you okay?” She knelt beside him and placed her palm over his forehead. “You look pale.”

She’s mine.

“You’re not okay.” Concern raced across Elysia’s features as she rose. “What happened? Did I do something wrong?”

Nothing made sense. But as he pushed to his feet, one thing did.

Her. She made sense in a lifetime of confusion and disappointment and emptiness.

He closed his arms around her and pulled her into his chest, unable to find the words, still unsure what he was feeling. The pressure remained, as did the voice, but knowing he’d upset her added a new layer of anxiety he couldn’t ignore.

“You’re shaking,” she whispered, her hands landing softly against his back. “Tell me what I did wrong.”

A shriek sounded above the temple, and they both looked up as a winged creature with the torso and head of a golden-haired woman and the body of a giant bird soared through the opening in the ceiling and headed straight for them.

Damon’s eyes widened on the harpy with razor-sheep teeth and claws that could tear a man to shreds, but his feet wouldn’t move. Harpies couldn’t enter sacred ground. They couldn’t come into Athena’s temple, even if that temple was in ruins.

“Damon! Get down!”

Elysia threw her weight into Damon and knocked him behind the altar. Damon tumbled to the ground on his back. The harpy screeched and soared back toward the hole in the ceiling. Outside, another shriek echoed. Followed by a third.

“There are more coming. Get
up
.” Elysia pulled hard on Damon’s arm, forcing him to his feet. Grasping his hand, she tugged her with him toward the corner of the temple, behind three broken columns set in a triangle they could use as a barricade.

Damon’s head felt light. His brain fuzzy. He slid to the ground and leaned back against a column. “Harpies…can’t enter here.”

“Well, they just did.” Elysia scanned the temple. “We need a weapon. Damon, where can I find a weapon in this temple?”

Elysia’s words echoed around Damon, but he couldn’t seem to filter out the background voice. The one that kept repeating…
She’s the one. She’s yours. She’s everything…

“Damon! Focus!”

Another harpy shrieked. Damon blinked several times, only to realize Elysia was holding him by the shirtfront with both hands. His gaze lifted to her frightened eyes. “W-what?”

“Weapons. This is Athena’s temple. She’s the goddess of war. Even if this place is ancient, there have to be weapons stored somewhere. Where would they be?”

A third harpy screamed somewhere inside the temple.

Weapons… Athena…
Damon looked past Elysia toward the altar and the statue of Athena behind it.

“Damon.” Elysia shook him.

“There are no weapons,” he managed. “None except…”

Elysia turned toward the statue of Athena in her warrior armor, a sleeve of arrows strapped to her back, a real sword at her side in one hand and a bow in the other.

“
Skata
.” Elysia pushed to her feet. “I’ll get them.”

Damon’s brain cued in to what she was planning, and fear wrapped an icy hand around his throat and squeezed. He grasped her forearm before she could get more than a step away. “No. You can’t.”

“One of us has to.”

She jerked free of his hold and sprinted across the temple. A harpy screeched and dove toward her, but Elysia ducked behind a column before the monster could reach her.

Damon jerked to his knees. And something in the center of his chest condensed, finally kicking his ass into gear. “No. Godsdammit. Elysia!”

She darted behind the statue as the three harpies shrieked and circled inside the temple. Grasping the back of the statue, Elysia began to climb.

Damon’s gaze darted to the floor, searching for something he could use to buy her more time. He spotted a broken piece of marble as large as his fist.

He slid across the floor, grasped it in his palm, and jumped to his feet. “Hey!”

The harpy closest to Elysia jerked her head his way. Damon yanked his arm back and chucked the stone at the beast as hard as he could.

The rock hit the monster in the side. It yelped and flapped its wings as it tumbled through the air toward the floor of the temple. At the last second, it regained its strength, screeched again, and darted toward Elysia.

Elysia reached the middle of the statue and pulled the sword from the statue’s hand. “Damon!”

He raced toward her. She dropped the sword and darted around the other side of the sculpture. Damon caught the hilt of the blade in his hand just as another harpy spotted him and charged. Swinging out with the sword as the second harpy reached him, he hoped like hell there was still some sharpness to the blade. The blade made contact with the beast’s wing. The harpy screamed. Feathers flew up into the air. Something whirred over Damon’s head. The harpy Damon had just hit sailed through the temple and out through the opening in the ceiling, one wing barely flapping.

Another whir echoed above, followed by a screech that brought Damon around. He watched an arrow strike a harpy dead in the chest. It flapped once and dropped to the floor of the temple with a thunk.

Shocked, Damon swiveled and looked up at the statue of Athena where Elysia stood on the platform, the bow poised perfectly in her arms, an arrow at the ready, her gaze locked on the third and final monster circling the temple.

Its blood-red eyes locked on Elysia. On a long screech, the beast tucked its wings and dove straight for her. Damon’s pulse raced, pushing his legs into gear. He darted toward the pedestal of the statue to help her, but she was fifteen feet above him. The harpy would reach her long before he could. It would—