Rock Hard (7 page)

“Enlil!” Marduk demanded, unsure of the other god’s intent. “Whatever it is you’re doing, stop. Right now.” He remembered Enlil’s dissatisfaction when he hadn’t brought Tess back to the compound the day before. He could only mean to force the issue now.

“You know this guy?” Marduk could see that Tess was dumbfounded by the increasingly odd situation. He watched her eyes dart between him and the golden haired god with braids.

“He’s one of my…uh…roommates.” Marduk was trying not to be completely distracted by the approaching Enlil and hoped to reassure Tess. “Stay back and let me take care of this.” He pushed Tess behind him, but the sight of his hand on Tess’s arm seemed to inflame Enlil even more.

“I said don’t touch her,” the golden immortal roared.

“Why, Enlil,” Marduk goaded. “So that you can have her for yourself?” His eyes held fire as he confronted his irate brother, and the sky darkened ominously to match his mood. “What if I told you that I have chosen? What if I told you that she is the one?”

“I would know you are lying,” Enlil snarled.

Marduk wondered why he had said chosen, knowing he couldn’t possibly mean it. What did any of them know about choosing a mate? What he did know for certain, was that this encounter with Enlil was not going to end well. He and Enlil were about to go at it, and he needed to make sure Tess was safe. He would compel her to leave. Turning quickly, he stared into her eyes.

“You will leave here and go back to your car…run. I will find you another day. I promise.”

Tess’s feet began to move sluggishly down the hill as if against her will. She was inching away from the two men but never actually turning away. Marduk could tell she wanted to stay…needed to stay and make sure…what? That they didn’t kill each other, which he and Enlil looked perfectly capable of doing as they circled like wolves.

“Go, woman,” Enlil howled at her, agreeing with Marduk on this one thing.

Still Marduk sensed that Tess fought the compulsion, which had now been doubled inside her head, the edict being issued by two gods. It seemed that she would not leave. Maybe it was for the best. Fully embodied and fighting in the physical realm for the first time in centuries, blood would be shed. At least one of them would need her to call 911 before this was over.

Enlil struck first. Hurtling from higher ground, he launched into Marduk’s midsection, looking to knock him from his feet. Marduk maintained his rock-solid stance despite the fact that the breath had been expelled from his body by the blow. He grabbed Enlil’s head and spun him around, throwing the immortal against the monument of a weeping angel. Blood gushed from the wind god’s side as it was sliced by the stone.

They both paused at the advent of the wound. Enlil reached a hand to touch the bright red liquid that quickly spread across his ribs. Marduk inhaled sharply. Neither had bled in almost 400 years.

“Do we stop?” the thunder god questioned.

“Hell, no!” Enlil growled and catapulted toward Marduk, landing a hard blow to his jaw. Marduk saw stars, allowing Enlil time to wrap his hands around his throat.

Marduk was astounded. Even in pain, the hands surrounding his neck felt so sweet. This is what he had missed in the years he had remained bodiless. He could once again feel the life being choked out of him. Not that he could actually be choked to death. Even if he fully succumbed to Enlil’s hold, he would awaken later, bruised but alive.

Marduk thought quickly, the unaccustomed pain keeping him from passing out. Yes, the unaccustomed pain! Without another thought, Marduk brought his knee up hard into Enlil’s groin. The look of surprise on the golden-man’s face would have been comical if Marduk hadn’t been on his knees, gasping for breath himself. Enlil roared in agony. This was a way of fighting they had both forgotten, not having active nerve endings for so long. Marduk was going to have to remember to protect his own soft bits from now on.

Tess had seen enough! She’d managed, during the heat of the battle, to stop herself from leaving. It had taken all of her resolve, but once she had started back in an uphill direction, the return had gotten easier, and now she moved without restraint.

“Stop this! Stop, both of you,” she yelled, reaching a spot between the two. Unfortunately, timing had them on their feet a mere moment before her entreaty, and Enlil launched out with his fist again. This time it connected with Tess’ cheek, sending her reeling into Marduk. The god cried out and grabbed for her, barely able to slow her descent to the ground.

“Tess!”

“No!”

Enlil and Marduk spoke at the same time, their fight forgotten as they leaned over Tess’s small, still form.

“What have you done?” Marduk rasped accusingly, wanting to pummel Enlil. He turned Tess’s head to see the damage.

“I didn’t mean to.” Enlil sounded pained, more tormented than Marduk had heard him in years, and it made him wonder. Why was the wind god so distraught? Bright red seeped from a cut that ran from Tess’ eye and down to the ridge of her cheek. Both gods reached out to stanch the flow and froze the minute her blood stained their fingers.

Enlil was first to move. He brought his hand up to his nose and inhaled. He met Marduk’s eyes with an incredulous look and nodded. Marduk shook as he repeated Enlil’s motion. He too, took in Tess’s life essence and swallowed hard. His look back to Enlil confirmed both men’s suspicions. There was no doubt about it. Marduk cleared his throat.

“It begins to make sense,” he rasped. Tess stirred in his arms.

“It does,” Enlil agreed.

They both gazed down at the woman with new-found wonder. Marduk wouldn’t have thought it possible, but there was no denying it.

He spoke the words out loud that they were both reluctant to say. “She is of your blood.”

“…blood?” Tess was coming around.

“Yes, little one,” Marduk soothed. “You have an injury.” He gathered her up in his arms, coming to his feet as easily as if he carried no burden at all. Where their bodies touched, a low, rumbling sensation caught Marduk off guard and had Tess pressing her softness even closer to him. Her perfect, petite breasts pushed into his ribcage, and he suffered a renewed surge of desire but resisted the urge to curl his hand over the opposite globe. He stole a glance at Enlil. The god did not look happy.

“I can feel what you are thinking,” Enlil snarled. “Keep your hands in plain sight or I’ll wrap your balls around your ears. She is only in your arms because she is hurt.”

Marduk couldn’t help but taunt his not-so-good buddy. “And also because she likes me and thinks you’re a lunatic in a loincloth,” the thunder god snorted.

Enlil looked down at himself and winced. “I will acquire some adequate clothing as soon as possible.”

Marduk watched Enlil reach a hand toward Tess and smooth a piece of hair from her face as she struggled to open her eyes. He marveled at the tenderness that suffused Enlil’s face. He could see the gruff god trying to shake off the uncharacteristic need to protect, and he asked the question that was on both their minds.

“Until then, what will we do with her?”

****

In the underworld, Nergal was asking himself the same question. It had taken him many hours to sift through his long memories and match the essence of the girl to something familiar. When that familiar thing turned out to be Enlil, his least favorite of all the immortals, he grimaced and went over his options.

He could go to the girl’s home—it would be easy to track her now that he had her scent—and take her, but Ereshkigal would object to him wielding his powers directly on a mortal. He was pretty sure that was forbidden in their original agreement. He needed others to do his dirty deeds. Could he play somewhat fairly and still win?

He wanted to be the victor in this battle of wills with his wife, but still craved the respect of his queen and knew if he succumbed to temptation and grabbed the girl himself, he would be denied his wife’s attention for many hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years more. This he was not willing to risk.

No, he was sure he had figured out the rules of this new challenge that she had set forth. Each god would now be given another mortal to protect, just as they had been given Thomas Morton in the seventeenth century; and where they had failed at that task, he needed to make sure they would fail again. But to keep Ereshkigal happy, he would have to delegate the nastier tasks that needed to be performed. As before, he and Ereshkigal could manipulate and bring other beings into the contest, but would refrain from entering to skew things in their own favor.

In a way, Nergal hated what he was going to do next. He pretty much hated everything about the immortal he was about to call on for help. Dagon was a pain in the ass. One of the original thirteen gods indentured to Morton and brought over to Merrymount from England, he had quickly distinguished himself as evil and self-serving, siding with Morton’s partner-turned-enemy, Captain Richard Wollaston, who had subsequently been driven from the colony.

After Dagon also abandoned Merrymount, he had helped Nergal’s cause by fomenting hatred in the hearts of Myles Standish’s Puritans living nearby. Morton and the gods had eventually been vanquished by these Puritans. As a testimony to the ego that had consumed him, Dagon then convinced Myles Standish to change the name of Merrymount to Mount Dagon. Nergal had been amused when the name only lasted for a few years. The colony had eventually collapsed due to drought and famine.

When Dagon’s usefulness was done, Nergal had been more than happy to put him into deep stasis in an underground cave not far from where the other gods had set up their living quarters, all the while realizing that the immortal might be useful to him in the future. Well, the future was here, and it was time to awaken the bastard god.

Nergal sent powerful energy surging earthward, waves rippling up through the substrata that mortals would sense as a small earthquake, but the gods would know it for what it was. He laughed, thinking of the petty scrambling it would have them performing. “A meeting,” Nergal mimicked. “We have to call a meeting!” It seemed to be Marduk’s answer for any adversity that beset his group. Well, let the god call all the meetings they wanted. It wouldn’t help him this time. “Rise Dagon,” Nergal commanded. “Rise again and defeat your enemies!”

Dagon stirred in his underground sanctuary. He stretched his reanimated limbs and shook centuries of detritus off his body, where it had coated him in sleep.

Awake, he thought. Alive! Musty air entered his lungs, but he didn’t care. His body was moving again, and it could only be that Nergal was calling to him for another chance at gaining an immortal life on earth…not the cursed immortal sleep from which he had just been awakened.

“Nergal,” he called, wincing at the painful vibration of larynx long dormant. “What task do you wish me to perform?” His eyes glowed with anticipation as Nergal sent into his brain everything he needed to know. A delighted chuckle escaped when he found it was a female of Enlil’s blood he would have to steal.

According to Nergal, the female might even eventually be claimed by Marduk, another who had always stood in his way for supreme power. He paced the length and breadth of the chamber, winking in and out of his body, as he got used to the feeling of being visible or invisible. It was a power that Nergal had left to him when it had been taken from the other gods. Invisibility wouldn’t be helpful against the other immortals, who could see him either way, but it would certainly be useful with humans. He would use it to great advantage.

The first thing he needed to do was ascertain whether his secret Puritan society still existed. He had set things up so that precious and binding vows would be passed from generation to generation, ensuring that the group would be ready once he reappeared and pointed his finger.

He had even purchased land that was to be held in perpetuity by descendants of his original helpers. Those heirs would finally be made aware that it was time to do away with a group of immortals, pagan killers that their scriptures decreed would rise again and become a danger to all living things. He had done well with those “sacred” scrolls, embellishing with glee the supposed lasciviousness of those they were to banish.

As his well-bred pawns, the Puritans didn’t need to know that the gods weren’t all that bad. Yes, they were pagan, but they were also givers of life and fertility for the earth, powers that Dagon coveted for himself and would make certain he received this time.

He dematerialized and headed from his deep cavern, suddenly anxious for a look at his new world.

****

“What are we going to do about Tess?” Marduk puzzled as Enlil looked on. Here was a situation they had never thought to encounter. Both had just felt the rumble of evil that emerged from the earth and knew that Nergal had set something in motion, something foul.

“We could carry her back and leave her in her car, but it’s obvious that Nergal has figured things out. Tess’s life will now be in danger if he the king finds her.” Enlil was not happy.

“Yet we have no doctor at our home, nobody that can stitch her up.” Marduk winced in sympathy as he looked at the gash on Tess’s face. “According to everything we see on TV, humans would call 911 in these circumstances.” As a god, it went against his grain to call on mortals for help, but what choice did he have?

“Then do it,” Enlil agreed.

Marduk nodded and softened his tone, giving his brother suggestions rather than orders. “Can you pick up my bike at the beach and ride it home? It’s better if you disappear, considering the way you’re dressed. I’ll tell authorities that Tess and I we were out for a run when she was attacked. I caught up and engaged the mugger, he punched me in the jaw, then ran away.” A satisfying bruise was just blooming and, as Marduk stroked it, his eyes gleamed. It would be gone soon, but for now it was interestingly sore.

“The girl will have to confirm your story.” Enlil looked doubtful. Marduk watched Tess’s gray eyes regain comprehension as the two gods finished speaking, and raised an eyebrow in her direction.

“Fine. Okay. I’ll go along with it,” she agreed, groggily. “But you guys are going to owe me a huge explanation.” She spoke through clenched teeth, as if trying not to move her cheek.