"Please Sin, please let me go, I'll do anything."
"Bark like a dog."
She would too. She'd be crying and hysterical. And he'd just laugh at her. He savored the very thought of it.
Sin paused as he secured her feet and glanced up at her face. To his deepest chagrin, he actually had to admit that she was beautiful-in a lethal snake-like, venomous, bitch sort of way. In his murderous dreams, he'd forgotten exactly how graceful and attractive she was.
But here and now, he remembered things he'd buried three thousand years ago.
Like everyone else he'd ever known she'd turned on him. She'd laughed in his face and had reduced him to a pathetic immortal.
He didn't see anything beautiful about her now. But he did find it odd that she had blond hair instead of the vibrant red she was famous for. Maybe that was because she'd been in the human world and she was trying to pass as one of them for some reason.
Still, her body was the same. Tall, graceful and well built, she was put together like the goddess she was. Any man, immortal or otherwise, would kill to have access to a woman like this. And he remembered a time when he'd been so attracted to her that he would have done anything to make her happy.
Now all he wanted was to kill her.
"Hey, Sin?"
He paused as he saw his servant Kish coming into the room. Just under six feet tall, Kish appeared to be in his mid-twenties, but in reality the man was almost three thousand years old. Like Sin, he had jet black hair and dark olive skin, only his hair, unlike Sin's, hung just past his shoulders.
Kish froze in place as he saw the woman on the couch. "Uh, boss, whatcha doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?"
Kish made a face as he scratched at the area right above his left ear. "It's looking pretty kinky. And here's where I should remind you that kidnapping a woman in this day and age, and in this country in particular, is a federal offense."
Sin wasn't amused. "Yes, and in your birth time period, it was a capital offense that resulted in the man's testicles being cut off before he was beheaded."
Kish jerked at the mention of castration and cupped himself. "Yeah and so why are you kidnapping her?"
"Who says I kidnapped her?"
"The fact she's unconscious and tied up... fully clothed. I figure if it was really kinky and she was cooperating, she'd be awake and naked."
Kish did have a point.
He moved forward and looked more closely at her before he glanced back to Sin. "So who is she?"
"Artemis."
"Artemis who?"
Sin gave him a hard stare. "You know. Greek goddess bitch who stole my powers."
Kish let out a nervous laugh. "That's the goddess trussed up like a turkey on your couch. Are you insane?"
"No," Sin said as righteous fury drove him on. "I had an advantage and I took it." His face turned ashen. "And when she wakes up, we're both toast. Burnt toast. Charred toast. Whatever the hell is beyond charred, that's us." He moved his index finger back and forth between them to emphasize their coming doom.
"She's going to kick both our asses. And no offense, I don't want my ass kicked by a goddess... well, Angelina Jolie in a black teddy and spiked heels notwithstanding. Angie-baby could drive those spiked heels all over me, but this..." he gestured toward Artemis. "This will get me painfully disemboweled and that I'd like to avoid at all costs."
Sin shook his head at the man's hysteria. "Calm down before you wet my rug and I take a newspaper to you. She's not going to kick our asses. This net negates her powers. It's how she sucked me dry and left me humiliated."
Kish cocked his head as if he wanted to believe that, but wasn't sure he should. "Are you sure about that, boss?"
"Positive. The diktyon was designed as a trap for gods and immortals. So long as she's held by it, we're fine."
He was still cringing. "I don't think fine is the word I'd use in this situation. More like screwed or dead even. She's not going to be happy about this."