Her hand toyed with the hair at the nape of his neck while her tongue teased his. When she pulled back, he was so light-headed that for a moment, he feared he might fall.
Kateri breathed in relief as she saw his eyes return to blue. There were still little flecks of red in them, but he seemed to be back to the Ren she'd made love to. "Feeling better?"
"If I say no, will you kiss me again?"
She laughed. "I'll kiss you either way." Her laughter died as she glanced down to see the red teardrop around his neck. The only time she'd seen him wear it had been in the visions where he fought her father. "Where did this come from?"
Ren looked down to see what she was referring to. His breath caught the instant he saw the crystal that contained Windseer's blood. The blood they'd used to tie him to the Grizzly Spirit.
In his mind, he heard the evil bitch curse him, and he finally understood. When the Guardian had freed Ren from Grizzly's hold, Windseer had been forced to return to Grizzly's service. She'd only been freed the first time because she'd delivered Ren to him, and her freedom was based on Ren's slavery.
No wonder she hated him so badly.
But he couldn't tell Kateri that, and he was grateful that she couldn't divine its significance that marked him as Grizzly's slave. "It's nothing."
Kateri knew he was lying. She just didn't know why. But she decided to trust him. Perhaps he had a good reason for it. However, he better not make it a habit. She hated a liar worse than anything, but she wasn't naive enough to think that there was never a time when a lie was needed. Like all the instances when they were kids and she'd tell Sunshine one of her paintings was beautiful while the truth was she thought it stunk.
He's hiding something from you.
And it was bad. She couldn't shake that feeling no matter what. Worse, images of him on a homicidal rampage wouldn't go away no matter how hard she tried.
In them, he destroyed the entire world. And there was nothing she could do to stop him.
Acheron Parthenopaeus paused as he entered Kateri's bedroom. While her home was modest, the interior was filled with warmth.
Like his own house in New Orleans.
A smile curled his lips as he thought about his wife and son. He couldn't wait to get them back home and have all of this nastiness put aside.
If it didn't kill them all.
His mother would be thrilled to hear his doubt. But he didn't want to think about her right now. He had to find Kateri's time stone and get it to her. Time was running out and the gates were so thin, they were translucent.
"Damn, there's a lot of rocks in here," he muttered as he saw them all around the room. There were even more in boxes in her garage and a huge pile on her covered back porch. He'd never seen anything like it.
The woman was obsessed.
"It's been a long time, Acheron."
He froze at the sound of a voice he hadn't heard in centuries. Turning, he saw the shade of the extremely wise medicine woman he'd met on a previous doomsday avoidance mission. "Ixkib. How have you been?"
"Not as well as I would have liked, but I'm glad to have your help, old friend."
"Glad I'm still here to do it."
She laughed. And by that, he knew it wasn't the real Ixkib. Though she looked like her, she didn't have the same laugh. Dread filled him. "Who are you?"
"You know me."
Acheron searched his mind, but he couldn't tell who it was. "No, I don't."
But as soon as those words left his lips, he realized how wrong he was. He did know her.... "Tiva." The goddess of unraveled time. While her twin brother oversaw time itself and kept it in order, Tiva lived to destroy lives.
Zev was the one they called Time.
Tiva was Untime.
She clicked her tongue at him. "Always brilliant. Thank you for leading me here, by the way. I appreciate it. I would never have found this place without you." She moved to go through one of the boxes.