to escape weakened and bent, was close to buckling as he struggled to hold it together and keep it strong.
He told himself that she didn’t have Calindria in a cage, that his little goddess was probably at the nearest town by now or had teleported far from this realm, back to her family where she would be safe. He kept telling himself that, even when a part of him whispered that she had been drugged, her powers inhibited by the toxin that had coated the spear that had clipped her.
What if she hadn’t been able to fight the two males off her and escape?
The demigoddess’s violet eyes slowly darkened as he stared at her, lost in his thoughts, gripped by fears that grew stronger and stronger, choking him and making him unaware of anything else. Even the heat of the fever that wracked him couldn’t touch him here. He felt nothing as he thought about Calindria, was numbed to sensation, swept up in his emotions.
He was barely aware of the cool caress of the sponge over his body, or the words the female cooed at him.
“I knew you would do as I wanted,” she murmured throatily and swept the wet sponge over his stomach. “Gods, in all the years you have been away, I have not found a male quite like you.”
She skimmed her hand over his stomach, pulling him back to the world.
“I want to hear you call my name as you take me this time,” she whispered as she leaned closer, her vile breath caressing his damp chest. She tilted her head back and gazed up at him. “Say it for me… Harleena. Or Leena will do.”
“Har… py,” he snarled down at her and her face blackened. He lunged towards her and bit out, “Harpy. I will never call you anything else. You are as ugly and foul as one.”
He grunted as she struck him hard, knocking his head to his right, sending his thoughts spinning and blurring. The fever rose to grip him again, flooded his mind with wicked thoughts that had his skin feeling too tight and filled him with an ache to grab her and make her regret striking him by taking her hard, by dominating her.
Thanatos shut down that urge, but barely. It was getting harder by the second to resist the drug. He needed to do something and fast.
She feathered her fingers down his stinging cheek. “Say my name. I want to hear you say it.”
He shuddered and growled, bared his teeth at her and barely leashed the desire to strike her. “Why should I do anything you want when you did not uphold your end of the deal?”
She glared at him as he stepped back, breaking contact between them. Her eyes darkened further, not with the heat of lust this time, but with the same fire that burned inside him. She was angry. Good. He was furious.
“Release her, or you will get nothing from me.” He scowled down at her and seized her wrist in a trembling hand, managed to muster enough strength to rip it away from the waist of his leathers rather than press it lower.
He dropped it as soon as he was free of her touch, the feel of her skin on his too sickening to endure for any longer than was necessary.
“I will release her… if you give me what I want.” She smiled coyly.
Thanatos growled in her face. “Another lie. I want to see her. Let me take her to the edge of the realm and I will do whatever you want.”
He wouldn’t. He would find a way to escape with her. The look in Harleena’s eyes said she knew that. He wasn’t going to get what he wanted, and he wasn’t exactly in a position to bargain either, but he couldn’t stop himself. He needed to know Calindria was safe. He needed to know that whatever he suffered at this female’s hands, it would be worth it because his little goddess was free.
“What you need is another sip.” Her tone darkened and sharpened, and he tugged at his chains as she stepped from the bath, choosing to exit it on the far side near the fire.
A place he couldn’t reach while shackled.
She picked up a gold goblet from a dark wooden table and swilled the contents as she gazed at it, a hazy quality to her eyes. Those same eyes gained a wicked light as they lifted to him, as she prowled towards him, her hips