He brushed his hair aside and tilted his neck for her. Closing his eyes, he braced himself for the pain of her bite. For the hated sensation of her breath on his neck while she fed.
Tory paused as she felt him go rigid. It took her a second to realize why. Ash couldn't stand to have anyone breathe on his neck and yet there he sat, offering himself to her without complaint or comment. In that moment she loved him all the more.
And with her newfound senses, she knew his neck wasn't the only place she could feed from . . .
Ash opened his eyes as she moved away from him. Frowning, he watched as she dipped down and bit into his inner thigh. He sucked his breath in sharply as a wave of desire blinded him and hardened his cock which was only a few inches from her mouth. But greater than that was the shock that she hadn't grabbed his hair and hurt him while she fed from his neck. She was being gentle and considerate, and when she looked up at him, her eyes matched his.
That deep swirling silver that he hated so much was beautiful on her. They were bound together now. His powers. His blood. They were hers too. But even so, he wanted her as she'd been. Kissing her lips, he turned her eyes back to the brown color that had stolen his heart the first time she'd looked around the room in nervous panic.
This was the woman he loved. The one he couldn't live without.
Tory felt a raw unimagined power deep inside her. She could hear everything now. See the most minute color changes in every object. "Is this how you see the world?"
"Yes."
It was all so vivid. Overwhelming. At the same time her body was hot and needy. She looked at him and he actually blushed before he clothed himself.
Clearing his throat, he indicated the door with a tilt of his head. "We can't do that here."
"Artemis," she growled the name.
He nodded. "We're still locked in her temple."
"Not for long." Rising to her feet, she went to the door.
Ash scowled as Tory closed her eyes and held her hands out by her sides. He felt the wind of his grandmother stirring around them. His jaw went slack as he realized what was happening—his mother had surrendered part of her powers to Tory. She didn't just have his inside her.
And the combination of his powers with his mother's . . .
Scary stuff that.
The thought had barely finished before the door splintered into a thousand fragments.
Artemis shrieked from the other side, then ran to her throne room.
Ash stood up and went to Tory. "Let's go home."
She shook her head. "You go on ahead. I'll be there in a minute."
He paused at the odd note in her voice. "Tory . . ."
She gave him an impish smile, cutting his words off. "I'm just going to talk with her. Don't worry."
Yeah, right. Don't worry? Was she insane? And for once, he wasn't sure which of them was in the most danger.
Ash hesitated, but ultimately he trusted Tory. "Remind her that I'll know if she hurts you and if she does, there's not enough power on Olympus to protect her."
She kissed the tip of her finger and pressed it to the tip of his nose. "Don't be such a worrywart. We're just having girl talk."
Ash somehow doubted that. Knowing Tory, it would be more like a cat fight. But he wouldn't interfere. It was time someone took the goddess down. "All right, baby. I'll be waiting at my apartment."
Tory didn't move until Ash was gone. The moment she sensed his powers safely back in the human realm, she headed in the direction Artemis had run off to.
Her new powers surging, she went to have a long overdue Come-to-Jesus talk with the goddess.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Artemis kept waiting for all of the powers to fade from her temple.
They didn't. She felt Acheron's primary ones leave, but there was more still here. Powerful. Cold. Calculating.
That wasn't Acheron.
And when Soteria came through the doors of her bathing chamber and into her throne room with a deadly lope, the blood completely drained from Artemis's face. There was no denying the woman wanted a piece of her and was ready to fight for it.
Still she refused to let the girl see her panic. "You're nothing to me, human."
Tory scoffed, and spoke to her in perfect Greek. "Oh you're wrong about that, Artemis. I'm not nothing. I'm the one who's going to kick your butt if you ever go near Acheron again."
Artemis flung her hand out and sent Tory flying across the room. "You don't threaten me."
Tory lifted her hands and just as she would have hit the wall, she stopped moving. Opening her eyes, she was stunned to find herself floating over the ground a few inches from the stone that Artemis had intended to slam her into.
Artemis shrieked in outrage while Tory laughed in relief. These powers were very cool.
Holding her hands out, she centered herself back on the ground. Artemis ran at her and caught her about the neck. Tory slid out of her grasp, then shoved her away. "Oh, bitch, please." She threw her hand out and pinned Artemis to the wall.
"Let me go!"
Tory tightened the hold on her. "For all the times you've hurt Ash, you're lucky I'm not ripping the heart out of your chest right now. How could you?"