Groaning, Tory hit him in the head with a pillow. "You're rotten, Achimou. For that, you get a tongue lashing." She rolled him over until he was under her.
Ash sucked his breath in as she encircled his nipple with her tongue. Now this was the kind of tongue lashing a man could look forward to. "What else can I do to piss you off?"
She nipped at his ribs. "You can leave me."
He sobered with the thought. "I would never do that, Tory. No one can live without their heart and that's what you are to me."
Tory lay down over him and held him close. Until another horrible thought occurred to her. She tensed and pushed herself up so that she could meet his gaze. "Wait, Ash . . . doesn't Artemis own your soul?"
"No. I'm not really a Dark-Hunter. Unlike them, I didn't willingly give my soul to her. She used my powers to trick me and brought me back against my will. But because I'm a god, she couldn't take my soul from me. I've always had it"
"But you had the bow and arrow mark." Which wasn't on his body at present.
"Only because I didn't want the other Dark-Hunters to know I wasn't one of them. I just wanted them to treat me like I was normal. It's the same reason I have fangs whenever they're around even though they recede unless I'm about to feed."
She propped her head up in her hand and made circles over his chest. "You know you don't have to be normal around me, right?"
"I know."
"Good."
And for the rest of the night, Ash took his time making love to her. Showing her exactly how much she meant to him and how much he treasured her.
It was just after midnight when she finally fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. His body fully sated, Ash covered her with a blanket before he left the bed and dressed himself in black leather pants and a long VG Cat Rat Flail T-shirt. Pulling his long coat over it, he flashed himself from New Orleans to Mount Olympus.
For once he didn't go to see Artemis. Instead he made his way over to the temple of the Fates. The moment he set foot in the foyer, Atropos, Clotho and Lachesis appeared to block him from the rest of their domain. Not that they could. As the Final Fate, he ruled them and they knew it.
"What are you doing here?" Clotho asked, her voice high-pitched from her nervousness.
"I wanted to speak to you."
"About what?"
He looked at Atropos who was tall and blond and who absolutely hated him with a passion he'd never understood. In that moment, he allowed her to see every ounce of fury inside him. "You ever sever the thread for Soteria's life again and there's no power in existence that will keep me from tearing your throat out. The three of you have screwed me over for the last time. In all these centuries, I've left you alone. Now, I'm warning you to return the favor because the next time you tamper with my fate, I will end yours."
The fear on their faces told him that they understood and had taken his point to heart. Good.
He was through playing games. When it came to Soteria, he had no sense of humor whatsoever. Anyone who threatened her, ended their own life.
It was that simple.
She'd taught him to finally embrace who and what he was. Woe to the rest of them. Because he was now the Harbinger not just for his mother, but for a slip of a woman who held his heart.
For her, he'd do anything.
Even end the world.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Two weeks later
New Orleans
Even though Ash trusted Tory, his gut was in a knot as he followed her toward the lecture hall at Tulane where she was going to give another speech on Atlantis. "Why won't you tell me what you're planning to say?"
The obvious answer was she wanted to torture him, which she'd been doing for days.
Damn, she could give Artemis lessons on it.
She gave him that same, warm smile that only served to scare him more. "It's none of your business. But if you start in on me and my reputation like you did in Nashville, you're going to be living in your own apartment again. Alone. Remember, I get Simi custody. Right, Sim?"
"That's right." Simi grinned proudly as she skipped along beside him. "Relax, akri. Akra-Tory won't do nothing to make you angry. Only the Simi does that."
He laughed even though the knot in his stomach drew tighter with every step they took closer to the room.
"You still haven't answered my question," Tory said, returning to the topic she'd started on their way over here. "What was Julius Caesar really like?"
He shrugged nonchalantly. "The man was brilliant, but he cheated at dice."
She let out an impressed breath as she tightened her shoulders dreamily. "I can't believe you met him and Alexander the Great."