Taken by the Blood God (Devil Springs #4)

Chapter 4

Chapter

Four

Minerva

The sun was rising as I stepped out of the house, my feet bare and a cup of tea or coffee in my hand. The early summer air was warm, but a breeze wafted through the trees surrounding my yard, still cool.

I took the two steps down from the porch and headed toward the Adirondack chairs. I liked to start my morning outside if it wasn’t raining. I wanted to wake up with the feeling of grass beneath my feet, the glow of the rising sun on my face, and the scent of a new day.

My eyes were on the ground, watching where I put my feet. My wards and spells kept the lawn free of weeds, but, occasionally, a rock or other object would find its way into the yard. Or a snake would be napping among the blades of grass.

I glanced up and froze.

Talant was sprawled in one the chairs around my firepit. His eyes were closed, and his skin, normally olive, was ashen. He lay completely still, as though he wasn’t even breathing.

The coffee cup slipped from my fingers as I lunged forward. The hot liquid splashed my bare feet, but I didn’t even feel it as I ran across the grass.

“Talant!” I cried, falling onto my knees next to him.

I grasped his arm, shaking it. Goddess, had he died in the night? Could gods die of natural causes?

At my touch, he took a breath, short and sharp, and his body tensed. The color began to return to his skin, but he was still frighteningly pale. And cold.

His arm was chilled, as though he’d taken an ice bath.

“Talant!” I repeated, shaking him.

He groaned, his head lolling toward me.

I gathered my magic, unsure where he was hurt, or if my power would even be effective on him. Still, I would try. I couldn’t sit by and watch him die. Or suffer.

He blinked several times before his eyes finally opened and landed on my face. He squinted at me.

“Minerva?” he asked. “Wha’ you doin’ here?”

I didn’t bother answering his question, instead focusing on what I needed to know to help him. “Are you hurt?”

His gaze was still distant and glassy as he shook his head. If I didn’t know better, I would think he was drunk.

“No’ hurt. Jus’ tired,” he slurred.

“What happened?”

He closed his eyes again and sighed. “Wen’ to talk to my brother.”

I realized what I was seeing. He’d expended too much magic, too fast. I hadn’t realized this could happen to him. He was a blood god, for crying out loud.

“Talant, come with me,” I said, shaking him again.

His eyelids lifted, his hazy amber eyes locking on me again. “We need to go. Need to help my brother.”

“We will,” I agreed, helping him to his feet. “But first, you need to rest and recharge your magic. Otherwise, you’ll end up trapped with your brother.”

“No, we have to go.”

“Tomorrow. You’ve overextended.”

“Tonight, witch. We must go tonight.”

At least his words were no longer as mushy. His gaze was clearing, but his body still trembled.

“I’ll tell you what—if you can stand up without help and without falling down, we’ll go tonight.”

He grunted and shoved himself up. I held on to him as he got to his feet, but he swayed dangerously. I braced my legs and tried to steady him until he stopped teetering.

“Okay, a nap first,” he agreed.

He sounded so annoyed that I had to bite back a smile.

I whispered the words of a spell as we staggered to the steps and up to the back porch. The spell made his weight lessen enough that I had no trouble helping him through the kitchen to the front hall.

He paused in front of the stairs, grasping the rail with a trembling hand. “I can do it.”

I didn’t bother to argue. I just walked up behind him, keeping two hands on his lower back. Thank the goddess he was wearing a shirt for a change. I didn’t want to touch his bare skin. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hide my reaction to him. And he would never let me forget it if he saw how he affected me.

As Talant topped the stairs and paused, weaving on his feet, I realized he probably wouldn’t notice anyway. He was barely conscious.

I tried to guide him toward the guest room at the back of the house, but his knees began to crumple, and I knew he wouldn’t make it. Holding back a frustrated sigh, I pushed him toward the closest bedroom—mine.

It spoke to his exhaustion that Talant made no flirty comments or sexual offers. He staggered the few steps from my door to the bed before collapsing face-first on the mattress, his feet still hanging off the bed.

I frowned at the bottoms of his feet. They were dirty, and I didn’t want them on my nice, clean sheets. One look at Talant’s still body and it was clear he was already out.

Grumbling to myself, I marched into the adjoining bathroom. I grabbed the wide bowl I used to give myself pedicures, filled it with warm water, grabbed a bar of my homemade soap, and wet a washcloth.

I carried everything into the bedroom, still cursing Talant, this time in more than a grumble. He didn’t even twitch, the ass.

Kneeling beside the bed, I washed his feet as swiftly as I could manage and carried everything back into the bathroom to tidy up. When I came back, I was tempted to leave him where he lay, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to get him off the floor by myself if he rolled off the bed in his sleep, so I needed to get his legs fully onto the mattress.

It took five minutes of pushing and shoving, more swearing (this time much louder), and some sweat, but I managed to roll Talant’s body toward the center of the bed. He grunted once or twice but didn’t wake up. He also rolled in the direction I shoved him, which was good because I wouldn’t have been able to move him otherwise.

Satisfied that he would stay where I put him for a while, I went back downstairs to make myself another cup of coffee. The one I’d held earlier was still lying on its side in the backyard, all the liquid drained out of it.

As I went about my morning routine, I tried not to think about how strange it felt not to have Talant underfoot. Somehow, in the last couple of weeks, I’d become accustomed to the arrogant ass.

I shook off the thought. I must be missing company in general now that Ally had moved out of my home and in with her gargoyle mate, Dax. There was no way that I wanted Talant’s company. No way at all.

I spent the rest of the day tidying up the house and preparing to leave for a few days. I had no doubt that Talant would wake up and be impatient to leave and free his brother.

It occurred to me that I would have two insufferable gods in my house once that happened, and I decided to do a little magical prep work in the event that they had the bright idea to give me any trouble.

With both of their powers drained to such a low threshold even my magic should be strong enough to combat any mischief they tried to cause.

Once I felt everything else was ready, I went into my still room off the kitchen. It was the place where I brewed potions, mixed dried herbs for tea, and made my candles and soaps. The counters were wide and fashioned out of butcher block, sitting atop heavy cabinets. Open shelves lined the walls above the counters, full of jars of herbs, liquids, candles, cauldrons of varying sizes, and other tools and ingredients I needed to perform my craft.

I was still puttering around in the still room, puzzling out a spell to cage a powerful magical creature without an actual physical circle, when my cell phone rang. I glanced at the screen and saw my niece’s name.

I also saw the time and gasped in shock. I was still in my nightgown, and it was nearly five o’clock in the evening. Losing track of time when I was in the still room was a common occurrence but not this amount of time. I’d lost the entire day.

I snatched up my phone and said, “How’s mated life?”

My niece huffed out a laugh. “You’ve asked me that every time we’ve talked the past two weeks.”

“I’ll keep asking until it sinks in that you’re mated.”

“Sinks in for whom?”

It was my turn to laugh. “For me. The last time I checked, you were still twelve and collecting weird objects that caught your attention.”

“It’s not my fault you aged.”

I gasped in mock outrage, which made her giggle. “I should stop speaking to you.”

“You probably should, but you’d miss me.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her that I already did miss her, but I held it back. I didn’t want to make her feel guilty about leaving the house we’d shared for fifteen years. She was twenty-six. It was well past time for her to be out on her own.

Though I’d encouraged her to find a cottage when she returned from college, she insisted that she preferred to stay with me. I stopped discussing it with her because I didn’t want her to think I was kicking her out. I loved having Ally with me, and I never wanted her to think otherwise. Even if I did think she needed to spread her wings.

Now she was mated to Dax Tremaine, the only gargoyle in Devil Springs. She’d had a crush on him for nearly a decade. She tried to hide it because she knew Dax wouldn’t touch her when she was so young. But he and I had both seen it.

He ignored it. For years.

Me…well, I bided my time. I knew they were meant for each other, but she needed to grow up first. I saw the moment his regard for her changed. The way he looked at her when she returned from college wasn’t the way he had before—as though he were fond of a child. No, he looked at her the way men looked at women they wanted. The change seemed to happen overnight. As though he finally woke up and saw her for the beautiful woman she’d become.

Unfortunately, Dax was stubborn as hell. He resisted his feelings for her for years.

And Ally was no better.

It might have taken longer than I expected, but they had eventually come together. As I knew they should.

“Minnie?”

Ally’s voice broke through my thoughts. “Sorry, darlin’. You caught me in the still room, and my mind was still on what I was doing.”

“I can let you go if?—”

“No, no. I need to take a break. Until you called, I didn’t realize I’d been in here all day and missed lunch. What’s up?”

“I was in town today and saw Claire from the coven. She was asking when the store was going to open back up, and I told her I wasn’t sure.”

I winced. Now that Ally was newly mated, I didn’t have anyone to open and run the store for me. This early in their relationship, Dax was having trouble letting her out of his sight. He also wasn’t going to be able to handle other men around her any time soon. Or maybe ever. His mating instincts were too strong.

“It might be a little longer,” I answered.

“Why? Are you not healed? Minnie, you should have told me if?—”

I hated to interrupt her twice, but I could tell my niece was gearing up to give me hell.

“I’m fine, Ally. But I promised Talant that I would help him release his brother. We’ll be leaving tomorrow morning, and I’m not sure how long we’ll be gone.”

She was silent. “Are you sure you want to free Talant’s brother?” she asked.

At her quiet question, I sighed. “Want to? No, I don’t. But I think I need to. His power is feeding an entire coven of warlocks, and whatever they’re doing with that kind of magic cannot be good.”

She didn’t argue. Instead, she asked, “And you don’t know how long you’ll be gone?”

“No. I have no idea what sort of wards they have around his prison. Or how many warlocks are involved.”

“So it will be dangerous.” It wasn’t a question this time, but a statement.

“I’ll be okay, Ally. I promise. Talant will be with me, and I’m sure his brother will be able to do plenty of damage once he’s freed.”

“You’d better be okay. And you tell Tal that I said he’d better protect you with his life, or I will kill him.”

I almost laughed at her words until I realized she was being serious. “Honey, he’s going to have my back. He can’t do this without me, so I have no doubt that he will do whatever it takes to keep me safe.”

At least until I did what he wanted. After that, I wasn’t so sure. I was going to need a back-up plan.

Her sigh on the other end of the phone signaled the end of her argument. Like me, she knew when we weren’t going to come to a compromise. Over the years, we learned how to navigate our disagreements without tantrums or yelling. She was my only living family. I didn’t want to spend my time with her fighting or sharing hard words.

“I’ll open the store for half-days this week and weekend,” she said. “I’ll do some posts for the community website and pop a sign on the door.”

“Ally, you don’t need?—”

It was her turn to interrupt me. “Minnie, I’ve got this. Though I will suggest you hire at least one other person to help at the store. With Marjorie’s expansion and the new accounts I’m taking over next month, I won’t be able to run the shop more than once or twice a week.”

“I will, honey. I promise. I’ll probably need to hire three people since I’m going to have my hands full with Talant and his brother here for the next little while.”

“They’re staying with you?”

I winced at the high pitch of her voice. “Would you prefer I set them loose on the town?”

“Goddess, that would be a horrible idea!”

“Exactly.”

There was another pause. “Are you going to be okay dealing with them alone?”

I doubted it. But I couldn’t tell her that.

Instead, I answered, “Yes, I will.”

There was a low, rumbling voice in the background. It seemed Dax was listening to our conversation. I couldn’t hear his words clearly, but his tone was unyielding as stone.

“Well, if you need back up, Dax says he’ll come help you keep them in line. And I will, too. Tal will listen to me. Especially if I’m yelling.”

There was another gravelly comment, but this one made her laugh.

“You’ll have to get over that, Dax. I’m an Anointed, remember? Talant is going to teach me about my magic.”

Ally laughed again, and this time it had a sultry edge. Apparently, Dax’s answer to her statement wasn’t verbal.

It was time to end this call before I heard something that scarred me forever.

“I’ll let you know when we’re leaving,” I said. “And once I have a better idea of how long I’ll be gone, I’ll text you. I don’t know if I’ll be able to call while I’m gone, but I promise to check in via text every day if I have a signal. If I don’t, I’ll send you a message via spell.”

“Okay, MinMin. I love you.”

“I love you, too, sweet girl.”

After we disconnected, I placed my phone on the table and stared at it unseeing.

I’d always prided myself on my ability to adapt, to roll with the punches. But the blows I’d been receiving the past few weeks were harder than any I’d experienced before. I was off-balance and overwhelmed by the chaos that had invaded my life. The fact that I could no longer access my visions only made it worse.

I hadn’t felt this way since my sister and her husband died, leaving their eleven-year-old daughter in my care.

I was lost, and I had no idea which direction to go next.

But, as it had been fifteen years before, my only choice was to breathe, pick a direction, and take that first step.