The Dark-Hunters, page 12
“Gracie, have you seen this?”
Grace sat forward to where she could see it. “Not really. I’ve been a bit distracted.”
A bit distracted, yeah, right. That would be like calling Mount Everest a bump in the road.
Even in the dim light, the gold shone. The top of it was flat and had a sword surrounded by laurel leaves engraved into it and inlaid with what appeared to be rubies and emeralds.
“It’s beautiful,” Grace said.
“It’s a friggin’ general’s ring, isn’t it?” Selena asked. “You weren’t just a run-of-the-mill soldier. You were a friggin’ general!”
Julian nodded grimly. “The terms are equivalent.”
Selena let out an awed breath. “Gracie, you have no idea! To have a ring like that, Julian was someone of major importance in his time. They didn’t just hand those out to everyone.” Selena shook her head. “I am impressed.”
“Don’t be,” Julian said.
For the first time ever, Grace envied Selena her Ph.D. in ancient history. Lanie knew so much more about Julian and his world than she could ever hope to.
But she didn’t need that degree to understand how terrible it must have been for Julian to go from being a commander of men to being enslaved by women.
“I bet you were a great general,” Grace said.
Julian turned his attention to Grace and the raw sincerity he’d heard in her voice when she’d said that. For some unfathomable reason, her compliment warmed him.
“I held my own.”
“I bet you kicked major butt,” she said.
Julian smiled. He hadn’t thought about his victories in centuries. “I did put a major hurt on a couple of Romans.”
Grace laughed at his use of her slang. “You’re a fast learner.”
“Hey,” Selena said, interrupting them. “Can I see Cupid’s bow?”
“Oh, yeah,” Grace said. “Can we?”
Julian took it out of his pocket and set it on the table. “Careful,” he warned Selena as she reached for it. “The golden arrow is loaded. One prick and you’ll fall in love with the next person you see.”
She pulled her hand away.
Grace picked up her fork and used it to drag the bow over to her. “Is it supposed to be that small?”
Julian smiled. “Didn’t you ever hear the phrase ‘size doesn’t matter’?”
She rolled her eyes at him. “I don’t want to hear it from a man as large as you.”
“Gracie!” Selena gasped. “I’ve never heard you speak that way before.”
“That was extremely mild considering what the two of you have said to me the last few days.”
Julian brushed her hair back over her shoulder. She didn’t flinch this time.
He was making progress.
“So, how does Cupid use this thing?” Grace asked.
Julian let his fingers slide lightly through the silken strands of her hair. Even in the dim light, it shimmered. He longed to feel it draped over his bare chest. To bury his face in it and let it caress his cheeks.
Shuttering his gaze, he imagined the feel of her body surrounding his. The sound of her breathing in his ear.
“Julian?” she asked, shaking him out of his reverie. “How does Cupid use this?”
“He can either shrink down to the size of the bow or he can make it bigger to suit his purpose.”
“Really?” Selena asked. “I didn’t know that.”
Their waitress came running over to them, pulling out her pad and ogling Julian as if he were the daily special.
Inconspicuously, Julian slid the bow off the table and returned it to his pocket.
“I’m so sorry I made you wait. Had I known you hadn’t been helped, you better believe I would have been here the minute you sat down.”
Grace frowned at the young woman. Damn, couldn’t Julian have five seconds without some female throwing herself at him?
Does that include you?
She paused at the thought. She was just like all the others. Staring at his butt, drooling over his body. It was a wonder he could stand being anywhere near her.
Scooting over in the booth, Grace promised herself that she wouldn’t treat him that way.
He wasn’t a piece of meat. He was a person and he deserved to be treated with respect and dignity.
She ordered for the three of them, and when the waitress returned with their drinks, she also brought out an order of buffalo wings.
“We didn’t order these,” Selena said.
“Oh, I know,” the girl responded. She smiled at Julian. “We’re backed up in the kitchen, so it’ll take a few extra minutes to get the food out. I thought you might be hungry, so I nabbed these. If you don’t like them, I can get you something else. But don’t worry about it, they’re on the house. So, would you prefer something else?”
Oh, the double entendre was thick and made Grace want to wrench the strawberry-blond hair out by its roots.
“These are fine, thank you,” Julian said.
“Oh, my God, could you say something else to me?” the girl asked, practically swooning. “Oh, say my name! It’s Mary.”
“Thank you, Mary.”
“Ooo,” the girl crooned. “That gives me chills.” With one last hungry look at Julian, the girl left them.
“I can’t believe this,” Grace said. “Do women always do this to you?”
“Yes,” Julian said, his tone edged by ire. “That’s why I hate going into public places.”
“Don’t knock it,” Selena said as she reached for a buffalo wing. “It definitely comes in handy. In fact, I say we take him out more often.”
Grace scoffed. “Yeah, well, if that little critter scribbles her name and number on the bill before she hands it over, I might have to hurt her.”
Selena burst out laughing.
Before Grace could ask anything else, Cupid sauntered into the restaurant and approached their booth.
The left side of his face had a light bruise where Julian had struck him. Cupid tried to appear casual, yet she sensed his tension, as if he were ready to flee at a moment’s notice. He quirked a brow at Julian’s short hair, but said nothing as he sat down next to Selena.
“Well?” Julian asked.
Cupid let out a long sigh. “You want the bad news, or the really bad news?”
“Oh, let’s see … how about we make my day special, and start with the worst, then work our way up?”
Cupid nodded. “All right. At worst, the curse will most likely never be broken.”
Julian took the news better than she did. He merely nodded in acceptance.
Grace narrowed her eyes at Cupid. “How can you do this to him? Good Lord, my parents would have moved heaven and earth to help me, and yet here you sit without even an I’m sorry for him. What kind of brother are you?”
“Grace,” Julian said with an edge to his voice. “Don’t challenge him. There’s no telling what consequences it might bring.”
“That’s right, mort—”
“You touch her,” Julian said to Cupid, interrupting him, “and I will take that dagger at your side and cut your heart out with it.”
Cupid slid farther away from Julian. “By the way, you left out some really important details.”
Julian gave him a shuttered glare. “Such as?”
“Such as the little fact you slept with one of Priapus’s virgins. Man, what were you thinking? You didn’t even bother to remove his robe from her when you took her. You knew better than that. Why would you have done such a thing?”
“If you recall, I was rather angry with him at the time,” he said bitterly.
“Then you should have picked one of Mom’s followers. That’s what they were there for.”
“She wasn’t the one who killed my wife. Priapus was.”
Grace felt her lungs seize at his words. Was he serious?
Cupid ignored his hostility. “Well, Priapus is still raw over it. He seems to view it as the last insult where you’re concerned.”
“Oh, I see,” Julian growled. “Big brother’s mad at me for daring to sleep with one of his consecrated virgins while I was supposed to just sit back and let him murder my family on a whim?” The fury in Julian’s tone sent a shiver up her spine. “Did you bother to ask Priapus why he went after them?”
Cupid rubbed a hand over his eyes as he let out a ragged breath. “Yeah, remember when you routed and defeated Livius outside of Conjara? Livius called out for vengeance against you right before you beheaded him.”
“It was war.”
“And you know how much Priapus always hated you. He was looking for an opening to go after you without fear of retribution, and you gave it to him.”
Grace looked to Julian, but no emotions whatsoever showed on his face.
“Did you tell Priapus I wanted to see him?” Julian asked.
“What are you, crazed? Hell, no. I mentioned your name and he about blew a gasket. Said you could rot in Tartarus forever. Believe me, you don’t want to be near him.”
“Oh, trust me, I do.”
Cupid nodded. “Yeah, but if you kill him, you’ll have Zeus, Tisiphone, and Nemesis to deal with.”
“Do you think they scare me?”
“I know they don’t, but I really don’t want to see you die that way. And if you’d stop being pig-headed for three seconds, you’d realize it yourself. C’mon, do you really want to pull down the wrath of the big man?”
By the look on Julian’s face, Grace would say he really didn’t care one way or the other.
“But,” Cupid continued, “Mom pointed out that there is a way to break the curse.”
Grace held her breath as hope flitted across Julian’s face. They both waited for Cupid to elaborate.
Instead, Cupid trailed his gaze over the dark interior of the restaurant. “Do you believe people eat this sh—”
Julian snapped his fingers in front of Cupid’s face. “How do I break the curse?”
Cupid leaned back in the booth. “You know everything in the universe is cyclical. As it began, so shall it end. Since Alexandria caused the curse, you have to be summoned by another woman of Alexander. One who also needs you. You must make a sacrifice for her and—” Cupid broke off into laughter.
Until Julian reached across the table and seized his shirt in his fist. “And?”
Cupid knocked his grip away and sobered. “Well…” Cupid’s gaze slid to Grace and Selena. “Would you excuse us for a minute?”
“I’m a sex therapist,” Grace told him. “There’s nothing you can say that will shock me.”
“And I ain’t about to leave this booth until I hear the juicy tidbits,” Selena said.
“All right, then.” He looked back at Julian. “When the woman of Alexander summons you, you can’t put your spoon in her jelly jar until the last day of your incarnation. Then, the two of you must unite carnally before midnight and you must keep your bodies joined until the sun rises. If you withdraw from her at any point, for any reason, you will immediately return to the book, and the curse continues.”
Julian cursed and looked away.
“Exactly,” Cupid said. “You know how strong Priapus’s curse is. There’s no way in hell you’ll ever make it thirty days without boinking your summoner.”
“That’s not the problem,” Julian said between clenched teeth. “The problem is finding a woman of Alexander to summon me.”
Her heart hammering nervously, Grace sat forward. “What does that mean? A woman of Alexander?”
Cupid shrugged. “Well, she has to have Alexander in her name.”
“Like a surname?” she asked.
“Yes.”
Grace looked up and caught Julian’s tortured gaze. “Julian, my name is Grace Alexander.”
CHAPTER 7
Julian stared at Grace, his mind whirling as her words rang in his head.
Could it be? Dare he believe it?
Dare he even hope after all this time …
“Your surname is Alexander?” he repeated in disbelief.
“Yes,” she said, a slow, encouraging smile breaking across her face.
Cupid looked sharply at him. “Have you two made friendly with the privates yet?”
“No,” Julian said. “We haven’t.” And to think he had been angry over that.
Grace had saved him from making the third biggest mistake of his life. At that moment, he could have kissed her.
A smile split Cupid’s face. “Well, I’ll be damned. Or you’ll be undamned, I should say. I never knew a woman who could be around you more than ten minutes who didn’t drop her—”
“Cupid,” Julian snapped, cutting him off before he gave a lengthy discourse on the number of women Julian had slept with. “Do you have anything else informative to say?”
“Just this. Mom’s curse-breaker is contingent on Priapus’s not finding out. If he does, he could circumvent the whole thing with one of his nasty whammies.”
Julian clenched his fists as he remembered quite clearly some of his half-brother’s more evil actions.
For some reason he’d never fully understood, Priapus had hated him since the moment of his birth. And over the years, Priapus had given sibling rivalry a whole new meaning.
Julian took a sip of his drink. “He won’t find out unless you tell him.”
“Don’t look at me,” Cupid said. “I don’t run with his crowd. You have me confused with cousin Dion. And on that note, I need to go meet up with my boys. We plan to do a major tribute to old Bacchus later tonight.” Cupid held his hand out, palm upward. “My bow, if you please.”
Careful lest it prick him, Julian fished it out of his pocket and returned to him.
It was then he caught a rare, honest look of affection from his older brother. “I’ll be around if you need me. Just call my name—the one not Cupid. And please lay off the ‘worthless bastard’ stuff. Sheez.” He raked him with a smirk. “I should have known it was you.”
Julian said nothing as he remembered what had happened the last time he took his brother up on that offer.
Cupid scooted out of the booth, looked at Grace and Selena, then smiled at Julian. “Good luck with earning your freedom. May the strength of Ares and wisdom of Athena see you through.”
“And may Hades roast your hoary soul.”
Cupid laughed. “Too late. He did that in the third century and it wasn’t so bad. Later, little brother.”
Julian didn’t speak as Cupid made his way out of the restaurant like an almost normal human being.
The waitress brought their food to them.
Julian picked at the strange meat on bread, but he didn’t feel like eating it. He’d lost his appetite.
Grace poured something red to cover the meat, then placed the bread together and took a bite while Selena ate a salad drenched with white sauce.
Looking up, Grace caught Julian’s frown as he watched her eat. His face even more troubled than before, he had a hardness to his jaw that said he was clenching his teeth. “What’s the matter?” she asked.
He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Are you really willing to do what Eros said?”
Grace set her burger down and wiped her mouth with her napkin. In truth, she didn’t like the thought of Julian using her body to gain his freedom. A one-night stand with no commitments, no promises.
Julian would be gone as soon as he finished with her. She had no doubt about that.
Why would a man like him ever want to stay with her when he could have any woman on the planet eating out of his hand?
Still, she couldn’t condemn him to live out eternity in a book. Not when she could free him.
“Tell me something,” she said quietly. “I want to know the whole story of how you got into that book. And what happened to your wife.”
She wouldn’t have thought it possible, but his jaw got even tenser. He was trying to hide again.
But Grace refused to let him run. It was time he understood exactly why the thought of sleeping with him bothered her. “Julian, you’re asking a lot of me. I haven’t had much experience with men in social situations.”
He frowned. “You are a virgin?”
“I wish,” she breathed.
Julian saw the pain in her eyes as she whispered the words. She dropped her shamed gaze to the floor.
No, his mind roared. Surely she hadn’t been through what he suspected. As the very idea went through his mind, an unexpected rage coiled through him. “Were you raped?”
“No,” she whispered. “Not … exactly.”
His confusion dispelled his anger. “Then what?”
“I was young and stupid,” she said softly.
“The pig took advantage of the fact she was grieving over the death of her parents,” Selena said, her voice filled with acrimony. “He was one of those ‘I just want to take care of you’ lying creeps who use you, and then leave you the minute he has what he’s after.”
“He hurt you?” Julian asked.
Grace nodded.
Another wave of peculiar anger ripped through him. He didn’t know why it mattered to him what had happened to her, but for some reason he couldn’t fathom, it did.
And he wanted vengeance on her behalf.
He saw her hand shaking. Covering it with his, he gently stroked the backs of her knuckles with his thumb.
“I only slept with him once,” she said quietly. “I know there’s supposed to be pain the first time, but not like that. And as much as it hurt physically, the worst pain was from the fact that he didn’t seem to care. It felt like I was just there to serve him, that I wasn’t even a person to him.”
Julian’s stomach knotted. He knew that feeling all too well.
“Later that week,” Grace continued, “when he didn’t call or answer his phone, I went by his apartment to see him. It was spring and he had his window open. As I walked by I…” She choked on a sob.
“He and his roommate had a bet going to see who could deflower the most virgins for the year,” Selena said. “She overheard them laughing about her.”
Rage, dark and deadly, descended on him. He’d known such men, personally. And he never could stand them. Indeed, he had taken great pleasure in purging the earth of their fetid presence.
