Chapter 19 #2
“Something is fucking with our minds,” Silas growled. “And who just stepped on an Alpha King’s foot? Back off.”
“No one is near your feet, brother,” Cade said, his voice weary. “It’s in your head. What you feel isn’t real.”
“Then what is real?” Silas snarled.
Rowan remained silent, his alert gaze fixed on the darkness ahead. He was the quietest and most observant of the heirs, with Cade a close second. My mate never wasted energy on nonsense. Now, he was focused on pinning down threats and protecting me.
Two shapeless figures emerged from the mist, radiating a broken yet overwhelming power. Every heir except Rowan took an instinctive step back. I tensed beside them, my muscles coiling and my fingers growing numb. If these beings froze my magic, I decided, I could still use my claws.
They were the first deities of Earth. Their power was once immeasurable, but now they were not even shadows of their former selves. They were fragments, desperately trying to reassemble into wholeness and failing with every attempt. It was a terrible existence.
I’d seen their original forms through Barbie’s eyes when they showed her the battle against Ruin. Isis had been glorious and perfect. Now, her single blazing blue eye kept sliding out of alignment, and her face was a mass of writhing shadows that seemed to scream in constant pain.
Nephthys was no better. He shifted continuously, struggling to hold his form. One moment he had golden eyes and silver hair; the next, they melted away, leaving behind the skull of death he had become. Parts of him were pale shadow, his chest a void where his heart should have been.
They tracked our movements not with eyes but with the remnants of their divine senses.
“Old magic! You!” Isis hissed through her formless mouth. “It should never fall into that void-born abomination’s hands!”
“My name is Sy,” I said. They recognized me.
During our last encounter, they’d fixated on Barbie, but my sister wasn’t here now.
This fell entirely on my shoulders. “We came to talk. We share a common enemy. Ruin and his army will be here in less than six days. We need to find a way to kill him. Share your knowledge, and we will avenge you.”
“Ra cannot be killed,” Nephthys spoke, his voice like thousands of glass shards scraping against stone. My companions winced. “We showed the battle to the Devourer’s daughter. She is separated from you, and you have no shield now. Where is she?”
“She is busy,” I said.
“So you brought useless friends,” Nephthys sneered.
The heirs bristled. No one had ever dismissed them so casually, but arguing with these broken gods would be pointless.
“Let’s keep this civil,” I said, surprised to find myself as the voice of reason. “We need to be productive.”
“You cannot kill what refuses to die,” Isis said, her single eye locking onto me with terrifying intensity for a fleeting moment. “No earthly spell, power, or weapon can destroy him.”
“Do not despair,” I replied. “Barbie and I have acquired some angelic weapons. We just need to determine how best to use them. Three minds are better than one.”
Heaven’s Arrow came to my mind, the weapon that had separated Barbie and me. I would not share specifics with these ancient gods yet. While they opposed Ruin, I did not know if we could truly trust them. Gods were fickle.
“If we cannot kill him, then we must contain him,” Rowan said. “Is that your suggestion? What cannot be destroyed can still be caged.”
Nephthys and Isis seemed to communicate silently, their broken forms pulsing in unison.
“These useless boys waste our time,” Nephthys declared. “Bring Barbie here. She has not fulfilled her promise to visit us.”
“We will bring Goddess Barbie,” Cade said smoothly. “But first, we need more information about Ruin so we can help her defeat him.”
“Ra came from the void between stars, from the hungry darkness that exists beyond all creation,” Nephthys revealed.
“Barbie mentioned her father was an alien god,” Cade prompted. The mage prince had an uncanny ability to draw out information.
“The Devourer exists only to consume,” Nephthys hissed, sending a chill down my spine. “It is never sated. The more energy it devours, the hungrier it becomes.”
“What if we find a way to return it to the void?” Rowan asked.
“Where exactly is this void located?” I pressed.
“He craves you more than his own daughter,” Isis said, her gaze fixed on me.
“You are the last drop of the old magic. Barbie once shielded you, but now you stand exposed. You must hide here with us. If he consumes the oldest magic, Earth will become a barren waste. Let his daughter fight him. She alone carries the curse and the knowledge to bind him. She was prophesied to bear both light and darkness. Now, leave. We grow weary.”
“Tell us more,” Cade attempted. “We’ll protect both Barbie and Sy.”
“You cannot protect them,” Nephthys scorned. “You boys are beneath their level.”
“We don’t need them.” Silas stepped forward, his chest swelling with wounded pride. “You got your asses handed to you by Ruin eons ago. Now you’re nothing but mad remnants.”
“Silas, shut your mouth,” Rowan warned.
“They act like they’re still the shit,” Silas continued, gesturing at the broken deities.
“No one disrespects and dismisses us like that. I won’t allow it.
Look at them—freaks who can barely hold themselves together.
And you think they can help us fight something that reduced them to this pathetic state? ”
The shapeless forms of the ancient deities shifted ominously.
Power lashed out and slammed into Silas.
One second, he stood there, chest puffed in stupid arrogance.
The next, the big bad wolf king floated spread-eagled, naked and utterly exposed, his frozen dick sparkling in a bizarre and terrifying display.
We stumbled back, shocked. Silas struggled to shift, but it was useless. He couldn’t move a single muscle. A whimper escaped his throat. The anger and arrogance in his amber eyes vanished, replaced by pure panic. It was likely the first time he had ever felt so completely powerless.
Even shattered, the deities could overpower any heir. And without Killian to combine their forces, the heirs stood no chance against the beings before us.
“Shit, they actually froze his dick!” Cade was the first to find his voice.
“His dick is going to snap off,” Louis called out. “We have to help him!”
Barbie and I would have laughed our asses off if we’d been the ones to orchestrate this humiliation. But when the attack came from outsiders against any member of our group, it was a serious offense.
“Release him, now!” Rowan snarled.
As one, Cade, Rowan, and Louis attacked. At the same moment, a devastating shockwave of the deities’ energy surged toward us, aiming to place the rest of the heirs, my mate included, in the same humiliating position as Silas. They intended to send every last heir from this room without their dick.
“Not happening!” I bared my fangs, my own power roaring to life to meet the gods’ assault.
I planted myself between the heirs and the deities, a living shield. But they refused to be shielded. They stepped forward with me, Rowan at my side, Cade and Louis flanking us.
My white light blazed outward, wrapping around Silas’s suspended form. The ancient gods’ freezing power fought against my creation energy, ice crackling and steaming where our forces met, until I shattered the frozen bonds. The defrosted shifter landed in a crouch, hissing and snarling.
“Try to touch any of them again and you’ll regret it for another eternity,” I hissed, maintaining my defensive stance as my power shielded us from any follow-up attack. “You have no idea what I can do. I am just as old as you.”
“The boy is despicable,” Isis declared.
“Yes, he is,” I agreed without hesitation. “We all know he’s an asshole. But he’s our asshole.”
“He’s our asshole!” Louis backed me up, his voice ringing with surprising conviction.
Silas looked at Louis with genuine shock, then darted a glance of gratitude toward me before turning a low growl on the ancient entities. He wisely held his position, making no move against them.
“Never let the Devourer find out you’re here,” Isis gasped, her energy riddled with pain. Her attack on us had taken a severe toll.
“Leave us alone,” Nephthys whispered.
“I’ll send Barbie,” I said. I wasn’t the sentimental type, but I couldn’t help feeling sorry for them.
I nodded at the heirs, signaling a retreat. Louis led the way, with Silas and me in the middle, and Rowan and Cade brought up the rear, never fully turning their backs on the deities. The red door clicked shut as Cade exited.
We gathered in the hallway, Silas standing naked, dripping, and shivering in the middle of us.
The deities had kept his clothes; even I couldn’t pry his pants from their grip.
I didn’t push the issue. The shifter needed to learn a lesson or two.
Frankly, I was treating him nicer than Barbie ever would.
She’d let him suffer through wolfbane without an ounce of sympathy.
And between the two of us, I was the one they called a psychopath! It was utterly unfair.
Just then, Killian and Barbie shot out of the penthouse and rushed toward us from the other end of the corridor.
“What the fuck?” Killian’s voice boomed off the walls. “Why is Silas blue, naked, and holding his own dick?” He turned to Barbie. “Don’t look. It’s a sight for perverts.”
“Screw you,” Silas growled, his teeth chattering.
Then everyone was talking at once.
“They went into the Red Room without us,” Barbie announced.
“One minute,” Killian snapped. “They couldn’t wait one fucking minute.”
“Uh, I think we’ve been away for more than a minute,” Barbie said, her face flushing. “But I’m not sorry.”
“Of course not.” Killian smiled at her.
Those two made me roll my eyes. I wanted to shout at them to get a room, but then, they’d just come out of one.
“Give me your scarf, Cade,” Silas barked at the mage prince.
“You just had to mouth off,” Cade sighed, reluctantly unwinding his fashionable scarf and handing it over. “That was the most expensive one in my collection.”
“I’ll give it back,” Silas said, wrapping the length of fabric around his waist to cover his junk.
“No, keep it,” Cade replied, gesturing in dismay. “I don’t want it back. It’s ruined anyway.”
“You hurt my feelings, Cade,” Silas grunted.
“Your feelings are the least of our concerns right now,” Louis said.
We crowded together in the hallway, and Barbie and I hugged.
“What did we miss?” She grinned at me, her face glowing. She’d obviously had a good lay.
“A lot,” I said, then debriefed her, skipping everything except the part where the deities froze Silas’s cock.
“You won’t believe it,” I said as we headed back to Killian’s penthouse. “Silas’s junk is actually small.”
“What the fuck?” Silas snapped, glaring at anyone who looked his way. “Why don’t you let those two freaks freeze Killian’s and Rowan’s dicks and see how large theirs are.”
Rowan narrowed his eyes at Silas. “Why involve me? I didn’t freeze your dick and make it small. And I don’t appreciate you comparing yours to mine, putting that unwanted picture in my mate’s head.”
“I was fucked, alright!” Silas argued.
Louis, who had been too shocked to laugh in the room with danger looming, now couldn’t stop. He recounted Silas’s humiliation to Killian in vivid detail.
“I’ve seen a lot of crazy shit, but a frozen dick?” the vampire snickered. “You should’ve been there.”
As if they could compare notes afterward. The two chuckled mercilessly at the new shifter king’s expense, and none of Silas’s curses could stop them.
Silas was still holding his manhood protectively beneath the scarf.
I’d bet he wouldn’t be able to fuck anyone tonight.
He might not even get it up tomorrow due to the trauma.
The last time Barbie kicked a guy in the balls to defend Bea, Cade had estimated the student wouldn’t be able to fuck a duck’s tight ass for a week.
But Silas was the most powerful shifter. I had faith he’d manage it.
“No shit.” Killian pounded the vampire prince’s forearm as the two of them continued to laugh at Silas’s expense.
He was having a great time with my sister while Silas had gone through hell.
In life, there was always a winner and a loser.
And if I’d intervened two seconds later, Silas would have no dick.
His face was still pale, his lips blue and shivering. He knew it, too.
“I didn’t even know they had that kind of sense of humor; a bit twisted though.” Barbie then asked the group, “Anyone want to enter the Red Room again?”
Only Cade and Killian wanted to give it a try.
“They aren’t in good shape now,” I told Barbie, shaking my head. “They used all their juice to freeze Silas and then fight me.”
“Another day, then,” Barbie said, then turned a syrupy smile on Silas. “Looks like you need a drink, Alpha Silas.”
Silas scowled.
“We all do,” Cade said.
“I want you all to vow never to tell anyone about this,” Silas demanded.
“C’mon, man,” Louis protested. “Be a good sport.”
Silas fixed him with a death glare. “Vow it,” he insisted. “Or I’ll bail from the Covenant!”
“You’re taking the dick thing too seriously,” Cade said.
“You can’t bail.” Killian grinned. “You already swore a blood vow.”
“They’re ancient gods who’ve been tortured for millennia, and half their essences are in Ruin’s gut,” I pointed out. “They’re not exactly stable.”
“Gross,” Silas muttered.
“What did you expect from them? A blanket and cookies?” I asked.
“That’d be a start,” he shot back, then calmed slightly. “Thank you for having my back there, Sy. I owe you one.”
“I’ll come to collect one day, wolf,” I said.
“She isn’t kidding,” Rowan added.
Silas blinked.
“My sister and I always collect debts,” Barbie chimed in, nodding at him before turning to me. “Sy, your new magic is awesome. Why don’t you use it and get us a round of drinks?”
So I did, just to cheer everyone up, especially Silas after his near-castration.
No man wants to lose his dick.