24. Why was everyone so happy?
TWENTY-FOUR
Why was everyone so happy?
The phoenixes lurked in the flames, beyond the limitations of my human eyes, but they must have stolen their light from the heavens along with the voices of angels.
When they weren’t crooning the notes of some melody only they knew, they shrieked, and their cries tore at my soul.
I flinched at the sound, covered my ears, and squeezed my eyes shut.
I didn’t want to see heaven, and I didn’t want to hear it, either.
The very air caught on fire and flooded my lungs, but its heat didn’t burn me when I breathed.
What had I done? I hadn’t resurrected mere birds. I had summoned living gods, and they cawed their laughter. In it, I heard their amusement and mockery. In it, I heard an echo of their promise, the bargain we had made, which they would keep—for now.
“Well, that’s one way to do it. That batch of gorgon dust isn’t going to last long.” Quinn’s grandfather also sounded amused.
Why was everyone so happy? My babies were gone, and they had become gods. There was nothing okay about the situation.
The phoenixes screeched, and red, yellow, and white light pierced through my closed eyelids. I sucked in a breath, turning my head. Underneath the roaring of the flames, someone—no, a chorus—sang.
I remembered the notes and the angels who had sang them, and the melody tugged at my soul. I swayed to its rhythm, holding my breath so I wouldn’t miss anything.
Angels greeted the phoenixes with a triumphant song, one filled with welcome, love, and jubilation. When the final distant notes faded, the light dimmed and left me in darkness. A choked sound emerged from my throat.
“It would help if you opened your eyes, little one.”
Oh, right. I did.
What had once been stone gleamed in the light of a pair of burning feathers, which drifted over the floor where the vat had once been. Of Prince Ozmose, I saw no sign. “Oh no.”
Quinn’s grandfather touched my shoulder. “It’s all right. He was long dead. He sacrificed himself to make that dust, by his choice, the fool. Everything makes sense to me now. There are two ways dust can be—”
“No,” Quinn growled behind me. “I’m pretty sure nothing about you two being here makes any sense at all.”
Uh oh. While I loved the way my husband growled, he sounded pissed. I considered my options. Pixie dust? Sedative? Both? If I ignored him, would he go away? I ran fast, but I doubted I could outrun Quinn for long.
Warm arms slid around me and my back pressed against Quinn’s chest. Running lost its appeal, and with a pleased murmur, I leaned against him. Soft, hot lips brushed the side of my throat. “Where did you get two phoenixes from, Bailey Quinn?”
I closed my eyes, tilted my head back, and made myself comfortable against my husband.
“She’s probably a little tired,” Quinn’s grandfather murmured. “She requested them from the CDC because they wouldn’t give her napalm. She was very concerned about the dust.”
Quinn nibbled on my neck, and his teeth scraped against my skin, sharper than I expected. Sucking in a breath, I tilted my head to the side to give him easier access. “Quinn, they made the dust go away.”
“I see. Well, I’m not finished here. You, however, are.
” Quinn shoved me forward, grabbed my wrist, and spun me around.
The instant I caught my balance, he pushed me back against the tunnel’s stone wall, melted smooth by the phoenixes’ flame.
Capturing my other wrist in his hand, he forced my arms over my head.
Twelve crimson-hooded cobras swayed from Quinn’s dark hair.
They stared at me, their forked tongues flicking and tasting the air.
While incubi had black wings, instead of the leathery black ones I expected, his were feathered and banded with sky blue.
His tail, unlike his incubus brethren’s, was covered with down.
With startling strength, it constricted around my knees and forced my legs together.
“Quinn!” I squealed.
Kissing was his favorite way to shut me up, and the desperate heat of incubus-inspired desire flooded through me. I needed him, and I whimpered, struggling to pull free of his hold on me so I could reach for him, pull him closer, and make him mine all over again.
Breaking our kiss, he brushed his lips against mine, released my wrists, and unwound his tail from my legs.
I strained to reach for him, but something cold and hard held me in place.
I twisted to see what was stopping me from getting closer to Quinn and ripping off the rest of his shirt so I could touch his bare skin.
Stone encased my arms from wrist to elbow and trapped my ankles and feet.
“Quinn, you fr—”
He covered my mouth with his and swallowed my words, smothering my protests. Another surge of heat washed through me, and as always, he left me breathless. When he pulled away, I panted, and a soft, desperate moan slipped out of me.
“How did you get here, you sneaky woman?”
I wanted to kick him for being so far away.
I wanted to run my hands over his chest, stroke his wings, and explore every inch of him.
A sane woman would’ve been at least a little concerned about being close to twelve cobras.
I had no idea if their crimson hoods signified anything, but unlike his gorgon grandfather, Quinn’s skin remained a rich golden tan.
When I broke free, I’d give him a piece of my mind about tying me up and leaving me hanging. “If you hadn’t left, I—”
Damn him and his kisses. I closed my eyes, and without the stone holding me up, I would’ve melted into his arms.
Quinn’s grandfather cleared his throat. “Little Samuel, perhaps now is not the best time to be doing such a thorough examination of your wife’s mouth with your tongue.”
No, it was the perfect time for Quinn to do a very thorough examination of me with his tongue, and I groaned when Quinn pulled away. He cupped my face with his hands. “They hurt you. They took you from me.”
“You have a one-track mind, little Samuel. Bailey, it might be easier if you let him have his way, especially since he went through all the effort to tie you to the wall. While it’s a good idea on how to keep her out of trouble, you may want to move her upstairs where the air is fresher, little Samuel.
You might want to know she has sedatives in her pocket along with a vial of pixie dust. The sedatives in particular might help keep her from doing something we regret. ”
“Traitor!”
“I view it as pursuing my grandson’s interests.”
Quinn smirked, gave a playful lick of his lips that made my toes curl in my shoes, and peeked down my shirt. “I see you haven’t used your beautiful breasts as a most royal treasury this time.”
“Quinn!”
A single touch of his lips to the side of my throat left me whimpering and needing more. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured.
His hands skimmed down my sides and dipped into my pocket. He retrieved the vial and bottle of sedatives. “This could work nicely. Sedatives for here.” He paused, leaned towards me, and whispered in my ear, “How does a little bit of dust and a whole lot of lust later sound to you?”
Yes, please.
Quinn’s grandfather chuckled. “Save your loving reunion for later, little ones. Have you learned how many of them are here?”
“Audrey has five sisters. They’re all in torpor.
Audrey’s awake, and she’s caring for the hive’s sole young, a female, maybe two or three years old.
” Something about Quinn’s tone changed, and the growl I so loved took on a frightening edge.
“There are at least ten petrified surrogates who may be with whelp or child. The phoenixes avoided them. I can’t say the same for the incubi and succubi on the roof.
I suspect they were infected with dust.”
Quinn’s grandfather sighed. “Our family will take care of the whelp and the unborn. The sins of the parents are not the sins of the child. What else do you know?”
For a long moment, Quinn’s dark eyes stared into mine, and he lifted his hands to run his fingers through my hair. “They tried to take her from me. They meant to try again, and again, and again, until they succeeded. They won’t.”
“You have her safely trapped now. Separate her from the wall so we can take her to a better—safer—place. Where are the females nesting?”
“Upstairs, top floor. Their nest is there. They might have eggs.” Quinn’s snakes hissed and flared their hoods. “New eggs. It looked like Audrey was settling in to guard the nest.”
“The eggs will be safe. If you ask your bride to hold them and keep them warm, I’m sure she won’t mind. After all, she mothered a pair of phoenixes. You chose well.”
“The little bastards pecked me,” I mumbled.
Quinn’s gaze snapped to my arm, which was still stained with my blood. The orange tint to my blood hadn’t faded. “The phoenixes did that to you?”
“They’re phoenixes, little Samuel, and she has a hint of ambrosia in her blood.”
“Ambrosia?” Quinn pulled away, turned to his grandfather, and tensed, his feathered wings rustling and his tail lashing from side to side. “She’s been poisoned with ambrosia?”
“She seemed rather distant for a while but hasn’t suffered any harm as far as I can tell.
Either her immunities are far stronger than I ever imagined, or someone in her ancestry had a romp with a god.
All things considered, I suspect one of her relatives wasn’t truthful on the identity of a father.
Perhaps a grandfather or a great-grandfather?
It would explain where her immunities came from.
” With a chuckle, Quinn’s grandfather stepped on my husband’s tail.
“Do settle, little Samuel. We have work to do. If there are live eggs, we need to get them into a proper nest and soon. This place is far too cold for healthy eggs.”
Quinn growled. “I don’t know if there are any eggs, only that the five females are in torpor on the nest.”
“Remove your bride from the wall so we can take her somewhere safer and warmer. It’s chilly and damp here. It wouldn’t do to let her get cold.”