Chapter Thirty-One
Feralyn
“There she is. Hey, darlin’, how goes it?”
Dizzy, nauseous, I blinked.
A blond man with green eyes and a closed smile looked down at me. “Talon Talerco. Nice to meet ya, darlin’. You feelin’ that cannabis?”
Cannabis?
My mouth suddenly so dry that I could barely part my lips, I tried to answer. “No.”
The man chuckled. “You sure?”
“Fucking watch it, Talerco.” Hard muscles shifted under me as a heavy hand landed on my forehead and pushed my hair back with a rougher-than-usual shove. “Feralyn. Look at me.”
I glanced up.
Cold gray-blue eyes. Wet, dark-blond hair. Hard angles and a harder expression.
“Helios,” I whispered.
“What did Raine give you?” he demanded.
Raine? What did she give me? What did Raine give you? Think. Think. The hot tub, Helios and Ares fighting, the music, this morning….
Oh God.
This morning at the farmer’s market.
The piece of candy.
Then Helios. Then him yelling, the door, the hot tub, Ares….
That candy.
I flashed back to the last time I saw Raine.
“Take this.” Tucking a small wrapped something into my pocket, she smiled wide. A healthy kind of smile I hadn’t seen on her face in a long while. “Next time you feel scared, this will set you straight.”
I tried to grab it to give it back. “Oh. No, thank you. I don’t take anything… like that.”
She held her hand over my pocket. “It’s nothing bad. It’s just like hemp. People use hemp all the time. It’s natural. There’s nothing in it that will harm you, I promise. It will only make you calm and feel more Zen, like you’re perfectly centered. Just keep it in case you need it.”
“A piece of candy,” I admitted, desperate not to think about the other thing.
Helios’s jaw muscle ticked in warning. “What kind of fucking candy?”
Dizziness made my head spin worse than the anxiety that I was trying to shove down deep. “A gummy bear.” A green one that didn’t taste like apple, and it didn’t calm me down.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Helios ground out. “She gave you a goddamn weed gummy?”
The blond man grinned. “Potent weed at that, and there’s your answer.”
All at once, nausea and panic rioted, and I shook my head because I didn’t take drugs. But the motion twisted my stomach, and I was clamping a hand over my mouth for fear of vomiting.
The blond man’s face instantly turned serious.
“You’re good, darlin’. It’ll wear off in a few hours.
Nothin’ bad’s gonna happen to ya, I promise.
Just breathe, darlin’. In through your nose, out through your mouth.
Count of four on each inhale and exhale.
” He made an exaggerated sound of taking a breath. “Follow my lead, darlin’.”
Lowering my hand, praying I didn’t vomit, I breathed with him.
“Good, darlin’. That’s real good,” his Southern-accented voice praised with both kindness and deep authority. “How’s that nausea?”
Awful. But nothing close to the fear crawling through my chest with tentacled spikes stabbing into my sanity. “Okay.”
The blond man chuckled. “Ain’t no use in lyin’ when your face is that pretty shade of green. Come on. Two more breaths.” He did the same exaggerated breathing. “How ya feelin’ now, darlin’?”
Dizzy, still nauseous but not nearly as much, exhausted, embarrassed, and everything felt like I was on a slow-moving roller coaster. None of which compared to the shuttling fear ramming the inside cavity of my chest. “Fine.”
“You sure ’bout that?” The blond man’s raised eyebrow made him look like a joker. Or maybe it was my vision that was playing tricks on me.
Either way, I wasn’t sure about anything. And when that happened, I did what I always do. I looked to Helios, but that was when I realized I was lying on his lap. I also realized my last memory was being dunked in the hot tub, but now I was dry and wrapped in a blanket.
A heated flush spread across my cheeks, and I looked up.
Scrutinizing every inch of my face, Helios answered for me. “She’s good.”
I definitely was not good, but if Helios saying so didn’t make the green-eyed man leave, then I would say whatever I had to.
Turned out, I didn’t need to say anything.
Helios stood with me in his arms. “She’s sacking out. Taking her to bed.”
Embarrassment flamed, but Helios was already carrying me toward the hallway.
The blond man’s chuckle followed us. “Sun God Blondie, War God Brother, you ladies call if you need me. Step-sissy, been a pleasure. Don’t y’all worry, I’ll let myself out same as I let myself in.”
Ignoring the man, Helios carried me into his bedroom and laid me on his bed. But he didn’t pull back the covers, and he didn’t make a ceremony out of placing my head on the haphazardly stacked pillows. He set me down how he’d pushed my hair off my face earlier—with a rough air of intention.
Then his arms were gone from underneath me, the blanket fell away from my legs, and he was turning toward the door.
The scent of him—clean soap, fresh laundry, man, earthy musk, danger—it enveloped me in comfort, but the sight of his retreating back with his broad shoulders, gunshot scars, and rigid muscles slammed against my anxiety like a thunderous, crashing wave.
Suddenly swamped by fear, my breath disappeared.
I knew I’d hate myself later for asking, but in that moment, with my head a mess, my world spinning with surging swells of not-quite drunkenness, I needed an anchor. I needed Helios. “Where are you going?”
“Got something to do. Sleep it off, Haven.” He walked out of his bedroom.
A chill spread up my body, and I knew I needed to look at my camera, but my mind was working in an altered, stilted capacity that I didn’t understand as I looked down at my feet. Then at my legs.
Bare.
I shifted.
No underwear.
Just my dress.
I sucked in a sharp breath, and movement in the open doorway caught in my peripheral.