“You are the daughter of Ares,” the woman said as Rydon took a seat on the table, his knee bumping Terena’s. The blonde woman bit her bottom lip as her gaze raked over Terena from her thighs to her mouth before she lifted her languorous gaze to Terena’s eyes. She leaned closer, her breath a whisper away from Terena. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Terena jerked back.
The woman snickered and winked at Rydon. “Leave us.”
Terena’s eyes swung to Rydon as he rose. “I’ll go find the others,” he mumbled and then left her alone with this woman who was sitting too close and smelled wonderful.
The woman pressed closer when Rydon left and leaned back to whisper against Terena’s ear. “Do you want to know what I’ve seen?”
The hairs on Terena’s arms stood on end as the heat from the woman’s breath tickled her ear. When she pulled back, the woman was smiling knowingly.
Terena cleared her throat and nodded. “Aye.”
Cassandra reached out and picked up a glass from the table and took a sip. When she set it down, Terena saw a small bowl filled with what looked like candy. The sweets were no bigger than a grain of rice and almost all were gone.
“To see the future is to live in constant fear,” the woman said, taking one of the sweets between her thumb and forefinger. As she brought it to her mouth she paused, looking at it as if it held the answers to the fate of the world. “I used to drink. Heavily. To stop the visions from invading my every waking moment. It helped dull other thoughts, too.”
Terena watched the woman through narrowed eyes. She turned to Terena and the smile she gave her was filled with so much pain, Terena felt it twist her stomach.
“Then I discovered something better,” she said in a broken whisper Terena caught even over the music and conversations nearby. Cassandra turned her gaze back to the little candy she had in her fingers. “Before I tell you what I’ve seen, I need you to open your mind.”
Terena’s brow furrowed as the woman slipped the candy between her lips and leaned back, close to Terena once more. Terena’s mouth opened to speak, but her throat closed up when Cassandra brought her hand to Terena’s jaw and leaned in, her mouth covering Terena’s.
Stunned, Terena sat there as Cassandra’s tongue swept hers in a deep, lazy stroke. Her grip on Terena’s jaw tightened briefly as she pulled back and pressed a soft kiss on the corner of Terena’s lips.
“I’ll see you when you get back,” Cassandra whispered.
Croak had never seen somany stars.
And they were still indoors!
He danced, his head thrown back as the music wove around him and within him. A woman around his age danced out of his arms and another replaced her, her arms winding up around his shoulders as she pressed her generous curves against him. A few minutes later, another woman was kissing him. When he opened his eyes, he saw a man with long black hair lean forward to pull the woman out of Croak’s arms. She turned, smiling up at the man before kissing him languidly. Croak moved up behind her, grabbing her hips as she writhed between him and the raven-haired man.
He’d never had a better night in his life. At least, he couldn’t remember one as magical as this. His hair was plastered to his head with sweat and his clothes stuck to him like a second skin but he was loving every minute of it. He wondered if the others were having as much fun.
Croak opened his eyes and smacked the woman’s ass before dancing away through the gyrating bodies. A few anonymous hands reached out as he passed and he grinned as he looked around, his heavy lids having some difficulty staying open. He’d lost sight of Vassori after finding her in a back corner devouring a woman’s mouth. He hadn’t seen Gabriol or Rydon in a long while.
Croak frowned.
Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen Terena in some time, either.
When he’d finally reached the back of the room where he’d last seen everyone, strangers sat on the couch he’d vacated earlier. Frowning, Croak looked around, his euphoria fading as he peered through the haze of smoke and his drunken fog.
A heavy slap between his shoulder blades had him arching his back and crying out. He stumbled forward into a woman whose breasts were currently in the mouth of a very greedy young man.
“Croak!” A thunderous voice he knew too well sounded right before he was yanked back roughly by his tunic. He turned his head enough to blink stupidly up at Rydon’s scowling face. “Where’s your sister?”
“What?”
Croak yelped when Rydon shook him hard enough to tear his shirt. Gabriol appeared over his shoulder with an equally murderous look on his face. Vassori snuck up behind Rydon, her hair disheveled.
“Where is your sister?” Rydon growled, enunciating every word as if they were daggers he wished to stab Croak with.
Now well and truly out of his sex-fueled haze, Croak swallowed and looked between the two mercenaries and Vassori. “Ren? Dunno. I thought she was with you.”
Gabriol cursed and turned. Rydon’s lip curled up as he thrust Croak away. Eyeing the crowd with distaste, Rydon plowed a hole through the closest bodies blocking his path. He paid no regard to the startled or angry shouts following him, and Croak slunk by with muttered apologies as he followed Rydon.
Croak smacked into Rydon when he stopped suddenly, only to be grabbed roughly by the merc and dragged to his side.
