Blown Away Read online

Marduk smiled at Shamash. “No problem, brother. I know how it feels to suddenly find yourself with a voice after being so long denied.”

  The thunder god swept an arm around the room. “So, we were invisible for three hundred and eighty-four years. Until one morning, I stumbled on the beach and realized I had feet again. As well as my other body parts.” He snickered. “I looked up and saw Tess.” He indicated his very pregnant wife.

  “Come to find out, our queen, Ereshkigal, had given us yet another opportunity to absolve ourselves. If we could win over and protect a certain human sent to us as our mate, or as we call them, our Chosen, then we’d regain our bodies and live our lives as we were meant to―albeit on Earth―for the rest of eternity.”

  Candy could see the questions forming from her group, and Marduk tilted his head to encourage them.

  “How do you know which women are your mates?” the agent Flick asked.

  “…and doesn’t it suck that you’re immortal and your wives are human?” Gramps, the gray-haired one of the California gang, clearly couldn’t conceive how that could be good.

  Marduk answered the two without hesitation. “We know that a woman is our Chosen because we become corporeal around her. Then a special part of us…uh…glows red during the courting phase.”

  There were snickers, speculating on that comment. Even those in the know were amused.

  “But there are eight of you visible, and only five women,” Flick interrupted. “What do you do? Share?”

  Marduk’s eyes flashed and the room shook. “Gods don’t share,” he thundered.

  Flick held up “sorry hands” and rapidly backed away.

  The god boss quickly got himself under control to explain further. “We become physical if the woman is our true mate or,” he paused here for effect, “if when tracing things back to old Merrymount, a god got a woman pregnant and those bloodlines continue to present day. The woman who is a Chosen to one of us, might also be a direct descendant from another in our group. Hence, when a Chosen comes into a hundred-yard proximity of either her future mate or her ancestor, they will both become visible. The mated god will eventually gain the right to control his visibility and invisibility permanently after we perform a special ceremony. The ancestor will not.”

  Candy knew that the amulet ritual, which she had already witnessed, would not be revealed to the agents. Amulets were the gods’ one vulnerability, and the fewer humans who found out, the better. She got it. She’d keep that secret.

  “Which brings me to your question.” Marduk looked at Gramps. “As soon as the ceremony with our Chosen is performed, our human mate becomes immortal.” He groped for and took Tess’s hand. “You’ve already met my wife, Tess. She was human, but is now a deity.” He smiled down at his mate in a panty-melting fashion. “Now I’d like you to meet the rest of our goddesses.”

  Marduk pointed around the room. “Lenore in the jumpsuit, whom you’ve previously admired, is Anshar’s wife.” The two rose briefly and gave a short bow. “Holly is married to Dagon. Enten has mated with Glory, and Huxley is with Dani-Lee.” Each pair took their turn standing to be acknowledged.

  Marduk then introduced the rest, visible and invisible. “Here we have Enlil, Lahar, and Shamash, each corporeal due to ancestry…perhaps.” Candy raised her brows. Shit. The mystery of Shamash and Enlil in reference to her had yet to be unraveled.

  “Behind you, standing against the wall, are Dumuzi, Ishkur, Ninurta, and Kulla, whom you can’t see. They say hello.” He let the agents know. “Emesh and Absu have gone into the kitchen to get some snacks, and I hope they return soon.” His stomach let out a timely growl.

  Candy wished he’d move things along. She’d begun to feel damned cranky. If what Marduk said held true, she’d be god fodder to either Shamash or Enlil. And she had difficulty wrapping her head around that cluster-fuck. How the hell could she let that happen?

  Apparently Marduk thought along the same lines. He spoke his bewilderment out loud. “Previously, only Enlil and Lahar had found themselves embodied because of procreating a long time ago, but now we have the mystery of Shamash. Mate or ancestor to…” Marduk brought his gaze to Candy. “The only woman he’s within a hundred yards of.”

  Now all eyes turned to Candy and she cringed. Fucking foregone conclusion.

  “Shit, girl,” Z spoke up for the first time. “I always knew you were a bitch goddess, but now you get to be fucking immortal for real?”

  “Screw that, Z,” she hissed. “They’ve got the wrong girl.” Candy leaped to her feet and snarled, wildly unhappy. She glared at Shamash. “No freakin’ offense, Shamash, but I’m not about to mate with either you or fuck-head.” She aimed a middle-fingered, dismissive salute at Enlil.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she recognized the shadows of Absu and Emesh mist into the room, and sure enough, food and drink were quickly un-acquired onto the table.

  No fairs, Emesh cried, glancing around. We missed something good, didn’t we?

  Candy huffed out an answer to that. “There’s some idea I might be amulet-lighting material, but I’m not feeling it.” Her voice rose in anger.

  Don’t get ticked off, sweetie. You could be a goddess, which means you’ll kick ass even better than you do now, spouted Emesh. But first you’re going to have to suck it up and find out which one of our boys is going to be your new baby-daddy. The summer god, who blinked in and out of Candy’s vision, smiled sunnily at Lenore. You wanted new members for your Goddess League, hon? He snickered. It looks like you’ve got one.

  Candy invoked some additional profanity.

  “Sit down and behave Agent Lane.” Jake’s voice cut through her ranting, which to him sounded one-sided, of course. When Candy opened her mouth to argue, he beat her to it. “That’s an order, agent. We’ve got important things to straighten out before we deal with your shit.”

  Candy sat in a huff. Jake turned to Marduk. “You said earlier you had to protect these women when they came into your lives. Protect them from what?”

  Marduk’s face turned serious. “So far, it’s been different dangers. A group in Plymouth attempted to eradicate us.” Marduk glanced briefly at Dagon, who’d been in charge of that faction before he’d changed allegiances. “But they’ve been disbanded, except for one human male named Matthew. If you remember, I mentioned an evil in the Underworld? That’s a rogue goddess, Beletseri, who has now recruited the human.” Marduk shrugged. “Dangers are out there for Candy once she’s on their radar. It’s a given that something bad is going to happen, and we have to protect her.”

  “I take care of my own ass, buster,” Candy spouted. She liked Marduk, but her head spun with these new implications. Dammit. She didn’t want her life to change.

  “Candy’s right.” JP propped her up. “We’re used to having each other’s backs.” He put in his two cents. “If Candy needs protection, we’ll take care of it.” The rest of the agents nodded, and Candy experienced a rush of love. Damn, they were good guys.

  “If that’s the case, then you better get used to sharing the load, because unless something is really out of whack, Candy’s about to be claimed by one of our gods.” His eyes narrowed. “And nothing keeps us from taking care of our Chosen.”

  Now Marduk regarded her and the two big lugs who stood on either side, shoulders flexed and posturing. The thunder god sighed. “Problem is, we’re not sure which one she belongs to yet.” The words were barely out of his mouth when Enlil and Shamash both strode forward aggressively.

  “She’s mine,” they yelled in unison.

  Chapter Two

  “I suggest you both get your heads out of your asses,” Candy hissed. She could not fucking believe this. “I belong to no one.” She turned to glare at her boss. “As soon as you settle things with Marduk, I’ll be on a plane with you back to LA.”

  She’d already squared things with Dunsky, who’d had the shit beaten out of him on the lawn for his transgressions. She’d grabbed him first thing upon entering the house,
and with some furtive whispering, quickly determined that Ken had been one of good old Miranda Worthington’s comfort boys. The Madame had threatened to expose Dunsky if he didn’t give her the name of someone who could locate Huxley. He’d supplied Candy’s name, never knowing it would cause so much trouble. That wrinkly assed bitch from Maine had coerced Candy into locating Huxley―also a former boy toy―and started this entire cluster fuck.

  Dunsky seemed extremely contrite, and Candy had accepted his apology. His ass had been on the line, and he’d done the only thing possible at the time.

  Now, however, it was Candy’s ass in peril, and she would not accept that. Being wrangled over like chattel by two pompous gods? Not in her fucking lifetime. She stomped from the room and slammed the door behind her.

  “Nice move, jerkoffs.” Lenore had a hard time holding in her mirth, and Enlil groaned. This wouldn’t be good. “Enlil, you’re completely full of yourself. Time to get over that shit.”

  When he opened his mouth in self-defense, she overrode him.

  “Oh, it’s not that you don’t help out in a fight or remember to clean toilets. No. It’s more like you keep yourself away from any and all emotional involvement. You’ve made it very clear in the past―when your friends had trouble convincing women to be their mates―that you’d say ‘fuck it’ and take care of the situation caveman style, if it arose for you,” she taunted. “Or am I wrong?” Lenore grinned, clearly tickled to see him struggle for a comeback.

  Enlil gritted his teeth and refrained from the tirade that formed on his tongue while Marduk eyed his―most likely―red face. He then took a moment to peruse Shamash, god of justice and salvation, who stood next to him. Sham usually presented a totally different kind of aura from what he was exhibiting today. Always logical and neutral, well-adjusted was his middle name. The fucking god never did anything unpredictable. So, to see him acting totally out of character regarding Candy… More than bizarre. Enlil knew his behavior had the other gods laying bets on Shamash being the agent’s mate. Yup. Anshar collected money as he watched.

  His musings were interrupted by a new voice.

  “Have I somehow been forgotten in all of this?” Lahar looked around the room with a thrust of his chin. “I’m corporeal too,” he reminded them all. “Perhaps Candy is my Chosen.”

  Marduk tipped his head to analyze that one. But before he could answer the logic god, Glory―Lahar’s blood descendant―beat him to the punch.

  “I don’t think so, Gramps.” She shook her head sympathetically. “You don’t seem to be emotionally vested like them.” She tilted her head toward Enlil, where he and Shamash glared daggers at each other.

  “Stranger things have happened,” Lahar postured. “All I want is an equal shot.”

  Shamash, much to Enlil’s amazement, had clearly heard enough. “I’m finished here.” He dragged his gaze away. “If anybody needs me, I’ll be in the computer room trying to undo the mess that certain factions caused to our systems.” His cold stare traveled to Jake and crew, uncharacteristically―Enlil thought―reminding them that their position in the compound was precarious, at best.

  “Fine. You can go, Shamash.” Marduk rubbed the spot between his eyes. “Jake, Enlil, would you both stay please?” Marduk blinked tired eyes. Enlil knew the thunder god hadn’t enjoyed much sleep lately. Tess, his wife, had become hugely pregnant and couldn’t get comfortable in bed, therefore neither could he. He’d clearly been anticipating an early night for a change, but it looked like that wouldn’t happen.

  “The rest of you are dismissed.” Marduk took Tess’s hand again. “Can you make sure our guests have had enough to eat, then show them where they can sleep?” He waved at the agents. “And you gents can feel free to wander around and have a look at our place. We have a big screen TV in the living room for any insomniacs, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy a tour of the basement. Also, take a good look at our stable of motorcycles.”

  Enlil figured they seemed like the kind of guys who would drool over the well-loved bikes, both new and vintage.

  The agents poised, clearly waiting for the okay from their boss.

  “Dismissed.” Jake waved an arm. “Just don’t get into any trouble.” He shot his eyes to Flick in particular. Enlil wondered what that meant.

  Everyone filed out, leaving Marduk, Jake, and himself fuming.

  “Why do you need me here?” he barked.

  “Enlil, really?” Marduk sighed. “If I let you go now, you’re going to chase after Shamash, and I don’t have the energy to police you. I have to unravel the shit that’s going down with these federal agents.” He indicated Jake, pointing his finger in an accusatory manner, then addressed the interloper.

  “You had to find a way past our barriers, didn’t you?” Marduk groused. “You couldn’t have just left it alone.”

  Jake scoffed. “Like you would have walked away if one of your men went missing?” The agent raised an eyebrow. “Candy’s been with our team for six years, and it was apparent right away she’d gotten herself neck deep in shit. I think we showed great restraint. Normally, we would have been all over your asses weeks ago, but Candy assured us she had things under control.”

  At Marduk’s perplexed look, Jake explained with a cocky smile. “You let her have one phone call to us, and she used a code word that told us to stand down unless we heard otherwise.” Jake’s face turned abruptly serious. “That ‘otherwise’ was when her vital signs blipped off our radar the night she got tossed into the water. You can imagine what that did to us.”

  Enlil grimaced. He knew Marduk could. The thunder god had lost his first love to treachery, so even though his life was now blessedly full of Tess―and a baby on the way―Enlil understood that every time his boss imagined the things that could happen to his Chosen, he felt gut punched. And it would only ramp up to an overflowing bucket-load of angst once the baby was born. Fuck that. Enlil wouldn’t let anything happen to Marduk’s new family.

  “I get it,” Marduk assented. “So now we have to figure out how to go forward from here.”

  Enlil perused the agent’s face, wondering if they were going to be able to trust each other.

  “I have a thought, if you’re interested.” Jake, clearly no dummy, could see just what kind of position he’d put them in.

  “I’m all ears.” Marduk nodded.

  “What if I leave one of my men here with you, and you assign one of your men, uh, gods to LA with us?” He paused, waiting for Marduk’s reaction, but the god gave him no indication of how he felt, therefore Jake continued.

  “If we trade guys, we both have to play honestly. If I betray your trust and hand you over to the government, you have a hostage to work with. Likewise, if you harm our man for no reason, we get to keep yours.”

  Enlil kind of liked the sound of that, and Marduk did to. Who should we send to California? The boss asked in head-speak.

  “I’ll volunteer.” Enlil didn’t hesitate to throw his name in the ring. “I’m not intimidated, and…” Enlil trailed off, but Marduk knew what he’d been about to say. Traveling with the group would keep him close to Candy in case she was the key to his continued visibility.

  Marduk chose to ignore him and addressed Jake again. “I had a bit more of a joint effort in mind.”

  The agent looked surprised. What was Marduk up to?

  “I would agree to send someone your way.” He had yet to acknowledge Enlil’s offer. “And take on one of your guys. But I think a constant line of communication between our two…organizations might be more to my liking.”

  Enlil speculated and figured out Marduk’s logic. Many times in the past, a connection to law enforcement would have been a huge help. If they could align themselves with the DEA, they would have a legitimate “in” if problems arose that only humans―with their complicated rules for due process―could take care of. But on the flip side, he’d need to convince Jake why the agent would benefit from working with the gods. This should be good.

  “Y
ou’ve seen a small demonstration of our strength when Enlil took on your man, Dunsky,” Marduk baited. “Believe me when I say that some of our other powers will be even more useful to you.”

  Marduk misted out in front of his guest’s eyes, and while the agent stood mind-fucked with that, Enlil bit back a chuckle when the boss acquired the small firearm Jake had purposefully neglected to remove while disarming. As it disappeared from the inside of his left ankle, Marduk reappeared with his elbow around Jake’s neck and the pistol pointed directly at the agent’s temple.

  “Shit.” Jake tensed, clearly shocked at the sudden contact. “You can do that?”

  Enlil knew it took every ounce of the agent’s fortitude not to retaliate.

  Marduk nodded and handed the human back his gun. “Yeah. I can. Those of us who are mated are able to pop in and out at will.” He regained his chair and sat down. “Only Enlil, Shamash, and Lahar have to be within a hundred yards of their enabler to remain visible. Which reminds me, now that we’ve reached a tentative agreement, there’s something else that needs to be sorted. Give me a minute.”

  About fucking time, Enlil thought to himself.

  Marduk called Shamash and Lahar in his head. Both of you in my office. Now.

  The two came through the door in seconds.

  Jake shook his head, clearly impressed. “How did you do that?” he asked, looking at Marduk closely. “I don’t see any wire.”

  “Another perk to being a god,” Marduk tapped his temple. “We can contact each other in our heads. Up until earlier this year, we were only able to communicate within a ten-mile radius, but Shamash and Lahar, here,” he indicated the two newcomers to the room, “fashioned a way for us to use your human cell towers to augment our range. We communicate across the world now. Any place you have service, we do too.” There was no need to look smug. The agent remained impressed.

  If Enlil guessed correctly, Marduk’s next statement would leave the poor guy incredulous. Wait for it. Wait for it…

  “Candy is actually able to get onto our brain network most times, as well as catch glimpses of our invisible guys. At first, we wondered why, but now I’m certain we have an answer.”