Page 46 of The Demigod Complex
His lips pinched and he crossed his arms, a sure sign of major irritation. “Would she help me find another nymph?”
She glanced away, her jaw tight. Sex. He wanted the sex.
“One who has the ability to see straight into my soul? One who challenges me with her refusal to back down or let my ego take over? One whose kisses brought me out of a thousand-year sleep?”
She slowly turned her head, eyes wide…hope, doubt, and fear all warring for dominance inside her. “What are you saying?”
He stepped closer, crowding her. “I’m saying I don’t want to lose you. Don’t walk away.”
Hope was winning the battle, but she couldn’t let it. He loved his dead wife. “I’m a good assistant, but Delilah can find you another.”
He took her by the shoulders and gave her a small shake. “I’m not talking about losing my assistant.”
“I’ve only been something…more…to you for a few days.”
He stole her move and rolled his eyes heavenward. “You’ve been more to me for months. Perhaps even a year.”
Oh, gods. A trembling started up inside her. Was that true?
Her heart surged, but before she could respond or even gather her thoughts, a deep voice interrupted. “How sweet.”
She and Castor both whipped toward the sound of Kaios’s voice. The ancient werewolf stepped out of the cover of the dark woods.
Dammit. “Thisis what I was trying to keep you out of,” she hissed at Castor.
“Trying to protect a demigod?” Kaios, whose keen ears had picked up her comment, pulled his lips back in a sneer of derision as he advanced toward them. “You always did have an overblown sense of your powers, nymph.”
Behind him, out of the darkness, a line of wolf shifters, already in their animal form, advanced upon them. The fur bristled on their backs, ready to attack. There had to be at least twenty or more.
How and why had they followed Kaios? Where had they come from? Tala and Marrok would be pissed.
Kaios flicked a hand and a low growl rose from a few, while others pulled back their lips, baring their teeth in snarls meant to terrorize.
Castor stepped closer and took her hand, presenting a united front. Above them, the skies darkened with the warning of his wrath, swirling with dark clouds.
“Oh, I have a way to deal with you.” Kaios turned to signal someone over his shoulder. A woman with deep red hair stepped out of her hiding spot. She raised her arms and whispered words Leia couldn’t catch. The clouds cleared in an instant, returning to the blue skies of moments before.
Castor’s hand twitched in hers.
“What’s she doing?” she asked under her breath.
“Best guess is she’s a witch.”
The woman closed her eyes, her face a study of regret. Leia got the impression the woman would rather be anywhere than here right now. If the witch could control nature, could she keep Leia from using her own powers? Being located near a large body of water hadn’t been coincidence. Closing her eyes so Kaios couldn’t see them glow, she reached for her powers, and slammed into a mental wall. Her eyes flew open.
“I’m sorry,” the woman mouthed at her, misery pinching her white face.
The woods hushed, going eerily quiet—no bird chirped, no animals scurried through the underbrush. They’d all gone into hiding. Were Leia’s fellow nymphs equally disabled?
“Your brothers and sisters will be no use to you now, Lyleia.”
There was her answer, but Leia wasn’t worried. Yet.
“Why don’t we make this fight a tad more even, first,” Marrok’s voice boomed from behind her. Together, he and Tala stepped out of the line of woods at her back, along with their own contingent of wolf shifters.
Kaios’s smug smile fell. “You’d go against your own people? Against one of your ancestors? And risk bringing werewolves on your heads?”
“We’ll kill you if we get the chance,” Tala snarled.
