Page 3 of Releasing the Gods
My eyes landed back on the portal, and that bad feeling intensified.
“Where am I?” he asked, in that same deep, accented voice. “What time is this?”
“It’s like 8 P.M,” I stuttered out. “In Santa Barbara.”
He shook his head. “No. What time on the calendar? What age have I found myself in?”
Oh Jesus.I was starting to understand what he wanted to know. What I didn’t understand was why he wanted to know it. Because surely it wasn’t because he just stepped out of a stone wall portal. Right?
#I’mSoScrewed
“It’s the age of social media, dude,” I said, trying to lighten the mood in here before he killed me. “Twenty-nineteen.” He still looked confused, so I added: “Two thousand and nineteen AD.”
I’d been half joking, but some clarity appeared on his face. “It’s been … over a thousand years.”
Oh fuck. He’d better not be talking about how long since he’d stepped out of a wall, because there was only so much my tequila-addled brain could handle at this minute.
“So … this has been…”horrible, scary, completely fucked up.“...fun and all … but I’ve gotta go now. So … like … have a great life.”
I scrambled to my feet and launched myself toward the entrance of the cave. I’d made it two steps out when an intense pain ripped through my spine so fast and painful that I cried out.
He had me. He hit me or something.
I looked over my shoulder to find that he was still at least six feet away from me. The pain intensified, making me feel like I was being ripped in two, and this time I screamed.
My friends must have heard from the beach. They were suddenly shouting my name, and I heard scrambling below as some of them started to climb up to me. I could just barely see over the edge of the cave to their frightened faces below.
Before I could say anything, strong hands wrapped around my waist, hauling me up off the ground and back into the cave. The moment he touched me, the pain faded, and I was left breathless and totally freaking out.
“Put me down!” I demanded as he held me over his shoulder like a caveman. No guy had ever held me like this … like I weighed fucking nothing. How strong was this guy?
He moved and more of our bare skin touched as something dark and potent opened up in my chest, warmth spreading through me. He set me down and then stared at me for many long moments. Was he a Viking or something? Because there was no way he was a normal dude from around here.
No freaking way.
“I wonder,” he mused aloud, staring at my chest as if he expected something to pop out of it.
His head moved closer to mine as his grip around my waist tightened. “Only one way to find out,”he whispered.
Then he chucked me off the cliff.
Another scream ripped from me as I sailed through the air, the pain returning, slicing through me, along with the fear that I was about to die.
#FML
Before I had too much time to anticipate my demise, my fall started to slow, and like I’d been attached to a large elastic cord, I was flung back up, almost landing on the angry giant that had just tried to kill me.
Motherfucker!
He caught me with one hand, his head tilted like he was observing me. Or a bug. That was exactly how I’d look at a bug that was in my hand.
“There’s a life debt between us,” he said, and the heavy, graveled undertones of his voice added some extra scary to those words. “We’re bound…”
Swallowing hard, I shook my head. “Look, I’m sorry for whatever is happening here, but please don’t throw me off the cliff again.” I spoke to him like the big fucking stupid oaf that he was, using a low, calm voice and small words. “I’m only twenty-one. I’ve barely done anything in my life. I’m not even at ten thousand followers on the ‘Gram. I volunteer cleaning up plastic from the beach and donate to Save the Whales foundation. I’m pretty much a good person. I need to live!”
I babbled when I was drunk and scared, and for most people it would have seemed shallow that I couldn’t die until I got more social media followers, but the truth was, I’d set myself some goals and I was not fucking dying until I achieved them. I wasn’t meant to be a waitress forever. I just wasn’t.
Weird cave giant be damned.
