Hell's Mercy by Katherine Wyvern

Author:Katherine Wyvern [Wyvern, Katherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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Later, they lay side by side, utterly spent.

She had shed her boots and was naked except for that black thong tied around her waist. It might have looked like nothing more than a very minimal ornament, but Lukan knew quite well that she could do some very delightful or vicious things with it. Even naked, she was a charming danger. He smiled lazily, lightly caressing her long thigh.

Neither of them was naturally inclined to cuddliness, and lying side by side like this, companionably, was pretty much all that they needed on most days, so he was astonished, almost slightly alarmed, and then overcome by bliss when she rolled towards him, and laid her head on his shoulder for a minute. He held her close, her forehead to his throat, his hand in her hair.

“When I first met you,” she said slowly, speculatively, “you were such a haughty old bastard.”

He laughed at this endearingly affectionate comment.

“When I first met you were such an arrogant little boy.” She laughed, too. “You thought you knew everything,” he added.

“I did know everything. Everything I needed to.”

“Is that so?” he asked, smiling. “You were insufferable. A plague. I wanted to slap you for being such a clever, know-it-all monkey. And then before I knew what was happening, you grew into this perfect creature. The child of Hermes and Aphrodite…” he added pensively, and kissed her forehead.

“I was always a perfect creature. I was always a divine child,” she said, but with a suppressed laugh trembling on her lips. “It’s just that you were so slow.”

“Not that slow,” he whispered, seriously now. “I cannot remember a time when I did not love you, in one way or another.”

“And I you,” she said huskily.

He swallowed painfully. She had never said that.

“You were this sort of king in the castle. You had it all at your feet. The Council, the City, all the women in the Carnival, the whole damn planet. And your soul was shriveling inside you. Sometimes I think too much power is not good for the soul. You needed someone to save you from all that.”

“I did. I still do.”

“I know you do. That’s what I’m here for. To take care of you. To make sure you stay human. And me as well.”

“You?”

“Yes, me. There are days when I almost forget what all this is for.” She waved a hand towards the plug and cord that lay on the blankets like dead things on a beach after a storm. “I top them all. They book a slot, fill the form, show up at the appointed time, and get what they paid for. I do it well, I think. But there are days, especially at this time of the year, when I can’t remember why. You remind me why. You remind me why people need it. You remind me that I am doing something tremendously beautiful. That I don’t have just a talent. But a sort of gift, really. And you do that because I care about you.

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