The Bad God Wins: A Dark Romance (Possessive Gods Book 2) Read online

  Time is not on our side this night. I must complete all I have to do before the dawn comes. So I regretfully let her up, her dress falling back down to cover those bright globes. I do get to look upon another delight when I have her upright, however, her face flushed bright red with embarrassment and post orgasmic bliss.

  I am not done with her. She is going to be mine. I have marked her with my palm, and it is only a matter of time before I take her in every way possible.

  “Be careful who you walk with in the forest, princess,” I warn her, taking her by the hand again. I lead her as a gentleman might lead a lady all the way back to the palace, saying little. Words would only get in the way now.

  She is meek on the way back home. I expected more attitude, but being spanked to orgasm tames even the wildest woman — though Raine is not wild. She perhaps has it in her to be, but she’s never been allowed to express it. That will change.

  “Please, don’t tell my fathers,” she whispers as the palace comes into view.

  “Don’t tell your fathers that you left the party with me? Or that I spanked your bare bottom?” Or that I saw your wet little cunt? I don’t ask the last question out loud, but it hangs in the air anyway, making her blush furiously.

  “Any of it,” she mumbles.

  “Of course,” I say. “A gentleman never tells.”

  Her relief is obvious. As the palace wall opens to allow us both in, I lift her hand to my mouth, pressing a kiss to the back of her hand.

  “Enjoy your party, Raine, and what remains of your innocence.”

  2

  Raine

  With that rather ominous wish, the god who spanked me slips away into the crowd and is gone within seconds, leaving me sore and sorry and completely embarrassed. I wonder if everybody who looks at me can see the truth of what just happened. Is it written on my face that I was just spanked in the woods? I smooth my dress down, glad that it is loose enough not to sit tightly around my punished cheeks. I feel as though everybody is looking at me, knowing what happened. I feel as though the truth is being whispered behind hands, shared around the room at lightning speed.

  Fortunately, my twin would never allow me to have any spotlight for more than a few seconds at most. No sooner have I given way to complete paranoia than Lucy comes spinning past, her hand held by a blond adonis of a god who looks at her with great hunger. Her tinkling laugh sounds to my sensitive ears like a drawer of cutlery being dropped. It grates, as does she.

  I cannot believe what just happened to me. What I did. What I allowed to be done to me. What is happening? Is this what gods do to goddesses? Will I ever see him again?

  I flee the party, grab a handful of shrimp from the buffet, and head back up to the balcony where Helios remains, casting his glow over the gathering.

  “Hello, sweetheart,” he says. “Enjoying the party?”

  He asks the question quite genuinely, and I breathe a sigh of relief. I don’t think he has the faintest idea what I’ve been up to. If he had, he wouldn’t have that easy, relaxed smile on his face. Helios is always happy, always above everything. He has ignored an arguably bigger scandal this evening already. He’s not going to acknowledge that Lucy just flashed the entire gathering, that her naked body is going to be the talk of all Okeanus more or less forever.

  “It’s amazing,” I say, knowing that’s what he wants to hear. “There are a lot of gods here.”

  “Oh, yes. A great many.”

  “Some of them don’t seem very respectful.”

  “Well,” he says. “You tell me which ones and I will deal with them.”

  I shrug and take another bite of shrimp. I don’t really want another scene. I definitely don’t want him to find out what happened to me. I just want the party to be over. I want to retreat to the quiet of my bed and I want to dream of a god with dark eyes and a hard hand.

  “Where is Lucy?”

  The question, following so many previous mentions of her name, doesn’t register at first. I have been nursing a drink for hours, sitting on a window seat at the top of the palace, out of the fray. But the question is repeated, with more urgency over and over until even I find myself sort of caring.

  The center of attention has disappeared, and nobody knows what to do about it.

  Over a period of an hour or so, the question turns from one of mild curiosity to one of near panic. The party is brought to an end. The music stops. The gods are questioned, each offering a different theory.

  “I thought I saw her with a minotaur.”

  “I thought I saw her with an angel.”

  “I thought I saw her running through the fields to the water, the moonlight playing off her nude body…”

  “Enough,” Ragnar snarls. “She was dancing before our eyes. A moment later, she was gone. I think she was taken.”

  “Taken!?” our mother gasps.

  “She has not been taken,” Helios says. “This is a safe place. Nobody would dare to take a princess from her father’s castle.”

  “In every story I’ve ever read, that’s almost exactly what the antagonist does. Taking her from your castle really ramps up the drama,” I offer helpfully.

  “We don’t need your commentary, Raine,” Helios says. “Sass won’t help find Lucy.”

  Nothing will help find Lucy, as it turns out. She’s gone. Very, very gone. And so is somebody else.

  Looking over the crowd, I notice that the god who spanked me is notably absent from the questioning. He seems like the sort of creature to stand out, even among this crowd of misfits and uber powerful beings. His absence is like a bell which tolled and suddenly stopped.

  “Where’s Tanuk?”

  Helios turns his gaze on me, his eyes lit with sudden fire. “Did you say Tanuk?”

  “I think that was his name?”

  “Tanuk was not invited.”

  “What’s the problem with Tanuk?” Ragnar asks. My mother chimes in with another version of the same question. Unlike Helios, they seem not to have any problem with him. I am sure that would change if I told them what had happened between us, but I don't intend on doing that.

  “Nothing,” Helios says a little too quickly. “Raine, we don’t have a moment to spare. We need to start the search for Lucy. Come with me and help harness the horses.”

  I have never helped harness the horses in my life, but it is obvious that Helios can’t drag me out of there fast enough. My feet literally don’t touch the floor as Helios yanks me out of time and space.

  In the moments before we disappear, I see my mother go to Ragnar. "What's happening?" she sobs the question against my father’s chest.

  “We will find her,” he vows.

  I love both of them, but sometimes they are dense. I know it’s a cliche to think that one's parents are stupid. My mother has told me that many times, when I told her while I was growing up that she was stupid, but still, they’re being very stupid right now. If she stopped panicking about the no-doubt temporary loss of her literal golden child and thought about it for a moment, it would be obvious what I've just implied. Tanuk has taken Lucy. He’s probably thrashing her somewhere in a forest this very moment.

  The idea makes me simultaneously smug, and jealous, which is a strange combination of things to feel. The more I think about it though, the less I can imagine Lucy earning his discipline. She’s not the contrary type. She is sweet and she likes to please. Everybody loves Lucy, and Lucy loves everybody.

  If he has taken her, she probably hasn’t even worked out she’s been taken as a captive. Tanuk strikes me as the sort of god capable of charming Lucy out of her mind. She has never been the suspicious kind. And he was handsome. He had a dark mystery about him, an intensity which would have swept her off her feet once he amped up the charm.

  Jealousy is sweeping through me again. Did Lucy steal the first man to ever touch me? Or did he steal her?

  “So, what is the deal with Tanuk?” I ask the question when we reappear in front of the stables. The horses are slee
ping, wings folded tightly against their sides, one standing up while the other horse is lying down.

  “Let’s not say that name again,” Helios says, all hush hush. Helios is not good at being subtle. He's more a light-up-the-sky sort of guy. I’m more of a sneak-around-in-the-dark-barely-noticed-by-anyone-even-when-I-want-to-be sort of girl.

  “What’s going on?” I ask the question again anyway. “Who is he?”

  “He is…” Helios hesitates. “He is a very bad god, Raine.”

  “Tanuk has taken Lucy, hasn’t he.”

  Helios lets out a sigh. “You are too smart for your own good, Raine. I don’t know where you got that from. Your father basically stands in front of a tree for a living.”

  “My mother isn’t stupid.”

  “True.” He grabs the golden harness and fiddles with the reins pointlessly.

  “Tell me who Tanuk is.”

  “He is a liar, and a trickster. He is everything that is wrong with gods. There is not a trace of honor anywhere in his body….” I can see the tension in Helios’ face, and hear it in his voice.

  I did not see Tanuk as a villain. He seemed arrogant and dominant, and far too familiar with me, but he didn’t seem evil.

  “Tanuk’s island is not that far from here. It has been crafted in the shape of a leaf. I will fly there, retrieve your sister, and you will keep this a secret, won’t you, Raine.”

  Gods are not good at being subtle. A chariot designed to pull the sun through the sky, or rather, be the sun being pulled through the sky is hardly going to be the way to sneak up on Tanuk, especially in the middle of the alleged night.

  I have an idea.

  “You should let me go.”

  “Yes, let Tanuk get his hands on both of my teenage daughters,” Helios growls. “That is not going to happen. You stay here. I will have Ragnar guard you.”

  “If he is as much of a trickster as you say, he won't be on his island. And if he is, he’s going to see you from a mile away. Your chariot is literally the sun. And if you go, my mother and Ragnar will likely follow, and…” I don’t finish the sentence, but it is obvious Helios is trying to keep this all on the down low. If he goes, everybody will know what has happened.

  “Tanuk cannot get away with this. Lucy is my most precious…” He looks at me and corrects himself far too late for it to matter. “One of my most precious possessions.”

  I know who his favorite is. He doesn't hide it. But it is sort of sweet for him to try, I suppose. What’s not sweet is the way he thinks of us much like his prized horses.

  "She's not your possession. She's a person, or a part person with her own thoughts, feelings, and…”

  “Alright, you can go,” Helios says, choosing to sacrifice me over hearing my thoughts about personhood. “You can ride my mare.”

  “Actually, I can’t. Only Lucy was ever allowed to ride your winged steeds. I’ll have go in the boat.”

  “Triton will see you.”

  “Then distract him. He’s still at the party, isn’t he?”

  “I will distract him,” Helios nods. He rummages in his pocket and pulls out a small shining stone. “Take this. It is a beacon. When you activate it, I will come to you instantly wherever you are and bring Lucy home.”

  “Bring both of us home, you mean.”

  “Exactly,” he says. “And don’t worry. I will cover for you with your mother and Ragnar.”

  I don’t think that is going to be a significant issue. Nobody notices when I go missing. I once ran away from the golden palace and lived in the roots of Yggdrasil for a week and when I came back, Lucy was delighting everybody with her newfound juggling skill.

  I could be bitter about my role in the family, but over the years I’ve found ways to make it work for me. I know I’m loved. Ragnar adores me even if he’s not the most attentive father. My mother loves me and Lucy just the same, and even Helios cares in his own self-absorbed sort of way. I noticed long ago that his preference for Lucy was really nothing more than a thinly-veiled preference for the younger, female version of himself.

  We go down to the shore where the boats are docked. There are many tonight, all here for the party. I doubt any of the gods actually needed these vessels. It is a strange truth about gods that when given the option, they will often behave as if they are mortal. I wonder if perhaps they are in some way jealous of the human condition, limited as it is.

  “Take this,” Helios adds just before I get into our little boat, giving me a package. “There’s a map and a compass, and a homing needle. All you need do is sail where it points.”

  Easy enough. I board the small vessel, throw the mooring line, and unfurl the sails. This, I know how to do, thanks to the one god we were allowed to interact with from time to time. Triton taught both Lucy and me to sail when we were small. We have not seen as much of him of late, but the skills stay with me as I set my little vessel out toward the great dark sea.

  This is an errand of mercy, a true adventure. I do not know if I will find Tanuk and Lucy at the end of this, but I know I am free for the first time in my life. The homing needle points the way to Tanuk’s island unerringly, but the vessel itself bends to my will. I could go anywhere. I could find my way to a new world. I could be what some people might call free.

  But I don’t do that, of course. I send the skiff sailing directly where the needle tells me to. Lucy needs me, and as spoiled as she is, she is still my sister.

  3

  Raine

  I make land on an island a few hours later. I cannot tell if it is shaped like a leaf by the shape of the shoreline, but I can tell instantly that it is not an island like the one I have come from. As I step off the boat and pull it up onto the shore, I have the strangest sense of nostalgia for places I have never been.

  Of course, there is nobody there waiting for me. It would be outlandish if there was. But that means now I am here, I am left with the task of finding Tanuk and Lucy. How hard could that be? I start to walk amid the dawning of a new day, peach sunrise making itself felt over the island’s horizon.

  I appear to be alone at first as I head inland, following a stream. This way, I can’t get lost. If I don’t find what I’m looking for, I can just turn back. That’s smart thinking, I compliment myself internally.

  Footsteps nearby make me dive for a bush. My first impulse is to hide. I don’t know why. It’s not like I am doing anything wrong. I am a heroine on a rescue mission. I should be bold, and brave, and…

  “Come out, come out, wherever you are…” a masculine voice sings the song with more than a little menace.

  It’s Tanuk.

  I’ve found him.

  I kind of wish I hadn’t.

  I do not come out. I stay where I am. Suddenly, I am remembering how strong Tanuk was when he took me over his thighs, and how much he made me ache before he gave me that illicit pleasure. What if he is angry that I am here? What if he does worse to me?

  “Helios!” Tanuk shouts. “I know you’re here. I have been expecting you.”

  He thinks it is Helios who came? Not even Tanuk believes that I might be capable of anything?

  “It’s not Helios. It’s me.” I am indignant, but still hidden. I can see Tanuk now, standing just a few feet away from the bush, looking directly at it. He knows I am in here. I am fooling nobody.

  He folds his arms over his chest and cocks his head to the side. “Me sounds very female and quite small. Hardly the cavalry.”

  I step out of the bushes, trying to look impressive. It’s hard when you’re only 5’6 and on the heavier side. I bet Lucy would put on some sort of armor and appear like a slender Amazonian warrior.

  I’m still wearing the dress I was wearing at the party. It provides almost no protection, and even less intimidation. But that’s not my job. I am just supposed to press the button on the beacon, drawing Helios here in an instant and then let him take over. I don’t know why I’m not pushing it. Ending this. I’ve done everything I was supposed to do. Except t
he very last thing.

  “Ah, the bad twin,” Tanuk greets me with that wicked smile. “Have you come back for another spanking?”

  “I have not,” I growl. “I’ve come to rescue Lucy.”

  “She hardly needs rescuing. But where are your fathers? I expected an army to descend on my little home.”

  “I have descended instead.”

  “And what are you going to do, daughter of Ragnar?”

  What am I going to do? That is a good question. I had a lot of time to think about it while I was sailing over the ocean. I thought about how I was alone on open water, how even Triton didn’t know I was there and how if I sank into the black waves nobody would know anything.

  I felt excited, and a little sad, but I also felt free. Like the time I ran away, but without the adolescent fear which sent me fleeing back home. There’s still a part of me which wants to go back to the boat, fill the sails and head out into open waters, and discover what the world is really like without being smirked at by hard-handed gods who spank me and steal my sister.

  But Lucy is in danger. What I want doesn’t matter until she is safe.

  “Give my sister back.”

  Tanuk smiles, bright and wicked. “You think you can come here and make demands? Alone?”

  “You have to know I’m not really alone.”

  “Oh, but I think you are. In more ways than one.”

  Those two sentences spear to the very core of me. Tanuk sees me, instantly, in a way my family never has in eighteen years. He seems to know me, though we’ve barely met.

  I am sure it is a trick of some kind. He doesn’t know me. If I feel he does, then it is because I am an eighteen-year-old demigoddess and he is a very old god. I’m sure he’s devoured girls like me over thousands of years in a variety of ways.

  I don’t trust him, and even though Lucy is spoiled, she doesn’t deserve to be left to his mercies either.