Chapter 2

A Night on the Town

Devlyn slowly winded her way through the hot, sticky crowd as the heavy beat of the music swirled around the club like thick, dark, red and orange smoke, almost visible to the naked eye. The music pounded through the speakers, taking over the pulse of any heart in the building. Just the way Devlyn liked it. She might be the eternal blasted virgin, but she loved to dance. Even though she was co-owner of the club, on busy nights like these, when the bartenders, bouncers, and wait staff were on top of their game and complaints were limited, she and Katerina preferred to mix and mingle on the dance floor with their patrons.

It was not always easy being a goddess stuck on earth, but good nights could make up for the longing she felt for home. Her best friend and partner also helped to pass up the time, and after countless centuries, that time certainly added up. It was difficult for them to come to any certain conclusion on just how long they had strolled around together, since they tended to not only travel the world, but they alternated what time periods they experienced as well. And though the nineteenth century had certainly had its fun, there was a lot to be said for modern conveniences. Jeans at the very least.

Katerina’s twin brother Aren also came in handy. He had been a literal part of Katerina’s life since before Delyn had discovered the muse. They had been part of an extraordinary curse when Katerina had still been human, and somehow, even after being turned by Lilith into an evil creature and then transformed into a muse by Devlyn and Eros, the siblings were still stuck sharing the same physical manifestation of a body. It was a complicated story, and seldom was there a definitive answer to what happened, since the only thing the twins ever agreed on was disagreeing. All Devlyn knew for certain was that she wouldn’t trade her dear friends for the world.

The club was packed, the Latin beat bouncing from one corner to another, only to be ricocheted again with the next beat. There were other night clubs in this illustrious city, and certainly some of them could boast of wilder entertainment, but none of them could quite compare to what the two goddesses offered at Temptations. Here was great food, a spacious dance floor, an entire designated pool hall, and incredible music. One of the few things both women immensely enjoyed and were serious about was the music that was played in their club. Whether live or DJ, Temptations offered the best music in the Quarter, outside of jazz and blues. That distinction went to Tally O’Malley at The Weepin’ Willow. But the girls challenged themselves and each other to book new and legendary great talent, as well as host the best DJs around, even if it meant they got to spin personally.

Devlyn meandered, letting the music take her where the night hadn’t yet, getting lost in the heady sensation of music and sweat, letting the power humanity gave an Earth goddess fill her to the brim, just so she could sweep herself into the pull. She moved, she twisted, with a grace that came from having a body that wasn’t quite human. Even when a strange sensation suddenly wafted through the club to wrap around her, she gathered it close and chose to drown in dancing bodies.

Katerina stood at the end of the bar, her back sitting against the wood so she could peruse the busy club and keep a trained eye on anything unexpected. This bar was her baby, her power source, and she wanted no disturbances in it.

She also had to keep a close eye on Devlyn. Katerina had been a warrior in her human life, became Lilith’s dark pet, and finally transformed into a muse. Her entire existence had taught her discipline and cunning, two things her best friend was sadly lacking. Unfortunately, coupled with her lacking was the fact that Devlyn barely looked twenty. Occasionally an idiotic male would forget his place. Devlyn could always handle a groping hand, but there were times when reinforcements were needed to handle Devlyn. A pinch on the a*s was not worth a lawsuit for breaking an arm or a testical retrieval operation.

As she watched Devlyn dance with a handsome young man, Katerina slowly made herself relax. This was how she fed. Muses did not regain strength just by physically doing sexual deeds, though that was one way for them to replenish. Being in a crowded area, Katerina could feed off of people’s emotions, though the most power came from inspiring emotions and to have that inspiration pan out into something real. Her favorite nights came from inspiring wayward spouses back into fidelity, though that was more difficult to do than one would think. With that thought, her mood turned dark, as she remembered on a time when she had wanted to be monogamous.

 Looking around the bar, though, with her present mood, she just didn't feel like helping out a human who didn't realize what he had going for him. No, tonight, she was in the mood for self-fulfillment, some husky man to make her feel like a queen, or like the demi-goddess she was.

A strange prick trickled along her skin. She looked up at the entrance to see a new man walk through. She cocked a brow. It was nothing for other supernaturals to frequent the bar; they sold kasysis, Cynthonian liquor similar to Greek ambrosia and about the only thing guaranteed to inebriate a god. They weren’t the only bar in New Orleans to serve it, but they were definitely the most popular and least seedy that did.

But this guy was different than most of the others. All gods were arrogant, but this one was exceptionally so, walking in as though it were his place and he was disappointed with what his lackeys had done with it. He was wearing dark denim jeans, hugging just the way they were supposed to around a torso, a dark blue silk shirt, and a leather jacket that was probably as expensive as it was soft to the touch. He radiated sex like it was nothing more than simple pheromones. And he radiated some kind of amazing power. As he walked closer, Katerina could sense something familiar about the handsome devil.

Oh and handsome he was, she thought wickedly, deciding in an instant that she would have him tonight. Tall, dark, and lethal, just her type.

She relaxed a little against the bar, positioning her body so that it was at its most appealing. After centuries upon centuries of practice, she knew the art of seduction--the god who transformed her into a muse had created it, after all, and had taught her well. He had created the art, and she had become a professional artist.

She debated walking up to him for all of two seconds before he was suddenly in front of her staring down. “Hi,” she purred, right beneath Mr. Hottie’s ear, hands splayed, one on his shoulder and the other on the ebony bar.           

“You are quite possibly the loveliest woman in this club. Would you care for a drink?” he asked her, with Slavic accent dripping seductively as he gave her a small, charming smile.

“Absolutely.”

“What will it be?” he asked, slipping an arm about her hips. She inhaled his scent, spice and man, and leaned in flush against his well muscled side. The man was muscled from the look of him, but the feel of him did even more to her senses than she thought possible. He rippled strength in just an arm around her, strength and power, and something else; she just couldn't quite put a manicured finger on it.

“White Russian, please sir,” she purred, her charm turned all the way up without dropping any of her glamour. She wanted this man tonight, as soon as possible, and she was going to be everything he craved to get him where she wanted him. In her bed. For a few hours at the very least.

 He threw his dark head back and roared with laughter. “Anything you wish, my dear,” he said, running a hand through her hair. “You are incredible. I’ve never seen anyone like you, my dear." And that was certainly true enough. A muse, perhaps, but he had never seen one who liked this creature. How utterly refreshing, something new.
            Remarkably enough, his charm and whatever form of seduction he was using were working quite well on her too. “Thank you, sir; you’re not so hard on the eyes either,” she simpered with a blinding smile. He returned her smile with one of his own and hailed the bar-tender.
            She looked at him and drank up the site of him as she sipped her drink. Tall, at least six-foot-three, with wide shoulders and well-chiseled muscles she could see rippling beneath his silk shirt. Dark, with deeply tanned olive skin, eyes almost the same exact shade of blue as his shirt, that deep blue, giving one the feeling that to look into them would be to lose oneself for eternity. Oh, damn, she was in big trouble. He was sex on a stick, one gigantic hunk of raw male masculinity. Oh, she could have fun tupping him until the break of sunlight across the morning sky. There was some kind of air about him that made her insides turn a degree to which she hadn't felt in centuries, long enough that she had almost believed it wasn't possible to have this kind of heady reaction to man again.
            A new song blasted into the club. “Would the muse care for a dance?” he rumbled into her ear as he grasped her long fingers in his. He quickly maneuvered her through the crowd the instant after she smiled slyly and gave him the barest of nods. Quite underhanded, she noticed. He was already leading her before she had even acquiesced. But she liked that kind of confidence in her men.

Devlyn looked up from her dance partner to check on Katerina. Though the older woman knew well how to have a great time, nights like this she tended to watch and protect Devlyn, and sacrificed her own fun. But no, Katia was charming a tall, dark-haired man at the bar. His back was to Devlyn, so she could not get a look at his face. But judging from Katerina’s facial expression, he was delectable. Well good for her. Kat deserved a fun game tonight, Devlyn thought as she watched the man begin to lead her best friend to the dance floor.

            Devlyn turned her attention back to her current dance partner. There was little small talk, for which she was grateful. Most men were all about hooking up. Devlyn just liked to dance. She had yet to meet a human who could make her temperature rise, and she wasn’t going to waste her time on an illusion, which was how she saw a tawdry affair.

No, she knew how real passion felt, even if she had been young and the relationship terribly brief. Her time here was for learning and having fun. When she found someone who really turned her head, things would be different. She would choose to have a physical and intimate relationship. But until then she wasn’t going to bother with facsimiles. She’d let Katerina deal with the physical stuff.

            All of those thoughts cleared as soon as they started dancing. Few men could dance well. Even fewer could do it and retain every bit of their sexual magnetism. And this god definitely radiated sexy as he moved his hips in perfect rhythm to hers. She fleetingly thought to herself that this was the kind of man she needed to unleash on Devlyn, the kind of man who could knock her socks off. But Katerina saw him first. She didn’t know who he was or where he came from, but she wanted to know more of him suddenly.

“Your name?” she asked close to his ear, having to raise her voice above the crowd, while at the same time giving the illusion of a whisper.

He smiled, a bit sardonically she thought. “Trust me, you’d rather not know who I am. But I needed to finally meet you. I’d waited too long.”

She frowned and stopped dancing momentarily, until he pulled her back into his chest and began to maneuver her around easily from behind. “We can’t gain attention, Katerina,” he whispered sternly in her ear.

She craned her neck to stare at him. “How do you know my name?” The knot in her throat was tight. She knew instinctively that he was a lot stronger than she, that a fight against him would most likely not end with her the victor, but every one of her defenses was on high alert.

His smile was definitely more than a little bit wicked, and not in a good way. “I know plenty about you, Katia. You and Aren. And Devlyn.”

She glared at him and said in a firm but even voice, “You stay away from Devlyn.”

 He shook his head. “That’s not possible, my dear.”

She swung around, wanting to be as close to eye level as possible with him, public attention be damned. It was not often that Devlyn was threatened, at least not by the divine. She was everyone’s innocent. Katerina had not felt this feral in a long time. “Who the hell are you?”

His eyes bore into hers, silently menacing. “Nykosas.”

It was such a shock that Katerina nearly fell back from the blow. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “God of War. Merrick’s brother.”

That sardonic smile never faltered; if anything it only mocked her more. “Yes, you are well acquainted with my older brother, aren’t you?”

She cringed inwardly. Merrykos had been her only monogamous relationship as a muse, and the results had been awful, and she had vowed to never make that mistake again. It did not help that the one man she loved, and loved to hate, was the God of Vengeance. Needless to say, their fights were a b***h. And the man in front of her was one of his younger brothers. Well, that explained the familiarity she could not understand. They did not exactly look alike, but there was a certain quality about them that marked them as kin.

She was willing to bet he was just as deadly as the brother she was familiar with as well. Oh bloody hell. “Look, I don’t know what you want with Devlyn, but I would advise you to leave her be. She’s happy here, and you can go back to wherever you came from and tell that to her family and her betrothed. She is happy and protected.”

He cocked his head slightly. “Protected, eh? By you? I’m sure you are proficient against these lesser supernaturals, the Weres, the demigods, but you are certainly no match for a full god such as myself. How could you possibly protect her against me?”

She clenched her mouth so hard she nearly broke her own jaw and closed her eyes tight so he could not see her emotions. She had to hold her tongue from the lashing she would ordinarily give to someone who spoke to her as he was, but he truly was her superior, and just because they happened to be in America did not change that. The laws of the gods surpassed any law of humans. Say the wrong thing now, and he might kill her.

“She’s here,” he stated before she could think of a sufficient response. She looked up at him again to see that he wasn’t even looking at her, but out at the crowd. She followed his gaze to see that he had, indeed, spotted Devlyn. She silently tried to compel her best friend to run, to get away, do something other than dance with the gentleman with his hand on her hip.

“Bloody hell,” he swore under his breath and started moving through the throng of bodies over toward the brunette goddess.

Bloody hell was an understatement. Katerina could not remember the last time events had coalesced into such a heap of s**t so quickly. She had half a mind to grab a hold of him, but fortunately her common sense overruled, and all she could do was trail after him as he made a determined line for Devlyn. Oh, this was bad. Very, very bad.

Roxette’s She’s Got the Look bounced all around her as she trailed the tall god up to Devlyn. Katerina watched the serene smile on Devlyn’s beautiful young face as she grooved with the nice-looking young guy she had partnered.

“Get your hands off her,” came a gruff voice behind Devlyn. She stopped instantly, her smile vanishing with any sense of calm she had ever felt in her life. The boy who had been dancing with her swiftly left and moved on to mingle with someone else who did not have a menacing man brooding behind her. She slowly turned her body around to face that voice.

Every organ, muscle, all the blood running in her entire body froze instantly as she laid eyes on the creature before her. She looked him up and down; she wanted to touch him to make double sure that he was real, not an apparition, or merely a figment of her wild imagination. Because that was entirely possible. Yes, it was entirely possible that he wasn't standing before her; this was just a very vivid nightmare from him to warn her or scare her into submission.
            “No,” she said, shaking her head back and forth. “There’s no possible way that you are here in front of me. No way. You would not have come all the way down here to chase after me.” Denial, denial could work.

“A few thousand years ago, perhaps you would be right. But do you not recall just how long you have made me wait on you, Devlynaria?” His voice was soft but menacing; it was a warning to her not to anger him. Just watching the two of them, Katerina felt her mouth dry. Oh, this was going to get worse before it got better, she just knew it.
            Devlyn suddenly wanted to cry, but anger was so much easier to handle. “I figured that after that long you would have given up the chase, Bane, and realized that I am simply not interested, and that my answer is no.”
            “You would think that after that long you would come to realize that your answer is of no consequence in this arrangement," he stated darkly, his tone clearly stating that the matter was finished. That voice could do things to her, wrap around her, that edge of mocking, sarcasm dripping in it, patronizing. She hated being patronized, especially when it came packaged with a man who seemed determined to make her miserable for eternity.
            She swung back and put every ounce of her supernatural strength she had into the closed fist that connected solidly with his face. It barely staggered him, though his lip was cracked and blood was dripping from his mouth. For a human, it would have been a killing blow, but unfortunately for Devlyn, he had the stamina of a god. “You do not have the right to order me around, you arrogant son of a b***h.

“And you!” She swung around to Katerina, the muse who had followed him. “You stay the hell away from me.” She was not sure of Katerina’s roll in the god’s sudden reappearance, but obviously there was some kind of connection, or Katerina would not be staring at them in awe and mild amusement. She brushed past the both of them, heading for the door.

To hell with both of them. Let them romp and sweat and do dirty deeds together until they chafed and then began to beg for more. See if she cared. So what if Katerina planned to go home tonight with her betrothed. It didn’t matter a damn thing to her. Katia could have the god b*****d for all she cared.
            Katerina looked at the god before her, no longer bleeding, completely healed. “Bane, I take it?” she asked him. “So is the accent fake as well? I know how she--"
            “Yes,” he said, dropping the Slavic accent for his own natural intonation that was incredibly exotic. “It’s the easiest to appropriate when I’m on Earth. It covers my own accent sufficiently, and if I do occasionally slip, most Americans have not spoken with enough Russians to know the difference.”           

“So why the unexpected appearance?” she asked him boldly. Judging from Devlyn’s emotional reaction to the god, she knew exactly who he was. This was Devlyn’s betrothed. This was who Devlyn had kept secret from her for so long. A secret that had been contained from her very well.
            “She’s been gone from the heavens too long, the worlds are falling apart.  Don’t you think we could easily control global warming if she was present up there now?” He wanted to keep this as simple as possible. He did not know the muse before him well enough to divulge the true reason behind his presence here, though what he said was true enough.
            “Alright. Good luck with that," she said derisively. If he wanted her home, he was certainly going the wrong way about it.  She put one hand on her hip. "How the hell do you plan on getting her there if the only name she refers to you as is Bane? That’s not an endearment, whether you chose to see it as that or not. It’s not a compliment. I’m afraid she hates your guts. And your limbs. And most likely your entire body, for that matter.”
            “Oh, you are a treasure, aren’t you?" He smiled down at her with something like affection. "You see, it’s not that she hates me. It’s that she hates that she doesn’t hate me. I could almost guarantee that she would have chosen to be with me, had she been given the choice. It’s the fact that she has no choice in the matter that piques her anger.”
            “So why not give her that choice?”
            He looked at her grimly. “Because I am not one hundred percent sure that I would be her choice. And that’s not a gamble I wish to take. I could not risk losing her.”
            “But what if you don’t really have her to begin with?” Katerina asked before walking away, leaving him staring after her.
            She had to go find her friend and see what damage control could be done.

Author's Note

Added a little bit here. Not much, but just a bit to keep up with the right tone. Let me know what you think.