Goddess of the Rose (Goddess Summoning #4)(88)

Mikki was suddenly, horribly afraid. They were Dream Stealers, and she had opened the rose gate for them.

Instincts that had been silenced from the moment she had begun talking with the golden man screamed at her not to show fear. Mikki swallowed the bile that had risen in her throat, drew herself up regally and turned to face the golden man.

"What is this all about?" she snapped.

"We're simply saying that we would like to introduce ourselves to you, Empousa. You see, we already know you. We've enjoyed watching you. Now we'd like for you to know exactly who you have so graciously invited within your realm." His voice had changed from charming to sarcastic. His lip curled at her, and his handsome face twisted in disgust.

"I don't like your tone, and I don't like how close you're standing to me," Mikki said sternly, trying to imitate Hecate's intimidating tone. "I think it's time you left. I've decided my handmaidens wouldn't like you."

"Too late! You opened the barrier to us, and you will see that once invited, we are not so easily banished." He reached out and lifted a strand of her hair that had fallen over her shoulder. Mikki tried to jerk away from him, but hard hands grasped her shoulders and held her in place as the golden man bent and sniffed at her hair. Mikki struggled. Fisting his hand in her hair, he jerked her head to the side. Like a snake tasting the skin of its prey, his tongue flicked out to graze the side of her neck.

"Ah, the sweet taste of an Empousa. It has been centuries since I've sampled this particular delicacy."

"Stop it!" Mikki cried. "Let go of me!"

Surprisingly, the golden man let loose her hair. He smiled at her, but it was a baring of teeth, not an expression of humor. "We're going to enjoy our visit with you, Empousa. And we do appreciate the weather change you commanded - all the better to cloak our little rendezvous, though it looks as if someone has already had the pleasure of your company this morning." With reptilian grace, he lashed out and ripped the brooch that held together the torn pieces of her chiton.

Mikki was frozen with fear. She clutched at her chiton, trying not to vomit as the men crowded closer around her, grasping her with hungry hands and watching her with ravenous eyes.

"Come now, Empousa. Don't be shy. You can't say you don't recognize me."

"Or me," the dark-haired man breathed into her back.

"Or me."

"And me."

"Look into my eyes, Empousa. I'm sure you've seen me before. Can you not guess my name?"

She stared into the golden man's blue eyes - and they changed. The pupils shifted and became slits. The color faded and washed from brilliant blue to the red of old blood. Mikki did know him. Who he was seared through her mind, and with his naming came a fury that burned away her fear.

"Get your f**king hands off of me!" She jerked violently. Surprised, the dark-haired man holding her from behind stumbled and lost his grip on her, and she was able to back several steps away from them.

The golden man laughed and followed her with smooth, serpentine grace. "Good . . . we like it when they struggle. It makes it more interesting. What do you see when you look within my eyes, Empousa?"

"I see an asswipe who needs to invest in color contacts." She kept backing away. He and the other men followed her.

"Ha! I will have to teach you better things to do with that sharp tongue of yours. But for now, tell me, Empousa, what name would you give me?"

"Hatred," she said without hesitation.

His smile was fierce. "Ah! You are a quick study. Perhaps I will take you with me when we leave here. Would you like that? I am a man who knows intimately the hidden desires of women."

"Man?" She laughed sarcastically. "You're not a man; you're a creature. A carrion eater that feeds on the carcasses of dreams. I don't care what kind of skin you wrap yourself up in! You're no man."

He lunged forward and grabbed her arms. "Not a man? I'll show you how much of a man I am!"

As the others closed on her, Mikki screamed the one name that filled her heart and soul, "Asterius!"

"Your lover, whoever he is, will not save you now, and if you truly care for him, I suggest that you remain very quiet. No mortal man could look upon us without losing a part of his soul." Hatred breathed stinking breath in her face as he grasped the front of her chiton and ripped it from her body. "Cover her mouth, and be certain she does not make a sound. In this fog there is no chance we will be discovered until it is too late for her, and too late for them."

They dragged Mikki off the marble path into a bed of Salet roses. She struggled, kicking for groins and insteps and using her fingernails to gouge any flesh they came in contact with, as every damned self-defense class in America taught, but the four of them easily overpowered her. They pushed her to the ground, and she saw that the newly worked dirt was covered with the pink petals of destroyed roses, as if blushing snow had fallen to the ground with her. One of them was choking her. She could not scream, so within her mind she shrieked over and over Asterius! Come to me!

"And now, I will show you that I am, indeed, a man," Hatred said, pushing aside the front of his short tunic and taking his engorged flesh in his hand. "Then Fear, Envy, and Selfishness will have their turns with you." His laugh was thoroughly mad. "It is an interesting irony that Selfishness chooses to take you last. Or perhaps it is not. Perhaps he will choose to keep you to himself while we visit the women in the rest of your pathetic realm, Empousa."