Warrior Rising (Goddess Summoning #6)(72)

“No. He was perfectly in control of all of his faculties.”

“Not unconscious and thinkin’ he was dreaming?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Are you tellin’ me today you two had aware-we’re-having-sex sex, versus the semiconscious-almost-rape sex you had those other two nights?”

“I did not rape him.”

“And I say whatever to your semantics. Just answer the question.”

“Yes. We had totally aware—totally-all-there-sex sex.”

“You are grinning like a fool, so it must have been good.”

“It was utterly delicious,” Kat said.

“And he controlled the berserker?”

“Well, actually, it was more like he controlled himself so the berserker didn’t possess him.”

Jacky sipped her wine and stared into the fire.

“All right. What is it?” Kat said.

“I’m just a little concerned that he didn’t control the berserker.”

“But what difference does it make? He controlled the thing not possessing him, isn’t that the point?”

“Kinda. I imagine it makes a big difference if you’re ever around him when he is possessed,” Jacky said.

“Maybe I won’t be. When this war is over he’s going home—to a peaceful life. If he’s never in battle again, the berserker may never come on him again.”

“So, in other words, your theory is that you’re gonna ignore it and hope it goes away.”

“No, not exactly.”

Jacky rolled her eyes.

Kat frowned at Jacky. “Okay, maybe.”

“Well, let’s hope your theory is more successful with berserker possession than it is with, oh, say, pregnancy.”

“Achilles will be fine,” Kat said firmly.

They both stared into the fire and sipped their wine.

“You’re staying with him, aren’t you?” Jacky finally asked.

“Yes.” She looked at her best friend. “What are you going to do?”

Jacky sighed. “Sadly, it appears that I’m going to spend the rest of my life white.”

Laughing, Kat put her arm around Jacky. “Well, we can try to tan you up. Would that make it better?”

“Hell no! I am not one of those white girls who bakes her skin in the sun and then looks like f*cking beef jerky when she hits forty. I have entirely too much sense for that. How many times have I yelled at you to keep your light ass out of the sun?”

“Too many to begin to count.”

“That’s right. I have more damn sense than that,” she repeated. “You know what white girls lying out in the sun remind me of?”

“Turkeys drowning in the rain ’cause they’re too stupid to get in out of it or swallow,” Kat said promptly.

“How did you know that?”

“Jacky, you have called me a drowning turkey only about a gazillion times.”

“Well you should bring your white ass in out the sun.”

Kat stared at her. Hard.

“What?” Jacky said.

“Your cheeks are looking pink to me. As in sunburn pink.”

“Oh, bullshit! I just have a little healthy color. That’s all.”

“And that’s how the obsession begins,” Kat said smugly.

The two women looked at each other and then dissolved into laughter.

When her giggles were under control Kat wiped her face and looked around the campfire clearing, populated by the usual group of war-prize brides who were sitting as far away from Kat and Jacky as they could get.

“Wonder what’s taking Achilles and Patroklos so long?”

“Let’s hope he’s talkin’ some sense into Patroklos’s thick skull.”

“What’s going on?” Kat asked.

“Patroklos is acting very crazy about this nonfighting situation. Apparently today Odysseus was like Superman—no one could touch him and he led his men on one hell of a charge. Word is that they could win if this keeps up.”

“They, as in the Greek they?”

“Yep.”

“Huh. Well, that’s good. I guess. The goddesses just wanted the war over. Odysseus all of a sudden being invincible makes the war over. So what’s Patroklos’s problem with it?”

“No problem ’cept he wants Achilles and the rest of the Myrmidons to join in. He says they could for sure win if that happens.”

“Oh,” Kat said softly.

“Yeah, oh.”

“Do you think I should get him to do it? Get him to fight?” Kat’s stomach clenched as she waited for her friend’s answer.

“Your boy might very well die if he keeps fighting, right?”

Kat nodded. “I don’t remember much of the stupid Iliad, but that fact is pretty hard to forget. Achilles dies in the Trojan War.”

“Then no,” Jacky said firmly. “Don’t let him fight. You just found him, and you had to go to a whole other world to be with him. It’s too soon to lose him. I know it’s too soon for me to lose Patroklos. I don’t want the fool to fight.”

“Okay, then I stick with the original plan and do what I can to keep Achilles out of it.”