MIKKI couldn't say she wasn't relieved that Hecate would be gone for a while. Of course she'd have to tell the goddess about her relationship with Asterius. Telling her would be ever so much better than Hecate reading her mind or finding out on her own some other way. Mikki wanted to run and hide just thinking about it. So she'd tell her, but she sure as hell didn't want to do it soon. It wasn't that she was ashamed that she loved Asterius, and it wasn't that she was afraid of Hecate, though the goddess was definitely intimidating. It was just that Mikki wanted to keep Asterius to herself. Why couldn't they have privacy to discover the shared secrets of new love? Even had she fallen in love with a man back in Tulsa, Mikki would have wanted time for the two of them to get over the newness of love before she hauled him around and opened their lives up for everyone to poke and prod. She was private, and the more important something was to her, the more private she was about it. Asterius was very important to her.
When Hecate returned from wherever, she would have a conversation with her about Asterius. Then she'd deal with the goddess's response, whatever it may be. Until then she would cherish this honeymoon period they had been granted and thoroughly enjoy the fact that she had finally fallen in love.
Satisfied with her plan of attack, Mikki left the bench and checked the surrounding beds and fountains to make sure she was heading in the right direction. Hecate's comments about the men coming and going through the rose gate had worried her, and, no matter what the goddess said, she was going to keep that worry fresh. Right now her instincts were telling her to check the gate for herself - then announce a curfew, even though she loathed the thought of acting like a den mother at a naughty sorority. She'd like to talk with Asterius about it, but it only made sense to place some limits on when the gate could be open. And also, she needed to find out who exactly could open it. Asterius could, of course, and he'd said she could, too. The Dream Weavers had mentioned that the Elementals had collected the threads of reality while he had been bespelled, so they had to be able to open the gate. But who else? It would be a massive headache if every woman in the realm could wave her fingers and have the damn thing part like the Red Sea. Clearly, there was a lot of work for her to do.
Checking her mental watch, Mikki picked up her pace. She really did need to get a move on and call her handmaidens. She could, of course, call them right now and have them meet her out here in the gardens, but it seemed too Nurse Ratchet-like. She'd much rather get the gate checked, hurry back to her room, change out of her wet (and torn, then pieced back together this morning) chiton, have Daphne bring some lovely tea and eventually have a comfortable meeting with the girls over a late brunch. And anyway, it was still early. The handmaidens weren't stupid. They could certainly look at the weather and realize that there was little work in the gardens they could do in the rain. Maybe they would even climb back in bed. Mikki smiled to herself, hoping they weren't climbing back into lonely beds - tonight she certainly wouldn't be.
The rain had moved lazily from drizzle to mist to a moon-colored fog that drifted over the roses as if they were in the Lake District of England. The fog thickened the farther south she walked, and Mikki was preoccupied with thoughts of the evening to come, trying to decide if she could sneak Asterius up to the hot springs for a whole new meaning to "scrubbed clean," when multiflora roses reared in front of her nose and she almost smacked into the wall.
"Remember, next spell tell Wind to blow away the fog after the rain," she mumbled to herself while she scanned the gate for signs of wear and tear. "You look good," she pronounced, patting part of the foliage.
"Priestess! Can you help us?"
Mikki looked around, trying to see where the deep voice was coming from. It was unmistakably male, which seemed out of place in the gardens.
"Here, Priestess! We're out here!"
Mikki realized that the voice was coming from the other side of the rose wall. She bent a little so she could look through a less-dense part of the climbing branches, and her eyes widened in surprise. Four men stood just outside the gate, surrounded by thick gray fog. Three of them were dressed as she imagined ancient Greek men should dress. In toga-looking outfits, with one arm bare, and regal purple embroidered cloaks tossed over their broad backs. They were all tall, well built and youthfully handsome.
The fourth man was clearly their leader and the one who had spoken. He stood in front of the others and was dressed in much the same style she was used to seeing Asterius wear, with a cuirasse over a short, pleated tunic. But there is where his similarity to her lover ended. This man was beautiful, tall and golden. Even in the foggy morning he shined. His skin was tanned to that singular color only a few true blondes get naturally - a healthy, burnished brown that looked like the purest of honey. It covered a body that was perfection. He was athletically built, without being too heavily muscled and brutish. His hair was thick and wavy, cut short enough to be masculine, but left long enough to be endearingly boyish. His eyes were so blue that Mikki could feel them searching through the roses to find her.
She'd never seen a man that handsome in person. Usually such perfection was limited to Hollywood and the machinations of filmmakers and plastic surgeons.
"There you are, Priestess!" He smiled, and his incredible face lit with warmth. "We're here. We answered your call."
She smiled back (who wouldn't return a smile like that?). "My call?"
"Well, Priestess, I can only pray to the Great Goddess that I could be lucky enough to be called by a beauty such as you."
Ridiculously, Mikki felt her face flush. "I've heard that blue eyes are weaker than brown or green. I think you've just proven the rumor true."
He laughed, and the sound was as catching as it was seductive. "Ah, I see my prayers have been answered! The goddess has granted me a priestess who has wit as well as beauty." He took a few steps toward the rose gate. His friends followed.
Mikki watched him move with a natural confidence that was easy and attractive - and so unlike Asterius's inhumanly feral grace that the comparison was jarring. She didn't desire the golden man, but she did feel a sliver of envy for the woman who had called him, followed instantly by a rush of guilt. What the hell was wrong with her? She'd just left Asterius's bed after proclaiming her love for him! And here she was gawking all calf-eyed at a handsome stranger? Maybe the rain had seeped through her head and into her brain, waterlogging it.
"Priestess, will you open the gate for us, or shall my comrades and I woo you through the prickly wall?"
"No!" she said a little too loudly. And then, feeling like an idiot, she added, "I didn't call you, so you don't need to woo me at all."
His expression showed honest disappointment. "I must apologize, gracious lady. I assumed you were one of the Elementals - Flame perhaps, with your wealth of fire-kissed tresses and your extraordinary beauty. It was, after all, Flame who called me here. I would have been a fortunate man had you been she."
"Sorry, I'm not an Elemental." Mikki smiled. She wasn't being unfaithful to Asterius by being polite to him - she was doing her duty as Empousa. After all, she was the one who cast the spell to allow men within her realm. "I'm the Empousa."
The man's aquamarine eyes crinkled endearingly at the edges with his joyous smile. "Empousa!" He bowed with a lovely chivalrous flourish, which the other men copied, each calling gallant greetings to her. "What a fortunate coincidence that you were passing at this moment. There is word that a new Empousa reigns in the Realm of the Rose. We are honored to meet you." His smile was boyish with good humor. "Though the meeting was shouted through a barrier of roses."
"You say Floga invited you?"
"She did, Empousa."
"Did she invite your friends, too?" Mikki tried to keep the mischievous grin from her face, but she failed miserably. She could all too easily imagine the Flame Elemental needing four men to extinguish her passion - even if one of them did look like Adonis.
For an instant Mikki felt a stab of jealousy as she thought about the Elemental's freedom and the ease with which she could walk side by side with any man she chose.
"She did not, Empousa," said one of the toga-wearers who had thick, dark hair and a well-defined face, bringing her thoughts back to their conversation. "The Earth Elemental is the priestess whose call I answer."
"Water called me, Empousa," another man said.
"I am fortunate to be summoned by Air," said the fourth man, who had long, auburn hair and remarkably green eyes.
Damn, but they were four deliciously handsome men! Her Elementals definitely had made good choices. Mikki made a mental note to ask Gii just exactly how this whole man-inviting thing worked. It was a little weird that they had been called by the girls this morning, but then again, maybe it wasn't. She hadn't called them to work - it was rainy - they'd decided to busy themselves in their own way. Clearly they were as smart as Mikki had given them credit for being.
"I'm sure the Elementals will be here any second. I'll be happy to let you guys in."
Their leader's eyes lit, and he bowed again to her. "To be invited within the Realm of the Rose by its Empousa is truly an honor we do not deserve."
"Oh, it's no problem. We can walk back to the palace together. I was just going to head in that direction." And being escorted by four to-die-for-handsome young men was definitely not a hardship. Neither was it wrong. She felt an unexpected surge of anger. Hell, no! It wasn't wrong. She was in love, not dead. And all she was doing was taking the men to her handmaidens. The only ulterior motive she had was maybe to engage in some harmless flirtation. And why not? She felt amazingly pretty and completely loved. But that didn't mean she wanted to be controlled and caged! Asterius could just think again if he expected to put his brand on her and treat her like a prize heifer! Is that what Asterius would expect from her? To allow him to own her every movement? She was suddenly afraid that he might. He was, after all, a beast. She couldn't expect him to know how to treat a woman.
Somewhere in the depths of Mikki's mind a warning tried to cry its way through the cacophony of unnaturally defensive thoughts that bubbled and brewed like a rancid stew. But they could not be heard over the hatred and envy, selfishness and fear that were shouting so loudly.
Feeling totally pissed off, she moved to the middle of the gate and frowned at it. No doorknob. No latch. No bar to slide back. Frustrated, and especially annoyed at the massive headache that pounded in her temples, she raised one hand and pressed her palm against the gate.
"This is your Empousa speaking. Open the hell up," she muttered angrily.
The living gate instantly swung open. The four men stepped out of the swirling fog, smiling at her as if she had just given them the key to paradise. Mikki smiled absently back at them, wishing they'd hurry and get inside. She didn't like the looks of the gray-cloaked forest, and she wanted to get the gate shut right away. The second the last man was through, she raised her hand again and whispered for the gate to close, breathing a sigh of relief when it obeyed her. Then she turned to the men.
"Okay, the palace is that way." Mikki gestured to the widest of the marble pathways.
"After you, Empousa," the golden man said.
Mikki began down the path but stopped abruptly when the dark-haired man stepped in front of her to block her way.
"Uh, it's that way," Mikki said, pointing over the man's shoulder and thinking that he may be handsome, but he definitely wasn't the brightest Crayola in the pack.
"Perhaps you would like to know our names before you lead us to the palace, Empousa."
The golden man's voice came from directly behind her. He was standing so close she could feel his breath on her hair. The other two men stepped in to close the tight circle so they had her neatly surrounded, and in that instant her mind cleared - the pain in her head stopped, as did the deafening emotions that had been seething in her mind.
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 fucking 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."
Mikki caught a blurred movement from the edge of her darkening vision and then Asterius burst out of the fog. His roar of rage was deafening. Hatred whirled to face him. As the Dream Stealer moved, his body rippled and reformed until he was, as Mikki had accused, not a man, but a creature, and one that should exist only in the realm of nightmares. His skin was scaled, and his snakelike eyes bulged from a head shaped like a cobra's flared hood. His body had remained humanoid, but he crouched on all fours, hissing black froth from his open mouth like an evil reptile. Asterius's hand whipped out as he charged past the creature, slicing a bloody trail across Hatred's chest.
Mikki heard angry hisses from the creatures who were holding her and then she was suddenly free as Fear, Envy, and Selfishness hurried to stand beside their leader. They were truly a horrifying group. Each had retained something of his man form, but with monstrous mutations. Fear was a rotting corpse, with long, filthy claws and misshapen features. Envy's all-too-human body was covered with a sickening plant whose spikes burst through his skin like deadly thorns. He crouched, hissing, reminding Mikki of a poisonous swamp creature. Selfishness's body had elongated, and he had grown several sets of snakelike tentacles. He gnashed gruesome teeth while his arms writhed independently of one another.
They all faced Asterius as the Guardian charged them. Fear went down first, disemboweled neatly by the great beast's claws. The Dream Stealer's body crumbled and then dissolved, turning into scarlet smoke that hovered in an oily cloud over the rose beds.
Mikki scrambled to her feet.
"Aeras! Come to me!" she cried.
Moments later the wide-eyed Wind Elemental rushed up to her Empousa.
"Oh, Goddess! Save us from - "
"Hecate's not here. We have to save ourselves. Aeras, I command your element present. Blow in a mighty wind from the north and rid us of the smoke of Fear. Now, Aeras!"
White-faced, Aeras flung her arms wide. When she lifted them, a blast of cold wind hurled past them, carrying the morning fog as well as the red smoke over the rose wall and into the forest.
A scream of agony wrenched Mikki's eyes from the dissipating cloud and back to the battle. Asterius's dark eyes flashed, and he roared his fury as he dealt blow after powerful blow against the evil creatures. Each movement he made was controlled by a grace that was as beautiful as it was deadly.
She thought Asterius was the most magnificent thing she had ever seen.
He lunged and struck, and Selfishness was writhing on the ground, sliced tentacles spurting dark blood in a scarlet arch across the roses. Envy clinging to his back, Asterius lowered his head. With one blindingly swift movement, he impaled the fallen Dream Stealer, and at the same moment he reached around, plunging his claws into the base of Envy's spine. Both creatures' bodies shivered and then they, too, disappeared into clouds of blood-colored smoke.
"Again, Aeras!" Mikki commanded.
Aeras called the north wind, which banished Envy and Selfishness far into the ancient forest.
"You interfering bitch!" Hatred shrieked at Aeras.
Like a viper, he struck at the Wind Elemental, but Mikki was quicker, shoving Aeras out of the way. The Dream Stealer collided with the Empousa instead of her handmaiden. Mikki felt a searing line of pain explode across her shoulder and arm as she went down beneath him.
Then Hatred screamed. His body bowed as Asterius clawed his back to scarlet ribbons. With a terrible snarl, the Dream Stealer wrenched Mikki from under him. He spun around, holding the Empousa before him like a shield.
Instantly, Asterius checked his attack.
Hatred hissed evil laughter. "Why do you hesitate, Guardian? I am shielded from your rage by only a weak, mortal woman. Are you not willing to sacrifice your Empousa, even to rid the realm of hatred? I supposed that's hardly surprising. I seem to recall you have a weakness for Hecate's High Priestesses." The creature rubbed his groin against Mikki. "Not that I blame you. Her fruit is ripe and sweet."
Asterius's growl lifted the hair on her arms and the back of her neck. His voice was that of a deadly predator. "I will make you suffer for an eternity for touching her."
"I think not, Guardian. Instead, you are going to open the gate for me, and I am going to pass through it unharmed." The creature began pulling Mikki before him as he backed toward the rose wall. "If you get too close, I will play Destiny and slice her throat right now." He pressed the point of one jagged claw against Mikki's neck.
"This is not finished between us," Asterius snarled, moving carefully with the Dream Stealer and his hostage to the gate. "If it takes an eternity, I will make you pay for touching her."
"Hatred is never finished, Guardian. You should know that by now." He halted, his back to the gate. "Now open it for me, and I will return your Empousa to you, though I would enjoy having her entertain me for a while." Hatred bared his teeth at the Guardian as he bent so he could flick his tongue out and taste the High Priestess's salty-sweet neck.
And that was it. Mikki had had enough. More than enough.
"Oh, hell no!" she yelled, driving her thumb into the bulging, insectlike eye that he had been foolish enough to get close to her.
The Dream Stealer's scream of pain was deafening, and he hurled her from him, but not before Mikki felt his talon pierce her skin and the rush of wet heat that followed the wound. She grasped her neck and fell to the ground, watching through a haze of pain as Asterius picked up the writhing creature and bent his evil body back farther and farther until the Dream Stealer's spine was broken with a sickening crack. Asterius lifted Hatred and threw him over the rose barrier.
Then he was on his knees by her side, crying her name, touching her face, stroking her hair.
She tried to smile at him. It's okay. It's not your fault. I let them in. Mikki thought she was saying the words aloud, but she couldn't seem to make them come out. Then her four handmaidens were suddenly there, too. They were crying - even Floga, who Mikki thought hadn't liked her at all. She wanted to comfort them, to tell them she wasn't afraid and to ask them to please treat Asterius nicer because she knew, without any doubt, that she was dying.