Page 9 of Gods of Prey (Parallel Prey #3)

Sienna

I follow Bash and Jovie through the gleaming glass doors of Lancaster Tech, gliding silently behind him like the phantom I now am.

The security guard doesn’t flinch as I pass.

I’m nothing but air once again. Revel will hang back until Sebastian is gone, then use his divine essence to manifest an employee key card.

My brother strides confidently through the lobby with his wife beside him, nodding at employees who greet him with reverence bordering on fear. They see their billionaire CEO, not the divine being who once breathed life into newborn stars.

“Good morning, Mr. Lancaster,” chirps his assistant, an older woman with plump hips and round cheeks who is handing him a sleek tablet. “The board is waiting in the conference room.”

Bash takes it without breaking stride. “Tell them five minutes, Diane.”

He places a soft kiss on Jovie’s cheek before she breaks left, her hip sashaying as she heads toward her own office.

I hover at his shoulder, studying his face.

Even in this mortal form, we share the same features—high cheekbones, deep-set eyes, the slight dimple in our left cheeks when we smile.

Except Bash rarely smiles anymore. Not like he used to in Aurelys, where his laughter would cause flowers to bloom spontaneously.

“You look exhausted,” I whisper, knowing he can’t hear me. “Is she worth all this?”

He pauses mid-step, frowning slightly, and for a heart-stopping moment, I wonder if he sensed me. But he only adjusts his tie before continuing toward his office. I follow closely behind, just as I had always done before.

It’s exactly what I’d expect, a near replica of his office in New York.

Minimalist, pristine, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Seattle’s skyline.

Rain trails down the glass like tears. I press my translucent hand against the cold surface, remembering our last life together with painful clarity.

Of all the lives we’ve endured, this one remains the most vivid. This death has left the deepest mark. Perhaps because it’s the most recent. Perhaps because it’s the one that broke my brother.

“You didn’t come back,” I murmur, watching Bash review documents on his computer. “You were supposed to return to Aurelys, but you couldn’t leave her.”

Of course, he doesn’t hear me. He grabs a manila file from the filing cabinet in the corner, then turns back on his heel and out the office door. I linger in my spot, though unsure what else to do. I have no interest in listening to his board meeting, that’s for sure.

My attention drifts to the single framed photo on his otherwise empty desk—Bash and Jovie laughing on a ferry, the Seattle wind tousling her hair.

She’s in her wedding dress and he’s in a formal tuxedo.

I’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at her.

Not in all our mortal lifetimes, not in eons before our punishment.

My ghostly fingers pass through the frame as I try to touch it. Frustration bubbles up, hot and familiar. Being dead is annoying enough. Being a goddess trapped in spirit form is downright insulting.

“Trouble in paradise?” Revel’s voice startles me.

I turn to find him leaning against the doorframe, mouth turned up in a cocky grin. His presence in the mortal realm is irritating.

“Shouldn’t you be hunting for clues or something useful?” I snap.

Revel smirks, pushing off the doorframe to join me by the window. “Already ahead of you. Let’s go back to our apartment to discuss.”

“ Our apartment?” I arch an eyebrow. “There is no ‘our.’ You’re taking the apartment. I’m...haunting it.”

“Semantics.” He shrugs, studying the photo on his desk. “He really doesn’t remember, does he?”

I cross my arms. “Not a thing. He’s completely Bash Lancaster now. Billionaire tech genius with a god complex.” I huff out a laugh. “Ironic, considering.”

Revel doesn’t find my little joke to be funny. Instead, he points to the second person in the photo. “And the girl? Jovie?”

“She’s...” I pause, reluctant to admit what I’ve observed and what I remember. “She’s good for him. She balances him in ways I haven’t seen before.”

“That’s inconvenient,” he mutters.

A laugh escapes me. “That’s one word for it. We should go before he comes back.”

As we shuffle out of the office, I keep my gaze trained on the floor. “I need to check on him after work. He’s investigating a board member he suspects has connections to the surviving order members.”

“Well, I’ve already got an invitation to their event. Maybe I can do some digging on it then,” Revel replies smoothly. “Benefits of being charming.”

I roll my eyes. “Is that what you call it?”

We fall into step as we exit the building, an odd pair—the interim God of Life and the Goddess of Death—trailing behind my oblivious twin. The tension between Revel and me crackles like static electricity, annoying and impossible to ignore.

H ours later, I wander aimlessly through our apartment alone, finally allowing myself to take it all in.

When we first got here, I was so focused on our plans, I couldn't absorb the details of our temporary home. It’s luxurious, all right.

With white walls and too many windows for my taste.

But the view of Bash and Jovie’s building is perfect.

“Not bad for mortal accommodations,” I grudgingly admit to myself.

My bedroom is plain and crowded. Because he told them he wanted an office, they gave him a spare room that has a desk crammed into the corner beside a queen-sized bed.

That’s not what makes my stomach twist into knots and keeps my mind reeling, though.

It’s the consideration he showed for me.

This man who is supposed to hate me has already cared more about my needs than anyone I’ve kept close.

What does that say about me? About the people I keep in my circle?

It’s been quiet while he takes yet another nap. I told him that mortals sleep at night and, unlike in Aurelys, the sun actually sets here to make the task easier. But he must be conditioned to sleep with the brightest lights around, and his mind is likely still stuck on the divine realm’s clock.

Just as I finally start to relax onto my mattress, I hear the shower in the bathroom separating our rooms squeak on. Water flows against the wall beside my head, a calming white noise that blocks out the chaos of the city below.

I fall into a meditative state, not realizing how badly I’ve needed to simply sit back and be . When I returned to Aurelys, I was thrown right back into my duties. This realm has been a whirlwind. I don’t sleep in this form, but I still need to rest every once in a while.

As I lay my head against the pillow, my mind carves a forbidden path that wanders to Revel. Him standing under the water spray in his mortal form—a toned-down version of his godly body.

I shouldn’t do this. Even in the privacy of my mind, I shouldn’t violate him in this way. But I can’t seem to stop my thoughts from tracing the lines of his body with the water droplets. From envisioning the pure masculinity that practically seeps out of every pore.

My eyes pop open, and I realize I’m no longer lying down. In fact, I’m no longer in my room at all.

I’m standing in the middle of the bathroom, facing the glass doors of the shower that have hardly fogged up enough to provide any cover for Revel’s naked form.

His large hands move across his body as he swipes a soapy rag over his skin. He doesn’t appear to notice me, which means that in my mindlessly meditative state, I’ve at least made sure to conceal myself from his view.

Unfortunately, I don’t use my invisibility in the way I should—to scurry out the door and never speak of this again.

Instead, I allow my eyes to drift lower with his hands, across all the hard lines of his body.

At the stiff erection he seems to be ignoring as he scrubs the rag angrily against his abdomen, his thighs, his hips.

He’s giving attention to every part of his body except the one begging for it.

I’ve been intimate with men before— obviously .

Especially mortal men, who are like a watered-down version of the gods I’ve grown up around.

I’m very familiar with the male anatomy and not immune to its effects.

It’s usually their mouths that turn me off.

There’s nothing I can’t stand more than a man who doesn’t know how to shut the fuck up, and most of them fall under that umbrella.

But there’s something about Revel that’s different.

An odd part of him that pulls me in rather than repels me away.

The way he fights himself when most other men would give in. Whatever thoughts he’s having, he doesn’t want to acknowledge them.

I drift closer, intrigued by that revelation.

What’s on your mind, interim god? And why are you fighting it so hard?

Something shifts in the air, and Revel’s head swivels in my direction, his gray eyes landing directly on me. They’re like ice cutting across the bathroom. His hand stills against his lower stomach as he glares at me in question, but he doesn’t make any attempts to shield himself from my view.

Shit . I’ve manifested before him.

“Can I help you?” he asks with more venom in his voice than ever before.

There’s nothing I can do to smooth this over. I’ve been caught gawking at him, plain and simple. I’ve violated his privacy and now he’ll probably kick me out. And what recourse do I even have?

I’m a ghost. Not really existing anywhere.

“I-I just came to ask you a question.” The pathetic lie tumbles out of my mouth.

“ . . . Okay?”

Fuck. Now I have to figure out something to ask that would be worthy of such a violation.

Yet I can’t seem to think with him standing before me, fully nude.

He’s still not hiding his erection, which almost looks.

..bigger now that he’s realized I’m here.

Or maybe it just feels that way because it’s so obvious that I shouldn’t be here.

A cocky smirk tugs at the side of his lips and my eyes go straight to the dimple in his left cheek. “You’re staring, goddess.”

Shaking my head, I drop my scowling gaze to the ground. “No, I’m not.”

“I’m sure you’ve seen a male body before. Especially a mortal one.”

“I have,” I snipe back a little too aggressively. And because I’m a child who wants to embarrass him just as thoroughly, I tack on, “I usually have to do more to get them so excited.”

His head bobs in agreement, eyes flicking toward the spraying water before landing back on me.

“Don’t let it go to your head. I’m not used to going this long without a female’s attention.

A banshee could walk through that door and I’d still be just as aroused,” he explains cooly, and I make no attempt to hide my scowl.

I hook my thumb behind my shoulder, toward the door. “Right, well...I’m sorry the mortal realm isn’t packed with exhibitionists the way Aurelys is. I’m sure the kind woman who leased you the apartment can help. Or maybe you should have saved that barista’s number. She may have been free.”

I sound jealous. I know I sound jealous and jaded and crude—those women are all innocent—but I can’t stop the words from leaving my mouth nonetheless.

He rolls his eyes at me and continues spreading suds across his skin again.

This time, he doesn’t avoid his erection.

Instead, he grabs it up and gives it one full stroke that leaves my mouth watering.

“I’m afraid they wouldn’t be able to satiate my appetite, goddess. But thank you for the suggestion.”

Another pump. My blood stops pumping.

“Just finish up and get dressed. We have plans to discuss.” With that, I go straight through the closed door, mustering up every ounce of personal restraint I have to stop myself from looking over my shoulder to see if he’s still stroking himself.

I nearly succeed. Until the very last second, just before I float through the door, I allow myself to look back and find that irritating dimple looking back at me.

R evel emerges from the bedroom, face flushed and dressed in sweatpants and a plain T-shirt. It’s far more casual than anything I’ve ever seen him wear in the past.

“So glad you could grace me with your presence once again, interim god,” I greet bitterly. There’s no good reason for my attitude. I’m just still so uncomfortable about being caught gawking at him, and my instinct is to be rude.

“I wouldn’t want to disappoint the Queen of Umbraeth.”

“Don’t call me that.” I turn away, uncomfortable with the reminder of responsibilities I’ve temporarily abandoned.

“What should I call you, then? Sienna? Ms. Lancaster? Your Morbidness?”

“Just focus on your job,” I snap. “We need to get close to Bash. Figure out how much he remembers.”

Bash is a safe subject. A comfortable one.

Revel pauses at the kitchen sink. “And you? What’s your job here?”

Shrugging, I tilt my nose upward. “To see the things you don’t.”

He doesn’t have any rebuttal to that. Instead, he pulls a protein bar out of the pantry and sulks off to his room.

After he leaves, I drift to the window, watching Seattle’s lights blur through the constant rain and realize he never even asked what I came into the bathroom to ask him.

I can’t decide if I’m happy about the small mercy, or if I should be embarrassed that he knows it was all a lie, and I was only there to violate his privacy.

Being here, so close to Bash yet unable to truly reach him, is its own kind of torture. But not as torturous as sharing space with Revel for the foreseeable future.

I press my forehead against the cool glass, closing my eyes. The apartment feels smaller already, crowded with his presence even in his absence. This is going to be impossible.

A sudden flicker of awareness pulls me upright. Someone is looking at me. Someone sees me.

I turn slowly toward the building across the street. In the window directly opposite ours, Jovie stands wide-eyed, coffee mug frozen halfway to her lips.

She sees me.

Our eyes lock across the divide between buildings, between Life and Death.

“Sienna?” I see her lips form my name.

And just like that, everything changes.