Page 16 of Take Two (Valleywood: Season Three)

Chapter 16

Declan

“I’m fine. Really.”

Maybe he was. He was a god, after all, but from the little I knew about gods—which was zilch—they didn’t experience blinding pain that rendered them helpless.

I dampened a cloth and poured a glass of water. Waiting until he guzzled the liquid, I removed the glass and placed a hand on his brow. He was slightly warm, so I put the cloth on his forehead. He complained about having a soggy wet piece of fabric resting on his body, but I ignored him.

Phobos lay back on the pillows I’d bunched up behind him, and he muttered we’d need more pillows along with the new bed. He closed his eyes and we sat in silence, me holding his hand until he sat up, saying he felt better.

“You sure?” I doubted gods had doctors, but what did I know? He nodded, so I plowed on. “We need to have the talk.”

Phobos guffawed. “Is that similar to humans talking about the birds and the bees?”

I furrowed my brow, because despite marking and bonding with one another, my mate and I were on a different wavelength.

I rubbed my forehead, my mind working furiously as I tried to fathom what he was referring to. “You said humans, but birds and bees suggests you’re talking about shifters.”

“You’re adorable.” He grabbed my hand and kissed from the palm to the wrist and from there to under my arm. I giggled and yanked my hand away, as I was ticklish—or my wolf was. Weird, but my beast was very sensitive, and he felt uncomfortable when someone tickled me.

Phobos flicked his hand. “It’s too hard to explain, but it’s when parents have the first sex talk with their kids.”

“Okay.” I didn’t understand ‘cause I was pretty certain bees didn’t have sex with birds. “Where was I? Right, your and now my long life. I’m going to ask you rapid-fire questions.”

He twisted his head and scanned the room. It was obvious there were gaps in his knowledge of human expressions and mine too. “Are you going to shoot me?”

“No. I toss questions at you and you answer quickly. Mortal or immortal, yes or no?”

“Maybe one or the other.”

Gods, how can you not know whether you would ever die or not?

“As a god of fear, I was essentially immortal. Now? Meh, I’m not so sure.”

Glad we cleared that up. I might be run over by a bus tomorrow and die or get up and be unaffected by the collision. Not that I was going to experiment with vehicles hurtling along the road.

I pondered what it would be like to live forever and wondered if I’d get bored. Not with my mate but reliving events such as wars and hurricanes, watching civilizations rise and fall, humans destroying themselves and the planet. And while it would be sad seeing my friends pass away, that was likely to happen even if I lived a shifter lifespan.

“Perhaps we can change the world.” We have to be able to bring about huge changes if we’d never die.

“Nah. That’s been tried and always ended in failure.”

I leaped up and straddled him. “Then we have to approach it in a different way. Failure isn’t the end, it’s just a setback or detour.”

“When you have forever, you can become rich, but money doesn’t bring happiness.” He pointed to himself. “I’m the perfect example of that.”

“I don’t want to accrue riches.” I pictured myself sitting on a pile of jewels and gold coins while being served food by a person on bended knee. “We could make real change. Alleviate poverty, mediate between warring countries, provide medical facilities everywhere.” Ideas were zinging around my head, though I wasn’t certain how my mate being a god of fear would fit into my scenarios.

“You’re an optimist.” He sighed. “But I assure you, humans, shifters, fae, and gods will find a way to F things up.”

I flopped onto the bed, images of a transformed world destroyed.

“You’re disappointed, my love.” He slung an arm around my shoulder. “But we can make small steps to improve the lives of others. I’m not sure what those are yet, but we’ll come up with something.”

Maybe he was right.

“I’ve never witnessed you with full powers.” That first night in the bar didn’t count. “But it’s obvious you can summon some of them, or a percentage.” Scaring the crap out of Father didn’t happen because my mate blew a raspberry at him. “And when my wolf was hunting, you were lagging behind before surging so we were shoulder to shoulder.”

He shrugged. “True, but I can’t predict the future. Sadly, that isn’t one of my powers. Any semblance of them might vanish over the coming days and weeks.”

“But you have them. They weren’t taken away as promised.”

“You don’t know that.” He rubbed his chin. “What remains might be… like a fragrance, a reminder of what I had.”

I took hold of his face and made him look at me. “We’re mated, so I can sense what you have in here.” I tapped his skull.

He drew back. “You can read my mind?” He scrunched up his eyes. “I’m trying to copy you. But it’s not working. All I get is a big blank.”

“No, silly.” I ran my hand over the mating mark on his throat. “Because of this, I can sense your powers. They’re not gone gone.”

“They were supposed to be.”

I could allow the conversation to derail and get into a discussion about how he expected his life to improve after the removal of his powers. Or we could get to the bottom of the spell he agreed to.

Placing my palms on top of his, I experienced an upswing in my mate’s powers, resulting in his eyes glowing and his skin prickling with heat. But as we clasped hands, they receded and his head flopped to the side as if the changes had exhausted him.

“I think that goddess shortchanged you.”

He drew back, his eyes open wide. “Never. She wouldn’t. That would go against her… hmmm, well, I suppose it’s possible. Gods have failings, just as people do.”

“Tell me what she promised.”

He waxed on about her saying she’d helped Deimos find his mate and how his powers hadn’t helped his acting skills, and in fact, maybe they’d hindered them.

“Removing them would make me the finest actor of my generation.” We shared a glance, and spots of pink appeared and dotted his cheeks. He made a face. “That might be a slight exaggeration, but she did say I’d succeed as an actor.”

Hmmm, unless I could prove she’d bamboozled him with words, we’d never get to the truth.

“Can you remember her exact words?”

“Yes. She told me that if I lived as a human, I could be anything my heart desires, and she said, ‘You’ll no longer have access to your godly powers.’”

Oh, Phobos. He’d been conned, by a goddess no less. If she’d been doing this since time began, there must have been a lot of humans, shifters, and gods pissed off at her.

“You’ll no longer have access to your godly powers.” I repeated the sentence, hoping my mate would pay attention.

“Yes. But the spell isn’t working.” He shook his head from side to side and then collapsed on the lumpy bed, as if he’d been felled by the pain. “Ouch!” He flopped on his back, complaining for the last time about the mattress and saying nothing he did reversed his godly skills completely.

“Do you have access to your clothes at this moment?” I asked.

“Are we planning on going somewhere? Not another wolf hunt, please. That combined with vigorous sex and mating has worn me out.”

I pointed to his pants and shirt on the floor. “No, I mean, you aren’t wearing them, so you’re naked.” I slapped his bare ass and was almost waylaid about how sexy he was. “But they’re close by, so you have access to them.”

It wasn’t a perfect comparison, so I added, “Or we could visit the woods again, so we both have access to the flowers and the trees.”

“What do my clothes and the woods have in common? Oh, you want me to get naked in the forest just as you did?”

I planted a kiss on his lips. “You are so cute, but we’re getting off track.”

“There’s a track in the—”

“Phobos.” I giggled. We could do this all day and never get anywhere. “Apate said you’d no longer have access to your powers. She didn’t say they were gone forever.”

I studied his face as he went from confusion with narrowed eyes and tapping a finger on his lips, to his eyes and mouth widening. “Well, shit. She messed with me.”

Brushing my hand over his very fine butt and tweaking it, I whispered in his ear, “Nope. I’m the only one allowed to mess with you.”

“I can’t fathom how this will affect my future.” Phobos slid his other hand over the mattress and grimaced. “I hate this thing and don’t understand how you could sleep on it.”

The truth was I’d done very little sleeping. Worrying, yes. Sleeping, no.

“We can’t even donate it.”

I leaped up and kneeled beside him. “Maybe we are on the same wavelength.”

“How so?” He studied my semi-hard cock. “I’d be up for more sex, especially if you’re on top.” He smacked my ass, and gods, I liked it. Perhaps we could role play after the new bed was delivered.

“No.”

“What?” He slid a finger along my shaft, and I shivered as my length engorged. “You don’t want to have more sex?” He tutted as though he was disappointed, but he wasn’t very convincing.

“No. You said the mattress was so shit we couldn’t donate it. That shows you care for others.”

He tilted his head to the side, and I imagined his brain whirring as he processed what I’d said. “I do? Go, me. But I have no clue how you reached that assumption.”

“That you would consider giving something we no longer wanted to someone less fortunate, shows your… not humanity, because you’re not human… but your… umm…”

“Compassion?”

“There you go!”

“Not sure how far my so-called compassion will stretch if I don’t get that new bed ordered.”