positioned at exactly the right height for Laran, “feel the strength and power I offer to You on our behalf.”
A soft breeze blew through the space, rustling the leaves and ruffling the woman’s hair, sending red strands dancing. Laran grabbed her hip in one hand and his cock in the other and fitted their bodies together with one lunge.
The woman gasped in ecstasy as Laran sank deep and closed his eyes.
“Let our offering please You as it pleases us.”
Laran’s hips began to move, thrusting and retreating, never faltering in his recitation of the ritual. The grigori continued the accompanying chant as the air in the temple thickened, the spell increasing in intensity. Laran’s voice deepened, as well, until he was nearly growling. The woman’s ecstatic cries lent potency to the spell and when she finally broken into orgasm, Laran came, as well.
Their combined climaxes infused the air with a heady power that blasted into the grigori like a nuclear wave. It drenched them in magic, seeped into their bodies, into that part the Great God Tinia had given them that made them grigori .
Closing his eyes, Gabriel breathed through the almost overwhelming sensation as the power sank deeper, clawing its way into his blood and his bones and his mind. So much power. Almost too much. Never too much.
When he could manage, Gabriel opened his eyes and looked around, his enhanced vision picking out the distinctive blue auras surrounding his fellow grigori . In addition to detecting emotions in auras, grigori identified the type of magic user by the underlying color of their aura. Blue for grigori , purple for streghe , yellow for versipelli .
The black tinge around Larth’s aura told Gabriel he needed to get laid. Diego was worried about something according to his maroon-ringed aura. And Aulus lusted after either the woman or Laran, Gabriel couldn’t tell which and didn’t care either way.
Lucumo and Joseph’s auras were untainted by any hint of stress. He’d never actually seen the brothers pissed off about anything, but they were relentless machines when it came to protecting their charges.
And Digger… Well, Digger sought redemption with the same intensity Gabriel wanted revenge. Not that any of the other grigori would see that in his aura. He’d gotten damn good at submerging his true feelings.
The other grigori would only be able to tell that he was pissed off, which was no surprise to anyone. Only Laran might see more, and probably had, but he’d never interfered, never questioned.
Of course, what God of War would question a man’s right to revenge?
“Hey, Gabe. You want to stop at The Cellar?” Aulus called to him as the grigori broke the circle and headed through the courtyard to the exit, allowing the woman and Laran a little private time to get cleaned up. Or go again, if he interpreted those moans correctly. “These other pansies are wimping out on me.”
Gabriel considered hitting the local banquet hall, run by the small tribe of monacielli who made their own wine and cooked like gourmet chefs. They looked like smaller, rounder versions of that Food Network guy his mom loved to watch and cooked even better.
Sounded good but he shook his head. “Not tonight, wiped out. Maybe next time.”
Tonight, he needed a few hours of sleep.
Tomorrow, he’d start over. And when he finally found that bastard Dario, he’d rip out his heart and burn him into a little pile of ash.
Chapter Four
“I am in need of a grigorio .”
The voice, husky and feminine, made Gabriel’s libido jump up and beg her to do him, even through the pounding hangover.
But her use of the word grigorio rang all his warning bells, even through the headache from the combination of ritual and the amount of alcohol he’d consumed over the past few days. Add in the fact that he’d only just gotten to sleep a half hour ago, and he’d actually thought about ignoring the damn door. But the knocking had been too loud and he didn’t want to attract the
Israel Finkelstein, Neil Asher Silberman