Earth's Hope by Ann Gimpel Page A

up?”
    “Ye should thank the goddess we found something that works,” Arawn panted.
    The threatening sensation that had bothered Nidhogg earlier rose to the fore. He smelled the dark god before he saw him and stepped forward, fire flashing from his mouth. “Perrikus, you old dog. I know you’re here. Come to gloat? Oh, wait a minute. I’m not under your dastardly thumb anymore.”
    Looking as fresh as if he’d just stepped off a New York runway, the dark god sauntered around the corner of Fionn’s manner house. Auburn hair swirled around him, falling in waves to his waist, and his golden skin glowed. He turned sparkling green eyes Aislinn’s way and reached for her, but she jumped aside.
    Rune launched himself at the dark god, but before he got within three feet, Perrikus waved a lazy hand, and the wolf’s arcing jump ended with him falling hard into the dirt.
    Aislinn thrust herself between her wolf and the dark god. “Leave him alone.”
    “Just as feisty—and desirable—as ever, I see.” The dark god licked his chiseled lips. He turned his nose upward, scenting the air. “What? Your Celt boyfriend doesn’t seem to be here. Excellent.” He rubbed his hands together. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, eh?”
    Aislinn turned away, but Nidhogg caught the scent of her arousal. The dark gods were sex incarnate. No one could withstand their pull.
    Dewi landed and pushed to Aislinn’s side. “She is bound to me as well, scum-sucker. You’ll have to go through me to get to her.”
    “Us too.” Timothy and Daniel flanked Aislinn.
    “Och, you’re easy,” Perrikus said to Dewi. “All I have to do is dredge up Slototh’s Minotaur to keep you occupied.”
    “Dewi,” Nidhogg bellowed. “You didn’t.”
    “Later,” she shot back. “Next time you think I’m dead for a few hundred years, let’s see how long you stay faithful.”
    “That’s hardly the point—” he sputtered, puffing fire-laced smoke as fury roared through him. Dewi was his. His. No other creature had a right to touch her.
    “It’s exactly the point,” she countered, spinning to face him. “I thought you were dead. Dead. You hear me? What? Was I supposed to live out my next few thousand years in celibacy?”
    “Stop it!” Aislinn shrieked. “This is how they win. By turning us against one another.”
    “She has a point.” Dewi tossed her head, fire streaming from her mouth. She skewered Nidhogg with her dark gaze. “If you must dissect this, I say we do it later.”
    Nidhogg turned away, recognizing wisdom in his mate’s words. But a small, wounded place burned deep inside him. Maybe they’d hash it out. Maybe they wouldn’t. Balanced against what they faced, its importance dwindled. He spewed fire at Perrikus, recognizing it as displacement for his anger and hurt.
    The dark god screwed up his impossibly handsome face and laughed, sidestepping the flames with the grace of a dancer.
     

Chapter Seven
    Aislinn shrank away from Perrikus, hoping to lose herself among the Celts and humans. Her breath caught in her throat, and her body was primed for sex, nipples achingly hard and pussy awash in liquid heat. Damn the dark gods to Hell. They all had that effect, at least on her. As if they’d cast her in a porn flick where all she could think about was spreading her legs for the first man to show up with an erection.
    “Steady.” Timothy spoke low into her ear.”
    She forced deep, even breaths, but it didn’t help. An arm latched around her shoulders from behind and she shoved it away, hissing and spitting like a scalded cat, before she realized it wasn’t Perrikus.
    Bran’s touch was cool, measured. He came around to the front and leveled his copper gaze at her. “Doona fash, lassie. But I fear the plot thickens.”
    Dewi glowered at Perrikus, and blasted him with fire, but it crackled against his warding and sloughed off. “Mind your own affairs,” she ground out. “Too bad I didn’t injure you worse when I