Of all the arrogant, impertinent immortal males!

And this baby wants to try and educate me?? Rrrrrrrr! I’m the damned wild card in the Lore, not him!

Nїx shook her head fiercely. She had to force down the shivers that had threatened her thighs.

That and the knowledge that this crazy male had sent a shockwave through her with that body of his. But then, she was also a demigoddess, with lusts to match.

The reaper had left her on edge of one of the best orgasms in recent memory. She couldn’t remember the last time she had one that intense she hadn’t induced with a little help from her battery-powered friends under her bed.

Her eyes cast off to the other mountains opposite the one he'd just leveled. She had a limited time table to do what she’d been planning, and now that mission was getting interrupted because of this baby. How did this boy even know about Orion and the pantheons?

And how exactly did he even think he was going to accomplish all of this? She paused. More importantly, how is he fighting me this hard when he’s barely older than Josephine or Thaddeus!? They’re from Apparatia. He’s… what is a reaper, really?

The youth interrupted her musings. “Orion’s halfway kin to my kind’s primordial creator. You might know him. The one they call Grim?”

Nїx’s eyes connected with his, narrowing. Had she asked that question out loud? She paused, then her mind processed what he’d answered with. There was no lie in those green eyes, or that face. Was this immortal male truly serious?

“The Grim Reaper.” She pointed at him delicately. “You’re saying your primordial creator is Death?”

“One and the same. Been ‘round a long while. Since Creation itself began with the Creator.”

It sank in why she was feeling differently about him. His lingo was new. Her tone lilted with a squint, “You mention God and Creator so much, you sound like one of those new Christian types.”

Another smirk twisted those male lips, “Yep, new kids on the block. Or, maybe an old tale retold with a new twist. Or,” he chuckled. “We’re a completely different tale others never expected.”

She weighed that a moment. Most of those from the mortal religions had almost never entered the Lore. They weren’t equipped for the shock of learning myths were not myths. More frequently, they were turnings from vampires.

Ellie Ann was one of the few to do so, and she’d been inhabited by a goddess before Lothaire had shown up. And she’d still ended up a vampiress. Albeit a daywalker, thanks to her husband's unexpected kindness.

Lothaire might have been the most evil of all vampires, but to grant his Bride the sunlight so she could walk in it was an unexpected and touching thing to many.

Nїx planted her hands on her hips. “Most of you newbies seem pretty closed off to others. If you transitioned so recently, shouldn’t you be wigging out about all this, reaper?”

“Nope.” Byron settled back a bit. “I always believed there was a spiritual reality to every faith system. Come to find out the spiritual is also physical. So, adjust, adapt, overcome.” He jerked a thumb at the scythe. “The scythe, new powers, and my home help immensely."

Nїx ran her hands together in thought. This young, his earlier behavior was more easily explained. He was still adjusting to hypersensitivity.

Also known as overstimulation, it was common with immortal species when they finally became immortal. For most, it meant their bodies would be on fire even more than they had been as teenagers.

That would mean he would constantly struggle with his libido. Any sort of scents, sensations, or sounds could set him off.

Not to mention she was a goddess-to-be and the daughter of a goddess and a god, so already she was preternaturally beautiful. He was already in overdrive… she would be a hit of rocket fuel to his tank.

That gave her a wickedly good idea. She started walking towards him, giving his body another, longer look while she sized him up. There was another vague recollection. Something about him was niggling at her brain insistently.

He looked familiar... Nїx tried placing where she had seen this male before. But it was a dull note, nothing definitive. Never mind then.

How was she going to get this arrogant little ass to listen? He probably won’t. She held back a sigh, Oh well… back to plan A, then, Nїxie.

Instead, go for classic Valkyrie distraction. Use his hypersensitivity. She moved closer, but stayed just clear of swinging distance of that disturbing scythe. Even with its blade buried in the dirt, it resonated power.

The fact this youth had a god-killer was unbelievable. And that was no Banemen dieumort. She sensed how ancient it was the second she hefted it. So where the hells did he get it from?

“Where are the rest of your kind? Even in the Lore, they’re just a boogieman. I’ve never seen one.” Nїx lifted her eyebrows, letting her face tell him what she thought of that. “And I’ve been around, numbnuts.”

His cheek twitched. Hm. Must have hit a sore spot.

“Extinct species. About forty Accessions back we got our asses handed to us by some of the primordial and elder gods.”

The way he grunted it out made her tense. His kind are gone? Something bloomed in her. Then she forced it down, No. Shove-shove, go down, heart. Heart. Down.

She refused to accept the flutter in her heart had anything to do with sympathy. It was just heart arrhythmia. Even if she’d never had heart arrhythmia. She was a Valkyrie and a demigoddess.

Heart arrhythmia, or maybe he’s just the closest thing with a swinging dick I happen to find attractive.

She leaned over and looked up under her eyelashes, getting him to look down. His pupils contracted. Now, the male in him was zoned in on her assets.

Look all you want, reaper, that’s it!

She let him stare a moment or two longer. His heartbeat had gone up. “Rebalancing?” she prodded.

He shuddered a breath in, his head snapping to one side, “It’s where those old tales about Atlantis, the Great Flood and the Hammurabi scrolls kind of blend together.”

Her eyes opened a fraction. Wait. This youth knows about The Primordial Wars?

“Humans and a few dozen mortal species on other planets had just come off a cataclysm involving the Lore. Death warned the elders to back up off Creation, told the evil ones to let the mortals be given a chance to regrow. They declined,” Byron sneered.

Nїx’s lips parted. That was the gist of it, but there was more. Still, she had never heard about the reapers’ part in the drama. She shook her hair out, thinking that over. “And your whole species died?”

Little closer…

“Death didn’t. The rest of the adult reapers,” he nodded. “… yes. Still, we took four dozen evil deities, and a few millions of their immortals to all the hells with us.”

Phenїx’s mind opened in awe. Byron jutted his chin a bit, his tone admiring, “Not bad for a hundred forty-four thousand.”

Nїx’s heart softened at that confession. Then she had to remind herself not to.

Focus on getting the hells out of here, Nїxie girl.

In spite of that, she was skilled in her talents and gifts. She’d acquired one important gift long ago. One that he hadn’t blocked. She could test truths.

This tale had the ringing truth of a diamond pinging off steel. He wasn't lying.

Nїx found herself genuinely curious. “What about your offspring?”

Byron’s mien became solemn. “Their powers were neutered, then made mortal. Cast into the humans to hide them. Those old enough had their memories replaced with false ones to keep them sane.”

She was dumbfounded. Of all the things an immortal species could do to its own kind, that was the absolute worst.

“Your kind stole their own offspring’s immortality? Their memories??”

No, no species could do that... it was considered heinous.

Byron ran his tongue over his teeth. “Well... better that than winding up in an undying hell with the bastards their parents were fighting.”

Phenїx thought about that a moment, puzzled, No. What? Not really sure I agree with that… how would one end up getting sucked into a hell with an evil deity? Unless you worship them?

His voice drifted to her, “Some of the worst and most secret plagues in mortal and immortal history stem from that conflict. Crom Cruach was one of the worst to survive.”

Her eyes snapped up at the name of one the gods she and her sisters had killed.

“It’s how he ended up all maggoty," Byron tacked on.

Okay, even that she had not been aware of. She knew – or thought she knew – Cruach was just that damned ugly. But if he’d been involved in the Primordial Wars, that would have explained it. And the matter with Skathi, her distant aunt.

The reaper was giving her a long, appreciative look. “Yeah, by the way, reminds me, nice job running the mission on that. Sick cannibal bastard had it coming.” He tossed a two-fingered salute, “My regards to your sister Lucia for a good kill.”

Nїx felt her chest swell several fractions at the compliment. This strange male knew how to pay a girl her dues.

Hm. Maybe a little more than just a very-cute, outright suicidal male.

Then her mind clicked on what he’d left out. “And your primordial just left your species to die?”

She closed the distance another step.

Byron shrugged wearily. “Grim Reaper didn’t have a choice. He got recalled. Creator and others thought the rebalancing of all that evil would take ten eons to resurface. Trouble was, it didn’t.”

The male looked off in the distance, swallowing on some emotion. The stark black-and-brown dirt of this hell realm seemed to swallow him some, and she became intimately aware.

This male is lonely.

Her claws flexed a fraction of a millimeter. Nїx knew something about being alone. Even surrounded by her coven sisters, she carried the weight of all the questions they could ever ask. So what did this male carry?

“Seems I’m the first one to be granted the powers of the ancestral line,” Byron muttered. His gaze was on the horizon, scanning. Searching.

Phenїx shivered. Lonely, lost, and no one else to guide him. But if that were so, why did he come to halt her powers – how did not matter at the moment, although an aura was a new one for her. Why confront her, rather than seek her foresight?

Confusing young male… I could just tell you what to do… okay, maybe play a little and tell you what to do all mystically, cuz I am an oracle, but I’d get you in the vicinity…

She stepped closer. He was calmer, breathing through his nose slowly. The vibrations in the air were lulling. Nїx found it similar to the kind of atmosphere one might feel if one were praying or meditating. Or existing and admiring something beautiful and wondrous to behold.

That was a calm her mind hadn’t fully known in centuries. Maybe even longer.

Byron looked at her. Something about that stare made her want to lean closer. The reaper loomed over her face, searching her features. He was drinking her up.

Byron’s face softened. And strangely, she felt herself… relaxed. She had to give herself a mental headshake. Who is calming who here?

“You’ve got amazing eyes, has anyone told you that?”

Nїx smiled, even while brittle pain bloomed in her mind. She caught what that meant. The other shoe was dropping. The reaper had stolen her powers to get her attention. He was young, new, he had nowhere else to turn for answers.

Why not get the attention of the best predeterminationally-abled demigoddess in all the realms? Now, he would want to give her back her foresight and hear his future.

Oh well, at least I didn’t have to see that for a little while… maybe I won’t go with plan A. Though I will definitely give him a little hell with plan B…

Nїx stifled off the shudder of an alien feeling. Then she floated a fleeting sigh, “All the time, sugar.”

The youth shook his head a fraction of an inch, still staring with that scrutiny. “I’m talking about the color. Blue is definitely you.”

Her breath left her lungs. My eyes changed back?! Nїx looked around for something, then commanded, “Let me see.”

The reaper raised his arm, calling over his scythe. She took the time to notice the sinews in that arm. Okay, maybe I needed to be more careful. Definitely strong for such a youth.

Byron raised the weapon in front of her and walked forwards with both hands close to the blade, the haft behind him. The blade was aimed at his torso. The silvered sides were just polished enough to be a mirror. But then... the tip was at his heart.

She could put it in his chest… never trust a Valkyrie… another part of her discarded the idea.

No, I want to see myself and he’s… he’s trusting me. He could’ve done far worse when he had me on the ground. Why? Never mind, I want to see.

Her reflection startled her. She patted her cheeks, around her eyes, peeling the lids open. My eyes.

Phenїx smiled, brilliantly. To see her own face in the reflection... without the backdrop of the paths and fates... without the amber-gold. “I’d… forgotten…”

Byron grunted, “Foresight will do that, so I hear.”

He tossed the scythe in the ground and leaned closer. She could smell the mouthwash he’d used prior to transition. No, it was fresher. He brushed his teeth?

And was that a banana? She inhaled slowly. There was something else, a mixture of sandalwood and juniper.

Nїx hummed, “You smell good.”

Byron touched her forefinger, hooking it around his own. That voice of his rumbled deliciously through her ears, “Are you going to admit you’ve been a very naughty demigoddess? And please tell me you’re gonna slow down, quit this crazy scheme.”

Her tripwire went off. He wasn’t interested in his future? She narrowed her eyes and her smile curled, alluring. Godsdammit, male, now I must go back to plan A.

She purred, “I can’t help being a crazy good girl in a bad girl’s body, reaper.”

Jade eyes narrowed. His growl came back, a warning tone on a missile, “Phenїx…”

Nїx’s eye ticked. Numbnuts… need my powers back NOW!!! She lifted her knee with all the force she could muster.

CRUNCH. He doubled over, coughing out.

“Huhhkuuuuuk.”

She whipped a roundhouse spin kick to his chest. Perfect aim. Byron was off like a bullet.

Homerun, Nїxie!

Nїx clapped happily, then her eyes turned wrathful and she set into her fastest sprint after him.

Plan A… kill the youth. But sigh, kinda nice-ish for a one-of-a-kind asshole.

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