Byron arced down and impacted against one of the boulders still settling at the base of the mountain he'd leveled.

The boulder almost turned to dust from his abrupt stop. She'd sent him flying nearly two miles.

His testicle was ruptured. Nope, not ruptured, it was paste. DAMN, WHAT A LEG!

He gritted out, "She got the left... why's it gotta be the left one?!"

Croaking out a hoarse cough through tears, he blinked through the salty water. His vision shifted, focused like a hawk. She was coming in. Charging, her mien excited. The Valkyrie gave a delighted laugh. "This will fix you for good!" she shouted.

She had her short swords! He grimaced.

Fuck. Fell off when she roundhoused me with that sexy-ass boot...

He struggled up, ignoring the mind-blowing pain. He lifted his palm. This was not the time to get fricasseed. He began recalling. The scythe vibrated and started to move.

Nїx's eyes narrowed and she gave off one of her Valkyrie shrieks. He was blown back by the shockwave, unable to breathe from the eyewatering agony in his groin. He flipped end over end and crumpled.

The proto-Valkyrie's singsong voice tolled, "No scythe this time! REAAPERRR!"

His eyes flared open.

Hell no, I'm a reaper, she's a Valkyrie! I choose who dies, she chooses who lives after the death! He kept his arm out, willing the scythe faster. Faster, Goddamn it all to the real Hell!

The scythe snapped out of the ground and careened through the air. Phenїx was closing. He'd witnessed that look of utter joy on her face before she made a kill. She had it painted on her features back in their first meeting.

His scythe split the air with a sonic tearing boom, then snapped into his grip.

The pain cleared and his testicle was back to normal(ish) in an instant. Byron shot up, his molars grinding fury, and he was swinging. "BITCH!"

Nїx juked underneath, hissing, and viciously stabbed at his thigh. He shifted, ignored the searing prick of cold steel. Flipped backwards and swung in behind her, then shoved off another boulder.

She flitted around among the detritus of the mountain. Circling. He stopped a moment, registered the change in her.

She was swifter now. Had she been going easy on him in the beginning?

He caught sight of her sweating almost silver in the dim light. His eyes widened. No, Nїx was testing her limits. The sheen of sweat he saw on her skin told him she was going all-out. A full-on, very pissed-off demigoddess was now his opponent.

He scarcely avoided another plunging thrust. One swing from her left blade sliced open his left shoulder. Enough to sting like hell, it almost severed his artery there.

Blood equaled strength. If she kept this up, he'd have to level up his game. The reaper half of him urged him to fight harder. Problem was, he would kill her. And Byron kind of liked her. Okay, really liked her. She had style.

He winced.

But my nut and dick, of all things for her to go for, dammit. She slashed open his cheek. Shit! That one stung!

Byron howled, "Goddammit, Phenїx! You're pissing me the fuck off!"

Nїx laughed, and her eyes flashed silver. She began running in a tight spiral. There was a blur now, as if she were leaving afterimages in her wake. Or they were all her. His nose scented.

Demigoddess. Magicks. Trick.

He leapt clear. All seven mirages bounced towards him. Feeling the vibration, he twisted and met her first sword with his scythe's blade, then kicked down on her left breast.

Those were very sensitive pillows. She fell, "You fucker!"

One for my nut, Valkyrie.

He contorted, using thicker air as a purchase to accelerate back to the hell's terra, and swung at her feet in a devastating arc, heaving a portion of his power into it. She leapt clear just in time.

The cleave blew out a half-moon crater, blasting several tons of dirt and pebbles in a fan of debris. He swiveled. The dumbfounded look on her gorgeous face made him want to laugh. Underestimate me, little demigoddess... go right the Hell on.

"You're trying to kill me!" Nїx's tone was accusation and outrage.

Who was she kidding?!

"What the fuck do you call these?!" He brushed his scythe's haft over the laceration healing rapidly on his leg.

She paused to stare at the healing skin. Her tongue touched her lips - which was too damned sexy for him - then her voice lilted, "Just love scratches, darling."

Her eyes flicked back up, her eyebrows wagged, "Nice legs, too."

Stop. Being. A sexy brat! Byron clenched Scalpere. "The fuck's wrong with you, Phenїx! This all a game?! Is the universe just a bunch of pawns for you to play with?"

Nїx took a step back, lifting her swords, defensive.

"Of course not, numbnuts! I'm playing to win this! To save it all!"

Her mouth was open just enough for him to see her tongue lick across a tiny fang. His cock rearranged itself. I've gotta be a damned masochist to want someone this bad after that soul-rearranging kneeblow.

Her eyes flickered down, flared open with a wicked smile - oh Grim, don't tell me she can see that well at this range - and then back to his face.

"Do you want to know what I really think?" she asked.

"No, but go ahead, enlighten me," he huffed.

"I think you're hard-up as all the hells, and you've been a chaste wittle sperm."

He held back a guffaw. She had no clue.  Nїx's voice softened, blue eyes tantalizing while she perused him, "Overstimulation can be a bitch for most immortals who are raised to prepare for it. For a transitioning mortal, it's gotta be a whole new kind of delicious hell."

Just to reinforce her point, she bent over, provocative, enticing, allowing him a look down her low-cut t-shirt. Both her nipples vaguely peeking erect through the thin cotton. He worked down the saliva that burst in his mouth.

"You want me, but you claim you have this dumbass mission. But I can handle the details. And I can handle you," she let out in a whiskey voice, "I can handle you, very well."

"You've never seen a female like me in action. So, what's more important?" Phenїx hummed, "Mission, or missionary? Slowing down my rightful ascension, or embracing your oldest, most basic and vital instincts to cleave?"

She let out a lover's whisper, "I can rock your whole existence with what I KNOW to do with an immortal male."

Guh. Want that. Byron nearly slammed his brain out of his ear with a fist. Idiot! Fo-cusss!!!

Why in all the hells and heavens did she have to be more alluring than Aphrodite, Tinraia or Cernah?! He shook his head, clenched hard on the haft of his weapon. "Mission," he growled.

Phenїx's pout deepened, "You don't think I'm tempting?" Her lips gave a moping look, eyes faux innocent, "Not even a little?"

He checked another grin. Fool me once, shame on you, Valkyrie. Sure, to the real Hell he wanted her, but he was not losing his nuts again! A man - or Hell, any male! - would have to be completely insane beyond even a section 8.

"Maybe you should've led with the temptation before you keelhauled my nut, Phenїx," he grunted. "Excuse the fucks outta me for being a good soldier."

When she heard that, Nїx's face turned into a vision of curiosity. He could've sworn her tipped ears flicked like a kitten.

Waaait, they could do that, he remembered suddenly. He huffed. Great, another sexy part he just had to like about her.

"Soldier?" Her reply wavered slightly.

Byron's mind lit up with a telling smile. Ah, that's right. Valkyrie. He'd almost forgotten her first job. "Yeah, soldier. Did my time and tours. I wasn't just a boxcutter all my life."

She was tapping a sword to her thigh. "Mm. Explains the physique."

"Haven't been keeping up of late, but the transition seems to've helped."

Nїx moved closer. The reaper in his body instantly recognized threat. He let his voice thunder, "Don't even think it, Valkyrie!"

She stopped, tilted her head, then perused him again. He took the time to do the same. With the t-shirt and jean shorts, she'd have made a great Daisy Dukes cosplay. The thigh-highs though, just damn. Her head shook, "Stop that!"

He squinted confusion, "Huh? What?"

"Stop emitting that smell!"

Byron double-checked himself internally. The shit?

"Uh, I didn't pass gas the last thirty seconds, Phenїx. Can't promise about earlier, you know, my boys were the major red alert."

Nїx bit down on her lip, shaking with laughter. Then she settled in, repeating slowly, "You smell good, numbnuts."

She was tapping her swords together lightly, the metal ringing, eyeballing him up and down as though Byron had gone from being a threat, to being a meal. "Sandalwood and juniper," she mentioned, "And there's some cypress and blue cedar, too. Maybe some others in there."

That inspection of hers was enough to make him feel like she'd just seen everything under his clothes. He shrugged, bemused, "What, I like to take showers, what's wrong with that? Shampoo, body wash and shave cream."

Her eyebrows furrowed, curious and confused, "You still shave?"

"Duh," he deadpanned, "Doesn't everyone? Well, okay, not everyone, but you get my drift. My beard is crap, anyway."

Nїx rolled her eyes. "You're supposed to be frozen in your immortality, reaper."

He clucked his tongue against a cheek. "Well, sorry there, Valkyrie, but I guess Grim missed that memo when it came to my species. I still grow facial hair."

* * * * *

Nїx quirked her head. Something else I've never seen before...

She sniffed again. Old as she was, her senses rivaled those of the oldest Lykae in existence.

The pheromones off this male carried the undertone of a mortal human male, but there was an over and midtone. Immortal. Something dark, but calm. Like a tomb encased in myrrh in a cool forest.

Deep woods. Chilly air, but not dead of winter. Autumn and that mouthwatering combination. Juniper, blue cedar, gods above, the male had the scent of the forest all over him...

He really was a transitioned or transitioning mortal, but he was completely off the spectrum of what she expected and had come to know as normal. And he was giving her the fight of her life at this young an age? It was impossible!

Nїx's eyes opened to see he'd lowered his guard a fraction. She noticed where he was looking. Oh hooo... down in front, reaper.

She waved her left sword upwards. His gaze slid back up to hers. That caress made her feel a shiver of pleasure. She smirked, nodding. "Yes, they're natural, reaper baby."

He gave another noncommittal shrug. But after his reaction earlier, she knew he liked what he saw. Supposition confirmed when he shifted his left leg again. Her eyes tilted with her face while she inspected. Ahhh, hangs that way more? I must have clocked it a little with the nut. Good. It's what he gets for pressing up against my ass of a goddess against that tree. Mmm.

Now... do I bleed him slow, or make it fast?

"Kinda figured, still ya never know, had to look again." Byron paused, his head tilting, "But that makes me wonder."

She quirked her head opposite his, kitten-like, "Wonder what?"

"Aren't all you immortals supposed to have mates?" Byron asked. "Something I've heard a lot about you, you the soothsayer - excuse me, the predeterminationally-abled - helping all the couples find the romance. You're over three millennia old, but none doing?"

She froze momentarily. Something flashed across her memory and she pushed it away, fast. No. Don't think about that.

She played it off with a giggled, "I do plenty."

"Yeah, suuuure, Valkyrie."

That insanely high dose of sarcasm pissed her off, and her temper flared with the urge to do violence. What's this arrogant youth think he knows that he's not telling me?

"Maybe once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away, but not recently, demigoddess," he paused, then casually twirled the scythe a few times. He acted as if it was scarcely a feather's weight to him. She'd had a hard time wielding it, the doubledamned scythe had been heavy-ass shit.

How strong was he? Was he holding back when he was hitting her earlier? Or was that weapon something that recognized the owner instinctively?

"You talk the talk, sure, but you aren't walking much of anywhere. Especially for someone who is all about helping these people find their mates." Byron glanced, "And with pillows like those you got? What are those, C cups?"

"Triple Ds, thank you very much," she snapped, then blushed when she realized he'd just coerced her cup size out of her. Dammit, Nїxie! Don't tell him how good they are! You're supposed to be killing him!

"Ooo, you bastard!"

"Eaaasy on my mother now. Do not be that bitch, Phenїx," he thundered. "Mom was married happily."

"Quit calling me a bitch, mommy's boy," Nїx rolled her eyes. "You Italian?"

"Quit acting like a bitch, then I'll start treating you like a real lady, Phenїx!" he shouted back.

Her ego flared up instantly. Godsdamned boy!

"And no," he shook his head. "I'm a mutt. Maybe some Italian. Mostly Germanic, Irish, French, some Cherokee."

Nїx shook herself, bewildered and sorely pissed off. He truly was mortal, or he'd been a mortal. Yet he had ancient knowledge that surpassed even her, at least in some areas. And she'd been around in the blackest of realms finding secrets. As well as foreseeing the secrets.

Plus, the little male wasn't taking her shit like he rightfully ought to. Of all the arrogant little-!

"And my Mom is gone, along with Dad, so don't pull that shit again with me!" he shouted.

She stuttered. No... no family? Oh... shit. But he's not even forty yet?! Ooo... dammit. She winced when sympathy hit her in the heart, then knocked the cricket on her shoulder off. Leave me alone, Jiminy...

"Triple Ds, hourglass figure, toned legs, whiplash-worthy ass, glacier blue eyes under the gold, raven hair, au natural?"  He ticked off her physical attributes like they were the stats for a winning player in a game.

All simple truth. She let his comments go with one of her winning smiles and a wag of her eyebrows.

"Strong as all real Hell, feisty, brilliant, sexy-and-you-own-it. Little over the top with that dragon shit attitude, but still -" He kicked his scythe up over his shoulders like it was a log to carry, "-You haven't got a man, excuse me, a male, fighting for you?"

Her heart took a tumble. No. Don't think about it, Nїxie.

She shrugged, feigning disinterest. "Nope. It really doesn't matter. Most males don't have what it takes to keep up with me, any old way."

"Sure, Valkyrie, all those gorgeous Lorean females I see wandering New Orleans, y'all get as much action as you can. So, what? Your foresight broken when you look at yourself? Or, is your mate dead?"

Her head snapped up at those last two sentences. "If I had a mate and he died, I'd follow, reaper," she gritted out. "I should know, I've witnessed it fifty thousand times. Literally."

She ignored the multitude of times she witnessed it in her foresight. She shook loose the haunting image. "I'm just lucky to see all my sisters get their bump-and-grind on."

Byron's face had turned curious. He waved his free left hand over the desolation surrounding them.

"And after all that, watching all those couples mated up by your foresight..." he quirked his head, "You wanna try convincing me you haven't taken a peek? That you still don't have a male in your life?"

This youth was tiptoeing on a minefield and didn't even know it. Nїxie's fingers tightened on the blade hilts.

"I can handle my own shit, reaper. See: demigoddess, exhibit A."

She cast her swords up.

* * * * *