Bad Influence (Seven Deadly Sins #2) ✅ Completed

Chapter Fifteen: Ride the Lightning

Ride the Lightning

“Eliza! Thank Zeus!” Hermes peered into my face. I blinked a few times to clear my head as I slowly came back to reality. I was lying flat on my back, the sword of Perseus and the flask from Cassandra still clutched in each hand. Hermes took them gently from me, standing to place them on the glass counter while Dante knelt down in his place. I could see the ceiling of the Emporium above him and had never been happier to be home in my life.

Kind of insane that Aunt Celeste’s shop felt like home now, but it did. 

“Eliza, how do you feel? Are you ok?” The concern on Dante’s face kept me from making any kind of snarky commentary about being taken apart and reassembled like a Lego set. Actually, I was having a hard enough time readjusting to being back to say anything at all. It was all just one majorly trippy experience.  

Dante’s fingers brushed the hair away from my eyes before laying his palm flat on my forehead. His hand was cool and callused, and hummed with a power that was all his own. He shut his eyes, his face taking on an air of concentration. I felt a low electric current move from the top of my head to the tips of my Converse-clad toes.

“What are you doing?” I asked my voice scratchy and dry. I was so thirsty. How long had it been since I actually drank something? I wasn't even sure.   

“You’re warm,” Dante murmured low and soft. I felt something jolt through me at his words, as if raising the voltage of whatever current he was passing through my body.

He’s too cold. We could warm him together.

I felt Lust rise up and whisper inside my mind, sending me images of things we could do to keep Dante from the cold, each scene hotter than the last. I watched Dante’s eyes fly open as he withdrew his hand from me as if I’d burned him.

“Sorry,” I muttered, my face turning a deep crimson to match the appropriate level of humiliation I was feeling. I knew Dante could read my thoughts, ratcheting up my capacity to feel embarrassment on a whole new level – somewhere in the vicinity of the stratosphere.

“No, it’s ok. It’s not your fault,” he replied quietly. I wasn’t use to this gentler side of him. How was I supposed to fight Lust if he was going to go all soft on me now?

Lust laughed. Dante narrowed his eyes down to slits as if he could hear her too.

Hi lover. I’ve missed you.

If he was going to say anything in response he decided against it. Hermes crouched down beside him, looking from Dante to me as he spoke, “Okaayy, how about we keep any required healing to me, Mr. Deep Dark and Dangerous?” He shouldered past Dante until he’d put himself in between us, “So how about it, dollface? You sure you’re alright?” he asked, placing a hand on my forehead where Dante’s had just been.

This time I felt a cool breeze sweep over me. It was pleasant and reminded me of playing on the swings when I was little and my mother liked to go to Central Park to find nice doctors to flirt with. I’d been too young to know what she was really up to and too busy playing with kids my own age, laughing and enjoying the afternoon in the sun to care.

That’s what Hermes reminded me of – an autumn breeze in the middle of a sunny afternoon spent playing without a single care in the whole world.

He gave me a small smile as if he could read my thoughts too. “That’s probably the nicest thing anyone’s ever thought about me,” he said softly.