Bloodline of Osiris

Chapter 17

Marcus turned and locked the door, giving me time to get on my feet. I was confused as hell. "What?"

"Ever since you arrived here, you've been Set's favorite. Well, that's gonna change." Marcus used the same spell I had used on him earlier to paralyze me. I found that not only were my limbs held still, but my jaw was as well. I couldn't speak, let alone scream to get Adam's attention.

Marcus manipulated my body, throwing me against the wall. A sharp pain laced through my shoulder and head as I hit the edge of the bookshelf on the wall, piercing through my skin to bring blood to the surface. I hit the wall a few more times, hearing things crack and break periodically, until he finally grew tired of it. He threw me back onto the floor, then stepped on my leg, hard. Distantly, I heard a faint snap, like a twig cracking and breaking. An intense agony shot from my leg, up into my brain, making me want to scream.

Grinning, Marcus stalked toward me, nudging my broken leg with his foot. White hot waves crashed into my mind, blinding me.

"You think you're so special?" He smirked. "You are nothing. You can't even defend yourself!"

He went on a whole rant about how I wasn't special, yada yada yada, rant rant rant. Honestly, I wasn't listening; I was in too much pain to care about his little hurt ego. He ended with something like, "you're a disgrace," or something else about defending myself.

"She doesn't have to defend herself!"

I guess that answered what he ended the rant on.

Adam's voice broke through the haze fogging my mind, and I dimly saw Adam stepping out of the closet. He took one look at me and turned back to Marcus, furious.

Marcus sneered. "Look what we have here. Defending your girlfriend, I see. I'm actually not surprised you're here; honestly, I always suspected the slut would hook up with you in her free time. I thought about coming in here myself one night and--"

He never finished the 'and'. Adam tackled him to the ground, throwing punches at him in a blind rage. Between each punch he delivered he spoke, "Do. Not. Talk. About. Sam. That. Way!"

On the last word he spat at Marcus, then quickly stood up and put his foot to Marcus's face, pressing it into the floor. "Let's see how you like it, punk."

Adam raised his hand, forming a ball of darkness on his palm. The magic sung through the air, electrifying it, urged on by the passionate emotions surging through it's masters veins. Dark tendrils reached out toward Marcus, latching onto his legs, arms, torso. By the way Marcus screamed and thrashed about, it hurt a lot. One good thing, though, is that the magic holding me still ceased. The flip side is, even more pain erupted to torture my dear, poor nerve endings.

My vision started to blur, black spots creeping at the edges. No!

"A-Adam," I gasped. "St-stop-p." the black edging my vision closed in, leaving a last few seconds to see Adam turn toward me, Marcus stop moving, and the darkness fade.

*~~~~*

My eyes fluttered open, only to shut tight again. An intense light burned just above my eyelids, blinding me as soon as I was stupid enough to try and open my eyes again. Cursing, I sat up, banging my head on a lamp hanging just over my bed, slipping off the edge to fall to the ground, and landing hard on my butt.

Adam woke with a jolt, sitting in a chair next to the bed I was in. When he saw me, he immediately sprang out of the chair to help me up. He pulled me up, then allowed me to rest against the edge of the bed. His face was inches from mine. Too close.

I pulled away, taking shallow breaths to try and calm my pounding heart. Seriously, stop beating! He might hear it! Then he'll know how flustered you get around him, even though you just got back, and god almighty he is hot... What was I thinking?

Adam chuckled, and I realized too late that he was reading my thoughts. I smacked his (very muscular) chest, huffing. "Stop that!"

Grinning, he leaned closer to me. "Stop what? This? I'm not doing anything, see, I'm not even touching you!" He held his hands up for effect.

"Uhm..." I blushed madly, trying to scoot away from him. Unfortunately, the bed I was on was small, and backed up against a wall, so I had nowhere to go.

Adam put his hands down on either side of me, blocking me in. He then leaned even closer, his eyes never leaving mine. "You're so beautiful..."

It was barely a murmur, so low I almost didn't catch it. When I processed what he said, however, I raised my eyebrow at him. "Really? The freaking god of perfection says that to me? What is this, an old-fashioned romance novel?"

Inside I was screaming. What the what?! I didn't even qualify to be a housemaid for a guy like this, how does he think I'm...beautiful...? No, wait, I know what it is. He must have suffered brain damage after using magic to save me from Marcus. Yeah, that's it. Or he went blind. That would be such a pity...

Adam took a strand of my hair, tucking it behind my ear. Oh god my heart stopped beating for a second. "I haven't suffered brain damage, and no I'm not blind. If I'm the god of perfection, then, well...you must be my goddess."

I was about to flip when, thankfully, Thoth walked through the door, holding a clipboard in one hand and adjusting his spectacles with the other. Adam pulled away so fast, I was afraid he got whiplash. Brushing past Thoth, he looked back over at me and smiled, a true, genuine, heart-wrenchingly gorgeous smile that made my chest flutter. Adam smirked, walking out the door.

Thoth watched him go, then turned back to me, confused. "Did I miss something...?"