Of course, the whole point was moot, the second phase of our plan had failed before it could start. We were all about to die without Janice’s shields and fighting prowess.

  Caroline yelled, “Separate now!”

  I saw the point, that way Lillian would have to kill us one person at a time, instead of all together, but I didn’t like it. We all moved away from each other and watched in trepidation as Lillian turned the first two Taura into roman candles, one at a time, while my mind battered at the idea we were all about die.

  I sent the lightning down the conduit as far as it reached, to her shields. It coruscated around her shields harmlessly, but I hoped it would be a distraction of sorts. If the bright flashes of lightning blinded her vision it would enable either one of the two remaining Taura to reach her, or perhaps even one of Caroline’s arrows.

  Caroline was shooting an arrow a second as she moved, but Hazel intercepted them with her whipping sword, knocking them off course.

  I thought I could hit Lillian with lightning if I could hit her with one of my batons, but that was suicide. I knew I was too green as a fighter and not ready for that. She’d kill me easily and I’d never lay a hit on her.

  My plan almost worked, but Lillian regained line of sight when my attack ran out of juice and I had to recharge, and the last two Taura went up as one in an exploding fireball. My mind exploded in rage, knowing in the next few seconds it’d be one of my mates that was burned alive, or my ally that went up in fire.

  Lillian in truth was as dangerous as I was, and I had no idea how to shield from the bitch. Maybe a sheet of conduit, surround myself in a thin globe of power and feed it electricity? That might work, but it was just a guess. How else would it work though? That’s what Janice did with her power, I’d just never practiced such a thing.

  But if I did that, I could only protect myself, especially with Caroline breaking us apart to seek cover, and even if I did there was no one left that was a match for Lillian martially and the bitch would cut us down. My mind felt like it was going in circles, and I took a deep breath and questioned all my assumptions. I’d assumed I couldn’t use electricity without a source, but that had turned out to be wrong, as long as there was a spark of potential to work with then I could build a storm of lightning in and around my body by feeding it magic.

  The impetus to solving that had been no access to electricity, well now I needed to electrocute Lillian without a conduit, which led to the obvious thought in a gut reaction.

  What if I didn’t need the conduits at all? In the very beginning I’d noted I’d never be near to as powerful as Zeus, throwing lighting down from above, powerful bolts that could destroy cities. He was a god, perhaps the strongest in existence, and I had a very small part of his power. But I’d made the assumption early on that I couldn’t form a bolt of lightning at all, that could overcome air resistance. Was that true?

  Part of that assumption had led from the idea of how much electricity I could hold at once, and the false idea that I could only wield electricity with my power, not make more of it.

  Because that mattered, Lillian’s shield stopped my magic from creating a conduit directly to her body, not the lightning itself. The stunning blasts I used were definitely not strong enough to break that barrier of natural resistance, but what if I poured in everything? Not only all I could hold, but fed my magic to it as well outside my body? That would make it a hundred times more powerful than those stunning blasts, which just might be enough to break through the resistance of air.

  It was a desperate thought, but in that moment, it was all I had. I focused on building a powerful ball of lightning over my hand, away from my body but still connected to it by the coruscating lightning surrounding my body. It put everything into it, save a spark to reload and the small sparks of electricity binding and supporting that ball of lightning over my hand, and it was the size of a beachball.

  I sensed that if I removed my support of it, it would just fall apart. Five times stronger wasn’t powerful enough to defeat atmospheric resistance, so I poured my magic directly into it, making it more powerful in electrical charge even as I compacted it to the size of a basketball.

  I’d used maybe a fifth of my magic up until that point taking down twenty foes, which verified when using my own magic that I could take down about a hundred normal monsters if given the time before running out.

  Point was though, that I’d poured in at least twice that in that one lightning ball, before it felt right to my senses and what my power was telling me. It was ten times more electrical power than I could carry inside my body, and would no doubt kill me as well if I tried to hold it inside my body, but it was safe enough outside my body and buffered and connected by my coruscating lightning.

  That told me I could do it, but that even while fully rested I could only do it twice, so it wouldn’t be worth doing often. The conduits were far more efficient, by a multiplier of about forty times given the number of foes I could take down using conduits with the same amount of power.

  But for those like Lillian that could shield from my magic, it would be an indispensable option.

  To be clear, most of the things I just outlined only occurred to me after the battle. In that moment I’d made the decision on pure desperation, intuition, and hope that it would allow me to save my loved ones and allies. It was a gut reaction of desperation in the short second or two I had before Lillian started to roast my love ones.

  There was no dodging it, it was pure energy, and at my focus and will with a tiny push of my magic the ball of lightning left my hand at the speed of light. It was literally there in my hand one second and lightning up Lillian in the same second, the passage of the ball lighting so fast that the human mind and senses couldn’t perceive it.

  Lillian’s death scream was horrific, as my power literally cooked her body with lightning, and I felt a great relief followed by a powerful draining feeling. I’d literally used two fifths of my demigod power for that one attack, fully half of what I’d had left, and the fatigue slowly drained as I fed that spark and recharged a bit of the lightning within me, as my muscles were energized once again. I wasn’t sure if I had enough magic to do it again, two fifths left was right on that borderline, but I didn’t have to.

  Hazel screamed in the deep pained loss that I’d feared just moments ago for myself, and she charged me with her blade with insanity and the promise of death in her eyes. A truly desperate act, the same one I had discarded as pointless earlier, and just as pointless in her case.

  She didn’t even get close, as Caroline, Bree, and Nicole intercepted her before she’d closed even half the distance, and quickly overwhelmed her and cut her down in her raging grief. The battle was done. No one on our side had died, except of course the four Taura I’d turned. I felt a little guilty about that, but it had bought me the time I’d needed to come up with a solution.

  I also hadn’t just sacrificed them. I thought that they’d had a slim chance with me blinding Lillian like I had, but it still weighed on me. They’d died on my orders, after all.

  Caroline turned and looked at me with awe, and a little fear.

  “So… where the hell did that come from?” her tone of voice trying for casual, but she missed.

  I wasn’t too worried. I knew our bond would get her past that fear quickly.

  “Almost half my magic, and it was a desperate gamble. I wasn’t sure it would work.”

  I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d put any other false limitations on my power, but nothing came to mind in that moment. I was confident Janice would help me figure that out, and fully explore the extent of my powers. Outside of the shielding thing, which probably worked how I was thinking, that would most likely be it.

  We all moved over toward Ginny and Janice, the former having dragged the latter behind some rubble to get out of Lillian’s line of sight. Another act of desperation, and one which would’ve only afforded another few seconds of life if not for what I’d done.

  “How is she?”

  Ginny said, “She’ll wake up with a hell of a headache. And you… no words.”

  “Scared?” I asked.

  Ginny laughed in my face, “No, my love. Turned on beyond belief. I love being mated to a protective badass. I’d be jumping you right now if we weren’t all burned. Speaking of which.”

  I explained, “Can’t do it often, twice would exhaust me from full power, more or less. But I’d hoped I’d be able to create a lightning bolt that would ignore her shields, that meant making it powerful enough to not need a conduit. Really, it was desperate, and our only chance. I thought of shielding too, but no one else could’ve killed her with hand to hand combat, even Janice hadn’t been a sure thing that way.”

  I noticed then that Janice’s skin was already healed, and Ginny’s started to return to health even as she began to heal the rest of our burned skin, making it supple, flawless, and silky smooth with her power of beauty.

  She’d also healed over some shallow wounds on my twins, Bree, Nicole, and Caroline. I think Ginny and I were the only two not to take even a small wound, as the rest of them protected us and my offensive power from being taken down. Regardless, their full healing could wait until Janice woke up, she could heal herself as well.

  Then to everyone’s amusement, because I heard giggles, Ginny did as she threatened and jumped in my arms and kissed me lingeringly with a whole lot of promise behind it.

  Our monsters cleaned up the evidence so to speak. I imagined we’d have workmen there soon to start clearing away the wreckage and rebuild the house. They basically formed a large pile of bodies and broken wood on a desolate spot on the ground, that was just dirt. Then poured on some gasoline that we’d brought just for that purpose.

  Honestly, it was a bit gruesome, but when the fire ran its course, there’d be nothing but ash and bone to gather up and dump somewhere in a day or so.

  It felt odd, to feel free, and there was also a sense of shock to it along with the relief and joy that I was alive as were all my mates. A lingering surrealism and disbelief that we could finally live our lives. With threats yes, my new world was a violent place, but hopefully none so potent, and I’d hopefully have the time to fully train before the next threat reared its head.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The living room was where we found Aphrodite and Mila, but there was also another guest in the house. She had straight medium brown hair with just a hint of dark red in it that framed a rather girl next door attractive face. She was also lithe and a little petite at five foot three.

  I’d never seen her before, but the sense of home radiating off of her along with Janice’s broad smile was more than enough clues to tell me I was not only hosting the goddess of love, but the goddess of hearth and home as well. She had a warm welcoming smile on her face that warmed me to my toes, and I felt in my heart, and I had the distinct impression she was holding back most of her sense of presence, just as Aphrodite was out of respect of Janice’s and Caroline’s goddess.

  “My goddess, Hestia,” I greeted them both in a little awe.

  Hestia grinned, then got up and hugged Janice.

  Aphrodite said, “Good work, you don’t even owe me an apology.”

  I laughed, “I’d be happy to offer you an eloquent tongue regardless.”

  Aphrodite grinned, and then handed off Mila to Dawn as she got up and gave me a hug and a hell of a deep and loving kiss.

  My brain short circuited a moment later, when she did the same for Ginny. It was hot, only wrong and deliciously taboo in my head from my human upbringing, but fuck if it didn’t spark my imagination of some hot mother and daughter threesomes in my head.

  Aphrodite giggled and then winked at me.

  Janice said, “It’s wonderful to see you, but what made you drop by?”

  Hestia raised an eyebrow, and said in a teasing voice, “We’re both here to witness of course. I believe you and your mate made promises to fully mate and have children once Hera was no longer a threat?”

  Oh. A rush of desire and excitement hit me like a lightning bolt, as Janice and I locked gazes filled with loving desire and joyful anticipation. I’m not even sure I can explain in that moment the cocktail of emotions storming through me at the thought of making her mine and rounded with my child. Especially in the emotional fallout and adrenaline crash of the fight, where I’d been more than sure we were all dead more than once throughout it. I felt impossibly alive in that moment, and my whole body a live wire as my heart pounded in anticipation.

  I didn’t have eyes for anyone else in the room, as the two of us came together before our goddesses.

  “You are my haven, Janice, not just mine but for all of us. I can’t imagine a day without loving you, and without you by my side as I wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night. I love you, and the prospect of making you mine and filling our home with the sounds of our children gives me a profound joy I can barely express. I swear to cherish you always, protect you with my every breath, and I’ll never forsake you or give you up.”

  The joyful beaming smile on her face was only eclipsed by the deep love in her tear filled and sparkling eyes as she replied.

  “You are my strength and protection, but also my joy, and my love. I swear to always be your haven, support you, succor you, and to always be your ease, to obey, to never turn you away, and always be yours as you are mine,” her voice came out as strained as mine had.

  Aphrodite’s voice was soft and loving, “I bless this union with love, pleasure, and fertility,” and then I felt her lips on my cheek. The soft kiss burned, filled my body with a holy fire that faded quickly but was just short of painful.

  I also felt different somehow, and more than a little awed as my goddess kissed Janice’s cheek as well.

  Then it was Hestia’s turn.

  “I bless this union with warmth and longevity.”

  I heard Ginny’s gasp of surprise as Hestia’s lips brushed my cheek, and I felt that world and reality bending fire rush through me once more.

  After kissing Janice’s cheek, both goddesses disappeared in a flash of light.

  A bit bemused, I asked, “What did that mean?”

  Janice said softly, “My mystical powers make me age even slower than most demi-gods, by almost three times. My lifespan is closer to a thousand years, instead of three hundred. Her blessing enabled that aspect of my power to work on my mates as well, though no one else. So you, Ginny, and our monster mates will grow old with me, instead of passing long before I do.”

  Ginny said, “That’s what I thought.”

  “Aphrodite’s blessing? I feel… different, though I’m not sure I can quantify that.”

  Ginny said, “You will not lose your virility, or Janice, your fertility. I imagine you’ll be able to have kids for most of that thousand years, if you wish. Normally a demigoddess’s eggs run out at about one hundred forty, hers will not, nor will her libido falter without menopause. She also created a direct link between you for the love and pleasure part, even if you subsume your blessing inside of you, you’ll still feel that enhanced connection, attraction, and be able to read Janice. I imagine it will go for us as well, once we take that step. Beyond that though, you’ll always be connected, and feel her and her general direction, no matter how far away she is, even if the blessing’s range is a lot shorter.”

  Oh, well that was awesome, I’d definitely be licking my goddess out all night long, not in apology since I wasn’t wounded, but in thanks and worship. As far as I could tell, my goddess just ensured the heat between us and our current insatiable libidos would last for our lifetime, and we could have a kid or two every two or three decades for a thousand years.

  I said, “Nicole will have to handle dinner tonight, Janice will be busy. Send up one of the twins with a tray of food in about two hours, and we’ll see you all when it’s time for bed.”

  I scooped up my full mate to her delighted laugh, and then headed for the stairs, fully intending to consummate that union and put a baby in her womb. I was sure my other mates would understand my singular focus in that moment, and the soft chuckles and naughty giggles told me that they did and jealously wouldn’t be a problem.

  “Obey?” I asked curiously.

  She blushed, “In everything, my love. I trust you with everything, and I wanted no restrictions between us. I know you won’t abuse it, and you swore to cherish me without limits too, after all.”

  “No?” I asked teasingly, with a whole lot of innuendo.

  She shrugged and said rather breathily, “Bending me over the nearest furniture, or ordering me to my knees whenever you want isn’t abuse.”

  Yeah, by her tone of voice it wasn’t just not abusing her sworn promise to me as my mate, but I got the distinct impression she’d be disappointed if I didn’t do those things, often. Honestly, as much as I could figure, it wouldn’t change all that much from what we were doing before.

  I chuckled, “Fair enough, and noted, my love.”

  She hugged my neck tighter, bringing her lips up to my throat where she teasingly kissed and let out a sexy wanting moan. Thanks to Ginny healing and beautifying us after the battle, we didn’t even need a shower and were both spotlessly clean. The stink of sweat and adrenaline, the blood and scent of death, was only a distant memory.

  So I took her straight to bed, already hard as a rock as I put her back on her feet. Our kiss was sweet and softly passionate as we stripped off each other’s clothes and weapons.

  She was my dirty girl, my dirty nymph and cock-slave, but she was also my haven, and now my true mate. We’d play those dirty games often in our lives, most every day, but that night and for our consummation I was drowning in love, protective feelings, and awe for my Janice. She was completely mine, the others were too of course, for life even, but giving oaths witnessed and blessed by the gods to start a family was an entirely different level of things.