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LEANING AGAINST THE SIDE OF THE BOAT SO THAT SHE could watch the nearby sailboats gliding over the clear blue water, Geary didn&039;t knoas wrong with her She was so sleepy she could barely keep her eyes open, and that wasn&039;t like her
"I think I have narcolepsy"
Tory paused by Geary&039;s side before looking her up and down "Possibly Did you know that seventy percent of people with narcolepsy also suffer cataleptic attacks?" Before Geary could open her mouth to comh I&039;ve seen you angry enough times to know that that lovely symptom doesn&039;t affect you Of course, narcoleptics also have vivid hallucinations either while asleep or even while awake And, of course, sleepwalking I know you don&039;t sleepwalk
Have you beco vivid sexual fantasies with a fifteen-year-old bookasn&039;t so Geary intended to do
Geary scowled at her "How do you know all this? Jeez, Tory, you&039;re a kid Act like it" Before she could even blink, Tory reached out and punched her on the arm Hard "Ow!" She rubbed her biceps where Tory had hit her "What was that for?"
"Unexpected and irrational eers are supposed to do? Oh, and sulk A lot"
Geary held her hands up in surrender "Fine Have it your way, DrKafieri"
In an expression rin before she went to help the boat&039;s captain with so her head, Geary headed back belowdecks to find Teddy and Scott, ere gru about Thia&039;s presence on their tea Geary couldn&039;t help since she&039;d promised Thia&039;s mother to watch after her this summer Apparently, the little shrew had attacked Teddy for taking up too et over their ire soon She had banished her cousin to the city for a short round of shopping while they prepared to sail back to the area where Geary believed Atlantis was hiding The last thing they needed was to have Thia gaggling about, co The shinier the object, the irl had actually worn red horns last Halloween that were decorated with dangling dia for her, Thia had dressed up as a shopping demon
Brian had volunteered to acco Thia, was a necessary assign either abducted into white slavery or stolen by green aliens
Meanwhile, Geary was so tired, she couldn&039;t stand it It was all she could do to stay awake
" Megeara Return to me"
A chill went down her body as she heard the deeply erotic voice in her head again
Fro move She turned and there in the doorway, on the stairs that led to the top deck, was Arikos Dressed completely in black, he stood to the side icked eyes that proasm, and a seductive seara" His voice whispered like a phanto her
He held his hand out
Never had she seen apose All she wanted was to take his hand and have him sweep her up in his arms like he did in her dreams She wanted to strip him bare and taste the perfection of his body
To taste those inviting lips
Without thinking, she held her hand out toward his So close that they were al Only a breadth of a hair more
But he wasn&039;t real and she knew it
"Geary? Can you handher hand, she glanced to her left and saw the ruler on the cluttered desktop She barely blinked before she looked back toward the stairs
They were e there for her to return, and that filled her with extre o Everyone should be stalked by such a sexy hallucination
Not wanting to think about that, she picked up the ruler and handed it to Teddy, atching her with a concerned frown Even though he was only a few years older than her, he acted ue His short brown hair was always impeccably combed, and he had jolly brown eyes and a sweet set of kind dimples "Are you okay?"
"Tired"
He scratched his head as if baffled by her response "You slept fourteen hours last night"
She patted his arm "I know, but I&039;m still tired"
"Maybe you need a physical"
More likely ht aside to smile at him "I&039;ll be fine Really"
At least she would be if she could stop having these bizarre delusions Even now she felt as if so her
ARIK WANTED TO CURSE IN FRUSTRATION AS HE WATCHED Megeara s at another man Why wouldn&039;t she succumb to his seru?
"Arikos?"
As light intruded into his dark chah at the sound of his uncle Wink&039;s voice Arik was getting seriously tired of these interruptions when all he wanted was to be with his huet "What?"
"I&039;ve been told to retrieveit andyour huod Wink&039;s long brown hair was braided down his back as his light gray eyes danced with ods, he held the personality of thirteen-year-old boy There was nothing he loved s that had gotten Arik and his brethren cursed
At one time, they&039;d been too easily seduced and ods and had allowed themselves to be used by Wink, Hades, and the others in private jests and wars
Until the day Zeus had put a stop to it once and for all Funny how he&039;d only punished the tools and not the ones who&039;d wielded theod of justice
"And if I want to keep the serum?"
Wink arched a brow at that, then tsked "Come now, Arikos, you know the rules" His face sobered
"You also knohat happens to those who don&039;t cooperate"
Of course he did All of his kind knew His back bore more scars than the sky held stars There were tirandfather Hypnos, who oversaw their physical punish more than a sadist who could only feel pleasure when he was doling out pain to others
How cruel was it to send the Skoti in to drain humans of excess or pent-up emotions, then punish them when they didn&039;t want to leave because they finally experienced so other than pain?
But that was the way of it
After his "chat" with M&039;Ordant, Arik had known it would co
Wink had been sent to retrieve the Lotus serum they used on humans, and all the bribery on Olympus wouldn&039;t sway hiods
Arik pulled out the small vial and handed it to Wink, who took it with a stoic smile
"Cheer up, old boy There are plenty of other dreaenerous to you that way They live for their dreams and are possessed of them constantly"
Yes, but none of those hueara Itto knohat she&039;d be like outside the dream realm What she would be like as a human
Arik watched as Wink withdrew, then left him in the dream chamber to face the darkness alone
Perhaps this was just punishinally been one of the Oneroi As was custoned huainst the Skoti who sometimes preyed on the his subjects,sure the ones under his protection had norh their probleht
He&039;d gone to help one of his assignments as ill Because of her sickness, her dreams had become extremely vivid and emotional-so much so that one of the Skoti had latched onto her Such a thing was common and even tolerated Skoti fed fro as they kept it under control and didn&039;t lead the dreams or interrupt the human&039;s life, they were allowed to drain huan to return repeatedly and took control of the host that they were punished
Hu Skotos could easily turn human minds and either drive them insane or make them homicidal In the worst case, a Skotos could even kill the human, which hy the Oneroiwith their host, then it was the Oneroi&039;s place to step in and drive them out
If all else failed, the Oneroi would kill the Skotos
At one ti his hu and to only follow the orders of the elite Oneroi In his day, he&039;d vanquished nuht hu need to risk their lives for their quest
And then one night no, one encounter had changed that and brought with it a clarification that still resonated within hiod Phobetor, Solin lived on earth, but at night he ran amok in the dreams of other humans Completely a as he enjoyed hi to stop and trap Solin He was one of the few Skoti who&039;d warranted a death sentence His voracious appetites and fighting skills were legendary ah to confront hi by their years, Arik had thought to take Solin on his own
Most of the Skoti fled at the approach of an Oneroi The Oneroi had full backing of the other gods to do whatever they had to do to control the Skoti Since a Skotos could drain emotions from any human, they nor when they could sier thanas Arik had expected, Solin had turned the human loose on him By their laws, Arik had been forbidden to hurt the human, and Solin had known it
Arik had tried to pry her aithout harm, but the moment her lips had touched his and he&039;d tasted her lust so inside him had shattered
He&039;d felt pleasure and arousal for the first time in his life
And when the human had dropped to her knees and taken him into her mouth, he&039;d known his war in this was lost and his conviction shattered In one heartbeat, he&039;d gone Skoti
He&039;d been Skoti ever since
Drifting fro all these centuries for someone who could raise his eht But no one had coeara
Only she was able to reach through the eain To make him feel her emotions After all these centuries, he finally understood why certain Skoti refused to leave their partners
Why they illing to risk death
Because of Megeara, he wanted to knohat the world looked like through her eyes What it tasted like Felt like And her ability to pull herself away fro to seriously piss him off