Tied In Knots (Immortals Book 7) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Tied in Knots

  Publication Information

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also Available

  Thank You

  Tied in Knots

  by

  L.J. Vickery

  Immortals Book 7

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Tied in Knots

  COPYRIGHT © 2017 by L.J. Vickery

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contact Information: [email protected]

  Cover Art by Debbie Taylor

  The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  PO Box 708

  Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

  Visit us at www.thewilderroses.com

  Publishing History

  First Scarlet Rose Edition, 2017

  Print ISBN 978-1-5092-1691-8

  Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-1692-5

  Published in the United States of America

  Dedication

  To all of my readers who continue to be wonderful, helpful, and encouraging. I keep writing for you!

  Chapter One

  “What the blue blazes?” Absu, god of sweet water, arrived at his boss’s office―having heard harsh words and a scuffle―to see the Underworld king pinned up against the wall with Marduk’s hand at Nergal’s throat.

  “You fucking bastard. How could you?” Marduk roared.

  Absu flew across the room, tearing at the thunder god’s arm. “Marduk, you must cease.”

  Using all his strength, Absu ripped the immortal away, but only because the boss let him.

  “Tell Absu, my liege,” Marduk spat, spinning away to punch a hole in the plaster next to Nergal’s head. Outside, the sky split with a roiling boom that rocked the house’s foundations; a house invisible to all outside humans who had not been given divine permission to glean its presence. “See if he, too, doesn’t wish you dead.” Marduk dropped his clenched fist and strode across the room.

  He paced furiously, lightning crackling over his shoulders. Absu hadn’t seen Marduk’s ire so roused since his wife, Tess, had been kidnapped. And, more oddly, no fight came from the normally arrogant Nergal. If Absu had to put a word to it, the king―who boasted a good six inches and an additional twenty pounds on the god in charge of the Blue Hills―seemed diminished by Marduk’s anger.

  “Your outburst will have everyone here soon enough, Marduk.” Nergal straightened his big body. “So, as much as you want me to ruin Absu’s day, I’m only retelling the bad news once. Guilt already twists at my gut for my part in this, but perhaps when cooler heads arrive, we will find a way to deal with my mistakes.”

  Absu attempted to swallow down his foreboding. After centuries of invisibility, all of the immortals in residence were on the cusp of regaining normal lives. Would the king tear that hope away?

  True to form, gods and goddesses arrived quickly with much initial chatter, though Marduk’s angry visage caused the atmosphere to tense. Small talk ended. Even the irreverent Anshar, always quick with a joke, put his mouth on hold. When the door finally closed behind the last deity, Marduk’s voice roared out.

  “Begin, King,” he spat.

  The thunder god’s very pregnant mate, Tess, stood next to him and attempted to calm her god, rubbing his back. But still a storm roiled. Absu lamented. Not fucking happening.

  Nergal gave a tilt of his head, sucked in a deep breath, and gazed around to target Dagon. “Remember when I took you out of deep sleep and pitted you against the twelve in this room? This group whom you swore to hate?”

  Dagon let annoyance show on his face. He obviously didn’t care to be reminded of his past treachery with roommates and friends. “I remember,” he allowed petulantly.

  “Do you recall that, in the contract drawn up between myself and the queen, you were supposed to stop the gods from finding their Chosen?”

  Candy, the newest goddess to the compound, butted in. “Wait a minute.”

  Nergal paused.

  “Can you start at the beginning for those of us who aren’t quite sure why you started all the you-against-them shit in the first place?” she huffed.

  Nergal slumped into a chair, and Absu barely kept his mouth from falling open. The king seemed positively defeated. This did not bode well. He wanted to ask a dozen questions, but before he could form anything coherent, the king opened a gods-wide, head-communication channel to his queen in hell. Ereshkigal, things are not shaping up well here. Can you join me?

  Damn. This got stranger and stranger. Ereshkigal had remained the exiled gods’ friend throughout the eons when Nergal acted as enemy. Could she be involved in the cluster fuck yet to be revealed?

  Of course, my love. The answer came swiftly and decisively.

  Nergal’s tense posture relaxed perceptibly as his beautiful, dark-haired queen of the Underworld appeared by his side. She immediately put a comforting hand on his arm and turned to the group.

  “I’m so very sorry we’ve brought you this news—” Ereshkigal lamented.

  Negal quickly cut her off. “I haven’t told anyone but Marduk yet,” he cautioned. “Candy wants the full story before we move forward.”

  “Oh.” Ereshkigal nodded her head, a line of worry appearing between her brows. “If you’re sure the bad news can wait.”

  Nergal glanced toward Marduk, who gave a succinct nod of his head.

  “Go ahead, my love,” the king allowed.

  The queen sighed and took a seat next to her husband. “This may take some time. I urge everyone to get comfortable.”

  Gods and goddesses all found chairs with the exception of Marduk, who remained pensive on his feet, while she began. Absu slid nervously into a vacant seat.

  “Three thousand four hundred twenty-three years ago, Nergal and I were the happiest of immortals. After trying for many years, we were blessed with a beautiful son, Girin. He was the sweetest baby in every regard—always happy, a joy to be around. In celebration of his birth, the Underworld took on a whole new air. Gods, as well as demons, and even doomed souls seemed…less lost.” Her face took on a far-away cast.

  “The king and I were tremendously in love, and the baby enhanced our relationship in a way you will discover
when you have children of your own.” The queen looked at Tess, who was within days of delivery, then to Holly and Lenore, both five months pregnant. Her smile seemed bittersweet.

  “However, for us, tragedy struck. And it delivered a terrible blow. Before his first complete year of life, Girin was dead.” The queen swallowed hard and wiped at one eye, clearing her throat to continue.

  “Nergal and I retreated into our own separate miseries, taking our tempers out on each other and all who came near.” She looked at Nergal and sidled closer to his bronzed, loin-clothed body. “Of course, we blamed ourselves at that time, never imagining Beletseri might be responsible for Girin’s death.”

  The gods all cursed in acknowledgment of the evil ex-secretary to the king. Absu knew none of them were safe during her reign of terror, loose somewhere in the world.

  “As most of you know,” Eresh’s eyes were focused on the floor, “because of our misplaced blame, Nergal and I could barely stand to be in the same room with one another. And not only did our resentment fester and grow over the years, but Nergal made a vow never to…be with me again.” She didn’t look accusingly at her husband, but Absu could hear the sorrow in her words.

  Absu blinked, astounded to see tears in Nergal’s eyes. The mighty king kissed the top of his wife’s head and picked up the story where she faltered.

  “When your group of gods came on the scene over the next few hundred years, my wife developed sympathy for your plight.” He scowled at the memory. “I found that difficult to accept.”

  Absu certainly recalled the daily punishments the king ordered inflicted upon them by demons. What the king didn’t know at the time―and they were just finding out―was that, behind the scenes, Beletseri had upped those punishments to include near-death on a nightly basis.

  “I believed Ereshkigal had taken you all on as lovers. And even though I didn’t perform my duty as a husband, I couldn’t stomach the thought that she dallied with any of you.”

  The gods shuffled about, clearly not proud of their part in this deception of the king. Indeed, they all had pretended―even though none of them ever made physical contact with Ereshkigal―that they’d been servicing the queen. Absu now knew what the deception cost the couple.

  “Therefore, when Ereshkigal wanted to give you a second chance during Earth’s seventeenth century, I readily agreed. With it, I could rid the Underworld of your presence.” He sighed. “But the one thing I refused, if you failed at your task, was to allow you back down below.”

  Absu held back a snort. The consequences of that debacle, becoming invisible on Earth, had certainly cost them dearly.

  “Naturally, I crowed delightedly when you didn’t accomplish your mission in the colony of Merrymount. And subsequently, because of my agreement with the queen, you all remained here in the Blue Hills instead of returning to the Underworld.”

  “What I didn’t know? Eresh wrote into that agreement an arrangement for you to gain your bodies yet again, as all of us found out ten months ago. You would one day come across your Chosen―those whose bloodlines sprang from Merrymount itself―amongst the humans here on Earth. And if you could convince that woman to share your amulet and become a goddess, you would be corporeal forevermore.”

  Ereshkigal continued, clearly suppressing a tiny smirk of satisfaction, “Once Nergal discovered this ‘escape clause,’ we agreed to forge a fresh document with new and very specific rules. Among them: no outside god or goddess could help you find your mates, nor could your future Chosen be killed by any god or goddess, or at the behest of such, to keep them from you.”

  “Wait a minute.” Tess spoke up. “I was almost killed by Dagon and company―no hard feelings brother-in-law―before I got rescued.”

  Dagon cleared his throat. “Not true.” He coughed.

  Absu crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. This got more and more interesting with each new declaration.

  “Nergal repeatedly told me I was not to kill you or order you to be killed,” Dagon revealed. “But do you remember when I worked with Erra?”

  Of course, they all remembered the big bad god of war who had quickly turned into an enormous mushy pussycat at the hands of the Overworld goddess of the dawn.

  “Well, I had a hell of a time reminding him that none of you were to be killed. I thought the rule odd considering Nergal’s determination that you be defeated, but I strove to work within his parameters.” Dagon looked pained. “Now back to your question. The human male who took you from the cabin where I held you captive did so of his own volition. I never told him to kill you. If he committed murder, he would have been doing it without divine instruction.”

  Mumbling rumbled throughout the room, but none could dispute Dagon. Yeah, he’d been a kidnapping asshole, but not a murderer.

  “Now back to the document Ereshkigal and I both signed and allowed into being.” Nergal studied his feet. “We put in the proper wording so, if you didn’t find your women or get them to agree to mating, you would stay invisible but remain here on Earth. That worked for me.” So far, nothing momentous was being revealed. Absu either already knew of or had surmised most of what was being said.

  Nergal became somber. The group grew more attentive. Absu’s nails dug into his thighs. Here it comes.

  “As you all know, Beletseri, my very long-term executive secretary, oversaw everything that passed across my desk. There was nothing strange about her typing up the newest agreement for our signatures.” He ran a hand through his thick chestnut hair. “I had no idea…neither of us did,” he glanced at his queen, “that Bel had schemed for years because of her hatred of us, and of you. We now know she’d been spurned sexually by each god sitting here.”

  Anshar snorted. “She is one crazy bitch, whack job. So cold. Controlling. Manipulative.”

  Absu rolled his eyes, silently agreeing with each and every adjective. Other gods nodded, and Anshar continued, “She tried her best to entice us. But we laughed about it, which in retrospect really must have pissed her off. We joked if we stuck, uh, anything inside of her, it might not come back out intact.” A nervous chuckle traveled around the assemblage. Anshar kidded…but not really.

  “So Beletseri was denied by all of us in one way or another,” the king interjected. “And apparently between that, and her lust for power, there grew ample anger for her to mess with us from her position of trust in my administration.”

  Absu suppressed a shiver. Crazy bitch didn’t come close to describing her attempt to overthrow the king and queen a few months back. Luckily, she’d been defeated by the newly made god, Huxley, and forced into hiding on Earth with her human lover Matthew. But Absu could tell Nergal wasn’t finished recounting history. The king squared his shoulders and straightened to a great height before dropping the bomb.

  “Beletseri changed the contract.”

  Marduk’s face turned to stone. A tear splashed down Ereshkigal’s face. But Absu and those around him quivered expectantly, waiting for Nergal to clarify.

  “My new secretary,” Nergal sent a cryptic look toward Candy, “none other than Gustavo Booras, who recently replaced Beletseri…”

  “Stave?” Candy looked ecstatic.

  As well she should, Absu thought. Stave, who while alive worked for a particularly nasty enemy of Candy’s, took a bullet for her and died protecting her life. She’d speculated Nergal would give her friend a chance to join an elite Underworld security team of beings called glowies. Seriously, none of them imagined the king would give Stave a desk job. And an important one at that.

  “That’s awesome,” Candy exclaimed.

  “Yes, yes, it is,” Nergal agreed. “More so than you know. Because once he got a load of the mess in my executive office, he plowed through the piles with relish. He’s been indispensable, categorizing and filing documents Beletseri long neglected. Which brings me to the reason I’m here.”

  Absu experienced a gnawing pang in his gut.

  “Stave brought to my attention a major co
dicil in the document we just discussed. One neither Eresh nor I put there. And thank the gods, he did. If it had gone unnoticed, it would have meant certain disaster for all of you. Thanks to Stave, we have a chance to defeat the effect of the inserted verbiage. Perhaps.”

  Absu didn’t like the sound of “perhaps,” and waited uneasily for Nergal to continue.

  “Before we signed the paper, Beletseri slipped in something extra to which Eresh and I unknowingly added our signatures. It now states that all twelve Chosen to you gods must be found within a period of eighteen months of procuring the first, or you will be sent back to the Underworld.”

  The room went still. Not a breath could be heard.

  Absu looked around dazed. The goddesses slid closer to their mates as Nergal continued the bad news. “She also managed, before being banished, to stick in an addendum that now includes Dagon and Holly.”

  It looked like none but Hux―so new to the group―and his wife Dani would be spared. A stunned silence fell across the room.

  “But…but didn’t you say we shouldn’t be separated onto alternate planes from our mates.” Holly, recently back from rescuing Dagon from hell, shook her head. “Ereshkigal told us that, if we’re away from each other too long, we lose strength and eventually become…” She didn’t have the words for it, but Absu knew. A Chosen might not die, but could wither away into an empty husk if apart from her god too long. Death for a mate would be an additional consequence should a god be killed while beset by demons below.

  “My husband…my baby.” Tess’s hand slid to her stomach, verbalizing the implications all were thinking. “Our babies.” She looked at her sister Holly and then Lenore. “We would have three offspring without fathers. And if we’re weakened by the separation, we’ll be unable to care for them—” Her voice broke.

  “Four,” Glory admitted softly to the group, looking apologetically at her husband. “I’m so sorry, Enten. I didn’t want to tell you like this.” Tears sprung to her eyes.

  The winter god’s face froze over, thawed, and then froze again. “You’re pregnant? I’m a…No.” He stood up and banged a fist on the conference table. “We can’t let this happen,” he shouted, suddenly looking terrified that he could lose his wife and a child.