Keras considered that, calculated all the angles and frowned when he realised that his brothers were right. His current condition was no doubt affecting the gate, and closing Hong Kong could very well make the Tokyo gate unstable enough that he would no longer be able to control it.
“We have to do something,” he bit out, shocked by the sharp edge to his tone and the burning need that swept through him on the heels of those words escaping him. He didn’t try to hold it back, just let it flood him and then rush out of him. “This inaction is driving me crazy. I need to fight.”
Enyo squeezed his hand, drawing his focus to her. Concern shone in her pale green eyes, and he shook his head, silently asking her not to side against him too.
Rather than doing that, she surprised him by saying, “I can spar with you. If you need some release, you can find it that way.”
“Release? Is that what the old folks call doing the dirty?” Valen nudged Cal and winked at him.
Cal grinned, and then frowned. “Damn it. I had something funny there on the tip of my tongue and it’s gone. Ah… crap. Something about sparring and swords and sheathes and things.”
Keras growled, “Enough!”
Cal immediately clammed up.
Valen had the audacity to poke his tongue out.
Which only made things worse.
Enyo stared at his brother’s tongue. “What is that?”
Valen ran the metal stud in the centre of his tongue across his upper teeth. “Pure titanium thrills, baby. Ask Keras to get one. You’ll thank me for it. Eva loves it. Squirms like a crazy thing when—”
“Stronzo,” Eva muttered as she shoved him in the side of his head, causing his neon violet hair to fall down over the other side of his face.
He swept it back and frowned at her.
A puzzled look flitted across Enyo’s face. “How does it make her squirm?”
“Oh gods,” Ares grumbled and palmed his face.
Keras grimaced. Might have blushed. He cleared his throat. But words failed him, and Valen jumped on the opening.
“When a man and a woman love each other very much, the birds and the bees get all frisky like and—” He jerked forwards and scowled at Eva again, his eyes narrowing on her raised hand where it lingered near the side of his head. “You’re going over my knee, missy.”
She squealed as he grabbed her, swept her up into his arms and kissed her. She sank into it, a moan escaping her as all of her fight left her.
Keras’s blush might have deepened.
Enyo made sure it did when she looked at him, all innocence. “I still do not understand. Does he mean squirming as she is now, when he is kissing her?”
“There is a sort of kissing involved,” Daimon murmured under his breath.
Enyo canted her head and frowned, her puzzled look bordering on adorable now. Keras would have thought it that, had the topic that was confusing her not been so damned embarrassing.
“Ask Keras to show you,” Esher mumbled into his palm.
Keras sighed. He expected this sort of behaviour from Valen, and perhaps Calistos.
He expected better from the rest of his brothers.
“Ah, lay off them.” Ares collared Esher and Daimon, and kicked Valen in the back of his knee.
It crumpled beneath him, sending him and Eva crashing to the floor.
Valen gave Ares a disgruntled look.
“I still wish to know what—” Enyo started.
“It’s a sexual thing,” Keras blurted.
Regretted it when her wide eyes landed on him.
He had hoped it would make things better, but everything felt a million times worse as she stared at him in silence, unblinking, that pretty blush on her cheeks darkening towards crimson. His body got the wrong idea, twisted the thought of sparring with her to let off steam into a wicked scenario in his head, one that would turn fighting into something far more pleasurable.
Something he had been without for centuries.
His experience of carnal matters before meeting Enyo had been limited and after that he had only thought of her, had only been interested in her.
He hadn’t kissed a woman, hadn’t touched a woman, hadn’t wanted another woman, since the moment she had walked into his life.
Rocking his entire world off its axis.
His brothers fell deathly quiet. He tossed Ares a pleading look, asking for a lifeline, something to get him out of this mess.
Ares released Esher and Daimon. “I could blow off some steam myself. What if we lured the enemy out? No closing gates. Just some good old-fashioned baiting?”
Cal muttered to Marinda, “My two oldest brothers are suddenly acting reckless. I feel like I’ve fallen into an alternate reality. Am I meant to be one of the sensible ones now?”
Cass leaped on that one, her Russian accent adding bite to her words. “I am not sure you are capable of that feat.”
Daimon whispered, “Burn.”
Cal glared at both of them.
This sort of banter felt strangely good to Keras. He had never participated in it, had always been on the outside of it looking in, but he had always enjoyed the way his brothers would tease each other in the Underworld.
He had enjoyed it far less after they had been banished to this world and he had been forced to accept the responsibility of ensuring they survived and they succeeded in completing their mission.
He wanted to participate, to show his brothers that he could be one of the group too, that he had retained a sense of humour.
Only he couldn’t think of anything to say.
“We could draw the enemy to Hong Kong.” Esher glanced at Daimon, clearly wanting his input. The two of them had always been close, shared a bond that had made Keras jealous a few times.
“I could go along with that.” Daimon’s pale blue eyes gained a serious edge as he added, “But we’re not closing the gate.”
Keras nodded. “Agreed. Both gates should remain open. As much as I do not want to admit it, I am not at my strongest right now.”
Ares came back to him and lightly tapped his arm, the sort of playful punch his brother had often done back in the Underworld. Their mother had always smiled whenever Ares had given him a ‘love tap’ as she had called it. It was his brother’s way of showing support, and it always made Keras feel as if he wasn’t alone.
As if he did have a deep bond with at least one of his brothers.
As if one of them understood him and the weight he carried on his shoulders.
“What if we add a little more incentive for the enemy?” Cass swept her long black hair over her shoulder, her aquamarine eyes bright with mischief that had Daimon sighing before she even announced her plan. “I should go with you. No doubt the enemy knows you both well and would expect Daimon to go with Esher, and in turn they would expect me to go with Daimon to support him.”
“So you don’t need to go.” Daimon glowered at her. “If they’re expecting you to be there on the basis that I’ll go with Esher, then you don’t need to go.”
She pouted, evidently displeased about the flaw in her plan.
“I agree, this is not a good idea.” Marek looked at Marinda and Calistos.
Marinda shook her head, her blue-green eyes edged with violet as her power rose, curling around Keras. “The enemy wants to get their hands on you, Cass. What happens if they manage that?”