Free Bound by Shadow by Anna Windsor Page B

need any psychic abilities or rituals to make people talk. They should have just left him handcuffed and naked, and let Riana sit a few feet from him, staring at him the way she was staring at him now. He would have spilled his guts in a heartbeat.
    “We’ve had the others inside since we were born,” Creed said lamely, hoping it would be enough. It had to be enough, because he didn’t know anything else to tell her besides a list of the things he blamed himself for doing. And he’d rather not share that, now or ever.
    “Did your mother have a creature inside her, too?”
    Riana’s question was logical and innocent enough, but Creed felt his expression darken. “I don’t know. She…died. When I was a baby. And I never knew my father.”
    The redhead snorted and finally took the sword away from his neck. “You don’t know what you are. You never knew your father. Your brother is missing, so he can’t tell us anything. And your mother is dead. How convenient.”
    Creed clenched his fists, then made himself relax his fingers. “If you want to call it that.”
    Merilee gestured to the destroyed room. “Excuse us for having no compassion.”
    “We should have killed him when he was a god-thing.” Cynda brushed past him and got off the table, the melted shreds of her bodysuit flapping against her belt and scabbard as she jumped. She kicked a piece of broken glass against the wall as she took her spot beside Merilee. The two women flanked Riana like a pair of trained Dobermans showing their teeth.
    Not without effort, Creed made himself look away from the attack dogs. Riana settled back on her knees, staying on the table an arm’s length from him. He wanted to reach out and take her hand in his, talk quietly and gain an understanding of her and why she had trapped him and questioned him, but he didn’t want her bodyguards to bite off his fingers.
    Instead, he leaned forward to hide the cock-bulge in his blanket and asked the one question that made sense to him. “So, Riana. And Cynda and Merilee. What are you ?”
    “As if you don’t know,” Merilee said.
    Cynda snapped, “You don’t have the right to ask questions,” at the same moment.
    A beat later, Riana answered with, “Sibyls. We’re Sibyls.”
    This stunned the guard dogs into silence. They both stared at Riana with open mouths.
    Okay. So, Riana seemed to be the leader of this little coven, or whatever it was. He gazed at her as he searched his memory. “Sibyls were ancient women, crones or something, who lived nearly forever but didn’t stay young. Oracles from Greek mythology, right?”
    “Sibyls came before Greek mythology.” Riana rubbed her leather-clad knees with both hands as she shook her head. Her dark hair spilled over one shoulder, accenting the clean, beautiful line of her jaw. “Every culture has a myth about wise women who serve the Mother—Sibyls, in whatever form. The word comes from Cybele, the Goddess, the oldest deity in human history. The Greeks used a similar term to refer to some of their priestesses, and eventually the word got associated with elderly women who could see fate and the future.”
    “We aren’t those Sibyls.” Cynda gripped the hilt of her sword as if daring him to argue. “Some of the Mothers and Sibyls see the future and give prophecies, but we aren’t fortune-tellers or weak nellies who hide out in caves.” Smoke rose from her shoulders. If looks could kill, Creed figured he would have died five times in the last thirty seconds.
    “We’re warriors of the Dark Goddess,” Merilee said in a tone every bit as icy as the breeze that whipped past Creed’s ears. “Initiates of the Dark Crescent Sisterhood. Highly trained in the use of weapons and fighting skills. We can take you out in whatever form you choose to attack us.”
    “Easily,” Cynda agreed.
    The floor trembled. Just a little, but enough to make Cynda and Merilee clamp their mouths closed.
    Creed felt a rush of surprise and discomfort.