Aella's Song Read Online Free Page B

had an insane urge to rip it off her body, but they had a few things that needed to be taken care of first.
    Rolling his shoulders, he tried to figure out where to start. As usual, Pythias grew tired of the wait, and forged ahead. He’d always been the more impatient of the two. Damon had always preferred to think things through before acting, looking at it from all angles.
    “We believe that one of our common enemies has set his sights on you. We feared that he might be after you and that is why we’re here. It’s --”
    “Pythias, perhaps we should start at the beginning.” Damon shook his head, studying the confused expression on Aella’s face. She nodded, twisting her hands in her lap.
    Damon took a deep breath. This was going to be hard for her to believe, but she was the daughter of Poseidon after all. She would have to be a little open minded to be able to deal with learning she was a mermaid and the daughter of a Greek god. This wasn’t all that different. “Have you ever heard the legend of Damon and Pythias?”
    “Is that a joke?” Aella frowned, wrinkling her nose.
    Damon smiled. Damn, they’d been blessed with her. She was adorable, although she’d probably hurt him if he actually said that out loud.
    Get to the story, and stop mooning after our mate. Pythias snorted, his amusement evident.
    “Please, I’m serious.”
    She sighed, rolling her eyes. “There was a story told back in the day, when the majority of people actually believed in my father, about two men called Damon and Pythias. Everyone’s heard the legend.”
    “Humor me. Tell me what you’ve heard.”
    “Let me guess, you two were named after the men and you were destined to be as good of friends as them?”
    “Aella, unless you want to be turned over my knee, would you just tell the story.”
    Her eyes widened and her gaze fell to his lap. Licking her bottom lip, she definitely looked interested. Damon swallowed his groan, shifting to relieve the sudden pressure of his towel. Glancing to the side, he noticed Pyth had a similar problem although his hard on wasn’t hidden by the folds of a towel. No, it was jutting proudly in front of him. Damon grinned wickedly, meeting his friend’s gaze.
    “Uh, right, the legend. Umm, Damon and Pythias were friends. They did something to anger Dionysius in Syracuse. He was apparently so angry that he sentenced one of them to death. I can never remember which one it was. Anyway, the man asked to be allowed to return home to say goodbye to his family and Dionysius only let him go when the other friend asked to be held in his place. He told them both that if the one didn’t return by a certain time, his friend would be put to death instead.
    “The appointed time came and went, and Dionysius was furious. He was about to kill the friend when the first man suddenly appeared at the last minute. He’d been stopped on the way -- depending on who’s telling the story it’s always a different reason for why he was stopped -- but he had only just made it back. He’d practically gone through hell to get back in time to save his friend. The story goes that Dionysius was so touched by the lengths the two friends went to try and save each other that he let them both go.”
    “Close, but not quite what actually happened.” Pythias lowered his head, studying the floor.
    The gentle lapping of the waves against the hull of the boat, coupled with the sweet tones of Aella had almost made Damon become lost in his memories of that time. He’d been prepared to die for Pyth, he still was.
    “I was the one sentenced to die, and Damon was the one who asked to be kept in my place while I returned home. But, the legend doesn’t tell the whole tale. Dionysius had a man on his council at the time who went by the name Linos. Linos was fascinated by power and he desperately wanted as much as he could. Damon and I weren’t powerful men in Syracuse but we had friends in high places.
    “We grew up on the shores, and