Abducted (Hades and Persephone #1)

by Bella Klaus

  “We’re always concerned about one prisoner or another,” Hades said, his tone dismissive. “That’s the nature of Hell.”

  One of the spirits stretched out from its cubbyhole, looking like a frightened kite.

  I flinched. “Why don’t they have bodies like the people in the Asphodel Meadows?”

  “These are the irredeemable,” he replied. “Supernatural beings who will forever be condemned to the pit. My demons strip them down to their bare essence, depriving them of most of their magic. Each soul suffers a torment commensurate to their crimes.”

  “So, if someone was a murderer—”

  “They go to the Asphodel Meadows,” he said.

  I gaped at the soul of a man with a long beard and a nose that hung down to his chin. “What could be worse than killing someone?”

  “When one supernatural kills another, there’s usually a motive, whether it’s greed or envy or revenge.” Hades ran a hand up my back and threaded his fingers through my curls. “With the opportunity to understand their past mistakes, they may become capable of redemption and eventual reincarnation.”

  “And these people?” I asked.

  The next few cubbyholes lay empty, presumably because they had once contained the escapees.

  “Everyone here either committed acts of genocide, tortured for pleasure, led the innocent to ruin, or committed acts against the natural order of the world.”

  A grey skinned demon with a body the size of a double-decker bus tumbled past in a shower of blood. His head drifted down soon after with elephant-sized wings stretched out like a parachute.

  “Your Majesty.” He floated alongside us. “The soulkin has wiped out the entire Thanatos shift.”

  I squinted up into the dark, past the rows upon rows of cells within the stalagmites. A pale figure clambered upward at a rapid pace, looking like it was frayed around the edges.

  “Did you call for backup?” Hades asked.

  “They were the backup,” the demon replied. “Shall I send for the enforcers?”

  “They have duties on the surface,” Hades snarled. “Once I’ve dealt with the matter, I want all the survivors to gather in the throne room for a team meeting.” He said the last two words with a sneer that suggested everyone would be punished.

  “Yes, sire.” The elephant-eared demon tilted forward in a bow and swooped down toward the bridge.

  “Why don’t you want the enforcers to help?” I asked.

  “Caria and her troops are part of the force that maintains order above ground,” he replied as we continued toward the blob of white. “There are almost as many demons and hybrids living among the humans as there are in the Fifth Faction.”

  My brow furrowed. “How can that happen?”

  “Not all demons come from the Fifth, but I’m responsible for making sure the other factions’ demons don’t reveal the Supernatural World.”

  “That hardly seems fair.”

  Hades snorted. “It’s one of the downsides to presiding over the most powerful souls that ever existed. I might have fewer denizens than the other Factions, but everyone expects miracles.”

  As we surged toward the glowing blob, passing thousands of condemned and howling souls, I couldn’t help but wonder how on earth Hades coped with such a stressful job, which was always meant for two.

  I tightened my grip around him, leaning my head against his broad shoulder. It was hard to say the words to the man who had tricked me into marriage and abducted me to Hell, but I admired his strength.

  “We’re getting close,” I murmured.

  “This soulkin feels slimier than usual,” Hades muttered. “How big is it?”

  I tilted my head up and squinted. The glowing mass of souls illuminated a group of winged demons surrounding it, making them look like wasps buzzing around a giant nest.

  “Remember that huge demon with the elephant ears?”

  “Teropus who reported to me earlier?” he asked.

  “Was that his name?” I shook off the question. “The soulkin is over a hundred times his size.”

  “Bloody hell,” he snarled.

  “That’s worse than usual?” I asked.

  “It’s no wonder this thing has destroyed so many of my demons.”

  Another explosion sounded from above, releasing a fine spray of blood. I dipped my head and gasped through the terror skittering up my spine. “Any plans for defeating it?”

  “Get me close,” he replied. “Once I’m within striking distance, I’ll send you away.”

  I clung tighter to his neck. “Use my magic.”

  A growl reverberated in his throat. “What if you get hurt?”

  “If this is a way to distract you while Samael infiltrates your faction, then that will be the least of our worries.” I curled my fingers around his neck. “Teleport away before the soulkin strikes back, but I’m not leaving you.”

  He growled but dropped the subject.

  “Okay, we’re a hundred feet away. How close do you want to get?”

  “That’s near enough.” He raised a hand, forming a ball of fire in his palm.

  My throat dried. “Do you know where to throw it?”

  “I could feel that bastard’s magic from the bridge.” Hades tossed the ball.

  It hurtled through the air, growing larger with every passing second. Just before it reached the soulkin, it split into four daggers and burned holes in its huge surface.

  My ears rang with the monster’s shriek, and I clenched my teeth. The Hellfire fizzled out, and the tears in the soulkin’s fabric repaired themselves.

  I tightened my grip around his neck and tried not to shudder. “What was supposed to happen?”

  “Didn’t it disintegrate into smaller segments?” Hades asked.

  “No, and it looks like we need a bigger attack.”

  He hovered in mid-air and cupped the side of my face with his larger hand. “Connect your chakras with mine. We’ll fight as a combined entity.”

  “Alright.” I closed my eyes, inhaled a deep breath, and focused on the energy pressing into mine.

  Hades’ magic thrummed with anticipation, fury, and determination. All seven of his chakras flared with colored light, apart from the third eye, which glowed a dull blue. I swallowed back a pang of guilt at having damaged him, and flared out my chakras.

  He hissed through his teeth.

  My stomach lurched. “Have I hurt you again?”

  “It feels like sticking my cock into a low current,” he said with a laugh.

  “Is that good?” I asked.

  “Only if there’s no power surge.” He caught my ear between his teeth, sending pleasant shivers across my skin. “Try to stay relaxed and keep your supply of power even.”

  “No surges.”

  “Exactly,” he said, continuing upward.

  The soulkin shone so brightly that I had to close my eyes to see it beyond the glare. It was like a massive quilt made from sticking together hundreds of twisted souls. Low moans filled the air, making the lining of my stomach vibrate.

  The sounds reminded me of the one time I tried to watch a zombie movie on Netflix, and couldn’t find the remote control to switch it off, so I ended up listening to it while trembling under the covers.

  “Are you sure about this?” Hades asked.

  I nodded. “When this is over, I want a trip to the outside world.”

  “Of course.”

  “Can you see through my third eye?”

  “Perfectly.” He raised a hand and shot out a stream of lightning. With a series of stomach-churning pops, he cut through the threads holding together a row of souls.

  Its low moans turned to screams. The soulkin lashed out with a twelve-foot-wide fist. Hades dodged to the left, but tiny white vines raced toward us from the right.

  “Teleport,” I whispered.

  A second later, the soulkin was beneath us, and Hades attacked with another blast of lightning that lit up its edges. Sections splintered off the grotesque quil
t of souls, and tumbled toward the bridge.

  “What’s going to happen to them?” I asked.

  “Now that the instigator has absorbed their power, they’ll sink into the lava and stay there until someone puts them back into their cells.” Hades swept his arm from side to side, shaving off soul after soul, until the soulkin was half its original size.

  “Will that hurt?” I shook my head, marveling at how he used my lightning like a chainsaw.

  “Worse than anything my demons could have done to them.”

  A thin tendril raced toward us, making my stomach lurch.

  “Teleport.”

  We reappeared in the exact spot as before, beneath the soulkin, but it threw out a pair of giant fists and even thinner tendrils.

  “Teleport back to the bridge.” I slapped my hand on Hades’ back. “I’ve worked out how it snuck up on all your demons.”

  A second later, we hovered above the lava lake. Screams pierced my ears, coming from dozens of white souls bobbing up and down in the molten liquid.

  Clouds of tiny demons floated around us, many of them on leathery wings. The giant head we had encountered earlier flew close, with a crowd of tin-soldier-sized demons on his head. Since they were wearing uniforms, I guessed that they were the soulkin’s luckier victims.

  I released my arms from around his neck, but Hades kept his arm around my waist.

  “What did you want to tell me?” His brow furrowed, but his eyes remained shut.

  “It’s like how ivy can eventually destroy a castle.”

  “Explain.”

  “Those fists are just a distraction.” Tilting my head up, I squinted at the tiny dot in the distance. “I’m sure they’re deadly, but while everyone’s busy avoiding the larger attacks, it’s using nearly invisible strands of magic to work its way beneath the demons’ defenses.”

  “And attacking them from within?” he said.

  “That would explain how it reduced some of them into rains of blood.”

  Hades growled. “Whoever is behind this is more cunning than the average condemned psychopath.”

  “What can we do to stop them?”

  He pulled me into his chest. “Remember what I said earlier about not flaring out your power? Ignore it.”

  I reared back. “You want me to electrocute you?”

  Hades stretched out an arm and materialized a two-pronged pitchfork.

  “What are you going to do with that trident thing?” I asked.

  “It’s my bident, and you’re going to use it as a lightning fork.”

  My throat dried. “I have no idea what you’re talking about but I’m willing to try.”

  “Take it.” He pushed the object into my hand.

  As soon as the metal touched my palm, a jolt of power shot down my arm, settled into my heart, and developed arms like an anchor. Tall spikes of lightning shot from the prongs, making the demons on the bridge cringe away.

  I licked my dry lips. “What just happened?”

  “It’s bonded with you as I knew it would,” he said in a voice filled with triumph.

  The bident pulsed in time with my rapid heartbeat, feeling like it was a living being. My fingers closed around the object, which warmed under my touch. Somehow, it felt like wrapping a hand around Hades’ erection.

  “What does it do?” I asked.

  “My bident will channel your lightning and funnel it into an attack so devastating that the idiot behind the soulkin will regret having started this mess.”

  Excitement skittered down my spine. “You mean I get to blast it?”

  His lips met my cheek, sending tiny sparks of pleasure across my skin. “Don’t we make a fabulous team?”

  Hades teleported back to the soulkin, except this time, we stood a mere fifty feet away from the supernatural quilt. While the souls that made it up were mostly twisted beyond recognition, one in the middle stood tall and proud.

  This had to be the original soul. His arms and legs were spread out like Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man but with an erection that reached his chest.

  “Demon King.” The soulkin spoke with a thousand voices. “You will grant me safe passage to the Human World, or I will destroy your faction of Hell.”

  Tendrils of white snaked toward us, making me narrow my eyes.

  Hades gave me a gentle squeeze around the waist. “Now.”

  I pushed my power into the bident, and aimed it at the soulkin’s heart. Thick streams of lightning shot out from the double prongs, crisscrossing through the air until they hit my target.

  “Draw back,” I said.

  Screams rang out from the combined creature, and the lightning spread around his body, burning through the tiny red threads he had used to attach the souls. Huge swathes of fabric fell away from the man in the middle and hurtled toward the lava.

  Power surged through the bident’s handle like blood coursing through thick veins. Hades clung tighter to me and moaned. I had no time to wonder what was happening with him, because my vision filled with an explosion of white lightning.

  I clenched my teeth, breathing hard through the rush of magic. “Are you alright?”

  Hades panted in my ear. “You were magnificent.”

  The sheet of lightning condensed into an incandescent white cloud emitting forks of silver power. Soul upon soul rained down from the configuration with screams that pierced my ears.

  “Of all the places to hit the soulkin, why did you choose his cock?” Hades asked with a chuckle.

  “Don’t tell me you’re feeling sorry for it.”

  “Hardly.” He scoffed. “But what made you think to hit him there?”

  I tilted my head to the side, watching the soulkin continue to splinter under my lightning strike. The tendrils that it had sent toward us were now gone, falling away with his attached spirits.

  “He reminded me of a dandelion,” I said.

  “How so?”

  “What would you do if one of them grew in your garden?”

  “Pull it out, of course.” Hades floated closer to the shrinking cloud.

  “But it would grow back.”

  “Human weedkiller then?” he said. “Salt, fire, attack it with a shovel?”

  I shook my head. “None of that would work against a dandelion. They might look like regular flowers, but their roots can grow larger than carrots and can fork out in multiple directions.”

  Hades snickered. “Alright then, you attacked it at the source, while I was wasting time shaving off souls around the edges. But why attack the cock?”

  “Isn’t that a man’s root?”

  “Stop,” the soulkin cried with a single voice.

  The lightning cloud parted to reveal a white-haired old man of five feet in height, looking emaciated with his prominent ribs and hip bones. Between his spindly legs hung a flaccid penis half the size of my little finger.

  “Identify yourself,” Hades shouted. “Who brought you the thread?”

  “Jude Deucalion, sir,” the soulkin replied. “I don’t know the name of my benefactor.”

  With a low growl, Hades stretched out an arm, making the old man clutch at his neck, his eyes bulging. “Please, stop. I’m choking.”

  Hades bared his teeth in a nipple-tingling growl. “Talk, or I’ll hand you over to every demon you injured in your jailbreak.”

  “She didn’t give me her name,” the man said with a splutter. “Only a promise that this was the way I could escape Hell and use the power of the souls and the thread to fashion a new body.”

  “Take him to the interrogation room,” Hades snapped.

  Two male imps flew into sight and grabbed the old man by the arms.

  His eyes widened, and his features turned slack. “Wait—”

  The imps disappeared before the old man could complete his sentence.

  Hades turned to me and blinked, revealing yellow irises as pale as the petals of a daisy. “Thank you for the lightning.”

  I swallowed hard. “Can you see?” />
  “Enough.” A moment later, we stood before a roaring fire within a wood-paneled office that contained tall bookshelves crammed with leather-bound tomes.

  Above the fireplace was a gigantic portrait of Hades sitting on a golden throne, holding the bident in one hand and a chain in the other attached to a three-headed dog with burning eyes. The one in the middle winked, making me flinch.

  He stared down at me, his lips curling into a gentle smile. “I wanted to take you out for breakfast this morning, but this business with the soulkin warrants my attention.”

  My throat dried. I wasn’t accustomed to this level of gratitude or warmth. Not from someone as powerful as Hades. Fighting the soulkin together had bonded us somehow, and I wasn’t sure how to feel. Proud because I’d helped to stop a wicked soul from escaping Hell? Horrified because I had melded power with a Demon King? Or just simply terrified?

  Hades cupped the side of my face, his thumb brushing against my cheekbone. “Kora?”

  My stomach lurched. He was finally recognizing me as myself. “That’s…”

  I let my gaze wander around the room. Behind us was a leather desk, and opposite that, a mahogany table surrounded by luxurious leather sofas and armchairs. Tall gold mirrors stood in the middle of the room, separating it from a stretch of empty space that led to a pair of wooden staircases that ended in a balcony.

  “Are we still in Hell?” I asked.

  “This is my palace in St. James’s Park.” He leaned so close I could feel his breath fanning across my skin. “Thank you for your infusion of power. It’s been over a thousand years since I’ve been able to teleport out of Hell.”

  “I’ve helped you?” I whispered.

  “More than you could ever know,” he said in a deep voice that made my heart sing.

  My eyes fluttered shut, and I parted my lips for a kiss. The warmth of his body enveloped mine, but when I drifted forward for our mouths to meet, he was gone.

  I opened my eyes and glowered at the portrait. “What the bloody hell is this Demon King doing to me?”

  Chapter Seventeen

  A door behind me opened, and I spun around to find Captain Caria stepping inside with a curvaceous red-haired woman dressed like a 1950s secretary in a fitted powder-blue dress.