by Larissa Ione
As she went to put it back on the desk, she bumped her elbow, and the picture fell to the floor. Glass shattered, sending shards skidding all over the place.
Shit. Hades was going to kill her.
As she scrambled to clean up the mess, the portal Hades had gone through opened. Of course. Apparently, Hades had the same impeccable timing as Azagoth when it came to her breaking stuff.
“I’m sorr––”
“Who are you?” The deep, unfamiliar voice made her yelp in surprise.
She leaped to her feet, and her surprise veered to terror. A huge male strode into the room, his craggy face shadowed by a filthy, hooded cape that flapped over boiled leather armor as he walked. The necklace of teeth around his neck and the string of ears dangling from the belt around his waist said he was pretty damned comfortable with cutting things off, and she hoped the gore-crusted halberd he carried in one gloved fist wasn’t going to be the weapon he used to cut her things off.
“W-who are you?” she asked, her voice trembling as fiercely as her hands.
As he strode toward her, crusty stuff fell off his boots with every step, and wasn’t it crazy that she wanted to yell at him for leaving a mess?
“I’m a warden in the 4th Ring, and you”—he seized her by the throat—“you are an intruder.”
“No,” she gasped, and then she just tried to breathe because he squeezed harder, cutting off her voice and her air.
His lips peeled back from blackened teeth and a wicked set of fangs as he put his face in hers. “The 4th and 5th Rings are in chaos, and do you know why? There are reports of unauthorized beings in the Inner Sanctum, and it looks like I caught one of them.” He grinned, and if she hadn’t been struggling to breathe, she’d have screamed. “Do you know what we do to intruders, female? I dare you to imagine the worst because I promise the reality will look far, far more horrible.”
His meaty fist filled her vision, and then there was blackness.
* * * *
Hades was balls deep in a demon horde. The 5th Ring had literally been set on fire, and all around, smoke and flame erupted from crude bombs and fire arrows.
He and every 5th Ring warden had been fighting for hours, and they hadn’t come any closer to finding the human. Reports of violence were coming in from the 3rd and 4th Rings, as well, and just moments ago, Silth had brought extremely troubling news.
He’d found a weak spot in the membrane that separated the Inner Sanctum from the rest of Sheoul-gra. If the spot wasn’t shored up, and fast, demons would overrun Azagoth’s realm, which could result in a catastrophic destabilization and allow the souls to escape, flooding human lands.
At least Cat was safely ensconced in his home, although he’d come to realize there was nothing “safe” about her. She might have been an angel once, but he wouldn’t be surprised if there was a little succubus in her family tree.
He whacked an ugly-ass demon on its scaly head with his battle-ax and shot a lightning bolt at another. The bolt bounced around the crowd of demons, taking out another dozen before it fizzled away. Shit, this sucked. He’d always liked a good fight, but this was on a scale he hadn’t seen since...well, ever.
Panting with exhaustion, he took advantage of the brief reprieve from charging demons. They were all around him, but they were busy fighting wardens, so he figured he had about thirty seconds to breathe.
“My lord!” A towering warden from the 4th Ring powered his way through the crowd and jogged over, his sword dripping with blood. “Malonius sent me with a message. He needs you at the Rot right away.”
“Do not tell me we’re dealing with prison riots, too,” Hades growled.
The warden, Rhoni, wiped grime out of his eyes with the back of his gauntleted hand. “No, sir. He captured an intruder.”
He frowned. “Someone else was able to get into the Inner Sanctum?”
“Apparently, sir.”
Yes. The portals must be operating again. Azagoth must have realized something was wrong and had people working on the problem from his side. Finally. Now he could get Cat back where she belonged.
An uncomfortable sensation caught tight in his chest. He wasn’t ready to give her up yet. Sure, he couldn’t have her, not in the way he wanted, but now that he’d gotten a taste––so to speak—he wanted more. Her bravery and impulsiveness fascinated him, and her unique blend of artlessness and seductiveness enchanted him. He loved the way her kisses were eager but unpracticed, and her emotions were so unguarded. Such a rare thing for a fallen angel.
Yes, she was newly fallen, and no doubt she’d lose that innocent patina eventually, but only if she was exposed to ugliness. Something inside him wanted to protect her from that ugliness, the way he’d protected humans back when he’d been an angel.
Back then, he’d gone too far in his desire to protect the innocent, and it had cost him his wings and his soul. But how far would he go to protect Cat?
He knew the answer immediately. He’d stop at nothing. Which meant that, if the portals were open, he had to send her back. With only one exception, the Inner Sanctum was ugly, and Cat deserved better. She deserved to not lose her shiny.
The whisper of a spear passed too close to Hades’s ear for comfort, jolting him back to the ugliness around him. The kind he needed to protect Cat from.
“How are things in the 4th Ring?” he asked.
“They’re bad,” Rhoni said, “but not this bad.”
Hades clapped the guy on the shoulder. “Get back to it. I’ll head to the prison.”
Extending his wings, he launched into the air, spinning and diving to avoid projectiles. The icy burn of some sort of weapon ripped through one wing, but a few heartbeats later, he punched through the portal and was striding down the Rot’s dark, damp halls to the processing center where all guests were interrogated before being sent to either a cell or a torture chamber. When he arrived in the chilly antechamber, Malonius greeted him.
“She’s in Jellybean,” he said, his breath visible in the freezing air. “Seems her greatest fear is spiders.”
From its pulsating walls to its seeping ceiling, Jellybean was a room that fed on fear and came alive when someone was locked inside. Once it got hold of someone’s fears, it made them real. He’d once seen the room fill with jellybeans while the demon inside screamed in terror...hence, the name of the room.
Malonius had shoved an orange bean up the guy’s nose, and the demon had confessed all of his considerable sins. Freaking jellybeans.
“Wait. She?” Hades asked, every internal alarm clanging as what Malonius said sank in. He opened his mouth, but whatever he was about to say fled when he saw the pile of clothes on the table behind the other fallen angel.
A pair of faded, ripped jeans and a corset.
Cat.
Fuck! Wheeling around, he tore out of the room and charged down the hall, his pulse pounding in his ears even louder than the strike of his boots on the stone floor. Holy hell, if she was hurt, someone was going to pay in blood and bone and pain, and Hades was going to be the one to collect.
Up ahead, a warden stood guard outside Jellybean. “Open that fucking room!” Hades shouted.
The guy jumped, fumbled at his side for the key, but before he could unlock the door, Hades was there. He wrenched the key from the warden’s hand and knocked him aside.
His fingers shook as he jammed the heavy iron skeleton key into the lock, but somehow he managed to open the door. He whipped it open, and a wave of spiders of all species and sizes skittered out, spilling over his boots.
“Dach niek!”
The Sheoulic command put the room to rest, and the arachnids disappeared. He burst inside, and his knees nearly gave out at the sight of Cat huddled in the corner, naked and shivering. Her arms covered her head as she rocked back and forth on her heels. Bruises marred her pale skin, and fury made his blood steam.
“Cat.” He knelt next to her and laid his palm gently on her shoulder, cursing when she flinched. “Cat, it’s m
e. It’s Hades.”
A shudder wracked her body, and she made a sobbing noise that pricked him in the heart he’d long ago thought immune to pretty much anything emotional.
He lowered his voice, shooting for something that might resemble soothing. “The spiders are gone. They weren’t real. It’s okay.”
Very slowly, her arms came down, and she peeked at him through splayed fingers. Her bloodshot, red-rimmed eyes were a punch in the gut. “Hades?”
“Yeah.” He cleared his voice of the hoarseness that had crept into it. “It’s okay, I promise.”
She lowered her hands, but her gaze shifted and her eyes went wide as the sound of footsteps indicated that someone had come into the room.
“My lord,” Malonius began, his voice pitched with fear, proving he wasn’t completely stupid. Clearly he realized he’d fucked up in a very, very big way. “I found her in your crypt...she’d ransacked the place...I thought––”
“I know what you thought,” Hades snapped. He didn’t turn to look at the male because if he did, he wouldn’t be able to control the murderous rage pounding through his veins. “And that’s the only reason you aren’t hanging by your entrails right now.”
As much as he wanted to blame the warden for this, it was ultimately Hades’s fault. He hadn’t thought to tell all of his staff about Cat, but that was a mistake he wouldn’t make again.
“Tell the others,” he said. “Tell them that this Unfallen is mine, and she’s not to be harmed, or ogled, or even fucking breathed on.”
“Yes, sir.” Malonius tossed Cat’s clothes to Hades, and a heartbeat later, they were alone again.
“Cat? I’m going to take you home...ah, I mean, to my place.”
He started to pull her into his arms, but he jerked back at the sight of the gore streaking his arms. Cursing, he looked down at himself, realized he must look like he’d showered in a slaughterhouse. The fact that he was covered in blood wasn’t the most unusual thing ever, but after what Cat had just been through, she didn’t need this, too.
So much for protecting her from the ugliness of the Inner Sanctum.
Guilt churned inside him like a living thing, and this thing had teeth. It gnawed at his heart and clawed at his soul because this could have been prevented.
Cat’s teeth began to chatter, so he let the guilt monster feed as he gathered her in his filthy arms and tucked her against his grimy chest and got her out of there, snarling at everyone who got in his way. Or who looked at her naked body. Or breathed in his general direction.
He reached the exit portal in record time, but as he stepped inside, he wondered what else could possibly go wrong.
Chapter Eleven
Face buried against Hades’s powerful chest, Cat clung to him with all her strength, which seemed to be in short supply. She couldn’t stop the shaking, but when Hades held her tighter and whispered comforting things in her ear, the wonderful whiskey-fizz sensation he gave off wrapped around her like a warm blanket and helped ease the trembling a little.
She didn’t open her eyes to see where they were going. She didn’t care. As long as she wasn’t trapped with spiders in that horrible room with pulsing walls and the faint sound of a heartbeat, she was thrilled. Besides, she trusted Hades. He’d given her no reason not to. More importantly, he worked for Azagoth, and no one in their right minds would do anything to intentionally harm anyone in the Grim Reaper’s employ.
Hades let out a hardcore curse, grumbled, and cursed again. She didn’t look. Whatever had pissed him off wasn’t something she wanted to see. He started moving again, and then suddenly, she felt a cool, fresh breeze on her bare skin. The scent of freshly mown grass and flowers filled her nostrils, and riding on the raft of air was the faint tang of the ocean.
Where in the world were they? Had they escaped the Inner Sanctum?
Still, she didn’t peek, not even when he spoke to someone in Sheoulic, dashing her hopes that they’d gotten free. A few moments later, she heard a door close, and the mouthwatering aroma of roasting meat and baking bread finally had her cracking her eyelids.
Her mother had always joked that nothing could make her come running like the ring of the dinner bell, and it was so true. She loved food. Loved to cook. She secretly enjoyed when Azagoth or Lilliana asked her to whip them up something in the kitchen, even though they had several full-time chefs. Sometimes she even helped out in the kitchen that served the dozens of Unfallen who lived and trained in Azagoth’s realm.
She wondered how long it would be before she could do that again.
“Where are we?” Her throat, raw from screaming, left her voice shredded.
Holy eight-legged hell, she hated spiders. And, as she’d discovered in that horrible room, demon spiders made every species of arachnid in the human realm seem like cuddly puppies.
“We’re with friends. They’re letting us take their house for as long as we need.” Hades’s hand stroked her hair gently. “I’m going to put you down on the bed. Is that okay?”
She nodded, and he set her down carefully on a mattress she suspected had been filled with straw. Before she was even out of his arms, he covered her with a blanket and tossed her clothes onto a small table next to the bed.
They appeared to be in some sort of Tudor-era hut that, while being primitive in comparison to modern-day standards, was pristine, as if brand new. The furniture and decor was simple but elegant and had clearly been fashioned by talented hands. A small, doorless bathroom had been built into one wall, but like Hades’s place, the toilet was crude, a mere hole in a stone and wood box she was guessing emptied through some sort of pipe and away from the home.
He sank down beside her on the mattress. “I’m sorry about what happened. I’ll be having a little chat with Malonius later.”
“Don’t,” she said, surprising herself. Earlier, she’d cursed that male from here to Mars until she had to stop cursing in order to scream. “He caught me going through your things. I can see why he thought I was an intruder.” She shuddered. “The spider room was overkill, though.”
“You’re a lot more forgiving than most people would be...wait, going through my things?” His voice was teasing and light, so unexpected, and so welcome. How did he know exactly what she needed?
“I was bored. And I wanted to get to know you better.” She rolled her bottom lip between her teeth, wondering at what point curiosity became intrusion. “I saw the picture on your desk. The lake in the mountains. Is it someplace special?”
He grunted. “Crater Lake. I’ve always thought it was one of the most beautiful places in the world, and I need a reminder now and then. Especially since most of the Inner Sanctum is craptastically ugly.”
That was so...sweet. And again, unexpected. Who would have thought that the guy who operated a demon holding tank would want something beautiful near him?
“I’m going to go get something for you to eat.” Hades reached over and squeezed her hand, but when he glanced down at the way their fingers were entwined, he jerked away from her. “Sorry...I’m covered in...I was fighting before I went to the Rot...fuck.” A blush spread over his cheeks as he popped to his feet. “Will you be okay by yourself?”
“I’m not afraid of a little dirt and blood,” she said tiredly, “and I’m not a child who can’t be left alone.” That said, she still checked out the room for spiders. And she couldn’t get that infernal heartbeat to stop echoing in her head.
“I know.” There was an odd note in his voice...admiration, maybe? The idea that he, a powerful Biblical legend, admired anything about her, a disgraced Unfallen with few survival skills, gave her a boost of much-needed energy. “I’ll be right back.”
She waited on the bed, the scratchy wool blanket wrapped tightly around her. Soft voices drifted back and forth from the other room, and a few minutes later, he returned with a pottery mug and a bowl of steaming meat and bread swimming in gravy. Her stomach growled fiercely, and she didn’t feel the slightest embarrassment when she sn
atched the plate and crude metal spork from him.
Completely setting aside polite manners, she shoveled a bite into her mouth and chewed. “Oh, damn,” she moaned. “This is amazing. But I’m not going to ask what kind of meat it is.”
He chuckled as he set the mug on the stand next to the bed. “I can tell you that it’s not demon snake.”
“Good,” she muttered. “I’ve had enough of that for a lifetime.” She took another bite, chewed, swallowed. “So why aren’t we at your place?”
“Because Malonius locked the portal to my crypt to protect it, and I can’t open it without him. I can break through his lock eventually, but I didn’t want to waste time. Besides, I figured you’d be more comfortable here.”
She licked gravy off the spork and decided she wanted the recipe. “Where is here?”
“We’re in hell’s version of Cloud Cuckoo Land.”
“Say what?”
“Don’t you watch movies?” He shook his head, making waves in his Mohawk. “We’re in a recently-built realm Azagoth and I created for demons who don’t really fit into any of the five Rings.”
She frowned. “But I thought the Rings coordinated with the Ufelskala.”
“They do.” He moved over to the window and peered out, his expression watchful but not tense, which relieved her more than she’d care to admit. She’d always thought of herself as being tough, but the last couple of days had tested her resolve, and she was ready for a break. “But the 1st Ring didn’t seem suitable for all good demons. There was no reward for demons who have done more than simply exist. Who have contributed to society for the greater good.”
As an angel who spent her entire life in Heaven, she’d been raised on stories of the depravity of demons, so while she had no trouble believing that there were demons who were “less evil” than others, she wasn’t convinced that “good” demons existed.
“Good demons?” she asked, not bothering to hide her skepticism. “Really?”
