“Persephone,” I said.
She was crying, and wiped the tears from her eyes as she looked at my face. “You don’t want me here.”
“I think you should go,” I said. If she went, if she left this plane of existence, I would be free of this strange hold she had on me. I wrapped my wings tightly around the both of us, enveloping her warmth against me, but she was shaking.
“Hades, I can’t let you feel that way,” she whispered. She reached up, her hand touching my face gently. “I think this may end me now, but…I just can’t let you want me to go.”
“Persephone, what—”
Her lips silenced mine, and it was the first time I had kissed her. My body began to hum, to sing, I felt lifted suddenly, from the ground, from the earth, and I felt her pouring into me. Everything around me went white, and my head began to spin as her arms tightened and the kiss deepened.
I felt her melting against me, her spirit locking onto mine, and it was in that moment she officially possessed me. She owned me, I was hers. As I slowly came to, I realized I was holding nothing. There was empty space in front of me, and an energy humming around me. She was gone. She had given me everything she had left, and she was now just a spirit, like the humans floating around, waiting for her next purpose in life.
I fell to my knees and wept for her, wept for us, and wept because I knew then no matter what I did, or where I went, I would always be tied to her. She was not mine, but I would always be hers.
Chapter Fifteen
Apollo stood outside of the apartment building, staring up at the window where his daughter lay trapped by the Norse ones. He was furious and frustrated, but he realized the potential of his victory if his power was able to work on the immortal human.
The Norse ones, despite being confined to human form, were still stronger than he was, but he had something they did not—influence. He felt it flow directly into the human, and he drank it willingly. Lonely and desperate, his soul ached for comfort and connection, and Apollo could give him that.
He’d never experienced an immortal human, though, and as he walked down the street, his shoes making a faint tapping sound on the pavement, he had to wonder if the immortal would be able to fend off his influence. Whatever had gifted the humans with those powers, it was no Angel, nor was it the now-incorporeal gods. It was something different, something ancient. He knew Nike didn’t understand it, but she did know it was a power that needed to be harnessed if they were going to have any real success.
Apollo spread his wings, stretching them, feeling his spine elongate as he debated about taking flight. But what was the point? Nike was far off and for the moment, he enjoyed the separation from her. She was the only one immune to his caress, his touch, his kiss. She was the only one who hadn’t ever fallen under his spell, and to this day it drove him mad.
The wind shifted, ruffling his invisible feathers and he thought back to the warm hand around his neck, pressing him into the wall. Thor, or at the time they’d known each other, he was Michael. He had managed to infiltrate Apollo’s sister’s body when she’d gone mad and had walked the earth with him for centuries, watching the humans grow and evolve. Watching their religions spring up around their myths, the winged caretakers of their Lord, a god who long ago absconded and left the humans to fend for themselves.
Yahweh, the angriest one of them, vengeful and spiteful, and believed he had created these things who prostrated themselves in worship. These creatures, primates, primitive and unevolved, who shed their brother’s blood over trivial matters which wouldn’t have any bearing on their end. So pathetic, he thought as he strolled through a crowd of people.
Apollo shoved his hands into his pocket and began to whistle the rapid tune of Mozart’s Turkish March. It reminded him of the humans, bustling about pointless, hurried for no reason, desperate to fill that gaping hole in their lives, as though it would give them meaning. He loathed them, and would love to see them devoured by the beasts waiting on the other side.
A woman standing across the street was watching him. She was quite beautiful despite being human. Short and small, but had full curves and a shower of black hair cascading down her back. She caught his eye and blushed, looking away as his grin widened and he crossed the street.
She took a step back as he approached, but the faint pink in her cheeks told Apollo she had no intention of running away. He let out a sigh and cocked his head to the side. “I’m sorry. I saw you and I had to come and tell you how beautiful you were.”
The blush deepened and she laughed, turning her eyes to the ground. “Thank you,” she said shyly, but he knew she was not bashful at all. She carried herself like someone who knew she was attractive. Someone who knew and had no trouble using her shy smile and full curves to make men trip over themselves to do what she wanted.
He leaned forward and put his nose into the crook of her neck, taking in a whiff of her sweet, floral perfume. “Nice,” he whispered, not moving away.
Her hand slowly crept onto his arm and gripped it as he pressed his lips to the warm spot between her ear and her chin, just under the jawline. He felt her shiver and it thrilled him. His arms came around her and he lifted his head just slightly, her panting breath hot on his face as he parted his lips. He could see her pupils begin to dilate with anticipation of what he might do next, and he felt the familiar rush of power over this creature.
He brought his face close to hers, his lips hovering just above her own and he whispered, “May I?”
She let out the smallest groan and shifted her body against him tighter. “Please,” she whispered.
It was all he needed, and he went in. His lips met hers, a clash of tongue and teeth as she gave in to her desperation to be near him, close to him, part of him. He let his power flow into her, and he felt it, rushing through her veins, into her core, taking over her, binding them. The kiss broke before he could really enjoy it, and when he moved back, she stared at him, tears pouring down her face.
“I have to go,” he said with a wink.
“Please,” she moaned.
Apollo spread his wings, and without caring who might see, what mortal might notice, he shot into the sky and was gone. He was halfway back to San Francisco when he felt her go. He didn’t need to see it to know she’d thrown herself into traffic, a desperate attempt to reach him, and she was dead. He didn’t know where her soul went—only Hades could see them—but he felt his power rush back into him and he smiled. He loved it when they did that. He loved the frenzied obsession and the ultimate sacrifice. Their life for one kiss, and it gave him all the pleasure he would ever need.
Chapter Sixteen
Ben sat in silence for quite some time after Hades had stopped speaking. The room echoed the silence around them, the only distraction was the soft hum of the small fridge, and the occasional drinks from the beer bottle as Ben finished off his drink.
Hades had taken a spot on the bed now, across from Ben, giving the detective a polite distance as he recounted the story of how he came to be, and who Stella—or Persephone—really was. With a sigh, Ben finally set the empty bottle on the ground and leaned forward, forearms across his knees.
“So what happened?” he asked, his voice sounding strange in the heavy silence between them.
Hades chuckled a little and lifted an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Well you just sort of ended the story,” Ben complained. “You were smitten, she’d lost her corporeal form, but from what it sounded like, this was before Greece was even really Greece.”
Hades cocked his head to the side in thought. “Yes. Yes it was. Honestly, we just sort of…made it work,” he finished with a shrug. “She would occupy the dying or the ill, and I sought them out for her. The Greeks, well, most of them left, and it wasn’t until the fall of Rome, as the humans now call it, that I even met two of my three brethren.”
“Who were they?” Ben asked, finding it odd that he cared, but the entire story was confusing and he still wasn’
t sure what Hades wanted besides the body of Stella terminated and Persephone pushed through the portal.
“Apollo and Artemis,” Hades said. “They’d been branded Angels by the mortals by then, the messengers of God. Something was wrong with Artemis from the start. She was never quite like us, never totally sentient, but I never figured out what caused it. She followed Apollo around until she faded and Thor took over her body. Apollo was angry with me for the fate of his daughter, and Persephone was so terrified of him that we fled. He chased us for some time, branding me the Devil, and Persephone my whore.” Hades shook his head and rolled his eyes. “What a load of shit, really.”
Ben couldn’t help but laugh, a startling sound in that room, and he rose from the chair to stretch his legs. “So you just sort of ran from him? That’s it?”
“The longer I was with Persephone, the more her influence held strong over me. She would stray from time to time, but just as her influence would start to fade, she’d return in the form of some mortal and I’d be overcome by her again. Even now I hate her, with a fiery passion I hate her, but I want her.”
It was starting to become clear to Ben, and he looked at Hades, his arms crossed over his chest. “So you want me to get rid of her?”
“Your plan is to push Nike through the portal, and I want you to have Persephone taken with her,” Hade said with a shrug.
“How do you know that?” Ben asked suspiciously, his anxiety firing up almost instantly.
Hades laughed and leaned back on to his elbows on top of the bed. “Don’t be like that, Ben. There’s no leak, no real spy. I used basic human logic to work that part out. The only way to kill the unkillable is to shove them the hell off of this plane. So, I figured that’s what you’d do.”
Ben let out a breath and dropped his arms. “Fair.”
“So?”
“So what?” Ben asked, now feeling a little bit angry. “I mean, was this really your point? To act all mysterious, bring me here, tell me some strangely worded tale about how you met that lying bitch, and then finish with asking me to kill her vessel and send her off to another universe or whatever?”
“Pretty much,” Hades said with a shrug.
Ben frowned and, without asking, he went to the fridge and grabbed another beer. As he stood near the window, he could see the sky begin to glow with a faint, pinkish haze. He hadn’t realized how long Hades had been talking, and it was quite possible that despite Andrew letting them all know where he’d gone, the others were worried about him. This was just not a good time to disappear, and he knew it.
“Why didn’t you just come right out and ask me?” Ben finally stated. He crossed his arms, studying Hades’s face with some desperate hope in reading his expression.
Hades gave a shrug and looked almost bored, his mouth turned up a little, but he gave Ben no real indication on what he was thinking or feeling. “Would you have believed me if I told you that she was dangerous and she needed to be taken out?”
Ben sighed and ran his hand back through his hair. It wasn’t a question he could answer fairly or truthfully because he’d been robbed of that opportunity. His frustration grew as he thought back to all of the elaborately worded tales the gods and immortals fed him. No one trusted him to make a judgment call based on facts, despite that being his every day job. It felt like he was always sequestered, taken to strange locations and fed information that, in all reality, was just goddamn unnecessary. He looked at Hades and realized the god was waiting for an answer. “I don’t know,” he said, letting his irritation color his voice. “Maybe. Maybe I would have believed you. Considering she’d spent the entire time I’ve known her lying to my face, I probably would have believed you.”
Hades spread his hands in surrender. “Then my apologies. I was just taking a page out of your friends’ book and explaining it in great detail. You seem to work well with them when they do that.”
“They didn’t give me much of a choice, either,” Ben grumbled.
Hades chuckled and cocked his head to the side. “You know, they underestimate you. They revere you, which we’ve discussed, and the supernatural realm has your name on its lips quite a bit. But they all seem to drastically underestimate you.”
“And you?” Ben questioned, letting Hades’s words sink in.
His face froze a minute, and then he smiled. “I don’t think I’m going to make their mistakes. I think coming to you was the right decision.”
“What will you do for me?” Ben finally asked after taking a long drink. “I mean, you want me to murder someone, and believe me I’ve done enough of that for a lifetime in the last eight months. And you want me to risk what little position of power we have with Nike by sending Persephone, the only one who can find these god-forsaken portals, into the void. What will you offer me?”
Hade’s eyebrows rose and he sat up straight. “I thought being rid of her would be enough for you.”
“Fortunately for me, she must have used up most of her succubus powers because I’ve slept with her and she doesn’t have any pull over me. She can fuck off forever for all I care. However, I’m not about to give up the one person who can help us with these portals because you don’t like having the touchy-feelies for her.”
“I’ll make sure Nike is in position, is weak, and that she comes alone,” Hades finally said.
The offer was exactly what Ben wanted to hear. “Is there any way to ensure these things? Like some sort of like…I don’t know…power exchange or something, to bind you to your word?”
“What, like in Harry Potter?” Hades asked with a long laugh. “We might be fantasy creatures, but I’m afraid not. You’re just going to have to trust me.”
Ben rolled his eyes and huffed. Hades’s mirth was annoying, to say the least, and he didn’t enjoy being made a mockery of while he was trying to negotiate. “Release Asclepius,” he finally said, “as a gesture of goodwill and trust. If you can release him, we’ll have a deal.”
Hades’s face fell and he stood up. “I’m not entirely sure I can, but I will try. If the binding powers keeping him there are those of my brother, then sure. I’ll break them and send him on his merry way. Strippers and whiskey all around. If it’s something else, though, something Nike has found, I can’t guarantee it.”
Ben gave a stiff nod and said, “Well, I suppose that’s as good as I’m going to get.”
“I’m afraid it’s all I have. Ben, I realize you can’t trust me. I think that’s why I chose you, because you wouldn’t bend to my will as readily as the others might have. You can trust me, and I’d like you to understand that I like it here. It’s fine the way it is. I understand humans sometimes better than they understand themselves. I’m tired, and I just want to be free. I’ll help you where I can. That’s all I can give you.”
Ben stared at him while he finished his beer. He didn’t want to trust Hades, but something in his gut was telling him to do so. It wasn’t that he sounded sincere—because he didn’t really—and it wasn’t that he had proven himself trustworthy. It was mainly that Ben had felt that anguish of being trapped in a situation he couldn’t control, and Hades had that same look in his eyes. Desperate and tired, and Ben got it. “I accept your offer,” he said and grabbed his coat to leave. “But just know, though, that if you try and screw us, we’re still going to win, only you’re going to find yourself in a very bad, very unlucky position. Got it?” Ben tried his best to sound hard, and though he knew that in the end he was no threat, he appreciated the small nod Hades gave him before he stormed out of the room and down the rickety stairs.
It was chilly outside, and without a car, Ben took to the street on foot. He had his phone in his pocket and he knew he needed to call the others, but for a little while he needed to think things over. It was all coming to a head now, and he needed to have his wits about him.
Emotions had made him weak in the past, the attachment to his sister putting them into this predicament once again, and he was frustrated with himself. He had to be rea
dy to do anything. He had to look Stella in the eye and take her out. He couldn’t think about the woman he loved, because she didn’t really exist. She was some sort of goddess hybrid who shouldn’t exist and had only complicated matters.
Ben worried that Alex and Andrew weren’t taking enough precautions with Persephone, but he knew he had to trust them. He wasn’t in this alone, and that thought gave him strength. The early morning sun began to creep over the trees and hill, and Ben felt the warming breeze float over his face. Traffic started to pick up, and as he rushed through the neighborhoods, the smells of breakfast and coffee filled the air.
Things would be okay, he told himself as he made his way to a small strip mall with a coffee shop on the corner. Things had to work out because otherwise, what was the point? There was no god up in the heavens, pulling strings, making sure they were all okay. The beings humans had worshiped for eons were just as pathetic and lonely, if not more so, than the humans walking the earth. So Ben could do this. He could defeat them. He could look into the face of the thing that had used to be his sister and he could pull the trigger. He could look past her, and into the face of the goddess inside and end that life, end that power.
Ben got his coffee and, fueled by that decision, he picked up his phone, took a deep breath, and dialed Alex.
Chapter Seventeen
Mark was nervous that Alex insisted Mark be the one to pick up Ben. Alex insisted that the only way to keep Jude safe was to keep him inside and guarded, and Alex was the only one strong enough to do that. He refused to tell Mark what was wrong with Jude, and that made matters even worse as he got into the car and turned on the GPS.
Ben wasn’t too far, and though Mark was upset at the detective for taking off the way he had, he was more worried about his companion. Jude hadn’t been right, and Alex had spent most of the night feeding him alcohol until he passed out in Alex’s bed.
Cry, Nike! (The Judas Curse) Page 14
