by Lucas, Naomi
Cyane shook her head as she recalled her conversation with Melinoe. She didn’t know if it’d been real, but something kept her throat tight. “I was drowning again… I was back in Styx,” she lied. “I was drowning, and you weren’t there to pull me from the water.”
But in a way, he had, hadn’t he? Cyane curled her arms around her stomach, feeling a little ill.
Her lie was a dangerous confession in itself—she was afraid for Cerberus to know that she’d made plans with Melinoe. If he found out her deception… He knows when I try to leave, when I want to leave.
Don’t think about it! Nervousness clawed at her throat.
With his hands still cupping her cheeks, Cerberus leaned closer, studying her a little more than she liked... “I will be there to pull you from the waters. Always.”
“Even if I were dead?” she mumbled.
He cocked his head. “Even so.”
“Don’t say things you don’t mean.” Melinoe’s words filled her mind once more. “A mortal has never been saved from their fate.”
A crack formed in her chest.
“My mortal will.” He lowered his hands to her waist and drew her into his arms, into his lap, and then settled back on the opposite side of the basin.
My mortal will… Tears formed in her eyes, and she burrowed her face against his chest. It was mildly cold again, but she didn’t mind. The water was hot.
How could I leave him? Give this up for a near impossible chance to confront parents who had left her with nothing but a note?
She’d only known him for days—days!—and she was already reconsidering everything. What if she made her way home only to face terrible strangers or worse…no one at all. Would she ever be able to live again after all she had learned? Could I get a job, save up money, and find someone to love after this? Start a family? Adopt her own children, and wake up every morning, already dead inside, knowing their inevitable fates?
Cerberus’s fingers stroked her arm before they tangled into the strands of her wet hair and played with her locks.
Time is different in the darkness...
She nuzzled his chest harder, wanting more than anything to disappear.
“Why do you do that?” he asked her.
“Do what?”
“Press your head to my chest?”
The crevasse in her chest grew, but with it, warmth. “It brings me comfort. Your heart is in your chest, it’s where all of our emotions begin and end. Being near yours helps to distance me from mine.”
“Mortals are strange.”
“Yes... Yes, we are. Would you like to try?” She glanced up at him, finding him staring down at her, pondering.
Cerberus shook his head. “I feel many things and most of them I don’t understand. I don’t want to distance myself from them until I understand since they all belong to you.”
Now that crack in her chest burst into a chasm.
“Oh.” Even such a simple response was almost impossible for her now.
As if it couldn’t get worse, Cerberus curled a finger around a tendril of her hair. “But perhaps later, when I do understand them, I would like to press my head to your chest.”
Cyane wiped her face to hide the growing wetness in her eyes. She wanted to give him a gift, another one, a grander one than the ringlet of her hair around his thumb.
“I have another gift for you, Cerberus, if you’d accept it?” she whispered, moving over him now to straddle his hips. She placed her hands on his shoulders and his bulge jerked between them. He’d been hard the entire time, but it didn’t seem to matter to either of them until now.
“The Day of Gifts is long over,” he said, slow enough to bolster her confidence.
But he didn’t stop her. He wants this. He’s curious.
“This has nothing to do with that. This is between you and me, like every interaction we’ve had, that we will ever have.”
“Then do not wait, mortal, give it to me,” he demanded, the hunger she now knew so well growing in his thirsty gaze.
She placed her dripping hand over his eyes. “Close your eyes.”
“If you deceive me, this will go badly for you.”
“Just close your eyes! It’s not like I can even hurt you if I tried, and I have no intention of jumping out the window and running. You’ll like this.”
He stiffened. “Then make it quick. When my eyes are closed, all of my eyes are closed.”
Cyane sighed, pursed her lips, and removed her hand from his eyes to confirm they were closed. Her gaze dipped to his slightly parted, beautifully bow-shaped lips that shouldn’t exist on any man, ever.
And they were hers. This gift was hers as well. No matter what happens. She’d own this moment.
She inhaled softly and leaned forward. She pressed her lips to his.
Cerberus’s eyes snapped open, and she shuddered, rubbing his mouth. She closed her eyes as his darkened. She didn’t want him to stop her, to question this until she was done.
Cyane moved her lips softly at first, slowly back and forth over his, until his mouth loosened to meet the softness of her own. She slid her hands up to cup his neck, the back of his head, and pressed forward, pushing her chest against his.
The aroma of the minty water was eclipsed by Cerberus's heady scent. Like everything about him, it was overwhelming, and even though she was currently tentatively in control, his scent stole her senses.
She flicked the tip of her tongue out to taste him.
And like the abyss, his mouth opened to swallow her own. Cerberus’s tongue shot out to slam against hers. The softness of the kiss fled as their tongues tangled. His hands, which now spanned across her back, slid up to hold her hard to him.
A strained moan escaped her, but he swallowed that up as well. She clutched his hair. He pressed and kneaded the muscles of her back even as the spear of his cock was trapped between them, pushing against her.
It was impossible to know how much time has passed since their last coupling—time really wasn’t normal here—but found despite being sore from before, she still wanted him back inside her.
His tongue drove harder between her lips and explored her mouth, as demanding and heavy as his erection. Cyane slanted her head as much as he would let her and opened her eyes to look at him.
Cerberus feverishly stared back at her. Her aching sex knotted. He wrapped his arms around her, grasped her backside, and lifted her hard against him as he stood. Cyane grabbed onto him but there was no need—she was locked so hard between his arms that she couldn’t get away. Cerberus walked them to the bed and laid her down. She whined when he ripped his mouth from hers to stand over her.
Gasping, she gazed up at him.
“I will be inside you again, mortal, but I need to know you won’t leave me this time. I thought I killed you, and I...” His eyes streaked over her body, landing between her legs.
Embarrassed, she began to close her thighs. His hands shot out, and he tore her legs open again. Spread wide open to his gaze, she shivered as butterflies assailed her. His eyes had not moved from her sex.
She dropped her own gaze to his bulging prick and wiggled uncomfortably. She couldn’t believe such a huge, veiny shaped specimen had been inside her.
Perhaps that’s why I passed out…
She sucked in her stomach. “You what?”
“I was about to tear this realm apart for your soul to slam it back into you.”
She moaned. Why did that make her moan?
“You didn’t hurt me before. I—” she struggled for the right words. “Being with you, like that, it was so sudden, unexpected. I wasn’t prepared, not for that.” Whatever it was. Cyane licked her lips as his hands gripped her thighs harder. “I don’t think anyone could prepare to be with someone like you?”
His jaw ticked. “As they could with a mortal?”
She nodded.
“Have you been with a mortal?”
“Once—”
“Who?”
“It
doesn’t matter.”
He leaned over her menacingly, releasing his hold on one of her thighs, and she drew away, as far as she was able. “Who?” he demanded.
“A boy,” she hesitated as Cerberus’s chill careened over her. “Another foster in the house I lived in when I was young.”
Cerberus could do anything to her at any time. His constant control of all her movements was evidence alone.
But she knew he would never hurt her, and every time he used his absolute might upon her, she buckled willingly, near desperate to do everything he wanted. Wet. She was achingly wet for it.
Cerberus pressed his lips to her ear. Her throat closed after a gulp. “You will give me his name when this is finished between us, and I will wait for his soul to come to me to die another death.”
Cyane shivered. “I don’t want this to ever be finished between us.”
The blunt head of his cock rubbed her sex. “Then you will never leave.”
“Will you protect me?”
“Yes,” he said with such adamance that it stole her breath.
“Would you...” She licked her lips. “Would you swear an oath to Styx on it?”
Cerberus’s cock rubbed up and down her open sex, the hard ridge of his tip bumping across her clit, her aching core. She grew wetter by the second.
“I swore an oath to Hades to always be loyal to him,” Cerberus murmured.
“I wish I knew what he wanted with me,” Cyane gasped. “What the point of all of this is.”
Cerberus lifted his lips from her ear and clasped her chin between his fingers. “Swear fealty to me, Cyane.”
“Why?”
“What other god but me has given you everything?” He forced her to stare into his hauntingly red eyes. “You could belong to me, always.”
Her heart fell into her gut, the air caught in her throat. At that moment, she loved and hated him more than anything. The delicious lick and burn of his erection hadn’t stopped rubbing her, killing her with desperate lust to be filled by him again. It wasn’t fair. None of this was fair. But nothing had ever been fair, not since the day she was left by her parents to face the world alone.
Her doubt that a powerful being like Cerberus could ever want her fled.
Swearing fealty wasn’t everything, was it?
His breath fanned her face as he waited for her answer.
“I swear fealty to you, Cerberus.” The words tasted right. She knew what he wanted from her. “I’ll worship you. I worship you,” she whispered.
His beautifully terrible face twisted with something she couldn’t read, but it made her heart beat wildly, excitedly. Lovingly.
He pressed his mouth against hers and slammed home between her legs.
Cyane screamed in bliss.
Cyane was hot. So very, very hot.
Something akin to gripping obsession consumed Cerberus. He was crazed with it, forsaking his duties, forsaking Hades, forsaking everything. He’d never felt so alive.
To think a mortal had done this to him.
A creature he once thought beneath him who were nothing more than bugs to be punished if they dared to fight the will of nature.
Cerberus thrust into Cyane relentlessly, and she only begged for more. Her female flesh gripped him, wetted his length, and strangled him into delirium.
At some point, Hades called him to the ballroom, but he went ignored.
Cerberus’s monstrous, true form—stuck under his man-suit—was as free as it could be with this tender mortal, and yet his mortal screamed for it. Screamed and screamed, and hellishly begged with delicious noises that echoed in his once quiet sanctuary.
It was only once Cyane slumbered beneath him, that he lifted his mouth from suckling her flesh. There wasn’t an inch of her that he hadn’t tasted, and even the parts of her where she had resisted, had sparked with life under his attentions. He had filled his hands with her and driven his fingers deep into her mouth.
He wanted to know everything about his mortal servant. The right of gods was heady, and he was just learning to use his.
Still hungering, his bulge still heavy and uncomfortable, Cerberus brought the darkness to him and replaced the soiled bedding. He didn’t let the shadows take his markings that covered Cyane’s body—he wanted to keep them there for a while longer for him to enjoy. She’d marked him as well with her nails, and those marks he might keep forever.
When he was done he lay back atop her, keeping her where he liked her most and breathed her in.
Time passed while she slept. He passed the time kissing her skin. He vowed to one day wipe her memory of her former lover and feast on his soul as slipped his mouth over her.
Hades has done more for Persephone. Cerberus would follow his lord’s lead and do the same.
The thought of Hades churned his gut, and the calling of the Lord of the Underworld struck Cerberus again. He was being summoned. And yet the thought of releasing Cyane from where he trapped her infuriated him.
He moved his lips upon hers one last time and lifted himself from her. She curled onto her side and brought her hands to her chin. He covered her with a silken blanket.
‘Cyane is to serve me. She is a means to an end, like all mortals, so do what you will with her, but know when the time comes, she must come to me.’
Cerberus gritted his teeth. His hands tightened at his sides.
He walked to the terrace and glared at Hades’s castle. It pained him, all of these emotions Cerberus was now cursed with. Hate was within him, and hate hadn’t been there since Hercules chained him, forcing him to the world above.
But despite it all, he didn’t hate Hades or even what might come to pass. He hated his inability to stop it, he detested that his loyalty was in question and that he understood Cyane’s predicament better than he was letting on.
How could he claim to be loyal while also lying to those he was loyal to?
The worst thing that could happen wasn’t her death. Death belonged here, death was easy for him to control and understand. No, the worst thing that could happen is her loss of faith in me.
Which could happen. If he couldn’t protect her from whatever Hades planned to do with her.
Hades called him again.
The Day of Deals was nearly over, and Cerberus had one last thing to do before he confronted his lord.
The God of Crossings
Back in armor, Cerberus entered the ballroom from the shadows. His gaze caught Hades’s from across the room. He deftly checked out his lord, trying to read him and know what mood Hades was in before Cerberus approached. Their eyes met, and Hades gulped back his cup of nectar, dismissing him with a nod to talk with the undying bowed in submission at his feet.
Although Cerberus had been temporarily dismissed, that didn’t mean Hades still didn’t want his hound by his side. But he turned away, taking those moments to set his plan into motion.
It was rare for Cerberus to not answer his lord’s summons at once, but he believed the deal he could make was one that would please Hades. Even if it was shrouded with betrayal.
Cerberus scanned the ballroom.
He wanted to make this quick and get back to Cyane before she awakened.
The ballroom held far fewer guests, but there were still a hundred or so in attendance.
The strongest ones. He assumed. Or the quickest, the craftiest. The ones the undead Trojan horse didn’t hunt, like the gods and demi-gods, and those like Tantalus, the eternal servant, who was serving timeless punishment.
Flowing strips of cloth still hung as curtains, but none touched the ground, having been torn away by daemon hands and teeth, consumed due to the blood they’d soaked up. Candles lit the room, clustered in thousands along the walls, giving what had been purple-white the appearance of dried blood.
The obsidian walls gleamed.
Soft music played so conversations could be had and deals could be made. The undying who remained dressed conservatively or manipulatively, depending on the deal they pla
nned to make.
The smell of nectar was potent as basins overflowed with it, wetting the floor in slick puddles. Even those that didn’t partake in drink carried it around where it soaked their clothes and sandals.
Cerberus judged through the eyes of his hounds while searching for Hermes. He found the golden god, blessed by Aphrodite (whom he now envied), speaking with Hypnos near Hades’s dais.
Cerberus strode across the room towards them.
“One poppy is all I need,” Hermes said.
“One from my dwelling could put half the mortals asleep. It’ll cost a steep price for me to relinquish one.”
“Was it not I who helped you with Hera when she needed Zeus asleep? Was it not I who brought Pasithea, a revered Grace, here to wed you? Have I not allowed the crossings of you and your offspring to the slumbering mortals above? You could not own half their lives with sleep without the power I bring,” Hermes argued.
“All power is omniscient, even if it’s yours, young god. You did not allow something that is the right of gods far more ancient than you,” Hypnos mused. “We have been at this all day, and my stance will not change. If you want a poppy from my garden, I will know why first.” Hypnos regarded Cerberus and canted his head in greeting.
Cerberus nodded back. Hermes’s lips curled in distaste.
“We are not done,” Hermes gritted as the ancient god of sleep wandered away. Hermes turned to Cerberus anyway. “You and Hades’s mortal guest have been missing all day. I feared that the horse may have swallowed her.”
“Are you keeping tabs on me?” Cerberus didn’t want to think of Hermes watching for Cyane, let alone himself, any more than what he wanted to ask anything from this god.
He’d prefer to break Hermes’s jaw wide and eat the golden boy whole.
“Oh, don’t sound so honored. There have been whisperings that some of Hades’s brood wanted to leave after his grossly entertaining stunt. Who else could they make a deal with to escape Tartarus if not you? Even I can’t cross a non-god from this place.” Hermes looked around. “So where is she? Our mortal guest?”
“Safely away, slumbering as mortals do. She’s not here.”
