by Vivian Wood
Somehow, he knows.
Hades taps the couch next to him with a single finger. “Up.”
My legs shake as I obey. I feel both too light and too raw, as if he’s ripped me open for his perusal. Maybe he has. I must take too long, because he grips the back of my neck and guides me until I’m leaning against them, my head in Meg’s lap. She has to spread her legs to make room for my shoulders, and that could have been an invitation of sorts, but it doesn’t feel like it. I close my eyes. One of them sifts their fingers through my hair, but I can’t work up the energy to open my eyes to know who. Does it even matter?
I don’t understand any of this. The actions, yes. Not the motive behind it. I can’t shake the feeling they chose me on purpose, trapped me on purpose. My father has a long history of fucking people over, and sometimes those people want revenge. They can’t get to him, so they target the people in his sphere. My mother has had no fewer than four assassination attempts since I was born. My older brother, the heir to the title Zeus, has had double that. Just because I’ve mostly be spared from that danger up to this point doesn’t mean a single damn thing.
In absence of better evidence, the only thing I can do is draw a line between these two things. Hades has some connection to Olympus. All signs point to him targeting me specifically, which means he likely is using me to get to my father.
I almost laugh at the thought, might even do it if I had the energy. Hades might know a lot, might have some deep plans running, but he obviously doesn’t realize how deep my hatred for my father goes. If he wants to use me against the man, he’s more than welcome to.
None of that explains Meg, though. She was surprised by the turn of events, which means she has no idea what Hades is planning. The thought of her being inadvertently hurt by this… Yeah, I’ll keep my mouth shut and pay attention until I know something for sure. If I think for a second Meg is in danger, then I’ll fight Hades, strange attraction to him or no.
Until then, I wait.
I don’t mean to fall asleep. I have every intention of getting up and making my way… somewhere. Back to my room, I guess. I’m in no shape to sling drinks right now. But the darkness behind my eyes gains new depth and pulls me down despite myself.
My last thought is how absurdly safe I feel right now, with two people who I most definitely shouldn’t trust.
Chapter Twelve
Meg
“What game are you playing, Hades?”
He strokes a hand down the back of my thigh, directly over the welts he striped there. A comforting touch and still a reminder of his power. Everything is like that with him, always has been. Layers upon layers. There are days when I’d give my right eye for him to just speak plainly. Just once. I already know his answer won’t satisfy before he says, “A deep one, love.”
I look down at Hercules. His body has gone slack with sleep, the adrenaline drop knocking him out as surely as any drug. If we can’t rouse him enough to get him down to his suite, he’ll end up here on the couch. It won’t be the first time something like this has happened, but my stomach twists at the thought of him waking up and thinking he’s been abandoned. “He’s an innocent.”
“He’s from Olympus. There are no innocents there, not in the circles he moved in.”
Finally, a hint at the truth. I should have made the connection the second Hercules picked that as his safe word, but I’d been too busy wallowing in anger and self-pity. I lean back enough so that I can see Hades’s face. “He’s too young to be connected to your exile.”
“Yes.”
No elaboration, and why would there be? Everyone thinks that Hades talks to me, that he divulges secrets to me and me alone. He used to, but that was a long time ago, before he started shutting me out. Now, when I’m actually trying to reach him despite every instinct screaming at me to protect myself, he’s still shutting me out. Frustration blooms in my chest, chasing away the last bit of buzz from the scene we just finished. “I wish you would just talk to me.”
He strokes my jaw. For a moment, the barriers between us disintegrate, and I can see how fucking tired he is. Tired down to his very soul. An exhaustion that could swallow mine. It’s only a moment, though. I blink and then he’s the enigma again, a soft smile playing at his lips. “Trust me, love. You never used to have such reservations when it came to following my lead.”
Hurt lances my chest, a deeper pain than the cane welts. Closed out yet again. A demand for trust that he stopped earning when he stopped talking to me. Did I really think this time would be different, that he would suddenly change his ways? I know better. A thousand times over. My throat burns, and I look away. “I’m very tired. I’d like to go to bed.”
For the briefest of hesitations, I think he may actually change his mind and let me in. But Hades just nods. “There’s a meeting with the liquor distributer at ten tomorrow.”
Just business. Always just business. “I’m aware,” I grind out. Stupid to let this hurt me. I slide out from beneath Hercules’s head and it’s only sheer force of will that keeps my knees from buckling when I stand. Hades may own me in every way that counts, but he’s no longer my safe space. I’m not even sure if he ever was, or if those bright years were just a figment of my imagination, an illusion a desperate girl wove around herself and the man she viewed as her savior.
I let the blanket drop and walk on steady legs to my discarded clothing. It’s not uncommon for subs to navigate the club in only a blanket—or naked—but I am not a normal sub. My clothing is my armor, and no matter how dazed I feel right now, I can’t afford to let anyone see. The Underworld is filled to the brim with predators, and it’s their nature to pounce on weakness. Even me. Especially me.
I’m almost to the door when Hades speaks again. “Megaera.”
I stop. “Yes?”
“You pleased me greatly tonight.”
I resent the warm flush his words bring. Pleasure at pleasing him. I walk out of the room without another word. Hades will see to Hercules. It’s not my problem, and staying in that room a second longer is just asking for the emotional breakdown I can feel barreling down the tracks in my direction. I have to get out of here, but leaving the building isn’t an option, not when I’m feeling so off-center. It takes me six minutes to make it down the back way to the living quarters and lock myself in my suite. Even then, it’s not enough. I strip out of my clothes, but each step reminds me of the beating Hades delivered, of the way Hercules fucked me with his tongue afterward. If that’s not a metaphor for the two men, I don’t know what is.
Pain and pleasure. Pleasure and pain. Both will kill you in the end if you’re not careful.
I need a shower, but I’m too fucking exhausted. Emotionally. Mentally. Physically. Take your pick. I drag my fingers through my hair. I already know I’m not going to be able to sleep. Even after the scene, I’m wound too tightly, my thoughts tumbling over themselves to circle, circle, circle. I yank on my hair, but the spark of pain along my scalp does nothing to calm the turmoil raging through me.
A knock on my door, three measured beats.
I know who it is even before I pad naked to the door and pull it open. Hades stands there, looking as perfectly put together as ever. Isn’t that always the way? He’s in control, and I’m spiraling out around him. My defenses are long gone, but I try to dredge them up anyway. “Can I help you, Sir?”
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”
“What?” I take a step back, and he shadows the movement, stepping into my suite and closing the door softly behind him. He feels bigger the second I’m locked in with him. It’s as if, without the outlet of the open doorway, his presence fills the room to the brim, leaving no space for anyone else. Part of it’s the power he wields as easily as breathing. Most of it is just Hades.
I keep backing up. I’m not even sure what I’m doing at this point. I’m incapable of running from this man, but I’m acting on sheer instinct right now. My back hits the wall, and I can’t keep my little gasp i
n. Hades keeps advancing until he’s barely an inch away, until it would be more natural for him to close that last little bit of distance. “You’re hurting, love.”
Damn you. I swallow hard. “You striped my ass. I’ll be hurting for days.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about.”
I can’t do it. I can’t answer the demand in his dark eyes. I’ve already stripped myself bare again and again for him. To do it right now on command… I can’t. No matter how much I need it.
I should have more faith in Hades. He never needed me to express myself in words before, though he demands it often enough. He takes a step back and holds out a hand. “You should have told me.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes, you do. You’re always so strong, so fearless. It took me too long to realize what was going on beneath.”
I have no answer to that, so I take his hand and let him tuck me against his chest, bolstering me with his strength, protecting me from everything but the two of us. Ironic, that. I inhale the subtle scent of him and something inside me starts to unwind. It doesn’t matter that I know better, that this soft moment never lasts. It’s enough that he’s here and giving it to me right now.
He guides us to my bed and nudges me to lay down. I watch him strip. It thrills me, even now, especially now, to see him dismantle such a vital part of him. Hades’s clothes are his armor the same way mine are. More so, even. Naked, he climbs into bed next to me and pulls me back into his arms. We lay like that for several long moments, and he lets out a quiet sigh. “I can’t be anything other than what I am, love.”
My eyes burn and I shut them tight. “I’m aware of that.” I’m not a fool, though some days it certainly feels like it. He appears to be trying, and with the dark blanketing the room around us, I tentatively release some of my truth. “I can’t help needing what I need.”
“I know.”
He can’t change and neither can I. We fit so well… but it’s not a perfect melding. It never will be. The thought brings sorrow too great to bear and I shift closer to lift my face to his. He catches my mouth, anticipating my kiss. Hades always seems to know what I’m going to do before I do it. That annoys me most days. Right now, it’s a relief.
He rolls me onto my back, pressing me down hard against the mattress and sending pain flaring over my ass and thighs. I welcome it. Every touch pushes my fears away and settles something inside me. I didn’t realize how much I needed this grounding until he arrived to give it to me. He carefully pushes a single finger into me, testing for tenderness. As if he hasn’t overseen me fucking for hours in the past and then bent me over the arm of the chair and driven into me until I begged for mercy. I lift my hips in silent invitation, but he continues at the same pace, building my pleasure in slow waves, piece by piece. He shifts his thumb against my clit, teasing me, and I break our kiss long enough to say, “Hades, please.”
He shifts to settle between my thighs. A breath later and his cock is filling me in the most perfect way possible. He pins me to the bed with his hips, his weight not allowing for any movement. I cling to him, even as I try to fight for more space to slide along his length. The pleasure and pressure and pain is almost too much. “I need…”
“I’ll always find a way to give you what you need, love. You know that.” His low voice is pure sin in the darkness. It doesn’t matter that we’re having what appears to be vanilla sex. It’s never vanilla with me and Hades. Not really. Not when every touch chains me to him more thoroughly, every word marks me as his.
Just when I’m sure I can’t stand it any longer, that I’ll start to beg and plead, he begins to move. He’s cruel in his gentleness, cruel in showing me how things could be if we were different people. If we hadn’t made the same choices to get to this place. I can’t breathe past needing him. He locks his grip around my wrists and pins them to the bed on either side of my head, and I could weep over the need to touch him. “Hades, please.”
He bites my bottom lip, and then I’m coming, fighting against his hold, fighting to take him in deeper, to hold him closer. It’s a lost cause. It always has been. For once, Hades doesn’t try to prolong things, he follows me over the edge, sharing this with me. He gentles his kisses and moves us back to our previous position—him on his back with me tucked against him. His hold around me tightens, as if maybe he needed this just as much as I did, but the moment passes too quickly for me to be sure. After ten years, this man shouldn’t be such an enigma to me. Maybe he always was. Maybe I just thought I knew him with the rash arrogance of youth, and time proved me wrong. I’m honestly not sure anymore.
He smooths my hair back. “It’s you and me, Meg. Forever.”
Threat or declaration of love? I don’t know. I’ve never known. I look into his dark eyes, and in this moment I can truly believe that this man loves me above all others. That it would hurt him beyond measure to lose me. That he would raze this city to the ground if it meant my happiness was on the line.
Then he blinks and I can actually see him retreating. Sorrow rises, a drowning wave that I have no defense against. I tuck my face against his chest, and he lets me hide this from him tonight, just like he always has in the past. Some truths are too difficult to bear. I close my eyes and let the relative safety of Hades’s presence around me lull me into sleep.
When I wake, I’m alone.
Just like always.
Chapter Thirteen
Hades
Things are going according to plan.
I should be delighted beyond measure. Victory. Revenge. It all lies just over the horizon. This is the moment I’ve wanted ever since that bastard in Olympus declared my sentence all those years ago. Exile. A punishment I may have admired if it weren’t leveled against me. Worse than the sweet oblivion of death. The moment you stop breathing, your heart ceases to beat… that’s the moment you’re beyond pain. Exile means to live with the agony of knowing you can never go home, that the people who you cared about the most continue to live on without you.
To know how replaceable you truly are.
If that was his only sin, I might have been willing to let it go. Not easily, but I know better than to waste time and resources chasing an old grudge. But no, exile wasn’t enough for Zeus. He had to take everything from me.
I aim to return the favor.
I unbutton my suit jacket and sit behind my desk. The last few hours have left me tired, but certain business is best conducted before dawn. This call is one of them. I pick up the phone and dial from memory. Some knowledge never leaves us. It rings for several long moments before a man answers. “It better be good to be calling me at this hour.”
That tone reaches through time and space. For a moment, I’m that foolish twenty-year-old man-child who believes I’m immortal and that nothing bad could ever happen to me because I have power. I didn’t know what power was then, not in any meaningful way. “Hello, Zeus.”
The man who once proclaimed we were close enough to be brothers, even if no blood connected us, inhales sharply. That little sound pleases me greatly. I’ve managed to surprise him, which is a coup all its own. He finally says, “Hades. Have to say, you’re the last person I expected to hear from. Surprised to find you’re still alive.”
I suspected that the scattering of attempts on my life over the years could be traced back to him. Now I know for sure. Anger rises in a steady beat, but I throttle it back. Rage has no place in this conversation, not when one misstep means defeat. “I think we both know nothing as mundane as a hired hit is enough to remove me.”
“Maybe not you, but others aren’t so lucky.” Zeus laughs, the sound bright and happy. He’s always been able to do that, to fill a room with his joy—and to flip it off like a switch. “Why call me now? Surely you’ve not gone senile enough to think I’ll let you back into Olympus.”
I would burn that city to ash before I set foot in it again voluntarily. “Hardly.” I keep my tone light. So light. “I found something of y
ours that you’ve misplaced.”
“What’s that?” Caution now, as if he finally realizes that I’m still a danger to him.
I let the moment spin out for several beats, enjoying this. “I’ve hired a new employee. Someone I think you may know.”
“Hades,” he warns.
I ignore it. “He’s rather beautiful. Blond. Strong. Piercing blue eyes that remind me of someone…” I chuckle.
“Hercules.” Now all joy is gone from Zeus, leaving only the danger beneath. “What’s to say I didn’t exile him just like I did with you?”
“Come now. I know better, and you know better than to try that subterfuge with me. He may not be your heir, but he’s your son. A traitorous son is still a son. You never release the things you own, Zeus.” I smile. “He’s rather self-righteous, isn’t he? All he needs is a shining set of armor to go with his hero complex. I imagine he doesn’t approve of the way you do business and decided to try to muddle through on his own. He was doing a poor job of it. Truly, you should thank me for snatching him off the street.”
“That boy is coming home, and I’ll rip you to shreds if you think you can keep him from me.” There it is. The fury and rage that make Zeus the force to be reckoned with. Once upon a time, I admired and feared the man in equal measure. No longer.
In my part of Carver City, I am the monster others fear. I am the spider in the web I intend to draw my enemy to. Hercules is nothing more than bait. “You can try. You can fail. He’s mine now, Zeus. And when I’m through with him, maybe it will be enough to begin to atone for your sins.” I hang up before he can respond. The phone immediately rings, but I ignore it. Let him stew in his rage the same way I have for decades.
Exile. For nothing more than stepping into the role that was meant for me from birth. There is meant to be a balance in Olympus. A Zeus ruling on high. A Poseidon managing the middle and mundane. And a Hades seeing to the shadows. When I was young and just as foolish as Hercules is now, I thought that balance would persevere despite Zeus’s thirst for power. It never occurred to me that he’d break a treaty going back to the founding of Olympus and strike directly at the heart of me.