by Bella Klaus
A lightning storm of panic lit up my chest. I couldn’t teleport because I had no idea where in Hell they were standing.
“They’ll all die,” Persephone hissed through her teeth. She reached between Hades’ legs and grabbed his crotch. “Every woman who so much as touched what was mine. Nobody can have you, Hades, you belong to me.”
I clenched my jaw. This was more than I could stand. With a deep breath, I teleported out of the inner sanctuary and into the living area of my apartment.
Sunlight from the floor-to-ceiling windows streamed into my eyes, making me squint against the glare. The air was warm and still and thick with the scent of catnip. Torn cushions lay strewn about the floor along with rolls of toilet paper and empty packets of whatever had been in the fridge.
None of the cats from earlier were around, and the only thing left of their presence were all the trampled weeds. My shoulders sagged. I had hoped Dami would be here to help me talk through what had just happened with Hades and Persephone.
Had she abandoned the apartment to stay with Macavity at the palace? I raised my head and gazed in the direction of her room on the mezzanine.
“Dami?” I yelled.
When she didn’t reply, I teleported to the next level and knocked on her door. “Dami?”
Still no reply.
I leaned my head against the door and exhaled a long sigh. How could Persephone be back when I had most of her soul? And who could explain to me what was happening?
And why was the apartment still in such terrible shape?
I knocked on the door, paused for a second, then announced, “I’m coming in.”
Since Dami didn’t reply, I turned the handle and entered.
Her room was exactly how I had left it the morning I had stepped into the brass elevator, but the air was stale with dander. Dust motes danced within the light streaming in through the smaller windows, which illuminated a pair of feline figures.
Macavity and Dami lay side by side on the bed in house cat form.
“Dami?” I said much louder.
Her ear didn’t even twitch. And neither did the other cat’s.
I stepped inside the room, my hand clutching my heart. Their little chests rose and fell with even breaths, indicating that they were still alive. Part of me wondered if they were still under the influence of catnip, but the other felines had left, so why were Dami and Macavity still asleep?
“Dami, Macavity,” I shouted. “Please wake up.”
My throat spasmed, and I reached out a trembling hand. Dami was as warm as usual and unresponsive to my touch.
Was this an overdose?
A jolt of alarm kicked me in the ass. I spun around, looking for Dami’s phone. It lay on the bedside table, still connected to its charger. With all the speed I could muster, I ran to the phone, brought it to Dami’s side and took her right paw.
“Please work,” I whispered to the phone.
But nothing happened.
My heart clenched, and my breath turned shallow. If I couldn’t get her paw to unlock the phone’s security, then how could I call Dr. Atallus?
“Namara?” I said into the bond, just in case it still worked.
“Your Majesty?” she replied.
“There’s a problem at my apartment. Dami and her mate won’t wake up. Could you tell the doctor that two Hellcats need urgent medical attention?”
“Stand by, Your Majesty,” she said.
I set down the phone and turned back to where Dami and Macavity lay unmoving on the bed. “Please, hang on,” I said to them, my voice trembling. “Help is on the way.”
“Your Majesty?” Namara’s voice in my head made me flinch.
“Yes?” I blurted. “Is he coming?”
“He just tried to use the mirror, but he says it’s disconnected.”
My throat dried. “I don’t know how it works.”
“Standby,” Namara said. “I will activate it from the other side.”
Relief swept through my muscles, and I braced a hand on the wall, trying not to topple forward and fall into the mattress. If Namara hadn’t been on the other side of the mind link, I couldn’t have been able to help the two Hellcats.
“Where are you?” Namara asked.
“Upstairs,” I replied.
“He’s coming through.”
Moments later, heavy footsteps charged up the stairs. I hurried to the door and flung it open, only for the doctor to stumble backward.
“Your Majesty,” he said through hurried breaths. “I came as quickly as I could.”
I stepped aside to let him in. “They’re on the bed.”
He jogged through the room, floating a pair of transparent cat-sized containers behind him. With a wave of his wand, he encased both Hellcats in magical bubbles and floated them off the mattress.
Dami and Macavity lay in the middle of their enclosures, oblivious to the magical activity surrounding their small bodies. Outlines of their internal organs glowed with white light, and green patches appeared in their lungs and stomachs and brains.
“Hmmmm….” He rubbed his chin.
“What have you found?”
“They’re both in a form of enchanted sleep, brought on by something they have both eaten and inhaled.”
I bit down on my bottom lip. “Do you think it’s the catnip?”
“Your Majesty?” He tilted his head to the side.
I glanced around the room, my gaze falling on something green poking out from beneath the bed—a sprig of catnip, complete with purple flowers. “Over there.” I pointed at the herb. “This is what I think they’ve taken.”
He stared down at them and drew his brows together into a frown. “This is Nepeta cataria.”
“That’s right,” I whispered.
“It has only mild effects on Hellcats. Something as mundane as this couldn’t place them into an enchanted sleep.” He floated the magical bubble from around Dami and Macavity and placed their slumbering bodies in the containers. “Perhaps they’re under a curse?”
My throat thickened. Who on earth could have cursed them both and how? If Dami’s current condition was related to her time as Mother’s prisoner, why would it also affect Macavity?
“Did you check Dami for curses at the hospital?”
He inclined his head. “Of course.”
As the doctor floated them to the exit, I glanced around the mattress for signs of other intoxicants but found nothing but a few rumpled sheets. “What else could have gotten to them? Could you check the strain with your magic?”
The doctor paused by the door, his shoulders tight, but he returned to where I stood by the bed. I raised my chin, already knowing he thought I was wasting valuable time. With a dramatic sigh, he pointed his wand at the sprig of catnip and bathed it in white magic.
A moment later, the plant thickened, sprouted thorns, and its purple flowers formed the shapes of tiny tulips.
Doctor Atallus staggered back. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Remember those seeds you removed from Dami’s stomach?” I pointed at the plants. “This is what they become.”
The doctor floated the plant off the floor and encased it in an iridescent bubble and strode to the door, where the cat containers still hovered. “I need to take them to the hospital immediately.”
“I’ll come with you.” I followed him through the mezzanine and down the stairs that led to the living room.
“Visiting hours at the hospital are between four and eight.” Dr. Atallus walked toward the front door, where a mirror hung on the wall. “By then, I will have completed a toxicology report on the two cats as well as have made some progress toward rousing them from their enchantments.”
I glanced down at the floating miniature of Persephone’s plant. “Be careful with those stems. They killed hundreds of demons and drained a lot of magic out of Hell.”
The doctor extracted a baggie from his pocket and slipped it over the plant. “I will send these samples to the Dep
artment of Magical Flora for analysis.”
“Will you send me a report?” I asked.
“Of course, Your Majesty. In the meantime, I suggest you remove all traces of that plant from your apartment in case they affect you in the same manner.” He levitated the cats through the mirror before stepping through to the other side.
I turned my gaze across the wrecked living room, my heart sinking at the stems and leaves and flower heads strewn about the floor. It would take an eternity to fumigate this place so it was safe again.
My shoulders sagged as the weight of everything that had happened settled into my chest. Hades just reunited with his beloved Persephone, and Dami and her mate were now in an enchanted sleep.
“How on earth did Mother and the coven get to her?” I stepped away from the mirror and glanced around for a dustpan and brush.
Mother’s parting words rang through my ears—she had sworn to destroy everyone she thought had led me astray. Dami had always been an easy target. She was magicless and easy to track on Supernatural Media. Mother could have gotten any one of the coven to pose as a catnip saleswoman and sold her those poisonous plants.
As I stepped over a torn cushion with half its stuffing missing, I heard footsteps padding behind me. I whirled around and met the malicious green eyes of Persephone.
Panic exploded across my chest and lightning erupted from my hands. I threw all my power at her, but my bolts landed harmlessly on an invisible barrier.
Persephone tilted her head to the side and grinned. “We thought you’d notice earlier that your cat was in peril.”
“Who’s we?” I opened my hand, materialized Hades’ bident, and pointed it at the other woman.
Persephone wagged her finger. “You don’t want to damage this body.”
“Why not?” I snarled.
Behind her, the mirror rippled, and a hooded figure stepped out from the enchanted glass, and walked up to Mother, burning hoof prints on the wooden floor. As the faint scent of rotting meat filled my nostrils, my heart imploded with a fresh burst of panic.
“Samael?” My voice shook.
He pulled down his hood, revealing his melted features. His gash of a mouth split into a wide grin of serrated teeth that stretched to his ears. “The very same,” he rasped, his gaze flicking from me to Persephone. “And may I say how delighted I am to finally meet both parts of you.”
Persephone preened. “Didn’t I tell you my daughter was beautiful.”
My mouth dropped open. “Daughter?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Surely you didn’t think Persephone was operating this empty shell. Once a few of my seeds worked their way into this stomach, Persephone’s power became mine to wield.”
“Hades?” I shouted into the bond. “Namara? Captain Caria?”
Nobody replied.
I stepped back, my mind shattering with realization. The woman who had been rampaging through the Fifth Faction hadn’t been Persephone. This was her body. I gulped. My body. But it had been animated by Mother and her wretched plants.
“What did you do to my husband?” I snarled.
Mother smoothed her hand down Persephone’s tangled hair and grimaced. “The rules still apply. As monarchs of Hell, we’re prohibited from entering or attacking other Factions.”
Bitterness coated my throat. “But you found a way around the rules?”
“Of course,” Samael said with a dry chuckle. “Our angel overlords never said we couldn’t install plants to lay other Factions to waste.”
I swallowed hard. “What have you done to Hades?”
“He will nourish the most magnificent of my creations.” Mother stretched Persephone’s arms wide.
My mind conjured up an image of him standing atop a huge stalk, just as we had found Minthe after the plant had attacked her. Without thinking, I shot out a blast of lightning through the bident, hitting the magical barrier around Persephone’s body.
Her brows rose. “Are you trying to self-destruct? You always were a stupid and gullible child.”
“Allow the girl her tantrum.” Samael wrapped an arm around Persephone’s waist, leaving a black handprint on her belly. “This body will heal in time for us to make the transfer.”
I gulped. “What are you talking about?”
“The integrity of your host is failing fast, and it’s only a matter of days before your physical form self-destructs.” Mother wrapped her arms around Persephone’s middle. “When I’ve cleansed your soul of Hades’ taint, we’ll move you back into your true body.”
My lips parted with a protest, but it froze on my lips. Mother wouldn’t help me after I had disobeyed her. There had to be a catch. “What do you want from me?”
She raised her chin. “Merge the thrones of the Fifth into one and rule it under our banner as a single monarch.”
“And if I don’t?” I asked.
Mother opened Persephone’s hand and materialized a white crystal the size of a tangerine. “When the body you’re wearing shatters from overuse, I’ll absorb your power, return you to your stone, and fill Persephone’s immortal form with someone more deserving.”
My throat spasmed, and my gaze bounced from one grinning face to another. Every fiber of my being screamed at me that they were liars. That I needed to spit in their faces, teleport to Hell, and save Hades.
I pictured the inner sanctuary, and willed my magic to travel there, but it bounced against an invisible barrier.
Samael rubbed his hands together. “In some circles, an attempt to run away constitutes a refusal.”
Mother waved him away. “Give the girl time to consider her options. I love her dearly, but she’s not the most intelligent of creatures.”
Shallow breaths whistled in and out of my lungs, and my head spun with possibilities. All the moisture evaporated from my throat and traveled down to my palms in the form of sweat. What did I know for sure:
One: Mother had used Hades’ weakness to get close enough to attack him.
Two: Hades was either dying or in the worst trouble of his existence.
Three: Mother needed my power more than she needed me, and she was willing to ally with Samael to secure it.
Four: At some point during this venture, Samael would destroy us all for our thrones.
I had officially run out of options. My best chance of survival was to make a deal with the two people I despised most and hope that they would leave me with enough of my former self to remember that I needed to fight back.
“Your answer?” Mother raised Persephone’s chin and stared down at me down her perfect nose.
My jaw clenched. It would take a miracle to outsmart Mother and Samael, rescue Hades, and work around the rules of Handbook of Hell to destroy them without inciting the wrath of Heaven.
But if that was what it took to rescue my husband and our Faction, I would make a deal with these two devils.
END OF BOOK TWO
READ BOOK THREE
Also by Bella Klaus
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READ ALLURE OF THE VAMPIRE KING
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As the daughter of my pack’s lame wolf, I’m an outcast, a social reject considered unsuitable for mating. My life is a daily grind of drudgery, humiliation, and abuse.
Then during a ceremony to our god, Fenrir, fate made me the alpha’s true mate.
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Horrified at what I’ve become, the other wolves attack. They cast my broken and bleeding body on the altar as a sacrifice, leaving me to die.
When Fenrir comes to claim my soul, he sees something in me that’s precious and takes me to his lair.
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READ SACRIFICED