by Helen Scott
I nodded. “Derek, Shadow, I feel we still haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Poppy.”
Shadow stood at attention with a smile, and I was somewhat happy to have my suspicions of ex-military confirmed. Derek came around to the edge of the bed and leaned over Knox to take my hand.
“Thank you for saving me, Your Highness.”
“Derek.” I smiled and cupped his face with my hand. “You don’t have to thank me. I wanted to save you, to save both of you,” I added, looking over at Shadow. “There is nothing I wouldn’t have done to make sure you were safe.”
When there was a knock at the door, I startled, calling the darkness around me and preparing to unleash whatever I had to in order to keep my men safe. “Easy, angel. It’s just room service.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” I whispered.
“Guys, can you get the door?” Knox asked the three judges. “And don’t let them in.”
I looked up at him questioningly.
“A girl in a hotel room with six guys? The waiter would probably call the police or something.”
I grinned, the idea of one massive sex session playing in my mind. I wanted to touch and taste all of them, but first we needed to get to the Underworld. After the food was brought in, we all started to relax. There was a cart loaded down with different dishes. I could smell some of them, and they were making my mouth water. Silver domes came off plates revealing salads, main courses, burgers, pizzas, and almost everything else that had been on the extensive room service menu.
“So, you guys don’t think this is all batty?” I asked, looking over at Derek and Shadow as we ate.
“After I saw you fight the other crazy lady? Nah, I didn’t expect it, but it sounds interesting,” Derek said.
“As soon as I saw you, I knew I was meant to be with you. It was like a tuning fork being struck inside my head. Everything made sense, so no, not batty,” Shadow said.
I looked at him for a moment, his dark blue-green orbs unflinching at the direct eye contact. A scruffy beard covered his chin, and with a glance at Knox and Emmett, who were both sporting scruff as well, I decided I liked beards. He looked strong and powerful, more as if he should be a hellhound than a judge, but I knew that was not what the fates had intended for him. My eyes slid over to Derek, and I drank in his golden-brown eyes and full lips. I was a very lucky lady.
“They’ve explained the whole situation to you both?” I asked, putting special emphasis on the word whole.
They nodded.
“Okay, then you should know that I want to do a blood bond with both of you as soon as possible. It will help me know if you are in trouble or hurt, which might be important once we get down to the Underworld.”
Shadow bent down and pulled a small knife from his boot. The material glinted the same way the knife the agent of Hel had held to his throat did. “I took a souvenir. Don’t worry, it’s clean.” He smiled at me, and my heart fluttered in my chest. It was the first time I’d seen him smile, and it transformed his whole face. He went from super serious ex-military guy who could kill someone in their sleep, to a goofy twenty-something who looked as if he were more likely to prank someone than kill them.
When Shadow held the knife out, Derek took it, surprising me. He sliced his palm open and held the knife and his hand over to me. I used a quick slashing motion over both palms and held my other hand, along with the knife, out to Shadow.
Derek put his hand in mine first, and I gasped at the contact, which made him smile. It was as if the sun had risen over the city, and suddenly there was a competition in my mind for sexiest smile, because there were definitely some naughty thoughts going on behind those eyes. Before Shadow took my hand, I pulled up my inner flame and saw a bright orange band around it now, as well as the colors I was used to. I felt the weight of the knife vanish from my other hand and the warmth of Shadow’s skin connect with my own seconds later.
As I kept looking at the flame, a flood of power rocked through me, and the last color took its place. It was a purplish-blue that was so dark, it was almost black, and it fit well with the shadows and darkness I felt rolling over my skin. The crackle of power echoed inside my head, and the jolt of it that went down my spine had me arching out of the bed. I dropped their hands and pulled the power back into myself. If I could control the dead and drive people mad at the drop of a hat, then I didn’t want to accidentally hurt my guys.
Once I felt as if I had everything under control again, I opened my eyes and found them all looking at me. “Sorry, I tried to keep it in check. I’m just not used to the power yet.”
“No worries, angel. I’m sure we all understand,” Knox said, his voice tight as he squeezed my shoulders.
I smiled up at him and reached down to grab my pizza, only to find that my fingers had turned into claws. “What’s going on?” I asked as I raised my hand, flipping it back and forth in front of my face as though that could make the weird jet-black claws go away.
The pure, bottomless black didn’t stop at my claws, though. Oh, no. It spread up my arms and over my chest. I quickly got out of bed and disappeared into the bathroom. My eyes were all black with glowing red irises, and my skin had faded to almost a gray color on my face before slowly darkening into the black color that was on my arms and chest. My hair was my normal dark-brown at the roots but changed into a light gray-blue as it went. No one had told me I would change. I looked bad ass, but I wasn’t me. I didn’t look like the same person I saw in the mirror every day anymore. Part of me wanted to storm out there and scream at the guys, while the other part wasn’t planning on leaving the bathroom any time soon. I sat on the lid of the toilet and tried to understand what had happened.
Chapter Twenty
Poppy
“Everything okay in there, angel?” Knox called through the door. His voice was laced with concern just as I could feel it resonating through his bond, well, through most of their bonds if I were being honest with myself.
“Yeah, I’ll be out in a second,” I called back.
I heard him step away from the door and the murmur of voices being kept low enough that I couldn’t understand them. The thought of trying to listen in through our bonds flitted through my mind, but I pushed it away. I knew myself well enough that if I started down that path, then I would never stop. My curiosity would always be eating at me.
After I pushed the tempting idea away, I stood and looked at myself in the mirror. I looked like a demon, something I’d see in a videogame where the world as the character knew it was over and demons ran the show. My hands went to my hair, touching the strangely colored locks and pulling them away from my face as I assessed for any more changes. There were two small protrusions on my head. I parted my hair and found small horns. They were barely bigger than my thumb nail, but it was enough to have me backing away from the mirror and hastily covering them. No one had to know about those but me.
I closed my eyes and focused on what I normally looked like. For a few minutes, I just concentrated on breathing and working on some meditation chants, hoping that the few yoga classes I’d tried to take would help me at this point. Doubtful, but a girl had to have hope. When I opened my eyes again, the world looked brighter. My glowing red orbs had dulled back to their normal hazel irises on a white background. The black had faded from my chest, and my hair was only the gray-blue color at the tips of the strands. I kept breathing and focusing on keeping myself calm. The more I relaxed, the more the darkness faded from my skin and the more normal I looked.
When I was able to look at myself without imagining a post-apocalyptic world full of demons, I opened the door and headed back out to the guys. My leg still hurt, and when I was relaxed, I still had a limp, but every hour, it felt better. I hoped the limp wasn’t permanent. It was the last thing I needed when I was about to go to a new realm and try to become its queen.
Everything was exactly how I’d left it, except for Knox, who was leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest, watchin
g the door and now me since I stood in the doorway. Hunter was next to him and looking particularly surly. I didn’t care, though. I rushed over and wrapped my arms around Hunter, pulling him close and whispering over and over again how thankful I was that he had protected me, again, and how glad I was that he was there.
“She looks fine to me,” Hunt said after I pulled away.
“Yeah, now she looks great. Not so much before,” Nolan said, and although I knew he didn’t mean it, his words stung. He couldn’t be that superficial, could he? What if my hounds and judges stopped caring about me because I turned into a weird half demon thing?
“Poppy, Knox and Em said something happened when you bonded with the last two judges. Is that right?”
I nodded and waved him closer as we stepped away from the other guys. If anyone would understand or know what was going on, it was Hunt, so I decided to be completely honest with him. “I felt their power join with mine, and then it was as if a small bomb went off inside me, and I felt all this power ripple out. It was almost like when I first put the necklace on, only ten times stronger. When I opened my eyes, I had black claws for fingers and my skin was black all the way up to my neck. My hair turned a weird color, as did my eyes, and, no one else knows this, but I had tiny horns.” I was whispering so quietly by the end that Hunter had his face almost touching mine just so he could hear me. I patted the top of my head on one side just to double-check that they were gone like everything else.
“Hum . . . This is unusual for sure, but I don’t think it’s anything bad.” He paused and began pacing between me and the guys. “My best guess is that you are part god, obviously, but also part demon? It’s never happened before, but then everything has been so status quo for so long that I suppose a shakeup was bound to happen.”
“Is this related to the other thing?” I asked, hoping he wouldn’t make me say it out loud.
“What other thing?” Hunter asked innocently.
“The succubus thing,” I hissed at him.
“Oh.” He smiled, and for a second, I saw a flicker of emotion in his eyes. “Yes, probably. I think your parents were carriers on both sides of the equation, which is why they seemed so normal to you.”
“So, demons are real, too?”
“Yeah, although I will say the few I’ve met have been extremely nice and helpful, so they may just be getting a bad rap. Either way, it’s part of who you are, so there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“Wanna bet?” I asked, promising myself I’d come up with something eventually.
“Poppy, you are a beautiful, strong woman, and part of that comes from your demon side as much as your god side. You think being the however-many-greats grandchild of Hades and Persephone is all happy and light? It’s not. Until you claim the throne, everything is just going to get harder, and more people will be targeting you.”
I wanted to kick and scream and complain that it wasn’t fair, but I knew better. Life in general wasn’t fair. If it was, then I’d still have my parents, and the drunk asshole who got in his car would be dead instead of them.
“Maybe if we can figure out which branch of the gods’ children you come from, we can use that to help inform our plan of attack for getting you to the throne,” Hunter said, still deep in thought about my ancestors.
“Melinoe. I know I’m descended from Melinoe,” I said, and his head snapped up.
“How do you know that?” he asked, suspicion darkening his gaze. His voice was loud enough to draw the attention of the others.
I relayed what had happened in the space between realms, and their faces paled.
“Melinoe, Hades, Persephone, and a demon? That’s a lot going on, my queen,” Emmett said quietly.
“Yeah, tell me about it.”
“Hold up. Who’s Melinoe?” Nolan asked.
“She’s the daughter of Hades and Perseophone who is the goddess of ghosts, the bringer of nightmares and madness,” Hunter said quietly, as though he didn’t want to draw the goddess’s attention.
“It should give us an advantage in our fight, though,” Knox added, keeping the conversation on track. “If you can control the dead, then you can control the agents of Hel.”
I nodded. “That’s how I killed the one who was with me in the space between realms.”
An awkward silence descended. Had we really just casually been talking about murder? My brain chided me. It had been self-defense. The thing had been trying to kill Shadow and then me. So far, everything Hel had sent at us had been defeated. I was trying not to be over confident, but I hoped that claiming my throne wouldn’t be any more difficult than anything that had happened so far.
Mentally I reached for the bonds, trying to figure out how everyone was feeling. All I got back was exhaustion and worry. I felt the same way. “I think sleep is in order for all of us, especially those of us still healing.”
“Agreed,” Knox said.
Hunter disappeared back to the Underworld in a cloud of darkness, while Cass, Derek, and Shadow left the room, and Nolan collapsed onto the other bed. I moved to get back into bed with Emmett and Knox, but hesitated. “Is this okay?”
“Is what okay?” Emmett asked, confusion pinching his eyebrows together as he looked at me.
“Me sleeping in the same bed as you two,” I whispered, nervous to have them answer. I needed to know, though. Had my demon side coming out to play scared them off? Or were we all really in this for the long haul?
“Of course, angel. Why wouldn’t it be?” Knox asked. A small smile spread over his face while he looked at me.
“Because I’m part demon, and that’s not what you signed up for.” It was the truth. When they had been looking for the next queen, none of them had been expecting the fates to select a half-demon girl.
“You could be half shifter or half vampire or half whatever and my feelings for you would still be the same,” Knox said, holding out his hand to me. His eyes bored into my own. The unspoken words, the tender feelings, he let it all show, and it just about melted my heart. I wanted to go to him, to thank him for his steadfastness, but I needed to hear from Emmett first. After all, the two of them were sharing a bed. My eyes drifted over to him. His shaggy black hair curled on top of his head, making me want to run my fingers through it, but that might not be something I could do anymore. I waited for his response with bated breath while I watched him.
His eyes studied mine as he said, “Agreed. I’m glad you’re exactly the way you are. I care about you. Just because you are part demon . . . It doesn’t change that. Nothing can change that. Nothing can change our bond.”
“I know you’re not talking to me, but I agree, too,” Nolan said from the other bed.
I looked over at him, the question evident in my eyes.
“Princess, you are what you are and always have been. We can just see it now, that’s all. So, you occasionally turn into a demon and have fiery red eyes and stuff? So, what? You’re still you. This doesn’t change that. And we love you just the way you are.” Nolan’s words crushed any lingering doubts I had. He had moved into a sitting position on the side of the bed while we talked.
I released Knox’s hands and went over to my fourth hellhound. I stood between his legs and was only an inch or two taller than him while he was sitting. My hands cupped his face, feeling the scratch of his stubble against my palms. For a moment, I just stared into his eyes, unable to express what I felt. I could have worked to find the words, but instead of trying, I reached within and mentally touched my bond with him, sharing my emotions through the magical connection we had.
A huge smile bloomed on his face. “Any time, princess.”
I leaned down and kissed him gently on his lips, waiting for him to pull away, for his actions to betray his words. It didn’t happen, though. Instead, his hands wrapped around my waist and hips, tugging me close so his head was almost in my breasts. The kiss changed from sweet and tender to something more ferocious and needy in a split second. His tongue swept into my
mouth, and as he urged my hips ever closer to him, part of my brain reminded me that we were doing this right in front of Emmett and Knox. They were always telling me there was nothing to be ashamed about, that everything that was happening, everything I was feeling, was completely natural. For once, I let go and listened to them, giving in to the kiss with Nolan.
Chapter Twenty-One
Nolan
Poppy’s lips pressed against my own, and for a moment, I truly thought I could keep it at just a peck, but when she lingered, it was as if she were asking me a question. I understood her hesitation, the unspoken question in her kiss, and I knew the answer.
I loved her, and I didn’t want her to think I felt anything less for her just because the woman had changed her shape slightly. Hell, I turned into a giant drooling hound thing; who was I to judge?
My tongue swept against her lips, and when she opened for me, it was as though I finally got a taste of my favorite meal. I didn’t care that Emmett and Knox were right there. I knew that this whole sharing thing could mean group sex at some point, and so long as I was able to be part of what made Poppy moan and got a taste of her sweetness, I didn’t care.
I pulled her hips toward me. The skinny jeans and T-shirt were keeping me from what I wanted the most. When she deepened the kiss, my hands went to her breasts, and I relished the supple skin I found there, along with her pebble nipples.
The button on her jeans and the zipper didn’t really loosen them all that much, and though I wanted to peel them off her body, I also wanted to taste her more than anything. When my hands took a firm grip of the fabric and prepared to pull, she jerked back.
“Don’t you dare rip my jeans. I’m running out of clothing as it is,” she panted, making my cock pulse with need.
A grin spread over my lips, and I glanced behind her to Knox and Emmett, who were still sitting on the bed, drowning in lust as their pants tented over their hips. They clearly weren’t opposed to the situation; otherwise, they would have left.