1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Five

by Julie Kenner

  Now she was on her own, curious, and frankly, she was horny. Her brief encounter with Zhubaal had been ill-conceived and had only left her more sexually frustrated. Although, if she were honest with herself, she could probably lay some of her frustration at her own feet since she hadn’t been shy about asking Lilliana about sex with Azagoth.

  Lilliana had been shocked at first, but they’d grown close, and soon Azagoth’s mate was confiding in Cat, sharing what they did in the shower, with the spanking bench, out in the woods... Cat shivered at the thought of doing some of those things with Hades.

  The desire to feel more than the buzz she was getting through their clasped hands became a burning need, and she stepped closer to him, drawn by his bare chest and thick arms. If she could just smooth her palm over his biceps or abs––

  Abruptly, he released her and leaped back, almost as if she’d scorched him. A muscle in his jaw twitched as he stood there, staring down his perfectly straight nose as if she were an enemy. And yet...there was an undercurrent of heat flowing behind the ice in his eyes.

  Could he read her mind? And if he had, wouldn’t her naughty thoughts have made him want to touch her more? She didn’t know much about the males of her species, but she knew it didn’t take much to get them interested.

  “Make yourself comfortable,” he said gruffly. “I don’t have a lot of visitors, so...” He shrugged as he gestured to one of two chairs in the small space.

  Right. So...pretend that neither one of them had been affected by the brief moment of...well, she didn’t know what to call it. Maybe avoidance was for the best.

  She cleared her throat in hopes of not sounding like a moron. “This is your home? I wouldn’t have expected you to live in a one-room...what is this? A crypt?”

  “Ding, ding,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm but not malice. “Give the girl a prize. More snake soup, maybe?”

  She held up her still-full bowl. “Thanks, but I’m good.” The crackling fire drew her attention to the carved gargoyles on the ends of the mantel and the faded painting of angels battling demons in a cemetery hanging above it. Okay, maybe Hades was taking the graveyard guardian thing a little too far. “So, why do you live in a crypt? Surely you could have a mansion if you wanted.”

  “You’d think, right?” He gestured to the chair again. “Sit.”

  It didn’t occur to her to not obey, so she sat carefully in the rickety chair that must have been put together by a five-year-old child. As far as she could tell, it was constructed of branches and strips of leather.

  Hades folded his arms over his massive chest and stared at her until she squirmed in her highly uncomfortable seat. As if her discomfort was exactly what he was waiting for, he finally spoke.

  “Tell me, Cat. What did you do to piss off Azagoth, and why would he send you to the Inner Sanctum without telling me?”

  Shit. She was a terrible liar, and she had a feeling that Hades would see through a lie, anyway, but the truth...man, it was probably going to get her punished in a major way. She stalled by sipping the snakey soup.

  “Also,” he pressed, not missing a beat, “what do you know about communications being down and the door between Azagoth’s realm and the Inner Sanctum being locked?”

  She choked on the broth. “It’s locked for you, too?” At his nod, her mouth went dry. This was bad. Really bad. “I tried to go back, but I couldn’t. I thought I screwed something up.”

  “You screwed up, all right,” he said, “but you couldn’t have gone back. Only Azagoth or I can operate the doors.” He tossed a log on the fire. “Why did you come here?”

  Dread made her stomach churn, as if the soup had morphed back into a snake in her belly. “Before I answer your questions, I need to ask something.”

  “Sure,” he drawled, arms still crossed over his chest. “Why the fuck not.”

  Well, that didn’t sound promising. “Azagoth has the ability to destroy souls.” She shuddered at the very idea, at the sheer power one must possess to undo what God himself had done. “Do you?”

  One corner of his perfect mouth tipped up. “You worried?”

  “A little.”

  “Seriously?” He lost the smile. “What the fuck did you do?” His eyes narrowed, becoming shards of angry ice. “Azagoth doesn’t know you’re here, does he? You entered the Sanctum without his knowledge. Holy shit, Cat, do you know what I’m supposed to do to intruders?”

  She could guess, but she really didn’t want to. The bowl in her hands started to tremble. Calm down. He probably won’t kill you. Probably.

  “Cat!” he barked. “At least one of my wardens is dead because of you, so I need some answers. Now.”

  She couldn’t look at him, so she concentrated on her feet and said softly, “I accidentally let some souls into the Inner Sanctum.”

  “Accidentally?”

  “Of course it was an accident,” she snapped, annoyed that her motives were in question. “Who in their right mind would open the tunnel without Azagoth’s permission? I didn’t even know how to open the thing. I was cleaning, and I accidentally––”

  “Okay,” he interrupted. “I get it. It was an accident, but that doesn’t explain why you’re here.”

  She set the bowl on the edge of the coffin and blew out a breath. “I wanted to fix my mistake. I know it was stupid. I changed my mind, but the portal closed and I couldn’t get back.”

  “So you traveled to the 5th Ring?” he asked, incredulous. “What kind of dumbass move was that? What the fuck were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking that I needed to find the human,” she shot back, feeling a little defensive. She might be impulsive, and she might not have made the best decision ever, but she had been trying to make things right. “But I swear, I’d barely stepped out when demons surrounded me.”

  “That’s because you’re different. You are, for lack of a better word, alive. They can sense your life-force in a way my wardens and I can’t.” He scowled. “Wait. Human?” He moved a little closer, and she suddenly felt crowded. “What human?”

  Ah, yeah, this was where things got really sticky. And bad. “One of the souls that got through...it was human.”

  “So?” He picked up another of his wicked knives off the table and ran his thumb over the blade. “Evil humans are admitted to the Inner Sanctum every day. The souls you allowed through would have made their way to one of the five Rings...which isn’t a catastrophe. Eventually we’d have figured out that they were in the wrong place. If they were in the wrong place. So why did you worry about it? Because you were afraid of Azagoth’s wrath? Not that you shouldn’t be afraid,” he threw in. “He peeled me once. Peeled me. Do you know what it feels like to be fucking peeled? I’ll give you a hint. It’s not as fun as it sounds.”

  Er...she didn’t think it sounded fun at all. And geez, she knew Azagoth could be terrifying, but she’d also seen his tender, caring side, and she’d never known him to be needlessly cruel. Then again, by all accounts, Lilliana had softened him considerably. Cat wouldn’t have wanted to know Azagoth pre-Lilliana.

  “I’m...not sure how to respond to that.” But she was sure as hell more afraid of Azagoth than ever. “I mean, yes, I was worried about Azagoth’s reaction, but the problem is that the soul was mistakenly brought here. He’s human, but not evil. He was reaped by mistake.”

  “A mistake? How do you know all of this?”

  “Because Reaver paid a visit to Azagoth. He wants the human back in a bad way.”

  Hades went silent, spinning around to pace, his heavy boots striking the floor with great, tomb-shaking cracks. “When did this happen? When did you send the human into my realm?”

  She didn’t send the human into the realm, but she wasn’t about to quibble about terminology at the moment. “Three days ago.” She reconsidered that, since she didn’t know how long she’d been held captive by the demons. “Could be a little longer.”

  Hades let out a low whistle as he ran his hand over his Mo
hawk. “Damn, Cat. Just...fuck.”

  “I know,” she said miserably.

  “No, you don’t know. It all makes sense now. The ritual I came across a few days ago. The Orphmage wielding power. The human was fueling all of it. The damned human is why all of this shit is happening, and with the comms down, Azagoth had no way to warn me.”

  “What shit?”

  “The riots down here. The rebellion.” He hurled the knife to the table. The tip of the blade punched into the wood and vibrated, the noise filling the small space with an eerie echo. “The magic.”

  She shook her head, completely lost. “I don’t understand. There have been riots? What magic?”

  “The magic that severed communication with Azagoth and sealed the exits out of the Inner Sanctum.”

  “Sealed? Not just locked? Like, there’s nothing you can do?” She couldn’t believe that. How could one dead human cause so much trouble? “You’re Hades. Surely––”

  “No, Cat. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. The exit is sealed. We’re stuck here, and if the demons are clever enough, they can use the human to reveal the location of my home as well. And once that happens...” He trailed off, and she swallowed. Hard.

  She knew she shouldn’t ask, but as the psychotic angel she used to work for once said, she was “fatally curious.” “Once that happens...what?”

  “We’ll be overrun by millions of the evilest demons on the Ufelskala scale. They’ll kill us, Cat, and if we’re lucky, they’ll only spend a couple of days doing it.”

  Chapter Eight

  Hades could not believe this shit. In his thousands of years of presiding over the hellhole that was the Inner Sanctum, not a single soul had entered by mistake. Both he and Azagoth had been very careful about who––and what––passed through the barrier. The consequences of the smallest foreign object or unauthorized person entering the Inner Sanctum was precisely why not even his fallen angel wardens were allowed to leave once they started work here. Hades himself couldn’t bring anything in, except under certain circumstances, and only with Azagoth’s permission.

  Made it tough for a guy to get a pizza.

  And now, in a matter of days there had been at least two unauthorized entrances, and the full extent of the resulting damage had yet to be seen.

  Cat shoved to her bare feet, which were decorated with purple nail polish. Cute. He’d been ordered not to touch her sexually, but would sucking on her toes count?

  “So you’re saying that we have no recourse?” Her hands formed fists at her sides, and he wondered if she was attempting to keep from punching something. “There’s no way to contact Azagoth?”

  “I’ve been trying. My phone has no signal, and even our old methods of communicating through ensorcelled parchment and blood isn’t working. I’d been wondering why Azagoth has been so quiet.”

  “You have a phone down here?” She glanced around as if seeking said device. “A phone that works?”

  “I know you haven’t been a Heavenly reject for long, but never underestimate the ability of demons to hijack and tweak human advancements.” He gestured to a cabinet in the corner. “I have TV, too. Do not mess with me on The Walking Dead night.”

  Her delicate, ginger eyebrows cranked down in skepticism. “Are you saying that demons are smarter than humans?

  “I’m saying that demons think outside the box and are a lot more creative.” He shrugged. “Plus, most of them aren’t limited by stifling moral values.”

  Cat appeared to consider that, her blood-red lips pursing, her pert, freckled nose wrinkling as she thought. “Okay, so we find the human. They must be using his non-evil energy to fuel the spell that cut off the Inner Sanctum from the rest of Sheoul-gra.”

  He liked that she was thinking this through without freaking out. And as stupid as her decision to enter his realm might have been, he had to admit it was bold—and brave. How many people would have done the same? And how many could have gone through what she had and still be not only mentally intact but willing to keep trying to fix their mistake?

  “Maybe,” Hades said. “But what did they want with you? Do you know?”

  She closed her eyes, her long lashes painting shadows on her pale skin. “I’m not sure. I thought they were going to hurt me, but if they did, I don’t remember much of it.”

  Good, because Hades remembered enough for both of them. Oh, he hadn’t witnessed everything that happened to her, but he knew she’d taken a beating at some point. He still couldn’t get the bruises and welts that had marked every exposed inch of her body out of his head.

  A growl threatened to break free from his throat as he thought about it. Even as he’d laid her carefully in his bed and channeled healing waves into her, he’d sworn to hunt down every one of her attackers and introduce them to his favorite knives.

  “Did they say anything to you?” he ground out, still angry at the memory of what had been done to her.

  She licked her lips, leaving them glossy and kissable, and he was grateful for something to concentrate on besides her now-healed injuries. “The Orphmage talked about using me to usher in a new world order. Or something crazy like that.”

  “That sounds about right. Orphmages are crazy. But it’s a mad scientist kind of crazy that’s dangerous as fuck because they can make their insane ideas come to life.” Which actually sounded pretty awesome. “Man, if I ever get to be reincarnated, I want to come back as an Orphmage.”

  “Fallen angels can only be reborn to other fallen angels,” she pointed out, as if he didn’t know that. “Also, you’re twisted.”

  “Which doesn’t stop you from panting after me every time you see me at Azagoth’s place.” He got a kick out of the way her face went bright red, and he wondered if she was going to deny it.

  He wasn’t an idiot; he’d seen the way she looked at him. The way she got all flustered when he was near. He loved it. Had come to crave the attention whenever he was visiting Azagoth. He supposed that intentionally seeking her out just so he could get a reaction he couldn’t return in kind was a form of self-torture, but hey, torture was what he did, right?

  “W-what?” She sputtered with indignation. “I don’t do th––”

  “You do.”

  “Don’t.”

  “Do.” He laughed. Felt good, but not because he didn’t laugh a lot. He just hadn’t had a laugh teased out of him by a female in a long time. “It’s okay. There’s no shame in wanting me. I am hot, after all.”

  She huffed, making her breasts nearly spill out of the tight black and emerald corset she wore. “Whatever,” she mumbled. And then she smiled shyly. “I didn’t think you noticed.”

  He nearly swallowed his tongue. He’d been teasing; he hadn’t expected her to be bold enough to admit to wanting him. Time to change the subject, and fast, because he wasn’t entirely sure he had the willpower to withstand any coy come-ons. He hadn’t been with a female in years, not since the last time Azagoth let him out of Sheoul-gra. Everyone inside the Gra, including demons, were off-limits to him, and always had been.

  That’s what you get when you mess with the Grim Reaper’s family.

  Yeah, he’d brought his punishment on himself, but fuck, he’d made that mistake thousands of years ago. Hadn’t he paid his debt by now? He’d asked Azagoth that very question just recently. As it turned out, Azagoth had a long memory, held a grudge, and wasn’t the forgiving type.

  Shoving thoughts of past mistakes aside, he changed the topic. “So what made you think you could enter the Inner Sanctum and find the human?”

  Disappointment at the subject change flashed in Cat’s jade eyes, but she covered it with a casual shrug. “I possess a particularly powerful ability to sense good and evil.”

  “You still have it? Even after you lost your wings?”

  She glanced around the room, and instead of answering, she asked, “You got anything to drink? You know, that isn’t made from snakes?”

  “Sure thing.” With a flick of his wri
st, the wall behind the TV slid open, revealing a small kitchen that looked like something straight out of The Flintstones. Except he had demon-installed electricity. Yay for refrigeration and hot stovetops.

  “Huh,” Cat said. “I did not expect that. You got a secret bathroom, too?”

  “Other wall.” As he walked to the kitchen, he heard the wall behind him slide open, heard her murmur of approval.

  “Happy to see the shower. Not so happy to see a...what is that, a toilet trough?” Her dismayed tone amused him. “That looks like something pigs would eat out of.”

  “I’m old-fashioned.” His amusement veered quickly to shame as he reached into the cupboard for his only two cups. As he plopped them onto the pitted stone counter, he cursed his stark living conditions. They’d never truly bothered him before, but now, seeing how he lived through Cat’s eyes had lifted the veil a little, and he didn’t like it at all. So instead of going for the rotgut moonshine made right here in the Inner Sanctum, he reached for his prized bottle of rum that Limos, one of the Four Horsemen, had given him three decades ago. “Rum okay? And you haven’t answered my question.”

  “What question? Oh, right. Um, yes, rum is fine, and as far as my ability, it’s not as strong as it was before I lost my wings, but I can still feel the difference between good and evil from a greater distance than most haloed angels or True Fallen.”

  As he splashed a couple of fingers of rum into each cup, he realized that for all of the times he’d seen Cat and asked questions about her during his visits to Azagoth, he knew very little about her. Oh, he’d heard the story of how she fell from grace, how she’d associated with Gethel, the turncoat angel who sold her soul to have Satan’s child. He also knew Cat had been brave enough to admit to her mistakes instead of trying to cover them up.

  Admirable. Not the route he’d have gone in her situation, but hey, he’d never been a shining beacon of light even when he’d still rocked a halo.