Abducted (Hades and Persephone #1)

by Bella Klaus

  Folding my arms across my chest, I asked, “Could you explain what we’re doing?”

  “Only singles or married soulmates may rule a faction,” he said.

  The raspberry canes leaned in to listen.

  “Alright.” I nodded.

  Hades paused, his head tilting to the side, looking like he was checking that I was following him so far. “Believe what you will about being Persephone, but you are my wife. What we did together at the masquerade ball constitutes a marriage.”

  I gulped, even though what he’d said was true.

  “And there are two ways to consummate our union,” he said.

  My eyes narrowed. “Which is the method that doesn’t involve sex?”

  “Instead of sharing bodies, we will share magic.”

  In my mind, I conjured up an image of myself with horns and a tail, just like an imp. The last thing I needed was to complete our bargain and not want to leave Hell because I looked like a demon.

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  Hades walked toward the clearing, leaving me staring at his broad back and the outline of his muscular ass.

  “Every supernatural creature has an energy body that contains magical centers called chakras.” As he said the words, seven circles appeared on his back.

  I glanced down to find the same glowing balls over my chest, my solar plexus, my belly, and my crotch. He’d probably placed three more in my head and neck, but there was no way to see without a mirror.

  He reached the bench of raffia leaves and lowered its backrest, so that the leaf lay flat and two inches off the ground. “If I can connect each of mine to yours and strengthen the bond that already exists between us, collecting Persephone’s power will be as easy as inhaling oxygen.”

  The green ball of magic at my breastbone pulsed in time with my racing heart.

  Hades lowered himself on the bench and sat in the lotus position, looking like something out of Pirithous’s Yoga International magazine.

  I wrapped my arms around my middle and paused at the edge of the clearing. “What should I do?”

  A warm breeze meandered through the garden, bringing with it a small cloud of dandelion seeds. “Let’s see if you can make these germinate.”

  I bit down on my lip. “I’ve never done that before without help.”

  He tilted his head to the side and frowned. “I heard you spent hours in your greenhouse.”

  My gaze dropped to the grass. “I can plant a seed and water it, but so can anyone else.”

  “You cultivated your plants without magic?” he asked, his tone incredulous.

  “Mother always lent me some of hers.” I cringed as I said the words. Without her placing her hands on my shoulders and filling me with her magic, I was as helpless as a human.

  “Try again.” The words sounded like a command.

  “You still think I attacked myself?”

  “You’ll never know until you try.”

  Alright. I let the dandelion seeds settle on my palm, their fluffy little parachutes keeping them upright in the slight breeze.

  “Germinate them.”

  Narrowing my eyes, I focused my magic into my hand, the way Mother taught me when I was little. Each seed exploded into tiny puffs of smoke.

  I reared back and lowered my hand. “That’s never happened before.”

  The raspberry canes on my left leaned away, as though frightened I might turn my destructive magic on them.

  “Have you tried speaking to my mother?” I asked. “She’s the only person in the world who knows what’s going on with my magic.”

  “Demeter is a desperate goddess. She’ll use emissaries I send as hostages to demand a parlay, then she and her coven will abduct you back, and they’ll do something even more drastic to corrupt your soul.”

  The worst part about what he said? It was probably true. At least Hades was honest about keeping me as his captive. At least he was giving me a way out.

  He beckoned me over. “Never mind. Let’s go with my original plan.”

  “Which is?” I stared at him from the other side of the clearing.

  “Straddle me, place your palms on mine.” He raised his hands to shoulder-height. “As we connect magic, I’ll talk you through the rest.”

  Nothing on his features said this was a trick, so I padded toward him and kneeled beside him on the raffia leaf. Hades helped position me on his lap and joined our palms, making sure to slide me so we sat chest to chest. By the time he finished, my veins roared with the heat of my blood.

  “Alright.” I tried to keep my voice calm. “What do we do next?”

  “Close your eyes,” he said, his voice commanding. “Can you see the chakras?”

  I squeezed my eyes shut. Not only could I see each ball of magic on his body, but I also saw them on mine, including a white ball on the crown of my head.

  “How can I see so much with my eyes shut?” I asked.

  “Your third eye is open.” A blue ball level with his brow flared, making me rear back. “This is what allows you to view magic.”

  I sucked in a shocked breath. The Compendium Mother gave me never once mentioned chakras or anything that could connect me to my magic. “What else can it do?”

  “That depends entirely on your power.” He curled his finger around mine and held me in place on his lap. “Are you ready?”

  “Will it hurt?” My voice shook.

  “You might feel a little sting,” he said, his voice teasing. “But it’s nothing you haven’t experienced before.”

  My cheeks heated at the reminder that I’d sort of lost my virginity to him, and I was glad we were both closing our eyes.

  “The white ball of magic at the top of your head is called the crown chakra.” His flared so brightly that I had to lean back. “Push all your concentration on it, and connect your magic to me.”

  A protest formed on my lips—I had no magic, and could only communicate with plants. I shoved the thought away. Entering Hell had broken a seal on my power that had allowed me to access the lightning. If I had to guess, the process had begun much earlier, when Hades and I had made love.

  My crown chakra flared brightly, making his appear dim. The air between us crackled with the sound of tiny strikes of lightning as we connected. The sensation of a quick mind invaded my consciousness, feeling like the slide of an abacus making rapid-fire calculations. I was getting an impression of Hades.

  Instead of flinching at our newfound closeness, I relaxed into it and sighed.

  “Well done.” He squeezed my hands. “You’re a natural at this.”

  “What’s next?” I asked.

  Hades guided me through the six other chakras—third eye, throat, heart, solar plexus, sacral, and root. They were each different colors, and each time we connected, it felt like I understood him more.

  His cocky exterior appeared to be a facade that hid a millstone of responsibility for the welfare of millions of souls. It ground against a seething hatred for Samael and crushed an overwhelming yearning that bordered on pain.

  I tried to pull away from the feeling, but it dragged me toward it like a magnet. It was like a chasm deeper than the ocean, more profound than anything I could comprehend in my twenty years of existence.

  Hades showed me glimpses of what his life had been before Persephone, a dark and dreary and meaningless existence. She had taught him how to feel, and brought life and color to the Underworld. Without her, he felt even worse than before.

  I swallowed hard, not knowing which was worse. An existence without love or finding the love of your soul, knowing what it was like to be truly happy, only to be left with heart-wrenching memories of loss.

  “That is an excellent question,” he murmured.

  I sucked in a deep breath. “How can you feel so much?”

  “It builds up over the eons,” he said in a voice that sounded a mile away. “Connecting with your mind feels like a breeze, even though it’s filled with conflicting thoughts about me.
”

  Prickly heat flared across my skin. I pulled away, but he held on to me with a grip of iron.

  “Unless you’re offering to connect with me the more pleasurable way, you will continue this ritual until we’re finished,” he snarled.

  I clenched my teeth, breathing hard against the intensity of his emotions, his thoughts, his pain. It was like being crushed by an invisible force that I couldn’t shift, no matter how desperately I tried.

  Tears pricked the backs of my eyes, and it took every ounce of willpower not to dissolve. If Hades endured the loss of his soulmate for two millennia, surely I could tolerate it for a few minutes?

  “What’s next?” My voice shook.

  Streams of white light shot from his fingertips, and they wrapped around mine with the sensation of ghostly tendrils.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Connecting our meridians,” he said, his voice strained. “With this, you should be able to perform a wider array of magic.”

  “You’re giving me your power?” I asked.

  “And I’m taking some of yours in return.”

  More tendrils of his magic connected with mine, mostly at our feet and faces and hands. The air around us sizzled and crackled, and my skin prickled with the sensation of static electricity.

  My pulse quickened, and my clit throbbed to the beat of the pulse between my legs. Tendrils of power slid across my bare skin and circled my most sensitive parts.

  The magic concentrated low in my belly and wrapped around my core like a constrictor, winding tighter and tighter, increasing its pressure on my clit until it was ready to explode.

  I leaned my head against his and cried out against the sensations as a tiny string of magic coiled around my engorged clit. Back and forth it went, in time with my panting breaths, winding me like a spring that finally snapped.

  “Hades!” I threw myself back, but he held on to me with his tight grip.

  “Keep the connection,” he rasped.

  A cyclone of pleasure tore through my insides, filling my vision with white light. I cried out, my entire body twitching as though I’d been electrified. Every nerve ending vibrated with sensation as the climax continued to break me apart.

  As the pleasure faded, and my breathing returned to normal, Hades’ pain reached a crescendo that made my teeth chatter.

  The image of a woman appeared in my mind. She stared up at me through heavy-lidded eyes, her full lips parted with panting breaths. Her red curls lay around her head like a halo of blood.

  She mouthed the words, ‘Fuck me harder.’

  With a pained groan, his hands dropped from mine, and he slumped forward, resting his head on my shoulder. The scent of burning vegetation mingled with the acrid stench of seared flesh.

  My eyes snapped open. “Hades?”

  Red welts marked his golden skin. Fern-like patterns that started with jagged stems and split into limbs and branches and twigs. They were everywhere, marring his arms, shoulders, and neck.

  My heart spun like an out-of-control sycamore leaf and I sucked in a breath through my teeth.

  That pain he had felt wasn’t just heartache. I’d been attacking him all the time with my lightning.

  “Hades?” I grabbed his head with both hands and tilted it up to meet mine.

  His eyes lay closed, but those terrible welts traveled up his neck and around his beautiful face.

  “Persephone,” he whispered, smoke pouring from his lips.

  The lining of my stomach trembled, and my insides swirled with nausea. I did this. “Tell me what I can do to help.” My voice shook. “How do I call a healer?”

  He opened his eyes, and streams of blood ran down their empty sockets.

  A lightning storm of panic broke out across my insides.

  How on earth had he survived something so atrocious?

  Chapter Fifteen

  Hades slumped forward, his heavy weight pinning me to the smoldering raffia leaf, which cracked under the strain. His breaths were deep and even, as though fast asleep, even though the red marks on his body pulsed with what felt like an electric current.

  My throat dried. What the hell had my power done to him? The blood and welts and empty eye sockets hadn’t been an illusion. I snaked a hand out from beneath his body to give him a gentle tap on the arm.

  “Hades?” I said.

  No response.

  I sucked in a deep breath and shouted, “Hades.”

  Still, no response.

  “Bloody hell,” I muttered.

  With each passing moment, the Demon King became heavier, and at this rate, he would crush me into the ground. I swallowed hard. He needed a healer, a grounding mat, and preferably a new set of eyes.

  But how on earth was I going to shift him?

  Something rustled from up above. I glanced up to find the leaves of the fig tree swaying in the breeze. Something Hades had told me earlier about bondage with kiwi vines rolled to the forefront of my mind. Maybe I could get some help from Persephone’s plants.

  It didn’t matter that I wasn’t her or my power was lightning-based. I still had an affinity with plants. If I could persuade one of these plants to help, then maybe I could restore Hades to health.

  “Actinidia arguta?” I called out for a kiwi vine.

  The trees above me stilled, but something rustled from deep within the foliage, rose up like a cobra, and flared its leaves. They were pink and white—unlike the green kiwis we grew in the greenhouse—but the leaves were the same shape.

  I turned to the banana plants around the clearing. “Musa acuminata?”

  They bowed, letting their banana clusters reach the ground.

  “I need you to work together and lift Hades off me and place him on a bed of the most absorbent banana leaves. Can you do that?”

  Kiwi vines snaked around the raffia leaf platform and between our bodies, sending a tickling sensation across my skin. I ran a hand through Hades’ silken locks, trying to tell him through gestures that he would be alright.

  The vines wrapped around his arms and hauled him off me, reducing the weight on my chest. I sat up and exhaled a long, relieved breath.

  “Malva medicus?”

  There was no rustling response, which was a pity, because medicinal mallow was one of the most powerful healing plants in existence. Perhaps Persephone hadn’t thought it necessary because she was so powerful.

  “Aloe vera?” I asked.

  A gentle thud sounded from behind me. I turned to find the spiky leaves of an aloe vera plant protruding from between the banana plants.

  The kiwi vines laid an unconscious Hades on a bed of banana leaves, which I had chosen because they were sterile enough to use as plates, and I broke off pieces of aloe leaves, exposing its healing gel.

  My stomach trembled as I took a better look at his welts. Flashes of white magic pulsed back and forth beneath the network of raised patterns, as though they were under attack by lightning.

  There was no mistaking it—my magic hadn’t meshed well with his.

  “This will make you feel better,” I murmured.

  As expected, Hades didn’t reply. I placed some of the cool gel onto the side of his face, and it sizzled. My mouth dried, and the pulse in my throat hammered a frantic beat. We were going to need the entire plant to heal his wounds.

  “Why did you let me electrocute you?” I applied another blob of gel, which soaked into his skin this time, and reduced the size of the welt.

  Something moved beneath Hades’ eyelids, and I wondered if his eyes were regenerating or he was having a nightmare. He had allowed my power to attack him, and endured so much damage, but why?

  If I had known that this alternative way to consummate our union would cause him agony, I would have agreed to the sex.

  He remained unconscious throughout his treatment, even as I rubbed the healing gel into his chest and abs. The plants helped me raise his upper body and arms, so I could get to the places I couldn’t reach.

&
nbsp; “You are the strangest person I’ve ever met,” I murmured as I worked the gel onto his nipples.

  The fern-shaped marks disappeared, leaving perfectly puckered skin. I exhaled a relieved breath. At least I was making progress.

  After exhausting an entire leaf, I stared down at Hades and admired my work. His chest rose and fell with even breaths, indicating that I had relieved some of his pain. The red marks had faded to the barest of pinks, and I’d even worked the gel into his scalp.

  I’d also rolled up his pants to get to his legs, but there was one place I hadn’t yet treated. My gaze followed the trail of red marks leading to the waistband of his pants, and my pulse fluttered in my throat.

  “Hades?” I asked.

  A muscle in his cheek twitched.

  “Can I take off your pants to treat your wounds?”

  When he didn’t respond, I placed a hand on his cheek and gave him a gentle pat. “Are you awake?”

  Still no response.

  I turned to one of the banana plants and asked, “What should I do?”

  The plant shook her bulbous flowerhead and raised a leaf in a gesture that asked me not to get her involved.

  My shoulders sagged, and I rested my palms on his chest. “I can’t just pull down a man’s pants to rub a slippery gel all over his—”

  Hades groaned. “If it helps, I consent to being molested in my sleep.”

  I snatched my hands off his chest and spluttered. “What are you talking about?”

  “Admit it. You were salivating over the chance of playing with my cock.” He chuckled, letting out clouds of smoke.

  A sharp breath whistled through my teeth. “You’ve got internal injuries.”

  “They’re nothing,” he rasped.

  My eyes bulged. If his insides were as bad as his outsides, then we were in a whole heap of trouble. “Have your eyes even grown back? Call a healer, now.”

  He wrapped a hand around my wrist. “If you treat my other wounds, I’ll be much obliged.”

  “Don’t you think you need a professional to replace your eyes?”

  He shook his head. “They’ll grow back, but my burns burn like buggery.”