by Helen Scott
This kiss wasn’t gentle or sensual as they had been before. This was pure unadulterated need. Before I knew it, I was rocking my hips against his while small moans and gasps escaped my mouth as his hands moved from location to location on my body, squeezing and tugging, making me feel sexy and wanted.
I rolled him over onto his back and repositioned myself directly on top of the big bulge in his pants. I could have unzipped them and taken him out, but I wanted him to be sure, for him to make that move so I knew I wasn’t rushing him.
As I rocked my hips back and forth, his hands settled on my skin, encouraging me and showing me what kind of pace he liked. I wanted him inside me more than anything, but I left that decision to him. I moved and felt my most sensitive places grinding up against his own, slowly building an intense wave of pleasure within me.
A rap sounded at the door, and it opened before either of us could even acknowledge it. “Angel?” Knox asked, worry cementing his eyebrows together.
When the door was open wide enough and he saw what was going on, he froze.
“Hey,” I said from atop Shadow. I didn’t know what the hell to do. Should I get up and cover myself even though he has explored my body more thoroughly than anyone else? Apologize? But what for? So I sat and waited.
Knox cleared his throat, his eyes drinking in the sight of me naked except for my thong. I could see the lust form, feel it rushing through our bond and into my veins. “Sorry to interrupt, but we need to move. Now.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked, springing off Shadow and pulling my clothes back on.
“More agents of Hel, except this time, we also have other enemies entering the Underworld as well. I don’t know how or why, but I’m guessing they are with Alpha, since they are the only other people who could claim the throne with the blood they stole from you.”
“How the hell did they get in?” Shadow asked.
“Shit,” I breathed.
“We’re going to go through a couple passages that no one knows about and get you secured away with the furies before we scout everything out,” Knox said, not answering Shadow’s question. I wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t know the answer, or if he knew and just didn’t want to share yet. Either way, it was a hole in our defenses that we needed to shore up.
“I want to help,” I said, hating the idea of them going out alone to see where our enemies were.
Knox sighed. “Angel, if anything happens to you, then a group of humans and a goddess will be fighting for control over the realm. That would send the mortal realm into chaos. We need to go now. We can discuss everything else later.”
I slipped on my shoes and looked over at Shadow, and then the two of us were out the door, hot on Knox’s heels.
4
Poppy
By the time we made it downstairs, the air had already filled with the sounds of grunts and growls as our guys fought against the incoming enemies. The room looked like complete chaos, bodies strewn over the floor, hellhounds fighting at both entrances, humans and the undead fighting each other while we were simply trying to make it out alive. But I didn’t see a clear exit. So much was happening that it almost seemed as if there weren’t a spare inch of space in the whole room.
Arms wrapped around me as Knox’s deep voice said, “I’m going to shield you, angel.”
“I’m fine,” I protested, and stepped out of his embrace.
A sharp pain exploded through my arm. As I looked to see what it was, Knox erupted into his hellhound form, only he was ten times bigger than I remembered. His massive body filled the room, and the roar he let out sent chills down my spine. I knew intellectually that he wouldn’t hurt me, but my fight or flight response was most definitely triggered and telling me to get the hell out of there.
Another stab of pain drew my attention away from the giant hound next to me. I pressed my hand to my chest where it hurt. It came away wet and sticky with blood. The sight of it left me swaying slightly on my feet while Shadow came rushing back to me after detangling himself from the agent of Hel he’d been fighting.
“Everything is going to be okay, sweetheart,” he said as his arms wrapped around me.
My brain felt fuzzy, and although I knew there was something I wanted to do, it took me too long to actually remember what it was. When I did, I started to struggle against Shadow, which earned me a not-so-pleased noise from him.
“I need to do this,” I panted, quickly using up the small amount of energy I had replenished from earlier.
“You have five seconds, and then we’re getting out of here,” Shadow growled at me before releasing me.
Without wasting a moment, I pulled all my remaining energy and pushed it all out into the crowd of enemies. I could feel the dead with a surprising amount of accuracy, and I sent one thought into their mostly dead brains. Attack the humans. Since my men and I were all supernatural, we should be safe. I hoped. I kept repeating the command until I felt Shadow’s arms wrap around me once more as he picked me up and carried me out.
At first, I didn’t understand where we were going, but when he tossed me into the air with a small half spin so I landed facing the same way he was walking, I realized that we had entered an area I’d never been. Not that I’d had much of a chance to explore, but still.
When he moved a painting aside, the appearance of a secret passageway in our new home entranced me. I’d always wanted one growing up and created little pathways through my room that I pretended were invisible to anyone but me. Of course, my mother didn’t appreciate the meticulously laid out toys, or the fit I threw when she tried to put them away. This place was the real deal, though.
“How will they find us?” I whispered, unsure of how thick the walls were. My brain felt as if it were being pulled in five hundred different directions at once as I kept pushing out the command to the agents of Hel. I had no idea if I was having any success or not, but I had to keep trying to do everything I could to give my guys a chance at escape. The idea that they might be caught or injured in the crossfire was enough to turn my stomach.
“While you were napping, Knox and Emmett gave us the rundown on this place. This is the escape route he told us about in case we had to evacuate at short notice. We all knew where we were supposed to meet if everything went to hell. I just didn’t expect we’d be using the plan so soon.”
I fell silent as we progressed through the tunnel. It was clearly built between two walls, and I wished I knew what was on each side, but I couldn’t afford to let my focus drift any more than it already had. Doubt and fear rushed through my brain at the idea of losing one of them to these assholes. I couldn’t, wouldn’t, let that happen, so I redoubled my efforts, pushing the command out further and faster than I had been before.
A heavy feeling was settling in my limbs, and my eyelids felt like sandpaper every time I blinked. My energy was running out. Shadow’s chest was warm, and his heartbeat under my ear was soothing in a way that nothing else could be. My brain was telling me to shut down, to give in to the heavy feeling and let the darkness claim me, but my heart wouldn’t let that happen, not until we were all safe.
“Take what you need, love.” Shadow’s voice was soft and quiet as the tunnel quickly turned into a maze. We passed, or occasionally moved through, openings and turnings, and although part of me was worried that we would get lost in these tunnels forever, Shadow seemed to know where he was going.
“I don’t know how,” I whispered quietly.
“You’ll figure it out, and when you do, don’t hold back on my account,” he said, pausing in his steps to drop a quick kiss on the top of my head. A rush of tingles flooded my body as I remembered what we had been doing before Knox had interrupted us. The feeling of his skin under my hands was a craving I needed to satiate, so I pulled at his T-shirt with what little energy I had left, getting it high enough that I could slip my hands under it and touch his bare skin.
As soon as we connected, I could feel the vitality within him, the energy
and strength that he was using getting me to safety. I pulled up my inner sight or whatever it was, the thing that allowed me to see everyone’s flames, and reached for Shadow’s. The flame was almost black with just hints of purple and blue as it danced next to me. Without thinking, I reached out, mentally touching it, feeling it move over my skin. It wasn’t a searing heat as I’d expected. It was a gentle warmth that moved over my hand before traveling up my arm and connecting with my flame, which wasn’t as bright as usual but still had a rainbow of color swirling around it.
The warmth spread over my body, surrounding me in a cocoon of comfort. My muscles eased, and the pain radiating out of my injuries dulled. I heard Shadow’s breath hitch and felt him stumble. Not wanting to take too much from one of my men or weaken the others who might still be fighting, I stopped. The pain ebbed for now, thanks to Shadow’s energy, and I knew I could handle myself once more.
“I can walk, Shadow. Set me down.”
He pretended he didn’t hear me.
“Shadow, put me down . . .” When he still didn’t respond to my request, I reached up and turned his face toward mine. His beautiful eyes stared down at me. It felt as if the man were looking into my soul, as if he could see my own fire, the very essence of who I was. I pulled his mouth toward mine, suddenly desperate to connect with him. His fire had been a gentle heat, but there was nothing gentle about the kiss. His desperation mirrored my own, and they fed off one another until he had me pressed up against a wall and I was ripping his T-shirt open.
I needed him physically and emotionally. I needed his darkness, his strength to keep me afloat, and I needed that passion that he kept locked down set free. His mouth devoured my own while his hands squeezed and massaged my ass, pinning my core against his own rapidly growing need. When his hand moved to my thigh and squeezed, I let out a yelp of pain.
“Shit! I’m so sorry, love,” Shadow said as he set me on the ground. His hand was red from the wound on my thigh, which was now bleeding freely once more.
“No, it’s okay,” I breathed before I eased weight onto my injured leg. When it held, I let out the breath I’d been holding.
“I don’t know what came over me. It was like I felt you inside my heart. I knew what you wanted and the specifics of it.” He shook his head, and I hoped that my needs were in check so I didn’t overwhelm him again. “We’re almost there. Are you okay to walk?”
“Yeah, I’m good,” I said as I started off in the direction we had been going.
My leg was sore, and it ached even more with every step, but I wasn’t going to do anything about it for fear of leaving my guys defenseless. As we approached a dead end, I looked to Shadow for guidance. He simply nodded to the right. Dark circles were starting to show under his eyes, and when combined with the mussed-up hair, which might have been my fault, he looked tired. I tried to remember the last time we all got a full night’s sleep and had to go back way too far. Wherever we were going that was supposed to be safe, I hoped it had a way for us all to rest and recuperate, because we all needed it.
5
Poppy
We turned from the tunnel and exited through a crevasse in a wall. It wasn’t a door, but it wasn’t a wall, either. Even I had to turn sideways to get through, so I had no idea how Shadow had fit, or how someone like Knox would get through if he was coming the same way. The sound in the tunnel changed then, and I could barely hear myself breathing, let alone our footfalls on the stone walkway. I tried to scuff my foot against the floor, and only heard the faintest whisper of sound.
The air felt wet and hot at the same time, like the worst humid summer day. I glanced at Shadow and found him wiping his brow, so I knew he could feel it too. The tunnel we were walking in at that point was larger than the passageway and reminded me more of the opening to the hellhound’s castle than the secret walkway. It sloped downward slightly. It wasn’t a lot, but it made me feel as if we were going deeper and deeper underground with every step. Light emanated from the rocks that made up the ceiling, and although they didn’t glow, it was enough to allow us to find our way.
Eventually the floor felt as if it leveled out, and as we walked along, I could see what looked like a bar up ahead. I knew it was the Underworld and things were different here, but I would never have guessed we’d be running into a random bar for safety. There was the actual counter of the bar off to the left and a scarlet couch along with a large super-thin TV off to the right. The ceiling, which had been made up of big boulder-like rocks, was now an elegant red brick that had been created to form an arch over the central area.
The walls were covered in a variety of different pieces of artwork, while all different styles of lights, from candles in lanterns to electric lamps, decorated the tables, making the room glow with warmth. A slick circular table that looked as if it were made of black marble with gold legs sat in front of the couch with two empty glasses on it.
A couple of women appeared from a hallway behind a wall. They both carried short swords, and the older woman wore a dress as red as the blood trickling down my thigh. The air around them shimmered like heat coming off a fire, and their forearms were black, similar to what happened to my own skin when I turned into . . . whatever it was I turned into. The main difference was the black on their skin still showed up, making them look three dimensional, whereas the black that clung to mine seemed to pull me from the very fabric of existence and appeared bottomless when I looked directly at it.
I took a breath and calmed myself down before calling out to them. “Hello?”
Swords were immediately pointed in our direction, and while I wanted to shy away from them, I also knew that according to Shadow and the hounds, this was where we were supposed to meet. If we were the first ones here, then where was everyone else?
“Ladies, Knox and Emmett sent us your way for protection while they handle a situation by Styx.”
The younger woman had green and blue hair. Tattoos covered her skin, but she was just in torn jeans and a T-shirt that advertised a specific band, although I couldn’t make out the name. It seemed as if she were more from my time period on earth, whereas the other woman was from a time long ago. The older woman looked like a goddess; her perfectly shaped dark, wavy hair accented her flawless skin. The red dress hugged her curves, and a small smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she looked at Shadow. I wanted to step in front of him and tell her to back off what was mine, but that would show insecurities I shouldn’t have.
“We were just on our way to assist with the fight. It has been a long while since the battle came as far as the Underworld. Hades will not be pleased when he hears of it,” the goddess-like woman said, her voice slightly accented, although I couldn’t place it. Her wings had disappeared as she spoke, and the black had faded from her skin. Claws I hadn’t even noticed shrank back into her fingers, while the black pits where her eyes should have been slowly transformed into something a little more human.
Confusion stirred within me. Why would Hades be involved? Would they blame this on me as the new queen? How could they if I hadn’t even claimed the throne yet? Footsteps rang out in the hallway as someone or something came running toward us. Shadow pulled me to the side and hid us both behind the couch. I watched while both women became the winged warriors I had seen when they’d first appeared.
“What are they?” I whispered quietly to Shadow.
“From what Hunter told us, those are two of the furies.”
The knowledge was unexpected, but I should have known better. The minotaur was probably real as well. I needed to get over the continual shocks of supernatural things I thought were imaginary being real. The footsteps were right outside the bar area when I heard Emmett’s voice ring out. “Megaera, Cin, stand down! It’s Emmett and Knox.”
I popped up from behind the couch at the announcement and took off running toward them. I felt Shadow’s fingertips graze my side as he tried to stop me, but I wasn’t about to let anything keep me from my other guys. Besides, I ne
eded to know they were okay. Their battered and bloodied forms came into view as I bounded down the tunnel.
“Angel!” Knox said with a smile as he ran to me, sweeping me off my feet.
A hiss of pain escaped me as his arms wrapped around my waist, squeezing the wound on my side.
“What’s wrong, my queen?” Emmett asked as Knox put me down, their eyes intently looking me over.
“Just a little ouchy here and there,” I said, trying to brush off their concern. “Are you guys okay? Where’s everyone else?” My eyes were torn between looking them over and looking down the entrance for the missing members of our little clan.
“Hunter and Nolan are helping Derek and Cass get back,” Emmett said, his deep-brown eyes boring into my own as he spoke, making me wish we didn’t have an audience.
“Are they okay?”
“Yeah, they just forgot the directions.” Knox laughed. His golden-brown skin glowed even more in the light from the bar as we started walking toward the two women waiting with Shadow.
The image of his huge hound popped into my head, and I blurted, “You’re so big!”
Snickers came from all around me, and a blush crept up my cheeks.
“My hound, you mean?” Knox said calmly while his hand slid down my back and cupped my ass, giving it a good squeeze and turning my insides to molten lava.
I cleared my throat and forced the soft moan that tried to escape back down. “Yeah, your hound.”
“All our hounds are bigger here. It’s just the way our magic works,” Knox said with a pleased smile on his face.
“You could have warned me!” I lightly slapped him on the arm.
“More fun this way.” He grinned down at me and tugged me close to his side, carefully avoiding my injury.
Footsteps sounded behind us, and within seconds, Knox had me up in his arms and back behind one of the walls where Shadow and I had seen the two women enter. We both stood silently, and I could feel the tension running through his body. And what a body it was. Not that the moment of a possible attack was a good time for thoughts like that, but what was a woman to do when something as decadent as Knox was pressed up against her? I wasn’t sure what had gotten into me, but I needed my guys and soon or I was going to tear my hair out.