by Vivi Anna
She took a step toward it, her hand held out. “Hey, there, Ugly, whatcha in for?”
The creature cocked its head to one side as if in question. Its little ears on the top of its head flickered.
Kat frowned. “Can you understand me?”
The creature nodded its large head.
“Holy—”
She was hit from the side and taken down to the floor. Her assailant rolled them across the room. She knocked him in the head with her fist.
“Damnit, Hades. It wasn’t going to hurt me.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I can feel it in my head. It’s scared.”
Hades rolled off her and scrambled to his feet. He offered her his hand and pulled her up.
“What are doing here? Where’s the woman?”
“I took her up. I found this mechanical box that went all the way to the top. I hid her in another building. It’s midday, so I don’t think any dwellers are top side.”
“I told you to get safe.”
“Yeah, yeah. You sure are bossy.”
Kat smiled. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was elated that he had come back.
“Now what?” Hades asked.
“We find the Monolith and get the fuck out of here. And I know just how to do that.” She walked back to the creature. Hades followed her hesitantly.
“What is that thing?”
“It’s a mutant of some sort. Its how they’ve been getting around at night. How they surprised us out on the limits. They’re using it to fly.”
She reached out to touch it. The creature shied away and then sniffed the air. It rolled its tongue again and inched its head forward. Kat touched its nose gently. It pushed its nose into her hand, appearing to want more of her affections.
“Okay, so we have our transportation; how do we get the Monolith?” Hades asked.
“I’m not sure. I tried to feel for Darquiel but didn’t find her. I found someone else though.”
“Who?”
“Damian. He’s alive and in this building somewhere.”
“Shit. That complicates matters.”
“Yup.”
His eyes searched her face. “It’s your call.”
“I can’t leave him here.”
“Okay. So let’s see,” Hades reiterated, “we have to find Darquiel so she can help us find the Monolith. Probably have to kill a bunch of Dwellers to get to it. Then we find Damian, run back here, jump on the birdie, and fly out.”
“Yup, sounds about right.”
“Great, all we have to do now is run into Lord Ghoul himself and we’d have a perfect plan.”
Kat’s hand stilled on the creature. She closed her eyes and swore. “Fuck.”
“What?”
“We meet again. How wonderful.”
Hades and Kat turned around just as Baruch and two of his goons stepped out of the shadows.
“And we’re all here like just one big, happy family.”
Darquiel stepped out of the dark and stood beside Baruch, and on the other side, Damian stepped into the light.
Kat flinched when she saw him. He looked badly beaten. His face was cut up, and both eyes were black and green. He seemed to be favoring his right leg and his side. She wasn’t sure if it was the twister that had torn him up or Baruch.
Baruch smiled and put his hand on Damian’s shoulder. “We found him tossed away like garbage not far from here. Poor boy has had quite the trip.” He moved his hand over Damian and through his hair. Damian tried to pull away but Baruch held him still.
Kat noticed the battle. She cheered inside that Damian still had some fight left in him. Hopefully it would be enough to get them out of there.
“Damian, is it here?” Kat inquired.
“Yes.”
“You must be talking about the Monolith.” Baruch released his hold on Damian, watching Kat the entire time. She could feel the weight of his gaze on her. It felt oppressive like the humidity outside in the hot sun. “Yes, Katarina, I have it here. See for yourself.”
He stuck out his arm and opened his hand.
Kat motioned to Hades. He looked just as confused as she was. How could the Monolith be in his hand? How could the most important piece of technology be contained in the palm of the hand?
She took a step forward. Hades grabbed her arm and shook his head. “It’s a trick.”
“No, I assure you, dear Hades, it is not. I hold the key to the entire future of our people and the demise of the old in my hand. Amazing, isn’t it?”
Kat’s gaze swung to Damian. He nodded his head at her silent question. It was not a trick. The Monolith, the key to her freedom, was right in front of her. She just had to reach out and grab it. And probably kill three people to keep it. But, hey, nothing was free.
As she moved forward, Kat glanced at Darquiel. The girl watched her with an eyebrow raised. Was that a sign? Or a warning?
Right before Kat could peer into Baruch’s hand, Darquiel grabbed the ax the other goon held and swung it toward Kat. Kat yelped and jumped back just as the blade sliced through Baruch’s wrist. Involuntarily his hand clenched as it fell to the ground, the Monolith encased safely inside his fist.
Kat scooped up the severed hand and turned back to Hades and the winged creature. “C’mon, Damian! Let’s go!”
Damian broke out of his stupor and started running. He grabbed Darquiel’s arm as he passed, dragging her with him.
While he cradled his bloodied arm to his chest, Baruch screamed. His guards were in too much shock to do anything but stare at their injured leader.
“Kill them!” Baruch shrieked.
To Kat it seemed like slow motion while they ran to their transport. Damian and Darquiel ran hand in hand next to her. She turned and looked at them as they sprinted across the room.
Hades stood waiting with the creature. “Throw me the ax!” he demanded at Darquiel.
She tossed it to him. Kat watched it sail through the air. Hades caught it on the fly, turned, and broke through the chain that imprisoned the beast.
It reared up and extended its leathery wings. Hades took hold of its collar and grabbed Kat’s arm, hefting them both onto its scaly back. Damian and Darquiel both jumped, their arms extended. They managed to catch hold of the beast’s ridged spine and hang on as the creature flapped its wings and lifted them into the air.
By the time the two Dwellers snapped into action and jumped up after them, it was too late. The beast kicked his hind feet back and caught them in midair, sending them flying to the ground.
Damian and Darquiel scrambled onto its back and settled in behind Kat. Kat watched the ground pull away as the beast rose. Baruch stood still in the middle of the room, blood dripping onto the floor, and hell-bent rage contorting his pale face.
Kat sighed and closed her eyes. She could feel his anger in her head and in her body. It felt like a ball of liquid fire roaring through her insides. She flinched from the pain, and the severed hand tumbled from her grip.
Reaching blindly for it, she fell over onto her side. Hades snatched her arm before she could fall. The hand bumped the side of the beast and tumbled off. Kat cried out as she watched her future fall.
But it was snatched up before it could drop. Darquiel held it deftly in her hand as she hung upside down from the beast’s back. Damian clutched her legs as she dangled. She shuffled backward and handed the hand to Kat. Kat took it and hugged it to her body.
“Thank you.”
Darquiel just nodded and snuggled into Damian’s arms and closed her eyes.
When they had reached the top level, Kat could not see a way out. “Now what?”
The beast reached out with his taloned claw and pushed a large red button on the wall. Sirens blared and crimson lights swirled around in dazzling color. The metal roof above them began to slide open. Kat smiled as the first rays of the sun glared down on them.
When the door fully opened, the beast swooped into the sky. Kat laughed and wrapped her arms around Had
es.
“We need to pick up Kele and then we’ll head home. Shouldn’t take long with this thing,” Hades said.
Kat nodded and pressed her head into his back. Home. That was a word she hadn’t thought of in a long time. Home had always meant family and love to her. She had been without both for so long.
Snuggling in closer to Hades, she wondered if this was something she could have again.
23
R ussell touched the hand reverently, his eyes wide and brimming with tears. She could see the hesitation in his face, and wondered why. This was it. This was the one thing he had been waiting for his whole life. She supposed she understood as her stomach lurched over again. This was the one thing she had been searching for her whole life, and she wasn’t too sure she was quite ready for it.
As if sensing her mood, Hades put an arm around her and pulled her close. She snuggled into him.
Russell pried open the fingers one by one. He sighed loudly as he gazed down into the palm. In the middle lay a tiny metal square. Russell touched it with his fingertip and brought it up to his face. He pulled the magnifying glass attached to his head over to his eye. He gazed down at it through the glass.
He sighed. “There it is. The future.”
“But what is it?” Hades asked.
“A computer microchip. This one tiny thing has the power to control our entire destiny.”
“Ah, okay. So how much are you going to give us for our destiny?”
Russell chuckled as he set the tiny chip on a piece of glass on his counter. He took off his headgear and eyed Kat and Hades.
“How much do you need?”
“Enough to buy us a piece of property up north, and a couple of bikes, and some left over to buy a couple of luxuries, like a shave.” Hades rubbed a hand over the growth on his chin and turned to Kat. “What do you think, babe? Is that enough?”
She shrugged, turning from his gaze. “Sounds about right.” She didn’t want him to see what was in her mind.
Russell turned, bent down, and slid open a shelving door. A black safe lay nestled inside. He turned the lock and opened it. Reaching in, he came away with a large leather purse and set it on the counter in front of them. It jingled as it moved.
“Will this be enough?” He laughed.
Hades and Kat went to the tavern and dined on steak and fresh vegetables. They drank a bottle of vodka and watched the entertainment.
It was a night for celebration. But Kat did not feel celebratory. She felt empty and cold inside. As if she had been hollowed out with a spoon like a pumpkin at Hallows’ Eve. The virus had contaminated her. And changed her into someone else. Someone she was uncertain she could live with.
Hades’s voice startled her from her somber musings.
“Damian said their trip was quick. Riding Ugly has its advantages. Nemo sends his blessings, and Leucothea kept asking about you.”
“That’s great,” she said absently while she sipped her drink.
“They’ll meet us up north in a few weeks.”
“Okay.”
Hades reached across the table and gripped her hand. “What’s up?”
She startled out of her daze and regarded him. Maybe for the first time. He was the sexiest man she had ever laid eyes on. And he was just and honest. Two things that surprised her to no end. He was the perfect man for her.
She got up, still holding his hand, and settled onto his lap. She straddled him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and nuzzled into his ear.
“Take me home, Hades. I want to feel you inside of me.”
Hades lifted her up, his hands over her ass, and carried her out of the tavern.
He carried her all the way to the apartment like that, cradled against his body, her head resting on his broad shoulder.
Kat moaned as Hades laid her down on the bed. He stripped off her shirt in one deft motion. He sat at her feet and unbuckled her boots, tossing them over his shoulder. He undid her pants and slid them down her legs, all the while watching her face.
He stood up on the bed and stripped off his clothes. She laughed as he struggled with his leather pants. His foot caught in the cuff and he fell over onto the mattress. Kat rolled over and gladly helped him off with his pants.
As she slid in next to him, she pressed kisses to his body, starting at his stomach and making her way up his powerful chest to his face. She pressed her mouth to his and kissed him passionately, dipping in her tongue to taste him. To savor his flavor.
He wrapped his hands in her hair and rolled her over, covering her with his powerful body. He spread her legs with his knee and settled in between them.
As he lifted himself to sink his cock into her hot, wet opening, he cupped her face in his hands. He turned her head so that she was looking at him. Only him.
“You are the only treasure I ever wanted,” he whispered.
Tears fell from her eyes as he stretched her open and filled her up. Kat didn’t want to feel this way about Hades. She didn’t want the intense way he considered her to matter. But it did. He mattered. More than any man she’d ever known.
Wrapping her arms around him, she held on as he took her up with each stroke of his cock. Ripples of pleasure flowed over her and she gasped at their intensity. Only Hades could make her feel so many things. With him sheathed inside, she was acutely aware of every nerve ending tingling, every spot on her skin quivering from his briefest touch. She could smell all his scents, the sweat trickling down his skin, the musk of his cock, the vodka on his breath, the blood racing through his veins and down to his groin.
She dug into his flesh with her nails as her body roared to life like an out-of-control bonfire. Hot, scorching flames of desire licked at her insides. She squirmed and bucked underneath Hades, urging him to go deeper. To douse the intense sensations with the pounding of his cock.
Burying her face into the side of his neck, Kat closed her eyes against the onslaught of extreme sensations crashing over her. But the moment she did, she could hear the pumping of his blood through the veins in his throat and knew she had made a grave error. Opening her eyes, she watched as the flesh on his neck pulsed rhythmically with the force of his racing heart.
Desperation clawed at her. A powerful craving to sink her teeth into that blood reservoir swept through her, causing her stomach to clench with hunger. She could already taste the metallic tang on her tongue. It would be like candy, she thought.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to force the feelings aside. She would not let Hades be the first victim of the Dark Dweller virus possessing her body and mind. She loved him too much.
Love? Is that what she truly felt for him? Opening her eyes, she stared at him as he pounded into her, his face a mask of determination and feeling. Yes, she could truly say that she loved him. For the first time in her life, she felt love—true, honest, and unconditional—for another human being. With that realization she was able to push back the creeping feelings of hunger and blood lust.
But it wouldn’t last long.
“Stop, Hades,” she panted, pushing at his shoulders.
Pausing, confusion furrowing his brow, he asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t do this.”
“What? Why?”
“I just can’t.”
Hades cupped her cheeks with his hands, forcing her to look at him when she wanted to turn away. “Tell me why.”
With an angry sigh, she snapped, “Because I want to rip open your throat and drink your blood. Is that reason enough?”
He stared at her for several seconds before he responded. “Hey, babe, lots of women have wanted to do that to me before. I don’t take those threats seriously.”
“Take this one seriously, Hades. It’s not a joke.” The flare of anger was not helping her increasing hunger. It gave it an erotic edge. One she really wanted to sample. She pushed at him again. “We can’t do this. It’s not worth it. I’ll end up killing you in the end.”
“But it is worth it. Can’t y
ou see that, Kat? All the reasons you think are dangerous are exactly the reasons why this is so good.” He pressed his lips to hers. “Because I know you won’t kill me. I won’t let you. I love you too much to let that happen.”
Damn him! He knew her too well. With tears brimming in her eyes, Kat wrapped her hands around his head and kissed him. Her tongue dived into his mouth and swept over his in an effort to take him all in, to implant his flavor forever into her mind. His words moved her in ways she had never experienced before. Her heart felt as though it were in a vice, being squeezed of all its contents. Love was certainly the most painful emotion a person could ever suffer. With it came everything else: grief, loss, jealousy, anger—emotions Kat never thought she’d know again. Not after the loss of her entire family. And here they all were again, bottled up into one man.
A man she realized she would die for.
As they kissed and Hades began to swell again inside her, Kat could feel the virus flaring again. This time it was in a violent rage. Instant sensations of blood lust surged over her and she dug her nails deep into his shoulders. The sharp tang of blood floated to her flaring nostrils.
“Hades,” she growled, “I can’t control it much longer.”
“Flip over.”
“What?”
“Trust me.”
Kat did as he asked and turned over onto her stomach. As she did, she felt him leave the mattress.
“Grab the spokes on the headboard.”
Hesitant, she gripped two metal spindles on the headboard. The moment she did, Hades was there with a length of rope and had tied her wrists to them—tightly with double knots. Instinct told her to struggle against the restraint, but she understood his reasons, and let him do it. He was smart, her man.
“There now, you can’t scratch or bite me.” He chuckled. “And now I can fuck you for the rest of the night without being interrupted. That should satisfy your hungers.”
Glancing over her shoulder, she sneered as he pulled her legs apart and settled in between them. “Well, hurry up, then. I’m starting to dry up inside.”
She moaned as Hades parted her labia with his thumbs. Slowly he slid his finger deep into her opening.