Keras bore down on her again, grinning as he struck her, as she blocked his next punch and landed one of her own, smashing her fist into his ribs. He took her next blow too, didn’t even flinch when her fist ploughed into his face, splitting his lower lip. His eyes darkened, pupils dilating as she struck him again.
She threw another right hook at his jaw.
This time, he didn’t even try to block her.
His head whipped to his right as she connected, a breathless sigh escaping him that was out of place in the moment, and as his gaze slid back to her and he licked the blood from his lips, she could only stare at him.
Because he was finding pleasure in her hurting him.
And in hurting her.
He suddenly backhanded her.
She hit the roof, shook her head and pushed onto her feet, narrowly avoiding the heel of his foot as it came down.
Left an impact crater where he had struck the roof instead of her.
This hadn’t just been a bad idea.
It had been a terrible one.
His scarlet pupils narrowed again as he stalked towards her, as she clutched her waist and limped away from him, needing a moment to gather her strength.
She had been a fool to think stoking his rage would free his emotions.
But then she had never believed the rumours about Hades to be true.
Now she did.
Because Keras was just like him, had a feral side that was demonic, one that ruled him.
That wasn’t Keras striding towards her, black eyes filled with a hunger for more violence, lips twisted in a smirk that flashed his fangs.
That was someone else.
Something else.
“Keras,” she said as she came to face him, as she backed away to keep the distance between them steady, aware she was nearing the edge of the roof and was in danger of running out of space to move. “Listen to my voice, Keras. I should not have pushed you like this. I should have thought things through… but I was—am—worried about you. You are not well.”
His fingers brushed his remaining limiter, and she silently begged him not to break it.
If he broke it, he would destroy her.
He would destroy this world.
She could see that now.
He had been telling the truth and he couldn’t control his power.
Because it was too strong.
“Please, Keras,” she whispered and held her hand out to him.
He stared at her bloodied fingers, a light entering his eyes that gave her hope.
The shadows suddenly closed around him.
She grunted as he slammed into her back, knocking her forwards, as he grabbed her from behind and hauled her against his hard chest. His claws pressed into her stomach, digging her armour into it, and she struggled against his hold. She couldn’t teleport when he was holding her, wasn’t even sure she could teleport even if he wasn’t, not when she couldn’t see where she was going.
He had never used his shadows in a fight like this, stealing one of her senses from her.
Making her feel weak.
She hated it.
Enyo battered him with the one elbow she could use, but he only tightened his grip on her. She cried out as her injuries burned, as pain ricocheted through her body and her vision tunnelled.
She froze when he loosened his grip slightly, enough that it no longer hurt, and grazed his lips along her shoulder, as a lover would. Their soft caress ignited heat in her veins, rousing desire she tried to battle as he eased towards her throat. When he fisted her hair and yanked her head back, his fangs brushed her skin.
She told herself on repeat that he wouldn’t bite her.
The flicker of heat that lit her blood became an inferno. She tried to douse it, sought an excuse that would kill the flames that licked through her veins. It wasn’t the position they were in rousing that fire, wasn’t the thought of him holding her at his mercy and biting her that ignited this wicked need. It was the battle high, the adrenaline and the fear, the desperate fight to survive. Everything she felt whenever she was on the battlefield.
Her body called her a liar, the trickle of arousal becoming a flood as Keras brushed his lips over a sensitive spot on her neck.
She fought the urges that ran rampant inside her, refusing to take pleasure from violence as he did, refusing to cross that line even when it beckoned her, whispering seductive words in her ear that had part of her wondering what it would be like to surrender to him instead of fighting him. Explosive? Wild? A thrill chased through her.
Enyo shut it down.
She snapped back to the world as the fog of lust cleared from her mind and kept slamming her elbow into his ribs.
He tugged her harder against his body and growled into her ear, the sound feral and low, more beast than the man she loved.
The hand on her stomach dropped lower, pressed just above the juncture of her thighs.
Fear trickled down her spine as he grazed his fangs over her shoulder.
“Do not,” she whispered, deeply aware on some level that if he crossed this line, there would be no coming back.
She loved all of him—both the darkness and the light—the controlled side and the wild one—and at times she had found this battle as strangely thrilling as he had, but surrendering to that twisted desire would be a step too far.
She knew him.
He would enjoy it in the moment, when his darker side was in control, but afterwards it would cause him more pain, would eat away at him and taint whatever feelings he had for her.
He would never forgive himself.
She would lose him forever.
Red lightning slammed down around her, charging the air as Keras held her at his mercy, his fangs poised to pierce her flesh. She breathed hard, screamed at herself to move, to fight, to do something to get free of him.
But she couldn’t move.
For the first time in her life, she froze on the battlefield.
And she had the feeling it would be the first and last time.
Keras suddenly shoved her forwards, and she tripped, hit the ground face first and lay there, breathing hard and struggling to catch up.
The sound of his laboured breaths joined hers and she pulled herself together, twisted onto her backside and came to face him. He stood where he had been, bent forwards now with his hands buried in his black hair, fingers pressing hard into his skull. She thanked the Moirai that he had found the strength to stop himself, and cursed herself for being unable to do it.
His skin paled, his gaze growing unfocused as he stared at the strip of rooftop between them, as he fought for air.
Around her, the shadows began to thin.
Her senses lit back up again, and she locked them on Keras, monitoring him.
Feeling his fatigue.
And the war he waged as he struggled for control.
“Keras,” she whispered, unsure what she wanted to say to him.
That she was sorry she had pushed him like this? That she should have known better? That she was sorry she hadn’t come to see him?
Been brave enough to tell him that she loved him?
His black eyes shot to her, his scarlet pupils narrowing as he glared at her.
As the shadows began to gather again.
As crimson lightning forked from the dark clouds, striking around her to rip apart the rooftop.
Fear trickled through her, cold and chilling, stealing her strength and her breath. Fear of him.
She had never realised he was capable of such great destruction. He had always been gentle with her, even when they had been fighting, but now she could see that time was past. Whatever had made him hold back around her was dead, killed not by his pills but by her, by her weakness.
She flinched as the lightning struck so close to her that heat sizzled over her skin and she leaned away from it, from the gaping hole in the roof beside her that smouldered, smoke rising off it.
Her gaze whipped back to meet his. “K
eras, listen to me.”
He bared fangs at her, his eyes filled with malice and hatred once more, and she knew she didn’t have long to calm him.
And if she failed?
Gods help this world.
Chapter 9
“Come back to me.” Enyo held her hand out to Keras again.
He was on her in a flash, crossing the roof of the skyscraper in the blink of an eye and hauling her off her feet, slamming her onto her back. He pressed down on her and she grimaced, gritted her teeth as pain speared her, as she had to fight to get air into her bruised lungs. He grabbed the front of her breastplate, lifted her a few inches off the ground and slammed her back into it.
She shrieked as the roof gave way, as she plummeted through it with him on top of her. Lightning struck and panic seized her lungs as it blazed past her, as she sensed the barrier crack under the onslaught. Her back hit a beam and she grunted, cried out as she was flipped and ended up on top of Keras.
She felt the heat of lightning closing in on her back.
Braced herself for the blow as it bathed Keras’s face in crimson.
His wide eyes locked with hers.
A flicker of green in them.
He roared and wrapped his arms around her, and darkness engulfed them.
Her breath burst from her as she hit the roof hard on top of Keras, her mind scrambling as black ribbons of smoke curled around her and fear blasted through her—fear that they were his shadows come to lash at her again.
She rolled away from them—from him—and stopped only when she realised they weren’t attacking her.
They weren’t his shadows.
They were the lingering vapour trail of his teleport.
She shuffled onto her hands and knees and looked across at him where he lay on his back a few feet away.
Her heart lodged in her throat.
He was still.
Too still.
She quickly crawled across the broken rooftop to him, lifted her left hand and touched his cheek. Her eyes darted over him as she patted his face, as she silently begged him to be all right.
Enyo brushed her fingers across his mouth.
Her breath leaked from her when his lips parted, a soft puff of air escaping them, bathing her fingers.
She sagged on top of him, her head coming to rest on his chest, all of her strength rushing from her. Around her, the shadows dissipated, the world going still again. She pressed her palm to his chest and focused, needing to know that he was going to be all right and was only out cold because he had used up too much of his strength.
Had used the last of it to protect her by teleporting her.
As the shadows cleared, her senses grew sharper.
Made her aware of the five gods standing on the next rooftop.
She focused and the barrier she had created shattered. Keras’s brothers were quick to teleport to her, to loom over her as she slowly eased away from him. Guilt twisted her stomach again and had her seeking the right words to explain what had happened.
“Keras has only gone supernova once before, when we first arrived. Why now?” Calistos stared down at her, his eyes stormy grey, demanding an answer.
“We should move him,” she said, her voice weaker than she would have liked, not a command but a desperate plea.
For Keras’s sake and for her own too.
She needed time to come up with a good explanation for what had happened, because she could see in his brothers’ eyes that they were ready to attack her if they didn’t like her answer.
“We aren’t going anywhere until you do some explaining.” Valen’s golden irises brightened, and tiny arcs of lightning chased across his fingers.
Enyo looked down at Keras, focusing on him to avoid the accusatory glares of his brothers, to lift the weight off her heart enough that she could find her strength again and make them see she had only been trying to help him.
She knew that it looked bad.
She knew that it was bad.
“Keras is reliant on the suppressants that your father made for him… and they do more than inhibit his power.” She swallowed hard. “He has been using them to inhibit his feelings too… his emotions… numbing himself.”
She glanced up at the five gods towering over her.
None of them looked surprised to hear that.
“I only wanted to help him overcome that addiction. I wanted to make him feel something… anything.” She sounded desperate, felt it too. She didn’t want his brothers to be angry with her.
She didn’t want Keras to be angry with her.
Even when she knew he would be.
“You couldn’t have waited?” Daimon said, and shock rolled through her as her gaze leaped up to meet his. He scrubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not being a dick… Just, Keras sick and weak is a danger right now. We need him strong.”
It hit her that they were right.
They loved their brother, but their mission depended on Keras because he was not only the most powerful among them, but he was bound to the strongest and oldest gate. On top of that, Ares was out of action because he had closed the gate bound to him, and no one knew how long he would be sleeping by the sound of things.
Her gaze drifted down to Keras’s face again and she gently brushed her thumb across a streak of blood on his cheek, clearing it away. The world was in serious danger without him.
But she hadn’t been able to stop herself from doing something.
She wasn’t one for leaping into action without thinking things through, and cursed that the first time she had acted on instinct had been this moment, when the fate of this world and the Underworld was hanging in the balance.
Esher’s voice rolled over her, as dark and menacing as a thunderstorm. “I hate the thought of my brother suffering, doing this to himself, but… Daimon is right. We needed him strong… even though it came at a price.”
Addiction was a price she hadn’t been willing to pay, not when she was so familiar with it, knew how dangerous it could be. If she had to, she would protect this world in his stead, even if it caused all of Olympus to turn against her, or Hades to throw her into Tartarus.
Just thinking about him had rage burning up her blood, a fierce need to confront him about what he had done to Keras consuming her. She tamped it down and focused on Keras instead, trying to figure out what to do now, how to help him through whatever came next.
“He will have other pills,” she whispered, unable to pull her gaze away from him to look at his brothers.
“I’ll check out his apartment,” Valen said, his tone gruff.
“I’ll go with you.” Calistos touched her shoulder. “These guys won’t say it, but you did the right thing. I’ve watched Keras changing and if I had known why, I would have done something too.”
That comforted her, had her able to look Calistos in the eye. She dipped her head, silently thanking him for supporting her decision.
Valen mussed his violet hair, tousling the longer lengths that hung down one side of his face before he shoved his fingers through the choppy, shorter sides and back. “Ah, he’s been a dick recently. Kinda deserves to go cold turkey. I want him strong, but this shit… this isn’t right. I’m not going to hold it against you. Much.”
He teleported and Calistos followed him.
Leaving her alone with Daimon, Marek and Esher.
“I’m taking him home,” Esher grumbled and took a hard step towards her, forcing her to move aside. “He’ll be angry if he comes around here and finds out we all left Ares and the mansion unguarded.”
He grabbed Keras and disappeared with him.
Enyo remained kneeling on the broken rooftop, unsure what to do.
“We’ll take care of him.” Daimon pinned her with a black look, one that relayed every drop of the anger that pulsed off him in powerful waves and had the air around him chilling. He teleported too.
She waited for Marek to leave, sure that he would, deeply aware that she had messed up by forcin
g Keras to face his addiction and that it was going to be some time before the brothers forgave her.
Before they would let her be near Keras again.
Marek sighed, his broad chest shifting with it.
And extended a hand to her.
Enyo blinked at it.
She looked up at him where he loomed over her, and warmth flowed through her to ease some of the tension from her as his dark eyes twinkled at her, no trace of anger in them. She slipped her hand into his and he pulled her onto her feet, kept hold of her as her legs wobbled beneath her and pain rolled through her. She winced and pressed a hand to her side, gritted her teeth against the fire that spread through her from that point and her back.
“I… am sorry,” she said, the strength she had been trying to gather slipping through her grasp again as she looked at Marek, as she stood there alone on the rooftop with him.
He had always been honest with her, had been as close to courteous as he could get whenever she visited him, even in the times when her presence had clearly aggravated him. She felt closest to him after Keras, felt she could be open with him, and that he wouldn’t judge her harshly, not as his brothers had.
Marek shook his head, his unruly dark waves tumbling to caress his forehead. “Don’t be. Keras needed this. I only wish you’d had better timing.”
She looked down at her feet.
His hand slipped from hers. “We should get back too.”
Her head jerked up, gaze colliding hard with his. “We?”
Marek just smiled. “You weren’t seriously going to go home?”
She fidgeted with her skirt, reminded herself that she was a powerful goddess, one who normally demanded respect from this god. She didn’t have the strength to do that today, not when her heart felt so heavy, weighed down with worry and a need to see Keras, to be near him and take care of him.
Marek sighed again. “Listen… my brothers might be angry with you, but… Keras needs you with him, Enyo. He needs you there. If anyone can help him get through this… well, it’s you. When you showed up in Tokyo today… I’ve never seen Keras so happy. Not in a long time. Not since we left home.”
Keras: Guardians of Hades Series Book 7 Page 10