Chapter 27
Guardian Manor, Tetartos Realm
Hades and Sacha reformed in the moonlit courtyard of the manor. Pothos had informed them all that they had no new information on the darkness, but he wanted to introduce his female to everyone that evening. Hades flexed his wings, still displeased with the fact that his son was mated to a Thulian and that Pothos hadn’t come to him. That he was forced to meet his son’s mate at a party.
Sacha’s voice slid through his mind. You haven’t exactly made this easy, love. You snipe about her every time you speak to him. The mating is complete, and by all accounts he is happy. Make an effort to accept her.
The second he laid eyes on his son, he saw it. The soul bond between Pothos and the beautiful Goddess nearly choked him with its sense of finality.
The Goddess wore a leather vest in tan with a matching long skirt. She was a stunning creature, he had to give her that, and he noted that she was talking comfortably to Brianne, of all people, while her cats milled around freely. The menaces should not have been allowed loose like that; they were too dangerous. It seemed the Goddess and her animals had won everyone over but him. He shook his head when he saw one of her annoying beasts bat an adoring Havoc into a tree. Apparently it hadn’t been hard enough to hurt or deter the pup because he was stupidly loping back by the beast’s side a moment later.
See, love, all is well, Sacha said, and he mentally huffed. You need to give her a chance for the sake of your and Pothos’ relationship. His female’s tone was stern this time.
When the Goddess put her hand in his son’s, P looked down at the female with love shining in his eyes; that same love was reflected back at him from hers. Hades’ heart felt torn as he was forced to admit his son was happy. Happy to live in Thule. A part of him was dying at the idea of finally being awakened and able to spend time with his son only to have him taken away.
He can portal and teleport to and from that world. And we can speak to him telepathically. You are not losing him, love. I promise. Sacha sent him warm loving emotion, and he hugged her close.
The Goddess and Pothos turned smiles in their direction when he and Sacha approached. The female actually looked happy to see him as Pothos formally introduced, “Father, this is my mate, Gefn.”
The female beamed at him before bowing a fraction respectfully. “You have raised an incredible male with his father’s sense of honor.”
Hades arched a brow. Damn, he might just like this female after all. Sacha snorted in their bond, Well, she sure has you figured out.
They spent the next hour speaking of Thule and all she’d seen of Earth in the past several days. Their conversation relaxed into something that eased him.
Drake broke it by urgently snarling, “We have possessed all over the cities in the mortal Realm. Conn is sending you all locations.”
“How many cities?” Pothos asked.
“Twelve,” the dragon growled. “Sirena is busy with Alyssa, Gregoire and the baby. That means the rest of you are up. Someone take the wolves and Erik as well.
“I’m back on duty, then,” Pothos said when he looked at his female.
Hades didn’t like all the attacks. He felt like it was linked to the end. To the darkness coming for their world.
I agree, Sacha said before telling Drake they would take Paris.
*****
P gazed down at Gefn, and she could see that he planned to leave her behind even before he spoke. “Take the cats to my house; they can’t be in the mortal Realm.”
She shook her head. “No, I will go with you. The other females are going with their males; why would I not do the same?”
“You’ve only been to a few human cities, and where I’m going is nothing like what you’ve seen. I’m going into an ugly, dirty part of the Realm, and I don’t want you anywhere near it,” Pothos argued when Gefn insisted on going with him. He continued a second later, “You’re unfamiliar with all of this, Gefn. Guardians are not allowed to harm humans, even possessed ones. We can only contain them.” She remembered that from his memories of when the Creators cursed the Guardians with ten times the pain they inflicted on a human.
“I can contain them easily,” she said with confidence.
She wasn’t going to let this go, and she allowed him to feel that as she sent the cats to their room in Pothos’ home. They disappeared easily. Maybe too easily, so she tracked them to ensure they reached their destination.
Pothos looked at her and she could tell he did not want her to go. “Remember the humans don’t know about Gods and Immortals. Which means tornados coming from an alley would draw attention.” He took another look at her and sighed. “You’re only going to follow, aren’t you?”
She crossed her arms over her chest and replied archly, “I wouldn’t recommend you attempt to leave me.”
He groaned. “You should probably change into something comfortable. I need to grab cuffs anyway, so we’ll go home first.”
When they reformed, she quickly donned some leggings and boots while he went to the cabinet where he stored weapons. Spa and Velspar poked their heads into the room as Pothos attached metal restraints at a back loop of his pants before lowering his shirt to cover them to a degree. Gefn shook her head before commanding, “We’ll be back. Do. Not. Follow.” They weren’t exactly happy, but they seemed resigned, which was good.
When they ported again, it was into a dark alley. The stench of human waste forced a hand to her face as she groaned. “And you were worried about Thule? About how our mortals lived under a God’s rule?” She’d been shocked at how some of the humans of his world were allowed to live.
“I know,” he agreed on a groan. “We were told not to interfere with humanity’s evolution and we haven’t.”
“I do not believe you did them any favors,” she said as a large rodent scurried by her foot. She glared at him the second it was gone.
“I warned you,” he pointed out with a toothy smile.
Luckily they didn’t have long to wait. A pack of filthy mortals that stank of sulfur moved into the mouth of the alley. There were cars speeding past on the busy cross street, honking as their lights flashed by behind them.
These beings felt… oily. Sickness bled from them, and she didn’t even want her male to touch the tainted creatures. She’d never seen anything like them and was happy for that fact.
Pothos didn’t want her to use wind tunnels, so when the pack split, she allowed several of them a moment to get closer. She noted that Pothos had already gotten one of his raging mortals in restraints and stuck him behind a large metal container that stank nearly as much as the three black-eyed mortals in front of her. Her maðr had been so fast, she hadn’t even seen what he had done. And then her male placed himself in the middle of the alley, apparently planning to leave her with nothing to do as the disturbing beings spit violent curses at him as they brandished daggers. Some launched at him all at once as he ported easily away.
She shook her head at the protective male, but there were too many for him to keep from her as he covertly picked them off one by one.
One sped by her male, tilting his bald head shining with grease, and his black eyes took her in with a sinister leer she found offensive. The male’s clothes were different, more fine than some of the others. She kept glancing to her male to see what he was doing. Two more were sitting in the heap now, seeming to be held down by some power that only fueled the outraged words. She mentally growled at not having seen Pothos put them there.
The bald possessed circled to the side of her. Another had come from the other side of the alley, forcing her to turn and watch them both. The other had pale powder on his face and metal sticking out from his lip and eyebrows. “What is this? Not a Guardian…” Their tones had an odd cadence that displeased her ears. The pale one grabbed his shaft crudely. “We have time to play with her. Fuck her.”
Pothos snarled as he fought the others, not seeing this one’s display, but likely feeling her disgust.
She decided she’d had enough. She couldn’t listen to them speak for another moment. Gefn would secure them her way. With a flick of her wrist she sent power to the muddied elements of the filthy city and pinned both beings to the muck-coated wall. Papers and debris were caught in the wind, so she made use of it, sending the materials into the sputtering maws of the foul beings.
P turned from securing the last male to see what she’d done, but she knew for a fact he’d been tracking her the entire time. “You said no wind tunnels,” she pointed out with a smile.
He chuckled. “Would you care to gag the others as you’ve so conveniently done with yours, thea mou?”
She beamed a smile at him and happily obliged her male as suddenly dozens more rushed in from both sides of the alley. Before she could do anything, she felt Pothos unleash power in a beautifully controlled wave, enthralling them all into eerie stillness. All of the possessed seemed almost as if they were set in stone, yet cars kept passing unaffected. She felt Pothos’ relief and pleasure through the bond. This was a proof he needed that his ability was completely in his control.
With a turn she noticed that even those she’d caught were contained by his power. A few steps and she was gazing up at her male with a smile, her hand sliding into his.
Her smile fell after a moment. “Now what will we do with them? The beings are evil? A scourge on your civilization?”
“They are, and my father and Sacha have a way of dealing with them. There are too many to teleport out of here, so we’ll wait for one of the others to finish and help transport them. This is a ridiculous amount to find in one place.”
She watched the cars pass and humans hasten by the alley. “No one will think this is suspicious?”
“Sadly, no. Most humans do not see what they don’t want to. Especially in dark disgusting alleys.”
*****
Hades and Sacha didn’t have long to wait in the dark alley in Paris. Possessed were drawn to him, or more accurately their masters enjoyed using them like puppets to taunt him.
There were six, several in suits, the others in dirty pants with rotted teeth. One of the suit-wearing males stepped forward, and Hades watched his eyes light with flames as the eerie sinister echo of Deimos’ voice came from the male’s lips. It was the Tria reaching out from their prison in hell again. “Hades, you have to feel it now.” The human turned from pale to gray in seconds, and when the body dropped, dead from being the demon’s conduit, a second male stepped forward to take its place. “You will want to release us. We will help.”
“You’re boring me, Deimos.”
Outraged shrieks from Than and Phobos could be heard mixing with Deimos as their human mouthpiece dropped dead. Another stepped forward. “You have been warned. We will rip your female piece by piece in front of you, and we will feast on her screams.”
Rage filled Hades like a rolling force, and he ripped the souls from the remaining fiends before he could hear any more. Sacha put her hand on his back. He flexed the muscle, feeling bare when his wings were retracted to blend into the human Realm. He only wished he had more souls to rip free of fiends.
Draken, we are done here. What is the next location? he growled.
His nephew answered in a second with a visual of another dark alley. This time Hades wouldn’t listen to them first.
“We need to tell Drake they were taunting you again. Especially now that we know that there is a darkness coming to the world.”
He shook his head. “They’ve given us no information. They just want to play a game. Soon Pothos and his female will have real answers.” The Thulians might well be able to provide him with reasons why the Tria were so active. Hades had thought it was his presence back in Earth, but now he wondered if the demon spawn sensed the darkness coming to this world. He was tempted to go to the bowels of hell to pay the Tria a visit.
“Not without me.” Sacha’s determined words gave him cold chills.
“That will never happen, my love. You will never breathe the same filthy air as those fiends.”