Chapter 14

Hades

I felt the water stir at my back. I’d sat in bed for most of the day, reading. Calypso had an amazing library stacked high with books. I’d forgotten the simple pleasures in life, having to be daily in charge of running the Underworld.

I’d hoped at some point Persephone could have helped lighten the burden a little, but she’d never really taken to my dead as I’d hoped.

Small, delicate hands settled on my shoulders. Calypso began a slow massage, crushing her breasts to my back as she leaned over and whispered, “Guess who.”

Smiling, I slipped my fingers through hers and squeezed. “Ah, Linx, good to see you again,” I teased.

And received a sudden smack upside the head for it.

“Linx. Linx indeed, you fat arse.”

But then she kissed the side of my jaw, and I must admit that I melted into her touch. I was growing rather addicted to my time with her. Twisting around, I rested a knee upon the edge of the mattress, and the region of my heart trembled.

Calypso looked like the goddess she was today. She wore a gown of tight-fitting water, the blue of the deepest ocean trenches. Her hair, normally a pale, wavy green, was a deep black and braided in such a way that it resembled an octopus’s tentacle. A menagerie of golden aquatic animals encircled her neck, and her eyes were a startling pinprick of stardust.

Even the shape of her face was slightly altered, the eyes more sloping than typical, the lips a little softer, the jawline slightly sharper.

“You look lovely,” I murmured, trailing my fingers through her thick braid, only to discover it actually was an octopus’s tentacle.

Our god forms were usually unpalatable to mortals, which was why so many of us had adopted a more human appearance. But to me, she’d never looked more beautiful.

Wanting her to see me as I truly was, I let my own mask slip. She sucked in a deep breath, sculpting the planes of my face.

I knew what I looked like—the monstrous visage I hid, the angular features that’d terrified Persephone the one and only time she’d ever seen me.

But Calypso’s eyes didn’t fill with fright. Instead, her fingers moved upon me tenderly, as though learning me by touch.

“I’ve often wondered,” she whispered.

“I do not frighten you?”

A curl of a smile ghosted upon her lips. “I always knew you were a Dead Boy. Now you’ve only confirmed my suspicions.”

Chuckling, I pressed a kiss to the inside of her wrist.

“Do I disgust you, Hades?” she asked almost reluctantly, and where there’d been no fear before, I caught a glint of it now.

“You fascinate me, Thalassa, every inch of you.”

Moving to her knees, she threw her arms around my waist and hugged me tight. And I couldn’t move. This small woman was bringing me to my knees.

I’d barely survived the disastrous relationship that was Persephone, so the thought of building something with another woman alarmed me. But I wanted it, too. I’d always wanted it.

Kissing my lips, she breathed her life deep into my lungs. The very essence of her, it was cool and sweet, and I craved more of it. I was ready to cast off my clothes and do with her as I willed, but Calypso laid a steadying palm against my chest and sighed as she broke our kiss.

I frowned. She’d never stopped me before.

“Hades, where is Persephone?”

“I was ready to tell you before and you stopped me.” She’d mentioned there being spies around, but I’d suspected strongly it’d been more than that.

The downward turn of her lips confirmed my suspicions.

“I was scared, Hades.”

“Why?”

Her eyes grew wide. “Because you terrify me. Being with you. The things you make me feel. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.”

“What do I make you feel?”

Scooting back against the headboard, she crossed her legs at the ankles, and I couldn’t help but trace my finger down the inseam of her bare left foot. She grinned, wiggling her toes.

“Small.”

Not what I’d expected to hear. “Small? I take it this is no compliment.”

She sighed again. Calypso was rarely this serious, and when she was, it always bothered me. Moving to the footboard, I pressed my back against it so I could look squarely at her and she at me. We gazed at one another in silence, our heads full of many thoughts.

“I’m the waters of life, Hades. I am vast. There is no place on Earth or Kingdom that I do not exist. I am a mighty force, and yet with you, I feel so...” she rolled her wrist, as though seeking the right word.

“Exposed?” I guessed, pausing in my touch of her. I felt the first bite of that emotion I’d so often felt with Persephone but that’d been entirely absent during my time with Calypso. The blow of it twisted my stomach into knots.

“What? No.” She huffed, as though I were a fool.

But I’d been down this road too many times to count. Persephone had always had “talks” with me. Chats about how her needs weren’t being met, when in fact, none of mine were. We’d never slept together. She was as unspoiled today as she’d ever been before my supposed rape of her.

“Then what?”

“I don’t know. Gods,” she rolled her eyes, “my words so often confound me. You make me feel like a woman, Hades, I suppose is what I’m trying to say.”

It was my turn to frown. “Calypso, you’ve always been a woman.”

“Yes, but not really. I am an elemental. One of the four great elementals. That is who I am. Always needed and yet often taken for granted. When you gather together on Olympus, have I ever been invited?”

“Thalassa, you’ve never wanted to come.” I shook my head, sure that I was missing something here.

Her eyes crossed, and I had to admit, that even when irritated, she was cute. Smiling now, however, would probably be doing myself no favors.

“That’s not the point though, because I’ve never been asked. You all sit on your high and mighty thrones while I supply you with practically everything.”

“That is not so—”

She held up a finger. “When Hephy has to make Zeus his bolts, does he or does he not need to dip his metals in water?”

“Well—”

Not to be deterred, she pressed on. “And when Bacchus makes his wine, where do you think that water comes from? Not Psycho, I can promise you that. And Aphrodite’s countless baths that makes her skin sparkle, Demeter’s crops, your dead, all of it, all, of, it, done by my hand.”

I was confused. I thought we’d been talking about Persephone, so I couldn’t quite figure how we’d wound up here. I scratched the back of my head.

“The point is, Hades, I dismissed you all as vain, selfish, and petty, ridiculous creatures, and now you’re making me think that I’ve been wrong. Not about all of you. Most of you really are vain, selfish worms—”

I cleared my throat.

She chuckled. “You, Dite, and Themis are the exceptions to the rule.” She shrugged. “I’m learning that I don’t know everything, that there are still things that surprise me, and—”

Crawling to her knees, she made her way toward me. Then, parting her thighs, she straddled my legs, looking deep into my own eyes. Not for sex. There was nothing at all sexual about this. Calypso wanted honesty from me, true baring of emotions. And I knew that if I gave it to her, my entire life would forever change.

“You most of all.”

My lashes fluttered. “Thalassa, I’m—”

Grabbing my chin, she forced my eyes to hers. “If I’m going to put my neck on the line for you, Hades, then I want to know you’re worth it.”

What exactly did that mean? I wasn’t asking her to fight my fights. I didn’t need her to do it. Clenching my jaw, I twisted out of her grasp. “I’m not some child that needs coddling, woman.”

She punched me. Reared back and walloped my bicep hard enough that it throbbed. Twin dots of pink stained her porcelain cheeks. “You don’t get to decide that. I do. You’re coming to mean too much to me.”

I snorted. “My cock does, I’m sure.” I thrust up, stabbing her rear with it.

“Mm.” She nodded quickly. “Yes, I enjoy that part of you. Very much. But...”

Pulse suddenly pounding like a raging river in my ears, I waited with bated breath for her to continue. When she didn’t, I snapped, “But?”

Palming my chest, she shook her head. “Damn you, Death Boy, but there are other parts to you I want to explore. Like your soul. Your heart. I wish to know you, bastard of a man, more than just riding your cock—which is exquisite. You have consumed me. I think of you day and night, and not just riding your bean pole. I want to know what your favorite color is. I believe it’s black, but—”

“Amethyst.”

Her lips turned to a tiny “o.” “I’d never have guessed. Or your favorite flower.”

“Nightshade.”

She sighed. “That is a lovely flower. But that’s the thing of it, we have four days left together, and it’s not enough. Not nearly. Do you desire to know me as I desire to know you, Hades? This is what I need to know.”

I should say no, spare her feelings. I’d tried and failed miserably at romance. She would someday grow to hate me as Persephone had, and with Calypso, I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to bear it.

She sank claws into my chest, cutting through my flesh near to the bone, and bled me. “Do not lie to me, Death, you reek of it.”

The mask of her face turned deadly.

“I said nothing, Thalassa,” I said, slowly disengaging her claws from my body. Instantly the wounds healed. She’d given me naught but a love scratch.

“Answer me, or I’ll take your head, you devil,” she snarled, and the waters began to turn murky with threads of green.

Chuckling, I rolled my eyes. “Must you always be so dramatic, woman? You wish to know the truth? Then yes. Yes, okay, I want you. I want all of you. I want nothing more than to rip this godforsaken dress off your body and taste my fill of you. But I want more than that. I want to take you through my home, I want to show you my people, I want you to be a part of my life, in the Underworld. Do you understand the impossibility of our situation? Not to mention the fact that I will be locked up soon. You and I both know this.”

Grunting, she crossed her arms. “Do you think so little of me, bastard, that you honestly believe I’d let something so minor hold me back? Have I not flooded the very heavens before? I could take Zeus’s golden crown if I wanted it. I am far beyond this weak, silly woman sitting like a peahen on your cock.”

I laughed. I did adore her ridiculous ways.

“But you have yet to answer my question. Where is Persephone? She is not dead; Themis told me so. So what did you do to her?”

“I poisoned her and banished her to the realm of Air.”

She frowned, and the transformation that overcame her I wished I could paint. The way her brows dipped and then slowly rose, how her eyes had darkened and then began to glitter with humor, how her lips were currently wobbling as though withholding laughter, and how it all suddenly coalesced at once into a giant peal of laughter that bubbled from her lips and rocked the very waters of the seabed.

It took her a moment to gather herself, and once she did, she was wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. “I was so wrong about you. I thought you’d had no hand in this. Where did you get the snail?”

I smirked. “Charon made a deal with a maiden.”

“And here I blamed Poseidon.”

“Well,” I shrugged, “maybe I was trying to throw Themis off the scent a little with that deception.”

“And the blood? Cerberus missing?”

“The blood was Cerberus’s.” I blinked, remembering the grizzly set of events that’d led me to finally taking a stand against Persephone’s wild ways.

She shook her head. “But there was so much blood. Dite said the dog had been found.”

“She lopped off his third head. She wanted to hurt me, and she did.”

“Oh, poor puppy,” she mourned.

Only Calypso could call the slobbering killer a poor puppy. Cerberus was a monster through and through. With a taste for trespassers, he was my first line of defense against the constant scheming and trickery of my brothers. Neither of them cared to possess the Underworld, and yet they’d always resented my godhead and would happily see me dispossessed from my kingdom.

“It will grow back, eventually.”

She was back to cuddling me now, twining her fingers languidly through the ends of my hair on the nape of my neck. The touch broke my flesh out in goose bumps.

I’d seen and possessed the woman every which way imaginable, and yet this was the type of intimacy I’d secretly always yearned for: an ear to listen and a heart that cared.

It was those feelings that caused both Zeus and Poseidon to view me as weak, as less than them. But I’d never cared for the debauched lifestyle of my brothers. I’d always been far more private than they. Nor did I care to sire a million bastards, as they’d each done. I wanted any offspring from my bloodline to know their parentage.

“Why did she do that?”

“Why does Persephone ever do what she does?” I shrugged. “I told Demeter that she needed to check her, needed to set boundaries, but she never did. Persephone was unhappy, self-centered, and spoiled. I gave her everything I had to try and keep her happy—jewels, clothes, money, even my time—but always she mocked and laughed in my face.”

“Why did you accept her as your responsibility, Hades? You have allowed everyone to believe you raped her, stole her innocence from her. Why?”

I sighed. I’d often asked myself that question, and the only answer I could give was, “Because I imagined myself in love. I wanted to protect her from herself.”

“You could tell Themis what she did to the dog. Surely that would justify your banishment of her.”

I shrugged. “What would be the point? Everyone believes the lies now. Her reputation is untarnished. While mine...”

Kissing me, she pressed her warm body tight to mine. The kiss was short, but it held a breath of meaning.

“What deal did you make with my sister to get her to agree to take on Persephone?”

Aria hadn’t been pleased when Cerberus had suddenly shown up in her realm carting the sleeping body of Spring. But just like Thalassa, Air was in all things. She’d heard Persephone’s lies and knew the girl for what she was.

“I imagine she took pity on me.”

She blinked. “Spring cannot stay there forever. Soon she’ll be required to return to the Earth.”

Running fingers through my hair as the exhaustion of the past few days suddenly seemed to catch up to me, I shook my head. “I couldn’t stand her in my realm for another hour. I didn’t think. I simply reacted. She’d gone too far this time.”

“Oh, Hades,” her shoulders slumped, “the effects of the snail are temporary. She’d come out of the coma soon enough. You need to tell someone the truth.”

“I do, and she’s returned to me. I cannot bear the sight of her right now.”

“And yet you would allow yourself to be cast into torment. What an idiot you are, my dear.”

Her words were sharp, but her kiss was sweet.

“I have an idea, Death Boy.” She patted my chest. “But tonight, I am tired. So do with me as you will.”

Tossing her arms over her head, she yawned loudly, and I could see that she really was tired.

“Thalassa, all I wish of you tonight is to stay with me until the light returns.”

Grabbing a fistful of my shirt, she dragged me to the head of the bed, shoved the sheet down with her foot, and, with a heavy exhalation, vanished her gown.

And for just a moment, with all her curves on display to my greedy gaze, I wanted to take it all back and have my way with her. But then somehow I was beneath the blanket and without clothes on, and her sweet scent invaded my senses as she snuggled into my side.

“I thought you’d never ask, Bubble Butt,” she murmured sleepily.

I smiled, kissed the crown of her head, and imagined sleep would elude me the rest of the night with the feel of her pressed so tight. But I slept like a baby, and it was glorious.

~*~

Calypso

I awoke to the feel of a slumbering dragon resting on top of me. I was about to kick the beast off when I realized it was only Hades snoring like a banshee.

“Aww, you’re so adorable,” I whispered, unable to help from wiggling my bottom.

A thick, sharp cock pressed into me. “Move like that again, and I’ll toss you on your back.”

“Oh.” I wiggled harder, and he did just as he threatened to do. Before I knew it, he was wedged in tight between my thighs and staring at me in way that made me feel unbalanced, off kilter, and absolutely freaking amazing.

Flicking at his nose, I huffed. “Get off me, you beast.”

“No.” He settled in, rubbing himself between my thighs as he languidly kissed a hot trail down the side of my neck.

I moaned, rutting his cock even as I shook my head. “No seriously, let me up.”

Realizing I wasn’t just saying that, he finally stopped and pulled back, staring at me with a quizzical brow. I whimpered. He hadn’t needed to stop that quickly.

Wrapping my arms around his back, I forced him back down and humped his still-bulging bit of anatomy.

“Thalassa, what are you doing?” he asked in a slow, syrupy voice that had me seeing stars.

I continued to rub harder. A little bit more to the left and I’d be there. I wiggled my bum until he was pressed more fully to the spot, and then I proceeded to “rub one out,” as they say. Now that phrase I understood all too well.

Hades let me do my thing, because that’s what Hades did. But he’d not moved, only continued to gaze at me with a perturbed frown. Sighing with satisfaction, I pulled him down to me for a kiss, which he quickly if not brusquely returned before growling in his chest.

“Well, what a way to start a morning,” I chirped, and scooted out from under him.

“Thalassa!” he snapped when I sauntered toward the door with my rear exposed to all the world. “You’re going to just leave me like this?”

Flinging the door wide, I grasped the edge of it and grinned at him. “They say waiting makes the heart grow fonder—or, in your case, the balls bluer.” I shrugged. “I’ve got places to be and idiots to save you from. So just wait for me. But don’t touch yourself!” I warned with an eyebrow raise. “I’ll know if you do, and you’ll pay.”

He curled his lips and leaned back on his hands. “Oh yeah, how?”

The way the blanket draped over his hipbones hid nothing from my view, but it did make him look much more naughty and had me sweating above the brow.

Damn, he was hawt.

“Do you like carrots, lover?”

Frowning, he shoved fingers through his thick dark hair. Swarthy skin, rippling, bulging biceps with veins that poked out...my gods, he was delicious. And absolutely all mine. I’d decided that last night.

I’d fight to the death for him.

“Not particularly,” he frowned.

“Well, I wasn’t intending them to be eaten, silly boy.” I winked and then, with a toodle-loo, vanished to Linx’s stables.

She lifted her head from where she’d been slumbering, a basket of half-eaten sea fruit beside her.

Her smile was knowing.

“What?” I asked, trying to hide my grin, but I was losing that battle.

Are we keeping him, then?

“Well, duh.”

Patting my hair into place, I twirled with my arms spread wide, asking without words how I looked. Hades liked me in my more primal form, and so I would head to Olympus today looking like the beautiful freak I was. I’d even managed to manufacture a dress for myself that I imagined Dite might wear. It had cutouts beneath the breasts, above the stomach, and at the hips. It was crafted of white glowworm silk and was a bit more diaphanous than what Lust typically seemed to want to wear, but I figured in this, I looked like the powerful goddess I was. But just to seal the deal, I crafted a tiara of pure gold with sea urchin spines jutting up from it and placed it just so on my head.

It was time to remind those a-holes just how much of a bitch I could really be when I was angered.

Lovely as ever, sister mine.

“Naturally,” I inclined my head then turned to go but remembered something. “Oh, and Linx, be a dear and lock our gates. I’ve a feeling our waters might float with bodies for a while.”

What in the world have you got planned in that lovely head of yours?

“Just a little bit of hell.”

Then, with a wink and an air kiss, I vanished, making a detour back to Hades’ room first.

“Oh, sex slave,” I chirped when I entered, delighted to see his jaw drop at my appearance.

He’d dressed back in his typical attire of black silk and loafers, impeccably groomed as ever, and I wanted nothing more than to tear his buttons off and muss him all up.

I loved that only I got to see him that way.

“Calypso?” He scrubbed a hand down his jaw.

“Close your gates to the Underworld if you would.”

He could do it with his mind. Obviously he’d been too busy that one day being rustled up like a cow to the slaughter to think about it, for which I’d be eternally grateful, as I’d have never gone to visit him otherwise. What a horrible waste of a sex slave that would have been.

“Why?” His deep, deep voice shivered.

I smiled sweetly. “Because we’re about to piss off some serious bumholes today.”

Nostrils flaring, a grin cut one corner of his face. “Don’t ever change, Thalassa.”

“Why would I? I’m already perfect.”

I was just about ready to leave when he said,” If you ever take another lover, I’ll kill him. Fair warning to you now.”

“Oh, I love it when you get all caveman on me. Okay then, no other lovers. But I do have an issue with a certain Persephone thinking she’s got rights to you.”

“She doesn’t.”

“Hm.” I thinned my lips, adjusting the tiara. “We’ll just see about that. A girl can never be too careful with her goodies. And your goodies are my goodies, Death Boy.”

He chuckled. “One last thing though before you leave. What exactly are you planning to do with carrots?”

“You really want to know?”

“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t.”

“I saw a whore shove one up her john’s ass. He loved it. Came in like ten seconds.”

He blinked, almost looking shocked. “Hm. Well,” he cleared his throat, “if I were Apollo, I’m sure I would love it.”

“I knew it,” I snapped my fingers.

“But if you don’t mind, I think I’ll pass on the carrot, my dear.”

I shrugged. “If you say so. But it would have been fun.” I wiggled my brows.

Instantly his eyes hooded, and I could read his thoughts as if I’d heard him speak them. He was now curious. I was an excellent lover. “Ten seconds, huh?” he asked a moment later, but I only laughed and vamoosed.