CHAPTER 11
Esher had lost track of Aiko at some point during his tense texted conversation with Marek that had resulted in his brother telling him at least a dozen times that a daemon couldn’t breach the wards that protected the mansion.
Unsatisfied with that answer, Esher had asked whether one of them could bring a daemon into the grounds.
As far as Marek knew, they would have to mark a daemon with a specific set of counter-wards in order to bring them past the walls.
And as far as Esher knew, Aiko didn’t have any such wards on her, and since only he and his brothers, and his father, knew which wards had been used in protecting the mansion, a daemon couldn’t mark themselves with the counter-wards anyway.
It should have set his mind at ease, but now he couldn’t find her.
And worse, Marek had mentioned telling their brothers and sending some back up because he was sounding jumpy.
Esher had sent a two-word response to that.
Fuck off.
He had then focused his power to reach his brother halfway around the world in a remote area near Seville and made it rain just on his villa. Marek had got the message loud and clear, and had sent a text back saying he wouldn’t tell a soul, but only if Esher stopped bringing a biblical flood down on his home.
Esher had flipped the switch on it and had gone in search of Aiko, expecting to find her where he had left her.
Only she hadn’t been there.
Something had flipped inside him on seeing that.
Something that had birthed a fierce, almost desperate need to find her, to know that she was still near to him, that she hadn’t walked out of the mansion grounds.
Away from him.
Gods.
Fucking gods, he needed to find her.
Her fucking shoes had been gone from the front porch, a sight that had stabbed him in the gut and left him bleeding worse than any blade.
But she couldn’t be gone.
Could she?
His own words haunted him, an accusation that sounded like a royal dick move now that he was looking back at it, but at the time the dark side of himself had been at the helm, had bellowed at him that she knew which room was his because she had been sent to harm him.
She was the daemon due to attack him.
He felt like a fucking idiot for latching on to that and running with it.
She wasn’t a daemon.
If she had been one, she would have made his gut swirl and he would have smelled it on her, the unmistakable coppery stench of a daemon giving her away.
She was just a human.
One who had trusted him, had taken a leap today that had been as monumental as the one he had taken too.
Only he had ruined it by taking another leap afterwards, this one a massive leap to a conclusion that left him feeling guilty as hell.
He stormed over the red wooden bridge that curved above the pond, and followed the path on the other side, his boots loud on the gravel. She had to be in the garden. That was the reason her shoes were missing. She couldn’t have left him. He didn’t want her to be gone.
But fuck, he could understand if she was. He had to deal with his special brand of crazy on a daily basis and found it annoying enough. She had done nothing to deserve being hit with it.
His throat tightened, lungs squeezing as his heart laboured and the need to find her grew more desperate with each passing second, every minute that trickled past and left him empty handed.
Alone.
Beyond the wall, the sky burned in shades of pink and orange, fingers of clouds caressing the sunset and blazing gold.
It was beautiful, but he felt nothing as he looked at it, frantic with a need to find Aiko.
He chuckled mirthlessly at that.
When had he become so desperate to be with a human?
He despised them, wanted to destroy them, to make them suffer as they deserved.
Had he made Aiko suffer?
He stopped, eyes fixed on the setting sun as that question chilled him to his marrow.
Had he?
He pushed trembling fingers through his hair, tugging it back from his face, and gritted his teeth as the answer assaulted him, an onslaught of feelings that left him shaking. Weak.
He had.
He had and it killed him.
And if she had left him, then fuck he deserved it, because he didn’t deserve her. He didn’t deserve her light, her smiles, her laughter or her sweet company. He deserved this coldness, this loneliness devouring his soul as he watched a sunset that could have been magical with her beside him, but instead felt colourless and dead to him.
And, gods, he didn’t understand any of it. Not the way she had trusted him, or how she had given a piece of herself to him, or the fact he wanted to spend time with her, craved her company as fiercely as he craved war with her kind.
He still despised humans. Still wanted them to suffer.
He would never forgive them, or trust them. He would never learn to love them again.
But he would make an exception for her.
He just hoped she would make an exception for him too.
He focused on the road outside her family’s clinic, bringing it into his mind so he could teleport there to find her.
Movement on the very edge of his vision had him letting go of the power building inside him and a wave of emotion crashing over him that was so powerful it moved him, had him trembling with relief and a thousand other feelings, ones he didn’t want to understand because he feared where this was leading him.
“Aiko,” he breathed, deep voice rough, scraping low over gravel.
She turned her head towards him but didn’t move from her perch on the smooth grey boulder beneath the huge blooming tree, looking like some sort of fairy as she sat with her knees tucked up to her chest, enfolded in her arms, and cherry blossoms spiralling down around her like snow to land on her bare skin and lace her hair.
Her dark eyes drifted away from him, down to her knees, and it was a gut-punch that he deserved.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured and followed the twisting path to her, sank to his knees on the grass beside the boulder, and looked up at her.
She refused to look at him, and his frustration got the better of him, had him rising on his knees to frame her face with his hands and make her look at him.
“Was I wrong to trust you?” she whispered, each word cleaving his chest open a little more.
He slowly shook his head. “No… but I was wrong not to trust you. I have… I’ve been burned before. It makes it hard for me to…”
Explain for one thing.
He never talked about what had happened to him, not even to his brothers, or his parents. He had bottled it up inside him, his burden to bear.
But now there was a piece of him that wanted to share that burden, all in the hope it would lift some of the weight from his shoulders, and it shook him that he wanted to do it with her, a human.
She awed him by lifting her hands and placing them over his on her face, her touch gentle and soft, so far from what he deserved after how he had treated her.
“I thought you had gone.” He couldn’t hold back those words and couldn’t hide the pain that thought had caused him as she gazed down into his eyes.
She canted her head, and moved her right hand to his cheek, her beautiful face soft with understanding and a touch of concern. “I found this tree… and it was so beautiful in the sunset that I wanted to enjoy it. The blossoms are so fleeting.”
Like human life.
He felt the gravity of that as he looked at her.
They were weak. Breakable. Vulnerable. The slightest thing killed them. Images of her caught up in all the ways she could die, everything from something as simple as an accident to a disease, rampaged through his mind, provoking his darker, more possessive nature, rousing it until he was restless with a need to hold her, to shield her from the world and keep her safe from it.
Safe with him.
“Esher,” she said softly, her fingers brushing his cheek, playing on the crest of his cheekbone and down to the hollow, and then to his jaw, her eyes locked on his, holding him immobile as the warmth and comfort they held crashed over him. “The sunset is so beautiful.”
Don’t spoil it.
He felt those words in hers, as clearly as he could feel the clouds building above him, born of a desperate need to control something which he knew he had no command over. He was a god, but not a god-king. Only Zeus had power over life and death.
And his father.
The ground trembled, a warning from his father that he knew the course of his thoughts.
Beneath his knees, flowers bloomed, blue Himalayan poppies sprouting up around him.
His mother.
He got her message loud and clear—ignore his father.
It also made him realise something. She was aware of Aiko, of the change in his temperament the little human had caused. Both of his parents were.
Which meant Hades had to be aware that he was at the mercy of the blood he had given him, and that now that his need of Aiko had been roused, he would move all the realms to keep her at his side.
He breathed through his pain, pushed out the terrible thoughts clouding his mind, and focused on his little butterfly as she shifted on the rock to face him, setting her feet down on either side of his knees.
Poppies bloomed around them too, tried to entwine with her shoelaces and creep up her leg, but she didn’t notice.
“You never finished our tour.” Aiko’s gentle voice drew him back to her, helped the clouds scatter and let light flood back into his heart.
He pushed onto his feet, hesitated only a moment before taking hold of her hand, and led her towards the nearest wing of the house, away from his room. She was silent as she walked beside him on the narrow path that wound between mossy boulders, blooming azaleas, and under trees.
The one she had been admiring was one of the wards, a tree that had been in that spot since before Hades had built the mansion. His father had constructed the walls around two more trees of similar age, using their strong connection to the earth to strengthen the wards he had then placed on them.
Aiko’s gaze leaped to him as he led her across a series of stepping stones set into the gravel that surrounded the house. When she stopped near the broad stone step beside the raised wooden walkway, he stooped and removed her shoes for her, helping her up onto the step. She waited as he removed his boots, and he placed them down at the corner of the walkway, near the courtyard.
She went to walk that way.
He caught her wrist and tugged her in the opposite direction. “You’ve seen the courtyard.”
Her eyes grew a little wider.
“There’s more?” Understanding dawned in her gaze. “The smaller building. I saw it from outside, and I wondered what it was for.”
He hadn’t intended to take her there, but the thought of leading her to that place, of stripping her bare and bathing with her in the huge stone pool had him wondering whether she would consent to such a thing.
There was still a little sunset left.
She led the way again, and he wondered if he would always follow her, trailing behind her so he could watch her, could see every fascinated glance she gave to the world, every smile that reached her eyes and lit up her face.
When she rounded the corner, she stopped so abruptly he almost collided with her.
The walkway continued down this side of the wing, joining with the wooden open structure at the far end and the white wall opposite to enclose one of his favourite spaces in the house.
“You have a zen garden.” Her chocolate eyes leaped to his, the surprise in them matching that in her voice, and he wanted to smile at her.
Her gaze traced the swirling lines of gravel that swept around cragged rocks and always made him think of tides, flowing endlessly, unstoppable.
Beautiful.
He did smile when she shot him an incredulous look.
“Who looks after it?”
“Me. Who else?” He caught hold of her wrist again and risked a look back at her as he led her towards the bathhouse. “You wanted to know what was in the smaller building?”
She leaned to one side and glanced past him, towards it, a flicker of nerves emerging in her eyes as they landed on the building, with its thick wooden columns that supported the tiled roof, allowing the front to remain open to the elements.
Together with the huge bath.
It poked out from beneath the cover, half in and half out of it, so someone could laze in it and see the whole of the sky if they wanted it.
Steam curled from the surface of the water, kept at a perfect temperature by the thermal spring below the house that they drew it from, rich with minerals that made a good soak absolute heaven.
When they reached the bath, Aiko crouched and brushed her hand through the water.
“You must have been in plenty of hot springs before.” He stilled when she looked up at him, the pretty blush on her cheeks telling him that she might have, but she had never been in any of the mixed ones.
He wasn’t sure when he had implied they were going to bathe together, but now it was in his head, it was all he could think about. His eyes leaped between hers, a need to see what she was thinking tugging at him, making him restless.
Did she want to bathe with him?
Did he want to bathe with her?
Really want it?
It wasn’t the thought of being naked around her that had his nerves rising. It was the fact that if he stripped off, she would see the extent of his scars. He wasn’t sure how he would react if she pressed him about them. She had mentioned them before, and thinking about how he had gotten them had stirred his darker nature, and he had come close to ruining the moment.
He wanted to press her to promise not to ask, but it would only make her more curious, more liable to stare at them.
“I could just take you home.” He could also just cut his wrists and let himself bleed out right now. Taking her home would have the same effect.
He felt sure he might die without her.
She shyly shook her head, stealing a little piece of his black heart.
“I’m not going to try anything. We’ll keep our underwear on.” He sounded like a damned virgin again, all jittery and awkward.
She nodded again, but remained where she was, staring at the water, and he wasn’t sure whether she wanted to bathe with him or bolt for the hills.
Either way, she clearly needed a moment to overcome her nerves, and so did he, so he took himself off to the washing area and stripped off his shirt and t-shirt, and then his jeans and socks. When her eyes landed on him, burning into him, following his every move, it was damned hard to focus on washing himself with the soap and water.
She finally moved, taking measured steps towards him that screamed of nerves, but each one was more confident than the last, as if she was defeating her fear, and by the time she reached him, she looked as courageous as she had in the moment before she had kissed him.
Gods, he wanted to kiss her again.
He handed her the water scoop and cloth and made a fast exit instead, his nerves getting the better of him. Her gaze scalded his back, making his muscles tense in response as he waited for her to say something about the scars.
She turned away instead.
He released the breath he had been holding, stepped down into the hot water, and held back the groan as he sank into it, the heat of it instantly melting his tension away. It was hard to keep his focus off her as she moved around behind him, hard to shut out the images of her stripping off, and the ones of her washing herself as water sloshed around.
Esher grabbed one of the white cloths from the side of the tub, soaked it and placed it over his face as he groaned, his cock as hard as stone in his trunks and demanding attention.
Her attention.
This had been a bad idea.
Made all the worse by the images popping into his head, visions of his brothers appearing while Aiko was half naked in the water with him.
He growled under his breath, pushed the cloth up onto his hair and glanced over his shoulder to make sure she wasn’t paying any attention to him, and held his hand out. His mobile phone shot into it, his powers proving themselves more than handy once again, and he fired off a group message to his brothers.
In a bad mood. Steer clear of Tokyo. I need a quiet night in.
Hopefully that wouldn’t raise too many questions, or concerns, as it wasn’t the first or thousandth time he had sent a similar message, but for good measure, he made it rain in every city his brothers protected as he tossed his phone on the deck beside him.
The sky above Tokyo remained beautifully clear though.
He started when Aiko’s foot appeared close to him, a delicate thing that was a work of art.
One he found himself scanning for even a sign of a ward.
Fucking arsehole.
She wasn’t a daemon. She wasn’t out to hurt him. She trusted him, and he could trust her.
She dipped into the water, so it washed over her shoulders and made the ends of her black hair wet, and then sighed as she drifted away from him on her back, her pink satin panties and bra a shade darker than before.
“This is heaven.” She loosed another low sigh of satisfaction.
It certainly was.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her as she floated on the water. It was a struggle to keep his thoughts off the fact she was in his element, water he had command over, and it was all over her, in private places he wanted to explore.
He gritted his teeth and kicked that urge out of his head. He was not about to turn a perfectly nice bath into a scene out of some hentai anime involving a man manipulating water to be intimate with a woman. Not his scene.
Still, he was a little jealous that the water was getting to enjoy her more than he was, so he coaxed it a touch, just enough to make her float in his direction. She frowned when she turned and started drifting towards him, and rolled onto her front, wrecking his attempt to casually get her closer to him.
He offered her a scrap of cloth.
She shook her head. “I never get dizzy from hot springs.”
Not a bad thing, because if she got all faint and woozy, he would probably lose his shit when worrying about her.
She smiled at him, another high-beam one meant to devastate, and he frowned and reached for her, wanting her closer.
She placed her hand in his and the moment her fingers closed over his palm, he gripped her and pulled her towards him. She shrieked, water spraying everywhere as she surged towards him, and giggled as her free hand planted against his bare chest to stop her from slamming into him.
Her laughter died as her eyes met his.
“You’re missing the sunset,” he husked.
She moved a little closer, her palm shifting to the spot over his heart, and her eyes fell to his mouth.
“I’ll catch the next one,” she murmured. “I like this view better.”
And then her lips were on his.