Hades had to be stopped. If this was a war, I was going to fight it the way I had been taught. I would do what I’d been bred for. Hades had broken serious rules by letting X loose, and it was my job to make sure no one else on Earth got hurt.

It was a tall order. I was hardly the savior of men, and if I thought about it too much, I had doubts, except I’d trained for this. So I barged forth.

I’d trained with Heracles for years. Long before my father and brothers had perished, I’d been practicing for the day I would have to be a warrior. Fighting was in my blood, and I had the reflexes of a lion. Heracles had made sure I was so comfortable battling, I didn’t have to think about it. All I could do now was trust myself when the time came.

After buttoning my leather pants, I pulled on a black long-sleeve shirt while stepping into my combat boots. I pushed my long braid over my shoulder and tugged on the leather sheath strapped across over my chest with two knives and another down my spine. Heracles had made me a nifty bo—a staff used in ancient martial arts practices that looked like a baton, short enough to hang by my side like a police weapon, but when needed, it slid open to seven feet long.

Three knives and a bo might not be enough to take on Hades, god of the Underworld, but I had to rely on my super power as a Lowe, my superhuman strength, and the calling that I could do this to help me through.

Was I terrified? Fuck, yeah, but I was determined to make this work. It was my destiny after all.

Finding Hades was easy. I followed the fear and darkness that oozed from him. His waves pulsed through the city, and I realized how different it felt from X’s deadly energy. X was pure death. Hades was only fear prickling on my skin and darkness dimming the day and my thoughts. The distinction wasn’t crystal clear, but it was there.

When the wave of magic was so strong, and I struggled to breathe, I found Hades standing in the middle of a barren road outside a school, and he emanated menace. Tall with olive skin and wavy, black hair, Hades was built like a fighter with lean, strong muscles and a perfectly proportioned body. Somehow, I had imagined him with pasty skin like the dead, a body he’d let go. He wore a loose shirt made of a material that traced his pecs and his biceps and pants that hugged his hips like he was doing them a favor wearing them. The god in front of me was drop-dead gorgeous in a very dangerous kind of way.

He scanned the small school surrounded by a metal fence. It was Monday, and that meant there were classes. The brick building sat right next to the police academy, but I doubted the cops could do anything about this. My stomach rolled at the idea of what he might have planned to do to the kids. They probably couldn’t see him if he concealed himself, and they wouldn’t know what was happening until it was too late.

“Don’t even think about it,” I snarled.

Hades turned his face to me, his dark eyes sharp and bright. Something inside me recognized his power, and the shiver that traveled through me was familiar magic.

“You’re a Lowe,” he said in a smooth voice.

I nodded. “And you’re not welcome here.”

He chuckled, and the sound was velvet and warm. I stiffened, not appreciating that I liked the sound of his laugh.

“You’re impertinent for a mere mortal.”

“You underestimate me,” I said. “I’m not a mere mortal.”

“Right,” Hades said, stretching the word out. “My brother gave you ability, and now you think you’re one of us.” He laughed again, the sound coming from deep within, his face changing into a vision of unrestrained mirth, and he strolled close to me. “Let me tell you something, little Lowe—”

“Elyse,” I corrected.

“I’m not like the other gods. I’m the brother they don’t invite to family reunions.”

“Is that supposed to scare me?” I asked, even though it kind of did. But that was Hades, right? All fear and nothing else.

Except sexual attraction apparently.

He was still moving toward me, and I held my ground. I wasn’t going to run from him. My chest tightened as he moved closer, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off him. Hades moved like liquid, effortless and calculated. His shoulders were broad, and the muscles on his neck defined, betraying his brute strength, even though he wasn’t built like Atlas.

My hands hung loosely at my side, ready to go for my weapons as soon as Hades reached me. I wasn’t going to overplay my hand and look like I would attack while he had a chance to escape.

Hades laughed again, and a trickle of warmth lit up in my chest. I wished he would stop doing that. It was distracting.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he insisted. “You’re going to attack when I’m right in front of you. Well.” He moved so fast, I didn’t see him. One moment, he was still a few steps away. The next, he was in front of me.

I jumped but held my ground. Hades was so tall, I had to look up, up, up to make eye contact.

“I’ll make the first move,” he whispered, his voice covering me in goosebumps. He stooped his shoulders and dipped his head.

The atmosphere was suddenly thick with lust. This was meant to be a fight. Even Hades looked surprised about what he felt in the air around us. His face lingered inches from mine, and the churning depths of his dark eyes threatened to suck me in. Our bodies were so close, a sigh would press us together. Fear ran over my skin like a ripple, but that wasn’t all.

Sexual desire followed right on its heels, coiling tight in my gut in a wicked anticipation of more to come.

Hades sucked in a sharp breath, and it hitched in his throat. My eyes slid to his lips, and I suddenly wanted to know what this danger tasted like, what it would feel like when my body was plastered up against his. Lately, my body had been betraying me when it came to the gods. First, Apollo. I had thought it was his sultry charm. But now Hades as well? Was it the charm gods had over humans? Except something felt wrong.

Or it was very right, and I was about to make a mistake. It was like an accident I knew was coming but couldn’t stop, and I had to keep watching to see how it played out.

He pressed his lips against mine, and my power reached out to his, rubbing up against it like fur, like one monster recognizing another.

The kiss was intense, and I became wet and ready almost right away. Hades pushed the length of his body against mine, and the thick ridge in his pants betrayed that his lust for me was as serious as what I felt for him.

I wanted him. I ached for him. I didn’t know what this was or why it was happening, but I couldn’t say no. I didn’t want to say no. We were in the middle of the city, out in the open. It was the only thing that stopped me from tearing the clothes off his body.

Hades must have been thinking the same thing. He took my arm, his large hand wrapping around the wrist, and moved with lightning speed, taking me with him. We were suddenly in front of the police academy, and then we were inside the building. Through the lobby, down a corridor, into an office that was empty and apparently locked. But we were on the other side of the door and alone.

“This is a police academy,” I started, glancing around the room for cameras. Except in his company, with us engaged, I’d be invisible too. How else had we just walked through walls without anyone confronting us? I tried to mention how ironic this was, but my voice was breathy, and Hades didn’t wait for me to make petty remarks. He kissed me again, hard. My back hit the wall behind me. He covered me with his body, his hard erection pinned against my body, and I moaned into his mouth. I didn’t know what the god of the Underworld was meant to taste like, but kissing Hades was an aphrodisiac like nothing I imagined existed. He sank his body lower, pressing into me, trapping me between his legs and hips.

His hand sailed to my throat, so large, I was sure he could take my head off with one hand if he wanted to. But for all that strength that surged through him and the brute force that I knew he was capable of, the hand on my throat was demanding but gentle.

I breathed hard, our lips mashing together.

With the other hand, Hades cupped my breast. He massaged it, and I could taste the arousal between us on my tongue.

“So many weapons,” Hades said against my lips. “Sexy as fuck.” He fiddled with the leather straps that held the harness around my body and undid it, sliding the harness to the ground. The knives made a scraping sound on the parquet we stood on. I should have been panicked about being without my weapons, should have pushed him away, but I wasn’t in danger with Hades. At least, not the fatal kind. I was at risk of giving myself to a god who was meant to be the enemy, but the more he touched me and kissed me, the less he felt like the enemy. Something was happening between us that left me desiring this god like no other.

“Do you want this as much as I do?” he asked, as if finding his conscience.

“Yes.” The fierceness of my voice surprised me. What my body wanted and my head insisted on were polar opposites. But more than anything, I had to take the god in front of me. Whatever was going on with us, this was the only thing that made sense. That called to my core. That demanded I pursue him. And my head wasn’t foggy. The decision was crystal clear. As wrong as it sounded.

He undid my pants, moving them down as if he had done this a million times. I stepped out of them, leaving my boots on. Clothes were an unnecessary hurdle, and before I knew it, I was naked from the waist down.

I reached for Hades’s pants—strangely human for an immortal being—and undid the clasp. When I slipped a hand into his pants and gripped his cock, Hades hissed through his lips.

Good god, he was enormous. And I was dripping wet.

Hades leaned down, and I thought he was going to kiss me again, but he grabbed me behind the thighs and lifted me. It cost him no effort at all to hold me up and carry me over to the table. He lowered my ass, one arm moving to my back, lowering me in slow motion as if I were delicate. I could get used to this. He nudged open my knees, and Hades kneeled before me, finding my sex with his mouth.

I gasped, my head spinning as if Hades was a drug, dragging me into a sexual need I had never known before. The ache at my core was a fire that threatened to consume me, and I needed Hades to quench it for me.

“You’re mesmerizing and so beautiful,” he murmured, glancing up at me, his face buried between my legs. And not just any man, but a god.

When he licked me insistently, I moaned. I didn’t know who could hear us or who would see us if we weren’t invisible, but I didn’t care.

Everything had fallen away, but the pure animalistic lust was growing between us by the second, threatening to drag us both under, to drown us.

Hades wrapped my long braid beside me around one hand and tugged gently. I was completely helpless. He had full control, and it should have bothered me more than it did. But the way he stared at me, the passion in his eyes blocked out my world. He claimed me. I surrendered completely.

When he started pushing his tongue into me, I cried out and forgot about everything. I got lost in the arousal, the way he spread my thighs, and one hand reaching over to squeeze a breast. His breathing rasped in and out of his chest, his smooth voice coming in small groans.

I tilted back my head, heat burning through my body, my nipples taut. I needed him. All of him, had to feel him inside me. Each stroke brought me closer and the Earth didn’t stop moving. It didn’t take long before Hades pushed me toward the edge of an orgasm. Heat filled up my body like I was a cup filling with water about to spill over any second. My body felt like liquid, and I was at the mercy of Hades’ tongue.

He licked harder and pumped his fingers faster into me, the rhythmic beat reverberating through me. My moans turned into cries of pleasure. I lost all control, and the orgasm shattered me. Hades pressed his mouth up against my sex, holding, ceasing his movements while my body contracted, shivers racing over my body. I groaned so loud, writhing beneath him.

As I floated on euphoria, my power curled around Hades’s, connecting, twisting, merging in a way I didn’t understand. But it buzzed through me, sparks of energy dancing between our bodies, back and forth.

“Fuck,” Hades breathed. Who would have thought an ancient god spoke like the men all around me?

I had never felt this connected to anyone who’d gone down on me. It had always been physical with the core of who I was removed, watching as if I was a third party. But I had been present and involved here. I had been in the middle of it all. I…belonged.

When my orgasm eased, my body calm. I trembled when he slowly pulled me to my wobbly legs. He was zipping up his pants, his lips glistening. When he licked them, I shuttered, so ready to go again.

“But you didn’t finish,” I said hoarsely.

“I don’t have protection. You don’t want a baby Hades running around. Trust me.”

I couldn’t argue with that, but I was unhappy. The orgasm had been pure ecstasy, it still echoed through my body, and I’d wanted that for him too. So why would he pleasure just me? “Let me bring you pleasure?” I pleaded.

“You have already, but I have to get out of here,” Hades said, straightening his ruffled shirt. He scrubbed his face, as if he were coming to his senses.

“Don’t—” I said, but before I could finish the sentence, he was gone.

“How am I supposed to get out of here?” I asked the empty office.

My head spun with everything I had felt with the orgasm and the power that had left me drunk. I had to get dressed and get out without being seen somehow.

I was still naked from the waist down, my weapons on the floor next to my bundled pants, and I was in the heart of a police station. Alone.

Well, fuck.