Queen of Darkness (Blood & Fangs Book 3), page 18
His black vest stretched to bursting over his chest as he breathed heavily, his rage at my actions tearing away his self-control.
“You,” I growled, surprising myself with how much backbone I displayed even in the face of fury from a god known to be spiteful and quick to anger.
Hades focused on me, his normally dark brown eyes filled with a white-hot flame. Literally, there were flames burning where his pupils should be.
“What did you say?” he hissed, the sound like hot metal being shoved into cold water.
“I said that you were the one who has been disrespectful,” I said, standing my ground. If he were going to kill me, it wouldn’t be with me cowering in the corner.
Although the others didn’t speak up, I felt their presence nearby. They, too, were going to meet their deaths with some courage.
“Me? Disrespectful? I was not the one who unleashed the cold on my home.”
“No, but you treated us like nothing when we came in good faith to bargain. To help you. Instead, you decided you would cook us alive and serve us up for dinner. If that’s not being rude, then I don’t know what is. You forced me to do that to save myself. Either way you look at it, this is your fault, Hades. Not ours.”
I braced myself for the inevitable wave of fire that would flay skin from bone and reduce me to little more than charred ash that the Enkk would sweep from the cell.
The God of the Underworld trembled with rage as he stared at me, struggling to come up with a response.
“Ask Abaddon if you think I’m wrong,” I said, shrugging.
Hades lifted a hand, a ball of fire so bright it hurt my eyes to look at it. “I could kill you without breaking a sweat.”
“Of course you could,” I said, staring at the ground, shielding my eyes with one hand against the light. “Finally, something we agree on. You’re the god, and we’re in your realm. But think about that for a second, Hades. We, I, willingly came here, to your realm, to bargain with you, knowing that you didn’t want me to come back. Don’t you think that maybe, just maybe, there was a good reason behind it?”
The ball of pure sunlight faded until I could look at Hades once more.
“I should just kill you and be done with it,” he muttered. “Such insolence from a nobody.”
“Yeah, but you’re curious now,” I said, smiling in victory.
I had him, and we both knew it. He wasn’t happy about it, but what did I care? As long as I could live through it, I didn’t care much about his feelings.
“Perhaps,” he admitted. “But if I don’t like your plan, I will still kill you.”
“Do you ever get tired of threatening people with that?” Fred called. “You need to come up with something more original.”
Hades turned his attention to the big, gruff vampire. His eyes focused on him, looking beyond the surface in a way I couldn’t. Fred didn’t even flinch.
“You,” Hades rumbled. “So you escaped my hounds.”
“Like always,” Fred said dryly. “But that’s not the point. You should listen to her.”
Hades’ hands clenched into fists. “You do not tell me what to do. You are not welcome here, ever again, understand me? Or I will speak truths you do not wish others to hear.”
Fred snorted. “Two can play that game,” he retorted but declined to say anything more.
I looked back and forth between them. Who was Fred?
Hades growled in irritation, then snapped his fingers at me. “Fine. Speak. Tell me why you returned.”
I grinned at him. “I want to kill Elenia for you.”
Leaving a god speechless was a damn good feeling. I bathed in it, luxuriated in the moment, splashing it all over myself and not caring who knew about it. If I had his mild curiosity before, now I had his attention.
“Quite the proposal,” Hades said, looking at me with a bit more interest.
I didn’t like that part. Being the focus of a god when he wasn’t dismissing you was a tad unnerving.
“I told you I would have a good reason for coming back.”
“But there is more,” Hades said. “You did not need to come here to kill her. She resides in her own realm.”
“Actually, I did need to come see you first,” I said.
Hades’ face split open into a grin. “Oh. That is rich. You need my help, don’t you?”
I bowed my head in his direction. “Winner, winner.”
“I am listening,” he rumbled. “Make your case. It had best be good.”
“First, I want to know if me killing her will sate your need for revenge and end the war between realms.”
Hades stroked his chin.
“She was the one who helped steal all those souls from you and funnel them into the Direen,” I pointed out. “Nobody else could have orchestrated that. Your fight isn’t with the regular vampires. It’s with her. So, if I kill her, we have peace between realms.”
“If I help you kill her,” Hades said, “then the throne will be empty. And only a female vampire can sit on it. I would be assisting you in becoming the new Vampire Queen.”
“You would,” I said, fighting back a shiver as I verbally accepted the idea.
“Most interesting,” he said, lips curling upward. “Most interesting indeed.”
“So, will you help us?” I pressed, eager to get out of the cell and back to work.
Time was ticking, and the longer I spent locked up, the worse it would get. I didn’t know how quickly Hades could assemble the army we needed, nor could I be assured that our journey to the queen would meet with immediate success either. My mom could survive in the Direen for some time, but I would not let her live her life there.
Nor would I be somewhere else when the last of her meds fully wore off and she returned to normal. Whatever her normal might be after taking the pills for so long.
If I’m nervous, I can only imagine how Dad feels. He’s missed his mate for over two decades now. He remembers her how she was and is likely terrified to find out who she is now.
“What help of mine do you need?” Hades asked. “You have yet to specify. I will not blanket agree to help without knowing what it is you require first.”
Smart.
“The queen has mobilized Madrigal,” I said bluntly, seeing no use in dancing around the issue. Either Hades would help, or he wouldn’t. “We can’t get in on our own. Teams of vampires watch the entrances while more fill the streets. There’s no way for us to get to her like that. She’s too well protected.”
“What do you expect me to do? Kill her for you?” Hades growled.
“No,” I countered. “I want you to provide us the distraction to draw away most of her guards.”
“What sort of distraction? If she has the entire city up in arms, that would require quite the contribution on my part.” Hades sounded skeptical.
I hesitated, feeling like I was losing his interest. My mind raced, trying to come up with an alternative. Was there another way Hades could help us succeed? A way that required less effort from him, making him more willing to cooperate?
I didn’t see one.
So, I went for broke. What was the worst that could happen? “I need an army,” I said bluntly.
Hades goggled at me. “You never cease to amaze me with your demands, mortal,” he said, shaking his head. “An army? You intend to invade?”
“Yes,” I said bluntly. “The army will draw her forces away from Madrigal. It has to. Otherwise, you’ll slaughter her troops if she attacks piecemeal. When the bulk of them come to fight, my team and I will slip away, enter the palace, and put an end to her once and for all.”
“Ambitious,” Hades said. “And if you fail?”
“Then she’s going to be really angry with you,” I said. “But what else is she going to do? She doesn’t have the strength to invade the Underworld. It would ruin her to do so.”
“And you would be dead,” Hades said grimly. “Therefore, I would get my revenge on you.”
My chest tightened. I hadn’t thought about that particular angle yet. Torture in the afterlife did not sound particularly enjoyable.
“Having Elenia off the throne would be good, yes,” Hades mumbled half to himself. His eyes traveled from me to Aaron and then back. “Though, I wonder if you’re ready for all that would come with it.”
“I am,” I said as strongly as I could muster.
Hades chuckled. “We shall see. If I am to give you command of my army, then I will require … assurances of your sincerity.”
I licked my lips. “Such as?”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“If this goes badly, it will leave me wide open for attack,” Hades stated. “Elenia may not be able to kill me or conquer the Underworld, but there are many other things she can do to severely hurt or hamper me while the heart of my realm is undefended.”
“How would she do that?” I asked. “Wouldn’t she be too busy defending her own?”
Hades snorted. “Not if she sees the attack coming and plans for it.”
“How could she possibly do that? The only people who know the plan are right here.” I neglected to add Dani and Vir to that list because I knew they would never go to Elenia and tell. I trusted them with my life.
“It’s the people here that I don’t trust,” Hades growled. “Not for this task, at least.”
I turned to look at the team. Who could he mean? “Fred …?” I had no real idea.
“Is that what you’re calling yourself?” Hades chuckled. “No, I dislike him, but I trust him.”
“He means me,” Aaron said, stepping forward. “He doesn’t trust me.”
“Your arrival here is still suspicious,” Hades said. “It was almost too perfect. If I am to give you command of my army and lend you the strength you need, I must know that he isn’t a double agent.”
“He’s not,” I said, rolling my eyes. This was ridiculous. Aaron was not a double agent!
“Do you know that he’s the one who got Elenia to where she is now? That he put her on the throne?”
“Yes, yes,” I said. “They were in love, and together, they ascended the ranks until she was on the throne.”
“No,” Hades said. “I mean it literally. He is the reason she is on the throne. The previous queen died by his hand. Not hers.”
I looked at Aaron. He nodded slowly, confirming the story.
“Okay, so?”
“You said it yourself. They were in love.”
“Right, and?”
“And people do things for love,” Hades said pointedly. “Like betray those they pretend to care about.”
I stared at the god. “They haven’t been together for centuries. Are you telling me you truly think he’s been apart from her for this long, all because the two of them somehow knew this moment would come to be?”
“Stranger things have happened,” Hades said. “Trust me. I was there for some of them. Long-term planning is not unheard of in immortal beings.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“When Elenia was elevated to the throne, she continued funneling souls from my realm into the Direen for Irr to use kill his fellow gods,” Hades said, naming Vir’s insane brother, who was now thankfully dead. Dani had seen to that.
“I know the history,” I said. “What I don’t understand is how you think it’s related.”
“Elenia would have known that at some point I would find out. That I would discover she had assisted Irr. That I would be furious and want revenge. She would want a plant, someone who could pretend to be against her while feeding her information so that she could succeed.”
“That does sound like her,” I said, forced to admit it. “But it’s not Aaron. It can’t be.”
Hades’ lip twitched. Had he been waiting for me to say something like that? Did he know about Aaron and me? He couldn’t.
“Perhaps you are right,” Hades granted. “But I am not willing to trade on ‘maybes’ and ‘possiblys.’ I require hard proof.”
“Okay, I can’t argue that. But how do you want him to prove that he’s not a double agent?” I asked, looking around at the others to see if they had any suggestions. “Obviously, asking her is out of the question.”
“Indeed. I think the best way would be for him to demonstrate his loyalty to someone else.”
“He’ll never pledge his allegiance to you,” I said, trying to refrain from breaking out into laughter. “Come on, Hades.”
“She’s right,” Aaron said firmly.
“I wasn’t talking about myself,” Hades said, grinning. “I meant you.”
My laughter stopped abruptly. He wanted Aaron to show his loyalty to me?
“Absolutely not,” Aaron said emphatically. “She’s not ready for that.”
I whipped my head back and forth between them. “Ready for what? What are you two talking about?”
“He wants Aaron to claim you,” Fred explained.
That put to bed any rest that Hades knew something was going on between Aaron and me. How he knew, I wasn’t sure, but he did.
“He already has,” I said. “If it means what I think it does.”
How lovely this was. Having my sexual laundry aired out in front of a god and the rest of Aaron’s team. I’m sure the jokes would be endless.
“In the ancient way,” Hades said. “I want to see him formally relinquish his claim on Elenia so that he may take you.”
“Ew,” I said, cringing. “You’re not going to watch, thank you very much. That is private time.”
“He wants me to bite you,” Aaron said in a hard tone. “To quite literally claim you as my own. Not sex.”
“Oh.” I frowned. “But I’m already a vampire. I thought I had to be human for that? To turn me.”
“Turning someone is different than feeding on them,” Aaron said, staring past me at Hades, anger plain to see on his features. “Just more of the same. Claiming a vampire is …”
“Permanent,” Hades said. “Until the claim is relinquished for another. Which is why I require this test of loyalty.”
“I never claimed Elenia,” he countered.
Hades scoffed, disbelieving. “You two were thick as thieves for centuries. Everyone could see you were in love.”
“She wouldn’t let me,” Aaron said heavily. “From the start, she said it was because she wanted to change the way things were done. That women shouldn’t be the property of men and that since they could not claim anyone, the practice was unfair.”
“And you did not see through this?” Hades asked.
Aaron’s lungs rose and fell with a slow breath. “Like with many things, I later found out she’d lied to me. It was all part of her plan. I assume that she didn’t want me connected to her. So that I didn’t know about her plans. In hindsight, it was naïve of me, but as everyone knows, I loved her.”
“Be that as it may,” Hades said, “I still require my proof. This is my offer to you. An army to help you put her on the throne if you do this.”
Aaron laughed sharply. “I’m not helping put her on the throne. She is damn well capable of doing that herself. I’m going along to undo the mistake I made in putting the last one on the throne. Nor will I claim her, not for you. That is not your right to ask or demand.”
“What about if I ask you to?” I said, breaking in before he could go on. “Would you do it then?”
He frowned at me while Hades waited impatiently. “You would be giving yourself to me, Jo.”
I’d already done that.
“Forever,” he added.
I hadn’t done that.
“You don’t seem fazed by this,” I said, staring up into his eyes, the azure rings of his irises inviting me in with their calm, measured gaze.
“I’m not.”
“Why?” I asked, losing myself in him, forgetting about everyone else at that moment. Just then, none of them mattered, only this one, this man.
Aaron’s mouth curved upward into a faint smile. “This isn’t the path I saw us getting to it,” he admitted. “But I held hope that we might find ourselves here at some point. I would never have forced it on you, but that’s not the same as saying I did not want it. Like I want you.”
My heart skipped a beat at his words. It wasn’t the first time Aaron said he wanted me. In fact, our entire adventure began with those words when he’d shown up at my parents’ door. He’d said the same three words then, like now.
Only this time, it was my reaction that was different. Back then, I’d dismissed him, told him he was crazy, and it would never happen. And now … now I wanted him back.
“Okay,” I said, throwing caution to the wind. “Do it.”
Aaron frowned at me, his body language suddenly changing dramatically. “No.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
No? Had he just said no? I shook my head, thinking my ears and brain must be playing tricks on me. After all the kind things he said to me, all the words about wanting me, about wanting to claim me. Had they just been lies? What purpose had they served him?
“I knew it!” Hades hissed, and heat blossomed from him. “Traitor.”
Aaron lifted an arm to Hades, still staring at me. “I am not a traitor.”
“You said no. You can’t do it, can you?” Hades growled. “Because you are bound to her.”
“I won’t do it because you’ve got us crammed together in a cell like dogs,” Aaron shot back. “You will free us and give us a room so that we may be together. I will not share this moment with anyone else but Joanna.”
Oh. That was not what I’d been expecting, but it suddenly made sense. From the way Aaron talked about it, claiming was an intimacy on the level of sex. Of course, he would want privacy.
“So, you still want to—to claim me?” I asked, stammering ever so slightly over the word, still getting used to the terminology.
“With all my heart and body,” he said. “But not in front of these idiots or Hades.”
“Hey!” Dave barked. “I resemble that remark.”
The entire team chuckled at the comment, though none of them objected.
“Consider this your good faith gesture,” Aaron said to Hades.
