Corrupted by Bella Klaus

Chapter Thirteen

Hades and I stood back-to-back, surrounded by the coven and an increasing number of demons. Their solid smoke forms coalesced into muscular bodies protected by leather armor and skull-shaped helmets that covered their faces.

Magic thrummed through my veins, a combination of anxiety and the effects of the red bonbon. I opened up my connection to Hades and asked, “Any ideas for escaping this confrontation unscathed?”

“Follow my lead,”he said into our mental bond. “And stay close.”

“Why can’t we just teleport out of here?”I asked.

“Tactics 101,”he replied. “Never go to the trouble of staging an ambush if you don’t seal off all means of escape. If we teleported out of here, leaving a horde of henchmen without anything to clobber, it would make Samael look like an even bigger twat.”

“Okay…” Somehow, I managed to make the voice in my head tremble. But then this was my first demon standoff.

Hades gave me a gentle pat on the ass. “Mass carnage is the only way out of this mess. Are you in?”

It wasn’t like I had any choice. I swallowed hard, my gaze darting across Aunts Juno, Vesta, Minerva, and Diana. They were bigger threats than the approaching demons. It was hard to imagine them as goddesses, but the malice glinting in their eyes said that they not only knew Hades but despised him with a passion.

“What did you do to make them so mad?” I asked.

Hades spluttered. “What makes you think their shitty attitudes are related to me?”

Mother rose from her seat, her blue eyes shining like polished jewels. “Let’s see you talk your way out of this situation, you daughter-stealing scrote.”

My mouth dropped open. “Mother!”

She cast me a withering glare. “Don’t think I didn’t notice your conduct at the Devil’s Ball. When I finally get you back, I’ll wash your corrupted soul in the waters of forgetfulness.”

I clenched my teeth. “Maybe I’ll stuff your blackened soul into a turkey.”

Mother hissed through her teeth. “Enough talk. Seize my daughter. Hurt her if you must.”

The demons lumbered forward, flashing oversized tusks. Hades raised a hand, and the air thickened. The tightness in my chest loosened a little, but it was too soon to feel relief. It was only a matter of minutes before Mother and Samael combined their magic to disable his ward.

“We should kill Samael first,” I said into our bond.

“No.”Hades grabbed my arm. “No monarch may strike at another. Doing so will incite the wrath of Heaven.”

“Is that from the Handbook of Hell?”I asked.

Hades rubbed his chin. “Unfortunately, Samael knows how to work within these rules. When the rest of us do it, we end up like Varaha. However, you’ve just given me a dervish idea for causing discord among the newlyweds.”

My entire body shuddered at the memory of the four-armed boar with the blue and black body paint who had been reduced to a pillar of salt. I wasn’t about to waste time asking if the rules still applied when Azriel wasn’t in the room. The uptight angel was probably watching this encounter, looking for opportunities to be a dick.

“Demeter, I hate to point out the obvious, but your new husband is trying to kill you,” Hades drawled.

Mother’s features pinched, and the other members of her coven mirrored the expression. It was the kind of face she pulled when a weed found its way to the greenhouse, or if she was about to hear a lie.

My gaze darted to Hades, and I wondered what he would say next.

Samael chuckled and held up his narrow palm, ordering the demons to stop struggling against Hades’ wards. “This will be interesting.”

Hades steepled his fingers and rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. “These assassins you’re setting on me. Are they from the Third?”

Demeter’s gaze darted to Samael, confirming that was exactly where they had originated. “What lies are you spewing now?”

Hades raised both shoulders. “Only that if one of your minions lays a finger on my delectable person, that constitutes one monarch attacking another, which is an offense punishable by annihilation.”

Mother’s entire body stilled.

My breath caught. Hades had finally gotten through her thick head.

“Explain,” she said.

“If you believe you can bargain with Heaven, think again. After all, what’s Samael’s motive for attacking me? Apart from the fact that he wishes to reunite Hell under his banner and stealing the Fifth is of strategic importance. But your motive…” Hades wagged his finger and chuckled.

“He’s right,” I blurted. “This is just like those murder-mystery shows where the killer inherits his wife’s property. Samael probably wants you to get yourself smitten, so both factions revert to him when you’re dead.”

Mother pursed her lips, her gaze sliding to Samael, who rubbed his chin.

“Isn’t that a little far-fetched?” he asked.

Hades gestured at Samael with a hand. “Ask him why he didn’t bring any of his new demon underlings for this mission.”

“Demeter,” the decrepit king said in what he probably thought was a charming voice. “Hades has a certain way with women. He’s a libertine who leads them to mistrust those who hold them in the deepest respect.”

Mother flared her nostrils, her ample chest rising with furious breaths. She waved her fingers toward the coven, gesturing at them to retreat. My aunts skittered back toward the booth, standing beside it like good little servants.

Samael’s rusty laugh grated across my nerves. “With a few well-placed words, Hades is already tempting you into a foolish decision. Look at how far he’s influenced your poor, debauched daughter.”

“What?” Mother’s eyes bulged. She reached down and snatched Samael’s hand.

“Get ready for the wards to fall,” Hades said.

“Can’t you use my power to strengthen them or break through what’s keeping us from teleporting out?”I asked.

“Why waste it when we could just kill those minions for fun?” he replied. “Consider it as training in the field.”

“Bloody hell,”I muttered.

Mother raised Samael’s hand, and a blast of power tore through the wards. They splintered around us like invisible shards of glass.

She bared her teeth in a snarl. “You won’t trick me so easily. Demons, attack.”

“Shit.” I flicked out my fingers, releasing dozens of needles from the exoskeleton around my hand. They flew across the restaurant, hitting the demons within my line of sight.

None of them seemed to notice the attack, and they advanced toward us holding clubs and hammers and spiked maces. I flared out my new wings, and white power traveled down dozens of tiny strings.

My stomach flip-flopped. This conducted my lightning with frightening accuracy. Soon, I’d be able to throw lightning bolts. The demons I’d hit all stiffened, their bodies convulsing with the electric shock.

Hades raised his arms, moving them like the conductor of an orchestra. The demons on his half of the circle turned to each other and lashed out with their weapons.

“What are you doing?” Mother screeched. “Stop turning on yourselves and fight.”

I was too busy channeling even amounts of lightning through the strings to savor her expression, but she sounded thoroughly pissed.

My heart thundered, and the scent of burning flesh filled the air. While my demons fried, and the other half battled to death against their will, Mother and Samael sat back in their seats and watched.

“Hades,” I said into the bond. “What if this is a diversion?”

“You mean they’re keeping us busy while their more competent forces are attacking the Fifth?”he asked.

“Something like that,”I replied.

“I can’t sense any disturbances in our wards.Can you?”

“How would it feel?”I asked.

“Bloody bastard.” Aunt Diana pierced her hand with a spear and threw it toward us.

“No,” Mother howled, her voice laced with anguish.

Hades flung up an arm and lifted one of the demons, letting the weapon lodge itself in its chest.

“What’s so bad about that spear?”I projected the thought into his mind.

“The blood of a god is the only thing that can kill another god.” Hades’ growl rattled through my skull. “Fucking Artemis just tried to murder me.”

Dread rolled through my stomach. Until this moment, I hadn’t fully realized how desperate the coven had become to take me back. This was no longer a case of Mother being overprotective or them wanting to hurt Hades for abducting Persephone. Whatever they wanted from me was important enough to them to attempt the murder of a fellow Greek god.

The demons I electrocuted fell to the floor like sacks of potatoes, leaving Hades still battling half of the horde. I turned to the coven and bared my teeth in a hiss.

“Does Samael know how to kill one of us?” I turned to Mother’s booth.

“Demeter’s reaction told him everything he needed to know,” Hades replied.

Samael gazed at Mother with sick wonder, his slitted mouth parted, revealing the blood-red contents of his mouth.

“Shit,” I whispered.

“A fair assessment of our predicament,” Hades said through our connection. “Now we need to watch out for assassins bearing blood-soaked blades.”

When Aunt Minerva stepped forward from the gaggle of goddesses and pricked her finger with a dagger, the edges of my vision turned red.

With a roar of fury, I flung the needles across the room, letting them hit Samael, Mother, and my aunts.

“Will electricity kill Samael?” I asked.

“Don’t attack him or your mother,” Hades said, his voice laced with panic.

“You said earlier that we shouldn’t kill each other. This is my best shot at knocking them all unconscious.”

“The rules,”he snarled. “If the deity punishes you for attacking a fellow monarch, the effects might be permanent.”

I curled my index fingers and withdrew the needles from Samael and Mother. “Fine, but nothing will happen if I lash out at the coven.”

“Not unless they’ve taken control of the other Factions,”he replied.

“Good.” I flared out my wings, letting the full extent of my magic, my fury, and my determination travel across those strings. Instead of it manifesting as tiny threads of electricity, the bolts of lightning became as thick as my wing bones.

My four aunts flapped about like caught fish.

“Keep on the pressure,” Hades said. “These goddesses will survive any amount of damage.”

“Right.”

Mother rose from her seat, her face pale. She glanced from one side of the booth to the other, where her coven sisters jerked and shuddered under the weight of my power.

“Kora,” she said, her words breathy. “Stop this at once.”

I curled my lip. “Why don’t you come over here and make me?”

Samael took Mother’s hand and pulled her back to her seat. He pressed his lips on her knuckles, leaving more black marks, before leaning to her side and whispering into her blonde curls.

Suppressing a shudder, I pushed more and more of my power into the attack on Mother’s coven. Even if I only incapacitated them for a few days, Mother would be without allies—enough time for us to work out a way to defeat her.

“Kora,” Aunt Minerva said through clenched teeth, her features contorting into a rictus of agony. “Stop. Please.”

“You didn’t show me any mercy while I was Mother’s prisoner,” I snarled.

The goddess fell to the side of the booth, but she didn’t roll to the floor. Aunt Juno, who stood beside her, dropped to her knees.

“They’re tough,” I said out loud.

“Their magic is repairing the damage you’re doing to their insides,” Hades said. “It won’t last. Those lightning attacks were always brutal enough to subdue every other Olympian, even when Zeus attacked all of us at one time.”

“Seize her,” Mother shrieked.

Another group of demons appeared behind us. They were gray-skinned creatures with ridged foreheads and glowing red eyes. One of them lurched toward me, its rags billowing as it moved.

I spread out my wings, making their insides glow an incandescent silver. The surface of the demon’s flesh popped and sizzled and steamed, before it exploded like a kernel of popcorn and stained its surroundings with soot.

All the other demons skittered a wide circle around my electricity and rushed at Hades, and he tore their souls from their bodies, releasing clouds of red smoke. My stomach twisted, although this time it wasn’t from dread. Ignoring the sensation, I focused my efforts on finishing off the coven.

Samael clapped his hands together. “You didn’t tell me your daughter was so entertaining.”

Mother bared her teeth, her entire body expanding and contracting with her furious breaths. “Kora, this is your last warning… If you don’t stop embarrassing me this instant—”

“I’m not the same young woman you kept ignorant and frightened,” I snapped. “Nothing you could possibly do or say would make me return to your side.”

“We’ll see about that.” Mother rose to her feet and reached into the bodice of her dress, where she usually kept a stash of weapons.

My gaze darted to the first demon who had fallen—the one Hades had thrown into the trajectory of Aunt Diana’s blood-soaked spear. Focusing on the weapon, I raised it out of the dead demon and rotated its point toward Mother.

“Kora,” she said, her voice breathy and scandalized. “You wouldn’t possibly attack your own mother.”

“Don’t do it,” Hades snarled. “Killing her will only backfire.”

“I’m only going to give her a fright,”I replied. During all the years of self-defense classes Mother had made me endure, I had never once managed to land a hit on the blasted woman. She couldn’t help but dodge.

He harrumphed. “You’d better.”

With a flick of the hand, the spear flew across the room. As it approached the booth, a soap-bubble dome materialized around its perimeter. It slowed as it pierced the ward, and I held my breath, wondering if I could land a hit. Just before its metallic head reached Mother’s chest, she disappeared with a scream.

The blade lodged itself into the booth’s white cushioned backrest. Samael examined the spear’s carved handle, his red tongue running across his bottom lips.

“This was the same weapon Lady Diana used to attack Hades?” he asked.

I clamped my mouth shut, giving Samael my fiercest glower.

“Bloody hell,” Hades growled through our link. “If Demeter hadn’t disappeared at the last minute, you would have killed her, and incited Heaven’s wrath.”

“I knew she wouldn’t stay around to get hit,” I said.

Hades shook his head. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Dinner would be nice,”I muttered. “The red bonbon is starting to lose its effectiveness, and my stomach feels like a howling abyss.”

As Hades finished off the remaining demons, I pushed more power into the needles until smoke and lightning seeped from the unconscious goddesses’s mouths. The old me might have stopped my attack the moment they’d fallen to the floor, but they had traumatized Dami, and I needed to teach them a lesson.

Samael continued staring at the spear, his thin fingers massaging his chin.

“I’ve got a theory about him,”I said into my link with Hades.

“What is it?”

“Samael isn’t really here because he’s a massive coward. He probably left the same time Mother disappeared and what we’re looking at is an avatar.”

“It smells as foul as him,” Hades said with a snort.

“He probably left a piece of rotten meat under the table to fool our noses.”

Hades threw his head back and laughed.

I reached into his sword belt, pulled out a dagger and hurled it across the room and into the booth. Its point drove straight through Samael’s throat without making a single cut.

My chest inflated with triumph. He may as well have just posted on social media that his physical body couldn’t withstand a battle.

The gash in his mouth widened into an inhuman grin. “You are a dangerous and deadly goddess, Persephone. When I have finished with your mother, you will be mine.”

Before I could launch myself across the room, the image flickered out with a pop.

Hades grabbed my arm. “Never do that again.”

I whirled on him, my eyes flashing. “What are you talking about? I knew what I was doing.”

He placed both hands on my shoulders, giving me a gentle shake. “If those daggers had hit your mother or Samael—”

“But they didn’t,” I said.

His face twisted into a snarl, and his eyes flared with hellfire.

My stomach plummeted to the floor, and my breath froze in my lungs. I’d seen Hades in a variety of moods, ranging from seductive to annoyed, but never this level of anger. Never directed at me.

“What’s…” I gulped. “What’s wrong?”

“I almost lost the woman I love,” he said, each syllable as furious as it was frantic. “If Samael wasn’t such a bloody coward, he would have let that dagger land, and then the power of Heaven would have struck you down for breaking their rules.”

My lips parted, an explanation rolling on my tongue, but his words trickled into my skull. Had Hades just admitted to loving me?

The pulse in my throat fluttered, and I whispered, “What did you say?”

His nostrils flared. “Varaha gave those bastards two thousand and twenty-one years of faithful service, yet they executed him for taking a bite of meat. What do you think they would do to someone who broke a long-standing rule?”

“No,” I said, my words trembling. “Before that.”

Hades’ brows drew together in a frown. “I was telling you that Samael was a coward, and—”

“Not that.”

He growled. “Kora, will you listen to me?”

“You called me the woman you love.”

All the anger drained from his features, and he drew back, blinking rapidly as though to clear his thoughts. “Aren’t my feelings for you obvious?”

“No,” I said.

“Of course I love you. I love your bravery and strength. I love how you can burn me from the inside out. I even love how you’re unreasonably unforgiving.”

“No, I’m not—”

“Kora.” He tightened his grip on my shoulders. “Right now, you’re the most powerful Demon Monarch in Hell, but if you pull a reckless stunt like that again, I’ll…”

“What will you do? Spank me?” I raised my chin, giving him my most defiant stare.

“You’d probably enjoy that a little too much,” he said with a snarl. “Endanger yourself one more time, and I’ll place you somewhere you’ll never escape.”

All feelings of goodwill toward Hades drained away in an instant. “No one will ever imprison me again,” I said with bite. “Never.”

“Then think before you strike out against a Demon Monarch.” Hades tapped the side of my head. “Samael was already thinking ahead today when he set up this ambush.”

I swallowed. “Do you really think he wants to kill Mother?”

Hades inclined his head. “He now runs the Second and could have brought demons under his jurisdiction, but he brought those from the Third, which he handed to Demeter. Heaven would have punished her for any injuries we sustained during this attack.”

“Even if he was the one who gave the orders?” I asked.

“They were Demeter’s demons,” he replied. “They couldn’t have acted without her consent.”

I bowed my head, resting it on Hades’ broad chest. “There’s so much about politics in Hell I don’t understand.”

He wrapped his arms around my back, pulling our bodies close. “This is why I’m here to guide you. Samael has had an eternity working under the angels’ ruler and even more time to understand how their rules work. Don’t let him goad you into following any action that will get you hurt.”

“I’ll be more careful,” I murmured.

He drew back, placing his fingers under my chin and tilting my head up. The fire in his eyes dimmed, leaving his irises smoldering. “Despite my complaints, I was proud of how quickly you worked out what he was doing. And the way you adjusted your attack toward Demeter’s coven was impressive.”

My chest swelled. “Am I getting better?”

He inclined his head. “I’ll soon make a warrior goddess out of you.”

I pulled my shoulders back and basked in his admiration, but the intensity of his gaze made me pause. All his previous anger had faded, leaving behind a longing that bordered on hunger.

“Hades?” I whispered.

“I’m going to kiss you,” he murmured. “Are there any objections?”

“You don’t seem the type to ask permission before you make a pass,” I said.

His lips met mine in a soft kiss that made me feel like I was being caressed by petals. It was tentative at first, and conveyed both love and respect. Then he drew back and stroked his fingers down one side of my face, his gaze reaching into my soul.

“Every time I see a new side to you, I become even more smitten,” he said, making my heart soar.

I flung my arms around his neck and kissed back, my mind drifting away from the dead demons, charred goddesses, and the aftermath from our little battle, and back to the Kensington Palace bedroom suite.

Hades’ kiss was more urgent than it had been then, with a passion that made me feel like he finally wasn’t holding back. I surrendered to his ministrations, my lips parting to allow his tongue entrance.

With a groan, he reached down my back and cupped my ass cheeks, bringing our bodies flush. His hardness pressed into my belly, and my core pulsed in response.

“You’re intoxicating,” he moaned into the kiss. “And utterly beguiling.”

I melted against his hard body and surrendered to the kiss. If we didn’t move location fast, we might forget ourselves and end up having sex among the fallen demons.