Divine Ecstasy (The Guardians of the Realms Book 8) (19 page)

“And Hades was able to rip the demon souls out without the pain rebounding back?” Jax bit out, the Ailouros, half cat, sat with his arm around his mate’s chair, looking incredulously at the dragon.

“He said it didn’t hurt them.”

P felt his powers pulling at him as he drifted off, not paying attention anymore, as he was too busy focusing on getting his ability under control, which took some effort.

By the time all the questions about Sacha and Hades were answered, Drake bit out the other problem. “The Goddess of Thule isn’t healing fast enough to wake up.” Era was standing at the dragon’s side, watchful and silent, but the connection between her and the dragon was intense. Their power sizzled in a room full of powerful beings. She was eerily beautiful and completely devoted to his cousin. The female was everything Drake needed. She was as powerful and strong as she was intelligent. And P respected and was grateful that she’d been helping Sirena with some of the healer’s duties. Sirena never took downtime, and looking at his sister Guardian, he could see how exhausted she was. She may not want to take time off, but she needed it, and now they had someone else with healing power to ease that load.

P watched as Sirena spoke to the room at large. “The copper-lined room is draining the Goddess’s strength and power, and she doesn’t seem to be catching up.”

“So take her out of the room and put her in another prison cell until she can heal,” Brianne offered.

“That’s what I plan to do,” Drake ground out. “We need her awake.” The dragon’s attention went to the small blonde sitting next to Erik, Alex’s sister-in-law. “Sam, can you forge shackles of copper?” She wasn’t a Guardian or a fighter, but her mate, Erik, was the Demi-God son of Athena, and they both helped anywhere they could since the Guardians helped rescue Sam from their old enemy.

“Yes,” the blonde agreed, and P smiled at the sparkle in her eyes. She had a rare ability with metal. In fact, she’d been the one Conn used to line the cells the second Hades told them that copper weakened those from Thule.

“Good. I want her awake, but not to be strong enough to open a portal out of the damned cell. We’re not exactly sure how readily she can use that skill, or if our spells and ward will be enough. Not since she managed to hide damned warriors in plain sight all the while keeping one of those portals open and battling Hades. She’s powerful,” Drake bit out.

The voices of his brethren drifted off to the background as P’s concentration ended. His hidden ability slipped free of its hold, and he noticed Gregoire’s eyes shift to him. The big Hippeus, half warhorse, was sitting in a chair at the back of the room with his tiny pregnant mate cuddled on his lap.

What’s going on?
his brother asked. Alyssa’s child had given her a powerful shield right before the first portal opened and Apollo was taken. No one but Gregoire could touch her or get too close to her, and that suited his brother Guardian’s wildly possessive tendencies, but that didn’t take the worry off the hulking warhorse’s bearded face.

I’m fine,
he assured the male. Alyssa’s pale green eyes slid to him at the same time and she smiled warmly. It was easy enough to assume that she’d heard their telepathic conversation.

Gregoire narrowed his eyes on P.
I know this shit is fucked for you. Hades is a pain in the ass, but he wouldn’t get you benched for no good reason.
Gregoire assumed it was agitation at being left out of the fight that was making his power slip free, and P hoped that was the case.

They couldn’t afford any more problems than were already on their plates.

Chapter 20

Hades’ Island, Tetartos Realm

Hades retracted his wings and turned to lie beside Sacha, braced on a forearm so he could see his come marking his female’s flat stomach and round breasts. The sight pleased him far more than it should. His thumb slid into it, massaging it into her heated skin. Her beautiful bronze curves stood out against the white bed linens, and he found he loved the sight of her dewy skin in firelight.

When her fingers came up to dip into the evidence of his pleasure, he couldn’t take his eyes away. As she lifted the small digit to her lips, he felt his blood heating, and when her pink tongue darted out to taste, his cock twitched to life.

Her eyelids lowered and he was taken in by the way her slim throat worked and the burst of pleasure he felt in the link. He groaned, but couldn’t take his eyes off of her. He’d never get enough of this; her taste was still on his tongue. Fuck, he wanted to watch her get off a thousand times over. It had been the most enthralling thing he’d ever seen.

“I don’t think it worked.” She breathed out as her eyes closed. The desire to have her was still there, and he knew that was exactly what she was worrying about. Her pent-up power hadn’t been what had caused this driving compulsion to have each other. That left them at a place he struggled with, he didn’t want her memories coming back if he did the things the beast blood wanted. He forced the thoughts back, wanting to enjoy taking in the sight of her soft flushed skin carrying his mark.

“I know,” he agreed as a small towel he’d seen in the kitchen made its way into his hand. He gently ran the cloth over her supple skin, cleaning her even though a part of him wanted to leave it while another needed to take care of her. The desires were intense, maybe even greater than his need to have her again. “How do you feel,
thisavre mou
?”

“Aside from aroused?” She breathed out.

He grinned wickedly. “Yes.” He’d meant her power and she knew it. He wanted the answer from her lips and to see if she fully understood the scope of the ability they’d uncovered. It was strong. The overturned furniture around them proved that. It was evidence that he’d underestimated the extent of what his female was capable of locking up inside her small frame.

*****

Sacha shouldn’t have tasted him. He had tasted too good on her tongue, and now she was forced to block the desire that was already building again. She took a deep breath, and that was another mistake. The scent of sex filled the room. She mentally pushed it back to answer his question. “I feel good.” In truth it felt like an immense weight had been lifted away. She felt a mix of things; relief was only the most prominent.

“What happened?” The real question she was asking was what had he done when she released the ability.

He gazed down from his raised position, and a wicked grin formed on his perfect lips. “I contained and filtered it out. Right before I came all over you.”

He searched her eyes, growing more serious. “Can you let it out now?”

“You want me to use it on you?”

He raised a brow and his smile brightened all over again. “It won’t harm me. I want to see if you can call it back easily. You need to feel it, understand it. The ability is a part of you.”

She let her mind wrap around it, inspecting all that she’d held back for centuries. It was different than she remembered. Stronger. Her mind’s eyes trailed over and around it. Her eyes shot to his, because this was far from what she’d wielded before. This was much more intricate.

He nodded.

Her mind spun at the scope. “Is this because of you?”

He considered it for a moment. “I imagine that’s part of it.”

She hadn’t used the power since her slave cuffs were removed by the Creators. Those bracelets had suffocated all of her other abilities except that one.

“It’s so much more than I thought.”

“Yes,” he agreed easily, searching her eyes. He was waiting for her to fully understand what her ability was capable of.

“You can feel how it works?” A question. More a confirmation, she supposed.

“I can.”

He nodded and assessed her. “You’re essentially able to break apart anything in slow motion like you’d done before. Among other things.”

“I feel like I can call to anything.” Could she paralyze anything with a thought?

“Yes,” he answered easily.

She wouldn’t need to get close like she had before. What could this mean for killing Hell beasts and dealing with possessed? That thought led to a pang of regret at not having let that part of her out sooner. As a powerful Guardian Kairos, she’d always been able to port large amounts of things or people. She could even get through metal, a limitation for those of her race. She’d never struggled in battle; her teleportation and blade had always been true, until that creature from Thule poisoned her.

This ability was entirely different. She almost felt like she’d be able to teleport a Hell creature’s beating heart into her hands.

“It would be messy, but possible,” he pointed out with a raised eyebrow, and a hint of his amusement filtered into the bond.

She didn’t have a moment to appreciate how gruesome that image had been. Her mind was too busy studying every intricate part of what lived inside her.

He caressed the curve of her waist, waiting patiently as she assessed everything. Giving her time to work it out on her own, to learn every minute detail of everything that had changed inside her mind and body.

Her eyes focused back on him. “You can wield it now too?” Their powers had blended stronger than even before. There was so much power running inside her that hadn’t been there before, and she could feel the signs of more to come. The trickling of his soul power was what stilled her next. Would she be able to do what he’d done to the possessed?

“I believe you will be able to use it the way I can.” He nodded, and she felt him sorting out his own thoughts on that particular fact. She was almost his equal in power already, and that was staggering. What he was mulling over was the fact that she would also have an ability he hadn’t even passed to his son.

She reached out and touched the hand that was drawing circles on her skin, the instinctual need to comfort him was strong. “I’m not sure I understand half of it,” she admitted. She’d need his help in figuring it all out.

“I will,” he assured her with a soft smile. “As far as the soul ability goes, I don’t generally destroy them. There is a great deal of responsibility when dealing with souls,” he added seriously. “There needs to be balance in the world. But those deserved destruction.”

She watched his eyes grow hard at the thought of the possessed in her space. Under the building desire was Hades’ anger that one of the Tria had so much as looked at her.

She ached for him, and since suppressing her power hadn’t been the problem, that left them one other option. That he’d have to stop holding back the need to dominate her. A wave of need sent shivers through her at the thought. Her beast responding? Or did she truly want him like that? Was it the wild power running in her veins that made her desire him at a baser level?

He growled, but she could feel him warring with the need. He didn’t want to trigger her memories. That meant she was going to have to force him to truly let go when the time came to set his beast free. For now something else was pulling her more than desire.

She wanted to know more about the God. Knowing him on an emotional level was only making her more curious about who he’d been and why. They wouldn’t have long before the need got too out of control, but they could take a few minutes to talk. Humans dated to get to know their partner; Immortals went through a frenzy and blood bonding that left them completely aware of the other on a deeper level through their pasts. She and Hades seemed to be going through some middle ground of both.

She liked him… cared for him, but she only knew what she felt and what she’d been told. She needed more.

His eyes sparked with amusement and heat. “What would you like to know,
thisavre mou
?”

“You were close with Aphrodite and Athena?”

He smiled. “With Aphrodite. No one could be close to Athena, she was a warrior completely lacking in a sense of humor, but we were allies.”

“Did you spend a lot of time with Aphrodite and her mate?”

“By the time they mated, there was a lot going on, but we did meet as often as possible. We made sure that Draken and Pothos had time together.” It had been important to him that his son have a companion that understood him. Sacha knew that Drake and P had been close as cousins, but something about his emotion and the words brought fond images of young Demi-Gods at play. Hades hadn’t just worried about his son being a warrior.

“His power wasn’t questionable. And I did teach him to fight, there were always wars, but I didn’t want his life to be filled with duty and darkness. I wanted him to embrace and appreciate the pleasures that life had to offer.” He shook his head, a touch of a smile on his lips. “Aphrodite and I tried, but those two were still fairly serious.”

“They were the same age?”

“Draken was a few years older,” he admitted.

“How did you come to raise Pothos? Brianne said that his mother was a priestess of Thule.”

He eyed her for long minutes. He wasn’t used to discussing his life, and he hesitated. He finally spoke. “She was. Eir was an emissary of sorts for a God named Agnarr.”

He was hedging. Not wanting to upset her with talk of other females, but it only made her more curious. “Did you care for her?”

“I didn’t know her well,” he admitted. “She was a strong female who wasn’t opposed to…” She felt him searching for any way out of admitting to having had sex with P’s mother. She didn’t want to think of him with another female, but she really didn’t want to think that he’d cared for Pothos’ mother and lost his love. Sacha didn’t like the idea that she’d feel like she was in some competition with a dead female.

He brought her hand up to his lips, and the warmth of his breath made her skin flush and desire slide down the length of her body. His eyes were serious when he spoke. “She bore my son and I’m grateful, but there is no comparing my experiences with her or anyone else to
this
.” She felt the truth of his words.

“When did you learn about Pothos?” Sacha was curious about the whole situation.