Forbidden To Love (The Erosians) (26 page)

“They’re only red when I need to feed,” Luca explains softly.              “Is that why you left me?”                                                         He shakes his head. “Hades needed me. I was summoned before I had time to secure the cell. I'm so sorry I left you like that” His face falls, and I again feel the need to take his anguish away.                                                                                     “Hades clicks his fingers, and you come running?” I instantly regret uttering those words as I see Luca’s face cloud over with what looks like disappointment.                             “I'm the head of his army. I have to go to him if he calls.” My cheeks burn with embarrassment at my stupidity for not understanding the position Luca’s putting himself in for me.                                                                                                   “Who were they?” I nod towards the pile of ash as Luca’s arms tighten around me.                                                                       “Two rogues from the race. They broke out of their shackles from where they were being held. They were due to be executed tomorrow, but they heard there was a God being held here. They thought if they drank your blood it would give them some sort of unbeatable strength.” Luca sounds angry at the memory of them.                                                         “Would it have worked, if they had taken my blood?” I was seconds from death, and I honestly do owe Luca my life.                                                                                                                 “It might have done, but it doesn’t matter now. They’re gone, and no one else here would be stupid enough to try it,” he assures me.                                                                       “What about you?” I pull myself away from him slightly so I can read his expression.                                                         “I don’t need your blood.” His voice becomes grave.              “That’s not what I asked.”                                                         He springs to his feet. I can hear his teeth grinding. I’ve crossed the line, and now he’s snapped. “Do you even have to ask? I just saved your life, and not for the first time. If I wanted your blood, I would have drained you before when your arm was an open buffet!” He becomes more incensed as he walks the length of the room.                                                         “I'm risking everything protecting you. If Hades found out, he’d tear me limb from limb and you, you …” I climb quickly to my feet and walk over to where he’s pacing.                            “I'm sorry, I didn’t mean -”                                                         He stops walking abruptly, and his face is angrier than I’ve ever seen it.                                                                                     He starts towards me. “You’ve done this! How could I have been so blind? Hades brought you here to get Persephone to love him, and that’s what you’ve done to me, you’ve made me love you.” He grabs hold of my arms roughly, his fingers squeeze into my skin, and I'm sure they’re going to pierce it.                                                                                    
“I haven’t,” I plead with him, but he’s set on the idea              “Of course you have. Why the hell would I want you otherwise? Why would I have this urge inside of me to be with you that scolds me worse than any need to feed I’ve ever had? You selfish … ” He squeezes my arms tighter, sending rivers of pain down each one.                                                         “I haven’t because I can’t,” I cry, breaking his rant.               He releases my arms, and I fall to the ground. He stares at me, his face no longer angry. His mouth falls slightly ajar as his face loses all emotion.                                                         I quickly scramble to my feet and push him with all my strength. He isn’t concentrating because he stumbles backwards a few steps.                                                                                     “You think I want to feel this for you?” I yell at him, pushing him again.                                                                                     “You killed Josh, the reason I'm here, the reason I gave up on everything - and you killed him. Do you really think I want to want you that I want this desire inside of me to be with you? It disgusts me. I hate myself for wanting the … the ... thing that killed the man I love.”                                           I stand there out of breath. Luca is staring at the ground, standing a few footsteps from me. I mentally prepare myself for the onslaught - verbal, mental or physical - he’s about to give back to me.                                                                       I'm thrown back against the wall with such force I'm sure there is a me-shaped imprint left behind. Luca’s body presses against mine as his hands reach urgently around my waist, pulling me into him. His lips press ferociously against mine. My body reacts willingly, ignoring the searing pain in my heart from the memory of Josh.                                                         I reach my hands around his neck, holding him against me. One of his arms slides down my thigh and cups beneath my knee pulling my leg up around him. I wrap my other leg around his waist as his lips leave mine and kiss further down my neck to my bare shoulders. I arch my back as he turns and lowers me onto the throw on the ground.               I wouldn't have believed there is a feeling more pleasurable than the euphoria I felt every time Josh melted me into a fiery river of lava using his touch, but Luca causes orgasmic eruptions at each of my erogenous zones. All of them explode, begging him to recognize them and to move his touch to them.                                                                                     His lips find their way back to mine, and I welcome them eagerly.                                                                                     “Stop,” he breathes but I'm too caught up to listen. He tries to pull away, but I hold him against me. He doesn’t put up much resistance.                                                                       Instead his fingers graze my sides, and I feel my dress rip at the seams. I bring my hands around to his chest and tear at the buttons on his shirt so I can run my hands freely along the powerful planes of his sculpted abs. His skin is cold and I feel his cold fingers moving softly against my back.              “Acacia, wait,” he murmurs again and his kisses become lighter against my skin. His hands no longer search every inch of my body. Instead, he rolls onto his side, propping himself up on one arm.                                           “What’s wrong?” I ask him desperately, wishing he’d take me back into his arms.                                                                       “Not here, not like this.” I’ve heard those words before, and I start to feel sick at what I’ve done. He reaches over to me and gives me one more kiss. It’s not a leading kiss, though. It’s a firm, strong, that’s-it-for-now kiss.
“Okay,” I agree as a war rages inside me between the part of me desperate for his kisses and the part that thinks I should run to the nearest werewolf and ask it to rip me to pieces for what I’ve just done.

Missing Pieces

~23~

We could have been laid together for days. I have no concept of time. I don’t know if the sky turns dark as it did earlier when its night. I don’t know if their days are twenty-four hours.

They
’re not really the important things, though. I don’t know what’s going to happen when Hades finds out I can’t make Persephone love him. I don’t know why I'm suddenly in love with the one I should despise the most, or why he is suddenly in love with me. I'm more scared about the fact that the werewolves seem to want to take my blood to see if it will make them stronger!

Luca
’s eyes are beginning to change. I can see the red forming around the edges and seeping towards the centre. “Your eyes, you need to go again.” He nods silently. “Where do you go?” it’s one of the more intrusive questions I could ask but at least it should be a simple answer.

“
What do you mean?” he asks.

Well, I thought it was a simple question.
“Do you, you know, pick a different city to go to, maybe do some population control in an area?” I scold myself for my attempt to make what he does to survive humorous.

Luca laughs at my joke.
“No, we’ve come a long way from savaging villages and cities.”

I suppose they must have advanced. They
’ve been here for millennia.

“
What do you do now, then?” Luca sits up and I follow.

“
Some questions, Acacia, are better left unanswered, especially when the answer to them is not one I’d like to have to explain to you.” He sighs, knowing I won’t give up till he explains.

“
You know how things here are made of human bones … ” I nod looking at the bench and the door. “Well Hades likes to be ‘green’.” He laughs to himself but I just look at him, confused. “He recycles the bodies when they come here. They’re sent for draining and the blood is bottled, then they’re skinned and separated into their useful components.” I feel bile rising to my throat as I picture what he’s telling me.

“
So you just collect a bottle and it’s that simple?” He nods.

I can
’t believe what I'm hearing. Tears start to sting my eyes. Josh will be brought here soon, if he’s not already here. Luca could be drinking his blood. I fight back the urge to be sick.

“
It won’t happen to Jake,” I hear Luca mutter

“
His name was Josh,” I correct him, as if Luca getting his name wrong is a bigger insult than anything I’ve done to his memory.

“
Josh will be given the chance to return to the mortal world on All Hallows Eve, so he’ll be allowed to keep his body”.

I need to stop talking with Luca. It seems every conversation we have leads to a million more questions.
“Why?” I can’t help but ask. I'm so relieved that Josh won’t be defiled in that way.

Luca stands and walks to the window.
“Only those sent to Tartarus are relieved of their bodies. They don’t need them there. It is their souls that are imprisoned.” That doesn’t provide as much relief as I was hoping it would.             

“
I better go. I’ll lock the door this time, but what happened to those rogues has got round. Everyone’s now scared to come up here.” His face breaks into a smile and he swallows a laugh.

“
Why?” I look at him quizzically.

He shrugs but his impish grin betrays him.
“I might have told everyone you have telekinetic powers and you threw them around the room and destroyed them, so now they’re all staying away” I gawp at him. He comes over to me and places one finger below my chin, closing my mouth. He kisses me gently. “I won’t be long, my love.” He kisses me deeper, which provides the relief I was looking for and stops me getting mad at him for making up powers I don’t have.

I lean against the window. After he flies out the room, I look out onto the fields. They
’re still. I guess no one’s out hunting. I feel the familiar pain of loss and betrayal, starting at my toes, then firing its way rapidly throughout my body, setting alight every nerve. When Luca is holding me, I feel no pain for Josh. It’s like he puts my love for Josh on hold while the love I feel for him plays out. Once he leaves, though, he takes that relief with him and I feel like the worst person in the world.

“
Acacia.” I spin round to the sound of my name. There standing behind the web of bones is the girl from the painting.

“
Persephone,” I mumble to myself. She stares at where Luca has locked the door and the lock falls to pieces as the door opens for her. I press myself against the wall as I take in her flowing lace gown which trails endlessly behind her.

More striking is her pale heart-shaped face which should look gentle but instead her expression is stern. Her eyes are no longer frozen as they appeared in the painting. They look alive and wild, almost as wild as Hades
’. Now in front of me, she has her hair loose and it’s hard to tell where it ends. It is as dark as her dress and appears almost as long.

“
What happened to your dress?” She eyes each side of it carefully as I try to hold it up against me.

“
Two rogues came to try and attack me. They ripped it.” I can hardly tell her what really happened. I have no idea what she’d think, or if she’d turn Luca over to Hades, and it’s not like they can deny my story anymore.

“
I’ll have you a new one sent up.” She floats towards me, her hands held together at her waist. Each finger is adorned with a different jewelled ring. Trapped in each ring is the swirling grey mist which I’ve come to learn is the essence of a deceased soul.

“
I'm here to warn you.” Her eyes narrow as she speaks. “If you do as Hades wishes and make me love him, you will destroy everything. There will be a war. The Underworld race will destroy Olympus, and everyone and anyone that gets in their path.”

I gulp. Her tone is grave and matter-of-fact, without the hint of any emotion, so I have no doubt what she says is true.

“The mortals will also die. My mother will not stand for it and she will cause a mass famine, one which Zeus will not be able to barter himself out of this time.” She spits the last few words which appears all the more harsh because of how graceful her appearance is.