That Fatal Kiss (29 page)

Hades trapped her wrists behind her with one hand while the other tore the skirt of her narrow dress so it could slide into the dripping juncture between her legs. He said in her ear, “Do you know how some subjects worship their kings?”

His hard heat looming up behind her, Persephone thrilled in feeling so small, so controlled, reveled at being taken in hand by this dark lord. Her breathing jagged, she took the bait. “How?”

“On their hands and knees.” Hades released her wrists and eased her forward until she was in that exact position, then ripped away the remains of her skirt and thrust himself inside her.

The goddess cried out from the unbearable pleasure of him filling her, expanding her. Her fingers clutched the bedclothes and she whimpered, ready to beg for…she hardly knew what. Then Hades slowly pulled himself out, only to plunge back in, even deeper.

“Persephone,” Hades said, his voice hoarse but even, “you are queen here and your authority is equal to mine.” He withdrew from her as slowly as before, then sank back inside her. “But on one matter I rule supreme and you
will
submit.”

Persephone trembled, mindless with arousal and throbbing madly for him. “Tell me,” she grunted, hardly recognizing the savage need in her own voice.

Hades pumped into her several more times, in maddeningly slow succession, then, holding himself at her moist and swollen entrance, said, “You will never again enter Tartarus without my escort. Do you understand?”

Nearly hating him for keeping her on the brink of ecstasy, and for using her need for him to manipulate her, yet Persephone flamed at his words. “Yes.”

He drove himself inside her and brought her up again, a hand reaching to grasp one of her breasts as the other stroked the core of her sex. “You’ll obey me in this.”

Wild, he made her wild with need, with his touch, with his iron grip and penetrating steel. And how she adored all he was doing to her in that moment. Persephone shook as she answered again, “Yes.”

Hades shifted her up, only to bring her firmly back down upon him. “Say the words, Persephone.”

With tears of frustration escaping her tightly shut eyes, the goddess said, “I will obey you.”

Then he set her back down on her hands and knees and plunged into her with a greatly accelerated rhythm, until Persephone exploded with a keen of pleasure and the violent contractions within her drew an equally feral cry of exultation from Hades. The two collapsed as the rollicking waves within them subsided. The goddess managed to turn herself around and brought his face to hers to be kissed. He slid his arms around her and returned her lusty kisses, until she abruptly flipped him onto his back and straddled him once more.

“That was a dirty trick,” Persephone told him, frowning severely.

“That it was, my dearest, most darling Kore,” Hades replied placidly, though he still struggled to get his breathing under control. “That it was…” Then he grinned and tumbled her onto her side and back into his arms. “Imagine my surprise to find that it worked.”

She let out a hoot of laughter at that and pressed a kiss to his face. “Well, no matter how wickedly obtained, my word is yours. Now I expect you’ll explain yourself.”

Hades lost some moments kissing her in return, then held her close and appeased her. “As you’ve already gathered, I was not best pleased by the…changes you wrought in Tartarus. But my greater concern was that you’d make your way down to the lowest level of the prison, whether by accident or design, into the pit in which are kept the Titans.”

Persephone absorbed the weight of his words. “Those who joined Cronus in the battle against you and your brothers?”

“The very same. The Titans are well secured, but they’re a dangerous lot. Believe that when Rhadamanthys told me you’d gone to Tartarus alone, I paled at the thought of you falling prey to their evil designs.”

“Yet they cannot break free, surely?”

“It isn’t likely, I grant you. Nevertheless, you gave me your word that you’d await my escort should you wish to enter Tartarus again.” Hades’ eyes flashed a warning that sent a chill down her spine. “Never break it.”

“I won’t,” Persephone said, slipping an arm around his waist. “Tell me more about those days, Hades, when you and the others warred with the old ones.”

And so the god regaled his wife with tales of battle the likes of which neither the Heavens nor the Earth had ever experienced before or since. As astonishing as these were, it was only when Hades described Zeus’ final battle against the most dangerous creature in existence that Persephone shivered.

“This creature you describe, this…Typhon,” she said. “You say he was ordered by Gaia to punish you all for imprisoning the Titans?”

“Just so. A more terrible brute there never was. Enormous, so tall he nearly reached the sky. His thirst for destruction was just…well, his hunger for laying waste was matched only by his need to mate with his wife.”

Persephone’s stomach turned at the thought. “What vile offspring he must have sired.”

“Well, yes, but not all are so hideous. Cerberus is one.”

The goddess chose not to contradict him. “And Zeus could not destroy Typhon?”

“Not completely, though he dealt such violent blows that he successfully maimed the thing.”

“Good. And is he also imprisoned in the pit?”

“No, Typhon lies trapped beneath Mount Etna.”

Persephone untangled herself from Hades and sat up. “Beneath Etna?”

Hades also rose into a seated position. “Aye. What’s the matter? You’ve gone quite pale.”

“How does Typhon come to be under the mountain?”

The god reached for one of her curls and toyed with it as he said, “I’d gathered the Titans together and, with Poseidon, brought them down into the Underworld. While we were gone, Typhon attacked and terrorized my remaining siblings until only Zeus would stay behind to fight him. Your father shot down a hundred bolts of thunder, severing some of the snake heads from Typhon’s body, and crippling his serpentine legs. Then Zeus tore up Etna and crushed the creature beneath it, driving Typhon deep underground, practically back into the womb of his mother.”

“And there he remains?”

Hades raised a brow at the worry in her tone and features. “I expect so, as I’ve not seen him slithering about the place.”

“You’re certain he can’t escape?”

“Fairly,” he answered with a chuckle. “Though I’ll admit, the day of our…er…disagreement in Elysium, I felt a moment’s concern at the thought of you finding yourself alone in that region of Erebus.” Hades embraced her and, finding her flesh unexpectedly chilled, began to briskly rub her arms. “Why are you so cold, Kore, what troubles you?”

Persephone laid her hands on his chest, her face even more solemn than the day he’d first brought her to the Underworld, and Hades’ hands slowed as she spoke. “Ione once mentioned that she and the other servants don’t like to traverse in the eastern lands. I came to understand why when I found myself in the very region.”

His hands now stilled on her upper arms. “When was this?”

“The day after Elysium. I’d been searching for Hecate’s cave, for hours, and came upon a rock formation which seemed a good place to have a rest. I felt these…warm winds rising up…rather hot, really. Seeing the rusty-colored soil, I realized I must be beneath the mountain and that Hephaestus’ workshop must be the cause of the heat. But then…”

Hades brought the bedclothes up and around her shoulders, prompting lightly, “But then?”

“I heard a…well, I’m not sure what it was. A rumble sounded, raising the hairs on my arms. I grew anxious and took off.” Her eyes widened as she said, “Hades, could it have been the roar of the beast?”

The god climbed out of their bed and pulled on his clothes. “It’s possible.”

Feeling the need to do something, Persephone followed suit. She pulled a creamy colored gown from her chest, asking as she willed it onto her body, “Are you going somewhere?”

“
We
are, yes,” Hades said, reaching across the bed for her hand. Persephone felt her cloak rise up to cover her as Hades transported them into the courtyard.

THE GOD SOON
had a merry fire burning in the central hearth and a blanket on the ground, with a basket nearby promising food and drink. Hades made sure to settle Persephone comfortably before he sat down. He reached into the basket and brought out some cakes and a flask of wine. Hades held these before the goddess, silently imploring her to partake.

“No, I thank you,” she demurred.

“You’ll need your strength if we’re to do battle with Typhon,” Hades said, his voice low as he held the food out to her.

Persephone smiled but waved the food away. “You know me well enough that you expect me to want to act on my suspicions and yet you cannot accept that I am resolved in my fast?”

He gave a shake of his head and set the items down before him. “It’s not that I can’t accept, Persephone,” Hades said, unstopping the flask. “It’s that I don’t comprehend the need for it, now that things are as they are, between us.”

The goddess pulled her cloak closely about her shoulders as she watched him drink. Her stomach gave a groan of protest, arresting Hades’ attention. His face stern, he capped the flask and was about to reproach her again when Persephone asked, “How shall we go about resolving the matter of the monster beneath the mountain?”

“
You
should keep to the palace while
I
ride out on the morrow and finish off whatever remains of the creature.”

Persephone made a rude noise deep in her throat.

“No, I didn’t suppose you’d be in agreement with that plan,” Hades acknowledged, rolling one of the flat barley cakes around a bit of lamb and then eating it.

“Certainly not,” the goddess said. “As your queen, I belong at your side, no matter what.”

Hades took another draught of wine. “Had I known where matters would lead, I’d have extorted more than one vow of obedience from you.”

She stuck her tongue out at him.

The god nodded his agreement with that and wrapped himself another morsel of meat. “Just as I expected. You’ll see no reason, henceforth, but will push on against any and all arguments I offer.”

Her voice tart, Persephone answered, “And
you
will be good enough to desist in any inevitably futile efforts to dissuade me from doing my duty by you. Now, let us devise a plan of action.” More seriously, she asked, “You don’t believe he can…kill us, do you?”

“Kill, no. Maim near unto death, absolutely. Your own father was hard-pressed to subdue Typhon, remember that.”

“I understand.” Persephone thought for a moment. “You said earlier that Typhon himself is maimed. And he’s been crushed underneath Etna all this time, he cannot have procured any sustenance for himself. Weakened and injured, he’s not bound to put up much of a fight, really. It should be a simple matter of…”

Hades paused in the act of raising the flask to his lips to regard her. “Of what, my dear?”

She turned away from the amusement in his eyes and burrowed deeper into her cloak. “Oh, I don’t know. Of beheading him, I daresay. Assuming that’s even possible.”

“
Possible
, certainly. But which head?”

“
Which
head?” Persephone echoed. “Oh, yes…he has the head of a man and near to one hundred snakes’ heads.”

“Snakes’ heads which spit deadly venom,” Hades corrected helpfully as he reached in the basket and withdrew another chunk of lamb.

The goddess looked with great longing at the food she could not have, then unhappily looked the other way. “Then I shall shield myself as we relieve him of
all
of his heads. Nothing could be simpler; why, I believe we could be done with him and ready for a bit of fun in Elysium by the time Helios’ chariot is halfway through its daily trek across Erebus.”

“I do admire your confidence, Kore, but I wonder,” Hades said as he rummaged in the basket, “when did you last wield a sword?”

“When did I…” Persephone trailed off with a frown. “Well. Never.”

“A-ha.”

“Oh, hush now. I’m sure there are many ways to behead Typhon.”

“All right,” Hades said affably, “show me
one
.”

Persephone searched his face for a hint of a smile and, finding none, realized he was in earnest. “Hera’s horns. You want me to prove myself?”

“Yes.”

“You forget yourself, sir. Rather, you forget that I am your equal.”

“Very nearly, yes,” he said, then held up a finger to stave off her indignant reply. “You cannot deny that our physical compositions vary greatly—”

“I’d noticed,” she cut in with a smirk.

“—and you are accustomed to giving life, not taking it. In that, you must own, I have the advantage.”

“Yes, you have me there, Hades.”

“
And
, whereas I train daily with my sword, you’ve not once experienced what it is to engage in full-scale battle.”

Damn that Viewing Mirror
. “Thus,” Persephone said, “you require of me a show of force.”

“I do.”

“Just the one?”

“If you please,” Hades said with a smile. In it, Persephone read the sentiment, “If you’re able.”