Page 35 of Hades

Pulling out a blanket from the basket I grabbed out from behind Hades’s seat, I throw it down and help her take a seat.

“Hungry?”

“A little,” she replies, “but I’m curious to know more about you and your brothers. Tell me everything.”

Smiling at her I take a seat across from her. “What would you like to know?”

“Everything!”

“There’s not too much to tell. As far back in my memory it has always been the four of us. Our beginning is a little fuzzy, but we were born to fight, gifted with unnatural talents. The first time I sucked the life from a person, I enjoyed the sensation a little too much. The four of us pushed the limits of our powers, it was a dark time in history,” he muses. “I will not name names, but I know who started the plague.”

Pyro rode to our manor with the girl covered in boils and a grimace on his face.

“I may have made a mistake,” is all he said. “How canI fix this?”

He muttered more to himself and then the next day she passed and there were more like her at our door, for him to heal. It took him too long to figure out a cure and thousands died. After that, he was celibate until we opened up the 4 Horses.

Hades doesn’t even bat an eye, she’s hanging on my every word, completely unfazed by the new information. She just motions with her hands for me to continue.

“Once we hit our thirties, we moved every ten years or so. If someone started to question us or ask our secrets to staying young, we’d pack it up and head out. We took turns attending college and studying business, helping start empires before moving on. The 4 Horses is the first venture we took on just for ourselves.”

“How can you stay in one place without anyone raising a red flag?” Hades asked me.

“For the staff we have a glamor that does age us and we retire and come back to take over the family business,” I explained to her.

“And no one questioned it?” She countered.

“There are a few that try but they are usually old timers that are close to retiring, so no one pays much mind to them,” I tell her.

“That’s strange to me, humans are all about drama, but what if I asked you to follow me to the Underworld? Would you? It is mine to rule, I can’t just leave it.”

I sit back and think about it. She is the first woman that has given me pause. There hasn’t ever been a woman that I’d move away from my brothers or this place for. Could I give it up? Is she the one that I’ve been waiting for?

“Maybe we can compromise, each of us four months in the Underworld. Kinda like a rotating schedule, but a vacation for the fiveof us topside?”

Hades taps her finger on her chin before answering. “I think that could work. That is, if your brothers agree.”

“Now it’s my turn to ask about you.”

She raises an eyebrow. “What would you like to know?”

“Why’d you pick Vegas? What made you start your search for a soulmate?”

“One, Vegas is warm, my partner would have to do well in a dry heat.” She laughs. “Intuition, I had a gut feeling that who I was longing for was here. The Underworld wasn’t the place I’d find him. That, and I was in need of a vacation.”

“When was your last one?”

“What year is this?” she asks with a serious look on her face. The way her eyes drew down was adorable as she tried to figure it out.

“That long, huh?” I laugh.

“I’m what my brothers call a workaholic. I'm not a micromanager, but it's my way or the highway. I was put in charge of the souls and to make sure they get where they are going. It's not a job that can be taken lightly, and I don't. It’s hot, dark and gloomy, and I love it."

"So, if I came back with you what would I do?" I cant my head to the side.

That devilish smirk returns. "That is something I have to think on."

I pull out the bounty of food I prepared, and Hades’s eyes light up when I bring out what I packed for desert.

---