Page 17 of Seduced

“What is wrong with you?” he asked eventually, his voice dropping to a low, sincere, puzzled tone.

“What do you mean?” Poppy turned her head away from his, towards the window. Everything was black; she couldn’t tell the inside of the hackney from the outside.

“You are a strange little creature. Not strange enough to excite me, of course, but strange enough that I want to solve you. I think I might need to show you my river, after all,” Hades chuckled to himself. “That might scare your secrets out of you.”

“I’m not—”

She stopped herself.

She didn’t know what to do. How to refuse. She didn’t want to go back to the Hell Club, but she didn’t want to add to her sins either. She was in an impossible situation.

At least you have learned to obey orders so well, it’s your second nature.

It’s harder to sin now, after your brother’s discipline.

That thought should have put her at peace, but something twisted in the pit of her stomach. It did not feel as if obeying Hades was the right thing to do. Then again, everything felt wrong.

“Come now, tell me, why did you come to the Hell Club tonight,” Hades asked, “if not to spy on me?”

Right. She knew how to answer that one without sinning. Time for the truth.

“I came to the Hell Club so that I could see for myself,” she told him.

“So I was right all along. You little spy.” The venom with which he spewed the words took her by surprise.

“I had little hope of discovering something that might help shut the place down,” Poppy added quickly. “After all, I am guessing that I am not the first nor the last person who has wanted to do that. Besides, I knew that the man who runs it, Lord Hades, must have connections in high places. It is said that there are members of Parliament, peers and even princes from all over Europe coming to London to congregate in the Hell Club.”

“Don’t say hell,” Hades repeated, and in a sudden flash of the moon, she saw that his face had taken on a strange, grayish color. “And you are right, the man who owns it does have connections in high places. And you did know my title, little liar.”

“As I said, at any rate, I don’t think I shall be able to do anything to stop the advancement of hell that goes onunderneath London’s streets every night,” Poppy added hurriedly, feeling the conversation ambling out of her depth. Words had a way of doing that, spinning out of control. Best to stay as quiet as possible. “But I can find another poor soul to….”

“To what?”

Poppy’s blood rushed from her head.

She had almost told him everything.

“Nothing,” she said.

She clamped her lips shut.

That was it. She was done talking. Forever.

six

Alexei

By the time they piled into the hackney, the boy was shivering so violently that his breath kept catching and stopping, as if he were about to expire. Alexei was about to murder him. Cerberus the cat was blissfully hacking up a furball.

“What were you about to say? Answer the question, damn you.”

They boy stayed strangely mute.

Answer me, Alexei thought.Answer me this second.

Speak, say something, end this endless silence.

Speak, or I shall speak.

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