Page 27 of Seeking Hades' Ember

Chapter 14

Jillian

After the slowest IV drip on the planet dripped the last bit of fluid in me, I quickly ripped it off and jumped off the table. There was a new energy in me that I hadn’t noticed before and I was ready to prance off down the hall until the doctor held out his arm. “Hold on there. Where do you think you are going?” Hades’ men came up behind me and Loukas put his hand on my shoulder.

“You can’t be running around the house like that. The IV drip had some caffeine in it to help with the few headaches you said you get. Once it wears off in about an hour, I don’t want you to have a crash and feel groggy again.”

“Right.” I nodded trying to compose myself. I couldn’t help it. I was feeling lighter than ever. “We have scheduled a few other,” he cleared his throat, “specialists to come in and check on you in the next few days.” Loukas patted my shoulder in understanding like he knew what he meant.

“When they are here you need to be able to tell them what was in your dream. I want you to be prepared to tell us that.” My fist clenched. I didn’t want to repeat the nightmares again. Loukas rubbed my back.

“I’m sure she will be ready. Hades will be back and I’m sure she will cooperate.” I crossed my arms, already worried about the next few days. They need to just let it go. I don’t want to think about it and I’m going to be stubborn.

“Aw come on.” Ares ruffled my hair as he walked in front of me. “Let’s do something fun. How about order take out and a movie?” My eyes lit up.

“Yeah! What can we watch?!” I jumped in excitement as the guys walked down the hallway.

Ares kept asking what kind of pizza I wanted, but the only thing I could come up with was cheese. I’ve only eaten crusts of pizza, not the actual cheesy topping part and of course, they all gasped and threw a few swear words around and said they were going to get a variety.

Thirty minutes later, Ares burst through the door with over fifty boxes of pizza. My mouth hung open as servants looked on in awe as the boxes towered over their heads and I couldn’t help my laughter as Cerberus started jumping trying to get a few.

I had a whole box of pizza to myself. I chose pepperoni with mushrooms along with some garlic dipping sauce and a large milkshake. I knew I couldn’t eat it all, but I was going to try my best. They were all doing so well trying to cheer me up from my embarrassing dream and assault on Hermes and Ares.

“What movie should we watch?” Vulcan spoke up. He had spent most of the time in Hades’ office yelling at someone, but I dared not ask. Vulcan was such a sweet and kind soul, so if he was yelling, I’m sure something was wrong.

I sucked on my milkshake, trying to think of some movies I always wanted to watch but nothing came to my head. It wasn’t like I could sit and watch commercials while the TVs were playing at the bar.

My silence got to Ares as he jumped up and said he had the perfect movie. He grabbed the remote and immediately typed in the movie, 300. “Dude, no!” Hermes jumped to grab the remote. “She can’t watch that shit. Are you that much of an idiot?” Ares feigned innocence as he held onto it as he sunk into the couch.

“It’s a great movie! They did a great job historically. Except they forgot to put how Ares showed up and helped kick some ass!” They continued to argue back and forth about the movie, and I sat there just munching on my pizza. I was used to men fighting at the club and that part didn’t bother me. It was them coming after me and needy hands and I knew these guys wouldn’t lay a finger on me.

Boxes scattered on the floor and a tired Loukas walked out of the office, shutting the door behind him. He watched me as I sipped more of my milkshake and watched Hermes and Ares continue their fighting over a remote. The two large men who could pass off as brothers were starting to get heated and Vulcan was over on the other side of the room making a call to his therapist.

“Sit the fuck down!” Loukas yelled, upset.

Ares didn’t like it one bit and stomped over to him and grabbed him by the throat. “You have no dominion over us, demon,” he spat.

Demon?

I cleared my throat to try and break the tension. “Hey guys, 300 is fine. I read the description. A bunch of topless guys fighting, I’m down.” Vulcan laughed in the corner while I snuggled into the blanket fort I created around me. On either side of me there was Loukas and Hermes as we hunkered down to watch.

Blood, so much blood.

It was all just a movie, but the blood would splatter even on the television screen. Ares was bouncing his head while eating some popcorn that Vulcan went to pop for us. How could he eat like that? Loukas’s head had lulled to the side; he looked exhausted. During the day, he had been out of the house going to town, running errands for the company while Hermes has to babysit.

The credits started rolling and it was already 11 pm. I was tired but not that tried to sleep into a sleep full of nightmares. Where was Hades?

Vulcan got up to switch off the TV and stretched his body letting out a loud gruff. “Well guys,” Vulcan looked over at me and bowed, “my lady, it’s time for bed.” Everyone got up from their spot and the servants came in to clean up after us. I stayed in my blanket fort staring at the ground. I was not going to bed. They would have to inject me with something if they wanted me to sleep and I know they would never do that.

“Come on, little one, off to bed. I’ll walk you there.” Hermes went to grab my hand, but I buried myself it farther into the blankets.

“I’ll just wait until Hades’ gets home thanks.” Nope, no bed for me.

Ares and Hermes had a little stand-off, probably thinking it was the movie. “It wasn’t the movie,” I blurted out. “I just can’t go to sleep until he gets back,” I murmured and hugged my legs. How could I get so dependent on Hades so fast? He had inched his way into my heart. I wanted nothing more to be around him and I couldn’t understand why. I did know he took the nightmares away.

Loukas came to sit beside me to console me, but I shook my head. “You guys go ahead. I’ll be all right.” I tried to give them some reassurance, but they weren’t having it.

“I don’t think he’s coming home tonight. It’s late. Come on, I’ll sit with you while you sleep and wake you up if you start having a nightmare.”

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