Page 54 of Seeking Hades' Ember

Chapter 27

Hades

"What do the fuck do you mean Jillian can't stay here?" I growled out. I could feel my black knit shirt ripping from my slow, heavy breathing. After sitting behind Jillian, my joggers weren't much better for wear, and her delicious ass kept rubbing up against it. She was innocent to the whole thing but damn, she gave me blue balls like a mother fucker.

"I mean what I said," Malachi spoke cockily. "Part of the Underworld guidelines is that you bring no living soul here into your domain. You are breaking code written by the gods, you being one of them. You need to put her back on Earth or let her come with me, and I can bring her to Zeus. We can figure a way to keep her safe until your trial." Malachi looked at his fingers as he picked the dirt underneath.

"Shit," Vulcan whispered as Ares walked up. I heard the nails of Cerberus tap across the floor behind me. Jillian is starting to become bratty if she thinks she can come in here. "Cerberus, get her out of here. Go to the Darkened Forest and keep running. I'll find you when I'm done. Protect her."Cerberus didn't respond, but I heard him pulling at Jillian's shirt, who now was running down the hallway.

Now that Jillian was going to be safe, I could unleash something more lethal. "Tell me why you are here, Malachi. I'm not in the mood for games." Angels spread about the room, some ducking into nearby hallways to look for Jillian. "Run, Cerberus."I beckoned him, and a loud howl left his jaws. No angel would be able to keep up with his proper complete form.

"I don't know what you could possibly mean, Hades," Malachi mocked. "I'm just doing my duty as an angel and making sure laws are abided by."

"That law hasn't been enforced in thousands of years, and you know it." I stepped forward, leaking my wisping smoke on the floor. "If we summoned Zeus right now, what would he tell me about this little act you are doing?"

As much as Zeus got on my last cranial nerve, he was an overall good god. He was just and did things fairly amongst us. A god-whore he was but weren't the lot of them? He was younger than me and took place in the sky that I could have quickly taken, but I preferred to be away from the chaos. Zeus took pride in his work. If Zeus knew that Jillian, a human, was my mate, he would have never summoned Malachi to take away something so precious. Especially when he had not been granted one.

"Go ahead." Malachi crossed his arms. "I have time." I felt Malachi's heart-pounding; for being such a lowly enforcer angel, he certainly was putting up a fight. Vulcan, who could sense it as well, smirked as he willed a glass of scotch from his hand.

"Drink?" Vulcan offered. Malachi looked between the drink and me, warily weighing his options, when we heard a loud crash at the far end of the palace. I chuckled darkly and grabbed Malachi by the neck with one quick swipe. Other angels enter the room in a rush as they watch me slowly choke the life out of Malachi. His hands gripped my clawed hands as the nails pierced his neck.

"Lord Hades, please!" the angels pleaded. Many went on their knees as their wings touched the floor. A sign of total respect to a god. Malachi's light that embodied him begun to fade, now looking nothing more than mortal.

"Please, my Lord!" an angel known as Thebes spoke. This had always been a follower, a sheep that would follow a wolf into its den.

"Speak, Thebes, because Malachi has a short time to live." My smoke started to go through his nostrils, stealing the light inside of him.

"Malachi told us to come here, that Jillian was in horrible danger being in the Underworld. She would lose her life here as the fumes of Tartarus slowly suffocate her until she would no longer wake from sleep."

Ares snorted in laughter while Vulcan elbowed him in the ribs. I sighed heavily. "And you believed the shit that he spewed?"

All the angels nodded their heads. "Malachi said you wouldn't understand because you never have humans come down here. A god that doesn't spend much time with human mortals would have surely forgotten the harmful effects it could have for anyone that visited." Thebes looked around as the other angels nodded. "Plus, it is in the great law book."

Sure, it was in the Law Book of the Gods. I put it there to keep all those damn heroes out. Hercules is one of them, the cocky bastard. Give him a bit of strength, and he thinks he owns both heaven and hell. Deities couldn't even step foot down here; I'd burn them alive and feed their carcass to Cerberus if I wanted. I was the enforcer; I was there when it was written. If Malachi had read the fine print beneath it, he would realize I could have anyone down here that I wanted. No other god had dominion over overruling or carrying out such discrepancies over my world.

I gave an evil grin and threw my head back and laughed. It was not a laugh that I would have with my mate, but a laugh of the ridiculousness that Malachi would instill in a bunch of weak, pathetic angels. "I guess the rumors are true; angels will believe in anything some higher being will spout!" Turning to Vulcan, I said, "I guess I need to stop calling Jillian my angel; it is, in fact, an insult!"

Tossing Malachi to the floor, he sputtered as the outside light covering his celestial body began to glow again. As he rubbed his neck, I waved my hand, setting fire to his wings, turning them to a charred black. His screams only fuel my fire of revenge for him, especially for looking at my sweet mate the night of the auction. I wanted him to remember never to look or touch what was mine.

Other angels go to his aid, but I waved my hand for them to fall on the floor like a bunch of bowling pins. Once the fire had consumed, which was rather quickly, he was left charred wings of black soot. It would take time for him to heal from this one. My darkness beckoned me to finish him off, but there is a chance he may know where Selene and Hecate are. Call it intuition, but I can't rule out all options.

Summoning my torture demons from beneath the palace, they immediately came forth. Their bodies were full of black tar, hunched shoulders, and two large ram horns on either side of their heads. Malachi continued to wallow in pain as the other angels sat in shock.

"Take Malachi, put him in some…comfortable quarters," I spoke lowly.

The torture demons bowed as each one grabbed a limb, tugging and pulling at his wings all the while. "Hades! You will regret this! You are making a mistake!" I hummed while rubbing my thumb to my lips.

"I'm sure I am," I whispered, be he heard me. "Ares? Ready to have some fun?"

"With pleasure." He rubbed his hands together.

***

We traveled down to the deepest part of the dungeon. Down deeper in the cold, wet walls, we found Malachi chained and defeated. His legs were spread as his wings drooped. Malachi's fellow angels were sent back with a message of staying the fuck away from me and my mate, or inevitable repercussions will be handled forthwith. They will learn from their grave mistake of trusting in an old senile angel.

"I've got some questions, Malachi, and I need them answered swiftly. Otherwise,…" Ares stood tall with a metal ball with spikes on a chain. His beefy, macho self-stood tall. If I didn't know any better, you would have thought he was on steroids, but no, it was all him. Probably had a small dick too.

"You get the idea; he's become quite a big help around here." Dragging the chair in front of the bastard, I turned it so I was straddling it. My arms were resting on the chair while I tilted my head innocently. Learning a few tricks from Jillian might pay off.

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