Page 8 of Claimed By her Alien Prince

"Is this really necessary?" I asked with a clenched jaw, wondering why we didn't just impress the Adamas with our superior strength and demand the seven required maidens.

"This styx—journey—is long and arduous, we all deserve a little bit of entertainment." My brother Abaddon grinned at our father, trying to win his favor.

As if to prove his words, some of the assembled nobles, witnesses to our styx, hollered loudly in approval as a gargoyle on one of the screens killed another Adama.

Disgusted, I turned my head and caught my brother Nergal's eyes as he smirked at me. "No taste for blood, brother?"

"Only yours," I retorted, and hissing we bared our fangs at one another.

"Boys," Behlial shouted, shaking his head. "Soon. For now, let's keep the peace."

"Why are you attacking their entire world? We always only attacked one area in the past, and this time we even know where the maidens will be." Queen Ishtar, my mother, supported me in her calm way.

"Because, my dear," Behlial answered condescendingly, "as I already explained to your bleeding heart son, this is more fun."

"And necessary to teach these uppity Adamas a lesson," Balaam, not to be outdone by his brothers, entered the discussion.

According to Ishtar, the last time she and Behlial visited Adama, they made a deal with the keepers of the Nayphyllym, an organization that called itself the Order. In exchange for them having the seven required Nayphyllym maidens prepared and waiting for us, Behlial would not attack Adama. A deal he had just broken.

As should have been expected from Behlial, commander and king of theAsphodel,also known as the King of Darkness and, erstwhile, King of Elysian, destined to ferry from Elysian to Adama to Tartarus and back to Elysian, and to repeat the trip for all eternity. Damning us with him.

At least, my brothers and I were not fated to this in perpetuity, not like Behlial.

"The gargoyles will sniff them out, as well as the Tainted, to replenish our stocks," Behlial added to his arguments. "The princes will be well fed, but that doesn't mean the rest of us have to feed off stale fare for the remainder of the journey."

His snickers were taken up by the nobles to his left, who agreed whole-heartedly to his plan. After all, they hadn't embarked on this journey only as witnesses to my father keeping his oath. Spaces on theAsphodelwere in high demand on Elysian, booked thousands of years in advance, or so I had been told one night when I made the mistake of venturing out of my room and ran into a handful of nobles.

Three hundred and twenty years is a long time, and eventually, I met all five thousand of our noble guests, some quite intimately, until I discovered that being intimate with my brothers or me was considered one of the styx's perks. Some of the noble women even took trophies, to show their friends when they returned to Elysian that they had fucked all seven sons, maybe even Behlial himself.

It sickened me, and, for the rest of the journey, I abstained from drinking from that particular well. There were enough Tainted on board to satisfy my needs without having to become some lady's trophy.

The ship certainly didn't lack entertainment; theAsphodelhoused a large bibliotheca, and I enjoyed immersing myself in the books there, watching history come alive.

Any history I desired was right there at my fingertips, but mostly it was Adama and its history that fascinated me, even though I couldn't have said why Adamas held such a lure over me. Sometimes I wondered if my subconscious was hoping to get a glimpse ofher, no matter how many times my logical mind explained how impossible that would be.

Adama had always teemed with life, despite our regular visitation and unnecessary culling. Unfortunately I had no say over this. Behlial was theAsphodel'sabsolute ruler; nobody naysaid him, not even me. I tried many times and paid the price for it.

I could have tried again, but the result would have been the same, debilitating pain for me, and Behlial's triumph, while Adama would still be plundered and burned.

"It's time." Behlial nodded at the expectant nobles. "Go have some fun," he ordered magnanimously.

The nobles nearly fell over each other in their haste to make it to the ferries that would take them to Adama's surface. This was what they came for.

Minutes later, I watched with disdain as the nobles fell over Adama as if they had been starving throughout the entire journey.

Behlial laughed as he watched the bloodbath he had unleashed by opening theAsphodel'sgates.

"I have half a mind of going down there and amuse myself," he chuckled, turning his head to the right, where we, hissons, sat. "Maybe you would like to accompany me, get a taste of the deliciousness that awaits you. You never know, you might even find your bride."

Nergal was the first to rise. "I'm with you, father."

Marduk's and my eyes met, he shook his head slightly and I sighed. For now, we would have to play the obedient sons, go down to Adama and feed with the others.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror earlier, after I fed from Calliope, and noticed my eyes had already turned red again.

"I'mBenVonWutenhaus,"the man who had lied to me introduced himself.

Once I was seated securely in the chopper, he handed me a helmet, so we could talk to each other over the noise of the helicopter and the constant ratatat of the mounted machine gun where a woman, dressed in black like Ben, was shooting at gargoyles trying to get closer to us.

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