Divine Ecstasy (The Guardians of the Realms Book 8) (20 page)

“After he was born. She found a way back during one of Agnarr’s visits. I think she may have been the one to convince the God to come. That was the first day I laid eyes on my son,” he said with remembered awe. The sheer joy he’d had in seeing his son was there for her to feel all the way to her soul. “He was perfect and most definitely mine. He had the smallest wings, and I could feel the telepathic bond the second I set eyes on him. It was the most incredible feeling I’d ever had.”

“You didn’t know she was pregnant before that?”

“No.” He shook his head. “She told me that she’d hidden her pregnancy and Pothos from everyone in Thule. I have no idea how she would have done that, but I believed her when she said it. She was frantic.”

“Did she explain why she was scared for him?” Sacha couldn’t imagine being so worried for her child she’d feel it was safer to send him away. That would be a hell all in itself.

“She said that the Gods of her world would consider Pothos dangerous. That they’d try to kill him,” Hades ground out in fury at just the thought of someone harming his child. “There had been a few Gods who’d gone mad like so many of my siblings. They were killing priestesses and Gods alike. She said if they didn’t kill him, they’d attempt to imprison him there, and she couldn’t protect him.”

She’d already heard some of this. About how Agnarr had sought out allies to stop his warring siblings.

“Why kill the priestesses? How were they a threat to the Gods? Or had it just been for the pleasure of killing?” The majority of the Earth Gods had fed off the energies of death and torment, demanding sacrifices in their honor. Those energies addicted and drove them into deeper depravities. Hades and his sisters were the only ones who’d only fed off Earth’s pure energies.

“It had to do with the way their world was set up. Instead of nine Immortals with various powers for each God, the Creators of Thule made three priestesses for each of their Gods. Eir was more powerful than the average Immortal here. I’d say they were closer to the strength of your Guardian powers in that aspect. They were immune to the Gods’ powers and had their own abilities to use against the Gods.”

If the priestesses could wield power against the Gods, it made sense that they would consider a priestess’s son a threat. “So she left him with you?”

“Yes. I tried to get her to stay,” he admitted, and that made her think even better of him. He shook it off. “I knew that some of their Gods had died already and so had a lot of priestesses, but she said she had to go back. Then she made me promise to never let a God of Thule see him.”

“What happened then?” She knew P’s mother was dead.

He nodded absently. “I got the news of her death on one of Agnarr’s trips to discuss the alliance.”

She furrowed her brow as she considered the time line. “Why did it take so long?” she asked. P was more than grown by the time they found the artifact that called the Creators back.

Her questions were bringing him back to the fact that she’d been a slave during that same time. She stopped him. “This isn’t about that.” There was no going back to change anything even if she’d wanted to, and dwelling on it wouldn’t do him any good.

“Agnarr was creating a special prison for the other Gods in his world. Something he assured me was almost finished
every
time we spoke for decades,” Hades gritted out.

“You were able to imprison the Tria in Hell. Why couldn’t they do the same?”

She felt his hesitation; he wasn’t used to sharing. “What we did couldn’t be done again. It was dangerous, and he couldn’t have contained the four Gods of Thule who’d banded together to destroy everything in their world.”

“Why?” But she understood more as soon as the word was out.

“We used a portion of our own life forces in the creation of that prison. Even if we’d been able to get a hold on the others, we couldn’t have done it again.” Using a life force was strong power. The mating spell was created when Charybdis used a portion of her life force to stop Apollo from using the Immortals to create his army. The female had been an Immortal breeder, one Sacha had known. She’d known that giving away her children to the warrior camps, to the Gods, had driven Charybdis slightly mad. Sacha had been lucky enough not to have suffered that fate. In order to make the spell eternally binding, she’d used her own life force and become nothing more than a shell of a being after that.

“So you understand why it took me as well as Aphrodite, Athena and my sisters’ consorts to add a portion.” He clenched his teeth. “Even Drake and Pothos added a small piece of themselves to it.” She could feel that he’d not been pleased by that when he added, “There hadn’t been a choice. It would have been better to make individual prisons, but it wasn’t possible and we were losing our hold on the demon spawn.”

“You caught them when they brutalized Alex in Athena’s palace.” She nodded, knowing the story. Uri’s mate could have died along with her brothers, Vane and Erik, who’d tried to save their sister.

“Yes,” he growled. She knew he was seeing the carnage and the need to kill was strong. “And that meant we couldn’t afford to let them get away. It was Ares’ and Artemis’ doing. They’d sent their demented sons out to create havoc and torment Athena. And they would have done it again. They could have sent them to harm Pothos next.” He growled.

She could feel his hatred for his depraved siblings. It was their incestuous coupling that had spawned the Tria. And the evil triplets were driven by their need to feed off the pain and suffering they caused.

She ran her fingers over his, which were again moving absently on her skin. The need was building, but the simple desire to touch him was nearly as strong.

“Why do you think Deimos came to you?”

“I’m a God,” he mused as if that was answer enough, but she could feel his mind working. “I assume they felt my power reawakened, and maybe they hope I’ll free them using the tether I put on their souls.”

Sacha’s fingers stilled along with her heart as she stared over at him. He was still on his side with his head in his hand as if his words hadn’t been disturbing. “What do you mean by tether?”

He raised a brow. “A means to call them to me.”

She could feel how his answers seemed to make perfect sense to him. “But that means they’re linked to you.” Linked to her? She felt vaguely sick at the thought of that evil anywhere near either of them. She mentally sought it out, but couldn’t find any kind of link to Hell.

He came up over her, bracing on his forearms with his heat and weight settling her into the bed. “It’s nothing more than a tag inside them that I can use to call them out of Hell. They aren’t physically attached to either of us.” He growled, “I would never allow them to touch you. You will always be safe.”

Desire hummed at the feel of him on top of her, but she couldn’t succumb after his revelation. She needed to know more, even if the weight of his cock between her legs was making her body pliant with want. “Why did you do that?” she asked. “Why have a way to get them out of their prison?”

“As a precaution. If the walls ever weakened, I’d rather be able to pull one out at a time and deal with him. It would be easier than dealing with all three,” he explained even though he wasn’t pleased at having to consider the possibility of the prison ever coming down.

She nodded and found that his answer made him all that more attractive to her.

His grin was beautifully devilish. “I hope my brilliance isn’t the only thing you find attractive.”

She mentally sighed before cocking a brow. He was definitely arrogant, but if anything, she found it amusing. “I don’t believe brilliance was in my stream of thoughts.”

“It was inferred.” He sighed and rolled to his back, pulling her into him so that her cheek rested against his chest. “Ask your other questions,
thisavre mou
.” He understood her need to know him and was allowing it when all he really wanted was to have her again. Her lips twitched against his warm skin, relishing the moment of closeness she needed with him, but they wouldn’t have a lot of time.

He stopped massaging her back long enough to give her shoulder a soft squeeze, and she knew should check in with Sirena before it wasn’t an option. She could feel his hard cock at her side and knew the time for holding back was nearly at an end.

She needed some confirmation that their blood hadn’t been the problem.

Chapter 21

Hades’ Island, Tetartos Realm

Sacha felt for the link to Sirena and asked,
What did the blood work sa
y
?

The healer’s voice came through a second later.
You are both fully mated and powerful as hell. Did you try the things we spoke of?

One. My power is free.

And?

We still feel it.

Then you know what to do. If it doesn’t work, I promise we’ll figure this out,
the healer assured her.

Thank you.

I’m only a call away. No matter what.
Sacha felt her sister’s warmth through the bond. The Guardians had been a family of sorts from the moment the Creators linked their minds. They fought together and amused each other, but through it all they loved one another as blood siblings would.

She sent her gratitude through the link and dropped the connection as she took a deep breath, inhaling his scent and the sex in the room.

“Blood doesn’t always mean love and loyalty,” he said thoughtfully. “You really have forged something special.”

Those traits had definitely been lacking in his relationship with his siblings. She could feel it along with the heat burning under his skin; that need didn’t stop her from asking, “Did you spend time with all of your brothers and sisters when you were a child?” She wondered at the young boy Hades had been. And had the other Gods always been evil? Not that it mattered, but she was curious. Was it only caused by feeding off dark energies, or were they already prone to evil?

Sacha knew that Brianne was one of the Immortals created fully formed by the Creators to care for their children when they left the world. Her sister Guardian had been assigned to a young Hades and spoke fondly of the young hellion he’d been.

He grunted and she felt the action against her cheek and rubbed her face against it without thought. “We had separate palaces, but we were brought together often. And, no, they weren’t all evil as young, but they were always assholes, which was the reason they started taking in dark energies to begin with.” She could feel his disgust before he added, “Aphrodite and I were close from the start, always getting into mischief together.” He took a deep breath before continuing, “And it wasn’t as if our mother and father wanted to leave. This world couldn’t hold them, and we wouldn’t have survived with them if they’d attempted to take us.”

Hades and P both had mothers that were forced to leave them behind. Sacha liked to think that she would have found another way. But reality wasn’t always kind.

She couldn’t help the direction her mind trailed to from there. Could a baby be in her future? She’d never birthed a child; it was part of why Apollo and Hermes considered her a failed experiment.

“Would you want one?” he asked, and she felt his attention focused on her answer.

It wasn’t an easy or simple question. Immortals were able to have young, usually about a decade after mating. Birth rates were much lower than they had been before the mating curse. But Gregoire had conceived with his mate the night of their mating ceremony, so things might be changing.

She took a deep breath before answering, “Want?… Yes.” Very much, actually, but she added, “But it’s complicated.”

She lifted up to look at him. “I have a duty to the Realms.” She saw he was about to speak and shook her head. “I’m not mated to a Guardian, Hades. I
am
a Guardian. I’m a warrior as well as a diplomat. I protect. A pregnant Guardian out dealing with possessed and killing Hell beasts? That wouldn’t happen.”

She saw his eyes go hard at that, but she sighed and went on, “Having a child isn’t a choice we get to make, there are no forms of Immortal birth control, but it’s something that will likely be difficult for me no matter how much I’d love it.”

She was snared by the heat sparking in his eyes and the way he gazed down at her stomach with longing. That look made her nipples ache and her skin pull tight. He didn’t even need to touch her for her to feel him against her skin.

She needed to finish this conversation so that he understood. “There are four Realms to patrol. We do have more help now, with all the powerful mates helping. And Alex has been teaching some of them how to fight. Her sister-in-law, Sam, is powerful and learning, as well as the others like Dorian’s and Conn’s mates, who weren’t raised as warriors, but that will take some time. And there is a lot going on right now. We have a God loose and a Goddess from another world imprisoned. Not to mention the Tria causing trouble and now communicating with you. I’m needed.”

And as soon as they worked out the key to easing their constant need, she would be out there fighting beside her brethren as she was meant to. “If you thought you were getting a mate that would stay in your bed day and night, that’s not the case.”

He growled, “I will deal with the possessed and the Goddess of Thule. I can also dispose of more Hell creatures.” It was said with the arrogance of a God, but much as she frowned down at him, she couldn’t argue the fact that he’d dispatched a dozen possessed in her home with a mere thought. His help would be valuable, and according to Brianne’s memories, it was technically part of the deal he’d worked out with her brethren so they wouldn’t return him to stasis after getting his help to find Apollo.

She could feel him disregarding all her worries as something he would take care of, and she mentally sighed. She wouldn’t argue with him; he would learn soon enough what it meant to be a Guardian. She had a bad feeling he would be unbearable if she did get pregnant.