Divine Ecstasy (The Guardians of the Realms Book 8) (9 page)

“By who?” His tone was deadly. His wings flexed as the pair looked at each other.

“Pietr made it.”

He felt her sending him and image of a shop. “Good.” He nodded before glancing around. “There are hotels and resorts in Tetartos?”

She frowned. “Yes.”

“Good. I require this palace until mine is built. My son will give you whatever you require so that I may use it.”

Neither spoke, just gaped at him, but he was already porting away.

*****

Put him down,
P gritted out to his father the second he reformed and saw what the hell was going on. Hades was livid. And P wasn’t much happier, he’d been trailing the Deity only to find him holding up an Immortal Geraki, half bird of prey, by the throat. It seemed the large expensive shop was vacant of anyone else, but a glance at the windows showed that they did have witnesses.

This was going to be a diplomatic joke. The Guardians had told those in the cities that they’d woken Hades and were responsible for him. And now it would spread that the God had lost his mind if P didn’t contain the issue. The last thing they needed was the Realm up in a panic that the Guardians couldn’t control a God.

He’d known shit was going to get worse after the battle in Hell Realm. His father had looked too damned contained at the end of that bloodbath. He’d thought he’d get a reprieve. That had been his mistake.

I’m serious. You need to put him down and tell me what’s going on,
P demanded through their mental link.

No,
Hades bit out.

“Now tell me, Pietr, how long did you serve me?” His father’s voice was quiet as he turned his attention back to the Immortal. And calm. Too damned calm. The God’s wings flexed and twitched as Hades’ power made the massive chandelier-filled room jingle. The place was too delicate to withstand a pissed-off Deity.

The male currently dangling by his feet sputtered, “I served happily for years.”

“And when did you decide to steal. From. Me?”

The last thing P wanted to do was have to unleash his hidden power on his father. Pietr would feel it, and P wasn’t overly sympathetic to the Geraki’s plight at the moment. He’d let his father vent a little longer since he wasn’t killing the male.

His thoughts turned to something else, making him frown.
How are you hurting him and not feeling the effects?

I was only cursed against harming humans.

P stared at him before adding,
Apollo was cursed with harming Immortals and humans alike
. The Guardians had learned that after Apollo escaped, along with the fact that the Creators had given Apollo a self-defense out when dealing with Immortals. The Guardians had been under the impression that all of the Gods were cursed like that before the Creators put them in stasis.

I’m aware of that,
his father growled.

How?

Hades turned to him and gave him a hard look.
The Creators told me.

Why weren’t you cursed the same way?

I am not my brothers.
Hades growled and turned his attention back to the Geraki. P wondered if his father was thinking about Sacha with that comment.

Pietr sputtered, “I didn’t steal from you. The Creators were already here. We all felt what was happening. Their voices filled the air and we knew that they were containing the Gods.” The male’s amber eyes were wide and his face was red. The Geraki kept shooting looks in his direction and P nodded for him to tell Hades what he wanted to hear.

And then it took a shittier turn.

“
My
things would have gone to my heir. So are you saying you stole from my son?” If anything, his father’s words had gotten colder.

P breathed out. It was impossible for the Geraki’s eyes to get any bigger when he looked at P.

“What else did you take?” his father demanded.

“Nothing.” Damn it, the idiot was asking for punishment now. P could feel the lie just as easily as his father. The crashing of broken crystal and glass filled the room.

Drake ported in at P’s side.
What’s this? Word is out that Hades is losing his fucking mind.

Pietr was the one who stole the stone from my father’s palace all those centuries ago.

“I didn’t intend to steal from your son, I swear it,” Pietr sputtered.

Hades looked off for a second, like something else caught his attention, before turning back to Pietr, looking vaguely disgusted but not angry. Hades tossed the male into a wall; more glass shattered around them as his father bit out, “Pothos, find out what else he took.”

P didn’t have a second to speak. His father was already gone.

Son of a bitch.

Go find him. I’ll deal with this,
Drake growled.

Where the hell are you?
he demanded of his father and hoped to hell he’d actually answer him this time.

P got an image of the mountaintop they’d been to earlier. He ported away, leaving Drake.

When he reformed beside his father, he could tell it wasn’t good.

“Tell me more about her,” Hades asked. His anger was gone, but he seemed distracted.

P considered what he could say that he hadn’t already said. “Like I said, she’s logical. Calm. She’s been partners with Brianne for centuries. She and Bastian do some of the diplomatic stuff in the cities of Tetartos Realm because only they have the patience to deal with any of their issues.”

“What issues?”

“Issues like when a God demands someone leave their fucking home so he can move in, or trashes a store,” P bit out.

Hades glared down at him. “Would you rather I move you out of
your
home until I have one of my own built?”

“No, but we do have other homes.” Hades had been staying with him so P could keep an eye on him. “And Sacha has homes,” he pointed out. “And my bet is that she’s not going to be happy with your new place and how you got it.”

P could almost hear Hades’ teeth grinding. “What would she be happy with?”

“Ask her,” P said, shaking his head. “We don’t have time to deal with the shit demands Zandra and Damon have. If you want something of your own, you can have the Guardian island that Dorian and Rain just moved from until shit calms down. We need to find Apollo and figure out about Thule.” He sent his father a visual of the island. He’d need to tell Drake about it when he was done babysitting.

“When Kara wakes, I will find out all there is to know,” Hades growled. “Apollo is mine.”

What the hell did he say to that? There was a line, and according to the Creators, they couldn’t kill any of the Gods. That didn’t mean Apollo didn’t deserve to bleed for all he’d done before they got him back in his box. He wouldn’t even ask if his father was getting through to Apollo. P had a feeling they’d all know when that happened because Hades would lose his mind.

P narrowed his eyes at his father. “You can’t kill him. You know that, right?”

“Yes. And I have no intention of killing him.” Hades’ tone seethed, and P knew that meant Apollo was going to be made to suffer.

“Inform Zandra I no longer have need of their palace,” Hades gritted out.

P nodded and they stood looking out for a while. One issue averted.

“Apollo couldn’t be unconscious this long,” his father snarled. Hades had been hit with the same energy when the Goddess and he had battled and it wiped him out, but only for days, Apollo was taken well past that timeframe.

“I agree.” Something was obviously blocking his mental connection to Hades.

“I want his blood.”

“As long as you don’t kill him.”

Hades nodded absently.

“Sacha will be okay, and when she’s ready, she’ll call to you. She was unconscious for weeks and hit with all this. It makes sense she needs time to process things.”

Hades growled, “And once she does, how do I make up for decades of torment she suffered from my own brothers.”

“You don’t. You get to know her, be patient. Sacha’s smart but contained. She was strong enough to deal with all that she was faced with and come out of it a Guardian. But her only experience with Gods wasn’t good. I’d minimize some of your Godly shit.”

Hades turned his head and stared at him, with clenched teeth. “You’re saying to pretend I’m not a God?”

“I’m saying you need to show her a male who gives a shit about what she wants and needs. And don’t make her feel caged. Once she sees you’re a good male, she’ll be fine.”

Hades glanced back at him, a smile touching his lips. “Am I a good male?”

Hades’ brow creased a second later and P wondered if Sacha was communicating with him.

“You have your moments,” P said, shaking his head. He’d been sincere, his father was good, loving, but he wasn’t sure how bad Sacha’s memories of Apollo and Hermes were. He had a feeling Hades was going to need all the help he could get. The question was how P could help him. He could get the information to Brianne and see if she could do anything to ease Sacha.

Sweet fuck, now he was a matchmaker. After all the babysitting and this, he might as well turn in his male card.

Chapter 8

Sacha’s Paris Home, Earth Realm

Sacha curled up on a couch in one of the seating areas nestled between potted trees in her living room. Water gurgled quietly in the shallow koi ponds that weaved throughout the large open space, but she barely heard it. She’d changed into loose pants and a tank top and crossed her legs on the soft cushion and leaned her head back to gaze up at darkened skies beyond the skylight, trying to find calm through the storm of her emotions.

It was nearly impossible with all the emotional spikes she’d felt coming from Hades. It had been hours since he’d left, and his surges of feeling seemed to be coming in more succinctly, more like true thoughts than emotions. She knew he wasn’t any more pleased by being so open than she was, because she’d felt him trying to build blocks against it. She’d tried as well, but apparently fate didn’t feel that they needed emotional privacy.

She shook her head in frustration and fought for quiet while a slow burn of arousal slid under her skin, reminding her of what they hadn’t yet done. The desire to have him was there, but with it was the anxiety of reliving her past.

It all felt like a cosmic “screw you.”

First she’d been hit with his rage, so deep and pained that it affected her own emotions. She’d mentally tracked his location through the bond to find him next to P’s telepathic signature. His emotions had been so damned clear that she’d known exactly what happened. There was no doubt in her mind that his son had told him what she’d gone through with his brothers. Or at least a general version, as she’d never shared the details. She wasn’t angry at her brother P, it was better that Hades understood her past if they were linked for all eternity, but she’d been swept away in his guilt and fury.

And she hadn’t been sure how to process it. Each wave since had pulled her in, making her concentrate harder in an attempt to understand the male she was tied to.

When one blast of anger hit her hard, she’d been compelled to mentally touch the link. The moment she did, his anger had dissipated, leaving them both uneasy. She had power over the God. At least enough to ease him with a single mental touch. It was empowering, but unsettling.

But she hadn’t called him to her yet.

She’d told him that she wouldn’t fight this, and she had no intention of doing so, but she’d needed some time. She deserved it. They weren’t in the frenzy, so being apart wouldn’t hurt either of them. But in the end she didn’t feel alone, not with the link to him growing stronger with each passing moment.

Was this how mating with a God was? Being constantly open? With a constant hum of need just under her skin? His seemed even more intense, and that was likely because he was male. Immortal males burned hot. Not that she’d ever been concerned by it. Not since no male had ever been capable of interesting her in that way.

She felt the exact moment when Brianne and Sirena ported through the wards of her home.

“Are we crashing your party?” Brianne asked, reforming with a smile. “If so, too bad. You were unconscious for too long and scared the shit out of us. And since you’re not fucking Hades sideways, we figured that meant girls’ night.”

Sacha’s lips twitched, she hadn’t wanted to see anyone when Sirena contacted her earlier, but now they were here, she could at least learn more about her mate. Maybe simply knowing more about Hades would be enough to stop her past from coming back to haunt her when she was with him.

Her sister had duties, though, ones she should be getting back to soon.

She cocked a brow in the healer’s direction. “You’re actually taking time off?”

Sirena nodded. “Yeah, and I’m not sure I know how to do that anymore.” She was in her usual retro-style pencil skirt, and her platinum hair was down and curled into shiny waves. The healer slipped off her pumps and sat on the nearest love seat, with her feet tucked under her. Her delicate beauty didn’t hide the tension in her smaller frame.

Sacha’s heart clenched at the sight of her exhausted sister. How long had Sirena spent trying to find a way to remove the poison from Sacha’s blood? Sirena needed this break.

“And you don’t have patrols?” Sacha confirmed with Brianne, who’d already gone into the kitchen and was opening bottles of wine.

The redhead shifted the long waves of her hair over one shoulder as she spoke. “Vane is taking Erik. They need a little twin bonding time.” When the female started moving back to the seating area, she eyed her. “You’re not getting rid of us. Besides, we have juicy gossip.”

Sacha shook her head in vague amusement. She’d been trying to wrap her mind around how her life had changed. Her words to Sebastian when he’d found his mate were coming back to bite her. She’d told him that she liked to believe only the good found mates. She mentally cringed at how she’d always been so happy for her brothers and Brianne when they’d found theirs.

Brianne handed her a glass and sat in front of her.