The Sea Queen (The Dark Queens Book 1) (4 page)

“What the hell did you smell!” Zeus roared. A flash of lightning struck at Poseidon’s heel, making him jerk away.

“If you weren’t all so quick to make snap judgments—” I said and then was rudely interrupted.

“You’re one to talk,” a deep male voice said. My coral was on Apollo.

I smiled; he’d be getting a nasty surprise when he got home later to discover his once-immaculate mansion now dripping with seawater and kelp.

Pressing on, I ignored his little jab. For now. “—then you’d know that the air reeked of Seren cone snail. A nasty little creature with a most venomous touch. That, oh,” I tapped a finger to my chin, “lives in the deepest parts of my waters and cannot survive more than fifteen minutes in the Above before dying. Poor dear. To be frank, there are so few of us here who could possibly get our hands on one that I’d be more apt to lay the blame on fish breath first.”

“You devilish hag!” Poseidon roared, and rain fell in thick sheets around us all.

But I remained toasty and dry, tossing up a deflective shield over not only myself but also Dite (since I rather liked her after all) and Hades because he was hawt and I wished to bang the liver out of him.

Everyone began yelling then, snarling at Poseidon to turn off the waterworks. I merely stuck out my tongue at him.

Themis’s scales leveled out. “All true. Judgment must now be delayed until I can study the new evidence that has come to light.”

Demeter lifted a hand. “Until Persephone is discovered, I cannot allow Hades to remain here. If her body is buried here, he’ll try to—”

“You have no right!” Hades finally spoke up for himself. “I’ve told you often enough what your daughter has done. Her wildness has led her here. This is not on me!”

“And yet her soul screams out to me!” Demeter snapped, her eyes brimming over with tears.

I did feel a small thread of sympathy; after all, I was a mother myself. Should any of my precious babies be lost to me thus, I’d lose my poop. Or was that shit?

Probably shit.

Poop sounded so silly.

I sighed. “I want him. I’ll take him. Considering he cannot leave my waters unless I grant it, he will be perfectly tortured until you can discover where Persephone has gone.”

“Tortured?” Dite frowned, obviously thinking I’d misspoken again, but this time I hadn’t.

I did mean to torture him. In every conceivable way. I’d make him scream my name to the very heavens. My thighs tingled at the thought.

“Calypso,” Poseidon drawled, no doubt ready to go all caveman on me again and claim me as his own.

We hated each other, and yet he hated to lose what was “his” more.

“Oh, shut your trap and go mate another porpoise.”

Themis shook her head. “I will now pass judgment.”

She had to mostly scream to be heard above the hullaballoo. “Calypso, Goddess of the Sea, your request has been granted. You shall keep Hades within your Kingdom for the next fortnight. He cannot be allowed into the Above for any reason while we follow the evidentiary trail toward the true culprit. Should he escape, he will be lashed a thousand times by Athena’s whip, chained to a rock, and have his eyes picked on by vultures for the next thousand years.”

“Oh, is that all?” Hades growled.

My lips twitched. He was funny.

“Hades, should all signs still point to you, however, you will suffer the fate laid out after the two weeks are up. I hope these terms are sufficient for all.”

It wasn’t a question, but I answered anyway.

“Not really.”

“Good,” Zeus boomed. “Then take him and go.”

Chapter 3

Calypso

Hades wasn’t particularly keen on my method of transportation. I’d already had to knock a watery fist into his thick skull a time or twenty to get him to stop screaming at me as we sank beneath the waves.

“If you stop screaming, you’ll stop swallowing so much damned water,” I said sweetly, plastering on a tight smile.

He could breathe. Sort of.

I hadn’t given him the kiss of life yet, but it was kind of fun to have him completely at my mercy and clinging to my body like a man drowning.

He pinned me with a cold, obsidian glare, clamping his full, kissable lips shut and snarling hate at me. Seriously. I saw the hate just bubbling off his shoulders like pools of heated lava.

“You can breathe, you know.”

He shoved his face to within an inch of my own, his nostrils flaring like Linx’s sometimes would when she was really angry. Aw, he was so cute.

“Only when I’m clamped onto your side like a foul leech. Kiss me and allow me to retain at least a small measure of dignity here, Calypso.”

My heart beat faster than a hoodoo priestess banging on her drums.

“You only needed to ask, Dead Boy.”

The waters around us were a black so deep it seemed bottomless, but my body glowed like a raft of mating kreels. I glimmered every shade of blue and knew I looked beautiful.

Hades might dislike me right now, but he was enraptured by me. I could see it in his eyes. Many a man had lost his heart to the Sea. He’d not be the first. But the Sea had never lost her heart to any man.

Still, when I dug my nails into the curve of his ass and yanked him to me, it was I who trembled.

I’d seen sex. Too many times to count. Seen the courtship before and after. I knew what I was doing. But I’d never technically done it before.

Still, how hard could it be? Insert tab into slot, grunt, writhe, moan, boom...sex. Easy.

I bet it didn’t even feel all that great.

Opening my mouth, I called to the life inside me, the sweet nectar of air that I would gift upon him with one press of my lips to his.

I warned all creatures away from me. I wanted nothing and no one to hinder my first-ever, honest-to-Kingdom kiss.

“Open your mouth,” I commanded him.

Smart man that he was, he didn’t argue.

He opened, and then the tip of his tongue swiped along his upper lip, and I couldn’t stop myself anymore. With a groan, I slammed my mouth to his. Just this touch was sufficient to let him breathe. I felt his chest inflate as my air became his. I knew he could move unhindered now, but he was mine. At least for the next two weeks.

So I altered the kiss just slightly. And then I stopped thinking about altered kisses when his tongue swiped along the inside seam of my lips. Greedy, I sucked him in, twining my tongue through his.

He tasted of power, divine, magnificent, colossal power. Every inch of my body felt electrified by his deadly touch.

Hades was the keeper of the dead. Be you a mortal, to touch him would mean to seal your doom. To taste of his flesh would feel like bathing in the pits of Tartarus for an eternity.

But for me...ye gods.

The Seren seas churned. Waves rocked upon the shores. My children crawled from out of their caves, their homes, aware of the primal magick just released upon them.

I moved my hands from his ass to the rock-hard planes of his back and up to the nape of his neck. Nimue said that if you clawed at a man’s head just lightly, with a tiny little scrape, they’d come undone.

I scraped, and Hades shuddered.

His hard fingers dug into my shoulders, the grip firm and punishing. And it was glorious.

I purred into the back of my throat when I finally pulled away, licking my lips like a very contented kittycat.

Hades looked supremely pleased with himself. His dark hair was a mussed mess around his broad forehead.

“I could leave you now, Sea. Disappear through these waters and never return,” he mocked.

I cocked my head, the glow of my body even brighter in intensity than before. There wasn’t an inch of me that didn’t tingle. I laughed.

“Why, because I’ve kissed life into your lungs? Do you truly believe me fool enough to give you all of me? There is none that can tame the Sea. Remember that, my precious Reaper.”

He took a deep breath. “I am a god, Calypso. You cannot own me.”

“Who said I wanted to own you? I just want your body. Your...” I glanced down at his very obviously bulging package. “...prick. The kiss I granted you may not consider much of a gift in time, soon-to-be lover.”

Narrowing his eyes, he shook his head. “What have you done to me?”

I shrugged, trailing a finger down the razor-sharp plane of his left cheek. “I’ve only made you dizzy with dependency for me. For the next two weeks, you are my slave. So suck it up, Bubble Butt.”

That had sounded wrong.
Hm
.

Frowning, he glanced over his shoulder at his delectable rear. “Are you sure you meant to say—”

Waving his words away, I grabbed his hand and yanked him down into the abyss with me. Linx was really not going to like my surprise. But just this once, I wasn’t sure I cared.

He was mine; she could run off and get her own toy if she wanted too.

My children, aware that they were no longer required to keep their distance from us, soon squeezed in on us from all sides.

Goblin sharks, their razor teeth gleaming as their mouths hung open like cute little panting puppies, stared curiously at me and hungrily at Hades.

“Go away, my darlings,” I cooed.

“Darlings,” Hades shuddered, “They look more like globs of steaming dung with beady eyes.”

I gave him a droll look. “Say one more word against them and I’ll let them have you for a light snack later.”

Moray and electric eels slithered between our bodies, pressing their flattened tails to my cheeks in greeting.

Fish of every color of the rainbow peeked at us curiously, scuttling off when a giant, fanged wolf shark suddenly made its appearance and snapped up a tiny lamprey eel on its way back down into the abyss.

Hades clenched his jaw.

“Do not tell me my children frighten you, God of Death,” I smirked.

His eyes were full of mystery as they turned toward me. I wished I knew what he was thinking.

“What are you thinking?” I asked, too impatient to play guessing games.

He spread his arms. “You act as though you care.”

I might have been offended by his words, but his tone seemed more thoughtful than accusatory. So instead I shrugged.

“I do care. I love my children. And they love me, too, don’t you, Bruce.” I smushed my face against my favorite great white’s cartilaged nose. Bruce had been with me as a pup. I’d found him half starved and gored through the side by the rapier edge of a swordfish’s snout. I’d nursed him back to health, and now my baby was a fully grown twenty-foot monster with teeth the size of my fist.

Bruce head butted Hades in the center of his back.

“Is he tasting me?” he asked when Bruce’s tail snapped his thigh.

“No. What would give you that idea?” I smiled, slapping at Bruce’s head when he opened his massive jaws to take a bite out of Hades’ delectable ass.

That was my ass, thank you very much.

“Go find your own ass, Bruce. Now go.” I flicked my wrist at him.

His look was grumpy, but Bruce always wore a grumpy look. He took an angry swipe at a passing red horned devil octopus, slurping it down in one mighty gulp.

I grimaced. Okay, so maybe he had been tasting Hades.

Moments later, we arrived at my home. It wasn’t much, just a simple temple composed entirely of gold, mother of pearl, marble, and coral. The temple stretched a good four hundred feet or so in either direction, with pillars that supported the heavy beams. Every brick of gold gleamed, resplendent in the early-morning wash of light. I was rather fond of my humble abode, if I must say so. As Queen of the Sea, I could have chosen any place in the waters to call home, but this cozy house suited me just fine.

With a thought, I pushed the massive gates open and was immediately greeted by Linx.

But her horsey smile vanished almost instantly the moment her gaze alighted upon my captive.

Why is he here?
She demanded. Miniature bolts of lightning sparked off her hooves as she struck the gold-veined marble floor.

I’d still not released Hades’ hand. Or maybe he hadn’t released mine. I tried to disentangle my fingers and couldn’t.

Oh, that was interesting indeed. I grinned.

“I do hear you, you know.” His voice was a deep, almost seductive purr, and it made me frown.

“Are you seducing my hippocampus?” I twirled on him, shoving him back with a wall of water.

But Hades was no mere man, and my show of theatrics did not impress him. He brushed off his black coat without answering me and turned to address Linx once more.

“I have nothing but the highest respect for you, dear hippocampus. Your people have always been good to mine. I hope we can remain cordial during my stay here.”

“Incarceration,” I was quick to correct, noting that his honeyed words had turned my mule of a companion into a puddle of goo.

She now wore a sleepy-eyed, dreamy look. Zeus had once lain with a swan, so it wasn’t hard for me to believe there could be some hippocampus-and-Death Boy love a-brewin’.

“My ass,” I snipped and slapped my palm to his rock-hard cheek—the one
down there
—and squeezed.

Hades rose on his toes, glowered at me, and then swatted at my hand. “
My
ass. Where is my room, Calypso?”

“Fine.” I flicked my fingers, sending him away and locking him in my room.

It was the most comfortable room in the temple anyway. With the biggest bed and the softest bedding. He’d quite appreciate it, I was certain.

Linx turned on me immediately, neighing in the soft, wuffly kind of way she did when she was confused.

“Hades has probably killed Persephone or done something to her body. The pantheon has sentenced him to purgatory of a sort.” I lifted my hand. “I offered to keep him safe until they finished their inquiry into her disappearance.”

To be honest, I wasn’t quite certain Hades hadn’t done it. Even I knew of the animosity between him and ‘Sephone.

Did he do it?

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

Then why did you bring him here? I thought you were simply supposed to fix our dead problem.

Giving her wide eyes, I thinned my lips. “I did fix our dead problem, Linx. I opened the gates.”