Chapter 4

4

H e begins to move inside me. At first just a flex, a subtle nudge that rubs the head of his cock deeper, stirring up my insides. Bumping up against a spot so sensitive that I twitch and gasp, involuntarily jerking at the bonds. Pain and pleasure both, a blurring dance of too much and not enough. Too deep but more, even though I know it'll hurt.

I want it to hurt. I want to feel like he's cracking me open to look for candy.

Rearing back, he pulls every impressive, delicious inch of his cock through my body. So slowly I can't help but writhe and moan wordlessly. I can't string words together. I can't move. All I can do is feel. In one hard glide, he thrusts balls deep with a thud inside me that rocks my entire body. My breath explodes out. Babbling. I can't understand what I'm saying. If I'm coherent at all.

His fingers tangle in my hair, pulling my head back, straining my neck at an uncomfortable angle. "Too much?"

My eyes flutter. My pulse hammers frantically, a steady drumming in my head. Surely my heart can't take this. Beating so fast. So hard.

:Too much?: He repeats, flowing through my mind like a black, satiny river. Winding through the chasms of broken shards and abandoned hallways without hesitation. :The power is yours, love. It always has been.:

What power? Me?

I've never been powerful.

Except now, even though I'm strapped to this altar. He's hovering, waiting for me to decide if I want him to continue. I don't feel any animosity or anger from him. He could shred me open with those claws or bite me in half, but nothing hurts. He hasn't wounded me in any way. I'm bound—but not injured.

I'm not alone. I'm not lost.

For the first time since I came out of whatever nightmare that came before, I almost feel whole.

:Don't stop. Please don't stop. Even if I die.:

His claws scrape against my scalp, a burning prick making shivers slide down my spine. :You can't die, love. Not here. You rule Death itself.:

He pulls back again, so slowly, his hand still fisted in my hair. Making me feel every single inch pulling through me. Only to slam deep again, a heavy thud that drags a guttural, animal sound from my throat. Again and again. So hard and deep. A slow, heavy rocking thrust that grinds me down against the altar with a heavy grunt. His breathing is as loud as mine. Every thud breaks me apart. Puts me back together. Heats me to red-hot iron and hammers me into something new.

Something sharp, deadly, and beautiful.

A soft, pearly glow spills across the stone, illuminating the carvings on the altar. Intricate vines with delicate leaves and petals. So well done they look real.

They are real. The light grows, illuminating golden vines and roots that shoot out of the stone, curling around me. Sprinkled petals gleam like faceted rubies and luminous burning embers.

He thrusts deep again, making my head snap back enough to see golden vines arch overhead into a tree. Petals float gently back and forth like falling leaves. Littering the top of the altar. Carpeting the dais in glowing red petals that smell like honeyed, forbidden fruit. Cups of spiced rum, laced with blood.

The thought ripples through the fuzzy haze in my mind. Blood. I want to taste him on my tongue again. A knife of hunger twists through my stomach, but more, I want to feel his teeth in me. I want to know what it feels like for him to feed on me.

"You think I'm not feeding on you now?" He rasps out. "I'm feasting on your every sensation. Every drop of desire coating my cock. Every cry and moan and plea. But if my queen wishes to feel my teeth…"

Jamming deep, he curls over me, his breath a hot pant on my skin. He licks from my shoulder to my neck in a long, hot swirl. Quivering, I imagine him settling in between my thighs. Licking until I can't stop coming.

"Come to me again, and I'll feast until you pass out with pleasure."

"How?" I wail, my voice breaking. "How do I come back? I didn't come here on purpose."

"The power is yours."

He said it before, but I still have no idea what I did to find the obsidian tunnel in the first place. It's familiar, yes—but I can't recall doing anything differently before I fell asleep. If it takes a random dream for me to wander here…

I can't hold back a sob. I'll never find him again.

He grips my entire throat in his jaws. I can feel the outline of his teeth, sharp indentions pricking my skin. Not fangs like mine, but the jaws of a nightmare creature. With a simple twist of his head, he could rip out my throat and leave me gasping and flopping like a beached fish on his altar. Too much pressure from those wicked teeth… And he'll bite through my spine. Effortlessly.

Controlled violence shimmers through him at the taste of my blood. He heaves against me, a vicious growl rattling from his chest. His claws shriek against the stone, punishing the altar so he doesn't hurt me. The threat of imminent danger mixes with the deep, hard thrusts and sends me screaming over the edge of a brutal climax. Blazing light flares in a rolling ring of energy from the dais. The altar.

From me.

I can't focus enough to make sense of what I'm seeing. Hopefully when I wake up, I'll remember. It's all I can do to not thrash so much in his jaws that I tear my own throat open. Everything inside me locks down, my pussy clenching his dick in a vise. Fighting through the fierce grip, he roars with release, grinding against me.

My throat in his jaws. My blood on his tongue. His dick so deep I can't breathe. The icy shot of cum sluices through me, as cold as his blood. I can feel the droplets melting into me, my body absorbing his semen just like I fed on his blood earlier.

Power. So much power. Light spreads from me in an illuminating wave of energy.

For one glorious moment, I can see for miles and miles, an entire landscape unfolding before me. Only instead of unfurling across a table like a map, the layers go down, dropping level by level through time and space. Cold and silent and dark as soon as my light sweeps past. A gray land with people walking slowly in single file, mumbling something I can't understand. A glittering obsidian palace sends a pang through my heart. It used to be my home, but now it's dark and silent. A field with a single tree, its branches sweeping out low to the ground. Bare of leaves. Bare of fruit.

Endless gardens of flowers and trees—that are now only barren ground and shriveled trunks. Nothing is growing. Nothing is alive.

But it's the silence and emptiness making a lump in my throat as the light begins to dim. Even the golden vines release me, withering back down to disappear into the stone.

He rests his chin against my shoulder, still curled around me. Still buried inside me though not as hard. "I sent everyone above to find you."

I don't know who or why but the ache of missing them surprises me. My voice trembles. "Everyone?"

He huffs out a sound midway between a laugh and grunt of disgust. "Even Cerberus demanded to join the search, and you know how he is about shirking his duty."

I didn't, honestly. "But you can't leave this place?"

"I've searched for you for centuries, love, across every timeline and dimension that Death can access. There's been no trace of you, but I refused to stop. I've drained every resource, every drop of power that remained after your disappearance, but as you see, not much remains without our queen."

"Me?" The single word comes out as a squeak that deepens to a moan as he pulls out of me.

He picks me up and turns me around, setting me on the stone before him. Bracing his palms on either side of my hips, he leans down, holding my gaze. Long silver hair flows around his shoulders down to his waist, floating like a mermaid's hair under water.

There's enough light around us that I can make out more of his features. He looks perfectly normal. Human, almost, though too large. So tall, his shoulders broad and wide. His eyes are too big and so strange. I could have sworn they were black like the obsidian tunnel before, but now they glow a ghostly white.

He's perfectly sculpted like the marble statue of a god.

No hint of hooves or claws or fur.

Gorgeous—but there's nothing familiar to me. I don't feel a sudden flash of recognition at his appearance, though my body seems to remember him all too well.

"Have I failed to restore your memory, love?"

Shivering with aftershocks, I hug myself, trying to hold myself together. Endorphins buzz through my system, making my brain hazy. There's something I need to remember. It's important.

He sighs and wraps his arms around me, cradling me against him. Closing my eyes, I drink in his scent. Sleepy poppy and frankincense. Black velvet and myrrh. Dreams blurring with reality.

His body feels right against mine. This, I know. He feels safe.

Slipping deeper into oblivion, the fuzzy curtain in my head parts just for a moment. Cerberus. Elysian Fields. Death. An altar in the depths of darkness. We're gods that time forgot.

I try to tip my head back to look up at him, but my neck wobbles and my muscles don't want to cooperate. He cups my cheek, lifting my face toward his. Maybe I'm asleep already but for a moment, I could swear that thick, black horns curl in a spiral on either side of his head. "Hades?"

His arm tightens around me, and his other palm spans my jaw and throat in a fierce grip The ghostly white of his eyes is gone, leaving them to glitter like shards of black ice. His lips peel back in a fierce snarl. "I'll empty the very bowels of Tartarus to find you."