Chapter Five

Lilah

"Hallis?" I feel a soft caress against my shoulder in response.

Within the walls of The Ferryman there is no difference between living or nonliving. However, once the dead leave The Ferryman, they become indistinguishable from the cool night breeze.

"Why did you do that?" I ask softly into the darkness. I ask knowing I won't be able to hear his response. It was foolish of him, and completely unnecessary even if it did spark something inside me. Thanatos will not harm me. His temper tantrums may be explosive, but that's really all they are. As long as there is no interference, he's easily diffused. Thanatos is just a big, cranky, man-baby who throws a fit when he can't have what he wants.

I feel a light touch trace along my cheek to my chin, down my neck, then back up again. The sensation settles on my other cheek, as if he's cupping my face. I lean into the coolness and let my eyes drift close.

"Hallis…" I breathe out and the air around me moves, a pressure against my chest and cold weight pressing into the small of my back. He's holding me and I try not to melt into the gentleness of the action.

"Lilah." I jump at the sound of my name and the invisible hold vanishes. Twisting around, Boss stands in the doorway of The Ferryman, arms crossed in front of him, scuffed boot propping the door open. His gaze settles behind me, and I know he can see Hallis even if I can't. He's quiet for a moment, something passing between him and Hallis in the silence.

Shaking his head slightly, he shifts his gaze to me and motions for me to return inside. Moving his booted foot, I watch him turn back into The Ferryman while the door closes, leaving me alone again with Hallis.

I take a step toward the entrance, but an icy grip around my middle stops me. The chill of it dances along the bare skin at my waist before dipping lower, trailing over the heat of my core. Arousal crashes into me violently and I shudder out a moan. I arch into the feeling with an increasing desperation, ready for more when suddenly it disappears.

"Hallis!" I call out and wait, but there are no soft touches. The air around me warms, letting me know he's really gone. I huff out an annoyed grunt and make my way back inside The Ferryman.

The rest of the night passes uneventfully. I find myself rubbing my thighs together behind the bar in an attempt to alleviate some of the throbbing need Hallis ignited inside me before he disappeared. Than had left with a pointed look in my direction after plucking a very unwilling spirit from a rowdy group. A look that very clearly promised he is far from finished with me. I may deny him physically, more out of self-preservation than anything, but I can't deny the attraction and desire that still hungers for the dominating asshole.

"Night Boss." I say, walking out once all the dead have gone and light begins to glow on the horizon.

I walk up the old stairs behind The Ferryman that leads to a meager space I long ago made my own. Just another way Boss has quietly taken care of me since he dragged me out of the river.

I still don't know how it happened, and I stopped wondering because what's done is done and there is no going back. Even with hindsight, I doubt I would have acted with more caution.

I had just arrived in Styx, not expecting to stay for more than a couple of days. It was a pit stop on a reckless journey of self-care and discovery across the country as a 20-something with no family or friends to stop me. I was told by locals that The Ferryman was the place to be in the slim pickings of ‘night life' that was available in and just outside of town.

It hasn't changed much in the decades I've been here. Wooden planks, worn smooth by millennia of visitors, line the floor in an uneven pattern, giving the surface a rippling effect if you've consumed enough alcohol, and even if you haven't. The mix of exposed brick and plaster walls are covered in hand written epitaphs in every language imaginable. The only untouched wall is the one with the overpowering imagery of the river the town was named after. A low, hypnotic beat with no words seemed to permeate the room. My attention immediately was drawn to the river. I couldn't keep my eyes off it. After several drinks poured by the gruff, older man covered in swirling ink that made me think of the dark waters depicted on the wall, and a large oar on his forearm, I swayed over to the mural. I lifted my hand, wanting to run my fingers lightly against it, an indescribable need to touch the painted water.

Except when I did, I found myself standing on the shore. Confusion and excitement warred within my inebriated consciousness. I had a fleeting thought I was properly shit faced and most likely passed out at the bar because surely it wasn't real.

But then the still water was lapping at my feet, almost beckoning me, and I couldn't stop myself from taking a few steps into it. The higher the water rose around me, soaking through my clothing, the louder alarm bells started clanging in my head. I tried to wade back to shore but a hungry current was pulling me further out. Panic finally set in and I screamed. I screamed so loudly, thrashing in the dark water, feeling helpless and quite certain I was going to die, dream or no dream.

Then the only thing in my waning vision was that oar inked onto the muscular forearm I had shamelessly flirted with for a free drink. The last thing I remember with any sort of clarity was a very stern, "Not your time, impudent one."

After that, I was back in the bar, blinking slowly, clearing a heavy foggy feeling from my head. It may very well have been a hallucination, if not for being soaked through and dripping water onto that beautiful old flooring.

"I… I'm sorry…" I don't know why I apologized, though it felt like the only thing I was supposed to say.

Looking me up and down, "You will be." He sighed, then, almost as if he had just resigned to a decision he didn't plan on making. The ease at which I accepted what he had told me afterward surprised him, but also had some respect flickering in those fiery eyes of his.

Without asking, he slid a key across the bar top and told me to clean myself up in the room above the bar. When I tried to return it to him, multiple times, he refused with his characteristic silence. I didn't want to believe it at first, but realized he had given me the room, knowing I had nowhere else to go, or be as I was now.

I was no longer living, not in the sense I had been. Stuck in-between life and death, the river had claimed my mortality and while not exactly immortal, I would no longer age. I could not exist alongside the living any more, and so I made The Ferryman home.

I shake myself out of the memory as I enter the small living space, hang my apron on the hook next to the door, and slip off my shoes. Instead, I let my mind wander to what happened outside of The Ferryman earlier and the rush of neediness it spurred inside of me.

Discarding my clothing on the floor, I walk towards the bathroom, reach down and turn the faucet on to fill the old clawfoot tub. The early dawn hours fill the room with a soft glow of warm light.

Steam fills the small bathroom, and I sink into the heat with a groan. Laying my head back and closing my eyes, I let my fingers brush over the nipple of one of my breasts. Immediately, I imagine Hallis's hands on me, not being able to see him but feel him, and my clit pulses. Keeping one hand focused on my now hardened nipples, the other reaches between my legs. I slide my fingers over my clit, then dip lower to slip one inside. It's not nearly enough, and I quickly add another. Hallis's careful, yet confident touches are so different from Than's aggressive claiming. Without warning, the image of both of them flash through my mind, panting with the thought of being trapped between the two of them. I hear the water splash over the edge of the bath as I add a third finger and pick up rhythm. Using the palm of my hand to apply pressure to my swollen clit, it doesn't take long to come. I've been on edge since the moment Hallis and Thanatos squared off and it only became worse with Hallis's daring caresses and Than's promising glares.

A frustrated sigh echoes off the tile. I sink deeper into the water, the release from the climax short-lived.