“She’s in Jellybean,” he said, his breath visible in the freezing air. “Seems her greatest fear is spiders.”
From its pulsating walls to its seeping ceiling, Jellybean was a room that fed on fear and came alive when someone was locked inside. Once it got hold of someone’s fears, it made them real. He’d once seen the room fill with jellybeans while the demon inside screamed in terror...hence, the name of the room.
Malonius had shoved an orange bean up the guy’s nose, and the demon had confessed all of his considerable sins. Freaking jellybeans.
“Wait. She?” Hades asked, every internal alarm clanging as what Malonius said sank in. He opened his mouth, but whatever he was about to say fled when he saw the pile of clothes on the table behind the other fallen angel.
A pair of faded, ripped jeans and a corset.
Cat.
Fuck! Wheeling around, he tore out of the room and charged down the hall, his pulse pounding in his ears even louder than the strike of his boots on the stone floor. Holy hell, if she was hurt, someone was going to pay in blood and bone and pain, and Hades was going to be the one to collect.
Up ahead, a warden stood guard outside Jellybean. “Open that fucking room!” Hades shouted.
The guy jumped, fumbled at his side for the key, but before he could unlock the door, Hades was there. He wrenched the key from the warden’s hand and knocked him aside.
His fingers shook as he jammed the heavy iron skeleton key into the lock, but somehow he managed to open the door. He whipped it open, and a wave of spiders of all species and sizes skittered out, spilling over his boots.
“Dach niek!”
The Sheoulic command put the room to rest, and the arachnids disappeared. He burst inside, and his knees nearly gave out at the sight of Cat huddled in the corner, naked and shivering. Her arms covered her head as she rocked back and forth on her heels. Bruises marred her pale skin, and fury made his blood steam.
“Cat.” He knelt next to her and laid his palm gently on her shoulder, cursing when she flinched. “Cat, it’s me. It’s Hades.”
A shudder wracked her body, and she made a sobbing noise that pricked him in the heart he’d long ago thought immune to pretty much anything emotional.
He lowered his voice, shooting for something that might resemble soothing. “The spiders are gone. They weren’t real. It’s okay.”
Very slowly, her arms came down, and she peeked at him through splayed fingers. Her bloodshot, red-rimmed eyes were a punch in the gut. “Hades?”
“Yeah.” He cleared his voice of the hoarseness that had crept into it. “It’s okay, I promise.”
She lowered her hands, but her gaze shifted and her eyes went wide as the sound of footsteps indicated that someone had come into the room.
“My lord,” Malonius began, his voice pitched with fear, proving he wasn’t completely stupid. Clearly he realized he’d fucked up in a very, very big way. “I found her in your crypt...she’d ransacked the place...I thought––”
“I know what you thought,” Hades snapped. He didn’t turn to look at the male because if he did, he wouldn’t be able to control the murderous rage pounding through his veins. “And that’s the only reason you aren’t hanging by your entrails right now.”
As much as he wanted to blame the warden for this, it was ultimately Hades’s fault. He hadn’t thought to tell all of his staff about Cat, but that was a mistake he wouldn’t make again.
“Tell the others,” he said. “Tell them that this Unfallen is mine, and she’s not to be harmed, or ogled, or even fucking breathed on.”
“Yes, sir.” Malonius tossed Cat’s clothes to Hades, and a heartbeat later, they were alone again.
“Cat? I’m going to take you home...ah, I mean, to my place.”
He started to pull her into his arms, but he jerked back at the sight of the gore streaking his arms. Cursing, he looked down at himself, realized he must look like he’d showered in a slaughterhouse. The fact that he was covered in blood wasn’t the most unusual thing ever, but after what Cat had just been through, she didn’t need this, too.
So much for protecting her from the ugliness of the Inner Sanctum.
Guilt churned inside him like a living thing, and this thing had teeth. It gnawed at his heart and clawed at his soul because this could have been prevented.
Cat’s teeth began to chatter, so he let the guilt monster feed as he gathered her in his filthy arms and tucked her against his grimy chest and got her out of there, snarling at everyone who got in his way. Or who looked at her naked body. Or breathed in his general direction.
He reached the exit portal in record time, but as he stepped inside, he wondered what else could possibly go wrong.
Chapter Eleven