She sat back in her chair, her lips pursed in thought. “Is your living situation part of that?”
“Yup.” He shrugged. “He’s only recently started letting me out of the Inner Sanctum for short periods of time. It’s only been in the last fifty years or so that he allowed me to have luxuries from the outside if I can get anyone to bring them to me.”
“Like the ice cream Limos brought you.”
The pity creeping into Cat’s voice made his jaw tighten. “Yeah.”
“But you said you can go outside now. How often?”
“I’ve left Sheoul-gra five times in the last hundred years, and it cost me each time.” Even when the Four Horsemen had gotten him sprung to help with a massive battle a few years ago, he’d paid dearly despite the fact that he’d fought for the good guys. For that, Azagoth had taken away Hades’s only real friend, a demon who had been living in the 1st Ring for two thousand years. Azagoth had reincarnated him, leaving Hades with only his asshole wardens for company.
“So I’m guessing you don’t do much dating if you can’t leave, huh? You said females in Sheoul-gra are off limits, but what about here in the Inner Sanctum?”
He laughed. But it was a bitter, hard sound, even to his own ears. “Everyone is off limits to me, Cat. My wardens can screw whoever they want in the Inner Sanctum, but me? Remember the peeling thing I told you about? Yeah. Celibacy and me became really fucking intimate.”
“You must have been so lonely,” she said softly.
He blinked. Lonely? That thought hadn’t occurred to him, and he didn’t think it would occur to anyone else, either.
Although, now that he thought about it, yeah, there had always been a strange tension inside him that he couldn’t identify. That he’d always written off as being sexual in nature. But now that he’d spent time with Cat, it was killing him to know that it was only a matter of time before he lost her company and her soothing touch. Fuck, he couldn’t think about it, because if he did, he’d lose it.
Redirecting his thoughts, he flipped back to his default setting of deflection. “I don’t know if I was lonely, really, but I was definitely horny.”
She muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, “I know the feeling.”
A scream from outside jolted them both to their feet. He rushed to the window and signaled for Cat to stay back, out of sight of anyone who might have a ranged weapon.
“What is it?” she asked. “What’s going on?”
Awesomeness, that’s what. Turning to her, he grinned. “Ever seen The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit? You know how the giant eagles always turn up to save the day?”
She jammed her hands on her hips. “Are you going to tell me that big birds are helping to search for the human?”
Outside, people were still screaming. “Better. The hellhounds have arrived.”
“Hellhounds eat people,” she pointed out.
“Hilarious, right?” He held out his hand. “Come on. I’ll introduce you.”
“To the hellhounds?”
“Not just the hellhounds,” he said, grasping her hand in his. “To the king himself. Let’s go say hi to Cerberus.”
Chapter Fourteen
Cataclysm had seen a lot of scary shit in her life––most of it in the last few days––but the massive, two-headed beast standing outside, surrounded by hounds that were as large as bison but still half his size, was one of the most intimidating creatures she’d ever come across.
Black as night, with glowing crimson eyes and teeth that would make a shark jealous, Cerberus used one massive paw to rake deep grooves in the grass. Steam rose up from the damaged earth, turning everything around it to ash.
“Hey, buddy,” Hades said. “’Sup?”
The two heads snapped at each other before the left one put its ears back and lowered to eye level. A deep, smoky growl curled up from deep in the beast’s chest.
Hades turned to her. “He said his brethren are sweeping the Rings for the human, and he apologizes in advance for any accidents.”
“Accidents?”
“Most hellhounds hate angels, fallen or otherwise. Ol’ Cerb here barely tolerates me. So we can expect some casualties among my warden ranks.” He picked up a stick and threw it, and two of the hellhounds took off in a blur of black fur. “Also, he didn’t really apologize. It was more of a description of how he thinks they’ll taste.”
She couldn’t tell if he was serious or not, and frankly, she didn’t want to know.
Cerberus’s other head made some snarling noises, and Hades snarled back. The two of them went back and forth, until finally, Hades held up his hand and turned to her again.
“I...uh...I failed to mention something earlier.”