Hades
"Ellen—" I started, my voice low and gravelly. The contact burned, not because it was painful, but because it broke through every wall I'd hastily tried to rebuild. Her warmth seeped into my skin, her heartbeat a steady rhythm against my chest. The beast was not appeased; it only sought to escape from its enclosure and claim her.
"Hades," she muttered my name with a softness that made me shudder. My name on her lips was a weapon, disarming and dangerous all at once. It struck deep, brushing against the reinforced cage that the contamination clawed at. "I am sorry," she said, her voice small. "I really am. I might not agree with you on a plethora of things, but this time I wish I had seen it the way you did. But I refused to see outside the boundaries I had set for myself," she continued, her voice trembling but steady. "I didn't want to admit that you might be right because I thought it would mean losing to you."
Her words dug into me like claws, ripping away the remains of my resolve. The beast inside me howled, not in anger, but in something deeper—something raw and unfamiliar. It wanted her, not just to claim, to mark her and devour her in ways I had never allowed myself to imagine.
I gritted my teeth against the surge, my body vibrating with the effort of trying to keep the creeping contamination at bay. I clenched my hands into fists, my claws piercing my palms and letting the scent of blood fill the air.
I felt her stiffen against me, and she pulled away, but only slightly. She looked up at me, her eyes wide before looking down at my injured hand and the blood already dripping onto the marble tile. "Hades—" her voice was high with horror. She had seen the black claws.
I grabbed her by the face so that she would look back up at me. She swallowed when our eyes met again, her skin suddenly pale. "Hades—"
"Sh-sh-sh," I whispered, trying to keep the growl from my voice. "I won't hurt you." But the contamination had other intentions as it continued to thrash against my skin like a living firestorm trying to consume us both. The corruption clawed its way through me, trying to get to her to claim her in every atrocious way possible.
My grip on her face inadvertently tightened with every onslaught of the corruption. Luckily, not enough to hurt her, but enough to keep her eyes on me.
"Red," I rasped, my voice wavering slightly under the strain of trying to keep the curse contained. Her scent was intoxicating, a blend of everything forbidden that made the beast crave her all the more. "You don't know what you are doing to me."
She blinked, those auburn lashes of hers fluttering. "Am I doing this?" she gasped, stunned.
"I won't hurt you." The last bit came out as a growl. As if my body knew that I was feeding her lies.
I could have reeled back from shock when she only came closer, her good hand coming to cradle my face tenderly. "What about you? Am I doing this to you?" Her horror had morphed into fear. Not fear of me, but fear for me. "Let me..." she murmured, her watery eyes earnest as she searched for something in my eyes. "Let me help. Is there something that I can do? Am I the one causing this?"
I could only stare at her. To my complete astonishment, even the corruption receded a little, pulling back just to look at her through my eyes.
She shook me as delicately as she could when I did not answer. "Please tell me," she asked again, the urgency in her voice rising, her eyes filling with more tears. "Can I help?"
It was surreal watching her, her empathy directed at me and no one else—not her ire or fear or hatred. The swirls of blue and sea green in her eyes seemed to gleam with... care. She cared for me. She was worried about me.
"Please, Hades!" she suddenly screamed, her shaking growing more intense. "Tell me! It's hurting you, isn't it? It is because of me," more tears welled up in those beautiful depths. For the first time, I did not see Darius Valmont or Danielle. I saw her. "Is it because I am cursed?" she demanded, her tears falling like crystals. "Am I hurting you because I am cursed?"
Suddenly, confusion swirled through me. "What are you—" Suddenly, a rip tore through the tense air as agony like nothing I had ever felt before wreaked havoc on my body. It was too early. It was too damn early for it to reach this stage, I thought in a panic as I tried to keep it all locked up. But it was like the floodgates had opened, and nothing would be able to keep the contamination contained.
It lashed out, black veins of all things sinister racing across my skin as my black claws grew into menacing talons of destruction. I felt my bones break as they bulged and lengthened, bringing with them more bouts of unrelenting agony. A guttural roar tore through my throat, my vocal cords disintegrating and regenerating with the force.
Ellen flinched as I backed away from her, trying to put space between us, but my eyes stayed glued to her now frozen form. The corruption growled in my ears, my eardrums splintering.
Take her. Claim her. Break her.
I shook my head against the command. "No!" I roared. But if the corruption was a malevolent force, maybe it would have worked. But this was anything but—it was an entity with purposes and agendas. And right now, Ellen was its target. Its purpose.
She was not just something to destroy but to possess, to own, and to corrupt. The entity's intentions clashed against mine, a high tidal wave that turned my mind on its head. Yet, no matter how much I tried, I could only see her. Her terrified eyes met mine, and I growled in hunger and frustration.
"Run... now," I bellowed against every feral instinct. But the warning served no purpose because I pounced immediately after.
She barely had time to react before I was upon her, my talons on either side of her head trapping her. The marble underneath splintered and shattered as I held myself back from ripping into her delicate flesh. Every beat of her heart and pulse of her blood was amplified, roaring in my head, almost as loud as the corruption itself.
Take her. Mark her. It growled.
Where was Kael? He should have heard me. I just had to hold back for a little longer. The fact that I could still see those frightened eyes of hers on me meant that I had not reached the carnal stage.
Take her. It demanded. She is mine. She is ours.
I shook my head against the hunger, my talons coming closer to her despite how hard I fought it, my jaw snapping at her face.
She is ours. It screamed.
"Hades, can you hear me?" Her voice was a soft tremor against the raging storm in my head, but it reached me. Somehow, even with the corruption roaring louder, her words broke through, wrapping around the last threads of my sanity like a tether.
"Hades, can you hear me?" Ellen repeated, her voice steadier now, though her chest rose and fell with rapid breaths. Her trembling hands lifted, coming to rest on my forearms, just above where my talons dug into the fractured marble.
The beast inside me snarled. Take her. Mark her. She is ours.
"Stop it!" I roared, my voice fractured, somewhere between human and feral. My jaw snapped, teeth elongating further, aching to sink into her delicate skin. I tried to pull away, to give her the distance she needed to escape, but the corruption held me there, as though she were the only thing grounding me to this cursed existence.
Ellen's fingers tightened on my arms, a surprising show of strength. "Hades, look at me!" she demanded, her voice cutting through the cacophony. Her gaze locked onto mine, unwavering despite the monster looming over her.
I did look at her. It wasn't by choice, not entirely. The corruption, as much as it craved her submission, seemed transfixed by her too. My vision blurred, dark and hazy, but her tear-streaked face remained clear.
"Fight it," she ordered me.
But my talons suddenly craved flesh and blood and came for her face. It was pure instinct as my jaw snapped faster, catching my arm between my teeth and biting down.
Bones cracked, but I felt nothing, my eyes on hers, black blood dripping from my arm to her chest. "Hades," a horrified whisper slipped past her trembling lips.
Mine. Mine. Mine. It growled.
My mate. It snarled in my head.
I froze for a moment at the pronouncement. I had to have been hearing things, yet the word echoed in my head. Mate. It had called her its mate.
I lost track for a moment, distracted by the realization. In that split second, the corruption struck at her—but before it could reach, a sharp prick of a needle in my neck made me stiffen.
Kael. Finally.