Chapter Four

"Don't touch me."

I smiled pleasantly, withdrawing my hand to tuck into my pocket as I watched Wren roll over on his side, breathing hard. He was messy and dirty from his scuffle in the alley, his jacket laying splayed open, his shirt torn just enough so I could see sweat glistening on his skin. He was still flushed from head to toe. I could see the pink creeping up his chest, his nipples hardening as he struggled to get to his feet.

"You sure you don't want a hand?" I asked.

"Fuck off." Wren's growl was almost unintelligible. I just smiled, watching him take his time to get to his feet where he held his hands out at his sides for balance. He blinked a few times, straightening himself to get his footing before he shot me a glare.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" He demanded immediately. With those flushed cheeks, sparkling eyes, and his nose did this little twitch thing whenever he was pissed.

Fucking adorable.

"I live near here," I said, gesturing with a thumb in the direction of my fake apartment, "I was grabbing a coffee before work and I heard your voice." Wren glared at me, clearly suspicious and rightfully so. I went to see what was going on in that head of his, coming all the way out here alone during his heat, but all I was met with was a jumble of thoughts that made no sense.

This kid was so fucking weird. What kind of person had that much information in their head at one time? Anxiety was one thing, but this kid was chaos bouncing off the walls, which was hilarious considering his demeanor was never that insane.

"You don't work mornings," Wren said after a moment. I blinked, surprised he knew my schedule that well, looked at him cheekily and he actually got pinker.

No, uhm— There it is. Finally, a conscious thought from his head. Of course it went right back into chaos, but for a moment there, I heard his voice loud and clear in my head. It comforted the brief concern I had over the information Ryk had fed them.

I had no doubt that Ryk was at least alive and probably telling Hades about all the shit that went down at the compound, which was kind of disappointing. I had hoped Ryk would need time to cope with it on his own, but he surprised me by being so faithful to Hades, even after finding out all the shit Hades had lied about.

"I got a promotion," I said at last, making Wren scowl curiously at me and I smiled, "I'm the new server trainee." Wren grimaced, giving me a quick scan up and down and I almost choked at the look on his face. I couldn't resist the cackle that built up in me and Wren flushed even more.

"What the hell was that look for? You can't imagine me in bed?" I teased. My comment did exactly what I hoped it would. I watched with wicked satisfaction as Wren's brain took that comment and ran with it, and boy, did that imagination of his fucking sprint.

A fantasy of me spreading Wren's legs open, dragging my tongue across his thigh toward his hole that was somehow already soaked in me, my saliva, as if I'd already been in there over and over and over again. The imagery was so hot and hard and sudden that it actually took my breath away for a moment.

Wren suddenly groaned and sank back down to his knees and I sighed.

"Alright, we can't have you standing around, stinkin' up the alley. Let's get you somewhere safe," I said, reaching for him, but Wren threw his shoulder back out of my reach and stumbled. He lost his balance with a gasp and I reached out, yanking him by the front of his jacket up against me.

Having him up against me, I realized how truly thin he was. He was all lean muscle and bone and cheap denim. For the briefest of moments, I considered kidnapping him just to fucking feed him.

A meat and potato kind of place.

The fact that I seriously stopped to consider the plan gave me the creepy crawlies and I let go of Wren on instinct, which sent him plopping back down on the ground. He groaned on the impact and I blinked, looking down at him.

"Okay," I said, making him glare at me in bewilderment, "Fine. Lay there." I folded my arms over my chest. Wren panted, clearly out of breath, his jeans tenting at his groin, sweat gathering at his temples and dampening his blonde hair. I gave him a couple minutes to catch his breath, his dark eyes closing in agony.

A quick peek in that cute little head of his and abruptly I was slamming on the brakes.

He wasn't thinking of anything sexual. He was thinking of... accounting? Numbers flew around the kid's head like bugs over a bog. He was just making calculations and taking note of various numbers.

For a whole ass second, I was so overwhelmed I wanted to drag myself out and actually take a bath.

I had never been so offended by mathematics that I needed a fucking shower.

I waited it out just a second longer, noticing that certain numbers became more frequent.

Three, his brain stammered now as the numbers began to slow, the words began to slow, his brain turning to mush, mmm, three bedrooms... three... one for me. I smirked as I watched Wren leaning over with his head between his legs, drool spilling through his lips to the cobblestones.

He was trying so hard to stay with it. He kept stuttering back to the numbers, but every time he was dragged back to the same fantasy of me not just nibbling my way up his thigh, littering it with bruises, but at some point, the fantasy included him wearing a collar that seemed to honestly come out of nowhere. I wanted to examine that further because— oh boy, so he does have a fun side.

But abruptly Wren's brain shut off and I cursed as he slumped forward on the ground, unconscious.

Wow, he's flexible. I shook my head to cast away the thought, dropping down on one knee as I picked him up by his shoulders, pushing him back up. His head flopped back, lips parted slightly as drool leaked from the corner.

"Heyyy, Wrenny," I said, then paused, waiting for him to absolutely fucking bust my head open for daring to use a name that only his family used, except there was no reaction, "Hey, are you cool if I just take you to work with me? I mean, you have an appointment soon, right? Want me to take you to your appointment?" Obviously he wasn't going to answer, but he did give me a little moan that made me chuckle.

I tucked my arms under his and went to hoist him into my arms, and I actually stumbled. Not because he was heavy, but because I was expecting him to be a lot heavier given his height, but the guy was light as a feather.

I smirked, balancing myself as I gathered Wren into my arms comfortably and he just sighed with his face against my chest.

Boy, wait till he hears about this.

I went on my merry way to work. Got a lot of weird looks on the way through town, and yeah I could've teleported us both to work to make things easier, but why would I want to waste the magic?

Or more importantly, why would I want anyone to miss me carrying the damsel in distress to safety? The idea of being the knight in shining armor was fucking hilarious.

Of course, everyone at The Winged Serpent was a flurry of activity the moment they saw me coming outside the doors. I didn't have to swipe any ID cards and Malto was already there to hold the door open, his eyes wide as he turned to look at Diego, who was waiting inside with his mouth open. Marsha, who'd been sitting at the desk on her phone, glanced up, then did a double take before she shot to her feet.

"What happened?" Diego gasped as I came into the lobby.

"No time to explain," I said, pretending that didn't sound as hilarious as it did, "Wren needs to feed and he needs to feed now. Where's Beni?" Diego blinked a couple times, looked at Marsha, who just stared at me, clearly not expecting me to bring Wren here myself. I just gave them a dumb smile as my question registered at the same time Beni came from around back.

"Oh my god!" Beni managed.

"Hey," I said, going to him immediately and dumped Wren in his arms so fast that it seemed to catch Beni off guard because he almost dropped the poor kid, "He needs to feed and feed him properly. Our breed of erotia can't come this close to starving. It can turn to bloodlust real quick." Beni stared at me, past me at Diego, clearly stunned by the whole situation. Diego just gave him a nod and Beni quickly took Wren in back, pausing to use his foot to slam the door shut behind him.

He gave me one last little glare before hurrying off.

I sighed, turning back to Diego and Marsha, now joined by Malto, who were all staring at me.

"Right," I said, giving my jacket lapels a tug to straighten up before I faced Diego, "Good morning! Here for my first day on the job as a server trainee." Marsha's eyes widened and she slowly turned her head to look at Diego, who cleared his throat. Malto also made a noise of discomfort.

"I'm, uh, gonna go... I left the oven on." As if he had an oven at his little desk in the entryway.

"Of course," Diego said, pretending Marsha wasn't staring at him so hard it was a miracle Diego didn't just turn to stone, "Let's get you set up with a profile." I nodded and followed Diego to the door that would take us back. Diego scanned his ID and let us in.

It wasn't much different from a doctor's office. Neat and tidy with random images, or what I thought were random and it took me a moment to realize it was just weird pornographic art disguised as flowers and meadows and mountains and how the fuck did you manage to depict sixty-nine with flowers?

Talent.

"Local artist do these?" I asked. Diego actually pinkened at the question.

"Ah, uh, the North American Erotia Foundation actually sent them to us. I'd have to ask."

"Let me know when you find out. I'd like to decorate my apartment."

Diego was so thrown that I think all he could do was laugh, but it was a confused laugh. I just smiled as we ended up in his office, which was connected to a security room. I pretended to be interested in the artwork that hung on the wall by the door.

"Is this two lesbians making out?" I asked, pointing to the painting and Diego looked up, clearly surprised.

"Oh, yes, it was a piece I bought in Tennessee during a festival."

"Nice. Love the 3D brush strokes. Very deliberate, especially in the hair." I glanced past the painting into the security room. There weren't many monitors, and certain ones were blacked out and still had a blinking number in the corner, but I managed to see a couple where Beni was taking Wren into a room that continued on with Beni carrying Wren through his room and placing him on the bed. Beni leaned over the bed, touching something under the nightstand top and the camera blacked out and I was met with a blinking red number.

Hmmm. So they can shut off the cameras when they want? That seems kind of sketchy, and not something Diego wouldn't have a solution to. Question was, what made Diego so confident in his servers that he'd let them have access to the security cameras? Or was Beni special?

Was Wren special?

"So," Diego continued, making me turn to smile as I came over to plop in one of the armchairs and Diego was scrolling through his electronic tablet, "We're going to need to beef up your profile if you're going to take clients. Our clients like honesty and forwardness, which you've displayed very well since you've started. You're also discreet and respectful of staff and clients, setting aside Beni anyway."

"Kay, but Beni's weird," I said, making Diego give me a droll stare, "He is."

"He's also going to be training you, so maybe learn to like him, or at the very least, tolerate him. There's a reason he's a client-favorite."

"Alright, fine, but what do you mean 'beef up' my profile? Do I have to diet?" I did not like the idea of starting a diet again.

"No," Diego said with a chuckle, "I mean, we need more details to share with the clients, so we have a questionnaire we'd like you to answer before we begin your training."

"Am I going to be tested?" I asked. Diego laughed again, shaking his head as he poked around on the tablet. From this angle, I could make out him opening a program, so that meant all the answers were going to be recorded and have a digital trail. Not to mention, it was probably going to be featured on the website.

Mother didn't say anything about keeping a super low profile, but with Ryk back in Hades's sights, Hades would know now to be on the look out for me, which made my personal job a lot harder. Or someone fitting my description anyway. I wasn't big on altering my appearance, and Mother had warned me not to risk using magic to do so. Or hair dye for that matter.

If I see even one box of hair dye within your arm's reach, I will push you off the balcony. I laughed at her recent threat when I brought up the possibility of being recognized while on this mission.

"Why don't you want me blonde like you," I asked her after her comment and she scoffed from her spot on the sofa, popping a handful of popcorn in her mouth.

"I like you pretty."

"What, like Hades?" It had been a joke. Mother's expression did not look amused, though. She didn't speak to me for the rest of the day, which had made things awkward, but mother was very good at that. Sometimes an off-hand comment would send her into a temper tantrum, or she'd suddenly get this faraway look on her face and just go lay in bed for the rest of the day.

And Hades had always been a touchy subject.

"So, where are you originally from," Diego asked, making me blink out of my daydreaming to look at him drolly and he smiled, "What little you can remember. I know you said you had some kind of hiking accident in Hades and lost your memory, but do you remember where you're from? Perhaps family?" I smiled.

"I remember bits and pieces," I replied, pausing to study the ceiling thoughtfully, "I know I'm from Seattle, Washington, in the mortal realm. I know I had a mom, a dad, two brothers. But I don't remember actually communicating with any of them, except maybe my mom on and off. I don't remember much of Seattle either." Diego nodded, making notations.

"What are some of your hobbies?" He asked.

"Reading."

"What do you like to read?"

"Books."

"Hex."

"Sorry," I said with an awkward smile, reaching up to scratch my nose uncomfortably, "I really don't remember and all I've been doing lately is working because I need to find a way to establish myself here." Diego paused, tapping his chin before he nodded and wiggled his shoulders a little.

"I can work with that," he said, making me raise an eyebrow, "So all of our servers have their own personalities and quirks that appeal to our clients. Everyone has their own backstory, their own dreams and goals. Our servers aren't just servers. They are not prostitutes. This is not a brothel. We have trained professionals whose jobs are to tend to a certain species need to survive. It's nothing that we should be shy or ashamed of. It's just who we are as erotia. We thrive on our rawest pleasures, and that is something to be celebrated."

"So with our servers, we like to introduce them as people. Their stories. Our clients decide on who they feel would best suit their lifestyle, their needs. Our clients want to know all kinds of things about our servers and their specialties."

"Specialties," I said, pausing as Diego looked at me with an arched brow, "Like, special sexual experiences." Diego nodded.

"Correct. An example would be Beni, who provides specialty care in multiple forms. He has experience dealing with trauma victims, he has experience dealing with self-harm, with sensory issues, with BDSM, with all sorts of fetishes. The list goes on. These are things our clients want to know. We have clients who are curious and might jump between servers to find their community, if you know what I mean."

"That's amazing," I commented with an approving nod, "I've had some friends in the past suffer greatly with nowhere to turn, so it's nice knowing that there's a place for them now. I'm looking forward to being a part of this." Diego smiled.

"We're happy to have you on staff, Hex, you've been a great addition to the team."

"Maybe Marsha will warm up to me someday," I suggested and Diego grinned.

"She's still warming up to Andre, don't sweat it," he said, then looked down at his tablet, "Alright, so I think we're going to work with the concept that you're the new kid on the block, so you're mysterious and adjusting to city life, because..." He paused and gave me a once over and I looked at him.

"What?"

"Well, you act like you've never lived in a city, which is funny, considering you said you're from Seattle. Big city."

"Oh, I'm just not a fan of cities," I said, making Diego look at me curiously, "It's too noisy." It wasn't just the external noise; cars honking in the mortal realm, voices chattering in a thousand languages, shopping bags rattling, doors clanging, music blasting, dogs barking. It was the internal noise too; the overlapping voices and stories pouring out of people's heads and into mine whenever eye contact was made and it was never made on purpose.

"Interesting that you'd settle in Styx considering it's probably the largest city in Hades," Diego pointed out and I nodded.

"The guy who saved me brought me here and told me to stay in town to be safe. He wasn't convinced my accident was a complete accident, even though I've told him a thousand times I know I misstepped, but that's all I remembered."

"He's just being protective," Diego said with a smile, "And he's got a point. It might be the 21st century, but people still treat erotia like property in some places, so it's good to be a little paranoid."

"Preach."

"So what about your sexual experiences? Do you happen to remember any of them? Any fetish or kink in particular that we should take note of?" Diego asked. I stared at him, because I actually had to stop and think about it, and for the briefest of moments, a sharp pain pierced my chest. It wasn't necessarily the question itself, but the memory it invoked of the first time I'd ever had sex. It wasn't a clear memory and I remembered it being awkward and uncomfortable and coming so fast it was laughable.

The pain was in that laugh that echoed in the back of my head.

Don't be embarrassed, baby, it's a compliment, trust me—

"Oh, Hex—"

"Phew, no, sorry, indigestion," I blurted, making Diego frown doubtfully as he tapped his finger on the top of his tablet, "No, it's not what you're thinking. I'm fine. Uh, I don't really have any experience in specific plays or anything, but I'm willing to be taught." Diego nodded.

"That sounds good, willing to be taught," he said, making note of it on his tablet, "And, obviously this is just a preference thing, but top or bottom or switch?" It took me a second to realize what he just asked me. I thought about it for a moment, thought about Wren, those long legs hoisted up over my shoulders as I delved my tongue inside him.

I smiled.

"I prefer to top."

"I figured, but a lot of clients like to know right off the bat," Diego said with a nod, "Alright, so we have a good profile here, but people are going to want to know more. Is there any way you can maybe piece me something together to use for the website by tomorrow? Just in your own words and we'll edit. We're looking for something creative, a sell-point for you."

"No, I can do that."

"Excellent, then let's go ahead and give you a little tour of the back of the house."

I rose to my feet with Diego as we left his office and went around to the different rooms, and while each room was mostly the same, there were some... special differences. Every room had its own bathroom, its own shower, bed, even a dresser and nightstands. The differences came when Diego introduced specific play rooms. Certain rooms were outfitted for specific sexual fetishes or kinks, so the dresser and closet would have certain costumes to wear or sexy lingerie. Certain rooms had beds with hooks and chains, one of them even had an art piece that doubled as a holder for colorful scarves to use as restraints.

"This bed is used for messier plays," Diego explained as he pulled on a lever on the bar, adjusting the bed height, "It has a special microbial mattress, stain-resistant, odor-resistant, and it's so easy to clean at the end of a shift. Just strip it and spray it with the detachable shower head in the bathroom right through there."

"Wow, you've thought of everything," I said, watching him adjust the posts on the bed and the height of the hooks on them.

"We're professionals," Diego answered with a warm smile, "My goal is for everyone to feel comfortable and safe to practice what they want. Of course, there's still rules in every practice, so keep those in mind." I nodded as Diego continued to give me a tour while handing me the information booklet I would need as a server trainee.

His rules and regulations were understandable. No entry into the building without an ID, no stays longer than two days, always clean and disinfect after every shift. Always respect and use safe words appropriately. If danger is suspected in play, there was actually a safety button under the nightstands and a quick peek proved there were not just a rescue button, but another smaller black button that I realized would connect to the cameras.

But nothing in the booklet said anything about turning off cameras. In fact, there was a whole section about privacy laws and being able to perform on film. The camera footage was all under strict protection and Diego was the only one who handled the footage, which he sent regular updates about to the local little prince, Theo, who had requested constant surveillance and protection for the facility.

Sounds like Theo was working with Diego to keep this place going.

Made sense if his little nephew was popping in and out of the place.

So not only Hades, but Theo, had their fingers in this place. I'd have to move around cautiously, and for once, watch my damn mouth. Anything involving mother or the plan would just set them off and come after me, and while I was sure I could handle Theo and Diego no problem, I was still wary about Hades.

Mother had assured me that one day I would be the one to stand by her side when she killed him.

A boring rambling story that mother always ended up repeating every time she had too much to drink or Bethany had pissed her off so she needed to rant. I was built for the sole purpose of this war against Hades and his people. My life held no meaning, but to kill him and to wipe out any and all those who touched his heart. Mother's goal, amongst some other things, was to eliminate Hades. It wasn't just a personal vendetta, but she needed him out of the way if she was going to execute her plan.

Hades had a nasty habit of sticking his nose where it didn't belong. The guy had a hero complex up the ass and it didn't help that he had officially been deemed Hope of the Universe. Not in the way that the demon Viviana was the personification of hope, but more like a title he received for having stopped the end of the universe a few times. It led to a lot of people putting Hades on a pedestal and while mother seemed to think Hades was drinking that up, I had yet to see him do so.

But following Hades was a lot harder than following Wren. All I had to do for Wren was wait for him to show up, tease him a little, rile him up, then he'd teleport off-grid and I lost track of him after that. With Hades, I couldn't interact. He'd know who I was the moment we met because he would be able to read what was going on in my head. I had to steer clear of Hades's gaze, but I could still watch him from afar and the more crowded a place was, the better.

The second issue with following Hades was that he didn't often go out and about. The guy was a grade-A shut-in who only ventured out on royal duties and when he did, he almost always had Lucifer by his side, my third issue.

Lucifer was an issue for a plethora of reasons that ranged from the fact that he was Hades's beau and almost always glued to his side, the fact that the archangel himself was cursed with an unstable heavenly curse, oh, and it was so fun having all of the soldiers back at headquarters telling me to absolutely never kill Lucifer before Hades.

You'd think vice versa as well, but they were very specific.

Kill Hades, then Lucifer.

Sure, that's easy. Let me, a new artificial with unstable powers, just fucking kill an ancient Greek god, and since that was so easy, let's move onto the cursed archangel, aka, Yhwhwa's former favorite?

This was going to be a fun mission.

"Alright," Diego said, wrapping up the tour and I just offered him a smile, because I was so tired of looking at paperwork and weird beds, "So that's pretty much the whole tour, and don't forget to write your name on anything in the break room fridge— Titi has sticky fingers when it comes to anything sweet and she will not hesitate."

"Gotcha," I said with a nod. Diego smiled.

"Thank you again, Hex, I really appreciate you accepting the position so last minute," he said, "I know it seemed sudden, but with Tay having left last week so abruptly, we were kinda short on staff and time. And you seem like a sweet guy, Hex. A little weird, but sweet."

"That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me," I said. Diego blushed.

"I'm sure it's not."

"It's the nicest thing I remember anyone ever saying to me," I said again. Diego laughed and gave me a playful shove.

"Again, I'm positive it's not. You've got one of those infectious personalities," he said, making me tilt my head to look at him curiously, "Like, you're rough around the edges, sure, and you definitely gotta work on that language of yours, but you've done a lot of good since you've got here too. You've helped Wren a couples times, you've even helped Marsha cover front desk and Beni with his clients, and you don't even get along with those last two."

"The world can be shit sometimes," I replied, making Diego look at me with a sad nod of agreement, "And sometimes it makes people tired. I'm not gonna be pissed at someone for being tired, plus I'm a newbie here. I don't know jackshit yet."

"Well, you'll be a member of the family in no time," Diego answered with a cheerful smile, "Go ahead and get some rest. I think I might've overloaded you and it seems Beni is still busy with Wren, so we'll call it a day."

"Great, sounds good, thanks for the opportunity, Diego, I won't disappoint," I promised with a grin. Diego just smiled and gave me a wave as I left the building and went outside, pausing to sigh as I stared up at the sky, the sun disappearing behind a blanket of ominous dark clouds that rumbled in the distance toward Elysium. I looked down at my phone, seeing I'd gotten a notification from my tracking app.

Wren was still inside, so he was fine, no worries where he was concerned.

What was interesting was seeing the little blinking blue dot on my app that indicated Hades himself was out and about.

Speak of the devil— and his husband shall appear, apparently.

It looked like he was traveling away from Theo's place along the main road through the city. I frowned, watching him walk the path that would take him right into the heart of the shopping district, which was out of character for him.

Since when did Hades shop publicly?

He was alone too. Hades generally was out and about on his own. I hadn't even seen him with Lucifer lately.

Interesting.

I teleported from the street outside The Winged Serpent and headed toward Hades's location. Of course, I wasn't going to drop myself right on his shoulders, so I reappeared on top of a shop building, four stories up. I walked over to the ledge and peered over, scanning the streets. I already knew what to look for, because a gargantuan dark-haired god roaming the streets was a pretty easy thing to spot.

And Hades did not like to be found.

So instead of searching for Hades, I searched for a head of white hair and a more reasonable height, which didn't narrow things down given that white hair was pretty natural for otherworldly beings. Of course, no one had the same aura as Hades, even when he was in disguise.

Sure enough, I spotted Hades across the street at a clothing store, which was weird. It wasn't even like a special big and tall store, and it wasn't any kind of goth or punk-rock attire, so it wasn't for him.

Hades was wearing his Hector disguise, as mother called it. Hades used it to move freely around the underworld without being bombarded by enemies or followers. He'd actually retired the disguise years ago, but he'd recently revived it in order to move around undetected by mother.

Except he was probably expecting top secret agent assassins or some shit.

Not me.

I took the fire escape down to the street, changed into street clothes that consisted of a sleeveless turtleneck and jeans, and hovered near a kiosk across the street from the shop Hades had gone into. I pretended to be interested in jewelry, occasionally asking questions of the vendor without looking up to maintain appearances.

I glanced up in the kiosk mirror, watching Hades move around the shop. He looked pissed off, which was somehow amusing, because even in disguise, Hades couldn't hide that infamous scowl of his.

It was practically permanently engraved into his face.

Dude took classes on how to appear emotionally constipated.

Or maybe he taught them.

He was pausing at things on the rack, looking at them, holding up to study, then tossed them back on the rack and went back to shopping. Or rather, he stalked up and down the racks, scanning for something and every so often, he'd take out his phone. I couldn't get a read on him from this distance, but I wasn't going to risk going into the same building as him.

Too close for comfort.

Hades spent another ten minutes in the shop, just looking at clothes that definitely would not fit him in a million years and definitely would not suit him. The clothing in the shop looked like new age shit, like the cutesy cottagecore kind of shit with mushrooms and greens and browns. Every so often, he'd stop at a crop top, text someone, then put it back on the rack.

Who the hell is he shopping for?

A ping on my phone made me sigh in frustration as I took it out and gave it a peek.

Jasper, when you have a chance, can you stop by headquarters again? Polly pocket is having a straight up field day in her room again and she killed one of the trainees. Kali's text made me want to groan out loud in frustration, because the last thing I wanted to do was go back to babysitting. It wasn't that I didn't like Nine; it was just tough to watch her deteriorate like she was.

I'd been there when she was a baby, held her in my arms when she was created.

She had been so tiny, so sweet, so innocent, staring up at me with those big red eyes lined with thick white lashes, even at her age. Mother had created her to be pretty and delicate in appearance, but ruthless and murderous on the inside. Too bad that last part was starting to take over.

It wasn't the first time I'd watched an artificial have a meltdown and die.

And I'm sure it wasn't the last.

I'll be there in a few. Tracking. I sent Kali, then looked up to see that Hades was finally leaving the shop with just a small bag and two items. He was coming out on his phone and I cocked my head to listen for his voice in the crowd.

"Yes, it was the exact shit on your list," Hades was saying in irritation, "I'm not your errand boy, kid. You have enough clothes without having me run all over... Huh?" He stopped talking to scowl deeply before looking up and around.

I stared down at my phone, picking up a piece of jewelry to hand to the vendor for purchase and he excitedly took my card to scan, packaging the gift. I could feel Hades's eyes scanning the crowd, which meant he sensed me. Luckily, he wasn't sure who exactly he was looking for and Styx was starting to hit the lunch rush, so the crowds were massive.

"Uh huh," Hades's voice said after a while, "Yup, it's a size XL. Pretty sure you're still a medium, but whatever makes you feel bigger and badder." There was a pause and I glanced over my shoulder in time to see a smile split across Hades's face, and I knew exactly who he was talking to the moment he smiled like that.

A son, and not just any son, but Niko.

I was beginning to learn some fun things about Hades. Starting with what everyone knew and that was that Hades adored his sons. They were his sole reason for existence in the world and he would absolutely hunt down and slaughter anyone who laid a finger on them. He was known for having been emotionally stunted in the past when it came to them, and rumor said that he'd even been known to torment his own sons for a while there, but it had been decades and Hades had apparently learned to relax a little.

Not just to relax around his sons, but to enjoy them.

Because the smile on his face when he spoke to Niko on the phone said he was simply obsessed with the kid.

I wanted to laugh at their relationship.

Both because it was kind of fucking cute and because only Niko could fucking tame Hades.

And only Hades could tame Niko.

"I'm heading back," Hades said into the phone as he moved down the street and I took my purchase from the vendor, moving along behind him with the crowd, "I'm not stopping for coffee, so don't even ask... I don't care, that makes me want to do it even less." I followed at a reasonable distance and every so often, Hades would glance up like he felt someone watching him, but luckily the crowd was pretty thick.

And he could certainly try to listen for my thoughts, but he had no idea whose thoughts he was listening for and with this massive crowd, there was no way for him to pinpoint me specifically.

Even for me, it was difficult just to hear Hades vocalizing, let alone hear anything that went on in his head. The voices around me, external and internal, were fucking loud. Babies crying, children laughing and running around, tripping people up, pissing off parents. The chatter of a thousand conversations became more like white noise in the background as I concentrated on Hades's voice.

"No, it's just me. Lucy's with Malachi right now... No, it's nothing you can help with, Lucy's fine and you need to stay put. And do me a favor, when Wren comes back, can you do a check-in with him? He didn't answer my call earlier..." I cocked my head. Check-in with Wren, so he was worried about Wren, and if he called earlier, it must've been when Wren was in trouble in the alley, or maybe even already at The Winged Serpent.

Interesting too, I noted. This was the millionth or so time I'd heard them discussing Malachi, but whenever I waited to see the guy make an appearance, it was never him. It was usually his husband, Adrian, who came out in public as opposed to the Hades spawn. Even then, he was very polite and proper, so it was hard to get anything out of him when it came to eavesdropping.

I couldn't even follow him home, because the barrier on their property was powerful.

That meant Viv was probably helping them.

Viviana, the demon of hope, wasn't actually very good at fighting or plotting or anything of the sort. The female demon lived for domesticity. She had bought a cute Victorian mansion in Inferi, filled it with all of her hopes and dreams, and even started a public garden in her backyard because she liked the idea of making food. Not cooking it, the female wasn't that good yet, but she was all over the gardening thing.

She was also known for being very, very good at one thing, and that was her powerful barriers. Even enough to throw off the ancient Shifter being that came about every few thousand years or so to throw off the balance.

So Viv was protecting Malachi and Adrian, which was interesting, because why? What made those two so special, aside from Malachi's former alcoholism and Adrian being a child abuse survivor? Viv was also protecting Wren, because whenever he teleported home, I strangely was unable to follow. Trying to teleport with him usually landed me somewhere random, and a few times I'd been automatically redirected to a fucking mental health clinic.

Hahaha, Viv.

Hades teleported abruptly and I cursed, pulling up short as I watched him vanish off the streets. I waited a moment to see if he would reappear somewhere else, or if I felt his presence somewhere else, but there was no sign of his magic anywhere.

I looked at my app and sure enough, the tracker disappeared.

I sighed in frustration.

Fuckin' A, Hades, can't you make my life just a little easier?

Another text had me looking down to see a sticker of an angry bear blowing steam out of his ears.

Jasper. Headquarters. Now. Polly needs help. Kali.

I looked up and around one last time, not spotting a single sign of Hades or his Hector disguise. I looked back down at my phone.

Omw, kal, ETA 3 min.