The Darkest Lie (Lords of the Underworld #6)(28)
Author: Gena Showalter

William.

William was an immortal of some sort, though none of them knew exactly what he was. The man liked to think of himself as a sex god, that much Amun knew. He’d sleep with anyone—and had. A man of few standards, no question. But he loved fighting almost as much as he loved sex, and he wasn’t possessed by a demon. Therefore, the darkness of the underworld wouldn’t frighten him. And if Amun fell as he suspected he would, there would be someone there to help Aeron leave.

“I will,” Aeron said. “I’ll ask him.”

Amun sighed, as sad as Olivia had been. Then count me in.

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE BLOOD… the girl saw it in her mind, dripping, flowing, rushing. The screams…she heard them in her ears, agonized, evil. The darkness…it surrounded her, closing in tighter and tighter, nearly suffocating her.

How long this had been going on, she didn’t know. Time had ceased to exist for her. There was only pain and chaos. And fire. Oh, God, the fire. She could smell the fumes, the scent of rotting bodies and brimstone.Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, scalding her cheeks. She was lying in a bed, knees drawn up to her chest. Over and over she shivered from cold, and yet, she was still burning up inside. Someone had carried her here. She couldn’t remember who. She only knew that the moment he had set her down, she had attacked him, unable to help herself. So badly she’d wanted to bathe in his blood. She’d wanted to hear his scream join all the others.

If he’d survived, she didn’t know. Didn’t care. Would have actually welcomed another victim, and she hated herself for it.

“How are you today, pet?”

The words were barely audible through the screams, but she understood them all the same. And she didn’t have to open her eyes to know who now stood beside her bed. Cronus. King of the gods…her master.

Can’t hurt him. Can’t allow myself to hurt him. He would punish her. Again.

Hurt him, another beguiling voice whispered through her head. It would feel so good.

Can’t. Any more pain, and she would crumble. Forever lost.

Once she’d been known as Sienna Blackstone. Once, she’d been human. Once, she’d been a Hunter. Then she’d fallen for Paris, keeper of Promiscuity, and slept with him to strengthen him. Big mistake. The empowered warrior had decided to use her—as a shield. He’d abducted her just as she’d once abducted him, allowing her own people to gun her down.

At the time, she hadn’t thought it was possible to feel such agony. Liking a man, only to discover he couldn’t care less about you. Bullets, slicing into flesh. Life, slipping away. She laughed bitterly now. How foolish she’d been. That hadn’t been agony. That had been a massage. This was agony.

Her back felt as if it had been dipped in acid and salt. Two hard things were growing between her shoulder blades, sprouting from the ruined flesh. Horns, perhaps. Or maybe wings. Every so often, she thought she felt them flutter.

“Answer me. Now.”

Punish, that beguiling voice commanded. Take all that he claims as his, and then take his head.

Though her head was already filled with more evil than she could bear, new images began taking residence. She saw all the things Cronus had stolen over the centuries: artifacts, power, women. She saw all the lives he’d taken—and exactly how he’d taken them. So many. Oh, there were so many lives cut short because of his greed. Not just his enemies, but his own people. Even humans. Anyone who had gotten in his way. Blood flowed, and the screams reached a new crescendo.

Oh, God. Moaning, she pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes. Had she known what awaited her in the afterlife, had she known what kind of person he truly was, she would not have allowed him to lead her to the heavens.

She would have stayed with Paris. A man she’d thought she hated with every fiber of her being.

That hatred for him must have anchored her to his side, because her spirit had followed him for several days after her body died. He hadn’t been able to see her, hadn’t sensed her in any way. She’d watched as he’d given her a warrior’s funeral; that had surprised her. She’d watched as he’d cried for her; that had confused her. She’d watched as he’d mourned for her; that had, unexpectedly, touched her.

Her anger with him had begun to drain. She’d thought: even though he used me, he must have truly cared about me. And if he was capable of caring, he must not be the evil creature she’d been led to believe.

But then his body had begun to weaken and Sienna had been forgotten. To regain his strength, he’d slept with some random stranger. And then another. And another. He hadn’t cared about a single one of them. He hadn’t cared that they’d wanted more from him than a mere bedding. He’d walked away afterward and never looked back. Just as he would have done to her if she hadn’t captured him for her boss.

Her anger had returned, hotter than before.

That’s when Cronus had appeared before her. “Come with me,” he’d said, “and you will live again.”

“I don’t want to live again.” The life she’d led had not been the stuff of dreams. After her younger sister was abducted from her home, her father and mother had checked out. They’d wanted nothing to do with anything, even their remaining child. Fighting the Lords of the Underworld had become Sienna’s cause, her sole purpose. There would be no evil in the world, no more abductions, if Pandora’s demons were destroyed, she’d been told.

Cronus, though, had not given up.

“You can avenge your death, then,” he’d replied.

“I don’t want to do that, either.” She’d just wanted to pass quietly into the afterlife, the world and its inhabitants forgotten. Perhaps there she would have found her sister.

“You don’t know what you want. But I can see your desires in your eyes, whether you admit them or not. You’re desperate for a second chance. You want what you were denied. A family. Someone to protect you, to cherish you. Someone to love you.”

She’d swallowed the lump in her throat. “And how will I get that with you?”

“I’m creating an army. A holy army of warriors the likes of which you have never seen. You can be a part of that.”

That’s how he planned to find someone to protect, cherish and love her? “No, thank you.”

“I cannot do this without you.”

Why? She was too frail to win a physical altercation and had always been a little too timid to call anyone on their shit. That’s why Dean Stefano, her boss, had always used her in the office, researching demon lore. She’d been flabbergasted when he’d asked her to seduce Paris and at first, she’d said no.