The Darkest Pleasure (Lords of the Underworld #3)(59)
Author: Gena Showalter

"Yes."

"She is dead."

"As you once proved with Lucien, you are more powerful than death."

A whisper-soft chuckle. "Flattery, oh, sweet flattery. But I will not grant you this wish. What’s done is done. She’s gone."

Giving in to the crushing weight of disappointment now pressing into his shoulders was not an option. A warrior did not give up until the last breath was taken – and even then Paris suspected there might be opportunity to negotiate. "I will bargain for her."

"Yes, with your worship," Cronus said drolly. "You, demon, have nothing of value."

For once Promiscuity seemed more concerned with doling out pain than taking pleasure, because both Paris and the demon roared at that, ready to lash out. "Surely there is something," he replied tightly.

"No. Nothing. I have no need of more warriors. I have riches, freedom, power beyond imagining. You have my cage, but I cannot bargain for that because I gave my word and my word is law. Should you find my other weapons…perhaps."

"Please," he rushed out, afraid the god would vanish at any moment. "You are my last hope. I will do anything you ask, if only you will grant me this one request. I am lost without her. I need her, for she is the calm in my storm. My anchor. Without her, I am just the shell of a man. Have you never felt that way about anyone? Have you never wanted something so badly, you would give your own life for it?"

A pause. A sigh. "Your desperation intrigues me. Since Anya gave away her greatest treasure to save her man, I have wondered at exactly what the depths of love will drive a heart to do."

At his words, every cell in Paris’s body lit up.

The god’s head tilted to the side, his expression pensive. "Tell me why you choose this woman above everything you could ask me for. Why not risk all and beg me to release the warrior Aeron from his quest?"

"I – I – " Fuck. What kind of friend was he? That should have been his request, and it should have been his request weeks ago. "I am ashamed to say I have no answer for you."

Fingers again ran through his hair, gentle, almost tender. "That does not clear my confusion. She was your enemy, and yet you have placed her above your lifelong friend. He would save you. She would kill you. You love him. You do not love her."

No, he didn’t, and his guilt ratcheted up another notch. "Can’t I have both?"

"I am still not convinced I will grant you even one."

Paris closed his eyes in a futile attempt to shut out that terrible, ever-growing guilt. "My body was able to respond to Sienna as it has never responded to another since I was cursed. I thought, hoped, she could save me from myself."

"Very selfish of you. I thought you had learned control in your years on earth, yet still, you are a slave to Promiscuity?"

Thanks for digging the knife deeper. "Yes."

"If I gave her back to you, she would ultimately betray you. You know that, do you not? Your friend would continue to suffer, and yet he would love you even though you chose a woman over him."

The words were too much, too real, and Paris sagged forward, clutching his stomach, fighting tears from his eyes.

"That is enough for now. Think about what I have said, demon, and we will talk again." Cronus was gone in the next instant.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, Sabin?"

"Preparing for war," he answered, eyeing the warriors surrounding him. They were propped in every corner of their rented house in Rome, watching him intently. "You know that."

"The Darkest Pleasure"

A little while ago, Lucien had returned to Buda and flashed the now-healed Gideon and Kane here. The ceiling’s plaster was already crumbling on top of Disaster’s head.

Lucien had brought them to "talk some sense into" Sabin. Sabin thought the others needed sense talked into them.

"What? Why?" Maddox demanded.

"That’s what I do, what I’m good at." He returned his attention to his Sig Sauer, loading bullets into the magazine. "The Hunters we killed at the temple aren’t the only ones here. There are more, and they’re most likely searching for us. More than that, Paris saw Reyes’s woman holding our box in that damned vision of his. Was she holding it for us? Or them?"

The ominous question cast a dark silence over the living room. No one knew the answer. "She saved Ashlyn once. I like her," Maddox said, and not for Ashlyn’s benefit. Currently his woman was resting in another room. He meant what he said.

But Sabin wasn’t done. "We know Danika spent time with them. We know she doesn’t like us. Hunters could still be here, following us, meaning to snatch the box from us the moment we find it."

"We have not known that since the beginning," Gideon said in a show of agreement. He rubbed his temples, blue hair momentarily shielding his fingers from view.

Strider patted his waist and nodded when he encountered his blades. "I’m with you."

Sabin glanced at Amun. The man rarely spoke. As keeper of Secrets, he couldn’t speak without revealing things everyone in the room was probably better off not knowing about each other. But he, too, nodded.

Anya planted her hands on her waist. "I’m not going anywhere without Lucien."

Love, Sabin scoffed. He’d fallen a few times over the centuries, and each time had been a mistake. Eleven years ago, Dean Stefano’s wife, Darla, had been the last to win his heart. After her death, he’d vowed not to allow himself such emotions again. Always he drove women into depression because they couldn’t stop doubting themselves and their actions; in extreme cases, like Darla’s, that depression drove them to suicide. Love was not worth the hardships it wrought.

Gideon shrugged. "You know how I hate to fight Hunters."

Good. He was in, as well.

"You want to war? Just like that?" Maddox snapped his fingers. "Without preparation? We did that in Buda, and you know what happened there. A bomb, Torin nearly killed. A plague unleashed on the city. You were partly responsible for bringing the Hunters to our door. Obviously, you haven’t changed."

When they’d split up those few thousand years ago, Maddox had sided with Lucien, hoping for peace, and Sabin had mourned the loss of a great soldier. He did not want to split again. But…

"You haven’t, either," Sabin growled. "There cannot be harmony without war. History – history we have lived – has proven that time and time again. We must fight for what we want or it will be taken from us."

"I want the Hunters dead," Maddox said tightly. "I do." He was Violence, as tempestuous as human females could often be. The storm inside him drove him to constantly seek calm around him, Sabin knew, but he also knew Maddox now controlled his demon just by thinking of his woman. "I just want my friends alive more. You are rushing out there. You do not know how many Hunters there are, what weapons they have and can use against our females. You – "