The Sea Queen (The Dark Queens Book 1) Read online

  Her finger stopped moving, and a cold, calculating look moved through her sea-blue eyes. “Why do you ask?”

  “Because I am not without knowledge. You do to me as you wish this night, and tomorrow I show you more of the carnal arts.”

  “Only tomorrow?”

  I grinned. She was naïve but smart. “No, not only tomorrow. We take turns. Whatever you wish from me on your nights, I will do. Likewise, whatever I wish from you on my nights, you will do.”

  She hissed, clamping her hand to my neck in a punishing grip. The waters between us swirled and raged, causing her hair to lash my eyes.

  “Do you play me for a fool, Hades!”

  I remained as I was, even though I had the power to make her release me with naught but a thought. For too long I’d been cold, dead inside, and Calypso was like a spark to my soul. An ember I’d not thought I had anymore was suddenly flaring to life. She excited my passions, but she needed to agree to my terms on this. On that I would not budge.

  “Tell me, Sea, why did you save me this day?” I asked her calmly.

  Immediately the rage lessened and the waters cooled. My tempestuous captor was living up to her name.

  She shrugged. “I wished to know you, Hades.”

  “Sexually?” I lifted a brow.

  She paused for a moment, long enough that I noticed. Was she wishing for more than mere sex? I’d never even considered that a possibility, but her words quickly brushed off my thoughts.

  “Of course. You’re a beautiful male specimen. I wish to shed this baggage.” She pointed between her legs. “You will do.”

  “You speak so strangely, my dear.”

  She laughed. “Am I your dear already? Oh my, I guess my feminine wiles are much more powerful than I’d imagined.”

  I stared deep into her eyes, entranced by the hypnotic sway of her figure, the way the water literally seemed to breathe in her. If she only knew.

  “Parley.”

  I frowned. “What?”

  “I concede, you fool. Do not ask me to release you from this prison. And if I say no to sex, you must stop, but if I like your suggestion, then arrrrr,” she twitched her lips and pumped her arm, “I’ll do it.”

  “What was that?” I shook my head.

  Giving me wide eyes, as though I were too stupid to live, she brushed a hand down her voluptuous body. “I’m a pirate. I am being a pirate. Is this not obvious, Hades?”

  I laughed.

  For a moment I thought perhaps I shouldn’t have when an angry light flashed like twin bolts through her eyes, but soon the anger turned to something else entirely.

  Humming beneath her breath, she palmed both her hands to my chest and raked delicately.

  The fire of desire lit through me like a powder keg ready to burst. I sucked in air like a bellows and hissed.

  “Are you ready for sex now or what?” She bent over me, her teeth nipping at my earlobe.

  “Good gods,” I groaned. “No foreplay. No sweet nothings, no—”

  Gripping my shaft tight in her hands, she fisted me. I expected her not to have a clue what to do with me, as she was untried. A virgin mother, she’d never lain with another soul, but she did not at all act like a novice.

  Calypso had obviously studied well.

  “No,” she snipped. Then, standing, she released me, and I wanted to beg her to pump me again.

  Reaching between her legs, she ripped at a hole in the stockings and, with a wicked glint in her eyes, straddled my hips, her hot center resting just at the throbbing tip of me.

  “Bloody hell,” I groaned when she sank down on me.

  I’d expected flowery, girly nonsense, weeping and whimpering, and a woman who had no idea what to do.

  Calypso sank down on me deep, clenching me in her tight, wet channel, and I could only grunt as the light from her body reflected off the walls like a giant prism.

  I wanted to grab her waist, wanted to pin her down and slam into her, but she held me prisoner and rode me like a woman possessed.

  She never undressed, never did more than grunt and wiggle her hips, taking me in slow and deep, and I thought I would die from the pleasure.

  I closed my eyes for a second, lost to the swirling madness of the moment, to the heady scent of our bonding. When next I opened them, she was staring at me not with the innocence of an untried maiden but with eyes now dripping with revelation.

  “Oh, Hades,” she moaned and trembled violently, the quaking of her inner muscles milking an orgasm from me.

  “Calypso!” I roared my release.

  Chapter 6

  Calypso

  Thoroughly spent, I patted his chest and, with one final wiggle of my hips, bounced off him.

  I felt I could fly.

  I wanted to have more sex, truth be told. But he was giving me an odd look I wasn’t sure I liked.

  “Well, that’ll do, I suppose.” With a flick of my fingers, I released him from his shackles. “You may go now. Take any room in the temple and sleep well, Death Boy.”

  He frowned, glancing down at his now clothed body. The dark pants were a little more snug between his legs than was usual. And the top button of his black silk shirt was opened wide enough to give me a tantalizing peek at the hollow of his throat.

  By the gods, the man was sexy.

  “That’s it?” he snapped, riffling fingers through his hair.

  At first I thought he might have been angry with me, but then he tipped his head back and laughed, the sound of it reaching toward the rafters and shaking the very foundation of coral my temple rested upon.

  My lips twitched, rather liking the sound of it.

  “Of course that’s it. Did you expect sweet nothings from me? My dear boy, I am not that kind of girl.”

  Eyes like purest obsidian gleamed back at me. “I should feel used, Calypso.”

  I sighed, making sure my breasts heaved for dramatic effect. His eyes zeroed in on the sight with a quickness that branded my very flesh with hot pricklings of need.

  My stomach swirled. I wanted to rip his pants off him and do it again. I loved sex. It’d been most enjoyable.

  But I would not sate my newfound desire with him again tonight. Relationships were complicated and messy, tragic things doomed to fail. Except, of course, for Nim and Sircco. I’d see anyone hanged if they tried to interfere with those two.

  They, however, were the exception to the rule. I’d done the whole engagement thing with Seidy, who I affectionately referred to as Psycho when he wasn’t looking. No thank you.

  Even Dite with her passion for her twisted male slept around. I’m sure Hephy would, too, if anyone would have him, that was.

  Standing, I suffered a very odd and strange emotion. Nothing and no one cowed me, ever. But when the massive wall of muscle and beauty that was Hades stood toe to toe with me, I felt suddenly small and delicate.

  It was the strangest sensation, this desire I suddenly had to lean into his chest and rest my cheek upon him and maybe listen to his heart beat.

  Surely the sound of it would be like A Night on Bald Mountain by Mussorgsky: menacing and brooding and macabrely wonderful.

  But I did none of those things. I locked my eyes with his. “If you mean to intimidate me, Reaper, you’ve got another think coming.”

  His brow twitched, and then he drew his knuckle down my cheek. Just a small, feathery touch, but it burned straight through me and made me shiver.

  “You fascinate me, Thalassa.”

  I sucked in a breath. I hadn’t been called by that name in ages, since before the dawn of man. It was my true birth name.

  Swallowing hard, for once I had no words to say, and I watched hungrily as he turned and strode from my room.

  I wanted to chase after him. Wanted to call him back and demand he tell me why he’d said that name. But goddesses did not beg.

  Glaring at my now open bedroom door, I debated whether it was a good idea to release the tsunami of violence I barely kept in check within me.<
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  But then I thought of Nim’s precious sea snail garden and swallowed my urge. She would not thank me for destroying her yearly crop.

  But there was one way I could assuage my sudden thirst for destruction. Closing my eyes, I channeled all my confusion and rage into two cognizant thoughts.

  “Apollo and Jeffery.”

  Cackling to myself, I gathered the waters of the deep, filling them with all the filth of litter legger fools had selfishly dropped into them, and shot them out like twin harpoons.

  In my head I saw Jeffery sputter as a rolling wave snatched him up, keeping him under as he struggled mightily to escape the very sudden and quite unexpected (oops) riptide.

  His sea maiden, well aware that the waters had been sent by moi, did not interfere. I should drown his miserable rat ass for being such a fool. But I was turning over a new leaf now.

  So I only let him suffer for a little while. Just until his face turned blue and his eyes began to bulge from a lack of breathable water.

  He collapsed to his hut floor a mere second later, hacking and spluttering and drooling all over himself.

  “Pathetic legger.” I curled my lip.

  But then I smiled when I turned my gaze toward Apollo’s shimmering temple that now dripped with brine, salt, and yards and yards of slimy kelp, not to mention several gallons’ worth of litter.

  “Calypso!” Apollo roared, obviously well aware it’d been me and not Psycho who’d done it. I shrugged. Apollo held no dominion over me. The lights that lit Seren were of my own making, an enchantment similar to the sun, but not actually sun at all.

  There was nothing the golden-haired narcissist could do to me down here. In fact, there was nothing any of the miserable pantheon could do to me. I was far greater in power than they were, and they all knew it.

  Dusting my hands off, I twirled, feeling strangely...lonely.

  Curling my nose in disgust, because the Goddess of the Sea was never in want of company, I vanished this ridiculous outfit with a thought.

  Well, not entirely ridiculous. I might need to use it again; Hades had practically wet himself for want of me. But that heat had soon turned to something else when he’d orgasmed. There’d been a softness to him, one I’d not expected.

  One that intrigued me far more than most anything else we’d done tonight.

  Laughing, I shook my head. I was becoming a maudlin fool in my old age.

  Wishing to be rid of this body, I returned to my natural state. Instantly my thoughts eased as I felt the hum of life, of my children move through me. Bruce was several hundred feet away and gorging on the bloated carcass of a bucktoothed whale.

  Nim and Sircco were...oh, I shut off the channel. Best to give them their privacy.

  Most of my maidens were with their chosen bedmates for the evening. Psycho was banging a bevy of porpoises at the same time.

  He really was a pervert. Why bang twenty when you could bang one for life?

  Hm. Where had that thought come from?

  Life was such a long time for ones such as us.

  All around me, I felt the yawn and breath of life and death. Death was a part of my world, and I accepted it as such. Very few things lived forever. There was a natural cycle to life and a beauty to death few souls could ever truly appreciate.

  To live a life well, to have no regrets, be you fish, maiden, or even a damnable legger. To close your eyes and know that there was peace in the beyond and to smile because now the pain would soon be over and there’d be nothing more beyond that but joy.

  Yes, there was beauty in death.

  Thinking of death obviously turned my thoughts to the man himself, the collector of legger souls.

  He’d told me I fascinated him.

  Truth was, he fascinated me too.

  I felt him as he paced the length of the room beside my own, his lips pulled down, his thoughts pensive and weighty. He stared at nothing, but his thoughts were clearly heavy and distracting.

  Why was he not sated? Had I not pleasured him well? Was there more I should have done? Maybe the carrot?

  But I quickly banished the thoughts and stopped spying on him. Whatever his thoughts were, they were his own.

  There’d been guilt etched onto his face. Around the corners of his eyes. Hades knew Persephone’s fate. The scales of justice would move as they must.

  Needing the comfort of a friend, I flashed to where Linx was stabled.

  The hippocampus lifted her glittering head, sensing my presence immediately.

  Sister? Why are your thoughts so heavy?

  I honestly was not sure. I was a virgin no more, and that should have been cause for celebration. Instead, I wrapped my form around Linx’s body and hugged her tight.

  She let me do it, not moving an inch the rest of the night as I fitfully slept.

  ~*~

  Hades

  “Please Hades, if you ever cared for me at all, don’t do this,” Persephone pleaded, clenching her fingers tight.

  Hades stared in fury. How dare she? How dare she demand of him further?

  He’d given her everything. Spoiled her even. For so long, all he’d wanted was her love, but he’d soon learned that Persephone loved nothing so well as herself.

  He’d have settled for respect at the very least, but even that she’d withheld.

  Lifting a hand, he glared at her. He was powerful. A god. She could not do to him what he did not allow. But he’d always been weak to her wiles. Until the day he wasn’t. Until the burden of her yearly visits made him want to weep and gnash his teeth with disgust and vexation.

  Hades had tried to end their arrangement, but the terms had been sealed by the Fates, and unless one were willing to take her place, he’d never be able to undo what’d been wrought by a zealous fit of passion nearly an eternity ago.

  Her eyes flashed. “You won’t do this. You won’t because you still love me.”

  He scoffed. “I do not love you, you little fool. My love for you has turned to hate. After what you’ve done to Cerberus, do you think I could ever forgive this!”

  She laughed. Literally laughed in his face. Any pretense at kindness faded quickly. “That mangy mutt will grow it back. No real harm done. But if you do this, I swear to the gods, they will see you burn for this.”

  He moved as though to strike her but held back at the last moment. He hated her, but at his core, Hades was now and would always be a gentleman.

  “I despise your black soul,” she scoffed, lifting her chin. “Hit me, you beast. Hit me hard!”

  Shaking her by the shoulders, he roared, “Stop this at once!”

  “You deserve nothing less! Now let me go—”

  He moved. A tangle of limbs. Cerberus snapping one of his massive jaws, and then there was nothing more but pools of blood...

  Gasping, I sat up, clutching at my chest. The dream left me shaken—and utterly destroyed, because it’d been no dream.

  It’d all happened.

  “Damn her to Tartarus!” I roared, kicking off the sheets and staring at the golden walls of the room with hate, fury, and the injustice of it all.

  If I talked, I was damned. If I didn’t talk, I was damned.

  There would be no out for me from this. None.

  Calypso had given me a short reprieve for her own selfish ends. As with most others, she was no different. She’d taken what she’d wanted—my body; she cared naught about the rest.

  Turning on my heel, I stopped, staring broodily at the diamond-dipped clam-shell bed I’d slept on, the sea kelp that climbed like vines up the walls and glimmered like green and blue neon. The room was both gaudy and tasteful.

  A strange mix of excess and beauty.

  Like the woman herself.

  Sighing, I dropped down onto the edge of the bed. I did not hate her. In fact, Calypso had been a breath of fresh air for me. When I was with her, I didn’t think about Persephone or what she’d done to me.

  What I’d done to her.

  She’d grown out
of hand. And no matter how many times I’d talked of that with Demeter, she’d refused to hear me out. Refused to believe it.

  So I’d done what I’d done, and though I had no regrets, I felt the injustice of their judgment keenly.

  Clenching my jaw, I hung my head.

  There was a soft glow coming in from the window. Apollo did not actually track across the waters here, so whatever this light was, the enchantment came from Calypso herself.

  I’d visited Poseidon’s grotto once. It’d been a bachelor’s paradise, with a bevy of nude sirens and sea creatures to warm his bed. Poseidon’s waters catered to nothing but the carnal.

  Calypso’s, on the other hand, teemed with actual life. With citizens that lived and breathed and worked and loved. She’d built a true utopia in this Below, and had I been brought here under different circumstances, I might have enjoyed it more.

  I snorted as a sudden flash of memory ripped through my thoughts: her in that bizarre costume, riding me like I was a stallion, with her head tossed back and a look of wonder in her eyes.

  A wild, witchy, enchantress.

  In so many ways, Calypso was a mystery to not just me but all the Pantheon. Water was the essence of life. All peoples of all nations and tongues worshipped her, even without ever uttering a prayer. Without water, life would cease to exist.

  Because of that, she was a great power and, should she ever wish it, a threat to Zeus’s reign.

  Poseidon was also a water deity, but he’d been born long after her. No, the true power had always lain with Calypso—Thalassa, as I was coming to think of her—but she’d always been a shy, absent creature, content to live out her days as a hermit and so often overlooked by those of us on Olympus.

  I grinned, wondering at a world in which she reigned and we no longer did, and I found it not to be such a terrible thing.

  My position would always be secure. She was life. I was death. One could not exist without the other. But many of the Pantheon were antiquated beings with ideals no longer suitable to this day and age.

  Just then, the door was thrown open, and a maiden I’d never seen before swam inside.

  Her hair was a silvery gray, and though her face was more mature, she was not in the least bit old. She was rather attractive, sturdy and solidly built with sharp features that, separately, weren’t entirely pleasing but together created a symmetrical harmony. A tail the same shade as her hair swished as she swam inside.