Page 25

25

BETRAYAL

T he moment I became aware that I was still breathing, I woke with a start, only one name slipping past my lips like many times before.

“Ella!” I called out in the type of desperation only true love could speak of. I bolted upright, the pain in doing so only proving to me that I wasn’t dead yet, and this wasn’t my own brand of Hell. Although without seeing her here now, it felt like I had been sent there.

“Easy, brother.” Orth’s voice was the only anchor I could cling onto as Ella’s voice became a haunting memory.

“What… what happened?” I asked, feeling my head spin, as if I had lost too much blood and most of it now went rushing to my head.

“We saved your ass, or should I say, the Vampire did.”

I frowned at that, knowing of only one vampire he could mean.

“Lucius?”

“In the flesh,” the man in question replied, making me focus on where it had come from, seeing him standing by a door and not one I recognized. Just like the room I was now in. One where the walls looked as if they were made from giant shards of Obsidian. As for the bed, this too looked to have been carved out of the stone, with very little else in the room.

“Where is Ella?” I asked, despite my mind already screaming this at me… she was gone. I looked first to the one who wouldn’t answer me and then to my brother, who looked like he did want to.

“She… she…”

“She what?” I snapped, as even in my weakened state, I could feel my anger building.

“She tried to kill you, Cerberus,” Lucius answered, clearly knowing that my brother didn’t have the heart to say it.

“No… no, she…” This denial quickly trailed off as memories started to assault me. First with waking her up, to then having her fight me. And then, her tender touch, just before… before… the pain.

“She is lost to you,” Lucius told me, making me shout,

“No! It wasn’t her! It wasn’t my Ella. She was being controlled, manipulated. Her power, it’s controlling her, and Garmr, he is controlling it.”

Lucius released a sigh and told me,

“That may be so, but without a way to free her from it, then we must plan for the war to come.”

I shook my head, my brain scrambling for the right words to argue against it.

“He needs time,” Orthrus said.

“Unfortunately, HellBeast, time is one thing we may not have,” Lucius replied before walking away, leaving my brother and I alone.

“Don’t listen to him, we will get her back, J, I promise you, we will find a way.”

I nodded, my emotions too raw to speak, as all I could see was the memory of her trying to kill me. A memory that played on a cruel loop, like my own personal torture. That was until my brother pulled me out of it, by taking my hand and putting something in it.

“Here, when they brought you through, you were clutching onto this.”

I opened my palm to see the blood-stained ring, the one I had given her when she agreed to make me the happiest man alive. Obviously, the irony wasn’t lost on me.

“Her engagement ring,” I muttered, my tone void of hope.

“And it will be on her finger again soon, don’t lose hope, brother, there must be a way.”

“But how… you heard the Vampire, she tried to kill me. She would have succeeded had I not been saved.” I swallowed the thick lump down, one that consisted solely of bitterness and heartache.

“Lerna and Koro found a way once, maybe they know,” he suggested, which was enough of a spark that it gave me cause to nod, telling him,

“You’re right. You’re right, they did, which means they must know something.” His grin in return gave me strength.

“There he is, the cunning bastard brother I know and love… come on, time to get your ass out of bed then, you lazy git.”

I chuckled, my arm going to my stomach before telling him,

“It fucking hurts to laugh, so stop trying to make me feel better.”

He laughed before helping me up, and I swear the last time he did this was over a hundred years ago. And back when I got my drunk arse shitfaced on devil’s rum.

I also discovered as I stood that I was wearing loose fitted black pants and nothing else, but the thick bandage wrapped around my waist spoke volumes. One scar she had given me that I was most definitely going to let heal, as it wasn’t exactly a memory I wanted to hold on to.

And speaking of healing, I knew I would only need to give it a few more hours and I would be good as new. Still fucking devastated and heartbroken, but at least I would be able to fight. Although clearly, Ella was one person I couldn’t fight against. Which was why we needed to get her back to the Ella I knew and out of Garmr’s control. Talking of freedom…

“How did Lucius save me?” I asked as Orthrus walked me from the room, making me almost want to groan out loud at the sight of another damn castle. One that obviously belonged to Lucius in Hell, as I had been to his place in Germany before, and this… well this most definitely wasn’t it. Like the room I woke up in, it was made from gigantic shards of Obsidian, the hallways void of everything else but the black glass walls.

“You will soon find out.”

“So, it wasn’t you?” I asked, surprised.

“No,” he gritted out as if annoyed by the fact that he had listened to me and allowed me to go in alone. And a good job too, or it might have been both of us bleeding out on the floor.

Orth led me to a room he knew they must have all been waiting in, and one that looked as if used for one purpose… war. A room decorated in every demonic weapon imaginable all mounted on the walls. The large table and chairs in the center were the only furniture the room held, telling me this was solely used for planning and not exactly fit for throwing dinner parties.

“Jared!” Lerna shouted when she saw me, and she was joined by an even more familiar face.

“Uncle!” Amelia ran at me at the same time Lerna did, neither woman paying any attention to the bloody big bandage around my waist, as they threw themselves into me.

“Humph… ah ah oww,” I moaned as pain flared once more, making them both back away slowly.

“Sorry.”

“Oops, my bad,” Amelia said getting it straight from her aunty Pip. Although the kid called us family, as most of us had watched her grow up. I wasn’t really her uncle, just like Pip wasn’t her aunt. As for Lerna, she walked back to sitting next to her husband, who looked like he had hard time watching as his woman ran off to another man’s arms. Although, I had to say, as innocent as I knew it was, it still felt good to know she cared at least.

As for the rest of the room, there was Marcus who looked relieved to see me. Asher, who also gave me a nod in acknowledgement, relief also painted his expression. Then there was Lucius at the head of the table with Amelia now sitting next to him. Tyr was also there, as well as Clay, and lastly a man I only vaguely recognized. A man that looked to be of Persian descent with a warm bronze skin tone and long dark hair that was currently tied back, often like I wore my own. Light olive-green eyes flickered amber at the centers in the candle light that hung from the ceiling in glass cages. His full lips smirked as I assessed him, prompting his brother to say,

“Jared, this is my brother, Dariush, you have him to thank for getting you out of there in time.”

Koro cleared his throat, making Lucius add with a smirk,

“And our Gypsy King of course.”

At this my shock showed, as my gaze snapped to find him looking smug.

“You saved me?” I asked in astonishment.

“Oh, the irony, HellBeast,” he replied with a wink, making Lerna scold him, something he didn’t look to take too seriously.

“Okay, back up, can someone please explain what happened?” I said, making Lucius hold out his hand, inviting my brother and I to take the last two empty seats. One of which was at the other end of the table. A seat that I knew technically should have been reserved for his Queen. But this was Lucius we were talking about here. Meaning I knew how obsessed he was with his wife, so I doubted he wanted her to be that far away from him. Something I could relate to as I was the same with Ella.

I took the seat, with my brother sitting on my right and Marcus on my left. The chairs were black, gothic, and grand with their high spiraled carved backs. The table in between was like black glass had been melted over an existing wooden table, as the grain could be seen slightly through the top.

“Well?” I asked, prompting them to start, with Koro speaking first.

“After Ella cut her hand, I soaked it up, not wanting anymore to spill incase our fears were founded, something that transpired that they were,” Koro said, before placing his hand on the table and making the lengths of his bindings snake out beneath his sleeve. Instantly, they went to Lerna, as if attracted to her, making her giggle as they played with her fingers, wrapping themselves around them.

“Once they have tasted blood, they don’t forget it, and Ella happened to have quite a bit of your blood in her system, having recently fed from you, I assume?”

I nodded, confirming this.

“As soon as you spilled your blood, the spell Lerna and I had cast on Ella registered as being the same blood I had wiped away. Only a portal didn’t open, meaning we knew it must have been yours.”

I then looked to Lucius as he continued.

“Koro was already with me, as I had already been on my way to the ruins of Lúpē when he told me what happened. My brother here has a special gift that not many know about and therefore we would like to keep it that way.”

“Go on,” I prompted, as the Vampire knew I wasn’t one to spill anyone’s secrets.

“He can create portals, but to bring someone through, he must have a link to where they are if he hasn’t been there before, and your blood was that link, one Koro was able to provide.”

I released a sigh.

“And you three?” I asked, looking to Marcus, Tyr, and finally my brother.

“Once my brother had opened the portal, he recognized the castle from the color of the stone, seeing it through the gateway himself, so he created one above the mountain,” Lucius told me, making me look to his brother.

“I then searched for a way inside, after being told that there should be four of you,” Dariush added, making me look to Orthrus before he told me,

“This guy then pops up above us and tells us to climb up, telling me my brother needs me.”

“After that, we each took a trip on the Kingdom of Blood and Death express and ended up here,” Marcus added, making Tyr agree.

“What they all said.”

“And as for you, HellBeast, and the sorry state in which you arrived in, I had a witch I know help aid you in your healing, as you were losing more blood than your body could regenerate, which means you would have most certainly died,” Lucius added, this knowledge another bitter sting I was forced to swallow.

“I found bandages,” Amelia popped her hand up to say, making Lucius grin down at her.

“Yes, you did, and amazingly, in the bag Nero told you they were in,” he teased, making her stick her tongue out at him. Something he would have killed others for. Of course, he did pretend to try and bite it off, making his brother Dariush groan and roll his eyes.

“Gods they are at it again. Seriously, brother, I remember when you used to be the most feared ruler of this land.”

To which Lucius smirked and after picking up Amelia’s fingers and kissing the tips of them, one by one, he said,

“What can I tell you, brother, this little prisoner of mine tamed me.”

“Okay, now as her uncle and seeing her go from nappies to giving her piggybacks as a kid, I really don’t want to know any kinky shit between you two,” I said, giving Lucius cause to smirk down at her and mouth,

“Kinky shit,” to which she giggled.

“Okay, moving on,” I prompted.

“Thank the Gods,” Lucius’s brother muttered.

“What I really want to know is how we get Ella back?” I asked, now looking to the only two people around this table that could answer that.

“I think we can all take from the fact you were stabbed and screaming her name in midst of your feverous state, that she was the cause?”

I gritted my teeth at Tyr’s question.

“Still a sore spot there, buddy, might want to rethink your words,” my own brother offered.

“She has had her powers returned, I don’t know how, but she isn’t the same as before when she had them, Garmr is controlling her in some way,” I informed them with a grit of my teeth.

“That was like before, only it was more gradual the first time. By the end, it was almost as if she had forgotten her old self completely,” Lerna said in a pained tone.

“Yes, well that information might have helped when first going in there,” I snapped, making her Lerna sigh and admit,

“I was hoping it wouldn’t come to that again.”

Again… My jaw clenched so hard, I thought it would crack the bone.

“My question is how did you break it the first time?” I asked, as this was the only thing at this point that I wanted to know.

“We just needed a branch,” she said, making us all react as one, but it was Amelia who said,

“Er, come again?”

This made Lerna wince before clarifying.

“I should be more specific.”

“Yeah, that would help,” Marcus said dryly, getting an evil glare from Koro.

“She needed to come into contact with a piece of white poplar tree.”

I frowned.

“But why?” I asked.

“We discovered the only way to bring her back was to remind her of her old life. Touching the branch of the white poplar tree belonging to Hades is linked directly to their mother,” Koro replied, making my Amelia ask,

“How?”

“It is the tree our father had planted after learning of our mother’s death, it is said it holds a piece of her soul, one that she promised to our father always. The last time, as soon as my sister picked it up, it secured her back to her old life enough that she remembered who she was. Only after that were we able to get her away from Garmr,” Lerna explained.

“So, this tree, where is it?” I asked, wishing I had known this shit first so as I would have had a backup plan.

“It’s in my father’s castle, planted in the garden he had made for her,” Lerna answered.

“I acquired a piece of it some time ago, doing so without his knowledge, as we thought it best not to inform the King at the time,” Koro explained.

“Why not? Wouldn’t he have helped with it being his daughter?” Amelia asked, as clearly the kid grew up with loving parents. Not the type that built her a temple prison and then left her there for the rest of eternity.

“It’s complicated but at the time, he was living with the Queen, who is extremely jealous, and has wanted his offspring dead since she first learned of their existence. The tree, however, was kept protected from all harmful intent. Meaning when I stole a piece, my intentions were recognized as pure, and I was allowed to break it off. If Hades knew of this, I don’t know, only that it would have been more dangerous at the time to involve him,” Koro replied, giving insight to his part played in freeing Ella.

“But couldn’t he have fought Garmr?” Orth asked.

“Technically no, for at the time, Garmr was not in his realm, he was in the realm of Helheim, not under the control of Hades,” Koro told him, causing Marcus to ask,

“Which begs the question, where is good old Hades now?”

“I don’t know, as he hasn’t been seen for many decades now,” Koro admitted.

“And what about Ella, is she still bound to this realm, even if she has her powers back?” I asked, hoping for now that she was.

“She ate the fruit of our father and did so willingly,” Lerna replied.

“What does that mean?” Asher asked.

“That she will remain bound until our father can release her, regardless of her powers,” she said, making me release a held breath.

“Well at least we know that the war will be here then,” Lucius pointed out, as clearly that was where his mind was focused.

“Which gives us a good enough start as any, for we need to assemble our troops and have them on the move towards your realm,” Lucius continued, making me realize we had a lot of work ahead of us, but first things first, which was why I stood and told Lerna…

“Then it’s time we go speak with your father and…”

“My Maker.”