Eternal

“I’ll help you heal if you want, but I’m telling you right now that I will not be sleeping with you to do it.”

His eyes lit up as they locked onto mine and he slid over until our thighs were pressed together.

“What would you get out of it?” He asked, clearly trying to decide if this was some sort of trick.

“Since that night in Venom I seem to be having moments where I can feel, it’s mainly anger and occasionally something will make me laugh. I think you may have jump started it somehow and I’m hoping that a little more exposure may help them come back for good.”

I knew I had made it clear I would be using him, but isn’t that exactly what he would be doing to me as well. He bowed his head slightly without making a single sound, I wondered if he was going to refuse when he held a finger up and raised his head.

“Sex would be the quickest way to fix my face, but if you agree to a kiss and that includes however many it may take to heal me, then I will make you feel any emotion you wish. I even promise to never interfere with your emotions without you asking me. And let me just say that I am a man of my word and my promise is sacred to me.”

I nodded my agreement and told him I didn’t really want to feel anything right now, he then returned my nod.

He kneeled down on the ground before me, his cobalt eyes falling onto mine, as he pushed his hands over my cheeks and into my hair, curling them around the back of my head as he fisted my hair and crashed his lips to mine.

It felt like fire had ignited within my stomach and was slowly coursing through my veins, I wasn’t sure if that was a natural reaction for someone when they kissed an incubus, but I couldn’t fight the desire that was flowing through me.

My arms linked around his neck as our kiss grew deeper, I trailed my fingers down his back and felt him shiver before he suddenly pulled away, disconnecting from the embrace that we had just shared.

His scars were still there, but they seemed a little less jagged then before and I found myself wondering if I could survive the number of kisses we would have to share to get them to fade completely.

“I’m sorry Unya, I didn’t mean to affect your emotions I just lost control a little there. I have never had that happen before,” he stated as he looked at me with wonder in his eyes.

I waved off his apology with a quick brush of my hand, before rising to my feet.

“It’s fine, honestly I feel good and for someone like me, that is an amazing feeling. I’m not really sure how we’re going to continue our agreement but I do think that maybe we should find a different location.”

I realised as I stood there that there must have been more suitable places than a bench that sat beside my great grandmother’s empty grave.

“I will reach out to you once I have found the perfect spot, the only thing I ask is that you do not share this with Lawson. I would rather avoid a repeat of his last visit if I can help it. I nodded my agreement before I headed off to meet Marcus.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Lawson

I hadn’t spoken to Kat since her little break down in the kitchen a week ago and every time I thought about Unya and Marcus together it did crazy things to my head. I refused to admit to myself that it was jealousy as it felt like I was betraying Lilianna’s memory somehow.

Her death had eaten away at my every moment since it happened, but the thing I couldn’t accept or even let myself comprehend was the fact that when I was with Unya, the pain lessened a little and I thought of her even less.

I didn’t think it was fair to her to want to move on, that was why I had thrown myself into situations with woman who I knew could never mean anything to me. I regretted Lilith profusely, but how was I to know that she would become infatuated by the idea of me and her together. She knew the score before anything happened and after one week, she was practically planning our wedding.

That would never have happened, especially after the fact I still had the ring that I had planned to propose to Lilianna with, burning a hole through my sock draw.

For a while after she had died and I had got my

revenge, I had seriously considered getting myself killed so I could finally be with her, but it would never have worked. I knew without a doubt I would be destined for Tartarus when my time finally came and Lilianna would never have ended up in such a place. She may have resided in the underworld, but I knew in my heart she had a kind soul, she should have been destined for greatness, not the measly existence that I had to offer and definitely not the untimely and horrific end that she met.

I shook of my depressing thoughts as I prepared myself to meet with the Oracle, I knew I had to hear the prophecy for myself, instead of the twisted and warped version that was now floating around. Ruined by the years that had long passed since it was first uttered out loud, made to be repeated to Hades, regardless of the Oracle’s wishes. My only problem was no one actually knew where that specific Oracle was, which meant I would have to find their location for myself without raising any suspicion.

Z

I made my way down to the underworld purposely avoiding any route that could take me close to Hades palace, all I needed to do was find someone who could point me in the right direction. I walked past the Shades who would forever call the underworld home if they could not find their way to their final resting place, the problem being that they had chosen to drink from the river Lethe and in turn forgot all about their time amongst the living. As far as they were concerned being a Shade is all they had ever known. It’s a sad state of affairs, truly it is, but it dawned on me that I had never truly cared until that very moment.

So, what if their contribution to the earth was not great enough to grant them access to Elysium, at least they were pure enough not to be sent to Tartarus. Even the thought of that place sends chills down to the evillest of souls, it is one of the reasons why we cling to our existence with all our might, knowing what lies in wait for us is so much worse than our imaginations can conjure.

Yet these poor souls will always be stuck there, but in a way, they are the lucky ones, as they don’t realise what has been stolen from them. Unlike those who have been denied the chance to forget all their misery and loss. You see when the gods failed to break the lock that Constantine placed upon their gleaming palace, Hades became drunk on the idea of all that untapped power. There was no longer anyone above him, Zeus no longer had any control over what he did so Hades took that chance to make some changes.

There used to be three judges of the dead, these three beings were promoted by their father Zeus to send the souls to their allotted places, be it Tartarus, Elysium, the Asphodel Meadows and for the very few, the Blessed Isles. Now these children became gods in their own rights and because of Zeus’s power, Hades had always had to accept that it would always be that way. Until Zeus got locked away in an impenetrable prison and Hades took that chance to rid the underworld of its appointed Judges. This in turn made him the sole judge, jury and executioner of any soul that passed through the gates of Hades.