The Darkest Torment (Lords of the Underworld 12)

What the hell was going on? He zipped up his pants, intending to find William.

His companion released a heavy sigh. “No wonder he wants you dead.” With no other warning, she swung her fist at him.

Instincts honed on the bloodiest of battlefields spurred him into motion even before his mind processed what was happening. He caught her wrist before contact and twisted her arm behind her back, effectively pinning her down.

Now kill her, Destruction said. Make her a cautionary tale for all who think to harm us.

He would...not. “You said he wants me dead.” The words were snarled. “Who is he?” William?

“Let me go!” She kicked at him to no avail. “It was nothing personal, okay? Not on my part. I only wanted the money.” She beat her free hand into the mattress. “I should have stuck to the plan and waited until you were weak from orgasm.”

He wrenched her arm higher, and she shrieked in misery. The ring caught his attention. The stone had been discarded, revealing the needle underneath. She’d intended to poison him?

Cautionary tale...

Enemies had to die. Always.

“William!” he bellowed, though he needn’t have bothered.

The bedroom door burst open. William stomped inside, his narrowed gaze landing on the blonde. “Mistake, nymph. I would have been good to you.” Blood drenched him. “Now you’ll only experience my worst.”

Tremors of fear rocked her.

“She said he wants me dead,” Baden informed the warrior.

A muscle ticked below his eye. “He. Lucifer. And don’t you dare refer to the male as my brother. I’ll never claim him.”

Baden should have guessed. Lucifer was power-hungry. Greedy. An unrepentant rapist. A killer of innocents. The father of lies. There was no line he wouldn’t cross. No foul deed he wouldn’t commit against men, women and even children.

William motioned to Baden’s glowing bands with a tilt of his chin. “Prepare yourself. Soon you’re going to face—”

Baden was yanked through an invisible black hole...only to crash-land on the other side. He oriented his mind as a massive ballroom came into view. Tendrils of smoke wafted from multiple bonfires, hazing the air as they curled toward a domed ceiling made entirely of flame. There were only two exits. The one in back, manned by giants, and the one in front, manned by even bigger giants.

A grandiose throne made from bronzed human skulls consumed the center of a long dais, and on that throne sat Hades himself. He was a large man, similar in size to Baden, with inky hair and eyes so black they had no beginning or end. He wore a pin-striped suit and Italian loafers, the elegance at odds with the stars tattooed on each of his knuckles.

Urbane and yet uncivilized, Hades spread his arms. “Welcome to my humble abode. Love it before you hate it.”

Baden ignored the nonsensical greeting. He’d interacted with the king only once before, when the male gifted him with the wreaths and freed him from Lucifer’s prison. “Why am I here?” The glow faded from the bands, the metal cooling, becoming dull and dark once again. Better question: “How am I here?”

Hades smiled slowly, smugly. “Thanks to the wreaths, I’m your master, and you are my slave. I called, you came.”

Baden fought the urge to attack. “You lie.” He was slave to no one, not even the king. The beast, however...might be. Realization stabbed him, and suddenly only one question mattered. “Who is Destruction?”

The king was an expert strategist and donned a blank mask. “Perhaps a man I cursed. Perhaps a being I created.” His fingers formed a steeple in front of his mouth. “The only thing you need to know? He will always choose me over you.”

The beast offered no response, a fact as annoying as it was baffling.

“I will fight his compulsion to obey you,” Baden vowed.

Hades winced with something akin to pity. “When I summon you again, you will come. When I give an order, you will obey. Let’s have a good old-fashioned demonstration, shall we?” He lifted his chin, the picture of a male who’d never known uncertainty. “Kneel.”

Baden’s knees slammed into the floor with so much force the entire room rattled. Though he struggled with all his considerable might, he failed to rise.

Horror joined his rage. Bound to the will of another...

“As you can see, my will is your delight.” Hades waved a hand through the air. “You may stand.”

His body unlocked, and he leaped to his feet, his hand automatically resting on the hilt of a dagger. He’d been tricked. And oh, the irony. The one time he should have doubted, he’d trusted blindly.