Hades

“This is supposed to be my room,” I muttered. “Why do people think they can just barge in and …”

I stopped short when I gave the woman a closer look and remembered her instantly as the tattooed barmaid from Pride. It would have been hard to forget the annihilating look she’d given me then. She gave me a fleeting glance this time as if my presence were too immaterial to take up any more of her time. She was riled. I could see that in the fixed line of her mouth and the way she brusquely pushed past Tucker.

“So this is where you’ve been hiding,” she chided Jake.

“I wondered how long it’d be before you’d show up,” Jake said lazily. “You know you’re getting yourself a reputation as a stalker.”

“Shame a bad reputation don’t mean jack here,” the woman replied.

There was a derisive tone in the way he addressed her, but she seemed only amused by it. “Beth, meet Asia, my … very personal … personal assistant. She gets stressed if she doesn’t know exactly where I am at any given time.”

I sat up to get a better look at her. Asia was tall and striking like an Amazon. She was dressed provocatively in a gold halter top and a leather miniskirt. Her jet-black hair with the texture of spun wool surrounded her feline features. Her lips were exaggeratedly full, sticky with gloss, and permanently parted. The way she stood with her shoulders thrust back reminded me of a boxer, and her coffee-colored skin had a slight sheen as if it had been oiled. Her shoes were extraordinary, like works of art; fawn-colored, open-toed lace-up ankle boots with heels like ice picks.

“Jimmy Choo,” she said reading my mind. “Divine, aren’t they? Jake has them specially made for me every season.”

There was a look in her smoldering eyes I was familiar with. I’d seen girls give it to one another at school when they wanted to issue a clear warning that said, “Hands off!” Asia didn’t need to say anything to me; her look spoke volumes. As Jake’s lover she was sending me a clear message that said he was off-limits to me if I valued my life. In order to make the status of her relationship patently clear, Asia slithered around Jake like an asp at his throat, rubbing up and pressing her bare flesh against him. Jake’s hand traveled up her polished thigh, but in his eyes I was sure I could see boredom. Asia surveyed me from head to foot, decidedly unimpressed. “So, this is the little bitch everyone’s talking about? Small, isn’t she?” Jake made a clicking sound with his tongue.

“Asia — play nice.”

“I can’t see what all the fuss is about,” she said, circling me now with a panther-like grace. “If you ask me, baby, I think you’re downgradin’.”

“Well, nobody asked you.” Jake gave her a warning look. “And we talked about this; Beth is special.”

“Are you saying I’m not?” Asia put her hands on her hips and arched her eyebrows flirtatiously.

“Oh, no, you’re very special,” Jake chuckled. “But in a different way. Don’t think your talents haven’t been appreciated.”

“So what’s with the Mary Sue outfit?” Asia asked, plucking at the frilly sleeve of my dress. “You got some fetish for Southern belles? It’s very pure. That’s what this is all about, right? But did you really have to dress her like she’s twelve?”

“No one dressed me,” I snapped.

“Oh, how cute!” Asia threw me a scathing look. “It talks.”

“I was just explaining to our guest how things work down here,” Jake said, steering the conversation in a safer direction. “I was trying to explain to her how life and death have no meaning here. Would you mind assisting me in a brief demonstration?”

“With pleasure,” Asia agreed. She came to stand right in front of him and threw back her head, seductively sliding off her halter top until she stood only in a black bra, revealing the smooth milk chocolate skin of her torso. Jake’s eyes traveled appreciatively over her body for a moment, before he spun around and seized a fire poker from its hook beside the grate. I realized his intention too late and the scream caught in my throat as he plunged the thick tip into her chest. I expected howls of pain or spurting blood, anything but what I saw. Asia only gasped then shuddered with pleasure and closed her eyes in ecstasy. When she opened them and caught sight of my horror- stricken face she dissolved into laughter. The poker was buried inches deep in her chest without the slightest hint of a wound of any kind. It looked as if it had molded to her body, as if it had always been a part of her. When she grasped it with both hands and wrenched it free of her flesh, it made a gruesome sucking sound. Seconds later the smooth skin closed over the puncture the poker had created.

“See?” Asia said. “The Grim Reaper can’t touch us. He works for us.”

“But I’m not dead,” I blurted, unthinking.

Asia snatched up the poker from the floor where she’d tossed it. “Why don’t we test that out?” she hissed. She sprang at me with animal speed, but Jake was faster and intercepted her, whipping the weapon from her tight grasp. He threw her onto the couch and crouched over her, the tip of the poker pressed menacingly against her throat. Asia eye’s flashed with excitement. She bared and gnashed her teeth as she ran her hands along his hips.

“Bethany is not a toy,” Jake said, as if he were scolding a naughty child. “Try to think of her as your baby sister.” Asia held her hands palm up in defeat but couldn’t repress her expression of deep disappointment.

“You used to be so much fun.”

“Ignore her.” Jake looked at me. “She’ll get used to you in time.”

That’s if I survive, I thought bitterly. “It doesn’t make sense,” I said. “How can you torture souls when they can’t feel pain?”

“I never said they couldn’t feel pain,” Jake explained. “Only the demons are immune. The souls, on the other hand, feel everything acutely. The beauty of Hades is that you keep regenerating only to go through it all again.”

“The torture cycle’s set on repeat,” Asia said with a crazed look. “We can hack ’em up and by sundown they’ll be whole again. The poor suckers look so relieved to know they’re close to the end. You should see their faces when they wake up without a scratch and it starts all over again.”

My face must have reflected the light-headedness I suddenly felt. I sank down into a chair, resting heavily on my elbow. Jake brushed Asia’s wandering hands from his chest and came over to me. He lifted my chin with an icy finger.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” he said in a voice surprisingly devoid of sarcasm.

“I don’t feel well,” I said flatly.

“Poor baby’s sick,” Asia crooned.

“What can I do?” Jake asked.

My gaze wandered inadvertently to Asia. I knew it wasn’t wise to make an enemy out of her, but her very presence was making me feel unwell. Jake looked at her flippantly over his shoulder. “Get out,” he commanded without a second’s hesitation.

“What?” She sounded genuinely surprised and even unsure of who he was addressing for a moment.

“NOW!”

Asia had clearly never been in a position in which she wasn’t Jake’s favorite and she didn’t like it. She threw me one final venomous look before storming off. I breathed easier with her gone. The malice she projected was debilitating, as if she were feeding off my very life source.

“Tucker, pour us a drink,” Jake ordered. Tucker sprang to life, moving to the dresser to pour whiskey from a crystal decanter into a tumbler. He handed it to Jake with an expression that suggested a mixture of fear and loathing. Jake held out the glass to me.

“Drink this.”

I took some tentative sips of the warm, glowing liquid and felt surprisingly better. It burned inside me, but somehow the burn had a numbing effect.

“You need to keep your strength up,” Jake said, putting an arm casually around me. Instantaneously I shook myself free. “You don’t always have to be so defensive.” He swung himself playfully around a bedpost and slid in beside me so deftly I barely had time to react. Although filled with a strange darkness, Jake’s face was beautiful in the fading light. His lips parted in a slow smile and I could hear him breathing fast. His black eyes traveled unhurriedly over my face. He always had a way of making me feel exposed and vulnerable.