“There’s an assembly of gods?” I ask. And I wonder if it’s filled with the same corruption the city council has back home. Does someone like Councilman Rendon lead it and make every decision based on his own gain?
“Everyone needs rules and government,” Shayne says. “Especially immortals.”
“And you’re on it?” I ask.
“Yeah,” Shayne says. “I’m on it.” He unties the rope and tosses it back in the boat. Charon uses the pole and turns the boat around, already pushing it through the reeds, toward the other shore, away from the overhanging branches and back into the river of sorrow.
Chapter 14
Crossroads
I’m totally unprepared for what happens next. Something bounds out of a tunnel ahead of us and leaps for Shayne, knocking him flat to the ground and landing on his chest. It’s a black dog the size of a bear with three heads, all of which are licking Shayne’s face, shoving each other out of the way. One begins to growl at another, and pretty soon, Shayne’s pushing the dog off him.
“Cerberus! Be careful!” He looks to me and laughs. “One of these days, he’s going to get carried away and bite my ear off.” He stands up and reaches out with both hands, scratching two of the dog’s heads. The other head nuzzles against his arm until he scratches it behind the ears.
“You have a dog?” I know I’m stating the obvious, but it’s just such a bizarre scene, I’m not sure what else to say. And the word
“Cerberus guards the entrance to the Underworld.”
Cerberus looks my way, and his tail goes into overdrive. He turns, and I know he’s going to run for me and knock me over. I imagine the three heads licking me, and my lips curl up into a smile I can’t hold back.
But Shayne moves first, grabbing the neck in the middle. “Not yet, Cerberus. Let her get acquainted first.”
Cerberus wriggles and tries to break free. He whines and pulls and tugs, but Shayne holds firm, and I see the muscles in his arms flexing, veins showing, sweat covering them.
“He likes you.”
My smile grows, and I walk toward Cerberus. “And I like him.” I scratch him behind the ears of his left head—like I’d seen Shayne do. His tail flaps back and forth, moving so hard his backside slams into Shayne, knocking him away. And then Cerberus jumps up, placing a paw on either of my shoulders, which sends me flying to the soft, muddy soil. All three heads begin a licking frenzy.
“Cerberus!”
Cerberus keeps licking. I’m laughing so hard, I can’t do anything but move my head from side to side, trying to evade the three sloppy tongues. Completely unsuccessfully.
“Cerberus! Stop right now!”
Cerberus stops licking, but his paws stay on my shoulders. One of his heads swivels in Shayne’s direction. I manage to stop laughing long enough to speak. “It’s okay. He’s a good dog.”
Cerberus wags his tail, and moves his heads back to start licking again.
“Cerberus!”
Shayne grabs hold of Cerberus around the middle and lifts him. I can breathe again with the giant dog now off me. Shayne walks to a rocky wall, still holding Cerberus, and takes something out of one of the wooden supply chests stacked there. He tosses it across the way and releases Cerberus who bounds off after it, disappearing into a pitch black tunnel. Shayne comes back over to me. I’ve managed to stand up and brush some of the dirt and slobber off myself. It’s gotten everywhere, even inside my ears.
“Nice dog.” I laugh when I say it, trying to shake my ears clean.
Shayne combs his hand through my hair. A clump of dirt falls to the ground. I must be covered in it. How can he look so clean? He’s been slammed in the mud, also.
“He’s a bit on the excitable side. But there’s no better dog,” Shayne says.
I look into the dark cave and then take a few steps back so I can see more of the rocky wall. There are ten tunnels cut into the rock that look identical.
“Where do they go?” I ask.
“Different parts of the Underworld.”
I point to the one where Cerberus just disappeared. “So this one leads to…”
“My home. But not anymore.” He reaches for my hand and moves it so it’s pointing to the tunnel on the far left now. “Now my home is down that one.”
“So it changes?”
He nods.
“Why?”
“Security. Only I know where they lead at any given time.”
“You and Cerberus,” I venture.
Shayne laughs. “Yeah, me and Cerberus.” He points one tunnel over from where we stand. “And now it’s down there.”
I step up to the tunnel he’s pointing at and look inside. A chill of excitement runs though me. My eyes adjust, and I see there’s nothing but blackness ahead, and I know that’s the way we’re going.
We start down the tunnel. There’s a breeze blowing through it, and each time it touches my arm, it caresses me. Even though I can hardly see him, I feel Shayne walking next to me, almost like he has some sort of energy field. I sidle closer to him, and he stops walking, and then I’m up against the cave wall in the darkness.
“Piper.” His voice catches when he says my name.
He’s pressing against me, his warmth at my front, and the cold, hard stone wall behind me. His breath covers my face, and I’m tempted to move forward and kiss him.
But he puts a hand on my cheek. “I need to ask you something.”
“What?” I wrap my arms around him and pull him closer. I run my hands up his back, under his shirt, feeling his hard muscles which shiver at my touch. Shayne puts me in a place of comfort I’ve never known existed.
“Do you want to be here?”
I nod in the darkness.
“Do you want to see my world?”
I do. For reasons beyond my explanation, I am drawn to Shayne. To Hell. Even the stones in this tunnel seem to draw me in, making me feel like I belong.
“You have to answer me. Even if you weren’t here for Chloe, would you want to be here?”
“Yes.” And I lean my head forward again, and this time, our lips meet, and we kiss, and his mouth tastes like burning sweetness. There is no way I’ve only known Shayne a week. Our kiss screams volumes in my mind, making me sure I’ve known him forever. I trace my fingers up his spine, and he lets out a small groan. I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but he pushes himself closer until every bit of our bodies touches. Against my chest, his heart beats, joining the pounding of my own. His hands are at my shoulders, then my neck, then down at my waist.
They start to travel downward to my hips, but then he stops, pulling his head away and pushing back from me, leaving me unsatisfied and wanting more. He gasps and steps backward, taking deep breaths matching my own. I can’t move, because I can’t get enough air to make my mind think, and we stand there in silence in the dark of the tunnel.
“That’s nice,” he says when his breathing has slowed.
I still can’t move, though if I could, it would be back to him. “Yeah, nice.”
“Thank you,” he says.
“For what?”
“For trusting me. And being with me.”
