BRAVING THE DARKNESS: One Night With The Demon King
BENEATH HER DARKNESS: The Alpha’s Little Demon Book 2
Chapter 37 – What’s There To Love About Me?
LUCIUS.
“No! No! I’m sorry! Patrea! I said I’m sorry.”
I watched as black veins crawled on the skin of her neck, starting from where the bite was, and watched in terror as she choked in front of me. I didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t breathe.
The pain in my chest was killing me, and I just wanted to succumb to it, but I couldn’t just let Patrea go. Her eyes fluttered before they shut, and the veins disappeared from her skin, and I knew I was losing her.
My hand reached for her neck as I summoned my power to remove my mark, but I couldn’t.
Marks and wounds from the underworld were permanent.
Why the f*uc*k did I forget a demon mark was deadly? My whole body shook as the agony of my action washed over me. I was losing the only female I ever cared about, and it was entirely my fault. I leaned my head closer to her naked chest.
Her heart was still beating. I got up from the bed before I scooped up her body and transported us back to the cave where we came from.
All the while, tears were pouring from my eyes. I didn’t know I was capable of crying, but I didn’t know I was capable of loving too.
If Patrea died, I didn’t want to be here anymore.
“Lucija!”
I bellowed the moment we appeared on the cave floor, and I saw the shock that registered on Lucija and Stone’s faces the moment their eyes fell on the mark on her neck.
“Oh, Goddess! What have you done?”
Lucija screamed as she ran toward us before Nyneve’s wicked laughter filled the whole cave, and it made the anger in my body surge up.
My hand flew as I fired fireballs her way, burning her legs at the same time that Stone shot ice spikes at her, piercing her throat. She choked on her blood, but the rage and guilt in me unleashed the demon inside of me.
I transferred Patrea’s limp body onto Lucija’s arms before I raised my body in the air and flew to where Nyneve was. She screamed as fear flitted in her eyes when she saw my demon claws emerge.
In seconds, I had ripped her head apart, and it rolled off the ground before I clawed her heart out.
I would have wanted a different kind of death for her, but it didn’t matter anymore.
Her blood splattered on my face and all over my body, with her heart pulsating in my hand.
I crushed it before letting the blood and pieces of it fall to the ground, instead of eating it as I would have done on other days.
My mind was still in a daze, trying to come to terms with the fact that Patrea was dying.
I lowered my body to the ground and slowly made my way to Lucija, who was still carrying her body as tears kept streaming down her face.
She was angry.
With me.
And I couldn’t blame her.
“I killed her.” I finally said it.
“Her heart is still beating,” Lucija stated, her eyes refusing to meet mine.
“If she loves you, she will survive this,” Stone added.
“And if she doesn’t?”
My shoulders shook as my whole body wracked in my silent cry before I began trashing around the cave.
Everything I could hold in my hands was destroyed or burned in seconds. “Enough, Lucius! We need to take her to your chamber!”
Lucija’s angry voice snapped me back to the present. I nodded my head and transported us into my room.
My bed was still in disarray following our tryst, and her blood was still on the sheets.
Lucy did something to fix it before she lowered Patrea’s body onto the bed. “I want to talk to Hades,” I said in a low voice.
I felt like I had lost all the energy in my body, and I was just floating, not knowing what to do.
“You can’t leave her! What if something happened?” Lucija said.
“Something is already happening!” I snapped at her.
“I can’t just stay here and watch her die!”
“Calm down!” Stone growled at me.
“Can you see yourself calming down if it’s Lucija laying down there?” I snapped at Stone this time.
“I’m not the f*uc*king enemy here! You just need to calm down so we can think of the right thing to do!”
“I said I wanted to meet Hades!”
“I’ll go with you.” Stone volunteered, and I nodded my head. I knew Hades favored him, and he could help me plead to him.
“You can’t leave me alone here! Give me a minute to take Althea here! Maybe she can do something!” Lucija suggested.
I nodded my head. I didn’t want to argue anymore.
“Take me to Blade’s territory. I have the image in my head. Open your mind so I can tell you when we are ready to come back.”
I was just like a puppet, and I sent Lucija to Blade’s territory before I walked to the bed and sat beside Patrea. My fingers trailed along the mark I gave her. The wound was still fresh, and from time to time, a pool of blood would form before it would drip down her neck. I leaned my face forward and rested my forehead on hers as my mouth brushed against her lips.
“I love you, Patrea. lf I did kill you, I hope you will forgive me. I hope you heard me when I said I love you because I really do. And I hope you will come back to me.
I was a sobbing mess.
My tears were falling from my eyes into her face.
“I know I told you that hope never resides in demons. But you taught me about it when you said you hoped one day you would get over your trauma. And we did it. I want to have that hope now. Because that is all I can hold on to at the moment. I don’t want to lose you. . . Come back to me, please.”
I wanted to tell her many things, but Lucija asked to be transported back, taking Althea and Blade with her. They offered their souls to her.
“What did you do to her?”
Althea’s cry was piercing my heart as I stood up from the bed and gave her space to come to her grandmother.
“Mama, wake up!”
Althea was crying as she placed her hands over her wounded neck and began chanting spells, all the while tears trickled down her cheeks.
My eyes locked with Stone, and he nodded his head.
It was time to go before it was too late.
In seconds, I had transported our bodies to the depths of hell.
Flames and burning coals were everywhere as we stood outside what looked like a metal gate, but these were burned skulls forming a barricade between hell and Hades’ palace.
“Hades! Let me in! Just give me a few minutes of your time!”
I bellowed, and the fire surrounding us glowed brighter and the crackling sound became louder.
But there was nothing.
“Hades! Hear me! I begged you!”
I was about to add more when I felt my body being sucked into limbo, and I landed on the ground, a few feet away from the steps of his throne, with Stone beside me.
“I cannot help you.” Hades spoke, and his words brought a chill down my spine. But I didn’t want to accept it. I shook my head and dropped to my knees. I met his eyes, and sweat formed on my forehead.
“I will do everything if you save her. And I mean everything.”
“It’s an easy task if her soul belonged to me. How many times do I have to remind you that Patrea is not my daughter?” He said in a calm tone.
“But I know you can do something,” I answered, gritting my teeth, as I didn’t want to end up shouting at him.
“Only she can save herself. You should have known better, Lucius. Two centuries, and you still think we are capable of being loved?” His voice was laced with mockery.
“Lucija found hers.” I reasoned out.
“They were meant to be together, my son. Their fate doesn’t determine yours.”
“I understand that now! But I’m begging you, give her back her life. I will do everything you will ask of me!”
“There is nothing I can do.”
“I don’t believe you! Tell me what you want me to do. I will do it. Even if it means making her forget all about me. I will take it! Just give her her life back! She wants to do many things, and it’s unfair for me to take those away from her.”
“Lucius. . .”
“Do you want my kingdom?” I asked in a low voice, and even if I kept fighting off my tears, I couldn’t stop them from welling up in my eyes.
“Take it. Do you want to strip me of my power? Do it. Do you want my soul? Punish me in the afterlife? Just do it. My life for hers.”
“You are wasting your energy and time on a female. There are others. . .”
“I want Patrea! I don’t want anyone else! But if the only way for her to come back is for her to forget me, I will take that! Just one chance, Hades. Please! I’m begging you.”
“I have nothing more to offer you, Hades, but if we can negotiate for a new contract. . .”
It was Stone who spoke before Hades cut him off.
“How many times do I have to tell you that I do not hold power over her? You can both leave now. I need to be somewhere else.”
That was the last of what I heard before Stone and I were cast out of his palace. We found ourselves in the middle of my tower.
“I’m sorry, Lucius.” Stone broke the silence between us as I continued to stare blankly ahead of me.
“What will I do without her?”
“What if she loves you?”
“when Lucija bit you, you didn’t pass out. You were alive as f*uc*k. But my Patrea? She couldn’t even move before her eyes shut.”
“Lucija was already bonded to me by Althea’s spell and then our mate bond. In a way, she had given me her strength.
It was the only possible reason I didn’t pass out. Plus, I am me, Lucius. I am not boasting, but I’m a f*uc*king Alpha. The changes that happened in my body when she marked me didn’t take too much energy from me.
But maybe it did with Patrea. All we can do now is wait and hope she will survive your bite.”
“I’m so f*uc*king stupid. I wasn’t thinking. I swear, I didn’t intentionally mark her. It was. . . it was out. . .”
“Out of love. . . It gets the best of us. Lucija marked me for the same reason, and I did it as well on her cleansing without thinking. I was terrified I would kill her, but I underestimated my female and what she felt for me. Maybe you’re underestimating how Patrea feels for you.”
“Look at me? What’s there to love about me? Hades was right, a demon like me is not worth loving. Or Hades would not be alone in his eternity.”
“Hades’ fate doesn’t determine yours. You told Patrea that you’re holding on to that hope she gave you, don’t give up now. Get up and let’s get back to your female.”
Stone held my shoulder and transported us, and I immediately allowed him access to my chamber, and we landed at the foot of my bed.
Althea was hugging Patrea as she kept murmuring words to her, probably saying her goodbyes.
My gaze locked with Lucy, and her eyes softened before she went to me and wrapped her arms around me, shoulders shaking as she finally let out all the sobs she was holding.
“Althea tried, but we couldn’t do anything. I’m sorry. Her heartbeat was slowing down.” She explained in a soft voice.
I closed my eyes as my teeth bit my bottom lip to stop my jaw from quivering. I was losing her.
My hold on Lucija’s body tightened as I drew strength from her before aloud pounding sound bean came from my chamber’s door. I saw Dorian and Gargon behind it.
My eyes locked with Stone before I let go of Lucy in my arms, and the three of us rushed to my main door. I could also hear Blade’s footsteps following us. I let the double door open, and Dorian rushed forward.
Gargon remained by the door with several demons behind him.
“King Lucius, the kingdom is threatened with an attack,” Dorian stated right away the moment he stopped in front of us.
“What do you mean?” I asked. But I already had an inkling of what he would answer.
“The demons of the Kingdom of Athwart, led by King Arturos, stand by the border between the two kingdoms. They wanted to avenge Princess Nyneve’s death.”