Chapter 1 - Lucifer

It’s been two months.  Two months since we left Valhalla.  Two months since we ran away with our tail between our legs.  Two months since I found my mate.  Two months since this shit should have been done.

And what do I have to show for it?  A semi comatose mate that basically had to restart her entire goddess making process when we moved from Valhalla to the Underworld.  A rowdy and often undisciplined army that has been on ice for two months.  Traitors and defectors on all sides.  And the worst case of blue balls that I’ve had my entire life.

To say that I’m a bit on edge is the biggest understatement of the millenia.

The worst part of all of this by far is the fact that Valhalla ran on a timeline outside of the human’s timeline on Earth.  It was faster.  But the Underworld runs under the same timeline as Earth’s.

So yeah, two months to get Nyx back to where she was when we left.  That would have taken two weeks in Valhalla.  But in the Underworld, it’s fucking two damned months!

It doesn’t help that I’ve imprinted on her so much that I can’t fuck anyone other than her without causing both of us extreme pain.  I could handle it.  Pain often adds to my pleasure.  But her transition to goddess-hood can’t.  And I can’t fuck her until we perform the ritual.  Needless to say, she’s been giving me a lot of semi-alert head.

And while there is something alluring about taking what you want whether your partner is alert and awake or not, a bit of movement on her part would be really helpful.

At the same time, I’m having to deal with gods, warriors, and demons who literally cause chaos.  I mean, that’s what they were made to be.  Doesn’t fucking help when I need them to follow instructions though.  Hades is running ragged trying to get them to leave his realm alone.  

At the same time, how do I get my generals, who just want to completely destroy everything, to get on with the fucking game plan?  Adro, an evil African deity, wants to bring back child sacrifice.  Apophis, the Egyptian god of destruction and disorder, just wants to start setting off earthquakes.  Nergal, the god of chaos from Mesopotamia, has this complicated plan where he wants to pull a number out of a hat and throw a dart at a map and kill that number of people in that place.  I mean, with the way that he’s explaining shit, I understand why he is the god of chaos cause it makes no fucking sense.

They all specifically want to do what they are the god of, which, ok, tracks.  But come on people.  They have literally been alive since the beginning of their civilizations.  Have you learned absolutely nothing?  Cause this shit is killing me. 

After barbequing one, two, or ten minor deities and sending their spirits to Tartarus, I’ve come to realize that I can only have a few gods in my council and then I need to work with some of the underlyings as my generals.  They’re used to taking instruction, but they also have experience and opinions that are actually helpful.  I just send the gods to do random shit tasks and make it sound like it’s important to get them out my hair.

You would think that being the most eval, most powerful being on the fucking planet that those around me would understand not to fucking double cross me.

Hermes didn’t get that message and I had to threaten his mates.

Loki didn’t get the message and I sacrificed his son Fenrir to the mutts, broom riders, and flying bitches.

Those two are the only ones that have turned up as actual traitors.  But there have been several defectors.  Meaning those gods that have just seemed to disappear.  There is no sign that they are working with our enemies.  They’ve just fucked off.  Gods like Anansi, Kokopelli, and Sun Wukong have disappeared, presumably somewhere in the Underworld.  Though, with all the shit that Hades has had to deal with, we can’t find them.  Persephone, as fucking hot as she is, is not someone that I trust.  I’d fuck her if I could, but that’s as far as I trust her.

Speaking of fucking, I need some head.  And more engaged than what I’ve been getting.

Hermes meets me in Nyx and my room, which used to be Hades and Persephone’s bedroom.  I find that I can’t stay away from her for too long.  I have to sleep with her every night.  It’s…disconcerting.  

It’s not the intense need that a wolf would feel.  I know that.  I’ve been able to feel that deity that’s been here since the literal beginning of time, I’ve made it so I’ve experienced everything that there is to offer.  

I didn’t like the intensity that the wolves feel.  It’s messy and all encompassing.  You feel like you can’t live without the other person.  It gets in the way of things.  Everything that I wanted to get done depended on making sure that person was with me.

I entered into a matebond with a random she-wolf.  She wasn’t anything special.  Beautiful.  Subservient.  Easy to control.  Decent in bed.  Better after I’d taught her some things.  Easily corruptible.  She definitely learned to enjoy the finer temptations, along with some of the most debased, vile, and naughty things that really get my engine going.

But the need for her was too damn much.  I killed her after a few decades and I honestly never felt better.

But this need for Nyx is different.  It’s not this overwhelming, all-encompassing need for her.  It’s more like an itch in the back of my mind.  Something random will remind me of her.  I’ll feel the desire to spend some time with her.  Or to eat something that I know that she loves or read a book that she mentioned or read.  

I don’t need to be with her, but I want to.  I like her.

It’s almost worse than what happened with the she-wolf I was with.

Because I miss her.

I push those thoughts away as I walk to our bedroom.  Hermes is waiting for me outside the door.

“My lord,” he says, bowing his head.

“Is everything ready?” I ask brushing past him into the room.

“Yes, my lord,” he says.  As we walk into the room, he waves his hands and several pieces of equipment appear.  A cauldron that has some kind of medicinal steam pouring out of it right beside her head on the pillow.  Stethoscopes, syringes, and some kind of enchanted magnifying glasses.

“Please lay beside our lady on the bed,” Hermes tells me.

I climb onto the bed beside Nyx, unable to stop myself from stroking her cheek and leaning down to kiss her on the forehead.  I would be embarrassed of my actions if I didn’t see the look of jealousy on Hermes’ face.  He hasn’t seen his mates in the entire two months that he’s been here.  I’ve kept this god on lock down.  

Cause he’s a cagey bastard and I can’t give him a chance to fuck me over.  

One way to do that is to keep him away from his mates.  It keeps him off balance and going a bit out of his mind so he can’t plan against me.

But his power with medicine will help us wake Nyx out of her comatose state.

Now I lay down beside my mate, ready for her to wake up.  “What now?”

“Pull her so that her head is on your chest.  I’m going to pull the blanket over the two of you and I need you to get both of you naked.  You have to be touching skin to skin,” Hermes tells us.

As we quickly arrange ourselves, Hermes pulls a huge funnel and places it over the cauldron to funnel the steam towards my mate and I.  Then he pulls some curtains around us.

“You have to let the steam pool around the two of you.  Once it’s a thick cloud, I can cast the spell and she’ll wake up,” Hermes tells me.

I eye him suspiciously.  “You do know what will happen if anything about this ritual isn’t on the up and up.”

“Yes, my lord.  I would not do anything to hurt you or your mate.”  Hermes doesn’t need to say the last part “Not until I get my mates back.”  It’s why he’s still here and not on Earth.  Any hope of seeing his mates and I know Nyx would be in trouble.

It takes about 30 minutes.  Honestly, I become a little drowsy.  But I love the feeling of my mate in my arms.  Smelling her hair.  Feeling the comforting weight of her on my chest.  Hearing her deep breaths.  It feels good.

“My lord?  I’m going to start the spell now,” Hermes says.  

Excitement wakes me up.  My mate will be awake soon.

Hermes words, said in Ancient Greek, flow over us.

It doesn’t take long, but it feels like the world changes from one second to the next.  From her eyes being closed to them fluttering open so that I see her beautiful brown eyes on me.  

“Hello, my love,” I whisper to her.