Chapter 24—Lukiyan

I feel like the king of the world.

In my case, I guess, the king of the underworld.

I never felt this good as a mere man. Persephone turned me into a god the moment I first touched her.

It’s been two fucking weeks since we signed that agreement and we’re still hyped up on the wild sexual haze that possessed us.

The sun is almost up and I’m supposed to go to work today. I just don’t know how I’m going to leave her.

During this whole time, I’ve managed to get away under the pretense that I was splitting my time between investigating and looking for her. Instead of staying at the cottage I’ve also been coming straight back here because I hate being away from her.

I hate the thought of leaving her later. I hate the thought of leaving at all, but the art of making people believe lies is ensuring the lie looks legit. Which, for me, means showing my face to the man who’s been looking for his daughter for a little over two weeks.

While Emilio has been worrying himself sick about his precious baby girl, we’ve been here fucking like animals.

The big bad wolf has been feasting on her over and over again. I’ve dirtied up this good girl in every way my devilish mind could conjure, and I’m about to do it again.

I currently have her gorgeous naked body sprawled out face down on my bed. Her wrists are bound with chains I looped through the headboard.

I left her feet free so she can take the hard pounding I’m going to give her ass.

But first I need this.

I take the little bag of blow next to me and pour the white powder down the line of her beautiful back and to the center of her ass.

Then I inhale the line, allowing my breath to tickle her skin.

She moans under the weight of my naked body, taking what I give her like the good sub she is. And fuck me, this girl is magic.

She must be, to have put whatever the fuck spell she put on me.

Only a spell could have changed my mind when it came to her father.

Only a spell could make me decide that taking Emilio Vittorio’s remaining daughter and heir to his empire, was worse than killing the man.

The plan is very shaky because I never saw him remaining alive living in my cards.

I wanted blood for blood, but the beautiful maiden beneath me reached a place inside my soul that I thought died long ago.

I know I have to think ahead but I don’t want to think about anything that’s not her.

Especially not now.

Filled with the drug and the moans of the woman, my head buzzes, numbing the demons and the beast inside.

“I’m going to fuck you hard,” I spank her ass and watch with raw satisfaction as her ass jiggles.

“You’ve been fucking me hard for the last few days,” she mumbles groggily. She can barely keep her eyes open.

Sleep isn’t far away and I wouldn’t be surprised if she slept all day.

Neither of us has stopped.

We’ve both been taking and taking and taking from each other.

I’ve caught her trying to school herself, trying not to enjoy what I do to her as she got lost in me. I would be the same if I were her because she’s not supposed to be enjoying this.

“No point stopping now. I want your ass.”

I don’t give her any warning; I just plunge my fingers into the tight rosette of her ass and smear the sweet nectar from her wet pussy inside.

She moans at my touch.

When I think she’s good and ready for me I guide my dick to her entrance and slide right in.

Her body is now accustomed to my length and thickness but she’s still so tight everywhere, especially here.

Pleasure shoots straight to my balls and I start fucking her.

I wanted to finish inside her pussy again before we call it for this session but this feels so fucking good I can’t stop.

I lift her hips so I can pound into her and angle her so I can fuck her as hard as I promised. She screams when I unleash, moving faster.

It’s like I’ve lost my damn mind.

The chains clink against the bed in tandem with our bodies slapping together and the chorus of our erotic cries.

I try to hold on for as long as possible but she feels too good. Everything about her feels too good.

From the silk of her skin to the purr of her feminine moans.

Like the villain I am, I smile when I think of how she’s mine. That fucking bastard Antonio doesn’t have her.

I do.

Me. Her Hades.

I took her into my dark world and claimed her in every way a man can claim a woman. And yet it feels like there’s still more to take.

I come hard, blowing my cum into her passage and we both cry out one last time.

When I catch my breath, I pull out of her and she slumps back against the mattress, her body shuddering.

I release her from the chains, but she’s still linked to that part of my soul.

She breathes out a ragged sigh and looks at me.

“Is this all you’re going to do to me, Lukiyan? Fuck me until I die?” Her voice is barely audible.

I smile down at her. “Do you want me to?”

She stares back at me, her hair a sexy mess, her skin shimmering with her afterglow.

She doesn’t need to answer, I know her.

I know what she wants.

I know what she needs.

“You mystify me, and I can’t figure you out,” she rasps.

Maybe it’s best we keep it that way because in the real world she wouldn’t be mine. The same way that darkness and light can never be together.

It’s the same for me and her.

I find Emilio in Persephone’s room when I arrive at work.

I have small news for him.

It won’t be the news he really wants to hear though.

He’s sitting on Persephone’s bed looking at an album. He looks a mess. Like he’s been hitting the bottle hard and seeing the bottom every time. He hasn’t shaved since I was last here and doesn’t look as well put together.

He lifts his head as I walk in and manages a curt nod.

“Sorry I wasn’t in my office. I lost track of time,” he says, waving a hand over the album.

“That’s alright, Frankie said you were up here.”

“Just looking at old memories I should have appreciated more.” He nods. “I’m heading out to Minnesota later tonight. There was sighting of a young woman who looks like Persephone teaching ballet to some kids in the park. She taught a summer school there last year, so it could be her. I figured Minnesota is far enough to get away from here, and me. She also knows the place.”

It would be easy to feel guilty or sorry for him if he wasn’t my enemy. I should at least feel bad on some level for having him fly out to Minnesota but I don’t.

He’s the one who seems to have clearly ruined his relationship with his daughter. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t think she needed to get away from him.

“I’ll be there for a few days,” he adds.

“Alright, let’s hope for the best.” I give him a hopeful smile, feeling like the devil I am.

He wouldn’t like to know how close he came to death by my hand. In fact, every time I’ve seen him—including now—I’ve felt close to killing him.

If letting him worry himself sick about his daughter is all I can do, then I’ll take it as something.

Right now, I can’t help but feel I’ve let Melissa down in many ways, because I know deep down that I didn’t just accept Persephone’s offer because I found some way of still allocating blame to Emilio.

I know I accepted it for me.

Because I wanted her.

“Look at her here.” He points to a picture of Persephone on stage in her ballet dress.

She’s dressed as the black swan. Her leg is perfectly arched over her head in an arabesque. It almost looks unreal, like something a contortionist would do.

“That’s amazing.”

“I don’t know if you know anything about ballet.”

“I do. My mother… she um, used to do it when she was little.” It feels weird talking about my family with him. “She took me and my sister to the ballet when we were younger.”

“That’s good. My mother did the same. That’s where Persephone gets it from. When my mother saw Persephone’s talent she made me promise I’d help her achieve her dream. My baby girl was fourteen in this photo.”

“That’s amazing.” To have that type of talent at such a young age is astounding.

“It is. This is a performance she did for the National Ballet. She was the youngest dancer in the show. She got picked by a scout to play the part. We were all so proud, and she went on to do so much. So much for a person with … the health conditions she’s had.”

I haven’t forgotten what Persephone said about having heart surgery. I haven’t asked her about it since. Every time I look at her tattoo, though, I wonder about what she must have gone through.

“What was wrong with her?”

“She had heart problems from birth. At first we thought both girls had it but it was just Persephone. We nearly lost her a few times. Now I’ve lost her for good. I… look at this now and I hate myself. I might not have been able to do much about the marriage contract because we’re bound in blood to fulfil the promises we make, but I could have fought for this. I could have made sure she got her dream because she was made to dance.”

His words grip me because I thought the same, and I’m keeping her away from that too.

“Her sister did everything she could to help Persephone achieve her dream and I just took it away without warning.” He sighs unevenly.

It’s the first time he’s mentioned his other daughter like this.

“Her sister?”

He shakes his head. “I… can’t talk about that.”

A glimmer of weakness pushes through his eyes, and I think I’m right about how Athena Vittorio died.

“I tried to do the right thing for both of them and be the leader I’m supposed to be, but I ended up ruining things. Even the small things that matter. Persephone told me she loved me and I didn’t say anything back. I wanted to tell her I love her too, but things can’t always be the way we want. What if she’s dead, Lukiyan?”

His eyes hold mine and I feel like a bastard.

Again.

“You and I both know what the Order are like. I’m here waiting on a phone call for some ransom, or hoping she escaped this life, but the truth could just be that she’s lying in a ditch somewhere. Dead. People like them killed my wife and my brother. Why wouldn’t they kill my girl?”

He’s right to think that. The Order are not people you can negotiate with.

“We’ll keep looking.” I nod, pushing away the compassion threatening to overpower me.

Anything I feel is because of her.

Persephone is doing this to me—awakening my heart. Her influence is making me feel things I don’t want to feel for this man.

Because… I’m in love with her. That’s the simple explanation I never wanted to admit even to myself.

I’ve never been in love before, but I have a penchant for spotting things with my off-the-charts attention to detail skills—even when it comes to myself.

I just didn’t want to accept it.

Persephone Vittorio reached the human parts of me I work so hard to keep on a leash. Now I struggle to remember that emotions are weaknesses a man like me can’t afford.

“Thank you.”

“I’ve located some places Order members hang out. I’ll be out most of the day tracking and investigating.” Aleksei managed to get some information before I left.

The two of us have been working hard to find anything we can on these guys.

Emilio looks hopeful. “I should come with you.”

“No, you stay here and save your energy for Minnesota. I got this covered.” He looks like shit and if he’s been drinking as much as I think then he’ll be off his game. I don’t want to have to worry about him while I’m tracking the people trying to kill him. That will be as good as serving him up on a platter.

“Okay. Take as many men as you need for back up.”

“Sure.” I’d prefer to work with my own team, but it would look strange if I didn’t get him involved in this.

“My device will be ready on Sunday.”

Does that mean he’ll be seeing Judas on Sunday? “Is that when you’ll be handing over to Judas Kane?” I try to sound as nonchalant as possible.

“No, he’ll be in touch when he’s ready to meet. I’ve given Frankie all the information he needs so he can take charge.” His face hardens and he brings a weary hand to his head. “I want to be ready in case there’s another attack. These people seem to be one step ahead of the game so I wouldn’t put it past them. In all my long years, this has never happened to me, and it’s made me look like an amateur at best.”

“These things happen when those close to you betray you.”

“I know.”

“Any idea who it could be yet?”

“No.” His eyes look uncertain, as if he might have thought of the answer, but isn’t acknowledging it. “Promise me if anything happens to me, you’ll still keep looking for Persephone.”

Despite my attempt to feel nothing for him, guilt rides my shoulders when I observe the sadness in his expression. It’s the kind of sadness I’ve witnessed before when a person is worried about death.

“Of course. I’ll check in with you later.”

He nods and goes right back to looking through the album.

As I walk away, I try to push aside my guilt and remember why I’m doing what I’m doing.

It’s for love.

Only for love.

Who will avenge my sister if I don’t?