Chapter 34 — Monsters

Imeros' feet stopped just outside her cell as Dark raised her eyes to his. Panic and flustered half-breaths were all she saw.

"Come on, we have to hurry," his voice, muffled under the sound of keys jingling in the lock. A groaning, then a sharp sound from the metal grinding open. Dark was already on her feet and slipping through the opening in her cage, careful to walk slow enough for Poseidon to follow. She had to fight her mouth from continuing their conversation.

And I'm not even counting myself. Later…she'd get her mind together, later. She'd figure out how she was going to juggle all these things, all these gods, later. For now, she needed to pay attention.

Imeros raced down the hall, but his footsteps from earlier were featherlight. She realized the stomping had been for her own benefit, so he did not startle her. The overhead lights were disorienting, swarming her vision with pulses of white. That coupled with the bland, gray metal walls and one could easily get lost. Everything looked exactly the same, with the only change coming from the number of doors on each wall. Dark tried to focus in case she needed to find her way back to her cell, though from there she surely didn't remember the way back up to the main floor or outside where she could portal.

One right, two lefts, another long hallway and all at once, they were in front of a dead end with a large metal door on the left of the hallway and a smaller metal door on the right. Imeros crouched, took a breath, and blew sweet-smelling, pink smoke through the gap at the bottom of the door. He repeated it two more times until she could hear the dull coughing from behind the door.

Dark felt her hair bristling, a sudden rush of blood from her cheeks, then lower. She studied Imeros' profile, suddenly transfixed with how angular and glorious it was. How muscular and lean he was. How much she wanted to see just what the god of sex could do with all that power. He had been attractive before, but now he was…there weren't words. Only actions. She took a step forward, breath heaving from her chest. Mind…where was her mind? Where was her control?

"Sorry," Imeros grumbled sheepishly, finding her nearly lost with need, "I can't exactly stop the smoke from wafting, but I should've told you to step back." His eyes, black and smoky, suddenly cleared. He pushed his arms out, bracing her shoulders as she continued to push forward. A trickle of water in her ear and then words, remove the temptation.

"Dark, calm down, just breathe. Breathe the regular air…" Imeros cursed, locking his arms firmer between them so she couldn't close the gap. Her mind was gone. Only her body remained, and it nearly burst with desire.

"We have little time to do this," he pleaded, cursing again, "I wish I could draw it out, but I can't. I can only send it in. YOU HAVE TO PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER!" His eyes were wild, watching her, glancing over her shoulder as if he could hear the distant boots coming for them, rattling around in his own brain for a way to correct his mistake.

She didn't know what to make of it, backing Imeros up until he connected with the wall. Gods, her body was on fire, so hungry, so needy. Again words filled her head, remove the temptation dammit! Draw it out of you…A hand at her back, gripping tightly at her hip, NOW, Dark.

Poseidon? Draw what out? Her body was too hot, too suffocated under all these clothes, under this glamour, under her skin. She moved to pull off her jacket, but Imeros clamped down on her hands in a vice grip. I'm sorry in advance. I really didn't want to do this…The voice again, Poseidon's voice. Where was he? Where was she? Why was it taking her mind so long to clear past all this need and moisture between her legs?

"Shit, I-I really didn't think it would work on you," Imeros looked like he was going to be sick, "I would've made you stand further back. I-I would've…I don't know, told you to hold your breath…I would've done anything but let you inhale it because WE NEED TO GO, DARK and I don't have time to do this with you right now! You need to fight it."

More water in her ear, but no words then pain, sharp, cataclysmic pain roaring in her ear. Her head exploded with pressure, so much it felt like her eyes were going to pop out. Liquid streamed down her neck, from her ear, she realized. The ground shook, no, not the ground, her body. She gripped her head, pain slicing through pleasure like a knife. She was free of influence, but she was also in agony, body numbing agony. Dark's fingers slid along her neck, swiping at the liquid. Red, blood red and slimy with sea water.

That fucker burst her ear drum.

"Thank fuck," Imeros cursed, scooping her up by the arm and bulldozing into the room on the right. She barely had time to register the boom of the door crashing open or the moans of the two guards stripping each other in the back of the room. Her ears rang, loud and full of blood rushing as she struggled to correct her vision. Poseidon's hand on her ribs should have been a comfort, but it only aided in making her rage. She was well and truly going to deck him the second they were free, not only for nearly drowning her days ago, but for her damn eardrum too.

Imeros closed the door and returned to the pane of glass. He pressed a few buttons, and the view cleared, faded muddied shadows turned to people. Dark stepped closer, ignoring the wet trickle of blood down her throat. Four or five people that seemed to be doctors were studying a few people who looked like patients. A fabric divider separated each patient, isolating them from each other. Some doctors were administering an IV while nurses ran bags of dark liquid through tubes attached to those IVs. Others were taking notes on tablets as they studied the patients who lay down on cots. Some were taking pulses. Dark's eyes cut to the doctor and nurse, who tried hard to resuscitate an unresponsive man in the corner cot.

They tried for a full minute before stepping back to check their watches. To her surprise, they didn't put a cloth over his head, instead they chained his feet and from what she could see, they were spelled the same as the ones that kept Hades contained.

Moments passed, nothing except Imeros' quiet breaths and the sound of her ear healing itself. Then the body jerked, arms flopping like fish, back arching upwards. He stilled, then jerked again, nearly off the bed. His face contorted in genuine agony, but no sound escaped. She stared at the hollow opening of his mouth as he silently screamed. Poseidon's grip tightened, his breath on the back of her shoulder black ruffling the hairs on her neck.

The man had ceased to be a man at all. His body grew several feet larger than the bed, legs hanging over the foot of the cot at the knees. His body continued to swell until his once skinny, delicate frame had turned to hard, corded muscle, thick and roping around him. The sheet they draped over his groin slipped and, to Dark's surprise, there was nothing there. Nothing in between his legs as if whatever hellish magic created him wouldn't let him share the power with any other. He could not create…which for Asteria, meant he could only destroy.

"How?" was all she could manage.

"From what I've pieced together, the IV bag is half potion, half Asteria's blood. Athena keeps the information pretty tight, but she's been asking me to bring her all the hopeless ones that come here. She said it's easier for them to transition."

Dark continued to watch as his body stopped changing, but his head grew to match his frame, impossibly large and heavy like a Titan. The cot groaned beneath the weight. It was his eyes, though, that held her transfixed at the window. They slowly bubbled and burst from his sockets, that silent scream growing frantic and desperate. They hollowed out, melting away to the floor until only craters remained. Then they fused, moving closer until Dark could not tell where one eye began and the other ended.

Once both craters merged, another eye grew. From nothing, from magic, from sheer will and grit, the eye grew muscles and nerves until it filled the hole in the center of his forehead. It blinked.

A cyclops. They were creating an army of cyclops…

Footsteps thumped from outside the door, "Jackson! Aro! You haven't answered your comms! Open up!"

The words were followed by thundering fists banging against the door.

"Quick, now. You've seen what I needed to show you, we have to get you out of here," Imeros dragged her through another door in the back, "You can only portal from outside of this place."

Poseidon hot on her heels, Dark jogged after Imeros, who took them into the bowels of the building through small dark hallways. Emergency escapes, she assumed. Then they were climbing up a metal ladder in what seemed to be sewers. Up and up and up they went until at last he moved off to let sunlight her face.

She scrambled out to meet the morning, noting they were not just outside his inn once more, climbing out of the grate in the center of the square. No one or nothing was outside, as if Imeros had put them all into a trance that left them inside. Jesus, she had so much to tell her gods. So much to do. But she couldn't overplay her hand. She couldn't give up the little advantage they now had. Imeros went to shove the grate back in place, stumbling when Poseidon grunted at the impact.

"Shit," she'd been too distracted to check for him. She dropped the invisibility glamour and cringed, "I might have had company…"

Imeros looked like he was a hairsbreadth away from vomiting on the ground.

"Come on," Dark reached a hand for him, "You can't stay here. They'll know you saw more than you were supposed to see. Already she could hear alarms bellowing from the deep of the sewers.

"No," he shook his head, "They have to find me. They have to think I was alone or else they will change their plans. Asteria will know unless there's someone to answer for this breach."

"She'll make you talk, Imeros. Then she'll know either way," Dark pleaded, "Don't stay here!"

"Make me forget," he whispered, looking out at the city he'd built with Eros, "I can't go. There's nowhere in all these lands where I can find him, so I'll stay and meet my fate here, Dark."

Dark was speechless, stunned to the point of being nearly stupid. How could he wish to just give up?

"It's his choice, we need to go now!" Poseidon moved the grate back in place, scrambling over to her, "Make him forget. Don't make his sacrifice for nothing, Dark."

She still couldn't move. Those emotions seemed to do nothing but destroy. Why would anyone want them? All that pain and suffering?

As if he'd read her mind, Imeros closed his eyes and took her hand, "Because love is worth it. Always. Every time. I would wreck myself a thousand times for it. And you'll know what I mean one day. Sooner than you probably think."

He touched her cheek, nodding once as if to give her the final permission to wipe everything of her from his mind. She took a breath and let temptation flow through her, warming her limbs, her soul, sending sparks into the air.

"You don't want to remember me anymore. Your mind from the last four days is completely clear. Imeros, you want to be alone, have been alone. You've always wanted to be alone. And you know you were these past few days, completely and utterly alone."

The voice she used wasn't her own. It was clear, but mesmerizing and stifling. She watched his eyes cloud, and he clenched them closed. Giving them time to leave, she realized. Taking one last look at yet another god she'd never see again, Dark kissed his cheek. Then she let go, Poseidon already at her back and portaled out.