Inferno-Kat 2 Read online

  “What’s your plan?”

  “To find a man named Onyx, a scientist who I hear has an antidote to the DD virus.”

  “Okay, let’s say you find this man. Then what? What are you planning to do with him?”

  “Take him out of the city, and help him distribute the antidote, starting with me.”

  Hades laughed. “No one walks out of Inferno. Not without paying Satarah first.”

  “I’ve got money.” She motioned to the pack sitting under the table.

  “You can’t bargain with Satarah. You think Baruch was bad…Satarah makes him look like a spoiled indignant boy in need of a spanking.” Shaking his head, he continued. “She’s ruthless, sadistic, and has…” He paused.

  “Has what?”

  He shook his head. “Nothing.”

  “No, go ahead. Say what you were going to say.”

  “It’s said she has magical powers.”

  Kat laughed. It was a hoarse barking sound and not her usual deep, sexy giggle. “Magic? Please, don’t tell me you believe that.”

  He rubbed a hand over his face. “Hey, a year ago I would’ve said ‘bullshit.’ But with what I’ve seen Baruch do…” His voice trailed off. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

  “Mutations, Hades. Mutations and diseases. That is all it is. The fucking war fucked us up for a long time.” She lifted her arms and turned them over, revealing black lines on her wrists and forearms in which the DD virus flowed rampantly. “I should know.”

  Hades didn’t want to see what had happened to her, what was still happening. Her pain reminded him of his failure. Failure to protect her.

  He sighed. “What you’re planning is impossible, Kat.”

  “Well, then, it’s a good thing I came to you. If there’s anyone who can get around impossible, it’s you.” She pursed her full lips into a sexy pout, one he was sure she knew could unravel the tightest knot.

  Hades couldn’t resist any longer.

  Closing the distance between them, he gathered her in his arms and crushed his mouth to hers.

  With his tongue and teeth, he took her. She tasted as he remembered. Like a cool breeze on a hot day. Something he longed for on a daily basis.

  She responded in kind and wrapped her arms around his waist, digging her fingers into his back as she met and matched every nip and tug of his teeth and tongue. She moaned into him as he deepened the kiss and ran his hands through the silky spikes of her hair.

  She was everything he remembered. Strong, rough, sexy, and infuriating. She made every single emotion he had respond, and almost at the same time. Damn, the woman made him weak with desire. Weak. Something he vowed never to feel again.

  Hades broke the kiss and took a distancing step back, his heart racing like his motorcycle, and sweat trickling down his back. Trying to control his breathing, he closed his eyes and sighed.

  “I don’t know, Kat. My life has changed.” He motioned around him at his cabin. The one he had built with his own hands while the anger and pain of her abandonment ate at him from the inside out. “I’m not the same man.”

  She slid off the table and stood defiantly in front of him. “Like hell you aren’t. I know the man I…” She paused, took in a ragged breath, and continued. “I know you, Hades. You’re here, standing in front of me, the same man I traveled to Van with, the same man I survived death with, the same man I fucked. You’re standing right in front of me. I could be blind and still see that.”

  She reached under the table, grabbed her pack, and slung it over her shoulder. “Think about it.

  I’ll be back tonight.”

  The moment she moved toward the door, he could feel the warmth in the cabin drop a few degrees. He didn’t realize how much heat she had been radiating until she no longer stood near him.

  Once again, emotion clamped around his heart and squeezed. He wondered if it would always be that way with Kat. If he would crave her with such intensity that it knocked the breath from him.

  He wasn’t sure he wanted to find out, but at the same time, he couldn’t stand to see her leave again.

  “Wait.”

  She paused, her hand on the doorknob.

  “You can stay here.”

  She turned and met his gaze.

  “My bed’s comfortable. And there’s only one window, so…there won’t be much light to bother you.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “Good.” She chuckled. “At least I know I still keep you on your toes.”

  “That you do, Hell Kat. That you do.” He motioned toward the open door leading to his bedroom.

  With her pack still slung over her shoulder, she strode past him and into the room. She gripped the door, but before she shut it, she looked at him. “I…” She paused. “Thank you.”

  He said nothing as she shut the door behind her. He didn’t know how long he stood there watching the closed door, expecting her to come out again. By the time he turned to finish preparations for his breakfast, the sun was streaming through the kitchen window, and birds were twittering on the branches of the apple tree just outside his door.

  2

  The moment Kat opened her eyes, she knew it was late in the afternoon, possibly nearing the time when most people ate their dinner. After several months of keenly observing the rise and fall of the sun, she knew when to stay asleep in the safety the indoors provided. On one occasion she had made the mistake of stepping outside too soon and paid for it. The brutal rays of the unforgiving sun had given her a sunburn that lasted a month.

  Sun glare had been brutal before, especially out on the outer rims and in the Wastelands, but now with the Dark Dweller virus encompassing her body, the sun was like acid to her retinas. She had to wear her tinted goggles even at sunset.

  Tossing back the bedcovers, Kat yawned lazily. Hades had been right about his bed and the room. She had slept peacefully. A rare occurrence, and one she hadn’t experienced since she had left him all those months ago, sated from sex in her run-down hovel.

  Dangling her legs over the mattress, she stood and stretched. Her back was sore from the long ride north. During the day, she camped, hiding out in her flimsy nylon tent. However, at night she drove her bike until the sun would start to pinken the sky. Her night vision was superior, and she never feared going off the road or running into anything. And if she did run into anything, be it human or beast, she came well prepared. She never went anywhere without her sawed-off shotgun, knives strapped to her legs, or the throwing stars attached to her belt.

  And if that didn’t work, because of the virus invading her system, she possessed the inhuman strength to rip off a man’s arm without blinking.

  Straightening, Kat looked around the room. It was small and meager, with only a bed and a small table beside it. She scanned the surface of the table and noticed a small lantern and a book.

  Interest cocked her brow, and she reached for the suede-covered, thick volume. She never imagined Hades as a reader. The title read Dracula by Bram Stoker. As she thumbed through the worn, aged pages, a floral aroma floated from between the sheets of paper. A gift from the woman.

  Kat set down the book and wondered how serious the relationship with this other woman really was. Before she had fallen asleep, Kat had smelled the mattress and the covers. If Hades was sleeping with the woman, it wasn’t in his bed. Ethically Kat knew she had no claim on him.

  Leaving him had revoked any entitlement to him.

  But she never professed to have any ethics anyway. Hades was hers. He belonged to her, and if he forced the issue, she would grudgingly admit to belonging to him. She wouldn’t be leaving this place without him.

  Damn anyone that got in her way.

  Stifling a shiver, Kat picked up her jacket from the floor, where she had tossed it earlier, and slipped it on. She wished she would’ve heeded Nemo’s advice and packed heavier clothing.

  She’d forgotten that there were four actual seasons up north. Wint
er did follow autumn. In the outer rims, it was one season. Summer. Dry, hot, and miserable. Three things a person could depend on 365 days of the year.

  Zipping up her leather, she paused. A melodious voice sounded through the closed bedroom door. Hades had company, and Kat didn’t have to guess who that person could be.

  After running a hand through her hair and patting down the pieces she was certain stuck up in haphazard directions, Kat reached for the door and opened it. Her eyes met Hades’ as she stepped over the threshold and into the kitchen. They were having dinner, it looked like. Or had just finished, as both their plates had only bits and crumbs left. Kat took a quick intake of air.

  Smelled like stew and fresh-baked bread. Who knew Hades could cook?

  “I would think that—” The woman’s voice halted midsentence.

  Kat turned and met the woman’s gaze. She sat in the exact spot Kat had predicted, chestnut-brown hair pulled back in a simple ponytail, slim hands resting primly on the table, her doe-brown eyes wide with shock.

  Hades pushed back his chair but didn’t stand. “How did you sleep?”

  “Good. Your bed’s comfy.” She smiled.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Kat saw the woman bristle. She had obviously hit a sore spot. The woman wanted to be in Hades’ bed, but so far it seemed he had avoided her advances. Good, she wouldn’t have to beat the woman up. Sometimes Kat liked taking the diplomatic way out of things. So far, that had happened only once, but she had held out that one day another situation would arise.

  Like this one.

  “Mary, this is Kat.” His gaze stayed on Kat. “An old friend.”

  “Oh.” Mary brought her hands down off the table and blinked several times. Kat thought it looked like she was about to cry. “Nice to meet you, Kat. Are you here for a visit?”

  Pulling out the third chair, Kat sat and reached for Hades’ near-empty plate. There was still a small piece of bread on it. She picked it up and popped it into her mouth. Then she looked at Mary and smiled. “Something like that,” she said between chews.

  Mary averted her gaze and then looked at Hades and smiled. “I’ll be going then.” She pushed to a stand. “Thank you for dinner, Hades. Once again you managed to make a delicious meal.”

  Hades stood and accompanied her to the front door. As they walked, Kat noticed that Mary touched his arm and gazed up at him with adoration in her eyes. The girl was smitten, that was obvious. Was Hades? He had better not be!

  When he opened the door, Mary glanced past him toward Kat and nodded. “Good evening, Kat.”

  “Yeah, right, you, too.” Kat waved her hand toward her. Hurry up, and leave.

  Mary reached up on her tiptoes and kissed Hades’ cheek. “Good night.”

  “Night, Mary,” Hades said and then closed the door after her. When he came back to the table, Kat had commandeered his cup and finished the rest of his tepid tea.

  “This tastes like shit cold,” Kat complained as she set down the cup.

  “Are you hungry? I made extra.” He moved to the counter and grabbed another plate from the cupboard. He scooped up some stew and slapped it onto the clay surface.

  “She’s pretty.”

  Hades set the plate in front of Kat but avoided her gaze. “Yes, she is.” He sat down again and poured more tea into his cup and into the one he grabbed for Kat. “You’re not jealous, are you?”

  “Hell, no,” she remarked as she took a sip of her drink. “Got anything stronger than this?”

  Nodding, Hades turned in his seat and grabbed a bottle from under the counter. Unscrewing the cap, he poured the amber liquid into Kat’s cup and then added to his own. “Whiskey.”

  Lifting her cup, she tapped his and then took a hearty gulp. The spiked tea burned her throat on the way down. If it weren’t for her pride, she would’ve grimaced. But by the smug look on Hades’ face, she must have made some indication that the whiskey was difficult to swallow.

  “It gets better after a few drinks.” Shrugging, he drained his cup.

  Kat dug into her food. The spicy flavor exploded in her mouth. She couldn’t remember the last time something had tasted so delectable. Maybe it was the fact that Hades had prepared the food or that his own aroma, the flavor from his fingertips, had mixed with the medley of meat and vegetables. Abruptly Kat had a violent urge to lean over and lave her tongue over his hands and suck on his fingers one by one.

  Pushing away her plate, Kat sat back in her chair and stared at Hades. Was her reaction to him purely sexual, or did she have other hungers on her mind? Maybe she had made a mistake coming here. The last thing she wanted to do was put Hades at risk to her raging hunger—again.

  Over the months, she had learned how to control it. Nemo, of all people—the passive and diplomatic leader of the Neried tribe—had actually helped her with it. He taught her how to reach inside herself and calm the rage. She had spent many nights on the beach on the edge of his village meditating. Searching inside her body for the root of the virus, and mentally squeezing it in a tight fist. It worked, for the most part.

  One horrible night Nemo found her in her hut breaking apart the wooden furniture with her bare hands and tossing the pieces around in a violent rage. He had promptly shot her with a tranquilizer dart through a wooden blower, laid her on her cot, and stayed by her side until the storm calmed and eventually vanished.

  There had been one other time when she had let the beast loose. But she did so out of self-preservation. The man she had ripped apart deserved his fate. Or so she kept telling herself. He would have raped and murdered Leucothea if she hadn’t acted. Kat figured she had killed men for less in the past. But, somehow, tearing out that man’s throat with her bare hands sat differently with her. She had always used weapons to inflict wounds, but now the virus had turned her into an instrument of pain.

  “I’m going to be leaving tomorrow night.”

  “Why?” Hades demanded.

  Kat lowered her gaze and fussed with her belt. She couldn’t handle looking at him any longer.

  Not without wanting to grab him and crush her body to his, to ease the ache between her legs and the one in her heart. “You were right. You have changed. I’ve no right to ask you to come with me.”

  She stood, but Hades stood, too, and blocked her escape route. He moved into her personal space, forcing her to take a distancing step.

  “You wouldn’t be much help to me anyway.” She smirked. “Stay here with your pretty girl. Get married, have babies. Make a life.” She tried to brush past him, but Hades grabbed her by the upper arms to still her movements.

  Leaning down to her mouth, his lips twitched into a smile. “Maybe I don’t want her. Maybe what I want is too stupid to know that.”

  Raising a brow, Kat questioned, “Are you calling me stupid?”

  “Shut up, woman, and let me kiss you.”

  He covered the distance between them in a second and crushed his mouth to hers. Sighing, Kat parted her lips and let him in. With every sweep of his tongue and nip at her bottom lip, she reciprocated in kind. If she could, she would’ve swallowed him whole. He tasted of smoky flavoring and herbs and the alcohol they had both consumed. New arousing tastes and old flavors she fondly remembered about him.

  Now that she was here in his arms, her hands fisted in his shirt and her mouth exploring his, she realized how empty she’d been without him. She had spent many months denying it, but the man made her whole. During their last harrowing adventure together, she came to realize that he was the one person she had been searching for without even knowing it. The one who challenged her but accepted her for who she was.

  On their last hunt, she had come the closest she’d ever been to love. The kind that was messy and complicated. The kind she didn’t want anything to do with.

  Kat pushed him back, but he held on to her arms. It was obvious he had no intentions of backing off this time. She could hear his heart racing and smell the arousal floating off him. The blue of his eyes had darke
ned to slate, a color she knew meant he was hungry for her. Desire hot and hearty rolled over her, drowning her in its intensity.

  “I won’t let you push me away this time, Kat.”

  She met his gaze and fell helplessly into his eyes. No, she couldn’t push him away, not this time, not now. Fisting her hands in his shirt, she pulled him close. “Fine, but hang on for a wild ride.”

  With one yank on his shirt, she rendered it in half. In seconds her hands were on his flesh, stroking his chest and stomach. Kat loved the feel of his muscled abs under her palms. She played her fingers over him as if strumming an instrument for pleasure.

  His groans encouraged her, and she soon found her hands at the button on his pants. With a flick of her thumb and forefinger, the button popped open, and Kat was able to slide her hand between the separated fabric and over Hades’ pulsating erection.

  While she wrapped her hand around his shaft, he buried his face into her neck and nibbled on her earlobe. “Ah, fuck, woman, I missed you.”

  “Yeah,” she teased as she slid her hand up and down his cock. “How much?”

  Growling, Hades slid his hand over her ass and squeezed. He picked her up and set her on the kitchen table. With his knee, he nudged apart her legs and settled between them. Kat continued to stroke him while he yanked up her shirt and feasted on her breasts.

  Jolts of fervent pleasure zigzagged up and down her flesh as Hades sucked on her nipple. She gasped at the violent sensations battering her body. It had been far too long since she had indulged in the decadence of sex. She had taken only one lover since leaving Hades. Then, it had been when the need had been far too great to deny. When the lust had clawed at her physically and mentally, nearly spiraling her into madness.

  But this need…It was different. Hades was different. And always would be. Kat could deny, avoid, and run all she wanted, but the truth was there, in six feet and three inches of hard muscles and defining character. She could take other lovers, but Hades would always be her one true love.