Styx: The River of Hate [malexmale]

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Epimetheus screamed in Theo's voice, the sound echoing through the room and bouncing back to my ears, nearly shattering my ear drums.

I ground my teeth together, fighting the burning hot pain of Epimetheus' soul in my palm. My powers surged through my veins, boiling my blood and searing my skin. My muscles pulled taut and threatened to tear as I breathed heavily, keeping my palm flat against Epimetheus' chest, just as Rara had told me.

I felt it pooling into my palm. The heat of it scorched my skin, but I refused to let go. The pain ripped and tore through me like a vicious storm, but I kept my teeth ground together and eyes locked shut.

I wasn't going to let go. I wasn't going to let this thing that Theo.

Theo was my master.

I swore the day he had rescued me that I would never, ever betray him. I would give my life for his. I was his loyal servant... I could remember that night perfectly as if it had happened just yesterday.

I was on the verge of giving up. I had been punished in a manner similiar to Cain after he had killed his brother, the first time anyway. Cursed to walk the earth and not die. No one would come near me, they could feel the curse radiating off me. No one would offer to help or leave things behind to sate me. I was a prisoner on a planet that didn't even want me to exist.

I had managed to find rags that a family had thrown out, pulling on what was left of the pants and shirt so at least I was no longer wandering the land naked. But the hunger and thirst continued to claw and writhe in my belly and up my throat, burning its way to my cotton dry mouth.

I sat at the base of one of the temples of Hades in the land of Greece. And how I loathed the land and its people, its pantheon, its riches, its culture. It wasn't something I was used to. I missed the hot desert sands that warmed my feet and back as the wind swept it across rolling dunes that led to great beautiful cities, pyramids that stretched high into the sky and glowed like precious gems in the sun of Ra.

I had gotten together twigs and bits of grass, but it wouldn't give me a fire to warm even my feet in the cold night. My breath came out in clouds as I dug one of the twigs into the ground, trying to mindlessly recreate the city I had been most favored in. It was useless.

I growled in frustration and kicked the construction apart before I forced myself to my feet, turning to face the temple made of prestine white columns, surrounding a hollowed out center where a pool of crystal water sat in the center, before a great statue of Hades, that didn't really resemble the god in the least, or from what I had heard of him at the time. I curled my lip in repungence at the god, walking inside, keeping myself up amongst the columns before I came to the pool.

I dropped to my knees and let my palms fall into the cool water that chilled me, sending goose bumps flying across my skin. The priests that usually took up residence had gone home for the night, giving me the chance to soil their precious god's offering. I scooped the water to my lips, gulping it down, desperate to ease the ache in my throat and belly. I could feel the cool liquid slither down my throat, through my chest, and slosh into my empty belly.

I drank and splashed my face, savoring the feeling of mild cleanliness. I finally rose to my feet, peering up into the face of the god of the underworld. I spat in the water, then turned to leave, pulling up short to see a man standing near the entrance of the temple.

No, not a man.

No human could possibly be that beautiful. Exotic with porcelain skin that seemed to glow in the moonlight outside, the rays making his blood red hair appear in deadly locks down to his slender shoulders that only a silk black cloak covered. His hair matched his eyes, only his eyes very obviously glowed in the dark eerily. Under his cloak was only a loose tunic that fell to his knees, as black as his cloak and the night behind him.