The Curse Of An Alpha *MATURE*

Chapter 37; There Is Love And Laughter

The silence was eerie, just like the meadow that Alice had ventured into during the ritual in India. She wasn't sure where exactly she was; perhaps in her subconscious, floating on the brink of lucidity as the memories of her life washed over her, or perhaps she was in the abyss of the afterlife, unable to move on because she had left her heart behind. 

Alice could not remember his name and doubted whether she wanted to. More memories would equal more pain. Pain that she had enough of, succumbed in this caccoon of slumber.

Smouldering silver eyes floated in her subconscious, dangled in front of her like candy. A temptation that she could tread down on. Carefully, slowly so she did not slip down the steep slope that would lead her down and under. Further away from humanity.

A part of her wanted to go down, to fully let go off the grip that she had on life. She realised that now, contrary to the previous times she had died, there was a choice. Alice could come back, could return to the surface, could breathe and laugh and remember. But she could also forget- float away into whatever came next. The beyond, the universe, another life...

Perhaps the choice came from the transformation that she had passed. Her beast prowled under her skin, canines glistening, ears perched at the strangeness of this new perspective. That dark and beckoning part of her was a faint flame, enough to draw her attention in but not enough to burn her whole.

Alice knew that should she follow there would be hell to pay.

Where do I go? She spoke to her mind, the empty void of consciousness that was neither here or there.

Anywhere you wish to, it seemed to answer back.

Yet Alice did not know where that was.

Where should I go? Her thoughts whirled like a kaleidoscope.

There where there is love and laughter, a brief whisper responded.

Love and laughter- such a strange concept in this dark hole of nothing. It made her nauseous with contemplation. Had she ever known such things? Had it ever been there, within the reach of her fingertips?

"My little sprite," an all to familiar voice drawled.

Within the blink of a thought, she found herself standing in the same throne room that she had been in weeks ago. It felt like a lifetime now, knowing what she knew, having experienced what she did.  This time Hades was seated atop of his throne, a crown of bones floating just above his head.

"Why am I here?" Alice muttered, her eyes flickering from his gleeful face to the top of his head.

"You're dead, are you not?" he cocked his head to the side, regarding her from beneath his dark eyelashes.

"You're the God of the Underworld, you tell me."

Hades let out a chuckle, his knees groaning as he stood and sauntered over to her. "You have a knack for getting in trouble, don't you?"

"Trouble that you put me into," Alice retorted with a scowl

"Ah, yes. You've done your job splendidly."

"Lucien's not dead," the memories slammed into her with a force. The more they spoke the more she remembered. Still, she didn't dare to think of silver eyes or the name that accompanied them. 

"Not yet," his lip twitched into a tentative smile, "once you awaken though..."

"I have to go back?"

"You should know by now that you cannot die."

Alice swallowed thickly, casting her eyes to the looming windows to her right. Even with her death, she remembered what it was like to come back to her broken body, alive and well, healed as if nothing happened. Every time that she did some crucial part of her would be lost. Gone as if it had never existed. "Don't I have a choice now? Shouldn't I?"

Hades nodded with a contemplative look, "in a way. But every choice has a consequence. Tell me what yours would be?"

If she stayed here in the afterlife, who would kill Lucien? Alice swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. "Every time that I come back I go wrong. Evil."

"There are many words to describe you, my little sprite, but evil is not one of them. You know more than you did then, and you are different both physically and mentally."

"That's not enough though, is it?" her words came out sharper than she intended.

Once again, his lips twitched into a tentative smile. Hades shook his head, gazing out to the hillsides beyond the window. "Do you know why you come out different every time you come back alive?" Alice shook her head. That had been a question she had been asking herself for months. "You leave a part of yourself lingering in the underworld each time. It is why you see the other side, the fold of the world_"

"Otherside? You mean ghosts?" The thought seemed ludicrous. She couldn't remember a time where she did see such things.

Hades pursed his lips, "the shadows, Alice. They are threads that connect the worlds. Imagine them like glue. They keep two pieces together but they aren't completely solid. You see, you have a choice to stay here and live out the rest of your existence but there would still be a part of you missing. Each time you die a small part of you lingers here, in my realm, but the other part of you remains in the living world. Now that is had an anchor you can only imagine what that would be like, being separated."

Alice didn't wish to say his name, to think of the raven black hair or smouldering silver eyes that tempted her every time she gazed into them. Yet there was no denying whom the anchor was, not with the smirk on Hades' face. Still, she couldn't deny the fear that lingered beneath her skin. How could she be certain that she would not kill him? That she would not harm those closest to her?

"Do not fear the things that have not happened, my little sprite. It's no use."

"I have hurt others before after I have come back."

"Yes, and that will be our biggest asset in a few moments time." Hades cast his gaze onto her hands and turned them palms facing upwards. She watched as he closed his eyes and with a snap of his fingers, a rose appeared. It was beautiful and without thorns. It looked as if it had come out of a magazine, or perhaps as if it was fake. "A gift for you," he brought the rose up eye level with her face.

Alice held his gaze, "you told me that everything comes with a price."

Hades nodded in response, "and that price has been paid, for this at least."

"What is it?" her eyes trailed over the blood red petals that shimmered in the light as if thousands of tiny glitter particles made up the molecular structure.

"A different sort of anchor," the corner of his mouth twitched up once more. She noted that it was a habit of his. "It will be your glue, my little sprite, for the bits that you have gifted me and the rest that you will return to in the world of the living."

"Why the rose?"

"Because even the things that are beautiful have a way to cause pain," Hades leant in towards her face, "you are that rose, Alice. Don't forget it." And then his mouth enveloped hers, not in a kiss that she would share with Colden but in a kiss that sent a sheering bolt of magic through her core. Fire spread across her chest, sinking deeper and deeper until she felt it settle into the very marrow of her bones.

Alice gasped, tearing her lips away. The rose was gone, at least that is what she had thought until Hades directed her gaze to her cleavage; it was there, sparkling in between her breasts, ingrained into her very skin like a moving tattoo. The rose petals shimmered like starlight, twisting and turning with the rhythm of her heartbeat.

"Safe journey," Hades murmured with a smirk. 

Then she was gone, slammed back into her body as if she had never died. Her eyes snapped open and Colden's name was the first thing that left her lips.