My time on the human plane hadn’t exposed me to much in the way of good humans, either.
Sure, it likely didn’t help that I spent most of my time at the house, not wanting anything to do with them. Unlike my brother who was out there fucking a different human woman every hour on the hour, sharing drinks with them, going out to eat with them, practically fucking pretending that he was one of them.
The only humans that were in the house were the ones who attended the drug and alcohol and violence-infested parties that our club threw. Though, admittedly, those weren’t happening all that often anymore. Not since a few of the guys had found their other halves.
A witch, which meant mostly human to begin with.
A human nurse who, admittedly, was likely not going to go to hell thanks to her selfless service to her other humankind.
And then a damned demonslayer.
All of them, though, were no longer fully human anyway. Once they’d gone through with their little ritual, they became just a little bit like us.
I was apt to say that any goodness I saw in those women was due to the demon blood in their veins.
Maybe that would sound fucked to a human, to claim that the demons were the “good guys.”
The thing was, the humans failed to realize that demons weren’t just one thing. There were ranks. There were different kinds.
Sure, arguably, the abominations born in hell that wormed their way to the human realm to feast on babies or walk around in human flesh were, yeah, pretty evil.
But the demons like me, like the rest of us, the ones that did the punishing in hell? We were the good guys.
We kept the humans in line.
It was ignorant to believe we were the wicked ones. Especially when all I’d seen while reading the human history books was evil.
Wars fought by innocent boys for the ideas of old men who sat safe in their palaces. Famines created by the rich who hoarded all the wealth. Genocide based on things as ridiculous as the color of skin. Mass rape of innocent women and girls in villages conquered by a foreign military power.
Fucking disgusting, that was what I thought humans were.
So, yeah, I didn’t give a single fuck what happened to them if these old gods were back and ready to show them a taste of their own medicine.
The other demons cared, in a way. Since they were stuck on the human plane because of their mates and offspring.
So I had to get the information they wanted.
What I did give a fuck about, though, was what this situation meant for the underworld. For the Hell I came from and planned to return to.
Our boss, as we knew him, was Lucifer.
Lucifer, the fallen angel of Heaven.
Part of the Christian religion.
But, not the only ruler of the underworld in history.
No.
The old gods, well, they had Hades.
And I had no fucking idea what that meant for Hell, as I was sure he planned to go back there.
I knew Lenore was busy with Lycus and her offspring lately, but she wasn’t the only witch around who could open up some Hellmouths. Eventually, I would find one powerful enough and use her to get back to my home.
I just needed to know what kind of home I might be returning to if Lucifer was out and Hades was in.
“He’s such a fan favorite, right?” Charlotte said, giving me a smirk that was alarmingly appealing. Especially from a human. “I mean, that whole Hades and Persephone thing has had people swooning for ages. Him and that damn pomegranate seed,” she added, and the smile turned a little softer, a bit sweeter, and damn if it didn’t do even more attractive things to her face.
“The pomegranate seed thing,” I repeated.
“Right. Well, in short, Hades saw Persephone one day and liked her so be brought her down to the underworld. And, you know, being a smart girl, she didn’t want anything to do with his evil ass. Even if he was hot.”
“He’s hot?” I asked, getting a snorting sort of laugh out of her.
“I mean, yes. Anyway. He wants Persephone to say with him as his woman. But she knows if she eats or drinks anything, it binds her to the underworld. So she doesn’t. Until, on her way back to the earthly plane, she eats pomegranate seeds that Hades offered her. And they tied her to the underworld for six months out of the year. Fall and winter, actually. That is the origin story of how the seasons work.”
“And people like this story? About Hades?”
“Well, yeah. See, they’ve turned it into a lot of romance books. And romance readers, they love a evil hero who turns out not to be so evil, just misunderstood and lonely and needing the right woman to show his soft side too. That is what they get with that story.”
“Do you read those books?” I asked. “The romance ones,” I clarified.
I didn’t really understand the concept of them.
Sure, I knew that humans liked to write stories down for others to read. Ones with fictional storylines they made up in their heads.
I just hadn’t read any.
I was too busy reading up on history and how the human world worked. I couldn’t even wrap my head around the concept of stories that weren’t real.
Why would that even be interesting?
“Oh, ah, sometimes, yeah. I read all different genres,” she rushed to add.
Was it just me, or were her cheeks looking a bit pink?
There was a reason for that, wasn’t there?
A flush? Which meant they were overheated.
Or, no, there was another word just like that.
Blush.
A blush.
That was when humans were embarrassed about something.
What would she be embarrassed about? Those types of books?
“Do you have a recommendation for one?” I asked, finally flipping open my notepad, realizing that I should have been taking notes all along. If for no other reason, than to look like I was being a professional about the whole thing.
“For a Hades and Persephone romance?” she asked, brows pinching together like I wasn’t making any sense.
“Yes.”
“Oh, ah, yeah. Sure. I mean… it’s… it’s very… explicit,” she said as that blush of hers got deeper.
It was strangely appealing.
Enough that my fingers itched to reach out, to run over the skin to see if it was as warm as it looked from afar.
What the fuck was that about?
“I’m sure it’s nothing I haven’t heard,” I assured her, passing her the notepad, and watching as she jotted down the title and author.
It was going to be my first fictional book.
I figured it could be a sort of research, figuring out how the humans viewed Hades. I could combine that with another non-fiction book on him if I could find one, then compare how Hades would feel about what the humans thought of him and his woman.
“So, what was Hades supposedly like?” I asked as I pulled back the pad, finding her softly rounded script there.
“Fearsome,” she said immediately, not even having to think about it. “Stern and unbending. But also, in some ways, very fair. His role was always about keeping balance. And unlike the other gods, he didn’t screw around with the humans. He just kind of stayed in his own lane.”
“And what about the demons?” I asked. “And how he punished the humans?”
“Oh, now, see, you are trying to entwine traditional Christian and Greek myth beliefs together. See, Hades wasn’t like the devil, like Lucifer is portrayed. Hades wasn’t a fallen angel. He was simply a god with a job. And the underworld wasn’t just hell. The underworld was where all humans crossed the River Styx on their journey to the afterlife.”