Free Inferno-Kat 2 by Vivi Anna

Leucothea and Mary included.
    “Where did they take Kat?” Leucothea stuttered as her whole body was racked with violent shivers.
    Hades finally had the presence of mind to look her over. She was soaking wet, dripping even.
    “Why are you wet?”
    “I hid in the well while everyone was busy in the church. They were searching houses for more villagers to burn.”
    “Smart girl.” He patted her leg and closed his eyes. “You’ve done well. Kat would be proud.”
    Leucothea pried open his eyes again with her icy fingers and peered down at him. “Where did they take her?”
    “Inferno City.”
    “Then what are we waiting for? We need to rescue her.”

    “ We don’t need to do anything. You need to get warm, and I need a doctor.” Hades glanced around at the people still watching him and settled on Mary. He reached out and grabbed her hand. “Could you get me the doc, Mary?”
    “Doc’s dead,” she stated, her voice flat and emotionless.
    Hades squeezed her hand. The village doctor had been her cousin. “I’m sorry.”
    “I know.” She pulled her hand out from his and got to her feet. “Girl, get him up. I have the herbs to heal him.”
    Hades closed his eyes again as more dark agony washed over him, towing him down into a swirling whirlpool of pain. Reaching out blindly, he grasped Leucothea by the arm. “Do as she says, and I promise you I will find Kat again.”
    The black took him under. With a rush of terror, Hades knew exactly where it was taking him….

    The dark. It was all-encompassing.
    Hades reached out into the black to find hold of something. What he found surprised him. It was not the dreadful cold he expected from a dead body but warmth and vibrancy from someone still alive.
    The lights flashed on then, as if he had really opened his eyes for the first time. And he realized he was mashed in a crowd of sweating, gyrating bodies. Men and women in various forms of undress surrounded him. They didn’t look at him as he pressed past them. Something ahead of them possessed all their attentions.
    Hades kept moving through the sea of people until he pushed through to the front and met an iron railing, stopping him from toppling over into a deep shaft. Twisting the metal in his palms, he stared down into the circle and wanted to holler in rage.
    Two stories down, a circular metal platform jutted out into the empty space. On that platform was a large bed draped in red fabric. And on that bed were four people writhing and undulating in passion. The crowd surrounding them on three circular levels watched and cheered in rapt fascination.
    Hades closed his eyes, trying to erase the scene in front of him. But when he opened them again, they were still there, embracing on the bed, joined intimately.
    Two he didn’t recognize. A man with skin so dark he was like living midnight and a woman with long fiery red hair and pale eyes moved together on the mattress like they were one. As they were joined at the hips, Hades had trouble telling them apart.

    The other two, moving over each other, touching, kissing, caressing, he knew well. So well that he felt his gorge rise watching them together.
    Baruch. Kat.
    As if they could hear his thoughts, they both looked up and locked eyes with him. Smiling, Kat held out her hand, beckoning him to her.
    Clamping his eyes shut, Hades didn’t want to see. Was this one of his premonitions? Was he viewing the future to come? Was Kat completely lost to him?
    No! He wouldn’t lose her. She would never succumb to Baruch. The dream was a lie. She was much too strong. He would find Kat again, and this time he would hold on to her. No matter what she did, he wouldn’t let her push him away again. Even if it meant his own death.
    Opening his eyes, Hades gripped the railing tightly, leaned over, and yelled, “I won’t let you turn into him, Kat! I love you too much to let you go!”
    Kat’s smile faded, and he could see the look of confusion in her face, as if she had just