Free Hades' Return by N.J. Walters Page B

Do you hear me, Jessica? Breathe,” he commanded.
    She managed to suck in a small amount of air. It whistled into her lungs. Just as quickly, the air passage was cut off. It was as though the devil himself was choking her.
    Arand sat on the bed opposite him. Sabrina was on the phone, urgently speaking with someone. He heard her say Aimee’s name and knew she was trying to find out if Roric’s mate had discovered anything that could help Jessica.
    Fear. It was something he’d known intimately in his years with Hades, but nothing he’d ever been through compared to this. “Jessica.” He tried to infuse every ounce of his determination into his voice. “You will breathe. Do you understand?”
    She tried, but she was so weak. Her hands fell away from his wrists, flopping back to her sides. The mark on her arm seemed to pulse with dark power. Her eyelids slowly lowered. He roared when he lost sight of her blue eyes. Was it the last time he’d ever see them?
    “No, you can’t die. You must live.” He shook her. Her body flopped around like a rag doll, lifeless and boneless.
    Arand touched his shoulder. “There is nothing more you can do.”
    “There has to be,” he snarled. He’d taken on Hades and beaten him. He could defeat this death curse. “There has to be a way to save her.”
    His friend went still beside him. Mordecai pinned him with his black gaze. “What is it?”
    “You could share your life force with her. That might be enough to drive out Hades’ darkness.”
    For the first time since he’d come into being, Mordecai wished he’d been more like his fellow warriors. But his soul was dark and stained. “I fear I have only darkness to give her.” He saw the growing understanding in Arand’s eyes. “It might only hasten her death.”
    “She’s dying anyway,” Arand pointed out.
    “Do it,” Sabrina demanded. She’d tucked away her phone and now climbed onto the bed next to her mate. “Save her.”
    “She’ll be tied to me forever,” he warned.
    “Better that then dead.” Sabrina’s bluntness drove the point home. What did it matter as long as Jessica lived? And if he had to give her every last drop of his life force, he would. Because he’d already decided he didn’t want to live without her.
    He only prayed he didn’t taint her with his darkness.
    She was lying on the bed, her skin damp with perspiration, her face pale, her lips turning blue. Mordecai leaned down and gently touched his mouth to hers. “I won’t let you die,” he promised her.
    He closed his eyes and placed his hands over her heart. Digging deep, he searched for the light of his goddess. It was a rainbow of color, hidden beneath layers of shadow. It tried to conceal itself from him, but he ruthlessly yanked it from its hiding spot and shoved it into Jessica. As though sensing more light energy, it flowed eagerly from him into her.
    Good. That was good. The heat was intense, even more so than the bowels of hell. But Mordecai held firm. Jessica’s life was in the balance.
    His serpent roared, lending its strength to the battle. Like him, the beast didn’t care if he lived or died as long as Jessica survived.
    Darkness swarmed around him. It poured into him until he could no longer see or sense the world. He was blind and deaf. It was the same sensation he’d gotten every time he’d stepped into one of Hades’ dark portals. It was like being imprisoned in a void of nothingness. Staying here for long would drive him mad, would make him pray for death.
    Still, he held on. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for Jessica.
    It dawned on him as the darkness consumed him that he loved her. He’d never understood the emotion, wasn’t even sure he’d believed in it. But this had to be what it was. He put her well-being above his own, willing to do whatever it took to make her healthy. He wanted her happiness above his own. Even if that meant his death.
    She belonged to him and he would take care of her.
    As the last of