EsherGuardians of Hades # 3
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Prince of the Underworld and Lord of Water, Esher was banished from his home by his father, Hades, two centuries ago and given a new duty and purpose—to keep our world and his from colliding in a calamity foreseen by the Moirai.BOOKS IN THE SERIES
Together with his six brothers, he fights to defend the gates to the Underworld from daemons bent on breaching them and gaining entrance to that forbidden land, striving to protect his home from their dark influence. Tormented by his past, Esher burns with hatred towards mortals and bears a grudge against Hades for forcing him into their world, condemning him to a life of battling to keep a fragile hold on his darker side—a side that wants to kill every human in the name of revenge.
Until he finds himself stepping in to save a female—a beautiful mortal filled with light and laughter who draws him to her as fiercely as the pull of the moon, stirring conflict in his heart and rousing dangerous needs long forgotten.
Aiko knows from the moment she sets eyes on the black-haired warrior that he is no ordinary man, just as she’s no ordinary woman. Blessed with a gift, she can see through his stormy façade to the powerful god beneath, and the pain and darkness that beats inside him—pain she grows determined to heal as she falls deeper under his spell and into his world.
When the daemon bent on turning Esher against his brothers makes her move, will Esher find the strength to overcome his past and fulfil his duty, or will the lure of revenge allow the darkness in his heart to seize control, transforming him into a god intent on destroying the world?
Book 1: Ares
Book 2: Valen
Book 3: Esher
Book 4: Marek – Coming in 2018
Excerpt
Esher tuned his brothers out as he sank into the glorious vision building in
his mind, one where he overcame the wraith and captured him, not for information
as Keras would want, but for the sheer pleasure of revenge. He would bind and
torture the wretch until he broke and confessed what he had done with
Calindria’s soul, and then he would send him screaming into the darkest pit in
the Underworld, and would inform their father about what the wretch had done.
Gods, Hades would see to it the bastard suffered eternally.
His lips twisted in a slow smile.
Fuck, he would beg his father to give him a front row seat for that show.
A dark voice whispered in his mind, seductive words that tempted him to listen to them, coaxed him into ignoring his brothers’ wishes and obeying the gnawing hunger inside him—the need to hunt. He wavered as the city beyond the garden flickered to the otherworld, the future of Earth should he and his brothers fail to stop the calamity the Moirai had foreseen—a calamity their new enemy intended to bring about by doing something to the gates.
A calamity part of Esher wanted to see.
The darker part.
The part that had been born centuries ago, and had whispered to him ever since, rising to steal control at times when he wasn’t strong enough to hold it at bay.
A beast he fought to keep locked inside him.
A monster he had failed to contain more than once.
It had been hard enough to fight it when the only threat to his family had been the daemons and the humans, but it was growing impossible now that he knew the wraith had been responsible for Calindria’s end. His war with it was constant, and he wasn’t sure he could win.
He needed to avenge his sister.
His eyes narrowed on the flames that spiralled high into the black sky beyond the pristine white wall of the mansion grounds, sparks dancing like golden fireflies as the wind caught them, looking as if they were rising on the screams of the mortals whose flesh burned and the shrieks of the creatures who hunted and preyed on them.
A shudder wracked him, a shiver of pleasure that rolled through him as their screams surrounded him, creating a symphony that tugged at the darkness in him, made him yearn to make this future real so he could bask in the glory of it.
“Esher.” The male voice intruded, shaking the vision of beauty before him.
He snarled, launched his left hand out and wrapped it around the offender’s neck, squeezing it hard.
The male growled and countered him, and icy cold gripped his throat, burned like fire as it swept over him beneath his clothes.
“Get a fucking grip,” Daimon snarled and shoved hard, sending him staggering backwards onto the raised wooden walkway that enclosed three sides of the smaller courtyard garden and shaking Esher’s grip on him.
His back slammed into one of the thick square pillars that supported the overhanging roof.
His breath exploded from him as the timber cracked.
The sound of dropping water had his head snapping to his right in time to catch a glimpse of brightly coloured koi suspended in the air for a moment before they dropped back into the pond.
“Fuck,” Esher muttered and got a grip on himself, pushing out the damned voice that still taunted him, told him to take pleasure in the destruction he wrought, not be ashamed of it, tempted him with thoughts of heading beyond the protective walls of the mansion to the city and unleashing the fury he had bottled inside him on the weak creatures who inhabited it.
It would be glorious.
“No.” He grasped the sides of his head and squeezed until it hurt. “No!”
He didn’t really want that. He was just tired and weak from the wraith’s attack, worn down and vulnerable. Yes, vulnerable. He was too susceptible right now, not strong enough to shut out the damned voice and the things it wanted him to do.
“Listen to me, Esher,” Daimon whispered, and he focused on his brother, using the sound of his voice to shut out the darker one just as they had practiced. “You’re all good. Everything is fine. Everyone is fine.”
But they weren’t.
He saw that as he lifted his head and spotted the unmistakable trace of red beneath his brother’s nose where Daimon hadn’t quite managed to wipe all the blood away to hide it from him, and the dark bruises emerging around his throat just above the collar of his navy turtle neck.
“I’m sorry,” Esher murmured, pain closing his throat as he considered what he had done.
He had hurt the ones he loved.
The ones he had vowed to protect.
The only ones who mattered.
“I’m fine.” Daimon managed a smile and rubbed at his throat. “No harm done.”
A lie.
He noticed the way Daimon’s fingers trembled as he neatened his spiked white hair, acting casual when he was shaken.
Esher averted his gaze, but the pain and guilt lingered as he looked at the pond and the koi that were flapping around on the gravel surrounding it. He stepped off the walkway, crossing the pebbles without feeling them biting into the soles of his feet, and stooped to carefully pick up the fish and place them gently back into the pond.
He breathed easier as he counted them all, checking each one in turn, and saw none of them had been hurt.
His brothers’ voices filled the silence behind him as he watched the fish, their words distant and lost on him, and he sensed them departing one by one.
Until only Daimon remained.
Had he harmed any more of his brothers? Gods, he hoped he hadn’t.
It was getting harder to control himself.
His rage should have been directed solely at the daemons and the humans, not at his family. His family were the only ones who mattered. The Underworld was the only place that mattered too.
This world could burn for all he cared.
But if it burned, then the Underworld burned with it.
He watched a black and white koi he was particularly fond of, one he’d had for decades, swim past to join the group waiting near the walkway where it jutted out over the pond to his right, by his quarters.
An ache started behind his breast, one that was familiar to him.
He wanted to return to the Underworld.
He couldn’t handle things here anymore. Today was proof of that. He wasn’t strong enough to hold back the darker part of himself that viewed all the mortals as a threat to him and his family, and his world.
Just thinking about hunting them, watching them suffer, had been enough to have him slipping.
Hurting the ones he loved.
“You alright?” Daimon eased into a crouch beside him, his long black coat pooling around his feet on the pale gravel.
“Sorry.” He kept his eyes on the fish, shame eating at him as he thought about what he had done.
Daimon had given as good as he had got. Esher’s throat was sore, and it stung a little to breathe and speak, but the pain didn’t make him feel better about what he had done.
“The moon is just fucking with you. It’s almost full.” Daimon ghosted a hand over his shoulder.
Esher wished he would touch him, because he needed to feel it, needed someone to hold him together right now because he felt as if he was falling apart.
He focused on the moon, picturing it in an attempt to soothe himself. It was distant from him, on the other side of the planet. He wanted to see it. Needed to see it. He needed the calming influence it had on him.
He forced himself to remain where he was though, because stepping that distance would drain some of his strength, and he had to remain strong in case the attack came tonight.
He rested his elbows on his knees as he remained crouched on the gravel at the edge of the pond, his eyes on the fish as they all slowly grouped before him, clearly having decided he was going to feed them from this spot instead.
They were beautiful as they glided around, the pattern of their colours constantly shifting.
His left fingers drifted across to his right arm as the sight of them soothed him, calming the turbulent waters in his soul.
The sensation of calm grew stronger still.
“Any injury you had would be healed by now.” Daimon’s careful words, softly spoken, floated through his mind and he looked down to find he was playing with the bandage again. His brother’s pale blue eyes lifted from his arm to rest on his face. “Why are you so reluctant to discard it? Did a daemon get you? Are you infected somehow?”
Esher opened his mouth, but the words caught in his throat.
He stepped rather than answering him, appearing briefly at the front porch of the mansion to grab his long black coat and jam his feet into his leather boots, and then teleporting again.
The guilt over hurting his brother mingled with new shame as he landed on top of the covered footbridge that spanned the gap between two large buildings, allowing humans to come and go between them above the busy road that cut a path straight ahead of him and intersected with an equally as crowded road just two hundred metres from him in the heart of the Shibuya district.
Why couldn’t he just tell his brother what had happened?
He was closest to Daimon, and they had shared everything in the past, leaving nothing unsaid between them. So why did he want to keep the female a secret?
His lips twisted in a slow smile.
Fuck, he would beg his father to give him a front row seat for that show.
A dark voice whispered in his mind, seductive words that tempted him to listen to them, coaxed him into ignoring his brothers’ wishes and obeying the gnawing hunger inside him—the need to hunt. He wavered as the city beyond the garden flickered to the otherworld, the future of Earth should he and his brothers fail to stop the calamity the Moirai had foreseen—a calamity their new enemy intended to bring about by doing something to the gates.
A calamity part of Esher wanted to see.
The darker part.
The part that had been born centuries ago, and had whispered to him ever since, rising to steal control at times when he wasn’t strong enough to hold it at bay.
A beast he fought to keep locked inside him.
A monster he had failed to contain more than once.
It had been hard enough to fight it when the only threat to his family had been the daemons and the humans, but it was growing impossible now that he knew the wraith had been responsible for Calindria’s end. His war with it was constant, and he wasn’t sure he could win.
He needed to avenge his sister.
His eyes narrowed on the flames that spiralled high into the black sky beyond the pristine white wall of the mansion grounds, sparks dancing like golden fireflies as the wind caught them, looking as if they were rising on the screams of the mortals whose flesh burned and the shrieks of the creatures who hunted and preyed on them.
A shudder wracked him, a shiver of pleasure that rolled through him as their screams surrounded him, creating a symphony that tugged at the darkness in him, made him yearn to make this future real so he could bask in the glory of it.
“Esher.” The male voice intruded, shaking the vision of beauty before him.
He snarled, launched his left hand out and wrapped it around the offender’s neck, squeezing it hard.
The male growled and countered him, and icy cold gripped his throat, burned like fire as it swept over him beneath his clothes.
“Get a fucking grip,” Daimon snarled and shoved hard, sending him staggering backwards onto the raised wooden walkway that enclosed three sides of the smaller courtyard garden and shaking Esher’s grip on him.
His back slammed into one of the thick square pillars that supported the overhanging roof.
His breath exploded from him as the timber cracked.
The sound of dropping water had his head snapping to his right in time to catch a glimpse of brightly coloured koi suspended in the air for a moment before they dropped back into the pond.
“Fuck,” Esher muttered and got a grip on himself, pushing out the damned voice that still taunted him, told him to take pleasure in the destruction he wrought, not be ashamed of it, tempted him with thoughts of heading beyond the protective walls of the mansion to the city and unleashing the fury he had bottled inside him on the weak creatures who inhabited it.
It would be glorious.
“No.” He grasped the sides of his head and squeezed until it hurt. “No!”
He didn’t really want that. He was just tired and weak from the wraith’s attack, worn down and vulnerable. Yes, vulnerable. He was too susceptible right now, not strong enough to shut out the damned voice and the things it wanted him to do.
“Listen to me, Esher,” Daimon whispered, and he focused on his brother, using the sound of his voice to shut out the darker one just as they had practiced. “You’re all good. Everything is fine. Everyone is fine.”
But they weren’t.
He saw that as he lifted his head and spotted the unmistakable trace of red beneath his brother’s nose where Daimon hadn’t quite managed to wipe all the blood away to hide it from him, and the dark bruises emerging around his throat just above the collar of his navy turtle neck.
“I’m sorry,” Esher murmured, pain closing his throat as he considered what he had done.
He had hurt the ones he loved.
The ones he had vowed to protect.
The only ones who mattered.
“I’m fine.” Daimon managed a smile and rubbed at his throat. “No harm done.”
A lie.
He noticed the way Daimon’s fingers trembled as he neatened his spiked white hair, acting casual when he was shaken.
Esher averted his gaze, but the pain and guilt lingered as he looked at the pond and the koi that were flapping around on the gravel surrounding it. He stepped off the walkway, crossing the pebbles without feeling them biting into the soles of his feet, and stooped to carefully pick up the fish and place them gently back into the pond.
He breathed easier as he counted them all, checking each one in turn, and saw none of them had been hurt.
His brothers’ voices filled the silence behind him as he watched the fish, their words distant and lost on him, and he sensed them departing one by one.
Until only Daimon remained.
Had he harmed any more of his brothers? Gods, he hoped he hadn’t.
It was getting harder to control himself.
His rage should have been directed solely at the daemons and the humans, not at his family. His family were the only ones who mattered. The Underworld was the only place that mattered too.
This world could burn for all he cared.
But if it burned, then the Underworld burned with it.
He watched a black and white koi he was particularly fond of, one he’d had for decades, swim past to join the group waiting near the walkway where it jutted out over the pond to his right, by his quarters.
An ache started behind his breast, one that was familiar to him.
He wanted to return to the Underworld.
He couldn’t handle things here anymore. Today was proof of that. He wasn’t strong enough to hold back the darker part of himself that viewed all the mortals as a threat to him and his family, and his world.
Just thinking about hunting them, watching them suffer, had been enough to have him slipping.
Hurting the ones he loved.
“You alright?” Daimon eased into a crouch beside him, his long black coat pooling around his feet on the pale gravel.
“Sorry.” He kept his eyes on the fish, shame eating at him as he thought about what he had done.
Daimon had given as good as he had got. Esher’s throat was sore, and it stung a little to breathe and speak, but the pain didn’t make him feel better about what he had done.
“The moon is just fucking with you. It’s almost full.” Daimon ghosted a hand over his shoulder.
Esher wished he would touch him, because he needed to feel it, needed someone to hold him together right now because he felt as if he was falling apart.
He focused on the moon, picturing it in an attempt to soothe himself. It was distant from him, on the other side of the planet. He wanted to see it. Needed to see it. He needed the calming influence it had on him.
He forced himself to remain where he was though, because stepping that distance would drain some of his strength, and he had to remain strong in case the attack came tonight.
He rested his elbows on his knees as he remained crouched on the gravel at the edge of the pond, his eyes on the fish as they all slowly grouped before him, clearly having decided he was going to feed them from this spot instead.
They were beautiful as they glided around, the pattern of their colours constantly shifting.
His left fingers drifted across to his right arm as the sight of them soothed him, calming the turbulent waters in his soul.
The sensation of calm grew stronger still.
“Any injury you had would be healed by now.” Daimon’s careful words, softly spoken, floated through his mind and he looked down to find he was playing with the bandage again. His brother’s pale blue eyes lifted from his arm to rest on his face. “Why are you so reluctant to discard it? Did a daemon get you? Are you infected somehow?”
Esher opened his mouth, but the words caught in his throat.
He stepped rather than answering him, appearing briefly at the front porch of the mansion to grab his long black coat and jam his feet into his leather boots, and then teleporting again.
The guilt over hurting his brother mingled with new shame as he landed on top of the covered footbridge that spanned the gap between two large buildings, allowing humans to come and go between them above the busy road that cut a path straight ahead of him and intersected with an equally as crowded road just two hundred metres from him in the heart of the Shibuya district.
Why couldn’t he just tell his brother what had happened?
He was closest to Daimon, and they had shared everything in the past, leaving nothing unsaid between them. So why did he want to keep the female a secret?
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If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, the best-selling Her Angel series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm series or any of her stand-alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try the best-selling Vampire Erotic Theatre series. Or if you prefer huge detailed worlds filled with hot-blooded alpha males in every species, from elves to demons to dragons to shifters and angels, then take a look at the new Eternal Mates series.
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