Page 365 of The First Taste
Hades grimaces and yanks me out of my seat, pushing me behind him. The husband rears up, his hand rising as if to hit the wife.
Instantaneously, Hades surges forward and grabs the man’s hand. He twists it in a way that makes a distinct crunching sound.
The man struggles, shifting his murderous gaze to Hades, and lets loose a bellow right in his face. The guy is big, but Hades is bigger; besides that, I think Hades is taking up all the air in the room right now, absolutely radiating hatred for this stranger he doesn’t know.
Hades hits the guy right in the solar plexus without letting the man’s hand go. The stranger howls and makes a halfhearted attempt to scratch at Hades’ face with his free hand.
Hades doesn’t even flinch. Instead, he uses his strength to find a pressure point near the man’s wrist.
“Fuck off, ye fucking bully,” Hades grits out.
In seconds, he manages to twist the bully’s arm at a painful looking angle and back the bully up a full step. The mother is sobbing, her son clutching at her skirts.
My heart thumps against my ribs as I watch Hades continue to twist the man’s arm. There is a shout and the man’s step falters.
The stranger goes down onto his knees, a look of shock and rage on his face. He bleats out a curse and tries to get away.
Hades releases him, squares off, and punches him right in the nose. Blood spurts from his face but that doesn’t deter Hades.
Hades punches him again and again, kneeing the stranger in the stomach, stomping on his ribs. I hear the sound of bone splintering as Hades punches him in the face again.
The mother wails and backs into the corner, clutching at her visibly distraught son.
I flatten myself against the wall. My eyes are on my captor.
This unhinged side of Hades, the one who is currently beating a total stranger to a pulp?
It scares me more than anything else he’s done or said.
Hades, for his part, looks as though he could potentially kill the man shouting incoherently at his feet. When he stomps on the man again, I shudder.
“Hades—” I try. I realize that I’m trembling all over as I reach out a shaky hand towards him.
The woman finally rouses herself, pushing off the wall. She looks afraid, of Hades or her husband or both, but she still flings her hands out over his body slumped on the ground.
“No!” she yells, her breathing ragged. She catches Hades’ eye, sheltering the body of her husband.
She keeps talking, ignoring her young son who tugs at her skirts. I can’t make out any of the rest of her statement, but Hades gives her a moment.
I seize upon that moment to pull at Hades’ arm. “Let’s go. You won, okay?”
Hades glares down at his fallen counterpart, wiping a sheen of sweat away from his forehead. He rears up for a second and I jerk back.
But he only spits on the man, who has stopped moving entirely.
“Coward,” Hades grits out.
He straightens, swinging his wild green gaze around the room. I shrink back as he turns his glare upon me.
I catch a brief note of confusion on his face before Hades pushes past me. I watch, wide eyed, as he plucks a napkin from the table in the back in the shop. He wipes his hands with it and then returns his scowl to me.
He doesn’t say anything, just jerks his head. I practically run out of the shop, my whole body shaking, my thoughts a mess.
When Hades stalks off toward the sea, I bolt back toward the villa like a frightened rabbit.
Hades
Ilie awake in the middle of my bed, staring up at the ceiling. There is a pattern of stars repeated there, cutouts and slightly gray shadows. I exhale deeply and try to figure out what the stars remind me of.
