Hades' Return Read Online Free PDF Page B

gave a small laugh and then groaned in pain. “You answered your own question. Hades happened.” Her voice was shockingly weak. She felt almost faint.
    “You said a woman did this?” Sabrina prompted.
    Jessica nodded and licked her lips.
    “Here.” Sabrina passed Mordecai a bottle of water. He held the open bottle to her lips and let her have several sips.
    “Stopped to look at jewelry. Tall. Blonde.”
    “Take your time,” Sabrina told her.
    “Asked to see a necklace. I held it up for her to take. Instead, she touched my wrist.” Talking about it was making the small burn throb. “Pain. Fire. Said Hades sends his regards.”
    Mordecai swore long and lurid. Jessica wasn’t sure she’d even heard some of the inventive combinations that came out of his mouth. It made her want to laugh in spite of the dire situation.
    The car came to a stop. Jessica peered out the window and heaved a sigh of relief, grateful to be home. Mordecai pushed open the back door and climbed out. Sabrina ran ahead, but before she could reach the door, Phoenix opened it.
    “What’s going on?” the red-haired immortal asked.
    “Hades.” Mordecai’s succinct reply made his friend swear.
    Mordecai eased past him and carried her up the stairs to her apartment. He didn’t have the key, but that didn’t stop him. With his immortal powers, a lock was nothing.
    Jessica was sweating profusely by the time he laid her down on her bed. By then Stavros had joined them, looking as concerned as the others. “Tilly,” she managed to get out. “Call Tilly. Danger.”
    “Shit.” Sabrina turned to Phoenix, but the warrior was already on his way out the door.
    “I’ll get her,” he promised.
    “Don’t bring her back here. She isn’t safe either,” Mordecai reminded them.
    “I’ll protect her.” With that final pronouncement, Phoenix strode away.
    “I thought Hades couldn’t attack us.” Stavros paced the bedroom, obviously distraught.
    “He can’t attack us.” Mordecai removed her shoes and tossed them onto the floor. “Nor can he attack the women who released us from our captivity.” He grabbed the cashmere throw off the end of the bed and spread it over her.
    Jessica was shivering from the cold but burning up at the same time.
    “But while Jessica and Tilly both helped us defeat Hades, neither of them is exempt from his ire.” Mordecai sat next to her on the bed and eased her injured arm onto his lap. “I should have thought of this. But I honestly thought Hades would be too busy with his own problems to bother with us.”
    “Shit.” Arand raked his fingers through his hair. “What do we do?”
    “I don’t know.”
    Mordecai’s stark reply sent a frisson of fear down her spine. “What is it?” she asked. “You know what this mark is, don’t you? You know what it means?”
    He nodded.
    “Tell me.” She had to know.
    “A death mark.” Mordecai’s words fell with the force of a hammer on an anvil, shattering her hope for an easy solution.
    “What exactly is a death mark?” Sabrina asked. She sat on the other side of the bed and pushed a stray lock of hair off Jessica’s fevered brow.
    “Exactly what it sounds like.” Mordecai wrapped his long fingers around her wrist just above the mark. The pain didn’t disappear, but at least her stomach didn’t feel like it was going to turn inside out any longer. “Unless Hades removes it, Jessica will die.”
    “How long do we have to find a way to fight this?” Sabrina demanded.
    “I don’t know. Hours. Days. There’s no way to know.” Mordecai’s voice hardened. “But we’ll fight it, fight him.”
    “We need to make her more comfortable.” Sabrina slid off the bed and returned a few moments later. She placed a cool cloth on Jessica’s forehead. The relief almost made Jessica cry.
    “She has a fever.” Mordecai gently stroked his fingers up and down her arm.
    “She can also hear you,” Jessica pointed out. “I may be sick, but my ears are working