A/N: Very glad to have people so excited about my kooky mix! And it's taken me ages I know, but I wanted to get things right. And I started Uni. Anyway, I've gotten addicted to pomegranate gum because of this story.

Note: Remember Tate is a combination of himself and Hades.

Note: There's a musical selection for most chapters. The first chapter's was: The Aquarium from The Carnival of Animals by Saint-Saens. This chapter's selection is: 3rd Movement of Paganini's 2nd Violin Concerto, "La Campanella".

Chapter Two: The Bell

Tate hated his human job. It took up entirely too much of his time. Then again, he loved getting people cleared of charges...especially when they didn't deserve it. There was a devilish satisfaction in that. Needless to say, today he hated it because he could have used his time to watch Violet's every move. He had sent Stephanie to watch over the girl and she would likely do a credible job but he preferred to do it himself.

The most he could do was to make sure that Violet was watching him when he left in the morning. He wanted to leave her with a little something. Much to his delight, she stared him down as he got into his car and left the street. He felt her eyes boring into the back of his head and he loved the sensation. As far as he could tell, the subtle words he had said and the charm he had just sent her way, entranced her. He smiled devilishly. She was much like the Persephone he remembered...weak to his charms. Seph was, prior to Violet, the only woman that ever fell for it. It was a rush of power that he enjoyed.

Surprisingly, Violet watched when he arrived that dusk as well. He caught her looking at him and, though he expected her to blush, she didn't. She held her gaze firmly and defiantly. He smiled at her and she gave him a half smile. He liked that she was not as fiendishly girly as Seph had been. Not that it was a bad thing to be girly, but Seph used to blush at every single gaze he gave her and giggle whenever he said her name. It was endearing to be sure, but he liked that Violet had moxie. She would easily hold her own with him; she would be his perfect queen.

He yelled for Stephanie when he shut the front door. The blonde girl appeared next to him in an instant.

"Tell me everything about her, Stephanie."

"Well, be warned. Aside from having the same face, Violet is almost completely different from your first wife."

"And I love that about her already. Give me the details."

"She's just turned sixteen. That might be an issue. You know that in this world you can't be with her legally until she's eighteen..."

"Please, I'm the god of the Underworld. I'll do whatever I want. Just because I work with human law doesn't mean it applies to me."

"Well fine then. Jeez, what jumped up your ass?"

"Do not give me that tone or I'll send you to Tartarus for a week! Just tell me the rest already."

"Ok. Well she hates her parents. Her dad is almost never around and her mom basically wears herself out from work and being lonely. She doesn't like school but only because she hates the kind of students that populate it. She has no friends and she likes it that way. She's quite bright, this girl of yours. Apparently, she has a high IQ. Loves to read...tragic books mostly. She has one or two smut books hidden in her closet, though. It's hilarious, actually. And she doesn't stick to the whole bodice ripping crap either. The kind of smut that she has involves the supernatural. It's like this chick can't get off without imagining that something freaky is fucking her."

Tate gave her a look. "What? It's the truth. That's just a bonus for you."

"Is she…is she a virgin?"-He asked.

Stephanie rolled her eyes at her employer. "I knew you were going to ask that. She's never had a boyfriend and she doesn't whore around, so yes, she's a virgin. Can I get to something else now?"

"By all means."

"She mostly likes to listen to music that's older than she is. Anything Morrissey, the Beatles, the Stones, the Kinks, the Ramones, Sex Pistols, etc. It's like she was born in an earlier decade. Oh, she broke into the house today. I thought this house was creepy enough to keep people away, but she's always liked the it here."

"Everyone hid?"

"Of course. Though Chloe practically wanted to rip her hair out when Violet went into your room."

Tate smiled brightly. "Go on."

"She looked around, went through your stuff and she likes it. Then she stole one of your t-shirts. Took it home with her and started smelling it."

Tate hung onto his assistant's every word.

"She masturbated thinking of you."

"Don't lie to me Stephanie."

"I'm not! She had your shirt gripped in one hand and the other down her underwear. She said your name when she came. You've left quite the impression on her. I just think she must be deeply, deeply disturbed."

"Is that all?"

"No. Strangely enough she hates that you seem pretentious. She doesn't have a crush on you or anything, she just really wants to fuck you. I'm certain you want more than that with her so if you are going to attack, I suggest you tease her so much she goes insane."

"Duly noted."- As if Tate wasn't aware that Violet lusted for him. He was the one that cursed her: he didn't change her feelings he merely…magnified them. A lot. Like Persephone before her, Violet's lust would be the key to making her his queen.

"Oh and get this. She loves pomegranates. She has pomegranate juice in the morning and pomegranate tea before bed. After her little...sexual moment, she took some pomegranate tea and napped until I made her wake up. I figured you'd want her to stare at you when you got home. She heard your car come into the driveway and rushed to the window like a kid in a candy store. She doesn't like you, she wants to fuck you and she's intrigued by you."

"That's fine. I can make her fall for me and then bind her here."

"You're gonna kill her?"

"Of course not. I don't want her to be stuck in this house like that. I'm just going to create a temporary barrier. After I she's mine, of course. Come Saturday, I'll have my Violet."

Stephanie shook her head and took her leave.

As she did, Chloe popped into the room with an upset face.

"What does she have that I don't? That mousy little girl. You just like that she looks like your pathetic dead wife?"

Tate would murder Chloe if he could, but he wanted to be kind if only to thank her for the years of service that she had given him. He was gentler in his method of dismissal even though rage coursed throughout his body.

"Chloe, you are going to Tartarus and you are never coming back here. You are no longer to assist me."

"What?! No!"

"I've told you more than once that I am never going to be interested in you and that I am never going to pursue something with you, but you refuse to accept it. Now, you've insulted my wife and essentially berated my current love interest. Get this through your THICK SKULL, Chloe! I don't want you, I will never want you and I WILL have Violet, one way or another. Now get the fuck out of my house!"

With those words, Chloe's heart broke even more and she disappeared. Tate was happy to be rid of her. She was just lucky that he hadn't hurt her like he truly wanted. She should have known better than to insult Persephone in front of him.

He checked the time and took a deep breath. He was off to his second job now: the one he had been doing for millenia. The basement was a replica of the workspace he once had in his original kingdom. Kyle had the scroll with the names of the dead on them. Amir had brought him dinner. He had two days of souls to organize and he had to get it done quickly. There was a little something that he wanted to do regarding Violet and he had to do it before dawn. So he and his assistants sorted all the souls to where they belonged.

It was nearly six am when they finished. Tate knew that he still had time to get into Violet's head. He showered, changed and made sure to look incredibly handsome. Though his plan didn't involve that Violet actually look at him, he wanted to look his best in case she woke up. He almost skipped as he left the house and a smirk threatened to appear on his face as he thought of what he was going to do. As he circled the house, he thought he would need to open her window, but it was wide open. Maybe, just maybe, she was subconsciously waiting for him.

He climbed in without making a sound and, though it was dark inside the room, he saw her perfectly. She looked so fragile and peaceful while she slept. No frowns or smirks marked her beautiful face. Instead, her cheeks were slightly flushed, her eyelashes were positively doll like and her lips appeared extraordinarily pink, fleshy and ripe for a bruising from his kiss.

If he hadn't already when he saw her for the first time, this would have been the moment that he fell in love with her. His heart did tug in his chest from seeing her in this state, which was enough to know that he belonged to her. He walked over to her bed and climbed over the railing to the right side of it. He sat at the bottom of the bed and grabbed her hand. It was one thing to make her lust after him, but she would never fall in love with him that way. It was only right that she see what had happened between them in the past. He closed his eyes as he sent her the memories and relived them in his head.

Tate and Violet sat close to one another in the middle of a lush clearing. They were holding hands and smiling brightly at one another.

"The more I've gotten to know you, the more I think everything they say about you is pure construction. The demented fictions of a vulgar god."-She said amidst smiles and giggles.

"And how can you be so certain? I'm always sweet to you. You've given me no reason to be unpleasant."

"Perhaps that's true. But I'm more than happy to be in love with a man who is capable of being cruel to everyone but me." With that she blushed.

He acted impulsively and kissed her. "I love you too."

She looked away from him as she felt her face burn red with embarrassment. Tate gently lifted her chin so their eyes met.

"Are you ashamed of loving me?"-He said with a crack in his heart.

"No. It is not that I am ashamed. I don't want to seem rash and unthinking to you."

"You could never. Remember, I've fallen in love with you too. Just as quickly, I might add."

For a while she said nothing. She thought about how deep her feelings for this god were. He did not have a lot of time left on his hands and would soon have to part the clearing and head for his kingdom. The thought of his departure made her physically ill and she had to do something. To prove that she was his and that she would be there for him whenever he needed her.

"Take me with you."-She said wrapping her arms around him.

"You want me to take you the Underworld?"

"Yes. I don't want to be without you."

"Do you have any idea of the implications of what you ask?"

"You mean, my mother's reaction?"

"Yes. That's it exactly."

"My mother ignores me for the most part. I've gotten older and I stopped being an adorable perfect child. I doubt she'd care if I was gone."

"I beg to differ, love. I think she would care very much."

"Well, I don't. Am I supposed to break my own heart to keep her content?"

He sighed. Demeter would be furious, but he couldn't deny Violet anything.

"I'll take you with me on one condition."

"Anything."

"Marry me."

"I thought we had already established that I would."-She said with a playful twinkle in her eye.

He laughed. "Alright then. Come on."

He got up, grabbed her hands and pulled her up. He gave her a sweet, slow kiss, which she happily returned and then he smiled and said:

"Run."

They laughed as they ran out of Demeter's forest hand in hand.

Tate pulled out of the memory and looked at Violet. Her mouth was now curved into a smile but her eyes remained closed. It was time to take his leave. Though he desperately wanted to kiss her, he refrained from doing so. It was one thing to watch her rest, but it was quite another to kiss her while she was asleep. He let her hand go and got up from the bed. The instant he did, Violet whimpered:

"Tate."

He smirked as he left the room. She was falling for him. No doubt about it now. He planned to have an actual conversation with the girl sometime soon, though. He wanted her to know everything about him. Not just fall in love with what she thought him to be.

The next morning he left her a note in the mailbox. He had made it so that she was the only one who could see it. It was definitely past due that they talked.

Violet Harmon woke up after having the weirdest but most realistic dream she had ever had in her life. It had felt like she had actually had that conversation with Tate. She knew it was impossible though. For one, in the dream she had this weird ancient Greek dress on. It was pretty, but never the kind of clothes she would wear in public…much less in some weird forest clearing. Tate looked different too. His hair and eyes were still the same but he wore clothes that looked like they belonged to an ancient Greek warrior king. All black cloth and dark armor…she hated admitting that she loved the way he looked in her dream.

In fact, Violet loved how Tate looked in real life. There was just something about him that drew her in. Originally, she had intended to completely ignore him but there was something curious about him. The way he flirted with her, for one, interested her. Not many men would flirt with a young girl in front of said girl's mother and get away with it. That took a certain level of balls and charm that made her smile. He still had to prove to her that he wasn't a yuppie, however, and he was failing at that.

When she got home from school that afternoon, she got the mail and found a pretty piece of old parchment on top of all the other letters. The parchment looked like something straight out of a movie and there were a few sentences carefully inked down on it.

Violet,

You are interesting. Care for a chat this evening?

-Tate

There should have been alarm bells ringing in her head, or so she told herself. She wasn't entirely sure what Tate wanted with her considering that he was so much older than her. She thought about it and decided to meet him. It might be fun to see if he proved her expectations wrong. She'd also look him over properly. That way she'd have a better picture in her mind for the next time she got off to his image.

When Tate got home that night, he got himself ready for Violet. He was certain that she would come over. He hadn't done anything to her this time, but she was bound to be curious by the dream she had. Soon enough there was a knock on his backdoor. He made sure that they were alone before he answered it. He smiled when he saw her with a serious expression on her face and an inquisitive twinkle in her eye.

"Hi Violet."

"Hi."

"Come in."-He said leaving space for her to come in. When he closed the door, he turned to her and noticed that she was staring.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. You just look different when you're out of suits. Better, actually."

He chuckled. "I don't like suits much, but it's a part of the job."

"That's unfortunate. I think you should walk around in jeans and sweaters all the time."

"You and me both."

"So…you think I'm interesting?"

"Yes."

"I think you're interesting too…in a yuppie kind of way."

"I'm not a yuppie."

Violet gave him a look and walked over to the living room. "This place is well furnished, has pricey art, you have James Bond's car parked out front and you can't be older than thirty two. You're a yuppie."

"I'm thirty five actually. And I've inherited everything but the house."-It was a lie but how else was he going to explain owning all the antiques that were originals? He couldn't tell her that he had bought all the art and furniture when they were modern. It would drive her insane.

"So why does a thirty five year old want to talk to a sixteen year old student? Is it because you want to fuck me?"

"No. You're different than anyone I've ever met."

"You don't really know me."

"That's why I invited you here. To get to know you."

"Ok. Let's get to know each other."

"Do you want something to drink first?"

"Vodka."-She said with a smirk. Then she shook her head and said: "You wouldn't happen to have any pomegranate juice would you?"

"Pomegranate juice?" He pretended that he didn't know about her preference.

"Odd, I know. I used to hate it when I was little but then when I hit fifteen I just loved it. I basically live off the stuff. I mean I drink water and eat whatever, but I love pomegranates: fruit, juice or tea."

"See, you're different. And I actually do have pomegranate juice. With ice?"

"Without."

He brought her what she asked for and she took a sip.

"So, Violet, it's just you and your mom?"

"For now…my dad cheated on my mom. She caught him in the act. Literally."

"That's horrible. If you love someone you should never hurt them."

"I know right? And this was after my mom had a brutal miscarriage. We had a macabre funeral and everything. Have you ever seen a baby coffin?"

Tate got closer to her and grabbed her wrists. He then noticed angry scars on them. She tried to pull them away but he brought them to his mouth, so he could give them a kiss. Violet was shell-shocked. The brief touch that had gone on between them when she gave him cookies was one thing. The way she felt as Tate pressed his soft lips to her marred skin was something else entirely. He looked up at her and said:

"Your scars make you more beautiful."

She finally pulled her wrists away, afraid of her feelings.

"So do you like Morrissey? He's cool and he's pissy and he hates everyone and everything."

He laughed. "I know what that's like."

"Really? You don't have one swell life?"

"No. My father tried to kill me but my brother saved me and now my brother thinks he's better than me because he has more money, a wife and lots of kids."

"So what if he has that?"

"He's just…more powerful."

"Power isn't everything. Besides, I thought you weren't a yuppie. You don't need to conform to his standards."

"I don't, but…it's complicated. Mostly, though, I tell him to fuck off."

"Good."

"I do like Morrissey, by the way. And Kurt Cobain."

She smiled at him. She spent what seemed like hours talking to him. Tate was beyond thrilled. Stephanie was right in saying that Violet was barely like Persephone. Strangely, he found himself falling deeper in love with Violet. And it was faster than he had with Seph.

Violet noticed the time and gasped:

"I have to go. My mom's probably about to flip out."

Tate chuckled. "I had forgotten about this part."

"What part?"

He realized his mistake. He had sounded confusing to her but, in truth, it was a bit of a revelation. He recalled with oddly comical pleasure, all the times that he and Seph had to part when they were still courting and Demeter knew nothing about it. In Seph's case, she always had to leave in the early evening.

Violet's limit, apparently, was eleven pm.

Tate briefly wondered if, like Seph before her, she would give him a kiss as she left their first "date".

Violet walked over to him on her way out and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He was disappointed, but was rapidly cheered up by the words that followed her action.

"You proved me wrong, you know. There's definitely more to you than a pretty face and a car bound to automatically drop panties."

He gave her a jaw-dropping smile. "Do your panties drop at the sight of my car?"

"Maybe."-She said with a smirk. "If they didn't drop at that, though, that smile you just gave me would."

He became serious. That expression was all Violet and he absolutely loved it. He was blunt with her, in turn.

"You make me want to kiss you."

"No one is stopping you."-She said with a toothy grin.

"You haven't the vaguest conception of what you ask."

"I wasn't asking."

Her bold nature attracted him and made his insides burn like wildfire. He stepped toward her, encased her waist in one of his arms and gave her an outstanding kiss. He didn't dare enter her mouth with his tongue for fear of getting ahead of himself. No, he pressed his lips to her chastely, but the sensation of it made him burn twice as fast and twice as arduously.

For her part, Violet felt a spark she'd never felt before. She had kissed guys before in games of spin the bottle but, though it had always felt pleasant, it had never felt the way she felt at the moment she and Tate kissed. It was a fizzy, tingling sensation that incited long dormant butterflies to flutter in her chest.

She broke the kiss. "And you're sure you don't want to fuck me?"

He leaned in to whisper. "Not yet."

She shivered at that but backed away from him. "Well keep trying lover boy, you never know. You might just get lucky."

He rolled his eyes at her.

Tate walked with her until they were at her door.

"When do we talk again?"-She said.

"Tomorrow. It's Friday and I leave the office earlier."

"Ok."-Violet responded and pressed a quick kiss on his lips.

She turned to walk inside her house but stopped at the door frame, turned and with an inquisitive look on her face rushed towards Tate and kissed him again. This time, she briefly ran her tongue over his lower lip. As quick as she did, she retreated.

"What was that for?"-He said.

"I was tasting you."

"Why?"

"Something familiar about it."

"Did you figure it out?"

"I did."

"What was it?"

She smiled as she walked inside. As she was about to close the door, she said: "Pomegranates. Your lips taste of pomegranates."

He smiled brightly. She waved and closed the door.

Tate swaggered back to his home. He hadn't expected her to taste pomegranates on his lips. He hadn't even tasted the fruit and he hadn't had juice either. He was what she wanted. He was certain of it now. It was just like he had told Stephanie. By Saturday, Violet would be his. Irrevocably so.