**David**

I woke up on the freezing cold stone floor of a cell. It was dark and musty The air was filled with screams of tortured souls. I sat up stiffly and looked towards the door of my cell. By the pale light coming through the bars, I could see a pile of bones beside the door. I stared at the bones, willing them to reshape themselves.

The bones rattled and clattered, moving together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Soon, a fully formed skeleton stood at the gate of my cell. The inside of the chest cavity of the skeleton was filled with a smoky black substance, a soul under Hades' command, that writhed and twisted in its bony cage

"Tell Hades that I'm awake and pissed and that he better let me out of here soon," I said to the skeleton.

The skeleton guard, or rather the spirit inside it, replied, "Yes sir."

The guard walked off, its bones clacking loudly on the stone floor. I leaned my head back against the wall, an arm resting on my knee, and closed my eyes. Coming back from the dead is hard on my body, even though I am the son of Hades. Usually I lose some of my memory, so the first few days after I come back are the toughest. Hopefully, Hades won't keep me caged down here in the Underworld for too long. I need to find Lex and teach her a lesson.

I must have dozed off because suddenly I heard the click of keys in a lock and the shriek of the cell door being opened. I stood up and saw the same skeleton at the door. It's jaw opened and closed as the soul trapped inside it spoke.

"Lord Hades has granted your request and will allow you to speak with him in the throneroom."

I rolled my eyes and left the cell, annoyed at my father. I walked down several twisting and turning passages and halls until I came to the doors of the throneroom. I brushed past the skeletons guarding the doors and entered without waiting for an introduction.

My father, Hades, sat in his throne. His throne was a large, high-backed chair carved from obsidian with gold and silver veins running through the rock and gems embedded in the armrests and back. The throne sat upon a large dais made of bones fused together by precious metals with gems sprinkled here and there.

Hades smiled down at me coldly. "And so the prodigal son returns. Welcome back, David."

"I'd tell you to go to hell but we're already here," I snapped.

Hades' smile vanished but his relaxed posture remained. "I'm curious as to how you ended up down here, Davie. I know I didn't kill you. So who did?"

I felt my anger rise but I shoved it away. I hooked my thumbs into the loops of my jeans and shrugged, a crooked grin hiding my true feelings. "The Ares bitch is learning a lot faster than I thought she would. Got the better of me in a tussle. Thought it'd make her less cautious now that she thinks I'm dead. As soon as she makes a mistake, I've got her."

Hades tapped his fingertips on the armrest of his throne, a thoughtful expression on his face, "Tell me, how did you lose a fight to the Ares bitch in the first place?"

"I dunno, must be an Ares thing. They don't lose a fight very often, I guess."

Hades looked down at me, "You better make sure that this doesn't happen again."

"Trust me, I won't." I turned to leave.

"Ah, ah, ah, I'm not done yet."

I turned back around and faced Hades, "What now?"

"I need you to get something for me."

"What do you want me to get?" I asked suspiciously.

Hades tapped his chin, "Well, it's not really something, it's actually more of a someone, but what difference does it make?"

"Who?"

"This young man here," Hades waved his hand languidly. Black smoke seeped through the floor and formed itself into the shape of a teenage boy with electric blue eyes and blond hair.

"Who is he?"

"That is not important right now. Find him and bring him to me then you can go back and deal with your little problem," Hades replied. The smoke figure of the boy disappeared and I suddenly found myself in the middle of a small town. The salty scent in the air told me I was close to the sea.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a photo of the boy I was looking for. Underneath the picture was the name 'Nathan.' I muttered a few curses under my breath then took a deep breath, pulling in all the scents around me. I caught the boy's scent and followed it until I came to the docks.

Several boats were tied up but Nathan's scent was coming from a small rowboat far out to sea. I grumbled to myself and paid a worker on the docks to tell me where the boy lived. The worker believed me to be a relative of Nathan's so he gladly told me the address.

When I found the house, a small room on the top floor of a rundown apartment building, I picked the lock. Inside, the room was sparsely furnished but shelves upon shelves of dried coral, shells, and fishbowls containing all sorts of aquatic life filled the walls. I pulled my gun from my jacket, sat on the counter of the tiny kitchenette and waited for Nathan to come home.

An hour later, I heard footsteps on the stairs, then a key in the lock, then the door opened. Nathan walked in, an opened bottle of water in his hand. He seemed to sense something was amiss because he stiffened and looked up.

"Hi, Nathan," I smiled.

"Who are you? What are you doing in my house?" Nathan watched me warily, his grip tightening on the bottle.

I waved my gun casually around the room, "I like the decor you've got going on around here. Doesn't really go with the whole demigod thing though."

"How….how do you know that?"

"I know a lot of things. Anyway," I hopped off the counter, "I'm gonna need you to come with me."

Nathan took a step back and held up his hand, "Stay back. I don't want to hurt you."

I frowned, "What are you gonna do? Set your attack fish on me?"

Nathan turned the water bottle upside down. Instead of all the water splashing all over the floor like I'd expected, it formed into a sphere of water, hovering over Nathan's hand. Nathan looked calm, but his eyes turned a stormy gray-blue color.

"Just leave me alone. I don't want any trouble. I haven't hurt anybody."

"I'm impressed but, ya see, I'm the son of Hades so I'll win this fight."

Suddenly Nathan thrust his hand forward, sending the water sphere smashing into my face. I felt my nose break and my anger flared. I glared at Nathan, wiping water from my face. His expression was shocked as he saw my nose heal. He redoubled his efforts but I dodged the water and caught him by the throat. I raised Nathan off the floor with one hand, barely controlling the urge to snap his neck. Nathan placed both hands on my arm and I felt a strange tingling sensation.

"Did you know that more than sixty percent of the body is made of water," Nathan choked out.

His fists were surrounded by water as he sucked the moisture from my body. The skin on my arms flaked off and I felt my entire body drying out. My healing abilities were barely keeping up. I slammed Nathan into the wall, clipping his head on the corner of a shelf, knocking him out. The water that had been collecting around his fists spilled all over the floor.

I tore strips of cloth from his sheets and tied Nathan's wrists behind his back. Then I slung his unconscious body onto my shoulder as if he weighed nothing. I focused on Hades and the Underworld when suddenly I was back in Hades' throne room.

I dumped Nathan into the floor and glared at Hades, "You could've told me he was Poseidon's kid. Now he's gonna be pissed. What's your next move? Find some kid of Zeus' and kidnap them to?"

"David, you're all wet. What happened?" Hades sounded amused.

I rolled my eyes, "Look, I got you the kid, now let me go."

"Hmmm," Hades looked thoughtful, "I'm tempted to keep you here."

"Are you fricking kidding me?"

"Well you did do such a great job in retrieving the boy, maybe I ought to keep you around more."

"Hell no."

Hades sighed, "Very well. You can go back and try to find Lex but I'd take the boy with you as bait."

"Bait? Why?"

"Oh, you didn't know? Your bitch has a half brother," Hades nodded his head toward Nathan, who seemed to be regaining consciousness.

I grabbed Nathan and Hades transported us to the large mansion where I usually lived. I lugged Nathan inside and tied him to a chair. To dull his senses and keep him from calling up a tidal wave to drown me, I force-fed Nathan several glasses of hard liquor. Once the alcohol took effect, he just sat there and looked around dumbly, his eyes glazed.

To draw Lex out, I punched Nathan until he started bleeding. Though the drink made him unable to feel most of the pain, he cried out a few times, helping me even more. Soon, I heard her then I smelt her as she raced towards the house. The front door was ripped off its hinges and thrown against the wall.

Lex stood framed in the doorway, not even breathing heavily, eyes darkened to black orbs of barely-contained fury. Nathan muttered something unintelligible and started to drift off. Lex's eyes went from Nathan, to me then back to Nathan.

"What have you done to him?"

"Gave him some strong stuff before I started hitting him. He barely felt a thing."

Lex's lips pulled back in a snarl and she walked over to me. Even though I'm taller than Lex, her anger seemed to make her giant. Her hand shifted into a knife and she buried it in my gut, twisting it painfully before jerking her arm and snapping off the blade, leaving it embedded in my stomach. I winced slightly then growled.

"You wanna fight me again? Look how well that turned out last time," Lex taunted.

As I busied myself with digging the knife blade out of my middle, Lex helped Nathan to his feet and started toward the door. I finally ripped the blade fragment free and pulled my gun from its holster at my waist.

"You may be bulletproof, but is he?"

Lex stopped and looked at me, "Don't you dare..."

I pointed the gun downward slightly and fired, hitting Nathan in the leg. Nathan collapsed, clutching his leg and moaning in pain. Lex looked furious.

She started toward me, hand shifted into sword blades up to her elbows, "Why you little-"

"I wouldn't do that, I really wouldn't," I said as I aimed the gun at Nathan's head.

Lex stopped dead in her tracks then swore in Greek and English. She shifted her arms back to normal and raised her hands slightly in apparent surrender. I motioned with the gun that she could help Nathan. She knelt beside him, placed a hand on his leg and muttered something under her breath. Nathan groaned as the bullet came out of his leg, landing in the palm of her hand. Lex ripped a few strips of cloth from the base of her shirt and bandaged Nathan's leg efficiently. She helped him stand and supported him as he kept his weight off his wounded leg.

I walked over arrogantly, a smile on my face. "Good choice, Lex. Now let's go to hell."

We suddenly stood at the gates of Hades' palace in the Underworld. Lex shivered and pulled her jacket tighter. Nathan gripped her arm until his knuckles turned white. I spoke to the skeletons guarding the gates then led Nathan and Lex into the palace.

Skeletons pulled Nathan away from Lex but she fought them, cursing and snarling until twenty guard were barely able to hold her back. I grabbed Nathan's arm and pulled him close to me then pressed the muzzle of my gun to his temple.

"Lex stop fighting them or I'm afraid I'll have to blow your brother's brains out. And that would be very unfortunate, wouldn't it?"

Lex instantly stopped resisting and allowed the guards to take her to the cells. I led Nathan along and presented him to Hades in the throne room. When I entered however, I was surprised to see my sister, Sophia, sitting in a smaller throne to Hades' left on the dais.

"It worked just like you said it would. She's in the cells now. I can bring her in if you like."

Sophia looked at Nathan and frowned. She turned to Hades, "Who is that?"

"No one of any importance. Now that he's served his purpose, I suppose you can get rid of him, David," Hades replied, his tone bored.

I shoved Nathan to his knees and pressed my gun to the back of his head. Sophia leaned out of her throne and whispered something in Hades' ear so softly that I couldn't hear what she said, even with my enhanced hearing. Hades looked at Nathan then at Sophia then smiled warmly, "Very well. You can have him if you want, darling." He turned to me, his expression one of barely disguised disgust, "You may go now."

"But I-"

Hades was suddenly standing right in front of me, his fury evident. Pain flared at the base of my skull and I winced slightly. Hades looked down at me, his inhumanly tall form towering over mine.

"Do as I say or you can join the bitch in the dungeons," Hades sneered.

I shoved my gun back into my jacket, turned and stormed out of the room. I could feel the animal inside me clawing towards the surface but I clamped down on my anger. Hades hated me because of what the Lycans did to me but he adored Sophia because she was pure and perfect in every way that I was not. Soon, I'd be strong enough to break free of Hades' grasp and then he'd pay for how he treated me.

Sorry this chapter was late. Had some internet problems at home. I'll post two chapters today to make up for it. ~Jo