Even now, as he was fleeing, he realized that he never really got away. All he had done was put space and time between them. And now, he had very foolishly wandered into the sphere of her dominion. He truly hoped that he could slip out without being detected.
Glancing sideways at Eliana, he urged her;
"We need to go faster!"
"I'm trying!" she cried. "Just what are we running from anyway?!"
"Not what- who. Stick close! If you're lucky, you won't have to find out!"
But it was merely wishful thinking. Just as Acheron knew beforehand, Alex's luck had already zeroed out the moment Lilith got involved.
He did not know it at the time. But it was already too late. Lilith's sharp senses had already caught hold of Alex's soul fluctuations. Even though it part-god, and part-human, it was a vibration she could never mistake for another. Alex was here! He was in the underworld!
Lilith smiled wickedly.
Even before she moved to do anything, she already knew she had Alex in her hands. So, she changed course and started travelling in the direction of his soul fluctuations with her eyes glistening with mischief.
Alex was in a demigod state. And that- was simply unacceptable! It was against the rules as it stood against the very point behind human free will, and directly defeated the purpose of a god's banishment. Alex was flaunting those rules by being in a demigod state in the realm of man. And this was not a piece of information that someone like Lilith was supposed to have over him.
It was obvious that Alex had been working towards awakening a part of his god powers on earth.
She was almost twitching with excitement at the thought of it. This was going to be the perfect blackmail! Alex had unknowingly dug his own grave. He was a few miles away, but at that very instant, he also came to realise this. With every second that passed, he hoped against hope that he could avoid coming into contact with his old flame.
But hope melted like snow next to the raging flame that was Lilith. She was more than an old flame. She was a kind of conflagration on her own. In that form, they could travel at terrifying speeds that came close to one-sixth of the speed of time. But that was not close to being enough to outrunning bad luck.
Even before, her voice came, Alex felt the familiar sick twist in his gut that told him that the goddess was right behind him.
"Sweetheart, I know you're not trying to run away from me ...!"
Her voice was similar to the sound a sharp blade made when slicing through flesh. Alex ignored her and continued to glide through Hell. But that did not in anyway deter the goddess;
"After all these years, you drop by and want to leave without saying a word??? That's pretty cruel of you! In fact, I think might actually cry!! To think I've missed you all these years, and you treat me like this???"
Something that vaguely resembled a sob escaped from her throat. Of course it was fake. She simply loved to play mind games. But, she presently had all the cards- all the good cards. She did not need to appeal to him this way, she was simply toying with him. And Alex knew that.
He skidded to a halt and gently dropped Scarlett. With regret in his eyes, he turned to face her;
"Enough with the drama Lilith. You should know by now that that won't hold it's weight with me."
Her eyes flashed with excitement!
"Oh bubba. You know me so well! How I've missed you!"
Not caring whether she was invited or not, she jumped into his arms, delighted that he had chosen to engage her. Not like he had a choice anyway.
He moved his face away when she reached in for a kiss on the cheek.
"We both know what this is. What do you want Lilith?"
"'What do you want Lilith?'" She mimicked him naughtily. "My baby! Ever so serious!"
"You're damn right I'm serious. So let's get down to it, what is it going to take to get you to keep quiet?"
Lilith regarded him with the closest thing she could get to 'cute-puppy-eyes.'
"Come on...you know I would never snitch on you..." Alex wanted to counter but she continued in a series of broken sentences; "I mean...it's not like you didn't break the rules...or come in Hell uninvited...or try to awaken your god powers even though you were clearly banished. And look here, it looks like you brought two of your human slaves with you!!"
"THEY ARE NOT SLA---!!!"
She lifted up her hands in mock surrender as she cut him off; "Hey! Hey! I'm not judging you bubba. I mean, I remember clearly just how much you loved to get around back then...it's one of the things I loved about you..."
Lilith was totally enjoying this. And Alex was clearly getting impatient. She saw it and tried a different approach.
"Okay, fine. You want me to be honest right? Baby I missed you terribly, all those long lonely nights without you, that was real torture."
"We're over Lilith. Do I need to remind you of that?"
"No. I don't need a reminder of that..." she looked at him brazenly, dead in the eye, unflinching; "However, I happen to be in need of a reminder of what the good old days held..."
Alex declared; "We're not gettin' back together."
Lilith's eyes danced dangerously as she shrieked in laughter;
"Hhahaahaaha!! Of course, don't you think I know that silly?"
"What is it you want then?"
"Well, you're the god of sex aren't you? Why don't you tell me what's on my mind..."
This was classic Lilith. She was actively leveraging this situation to get Alex to sleep with her. And she was doing a pretty good job at keeping her speech clean too (just in case she had to appear before the heavenly cosmic court in the future). It was all too coy. It was all too Lilith. She was saying what she wanted without really saying anything at all.
She kept her piercing gaze on him, not wavering for even a bit.
"It's been over a thousand years since we were last inside each other bubba...surely, you're not still holding on to the past?" Before he could think up some clever reply, she disarmed him with her honesty;
"I missed you baby...I miss the way you look at me, the way you touch me without actually touching me..."
Alex was not fooled. She might have appeared to be seducing him, but the fact was that he had no choice in this matter. She wanted to feel powerful by making herself feel like she was goading him into having sex with her. But the real powerplay here was that she had his secrets in her hand now. And his next move would determine what she would do with it. It was simply diabolical. It was Lilith in every way.
Alex had spent enough time with humans to know that the word 'slut' was an obscenity, and a tool of the patriachy used to shame sexually liberated women.
But all of that mumbo jumbo and controvery surrounding the word 'slut' meant nothing when it came to Lilith. Of all the goddesses and lesser female deities, Lilith was the biggest slut of all, and she was not ashamed of it. In fact, not only did she own it, she lived it in every way. It was her brand.
A quick peek into her most recent past with Alex revealed that side of her on a deeper level. Alex could testify first hand that Lilith's sex drive was on a different level. She made love like she was trying to douse and unquenchable fire inside of her. There were very few gods who were actually capable of going toe to toe with Lilith in bed. And they could all be counted on the fingers of one hand.
As the god of sex, it was eppected that he would love to keep such a goddess in his harem. Alex did not hate having sex with her. It was a lot more complicated than that. Her personality was extremely annoying. She loved to be in control. While this was a quality of most sex-crazed maniacs, hers was to the extreme. It was like trying to tame a wild horse that simply did not want to be tamed.