by Anna Edwards
“You have no reason to be jealous.” I pull my shoulder away from her hands. “And you shouldn’t be here. Go home.”
“Fuck me, Mars. You need another release, and only the type I can give you.”
“Go home.” I get to my feet, uncaring that I knock into her and, in doing so, I cause her to lose her balance and tumble to the floor. She starts laughing. I glare down at her, wanting her gone from my house. The voices in my head are masking over Vicky all the time now, and I need to check she’s alright.
“She’ll never give you what I can–you know that as well as I do.”
“No,” I spit at her. “She can give me something so much better. A goddess that hasn’t whored herself out to most of my family.”
She gets to her feet in an instant and slaps me hard across the face.
“Is that anyway to talk to the mother of your child?”
It’s my turn to laugh.
“Enyalius could be anyone’s son.”
“He’s yours,” she shouts back at me. “I slept with nobody else during that time but you.”
I turn my back to her. I know in my heart Enyalius, or Luigi as I call him for a more modern name, is my son. You only have to look at him to know that. The spirit and aptitude he shows toward preventing war is already there. It’s hardly surprising when both his parents are the divinities of it. I take a deep breath to calm myself down.
“I’m sorry, Bellona. I’m tired. It’s been a long day. I have to look after Vicky. If she’s Venus, then she’s an important god for us to have found. We can’t risk her falling into Pluto’s hands.”
I hold my hand out to the woman who for a long time I’ve sought comfort in. But, at this very moment, I realize it’s only ever been physical, and the emotional side of love just isn’t there for me. She takes it and pulls herself back up to her feet.
“Do you think she’s Venus?”
“I do.”
Bellona silences and looks at the floor.
“War and beauty combined.”
“Yes.”
“I wonder if we’ll ever find a male version. A god of love.” Her reply is sad. I know the pain Bellona has going on in her head daily. It’s the same as mine. She’s tried to fill it with love in the wrong places, though. Sexual love isn’t always the same as love of the heart. That’s what Vicky will give, if she’s Venus.
“I’m afraid he doesn’t exist. Only the female of our species is capable of the beauty and love needed for that position. In men, there’s always a darkness, a selfishness if you like. We aren’t capable of the complete innocence required for there to be a God of Love.”
“I don’t think either of us have ever had the innocence you speak of–fighting is too ingrained in our natures.”
“And it’s what we’ll always do with complete class.”
She lets out a little laugh before immediately placing her hand over her mouth so as not to give me an inch in this war that always rages between us.
“I should get back to Louis.” She looks toward my bedroom door again – her face is full of regret. “This will be goodbye, won’t it?”
“It’ll never be goodbye, Bellona. We share something special in Louis. He binds us together forever. But physically, yes, that ends now.” She nods her acceptance, even if it’s with reluctance. “I tell you what, when this is over, why don’t I come and stay for a few days with you as a friend and the father of your son. We can spend time with him together. He’s the one we must put our love into now.”
“I’d like that.” She stands up on her tiptoes and presses a kiss to my cheek. I allow it because it’s symbolic of friendship, not the sexual affection we once shared for each other. “Be careful, Pluto is getting stronger and stronger. I don’t know how much longer we’ll be able to keep him down.”
“I will.” She turns and vanishes into thin air. I do the same and rematerialize in my bedroom. I look toward the bed, and my whole-body strains with anguish. There, where I expect Vicky, is nothing but a card. When I step closer, I get the confirmation I fear. It’s Pluto’s business card.
Chapter Ten
VICKY
Pain thunders through my skull as a groan leaves my lips. Eyelids fluttering open, I stare up at the stark stone ceiling. The last thing I remember is being outside the church. How I got from Mars’ bedroom to there, I don’t remember. I just know the need to be there was overwhelming.
Susan! I’d heard her. She’d called to me from just inside the church. The pain. Oh my god, the pain in her voice had been heartbreaking. Brow furrowing, I try to recall more. Once I’d stepped inside, there’s nothing but a blank.
Goosebumps racing over my skin, I’m suddenly aware I’m naked. A lumpy mattress is against my back. Panicked, I move to sit up.
Hard, unmoving metal manacles on my wrists and ankles are shackled to a bed frame, preventing my attempt to cover myself.
“Awake at last.”
Turning my head, I find the owner of the voice, standing watching me. Shoulder leaning against the door jam, I recognize him immediately. The waiter from the hotel. Beady, dark eyes run over me. His wiry torso is bare, and grubby stained jeans hang low on his hips.
“Where’s Susan? Where’s my friend?”
My burst of anger is met with a smile. “Didn’t your new boyfriend tell you? She’s dead.”
“No.” I shake my head in denial. “She’s here.”
“Ah yes, the dream. My Master enjoyed that.” He chuckles. “Thought it would lure you out.”
A trap. Turning my face away from his smug expression, a sob rises in my throat. Hope withers and dies. My heart shattering even more than it already has tonight.
“Oh, don’t worry,” my captor continues softly. “I’ll treat you just as nice as I did your friend. How do you think Mars will react to that? Have you bonded with him already? Maybe, he’ll feel your pain? I hope so.”
Footsteps draw my attention back to him. Stalking toward me with purpose, he begins to unbuckle his belt. Eyes widening, panic chokes me, and I twist in my chains, trying futilely to escape. Dragging it free, he weighs the heaviness of it in his other hand. “You have such lovely skin. I can’t wait to mess it up.”
The strike comes with no warning. Hard, fast, the bite of the leather sears across my abdomen. A scream rips from my throat. Even before it’s finished, another one rises as more lashes rain down on my helpless body. It burns. Everywhere he whips pulses with agony.
He shows me no mercy. Blow after blow growing in frenzied intensity. This monster is determined to break my body. Something wet and warm trails down my hip. The metallic smell of blood reaches my nose. I can taste it in my mouth. Wounds sting, open and bleeding, inflicted by the metal buckle of his belt.
“Scream louder,” he instructs, his voice ragged with excitement. “Don’t hold back. No one will hear you down here. The others learned that quickly…. so did Susan.”
Jerking my face away, the instrument of my torture narrowly misses my face. The lash licks instead over my bare shoulder and up my neck.
“Please,” I beg. “Please stop, it hurts...why are you hurting me?” Tears shimmer before my eyes. Already racing down my face, their dampness spreads across my trembling cheeks.
The man laughs. “Because I like it. Because I can.”
Flinching at the pleasure in his voice, I wait rigidly for the next strike. It takes a second for me to register the sound of material being shed.
No. The one word screams out inside me. He’s going to rape me. Discarding the belt, he takes his cock in one hand. Veiny, thick, the end is purple and bulbous. Working his length, he begins to jerk off. All the while, his greedy eyes run over me and the damage he’s caused.
“Oh yeah, baby, look at you now. You’re going to bruise up so lovely.” He pants. “You’ll be the perfect canvas.” His hand moves faster as he grows harder, his cock swelling with his lust. Groaning, hips pumping forward, his excitement reaches its climax. Hot ribbons of cum coat my stomach
. Scalding, his seed burns my throbbing, open flesh. Sobs wrack my agonized body. I wish I could curl up into a protective ball and wake up in bed to find this is all a nightmare. A hand touches my cum stained stomach, making me cringe. Through tear-stained eyes, I see him grin in glee at my reaction. He wants me frightened. Needs my terror. Feeding perversely off my helplessness.
“A shame I wasn’t allowed to touch your face,” he murmurs. Gripping my jaw, he forces my chin around when I try to look away. A finger pushes into the corner of my mouth the taste of him hits my tongue and makes me gag. “My Master wants to see you personally, and he so does hate it when my plaything’s eyes are swollen shut.”
Anger sparks. I’m not a toy. This psychopath thinks he can do what he wants with me. Snapping my teeth together, I bite down hard on the digit. My captor hisses with the pain.
“You little bitch.” A fist ploughs into my cheek so hard I think I might pass out.
Fingers suddenly snatch my hair tightly, bringing fresh tears to eyes.
“You think you can fight me? You aren’t the first,” he growls closely to my ear. “Some of my sluts even began to enjoy what I did to them, eventually, but they all ended up the same way.”
Dead. He’s going to murder me just like he did Susan. Dump my mutilated, naked body somewhere for the authorities to find. Bile rises in my throat as images play in my head.
Screwing my eyes shut, I blot out the sight of him. I should have trusted Mars. He doesn’t know where I am. I don’t even know where I am. There will be no rescue. Just pain and suffering at my captor’s hands until he’s done playing with me.
Tweaking my nipple with a cruel hand, he doesn’t stop twisting until I yelp.
“Enjoy the next few hours alone in the dark. When I come for you again, the fun really starts.”
The weight of him on the mattress lifts.
Shaking, my limbs ridged, I listen to the sound of him moving across the room. Only when I hear the clank of a metal door slamming shut do I finally open my eyes. With that comes more hopeless tears.
Chapter Eleven
MARS
“Mars?” I’m sure I can hear my name being called somewhere. It’s too difficult to distinguish, though, amongst the fog of human voices destroying each other within my head. Man against man, woman against woman, child against child– they’re all fighting. The accents are no longer strange in nature, but Italian, close to home. A simple thing, such as making a pizza, has descended into a fist fight on the streets close to the Pantheon. The use of the wrong cheese leading to the violent assault of the perpetrator. I’m hearing it all. The rage is vibrating from my very soul and infecting the streets of the city I love. Gunshots echo, Polizia sirens fill the night’s air, and the blue lights of their cars have turned the streets below me into a mirage of flashes. I drop my forehead to the window of my office. It’s cold. In a city known for its heat, the windows are freezing just like my heart.
“Mars.” The voice comes again, this time with more authority.
“What are we going to do dad?” another voice asks. “It’s chaos out there.”
“Find her,” I whisper to no one in particular.
I’m suddenly pulled backward from the window. With instinct, I call for my spear and prepare to attack, but on spinning around, I’m faced with my father, Hercules, and Apollo. The look of concern on their faces forces me to halt my attack, and my weapon disappears.
“You’ve found her?”
Apollo shakes his head.
“They aren’t at the same place they took the other girl. We have so many people out there searching, but things are a little difficult.”
I cock my head. “Difficult?”
My father steps forward and clears his throat.
“Rome is descending into chaos.”
I turn my head toward the window as a police helicopter flies loudly past with it’s beam focusing down into the tunnels of streets.
“Why?” I ask in a state of confusion. The noises in my head are there, but I don’t think I’m fully registering them. I feel numb. How did I even get to my office? I was in my home.
“You don’t remember?”
“Remember what?”
My father looks down at my hands, and I follow his gaze. They’re bloodied, and bruising is starting to appear.
“You went a little mad and smashed up your apartment. We heard the commotion as we were leaving and came straight back. All you told us was that Vicky had gone, and then….you lost it.”
I shut my eyes and try to calm my mind, so I can think back. I recollect none of this. I don’t even feel any pain in my hands, and they look really sore.
“Pluto and Orcus.” It suddenly all hits me, and the sense of calm I’ve had over me for the last few minutes evaporates. “I have to find them.” I push my brothers aside with overwhelming force and stomp powerfully toward the door. I don’t get far, though, because my father calls for his scepter and bangs it down on the ground. In an instant, I’m trapped within a cage of lightning.
“Let me go.” I turn around and growl out a warning. My own spear comes to hand, and I use it to test the crackling force field around me.
“You know the rules, Mars. We stay away from them.”
I bash the cage with my spear.
“They’ll know where Vicky is.”
“And you think they’ll just tell us. You’ve lost your mind. If you want to find the girl, then we need you to calm down and regain control of what is going on in Rome. We’re spending all our time dealing with the fights and not looking for her. Sort your mind out now.” My father is stern in his warning. He’s always been controlling over us.
“I won’t let them hurt her.”
“If you actually get your mind straight for five minutes, you’ll see she’s already fighting pain. Beauty is suffering. It’s evident all around us.”
“Then, let me get the fuck out of here, so I can go torture Pluto and Orcus.”
“You’re not listening to me.” My father sighs with irrefutable frustration, and the building echoes his sentiments with a shudder of its own. None of my family move or worry. We’ve felt enough earthquakes in the past. Each time, they’ve been a result of my father’s moods. During a particularly bad argument with my mother, in the year nineteen hundred and eight, seventy-two thousand people died when he lost my sister Diana to Pluto before she could discover her powers. We’ve been searching for her ever since, and the woe of the catastrophe he caused weighs heavily on my father. At this very moment, however, he could bring the entire city to its knees, and I wouldn’t care. All I’m focused on is getting to Pluto and driving my spear through his rotten head.
“I’ll listen to you when you take away your trap, Father. I’m not a caged animal.”
“Then stop acting like one,” he retorts, and I snarl at him with utter contempt.
“I won’t rest until I find Vicky.” I bring my spear up and thrust it hard through one of the lightning bolts that binds me. This could break my powerful weapon into pieces, but I’m counting on the fact it’s just as powerful as my father’s. He always taught us to be equals. The air crackles and hisses with static energy. My brothers step back, but my father maintains his place.
“Mars, if you do this, you’ll be responsible for destroying a world you admire and adore. Listen to the voices in your head. Don’t push them aside for your own selfish needs.”
“Selfish needs,” I interrupt. “She’s a goddess, and he’ll be torturing her. It’s my job to save her, and Pluto is the only one who knows where she is.” I’m growing frustrated with the amount of time it’s taking for the bars to sever. I shut my eyes and ears to the arguments my family are giving and concentrate on the hate that’s coming from the streets of Rome. Another fight starts–this time over a dropped ticket. A woman assumes it’s hers, the man, his. She’s calling him names, “Bastard, cunt.” He responds in kind, “Whore, bitch.” My head swims. The hatred between them is swelling my power. It’s taki
ng over my body with its glory. The call of children bullying another is the final strength I need, and the bars shatter. In an instant, I’m free and dematerialize from my office before I can be trapped again. Without thought to my destination, I reappear in front of Pluto’s desk. The man himself is sitting there. He looks up at me from under thick rimmed glasses. The light above ground has always hurt his eyes so he wears them to dull it. He’s roughly the same age as my father, and his looks and build are similar. It’s not hard to tell they were once brothers in blood. The founders of the gods.
“I thought you were brought up with better manners, teaching you to knock before you entered the room, I could have been entertaining Proserpina” he snaps and puts the pen, which he was holding, down onto his desk. Shadowy figures appear around him in protection. I know they’re the lost souls of the Underworld.
“Don’t think they’ll protect you from me.” I point my spear at him, the tip sitting just under his chin and pressing into the column of his bearded neck. “The only thing I’d ever interrupt would be you raping Proserpina.”
He laughs.
“She agrees to everything I do with her. So, if you’ve come to moan about it again, I suggest you leave before I have security throw you out.” He turns his head nonchalantly toward the window. “I hear the city of Rome isn’t the best place to to be tonight. Too many at war. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
I take my spear and point it directly at his throat. The shadows around me close in, ready to protect their master.
“You took something of mine. I want it back.” My voice is eerily calm. It doesn’t show any of the rage going on in my head. The voices are getting louder and louder, the screams increasingly spine-chilling.
“I wasn’t aware of that. My apologies if I have.” He smirks, and I want to wipe it off his face. “I can assure you, though, anything here is of my possession.”
I press the spear closer to his neck. The shadows start to tangle themselves around my arms, their power strong, but I’m able to resist it, for now.
