Beauty's War (Gods Reborn Book 1)

by Anna Edwards

  I take one look at him, ignore him, and charge for the crypt. My only thought is to stop the pain that Vicky’s in. She should not get her powers this way. It should be enlightening and within the trials she receives them. Not as a result of torture. My family keeps pace with me, and we all descend the stairs toward the crypt. A shallow river of blood has filled the floor. I start to worry it isn't the mirage of a goddess coming into her power but from Vicky’s actual body. There’s so much of it. A blood-curdling scream has us kicking open the door. The man who I failed to have sent to prison for life is standing in front of Vicky with his foul dick in his hands. His head turns to the side as we enter, and he goes as white as a sheet.

  “You wanted a war you got one,” I snarl and step into the room.

  “Pluto! Orcus!” The man calls out.

  “I think you’ll find you've been abandoned.”

  In an instant, I project myself directly in front of him and thrust my spear through his chest. A thousand voices call out in triumph throughout Rome. I twist and turn the magical weapon, wringing every last ounce of shock and pain out of the vile man before pulling the spear out. He falls to the floor in death. I take my spear and stab it directly into his groin, severing his shriveled-up dick in the process.

  “Enough,” my father orders. “See to Vicky.”

  Voices rage in my head–I can't stop them. They’re calling for more blood–for Pluto and Orcus’ heads. I silence them, for now. Vicky’s soft whimpers capture my attention, and I turn to her. She’s tied securely to the altar. With a wave of my hand, the binds are cut, and she’s free.

  “Mars,” she whispers. Her body is battered and broken. I can smell the man I’ve just killed. His vile scent is all over her. I bring her into my arms and to my chest. She hesitates at first but then relaxes at my familiarity.

  “You’re safe,” I whisper and ignore the fact her touch on my skin no longer ignites passion but a lust for retribution and the blood of the Underworld.

  Chapter Fourteen

  VICKY

  The voices ebb in and out. I’m so cold it feels like ice is moving in my veins. I can barely feel my body.

  “We’re too late.”

  “No.”

  “Mars, calm yourself. Your brother’s wrong, but she’s hovering between life and death.”

  The arms around me tighten. A haven of heat I know, now, that holds no fear. Not anymore.

  “What must I do?” His voice is low and urgent.

  Forcing my eyelids open, I focus on his handsome face. A darkness lurks just beneath the surface. Lips pressed in a thin white line, and an urgent tick is beating in his jaw.

  “Take her to the sea. Let the ocean soothe her,” another familiar voice speaks.

  “She’s in no fit state…”

  “We’re losing her,” the other older male cuts him off. “You must show her the beauty of the world again. Show her the love.”

  Beauty? There’s nothing beautiful left here. Nothing but emptiness, pain, and a hopelessness I can sense causing me to slip away. Susan is gone. In my heart, I know I’m going to join her. After what Mario did, I’m not sure I want to continue on. Not with Pluto waiting in the wings ready to snatch me at every turn.

  “Vicky, hold on.” Mars’ words are soft. Lips brush my cheek, stealing a sigh from my own.

  The chill in the air recedes.

  Through the blackness, which is intent on claiming me, it takes a second for the sound of waves to register. Warm and sultry, the Mediterranean breeze drifts against my battered flesh. I lie limp in his arms as he gently carries me. Did he use his powers? Wherever we are, I know it’s better than the cell. At least I won’t die somewhere that’s echoing with my misery and pain. Flopping against him, nothing registers but the male talking to me so softly. What he’s saying is just noise. My brain unable to string it together to make any sense.

  A hiss escapes me when wetness laps around my ankles. As I startle, I find myself immersed. Throbbing, the open wounds over every inch of my naked body begin to scream as salt water burns.

  “Easy, Vicky, easy,” Mars croons, his nose nuzzling my cheek. “Let it heal you.”

  Air stutters in my lungs. It’s too much. Everything. Crushing me from the inside, it builds. I can’t do this. I’m not strong enough. Not enough. I couldn’t save my friend. Couldn’t save myself. How can I be a goddess? I’m weak.

  A mouth claims mine, hard and insistent.

  My panic and pain both morph into bliss.

  Mars kisses me as if I’m the only thing that exists. Hot and passionate. With his arms wrapped around me, he keeps me pressed to the hard planes of his muscles beneath his suit.

  Hands sliding up to the nape of his neck, I devour him just as keenly.

  Tongues dance and entwine. Our bodies strain together as the waves crash against the beach beneath a sky filled with stars.

  “Bella, don’t leave me.” It’s a groan as he scatters quick kisses over my upturned face.

  Clawing at the edges of his soaked shirt, I rip the sides apart. Perfect, toned abs meet my searching fingers.

  I want him. Need him. If I don’t have him now, I’ll die.

  Hands fumbling with his belt, his own slide over mine.

  “Please.” The word is a whine. A plea.

  Brown, intense eyes meet my imploring gaze. I let him see how much I desire this. Somehow, we manage to get his clothes off. Unfastening his pants, he shoves them down the length of his legs, and kicking them free with his shoes, he stands before me, gloriously naked. Winding my arms around his chest, I draw him back with me. The water embraces us, cradles our forms as if we were its lovers. Close and intimate, I hold this dark war god to my breast. Finding his cock, I curl my fingers around its girth. Pulsing, thick, it jerks in my firm grip. A moan is torn from Mars’ lips. Eagerly, I lift up, winding my legs around the leanness of his hips. With one sure push, I spear myself on his hardness. He fills me with one thrust.

  Panting, shaking, we remain locked for what feels like a lifetime, but I know only seconds pass. His hands find my ass. Clutching tightly, he begins to move in me. Head tipping back, I ride him with abandonment. It’s almost too much, the way the sensations overwhelm me. The lap of the cleansing water as it tingles over my skin, heals the wounds and damage I endured at Mario's hands.

  “I thought I’d lost you,” Mars confesses close to my ear.

  It makes my heart clench. “I thought...I was going to die.”

  Holding him closely, I tangle my fingers in his hair. I don’t want to relive the horror or be dragged backward into the nightmare. All I want is this gift–Mars’ possession. The way he sweeps everything that's happened aside and makes me forget. As our rhythm changes, the pace becoming faster, our moans and groans mingle.

  “Yes, yes, yes!” My lust filled shout is lost in the sound of the surf. “Mars!”

  Then, I feel it, the delicious tightening deep inside. As my pussy walls spasm, I lose myself in a blissful release.

  Mars grunts, his own body still pumping into me. There’s no gentleness here. It’s primal. Wild.

  “Vicky!” His tortured cry sends him over.

  Gripping my hips mercilessly, he spills his essence deep within my core. I’m mush. The ability to think gone as I lie dazed, floating in the safety of his arms.

  Chapter Fifteen

  MARS

  The water of the cerulean blue sea laps at my ankles. They’re entwined with Vicky’s as she lays with her head against my chest. Neither of us feel the cold of the hazy morning. Her breathing is steady, but I know she doesn’t sleep for she murmurs her thoughts occasionally. She’s healing physically. However, emotionally, it’ll take her longer to recover from all she’s lived through these last few days. My own mind is calmer than it has been in hours. I don’t hear wars raging in Rome, now, just the peace of the early morning and the sun rising in glorious hues of red, orange, yellow, and purple.

  “Why did Mario do this?” She shifts and sittin
g up a little, she looks at me. Her eyes are tired but still so full of questions.

  “He was warped in his mind. We can’t figure out any other reasons,” I reply calmly and take in a long breath of the fresh sea air.

  “There was another man who came to see me. He said he was the God of the Underworld, Pluto?”

  This time the noise that comes from my mouth is more of a strangulated groan.

  “Did he touch you?”

  “No. He told me he would come back and kill me. That I was too valuable to release because of what you were doing to Rome.” She cocks her head in question.

  “You should probably avoid the news today. There may be one or two hundred tales of skirmishes erupting in Rome. My father will see what he can do to smooth things over.”

  “So, people don’t question that a god made them go crazy?”

  “Something like that. As gods, we’re tied to our emotions, and they affect the places we are in. It’s how I found you.”

  “I don’t understand?” She lays her head back down on my broad chest. The weight of the tiredness in her body too heavy to hold up any longer.

  “Did Pluto say anything about what god he thinks you are?”

  “He called me Venus? Isn’t she the Goddess of Beauty and Love?”

  “She is, and you are.”

  She sits bolt upright.

  “I thought he was nuts calling me that, but he wasn’t was he? You think it as well?”

  “Search inside yourself, Vicky. Your powers are already coming to the forefront of your subconscious mind. All around the church you were imprisoned in was rotting, the water turning rancid. It was you who was doing that, nobody else. Your terror at the situation was destroying the earth around you. I was blinded by hate and revenge for those who took you, and so Rome suffered a night where fires, gunshots, and sirens filled the air. It’s the same. We’re linked to the planet we’re on. Pluto knows this and wants to use our abilities to destroy the humans and bring us back out of hiding. That can’t ever happen, though. We have to protect their peace and keep ourselves hidden.”

  Vicky looks down to the sand underneath us. She stretches her hand out and runs her fingers through the glassy granules.

  “That’s why you brought me here?” She moves her gaze up and around at the stunning scenery in front of us. The cobalt blue of the ocean, and the craggy cliffs of the coastline descending into the horizon with sightings of white villas dotted infrequently. “The beauty of it started the healing process. The love you have for me completed it.”

  “War and beauty combined can be a powerful vessel.”

  She lays back down and pulls away from me. Her body seems smaller as she curls up into a ball.

  “I can’t...I don’t even know where to start with all of this. It’s too much to take in. I don’t know what’s real, or what isn’t anymore. Who’s a god and who isn’t. Who’s good. Who’s evil. I’m so tired and confused. I’m scared to shut my eyes because I might see what he did to me? I want to scrub my body clean to take away his marks from my flesh, my mouth, my mind. He wasn’t even a god. He was a normal man, and you couldn’t stop him doing that to my friend or to me.” Tears tumble down her cheeks. It takes everything I have within me not to reach out and wipe them away. These are tears that need to be shed. The emotion of her suffering washing away into the sand.

  “The wounds will heal. I know the pain seems too real and familiar, but I’m going to help you.”

  “I want to go back to England, to the time before I got on the plane….to forget all this happened.”

  “You know that can’t ever happen, now.”

  “Why not?” she shouted. “None of you knew about me until I came to Italy. I was quietly getting on with my life in Devon. I can go back to that.”

  I shake my head.

  “Even if my father would let you go, I wouldn’t.”

  “You’re not in charge of me,” she snaps.

  “No, I’m not. But our bodies have shared too much together. You’ll never be able to sleep at night without feeling me inside you. You’ll never be able to love again, because your heart beats only for me. You’ll see something of beauty and wonder if you created it. If you get angry, then the darkness will descend, and that beauty will fade to something foul. It’s the way it will be until the day your human body dies. Then, you will be reborn, and the process will start again. Memories will reside in your head of a man you love, and of a place so breathtaking it will capture your breath, despite the fact you’ve never seen it. You can’t escape this, now, even if you want to. The process has started. Pluto will chase you to the ends of the Earth to take you into his world and exploit your love and beauty for his own nefarious ends. And you are so far under my skin I’ll haunt your every turn. I won’t be able to keep away. Your essence swims in my veins and drowns me in its virility. I’m under beauty’s spell, and there’s no way to break it now.”

  Vicky uncurls herself from the ball she’s in and brings her hand to mine.

  “I’m scared.”

  “I know”–bringing her hand up to my lips, I kiss it tenderly– “You’re tired. Let’s go back to my house in Tuscany and get some sleep. We can think more on this in the morning.”

  “I don’t know if I’ll sleep.”

  “You will if I’m wrapped around you for protection.”

  “You won’t leave me?”

  “I just said. You’re under my skin, and it’s not possible for me to leave you.”

  “Ok.”

  I transport us to my bedroom within the extensive villa I own in Tuscany. It’s nestled in the hills of Val d’Orcia and surrounded by vineyards. It’s peace and tranquility personified and secure. Even a mouse could not run along my land without me knowing about it, for Bellona and my son live in a separate villa on these lands. Pluto will have no chance of finding Vicky here. I just have to hope Bellona and Vicky have no opportunity to meet each other during our stay.

  We materialize in my bedroom, and I help Vicky to remove her clothes and settle in the bed. I sit on the edge.

  “Are you not coming to bed?”

  “I have a few calls I need to make, first. I’ll get the phone and come back and join you soon. I’ll leave the door open. Pluto can’t get you here. You have my word that it’s secure. If you want, I can call for someone to watch you while I do that?”

  She shakes her head, her heavy eyelids drooping.

  “I’m not leaving you until you’re asleep, and then I promise I’ll be just outside the door when you are, so I won't disturb you.”

  She yawns. Her body’s obvious need for sleep overruling the fear she has of trying to do so.

  “Be quick,” she murmurs, and her eyelids flutter shut. They don’t open again, and her breathing shallows. I kiss the top of her head and make a silent vow of protection.

  Going as quickly as I can, I strip out of my still wet clothes, pull on a pair of track pants, and retrieve my house phone from the lounge. All the while I listen out for even the slightest noise coming from the bedroom. I dial my father.

  “How is she?” he answers after the first ring.

  “Sleeping. Her wounds are healing, but she’s confused. We’re at my villa in Val d’Orcia. I want to keep as much beauty around her as I can. How is Rome?”

  “You certainly did a number on it. We can’t keep it out of the newspapers. People are asking why war nearly broke out here last night. I think in the light of a fresh day, though, we can spin it as a few criminals causing issues, not the majority. Maybe wipe out a few people we need to get rid of.”

  I laugh, knowing my father means the cases where we’re in direct opposition to Pluto.

  “He was there. He knows who she is,” I tell my father.

  “Pluto?”

  “Yes.”

  “She may have to face the trials sooner rather than later. She needs her powers. He won’t stop coming for her, now. Not after he tasted Hell on Earth last night.”

  “I know,”
I reply remorsefully. “She’s not ready, just yet, though. She needs a few more days to recover. The beauty within her is scarred, and I fear she’ll only be at greater risk of achieving Pluto’s wishes by forcing the trials on her.”

  “Alright. Take a few days with her. Work with her and teach her more about what we are. See if she can gain control of the powers she has developing.”

  “I will do.”

  “Mars?”

  “Yes.”

  “How are you?” The question takes my breath away. My father has always cared for us, but to know he still worries, after so many millions of years, shatters my already exhausted body. I slump back against the wall outside my room.

  “Did people die?” I ask.

  My father pauses before he answers.

  “Yes.”

  “Innocent?”

  Another pregnant pause.

  “Yes.”

  I swallow deeply.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Work through the guilt, now. You can’t hold it in because it’ll destroy you. Out of all my sons, your power is the most volatile and likely to cause chaos. You’ve been strong up until now. Keep that within you.”

  “I will,” I reply, wondering how the hell I’m supposed to do that, knowing I’ve, yet again, killed those who didn’t deserve it.

  “Call me later.”

  “Night.”

  I hang up.

  Sleep is calling me as well, now. I look to where Vicky is lying, peaceful in my bed. She’s stunningly angelic in her beauty. It takes my breath away, every time I look at her. On entering the room, I put the phone down on a chest of drawers and climb in next to her. I wrap myself around her, and she turns to nestle her head against my chest. I shut my eyes to sleep, but all I see is the agony of those who died. Faceless figures–bleeding and weeping because my emotions have led to their end.

  This battle with Pluto has gone on long enough. It needs to stop, and I’ll be the one to finish it. I’m the God of War after all.