TARNISHED (Book 5.5, The Caged Series (Novella))

by Natusch, Amber Lynn

  “You're right. I would, if it were for something I wanted badly enough. Guess you're lucky I don't want Persephone.”

  “But if she has her mind set, she will stop at nothing to get you.”

  “Fearing a little competition, are you? You shouldn't. It's very simple, really. Whatever strange hold you had on me back in the day no longer exists. I see you now for who and what you truly are. That may have appealed to the lesser version of me that I allowed myself to devolve into, but I am not that man anymore.... I've made sure of that.”

  She stared at me in the darkness before grabbing a torch to hold up in front of my face. What she saw made her drop it instantly.

  “Your eyes...,” she whispered before covering her mouth with her hand. “Aniketos, what did you do? What have you done?”

  “I've made it so that your poison can no longer course through my veins. It also means that you put in a lot of time on your back for no reason. I will not be what Ares wants me to be. I will serve the brotherhood only. No more. No less. I will no longer be his mindless assassin.”

  “You are a fool,” she spat, punching me in my chest. “You could have overthrown him and been the greatest—unstoppable! And yet you turn your nose up at your birthright, happy to serve him like a dog. You are not his minion! You are invincible! Kill him and be done with it. Take your rightful place!”

  Once again, a dark smile overtook me as I pressed my face in close to hers, my breath warming her. Her breath caught again with anticipation, thinking that our argument had served more as foreplay than what it truly was―a confession. An admission.

  “I cannot kill Ares, Sophie,” I whispered, my lips brushing her ear. “And I am no longer invincible. You can thank Persephone for that.”

  Her stunned expression slowly fell, letting her anger show through yet again.

  “You will be sorry you chose this path, Aniketos,” she warned, scooping her robe up over her arm to exit. “Do not underestimate me. I may be bound to you in service as well as in life, but I can make you suffer. Never forget that.”

  She stormed out and didn't return until morning. I never knew where she went, but cared too little to find out. I would much later learn that her warning was not false bravado, an act to comfort her hurt pride. Instead, I would find out that those words might have been the only truths she ever spoke.

  I underestimated her, and suffer I did.

  The Standoff

  “Aniketos.” My father's tone was drenched with disdain. When I turned to face him, green eyes blazing, that sentiment reached his expression as well. “I see that Sophie was not exaggerating for once.”

  “I knew you would come,” I told him, approaching with a swagger that only infuriated him more.

  “Did you now?”

  “Indeed. But it matters not...what's done is done. Even you know that a deal with Persephone cannot be broken.”

  “I see...,” he replied through gritted teeth. “Do tell me, what exactly is your angle? Why have you caved to this bizarre need to be in touch with your mother's weak nature? Have you, of all my seed, not learned that to be weak is to be ruled?”

  “Weak?” I countered, nearing his face more than I should have. “She withstood you. That takes more strength than anything I can think of.”

  He laughed at my words.

  “Is that what you've done? Built her up in your twisted mind to make her something she is not? Never was? Aniketos, please,” he condescended. “Your mother succumbed to the darkness as well. That is why I chose her, but even then her true nature could not be totally overrun. I see that fact staring back at me in that detestable eye color you are donning. Never has it been so true to hers. I could tolerate it when you were younger, knowing that it would fade in time. But now? Now I find myself wanting to tear those angelic eyes out of your face.”

  “Temper, temper,” I warned, waving my finger in his face. “You know that would never be tolerated, and I know that you are far too attached to a life above ground for you to even attempt such a foolish thing.”

  “Perhaps it would be worth my while...”

  I shrugged off his bravado.

  “Does your visit have a greater purpose other than to chastise me, Ares?”

  “Yes. I came here to warn you.”

  “About...?”

  “Sophie,” he replied flatly. “You may fuck Persephone if it pleases you...she may be exactly what you need to bring you back to your senses, but you may not, under any circumstances, undo your bond with Sophie. It is forever binding. Eternal...”

  “And if she were to die?”

  He leaned in closely to me. I could smell her scent all over him.

  “If she were to find herself on the unfortunate end of an untimely death, you would be to blame and the punishment would be severe. You would beg for death yourself one thousand times over...”

  “Only one thousand?”

  His brow creased intensely at my mockery. If he had held the ability to kill me without consequence, it was clear that he would have in that moment. Even though I had no intention of getting rid of Sophie, he did not know that, nor did I intend to let on to the contrary. He clearly had a weakness for her as well, which only made sense. I was in part my father's son. The darkness that reigned in him coursed through me as well, and it would appeal to her.

  “Do not challenge me on this. I have walked this Earth far longer than you and looked down upon it from Mount Olympus. If you think my creativity with pain and punishment is lacking, I will gladly display my prowess in both.”

  “Your point has been well made,” I said dismissively. “If there's nothing else...”

  “You will honor your bond, Aniketos,” he threatened, walking away from me. “And you will do your job as it needs to be done. If you refuse to, you will be replaced. Invincible or not, your place in the brotherhood is not set in stone. It would be such a pity to have to oust you...so scandalous. Whatever would your brothers think?”

  He deigned to give me a backward glance before disappearing from my sight, a welcomed but ominous outcome. I knew he would make good on his word, dishonoring me however he could to my brothers, if I were to make any attempt to break my bond or harm Sophie. The latter had never been my intention—not physically. However, it seemed as though whatever plan Persephone had concocted to drive her away from me would be in vain. I'd told Sophie what had happened and she barely flinched at my words. Of course, she was doing the same thing for different reasons. She was a woman of ambition and practicality. Fucking to get what she wanted was a small price to pay. My doing the same wouldn't even begin to drive a wedge between us.

  I needed to find something that would.

  What I failed to see at the time was that I already had what I needed to accomplish that. She too would grow to loathe my lighter side, though she would never show that to anyone. So desperate to cling to what could be, she would have overlooked anything I did or said in the hopes that I would go back to the degenerate I had become over centuries.

  Even my love of another woman.

  The Turning Point

  Weeks later he woke me in the early morning hours, a look of pained control masking his true emotions.

  “Get up,” Ares commanded, his torchlight temporarily blinding me as I opened my eyes. “There is a matter that requires your immediate attention.”

  “What is it?” I asked, quickly getting to my feet.

  “I will give you your orders when we arrive,” he said, briskly turning to leave. “We must go at once...and in secret. Your brothers will not know about what transpires this evening. This is strictly a matter for you and me to deal with.” His blackest stare met mine, the perfect backdrop for the dancing flames that looked to be burning within it. It was full of warning.

  Dressing quickly, I followed him out into the darkness of night. We walked silently until we reached the edge of the city, making our way toward a single home still lit up from the inside.

  “In there,” he said, gesturing
to the abode. “You'll find a child. Bring her to me.”

  “A child?” I asked, sensing no presence of an RB―the primary threat to the balance, especially as children.

  “Yes,” he growled. “I need her. Do as I ask.”

  A breath of hesitation caught in my throat before I walked toward the entrance. Something did not sit well with his orders, but curiosity drove me to do his bidding. I needed to see what it was that demanded both his presence and my secrecy.

  Without announcing myself, I pressed the door open and stepped inside. As if she knew I was coming, the mother was waiting for me, tucked tightly into the far corner of the room, blade in one hand, the baby in the other. Her clothes were still stained with the blood of birthing the infant. The baby could not have been more than hours old, crying in the way newborns did when the energy around them implied a threat.

  I said nothing to calm her, only moved slowly to the corner she'd backed herself into. My weapon remained undrawn, though that seemed of little comfort to her. She screamed at me, clutching the still-crying child to her even tighter.

  “I am to take her,” I told her, stopping a pace or two away from her.

  “No,” she replied, eyes wild. “He cannot have her.”

  “You know not what he wants with her,” I countered, my approach slowing further.

  “He will kill her,” she accused wildly, slashing the air before her with the knife to deter me.

  “He only asked that I bring her to him. Nothing more.”

  “You are a fool,” she spat, extending her weapon toward me accusingly.

  “And you are a fool if you think he'll have anything less than what he seeks,” I whispered. “He said nothing of what was to be done with you. Hand her to me and you shall remain as you are―untouched.”

  “He's going to kill her...,” she insisted, her eyes glassing over with resignation. But the fight in her had not fully left.

  “Impossible,” I dismissed, knowing my words to be true. “Give her to me. Now.”

  She looked torn, her arms shaking as her gaze darted back and forth between the child and me. Finally, her eyes rested upon her squirming babe, pulling a tight smile across her face.

  “I wish I could do it myself,” she said, a tear escaping her eye. “But I cannot.”

  Her blank stare then turned to me. It held a desperate edge to it, and I knew what would come next. My sword was drawn long before her lunge was complete, skewering her easily with the blade from her own momentum. I had not wanted it to come to that.

  As I watched the life bleed out of her, a twinge in my stomach grew tighter and tighter. I knew that feeling, though it still seemed so unfamiliar. I'd long existed in a world without guilt―too long. A small part of me relished its reemergence.

  The mother collapsed to the floor, holding onto the child until her very last breath. When I bent down to collect the screaming babe from the floor, I heard Ares move in behind me.

  “Leave her there,” he directed. “It will be easier that way. You'll have less blood to wash off...”

  I gently tucked the disheveled blanket in around her before her flailing hand grazed mine. The second she touched me, I knew. Petronus Ceteri were only able to recognize one another by direct contact.

  “You must kill her...,” he ordered, looking at me impassively, as though his word would be enough to sway me. But it wasn't, not that time. I had done many a reprehensible deed in my lifetime with very little cause, but there was no way for him to make me murder one of my own. One of the PC.

  I uncurled my body to stand and face him, defying his orders.

  “Aniketos,” he warned, pressing toward me. “Eos was my daughter―my only daughter―and my life,” he said resoundingly. “And she is long dead. I will not tarnish her memory by suffering any other female born of my blood to live, and you will make sure that is the case.”

  My skin prickled in disgust.

  “She is not only yours,” I countered. “She is my sister. She is Petronus Ceteri―born to serve. To kill her is to kill my own blood. I will not do it.”

  “She is the daughter of a whore and no child of mine,” he snarled in my face. “You will dispose of her, Aniketos. I command you to do it.”

  I looked back down at the infant and felt a protective rage growing inside me. It filled the void that violence had for so long. I pulled my sword out of the child's dead mother and handed it to Ares, turning to leave.

  “Do it yourself. Seal the fate you so rightly deserve...”

  “Aniketos!” he boomed, shaking the walls of the meager home. “Do not cross me.”

  “What will you do, Father?” I asked, looking over my shoulder. A mocking tone tainted my words. “Will you kill me instead?”

  His skin flushed with anger, knowing that I was undermining him in the most petulant of ways. He charged me, throwing me through the side of the building, and I crashed to the ground hard. When he came to hover over me, the tip of the sword at my throat, I laughed. Freedom was never something I'd given the slightest thought to. I'd been bred to serve. It was my calling. But when faced with true death, the thought tore through me and I felt alive. More alive than I'd ever felt before.

  “Do it,” I taunted, unmoving. Persephone may have made it possible for him to kill me―possibly chose to share that information with him as well―but it didn't change the fate he'd face. My death would have meant his as well. It seemed a fair trade.

  “You know that I can no more kill you than I can that abomination,” he growled, pointing in disgust at the child. Persephone had clearly not told him of our arrangement. “Get up and do the duty you're charged with.”

  “You could kill me,” I said, pushing the blade away to rise up and face him. “But you love power and fear death. Killing me means killing yourself, and you're far too self-serving for such an act. Even you don't hate anything enough for that.”

  “Do. As. I. Have. Bid. You,” he bit out, leaning his face into mine.

  “Do. What. You. Will,” I growled in return, pressing my forehead to his in provocation. “Cleaning up your messes was never the duty I was charged with.”

  My hatred of him ran deep, and, for the first time ever, I contemplated ending him. As the desire to do so nearly overtook me, his words rang through my mind, put there from centuries of his reminders: I was bound to him. Ares was no fool, and in seeing what he had created after my birth, he had magically covered his ass. Killing him was not an option. Not if I wanted to live.

  When I brought my attention back to Ares, he was breathing hard and ragged, his jaw clenched fiercely tight.

  “I warned you that there was a price for crossing me.”

  “Then I suppose it is time for you to collect, Ares,” I mocked, disdain plain in my voice. “I will not kill that child. There are lines that cannot be crossed. I will not kill my own family because it is your will. You have gone too far this time. Your grief and your power days of old are poisoning your judgment.”

  A small tremor coursed through him before he thrust me away with one shove. His look was venomous, and I knew he was about to do his worst. He may have wanted to kill me but was unaware that was even an option. Despite that fact, he was at one time the most powerful warrior the Earth had ever seen, and he was more than skilled in the art of pain and punishment. I knew I was in for trouble.

  “Shall we see just how appropriate your name truly is?” he asked, moving toward me. “I think that's an excellent idea, invincible one...” He grabbed my robe to direct me back to the house. He had a plan. Finding a shovel of sorts alongside the home, he threw it at me. “Dig,” he ordered, his black eyes hateful.

  I caught the implement and paused only for a heartbeat. Just long enough to return his despising stare with one of utter disdain. He was awaiting an argument―a fight―but he would not receive one. Instead, I dug the deepest hole possible, reaching far below the Earth's surface. I could sense what he was planning for me, a true test of my nature for certain. While I labore
d, he loomed over me, his loathing slowly melting to delight and amusement at what he was about to do. The second he gave the order to stop, I tossed the shovel and climbed stoically out of the grave I knew was destined for me.

  “Get back in,” he rumbled with satisfaction.

  Without a word of protestation, I casually leapt in, floating freely in the air for longer than I expected to before landing. I immediately lay down, knowing that it was going to be his next directive. Taking away the chance for him to order me around made me smile. When he came to hover high above me, looking down to glare into my eyes for what was likely to be the last time, I saw the enjoyment drain from his when he took in my expression.

  “You won't be smiling for long, Aniketos. There are worse things than death. You, my fallen one, are about to learn that.”

  He said no more, only shoveled the dirt back into its rightful place, encasing me in an earthen limbo that I could not escape. For him to do such a task on his own spoke volumes. Not only was the act personal, it was to remain a secret. None of the others knew where we had gone. None would know my fate.

  I felt magic in the air around me, sealing me in to make sure that I could not escape my tomb. Given the ease of my breath, it was also keeping me from the suffocation that a mere mortal or other supernatural would have inevitably suffered. Ares wasn't really testing my invincibility, that much was clear. He was testing was my loyalty to him―and I failed most heinously.

  He had taken me there that night to see if he still had control over me. Why else would he have had a magical being there, ready to aid him at will? Ares was sending me a message: obey him or else.

  While he buried me far below his feet, I decided I would send him one in return―if I ever got out.

  That was the turning point. The point in time when I vowed to make sure that everything he had built crumbled around him. The thought continued to make me smile even as dirt coated my face, filling my mouth and nose as I laughed.

  I would see that he paid for it all.