Ares

by Heaton, Felicity

  He held his hand out to her and she slipped hers into it, still marvelling at how hot his skin was now that he had his power back.

  New York in winter would never feel cold again, not when she had a walking heater with her.

  He looked as though he would pull her into his arms and then hesitated.

  “It might be safer if I just hold your hands the first time we do this.” His grim glance at her clothing made her quickly nod in agreement.

  He had heated his phone and set fire to her jumper so far. If she stepped into his embrace and let him place his arms around her, there was a chance he would do a lot more damage than that.

  Megan rolled her sleeves up and took hold of his hands, her skin instantly heating and sending warmth travelling up her arms.

  “Don’t let go.” He stared at her, as serious as she had ever seen him.

  She nodded, not wanting to consider what would happen or where she might end up if she did lose her hold on him in the split second it took for him to teleport her somewhere.

  She clutched his hands and took a deep breath.

  The world whirled into darkness and came back into focus again.

  A blast of ice hit the wall of the building right beside her and cracked as it spread across the bricks. Fire arced across her vision and heat caressed her skin, and Ares pulled her behind him. An unholy snarl tore through the silence, followed by a deep growl and then the echoing crack of a gun being fired.

  The darkness engulfed her again and frigid air blasted against her as they reappeared. Her vision swam but quickly came back into focus and she looked at the hotchpotch flat rooftops stretching around her.

  The sound of the fight rose from below her.

  Ares squeezed her hands.

  “You stay here and stay down, understand?” he said and she nodded, her eyes on the fight in the street below.

  Daimon was giving Amaury hell and looked as though he was winning, but all he had was a gun and she wasn’t sure how much use that was against an enemy who could control both air and ice.

  “Go,” Megan whispered, grabbed Ares around the nape of his neck and kissed him hard.

  His lips were hot against hers but he still tasted the same and he still kissed her as though he couldn’t get enough of her.

  He broke away and did something that made her heart stop.

  He didn’t teleport.

  He ran and leaped off the edge of the building.

  She raced forwards and reached the edge in time to see him land squarely on his feet and launch himself into the fray, hitting Amaury in the chest with a spiralling whip made of fire.

  Damn, she loved that man.

  She hunched low at the edge of the roof, hidden from view, watching the fight with her heart in her mouth.

  If anything happened to either him or Daimon, she was going to head down there. She wouldn’t stand by on the side-lines and watch them get hurt or worse. She would risk Ares’s wrath in order to help him and his brothers.

  She was part of this battle now and she wouldn’t back down.

  She would keep fighting until it was over and the world and Ares were safe.

  She would keep fighting for their future.

  CHAPTER 25

  Ares pulled his arm back and slashed forwards again, causing the flaming whip to cut through the air, heading straight for Amaury’s back. Daimon leaped out of the way on the other side of the slim blond daemon, rolling across the damp tarmac and then kicking off to propel himself to a safe distance.

  The end of the fiery whip caught Amaury’s leather-clad shoulder and he disappeared.

  Ares wheeled around and swept his hand out at the same time as the hairs on the back of his neck prickled and his internal daemon radar screamed a warning. Five thick shards of blue ice shot towards him, one of them penetrating the wall of fire he had created. He quickly veered right and the icy javelin skimmed his left biceps, cutting a groove in his flesh and tearing a low growl from him.

  He clenched his teeth and shut down the pain, locking it out of his mind.

  Daimon was on Amaury before Ares could react, his younger white-haired brother driving him backwards with a flurry of punches and perfectly executed kicks. Ares had always thought Daimon took the Hong Kong thing too seriously and now he knew he was right. His brother fought like a man who had watched thousands of hours of martial arts movies and had memorised every move.

  A few of them Ares wanted to know himself. His brother would have to give him some lessons after this fight was over, and maybe Megan too. He wanted to know that she could protect herself should she come up against any daemons in the future, or any mortals.

  Hell, he just wanted to know she could protect herself.

  Amaury swung hard at Daimon, catching him in the right temple and sending him down. Ares was on the daemon in an instant, picking up where his brother had left off, giving Daimon time to regain his senses and get back on his feet. He created two twisting whips of fire and slashed at Amaury with them in the dimly lit side street. They needed to wrap this fight up fast before the mortal authorities got wind of it.

  Cars stuttered in view at the far end of the street where it merged with a main road and Ares had seen one or two mortals on foot peer down the road and then make a run for it when they spotted the brawl.

  Ares struck again with his flaming whips, driving them hard and fast at his enemy. Amaury evaded half of the attacks and deflected the others with swift blasts of ice. Ares needed to get that power away from him. The fight was too even while the daemon could control ice. He needed to tip it in his favour and that meant getting Daimon’s power back to him somehow. His eyes dropped as he struck again, focusing on Amaury’s hand as he raised it.

  The golden disc glowed blue against his palm and ice shot out.

  Daimon’s power had to be in that amulet.

  Marek would kill him if he was wrong.

  Fuck, Daimon would kill him, but he had to target the amulet and destroy it.

  He had to ensure Amaury couldn’t steal his power again. He just hoped that destroying it wouldn’t obliterate any chance of regaining Daimon’s power.

  One of Ares’s whips struck the wall of the building where he had hidden Megan on the roof and fire blazed up it. It petered out before it reached the roof and he resisted looking there, not wanting to draw Amaury’s attention to her location. She would be safe there, hidden in the darkness.

  A globe of ice slammed into his right shoulder, knocking it backwards, and then another exploded against his left arm. Ice spread over his skin, encasing it from his hand to his biceps and burning as it drained his heat. He snarled and focused on his left hand and the ice hissed and steamed. Fire broke through cracks and the ice fell away in chunks, smashing on the ground.

  He was getting tired of this daemon.

  Time to put him to bed.

  He ran, evading more twisting spikes of ice, barely keeping ahead of them as he headed straight for the wall at the end of the junction in the side streets. He hit it hard with his right foot and ran up it a short distance at a diagonal, diverting course towards Amaury.

  Ice exploded in shards behind him, impacting with the bricks and shaking the building.

  One flew right at him.

  He focused and darkness embraced him, and he grinned as he appeared above Amaury. He landed hard on the daemon, tearing a pained shriek from him as he slammed him into the ground and pinned him to it.

  He dropped to his knees, using them to restrain Amaury’s arms, and slammed his right fist into his face, cracking his nose and splitting his lip. The scent of Amaury’s black blood grew thicker in the air and an unholy snarl rumbled through Ares. He hated that smell. It drove him deep into his darker side, tearing down every good part of him that came from his mother and unleashing the violence he had inherited from his father.

  He grinned as it flowed through him, black as night, urges so dark and powerful that he could only obey them.

  He shifted his gaze t
o Amaury’s hand and the amulet, and fire broke out over his own hands. Destroy.

  A sharp hot pain exploded in his left shoulder, sending him jerking backwards, and he roared. Amaury grinned up at him, revealing bloodied teeth, his hazel eyes glowing pale blue.

  Ares snarled and grasped the shard of ice penetrating his left shoulder and grimaced as he slowly pulled it out of his flesh. His body released it with a wet sucking sound and blood coursed down his chest, hot against his skin.

  “Ares,” Daimon shouted and the next thing he knew, darkness swept over him.

  The world whirled back into colours again and Ares growled and shoved his brother away, struggling to control his flames at the same time so he didn’t hurt him. “I had him.”

  “No, he had you.” Daimon ignored the dark look Ares shot at him and inspected his chest and shoulder, running his gaze over him. “This is bad. You can’t fight like this.”

  Ares shot him a glare. “I can, and I must. Just... back me up.”

  Daimon stared at him, looking as though he was going to refuse, and then nodded.

  The ground around their feet froze, ice covering their boots and crawling up their legs. Fucking daemon.

  Ares swept his right hand out and focused the heat of his fire on the ice, melting it from his legs and around them. He couldn’t risk melting it from Daimon’s legs too. He still wasn’t fully in control of his power again and until he was used to wielding it, accustomed to the feel of it once more, he would probably hurt his brother by using it on him. It had been risky enough using it on Megan.

  A door further along the low-lit side street burst open, slamming against the brick wall and snapping both his and Daimon’s attention there.

  Megan raced out of the building and ran straight for him, panic and fear written across her beautiful face. She had seen him injured and come down. Foolish woman.

  “Protect her,” Ares said to his brother and then switched all of his focus to Amaury and ran at the bastard.

  His left arm was useless, hanging limp at his side, drenched in blood, but he wouldn’t let it slow him down. He kept running at Amaury, unleashing small bright white orbs of fire in rapid succession, forcing the daemon backwards. Amaury countered as many as he could but Ares could see in his dull eyes that the fight was taking its toll on him too. Neither of them were used to their power and the drain it had on them, and both of them were injured.

  It was going to come down to who could push themselves the hardest, beyond the pain barrier and the fatigue that threatened to leave them vulnerable and open to attack.

  Megan called his name and Daimon grumbled something at her.

  Ares didn’t catch what she snapped back at him but he could imagine it had been dark and vicious.

  Ares drew his arm back, forming a thick whip of fire, and brought it down, sending the long spiralling funnel towards Amaury. The daemon countered him with a rain of small shards of ice. Three of them caught Ares on his left arm as he tried to evade them and he bit his tongue to stop himself from crying out. Megan would try to come to his aid if he let his pain show and he couldn’t allow that to happen.

  He used some of his remaining strength to step, appearing behind Amaury along the other side road, drawing him away from Megan and Daimon. Amaury turned on him as planned, sweeping both hands forwards, forming twin waves of ice that raced towards Ares.

  He ground his teeth and focused his power, calling everything he had at his disposal and giving the darkness boiling inside him free rein, allowing it to take over.

  He embraced it and the fire in his veins became an inferno.

  Flames erupted over his skin, chasing up his arms and over his back and his chest.

  He growled in pain as they cauterised the wounds on his left arm and on his chest and back, and forced both of his hands forwards, unleashing twin blazing waves of his own.

  They clashed with Amaury’s glittering ice and steam swirled across the road, blocking his view of the daemon.

  Had it been enough?

  His insides swirled in that sickening way that warned him Amaury was closing in.

  Ares roared and shot his right hand forwards, unleashing the maximum force of his power that he could in his limited state.

  If it wasn’t enough this time, he would risk his father’s wrath and the safety of this world to unlock more.

  Fire erupted from his palm, a violent white tornado that tore through the steam and burned it away.

  Burned everything away.

  The bricks of the building on either side of him melted and fizzed, their mortar turning to glass under the intense heat. The tarmac bubbled and caught fire.

  Amaury shrieked, long and loud, piercing the night.

  Ares’s strength left him and he collapsed to his knees, pain ricocheting through his bones and his blood on fire, burning him at a thousand degrees. His power stuttered and died.

  Silence fell.

  The sound of footsteps shattered it.

  Whimpering too.

  Ares was glad to note that pained pathetic sound wasn’t coming from him.

  He grasped his left arm and breathed hard, struggling to remain conscious. He couldn’t remember the last time he had unleashed that much of his power in one shot and he sure as hell wouldn’t be doing it again. He trembled all over, body threatening to shut down and send him into dark oblivion.

  “Ares.” Megan’s soft voice laced with concern warmed his heart and then she was in front of him, worried eyes darting around his face and then over his body. “Keep still.”

  He thought he might have nodded but wasn’t sure if he moved. His ears rang, the sound irritating him together with the weakness that had him shaking still.

  Her hand touched his shoulder and intense warmth travelled outwards from the point where her palm pressed against his cauterised wound. He wanted to tell her to stop but he didn’t have the strength to speak. Something shifted behind her, fuzzy in his vision, and he panicked. He grabbed her arm and pulled her against him, and she murmured soft reassuring words.

  His eyes cleared as her healing power worked its magic on him and he saw it was Daimon in the road behind her.

  He had Amaury pinned beneath him, his knee against the daemon’s throat and his hands glittering with ice.

  Ares was glad that his brother somehow had his power back but he wasn’t pleased about one thing.

  The look on Daimon’s face spoke of violence and death.

  He couldn’t allow that to happen. He wanted Amaury dead for what he had done but he couldn’t go against Keras’s orders. They needed to question the daemon.

  He grasped Megan’s shoulder and pulled himself onto his feet, swaying violently the whole time. She clutched his arm and he thanked her with a tight smile, not only for helping him but for not trying to stop him.

  “Daimon.” Ares pushed the word out and his brother looked across at him, the darkness in his expression not lifting. “Don’t.”

  Megan helped him walk to his brother and the daemon, and he frowned as the other side of Amaury came into view. His entire arm was charred and smouldering, the amulet a melted pool of gold against blackened flesh.

  Amaury twitched, eyes wild with fear and pain.

  Daimon’s expression remained blacker than midnight and Ares could see he was itching to rain icy hell down on the daemon.

  “Back off,” Ares said and Daimon stared at him, his eyes transforming from pale blue to purest white, a warning that he was close to losing control. “Daimon.”

  He wasn’t going to ask again.

  Daimon remained still for a few long seconds more and then removed his knee from the daemon’s neck and slowly stood. He grabbed Amaury around the throat, causing fingers of ice to chase around the back of it, joining there, and hauled him onto his knees.

  Ares closed his eyes and focused, shutting down the pain in his left arm. Megan’s hand covered his right one and he opened his eyes and stared at their joined hands. He squeezed her fingers, trying
to reassure her.

  “I’ll be fine. Wait here,” he said and she nodded, understanding in her dark eyes.

  He didn’t want her anywhere near Amaury while they were questioning him.

  Daimon shifted behind Amaury, his hand against the back of his neck. A collar of ice restrained the whimpering daemon and smoke curled from his burnt left side. His arm hung limp and Ares felt no sympathy for him.

  He had brought this upon himself, by targeting Megan and by targeting the gate and the Underworld. It had been kill or be killed, a battle of life and death, the sort that Ares had missed.

  It had felt good to fight beside his brother again, to battle a worthy foe, but Ares had the terrible feeling that their fight wasn’t over.

  “My arm,” Amaury muttered, his French accent thick.

  His head drooped and Daimon yanked on his neck, forcing him to remain awake.

  Ares halted in front of the daemon and stared down at him. “Why were you after Megan?”

  Amaury’s dull eyes rolled backwards and then opened again.

  They fixed on Ares and he smiled, his teeth covered in black blood. “I wanted her power.”

  “Why?” Ares growled down at him.

  Amaury continued to smile. Ares’s instincts flared, issuing a warning that something was wrong. Amaury was facing death in the form of two very angry gods of the Underworld but he looked unafraid.

  There wasn’t a trace of fear in his eyes now.

  “I just wanted it.” He looked around, gaze scanning over the side street and then Ares. He settled it on him and stared, and Ares frowned at him and the feeling that he was waiting for something.

  Ares grabbed his shoulders, squeezed them hard and shook him. The ice around his neck fractured and healed, spreading over his collarbones. Amaury winced.

  “Explain yourself. Tell me why you wanted Megan’s power and I will make your death a swift one.” Ares shook him again and his expression didn’t shift.

  It remained placid and calm, not a single sliver of fear crossing it. Had he accepted that he would die and that was why he wasn’t afraid anymore?