OF WAR Anthology Novels 1-3

by Lisa Beth Darling

  IV

  Ares found a resigned and contrite Aphrodite waiting for him in her bedroom. Before going to her, Ares yanked open the closet doors, the door to the bathroom, the door to her dressing room, and he looked under the bed as well as the dresser. “Where’s Apollo?”

  “Not here. There’s no one but us.”

  “Where is he?”

  “Why would I know? I’m just glad he isn’t here.” Aphrodite got up from the small chair next to her vanity where she’d been watching Ares toss the room apart in the mirror and crossed to the bed where she dropped her robe and then laid down prone on the bed. “Let’s just get this over with.”

  That was something she’d never said before, and it unnerved him. “That’s the way to turn me on.” He dropped his leather jacket to the ground and the vest soon followed, but her eyes didn’t light up. Instead, she propped herself up on her elbows on the bed and stared at him coldly.

  “Why should I be happy about any of this? Why should I welcome another child of yours into this world that you will only ignore and loathe? As you do me.”

  “I didn’t loathe Trinity,” Ares confessed, “I didn’t know what to do with her; it wasn’t like with Hephaestus.”

  “Why? Because it was your Wife you were trying to shield instead of me trying to shield my Husband from what we had?”

  Another confession, “Yes.” Ares sat down on the bed next to her naked body. “I fear that’s over now, Alena knows about the past between the Titans and the Fae. She blames me for it.”

  That was news that was bound to go over like a led zeppelin with Alena. “I’m sorry, I know how much you love her.” Aphrodite reached out to lay her hand on his bare forearm. “She’ll come around, she loves you. She doesn’t have another choice Ares, she’s a Fae and you were her first.”

  Old Wives’ Tales that he couldn’t afford to put any stock in. As powerful and passionate as it had once been, Alena’s love for him was gone. Ares laid his hand over hers and then turned toward her. Just because his marriage was over didn’t mean his vow to protect Alena ended with it, not while she was still on Olympus. He would feel the same way even if she was just another of his women. “Where’s Apollo?”

  There wasn’t any sense in lying about it. “Down on Cerci’s island with Daphne, that’s where he always is. With her and who knows how many others.” The elbow that had been propping her up while she ran the other hand over his taut skin now pushed her to a fully sitting position. Breasts first in his view, she sat up and traced a finger in the deep furry crevice on his chest. “That’s his payment in all of this, you know. Zeus is going to let him bring that whore to Olympus and however many others he wants.” Her brow wrinkled as she shook her head. “I don’t understand, the older he gets, the more he needs, like a vampire who feeds on sex instead of blood.”

  Aphrodite no longer filled Apollo’s bill now that Daphne and the Nymphs were back in his life. Ares was surprised; he would have sworn that if Apollo was going to strike such a deal that at least two of his new slaves would be young boys. The God of Light and Music was a true connoisseur when it came to males under the age of twenty. “What do you get out of all of this?”

  There was no one here to stop her and for so long she’d wanted to tell him the truth, to be rid of the weight on her shoulders and heart. Looking into his eyes, Aphrodite backed away. “Like you, I’m just a pawn in their game.” Running her hand up his arm as she sighed, looked down, then looked back up at him with heavy eyes. “The last time I had a lover was you.”

  “So many years ago,” Ares commented, not believing her at first but those sapphire eyes held no hint of lie. “It seems unfair for the Goddess of Love.”

  A tear fell from the corner of her eye as she moved a little closer to him. “Fitting, I suppose. I miss her so much, I miss her voice, and her face, brushing her hair, and tucking her into bed, and…” Aphrodite’s head fell against Ares’ shoulder as she started weeping. “All I can see when I close my eyes is her little body burning.” The thought of the last time she saw Trinity swept over her and made Aphrodite shudder. “I only wanted to keep her safe, that’s all. You know the mortals wouldn’t understand; she didn’t have you to protect her down there.”

  Ares would have been as heartless as everyone thought him to be not to feel the sorrow welling deep within the woman leaning against him, looking for support and comfort. “I know,” he wiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumb and then pulled her closer. He could say what he wanted about Aphrodite as a woman and most of it wouldn’t be good, but as a mother she was first rate. Like Alena, she loved her children and would go to any lengths for them. “I wasn’t a good Father to her, I’m sorry, Aphrodite.” Ares thought Apollo was filling the bill and he had no idea that Zeus hated the little girl. He was always so affectionate toward her in public, but now Ares understood that was just to get Raven’s goat. “It wasn’t her, she was a good little girl, and it wasn’t you either.” Holding her naked body this close to his own naked torso and having gone so long without Alena’s touch, Ares found his heart beating faster and the cock between his legs twitching on its own. Rarely did the Goddess of Love show such raw vulnerability. It seemed to him that was one trait they always shared. An even more powerful thing shared by the God of War and the Goddess of Love was grief; Ares held her a little tighter as Aphrodite tilted her tearstained face toward him. Instinctively, he bent for the kiss. As their quivering lips met, a wave of desire swelled within him and Ares didn’t intend to hold it back.

  Aphrodite’s arms wrapped around his rippled torso, pulling her lips up for the kiss and causing her heaving breasts to press against his bare chest. Deep in the soft mat of fur her nipples hardened as she let out a lustful sigh, feeling that same wave threaten to wash over and take her under as he laid her down on her back. Welcoming the warm tongue sliding down her throat, Aphrodite’s hands roamed over the familiar muscles in Ares’ back with lustful joy. Her nails stopped here and there to sink in deep, grab hold of his flesh, making him moan, and leave their marks. With wild abandon her fingers, groping greedily, made their way down to the waistband of his leather pants and the ties in front holding back the part of him growing hard against her outer thigh. She didn’t know why he was so willing tonight and she didn’t care. All she knew was that tonight at least he would fill the empty aching holes in her heart and soul. Come tomorrow he would leave her with another child in her womb.

  Alena turned Ares away for so long and with so much force, he couldn’t help himself tonight. No matter what he said or did Alena refused to listen let alone forgive him for something he didn’t do. Night after night, alone in one of the guest bedrooms he tossed off thinking about fucking Alena the way the Titans once did their Faes. He tried to ignore it, to tell himself it was just Raven sleeping and dreaming, but knowing that three doors down from him Alena was feeling the same things. They did not fill her with desire, but with shame and anger. They left him craving the touch of a woman and tonight that craving would be satisfied. Not guilty of the crimes committed against the Fae, Ares had no way to ease Alena’s pain and shame, but he could for Aphrodite. He could feel useful, needed, maybe even wanted for a few hours tonight. Feel like a Man and not a Master.

  For half a second the God of War almost balked when Aphrodite’s legs rose up high on his grinding thighs. She wiggled her toes under the waistband her hands so expertly loosened, caught the material between them and then pushed the pants down and off him. Just as Alena so loved to do. Exactly the same way. With her breasts pushing over his wildly beating heart, one of her hands grabbing up handfuls of his thick midnight hair while the other raked its nails over his bare ass and her tongue exploring his tonsils, Ares pushed away any lingering thoughts of his Wife as his cock throbbed against Aphrodite’s thigh, searching for that warm wet hole.

  With bated breath, Aphrodite pushed away from him to stare into his eyes. “Make love to me the way you used to.” She wanted to say ‘the way you do her’, b
ut bit it back at the last second. Ares had a habit of making love with Alena by the hearth in their bedroom and that, with the help of the mirror over her vanity, gave her a perfect view of his face when he was deep inside her. Sheer ecstasy, Ares was always lost in it with Alena who let him do whatever he wanted when he was behind her or over her. “Just for tonight, say you love me.”

  Feeling way down in his aching wounded heart that Alena no longer loved or even wanted him, he told himself that his would not be a betrayal of his vow. It was impossible to break what was already shattered. Aphrodite’s legs spread below him and his hard pulsing cock twitched as it searched for that moist waiting hole of pleasure on its own, and he gave in. “Just for tonight, I’ll love you.” Her hips reached up to greet him and take him home even as her arms brought him down to her for another kiss.

  V

  With a small bag of gold and jewels, another satchel of dried meat, fruits, cheese and bread slung over her shoulder, Alena knocked on Raven’s door. He didn’t answer but he wasn’t sleeping, that she was sure of because she heard the voices from the television that she’d made Ares bring him several weeks ago. Lately Raven had taken to coming into her room at night with Spirit Walker, he curled up in her bed just as he did when he was very little and watched the TV with her. While she loved having him with her, all curled up warm and happy at her side with the wolf at their feet just as any good family should be, Raven’s new desire to be near her left her feeling strange. She didn’t like the feel of his head and hand resting on her breasts now; they were almost those of a man and no longer a boy. While she couldn’t leave Olympus on her own, she could retrieve things from the mortal world and so Alena got Raven his own television. He didn’t come to her room in the night anymore. Tonight Raven was watching the news and talking to himself.

  “Won’t be long now.”

  Alena put her ear closer to the door to hear the announcer’s mumbled voice but she couldn’t make out what he was saying. The tone of his voice seemed very somber, even worried. She made out a few words such as ‘conflict’ and ‘no diplomatic solution’ along with ‘middle east’ before she knocked again.

  “What?” Raven asked in a huff.

  “Open the door.”

  “Mom?” She almost never came to his room late at night. Something must be wrong. He got off his bed and walked across the room wondering what it was. Surely she didn’t want to confide in him about what Ares was up to tonight. Then he noticed the bags over her shoulder. She looked like one those hobo cartoons where the scruffy guy hangs everything he owns in a kerchief off a stick. Well, if the stick wasn’t her Staff and there weren’t a bow and arrow slung over her back. “What are you doing?”

  Alena was afraid of how Raven would take the news of their sudden departure so she reached out for his hand. “You have to come with me now, we’re leaving here.” Alena started pulling him toward the door. “You should grab anything you really want. Get your spear.”

  “Want? Wait,” Raven pulled back until she let go. “What are you talking about? Where are we going?”

  Alena walked into his room and put a hand on his young shoulder as she reached into her pocket to produce the talisman Cernunnos gave her. “Here, we’re going here.”

  Raven’s eyes grew wide at the sight of it in her hand, he knew that tree and he’d asked Ares about it, but Ares ignored him. “Where is it?”

  “I’m not sure, but we’ll find it together.”

  Yes, he was going to find that tree one day, he was going to find and burn it to the ground destroying all who lived beneath it. Then he would come back to Olympus with the most beautiful and desirable women of the Dark Kingdom he could find. He’d present them to Zeus and the Old Man would declare Raven a true Olympian on the spot. But, if she didn’t even know where it was and neither did he, then Raven had no plans of leaving his warm plush home to go traipsing around the forests of the Celts. “What the hell are you talking about? Have you been drinking or something?” Behind him, the anchorman kept talking about ‘the tense situation’, Raven turned off the TV even though he was anxious to hear the rest of the report. His mother never watched the news, she hated it, she only watched those crime dramas and the Red Sox. He’d been making damn sure of that these past few weeks.

  “What? No, of course not. Raven, please, listen to me, we have to leave here quickly before Ares returns or the women wake up.” Alena grabbed his hand and started pulling him toward the door once more.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you.” He tried to wiggle out of her grasp again but it was too strong and Alena kept dragging him to the door.

  “You don’t belong here and neither do I. I know you can see what they’re doing to us, for god’s sake, they killed Trinity and you could be next.” As they got to the hall and the top of the steep marble staircase she turned to him and put her hand on his cheek. “We’re going to some place safe, some place far away from here.”

  “I don’t think you understand, mother, Trinity died because she was weak and foolish but I’m not. I’m strong because I am an Olympian.”

  “You’re Fey like me,”

  “I’m not a Fae! Do you see me running naked through the woods and swinging through the trees like some savage monkey?”

  “They’re poisoning you against me, please Raven, listen to me, you don’t belong here, we must go.” She pulled on his arm but Raven resisted. “I’m your mother, please, for once just do as I say. I love you, I’m trying to protect you.”

  “I’m an Olympian, I don’t need your protection…mother. Go back to your room.” Insulted and suddenly irate at being called a Fae, Raven wrenched his arm away from her. “But you can’t do it alone, can you, Fae? I am an Olympian, that’s why you need me to come with you. So that I can open the Gate and you can make your escape from my Father just like your treacherous ungrateful ancestors before you, isn’t it…whore?”

  “Raven, please stop this, just come with me and everything will be all right.”

  Raven smelled fear and he sensed weakness. As a young Ares would have done, Raven went straight for the jugular. “That’s all you are to him, you know. My Father, he’s in love with Aphrodite, that’s where he is now, in her arms, deep in her hot snatch, indulging in every inch of her as they laugh at you and your foolish filthy Celtic heart.”

  “Stop it!”

  “I know you feel it mother.” Raven closed his eyes, drew in a deep breath and let out a heavy moan. “I do. He’s making love to her right now and enjoying it, tonight it’s no chore. You feel it in that weak heart of yours. It’s why you’re so agitated and why he drugs you with tea. So you don’t feel what he’s doing and how lost he is in it…with her.” A sly smile crossed his lips as he watched his mother clasp the hand holding the talisman over her mouth in horror and she started backing away from him. The silver weeping willow swung back and forth near her lips. “They have other plans for you, you know. Like Hyas, when I turn sixteen and I start my trials they’ll give me a Bacchanalia and what Fae do you think they’ll present me with?” His strange serpent-like eyes cast down to the medallion, “Unless you can give them others, that is. What do you say, mother? Trade a few young Faes for your own freedom?” Raven snatched the talisman from her hand and looped it around his neck before she could grab it back from him. “I’ll open the Gates, you show me where they are, and I’ll take the ones I want and say you escaped.”

  What a wicked little barter. “No, no.”

  “Your life, my Sister’s life, and your freedom in return for a handful of women you don’t even know, certainly it’s a good bargain, mom.” Fingering the medallion now hanging around his neck, he smiled for her.

  Alena felt a wave of disgust wash of her when he called her mom. How could she have given life to such a wily little demon? It wasn’t too late, she could save him, turn him around, if she could just get him to come with her. “None of this true, Raven, listen to me, they’re messing with your mind. Even Ares wouldn’t allow this.” />
  “Oh, mother, yes, he would, he is Ares after all, why do you think he brought you here? It wasn’t love. You let him fool you, charm you, trick you into thinking he cares, it’s all a game to him.” Raven started reaching out for her. “I am his son. So when that day comes, for defying me, for not allowing me to be accepted and making me an outcast, I’ll show you the meaning of the word whore. Just the like rest, Ares’ whore, Cernunnos’ whore…Apollo’s whore…next you’re mine. Then, when she’s ready, my sister,” his hands lowered to reach for the baby bulge in her stomach but Alena kept backing away. So he kept coming forward with long slow steps. “Don’t worry mother, I promise I’ll break her in right. Me, Ares, Eros…Apollo, yes, she will be very well…loved.”

  Feeling trapped and revolted, fresh hot tears stung her eyes as they caused her throat to clench with an iron fist. “Please, Raven, I love you.”

  Raven shook his head as he held her gaze. “If you loved me you wouldn’t have stood in my way, you’d want me to be all that I can be. But you did and you don’t. Just tell me where they are and I’ll take you away from here.”

  There she was, face to face with the abomination Cernunnos predicted: a powerful maniac who would bring glory to Ares and pain to her. It was all true, all of it. She couldn’t stand looking into those strangely hypnotic eyes of his and it took all that Alena had to break his stare. With a great rush, she turned away from him with the intent to run down the stairs but there was nothing below her foot when it pivoted in the other direction.