Incubus

by Celia Aaron

  “Cranfel!”

  The goblin sat up with a jerk and rubbed his bulging eyes. “Wha-whaa?”

  I didn’t have time for this. I needed to find out where Lilah was. Needed to know she was safe.

  “Where is she?”

  “Where’s who?” Cranfel appeared dazed from whatever dream he’d been having.

  Hurt him. Make him tell! The demon prodded me to strike the goblin into remembering, but I stayed my hand.

  “The girl. Lilah. Where is she?” I bit out, though it took every ounce of willpower I had not to shake Cranfel until the answers came tumbling out of him.

  Awake and aware now, the goblin’s look changed from sleepy to shifty.

  “I believe we agreed upon a payment?” The goblin jammed a crooked finger up his nose.

  A cold wind eddied around Cranfel, who suddenly stopped digging for gold and focused on my face.

  My eyes had gone fully demon, and I was close to unleashing the incubus. “You tell me what you know right now or the gods themselves won’t be able to save you from my wrath.”

  The goblin cowered on the sofa. “She-she went to the weapons shop. And-and-and—”

  “And what!” I roared, my voice shaking the house and causing plaster dust to fall from the ceiling.

  “And then she went to Istanbul.” The goblin covered his face with his hands.

  “After that?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know. But I found out she’d been there before. Had visited an outfitter in town to get ready for a trip to Thrace about a year ago!” he shrieked as I glowered at him.

  The goblin’s words sank in. It was as if I had the wind knocked out of me. For there was only one thing in Thrace, only one reason to ever visit those godforsaken lands. Ares, the Bloody One.

  I dropped into an armchair, my fury subsiding into a slow understanding. No, not her.

  But the words I’d overheard that night when Lilah was telling Apollo about her service to Artemis came to my mind. She said she’d do anything to get back to her sisters. I supposed that included convincing an incubus she cared for him and then turning him over to the sadistic god of war for endless tortures. I kicked the dainty coffee table, sending it flying into the wall. The vase full of flowers broke and spilled piles of roses and peonies all over the floor. Cranfel, still in the room, woke from his paralysis of fright and ran screaming.

  Find her!

  “She’s gone!” I yelled in frustration, for the first time wishing I could see the incubus in flesh and blood so I could pound it into nothing.

  Mine, the demon said resolutely.

  The thought of her silky hair flowing through my fingers, my name rolling off her lilting tongue—it all cut into me like a barb I knew I’d never remove. Every second she’d been with me had been one leading to betrayal. It was all a ruse to ensnare me into a deadly trap.

  I could guess the arrangement—Ares had convinced Lilah to come after me, likely with a promise of reuniting her with her sisters and Artemis. A lie of course, for Ares was hated by all the gods, Artemis not the least among them. The Bloody One would never be able to give Lilah what she sought, yet still he convinced her to do his dirty work. She was that desperate to return home, to try and make amends for the wrongs perpetrated by Farrow. She was a fool to believe Ares’s lies just as I was a fool to believe Lilah’s.

  I cursed the incubus and myself for ever laying a finger on Aphrodite, Ares’s obsession. It had been years ago, but it was like the blink of an eye to the gods, and the god of war never forgot a slight. And now Ares had convinced Lilah to pretend to care for me. I wanted to feel disgust for her, but all I felt was an emptiness in my heart where she belonged.

  Gave herself, the incubus reminded me, trying to temper my anger. This was a first, the incubus trying to tame me.

  But the demon was right. Lilah had given herself, all of herself, to me. I’d felt her need for me, knew she cared. And I’d fallen for her, still desperate for her touch, her face, even as the thought of her betrayal scorched my heart.

  No betrayal, the incubus whispered.

  I ignored the incubus’s words, but it softly repeated them over and over again. I thought I’d go mad from the incubus’s broken-record routine and was on the verge of tearing the chateau down room by room to shut out the sound until the full import of the incubus’s words hit me.

  Lilah failed Ares. She hadn’t turned me over. Instead, she had gone to that evil valley of Thrace without her prize, and the Bloody One would be none too happy with her. When Ares found out she’d failed, he would surely… I hitched in a breath, the thought falling like the Sword of Damocles on my head. When Ares found out that Lilah did not complete his task, he would surely kill her.

  Any thought I had after that was blotted out by the cacophony of every piece of glass in the chateau freezing and shattering into a million pieces.

  50

  Lilah

  I had finally made it to the gaping pit that stank of blood and death. There was no turning back. I would never see Roth or my sisters again. Instead of sadness, an anger settled inside me. Fury such as I’d never known simmered in my veins, goading me onward and speeding my steps down the dreaded staircase. Hurting Ares was the only thing that kept me going, and my hatred of him was like a dose of kerosene on a low-burning fire.

  The bodies littering the stairwell had changed from the last time I’d visited, and I wondered if my headless corpse would soon join them. The macabre thought made me ready my bow, nocking an arrow as I took the final few steps down to the cave floor. The same river of blood and dark throne greeted me, but the god of war was nowhere to be seen. I approached the throne carefully and noted the hourglass had but a few drops left. Time’s up.

  A tsk-tsking echoed through the air. “You failed me.”

  I backed up until I was wedged behind a stalagmite that shot up through the floor.

  “I knew you wanted to be my slave.” Ares’s voice, soaked through with the darkest evil, permeated the cavernous space.

  “I’ll have to pass, but you can always be mine.”

  Ares appeared in front of his throne, clad in robes of the purest white, though bloodstains, likely from his most recent victim, marred the front. His visage was as before, handsome but for the dark heart of hate and malice that dwelled within. He looked around, not seeming to know where I was hidden.

  His lips turned up in a smirk and his cruel laughter echoed through the chamber. “You invite my wrath? Unwise, little immortal.”

  “How’s this for inviting wrath?” I lobbed a magic bomb that landed at Ares’s feet. He looked down the instant it exploded, as if on cue.

  I didn’t flinch, only nocked an explosive arrow and let it fly. Though I couldn’t see him, I aimed for where he’d been. A boom shook the earth, a groan followed, and I knew I’d hit my mark.

  Ducking behind the stone, I peered out warily as the god ripped what was left of my arrow from his right arm as if he were swatting a fly. A tiny trickle of blood flowed from the wound.

  “So gods can bleed.” Taunting him gave me strength.

  “Not as much as you will.” He appeared behind me. But I knew his tricks and was ready for him, embedding my dagger deep into his torso. His eyes gave the slightest sign of surprise before he grabbed my wrist and twisted the blade inside him. He smiled, as if enjoying the pain. “You can’t kill me, Lilah. You’re just turning me on.”

  “Yeah?” I brought my knee up into his groin.

  Ares let go of my wrist and howled with pain.

  “Works like a charm,” I said, “And speaking of that—” I opened my palm and blew a pile of pixie dust into his face, blinding him for a short while as I darted away to find another hiding place.

  “You bitch.” His voice nearly deafened me with its ferocity. “You will pay a thousandfold for everything you’ve done.”

  I should have been shaking in my boots, but the thrill of battle exhilarated me. Mine would be an end any warrior would be prou
d of.

  I nocked two more specialty arrows and arced them into the air, knowing they’d land exactly where I’d just been and where, hopefully, Ares was still crying like a baby.

  Another, louder boom and a roar of rage told me I’d hit my target, so I lobbed two more magic bombs into the general vicinity before climbing a stone embankment at the side of the cavern. I found a perch on a ledge almost twenty feet from the ground and scooted back from the edge so I could see without being seen.

  Only a few moments passed before Ares stalked out into the center of the cavern, searching every nook and cranny for any sign of me. I held my breath as his gaze traveled over my hiding place; he seemed to linger for a moment before continuing his slow turn.

  I nocked two more broadheads, aiming for the back of the god’s neck. This is gonna leave a mark. I released, but in the next second, I was falling. The stone floor rushed up to meet me as I landed hard, my left arm snapping from the impact. I gritted my teeth against the pain as I rolled onto my back.

  Stunned, I reached for my daggers with my right hand, but it was wrenched above my head as Ares straddled me, his face cut and bruised and his eyes deep wells of hatred.

  “Now it’s my turn.” The flash of his fist was the last thing I saw.

  51

  Roth

  I crept down the circling stairs, silent as a shadow. I didn’t allow myself to ponder Lilah’s fate. In Istanbul, I’d just missed her, barely catching a glimpse of her pale skin and dark hair as she sped away from me in a rented car. She’d never even registered I was there, though she passed the corner where I stood. Her eyes were haunted, not seeing, yet she drove like the devil was chasing her. But I knew it was the other way around.

  I’d only now managed to catch up with her. Navigating the maze of this cursed valley had proven difficult. The thought of Lilah making this treacherous journey alone set me even more on edge, but I followed after her.

  There was only one plan, one way to retrieve her from the god of war. I would offer myself to save her. Ares would stop at nothing to have my body hanging in the crater of rot and death that marred the black obsidian walls of the cave. And I would stop at nothing to see Lilah safe.

  I padded down the final steps, avoiding a pile of skin and bones that lay in a heap at its base. The whole place was eerily silent, and there was no sign of Lilah. I wouldn’t let myself think the worst, couldn’t. If I even believed for a second Lilah was gone, I wouldn’t be able to take another step. So I pushed the dark thoughts aside and followed the river of blood that no doubt led to Ares.

  A gaping cavern lay before me, the roof soaring overhead like the ceiling of a hellish cathedral. What little light showed there was immediately swallowed up by the blackness of the stone and the chill that hung in the air. If dread were palpable, it would feel like this.

  I edged around, sighting the throne on top of a dais surrounded by a moat of blood, but no Ares. Crouching behind an outcropping of stone, I let my senses reach out to Lilah.

  An agonized scream cut through the air, and I thought my entire body would shatter. It was Lilah, and she was in pain. The incubus roared to life within me, its power pulsing through my veins and sinews. MINE!

  In an instant, I was on my feet, rushing headlong toward the sound. My scabbard and satchel jingled against each other as I ran, but I couldn’t stop. Nothing could keep me from her. I hurdled the throne and continued at breakneck speed, spying an opening in the stone at the rear of the room. I made for it, dashing through and darting down another stairway, this one even more narrow and precarious. Another scream cut me to the bone, and I was moving faster now, my surroundings a blur. I finally hit the bottom and took off through a long corridor. Lilah’s groans wafted to my ears through the icy air. She was in a room up ahead, the door slightly ajar.

  I slowed and forced myself to approach the door cautiously. Creeping closer, I moved so that I could barely see through the crack in the doorway.

  What I saw made the frozen circle of hell seem like a summer’s day.

  52

  Lilah

  I couldn’t take much more, and Ares had only just begun. After my capture, I’d awoken to find my arms and legs pinned to an upright stone table. The room was littered with body parts, grotesque trophies prized by the god of war. I could make out what must have been his bed to my right, covered in luxurious satin and animal skins. It was totally incongruous in the hellish pit.

  To my left were various instruments of torture hanging from metal hooks, all coated in congealed blood. A shudder racked my body, fear threatening to overtake any thought of escape I might have had. If only I could work my hands free, I could summon my bow. I ripped at the bonds, but they didn’t budge and only cut into my wrists as I struggled. I was naked, pinned helplessly to the wall, and no one was coming for me. No one even knew I was here.

  A tear trickled down my cheek as I realized the tortures I was about to endure for the gods only knew how long. I choked down a sob, fearing the sound would bring Ares.

  But he was already with me. He strolled in through the door as if he were walking through the gardens of Olympus. He had changed, now wearing clean robes of a pale ivory. No amount of finery could cloak the sinister malevolence that owned his heart. His eyes were a testament to that fact.

  He approached me and licked the tear off my face as I futilely tried to wrench my body away from him. It was over. I had failed, and was now powerless to move, bound against my will, and enslaved to the most evil being on heaven or earth.

  “Let’s have some fun before we get to the best part.” He threw a glance to the bed. His face was so close to mine that I could feel his breath along my cheek. At his words, I desperately tried to bring my knees together, the binds on my ankles digging into my flesh.

  Ares tsked, his mouth right next to my ear. “That just won’t do. I want to be the one to hurt you.”

  With that, he sliced a deep cut across my collarbone with one of the blades Roth had given me. I screamed, the agony searing into me as my blood flowed.

  “That’s more like it.” Ares took a step back, admiring his handiwork. “But we have a long way to go before we’re even, don’t you think?” He motioned to a smattering of cuts on his face that were almost healed.

  I bit the inside of my cheek to stifle another scream and let my head fall forward to avoid his satisfied gaze.

  Ares gripped my chin hard and pulled my face up so I could look into his eyes, his soul. “I haven’t bled in centuries.” His anger was like a vise crushing my mind.

  Ares cut me again, this time slithering the blade against my breast. Another cry escaped my lips, and the god of war smiled sweetly, as if the sound were akin to a baby’s laugh or puppies playing.

  “Now you’re going to bleed for a thousand years to pay for what you did to me.” He trailed a hand through my blood as if finger-painting on my body. His gaze froze on my bloodied breast, and his tongue darted out, wetting his lips.

  I recoiled as far as I could back into my stone prison.

  “I’ve changed my mind. Let’s skip the foreplay.” Ares bent down to release my ankles from the bonds.

  As soon as my left leg was free, I aimed a kick at his face, but he was far too fast. He caught my calf and sank his teeth into it. I cried out when he punctured my flesh, ripping through my skin and into the bone.

  “Do that again and I’ll bite you up higher.” He licked my blood from his lips and cast a glance to my sex.

  I shuddered, unable to control my weakness.

  He released my right leg as I frantically tried to think of a way to escape him, or a way to make him kill me.

  “I know what you’re thinking.” He stood back up to his full height, towering over me as he unbound my hands from the wall and shoved them into a set of manacles. “But I won’t kill you. Not until I’ve wrung every last bit of blood and spirit out of you.”

  He lifted me and threw me onto the bed. I sank back, trying to melt into the sheets. I
was a caged animal. There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide from the god of war. Nowhere I’d be safe. I clutched the blanket to me and wanted to clench my eyes shut, but I couldn’t. I was too scared to look away from him. Too afraid of what he would do.

  I was so close to the weapons Ares had used on his victims, but the only way to them was through the god. No chance. Even my bow was no use to my bound hands.

  Ares began disrobing, enjoying the stricken look on my face. “In the end, you’ll beg me to kill you, but I won’t.”

  He threw his outer robe on the floor and reached for his belt, a look of spite mixed with desire on his face. I would fight him until the last. No male could take what was not given.

  It couldn’t be over. I wouldn’t let it. I did the only thing I could think of. Artemis, Goddess, hear my plea. Forgive me for my sins against you and save me from this fate. Hear my plea, hear my plea, hear my plea.

  I was still praying as Ares sprang his massive sex from the last of his clothing and stalked toward me. When his icy grasp closed around my wrist and yanked me to the edge of the bed, my terrified scream joined the countless others that had echoed through the stony chamber.

  53

  Roth

  LILAH fought Ares and screamed as he tried to climb on top of her. Then I literally saw red. Lit with the inner fire of the incubus, nothing would keep me from her. Not even a god.

  I rushed through the door, swinging it so hard it crashed into the wall and erupted into chunks of shattered stone.

  Lunging at Ares, I gripped him around the throat and ripped him from Lilah. I had already readied a dagger and sank it into the god’s heart, twisting it for emphasis.

  Ares had been too preoccupied with his prize to even consider such an attack, and no doubt the idea of someone getting the drop on the god in his own lair was inconceivable to the Bloody One.