OF WAR Anthology Novels 1-3 Read online

  Alena nodded just once.

  “The Curse of Being a Woman, right?”

  “No, it’s the curse of being a woman in a man’s world.” The moment grew heavy with silence.

  Onya took her first sip of the tea. It smelled funny, almost like old sweat socks, but there was light floral scent to it as well. The taste was slightly bitter but had the tang of oranges; overall it was very tasty and soothing, like Alena’s touch. “It must have been nice, having parents who cared about you, or at least, ya know, liked you.”

  Alena uttered what most other people might. “I’m sure your parents loved you very much.” Without thinking about it, she slipped her hand around Onya’s and ran her thumb across it in long slow strokes.

  “No, they didn’t,” Onya said with a frown. “My parents loved booze and parties. Me? Nah. I was just in the way. I was just one of the things you’re supposed to do.” Alena looked at her with questions in those stormy eyes. “You know, you’re supposed to grow up. You’re supposed to get a job. You’re supposed to get married. You’re supposed to have kids,” she rattled off quickly. “Someone forgot to tell them that when you have kids another thing you’re supposed to do is stop staying out to all hours of the night all week long and drinking so much.”

  “Is that how you came to be here with Lord Ares?”

  Onya shrugged her aching shoulders and took a long drink of the tea. “Sorta, I guess. The reasons I came here, they don’t matter I guess, let’s just say he offered me a home when I needed one.”

  “Well, that was nice of him.” Although she didn’t mean it, Alena’s voice held a tone of disbelief.

  “Yeah, and, well, ya gotta admit they don’t come much hotter than him.” Onya bit down on her bottom lip in spite of the pain and her eyes lit up.

  “I suppose he’s all right,” Alena agreed softly, thinking the tea was already starting to do its job. “If you like them big, brawny and brooding, that is.”

  The teacup was almost empty now, just about two swallows left. Lips to the cup, just one swallow left. It was nice to be sitting drinking tea and making a bit of girl chat instead of dwelling on earlier events of the day. Somehow it made things seem normal again. “All right?” Onya asked with a slight giggle. “I don’t know what guys look like where you come from but I’m from LA where everyone’s a star,” Onya coaxed as her head began to buzz. Alena didn’t say anything, she just sat there quietly looking at Onya, but she was blushing just the slightest bit. “Oh come on, Alena, it’s just you and me, he’s gorgeous, admit it, you think so, too.”

  Yes, the tea was definitely taking hold. Soon she’d start to feel sleepy. “All right, fine, he’s handsome.”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Onya chided and drank the last of the tea. “It’s not, you know.” She stopped for another second, not sure if she should go on but since Alena had been so very good to her today Onya thought she’d chance it and she looked up to meet Alena’s sweet gaze. “You’re wrong, you know.”

  “About what?”

  “I’m not his favorite woman.”

  “Not from where I’m standing.” Onya was not present at the poker game and on the nights Ares allowed one or two of his guards into his bedroom, Onya was never there. To Alena, it was clear Ares kept the girl for himself and there had to be a reason for that. “I think he cares for you very much.” It might not be a bad thing to use the few minutes of euphoria Onya was feeling to poke around about the God of War. Alena took the empty cup from Onya’s hand and put it on the nightstand. “Don’t you think him capable of loving you?”

  “What is it anyway? Love, I mean.” She’d like to think Ares capable of feeling, possessing, and giving genuine affection, but couldn’t say for sure. “He’s not so bad once you get to know him, you know?”

  “Is that right?” Alena asked, making note of the fact that Onya had nicely avoided answering her question.

  “Yeah. He’s not all bad.” She rolled her eyes and rethought. “Not all good either, but not all bad.” She looked up at Alena with eyes that were beginning to grow heavy. “He can be quite gentle and even tender at times. Just ya know, so you know.” Onya thought Alena might find Ares a bit intimidating especially for a first lover and the sounds she must hear in the night might be frightening. Ares did tend to be a very vigorous lover, sometimes overzealous. Onya had seen her share of days where she was unable to walk after being with him the night before, and she’d seen the bodies leave his bedroom. She never blamed him, not directly; she pitied him for it, even thought him cursed by the Gods. A man with so much passion, yet he was unable to express it without great risk, well, that hardly seemed fair. Surely he was cursed, wasn’t he? There was a heat between them; Onya felt it whenever Ares and Alena were in the same room with each other. (So had Kat) No one missed the way they tried not to look at each other and how they just couldn’t help themselves from doing it anyway. Onya wanted to let Alena know that it was possible Ares wasn’t an absolutely terrible choice for her first time and that she was not in Alena’s way.

  “Well, thank you. I’ll keep that in mind. But I’m not like you, I’m Fey. I can’t do the things you do,” Alena said, hoping to leave it at that.

  “Why not?”

  “The first man a woman like me takes to her bed, he will hold her heart forever. Even if they part and she never sees him again, she will always love him,” Alena explained quietly. “Do you think Ares would take good care of something as delicate as my heart?”

  Onya’s eyes were growing heavy but she gave a little smile. “That’s kinda romantic,” she mumbled.

  “If you say so. You rest.” Alena ran her hand along Onya’s brow before bending down to kiss it and giving her hand a last squeeze.

  “Thank you,” Onya said quietly as she looked up at Alena with her big green eyes. “I would have liked having a Mom like you.”

  “I’m no one’s mother,” Alena returned softly, “and I never will be, but thank you. I think I would greatly enjoy having a daughter like you.” Alena walked through the open door into the hallway, turned around, closed the door, locked it, slid the key beneath and stood up. She didn’t have to turn around to see him standing behind her, she felt Ares there when she came out of the room. “Do you always skulk around in the shadows listening to people’s private conversations?”

  “It’s my home. Nothing is private from me.”

  “How much of that did you hear?”

  “Almost enough.” Ares would have heard all of it if he hadn’t been busy building a massive pyre upon which to burn the bodies. He spent several moments speaking with the Golden Hind and his men regarding the day’s events before returning to the cave.

  “Kat?”

  “Dead.” There was no emotion in his voice.

  Now she did turn around to look at him standing in the shadows at the end of the hall, behind the torches burning so brightly. “Good, she deserved it. I would have done it myself but, ah, well…”

  Ares got his first good look at Alena since yesterday. Her forehead was split open, as was her lip and her cheek. She had a black eye. All of which went untended while she took care of Onya. Although she was battered, Ares thought she looked quite beautiful standing there fresh from the heat of a victorious battle. This was what he had expected from Kat when he left her in charge of the island—that she would intervene, stand up, and if necessary fight for those who lived here when he could not—and she had so bitterly disappointed him. “I wanted the privilege,” Ares clarified and stepped out of the shadows. “Don’t you think I deserved that? After all they are, were, both mine.”

  To do with whatever you please, she thought but did not say. “One still remains; you should go in and sit with her.” She hadn’t seen him this morning before he left to wherever he’d gone and the seconds she saw him in the cave were a blur. Therefore, this was the first time she’d seen him in mortal street clothes. He could easily walk among Mortals and no one would ever know a thing. In fact, he lo
oked rather handsome in the blue jeans they seemed to fit rather nicely. The hoodie was also a good fit but it would better if it weren’t covered in blood.

  “Soothing wounded women isn’t exactly my forte,” Ares countered quietly as he took in the ripped and bloodied gown. Under the blood and the dirt, there were a great many dusty golden handprints on her white dress and they bothered him. Everywhere he went Apollo left that crap behind. Seemed Kat decided to end her life with truthful words rather than lies; perhaps she hoped Hades would take pity on her immortal soul, but more likely she was trying to get Alena into trouble and buy herself time along with a bit of Ares’ favor. From the looks of the remains of that dress, Apollo had not only been here, he’d had his hands all over Alena during his stay. “I think we need to talk.”

  That was undeniable. “Yes, we do. First, show her she’s right about you—even if she isn’t. Go and sit with her. Fifteen minutes and she’ll be sound asleep.” Favoring her right foot and leaving little bloody footprints in her wake, Alena began to make her way down the corridor and away from Ares.

  Looking down at the fresh prints, Ares called out her name in a strong voice and watched her turn around to face him. “Thank you for taking care of my Young One.” She smiled just a little then turned around again and went on her way as he teleported inside the bedroom.

  2

  Onya was sleepy just as Alena had said and she was surprised to see him come into the room. “Hi.”

  “Hi,” Ares returned, trying to find something in him that was mellow so that his anger wouldn’t show. Onya knew him too well.

  “Mad at me?”

  “No, but I am still furious with them for doing this to you.” He sat his large body down on the edge of the bed and took her hand, putting the key into it as he did. “Just so you know, the men are outside for the night, I’ve slid the boulder into place. No one will get in here. No one will bother you.”

  “They’re dead, aren’t they? Alena killed Nicco and Scopas.”

  “Yes. Kat will never bother you again, this I can promise. Now, what can I do for you?”

  Taking the big warm hand engulfing hers, she rubbed it along her cheek. “This is nice.” Onya’s reply was a little slurred as sleep began to creep over her.

  “Good.” Ares had no idea of what he was supposed to say or do; he only knew what he wanted to say and what he wanted to do. He wanted to ask her if she’d seen Apollo on the island today. Wanted to ask her just what happened to her and how she allowed it. Most of those things were already answered for him thanks to his prior eavesdropping. Not to mention the earful he got from his six remaining men as he built his pyres and set the bodies ablaze. They all swore to hell and back they had nothing to do with it, they had no idea it was going to happen and if they had, they would have stopped it. He believed them when the Hind backed them up and told him she’d been watching Alena as he asked when she heard Onya scream. She interrupted Alena’s little chat with Apollo and off they went. In light of all that, Ares felt there was little left to say but there was one thing he wanted to know. “Why did you say those things about me to Alena?”

  “I thought she should know.”

  “I did not.”

  “Playing coy? You know she likes you.”

  “Likes me?”

  “Oh please, at your age playing stupid doesn’t suit you either but coy’s kinda cute.” Onya giggled deep in her euphoric haze. “You know you like her, too.”

  At first, he was prepared to blame her behavior, in part, on the impetuousness of youth. In fact, Ares was at an age where he was beginning to believe that youth was utterly and completely wasted on the young. Then he picked up the empty teacup by the bed and sniffed deeply; valerian root mainly, it smelled badly but Alena covered that with orange peel, hops and St. John’s Wort. Not only would Onya be out in fifteen minutes she’d sleep right through the night, probably without feeling a single care in the world. That was good. Putting the cup down once more, he tucked the blankets around her. “Here you are suffering and you try to play matchmaker?” He bestowed a kiss on her forehead as he slid his hand along the curve of Onya’s bruised cheek. “I’m sorry, Onya, I never should have brought you here. You were too young, too sweet. This is my fault.” He meant that. Alena said it was her fault, but she was wrong. If he’d never brought Onya here, this would not have happened to her. He had all the money he could ever want; he should have just given her a hefty sum and let her live a good life in a safe place she could call her own home. He should send her back to the Mortal World with that load of money so she could have that good life. If he could trust anyone to keep the secret of his existence, it was she. “I promised to protect you and I failed you.” What Kat and the others didn’t know, and Ares would never forget, was Ares kept Onya away from the other men because they terrified her. The day after her initiation Ares found her, a terrified sixteen year-old girl—far too young to be here with him and to live this way—weeping by the waterfall. That in itself was not anything far out of the ordinary, often young women had second thoughts the day after they had been the object of an orgy. She had begged him not to make her do that again or to kill her if he could not promise this. She would do whatever he wanted with him and the women, but not the men. This was not an odd request under such circumstances and one he’d heard a few dozen times before, but this time it was followed by the news of her uncle and the baby she lost. In utter desperation, she cried that she would rather be dead than have them crawling all over her ever again. Onya had been so serious that Ares promised not to make her go through it again. He would rather have her alive than dead.

  Onya never saw Ares look so sad, upset, or sincere. It took some effort now that the herbs were gently taking hold, but Onya sat up and put her arms around his neck. “You’re really not all bad, you know that, right?”

  “If you say so.” Ares returned the embrace. “You know I care for you, don’t you? I care deeply for you.”

  Ares cared for her, yes he did, Onya was sure of that. He cared if she was well, if she was sick, if she was injured, if she was on her cycle—well, not so much about that one—but that was the extent of it. More the way would care for a pet than the way one would care about a lover. She often thought if one day he should wash her, brush her, and scratch her behind the ear she would not be surprised. There was a huge difference between caring for your pet and making sure it was happy, healthy, well-fed, and caring about the person with whom you shared your bed. When Onya first came here such trivialities seemed, well, trivial. Now that she was getting to be just a little bit older, maybe such things were important after all. This seemed to be what Alena was asking herself. Onya felt that Alena did not want to be treated like the family Saint Bernard or the Master’s Pump. Onya couldn’t say she blamed her. “I know.”

  “Do you want me to stay here with you? I’ll hold you close and keep watch over you all through the night.” That wasn’t what he wanted but he would do it. Besides, if her eyes and her sleepy tone of voice were any indication, Alena was quite right. Soon Onya would be asleep and he could sneak out of this bed.

  “No.” She snuggled down under the soft blankets, keeping his hand to her cheek. “Good night, my Lord.”

  Turning down the oil lamp by the bed, he kissed her cheek before getting up and using his magick to stoke the fire for her. “Sleep well, Onya. If you need me I am here.”

  Onya sighed as she snuggled her face against the soft pillow and muttered, “Be nice to her. Don’t blow it.”

  3

  Shaking his grinning head, Ares disappeared from the bedroom and reappeared in his own where he expected to find Alena waiting for him, but the room was empty. The footlocker he found earlier was at the foot of the bed unopened. His remaining women were in their chamber. Even with the door closed he could hear them talking about what happened today and where this left all of them. Now they had no leader, no Den Mother—not that Kat ever really filled that bill—the hierarchy was in a tumble and they
were unsure what to do. Strange, he didn’t hear one of them say they were sorry to see Kat go, they would miss her, or even that they had liked her. They seemed more relieved than anything that Kat was no longer among them. As to Nicco and Scopas, he heard conversations of assholes, pricks, and only being upset that Alena didn’t get to them sooner. Ares knew Kat wasn’t liked very much by the women, but he’d been unaware they thought so little of his two best guards or that they had caused the women so much trouble over the years.

  Opening the bedroom door, he went down the long narrow staircase to the throne room, wondering what little corner of his home Alena decided to make her bed in for the night. He almost walked right past her; if his fine tuned ears hadn’t caught the subtle sound of her labored breathing, he would have done just that. She’d hidden herself on the other side of his throne, by the fire. When he looked over the arm he saw her pressed against the bones with her knees huddled up to her chin. To his unamused surprise, she had the damn chastity belt in her hand.

  “What are you doing?”

  Alena let out a little cry as his face came into view; it descended from above and was upside down. For the very first time, for her to look him in the eye, she had to look down. It took her a moment to realize he was kneeling on the throne above her and bending downward. “Will you put this back on me?” she stuttered as her eyes focused. A few moments ago, she’d tried to do it herself but it wouldn’t lock for her.

  Ares looked at her closely and took his time in answering. Her stormy eyes glimmered with tears as she sat there shaking. The endorphins that had kept her running and charging ahead without feeling a thing were fleeing; dark circles were forming under those lost eyes, normally rosy cheeks were ashen, streaked with tears, dirt and blood, and had a golden-bronze shimmer to them where Apollo had touched her jaw and her cheek. “Please?”

  “No. Don’t ask me that again.” Ares snatched it out of her hand and tossed it into the fire. It landed on top of the burning logs and simply sat there while the flames licked it. “You can’t hide behind that forever, Alena. Do you want to spend the rest of your life a prisoner to Cernunnos even though he is nowhere to be seen?” Ares chided.