by Anna Edwards
She looks away from the mirror to me. I notice the tears streaming down her cheeks. I’m down on my knees for this woman and crawling toward her as quickly as I can. I wrap my arms around her and hold her as tightly as possible.
“Beautiful,” she mumbles into my chest. I pull back.
“My Goddess of Beauty,” I reply and kiss her. I can taste remnants of myself on her lips. I search her face for any signs of distress, but I find only peace.
“I’m ready, Mars. I want to learn to be the goddess I am.”
Chapter Eighteen
VICKY
Glancing across the piazza, I observe the people bustling around in the heat of the afternoon sun. Although small, the village is a busy place. A rustic gem tucked away in the Tuscan countryside. It has a certain charm to its laid-back air. The buildings are white-walled and welcoming.
With a natural hot spring located a mile outside, it’s the perfect spot for tourists and Italians on summer vacation.
My attention returning to the male sitting across from me, I offer him a smile.
He’s dressed handsomely in a loose, white cotton shirt and a pair of jeans. Even though he’s clothed to blend in, his looks stir attention around us. Men admire him, and women swoon at the perfect specimen of masculinity.
Mars’ eyes soften as they meet mine.
“Thank you for bringing me out to lunch,” I tell him, lifting the glass of peach iced tea. “This is such a pretty place.” Taking a sip, the liquid refreshes me.
“Somewhere you’d like to sketch?” he enquires, mirroring my smile.
I feel my moment of happiness dim. “I’m not sure I’ll want to ever draw again. Too many memories.”
“Vicky, don’t let Mario and Pluto steal this from you. I’ve seen your work, and you’re very talented.”
Remembering the sketches I’d drawn of Mars, heat warms my cheeks. I have no idea where they ended up. For all I know, my things and Susan’s are still at the hotel: clothes, money, passports. The pretty pale blue summer dress and matching sandals I’m wearing, along with the sexy lacy lingerie, are some things he acquired for me. I have no idea where they came from.
A large hand engulfs mine across the table, bringing me back from my thoughts.
“I’ll arrange for new pencils, paint, paper, and anything else you need to be brought here. The best that money can buy. You can turn one of the spare bedrooms into a studio.”
He’s been nothing but sweet since he found me this morning. I still can’t believe he was walking around butt naked.
Mars has a son. I’m still a little uncomfortable at the thought of him having consorts. Heaven knows, I never thought he was celibate being an ancient God, but I don’t like thinking about the other women he’s had sex with. Are they all immortals? How many does he have that he visits? I guess, now, I’m one of them. Is he going to continue seeing them?
“I want to see you smile. When you’re unhappy...” His hand squeezes mine.
Following his gaze, I spy the blooms that have withered into black twisted clumps in a flower box to my left. Knowing I’ve done that sends a dullness through my heart. I killed them. Destroyed their beauty.
“Maybe we should go.” When I try to rise, he tugs me back down.
“No, Vicky. Don’t run away. You want to learn to be a goddess, and we can start here.”
“I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
Mars flashes me a confident look. “You won’t.”
I wish I had his certainty.
Shifting nervously on my seat, I can’t help fidgeting with the hem of my dress where it rests just below my knees. “I still don’t understand what my powers are supposed to be. All I seem to be able to do is kill plants. Maybe I’m not Venus at all but more like the Goddess of Death.”
Leaning back in his chair insolently, legs slightly apart, his attention roams to the people around us. “You have the power to make people fall in love. Make them fall in love with you. You can bestow beauty on others and show them how beautiful the world is around them.”
“How?” I question softly.
“That’s something you have to figure out. Your awakening started back in the church, but it’s not complete. I can try and guide you, but our abilities are vastly different.”
Mars’ mention of where I was tortured threatens to drag up bad memories, but breathing deeply, I manage to press past them.
“So, what? I seduce their hearts and enslave men and women?” I attempt to tease to lighten the mood.
A growl leaves his lips. “You’re not seducing or enslaving the males here.”
Eyes widening, I don’t miss the flash of jealousy, which crosses his face. Arrogant, aloof, he regards me with a regal, brooding look. He really does appear divine and untouchable when he’s like this–an all bossy, ancient roman male.
The God of War doesn’t want me tempting another man’s heart. Why does that make me feel all warm on the inside? A small sense of feminine smugness snakes through me.
Biting my lower lip and trying not to let it show, I turn my head to hide my expression.
Could I ensnare his heart? Make Mars mine forever? His one and only.
He genuinely cares for me. I can see that clearly. It’s not just sex on his part. What would it take to make him fall in love with me?
The cozy café, where our table sits, is buzzing with customers. Not just the locals, but holidaymakers and day-trippers passing through.
Listening to the chatter, I make out several different languages, not just Italian.
A couple catch my eye.
You can see they're in love. Young, naïve love…..in its first early budding before becoming deeper. An innocent awareness. The shy glances and little touches, each intimate gesture is so ordinary for them, but it’s something far more.
Heads together where they sit at a table in a corner, beside the wall of the café, they speak softly together as if nothing else exists in the world.
The longer I observe the couple, the stronger I feel an energy that spirals up through the layers of my skin. Pure. Radiant. It pulses in time with the thump of my heart.
“You feel it don’t you?” Mars’ whispered words are in the shell of my ear. He’s so close I can smell his familiar scent, which sends carnal hunger roaring up through my body. How can I want him so much? Around him, I’m insatiable.
“They're in love,” I murmur and push back the images of our sweat-soaked, naked bodies entwined, which are playing through my head.
“The fact you can sense it proves you’re Venus, Goddess of Love, but just remember, all powers have a light and dark to them.”
Warily, I turn my head to face him. We're inches apart, lips almost touching. This close, I get lost in the depth of his beautiful brown eyes. “What do you mean?”
“Imagine loving someone who doesn’t love you back. Binding hearts to follow you blindly with no will of their own. Wars have not just been fought over hatred. Love can be destructive too. You could bring the world to its knees. Wielding what powers you have, is a responsibility. We’re here to protect mankind even from ourselves.”
Is that what would happen if I succumbed to the dark, I have to wonder? Could I destroy the world with love?
Tilting closer, his mouth touches mine in the sweetest kiss, gentle and tender. I surrender to it completely.
I’m reluctant to let it end when he pulls away.
Rising, lacing his strong fingers with mine, he helps me to my feet. “Come on, let’s take a walk,” he suggests with a husky voice.
I’d rather go back to his house and fuck, but I know that’s just my out of control libido talking. Mars had mentioned that gods have high sex drives. I guess it applies to goddesses too. I have sex on the brain whenever I’m around him. If I gave into it, I don’t think we’d ever leave a bedroom again.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing,” I answer him awkwardly, clearing my throat.
The grin he gives me is
far too knowing. “Later, my beauty, I’ll take you back to bed and fuck you, or anywhere else in my house you desire, but for now, let's enjoy the village.”
“Your employees don’t know you're a god, right?”
That earns me a look as if I’ve gone crazy. “Of course not. We don’t broadcast what we are. Only a select few know the truth.”
“I was just wondering how they rationalize you appearing and disappearing all the time. I mean, they have to notice there’s no car...”
Halting, Mars pulls me into his embrace. “Stop worrying. We’ve been safe for centuries, and it won’t change.”
Nestling my head on his chest, I savor the way I fit perfectly against him. “I’m not safe from Pluto, though, am I? I can’t help worrying about that. We can’t stay in Tuscany forever. You’ll be wanted back in Rome sooner or later. I don’t want to stay here without you, and you can’t guard me twenty-four seven. You have work to do. I refuse to be a prisoner for the rest of my life, even if it’s for my own protection.”
The arms around me tighten so much that, for a second, I think he might actually crack my ribs.
“He won’t touch you again, Vicky. I swear it to you. He has no idea where you are. Put your mind at ease and let me take care of you.”
Instead of answering, I squeeze him back just as tightly.
Mars might have just made me a promise, but even as the God of War, I’m not sure he can keep it. Without powers, I’m vulnerable. Just another regular human who can easily die.
Pluto is searching for me. How I know it? I ‘m not sure, but the feeling is growing together with an impending sense of doom.
He failed last time. He had me, but I know in my gut if he takes me again, my end will come quickly. He won’t make the same mistake of taking things slow.
Chapter Nineteen
MARS
I can see Vicky is still getting used to traveling through space, to a different location, by the way she grips her stomach and shakes her head after we land in England. I know she’ll get used to it, though, and celebrate the fact it’s so much more comfortable and safer than traveling by plane. Apollo and Hercules land with us and immediately set up sentry duty outside her quintessential English cottage in the middle of the Devon countryside. I shiver at the cold. I’ve been to England numerous times for one reason or another, and it always rains. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite place in the world although the people are tolerable.
It had taken me a while to convince my father to allow us to come here. When I explained I would use it as part of Vicky’s training, he reluctantly agreed. We’d finished our walk in the piazza this morning and spent a few hours in bed. Now, as the sun sets on another gloomy day in England, we’ve arrived here to get as many of Vicky’s belonging as we can to make her feel welcome in my villa. Despite her protestations, I’ve no plans to leave it for the next few weeks. If I had my way, we wouldn’t even be leaving my bed, now, but I need to make her feel comfortable.
“I can’t believe all that has happened to me since I left here a few days ago. It seems like a dream still.” Vicky digs into her pocket for a key and realizes she doesn’t have one. It will be with her belongings my father has Mercury, another of my brothers, currently collecting from the cheap hotel in Rome.
“It probably will for a while.” I place my hand on the door, and it magically opens.
“One key for all.” She lets out a little chuckle, which warms my heart to hear.
“Our powers give us the protection we need from those who would break and enter. Keys, not so much.”
“Good to know.” She pushes the door open and steps inside her home. I feel her inhale the scent of familiarity she would get from returning to a place so comforting to her.
“Sorry for the mess.” She looks around and bites her lip. I notice the chaos of the room. Clothes strewn on the floor, discarded from the packing of suitcases. A bottle of half-drank wine sits on the table with two glasses. Vicky walks over and picks up one of the glasses. “We had a mini packing party and realized we would be late for the flight so ran out leaving everything as it was. I was going to tidy up when I got home.”
The glass turns black in her hands, and I know her emotions are playing with the powers that are starting to course through her body.
“Damn.” She looks up at me with eyes watering. “This was my favorite glass. Can you turn it back?”
I shake my head but step closer to her, taking the glass from her hand and putting it on the table.
“I can’t but you can. You're remembering the sadness of the situation you are in. Remember the happiness instead.” I shut my eyes and feel the laughter and excitement of Vicky and Susan as they packed and decided on what they would see first in Rome. The whole house is full of amusement and fun. There’s no sadness here. “Feed off the house,” I tell her and lead her over to a wall, placing her hand out flat against the whitewashed stone. She looks at me in confusion.
“I don’t understand.”
“Beauty and love are all around you. You saw today in the piazza, the young couple and the fledgling emotion between them. If we allowed the bad part of our powers to rule over our emotions, then they’d have been fighting. If I allowed it, they probably would have produced guns from their pockets and started a fight to rival those from old country and westerns. But my mind was calm, and I savored the essence of peace. If I became angry, now, this house would quake and collapse around us. Your neighbors would blame you for the situation, and an ensuing legal battle would start. Probably even the cows and sheep in the fields would start a war over who had the better patch of grass. That’s why when your mind goes dark you become the Goddess of Destruction to flora and fauna rather than the Goddess of Beauty. Plants have always been more symbolic of our emotions than more modern creations. When you meet her, please don’t ever say I told you this, but if my aunt Ceres is having a bad time of the month, then you can guarantee a famine of sorts will be reported somewhere in the world.”
“Ceres?” Vicky interrupts, and I make a mental note I need to provide her with a list of the discovered gods and goddesses and what they rule.
“Yes, she’s the Goddess of Agriculture. Not the best thing to be when you're in a bad mood. But on a good day, she can create some stunning displays and enough food to feed even the poorest villages for years.”
“I’d like to meet her. Maybe she can help repair your vineyards I destroyed.”
I chuckle, “I believe you’ll do that yourself soon. But for now, let’s concentrate on the glass. Remember something happy associated with it.”
Vicky bites her lip as she looks toward the glass but still keeps her hand splayed on the wall of the house.
“I don’t think I can.” Her body deflates, and I know she remembers the sadness of Susan’s death.”
I suck in a breath as I think.
“Who gave you the glass?”
“Susan.”
“Why?”
“It was when I moved in here.”
“A housewarming gift?”
“Yes, in my old place, we used plastic glasses to drink our wine from because I wanted all-new for a fresh start. I’d seen the cottage for sale and knew I had to have it. My parents died a few years ago and left me enough money to buy it outright. It wasn’t in the best condition, so I was able to get a loan to make some repairs. When I moved in, she came around the first night and brought a bottle of champagne and the glasses. She’d found them for sale in an antique shop, and they matched the house beautifully. We sat in front of the fire, talking and drinking until the early hours. We had boxes all around us, but it just seemed more important to enjoy the feeling of the house.”
I could sense the emotions emanating off Vicky as she spoke. They twisted in my gut, and I had to suppress my own feelings because anger surfaced at what Pluto and Marco had done to Susan. I’d seen her body. I knew how much she’d suffered in her final moments. I’d felt Vicky’s pain surge through my body as she experien
ced the same. Marco had died painfully, and Pluto would suffer the same consequences, or as far as I could inflict them on him. He may be immortal, but I’ll make sure he’s left with nothing and bound to his own hell in the Underworld.
I looked at where my hand covered Vicky’s on the wall. Black oozed from underneath our combined skin.
“Vicky, you must remember it with happiness.”
“How? They killed her. My best friend. The only person to have been there for me through so much.”
I tried not to let the remark sting, given I’d rescued her.
“Memories. You have to remember the ones, which make you happy and smile. You can’t allow the darkness of what happened to claim you. That glass is special, given to you by a friend who loved you and wanted to do something nice for you. This house is a legacy of your parents. I didn’t know them, or your relationship with them, but I can sense from the pictures you have that you loved them. Remember Susan for the friendship you had.”
Tears start to stream down Vicky’s cheeks.
“It’s too hard. I’m too raw.”
“And it won’t get any easier if you allow the darkness of your emotions to consume you.”
“I can’t.”
“Try, please,” I beg.
She shuts her eyes and silences for a few moments. The blackness still spreads over the wall.
“I remember something,” she blurts out, suddenly, and opens her eyes. “I remember a shopping trip. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much. We were looking at fancy outfits for a party. We tried on so many different things: cowgirls, aliens, vampires, even a Roman Goddess. We both finally decided on sixties outfits. We decorated our faces with ‘ban the bomb’ signs and flowers. It was so much fun.”