ACHILLES: Soul of Her King (Kings of the Blood Book 3)

by Julia Mills

  Placing her hands on either side of his face, Juliette looked him right in the eye and with a confidence that felt like a magical cord pulling them closer together, she stated, “I love you, Achilles, more than I ever thought possible. I know that we will have an amazing life together, whether it is here or in the Elysian Fields. You simply have…”

  Putting her index finger over his lips just as he was about to interrupt, she grinned, “Don’t argue with me. You simply have to deal with what is, not what you want the situation to be. We have no choice. This is what we must do.” Pausing for just a beat, she added, “I will not put you, your brothers and most of all, my mother, in danger because Ares still has a burr up his butt because of my existence.”

  Pulling back so he could speak, Lee shook his head, “Just give us a few more hours. Viktor and the others are on their way. My Commander will figure out something. He always has.”

  Shaking her head, she gave him a quick kiss, dropped her hands from his face and sighed, “Alright, you have two hours. That’s the longest I’m willing to wait. If we can’t come up with a way out of this…” She kissed him again then pulled back. “We go through it…together.”

  Nodding, even though there was no way he was going to let Juliette put her life in danger, Lee grabbed her hands from her lap, kissed her knuckles and nodded, “Together, always together, vasílissa mou.”

  Thankfully, Viktor, Sal, Tommy, and surprisingly Niko arrived within the hour. As one of the youngest of their brotherhood and also the true brother of Bain, Nikos usually stayed behind until he was absolutely needed. The fact that he had willingly come along without being summoned was a true testament to the gravity of the situation facing Achilles and his lovely mate.

  It was a blessing that Roman had been in constant contact with their Unum. The questions he and Juliette had to answer were few and far between. That did not, however, mean that Viktor did not pull him aside and give him a harsh reprimand.

  “How do you fly halfway around the world to save your mate and end up in a test of wills with the God of War?” The Commander stood tall, his hands behind his back and a frown upon his face. “I understand, and the rules provide for rescuing your mate from mortal danger. They do not…let me iterate, do not, give any provisions, guidelines or directions for dealing with an angry deity obviously out for your hide.”

  Lee wasn’t sure what Viktor wanted him to say and had a sneaking suspicion his best bet was to keep his mouth shut, but as usual he didn’t. “Are you saying I should have just let Juliette die? Again? For me?”

  With a long-suffering sigh Viktor’s frown deepened, “No, Achilles, I am not saying that. I am asking how this happened? Do you have history with Ares or is he simply using you to get to Juliette and hence, his sister?” The Unum paused and when Lee did not readily answer, continued, “Because it is a well-known fact that Ares detests not only his father but a majority of his siblings.” Then under his breath added, “The ones he is not sleeping with.”

  Nodding, Lee agreed, “I believe, like you, he has used my mate for all these years to torment Hebe. I also think he was sure Juliette and I would never meet. That our ‘timelines’, as he explained it to her, would never match up and therefore, she would continue her cycle of grizzly death and painful rebirth for all eternity and I would simply go to the Elysian Fields on my three-thousandth year.”

  Grinning and shaking his head, Viktor stepped forward, patted Lee on the shoulder and chuckled, “The old boy didn’t know who he was messing with. If there is a plan that needs messing up, leave it to our Achilles.”

  Barking with laughter as the Unum walked away towards the others, Achilles had to admit, Viktor was right and from that admission sprung an idea. Jogging to catch up with his brothers who were headed to the tent to strategize, the archer called out, “Hey, I think I know how we can beat this bastard.”

  The first to stop and turn his way was Bain, who actually grinned and said, “This, I have to hear. Achilles has an idea.”

  Chuckling, the rest of the Kings turned towards him, all teasing and scoffing in one way or another.

  “Yay, Lee has a plan.”

  “Put your head between your legs and kiss your butt goodbye, his plans always include one or all of us drawing our blades,” Tommy snickered.

  Laughing so hard he had to take a deep breath before he could speak, the youngest of the Kings, Salvatore, commonly called, Sal added, “Remember the time in Malta. We were just supposed to fly in, pick up the boxes and fly back out, but…” Motioning with his thumb over his shoulder at Lee, he continued, “Old boy here just had to check on his mate.” He winked at Juliette who looked surprised but was giggling right along with the whole bunch of them. It warmed Lee’s heart to see her accepting of the people who were the most important to him. “Not only did we check on her but we caused a bar fight, a three-car pile-up and if I’m not mistaken one of you barbarians talked a sweet little catholic girl out of joining the nunnery.” Shaking his head, he laughed, “If Lee has an idea, we all need to dust off our armor.”

  “And then there was the time we were in Kilimanjaro,” Niko snickered. “Lee hadn’t felt the call of his mate yet but he still almost got us killed.” Looking at his brother with a wink, the younger King asked, “What was it you were trying to do again?”

  Shaking his head and glaring, he teasingly warned through gritted teeth, “Not now, Nikos.”

  Laughing out loud, the younger King got a twinkle in his eye as he went on, “Oh yeah, it was the triplets wasn’t it?” He winked again, this time at Juliette. “What was it their father, the Chief of the Chagga tribe, threatened to do to you again, Achilles?”

  Sighing, the archer gave up the fight and groaned, “Cut off my bits and wear them as earrings.”

  The entire group howled with laughter, even his lovely mate, but through all the merriment there was a haunted look in her eyes. One that stabbed at Lee’s heart and forced him to go to her side. Wrapping his arm around her, he whispered, “Everything alright, i kardí mou?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” she answered quickly, avoiding eye contact.

  “Juliette,” he warned with a grumbled whisper, hating that she was holding something back.

  Threading her fingers through his where his hand was resting on her waist, his mate smiled, “I’ll explain later.” She kissed his cheek. “Right now, I just want to decide what we’re doing and get to doing it. The waiting around is driving me batty.”

  Sure that Juliette was holding back more than she was saying, but respecting her need to handle things in her own time, Lee simply nodded. Pulling her closer to the shelter of his body, he kissed the top of her head and tuned back to the conversation still in full swing around them.

  “While I agree Achilles’ execution more times than naught needs a bit of refinement, I must also admit that when it comes to strategy, he has always made me proud.” Roman’s words filled Lee with pride and made him stand a bit taller. It was all the more sweeter when his mate squeezed his hand as a show of support. Other than caring for Juliette in every way possible, making his mentor proud was a top priority.

  Nodding to Roman, Lee looked around the tent at the group of men, whom since his rebirth, had been his family. They meant just as much to him as the mother and sisters he had buried all those millennia ago. They took second in his heart and mind only to the keeper of his heart. They had shared every good time, seen him through the bad times and always, no matter what the occasion, had his back. Together, the seven of them had fought more battles than he could remember, conquered more evil than he wanted to remember and saved the lives of the innocent ones whose faces he would always remember. And now, they were going to help him save Juliette and bring down Ares. Never could he have imagined, all those years ago, hanging on that cross, what he was saying yes to but he was damn glad he had.

  Smiling at each of his brothers, he asked, “So who’s ready to play three-card monte with the God of War?”

  Chapter
Nine

  Juliette had listened as Lee explained his plan in detail and his brothers played devil’s advocate by poking all the holes they could in it, then suggesting alternatives until her head was spinning and she thought it might just be easier to just give herself up to Ares. It was, after all, her, he was after.

  She had listened to Viktor’s argument that her uncle was using her as a pawn to get at her mother, and on some level half-heartedly agreed, but something about it didn’t ring true. There were so many other ways he could have tormented Hebe. It had been a foregone conclusion that the Cupbearer to the Gods and her halfling daughter were never going to be together. Destiny had decided that long before Juliette took her first breath. She was leaving Mt Olympus, never to return. The arrangement of their visits had already been decided and nothing had changed when Ares made his first appearance.

  Juliette knew for a fact that her mother had no recognition of the demi-goddess’ deaths, only of her rebirths, so therefore, did not suffer every time it occurred. No, the suffering had been, and if they couldn’t defeat Ares, would always be Juliette’s alone to bear.

  Needing some air, the demi-goddess, excused herself, and took a walk along the crater that had once been her dig site. Not only was the intricate plan the Kings were designing to save her and ultimately Lee, from the God of War’s wrath, giving her a headache but for some odd reason she could not get the memory of the death she’d suffered in Kilamanjaro out of her head.

  It had been her last death, the one that lead to the rebirth in which Lee recognized her as his mate. Visions of that fateful day had been playing on a loop in her head since Niko’s mention of the Tanzanian mountain range.

  Images of the dig site at the base of the Mawenzi cone, the largest of the inactive volcanoes on Mt. Kilimanjaro, swirled through her mind. She hadn’t been working with that specific crew for long. It was one of the hazards of never aging, every twenty or so years, she had to disappear, reinvent herself and start over. Although her name always changed, one thing remained constant, the fact that she would choose some form of archaeology or ancient history as a profession.

  Smiling to herself, she thought about all the different hair styles and accents she’d taken on during the years, along with the inventive explanations she’d contrived when someone happened to think they recognized one of her earlier personas. It made her remember that although every lifetime she’d lived ended in tragedy, most of the time the adventure had been worth the pain.

  Kilimanjaro had been one of those amazing adventures. She remembered how thrilled she’d been to be asked to be one of the PhD candidates on the dig. It had been hard to act like she didn’t already have ten such degrees from previous lifetimes and other colleges but she’d ultimately kept her head down and followed orders like a good student. That had been until one of the crew kept mysteriously disappearing every evening while all the others were asleep.

  Juliette had tried to ignore it. Chalking it up to a secret rendezvous with a lover. Had even thought maybe he was taking food to his family since so many still lived in tribes and in some cases food was scarce during the dry summer months, only three degrees from the equator. Unfortunately, the day after the fifth such occurrence, a rare artifact one of the other students had unearthed was missing. It was then the demi-goddess knew what the young man had been doing.

  Deciding to talk to him before going to her professors, Juliette had waited until nightfall, pretended to be asleep, just as she had all the other nights and then followed the man known as Giuseppe into the forest. Keeping pace as the man sped across the treacherous terrain, the demi-goddess lost her footing as she was running across a rope bridge and in the span of several minutes found herself trussed up with vines, tied to a pole and being carried to the village elder.

  The whole experience reminded her of something out of B-movie and she had half-expected to find the natives with bones through their noses. Thankfully, that was not the case. Unfortunately, in place of her make-believe natives, she found a pack of drug smugglers who were using the local coffee plantation as a front to export their cocaine.

  Looking to Giuseppe for help proved fruitless. The man was in debt to the smugglers for his brother’s addiction and had been stealing artifacts to pay it back. The man running the operation, who she was never introduced to and still has no clue of his name, was tall with an eye patch over his left eye, scars all over his face and arms and a stinky cigar hanging out of his mouth.

  Without preamble, her torture had begun. Days and days passed as she stood tied to a bamboo pole, asked the same questions over and over and beaten, whipped or burnt with cigars when she did not give the answers they wanted. She knew she was telling the truth, she had no previous knowledge of their organization, was not with law enforcement and did not give a good gods damn if they were drug smugglers or Santa Claus, she simply wanted the pain to end.

  Finally, on what she thought was day six, the leader returned. He asked the same set of questions as his cohorts but when she gave the same answers she had been giving all along, instead of a beating, or whipping or being burnt, Juliette was taken to the banks of the River Lumi, tied to the ground and left for the vermin.

  Four more days and nights passed, while the demi-goddess prayed to the gods to relieve her suffering. She knew they would not save her. That she had come to the end of another lifetime. All she wanted was for the suffering to end and to begin her year-long drift through limbo, waiting to once again be reborn, but that was not to be.

  “Juliette?” The sound of Lee’s voice pulled the demi-goddess from her memories. Turning into his arms, her heart nearly broke as she saw unshed tears in his beautiful blue eyes and felt a soul-crushing sadness emanating through their bond.

  Hugging him tight, she asked, “What? What has happened?”

  Lee pulled her even closer, his lips touched her earlobe and in a broken whisper he murmured, “I saw it. I saw it all and I am so very sorry for all that you have endured.”

  Regret beat at Juliette. She hadn’t thought about their bond. Hadn’t realized how all- encompassing it really was. Hadn’t thought to shield her thoughts or her memories from her King. Leaning back when Lee’s embrace loosened just a bit, she placed the back of her hand on his cheek and smiled, “I would do it all a hundred times over if it meant finding you in the end.”

  Without a word, her King laid his lips to hers and with a kiss assured her that she would never again suffer as she had before. Breaking apart at the sound of approaching footsteps, Juliette whispered, “Life with me isn’t going to be easy.”

  Smiling a smile that nearly curled her toes, Lee once again laid his lips to hers while whispering into her mind, “My heart and soul don’t need easy, they just need you.”

  It was the sweetest and most honest thing anyone had ever said to her. If she had ever had any doubt that Achilles Giannopoulous was the King for her, they evaporated in that moment. She only wished that Ares was already in the Underworld where he belonged and she and Lee were alone so that she might show him how very much she loved him.

  A few chuckles and one very loudly cleared throat broke the couple apart but not before Achille echoed her thoughts by sighing, “Just wait til I get you alone.”

  Her reply was interrupted as Tommy yelled, “Alright you two, save it for the honeymoon.”

  Bain then informed them, “The copters take off in five.”

  Heading into the tent, Juliette gathered the precious few of her belongings that hadn’t been washed away in the landslide, took Lee’s hand and let herself be led to the helicopter. Once they were in the air, she admired the scenery as they took the hour-long flight to the nearest airport.

  It was amazing to her how well-known all of the Kings of the Blood were. No one questioned two helicopters landing at an international airport, nine people disembarking and going straight to a private jet. Some even tipped their hats or said hello to the men. It was almost as if they were celebrities.

  When she tho
ught about it, Juliette guessed it didn’t surprise her. She had followed them throughout history and knew when one disappeared because of their lack of aging to go begin another life, another of his brothers took over where he had left off. It was also their trademark to reappear as a distant relative who just happened to have the same name and have been estranged but now looking to reconnect with his family.

  Thinking back over the ages, she found it interesting that this was the first time they had all remained together. It was then she realized that most of them had to be approaching their three-thousandth year, the time when if they had not mated, they would cease to exist. She wondered how old each man was and made a mental note to ask Lee if they had all recognized their mate yet.

  Her thoughts were cut short as Carl, their pilot, announced, “We are at cruising altitude, feel free to roam about the cabin.” Much to her surprise, Lee unbuckled her belt and pulled her into his lap in the blink of an eye.

  Giggling despite her attempts to look irritated, Juliette finally gave in and asked, “What do you think you are doing?”

  Waggling his eyebrows as he reclined the seat, Achilles grinned, “I’m taking a nap with my mate. We will be in the air for twelve hours. I’m tired and I want to hold you.”

  Placing her hand on his chest, she reminded him, “But we need to talk. I still don’t know what you and the others decided about defeating Ares.”

  Pulling her to his chest, Lee kissed the tip of her nose, wrapped his arms around her waist and said, “Rest. We can talk later. I promise to explain everything.”

  Knowing when she was beat and admitting, at least to herself, that laying in Lee’s arms was as close to Heaven as she’d ever been, Juliette laid back and fell fast asleep. For the first time in a long time, her dreams were happy and when she was awakened by her King’s kisses upon her neck, the demi-goddess smiled and sighed.

  “Well, hello there, sleepyhead,” Lee purred as he continued to nibble on her neck.