Ares grinned down at her, “Yeah, pretty much. Part of the reason I love her.”
A snort sounded right behind her. “You may want to move, little human. Preferably out of the room so the percussive wave that’s about to occur doesn’t flatten you. He will be fine but you likely wouldn’t, so go now.”
Ava looked up at Ares and when he nodded she moved away from him. Looking to Hades, she said, “Thank you for doing this, for going out of your way for us like this.” She then shocked them all by giving the Titan a fast hug before high tailing it out of the room as ordered.
Dion was waiting outside the room with a man hog-tied and gagged on the floor. A man who was squirming, shrieking behind the gag and just plain looking frantic. “I take it Hades is letting Ares down?” he asked her. As she nodded she felt a buildup of power, then the very air around them seemed to be sucked away before rushing past them all.
Ava stumbled, bumping into Dion as she did. “Sorry,” she whispered to him and nodded. “I think I might have shocked your uncle a little,” she confessed quietly. “I gave him a hug on the way out the door," she whispered and looked down at the man. “I want to kick you so badly, to hurt you, but I’m going to let Hades take care of you. I would say I feel sorry for you, but I don’t. You took my lover, my soul mate and you deserve anything you get, asshat.”
“He’s a cousin of yours,” Dion said, no expression, just watchful of her.
“He’s what?” Ares’s voice sounded from behind her. Spinning, she raced to him and jumped into his arms. He caught her of course, holding her tight and kissing her gently. Unlike when he’d been dangling in his swim trunks, he was now dressed in old jeans and a t-shirt.
“He’s her cousin, about four times removed as best as Hades and I could figure,” Dion said.
“It’s true,” the hulking Titan added, moving past where she and Ares were holding each other tightly.
“Well wonderful,” she muttered and looked down at the man. Shaking her head, she sighed. “You are a disgrace. That you are related to me just completely blows my mind. I hope you enjoyed your life because it ends, now.” She looked to Hades and bowed her head. “Thank you for saving Ares, and I hope you make him pay dearly for taking him from me.”
“Oh, he will pay.” He turned to look at her and walked a little closer. Looking down at her, he touched her cheek lightly. “I like you, bring her around some time, Ares, open invite.” He stepped back, grabbed the man under an arm, hauling him up, and disappeared.
When she looked, both Ares and Dion were standing there, mouths open, looking stunned.
Ava smiled, “I like your uncle.” She squeezed Ares’s arm and looked up at him, and then Dion. Her smile turned into a frown and she asked, “All right, what’s up? What did I do? Did I just break some rule or something?” Maybe she shouldn’t have hugged the big scary Titan, but she hadn’t been able to keep herself in check, gosh blessed it.
Ares blinked and snapped his mouth shut as he shook his head. “No, but an invitation from Hades is like. It’s like. Fuck, Dion, help me out here.”
“Fucking end of the world shit right there. She broke him, how the hell?” Dionysus moved toward her. Leaning in, he squinted at her, “What did you do to him?”
“We’re his family and we still have to request permission to enter his turf, but you, baby, you managed to get him to relax his rules. He just gave us free passage. In his world, that’s apocalyptic shit.”
Ave flushed colors and shrugged, “I just hugged him and thanked him. Have you guys ever thanked him for saving your asses? Ares, I didn’t hear you telling him thanks, did you do it in the other room? It’s the small things that mean so much. You can’t take your family for granted at all. It pushes them away. Trust me.” She was right there with hers. She didn’t want anything to do with her family because of the assumptions they made.
“Of course I thanked him. He can rip out my guts with a flick of his wrist if he feels like it. One doesn’t ever not thank a Titan, Ava. Besides, he is my uncle,” he grinned. Kissing her again, he squeezed her close. “I think we should go home, love. Thank you for helping her get to Hades, Dion, and for being here.”
“Always willing to assist, bro,” Dionysus said. “I’ll see you two later,” he added and then vanished.
Ava looked up to Ares and touched his face. “You are hurt.” She didn’t like that, at all. “Now, can we take that damn book and bury it in your shielded safe so no other soul will ever find it again?” She would do anything to keep him safe.
“Yes, yes we can. I’ll heal in a few minutes. He had me trapped so my God abilities were useless. Soon you won’t even notice anything is wrong.” Pressing a kiss to her lips, he let her down to her feet. “Grab the book, love, and let’s get the hell out of here.”
She grabbed the book and moved back to him. Wrapping her arms around him, she buried her face against his chest and breathed him in. “Take us home. Olympus, so you can heal and we can put this damn book under lock and key and shields and everything you can think of, please?”
Squeezing her close, he rubbed a hand over her back. “Yes, love,” he said softly. A moment later the scent in the air changed and she knew they were on Olympus. “Come, we’ll go put it somewhere safe so we both know it’s tucked out of sight.”
“Sounds good to me,” Ava moved closely at his side, her hand never leaving his as they moved. “You do know that I’m going to all but attach myself to you from here on out, right? And you need to do whatever warding is necessary so you are never, ever taken from me again.”
“Without the book no one can pull me away against my will. With it locked away here, protected here, no one will get near it again.” Squeezing her hand, he led her into the bedroom and to a spot on the floor. He knelt, pressing his palm to a blank spot. A moment later a chunk of the floor slid out of sight. Reaching into the hole, he pressed his hand to the scanner on the safe and then punched in a code on the keypad. Pulling the door open, he looked to her since she still held the book clutched to her chest.
Passing him the book, she whispered, “You are sure?” She had to be sure. She couldn’t do this again. Gods, she nearly lost him. When he nodded and resealed the safe she threw herself into his arms and hugged him tightly. “Never again, Ares. I can't go through that again. I can’t lose you, not when I’ve just found you. Promise me never again.”
“Never, love,” he whispered against her hair. He was rocking her in his arms, stroking her hair slowly. “Hades gave me something else while you were out of the room.” He pulled back to show her what he had in his hand. “I don’t know where he got it, but he said he knew we’d need it. It’s the only way for you to be immortal and with me for eternity. If you want to do it that is. It’s a bit hard on the system apparently and you’ll likely feel like you’re being torn in half if you go through with it, but I don’t ever want to lose you, Ava, not in sixty years, not in a thousand. I need an eternity and whatever comes after.”
“I don’t care how hard it is on the system. I want to do it,” she said quickly. “Whatever it takes, I will do it because nothing less than eternity and beyond will be enough for me. I need forever with you. We’ll do it because you and I both need each other for the rest of forever.”
He stared into her eyes for a long, long time before nodding. “Alright, a couple things you apparently need to be aware of, and I only know this because apparently, Hades has a woman whom he’s planning on marrying. Don’t ask,” he shook his head, looking stunned. “He just said he’d been through it with his female. You will feel the urge to throw up, you can’t. He said a hot bath with me helping to keep you calm is the best way to get through that period as well as some juice and relaxation. After that you will want to sleep and you should, as long as you need to. From there we play it by ear on what you can eat immediately after until you’re back to your old self. He warned me that it does a number on the internal system since it is basically pushing out crap and settling. You will
be immortal within a couple of days, fully and completely. No abilities or anything, but only a Gods weapon can harm or kill you.”
“But we will be together until the end of time, right? That’s the important part. I don’t need power. I don’t need abilities. I need you forever. A moment short of that is not long enough so whatever it takes we will do it.” Hesitating she added, “And I really don’t do puking well at all so let's please, please not let me do that?”
“I’ll make the juice he recommended and then we can decide when to begin this. Do you want to do it now? Before we go any further?” he asked softly. He lifted a hand and stroked back her hair lightly. “The choice is yours, but if you’d like to proceed you should likely go and run a hot bath. As hot as you can stand and add a scent you find soothing, relaxing and not nauseating.”
“Then no scent at all because I don’t want to take a chance at something making me ill,” Ava said with a smile. “And yes, now please. I want to do this now if you think that you’re up for it. Then we can have the rest of forever together. Please.”
“Understandable, love,” he pressed a kiss to her lips. “Go and start the bath. I’ll bring in the juice and then you can drink this.” He shook the little vial in his hand. “I should be about three minutes and then we can get this started.”
“Fair enough, I trust you,” she said with a smile. “We will do this and then you are stuck with me forever.” Leaning in, she kissed him, “Not a word back on that one. Just tell me that you love me and you are happy to have me with you. That’s it.”
He cupped her cheek and stared into her eyes for a time. “I love you, Ava Von Maur. I’m ecstatic to have you with me. I can’t wait to spend the rest of time with you at my side. I’ve always been missing a piece of myself and when we met, I found it in you.” Leaning in, he kissed her back, again. “Go and ready the bath, my little goddess.”
“That’s good because you are mine forever as well, my most amazing God.” She touched his cheek and left him standing there so she could get their bath started. When it was as full as it would go without spilling over Ava stripped and stepped into the bath. Leaning back she sighed, waiting on Ares to come to her.
“You started without me?” he asked, with laughter in his voice. “Unfair,” he teased her. Crouching by the tub, he held out the vial. “Throw that down, fast, like the nastiest shot of your life. Then you’re going to drink this,” he handed her a bottle of water. “After that you’ll start to sip on the juice. Don’t gulp it, you’ll want and need it for a while according to Hades.”
“Sounds good,” she took the vial he handed her, lifted it as if in a toast, and sighed. “I love you,” she whispered only a half a second before she tossed the liquid down and nearly gagged before catching herself in time. “Water,” she demanded and swallowed several times.
He handed it to her quickly, cap already off. “Drink it slowly so it rinses all the residue down. You don’t want to make yourself ill from it,” he said quietly. As she drank from the chilled bottle he moved away and stripped down. Then he collected the glass of juice, “Sit forward, love.”
She moved forward in the tub and taking a deep breath, she felt him sliding in behind her. She gladly turned slightly so she could lean against him. Closing her eyes, she held the bottle of water and took slow sips from it before sighing. Eyes closed she whispered, “That stuff was horrible, absolutely terrible. Someone seriously needs to work on making it taste better.”
His chuckle was a low rumble under her ear. “Yeah, apparently someone else had something similar to say about it, but if it works, who the fuck cares how it tastes, love. Here,” he took the nearly empty water. Reaching over the side of the tub, he came back with the glass. “Drink this, little sips. It should remove the rest of the taste from your mouth. Save most though for when your stomach starts to do a nosedive.”
“Sounds good.” Well it didn’t sound good. She really hoped her stomach didn’t take a nosedive. She prayed she would get through all of this without being ill. “If I get sick, it undoes everything we just did, doesn’t it?” she asked and shivered just a bit. “Will you turn up the heat in here and turn on the jets of the tub, please?” She knew he would be able to do it without even moving, which was a bonus for her.
The jets kicked on and the room began to warm slightly, just as the door shut to trap the heat in. “It does and the Gods only know what state you’d be left in. The entire elixir has to absorb into your body.” Ares put a hand on her belly, “I’ll help keep your stomach as settled as I can.”
“Thank you.” She didn’t get sick easily, which was a bonus, but when she did get sick it was like a tsunami of insurmountable proportions. Ava then told him what she had been thinking. Even if he had heard her thoughts she put it forward vocally as well and simply rested against him, her head on his shoulder, cheek to his chest and legs up and over his. Cradled in his arms, she let the heat of the room, the jets and his body comfort her and soothe her unease and discomfort.
He stroked his hand up and down her arm slowly. “Shh,” he said softly to her. “It’ll be alright, darling. Just focus on your breathing, in and out nice and slow and me. I have you. You’ll be just fine, Ava. We’ll get through this together.”
“I know we will. We can do anything as long as we do it as a team, right?” she asked softly and sighed. “We can do this. Somehow and someway we will get me through this. The best part, I really don’t get sick easily, the worst part, when I do it’s of epic sized proportions.” Snuggling closer to him though, she sighed, closed her eyes, and weirdly enough...drifted off to sleep.
Epilogue
Four weeks later...
He looked nervous where he stood. Dion, Apollo, and Hades stood next to him and they didn’t appear to be helping keep him calm, although they were keeping him from tearing out the tie he wore. They were smacking his fingers and punching his shoulders. Then Hades was heading for her where she was waiting without spying.
“I saw that,” Hades told her as he stepped into the tent they’d erected to keep her and her gown out of sight until the last possible moment. “You don’t look nearly as nervous as he does.”
“Why would I be nervous when I am marrying the man of my dreams?” She reached out and straightened Hades’s tie. “Why is he nervous? That doesn’t make sense. Why in the world would he be nervous when he knows I couldn’t wait for this moment with him? I love him more than I ever possibly knew I could love someone,” she admitted to her soon-to-be uncle. “Is he okay? Other than nervous that is?”
“Apollo and Dion aren’t helping any. Those two yahoos are putting scenarios in his head. I should just smack them, either that or zap their fucking asses,” he muttered. “He’ll calm once he can see you. He knows you’re safe, he knows you’re happy but until he can see you he’s going to be a fucking wreck.” Hades smoothed his hand down his tie and tucked it under the jacket, adjusting his cuffs. “So, we are about fifteen minutes away from the rest of your life.”
“I can’t wait,” she admitted. “Why is it taking so long? He’s the one that wanted to wait four weeks until we married. I wanted to do this weeks ago,” she admitted honestly. “So yeah, I have no idea why he wanted to wait but he did.” She let out a sigh. “Anyway, can we speed things up? Please?”
“He wanted it all perfect and there were a couple conflicts that just recently settled. He’s just waiting on one more person to arrive and then we can get going. Once he’s here we can,” Hades cut off as a crack of lightning sounded. “For fuck's sakes. Show stealing bastard,” he muttered.
Ava jumped, literally, and grabbed onto Hades. “What in the hell was that?” she asked with a whisper of a sound. “I mean for real, what the hell?” she asked and gulped. “Please tell me that it isn’t going to start to rain. If so I’m going to seriously cuss someone out.”
“No, just my pompous, upstaging brother arriving. In other words, the father of the groom is here,” he said. Gently he rubbed a hand up
and down her back. “We’ll be starting right quick here so take a moment and gather yourself.”
“Oh lordy.” Ava wasn’t ready to meet Zeus. Holy shit. “Uhm...” She hesitated and then chewed her lower lip. “Do you think maybe Ares would run away with me? How about you go and signal him and have him come and take me away? We can go to Vegas or something and get married?” She was nervous, very freaking damn nervous.
“Nope, not happening. Music’s starting,” he said with a grin. One of the bridesmaids, Willow, walked past, blowing a kiss to Hades. Right behind her was yet another of Ava’s friends, although this one didn’t flirt with the big God before her like the first one did. Two attendants for her, two for Ares. Hades was walking her down the aisle and then she’d be getting married. “And there goes the last one, you ready for your turn now? Music’s about to change and we’ll need to start walking or all hell is going to break loose.”
“I don’t think I can move.” Ava began to panic a little. “There has to be a reason Ares has kept me from meeting his parents for more than a year, right? I’m not good enough am I?” Her old insecurities surfacing and hitting her hard.
“You are more than good enough, Ava. He just didn’t want to pull you into that nightmare. Besides, you met me and I like you,” Hades pointed out. “You are precious, unique, and unbelievably sweet in the fact you are human. Plus, Zeus is a dog. No one needs to meet him until they absolutely have to. Trust me.”
“Yeah but you’re really sweet and nice,” she whispered and chewed her lower lip when the wedding march began. “Are you sure?” She hesitated. “Are you sure that is why he didn’t take me there? Oh Gods.” She sighed and closed her eyes. “I need him,” she whispered. “Can I have him for just a moment? Can you stop the wedding for just a few minutes so I can have him hold me for a moment?” Okay so she was freaking out a little, she had a right, didn’t she? She was wigging out more than she had thought she would.
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