Erie
I opened my eyes, lifting them to the chains that held me. Ancient chains that had been created by the Gods to hold mischievous Gods who had misbehaved. I laughed as I turned to the bed, staring at Callaghan, who watched me, and yet those glowing eyes held control. I shook my head, unwilling to let him see how disturbing the nightmares were.
“You can feed me all the nightmares you want, beast, but you can’t make me become her,” I hissed as I expelled a breath, staring down at my flat stomach. “The chains are overkill, are they not?” I asked as I watched him lifting from the bed.
“Time to fuck, Erie,” he muttered as his wings expanded and his body grew. He was the king of an ancient race, and he wanted to destroy me. He wanted me to remember what I’d done, who I was, and yet that wasn’t me. I wasn’t a Goddess, of that I was sure.
“How about you fuck yourself,” I hissed.
“Mmm, I’d rather fuck that tightness that belongs to me instead. Don’t worry; I’ll let you come, it’s more than you ever allowed me while I hung in your chains. Although, waking up to that sweet cunt riding my face was a welcome surprise, and I may return the favor and bruise your esophagus.”
“You do know that I don’t remember, and I also don’t care.”
“You will when we take everything you love away from you.”
“I don’t love anything,” I whispered as I lifted my gaze to hold his. “But you know that already, don’t you?” I snorted. “You know everything about me, and more. The only thing you don’t know is who I am this time. Tell me, was I different last time?”
“You repeat the cycle,” he admitted as his hands drifted down to my sore flesh. “You choose us out of the warriors around you; then you proceed to want us. When we don’t give you all of us, you start to remove everything that you think prevents us from loving you.”
“And yet I haven’t done it, have I?” I whimpered as his fingers slid through my flesh, dancing over it with a tenderness that built a moan in the back of my throat. “I have killed you and run from you. Take the hint already. I’ve not made an attempt to seduce any warrior, you know that. You broke me, remember?”
“No, because you didn’t have time to do it yet,” he chuckled as he lowered his body to the floor, where he kneeled before my wetness, lifting my leg over his shoulder. “The world changed, Erie.” His tongue slid through my flesh, and I squealed as he pushed it into my body, moaning as he tasted my arousal. “You always tasted of heaven, as if the Gods created you as a reward to warriors for their bravery of deeds. I remember the day you rode my mouth, coming for me and me alone. It was the first time a man had pleasured you. I remember the wonder that lit in your pretty blue eyes. The taste of you as it slid down my chin as my name left those pretty lips of yours. You didn’t realize it, lost in the pleasure I gave you, but you screamed for me. Men spoke of it, and I became a God among my race that you thought you had destroyed. The only male alive to ever make the Goddess of War come undone and scream for him.”
My eyes closed as I struggled to focus, to understand what he was saying as something pinched through my side. I looked down, finding his teeth buried in my side as his glowing eyes spun and he watched me. Pain ignited as he pushed something into my flesh; black lines moved over my stomach, and I whimpered as he pulled his sharp fangs from me.
“What the hell was that?” I demanded, but my eyes grew heavy as he watched me, his fingers tracing the raised bumps on my side as he stood up and kissed me hard and fast before stepping back.
“Sleep, creature. I tire,” the beast growled.
Chapter 44
Today I’d been placed onto the bed, my body allowed to rest as they joined together as one, needing to grow stronger from their recent time apart. Balor and Callaghan had made a deal, one that forced them to remain as one soul, which meant they needed each other to survive. My body snuggled against the beast, needing his warmth so that I could sleep, even though I knew with sleep would come the never-ending memories.
Last night, I’d dreamt of running through endless fields, watching as Callaghan buried his young son. The same dream changed, turning into arrows protruding from the beast’s daughters. I’d given that order, the order to murder those girls. I’d laughed, watching as they’d died. My mind sent me back to that moment, over and over again.
I had defeated them, finally. The invaders, who had come onto my shores, slaughtering my people, now bathed the land in their blood. How dare he enter into my kingdom, intending to dethrone me, to make me kneel at his feet like his pet? His demand had been just that. Kneel on my knees before him and take what he offered between my whore lips as his army watched. Service the heathen king and let him defile me as they watched him do so, as if. Now I was forced to kill innocent people because he’d wanted his dick sucked to show his strength over me.
“You think to deny us?” one of the soldiers asked as I stared him down, knowing that sooner or later, his skull would adorn my wall.
“My Queen, if you deny the men the pleasures of these women, they will see it as a weakness,” Lugh growled. His turquoise eyes studied me as his hand continued to grip the King’s wife by her hair while she swore and cursed me to the Gods.
I studied her utter perfection. She was beautiful, this queen, her bronzed flesh kissed by the Gods. Black hair shone beneath the sun’s merciless rays as green eyes the color of jade watched me with loathing. Lifting my eyes, I took in the daughters who cowered behind her, knowing that any sign of mercy would be seen a weakness to these men. I swallowed the anger at their father, for this was on him. He’d breached my shores, sent slanderous requests to me knowing that I would be forced to meet him in the field of this battle, and that if he lost, this would play out exactly as it was now. This was war, and I knew the game well. I should, as I had created it.
“Give her to the men,” I uttered as I watched her fighting against Lugh’s hand that had twisted into the midnight silk of her hair. The men behind him moved to push her daughters, crying for their mother, towards the awaiting army, and I shook my head. “No, not them,” I rebuked, anger slicing through me as the men turned angry eyes towards me. “They are not to be raped.”
“They will rise against you if you allow them to live,” he snapped. “The men will see it as a weakness if you let them go.”
“Who said they would live?” I asked, staring into his startling eyes. Of all the men I ruled, he alone dared to argue against my words. Pity that I’d taken a vow of celibacy after losing the one man I’d loved. Thousands of years had passed since he’d been murdered before my very eyes, torn apart by my father to teach me a lesson. Love was a weakness, and if you loved something, you destroyed it so that it could never hurt you or be used against you. “Tie them to the posts, and let the archers use them for practice.”
I swallowed hard as they started to cry against the words that slipped from my lips. This was war, and they’d brought it to my shores. Danu had abandoned her people, fleeing at the first whispers of war, but then she was the mother. Weak to flee in the face of a battle, and I’d been only too willing to take her place with the war being waged. I had never been able to turn down a chance to indulge my need for battle or to use my ability to decide the outcome of one.
“Lugh, if you ever challenge me in front of my army again, I will cut your fucking head off and use your skull as a chalice to drink my wine. I will not warn you again.”
“You could use me for other things that you’d enjoy much more, my Queen. I am skilled in everything that a woman could need,” he offered, and I studied the heat that smoldered in his eyes. “You are everything a warrior craves and desires.”
“Pray to your Gods that I never look upon you with lust, Lugh. I don’t play fair when I aim to conquer.”
“Is that why you hunted his family down?” he asked, watching me for any sign of weakness. He’d never find it; I’d learned from the
moment I was created to hide that side of me.
“I hunted them down as a lesson to anyone else who thinks to storm these shores. My land is not to be plundered. The first rule of war is to show no mercy. A merciful queen is a weak one. I am not Danu; I do not run from a fight, I welcome it.” My eyes moved to the black wings of the crows as they descended on the dead, plucking flesh from the corpses that covered the battlefield. “If I allowed them to live, it would be seen as weakness, and more armies would come. This is the price he pays for bringing his monsters onto my shores, and he would have had no mercy if he’d conquered me. I would have been raped, murdered, and placed on his walls as a trophy.”
“Is that why he is naked, tied to your bed?” he asked, and I lifted my eyes to hold his.
“Who is in my bed is not your concern, Lugh. I enjoy having him there, reminding him that I am destroying everything he loves. They speak of what I do to him; do they not?” I asked, waiting to hear what they said of my bedmate.
“They think you enjoy his cock,” he admitted as he stepped closer, uncaring that a few feet away from us, the king’s daughters were being filled with arrows while their blood escaped through countless wounds. His wife screamed as warrior after warrior took her by force. I wanted to throw up at the scene that played out around me, and yet I wouldn’t. I showed no regret, no fear or mercy because to do so would result in others thinking I had some, which I didn’t. “They say it grows to monstrous lengths, and that you’re riding him every night. That you scream his name as he takes our queen,” he laughed coldly. “I don’t argue what they say, since night after night, the entire kingdom hears your screams as you come apart for our enemy’s cock. You’re a woman with needs. I don’t think any less of you for using what is at hand. I do, however, think that you should use others among your own court as well to quiet the rumors. As I said, my offer stands, and I would worship every single inch of you, my Queen.” He bowed as a sly smile lifted his lips, my cheeks burning with his words.
I turned away from him, dismissing him entirely. I stared at the queen, who was between two men, taking them both as she begged for mercy. It sickened me, forcing anger to radiate through me as the men used her for pleasure. The battle had ended hours ago, and yet I still felt unease pulsing through me. Moving to where they raped her, I pulled out my sword, watching as they scattered away from her body while she fell to the ground, helpless.
“There is no mercy in war,” I hissed vehemently. “There is no mercy when you invaded our lands. You and your king brought this upon yourselves.”
“He will kill you!” she whimpered through chattering teeth.
“He is chained to my bed,” I laughed as I lowered myself to push her hair from her face. “He begs to fuck me,” I whispered against her ear. “He hasn’t even pleaded for your life since I first captured him. Not a single mention of the family he has left behind to die.”
“We are not weak, and he is never weak! He loves me! He cherishes our daughters,” she whimpered as a soldier moved between her legs. I turned, staring at him as he rubbed his hand over his engorged cock. “You can allow your men to rape me, but you will never kill us all.”
“Your daughters are dead, your king is soon to join them, and you…you will die here.” I turned her head, forcing her to stare at her daughters, who hung to the posts, lifeless as arrows continued to hit their marks in their flesh.
I watched as her eyes filled with tears, and I wondered what it would feel like to love something as much as she had loved her children. To have a husband who cherished her and loved her for being weak. I would never know that love, never in my lifetime, because to love me, was to die. I rose from the ground, no longer interested in hearing her words as I brought my sword up and then down, severing her head while the men watched me.
“You don’t need her mouth to fuck her,” I hissed when one uttered his displeasure at the loss of her head. I grabbed it, pushing it into the bag I carried before I moved into the horde of men to find the one I sought. When I reached him, I frowned as he turned, watching me with naked hunger in his eyes.
His hand lifted, cupping my naked breast as I watched him with cold detachment. I said, “When they’ve finished with her corpse, you will place her beside her daughters. Let the crows feed on their flesh as a warning to anyone else who seeks to wage war against us.”
“You intend to show them mercy?” he chuckled as he pinched my nipple.
“Lucifer, if you intend to rule hell, you must first learn to not fuck with those who enjoy slaughtering the new God’s children. I assure you, I have no mercy. Touch me again, and I will prove it to you,” I growled as I grabbed his dick, tightening my hold. “You bow before me, or you die just like the others you begged me to murder for you have died. If you plan to cross me, know that I am War. I am always ten feet ahead of you, and I never fail to bring down my enemies. Now be a good boy and do as I asked.”
Walking away from the battle left a sour taste in my mouth. I stopped and smiled as I felt my sisters materializing beside me. “You are too late to join the battle,” I muttered, staring at each one.
“It’s not the battle we enjoy,” Fódla said as her eyes took in the lustful warriors that were covered in thick, dried blood. “It is the warriors and their lust I’ve come for.”
“You’re willing to lower yourself to take the cock of a lesser being?” I asked curiously as I studied her, waiting for her response.
“It is only you who fears lust, sweet sister. You, of course, lost your lover in a most brutal way, but it was a lesson you took to heart. Some of us don’t care what we fuck, as long as we can find pleasure,” she shrugged. “I heard rumors that you found a beast and have him chained to your bed; have you finally decided to break that lousy vow of chastity? You murdered his wife and children?” she said as she took in the two women who were filled with arrows beside the headless corpse.
“If they lived, I would die. I need you to retrieve them, bury them with the other ones in my tomb,” I whispered, barely loud enough for the wind to carry my words.
“And why not let the crows feast upon them, they’re starving.”
“They remind me of us,” I admitted. “This wasn’t their doing, but war is war.”
“And now that you’ve taken everything he loves away, will you let him taste your flesh? Or do you intend to take his head as well?” she countered as I watched my other sister playing with Lucifer openly without fear of being judged or persecuted for her actions. His broad wings flapped in the wind as he showed her his true form.
“I have not decided,” I admitted. “I rather enjoy torturing him. He soothes something in me, and I have grown to enjoy his struggles and his dirty mouth. He speaks freely about wanting to rip my skull off and fuck it; I find it refreshing and a change from the others and their dumb, love-struck ideas. I will deliver his queen’s head to him tonight. I don’t imagine he will have many good things to speak of when I have done so.”
“Will you tell him that you murdered his children as well?” she asked as we watched Banba stripping herself bare while Lucifer did the same. Strange vines slipped from his ribcage to caress her flesh. “She is such a hussy…Is it bad that I want to join her; he is hot.”
“I won’t have to tell him that his children died. They were never away from his beloved wife, so presenting him with her head should be enough. That’s not right, is it?” My beast hadn’t shown me wings yet. Maybe I’ll cut him open to see if he has some of those hiding beneath his flesh, as Lucifer does.
“Is she letting those things into her body?” she laughed as we watched our sister bending over, allowing Lucifer to use his vines to fuck her as he stood inches away from her. The entire army watched them, occasionally throwing me and my sister curious glances as if we might join the orgy. “It’s disturbing, and yet I am wet just thinking about it. Remember what our father did, Ériu. The other Gods have noticed you ar
e once again here, picking up Danu’s mess. They fear what you are, and what your presence does to these beings. Wherever you are, war rages around you, around us.”
“Am I to go to the slumber, then? What would they have me do? I only joined this world because the call of war beckoned to me. War was already here; I just stepped in and decided on which side to fight. They’re bloodthirsty beings. I hurt no one by being here,” I uttered, my mind racing with the overwhelming need to scream at what the other Gods thought of me.
I was created to bring war to the lands, to unleash chaos onto their worlds. They feared me, rejected me, and they took everything and everyone I loved from me. They showed me what I was, who I was, and when I’d discovered that I could want something, it was destroyed. My own father had murdered the one being I’d loved more than myself. He’d ripped him apart slowly while I stood there, watching it unfold. I couldn’t save him, nor would I have. I’d been weak, vulnerable. Just as the king tied to my bed was weak, his love of those I’d murdered had been his weakness. I’d done what I knew to make him stronger. I took his weaknesses away so that he would be like me, strong enough to stand with me if I chose it.
“You like this king?” she said as she studied me, uncaring that our sister was screaming like an idiot as some puny angel fucked her. “Why?”
“I like that he soothes the monster within me as he speaks of murdering me,” I said with a smirk lifting my lips. “His cock grows to the most alluring monstrous thing I’ve ever seen. I don’t love him, but I do wish to feel him within me. Is that a weakness, Fódla?” I asked.
“No, no, it isn’t a weakness to enjoy a man, Ériu,” she uttered. “It’s been thousands of years since you have even kissed a man or creature. Have you ever even taken one between your thighs?”
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