OF WAR Anthology Novels 1-3

by Lisa Beth Darling

  When Zeus came along and had other ideas of how things should be run, the young God of Gods started a coup and overthrew the Titans. He killed his Father, Cronos, and buried their sordid past. Zeus created the new Olympus to be benevolent and kind toward the native mortals rather than enslaving the entire planet as the Titans wanted to do. The rest, as they say, is Ancient History.

  “So they are treacherous? Their women used sex to get what they want and then turn on you.”

  That was what Zeus and Apollo would have Raven believe. “They wanted their freedom, and there’s nothing wrong in that.” Especially in Alena’s case, she who fought so hard and so long for her own personal freedom. She who ran from Cernunnos, only to find herself faced with Jaakim, both of whom would have kept her captive until she was used up. Perhaps it was that fighting spirit of hers that convinced Zeus Alena was from the Dark Kingdom. Whatever it was, Ares was damned if he was going to sit by and watch as Zeus tried to take the precious freedom away from her again. “Until she washed up on this shore, boy, I hadn’t even laid eyes on a Fae in hundreds of years.”

  “Why not? Zeus let them all go?” Raven thought he knew the answer but he wanted to hear Ares say it.

  Ares ran his hand across his mouth. “Not exactly.” This was the true reason Zeus hated the Celts and the Fae most of all. While Zeus was busy overthrowing the Titans, the Fae came to him and offered their help in return for their freedom. As with Anu, the Fae were willing to tell Zeus the particular strengths and vulnerabilities of the Titans, some of which Zeus did not already know. Zeus agreed, he took their information, he picked their brains, he used them to spy on Cronos and the others. When the coup came to a head and Zeus emerged victorious, due in large part to the information provided to him by the Fae, he turned around and refused to let them go. Zeus did this for the same reasons the Titans wouldn’t let the Fae go—the women. He offered them limited freedom and to lift the label of slave in return for servant. That wasn’t good enough for them.

  That left the Fae with no choice but to again plot to escape and they carried it out, taking several Olympian lives as they went running to the Celtic lands where Anu promised them asylum and freedom. To this very day, the Fae were the only clan who could claim victory over Zeus. The Fae did the only thing they knew to do; they turned to Anu, who had held to her word earlier.

  Anu again used the Fae just as Zeus would have done if they’d run to him; she pumped them for information on the Olympians, their strengths, their weaknesses, and how best to storm the gates of the new Olympus and make them answer for their crimes. In exchange for all they knew of the new Olympus and three Fae women granted to her new Son, Cernunnos, Anu promise the Fae land of their own and complete autonomy. The Fae complied. By then it was too late for true Justice; all of the Titans were dead and both factions were stuck on Earth.

  So began a long feud between the Olympians and the Celts. Ages later, so would come the split between the Faes. Those of the Golden Lands wanted to simply return to their wild ways and forget the past, those who came to be known as from the Dark Kingdom refused to let History slide into Oblivion.

  It all happened before the first of Zeus’ children could draw breath. Hera and the others of the first generation of Olympians let it go eons ago, but Zeus held onto his hatred of the Celts and the Fae. Quietly, Zeus spread his prejudice among the Olympians who, to this day, had no qualms about referring to the Celts as whores and traitors. However, they would not be bothered to go out of their way to harm any of them. Zeus would.

  “Why did they turn traitor and run when they could have lived forever on the mountain?”

  “Probably because the Fae were treated worst of all,” Ares mumbled, deep in thought. He hadn’t spoken of these things since Eros came to him thousands of years ago with the same questions. The Titans brought those of the Muse with them to inspire them. They brought those of the Grace with them to keep them happy, as merely being around any of them was enough to brighten even the darkest of days. Those of the Nymph were originally brought to cook and to serve, but that changed when the Fae left and the Nymph were called upon to replace them. The Titans brought the Fae men here for no other reason than to breed to the Fae women and ensure new blood. The Fae women, however, were brought along just for their favors. As would happen centuries later with mortal men, Titan and Olympian men just couldn’t keep their hands off the Fae women and they would go to great lengths to obtain one, especially now that they were in such short supply since coming to Earth. They were strong of will and heart, but they were also fragile, delicate creatures, and most of the Fae didn’t survive the journey through the stars.

  It wasn’t until they escaped from Olympus that their numbers began growing again.

  II

  “AHHHHHH!”

  Screaming downstairs woke Alena with another jolt. Grabbing up her robe as she scrambled out of the bed, she rushed down as fast as she could. “What? What is it? What’s wrong?”

  “EWWWWW!”

  Alena followed the shrieking voice to the kitchen, rounded the corner, and stopped short at the sight of the naked carcasses of the buck and the boar. Feeling her own stomach give a heavy turn, she raised a hand to her mouth. On the flank of the boar there was a makeshift brand that read: 4 Mom. “Oh my, I see their hunt is turning out to be very successful,” she said in a soothing voice to Onya, who’d walked into the kitchen to make coffee but met the gruesome bloody sight that frightened the wits out of her. Reaching out, Alena gently rubbed her hand across Onya’s shoulder and upper back to feel the tension there. “It’s ok, my dear, it’s ok. You know what? I’ll cut these up in a little bit so you don’t have to fool with them.”

  Onya groaned and then nodded her head. “Thank you.” Holding a hand to her mouth to keep from puking, she dashed out of the kitchen. On the island, Ares hunted all of the time and she was the cook, but Kat cut up the kills and brought her the meat for cooking and storing; no heads or eyes attached.

  “Don’t mention it,” Alena looked after Onya as she rushed down the hall. “Poor girl.” The buck and the boar were both very large and would feed the family for many months to come. Alena wondered if she could dig a pit in the snow to slow roast the boar whole. She hadn’t had roasted pig in ages and her mouth watered at the thought. After coffee and finishing up with the deer, she’d go outside and see if it was possible to make a fire pit out there.

  After breakfast, Alena set about the task of carving up and curing the meat. Most of it she thought she’d just wrap and stick out in the snow to freeze for later use. They had a huge refrigerator here, but it would never hold all of that. It took her an hour to carve up the buck, wrap the pieces and store them just off the front steps of the Fortress deep in a hole. Usually she’d take an amount of pleasure in the gruesome work but today she kept hearing the auctioneer shouting how she’d ‘work in their kitchen, cook their meals, and keep their bellies warm’. She tried not to listen to that horrid nagging voice, tried to keep telling herself it was just a dream and she was being ridiculous. The bottom line was, that just wasn’t the way it felt.

  From the top of his Tower, Eros watched her with much curiosity. She was covered in blood and every few minutes appeared at the door to wander off the steps and bury something in the snow. For a moment, he thought she’d killed someone and this was her way of getting rid of the body—not that anyone here would care if she killed one of the women. When she dragged a fully skinned and gutted boar to the front steps, Eros understood what she’d been doing and watched with even more intense curiosity when she began digging another pit in the snow. Surely she wasn’t going to bury the thing whole. Watching her drag a load of wood outside, Eros knew what she was planning and flew down from the top of the Tower to talk to her.

  “That’s not going to work,” Eros advised as he landed softly on his bare feet in the snow. “You are trying to roast it out here, aren’t you?”

  “I thought I’d try,” Alena offered as she started sta
cking the wood in the hole.

  Eros reached his hand to stop her. “You know, even if it were possible to start the fire and keep the snow from melting, only Ares could keep an open flame burning out here with this little oxygen.” Although he knew she’d heard him, Alena just kept staring at his hand on her wrist and didn’t meet his eye. “Are you feeling all right, Maggie?”

  “Fine, I just want to roast this.”

  “A pig roast does sound delicious,” Eros agreed quietly, noting she still wasn’t looking at him, “but maybe you should do it inside. There’s a huge fire pit in the basement, isn’t there?”

  Yes there was, of course there was. She saw it every day when she sparred with Raven or Ares, they even used it as an obstacle to jump over or jump upon to gain an advantage. It was brick and it was six feet deep and five feet high, at least twelve feet wide. How could she have forgotten it was there? “Sorry, I…haven’t been sleeping well.” She felt foolish standing there having these simple details pointed out to her like a child.

  “Sorry to hear that.” Eros took his hand away and then her gaze turned up to meet his. He didn’t like the distance in her eyes. “Why don’t I take this down to the basement, we’ll season it up and start roasting it?” Grabbing the carcass by its hind legs, Eros tossed the boar over his shoulder and led her back inside.

  In the basement of the Fortress, Alena seemed to grow more distant, almost as though she were fading away right before Eros’ eyes. Clearly on Autopilot, she helped him build the fire and then richly season the hog with hefty sprigs of rosemary, entire bulbs of garlic, chunks of onion, heaping shakes of salt and pepper along with a thick drizzle of olive oil. After tossing the boar into the pit, Eros sat her down on one of the hardwood chairs in the room and then settled at her feet so that she couldn’t avoid his stare. “Maggie? What’s wrong?”

  “I…I have…a headache.” There was a blanket of sorrow around her shoulders and she couldn’t shake it. All she kept seeing and hearing was the auctioneer and the awful way he drove up the price for the Fae girl. “It’s nothing.”

  Eros reached out to touch her cheek and found it hot. When he held her chin and gently turned her face toward him, her gaze was blank as her eyes lolled in their sockets. “Perhaps I should take you upstairs so you can lie down.”

  Alena shook her head harder than she wanted and felt a bright burst of pain rush toward her forehead. “I’m…fine.” A little nap sounded like a good idea. Alena tottered on her feet, intending to see Eros off before taking his advice. Instead, the world around faded and she suddenly turned deaf just before she fainted, landing in Eros’ open arms.

  “Maggie? Maggie?” Eros shook her a little but her eyes didn’t open; he leaned in for a closer look and heard a terrible crash behind him. Looking up, he saw Onya standing in the doorway, the silver tray laden with tea for two on the floor, shattered teapot and cups spilling their hot contents all around her feet.

  Walking over broken shards of porcelain, Onya rushed into the room. “What are you doing? Get away from her.”

  “She fainted,” Eros protested as he stood up with Alena’s limp body in his arms.

  III

  Raven had a sweet bead on a very fat pheasant and was just about to let the arrow fly when a puff of pink smoke appeared. Fingers just off the bow, he barely had time to aim it toward the ground when Eros took form in front of him. “Are you trying to get yourself killed? I had that bird!”

  “There’s something wrong with Alena,” Eros said to Ares hurriedly as he ignored Raven’s outburst. “You need to come home now.”

  Ares’ face fell and then turned pale as he struggled to his feet on weak knees. “Apollo?”

  “I don’t know, but there’s something wrong.”

  The God of War disappeared in a flash of red light headed straight to Olympus, leaving Eros behind to collect Raven and follow. Ares stormed through the Gate and ran at breakneck speed up the front steps to the Fortress where Iris was waiting and directed him to his bedroom, where he found Onya and Arianna gathered around Alena. Alena’s clothes were covered with blood and there were droplets on her face and neck. “What happened?” Ares demanded as he pushed the women aside roughly in his determination to get to his Wife. “Alena?” While the rest of her face was paler than a ghost, her cheeks were red with flame. “Alena?” he asked again as he dropped to his knees by the bed and picked up her hand, only to find it burning. “What has happened to my Wife?”

  “She cut up the meat you sent, that’s where the blood’s from,” Onya offered quickly as she and Arianna made their way to the other side of the bed, “she’s not injured.”

  Slowly Alena’s eyes focused on Ares’ worried face and while he seemed so very far away, even farther away than the words coming to her mouth bit by bit, she somehow managed to get them out, “I don’t…feel…very…well.”

  “What’s wrong, huh?” Ares held her feverish hand to his bearded cheek. “Tell me what hurts.”

  Alena shook her head against the pillow. “My head, I just…feel so…out of it. Dazed.” Through her hazy eyes there was a thick fog between them; while Alena felt his breath on her cheek and her hand wrapped inside his, she could barely see his face.

  “Has Apollo been here? Tell me the truth, Alena.” Alena didn’t answer him and Ares looked to the women at her bedside for the answer. In return, each shook her head and looked at him in bewilderment. That didn’t mean anything. Apollo was sneaky; he wouldn’t have come through the front door, he would have found another way inside and taunted her in private.

  “Tired, sleep now,” Alena mumbled and began rolling over on her side away from him.

  “No, wait,” Ares reached out, his hand settling on her lower belly to roll her back toward him. “Wait.” He was about to say one thing when the conversation took a dramatic turn, one that would explain everything. “You’re pregnant,” Ares said as his face lit up and he pressed his ear to her belly to listen to the baby’s heartbeat.

  “Baby? No, no baby.”

  “Yes,” Ares said excitedly as the dread in his heavy heart began turning to elation that threatened to fade when the scars on his palm and forearm started itching, reminding him of his promise. Dread fought with excitement as he realized he would have to sleep with Aphrodite again and be forced to break Alena’s heart…again. Ares tried to push it aside. “We’re going to have a little-” he shut his mouth as he remembered his promise not to tell her the sex of their second child. She wanted to be surprised. “A baby. You’re not very far along.” They’d been so busy with Raven lately it was easy to see how the newest member of the family could have gone unnoticed for a few weeks. “I love you,” Ares whispered as he thought it was probably one of those late night jumps when she just tore into him out of the blue, under the spell of one of Raven’s dreams, that produced this most lovely surprise.

  The news was good and she wanted to be happy knowing that soon there would be another Raven running around. The truth was she wasn’t sure she could keep up with two of them. “I’ll be sick…weak…again?”

  “For a while,” Ares said as he soothed his free hand across her brow, “but I’m here, you can trust me. You know that, don’t you? I’ll take good care of you.”

  Hardly able to keep her eyes open any longer and barely able to hear her own voice she asked, “Where’s my necklace?”

  “Here.” Ares picked up the diamond and ruby wedding necklace lying against her chest. “Right here.”

  “No, my necklace? What did you do with it? Where did you put it? I can’t find it.”

  He wasn’t sure what she was talking about, but in the back of his mind he thought that he had the slightest inkling. “I don’t know.” Ares slid onto the bed next to her to wrap her up in his strong arms and hold her close. “You rest for a while now, dream about our new baby and our growing family. As always, I will take care of everything else.”

  Outside the bedroom open door, Raven stood with Eros watching the scene play out.
A baby. That was the last thing he wanted, some stupid baby crawling around getting into his stuff, getting in his way, taking up all the attention that he should be getting and just generally being a pain in the ass like Trinity.

  “Isn’t that wonderful, Raven? You’re going to be a big Brother.” Eros squeezed the boy’s shoulders as he looked down at him.

  “Yeah, great, just great.” The last thing Raven wanted was another damn sibling.

  That just would not do! Not at all.

  Raven was the best thing that ever happened to Olympus and if the others couldn’t see that, then he would have to make them see it. No crying, whining, needy little brat was going to get in his way.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Slave to Your Love

  I

  Morpheus kept to his word and ensured that Raven continued dreaming the way Zeus wanted him to tap into. Alena’s headaches grew worse and her desire to jump her Husband in the dead of night grew more urgent. Ares quickly came to hate waking from a sound sleep to find her gyrating on him. That was something he once loved and did with much abandon, but was now cold and calculating without true spontaneity, lust or passion. She rode him long and she rode him hard and with much precision, just as any good whore would do for her Master. He would know since he’d had more than his share of whores in his long life. He hated looking up to see her staring back at him with a blank stare, knowing she wasn’t even awake. Several nights he tried to stop her but Alena, conscious or not, was tenacious when she wanted something; he just couldn’t say ‘no’ to her for very long. It left him wondering which one of them was actually the slave in this scenario playing out in her dazed dreaming mind. Every night, deep in her sleep she tapped into something only she could see and feel, and she fucked him until he was so spent he couldn’t move.