OF WAR Anthology Novels 1-3

by Lisa Beth Darling

  During the day she grew quiet and sullen. Knowing she was pregnant there was nothing Alena could turn to in order to kill the growing numbness inside of her. Something was terribly wrong, but she couldn’t say what. All she knew was it hurt way down deep in a place that could not be reached with words. She tried to blame the pregnancy and hormones as she sat in her bedroom day after day watching television and letting the world slip away from her unnoticed and unwanted.

  Using the pregnancy as a valid excuse, she soon put an end to the sparring matches with Raven. Her depression deepened from that to not taking her son outside and running around with him as he liked. That turned to not leaving the second floor, which quickly turned to not leaving her bedroom for anything other than tucking Raven in at night and reminding him that she loved him.

  II

  Every night after she shut his bedroom door, Raven prayed to the gods with all of his might to let him dream again, to let the dreams be vivid and all-encompassing. Like his Father, Raven was certain they were passing on to his mother. Like Morpheus, Raven felt it was high time the little Fey knew exactly what she was dealing with.

  Raven loved the dreams and gave way to them with much abandon and desire. His favorite parts were when he saw the Titan Gods fucking the little Faes. They were so small compared to the Titans, small, helpless, meaningless. They let out little cries for mercy and of pain, which only made the Titan males harder, lustier and more excited. Those tiny women could take in every inch of those massive cocks and not bleed or break. They did take the Titan men, two and three, even more at a time. The Titan women looked on masturbating and even going so far as to join in and make sure the little Fae whore did it right.

  The boy seemed to tap most easily into the memories of Cronos. Every night he watched the giant God and his bevy of little Faes as they crawled all over him fucking and sucking him until dawn, leaving him so sated he could no longer move. It was at those times Raven knew his mother was fucking his Father the same way in the room across the hall; he could almost feel her sliding up and down his young untested but very hard and willing cock.

  The boy savored and understood every aspect of his dreams save one: The willow tree. Just before dawn and his eyes rolled open, he saw it, a massive weeping willow tree standing by a babbling brook, but surrounded by heavy thorns. He was certain that it was one of the few genetic memories he received from his mother. What memory and what it meant he couldn’t figure out. He would one day, he’d find its meaning and a way to use it.

  III

  Just over a week after Alena learned she was carrying another of Ares’ children, the fated night Raven waited so patiently for arrived.

  Unable to sleep and suffering from a horrible headache, Alena climbed out of the bed and went to the bathroom for a drink of water and to splash some on her face, hoping it would ease the dull ache in her temples. She tried to avoid looking in the mirror, afraid of being pulled into another vision, but her eyes scanned upward to it against her will. Again she took in the deep lines on her face.

  Something is being stolen from you.

  The voice was clear and jarring. Alena turned away from the mirror and looked around the room but saw no one. She turned back to the silver over the sink. “What? What is being stolen?”

  Your life.

  Your heritage.

  Your son.

  She tried hard not to listen to the voice with no face, but it settled into her mind and then made its way to her heart before she could stop it. “What am I?” The voice was comforting in its familiarity though she was certain her ears never heard it before, not in its adult form. “Who are you? Raven?”

  Go to him now, woman, go to your son. He needs you.

  Like any good mother, that was all Alena needed to hear. She ran out of the master bathroom into the master bedroom and past the sleeping Ares snoring on the bed. Quietly she pushed open the door to Raven’s room as goosebumps rose cold on her skin. Raven didn’t have a nightlight and the only light she should see was firelight, glowing amber firelight. But the light in the room was blue, gold and green, and at first she didn’t know where it was coming from. Then she looked up and thought a movie was playing on Raven’s ceiling. From the looks of it a very big budget movie.

  Above her on the ceiling, the sensations, dreams and visions she’d been having played out in surround sound and full living color. She saw stars and planets that were completely unfamiliar to her; they went past as though she were in a spaceship traveling through them. The motion, the feeling of moving forward, was so real it almost made her nauseous. The low delicate hum of the ship’s strong motors purred below her feet. The stars slowed as a large planet came into view, and she thought it had to be twice the size of Jupiter. It was blue, green and gold; the entire planet seemed to glitter and sparkle as it came closer. “It really is beautiful,” she whispered, still looking up with her neck craned all the way back to get the best view. Descending through the layers of atmosphere a city came into view, a grand and glorious city of golden temples flying heavy banners in the breeze above the well-paved roads and fastidiously kept houses and buildings. Outside the tall walls of the inner city grew golden fields of grain nearly as far as the eye could see as it drifted toward majestic mountains and sparkling lakes.

  Beyond the outer walls stood forests as far as the eye could see. Wild untamed land stretched to the horizon dotted with tiny puffs of smoke from small cooking fires. Looking at the peaceful sight caused a sense of sorrow and despair to sweep over her. In the stillness of her sleeping son’s room it was so powerful that it nearly knocked her off her feet as it drained the strength from her knees, and she sank to the ground with her face buried in her hands.

  The part of her that belonged to Cernunnos sparked to life and flooded her mind with images so swiftly she couldn’t grasp at them. That was the land of the Fae, of the Muse, The Nymph and the Grace. It was the place the Titans stole them from only to sell them on the auction platform in the public square like chattel. Her heart yearned to run in those forests, to play in those woods, immerse her body in its rivers and brooks then lay naked beneath its stars. Making love beneath its purple moon.

  Out in the peaceful woods, the Titans set traps. By leg or fall, they caught the Fae, the Nymph and the Grace, hauled them back behind their fortified walls and then used them as they pleased. The fact couldn’t have been clearer when Raven’s dream shifted focus and above Alena displayed across the entire ceiling was a Bacchanalia. Titans lounged around a large room in various stages of undress and various stages of gluttony. Around them, the Muses played music and the Graces danced naked for them. As they lounged they were fed by their slaves, the Nymphs; great amounts of Ambrosia and Nectar went down their gullets, but even more spilled over their chins and down their chests. As they ate, drank and smoked, there were Faes buried between their legs sucking huge hard cocks or pumping themselves up and down upon them in a grand display of debauchery and excess. Those who weren’t engaging in sex were looking on at one group or another, touching themselves and waiting their turn on the bottom of the pile of young lithe women.

  It was all so real, so vivid, standing her son’s room, Alena actually smelled the tangy scent of sex and sweat. At least this part of the dream seemed to help shed a little light on Raven’s preoccupation with sex. The longer it went on the more it drew her until she was no longer a mere bystander, but part of the scene.

  Cronos sat on his throne at the head of the party with three Fae women paying homage to a cock the size of which would make Ares envious. His Wife, Rhea, a commanding woman if there ever was one, came to his side, grabbed the small naked Fae riding him around the hips and then pumped her up and down on his throbbing cock as though she were nothing more than a toy. Pushing her massive breasts against the girl’s back, she slid two fingers into her ass for better leverage then rocked her and gyrated her on Cronos until the Titan God blew his load inside her. Then Rhea picked up the girl like a six-pack, tossed her to the f
loor and grabbed another one for the next ride.

  Turning away from the sight wondering when it would end, it only got worse. It seemed this Bacchanalia was being held in honor of a young Titan who just turned sixteen. His name was Hyas, the Son of Atlas and Aethra, the Daughter of Oceanus. Tonight he was accepted into the Titans as a man. From the looks of the Bacchanalia, the boy was well favored by his elders. He had already been given a magickal gold shield with a lion engraved upon it and a sword to match, the hilt having the same lion, its mouth open in a roar and its eyes rubies the size of a fist. Along with these other trappings of manhood, Hyas was being presented with the ultimate token of it: his very first Fae.

  All activity ceased when the bells were struck and the same young Fae Alena saw in her vision was brought into the room. Her guards walked her up to the young Hyas who reached out and yanked off the toga covering her. The Titans all leaned forward to get a good look at the girl. Taking two items from a table near her, and on which he would defile her in a moment’s time, Hyas clasped a bracelet around her ankle and on her wrist that led to a ring on her index finger. “You’re mine now, woman.” He grabbed her hand and held it high up in the air while the half-naked people with food stuck to them cheered. In the amber light of the burning hearths, torches and candles, Alena saw a familiar sight; the symbol on the girl’s new slave bracelets was a large weeping willow tree, but hers had a lion at the base instead of a wolf.

  In the room, Alena’s fingers touched on the marriage necklace Ares gave her. So similar to the one she saw on the girl and to the one Alena used to wear.

  Hyas put his hands on the girl’s shoulders and forced her to kneel in front of him as he pushed aside the skirt of the toga to expose his hard cock. “Open your mouth, woman; tonight I’m going to have every hole in you, and then I’ll do it again. You’re mine now.”

  Again, the Titans cheered as the girl took Hyas into her mouth and blew him off for their amusement. After the first of his hot loads dumped down her throat as he held her face tightly to his abdomen, his fists wrapped around handfuls of her blonde hair so she couldn’t escape or spit. Relieved for the moment, the young buck reached down, picked her up under the arms and tossed her to the hard table. The Titans all moved in to gather around for the best viewing as Hyas pushed her legs apart and then the folds of skin between, showing them all the pretty little flower nestled there just waiting to be plucked from the vine.

  Dipping his hand into a nearby bowl of oil he smeared it between her legs and then pushed his fingers inside of her until he was buried four deep and covered with virginal blood. Those around him salivated as they touched themselves and whomever was near them. The electric tension in the room sparked to life when Hyas swung a thick well-toned leg over her to mount and then slowly slide into her, wanting her to feel every inch of his cock as it penetrated and ripped its way through virgin territory. “My whore now, I’m going to show you everything and you’re going to love me for it.”

  With that, the night really began and not a Fae in the room was safe from the clutch of the Titans.

  “Alena?”

  Ares voice behind her brought her eyes away from the sight but nothing could block out the smells and the sounds coming from Raven’s dream. “Yes…my Lord?”

  “Don’t say it that way,” Ares begged as he looked from his Wife on the floor, her eyes burning at him to the images from his Son’s mind on the ceiling. “I’m not them. I don’t own you.”

  “You got that right, that much anyway.” Slowly she rose to her feet to face him. “You don’t own him either,” she pointed toward the sleeping Raven without taking her eyes from Ares. “He’s not one of you and he never will be.” She spat and pushed past him to storm out of the room.

  “Nice going boy,” Ares said through gritted teeth as he watched her go.

  Safe under the covers from his Father’s view, Raven smiled.

  IV

  “Alena, it has nothing to do with you and me.”

  “Just what am I to you?” Even though she was away from Raven’s room, the images and sensations running wild through her didn’t stop. Sorrow so deep filled her until she could hardly stand and sweat broke out on her brow. Now the sorrow running in her as it looked for places to settle in turned to fear and panic. War. War came to Olympus. It erupted between the Titans and the Celts who were tired of being used and enslaved. Death, death by the thousands came to the Fey as the Titans set about slaughtering them in the wild and burning their little treetop villages until the planet reeked of it, but they would not give up.

  Running. Running. Running.

  Alena knew that in the next room, on the ceiling and all around, Fey, Muse, Nymph and Grace by the score were being rounded up in Raven’s dream, they were being herded into space ships and packed into cargo holds so tightly they couldn’t breathe. It was dark.

  Oh so dark, and cold, and smelly. Can’t move. Can’t breathe. All around the sounds of sobbing and people getting sick.

  In a bloody fight to the last, the Titans ran and the Celts chased, many ships on both sides were lost along the way until only two remained and crashed on Earth.

  “My Wife and the woman I love,” Ares reached out for her but she moved away from him. “You’re not my slave.”

  “No? Then what’s this?” She held out the medallion around her neck for him to see. “Where’s mine?”

  “I told you before, I don’t know where it is.”

  “You’re lying. You lied when you put this around my neck!” She looked down at the medallion. “I thought the wolf was you and I was the tree you were guarding but that’s not it, is it? You’re keeping the tree prisoner, me, prisoner. It’s a symbol of ownership among the Titans.”

  “It’s all in the past, it’s over and done. Don’t let it come between us,” Ares begged as he moved to stand next to her, to take hold of the medallion she was fiddling with. “If it’s similar to one you saw in Raven’s dream, that wasn’t my intent and I didn’t know.”

  He didn’t know?

  “How can you plead ignorance with me? Your memory’s genetic, of course you knew.” Ares didn’t answer her accusation; he only stood there silent and stone-faced. “Why was Cernunnos chasing the Titans? What did they do? If you brought us here how did the Fey come to live in the Celtic lands?”

  “It wasn’t Cernunnos; he was born here like me.” Ares understood her questions and her driving desire to know now that the whole truth was dangling in front of her, but he was forbidden to talk about it among other Olympians let alone with an outsider, even if he was married to her. “I can’t tell you any more than that.”

  “More blood vows?” Alena tittered as she wondered just what she’d gotten herself into here with the God of War. “They escaped from you–”

  “Not from me,” Ares steamed, “From the Titans and then from my Father.”

  “We, the small fragile Fey, beat you twice,” Alena nodded and fought back the tears that wanted to fall down her ashen cheeks. “I see. No wonder he hates me so much and thinks I’m here for revenge, is that it? Revenge?”

  “Yes.” Ares reached out to hold her but Alena backed away from his touch. “I know that’s not why you’re here. I never wanted you to know this because I knew how you’d react.” At least now he knew with absolute certainty that Zeus was wrong. Alena wasn’t here for revenge and up until three minutes ago she didn’t have any real idea of the situation she was in. Now that she did, Ares didn’t know if he would be able to salvage the blown-up remains of his marriage and his Wife’s trust.

  “Badly, I suppose, at least by your opinion.”

  “That’s not what I said.”

  “If I’m not your slave, why can’t I leave this place on my own? Why won’t you give me the power to open the Gate?”

  That was the very same question Raven asked of him on the island and the only answer he had to offer was going to infuriate her but he said it anyway. “I don’t want you to leave me.”

  �
�Gods forbid I should be able to that, huh? Get myself away from this looney bin. That would be horrible.” She threw her hands in the air and turned her back on him. “No, I’m just another whore you can play, manipulate and fuck for a while.” Shaking her head she wiped the tears from her ashen face. “I’m such a fool to believe you would ever love me,” she glanced at the God of War over her shoulder from behind a shield of silver hair, “or anyone.”

  “Your confidence in me is overwhelming, my lovely Wife.” Ares ran the palm of his hand through his hair. “Can’t you just believe that I love you and that I don’t care about any of the rest?”

  She’d like that but the trouble was, where ignorance was bliss and being wise was folly, one couldn’t go from ignorance to wise and back again. The life she wanted with the man she thought loved her just went up in smoke. Alena turned around, no longer bothering to hold back the tears. “I don’t know anymore,” she confessed as she reached up to put a hand on his cheek and felt the softness of his beard between his fingers. “My son hates me. My Husband lies to me about so many important things.” Dropping her hand from his cheek, she took his arm and turned it over so that the scars on his palm and forearm were facing upward. Then she touched her necklace again. “What am I supposed to do, Ares? How am I supposed to live this way? When I am surrounded by so many that I cannot trust.”

  “You can trust me. I’ll never betray you. Never hurt you”

  “You already have,” Alena whispered and thought she heard faint words about Ares being a pretty poison echoing in the back of her head.

  Ares could almost read the thought dancing in her bewildered eyes. He took up both of her hands and pressed them to his lips. “Then trust that I will not do it again.”