Scarlett's Letter (Touched by a God #1) (6 page)

Hades needed to talk to Hermes.  He wanted to know how it was possible that this woman seemed to have the ability to leave him.  He also wanted to know if there was some form of truth to what she had stated about her lines’ marking.  If there was any truth to it, then there might just be three less gods in the heavens. He was able to be as deceptive as he chose to be but he had zero tolerance for anyone deceiving him.  The underworld, the heavens and the earth were all going to be in a state of chaos until he had answers and his rouge by his side again.  He had no intention of allowing their last interaction to be one that left both of them wanting more answers and no one there to give the much needed responses.

Dazed and Confused as hell (5)

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Present day, Her home, one week later: scarlett

After her scream session, Scarlett got up and made herself and her
unborn child
something to eat. She was going to need more time to deal with the reality of that little nugget of truth.  One evening wasn’t enough.  It had been just one day since she finally stopped taking pregnancy tests, scheduled an appointment and began the process of accepting the truth.  She definitely needed more time on that front.  Scarlett still had questions, so many questions.  How had she’d gotten home?  Scarlet didn’t know, but she was a bit happier because of it.  She didn’t want to think about how quickly she would’ve given in to Aides’ advances if she would’ve stayed the remainder of the five days.  Her head needed to be cleared, completely.  Why was she chosen?  Was the mark on her left thigh that significant?  He appeared to believe so.

The more she thought about the years that she’d been called to Aides’ side, the more she accepted the truth of it.  Things began to finally make some sense. Albeit farfetched, she was finding some clarity.  One thing that had always puzzled her was just how sullen he would get at the end of their time together.  Actually, sullen would be putting it a bit too mildly.  The man tended to be downright surly at times.  If he were a woman and she were the man, then she could almost classify him as having been a ‘bitch’ on those occasions.  Whomever he spoke to…the
demons
that he spoke to would get chewed out faster than she could say his name.  He would just dismiss them after and they would obediently go.  Now, that she had a moment to think about it, they never questioned him. His workers always did what he commanded and nothing else.

Scarlett hadn’t realized it up until that very second.  The blinders were definitely off.  She wasn’t in that “love” or even “dream” bubble any longer.  Her tush was firmly planted in the real world where her heart wasn’t about to be handed over to a man that seemed too good to be true.  Ha! Little did she know then.  She wanted to kick “hind sight” in his teeth and stab fate through her damned heart.  What kind of crappy ass world did she live in where she was fated to have the child of one of the worst possible men…gods to ever manifest fire and grace her conscious or subconscious?   Was she being punished for something that she didn’t know she’d done? 

Scarlett looked at her slightly distended belly and just shook her head.  Why couldn’t she just return to that day that she felt the pull all those years ago?  She wanted to scream again, but she got sidetracked by her thoughts meandering back to recall the each of his reactions to her leaving.  She thought back to his responses to her having to leave him.  There were surefire signs that said something wasn’t right about the man that she had come to look forward to spending time with. 

Scarlett recalled how each time that she left he’d be in a funk. He was always touching her stomach or running his hands over the area.  He would do it so often that she’d begun to ponder the thought of being pregnant with his child.  Every time that they’d been together was unprotected.  Seeing that it was only a few days prior that she learned the truth of his deceit, she hadn’t ever thought twice about the fact that she and her dream lover had never used a condom.  She was so inactive in her reality that she didn’t even bother with birth control.  What a beautiful thing to find out that she was now carrying the spawn of all things evil. 

She grabbed hold to the counter as her emotions flooded to the surface.  How could this be her life?  Why was she the one to have to deal with this?  What had she done wrong to be given such a burden?  Was she being punished for some unknown reason? Really, was she? The tears began and her frame shook as her hand drifted to her little bean.  Her hand shook as she gently placed it over where the child he manipulated into her body rested.  What would this be?  Would she recognize the baby as a baby…a human child?  He was a fucking god.  Would the damn child come out glowing or some other otherworldly characteristic telling the world the truth of its origins?  Where the hell do you go to bring an immortal being’s baby into the world? 

“Oh, please don’t let that be the case.  Please, please, please, don’t let me have to be sent to some ‘special place’ to have this child.”

Scarlett thought about the fact that he was the Lord of the Underworld, ruler over all things demonic.  Would her child have any of those attributes? Would she be dealing with beady red eyes, a horn or two, another head, warts, horribly scarred or scaly skin? She wouldn’t be able to handle most of any of those things.  There was no way in hell that she was going to be able to function knowing that she was the reason some horrible creation walked the face of the earth.  The contents of her stomach pitched then.   She barely made it to the toilet before her meal made an appearance that she didn’t need to ever see again.  As the contents were flushed away, she wished she could flush away the problem of some dumb ass god wanting her to evidently bear a child for him. 

She closed the lid of the toilet then rested her forehead on her arm as she cried into the crook of her elbow.  Scarlett cried for her predicament.  She cried for the manner in which she was about to get a title change.  Her thoughts had always envied the relationship that Qui and R.J. had.  Their mother/daughter speak was beyond cute.  She even found herself jealous of the time that Chelsea was able to spend with R.J.  Her tears flowed even harder when she started thinking about the fact that this wasn’t how she pictured she would react when she found out that she was bringing her first child into the world.  She cried for the unborn child that might not ever know their mother’s love.  Could she ever do that to someone that was essentially a part of her?  Could she just give the child over to another to raise after carrying said child for nine months?

Scarlett shook herself.  She wouldn’t be that person, no matter what.  If he wanted the child that she was carrying then he would have to do some major changing.  A part of her sensed something in him, but she hadn’t ever focused on that when she was in his presence.  She’d been so focused on her silly, school girl, lust filled thoughts that she hadn’t focused on some of the queues that he’d given her about who he really was.  When he’d previously told her that her leaving his home would cause him to be a ranting, raging idiot, she hadn’t believed him.  He also told her it would be for weeks at a time. Now, she understood that he was waiting to get his seed implanted, that was the sole reason behind his rants and rages.  Maybe, she had been completely naïve all of this time.  He was looking at her as an incubator and she was looking at him as a potential lover for life, even though she believed him to be real only in the dream world,.  She was dreaming of plans for a future and he was planning his own version of their…well, his future.

Everything that he’d done was to get her good and pregnant with his child.  He didn’t see her.  He saw the birthing agent for his heir or whatever the hell this child would be.  He saw her as the woman that would be there for him to bed until she gave him this child.  Had she ever meant anything to him?  There were moments during their time together that he appeared to look at her as if she was more than he’d ever expected.  He would gaze upon her features and would practically radiate with joy at being able to be near her.  She recalled there were those initial moments when she first arrived before him and he’d looked as if the entire weight of the world had just been removed from his shoulders.  There was a calm that came over his features whenever they were together.  As their time neared an end, he always seemed to retreat within himself.  He seemed to mentally prepare himself to automatically school his features and block off all of his emotions. 

In spite of all of what was going on, she still found herself able to find some good within it all.  Scarlett couldn’t just completely walk away from what had been a seven year wish.  He had been her thing to look forward to.  He was her thirst quencher, even if it was for such a short amount of time.  What she never told him was just how sullen she was when she returned.  All of her friends regularly checked on her for quite a few weeks following her return…awakening…whatever.  The only thing that really helped her then was taking a moment to remember the good things about her visits and hope that it would be enough to get her through the agonizing hours she would spend alone.

Over the years she’d spend her quiet moments between classes. She’d allow her thoughts to drift back to her occasions with him.  Her favorite moments were always those instances when he just freely expressed whatever emotion he was feeling.  If it was sadness, happiness, fear, whatever, it didn’t matter. Aides looked the most content when he lived in those moments.  She found herself questioning those. Was any of it true?  Was he being honest about who he was now?  Seven years was a long time to put on a façade.  Even the most professional and dedicated con artist had occasion to slip up.  Nobody’s perfect, not even a god.  Maybe the other guy, the cold, emotionless guy was the slip up and the man that she cared about was the reality.

She didn’t really hold out much hope that it was the case for Aides.  Every time that she tried to reconcile the two sides of the man, she found herself even more confused.  Scarlett chastened herself.  She needed to dwell on the ticking bomb that was wrapped up in the hours that were dwindling away faster than sand in an hour glass. 

Scarlett thought back on one more moment of her time with Aides.  One night, during her sabbatical away from him, she’d overheard him in the hallway across from her chosen area. It had the best view of the grounds surrounding Aides house.  The color tones of muted orange and cream were very calming.  Being in that room brought her comfort. 

Scarlett had been leaning on the wall watching a bird in one of the trees when she heard his voice.  His voice always carried, but the proximity of his voice in that moment told her that he was actually right outside her door.  She didn’t think that he knew that she had commandeered the room for her own.  The last time that he’d seen her she was in a room that was right next door to the studio that he’d set up for her.  As she thought it over one morning, she realized that her being in that room was too obvious of a choice to try to “escape” him.  If he wanted her, then he would easily find her.  When the house grew quiet that evening she moved to the room that she’d found earlier that day.  It had been the only evening that she was able to sleep in the large four poster bed she’d found there.  He’d removed the bed from the room she’d been in before.  He must’ve forgotten about the bed in that room or thought she wouldn’t find the hidden alcove that removed the door from plain sight. Her night there had been wonderful.  It had been the last evening that she’d slept peacefully. 

The next afternoon she’d heard him bellowing and moving throughout the house screaming for her.  She’d refused to acknowledge him.  When she’d heard him in the hallway that led to her room, she simply scooted to the end of the bed and crossed her feet at the ankles on the footrest that sat there.  The door wasn’t locked.  Aides had thrown the door open and proceeded to read her the riot act for ignoring his shouts.  She stood, walked past him and down the hallway without a backward glance.  That evening and every evening after, she found that no room except for his held a bed.  Stupidly, she’d never questioned how all the beds returned during the day, but were gone again in the evening.  He’d been tormenting her and she hadn’t even realized it.

The night that she’d spent in peaceful slumber was the night that she’d overheard his conversation about time tables.  Evidently, he had a small window to convince the woman that would “bring forth his heir” before she would be lost to him forever.  Amazing how things look when you think back on them.  The conversation wasn’t one she really entertained then.  It was a pastime as she waited for him to pass by her area.  She had barely breathed the entire time that he’d been in the hallway.  When he’d left, she’d taken a nice long bath and gone to bed.  She hadn’t thought about it again until just then.

Scarlett would have until the end of the Season of Harvest to make her decision.  As far as she was concerned, there was no decision to make.  There was no way she was going to be the forever lover or the “just for the time being” lover of some god.  Her child was hers to raise, period. Since he didn’t have the five days to convince her to stay, which, let’s face it, had a snowballs chance in hell.  There was nothing more that she had to ponder.   

In the meantime, she rested in the knowledge that he couldn’t call her to him until the following year.  There was no way she would be able to think or even resist him if she had to be there with him all day, every day.  The man…god had a hold on her body.  If she wasn’t sure of anything else then she was sure of the fact that she couldn’t resist the sexiness that was Aides.  Hateful, manipulative bastard that he was, he knew how to prepare her body for him with just a single word.  She shuttered at the thought of being near him again and reveled in the fact that she had at least a year to train her body not to adhere to his call.  With any luck, she wouldn’t have to worry about anything.  Aides could find another to be what he needed.  Maybe he would forget about her altogether.  Before that thought completed itself, the hope and possibility mystified and disappeared.  There was no way that he was going anywhere.

Scarlett decided that she’d had enough for the day.  It didn’t matter to her that she was pregnant, she wanted out of the house. No more confinement for her.  She’d practically spent the entire day inside the confines of her home.  She needed her friends and she needed them right then.  As she’d thought about her predicament, she’d listened to her voicemails and reviewed her text messages.  Her overprotective father and two brothers had worked her already frazzled nerves into a more insane state of frenzy.  Who lives like that?  She needed to move as soon as possible.  Those fools were going to cause her to drop dead at a very young age.