Styxx (DH #33) (52 page)

It felt so good to smile again. To be around someone who didn’t hate him. “Indeed, but I was hoping some stray maid would happen by and ravish me.”

She sat down next to him and gave … the wall an arch look. “
Some
stray maid?”

“Mmm.” He took her hand and kissed her palm. “Would you happen to know one who’s available?”

Her playfulness gone, she scowled at him and quickly lifted her hand from his lips to his brow. Then she gasped. “You’re burning with fever.”

“No wonder I feel so awful.”

She cupped his cheeks in her hands. “Hector … it’s
very
high. Why aren’t you in bed?”

“I am in bed.”

“No …
your
bed. You shouldn’t have come here while you were still so ill.”

“I wanted to see you.”

Even so, she was livid.

Styxx ground his teeth as her reaction slapped him like a blow. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t please anyone. “I thought you’d be happy to see me.”

“Yes, were you healthy. But damn, Hector. Damn!”

A part of him shriveled with every expletive. He shouldn’t have come here and bothered her when it was obvious she’d rather do something else. If he knew anything in life, it was that people didn’t like to tend others when they were sick.

He’d been wrong to burden her. “Sorry. I’ll leave.” He rolled to get up.

She shoved him back onto the bed. “Don’t you dare move.” She growled at him. “How could you do this?”

“Do what?”

“Risk my life!”

Maybe it was the fever, but he was completely confused now. “I’m not risking your life, Beth. I’m not contagious.”

“Yes, you are killing me. Do you not understand that every breath you draw is tied to mine? Now take your clothes off.”

He bit back a smile. “That’s my girl.”

“No. Not for
that
. I need to get your skin cooled down.”

“Fine … but would you please stop yelling at me. I’ve rather had my fill of it for a while.” He pulled his chiton off, and started shivering immediately.

Bethany covered him with the blanket then coaxed the dog to lie down by his side and keep him warm. “Who’s been yelling at you?”

“Everyone. It’s to the point I’m beginning to think my name has been changed to ‘Damn It’ or ‘Asshole.’”

Tears glistened in her eyes. “I’m not yelling at you, Hector. I’m scared for you. There’s a big difference.”

“All right. But from inside my head, it’s hard to hear that difference.”

Bethany kissed his brow then went to fetch water and a cloth so that she could bathe him to lower his body temperature.

His head throbbing, Styxx shivered even more while he idly stroked the dog’s head.

Returning, she placed her bowl on the small table by the bed and wet her cloth. As she sponged his cheek, she fingered the whiskers there and along his jaw and chin. “You haven’t shaved in a while.”

His gut clenched at the unintended insult he’d given her. “I didn’t mean to offend you with it. I—”

“I’m not offended, sweet. Just surprised and concerned. It’s not like you, and it tells me exactly how sick you really are. I can’t believe you came here when you’re so ill. Someone should have kept you at home and tended you better than this. I could beat them senseless over your lack of care.”

Styxx held her hand against his lips and savored the softness of her skin and the precious scent of it. Then he kissed her palm. Gods, it felt so good to be with someone who wasn’t hating him.

“By the way, I was surprised by your messenger.”

“Galen?”

She nodded.

“How so?”

Bethany ran the cloth over his chest, raising chills in her wake. “It struck me as odd that such a high-ranking officer would bother running an errand for a foot soldier.”

Styxx cringed as he realized Galen would have given rank out of habit. Damn …

“It is odd,” he admitted. “For reasons that mystify me, too, the old buzzard took a liking to me. When I became ill, he actually returned from leave to check on me, and he was the only one I trusted to get word to you. I’m very lucky he agreed.” There, all of it was honest truth.

She wrung out the cloth. “I don’t find it odd that other people see the greatness in you that I do.”

“You and Galen are rare. Most people have little use for me.”

“That’s their loss.” She paused in bathing him as her wrist brushed against his hard cock. Her right brow shot north.

“I know your intent was to cool me down,
akribos
, but your tender touch has the opposite effect on my body.”

She shook her head. “You’re not well enough for
that
.”

“I know, and it’s not really why I came here today. I just needed to be with someone who cared about me for a little while.”

Bethany’s stomach lurched at the sincerity in his voice. “Your family loves you.”

“No, they don’t. I sometimes pretend they do, but I know better. You and Galen are all I have in this world. And you’re the only one who has never hurt me.”

Tears pricked her eyes at the raw pain he unknowingly revealed. “I would never hurt you.”

“And that’s why I came even though I’m fevered. For two weeks I’ve been with people tending me because they had to. It’s very different than being with someone who tends you because you matter to them.”

“Hector—”

He placed a finger to her lips to silence her. “I don’t want your pity, Beth. I want the fire in you that warms me. I live for your insults and taunts.”

“I don’t mean them.”

“I know. Believe me, I can tell the difference between your good-spirited teasing and the barbs that are meant to bleed me.” He pulled her against him. “Just let me hold you for a little while and then I’ll leave you in peace.”

She set her cloth aside and closed her eyes, savoring the warmth of his fevered body against hers. Her Hector broke her heart and yet he held so much quiet strength that he never ceased to amaze her. She didn’t understand the bits of his life he shared. How could his family be so reckless with their care of him?

His heart was so gentle and sweet. He tried so hard to please and take care of others. Why would anyone be unkind to him? But the scars on his body and the inner ones his words betrayed told her exactly how careless and heartless the people around him were.

And she hated them for that.

The mere fact he’d come to her when it was obvious he wasn’t fit to travel, and no one had stopped him, said it all. How could they have left him alone in this condition? For even a heartbeat?

She ran her hand over the muscled ripples on his stomach. The heat from his skin was searing. “Have you eaten?”

“Mmm.”

She frowned and smiled at his noncommittal answer. “Are you awake?”

“I’m awake,” he mumbled.

Bethany toyed with the trail of hair that ran from his navel to his groin.

“If you keep doing that, I’m not going to rest.”

She ran her hand down the length of him. He sucked his breath in sharply. “Sorry,” she whispered.

“It’s all good. Right now, you could set me on fire and I wouldn’t complain.”

Knowing she should be out looking for Apostolos, she placed a kiss to his hard abdomen. It was so strange how calm he made her. Whenever she was with him, nothing else mattered.

She remembered asking her mother once when she’d been a small child why her mother had chosen an Egyptian god to be her father.

“Gods are boring creatures, Bet. Most are nothing more than spoiled children with powers they never hesitate to use against those weaker. And while your father can be juvenile at times, there is a danger to him. He understands his power and he’s fierce with it. More than that, he doesn’t prey on those weaker, he only attacks those who are stronger. That was what drew me to him and why I agreed to be the mother of his daughter. His strength, and the fact that never once did he use it against me. Your father is like having a lion for a pet. You know that it’s a creature of utter and supreme violence whose mere nature and only talent is murder, and yet it lies down at your side and purrs for your touch alone. There’s nothing more titillating.

“But more than that was how your father made me feel. He awoke something inside me that had never lived before. He breathed life into my soul, and I was a better person for having known him. It was why I wanted to have you as a piece of him that I could keep and love even though we weren’t allowed to be together. And it’s a decision I’ve never once regretted. Not even when your father almost destroyed our pantheon because Archon refused to allow him access to you. Your father doesn’t give his devotion lightly or carelessly. When you are given a piece of someone like that, someone who doesn’t naturally trust others, it’s more special than when it comes from those who are capricious with their love. As with all things, the rarity makes it all the more precious.”

Hector trusted no one. Not even his own family. And he’d never given his heart, body, or his love to any other woman.

Only her.

And while he was young in human years, he held a maturity and understanding far beyond that of any ancient.

Most of all, whenever she was with him, she felt beautiful and powerful. Things that were a given as a goddess and yet …

She’d never really felt them until he’d stumbled into her world and made her laugh.

That was why she loved him and why she risked the anger of Archon and the others to be with him.

He was worth it.

But in the back of her mind was the fear of how he’d react should he ever learn that she’d lied to him about her identity. He hated the gods and their interference in human lives.

Would he one day learn to hate her, too?

November 15, 9529 BC

Styxx couldn’t breathe as Acheron was savagely beaten in the courtyard below. Writhing on his bed, he had a portion of his chlamys in his mouth to keep from crying out from the pain. He fisted his hands in his blanket and arched his back as more blows struck him.

It always hurt when Acheron was beaten, but now …

Their close physical proximity made it hurt all the more. He’d forgotten that one small fact.

He couldn’t imagine what his brother had done to deserve this.

Sure you know …

His father had been embarrassed somehow. It was the only time they would be beaten like this. And for this long.

Damn it, Acheron
.

It’d taken Styxx years to figure out how to stay out of the line of fire. Just as he’d finally learned how to avoid his father’s wrath, enter his idiot brother.

At last, it stopped.

Panting and weak, Styxx lay on the bed, aching all over. But it was his back that really burned. Thank the gods he hadn’t been in public when it started or he’d be on his way to the temple again to have demons driven out.

He’d barely stopped his hands from shaking when his father threw his door open. Styxx tried to sit up, but the pain was still too much for that.

“Are you ill?”

“Bad stomach,” he lied, hoping that would explain the sweat on his brow and pallor of his skin. “Did you need something, Father?”

“I found the bastard out in the square this afternoon. Apparently, he screwed his guards for his freedom. They’re to be executed in the morning for their treason, and he’s been beaten. Should you see him outside of his room, I want you to have him arrested immediately.”

Styxx sighed at the ridiculous fury his father held against Acheron. “Why bother, Father? Just give him his freedom.”

“Is that really what
you
want?”

“Yes. Why not?”

“He bears
your
face. Anything he does, reflects on you.”

“I’m not that concerned about it.”

Styxx realized too late that that was the wrong thing to say. His father stormed across the floor and grabbed him up in an angry fist.

“You want them to mock you as a whore? What kind of king would you be? No one would respect you. They damn sure wouldn’t listen to you.”

And yet some of them had already paid to fuck him …

“You better learn to care, boy. In the minds of the people, that whore down the hall is you.”

Don’t do it … don’t say it.…

But he couldn’t stop himself.

“Maybe you should have thought of that before you had your brother train him and sell him as a whore.”

His father backhanded him so hard, it knocked him from the bed.

Gasping, Styxx hit the floor and tried to clear his rattled senses. Before he could, his father kicked him hard in the ribs several times.

“How dare you! I should have you whipped for such impudent defamation!”

Styxx rolled over and looked up at his father. But for once, he didn’t taunt him.

“If you want to be known as a whore, maybe I should have put both of you in a stew. Is that what you want?”

Not really.

His father kicked him again.
You disgust me. You’re not my son. You can’t be.

“Get up off that floor. You’re a future king, not some groveling peasant.”

His body screaming out in protest, Styxx pulled himself to his feet and faced his father.

The king raked him with a look of scorn. “I can’t believe I was saddled with
you
as an heir.”

“Then perhaps you should see about acquiring that new queen and fathering more sons.”

“Why? So they can grow up and be as big a disappointment to me as you are?”

“What can I say? I always strive to be the best I can at everything I do.”

“Then you succeed. For you are truly the greatest mistake of my life. I should have bashed your head in when you were born and saved myself the misery and cost of raising you.”

Styxx didn’t say another word as his father stormed from his room. Really, what was there to say after that?

Other than he wished his father had bashed his head in, too.

November 20, 9529 BC

Styxx felt the venom of his sister’s glare like a sword slicing down his spine. Glancing away from Galen as they trained, he saw Ryssa in the stands with their father, who’d come in earlier to watch them spar and make complaints about the fact that Styxx wasn’t training hard enough.