TARNISHED (Book 5.5, The Caged Series (Novella)) (6 page)

I eyed her tightly as her breathing labored on and she tried to find something to help bear the burden that her body had become.

“What do you know?”

“I know many things, Aniketos. Many things, indeed. Some of which I would love to share with you, but they are matters that involve Hades directly, and though I do enjoy getting him riled up, he would truly kill me if I were to let this particular kitten out of the bag—a true and final death that only he could give me. What I
can
tell you is something about your precious Sophie. Perhaps something that will ease the grief that is worrying your expression.”

“What of her? I thought we sorted through all that already.”

“We sorted out a plan to be rid of her. What I'm going to tell you is why that will be one of the best decisions you could possibly have made.”

I felt my lips press hard together as my jaw flexed repeatedly with the clenching of my teeth. Persephone was a hard one to trust, but, if something suited her purpose, she often did have information to share that others were rarely privy to. It seemed ironic that the best vantage point for what went on amongst the living was the realm of the dead, but somehow, she always managed to stay two steps ahead of almost everyone.

“Do not make me regret asking this,” I growled, pressing closer toward her. “What do you know?”

“I know that, though she may be your wife for all intents and purposes, you are not her only lover. It seems as though Ares likes to keep things in the family, as it were...”

I stood stoically, my expression unfaltering. Though her words pulled the rug out from under me, I would not let her see it.

“Is that all?”

“That is not enough?” she asked, a mild hint of amusement peeking through her annoyance. “Interesting... Perhaps we should ask Daddy to join us next time, if you're so very comfortable with sharing.”

“There will not be a next time,” I said, walking past her to leave. “Do as you promised. Make her see that she needs to leave.”

“Oh, there will be a next time. You and I are going to make a little arrangement. What you fail to see is that, for once, we are on an even playing field. I want what you have to offer, and you want what I have to share.”

“You've told me that my mate is a whore. What else could you possibly have to tell me that I want to know?”

“Now, now...you'll have to wait until next time to find out.”

She reached for my arm, but I quickly batted her hand away, heading out the door as her laughter echoed off the walls of her mother's home. She would need to clean it before Demeter returned. It was decorated in blood.

I walked back to my home, ruminating over my circumstance. If it was true that Sophie had been unfaithful, then it only further strengthened my conviction to force her away. I knew that there would be no leaving her of my own accord. Pushing her away only drew her toward you. She wanted that which she could not have almost more than she wanted me when I was buried deep inside her, causing her pain. I thought about the day that Ares brought her to me, the day that I was to choose the next Healer. I saw something in her then that ran deeper than just her beauty.

The unfortunate situation was that I was no longer that man and she was still that girl. She was my counterpart, someone so depraved that there was no low she wouldn't sink beneath to get what she wanted. To get the job done. Ares had pushed for me to choose her and for us to be joined to one another specifically. His agenda was becoming clearer by the second. It was part of his plan to keep me what I was. What he had groomed: the ultimate killing machine. But though there was no denying that part of my being, I did not have to succumb to it. Being with Sophie was a detriment to who I thought I could be. Getting rid of her was paramount.

In some perverse way, I had once loved her, but she hadn't truly loved me. She loved what I represented. Had she been a male born of Ares, with all the appropriate traits to serve in the PC, she would have likely been more ruthless than any of the brothers aside from me. She wanted to be as close to that as she could come. And that is why she was willing to bond herself to me so freely and join the life of violence that the PC had to offer. It was not love she sought, no matter how hard she twisted her mind to convince herself it was.

There was no love in her to be had.

The Unmasking

There was much time to consider my next move during my trip home. By the time I arrived, I had conjured a plan. Opening the door slowly, I found Sophie there waiting, draped elegantly across a bed of pillows on the floor, her robe barely intact as though she knew I was about to walk in. When she sat up to greet me, I put my plan into action.

“I had the most interesting encounter with Persephone today,” I started, walking past her casually as she slowly reclined back onto the pillows again, unsuspectingly.

“And how was she? Difficult and prickly as always?” Her voice oozed with false disinterest. No one just encountered Persephone. She was sought out only.

“Of course.”

“Whatever made you go over there?”

“I wanted something from her. Something only she could guarantee me.”

She turned to look up at me over her shoulder. Her face was a study in calm, but I knew that, buried deep within her, a growing unease threatened to disarm her.

“And did she grant it to you?”

“Indeed, she did.”

“Well,” she replied, forcing a smile. “I guess you'll have no need to see her again then, will you?”

“I'm not so certain of that,” I purred, coming around to stand before her. “She offered me something that is difficult to turn down.”

“Persephone offers nothing without something in return,” she snapped, exposing the slightest chink in her armor.

“Correct, but I think we've all but ironed out that tiny detail.”

“What does she want from you?”

“Don't you want to know what she is offering first?”

“Fine,” she said with a dismissive wave, feigning indifference. “Tell me what you're getting.”

“Information...”

I let the word hang in the air like a tempting smell, luring her into my trap. Sophie was not immune to the appeal of knowing something others did not. Knowledge was power, a fact she never ceased to drive into my mind.

“About whom?” she asked, rising slowly from her place of rest.

“Ares.”

“Scandalous...” She breathed the word as though it gave her great joy. Her eyes glowed with delight at the thought of having leverage against the man she deemed my greatest competition for power. “What did she say?”

“Not much at first,” I whispered, stroking my hand alongside her face to entwine in her hair before fisting it violently, yanking her head back beyond any measure of comfort. She smiled in response. Violence was foreplay to her, and she was practically salivating at the thought of being fucked while I told her of all I had learned. Sex and power, her two favorite things.

I toyed with her for a moment, allowing her to think that she was about to receive all that she wanted. And then, I slapped her with reality.

“She told me that you are fucking him,” I growled in her ear. “That you have been fucking my father, though to what purpose I cannot begin to imagine.” I tossed her back down to her earlier resting place and she landed hard.

“I did it for us,” she pleaded. “For
you
.”

“You lay with my father for me? How utterly selfless of you, Sophie. But let me do you one better: I fucked Persephone to learn that little fact, and I'm going to keep on fucking her until I learn all there is to know.”

Her face went blank for a moment before an ice-cold, hateful stare settled into her eyes. She wasn't jealous; she was threatened. Sophie didn't tolerate threats to what she perceived was hers.

“What's in it for her?” she asked, coming to stand before me. Her meek act was through and she was in her true form―ruthless as the day she was born.

“Let's just say that things aren't as colorful in the bedroom with Hades as she would like so she asked me to paint it red for her.”

Her eyes widened at my words.

“She wants you for her own...”

“She wants to be beaten to a bloody pulp while I bury myself deep within her.”

“Liar! You want to be with her, don't you?”

“As if that were an option on either side. How do you propose I fuck her when she's bound to the Underworld for half the year and I have no way to get there?”

“You're extremely resourceful, Aniketos. I'm quite sure you'd find a way.”

A wry smile crossed my face in response.

“You're right. I would, if it were for something I wanted badly enough. Guess you're lucky I don't want Persephone.”

“But if she has her mind set, she will stop at nothing to get you.”

“Fearing a little competition, are you? You shouldn't. It's very simple, really. Whatever strange hold you had on me back in the day no longer exists. I see you now for who and what you truly are. That may have appealed to the lesser version of me that I allowed myself to devolve into, but I am not that man anymore.... I've made sure of that.”

She stared at me in the darkness before grabbing a torch to hold up in front of my face. What she saw made her drop it instantly.

“Your eyes...,” she whispered before covering her mouth with her hand. “Aniketos, what did you do? What have you done?”

“I've made it so that your poison can no longer course through my veins. It also means that you put in a lot of time on your back for no reason. I will not be what Ares wants me to be. I will serve the brotherhood only. No more. No less. I will no longer be his mindless assassin.”

“You are a fool,” she spat, punching me in my chest. “You could have overthrown him and been the greatest—unstoppable! And yet you turn your nose up at your birthright, happy to serve him like a dog. You are not his minion! You are invincible! Kill him and be done with it. Take your rightful place!”

Once again, a dark smile overtook me as I pressed my face in close to hers, my breath warming her. Her breath caught again with anticipation, thinking that our argument had served more as foreplay than what it truly was―a confession. An admission.

“I cannot kill Ares, Sophie,” I whispered, my lips brushing her ear. “And I am no longer invincible. You can thank Persephone for that.”

Her stunned expression slowly fell, letting her anger show through yet again.

“You will be sorry you chose this path, Aniketos,” she warned, scooping her robe up over her arm to exit. “Do not underestimate me. I may be bound to you in service as well as in life, but I can make you suffer.
Never
forget that.”

She stormed out and didn't return until morning. I never knew where she went, but cared too little to find out. I would much later learn that her warning was not false bravado, an act to comfort her hurt pride. Instead, I would find out that those words might have been the only truths she ever spoke.

I underestimated her, and suffer I did.

The Standoff

“Aniketos.” My father's tone was drenched with disdain. When I turned to face him, green eyes blazing, that sentiment reached his expression as well. “I see that Sophie was not exaggerating for once.”

“I knew you would come,” I told him, approaching with a swagger that only infuriated him more.

“Did you now?”

“Indeed. But it matters not...what's done is done. Even you know that a deal with Persephone cannot be broken.”

“I see...,” he replied through gritted teeth. “Do tell me, what exactly is your angle? Why have you caved to this bizarre need to be in touch with your mother's weak nature? Have you, of all my seed, not learned that to be weak is to be ruled?”

“Weak?” I countered, nearing his face more than I should have. “She withstood you. That takes more strength than anything I can think of.”

He laughed at my words.

“Is that what you've done? Built her up in your twisted mind to make her something she is not? Never was? Aniketos, please,” he condescended. “Your mother succumbed to the darkness as well. That is why I chose her, but even then her true nature could not be totally overrun. I see that fact staring back at me in that detestable eye color you are donning. Never has it been so true to hers. I could tolerate it when you were younger, knowing that it would fade in time. But now? Now I find myself wanting to tear those angelic eyes out of your face.”

“Temper, temper,” I warned, waving my finger in his face. “You know that would never be tolerated, and I know that you are far too attached to a life above ground for you to even attempt such a foolish thing.”

“Perhaps it would be worth my while...”

I shrugged off his bravado.

“Does your visit have a greater purpose other than to chastise me, Ares?”

“Yes. I came here to warn you.”

“About...?”