Enraged over the abuse of her friend, Artemis sank her nails into the hand of the man who then grimaced in pain. He let go of Acheron and the moment he did, she took Acheron's hand and teleported him back to his room.
She expected his gratitude.
He gave her none of that. Instead, he turned on her with fury pouring out of his entire being. "How dare you do that to me!"
"I saved you."
His intolerant gaze was as accusatory as his tone even though he kept it at her feet. "You exposed me!"
She didn't understand why he was blaming her for something that wasn't her fault. "You were ignoring me."
"I was trying to watch the play. That was why we were there, wasn't it?"
"No. We were there to keep me from being bored. Remember? I was getting bored again."
That didn't placate him in the least. If anything, it seemed to anger him more. "Then you can go be bored somewhere else."
Artemis was aghast. "Are you throwing me out of your room?"
"Yes."
Rage clouded her vision. No one had ever taken such a tone with her. "Who do you think you are?"
"The one who almost got attacked because you're thoughtless."
"I am not thoughtless."
He gestured to the door behind her. "Just go. I don't like being around people. I'd rather be alone."
She frowned at him. "You are really, truly angry at me, aren't you?"
He actually rolled his eyes as if he were exasperated with her.
Shocked, Artemis gaped at him. "Human beings don't get angry at me."
"This one does. Now please leave."
She should and yet she couldn't make herself go. She was too compelled by this man who should be infuriating her and yet she wasn't really angry. A part of her was even tempted to apologize to him. But goddesses didn't do that to humans.
"Why did those people surround you like that?" she asked, wanting to understand him and his unwarranted hostility toward her.
"You're the goddess. You tell me."
"People don't normally do that to others of their kind without a reason. Were you perchance cursed?"
He laughed bitterly. "Obviously so."
"What did you do?"
"I was born. Apparently that's all the gods need to ruin someone." He snatched the shoes off his feet and held them out to her. "Take your shoes and go."
"I gave those to you."
"I don't want your gift."
"Why not?"
His gaze was on the floor, but there was no missing the fury and contempt. "Because you'll make me pay for it eventually and I'm tired of paying for things." He dropped the shoes and turned to walk out onto his balcony.
Ignoring the shoes, Artemis followed him. "We were having fun. I liked it until you angered me."
He dropped his gaze to the floor as all the anger evaporated from his face. "Forgive me, my lady. I didn't mean to offend you." He sank to his knees in front of her.
"What are you doing?"
"My will is yours, akra."
Artemis yanked his cloak off. He didn't flinch or move. He merely stayed there like a mindless supplicant. "Why are you behaving like this?"
He kept his gaze on the ground. "It's what you want, isn't it? A servant to entertain you?"
Yes, but she didn't want that from him. "I have servants. I thought we were friends."
"I don't know how to be a friend. I only know how to be a slave or a lover."
Artemis opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, the door behind her swung open. She made herself instantly invisible as she stepped back into the shadows.
Two guards came in.
The moment Acheron saw them, he rose to his feet and backed up on the balcony as they made their way toward him. His face went cold and stoic.
Without a word, they grabbed him roughly and pulled him to the hallway. Wondering about their intent, she followed them, making sure to keep herself hidden.
Acheron was taken to the throne room where she'd popped in on him three days ago. The guards forced him to his knees before the thrones that were occupied by an elder human and a young man who was identical in looks to Acheron. Only he didn't have Acheron's silver eyes and he lacked the same compelling nature. The one on the throne was the same as any human and she took an instant dislike to him.
"As per your instructions, he hasn't left his room, Sire," the guard on the left of Acheron said firmly. "We've made sure of it."
The king's blue eyes were piercing. "You weren't in the square earlier, teritos?"
Artemis's eyes widened at the word that meant slug.
Acheron gave the king a defiant glare. "Why would I have been in the square, Father?"
The king curled his lip. "Thirty-six lashes for his insolence, then return him to his room."
Acheron closed his eyes as the guards grabbed him by the hair and hauled him through a set of double doors that opened into a small courtyard. Scowling, she watched as they stripped him bare, then tied him to a post. His perfectly formed back was covered with dark bruises, red welts and cuts. No wonder he'd recoiled in pain when she'd touched him. It had to hurt fiercely.
Unable to detect her presence, the younger guard walked to her side and pulled a whip from the holder before he returned to Acheron.
Acheron stiffened and braced himself against the post as if he knew what would happen next.
The whip whistled through the air, then tore through his bruised back.
Gasping, Acheron gripped the post so tight that every muscle in his arms and legs was taut and outlined. It was as if he were trying to merge himself with the post . . .
Mesmerized by the sight, she watched as lash after lash rained down on his back. Never once did he cry out or beg for mercy. The most he would do was gasp or curse them and their parentage.
When it was over, the guards freed him. His face ashen, Acheron picked his chiton up from the ground where the guards had thrown it but didn't have time to dress before they dragged him back to his room and threw him inside. The doors rattled as the guards slammed them shut with an echoing clatter.
Artemis walked through the locked doors to find Acheron lying on the floor where he'd landed. His bloodied blond hair was tangled and fanned out behind him while blood seeped from the wounds on his back. He made no move to cover himself or to cry. He merely lay there staring into space.
"Acheron?"
He didn't speak to her.
She materialized in front of him, then knelt by his side. "Why were you beaten?"
He drew a ragged breath as he tightened his grip on the wadded up chiton. "Stop asking me questions I don't feel like answering."
Her heart hammering, she reached out to one of the bleeding welts that curved over his right shoulder. He hissed in response to her touch. Withdrawing her hand, she frowned. His warm, sticky blood coated her fingertips. She drew back, staring at his naked body. For the first time, she felt a wave of guilt stir in her breast.
His punishment was her fault. Had she not taken him out of his room, they wouldn't have done this to him. Part of her was even angry that he'd been injured.
"I don't like you like this," she whispered.
"Just please leave me alone."
But she couldn't. Wanting to comfort him, she placed her hand on his shoulder and closed her eyes before she healed him.
Acheron panted as a searing pain tore through his battered body. A second later, all the pain was gone. He tensed, expecting it to return.
It didn't.
"Is that better?"
He stared at the goddess in disbelief. "What did you do?"
"I'm a goddess of healing so I healed you."
Rolling onto his back, he was amazed that the pain didn't return. For the last three days, he'd been beaten at various intervals because he'd dared walk to the temple with Ryssa. Honestly, he'd begun to fear that his skin would never heal completely.
But Artemis had helped him. "Thank you."
The goddess smiled at him as she brushed his hair back from his face. "I didn't mean for you to get hurt."
Acheron covered her hand with his before he kissed her palm that tasted like roses and honey. To his complete shock, he felt his body stirring. For that alone, he expected Artemis to jump on top of him.
Instead she watched his cock as he hardened even more. "Does it always do that?"
"No." He rarely got hard unless it was required of him or he was drugged.
Her brow drew tight as she touched his chest. He was used to people being curious about him. Since the assumption went that he was the son of a god, everyone wanted to touch him, to explore his body.
Yet she was hesitant. Her hand drifted over his abdomen lightly as if she were afraid to touch the part of him she was staring at.
"I won't do anything you don't want me to," he told her quietly.
Her eyes flashed. "Of course not. I'd kill you if you did."
No one had been quite so blunt before, but that threat had always hung over his head. He'd had plenty of clients after leaving Atlantis who'd threatened him for numerous reasons. Mostly political or possessive. They were afraid he'd tell on them for what they wanted to do to their Prince Styxx or they didn't want to share him with anyone else.
Three times he'd almost been killed.
He didn't know why people reacted to him the way they did. He'd never understood it. Artemis, even with her divinity, didn't seem any different than anyone else.
Except her touch set him on fire.
Acheron closed his eyes as her hand lightly brushed the tip of his cock. The need inside him for her was unexpected and shocking. He should be angry at her for what she'd done to him and yet he couldn't find any anger inside himself right now. Only a desire to please her that he didn't comprehend.
A noise sounded out in the hallway.
Artemis pulled back with a sharp intake of breath. "We could be seen."
The next thing he knew, they were inside a bright, white marble bedroom. Acheron shot to his feet as he turned around slowly, trying to understand where he was.
There was an incredibly large bed against one wall. The sheets and curtains were as white as everything else. The only color to be found was gold trim.
"Where am I?"
"Mount Olympus."
His jaw went slack. "How?"
"I brought you to my temple. Don't worry. No one ever enters my bedchambers. These are sacred to me."
Artemis approached him with a smile on her face. She rubbed her cheek against his an instant before a red chiton appeared on his body. "We can be alone here."
Acheron couldn't even form a coherent thought as he looked at the splendor surrounding him. The ceiling over his head was solid gold and carved with brilliant forest scenes. How could this be? How could a whore be in the bedroom of a goddess renowned for her virginity? The mere thought was laughable.
Yet here he stood . . .
Artemis took him by the hand and led him toward her balcony that let out onto a garden resplendent with flowers. The riot of color was almost as beautiful as the goddess beside him.
"What do you think of it?" Artemis asked.
"It's wondrous."
She smiled. "I thought you'd like it."
He frowned at her. "How could you be bored here?"
She looked away and swallowed. A deep sadness darkened her green eyes. "It gets lonely. There's seldom anyone who wants to talk to me. Sometimes I walk in the woods and the deer come to me, but they don't really have much to say."
He let out an awed breath at the incredible scene. "I could happily lose myself in those woods and never speak to a soul again as long as I live."
"But you'll only live a few more years. You've no idea what eternity feels like. Time has no meaning. It merely stretches out and hangs on ever the same."
"I don't know. I think I should like forever . . . If I could live it on my own terms."
She smiled at him. "I could see you as you are now a thousand years in the future." Her eyes lit up. "Oh wait, there's something I have to share with you."
Acheron cocked his head in consternation as she snapped her fingers and a peculiar brown package appeared in her palm. She held it out to him.
"What is it?"
"Chocolate," she said breathlessly. "Hershey's. You must try it."
He took it from her and held it to his nose. It smelled sweet, but he wasn't sure about the taste. As he started to take a bite, Artemis jerked it out of his hand.
"You have to unwrap it first, silly." Laughing, she tore the brown paper and an odd silver material from it before she broke a piece off and gave it to him.
Gingerly, Acheron took a bite. The minute it melted on his tongue, he was in heaven. "This is delicious."
She handed him the bar again. "I know. It comes from the future-we're not supposed to go there, but I can't help it. There are just some things I can't wait for and chocolate is one of them."
He licked the brown smear from his fingertips. "Could you take me to the future?"
She shook her head quickly. "My father would kill me if I took a mortal there."
"One god can't kill another."
"Yes, they can. Believe me. They're not supposed to, but it doesn't always stop them."
Acheron took another bite as he considered her words. He would love to travel away from this time. To a place where no one knew him or his brother. Where he was free of his past and able to make a life without everyone trying to possess him.
That would be perfection. But he'd learned the hard way that such a place didn't exist.
Artemis took the bar from him and bit off a piece. A bit of it melted on her chin.
Acheron reached out to wipe it away.
"How do you do that?" she asked him.
"Do what?"
"Touch me without fear? All humans tremble before the gods, but not you. Why is that?"
He shrugged. "Probably because I'm not afraid of dying."
"You're not?"
"No. I'm afraid of reliving my past. At least with death, I'd know that it's all behind me. It would be a relief, I think."
She shook her head. "You're a strange man, Acheron. Unlike any I've ever known." Walking backwards, she took his hand and pulled him into her bedroom.
Acheron went willingly.
Artemis didn't speak as she knelt on the bed, then turned to face him. She gathered him into her arms for an incredibly hot kiss.
Closing his eyes, Acheron breathed her in as her tongue danced with his. How odd . . . when he held her, he didn't feel like a whore. Maybe because she wasn't asking for anything more than his company. No one was being paid. Neither of them wanted anything except a respite from their solitude.
Was this what it felt like to be normal? He'd always wondered.
Artemis pulled back to stare up at him. "Promise me you'll never betray me, Acheron."
"I would never do anything to hurt you."
Her smile blinded him before she pulled him onto the bed and rolled him over onto his back. She straddled his hips before she brushed the hair away from his neck.
"You are so handsome," she whispered.
Acheron didn't comment. She hypnotized him with those flashing green eyes and skin so smooth and soft it haunted him. At least until he saw a flash of fang.
An instant later a blinding pain tore through his neck. He tried to move, but he couldn't. Not a single muscle.
His heart pounded until the pain gave way to an unimaginable pleasure. Only when the pleasure replaced the pain could he move. He cupped her head to his neck as she continued to suck and lick until his body exploded into the most intense orgasm he'd ever known.
No sooner had he felt it than his eyelids sank down as if lead weights were pulling them. He tried to fight the darkness, but he couldn't.
Artemis moved back and licked the blood from her lips as she felt Acheron pass out. She'd never tasted human blood before . . . it was incredible. No wonder her brother sought it out so often. There was a vitality to it that immortals lacked. It was so intoxicating that it took all her strength not to drink more. But that might kill him.
It was the last thing she wanted. Acheron fascinated her. He didn't flinch or fawn. Even though he was a mortal, he met her as an equal.
Delighted with her newest pet, she lay down by his side and snuggled up against him.
This was definitely the beginning of a great friendship . . .
December 14, 9529 BC
Acheron woke up to a pounding ache in his head. Opening his eyes, he found himself naked in his bed. It wasn't until he moved and felt no pain that he remembered everything that had happened the day before.
Everything.
His breath catching, he reached to his neck to find a small trace of dried blood where Artemis had bitten him. But that was the only mark on his body. All signs of his beatings were gone.
What was a little bite when compared to that?
He glanced around his room. "How did I get here?" He couldn't remember that part. The last thing in his memory was Artemis biting him in her bed and a sense of exhaustion overtaking him.
Someone knocked on his door before pushing it open. He knew before he saw the small blond woman coming inside that it was Ryssa. No one else knocked on his doors.
He quickly brushed the blood away and covered his neck with his hair before she drew close enough to see it.
Her cheeks were flushed and her body was obscured by thick purple robes. It was the first time he'd seen her since Apollo had claimed her.
Before he could speak, she threw herself into his arms and wept.
Acheron held her close as he rocked her. "What happened? Did he hurt you?"
"He was gentle," she said between sobs. "But he scared me and it hurt occasionally." Her grip on him tightened. "How do you stand it?"
There had been many times when he'd wondered the same thing himself. "It'll be all right, Ryssa."
"Will it?" She pulled back to stare at him as if she was trying to see whether or not she should believe him. "What if he wants me back?"
Acheron cupped her face in his hands. "You'll endure it and you'll survive."
Ryssa ground her teeth at words she knew Acheron understood all too well. "I don't want to go back to him. I feel so naked and exposed even though he wasn't particularly mean or unkind. But you were right. He didn't care what I thought or felt. All that mattered was his pleasure." She shook her head as she held a new understanding of her brother that she'd never had before.
Her shame was but one instance. Acheron's was many. It was awful to be at someone else's mercy. To have no say in what was done to your body. She felt so used . . .
"I want to run away from this."
He took her hand into his. "I know. But you'll be all right. Really. You will get used to it."
It didn't feel that way. She was terribly sore and still bleeding from Apollo's intrusion into her body. He'd taken care of her and yet he'd been callous, too. The last thing she wanted was to be at his mercy again.
"Ryssa!"
She jumped at her father's shout.
Acheron tensed. "You should go."
She didn't want to but she was afraid of getting Acheron into trouble. Sniffing back her tears, she pulled away and saw the raw sympathy in his swirling silver eyes. "I love you, Acheron."
Acheron cherished those words. Ryssa was the only person who'd ever loved him. At times he hated that love because it made her do things to hurt him, but unlike with others he knew her actions were motivated out of kindness.
She scooted from his bed and ran across the room, to the hallway.
He heard their father's angry curse through the walls. "What were you doing in there?"
Acheron winced. At least Ryssa didn't have to fear being beaten. To his knowledge their father had never once struck her.
"You are the mistress of a god now. You're not to keep company with the likes of him ever again. Do you understand? What would Apollo think? He'd throw you out and spit on you."
He couldn't hear Ryssa's soft reply.
But his father's words tore through him. So he wasn't worthy of being in Ryssa's presence, but he could keep company with Artemis. He wondered how his father would deal with that knowledge. If it would make his father look at him with something other than derision in his eyes.
Most likely not.
His doors swung open so forcefully they echoed. The king strode into the room with fury punctuating every step. Acheron looked away and forced all emotion from his face . . .
Fuck it. If his father wanted to hate him, let him. He was tired of hiding and cringing. Beatings and insults he could take.
His nostrils flaring, Acheron met his father's angry glare without flinching. "Good morning, Father."
He backhanded him so hard, Acheron tasted blood as pain erupted through his skull. Gasping, he shook his head to clear it, then he met the king's furious glower.
"I am not your father."
Acheron wiped the blood away with the back of his hand. "Is there something I can help you with?"
"Father, please," Ryssa begged, running across the room. She took his arm before he could advance on Acheron again. "I went to him on my arrival. Acheron did nothing wrong. It's my fault, not his."
The king leveled one bony finger in a condemning gesture at Acheron. "You are to stay away from my daughter. Do you hear me? If I catch you near her again, I'll make you wish you'd never been born."
Acheron laughed bitterly. "That would be different from a normal day, how?"
Ryssa put herself in front of their father as he started for Acheron. "Stop it, Father. Please. You had questions about Apollo. Should we not focus on that?"
He cast a superior, condemning sneer at Acheron. "You're not worth my time."
With that, he hauled Ryssa out of the room. "Seal his door shut. He can go without food this day."
Acheron leaned back against the wall and shook his head. If his father wanted to control him with food, he should have spent more time with Estes. That bastard had known how to hold food over him.
His gut tightened at the memory of his begging Estes for even a drop of water to slake his thirst.
"You've earned nothing and nothing is what you'll have . . . Now get on your knees and please me, then we'll see if you're worthy of salt."
Squeezing his eyes shut, he forced the images away. He hated begging and crawling. But the only thing that would make it go away was the memory of the goddess who'd claimed him.
"Artemis?" he whispered her name in fear that someone might actually hear him call her. Honestly he expected her to ignore him as everyone else did.
She didn't.
She appeared before him. Acheron's jaw opened ever so slightly in shock. Her long red hair appeared to glisten in the dim light. Her eyes were vibrant and warm and welcoming. There was nothing about her demeanor that condemned or mocked him. "How do you feel?" she asked.
"Better with you here."
A small smile toyed at the edges of her lips. "Really?"
He nodded.
Her smile widened as she approached his bed and crawled across him.
Acheron closed his eyes as the sweet smell of her skin filled his head. He wanted to bury his face in her hair and just inhale it. Straddling his hips, she brushed the hair back from his neck before she fingered the skin she'd bitten.
"You're very strong for a human."
"They trained me for stamina."
Ignoring his comment, she frowned. "You're still not looking at me."
"I see you, Artemis." And he did. He saw every single line of her face, every curve of her luscious body.
She took his face in her hands and turned his chin until he was facing her squarely. Still Acheron kept his gaze on her knees that poked out from underneath her dress. "Look at me."
Acheron wanted to run. He'd spent his entire life never looking directly at anyone except for those times when he wanted them to see his defiance. And any time he dared that, he'd been brutalized for it.
"Acheron . . . Look. At. Me."
Bracing himself for her attack, he obeyed. His heart stilled as every part of his body tensed in expectation of being hurt.
Artemis sat back on his groin with a pleased expression. "There now. That wasn't so hard was it?"
Harder than she could ever imagine, but as each second passed and she didn't slap him for looking at her, he relaxed a bit more.
She smiled. "I like your eyes. They're strange, but very pretty."
Pretty? His eyes? They were disgusting. Everyone, including Ryssa, was afraid of them. "You don't mind my looking at you?"
"Not at all. At least this way I know you're paying attention to me. I don't like the way your eyes dance around the room as if you're distracted."
That was a first for him. "How could anything ever distract me while you're with me? I assure you, whenever you're around, all I see is you."
She beamed in satisfaction. "Now why did you call me?"
"I'm not sure. Truthfully, I didn't think you'd come. I only whispered your name, hoping you might answer."
"You're such a silly human. Are you stuck inside again today?"
He nodded.
"We can't have that. Come." The word had barely left her lips before they were once more in her bedroom.
Acheron was again dressed in red, which was odd given that everything else was white or gold. "Why do you always put me in crimson?"
She bit her lip as she walked around him, dragging her finger over his body. "I like the way you look in it." She paused before him so that she could lift herself on her toes and kiss him.
Acheron gave her what she wanted. It was always in his training to please whoever he was with. To take nothing for himself. His needs never mattered. He was only a tool to be used and then forgotten.
But with Artemis he didn't feel like that. As with Ryssa, she made him feel like he was a person-that he could have his own thoughts and it wasn't wrong. He could look at her and she didn't curse him.
Artemis sighed as Acheron pulled her close. She loved the way he held her. The way his muscles rippled around her body. He was so handsome and strong. So seductive. All she wanted was to be alone with him like this. To feel his heart beating against her breasts.
His breath mixed with hers. She could feel her teeth growing as her hunger for him increased even more . . .
She pulled back and met his gaze so that he could see the real her. He didn't even blink at her fangs. Instead, he tilted his head and offered her what she wanted most. No one had ever been so accommodating before. Normally she fed from her brother or one of her maidens. But they didn't care for it.
Her heart racing, she brushed her hands over his neck before she sank her teeth deep.
Acheron hissed as pain spread through his body. But it was quickly replaced by a pleasure so profound that it made his cock harden. Weakened by it, he staggered back. Artemis followed, gripping him even tighter.
His head swam as everything around him became sharp and clear. He felt her breath on his skin, heard her blood pumping through her veins. Every part of him seemed alive. So strong and yet so weak. He staggered again, falling against the wall behind him.
"Acheron?"
He heard her voice, but he couldn't respond to it.
Artemis licked the blood from her lips as she saw the bluish tint to his skin. His breathing was so shallow that she half expected him to die. "Acheron?"
His eyes were half open. There was no recognition in his gaze that he saw or heard her.
Afraid she might have hurt him, she transported him to her bed and laid him down gently. She took his hand into hers and rubbed it. "Acheron, please say something."
He whispered something in Atlantean, but she couldn't understand it. With one last expulsion of breath, he passed out. Artemis jerked back as his entire body flashed to a vibrant blue while his lips, nails and hair turned black. An instant later, he appeared normal.
What on Olympus? Never had she seen such. Had her feeding caused it?
Swallowing, she crawled closer to him and poked him with one finger. He was completely unconscious.
Manifesting a warm fur, she covered him and watched as he drew shallow breaths. While he slept, she traced the shape of his lips, the length of his nose. His features were sharp and flawless. Like his body. She didn't understand why he compelled her so. Afraid of being dominated, she'd asked her father when she was a child to make her immune to love and to give her eternal virginity. Zeus had granted that request. Yet as she looked at Acheron resting, she wondered at the emotions she felt for him. They were unlike anything she'd ever felt before.
She liked the way he talked to her. The way he held her and made her scream in pleasure with his touches and licks. Most of all, she loved the way he tasted when she fed from him.
He's just a pet.
Yes, that was it. She didn't have any real feelings for him. He was merely like the deer that lived in her forest. Beautiful to watch and to touch. They licked and brushed up against her, too. And like them she was sure he'd come to bore her in time. Everything did.
But for now she intended to enjoy her pet for as long as possible.
Acheron woke up starving. The hunger pain was so fierce that at first he thought he was again in the dark hole underneath his father's palace. But as he opened his eyes and saw the gold ceiling above him, he remembered being with Artemis.
He sat up slowly to find himself alone in her bed. There were voices outside. He started to get up and head toward them, then thought better of it. Artemis had left him here for a reason. No good could come of his opening those doors.
So he sat in bed, his stomach aching while he listened to words that had no real form. They were muffled through the gold and stone. He had no idea what time it was or how long he'd slept.
It seemed like forever before Artemis appeared. She drew up short and smiled. "You're awake."
He nodded. "I didn't want to disturb you. You sounded busy."
She closed the distance between them to cup his cheek. "Are you hungry?"
"Starving."