::CHAPTER 20::

I shot out of my sleep. Usually only a subconscious sense of danger could do that. Which was why I had a dagger pointing at some phantom threat. I couldn’t see anything, but my arm didn’t lower.

Hopping out of the bed, I scanned every inch of the room. If there wasn’t an intruder, what woke me up? Caroline was now awake and looking at me as if I was crazy.

“You sleep with a knife under your pillow.”

“This is as much a mere knife as I am a mere man,” I murmured still checking behind every door and corner of the vast room.

“Beside the point,” she said, “I was asking about the blade.”

“I wasn’t aware that it was a question,” I peered into the walk in closet, “I missed the inflection.”

“Well?”

“Of course I sleep with a blade under my pillow. In my hand. Doesn’t everyone?”

“No, Al. Most people don’t,” she grinned, “You’re downright hopeless. I hope you find your Boogeyman. See you later.”

She slipped into her clothes, blew me a kiss over her shoulder and went back to her room, underwear and shoes in hand. I raised a brow at the gesture. It was odd having someone around who didn’t seem in the least bit frightened of me. Not many would be able to sleep through the night beside me. A lot of women would be even more spooked to find that there was a weapon in my hand while I slept in the same bed as them. For that, I respected her. Her fearlessness that is.

There was a sudden swimming sensation in my stomach. It was the same odd feeling that had startled me out of my sleep. My body tipped over and I landed hands-first onto the bed. What is this sorcery? This voodoo. This black magic. I clutched my stomach. It was the oddest feeling. There was no physical pain…and yet there was a near painful feeling. A discomfort. Damn it. I couldn’t describe it right.

My eyes landed on the water that had been brought to me before I went to bed. I had tested it for poison before drinking, but…perhaps it had been poisoned later. Caroline. She must have spiked my water glass.

I pulled a kit from the side table drawer. Inside was a small vial. I let a droplet of its contents fall inside but after a moment, the water remained clear. Not poison then? But it has to be.

The most irritating part about this was that it was not a fixed discomfort. The damn thing came in unexpected waves. I took a shower and got dressed before heading downstairs. I had to call a physician and get myself checked out. I probably caught something from one of those infested countries. Even as I thought it, I knew it was unlikely. The stronger the immortal, the stronger the immune system.

As I passed the kitchen to get to the voice-controlled telephone directory, I froze. Two people were sitting inside. Walking backward, I stopped at the doorway. Of course. It’s her. And this bond thing.

In the kitchen, the sibling red heads sat at the table. I began coming over and saw Ana’s eyes widen and her lips part which, in turn, caused Ria to look around.

“You,” I hissed.

“Me?”

“Yes, you,” I glared at Ria, “What are you doing to me? Why do I feel…funny? Make it stop. Whatever it is.”

“I’m not doing anything, sir,” she said truly looking confused.

“Then why do I feel like…like…I can’t even bloody describe it! I-I don’t understand any of it. Make it stop now,” I grabbed her from the front of her shirt and shook her. That only made it worse. I released her and instead held my stomach. “What did you do to me?”

“Nothing, I swear,” she got off the stool and stepped away, “Quit looking at me like that. I’m not doing anything.”

Ana cleared her throat and signed, “Please stop. You’re scaring her.”

“Scaring her?” I said slowly, “Are you scared? Have you been scared earlier this morning?”

“No. Anxious. But not scared. Not really,” she said.

“This is what it feels like? Anxiety?” I murmured, “What sick torture from above is this thing called emotion.”

I eased myself onto a stool at the table. A soft snigger slipped out behind me. Maybe if I wasn’t an immortal, I would not have heard it but I did. I turned to her.

Ria’s lips trembled with a laugh she was forcing back. “No…do it again,” my eyes narrowed at her, “It makes the – er – feeling stop.”

It was as if she was only waiting for permission because she burst into laughter. Tears were actually coming out of her eyes. I’d never seen anything like it. I never knew you could cry and laugh at the same time.

“Your expression is priceless. You’re talking about feelings as if it’s some mythical thing you’ve never seen before,” she got onto the stool next to Ana.

“I haven’t felt those things before,” I glared at her. I didn’t like being laughed at.

“Not things, thing. One thing. It was only one emotion. And I should point out to you that I’m a girl. We can feel dozens of emotions at a time.”

“Impossible,” I turned to Ana for conformation. She nodded before dropping her gaze. Torture someone only one time and they can’t look at you the next morning. I’ve made the effort to put it behind us, the least she could do it try.

“Surely you have emotions. I thought sociopaths couldn’t feel empathy. We know for sure that you get furious,” Ria said growing somber.

“Yes. I do get furious,” I smiled catching the bitterness sneaking into that last comment, “and other emotions but it never lasts very long and it is limited.”

“Let me guess. Anger, annoyance, offence, spitefulness. Things along those lines?”

“Very good, new Pet. Anyways, we have a big day ahead of us as far as you two are concerned. First up, food.”

I got to my feet and pressed the intercom button. “Come in here please,” I said into the microphone. When I turned to look at the girls, I saw both staring at me with equally wary looks on their faces. The swirling sensation in my stomach returned. I clutched the table and aimed a scowl in Ria’s direction, “I am not going to feed from either of you so stop it.”

“Why not, sir?” she gave me a cautious once over.

“Because your sister is already Loki’s and you fear me.”

“Since when does the fear of others matter to you?” she asked.

“Since I got the ability to feel their anxiety,” I glared at her, “When you get your emotions under control, I will feed from you.”

“So, sir, once I remain anxious of you feeding from me, you won’t?”

“Exactly. Until then, I’ll continue feeding from my store of humans,” I said and her hopeful eyes dulled, “Don’t worry, you take your time to get used to the idea. I have many of them.”

“Why get a Pet when you have hundreds of humans all over this castle to feed from?” Ana signed.

“Because she is a red head. Do you know how valuable that is for a Pet? Anyways, with a Pet I won’t have to kill my humans which will leave me with a larger supply of food. I will be too full to drain them if I drink from you first.”

“Does that mean that if you don’t feed off of me, people will die?” Ria asked her face now solemn.

“Naturally. That’s the way things have been in this castle for years. I feed, they stop breathing.

“That’s illegal. You can’t drain humans.”

“Correction, I shouldn’t drain humans. I am above the law as you’ve noticed by your presence here. Unfortunately this is your first real day as a Pet and we don’t know each other very well. It’s normal to be anxious about staying in my care so I won’t push you to let me feed from you.”

“That’s considerate,” she said but her stare was still wary.

“Not really. The last thing I need is your fear ruining my appetite. I think I will leave you to grow accustomed to this new situation while I carry on with my regular eating habits. Whatever eases our anxiety best.”

“You’re saying that I can take all the time I want? I may never have to let you feed off me?”

“Exactly. You’re simply my Pet for show. Like diamonds or a toy dog in a handbag. Not necessarily functional, but you will be valuable and coveted all the same. You can live here in luxury all you want without me ever touching a drop of your blood.”

“Sounds too good to be true…apart from me being trapped here.”

“Well it’s only too good to be true if you are without a conscience.”

“Why is that?”

“People will be dying all around you every day, Little Red,” I said and beamed as the corners of her mouth turned down at the nickname, “For every drop you deny me, I will seek from another. And that other will not see another day. Their lives are in your hands. But like I said, there is no rush. Take your time to get used to it.”

“It must make me a terrible person, but I think I would rather have someone else die than have you drink from me,” she scowled.

“Truly?”  She didn’t seem like the type to put her happiness above someone’s life.

“Yes.”

“Well you just get more and more interesting, don’t you?”

“What do you me—.”

“But I’m bored with you suddenly so we will talk later if I’m interested again.”

I walked out of the room just as the maid walked in. She bowed. I told her to see that my new humans got something to eat and I left.

The irritating swirling in my stomach faded the farther I got from the kitchen. I didn’t delude myself for a second into thinking that I’d be safe from emotion with distance. No matter where I was, I would feel her anxiety and whatever other god-awful emotions she was capable of. I needed to keep her as calm as possible. That last thing I needed was more emotion leaking into me.

Perhaps I should have them enrolled in a college. They used to go to one in Bvendini, why not here? It would keep them distracted, out of my hair and away from the daily bloodshed. Obviously I couldn’t only send Ria. She would never want to leave Ana alone with me for hours at a time. And while I could force her to go that would just derail the entire idea of pacifying her and, by extension, myself.

Yes. I need to find a good college with an art and drama program. Somewhere calming and peaceful looking. Whatever it takes to ensure that I never have to endure the evils of emotion again.

 Samuel would have known the perfect place. He would have gotten catalogues and fliers and all sorts of excellent reading material to help choose the right school to ship them off to. It really was a shame he went and made me kill him. If only he was reasonable about things, my hand would not have been forced. It was like he wanted me to do it the way he betrayed me. Perhaps he was suicidal and I hadn’t seen the signs.

I turned the corner of the hallway making a mental note to talk to the girls about finishing school. Or maybe getting a couple of things that they liked to keep them stable. I also needed to find out more about branding because the contract had stated that any emotions would pass from me to her, not the other way around. I had not bargained for this.

The clatter of cups reached my ears. I was coming into the soldiers’ dining hall. They’d been living, eating, sleeping and doing just about everything out in the barracks for years. Now that we were on a break from the constant fighting, I had decided to allow them to eat indoors in this once unused room.

It was an open space with no windows and dangling lights coming from the ceiling. It now resembled a pub the way the men all crowded around the wooden tables drinking and talking in loud voices.

When I entered, the ones who noticed nudged their friends and they all leapt to their feet and bowed. I nodded to them and waved them back into their seats. I scanned my men and noticed the cliques immediately. None of the different cities sat with each other. The soldiers from Torien sat together, the soldiers from El Kentji sat along one end, and so on and so forth.

It didn’t matter to me at the moment. Some of these countries had warred among themselves before so I didn’t expect much else. Segregation was natural here. What I didn’t understand is why a particular soldier appeared to be shunned from the others…even his own.

Judging by the way he wore his medium length, dirty blonde hair, the sharpness of his cobalt blue eyes and the stubble on his jaw, I guessed that he was an Alarician. He was certainly not one of my original men or I’d have been familiar with his face.

Paguess was a city in the South that tended to bear children of a darker complexion with even darker hair. Blonde hair was almost non-existent there so I knew he couldn’t be from that city.

Tullie was a city that was structured under one of the most regulated religions in the world. Women covered their heads and hair on the male body was frowned upon. No man from Tullie would have stubble or hair on their heads.

El Kentji was a city whose people that prided themselves on endurance. They lived off the land in a primitive lifestyle. They refused to step foot into the future in spite of it being the year 2050. All in all, they favored short cropped hair and short, but full beards. No El Kentjite would have stubble. It was seen as very unmasculine to be beardless. Worse, they believed that long hair would get in the way of their farming, hunting, sparring and other heavy duty jobs that once ran their city.

Torien was a city with a culture that thought long hair was a beautiful feature on both men and women. Some Torien-born women had hair brushing their ankles even when pulled into a ponytail. All of the Torien soldiers wore their long hair in a single braid down their backs and wrapped it into a bun during sparring sessions. Aside from that they had noticeably high cheekbones and slanted eyes. A particularly exotic looking race of people, unlike this man.

I knew that the soldier couldn’t be from Italy or Bvendini because those were the domains of Loki and I. I made sure to take note of all their faces. I’d have remembered him. So that left Alaric.

What confused me though, was that he was alone. Alaricians were fiercely loyal and stuck behind their own. They would never abandon or, in this case, exile one of their people. I had to use the word exile, because of the glances people kept tossing his way.

The soldier was sitting at a table with four other empty chairs. It was far off compared to the cluttered tables in the rest of the room. It was almost like an invisible barrier was between that table and the rest of the others.

People sometimes glanced back at him with cautious or disgusted looks. There has to be a reason why he’s being casted off. I wondered if there was something wrong with him. I would not risk my army for one man. There were very few diseases that affected immortals but as rare as they were, they did exist.

I strode over to the soldier and that gained him even more unfriendly glances from the others. He noticed.

His attention shifted to me and his eyes registered mild curiosity. His eyes raked over me from head to toe once, but that one scan seemed to catch every detail because he didn’t do it a second time. He had the stiff-backed posture of a soldier under inspection. I guessed that he would appear more relaxed if I wasn’t nearing him. The interesting thing is that he didn’t seem in the least bit frightened or on edge.

I could have been a mere butterfly for all the effect I had on him. Weakness disgusted me. I like this soldier.

“Please. Have a seat, Master Alejo,” he said getting to his feet and bowing. When I sat, he took his seat again. “Blood?” he quirked a brow shaking a Tech-Cann at me. The technologically altered canister kept the blood in a state where it would remain liquidated and never congeal no matter what climate it was taken to. I accepted and he poured me a glass.

“You are surprisingly cordial for a man who I kidnapped from his country before destroying his city,” I pulled a vial from my pocket and let a droplet fall into the glass. It remained red. No poison. With a man who was this disliked, you needed to be careful. You never knew who would want him dead.

“I have no love for Alaric and as you might have noticed, the Alaricians have no love for me,” he said.

“Why is that? I thought Alaricians were loyal.”

“Like a good dog,” he nodded and there was a derisive bite to his words, “and my lack of loyalty – among other things – has made me unpopular.”

“Lack of loyalty, how?”

“The men seem to – ah- not think very highly of you since you killed our people and destroyed our city. They seem to think I should hate you as much as they do. I personally just don’t care.”

“You said ‘other things’. What other things?”

“Like their obvious envy of me,” he shrugged and took a sip, “I’m used to it. The burden of imperfection must be hard for ordinary people to handle…especially when faced with the likes of me every day. I’d be envious too. You know…if I wasn’t already me I mean.”

“Of course,” I nodded and glanced at the rest of the dining hall. Most of the others were peeping over their shoulders at us.

“I bet they’re getting greener with envy seeing the Master eating with the likes of me.”

“Possibly. What is your name?” I asked.

“Ares,” he declared and raised his glass as if to toast himself.

“Ares? You share the name of the Greek God of violence, war and bloodshed,” I peered at him more closely.

“The very same,” he smiled, “He was also the son of Zeus.”

“Who is considered the Father of Gods and Men and the ruler of the Olympians on Mount Olympus.”

“Precisely.”

“And Hera was his mother.”

“Yes, I suppose that’s true,” Ares frowned, “but she’s not nearly as significant as Zeus.”

My comment on Hera was a test and he’d failed it. I had long noted his sense of self-importance. The fact that he boasted about Zeus and denounced Hera just cemented that suspicion for me. He was arrogant. I was guessing that that was the reason he sat alone, not because of the soldiers’ ‘envy’ of him.

“Is Ares your real name?” I asked. I would not put it past him to lie about it. It was a very good name for a soldier after all. He nodded and took another sip from his glass. His eyes said that it was the truth but I still doubted it.

“How old are you then?” I pressed.

“Twenty-one in human years. Twenty-five overall.”

“Very young.” His speech is of a different time. His parents or Maker must have been from an older generation.

“Why, is that a problem?” he asked eyes flashing.

I scowled at him. That reaction caught me off guard. The venom in his voice. The fury in it. It was as if the very idea me thinking him young was the greatest insult a person could hurl his way.

“It isn’t a problem,” I told him, “We usually get older soldiers, is all. The younger the better really. We can train you for longer.”

“Oh…” his face split into a smile that lit up his entire being, “How much better, would you say?”

“Much,” I indulged him amused by this odd boy, “You may be faster, have more stamina, be more open to new moves, be more agile.”

He seemed to grow happier with every stroke of his ego. For some reason, I liked him. He was strange. I liked that. Strange was new. Strange wasn’t boring. I would keep him. Shame I hadn’t met him earlier. He would have made a great Pet in his human days.

“Come with me,” I said and got to my feet. He followed with a strut that I didn’t miss. As he passed a table of Alaricians, I saw him smirk at them and raise his chin just a fraction higher. He was like a peacock in jeans.

He followed me into the training room downstairs. My second was inside running through a few moves in the middle of the mat-less floor. Rough concrete spread to every corner on the ground. It was no problem though. A scraped knee was the least of anyone’s problems during our sparring sessions. What you had to look out for was the soldier coming at you with a blade aimed at your throat.

“Might I ask why we came here?” Ares asked. My second in command finished a particularly complicated training sequence before coming over to meet us. There was a question in his eyes when he eyed me and the young immortal.

I turned to the boy and pointed at the changing stalls, “Get into some of the work-out gear. I want to see what you can do.” He grinned realizing that this was his chance to prove himself.

My second waited until Ares had scampered off before turning to me. I saw the urgency on his face even before he opened his mouth.

“Master Alejo, permission to speak freely.”

“Of course. Go ahead.”

“Why are you doing this? From what I’m gathering, it appears that you’re taking Ares Odin under your wing—.”

“Pause,” I held up a hand, “Ares Odin? That’s his name?”

“Yes, why? Do you know him?”

“No. But Ares is the Greek god of war while Odin is the Norse god of war. What are the odds of his parents naming their future, soldier son after two war gods of myth?” I asked, “I doubt that even Alarician parents are that fanatical about their fighting-based culture.”

“Me too. I would have figured that he lied too if I knew Norse mythology.”

“What have you learnt about our new friend?” I asked.

“His name is Ares Odin, as I’ve said. He’s twenty-five, was born and raised by warrior parents in Alaric, he’s pretty decent at hand-to-hand combat. He’s conceited as hell but ruthless with it. I’ve heard from some of the Alaricians that he was diagnosed with NPD but he denies it.”

“You think he’s lying,” I said looking toward the changing stalls.

“Don’t you, sir?” he raised a brow, “You’ve spent more than two minutes with him. Narcissistic Personality Disorder isn’t the most impossible thing. Aside from that, I’ve caught him at a couple of lies already but never any remorse.”

“I’m no psychologist,” I said though I sided with him on this one, “I can’t pass judgement.”

“But you do have a background in this sort of thing.”

I didn’t respond. Ares was returning to us dressed in a black sleeveless shirt and long, army camouflage pants. “I missed wearing this uniform,” he said touching the pants, “Civilian clothes don’t suit me.”

“I figured everyone would prefer to give the uniform a rest after years of fighting in them. Everyone else seems to like wearing regular clothes and going back to a regular schedule,” my second said.

“I don’t like regular,” Ares frowned, “I’m not regular.”

“So you say,” I eyed him, “Now prove it to me.”

“What are the sparring rules, sir?” he asked.

“There are none. I want to see your skills in hand-to-hand combat. Go all or nothing. No holding back.”

“What if he gets hurt?”

“He’s strong,” I said noting that he didn’t ask about his own safety. Let’s see if this arrogance will hinder him or not.

Ares unraveled an elastic band from his wrist and put it around his head so that it kept his hair from his eyes. My second had the regulation, military-short haircut that was required in the Veracci Official Squadron.

I suspected that their fighting would have been equal. With my second’s training and years of grueling drills devised by me, I knew he was a phenomenal fighter. Ares on the other hand was from Alaric and would have begun training in combat the minute he was rid of his pampers.

I noticed that Ares was barefooted to my second’s boot clad feet. Both circled each other in the stare-down of the century. Their hands were out in front of them; defensive but ready to turn offensive.

My second made the first move. It was a punch to the throat that would have taken Ares down had he been human. The blow made him stagger, but he didn’t back down. Instead he smiled. My second in command made to grab him but was hit in the face. Ares had leapt into the air with animal swiftness and extended both of his legs in a powerful kick that belonged in a video game, not real life.

He was lethal, powerful, focused and brutal. Ares Odin deserved his name whether he’d been Christened with it or not. His body was fluid but swift. It was like a whip in motion. I saw him bend in ways that no being with a skeleton should. The flexibility under which his body was forced into made him able to dodge impossible hits.

Ares was a true Alarician. He was built like a blacksmith’s prize blade; honed in the depths of fire and ice before beaten into submission and then beaten until strong. The scars marking his body hadn’t escaped my notice. He was not born with this strength. He was made this way. If he was made that way, my soldiers could all be made that way.

After only ten minutes of equal sparring, he ripped my second’s head from his shoulders and held it high as if it were a trophy. Ares met my eyes and it was as if there was a silent exchange between us. I nodded at him and waited to see if we were truly on the same mental wavelength. I wanted to see what he was willing to do on my behalf.

There was no hesitation.

He grabbed hold of each row of my second’s teeth and ripped his jaws – and by extension, the rest of his head – apart. He tossed each half onto both sides of the room. While I might survive that, my second was nowhere near strong enough to heal from those injures.

Hands crimson and face splattered with the spray of red, he grinned at me. He bent slowly, the deepest levels of respect in that bow. I clapped.

“Excellent,” I said, “You will be my new second-in-command.”

“Just excellent?” he raised his head ignoring my appointment.

“Magnificent, amazing, superb,” I came over to him giving his ego the stroking his condition demanded.

“Thank you, sir.”

“I believe that I may need a new second in command now that my old one is,” I glanced at one of the halves of the head, “unable to do the job.”

“Is this a job offer?”

“No it is a job demand. I am not asking you,” I said.

His gaze darkened at that. It was obvious that he didn’t like being ordered around. “I assumed that you’d want this promotion. Don’t you want the chance to train your peers? You are their boss now. One of their bosses at least,” I said and went over to the storage area to show him what his military formal would look like once he became one of my official soldiers. His face broke into a smile, “I accept.”

Knew he couldn’t resist. He liked knowing that he was better than the others. Nothing did that better than a higher rank and a uniform to prove that.

I allowed him time to wash off and change back into his civilian clothes. We went back to my office and I was surprised to see Ria sitting in there. As a Pet, she had the right to be anywhere that I called my own; castle, office, bedroom, studio, anywhere.

“What a surprise, Little Red. I didn’t expect to see you here,” I said and went over to my seat. That didn’t mean I missed the scowl that crossed her features. The younger girl glanced back at my new second and back at me.

“Where are my manners? Ares this is Ria,” I said, “Ria, this is Ares Odin.”

“A human,” he commented. Nothing in his tone was particularly disrespectful, but the bored look in his eyes showed how much her existence meant nothing to him.

“Yes. My Pet,” I said, “My first and only Pet.”

“Oh really?” he looked her full in the face this time, “She’s a redhead too.”

“Of course. Only the best.”

Ria blushed under our scrutiny but she never dropped her gaze. Ares seemed to finally find her worth notice. He walked closer and turned to me. “May I?” he asked.  I gave a non-committal shrug. He tilted her face so that he could look at her more closely from every angle. She stiffened the minute he touched her, her eyes shuttering to slits.

“This is a very nice Pet, you have here. Young. Her blood will be as sweet as her face and even redder than her locks,” he said.

It was a compliment on my tastes. I knew that. But I didn’t want him looking at her anymore than he already had.  There was a gleam in his eyes that coveted what he didn’t have. That is unacceptable.  “Thank you. Now if you would remove your hand,” I said. He didn’t hesitate to do it. My tone didn’t leave room for hesitation.

I’ve always been stingy with what was mine. Sharing was never my strong point. I was finding out that I was as possessive over my persons as I was over my things.

Ria was staring at him from the corner of her eye. Two days in this castle and she already has her wits about her. Good. “We’ll talk later,” I dismissed him, “I will send someone to you.” His presence was irritating me. He bowed and left without comment. She was still staring after him.

“What?” I followed her gaze to the empty doorway, “Do you like soldiers?”

“I may,” she said after a pause, “but not that one.”

“What is wrong with him?” I felt the smirk at my mouth.

“He’s like you.”

“In what way?”

“Cold, emotionally distant and he smells of blood. He’s killed recently.”

“You figured that out?” my eyes narrowed, “Perhaps he spilt blood on his hands and you smelt it when he touched you.”

“It stained under his nails. Whatever he did, it was brutal. Maybe as brutal as something you would do.”

“You don’t like me very much, do you?” I rest my chin in my palm and surveyed the girl sitting across from me. Ares was right. She was small. Oddly small for someone her age. But such a fiery temper. Such bottled fury. So much hate emanating from her very being. I have never seen that in a human female. Not one who was looking at me at least. They all seemed to find me alluring no matter how dark or frightening they thought I was.

None of them had ever hated me this openly.

And now that she had Pet privileges, she was free to show that hate without worrying about my reaction as much as she would have once upon a time. I would never admit it aloud – and I could practically see Samuel grinning now, the idiot – but I liked that there was someone who opposed me. Someone in a position where they could be brave enough to call me out and I couldn’t harm them. Everlasting life was tedious as it was without a few challenges.

Immortals rarely come across things that interest us. We’ve seen it all usually. Loki was one of the very few things that interested me. Caroline was another thing that kept my interest the way she seemed to not be affected by my darker nature.

But Ria was something different altogether. She acknowledged my dark nature as a part of me that could not be changed and yet she tackled it. Subtly and in a very female way, but still.

She interested me. Enough to keep my attention at least. And for that she had my protection as my new prized possession. Because I could just as easily break the contract Ria and I had signed. I wouldn’t thought. I have decided to fully accept her role as a Pet. She was mine now. So she would live. I’d see to that.

I smiled at her. She narrowed her eyes and tipped up her chin in a defiant move, her eyes accepting an unknown challenge.

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*grins* Slowly but surely. You can do it Anasa. You can take your time...no matter how much you promised to prolong the romance. *deep breaths*

I am beyond curious as to what some of you think. About the story, about Ares, about Ria, about anyone and any/everything. Let me know in the comments. How do you feel about where/how things are going. Hell, write me an essay long comment if it floats your boat (it'll sure put a shit eating grin on my face lol) 

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