"Go to Greece, seek out Prince Dareios and kill him. I want his head on a platter," Zeus roared as Ana stood before him unphased by the request. She tossed her long dark hair back over her shoulder and looked into the silver eyes of the Head of the Greek Pantheon.
"You've been calling for a lot of heads lately Zeus. I don't usually ask questions before the kill, but this will be fourteen in a week. I want to know what your issue is with them before they ask for my life as recompense for your envious whimsy.
"What is this mass murder about," she questioned him using a dagger to sharpen the end of a piece of wood. Zeus turned to her and would have charged her, but something stopped him. He growled and turned back to the ocean view of Ana's home on the Isle of Atlantis.
"I don't pay you to ask questions Ana. Are their people hunting you? Does someone want you dead," he asked her changing the subject. She scoffed and set down the now pointed stake.
"They don't know I'm there before they die. Their relatives have no idea as to who would want their son, husband, or father dead, but I want to know." She glared up at him walking towards a bench on the balcony.
"Something is bothering you Zeus and I think you're searching for a specific human. Why not describe him and send me after him instead of these men who don't matter. I would rather kill something that can put up a good fight," she taunted the Head of the Greek pantheon. She sat on the bench before she lay down on her side watching him and she saw the contemplation in his eyes.
He growled in frustration and stomped over to her in a pure rage. She twisted a curl of her hair between two fingers and that stopped him. His eyes dropped to her hand as a breeze swept through the house blowing more of her hair forward. He blinked at her and then crossed his arms over his chest.
"Just kill Dareios and I'll pay your price," he scowled walking the last two steps over to the bench. He knelt down on one knee and took a strand of her curling hair in his hand. He put the strand to his nose and breathed in the jasmine and vanilla of her natural scent.
She stared at him and sat up making sure her peplos stayed in place. Zeus watched her hair run through his fingers and he smiled up at her the same way his son Apollo had done three weeks ago. She glared down at him and tossed her hair over her shoulder again.
"I haven't named my price. You shouldn't make a promise you can't keep," she chided him as he moved to sit on the bench beside her. She stood up and stepped away from him as shivers ran over her skin.
"Name your price Apollonia. I can pay anything you wish," he promised using her full name as she turned back to glare at him. She hated her full name and he knew that better than anyone else. She saw the want in his eyes and his desire to take her. She hated him to her core.
She never told anyone of her encounters with the gods, not even gods knew which of them had come to her. She wanted to keep things secretive and some of the gods had taken advantage of that while others understood her preferences.
Zeus was the worst of the gods. He was self-righteous, bigoted, and a pig, but no one saw that. They treated him like an omniscient god, but he wasn't all-knowing or all-powerful. In her eyes he was pathetic.
"I don't want to see you in my house ever again. You've had your quota for a lifetime," she reprimanded him through her teeth. He nodded then stood up and walked toward the doors.
"You're only avoiding the temptation. I was breaking you Ana. Just because you can't admit it to yourself, doesn't mean it'll disappear," he taunted her at the threshold. With a flick of her wrist Zeus was sent from her temple in a flourish of wind.
She sat down on the bench again and hugged herself. She knew that he was right. It'd been nine years since the Fates had called for the soul of her betrothed and she'd lived without the touch of a male ever since.
Seeing Zeus fifteen times in a week was too much. There was a reason she stayed away from human and demon men alike. They were too tempting.
Their lives were short, their wants were fickle, and their lust was far more powerful than any god she'd ever met. She wanted to kill again. It gave her a thrill akin to what she'd felt by her betrothed's side.
She stood up and walked over to the stake she'd left on the table. She had a stake with the name of each and every person she'd ever killed written on the side. The name on the stake's kept her focused on her next kill.
She was infamous for being cold and unfeeling when she killed. She wanted it that way, she wished it was that way, but it wasn't. She usually had time in between kills to gather her wits about her, but Zeus hadn't allowed it.
She flashed the stake into a small purse she kept by the door and then she levitated it to her. She flashed down to the Greek city of Olous on the isle of Crete sensing the man Zeus wanted was there.
She manifested a cloak that fell to the street bellow her with a hood to cover her face before she stepped out into the busy street. She walked in the middle of the street watching the pathetic humans and their families walking unaware of her presence among them.
If they saw her face she would've been mobbed. Being the daughter of Enyo Greek goddess of War and destruction and an unknown evil deity meant that she was death itself.
She could kill anyone with a thought, but that wasn't what gave her a high. She preferred to use brute strength and seduction to do the gods dirty work.
She was wise, cunning, and seductive. Anyone who saw her lusted after her, but she'd chosen the man the gods had cursed. It was in her nature to like the darkness and become seduced by it.
She walked through the streets thinking about her next kill trying to visualize him in her mind. Nothing would come and that frustrated her. Who was this Prince Dareios? Why couldn't she figure him out even in his city?
She walked out to the cliffs and sat on the edge dropping her hood. She needed to feel the sea breeze on her face and think of Dareios face.
She needed to know the man she was asked to kill.