Chapter 33

Xena's lips curled up into repulsion at the priests' blunt way of telling her that he was going to rape her. Well, he could certainly try but it was not going to end well for him. Plus, with the way he was so sure of himself of what was going to happen told her that he had done this before, so she wasn't really planning to let him get away with what he had done.

"Does Ares know that you are raping women in his temple?" it didn't seem like his style to her and she was positive that the War God was not aware of it.

"My Lord does not care about what happens to a common slut and you will address him more respectfully when you speak of him. Now shut your mouth and undress so I can show you what it really means to be fucked by a God. Although, I'm sure I can find a use for that pretty mouth of yours, too."

He quickly walked up to her and grabbed her roughly by the arm and tried to drag her over to a nearby table where he was planning to bend her over and ram his throbbing shaft deep inside of her. If she wanted it rough, then he would give it to her rough. She immediately jerked her arm free from the puny man's grasp though and stepped back from him and punched him square in the jaw. The priest chuckled lightly at her attack, it wasn't the first time a woman had dared struck him and it probably wouldn't be the last and he swiftly backhanded her across the face. The anger grew in Xena's eyes once he hit her and she turned back to face him and was about to pull her sword from its sheath and end his pitiful life when she noticed that his eyes seemed to be filled with fear and was staring a hole through her chest. She glanced down and realized that he was staring at the pendant she was wearing around her neck and she looked back up at him and he had straight away averted his eyes to the floor.

"Forgive me, My Lady." he dropped to his knees before her, "I did not realize who you were."

The priest was now completely terrified of what was going to happen to him for having touched her. She was wearing his Lord's pendant around her neck, signifying to all that she belonged to the War God and that she was not to be touched by anyone. He was a dead man and he knew it and he was silently hoping that maybe she would take pity on him and not inform his Lord of what had just happened between them. It was a minor incident, one that could have been easily avoided had she simply said who she was. It was just one simple slap across the face, he did no real damage and he wasn't actually going to rape her. He was just trying to have some fun with her.

Xena was cautious by his sudden change in attitude, one moment he was ready to try and toss her on that table so he could rape her and then he took one look at the pendant she wore and now he was being all humble and respectful. It was just a pendant, it held no significance. But then again she guessed it held all the importance in the world to a priest of the God of War since it was his pendant she was wearing. And the fact that he was trying to force himself on her would not sit well with the War God if he found out about it.

"Is there something that I can get you?" he asked sheepishly, not moving his eyes from the floor fearing that he would anger her somehow and his fate would be sealed and the War God's wrath would be unleashed upon him.

"Now that you know your life hangs in the balance, you suddenly feel the need to act all civil? " she knew that Ares was more than likely going to kill him, if he had attacked Apollo for his snarky comments…This guy was as good as dead for trying to force himself on her.

"My Lady, I.." but he was cut off quickly.

"So now, I'm a lady?" she asked him, the clear hatred she was feeling towards him dripping in her words, "That's not what you were saying just a few moments ago."

"My Lady, forgive me I did not realize who you were. My Lord does not need to know about what has transpired here today, it was just a simple misunderstanding."

"And what makes you think that I will just simply forget this misunderstanding?" she squatted down in front of him and he quickly looked away, focusing his attention on anything but her, "I know you fear him, but as you said before, Ares is not here and there is no need for you to fear him now. The one you really have to fear is me, because you see, I will do far worse than kill you."

She moved her hand to his chin and slowly tilted his face up to meet hers.

"I will be watching you and if I find out that you have forced yourself on another girl that walks into this temple then..." Xena pulled her sword from her back, slowly letting the blade glide down his cheek and chest and stopped at his privates, "... well, let's just say that you are going to wish that Ares had killed you."

The priest looked into her cold blue eyes and knew that she was telling the truth. He could see why his Lord had chosen her to share his bed, she was as ruthless as he was. Still too scared to make any sudden movements he barely was able to nod his head in understanding.

Xena smiled sweetly at him and then shoved him away from her. The filthy pig, she should have ended his life that very moment and rid the world of this trash. But then she would get her lovely new sword all dirty and she decided against it. She sheathed her blade and without sparing the frightened priest a second glance she left the room.

She had taken several turns down different hallways once she left the room, thinking that it was going to lead her back to the main hall of the temple that she was at when she first walked into it. Instead, she found herself wandering down endless corridors and she was positive that she was walking in a circle at one point. It did not look this big when she was standing outside. She came upon one door and she figured she would see where that led to and if it was another dead end then she would try and retrace her steps back to the weapons room. She pushed the door open and came to find herself standing in a massive bed chamber. The room was huge and in the middle of it laid an enormous four poster bed with black sheets. There were different portraits of battles hanging on the walls and also more finely crafted weapons. Xena realized that she had managed to find the War God's bed chamber and she knew that maybe she shouldn't be in there but at the same time she couldn't seem to turn herself around and leave either.

She walked further into the room and began to roam her eyes over the contents of the space. It was decorated with deep blues and reds and where others would have found it dark and gloomy, Xena found it very warm and inviting. She saw maps laying on a nearby table and she walked over to it and recognized it for what it was- battle plans and different places of where his army had already attacked and suggestions of where to head next. She studied the map for a moment, looking at the small figures that he had stationed at different places of where he had been and where he wanted them to go. She read over his notes and glanced a few more times at the maps that littered the table and then rearranged a few pieces on the desk of where he had his men stationed and scribbled down a few plans just in case that option didn't work.

"There..." she smiled to herself at the solutions she had come up with, "... that should make things a bit easier."

Her stomach growled loudly since she had not eaten anything the whole day. Maybe she should have taken that priest up on his offer to get her something, she had no idea where she was going to get something to eat. But she didn't want to have to deal with him any longer then she already did. Xena scanned the room for a moment and saw that on the table by the bed was a plate full of grapes. She walked over to them and picked one off of the stem and popped it into her mouth. It was surprisingly juicy and she ate another one, they were going to waste anyway and she figured the War God wouldn't mind.

Having got her fill from the grapes she walked to the middle of the room and pulled her new sword from its sheath. She began to twirl it around, fighting an invisible opponent and she started to wonder when the War God was going to show up. Granted he never said when exactly during the day he was coming back but how long did he expect her to wait there for him. Awhile later, she sighed and stopped swinging her sword and looked around the room again. She wanted to relax a little, that journey had been a tiring one, but it didn't look like there was anything comfortable enough for her to sit on, the only inviting enough looking piece of furniture was his bed. She was cautious to get in it, she didn't want the War God to find her lying in his bed when he showed up and have him jump to the wrong conclusion for her being there. But then again, what was it going to hurt, she was only go to lie down for a few moments and it did look awfully comfortable.

With her mind made up she made her way over to it and climbed into the silky soft bed. She unfastened her sword from her back and rested it against the side of the bed and table beside her. She moved to lay down on it and her senses were immediately assaulted with his scent. It was everywhere, imbedded into the pillow and sheets and she breathed it in deep, her body reveling in the unique fragrance that was him. She got up for a moment and moved the sheet back and then climbed back into the middle of the bed and pulled the sheet up to cover herself. She burrowed herself into the bed more and held the covers tightly around herself to keep warm. With the War God's aroma surrounding her it made her think that he was there with her and that the sheet that covered her was really his strong embrace to keep her warm. She wondered for a second what it would be like to be held by those strong arms and to be able to feel them wrapped tightly around her throughout the whole night as she slept in his warm embrace. But then just as quickly, she found herself chasing that line of thinking out of her head. That was not why she was there and she needed to stay focused on the main reason of her being there. Xena wisely decided that she was only going to close her eyes for a few moments and then she was going to explore the rest of the temple until Ares made an appearance. She closed her eyes and nestled herself into the bed and soon she had drifted off into a deep slumber.

XXX

Hours later, she slowly started to open her eyes again, she blinked a few times from the sunlight that was streaming in through the window and she brought her hand up to shield her eyes from it. It was then that it hit her and she quickly sat up and scanned the room, it was morning now and the War God had still yet to come. She couldn't believe that she had fallen asleep that soundly, she never usually slept that good and the only other time she had ever done so was when Ares had visited her after her brother had left. Where was he, he should have been there by now. Xena hastily got out of his bed and grabbed her sword and latched it to her back again. She couldn't figure out why he had not come. Was this all just a scheme? A way for him to just toy with her and watch how she so easily fell for his trap? He was probably laughing it up somewhere right now at how naive she was for believing that he had actually meant what he had said to her. She felt a wave of anguish crush her soul at the thought that he played her and she was too thrilled with the prospect that he had actually seen something in her to have known otherwise.

Xena hurriedly left his bed chamber and by some chance made it out of his temple without having gotten turned around in it. She headed straight for the tree line and made her way back to Athens. The trip had seemed to go by twice as fast then when she set out the day before to his temple and she was back in no time. Some of Athena's other warrior's had tried to talk to her as she stormed passed them but she just blew them off, too angry with herself to want to talk to anyone. She went directly to her bed chamber and slammed the door shut and then rested against it. How could she have been so foolish? She had fallen for his lies and promises of greatness, but then again it didn't make any sense to her. If his main goal was to weaken Athena's defenses by getting her out of the way then he could have just let her die on that battle field instead of stopping that arrow. And all this time that he had spent following her, what was that all about? He could have killed her at any point during any one of those visits but he hadn't. He presented his offer to her and then gave her time to think about it, never manipulating her into choosing what he wanted, actually allowing her the chance to make up her mind on her own free will.

She didn't know what was going on and the only thing she knew for sure was that he had just left her hanging. She looked around her room for a split second and then her eyes landed on the vase that held the two roses by her bed. She walked over to them and stood in front of the table and looked down at the flowers. Xena picked the small vase up in her hand and held it for a moment, studying the roses in it and letting her fingers glide over the petals, and then she tossed it across the room and it shattered to pieces against the wall. She was angry with the War God, she felt as if he had abandoned her. The one person who she thought might truly understand her had deserted her and she reached up and took a hold of his pendant and was just about to rip it from her neck and toss it into the fire. She held it tightly in her hand, trying to will herself to just do it already and be done with him and his lies, but she found that she couldn't bring herself to do it and she let it go and it fell back softly against her chest.

She was missing a vital piece of information, for some reason it didn't make any sense to her that he would just up and leave after all this time and not come back, he always came back. The War God was always there, she had felt his presence constantly before he had left for that business with Zeus. She felt like something wasn't right and whatever it was, was keeping him away from her now. She sighed deeply and then looked over to the ruins of the broken vase, she walked over to it and kneeled down next to it. She carefully picked up the roses that were now looking a little worse for wear with their rough treatment and stood back up with them. Xena walked back over to her bed with them and sat down on it. She cradled the delicate flowers in her hand and tried to make them look presentable again but she knew her effort was a lost cause. Their violent collision with the floor had caused the stems to break and now both roses drooped gloomily. She groaned at having damaged them, no one really gave her flowers and Ares had given both of them to her when she needed a little bright spot when she was feeling down. She was irritated with herself for having destroyed them and she placed them gently back on the table next to her bed. She didn't know what she was supposed to do now, she couldn't stay at Ares' temple and she didn't know how long he was actually going to be gone this time. If she headed back there then the priests would more than likely think she was just trying to bum for a place to stay and since the War God was missing in action at the moment to tell them otherwise there was nowhere else for her to go.

She didn't like it but she knew that she was going to have to remain in Athena's temple. The thought of having to stay there longer then she wanted, did not sit well with her. She wanted to escape her cage not continue to be tethered to it.