Dear readers;
HELLO!! I'm Baaaaaaa-aaaaack. MuahahahahahahahahaHA. Miss me?
School distracts me from writing, which makes me sad. Boycott HP, they took my computer away and gave me a faulty charger. :( Well, what's important is that the fan fiction will be finished soon! Thank you for reading this bit of insanity, and if you like it please read The Grimm Adventures of Sophie and Sundown. It's kind of the same but really different. Still a Dark-Hunter book, and yes, I've come to love the cowboy. (Yee freakin' haw.) Much, much more violent, since Sophie was in the Mafia, and...oops. I wasn't supposed to say that. But ANYWAY, know that I'm back and the chapters will keep on coming! Especially since I'm going to visit the Dark-Hunter capital of the WORLD soon (No, not Greece, NEW ORLEANS.).
Thank you for being devoted readers, much loves to you all, especially those who leave the greatest gift of Comments. If this chapter is dark know that things will get happier (Yes, this is still a Zarek fan fiction and not something from an odd alternate universe.)
K.E. Thuney, unappreciated and much mocked student, budding author.
SO ON WITH THE FAN FICTIONISM!!!
I woke with a headache that I usually associated with body shots and nights of vodka drinking-it felt as though both sides of my brain were joining together to crush me slowly into insanity. Nikitas still rested in a crook in my arm, his breath soft and calm against my icy skin, and Zarek was no where to be seen.
"Hello?" I whispered, not eager to wake either immature child up. No answer, so I slowly stood and released Nikitas, his breath only pausing for a moment before returning to normal. "Zarek? Crazy? Here, boy, I don't bite." I smiled as I touched my neck gently for a moment. "But hey, I hear you do. What's that about?"
Silence.
"Hello?"
Silence. The sun was nearly up-where the hell was he? Maybe one night with the unluckiest girl in the continental U.S. had really driven him insane. Ha, ha, ha.
"Hey, Zarek, where's the bathroom?" I tried again. "And when am I going back to my hotel? It's cold here, and I need to charge my-" I leaned against the wall and found it to be hollow. Well, now, what did we have here? Taking my hand to the wall and rapping againnst the edges, three feet across and five feet up, I realized that it was some sort of a door. If only I could have opened it, I-
My thoughts were cut off abruptly as I found the weaket spot, pushed against it accidentally, and fell completely through, nine feet or so straight down. I let out a scream that echoed for an instant, and I sincerely hoped that it hadn't awoken Nikitas. Oh, God, it was dark and cold and the perfect place to store dead bodies. Good lord, the longer I stayed with him, the more morbid I became. I'd be wearing all black and cursing people, stealing his claws and dying my hair black before I knew it.
"Zaaa-arek," I said, drawing his name out and listening to it echo in the large room. "How do I get out of here?"
Silence.
"ZAREK!" I screamed. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!" I was sure I heard the front door open. I stayed silent, and then, sure enough, I heard footsteps.
"Hey, Squire, that's my personal place!" Zarek snarled down the black hole.
"Well, I'm fucking sorry I stumbled upon heaven!" I shouted back up. "But I don't exactly want to stay here any longer. Do you have like a ladder or something?"
"Why should I let you up?" I bit down on my bottom lip, regretting my next words already.
"Because Nikitas is an Appolite, and he's been asleep for a while without eating anything, and your blood is like cyanide to the little guy!" I shouted. "He needs me. His auntie-Goddess lady."
The silence from above was almost palpable. And just as I was beginning to lose heart and begin my tirade, he shouted, "Move!"
"What?" I yelled.
"Just move, Squire, unless you have the desire to be crushed by a Dark-Hunter!"
I side stepped just in time, because a second later Zarek joined me in the black-tinted hell.
"I don't think it's that hellish down here," He said, and I could imagine the smirk on his face. "At least, for the most part, it's quiet."
"Stop reading my mind!" I shouted.
"Make me," He said with the comeback skills of a kindergartner. "Goddess-Lady." He laughed as he mocked me newly adopted nephew, taking off down the darkened corridor, his laugh, so bitter and cruel, ringing down the way.
"Damn it, you immature little prick!" I shouted. "Come back here! Nikitas needs me!"
"Make me come back!" He shouted. "You invaded my privacy. This is my place."
"This where you take all your girlfriends?" I said, turning around and spinning slowly in the pitch black room. "Describes your personality well."
"Shut up, why don't you?" He said, now inches from my face. I fell silent. "Scared yet?"
"I've seen worse," I said through grit teeth.
"Yeah?" His voice was a whisper now, and he sounded almost out of breath. "Like what?"
"I saw both my parent die. And my little sister. And everyone else I know who I loved. Besides my brothers, that is. And I also may have been killed 2,000 years ago, so asshole, you don't fricking scare me." I pushed him away and he hissed.
"Don't fucking touch me," He snarled. He grabbed onto the roots of my hair.
"Ow! Let me go!" I shouted, turning and trying to kick him, but it was no use. He had a foot and a half and two thousand years worth of fighting on me, and I had no desire to have my ass handed to me on a plate if I lost this battle. Or, worse, my head. He began to walk, and since I had no sense of direction at the moment, I simply followed, trying my best to keep him from ripping the hair from my scalp and hoping that we were not going deeper into the labyrinth.
"Where are we going, exactly?" I asked. He was glaring at me, I was sure of it.
"Shut up, would you?" He growled. Finally, he stopped. I could see natural light coming from above us. He surprised me by picking me up and nearly tossing me, face first, back up onto the first floor. I landed with a pained 'oof!' on the floor, my chin scraping against the hard surface. "There. Go feed your kid."
I blushed, sitting up on my shaking legs and correcting him as I went to wake up NIkitas. "He's my nephew."
"Sorry for the mistake, it won't happen again," He said sarcastically.
"Better not," I said, turning away from the entrance to the black hole. I heard the wall slam back into place behind me and realized that Zarek's Dark-Hunter power was Telekinesis. Oh, great, give the psychopath the power to move around heavy objects with his mind, Acheron. Good job.
Nikitas sat up straight, and I took a seat besides the blond boy. "I don't like that guy, auntie," He told me. I sighed.
"That makes two of us, Nikitas," I said wearily, sighing and offering the little vampire-esque child my wrist. He looked down at it through dark lashes, sighed, and pushed it away. I persisted.
"We want you to get big and strong, right, Nikitas?" I told him soothingly. He paused.
"Um...yes," He responded.
"Well, you have to have a balanced diet to get strong and healthy, Nik. Come on, drink, I don't mind," I waved my wrist under his nose and he finally gave in, pressing his mouth to my arm and pricking my skin with little fangs. He closed his eyes, biting down hard, his tounge lapping up the dark blood, and his eyes opened again, looking ashamed under black coal smudges of lashes.
"It's okay," I said calmly, feeling weary. "You're not doing anything bad." A light lie, small and unnoticeable. He finally removed himself from my arm, wiping a small hand across his lips. He offered the hand to me, and I shook my head, to his confusion.
"Why no drink?" He said in confusion. "Is no bad. Is no."
"No, no drink," I repeated with a smile. "I'm not special like you."
"Special?" He asked. "Why special? Momma was the same. It's yummy." He licked his lips and looked up at me with black, sad eyes. "Drink?" He held out the small hand to me, the fingers pink with blood. I leaned forward, flicked out my tongue quickly, and the metallic tang of the blood shot through my system like a atom bomb. I sat straight up, my eyes went blank, and I fell backwards onto the bed.
The very next thing I remembered was being slapped awake, unable to fight back with my arms or my legs. My head felt as though it had been split it two, and I cried out in pain. A sardonic laugh followed, and another slap across the side of my face.
"There. You're awake." I felt a weight against the middle of my body, and I awoke to find a young handsome man looking down at me, straddling my hips. He was maybe twenty, with long, waving black hair that touched his shoulders, and bronzed skin with rippling muscles. All in all, he looked like a canidate for a romance novel cover, but what I noticed most was the hardest part of his body, pressed against my thigh, and I froze with fear as I stared at him. I recognized him, I knew I did. It was Iccarius.
That must have meant that I was Ivory again-the other Ivory, the goddess of pain Ivory. And the wounds, still visible but healing on my chest confirmed my fears. I shrieked, writhing and attempting to get away, but Iccarius held me fast, his grip that of a powerful man.
"Let me go!" I screamed, optioning for the Greek he could understand. He laughed in a cruel, bitter way.
"Why did you not respond to me this way while we were married, dear Ivory?" He panted in my ear in the same tounge. "Gods, that was better than I could have thought."
"I was unconscious, you bastard!" I screamed.
"But it was so much better that way," He growled. "So much better. I did not know it was possible for a woman to orgasm in her sl-"
"Shut the fuck up!" I screamed. "You liar!"
"Oh, you could ask Artemis," He murmured against my breast. "Or Ebony. They brought you here."
"Where is here?" I snarled.
"You are back in the place from whence you were banished," He said with a laugh. I felt my eyes widen. "Do you remember now, my dear?"
"Why did you..." I looked down at the place where our bodies met. "Get off of me!"
"Why should I?" Iccarius said with a laugh, pressing harder against me. I cried out, mostly in pain.
"W-why are you doing this to me?" I cried. "What exactly did you do to me?"
"What husbands are supposed to do with their women," He growled. "Nothing less than what I deserve for the pain you put me through."
"My Iccarius, come to me," Said a voice longingly from the doorway of the temple. He moved himself from my body, glared down at me, and then wrapped a white silken robe around his nakedness as he joined Ebony in the doorway of the palace we'd once shared. He nuzzled her neck with his lips and she moaned, removing his robe and holding him close. "Who do you love?" She demanded. "Say it!"
"You, only you, my goddess," He said with a smile that once would have melted my heart but no longer affected me. "I will always love only you."
I had to close my eyes and listen in silence and in pain as Iccarius panted and Ebony screamed, and I heard Ebony feverishly moan Iccarius's name five or six times in a row. Finally, they finished, moments later, and I had my eyes pried open by Ebony, who grinned over me like the Grim Reaper.
"Morning, sunshine," She said with a giggle. "Did you sleep well?"
"You bitch!" I snarled.
"You're worse," She said, leaning in close to whisper in my ear. "Did you know that this whole time, the whole damn time you've known Iccarius, and the whole time you've born him his children, waited for him by the windows, and hoping that he had not found another woman, he was laying just where you are now, fucking me?" She laughed loudly.
"You evil bitch!" I yelled. She laughed again, clawing at my face and my chest.
"Did it hurt when he slammed you onto that spike, O Goddess?" She said, hissing the words an inch from my face. "And I only brought you back to show you how much he loves me and how much he's always hated you."
"EBONY!" A voice ripped through the air of the temple, a voice angry and loud. A young woman in a white and gold tunic, golden bangles, and long, flowing blond hair pulled back from her heavenly, heart shaped face with a golden headband, white gold sandals on her feet. She was a light shade of pink because of her rage, and her arms were crossed, her hips to the side, and she was tapping one foot against the marble floor of the Parthenon.
"Wh-well, I-oh, Aphrodite!" Stammered Ebony. The goddess continued to glare. "What is it that I did that angers you so?"
"Many things," Said Aphrodite. She walked over to the smaller, dark-haired Goddess, took her wrist, and led her over to where I lay. "Untie her."
"But-Goddess, she must be punished!" Cried Ebony. Aphrodite's eyes glowed red.
"You're joking, right?" Aphrodite laughed. "You dare to go against the wishes of a Goddess?" her voice had raised to an angry snarl.
"I am sorry, Goddess," She said meekly, closing her eyes. "Iccarius, free her."
He came over and roughly untied the silk sashes from my arms and legs, and he helped me to my feet. I shivered, and Aphrodite handed me the silken robe that Iccarius had doffed, and I pulled it on, the Goddess touched my arm kindly. "Are you fine, child?"
"I was raped while I slept, and then I watched my rapist fuck my sister," I said quietly. "I am the farthest thing on the parthenon from fine." Aphrodite smiled.
"Your wounds shall heal," She said quietly, "Both physical, and emotional. Now, come, I will escort you to Hades."
"Why are you helping me?" I whispered as she took my arm and led me from my husband and sister. She gave a very un-goddess like shrug.
"Because I understand your predicament," She told me truthfully.
"You had a cheating spouse?" I asked.
"No," She admitted sheepishly. "I was a cheating spouse."
"Oh." We finally came to stand before a black door, behind which a young woman was screaming. I froze. "What's going on?"
"Oh, one of the lovers of a god is having a child," She said nonchalantly. I pressed myself against the door and opened it. I saw a woman, her blond hair sticking to her forehead with sweat and her eyes glowing with happiness. She held a baby in her arms, a bloody baby who sobbed uncontrollably in her mother's grasp. I crossed the room quickly, still wearing only Iccarius's robe.
"May I hold the child?" I asked in greek. She hesitated for only a moment before nodding, handing me the crying little girl.
The minute I took her into my arms, my eyes were forced open and I saw dozens of women, all with shifting features and terrible deaths. I gasped, releasing the child, and she tumbled into her mother's outstretched hands.
"Lilith!" She cried out. "What did you do to my child?"
"Who is the father?" I asked quickly. She glanced around, looking ashamed until she finally met my gaze and muttered,
"An Atlantian god. I cannot speak his name aloud."
"Archon," I said. She lowered her gaze to her child and nodded. "This child will know much hardship. I, being goddess of pain, will be forced to hound her every step." The mother's eyes became horrified and she clutched the baby to her heaving chest.
"Why?" She shrieked. "Why must my innocent baby be damned to this?"
I looked behind her and saw the three fates, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, standing, menace in their gazes as they pointed to the baby, the little blue eyed baby who did not know that she was meant to destroy the family she hoped to build.
"I-it's fate," I said quietly, and then I turned to Aphrodite, who stared in awe and fear at the fates. "I-I must go, but know that your child will have my protection."
"The protection of pain," She spat, "Means nothing to me. Leave me with my child, I shall kill it." She looked down at the baby as though her own flesh and blood was nothing.
"If you kill that child," I said, lowering my gaze to stare at her, "This Parthenon will fall into ruins. If you enjoy your life here, that baby shall live. Let us leave now, Aphrodite," I said, walking toward the exit. Aphrodite stopped me with a single hand.
"Wait a moment." I nodded, surprised, and I became even more surprised as she walked over to the side of the bed with light steps and took the child into her arms. Rocking her around in a circle slowly, she kissed the babe on the forehead. Both baby and goddess laughed, and eventually, the infant was returned to her awe-struck mother. "We can leave now, and know, woman, that if that baby dies as will you, though if you die she could live on. When she dies, so does beauty."
The woman was still staring at us when the fates came to her side, and Atropos said sweetly, "We shall take and care for your child, dear woman. She will have the protection of Fate."
I could tell, though my back was to them, that she was lying.
I woke up, flat on my back and panting, my sweat coating my brow and my hands raised to my chest. Nikitas lounged on a chair next to a small fireplace, half-asleep with his eyes partially closed, and he perked up when he saw me awake.
"You were screaming and you used bad words," He chastised me, lookig serious. I clutched him tightly, not wanting to let go of the only thing tying me to the present as the shock of what I'd gone through registered. Ivory was real-and so was all that she'd been through.
Which either meant I was crazy or someone had a hell of a lot of explaining to do.