My Immortal XII
After carefully considering what to do with the battered girl, Ares decided that he would take her back to the Halls of War and he and Xena could maybe find a position for her there, at least until the girl was ready to move on with her life. Still, he didn't want to make any promises to the woman-child until he spoke with Xena. So without another word, he materalized them into the throne room and told her to make herself comfortable.
As he walked down the hall toward the master suite, he realized he didn't even know the girl's name. He shook his head at how much Xena had changed him, for the better. He never worried about peasant girls' welfare before, much less their names.
Pushing open the heavy ebony doors, he stood with his mouth agape at the sight of Enyo laying nude and sated on his bed. "What are you doing here? Where is Xena?"
"The bitch had to go!" Enyo smiled and patted the sheets seductively, inviting the Lord of War into the bed with her.
"No, it's you who has to go! I'm done with you." Ares noted the purple gown hanging on the door of the wardrobe. He scanned the room and realized that Xena's clothes were gone as were her trademark weapons. Fuck! She was gone, gone! The not coming back kind of gone!
He rushed toward the bed and grabbed Enyo hard by the arms and shook her, "What have you done?"
"I've freed you of that ball and chain. Ares, she's a fucking curse! They've offered you Olympus!" Enyo clearly couldn't wrap her head around the fact that Ares preferred Xena over power.
"And I told them to stuff it! Just like I am telling you now. You get the fuck out of here and if you ever show your nasty hide here again, I will flay you and I will take my sweet time doing it."
"Ooooh, you're turning me on, baby! I love your threats, especially when they are so pathetically empty!"
Ares backhanded her across the face. "I'll show you empty! I don't know what you did or said to Xena but you've run her off, for now! I will get her back! She is the mistress here, not you. She will be my queen."
"I'll kill the mortal whore first!"
"If you so much as touch a strand of her precious hair, I will gut you and feed your rotting corpse to Cerebus."
Enyo licked his face and writhed in sheer pleasure from his diabolical promises. Ares pushed her off him, "Now what did you say to Xena, you crotchety cunt?"
"Say, I didn't have to say anything. I just reminded her of your true nature! Oh and you holding that poor, shivering, nude village girl provided the visual." She blew him a kiss and vanished in a puff of black smoke.
"Fuck" Ares belted at the top of his lungs. Xena thought he was fucking the girl! He had to find her, had to set things straight. She'd hear him out! She had to. The girl could explain what happened and everything would be alright.
Ares sprinted back down the corridor to the throne room. The girl was nowhere in sight. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!" She was his insurance. Ares looked around the Halls of War frantically. When he made the front foyer, he noticed the front door was ajar. He ran outside and had to block the setting sun from his eyes. The gate was open, she was gone. How was he going to find an insignificant little peasant girl. He hadn't bothered to even learn her name. He certainly hadn't memorized her soul signature.
AXAXAXAXAXAXAXAX
Xena rode Argo for all she was worth. She wished that she could just ride past the setting sun and fling herself right off of the spinning Earth. When the dusky light of the evening gave way to darkness, Xena made camp. She didn't want to risk a needless injury to her mare. Argo after all was a loyal beast, unlike other bastards she could name.
Xena hastily threw together a fire and dug through her saddlebag for some old jerky. She found the dried meat and luckily an orange. She ate the light fare and put her bedding down. She studied the position of the constellations. She intended to meet up with Gabrielle and Eve in Ionia but decided she would take the overland route, so she could take the horse with her. It would take her at least a month to make it there and then who knew how long to find their trail. Oh well, she could certainly use the time to cool off. The ride had helped with that a little bit. His betrayal stung but at least she had managed to tamp down the urge to surmount an army and destroy his troops and every last temple he had left standing in Greece. He'd just get a perverse thrill out of watching her wage war against his men. Satisfaction was the last thing she wanted to give him.
When Xena got her bedroll laid out, she started taking her armor off. When she unhooked the breastplate she noticed the damned key pendant was still resting comfortably between her breasts. She reached up and caressed it between her thumb and forefinger. The cold metal had a lustrous, ethereal feel to it. She could almost feel him when she stroked the key. She broke! How could he? Why had she been so stupid? What was she thinking? This was the God of War! But he had given up Olympus for her, why would he throw it away over a romp with a war captive? Was he really just playing games? Using her?
"You ran away!" She heard him call from behind her.
She turned to face him, tears streaming down her face. The sight of her crying eyes lit by only the campfire tore his heart out.
Xena shook her head, "You have a lot of nerve coming here. I don't want to see you. Now or ever."
"Xena you have to hear me out! You ran away without even letting me explain. That's not fair and I guess it says a lot about how little you trust me."
"Fuck off! Just fuck off." She ripped the pendant from her neck and threw it at him.
He couldn't help himself, he chuckled as he dodged the necklace.
"Just what in Hades do you find so funny? My pain? Does it delight you?"
"Gods help me but yes! Xena you are in love with me. I should have never doubted it."
"Well, laugh it up!"
"No, Xena, you don't get it. I didn't touch that girl but the thought of me fucking some villager has got you so beside yourself that you're about to - - -what? Let me guess - -ride all the way to Ionia back into the arms of your little village girl?"
"Don't you dare bring Gabrielle into this," Xena charged at him and pushed hard against his chest.
Ares grabbed her wrists, "Are you even listening to me. I did not screw that child, Xena. I saved her from Darian. He was raping her. I let him think that I wanted my turn at her so he would leave her alone."
"What?" Xena wanted to believe him but Enyo's words were still oozing through the blackest recesses of Xena's soul.
"Look, I even took her back to the Halls of War to ask your advice about what to do with her but then that's when I found Enyo had run you off, which by the way pisses me off. That you let that filthy trash push you out of your home. Makes me think you were looking for an excuse to leave."
"Oh, you are NOT turning this around on me! Where's your little girl now? Huh, Ares? I mean surely she can corroborate your version of events."
Ares swallowed and bit his bottom lip in frustration. "Xena, she took off. While I was dealing with Enyo, she slipped away."
"How convenient." Xena winced at the pathetic answer but also because his steel grip was bruising her wrists.
"I knew you'd think that. Xena, look. I love you and you clearly love me so let's quit this bullshit. I didn't fuck her. You wanna smell my dick? Yours was the last snatch on my jock."
Xena curled her lip in disgust at him and then headbutted him across the bridge of his nose. It had little effect in the way of pain but it did jar his grip from her wrists. She quickly followed the headbut with a boot to his solar plexus. He grunted and doubled over. When he managed to bring his head back up, it was meet by a roundhouse kick which sent him tumbling into the ground.
"Mercy, Xena. Mercy!" He cried.
"Fight back you diseased son-of-a-bitch."
"Oh, it's not me who has the disease. It's you. You have that old love sickness for the God of War and no matter how hard you try to pummel it out of yourself by beating me senseless it will still course through your lifeblood, Xena. You are hot for me." He managed to stand back up only to receive one of Xena's wicked right jabs.
"Quit running your mouth and fight." Xena swung her left arm at him but he anticipated it and turned the momentum against her. He grabbed the forearm by the wrist and twisted it and pinned it behind her body wihich he also turned and pulled flush against his own. With his other hand he squeezed her right breast roughly as he pressed his hardening flesh against her ass.
"Look what you've done to me, Xena. Your passion inflames me."
"Get your cock off of me!"
"As you wish," he muttered and in one swift move tore her panties, undid his fly, and slid himself inside her. "I prefer him inside of you anyway."
It felt so good to have him inside her again. It felt right. It felt good. His wonderfully wide shaft stretched her muscles, leaving her perfectly filled and not wanting more. Despite her lingering doubts she began to move against him. She bent further forward, granting him easier access. Ares let go of her wrist and grabbed hold of her hips and started the rhythmic dance of love.
"Areeessss," Xena cried out, just before he emptied his seed inside her.
Ares slipped out of Xena, the night air cold on his now limp member. He turned her to face him.
"I will hunt that girl down if that's what it takes to convince you, but Xena, I swear that I did not have sex with her. She offered but I only wanted to help her, not hurt her."
"Huh," Xena grunted.
Ares threw his hands up. He put his cock back in his pants, picked the pendant up off the ground and then walked over to the fire. He pulled a nearby limb closer to the hearth and made himself a seat out of it.
"Okay, here's the thing. Number one, I had no intention of cheating on you. I love you, Xena. You are more than enough woman for me. . ."
"Ares, I know your libido and I know male gods. . ."
"I wasn't finished. I love you. I don't want anyone else but even if that hadn't been the case, I couldn't have raped that girl. The look in her eyes, the desperation, it reminded me of when Lucifer's demons . . ." His voice quavered.
It had never occurred to Xena that the experience of being raped in Hell could have affected the way Ares would feel toward battle captives. "She just looked so helpless, so innocent, I just wanted to save her."
"Ares, I never considered - -I am sorry- -and I didn't even give you a chance. You must think I am. . '
"Shhh, I think you were hurting. I think I've given you plenty of reasons to doubt me in the past. I think that running from me has become a habit and it was easy to fall back into it."
Xena knew he was right, on all accounts. She joined him on the log. They stared silently into the fire for a few minutes.
"I am going to kill Enyo."
"Don't give her the pleasure, She's not worth your time. But if she comes after you, I swear."
Xena leaned her head on his shoulder. "Do you want to go back to Olympus?"
"Not without you. I want to be where you are. If that means hitting the road and sleeping on the ground like some - - -some - - -ascetic, then so be it."
"But if you had your druthers, If you could live anywhere, with me, where would that be?"
Ares fingered the key pendant and then tied the leather thong holding it around Xena's neck. The key nestled in her bosom again. "Let me show you," he whispered and then they were flying, soaring through the aether.
When they hit solid ground, they were standing at a humongous wrought iron gate at the base of an estate on a private island in the eastern Mediterranean.
"What's this?" Xena asked.
"I had this built when you were pregnant with Eve. It's technically out of the realm of the Olympians. It falls under the purview of the Phoenician pantheon. But I've always been on pretty good terms with them. I had hoped we could come here and raise your daughter together."
Xena's hand went instinctively to her womb. Maybe they could raise this child in peace. This could be their haven, their home. Xena took his hand, "Let's go inside, there's something I need to tell you."
Ares took the key pendant from Xena's neck and unlocked the front gate.
AXAXAXAXAXAXAXAXAXA
The palatial estate sprawled atop the second tallest peak of the volcanic island. The island stretched thirty miles from east to west and another twenty miles north to south. The majority of coast consisted of sheer rock faces but there were two black sand beaches for swimming. Xena admired the defensive position of the estate. The mansion was built so that three sides of the house were accessible only by scaling the two hundred foot high rock walls. The fourth entrance could be reached only by the cut stone path that led from one of the beaches. Ares had called it Eternity Beach. The massive iron gate at the bottom could only be opened with the key pendant. One thousand steps snaked their way to the top of the hill and to the colonnaded portico that served as the front entrance to the manse.
When Ares led her inside, Xena marveled at the mosaic tiled floors featuring scenes from famous battles and the magnificent fountain with purple iris motifs that sat in the center of the courtyard.
"Six bedrooms, three privy chambers, two living areas, a dining room, a kitchen. And outside, an open air theatre ( just in case you wanted to invite a travelling troupe to entertain you), and an arsenal and arena (so you can keep your skills sharp). A nursery sits adjacent to the master suite. I had intended on keeping you barefoot and pregnant. It's still decorated from when you were expecting Eve. I didn't have the heart to take it down. We can always repurpose the space."
"Ares, this place is absolutely breathtaking. This is where you were going to bring me, isn't it? When you helped me defeat Athena. When you offered to take me away. This is where we would have watched Eve grow up."
He nodded silently.
"I am sorry. I should have let you. Stubborn. I shouldn't have used your love like I did. You know, I always go on and on about all the games you've played. I forget that I played you, as well."
"I deserved it."
"No! No you didn't. When you came to me in Tartarus. You were trying to be honest with me, be open, and I taunted you. And, I kept taunting you because it was easier than dealing with my own feelings."
"All that matters is right now, Xena. That's all blood . . ."
"under the bridge," the said in unison as he closed his mouth over hers. He couldn't believe that they were here. After all the years. Together in the home he'd had built for them. He was holding her, kissing her in their courtyard. Their place. Not his place, not the Halls of War, not her grandparent's farm, not the roadways of Greece but here in a real home. Their home.
Xena kissed him passionately. She was aching to try out the master suite with him but first she needed to tell him about the baby. She reluctantly broke the kiss but kept his hand in hers and led him to a red velvet chaise lounge.
"Ares, there is something I need to tell you. I spoke with Demeter today."
"You did?"
"Yes, Aphrodite took me to Olympus. I was going to ask her to bless my womb. I wanted a child. Your child. I wanted us to make a family."
Ares pulled her into his embrace. This couldn't be real! He must be dreaming. Or worse, he was still in Hell and Lucifer was giving him this taste of happiness before dropping the flowery shroud to reveal his den of torture.
"Wait, what do you mean you wanted? Did that mess with Enyo change your mind?"
"No, nothing changed my mind. The thing is, that Demeter didn't have to bless me, you already had. We are having a baby, Ares. You and me! Can you believe it?" He hadn't heard such wonder in her voice since the first time he put the chakram into her deadly hands. Pulling back he watched her eyes, he could see the future in them.
"Guess we'll need that nursery after all." He kissed her softly on the lips.
"Guess so," she smiled as she kissed him back. "Now, are you going to show me the master bed, or what?"
"In a minute, baby." Ares tied the key back around her neck then reached for his sword.
"You wanna fight first?" She eyed him in confusion.
Ares took the hilt of his sword and twisted off the top of it. He dug his thick finger into the knob that he had removed and pulled out a diamond ring. Xena clasped her hands over her mouth as Ares went down on one knee. He didn't even ask before she started nodding her head yes.
"Xena, will you do me the uncomparable honor of spending the rest of your life with me? Will you be my wife? The queen of my little world?" He gestured to the home he had created for them.
Xena didn't bother to fight the tears, she let them go. It felt so good to let it all go. "Yes, Ares, yes. I love you. Marry me."
Ares stood and grabbed her up into his arms and carried her to the master suite.