Love and War- First three Chapters

Chapter 1

Aphrodite

"I'M THE BOX," I whimpered from beneath my carefully crafted glamour. A picture from one of the books Ares had given me about mythology seared into my brain: Pandora desperately holding down the lid of a box.

"You have to help her!" Ares exploded in Adonis's voice. Persephone had glamoured us both into demigods to infiltrate DAMNED: Demigods Against Major Nymphs, Elementals, and Deities. Not that Nymphs and Elementals were much of a thing anymore. Free to focus solely on deities, this group was responsible for the creation of weapons and poison designed to destroy us.

But thanks to a seven-day cruise from hell that ended with me fighting for my life, I'd die without their help.

Lies upon lies upon lies. The glamour itched at me, begging to be shed. Or maybe that was the blood drying on my skin. Adonis's blood, my blood, both just a fraction of what was to come if the carefully stacked dominoes of our subterfuge fell.

"Water, Aphrodite?" Adonis's gold eyes glittered as he held out the bottle laced with poison.

I moaned as the vision dissolved into another, almost as painful.

His arms wrapped around me, his mouth crushing against mine. "I could love you."

"I didn't mean to," he whined, passing me another bottle of water.

"I didn't have a choice," he whispered as I drank his lies.

Excuse after excuse tumbled off his tongue, and all the while, the feel of him cradling my face, running his fingers through my hair, his whispered breath against my skin played through my body like a song.

My eyes fluttered open, and I flinched when I saw his golden eyes boring into mine, wide with panic. "I trusted you." I choked on the words.

More than trusted him. I'd practically idolized him, latching onto him as one of the only people who got me, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Adonis was a monster. He'd drugged me in order to take away my powers, to make me weak. And in doing so, he'd signed my death warrant.

I wanted to hate him. But before I could process the full measure of his betrayal, he'd saved my life at the cost of his own. I'd held him as he died, his blood pooling around me on the metal floor. As he'd breathed his last, I'd decided that no, he didn't get to do this. Adonis didn't get to hurt me, betray me in the worst way, and then die for me, leaving me with a tangle of emotions and guilt so thick I wouldn't be able to cope.

So I activated the ichor in his blood and turned him into a god, and in doing so, saved myself. His poison couldn't attack my powers if they resided in him. And if I'd been motivated to save him for any other reason than just to save myself, I didn't feel like sorting through those feelings right now.

"I'm so sorry, love," he whispered.

"I've got you, love," Ares whispered.

Ares. Not Adonis. Ares. Persephone had glamoured Ares to look like Adonis, and me to look like Elise, so I could get medical help and we could infiltrate the demigod's base. Before I could take my words back, before I could apologize, the boat lurched, sending a wave of pain crashing through me.

". . . as fast as we can," a faint voice assured him.

". . . not fast enough!" Ares's voice sounded raw with panic. "Can't you . . ."

". . . did this to her? What happened?" Another voice demanded.

"Tantalus," Ares replied, playing a dangerous game. Gods couldn't lie. He'd have to be careful how he phrased every word. ". . . thought she was a goddess . . . beat her, then . . ."

"They are not people!" Tantalus had shouted when Adonis changed sides. "They are gods. They are wrong! Their very existence. The things they've done. Everything about them is wrong. How can you side with them?" He punctuated each syllable with a punch, turning me to pulp as Adonis screamed for him to stop.

". . . wasn't breathing." Ares's voice went hoarse.

"Hey Donnie, wanna see something cool?" Tantalus looked at me, and I felt his charm overtake me. "Drop dead." My body obeyed his command like a puppet.

". . . tried CPR, but . . ."

"Come on!" Ares cried, his hands pressing against my chest in a desperate bid to keep my heart beating.

Ares's voice broke. "I just hurt her worse."

"It feels like I—" Ares drew in a deep breath. "I break everything I touch."

"I couldn't stop it. I couldn't save her."

"Run," Ares begged as the charm overtook him. Horror flashed through his eyes as he launched the spear.

" . . said it wasn't her," the unfamiliar voice insisted. "That one of them was glamoured to look like Elise. We thought—"

"Does she look like a god to you?" Ares shouted.

Clever, I thought.

"We've got dolphins," another voice interjected.

Dolphins were Poseidon's harbingers. The sea god had probably sent them to follow the boat to the demigod's base. But if the demigods spent any time trying to lose them, I might not make it.

"Dolphins?" Ares let out a string of curses. "We don't have time to admire the marine life, damn it! She needs a hospital now!"

The first voice replied thoughtfully, undisturbed by Ares's outburst. "Text her our coordinates, and prepare for the whole boat."

"Jason," the second voice objected. "She'll—"

"We don't have time to waste."

Knees brushed against me as someone, Jason presumably, knelt beside Ares. "Take this. Keep pressure on the wound. Don't take your eyes off her. It's about to get bumpy."

"Three . . ." The second voice began counting down. "Two. . . . One."

For a second, I felt as if I were floating, then the boat must have hit a wave at an odd angle because we slammed into the water so hard, a scream tore itself from my throat. Ares's fingers dug into my shoulders, holding me down.

"What was that?" Ares yelled, pressing the towel into my side.

"We just hit a rough patch," the first voice assured him. "Almost there."

"Hold on," Ares whispered, his hand slick with my blood as he kept pressure on my side. "Are you still with me? Say something."

I was in no shape to respond. The stab wound by itself would have been bad enough, not life-threatening perhaps, but enough to warrant the sweet oblivion of unconsciousness. But that wasn't all my body had endured in the last twenty-four hours.

The boat shuddered as it docked, and I felt myself being lifted, strapped onto some kind of stretcher. Ares's hand fumbled for mine. "Stay with me," he begged, and the fragile hope in his voice almost broke me. "Please. Stay with me."

"I break everything I touch."

The stretcher hit a bump, and my tenuous hold on consciousness snapped.