She never knew he loved her until…
Fantasy Romance Short Story (bonus chapters of My Lord Hades)
Published January 2012
Tarma is a sea-nymph who is completely in love with the daemon-god Hades. The only glitch is that he doesn’t seem to know she exists, and the harder she tries to catch his attention the further he runs. Tarma will soon learn how blind her love has been when she seeks the Goddess of Love for help.
Published January 27, 2012
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TARMA GROANED AND brushed a lock of long blue hair out of her sweaty face. Why did it have to be so hot? At the rate she was sweating sea water, she’d be absolutely dry.
Rayes didn’t seem to notice the excruciating heat as she prattled on about a new god in the ranks of the Olympians, her gait quickening as they reached the Olympian encampment. Tarma sighed. What did she care if another self-centered god joined the ranks of the Olympians? This stupid war was about power and dominance! It wasn’t as if any of the nymphs would benefit from the change of regime. One god was as bad as another. They all wanted the nymphs as willing bedmates, although they would accept the unwilling ones too.
“There he is,” Rayes said, jumping up and down excitedly and pointing to the right of them.
Tarma blinked at the very uncharacteristic, emotional display playing out before her. Rayes had the personality of a leaf; in other words, none. She was too serious and too composed for one of the fun loving nymphs. Nothing like the emotional species they were. If a God could make Rayes throw her dignity aside and act as a child, Tarma had to see him.
Turning toward the practice ring, she scanned the area, searching for the object of Rayes’ excitement. All she saw was Ares and a man in rags circling the arena with swords in their hands. A few feet away, several nymphs and gods she recognized watched. “Where?”
“Fighting Ares, of course. Isn’t he magnificent?”
Tarma arched a brow. The man was dirty and disgusting. She glanced at her companion to see if Rayes could possibly be joking. She wasn’t. “I don’t see—”
A sound drew her eye back to the arena. Ares and the repulsive man were moving…circling. At first they were slow, testing each other. The speed of their movements increased as they danced around the arena.
Amazingly, the man kept pace with Ares. He barely looked able to stand on his own two feet. He was tall and painfully thin, closer to emaciated, with greasy hair that snarled over his bowed back and a scraggly beard that had been wrapped around his neck to keep it out of the way. She thought it might be black, but it could also be brown, or even blond.
She didn’t see what Rayes saw in him, until he attacked. Weaving and twirling, the blade glittered in the sunlight, slicing through the air, ringing off metal. It was a deadly dance of blades that the man was more than adept at playing. He moved with the fluid grace of a panther, attacked with the speed of a viper, and stuck with the strength of a God.
She’d never seen its like. The strange, new God was built for war, even more so than Ares. While Ares hacked away, missing the lithe man more often than making contact, the man’s blade struck every time. He was taunting Ares, sparking the God of War’s anger, and the angrier Ares became, the more mistakes he made.
And then the man made a fatal error. He came too close to the swinging blade. Tarma cringed at the thought of the blade slicing through flesh and muscle, embedding itself into bone. She hated the thought of this magnificent man dying so soon. One moment the glittering blade was descending toward the man’s neck and the next the blade was sailing through the clear morning air, a deadly glitter of cold steel. It landed in the grass with a thud.
Tarma looked back at the man. Was he a god? A Titan? Or a Daemon? For no mortal could do what he had.
Ares cursed loudly and glared at the man. “You’re a dirty cheat, Hades.”
Tarma started at the name. Hades? The immortal enemy of Coronus? The prisoner of Tartarus for the last thousand years or more? The daemon of awesome power? How had he gotten out of Tartarus?
“I fought to win,” Hades said. His voice was deep, soft, and deadly as he sheathed the beautifully crafted sword.
Ares glared at Hades, his hands balled into fists. Tarma held her breath. Ares’ temper was legendary.
“You cheated,” Ares growled, stomping away.
Tarma and Rayes scampered out of his way. No one wanted to incur the wrath of Ares when he’d been thwarted. It was a death sentence…or some wished it was.
Hades watched Ares disappear into the village of tents, before he bent to retrieve Ares’ sword from the grass. He cleaned the blade on his ragged clothes.
Startling blue eyes met Tarma’s over the distance. The grief in that one look struck Tarma to her heart. This was a man worthy of her attention. This was a man she could love. In that moment, Tarma knew she wanted this daemon.
TARMA JOINED RAYES AND her sisters at the forest’s edge. The peaceful setting of the forest and valley below seemed a strange backdrop to the devastation before them. The battle was well on its way. The clang of metal and war cries were the only sounds to be heard.
The Nymphs watched with a strange mixture of fascination and horror as the men, Gods, daemons, and monsters met on the field of battle. Blades flashed; glittering arcs of death, hacking through armor, flesh, and bone. The men were seeking to maim and kill each other.
It was a foolish attempt at war. So few of those down below were mortal and only they could die. It was an ineffectual way to prove who was right and who was wrong, or even who should rule. Strength of arm didn’t make a good ruler.
The nymph society was so much more civilized. No leader ruled forever. They voted and the winner lead for several years before another was elected. It didn’t always work, but anything was better than this butchery.
Tarma turned away from the bloodshed, ready to return to her water grotto and wait to hear the outcome of the battle from Keran, or one of the other nymphs. But then she spotted Hades. There was no way to tell for sure that it was him, but she knew it was. He was dressed as no other god she’d seen on the battlefield.
His armor was as black as the darkest night. It didn’t shine or sparkle. It actually appeared to draw in the light, nullifying the bright day. And then there was the awful sword. She shivered at the sight of it. The blade was long and jagged, covered with red blood. It was a deadly and horrible thing, slicing into gods and monsters, ripping large holes through them.
Hades hacked a path through the army before him. Titans fell before him, bloody messes of immortality. She’d thought Ares and Enyo had been terrifying to watch, but next to Hades they were children. Hades was a warrior, like his mother Eris. A dangerous daemon. A dangerous God.
She watched in awe as he grabbed the shoulder of a Titan, ramming the length of his jagged blade through the man’s chest, and tore the blade free while shoving the howling man from him. Her mouth opened, the scream bubbling upward, warning him that another Titan approached from behind.
The hilt twirled in his hand and Hades thrust the blade behind him as he dropped to his knee. His other hand shoved against the hilt, forcing it to pierce the body. His battle cry could be heard above the den of sounds. She shivered at the raw fury and pain in his voice.
Hades didn’t hesitate. He rose, the skewered Titan falling to the ground behind him. Hades glanced down and yanked the jagged blade from the body. He turned to find the next combatant, but there were few left standing on the field. Bloody bodies littered the ground, groaning and twisting with the pain of their wounds.
Tarma glanced toward her sisters, their faces as horrified as hers must be. Was this truly the end of the conflict? Or was there to be more of these battles for supremacy?
She turned back to the field. Eris stood before Hades in black armor and with no helmet. The sharp tip of her serrated sword pointed at his throat. Tarma waited for the blow that never came.
Hades vanished. One moment he was there, head held high, ready for the blow, and the next he was inside her guard, grabbing her around the waist and tossing her like a doll. Eris spun through the air, landing on her toes.
Hades stalked forward, a lethal panther set to maim and possibly kill. Their deadly dance became a black blur of attack and defense. And then as suddenly as it all began, it ended.
Eris threw back her head and laughed. Tarma shivered at the cruel sound of Eris’ laughter. She sheathed her sword and put her hand on her slender hip. They were too far away for Tarma to hear the conversation, but Hades’ stance didn’t relax and he didn’t sheath his sword. He was prepared for another attack.
Tarma lost interest in their exchange, looking toward the movement behind Hades. Zeus, Poseidon, and one of the disgusting Cyclops’ were making their way across the battlefield. She cringed as the lumbering monster crunched over the dead, dying, and injured without regard to friend or foe. Their screams were distant and small, for which she was grateful. What stupid creatures Cyclops’ were!
By the time the Gods joined Hades, Eris had once more disappeared. The Cyclops spoke briefly to Hades, handing him a shiny object that looked to be a helmet. Tarma wasn’t really sure why Hades bowed to the creature. Was it some old custom upon receiving a gift? If it was, it was wasted on the giant. Cyclopes’ were too stupid and uncivilized to understand the gesture of respect.
The Cyclops moved away, leaving Zeus and Poseidon with Hades. They spoke as nymphs and Goddesses emerged from the forests and encampment of the Gods, venturing into the battlefield to retrieve their husbands and lovers.
Tarma sighed. At least the whole sordid affair was over now. Maybe the gods could focus on more important things, like flirting and dancing and parties. Oh how she missed the parties at Mount Othyrs and Mount Olympus. But lately no one seemed that interested in celebrating anything. Maybe now the whole sordid war was over; they would start again. She could use the opportunity to seduce Hades.
Tarma frowned as Hades stiffened at something Poseidon said to him. Hades spoke to Zeus and disappeared. It was strange to see. Unlike some of the older gods who slowly faded, Hades merely vanished. He was there one second and completely gone the next. If only she had that ability, she’d follow him.
Pouting at the lost opportunity to speak with Hades herself, Tarma turned away from the battlefield and headed for home. She had a little time to prepare for the plan forming in her mind. She’d need Iris’ help with this one.
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Support an author and buy Love is Blind for $.99 at:
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Or Download the Love is Blind PDF
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