Styxx (DH #33) (15 page)

The cup fell from his numbed fingers as an incessant need to be inside her consumed him. She leaned back onto the table and bent her knees so that he had a perfect view of her. Then she reached between her legs and ran her fingers down her wet cleft. He watched in silent awe as she gently opened herself for him.

“Well?” she asked, her voice thick with needful hunger as she pressed her fingers deep inside her body and slowly masturbated for him. Moaning, she thrust her hips against her hand, and rode her fingers until they were slick and dewy.

His breathing labored, he arched a brow at her actions.
Well, you don’t look like you need me.…

“What is going on?”

The maid let out a small squeak as she jumped from the table and covered herself.

Styxx sighed as he saw Ryssa’s angry form in the doorway, glaring daggers at him … thank the gods she didn’t have one in her hand or it’d probably be buried in his chest by now. “Nothing, sweet sister.”

She curled her lips in disgust as she faced her wayward maid. “You were supposed to be fetching me something to drink, Eirene.”

“Forgive me, my lady.”

Now
the maid was meek and bashful? Really?

“Get upstairs!”

“Yes, my lady.” She went down on the floor to retrieve her brooch, giving him a prime view of her shapely ass as she did so.

With one last regal snarl, Ryssa turned and left them. The instant his sister was gone, Eirene looked up from the floor and smiled at him.

“Should you need me, Your Highness, I’m not far away.” Rising up, she pressed her fingers to his lips playfully so that he could smell and taste her.

Completely disinterested in the stench of a whore, Styxx wiped it away as she left him. People, and especially women, never ceased to amaze him.

You should have taken her up on her offer
.

But he had no interest in a communal quim that welcomed any handy cock. His father had probably even tupped her. And that thought immediately softened him. He had no desire to tie himself to a spiteful, crazy bitch like his mother or Ryssa because he was hard for her charms.

He’d sooner take care of his own needs.

Or fuck a goat.

Shaking his head to clear it, he retrieved his cup from the floor and set it on the table. Then he headed for bed. Alone.

As he reached the top of the stairs, he found Ryssa waiting there for him.

“You are to stay away from my maids, do you hear me?”

“Then you should tell your maids to stay away from your brother.”

She slapped him. “They’re servants. They can’t say no to you and you know it. It’s sickening to have you prey on them the minute my back’s turned.”

Styxx wiped at the blood on his lips as his buzz gave way to anger. “What do you want from me, Ryssa?”

I want you dead.

Her unspoken response slapped him harder than her hand had. Her palm had only made his lips bleed. Those furious words cut his heart to the quick and he hated her for making him care about the fact his own sister despised him.

“I want you to stay away from me and my maids. They are good and decent women. Not your own private harem.”

Why can’t you be like Acheron? He would
never
prey on someone else.

He clenched his teeth. What would she say if she knew how many lovers her precious Acheron had taken while Styxx was still as virgin as the day he’d entered this world? And that was even with a god chasing after his virginity, along with every female unrelated to him.

She wouldn’t believe it. For whatever reason, she wanted to hate him and went out of her way to find reasons to fuel her resentment and fury.

All I ever did was try to please you and Mother
. But those days were over. There were some people who couldn’t be pleased no matter how hard he tried and there was nothing he could do about it. He was tired of banging his head against that wall.

His head hurt badly enough. He didn’t need a concussion to go with it.

“Good night, sweet sister. May Morpheus cradle you kindly to his bosom.” Turning, he walked to his room and locked the door lest another of her maids get lost on her way to the kitchen.

His head throbbing, he went to his bed and threw himself across it.

Was there anything more treacherous in this world than a woman, especially when the bitch was conniving?

May 10, 9533 BC

Pacing the floor of his personal temple, Archon cursed as another anniversary passed without their having located his wife Apollymi’s missing brat.

Time was growing critically short.…

If they didn’t find Apostolos and kill him, his “beloved” wife was going to free the little bastard’s powers and the two of them would join together to destroy every single member of his pantheon.

Starting with
him
.

He glared at his sister, Epithymia. The Atlantean goddess of desire had promised him that Apostolos would die. She had been there at his birth and touched him so that anyone who saw him would covet his body. The humans were supposed to have ripped the child apart.

And yet another year had passed and he still lived.

“You have to tell us where he is,” Archon snarled at her.

“It won’t matter. He’s not there.”

“What do you mean?”

“After a few years, I went back and the brat was gone.”

Archon cursed. “How can he hide from all of our collective powers?”

She gave him a droll stare. “You had to marry a primal god.… Remember? None of us can touch Apollymi’s powers. The bitch is potent, which is why
you’re
so afraid of her.”

And once her son came into his majority, it would be the end of everything.

“Your best bet is to keep hammering him with voices and pain. Sooner or later, it’s bound to drive him to suicide.”

“And if he doesn’t?” Archon asked.

“I suggest you learn to swim.” She flashed out of his study.

Archon cursed. They would have to step up their plans. There was no choice. Even if he had to tear the human world apart, he needed that boy’s head on a platter. Sooner rather than later.

August 18, 9533 BC

Styxx stood by his father’s side with his spine ramrod stiff as he did his best to ignore the voices that fought each other for time inside his skull. The loudest was the strident shrew tone he knew best.

Ryssa.

You’re such a spoiled little brat. You repulse me. Standing there like you’re already king. You’re nothing but a worthless bully. I’m surprised you haven’t ordered someone else to take your place to welcome Uncle for his visits.

He slid his gaze to her. She gave him a cold, mocking smile. Whatever. He’d never forgiven her for her reaction to him years ago, anyway.

Against his will, her nasty words replayed in his mind.
“You’re the reason they took my brother from me. Just because you look like him, it doesn’t make you what he is. You could
never
be Acheron. You’re just a poor copy of him. Get out of my sight. You sicken me.”

Love you, too.

Since that day, he’d done his best to comply with her wishes. He only interacted with her when he absolutely had to. But what baffled him most was how she could hate him so when she knew nothing about him. And yet she felt completely entitled to her animosity. To the point she wrapped herself in it like a warm, familiar cloak.

You’re glad Acheron is gone. I know you are. I know you made Father send him away so that you wouldn’t have any competition. You’re such a selfish, ugly beast.
Her most current rant against him.

And there she was definitely wrong. He missed his brother more than words could convey. Unfortunately, given the things he’d felt these years past, he had a bad feeling that the Acheron who existed today was nothing like the memory he held of his beloved brother.

No more than he was the same Styxx he’d been as a boy.

Time changes all things
. And seldom did they change for the better.

Smiling, his father clapped him on the back. “Here he comes.”

With a sick lump in his stomach, Styxx followed his father down the steps to wait while Estes and his unexpected entourage dismounted and moved toward them. Why were so many noblemen with his uncle? In the past, Estes had always come alone with his escort.

Today, he rode with five others as companions.…

After closing the distance between them, Estes pulled Styxx into a tight hug. “Look at you, my precious nephew.” Then he whispered in his ear. “You’ve become even more handsome than your brother.” He squeezed Styxx’s biceps. “Beefier, too.”

Strange how, unlike his vain, vacuous sister, Styxx didn’t feel attractive at all. Whenever someone came on to him, he assumed it had much more to do with his title than his person. An instinct usually fully corroborated by their thoughts.

Even the Olympian who wanted him always called him by his title. Seldom his name.

“Thank you, Uncle. How is my brother?” Styxx whispered, knowing that if his father overheard the question, he’d be furious at him. Any time he asked after Acheron or begged his father to allow his brother to come for a visit, his father beat or insulted him for it.

Estes glanced over to make sure his father was still out of hearing range before he answered. “Extremely well. You should consider coming for a visit. I’d love to have you.”

“Father would never allow me to leave.” At least not for a trip Styxx might actually enjoy. But let it be a trip to Tartarus … the old man couldn’t throw him out fast enough.

“What’s that?” his father asked as he rejoined them. “You’re not trying to steal my heir, are you?”

“I’d take him in a heartbeat if you’d let me.”

“He has too many obligations here at home.”

Like cleaning stables and decorating temples he hated, listening to mewling, petty complaints, and observing his father’s “benevolent” wisdom—which meant oooing and ahhing everything his father did as if the bastard didn’t have enough sycophants already.

“Pity.” Estes turned to Ryssa and scooped her up in his arms.

Styxx frowned as he caught the men with Estes giving him peculiar looks. But then if they’d met Acheron at his uncle’s home in Atlantis, they were probably wondering, as all people did, if Styxx had any godhood in him, too.

The only thing he didn’t miss about having his brother with him was the way people wanted to line them up and inspect them like they were freaks of nature because they matched so perfectly.

Except for their eyes.

And now their external scars, and voices—Styxx’s had never lost the hoarseness from his time spent in the Dionysion. As Ryssa was so quick to point out, he perpetually sounded as if he had a cold.

Uh, don’t speak, and for the sake of the gods, don’t try to sing. Your voice is repellant. You sound like you need to clear your throat.

Releasing Ryssa, Estes stepped back and gestured toward his friends. “Since I’m here to take Styxx for a week…”

Styxx’s scowl deepened as he looked to his father for confirmation. No one had told him this.

His father wouldn’t meet his gaze at all.

“… I thought he’d enjoy a party for it,” Estes continued. “Allow me to present my friends.” He pulled the man closest to him up the stairs for Styxx and his father to greet. “Lord Kastor, whose father is a philosopher in Ithaca. Kastor was sent to Atlantis as a tutor for several prominent sons.” No older than his mid-twenties, Kastor had dark hair and a thin beard with a thick nose.

They exchanged pleasantries.

Estes gestured to the three who stood together. “Also from Greek kingdoms, Lords Noe of Athens…” He appeared to be closer to his father’s age, but extremely unattractive with heavyset jowls and a thick, unkempt black beard. “Leon of Macedonia…” On the unremarkable side, he was tall, red-haired, and very thin, and most likely in his mid-thirties. “Nestor, also an Athenian…” His brown hair curled around a bony face that held an exotic kind of beauty.

Descending the stairs, Estes went to the last man in their group. “And an Atlantean prince who is second cousin to the current queen … Xan.” Perfect in form and face, Xan had the kind of physique Styxx would give anything to possess. He kept working out for it, but so far …

He had a long way to go. His muscles were highly defined, but very lean.

The group bowed before his father and then to him, except for Xan, who met them as equals. He shook hands with his father then turned a friendly smile to Styxx. “I’ve been looking forward to this since Estes invited me. I hear you’re quite the man to ride with, Prince Styxx.”

The unexpected praise made him decidedly uncomfortable. “I don’t know about that, but it’s a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness.”

This should be an enjoyable week with my favorite pastime, and a handsome prince to boot.

Estes was right. He matches Acheron in every way, except Styxx has perfect, beautiful eyes. Fascinating.

I am so glad I changed my mind about coming.…

Styxx shook his head as their silent comments assailed him and then tripped over each other so fast that he could no longer distinguish their individual words, which were a mixture of Greek and Atlantean.

“Gentlemen,” his father said with the full diplomacy of his crown, “please come inside and rest for a bit. I have plenty of libations for your welcome.”

Ryssa led them in.

Styxx pulled his father aside. “Why didn’t you tell me of this?”

Why are you complaining? I wish I could spend a week with my brother and have no responsibilities.

“I didn’t know he was bringing a retinue with him. But I don’t see a problem with it. We both thought you’d enjoy a hunting retreat with your uncle away from the stress of the palace.” His father left him on the stairs as he followed after the others.

Grinding his teeth, Styxx wanted to curse them all. Did no one in his family know the most basic thing about him? How could he share a home every single day with people who knew so little about his personality?