Arcadian Nights (6 page)

“
And you’re the one who
got hurt. It’s unfair.”

In a less harsh tone, she said, “It’s
not your fault.”

“
And what Ares did is not
her fault. He was already angry with you, and she’s never had him
fight her battles for her.”

Aphrodite looked puzzled. “How do you
know that?”

“
What?”

“
How do you know that?”
she repeated more slowly.

He didn’t have an answer for her.
“It’s true. I don’t know how I know it.”

She shook her head. “This keeps
getting more complicated.”

“
Just leave it. I’m going
to handle this myself.”

“
Are you sure?”

“
Yes.”

She sighed. “I’m still mad at her
though. I’m furious at Ares.”

“
I can understand that. I
don’t understand what she said that made you so angry. I admit I
don’t trust what she said either, but why did it make you
angry?”

Aphrodite wouldn’t look at him. He
could tell she was hiding something, but he knew she had her own
reasons. She’d tell him eventually if she wanted to.

“
Okay, you don’t have to
tell me.”

“
It’s not that. It’s
private though.”

“
About Ares?”

“
About me. I’ll tell you
someday.”

Even though she was very good at
acting like she didn’t care what others thought, he knew how
sensitive she could be. “Okay. Do you feel better? I don’t know
what else to do.”

“
It’s fine. I just needed
to blow some steam off.” She looked out the window. “I’ll cool off
eventually.”

“
I know. I’m just
concerned.”

She countered by saying, “And I’m
concerned about you. I will do something if she hurts you. Please
be careful.”

“
Don’t worry. I’m sure she
wants something we don’t know about yet, but she doesn’t want to
hurt me. She’s too smart for that.”

Aphrodite shook her head. “Something’s
happening. I don’t like it.”

Hermes agreed with her, but he wasn’t
about to admit it. He also didn’t want to admit his feelings about
the spell had him confused. He was mad at Eris, but what had she
really done? Her little spell had seemed horrible before, but now
he’d learned to deal with it, it seemed childish. Why should he be
angry over something so petty? Everyone had laughed at first. Maybe
it was funny.

He shook his head. His thoughts kept
taking strange paths, and all of them led him to Eris’ arms. He
needed a plan because he couldn’t keep living like this. The lust
and erotic visions he’d been having had settled into something
else. He found himself worrying about her, defending her, and even
wondering what a relationship with her would be like. He wanted
this spell broken before anything else unexpected
happened.

* * * *

Hermes felt silly, but he also thought
his experiment would pay off in the end. He could have made himself
invisible anytime he wanted, but the only way to make sure Eris had
no idea she was being watched was to use the Helm of Darkness.
Hades had readily leant it to Hermes without question.

Eris sat on her back porch typing on
her laptop. Her two cats had curled up on the chair across from
her. He hadn’t thought to ask if they would be able to sense him,
but if they did he could leave. He didn’t plan to stay too long
anyway.

Eris had always had an inclination for
poetry, one thing that made her very different from her brother.
Hermes knew she’d been published under many names over the
centuries. Her work seemed to change often, as though each century
put her in a different mood. He assumed she was working on more
poetry given the way she was typing a few words, going back, and
pausing so often.

The black cat got up and stretched. He
jumped into her lap and meowed. Hermes expected her to toss him
down or shoo him away, but instead she kissed him on the head and
began stroking his sides.

“
You want attention, baby?
Oh, you’re so spoiled.”

Hermes looked down. He felt as if he
was intruding on a personal moment. He wasn’t though. He was
standing in the woods and watching her sit outside. Anyone who came
near the house could see her. He wasn’t watching her in her bedroom
or anything.

He tried to push that thought away.
Based on Zeus’ comments and some of the jokes Ares sometimes made,
Eris was as much of a force in the bedroom as she was anywhere
else. He liked strong women, but he preferred to be in control when
it came to sex. Aphrodite had certainly enjoyed it, though she had
often commented that he needed to let go of some of that control if
he really wanted to connect with someone. He’d felt at the time
she’d just wanted a fun way to control him, but since then he’d
come to see she’d genuinely been trying to give him some
constructive criticism. He knew what she meant now. It didn’t
matter who was on top so much as that both people were willing to
be on the bottom. Or something like that. He knew she’d meant more
than that, but he couldn’t help thinking of it in terms of sex. And
though he’d never admit it, especially to Aphrodite, he’d spent
several days envisioning Eris on top of him. Something about her
was intriguing him, both sexually and personally.

He’d always had this need for
everything in his life to be logical. She seemed like a puzzle.
Aphrodite was more complex than most believed, but in the end she
wasn’t that hard to understand. Eris seemed like a genuine mystery
to him whereas Aphrodite’s mystery was more illusion and charm than
anything. He felt that he could sleep with Eris for as many months
as he’d slept with Aphrodite and still not understand her. He was
starting to think that was what intrigued him. She didn’t want to
enchant him or anything like that. She’d done this to him because
he’d insulted her. She might sleep with him and discard him or she
might reject him. He still couldn’t be sure. If she slept with him,
it would be something to hold over him. If she rejected him, it
would be just as insulting. He’d started to doubt she wanted
something more. That gave him hope it could all be ended once they
had some kind of confrontation.

He hesitated though. He wasn’t as
suspicious as everyone else, but was he now less suspicious? He was
known for being fair and evenhanded but had the spell changed him?
Aphrodite seemed concerned, even if no one else was. Perhaps
thinking about Eris so often had helped him get past the stigma
that always preceded her. If that were so, he might be seeing her
more for who she really was.

He looked back across the lawn. She
had closed the laptop and leaned back in her chair. Her eyes were
closed, and her hands were still petting her cat, who had propped
himself up on her chest to stare up at her happily. She certainly
seemed more relaxed than anyone might expect the goddess of strife
to be.

He’d said he was going to handle this
himself. Now was the time to prove that. He emerged from the woods
and took off Hades’ helmet. Eris didn’t look up as he walked
closer. When he stepped onto the stones of the patio, she opened
her eyes.

She smiled up at him. “You managed to
stay away far longer than I thought you would.”

“
So I surprised
you?”

She nodded. “I suppose you did. Can I
assume you’re here to make my evening very memorable?”

He cleared his throat. “Can we talk
about this?”

She gestured to an open chair.
“Whatever you want to talk about.”

He sat down, trying to choose his
words carefully. “Do you actually want to have sex with me?” It
didn’t seem the best way to start out, but he needed to know the
answer to know how to proceed.

“
Of course I do. Why would
you think I didn’t?”

“
Maybe you just wanted to
make me suffer. Make me want you then reject me.”

“
Aphrodite says you’re
suffering now.”

“
That word might be a
little strong.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. You
were very angry at first, both at me and at everyone who finds my
little spell so funny.”

“
I was. And I still
am.”

“
So why are you
here?”

“
To talk about
this.”

“
Okay then. Yes, I want
you. It’s no secret. You’re very attractive, if a little stuffy,
and Aphrodite has bragged about your prowess in bed to no end, as
I’m sure you know.”

“
So why not try to seduce
me another way?”

“
You aren’t very
seducible, sweetheart. You pissed me off, and it kind of turned me
on. The idea occurred to me, and it seemed like it might be
fun.”

“
You wouldn’t have cared
if it made me hate you?”

“
Everyone hates me. Why
should you matter?”

Hermes couldn’t tell what she was
actually feeling. Was this how people felt talking to him? “I think
you resent it.”

“
Do you?” She
smiled.

“
Yes, I do. You said you
wanted to make me feel something. Well, I feel sorry for
you.”

Her expression hardened. “Really? So
you wanna fuck me and make it all better? I’ll feel good about
myself once I’ve been bedded by someone as good as you?”

He had not expected that reaction at
all. “No. You put the lust spell on me. I didn’t come here to sleep
with you. Why are you so angry?”

She looked away. “You’re just like
Zeus. He said as long as I was in his bed I could have anything I
wanted and do anything I wanted. That changed after one of my
schemes involved his wife though, didn’t it?”

Hermes held his hands up. “Slow down.
I am not trying to sleep with you, and I am not saying you would
gain anything.”

“
You said you feel sorry
for me. I don’t want a pity fuck, and I will never again sleep with
a man to gain power.”

“
So you’re angry at
Zeus?”

She glared at him. “No.”

“
Then what?” Her anger was
both worrying him and turning him on.

“
You’re reversing things
on me, aren’t you? It always happens. That is what I’m angry about.
Fucking Zeus was fun. It was my choice. I meant you’re like all the
other Olympians.”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
You don’t get it. My
cause must be hopeless.”

“
Tell me what you
mean.”

“
You believe in the work
of the Fates, more so than any other Olympian. You still don’t get
it though. Don’t you see that I have been judged for centuries for
doing the work of the Fates?”

Hermes stared at her for a moment. He
thought he understood, but he wasn’t completely sure. Based on what
she was saying, her mind was going in two or three different
directions, making connections he had a hard time following. “I do
believe the Trojan War was fated to happen, yes. Is that what you
mean?”

“
Keep going,” she said as
she stood up and walked over to him. “What else?”

What else? What was she
talking about?
“I’m not sure I follow you.
We should blame the Fates and not you?”

“
Why blame anyone?” She
stroked his cheek with her finger. “Ares is not blamed for every
war. Some are glorious. Athena is the goddess of heroic endeavor
and strategic warfare. No one thinks she’s evil. She is honored.
Despite the deaths they cause, despite the suffering, so many wars
set men free. Why be angry about them?”

“
I don’t think anyone
cares about the Trojan War anymore.”

She put her hands on the arm of his
chair and leaned into his face. “Then why am I still punished? Do
you know poetry? Do you know what Hesiod said about me?”

He shook his head. Her nearness was
getting to him. His now hard cock ached for her, and he wanted
nothing more than to reach for her and kiss her. But she didn’t
seem to be in the mood for that. She seemed to have forgotten her
spell because she had something to prove.

“
He said I am kind to men,
kinder than other deities. He said I make the lazy men work because
they are jealous. I push men forward in their ambitions because
they want to be better than others. I give them something to do. I
give them purpose. Strife does have its uses. If you never have to
fight for anything, what do you have to live for, to strive
for?”

“
You’re right. I can see
how that’s true.” He found it hard to speak above a whisper. “I
imagine you’re very useful to the Fates.”

“
They promised all the
discord I sow will come to good. No matter how far in the future,
good will come.”

“
You want
that?”

“
Why not? Does anyone
believe Ares wants the world to endlessly be at war?”

Hermes shook his head. “You don’t have
to prove anything to me.”

“
Yes, I do.”

“
Eris, I want you. I can’t
stay here and keep talking like this.”

“
You want me? Then take
me.” She climbed into his lap. She wore nothing under her skirt. “I
can feel how hard you are.”