Chapter 8

Fear and anger dumped adrenaline through Zia"s veins. She punched her fists into Ares"s ribs before driving her palm into his sternum. He pulled his mouth from her neck and tossed her. Zia twisted mid-air and landed on the polished floor of the foyer on her feet like a cat.

She grabbed the vase of flowers and threw it at him. Ares blocked it with his forearms, and the porcelain shattered, sending flowers and water everywhere.

"Fuck you, Ares!" Zia snarled, bringing her hands up in a defensive stance. "You want to kill me? Let"s make it a fair fight. I have to admit, you were my favorite murder attempt so far with the illusions."

"I wasn"t trying to kill you. I was trying to get you to leave for your own safety." Ares stalked toward her, and she shifted, keeping the polished round table between them. "But now I"m reassessing whether to kill you after all."

"Come at me. I can handle you."

"I very much doubt that." Ares"s smile was streaked in her blood. He licked the scarlet from his lips, and his eyes widened. "Your blood… You"re not a fucking Volso. You don"t have a drop of Corven"s blood. Who the fuck are you?"

Oh, shitty fuck damn. Zia didn"t lower her guard. "No shit. I"m adopted. Corven knows and doesn"t care."

"Maybe not, but the other siblings will. No way in fuck will they let someone who doesn"t even have his blood rule the family."

Zia smirked. "Maybe. But maybe they will be more upset when they learn that their brother, Ares, has magic. How many times have you glamored them to get your own way?"

Ares launched himself across the table in one powerful move and tackled her to the shiny floor. They tumbled, and Zia lashed out at his neck and face.

He hissed, and she brought her knees up and kicked off his chest, breaking free from his hold and sending him careening back onto the table. It broke under his weight, but he was on his feet in a blink. She blocked his kick before aiming one of her own at his knee. He turned at the last second and absorbed the blow with his thigh.

Zia tried to block his return strike but wasn"t watching his other hand. She hit the wall, his hand around her throat, pinning her in place. They were both sweating and panting. One of her singlet straps was torn in two and his neck was scratched up from her nails. Her heart was beating too fast, and his huge body was radiating heat and rage.

"I fucking hate you and your stupid fucking ponytail," he snarled in her face.

Lie, her magic tickled her. He looked like the raging war god he was named after. His perfectly ordered appearance was disheveled to hell, and he"d never looked so fucking gorgeous.

It made Zia hate him even more. She beamed at him because she was choosing violence.

"Good. I"m glad you hate me. I hope I haunt your fucking nightmares. I hope you stay awake at night thinking about the backwards village girl who knows about your magic. So much time teaching yourself in secret and hiding it, and all for nothing."

His grip tightened. "How do you know that?"

"I saw it when I tore your shitty illusions apart. Maybe you didn"t read about it in your books, but an adept magic user can learn your training origins within your power." And just because he looked genuinely shocked, she added, "You dumbass."

Ares roared and bit her again. Zia lashed out at his chest, ripping his silk shirt. Her fangs were in him before she could think about it. Ares snarled, his mouth pulling free from her.

Gods, he tasted so good, like spice and sin and fuck so much power. Zia realized he wasn"t moving or fighting her, and she let him go. He had her caged in, his forearms resting on the wall on either side of her.

"How… How do you feel about hate sex?" she panted because the blood had made her insane. Ares"s green eyes went black, and her pussy clenched. Oh, fuck, she really was going to die.

"I"m good with it," he said, and his mouth crashed down on hers.

Zia startled in surprise before her lips parted and his tongue swept inside her mouth. She could taste blood and bergamot, her senses flooding with the heated scent of his skin.

Ares"s hand gripped her hips to him, and he ground his already hard dick against her pussy. A sound she wasn"t proud of came out of her. He was a big guy, and she was going to have a hell of a good time getting him inside of her. Ares dragged off her sleep shorts and dropped to his knees.

"I bet your pussy tastes even better than your blood," he said, looking up at her.

Zia smirked because she enjoyed seeing him on his knees before her. "Only one way to find out, isn"t there? My clit isn"t going to lick itself."

Ares"s expression darkened, and he buried his face into her lace covered pussy. Zia grabbed his head to keep herself from tipping sideways. There was the feel of fangs against her, and Ares tore the crotch of her panties in half with his teeth.

"Sweet black Jesus," she whimpered.

Ares chuckled. "Wrong god." And then his tongue was on her clit, and she was rising on her tiptoes as her soul tried to leave her body.

"You do taste good everywhere," Ares growled against her, grabbed her hip with one hand and held her to him. He must have had the ability to breathe through his ears, because Zia didn"t think he came up once for a breath. Not that she was about to complain.

Her hands buried in his silky dark hair, desperately needing to hang onto something as he ate her like a starving man. Ares"s mouth and tongue and fangs were edging her towards her first real orgasm in months. He slid a long finger inside of her and she bit down a cry.

"Fuck, you are so hot and wet, Zia," he said, voice as unsteady as she felt. Her head went back, hitting against the wall, and her veins burned with lightning.

"Oh, shit, Ares," she gasped, and her body was coming before she could get another word out. Ares took the opportunity to suck hard on her clit, and she shook hard against him. Her legs gave out, and he caught her, lowering her onto her hands and knees.

His hands gripped the back of her singlet and tore it in half. His hands stroked over her shoulders before hitting the scar tissue and freezing. Fuuuccckkk. Zia usually kept a shirt on during sex for this exact reason.

"Who?" Ares said, his hand not moving from the pebbled skin.

Zia"s mouth went dry, but she said, "Stupid dhampir kid called Paulo Anastides in my foster home. Couldn"t control his appetite. My childhood wasn"t as privileged as yours. Look, if it grosses you out, I"m happy to go back to my apartment, and we can forget?—"

"Stop. Talking," he snarled. He moved his hand from the scars, and his warm lips replaced them. He kissed over the horrible fang marks and mounds of scars. Zia"s whole body went liquid, and something burned hot in her chest.

"You"re not going anywhere until I"m done with you," he whispered in her ear.

"Ah, I think you will find you"re the one not going anywhere until I"m done with you," Zia pointed out.

"Keep running that mouth, and I"ll fuck you in the ass while I"m at it."

Zia laughed. "You"re making a lot of assumptions about what a girl is into there, pal."

"Fuck me, you just don"t stop," he muttered and pulled off his shirt.

Zia looked over her shoulder and caught a delicious sight of a chest covered in tattoos and raised scars. "Yeah, my childhood wasn"t as privileged as you imagine."

Ares wrapped her ponytail around his hand and gave it a pull. She gasped, exposing her throat to him. He ran his teeth down the tender column of her neck, and she bit her lip.

"Look at that, I finally found a good use for this fucking ponytail," he said and rubbed his dick against her pussy, making her squirm. "Wriggle all you want. You"re not getting away. You had your chance."

Zia knew she probably shouldn"t be so turned on by that thought, but goddamn it, she was loving hate sex.

Ares thrust the head of his dick into her, and she was suddenly thanking all the goddesses that dhampir couldn"t contract STDS. His dick felt incredible as it stretched her pussy with each inch he got into her.

Ares was swearing under his breath, and Zia took the opportunity to shove herself backward, taking him all the way to his hilt in one quick move. Ares gasped, gripping her hip hard.

"Stop playing with your food and fuck me already," she mocked. It was a lot of bravado for a girl who had his dick so deep in her, she could almost feel it in the back of her throat.

Ares"s hand fastened around the back of her neck and pinned her to the polished floor. Zia laughed because he was just too easy to stir up. The smile slipped right from her lips as he began to pound into her. He was merciless and every part of her loved it.

She tried to stop herself from sliding as Ares fucked her into the floor. He was going to break her, and she wanted him to. She looked over her shoulder at his lean, tattooed muscles shining with sweat, his dark hair damp and hanging in his eyes. Fucking magnificent.

"Think I finally found a way to shut you up," he panted. Zia opened her mouth to sass him, and he stuck two fingers in it. "No, don"t ruin it."

Zia"s fangs scraped over his fingers, and his blood soaked her tongue. Her eyes rolled in the back of her head, and she came in an agonized scream around his fingers, her pussy clenching him so hard it was like she was trying to suck his soul out through his dick.

"Fucking hell," Ares whispered. He quickly removed his fingers. "Catch your breath. I"m not done."

Zia took a shaky inhale, and he flipped her on her back, spread her legs, and fucked back into her.

Ares"s hands were on either side of her head, his viciously beautiful face hovering above hers. Zia grabbed his forearms, her nails digging into him, silently issuing a challenge.

Ares laughed, his face softening in a way that took her breath away. She let go of his forearm and grabbed his neck, pulling him down so she could kiss that smile right off his face. Zia was a collector of rare and beautiful things, and she wanted to keep it forever.

Ares"s tongue fucked into her mouth, and he plunged into her relentlessly for another minute before he was coming hard with her name on his lips.

"Fuck," Zia panted, her brain turned to mush. "Hate sex. Great idea."

Ares"s expression shuttered, and he lifted off her abruptly. He pulled up his pants and did up his zipper. "I"m glad you liked it, because it"s not going to happen again."

This fucking guy. Zia lifted up onto her elbows. "And who said I wanted it to?"

Ares had the balls to smirk as he looked down at her, still leaking his come. "Your pussy says a lot you don"t."

Truth. Goddamn it.

"Well take a good look, Volso, because you"re not going to ever have a taste of her again."

Ares laughed and tossed his shirt at her. Zia pulled it on and got to unsteady feet.

"You better be off before you make a mess all over the floor. And Zia? Stay the fuck out of my apartment."

Zia only scoffed at him and made for her own apartment, fuming with anger all over again.

"Enjoy what I did to your filing cabinet, asshole," she shot over her shoulder at him, before slamming the door in his furious face.

Zia headed for the shower and tried to make sense of what just happened. She looked at herself in the mirror. She looked completely ruined. "Fuck, really? The one that"s a raging dick? That"s the one you choose to break your dry spell?What did you have to go and do that for?"Her slutty, spent reflection didn"t look apologetic.

The real question that would haunt her later was, why the fuck did she want to do it again?