Blind Fury

Eden needed some supplies and took a trip into town to do some shopping. While she was there, she saw the local slave-traders auctioning off their most recent catch. Immediately, she was flooded with guilt. She realized she’d been so focused on her life with Ares lately, mesmerized with his show of mastery in war and with sex, his power constantly encompassing her, that all thoughts of rescuing her sisters had taken a back seat. When she returned to the temple that day, she informed Ares that she wanted to take a trip overseas.

Ares shrugged. “Where exactly do you want to go? I’ll take you there.”

“No, Ares. This is something I need to do myself. Besides, I’m not sure of where I’ll be going. I’m just playing a hunch. It’s possible that I’ll find nothing at all,” she told him.

“You’re going to look for your sisters, aren’t you?”

She nodded.

“Then let me help you.”

Eden moved closer and wrapped her arms around him. She gently kissed his cheek and smiled. “You’re very sweet to ask, babe, but I want to do this myself. Ever since Julia and Kara were kidnapped, I have dreamed of bringing them back home. And I want to find that slim ball that took them. Now that I have a little experience going for me, I’ve got the confidence to finally do what I should have done a long time ago. I’m ready for whatever comes along.”

Ares kissed her neck and held her even tighter before releasing her and then walked to the window and absently stared out. Eden could tell that he didn’t like the idea of her going off alone.

“Ares, I can take care of myself, you know!”

“I know you can handle yourself, Eden. That’s not what bothers me.”

She moved behind him and nestled her chin on his shoulder, while one arm lazily caressed the small of his back. “Then what is it?” she whispered into his ear.

He turned to face her, his eyes narrowed briefly, fluttering his eyelashes as one corner of his mouth pulled up in a sexy smirk. “I don’t like the idea of being without you. Who’s going to wash my back in the tub? Who’s going to get the bed warm for me?” he teased lightly.

“Oh, you little shit!” She hit him in the arm, acting as if shocked by his words. “I thought you had serious concerns. You’re only concerned about not getting any, huh?”

Ares feigned innocence. “Why, whatever are you implying, my dear?” he said as he dramatically flung his head to one side and rolled his eyes.

“Oh, give it up!” she laughed. “Sex hound!”

Ares snaked his arm around her waist and pulled her tightly against him, his eyes full of wild mischief. He dipped his head and grumbled low in her ear. “Woof, woof,” he said and then quickly stuck his tongue into ear, at the same time guiding her backwards towards the bed.


*************


Eden returned to Greece after three months, unsuccessful in finding out anything that led to her sisters’ whereabouts. She had traveled to Africa and then on to South Africa after hearing about an exotic warlord named Gurkhan who was famous for having many slave girls from other countries. But when she arrived, she learned that Xena had already visited Gurkhan and now he was dead. She had helped the slave women escape, most of which were Asian in decent according to a local, except for one. But she was a relative of Xena’s friend, Gabrielle. Discouraged, Eden decided to go back home.

She arrived at Ares’ temple, happy to be back again and anxious to see her lover. But Ares was out at the time, so she went to the meditation room to see if she could find him. She started her exercise and immediately found the war god in the port at Megara. He was talking to a couple of men getting ready to board a ship. It was a hot day and they were standing in the shade of an awning that hung off the side of a ship. Eden couldn’t see either man’s face.

“So, Mantios, now that Gurkhan is out of the way, you have decided to continue in his footsteps?”

“Manitos! That can’t be…” Eden thought to herself after hearing Ares address the man.

“Yes, Lord Ares, that is the reason for our visit today. We were wondering if we could make the same arrangement with you as Gurkhan had?” he asked.

“You want me to allow you free access to collect more slaves? Well, you do know the price of such a favor, Manitos?”

“Oh, yes, my Lord. We are more than willing to pay it!”

“And you have the troops to do so?”

“Yes, ready and able, Lord.”

“I will consider your request. If I accept your proposal, you will hear from me within two weeks. I’ll expect you to move quickly, so be ready!” he told him, but in all truth, Ares had no intension of striking up a new bargain with Manitos. Not after he had heard about the way the man treated his captives. He had a strong suspicion that Gurkhan hadn’t known either, or Manitos wouldn’t be standing here today.

Manitos kneeled in front of the god, took his hand and kissed it. “Thank you, my Lord.”

Ares disappeared before Manitos had even released his hand. He stood and saometomething to his partner and the two men headed for the boarding ramp to the ship. When they walked out from beneath the shadow, Eden suddenly felt sick. It was him! The same guy that had kidnapped her sisters.

She rushed upon them, but being in her spirit form, she had no effect. The men couldn’t see her; she could do no damage to them. Only a god could see her in spirit form. She rushed back to her body and headed out to the coast in her human form. She arrived and was pleased to find that the ship had not yet set sail.

The boat wasn’t a big one, having only a crew of maybe twenty. Eden easily snuck on board and quickly immobilized the dozen men that were on deck. Manitos was in the galley, in a room with a young girl lying tied to a bed. He obviously was going to rape her until he heard all of the commotion and dressed to go on deck.

Eden swiftly climbed up a mast and waited for more men to come up from the galley. When Manitos arrived on deck, she cried out a warriors howl and swung down on a rope from the pole, hitting him hard. He flew sideways and banged his head on the hard wooden deck, knocking him out cold. Eden stood and fought the remainder of the crew. When she had disabled everyone, she hauled Manitos back down to the galley, found and freed the woman, and tied him up in her place. Then she tossed some cold water on his face to revive him.

“Huh? What in Tartarus . . . Who the hell are you?” he said as he started to come to and noticed Eden hovering over him.

Eden slapped him hard. “Shut up, you slime. I’ll do the questioning, you got that?”

Manitos didn’t respond, obviously aware that he was defenseless.

Eden grabbed him by the shirt collar and shook him. “You got that?” she repeated.

He nodded his head. Eden released him and grabbed a chair from against the wall, placing it beside the bed in front of Manitos. She sat there calmly, with her arms crossed in front of her chest and stared intensively at the bound man.

“Do you know who I am?” she asked finally.

Manitos shook his head. Eden leaned forward closer to him, bringing her face up to his.

“Are you sure? Look again.” She reached behind her head to release her ponytail and allowed her long hair to fall freely.

Manitos looked her over carefully. A bit of desire even showed in his eyes as they traveled along the length of her body. Eden saw it and suddenly punched him, causing his nose to bleed.

“You filthy scum! I should have known that you wouldn’t remember me. You’ve probably had so many of us that you don’t even see our faces. I only wished I knew who you really were back then. I would have taken care of this long ago.”

It suddenly hit Manitos who this warrior woman was. “I know you. You’re that tight little blonde girl who wouldn’t fuck me.” He began to laugh wickedly. “Eden, right? I guess I taught you a lesson for turning me down. Since I couldn’t have you, I had both your sisters instead. Feisty little things, they were. You should have seen them trying to fight me off while I raped them.” He laughed even more as he entertained the memory.

Eden grabbed her dagger and rushed him, bringing the blade to his throat and pressing it against his skin. “You fucker! Where are my sisters? Tell me where you took them?”

“I was taking them back to South Africa, but they didn’t quite make it through the entire trip.”

Eden narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean, they didn’t make the trip?”

“Well after I fucked their tight little cunts and asses, I shoved my cock in one girl’s face, so she could taste how magnificent it is. But the little bitch bit me. After I beat the shit out of her, I tossed her overboard. Your other sister happened to be shackled to the first one. Sorry,” he said snidely.

Eden’s eyes went wildly wide and she backed off of him and started pacing the small room.

Manitos knew he had her frazzled. If he had to be defenseless, he could at least strike her with words.

“So, tell me, Eden, are you as feisty as your sisters? We could have some fun, you and I!” he cruelly teased her. She didn’t dignify him with a response or reaction, but only kept pacing the room.

Finally after a long moment of silence, Manitos asked, “What are you planning on doing with me? Take me to the Greek authorities? They won’t do anything to me, you know.”

Eden turned and stared at him. “And why is that?”

“Because we had the permission of a god to collect slaves to take back to Gurkhan. If you take me in, I’ll call on his favor. And you don’t want to anger this god.”

“Why not?”

“Because he’s the God of War, that’s why. My former employer had a deal with him to provide him with worship and offerings for his temples in exchange for the slaves. As a matter of fact, I just spoke to him about reviving that same arrangement, since my employer has since passed on.”

“And he agreed to this?”

“Not just yet. But he will. He really thrives on that worship shit. It makes his power stronger. So you go right ahead and take me back to Greece. We’ll just see what happens,” he said smartly.

“Yeah, we’ll just see what happens, Manitos,” she replied back, equally as smart.

“And you know what?” he continued, “When I’m released, I’m gonna come looking for you, baby. I’m gonna take what I should have before. I’m gonna fuck you so good and I know you’ll love it. Just like your sisters did.”

Eden rushed up to him again, taking her dagger to his belt and cutting the leather. She spoke calmly to him, although her eyes were full of anger. “Oh yeah? You think your gonna stick that ugly cock of yours in me?” She succeeded in opening his pants and reached in to roughly yank out his limp cock. “I don’t see how you’ll be able to carry out that threat when you won’t have a dick to fuck me with.”

With that said, she pulled his dick up by the head and sliced her dagger across the base, severing the organ completely. Manitos screamed, his eyes widened in horror, so Eden took his severed penis and shoved it into his open mouth and halfway down his throat, nearly choking him. She tore a piece of the sheet and covered his mouth, trapping the bloody cock inside.

She turned and left the room, heading back on deck, and hoisted the anchor so the boat started floating out with the current. When they were about a half-mile from the dock, she rigged some explosives she found in barrels, lit the fuses and jumped ship to swim back to shore. Before she had even made it, the ship exploded in a spectacular blast. She stood and watched until it had completely sunk.


**********


As Eden walked back to the temple, she thought about Ares. When she learned that he was responsible for allowing the men who took her sisters free access to do so, it ripped out a piece of her heart. If he had not made a selfish deal with Gurkhan in first place, her sisters might still be alive.

Eden felt betrayed, once again, by Ares. He knew how badly she wanted to find her sisters, yet he seemed to lead her to believe that he knew nothing that could help her in her quest. Another lie! Another fucking lie!

The anger built up inside of Eden with every step she took towards the temple and it sat distastefully in the pit of her stomach. She was angry with herself, for being a fool and believing the God of War. Angry that he deliberately withheld information about the slavers. Then the anger and pain from all things past, her mother, her son, his lies, it all bubbled to the surface again. All of these things, all of the life-changing events that had happened to her were somehow connected to the god. And what was worse was that he had the power to stop them from happening – if he had only cared a little more about his people and a little less about himself.

She vowed to herself that she would have her revenge one day. She would make Ares pay for treating her life as some little game for his amusement.

She didn’t return to the temple that night, too angry at the time to be able to keep control of her emotions. If she had gone back, she would have confronted him right away, demanding an answer. Then who knew what would happen? Ares could kill her, or send her packing, or probably just tell her more lies. No, she couldn’t change an encounter like that. Not if she was going to have her revenge.

That evening, she spent the night alone on the beach. She cried and cried, releasing all of the pain she had bottled up inside and grieved her sisters. She thought about not returning to Ares at all, but he would only find her in time. The idea of him touching her, loving her, made her sick. She felt so violated. Not even rape could have been this bad. She had opened herself up to the god, given herself, heart, body and soul, and he took her and used her for his pleasure.

She found some comfort in the fact that, one day, she would die and finally be free of him.


*********

In the early hours, just before dawn, while Eden lay sleeping, a young, homeless boy snuck up to where she was camping, looking for food. There was none, but he spotted her sword in the firelight and thought he might be able to sell it.

Just as he wrapped his hand around the handle, Eden grabbed his arm and flung him to the ground on the other side of her. She grabbed her dagger from under the mock pillow she made, and shoved it into the boy’s chest. She pulled it out and stabbed him again, over and over, until her hands and upper body were covered in warm blood.

She stood, glaring down at the writhing, mangled body, not even noticing that he was just a kid, and kicked the body so it rolled over face down. She brushed the hair out of her eyes, ultimately smearing his blood on her cheek and forehead. She felt no remorse, no sorrow, nothing. Well not entirely nothing, she did feel some sense of satisfaction that she wasn’t somebody prey yet again. She’d had enough of that. She extinguished the fire, grabbed her weapon and walked down to the water to wash blood from her hands and face. Then she headed for the temple.