Chapter One

But its too late tonight
To drag the past out into the light
Were one but were not the same
We get to carry each other
Carry each other
One
U2

The Lady Callestah standing in Lord Ares Throne Room rolled her shoulders and stretched her dainty feet by pointing her toes as she lolled her head around. "This is remarkable." She said lightly and with a wide grin but she did not stop stretching and moving. Instead she held her slender arms around in front of her and then stretched them upward toward the ceiling.

"What is my, darling?" Ares asked as he sat on his throne watching her.  The ritual which bound him to her complete and Calla along with her family departed from the island Ares was looking forward to his first night with Callestah.  On the altar he'd refrained from going through with the last step of the ritual, she was, after all, a virgin and he did not want her first time to be under such circumstances. Of course, he wanted her to be fully awake for the event. "Come to me." He held out his big mitt. "Tell what is so amazing."  Along with this night Ares was looking forward to seeing the world anew and through her eyes.

"This body. It’s so new!" She squealed. "It’s painless."

The first few words caused him to smile wider but the last two caused a deep frown. "Are you often in pain?"

"Yes," Callestah replied as she once again rolled her shoulders. "My shoulders, my feet..."  She stopped and reconsidered." Callas shoulders, Callas feet, her back and more, they always ached especially in the cold and damp."

"This is a Mortal trait you should never have lingered in pain." A hot flashed of anger ignited his dark eyes.  "Why didn’t Jackson take care of this?"

Callestah was quick to catch his tone and wanted to defuse him as quickly as possible. "I assure you, my Lord; Daniel did everything possible to make her life and her body comfortable. There is only so much a man can do the damage to her was deep and prolonged." Now she stopped stretching and moving and bending although she knew she would resume again soon and probably would not stop engaging in this activity until the reality finally sunk in. That reality being that she was no longer broken.

With her auburn hair piled high upon her head and then cascading down once more in a thick brain her royal robes flowed around her as she crossed the cave to him with willowy grace and accepted the hand he was still offering she settled at his feet.  "There is no pain now." She smiled brightly. "All is well." Callestah cuddled her cheek against the warmth of his huge hand. Above her Ares let out a loud rush of air and at first she couldn’t tell if it was a sigh or a grunt and before she could decipher its meaning she was being hauled from the ground by his great strength and then settled on his lap.

"You are my Queen and soon to be my Wife, the love of my life, you sit at the feet of no man or God. Certainly not mine. I will build you a throne befitting your beauty and your station until then you will sit here." Ares told her and then kissed her cheek softly. "Your days of servitude are over."

"Are they?"

"Don’t play games with me." He warned lightly. "You know that they are. Now you start living the life you were meant to have."

Callestah settled her head on his shoulder happy to be near him and breathe in his masculine scent. "Did you mean it? Am I really the love of your life?"

Ares arms wrapped around her small frame and this time when he let out a rush of air it was most clearly a deep sigh. "Yes, my love. I have waited a lifetime for you which in my case is quite a while," now he chuckled, "I would wait a thousand more years for you and only you."

"And we will be married?"

"Tonight." Ares returned and felt the exhilaration flow within him. "We are going to Zeus Palace for our evening meal and then he will marry us. I know the ceremony and following gala will not be large," now he pushed her away from his body so that he could look at her. "I wish they were all still here; Hera, Apollo, Hermes, Athena, Artemis, I wish they were here to see this."

"They might be if you hadn’t killed them." She chided playfully. "And you did, didn’t you? With Xerinium I believe." The playfulness seemed to fade from her voice.

"You already know this is true or you would not ask." Ares dark eyes narrowed on her. "If its remorse you’re looking for I have none they deserved it. They stood against you just to punish me."

"And the Xerinium?" The petite Goddess asked and received a hearty grunt in return. "Why didn’t you cure her? Why didn’t you warn Nicholas?"

Ares eyes narrowed even further. "What are you getting at?  Cure who? Calla? Why would you even think that I would be in possession of such a---"

It was Callestahs turn to grunt heavily and she climbed off his lap. "I know you better than any before me or those who will come after. You would not use a poison or any weapon on anyone if you did not know how to counteract it just in case it should be used upon you one day." She accused.

Ares sitting on his throne looked as though he were about to begin yelling at her when suddenly a full smile broke across his handsome face and he left out a laugh which came from the depths of his tight belly and shook the cave walls. You know me too well, my dear, far too well.  After a few moments his laughter stopped and once again he held out his hand to her. Once again she took it and settled upon his lap. "If I had known Calla was ill from Xerinium poisoning before she lay so near death on her hospital bed he added quickly, I would have given her the cure."

"So you do have it."

"Of course and once again, I see in your eyes, you already know this. I think you’ve spent too much time with Jackson. He so loves to ask questions he already knows the answers to."  Placing a large hand under her delicate chin he turned her porcelain face to meet his gaze. I would never have let you die. "As for Nicholas, my beloved Grandson, he sighed with dismay, had I known he was so afflicted I would have cured his as well. If for no other reason than to be assured he did not harm you. He is a young man, a very young man and he should sow much of his seed with as many women as possible and not to be tied down to a wife at his tender age..."

"Ares! Nicolas loves Annie! Why don’t...."

He held up a hand to silence her. "I didn’t say that I do not like Annie, I do, it is just that I believe he is too young for marriage, to be tied to one Mortal woman at his age? Its madness! So when he started fucking everything in sight I did not think of Xerinium but simply of a young mans lust and virility." Sighing one last time to indicate the matter closed Ares changed the subject to one of a happier nature. "About our wedding, my darling..."

"Are you sure about this, Ares? I know you asked for my hand in a moment of..." She faltered before continuing, "weakness."

"Love is not weak."

To his words she smiled but still was amazed and taken aback. "Are you in there somewhere, Ares, Ares?" She cooed and then smiled. 

Although she smiled and her eyes shined at him an icy fist snatched out to grasp his heart. "Have you changed your mind? Do you now find me an unsuitable husband?"

The smile on her face widened as she shook her head and cupped his bearded face in her petite hands. "Never. I too have waited a lifetime for this, my love. I just want to be sure it is what you want. I don’t want ..."her voice trailed off and the smile faded from her lips.

Ares knew the rest of her statement. "You do not wish to find, one day, that I have been unfaithful as Calla did with Jackson."

"I don’t want to suffer her heartbreak. She was devastated by it, she did not show it to him but you know this because she came to you." Callestahs voice cracked with tears as she remembered Calla holding it all in and standing tall in Daniels presence then as soon as he turned his back she would fall apart.  The sadness and all of those horrible feelings of inferiority would overtake her. "Is that selfish? Should I not want you all to myself? Should I keep you free especially when I am so aware of your own virility and prowess? If I were to find you in the bed of another woman or worse yet in our bed with..."

"It will never happen." He assured her with a grin and shake of his head. "Never." Ares asserted. "I’m in love with you, my darling Callestah, you are the only woman I have ever truly loved. I would do anything, anything at all to protect you and see that you never feel pain or heart ache."

"Then I guess our Union is written in the stars and divined by all the Gods". She settled on his lap once more resting her head on his brawny shoulder. "You are the only man I have ever or will ever love."

With a very satisfied deep breath Ares enveloped her in his arms. "I do love you, more than anyone or anything before or after you, I swear this. I would lay down my life to protect you. Now about our wedding," he steered the conversation back to where he originally wanted it." In the days when I was young..."

"And dinosaurs roamed the Earth...."

Ares let her wise comment slide. "And two Gods married there would be a celebration that lasted for seven days; sadly I cannot give you this."

"Nor do I want it." Callestah said cuddling further into his warmth.  "I only want Zeus to say that we are Husband and Wife, nothing more. I need no trappings."

"But you should have them! That was my point. You are a Goddess and more than that you will be my Queen, my Wife, you should have everything to which that entitles you."

"I will have it in you and our children."  In this simple regard she and Calla Jackson were most alike. When they loved they did it with all their heart. They would only truly ever love one man, be it Daniel or Ares, and they would devote their lives to their mates and their children.  "I need nothing more than that."

"Now you sound like her, stop it." Ares demanded. "You are a Goddess, an Olympian and you have every right to be treated as such, perhaps Calla never believed this but I will see to it that you do."  The look of dismay on her face stopped his budding tirade.  "You miss her?"

"Do you?" Callestah returned.

Ares was stunned by the question; why should he miss the little Mortal woman who’d kept him apart from his Queen for so many years?

"Your silence is enough; in fact it’s more than enough given the way you made love to her." Callestah made as if to slither off his lap but Ares caught her and held her firm.

"Do not mistake my silence for compliance," he warned.  Yet he knew that he could not say no to her question she would see right through him if he attempted to lie to her so he did as Calla so often did; he changed the subject. "What do you mean, the way I made love to her?  It was you in my bed". Ares stopped as another thought came to him. "You remember? All of it?"

Against his shoulder she nodded her head. "Now that we have been separated I know everything, all that happened that night while Daniel and David were in the Underworld retrieving who they thought was me. Now she sat up and looked into the eyes of the man who would be her one and only Lover throughout Time. It was Calla in the comfortable lovers’ nest you made on the beach. It was not me, my Lord." The faltering smile on his face told her something she did not know. "You honestly thought she was me? How could you not know?"

Ares was truly puzzled. The idea that it had been Calla in his bed never occurred to him and why should it? Calla was completely in love with Jackson and now that she also had his brother. Why would Calla come to me in such a manner? Although he kept her line of conversation the only thought blaring in his head was an uglier one; Nicholas raped his own Mother.  Until now it had been hard enough to comprehend and then choke down that his beloved Grandson had raped the BODY in which his Mother lived, in some small and ugly way, Ares even took a bit of solace in the idea that it was Callestah Nicholas violated. That was wrong he knew that. It wasn’t that he wanted Callestah hurt but she was not Nicholas Mother and in some small insignificant way that somehow made it better or easier to take. Had Nicholas known it was his Mother or had even he believed her to be Callestah?

It was wrong no matter how you sliced it but to know that it was the Mortal woman who made love with his so sweetly so passionately and then was violated so brutally by a man who just could not understand... who could not see…could not…

She was violated by her OWN SON

As much as Ares tried to not think it the nasty thought shouted itself to him anyway.

It was too much to ask of Calla. Since he didn’t have the power to change the past Ares knew his only hope was to change her future. Calla wanted him to do that with Jackson and he tried, for her sake he did give it a shot but in the end his hatred for Daniel won out and his attempt at taking the memories of all those women from Daniel’s mind failed. This time he could allow such a luxury. He could not take such a chance that she would remember. Although saddened by the knowledge that she also did not remember their lovemaking Ares knew he’d made the right decision in giving her the pills. She should never know what Nicholas did and if that meant not remembering him then he considered it an even trade. After all, the idea of him ever doing the same to his own Mother, to Hera (who would have struck him down dead instantly for even thinking it) made Ares skin crawl. The boy could not be trusted and he should have demanded that Nicholas stay here on the island and then leave this world with them. It was wrong to let him go back to Colorado where anything might happen.  If Nicholas had stayed here, would Ares then have to worry about Callestah? What might the boy do to her?  He wished he could find a way to make her forget what Nicholas had done for she must have some affection for the boy, didn’t she?

Callestah hesitated to answer him but did not wish to start their new life together with a lie. "Because she loves you as I do. I only hope that tonight I can please you as well as she did. In time, I will learn all of the ways in which you desire to be satisfied most."

Once again Ares was surprised by her words.  Calla had been delightful in his bed her kisses sweet as she moaned and cooed and…she was everything he thought she would be, everything he wanted her to be, and so much more. The memory of it made him hard as Callestah said on his lap. She moved her body to be away from the huge stiffness forming between his legs.  The movement was obvious and so was the fear in her eyes though she was trying to hide it from him. Callestah, in her brand new body, was technically a virgin a fact that he was ever-mindful of and would continue to be later tonight but for her to worry about such things bothered him. For her to move away from him because of his growing hard-on was even more worrisome. "Don’t you know that I love you and that nothing you do will ever displease me? Soon you will be my Wife, my Queen and my only Lover, the only one I have even actually desired in some time..."

"Don’t lie to me, "she chastised quickly.  "You’ve surrounded yourself with beautiful desirable women all of your life, my Lord, just as Eros and Zeus and Kan ..." she stopped the name catching her slender throat and her voice cracking his name. "As Kanan did."  She forced the words through her lips.  "I will learn, I promise, I will learn all of the ways in which you are pleasured most and I will be the best"

"Stop." Ares said shaking his head. "These doubts, these words they hurt my heart.  Don’t you believe me? You ARE the only woman I will ever love until the end of Time.  Tonight when I pledge myself to you I will mean exactly that; to YOU and YOU alone forever, Callestah. Our love making will be glorious but if you are not ready if you doubt my sincerity..."  Ares led as the cracking of her voice repeated over and over in his mind. "Then we will wait until you are ready and until you believe me. I will do anything you wish to prove this to you."

"Your women?"

The few remaining women in his harem were not present at the moment; Zeus took them to his island so that they could prepare the meal for the festivities tonight. "I will leave them behind when we leave this world if they so bother you."

"No," she smiled wanly, "They stroke your ego as well as your libido. I know how much you adore them and how important they are to you." Indeed he had surrounded himself with several dozen beautiful women throughout the course of her life. What he would be without them she wondered.

Ares let out a mild snort and a grin. She was right but that didn’t matter. "No where near as much as I adore you."  Ares kissed her hand.  "I never want you to doubt my love or my fidelity." With his free hand he brushed the wisps of auburn hair away from her face.
This old wolf is ready to settle down and to mate for life. You know I never settle for less than the absolute best. What took you so long?"

Callestah smiled wide and nuzzled her head in the space between his neck and shoulder. "I love you." The beard on his chin was soft and warm, the thick hair tumbling down from the top of his head smelled sweet; almonds and honey. The gentle scent mixed with his musky one to make her head tingle and her lungs want to breathe deeper.

"And I you."

Wrapping her arms around his thick neck she felt Ares give a small start and removed her hands. "Does it hurt much?"

"What?" He asked nonchalantly.

"Where Zeus took from you." Hesitantly she traced her slender fingertips over the back of his neck.

"No." Ares returned with a smile and held her tighter. "There is nothing I would not do for you. Anything you want, anything you desire, no matter how small, you’ve only to tell me and I will attain it for you."  The muscles there did ache and it did throb a bit but it was such a tiny price to pay for Eternal Bliss he did not mind in the least.  However, the price to her was high and he worried about that as he did so many other things.  While it was very good to know that he would never have to worry about her fidelity he remembered Calla and her desire to touch and be touched all too well. They took that most basic of desires and needs away from Callestah as a child and returned to Calla as an adult now it was gone again.  For now he would content himself with the idea that he would touch, kiss, caress and hold her enough to fill her and keep her happy. Another thought came to him. "You know everything she does? She knows everything you do?"

Callestah thought about it for a moment. "Yes, "she replied finally, "but our experiences are different."  It was very strange to be here like this unencumbered by the woman who shielded her so long with nothing to stand between Callestah and the rest of the world she would have to get used to this sensation but undoubtedly it would take some time.  "While I can tell you everything she’s been through I can’t tell you how it felt only that I saw and I heard the same is true for her I suppose though she spent more time in the fore than I did."

"Why?"

This time she did not hesitate to answer him. "Calla was stronger than me and because I did not know what to do or how to react yet she did and because I allowed her to." Callestah admitted. "Because I was too weak and afraid to face that which Eros and Kanan had done and continued to do. Being brought up a Goddess it was difficult for me to learn to serve him."

"An Olympian woman should never serve a Mortal man even if he was a long lost descendant of the Gods." It was his fault she'd ever been put in that position one day she would come to him and she would demand to know why.  What would he tell her? What reason he would give? Other than his own rage and then Eros, he could blame Eros for it all except for taking her to him in the first place.

“And so I did not.” She countered sadly. “You would have been proud of her, Ares. Very proud. She is…tenacious.” Callestah turned on his lap to look him in the eye with her brow furrowed. “No matter what he did, no matter how cruel and sadistic he became he never broke her. Not once.” Now she felt the sting of tears in her eyes. Callestah did not allow them to overflow. She’d learned much from Calla.  “She bent and then he would bend her more and then more but he did not break her.  It was amazing the ways she would bend to twist into whatever he wanted no matter how repulsive. Still he could not really touch her could not break that inner spirit and she remained defiant of him in whatever ways she could whenever she could. How angry it made him to know this.”

Without realizing it Ares held up a large hand to silence her not wanting to hear anything further about her or Calla’s time with Kanan.  He was already proud of her beyond words.  Few women, Mortal or not, could endure all of that and not break. It was all his fault and one day she would make him answer for it but he wasn’t ready for that and there was something of a more immediate nature on his mind. "Last summer. You remember this?"

"I know all of it and felt none of it."

He had to know before they went any further he just had to. For once in his life Lord Ares asked a question he already knew the answer to. "Do you fear me?"

She sighed deeply the air catching her throat as she forced it out of her lungs. "Perhaps I am a bit apprehensive, my Lord."

 "Never fear me." Ares told her shaking his head. "You are the one person who never showed the slightest bit of fear around me don’t start now. Promise me this." Callestah nodded her head in response. Ares wasn’t satisfied with her reaction but it would have to suffice for the time being. Yes, there was much to discuss between them. "Now, what shall we do until they are ready for us?" Ares pushed her away slightly so that he could look up her delicate face. "Are you tired my love?  Will you lie down with me and rest a while?"

The idea both intrigued her and made her heart beat with a tinge of what Ares feared most; fear. "Walk with me?" She countered lightly. "The night is clear the stars are shining."

Before she could say any more Ares was rising with her on his lap and he settled her on her feet. "Whatever you desire, my Lady." Holding his arm out for her Callestah took it looping her own through the crag between his elbow and waist. Ares big hand closed over hers. "It is a bit chilly out there, would you like this?" In his free hand appeared a long gray wool cloak. It was embroidered with gold thread about the edges and across the back was the crest of her family.

"That’s mine, "Callestah said with hushed surprise.

"Yes, you used to wear this when you were a girl." Ares stepped back and away from her so that he could place that item about her delicate shoulders. "I see you are not much bigger now." Though he meant it lightly she turned her eyes away and bit down on her lower lip as Calla so often did. Ares did not need a psychic to tell him what she was thinking. "I will always be your Father just as, once we are married, I will always be your Husband. There is no shame in this." Reaching down he tilted her head to look up at him. "None. Not here. Out there perhaps there is much but not here. Here there is only Love and it is never wrong."

Looking up to see the concern on his ruggedly handsome face and the love that he spoke so freely of shining brightly in his eyes Callestah smiled as she slid her hands through the slits on each side and once more took his brawny arm. He was right and her heart told her that much, she feared and delighted in the idea that she was going to discover he had been right about much over the years. Much that Calla outright refused to look or even discuss.  "Shall we?"

Although the night was slightly chilly, Callestah kicked off her golden jeweled sandals as they walked the beach so she could feel the cooling sand on the soles of her feet for the first time in more years than she cared to remember. She giggled as it squished between her toes covering them with warm softness.

 To Ares delight as they walked, arm in arm, along the beach the night was just as she had described it to him; the stars were twinkling and the moon half full their silvery light danced upon the waves making everything within sight shimmer and shine with a magickal glow.  Resting her head against his arm she never thought shed ever be this happy or excited.  Suddenly in front of her appeared a small bunch of delicate white flowers.

"For you." Ares said and smiled when she looked up at him taking the delicate bundle of Narcissus from his hand. 

Holding them to her glowing face and breathing deeply of their light scent she shined with an inner light. Soon he would see her with another bouquet of flowers in her hands and it would be bigger and grander than the few she was holding now but still, in this moment, she was perfect. The moonlight danced off of her auburn hair and the stars glittered on the dark water behind her.  He wanted everything about this night to be perfect from the ceremony to the party and to the remainder of the night to come. There should be more people more dancing more singing more...  "Do you want me to have Calla and her family to come to the wedding?"

"No," there was no hesitation nor ill will in her voice. Raising her eyes from the lovely flowers in her hands to his face she added, "This would not be fair to her."  No it certainly would not. If asked by her Father Calla would come and she would sit and smile and drink and dance and wish them all the best of everything. On the outside she would be the picture perfect Daughter wishing her Father and his new Wife every happiness there was in the world. Inside she would be screaming.  "Why would you want Daniel here?"

"I don’t," he said quickly, "I thought that perhaps you might."

There was no mistaking the implication in his deep voice. "Really?" She asked with a coy smile. "You think I have deep feelings for Daniel?"

"You’ve spent much time with him." Ares reasoned.

"Indeed I have come to know him very well. I have come to understand him. To respect him and yes even to love him. I would be hard pressed to ever stand against him." She said with a slow shake of her head as she held Ares gaze. It was clear in his eyes he was bracing himself for her next few words. She said them with a warm smile and a light heart. "I am not in love with him or his brother," she added swiftly. "There is only you I'm afraid. But if I’m not all you desire this way," she said softly, "I am strong, Ares, in this body I am strong. Watch." She stepped back from him and held her hands out at her sides. Closing her eyes she started to lower her hands almost as though she were pushing down on something below her. The more she pushed the taller she grew. "I have some of my Brothers Gifts. When he died, when Jackson killed him, part of Eros found his way into me and heightened my ability. Calla always hated doing this she thought she should not change her appearance that it was deceitful and a terrible lie. I tried to remind her that sometimes, before they Bound me, I would do this in the woods and sneak up on you. Do you remember?"

The long ago memories the ones he’d forgotten that he’d ever even known them came flooding back. As a child she did have a minor ability to shape-shift, other than her token the cat she could make herself a bit taller or broader but never younger or older. Only the aesthetics changed; hair color and length or her eye color.

"What do you think?  Does this please you more? I am taller. "She smiled sweetly.

Yes she was taller and a little broader someone else say that now she looked more his equal.  Ares did not to bend his neck to look her in the eye and she did not have to crane hers upward at such an ungodly angle.  "Ask me again later," there could be definite advantages to that extra added height later tonight. "Right now, no it does not please me to see you this way.  I love you, short or tall, I love you."

Suddenly she remembered a snowy night in a cabin just after Christmas. It was the one time Calla had done that trick and shed turned herself into Rowan MacNeill to see if Daniel liked her better that way but.  "You have more in common with Jackson than you will ever admit."

"I have what?" Before his eyes she shrank closer to the ground and inward until she was herself again.

"Dance with me?" Callestah asked softly and stopped walking to gaze up at him.

"Dance? Me?" Ares asked.  The last time he danced had been at Calla and Jackson’s wedding.  "After our ceremony we will dance the entire night away."

"Practice?" She prodded with a sly grin as she tested the bounds of his love for her ever so gently. "You wouldn’t want to be embarrassed in front of Zeus and Poseidon, would you?" 

Ares just stood there his massive brawny bulk gazing down at her and gauging her closely and then a wide smile broke out on his face.  "You’re good."

"I am." She purred while holding her hands out to him.

Ares took the small bundle of flowers back and then one by one he placed them in her hair. Dancing with her would be much easier if she stayed in that taller state but good things came in small packages and she was certainly one of the best things ever to grace this planet. Smiling tendering and taking her slender hands in his big mitts and bringing her in close they danced on the sand to music only they could hear.  Her hands in his and her head almost buried in his abdomen just above his belly button Ares felt a peaceful warmth which was previously completely unknown to him it quietly and completely invaded his body while they danced. Ares opened his eyes to look upon her and gauge her reactions to this. "I see you are very happy."

"How can you tell?" Callestah, her emerald eyes closed as she took in the same warmth and peacefulness of the moment, asked as the corners of her mouth turned upward.

"I just know." He pulled her in closer while he gazed at the calla lilies springing up in the sand at her feet.

End Chapter One Of True Colors: Ares & Callestah A Love Story
By Moon Mistress
Continue to
Chapter Two