GUARDIAN (Daughters of the Gods, Book 2) (Ebook)

Battle of the Gods – Thessaly

Pain sliced through his side. Lelantos ignored the stinging burn from the razor sharp blade and blocked another forceful blow from his assailant. For ten long years, the war between the Olympian gods and the Titans, Lelantos’ people, had waged. Many of his kind had been slain only to revitalize quickly and be slaughtered all over again. Or worse still, imprisoned in Tartarus, an evil prison which made Hades look like the Elysian Fields. Chills ran down his spine at the thought of being thrown into that endless chasm, filled with his own kind, not to mention other fearful entities, such as cyclops and giants. Fear wasn’t a feeling that sat comfortably with his being a Titan. He was an entity born to kill without remorse and live without regret. He did it every day.
The powerful goddess, with whom he fought, laughed and blocked his counter strike with ease. Lelantos ground his teeth, annoyed that he’d not killed the bitch yet. For a female, his foe was fast, willful and too accomplished in the arts of warfare for her own good. Her arrogance would kill her one day – preferably today and at the end of his sword.
“Come Titan, you’re making your death far too easy.”
Lelantos hated that her words pricked his pride. For him, as a Titan, to die at the hands of a daughter of the Olympian gods would be the worst possible disgrace. No matter that this goddess – from what he could see of her – looked like a nymph from a Grecian pastoral meadow, Her extraordinary skill in combat and her ability to predict his next move was deadly.
They circled each other, each waiting for the other to show their hand. Lelantos blocked a strike aimed to take off his head. She laughed and he used her lack of concentration to mar her arm with his sword. Her eyes widened and he hated the fact that he felt displeasure rumbling in his mind over causing her harm.
“What is an immortal female as beautiful as you doing fighting the Titans? Do you not have better things to do in that dump you call Mount Olympus?”
“Do not underestimate my ability, Titan. It’ll be the last mistake you ever make if you do.”
Lelantos was inwardly taking note of the battle which continued to rage around them. His own kind lay sprawled, dead or dying. Others were being readied for their imprisonment in Tartarus. From the first moment, he’d known this was a war that the Titans couldn’t win. The Olympian forces had outnumbered them ten to one and it was only a matter of time now before he would have to use his unique ability to go unseen and disappear. For survival he would have to live among the humans and start a completely new way of life. Some place Zeus would never find him. Not that that would stop the unforgiving deity forever hunting him down to seek revenge.
“I will ask you again, Titan. Surrender to me and your life shall be spared. Continue to fight and you will die. I promise.”
Anger thrummed through his blood at the fact the gods of Olympus had his life in their fickle hands. That he, Lelantos, an immortal older than Zeus, had been given an ultimatum. She was too beautiful, her dark emerald eyes shone with an unworldly light and her blonde hair cascaded about her shoulders. Dressed in golden armor, most of her features were hidden, and yet Lelantos knew should she remove her face shield, her beauty alone would almost bring him to his knees. All the daughters of the gods of Olympus were beautiful, exquisite beings. It was too bad that he had to hate them.
“I afraid, goddess, that I’m going to have to decline your offer.”
She shrugged and then rolled her shoulders, spreading her stance to prepare for further battle. “So be it.”
Lelantos blocked a blow aimed at his torso and using her follow-through strike, flicked her sword out of her grasp. He pulled her hard against him and held his sword against her neck. This close he could smell her, sweet fruity, intoxicating scent, could feel her heightened breath whisper over his lips, her beating heart in her chest.
His body hardened. It was an age since he’d had a female. The endless war and the fact he could only mate safely with females of divine birth made coupling difficult. That he now had this goddess close to his body, made him yearn to sample the pleasures such beautiful flesh could give him.
“This close, you’re even more beautiful than I’d first thought.”
“Be gone to Tartarus,” she said, the hatred in her voice almost palpable.
He laughed. “One day I shall, but not this day.”
Lelantos took the opportunity her anger afforded him and kissed her lips, the only part of her face uncovered from her armor. He took her lips, holding his sword against her throat as a safety measure should she decide she disliked his touch. She gasped, but didn’t deny him and he moaned when her tongue swooped into his mouth.
Forgetting where they were, Lelantos dropped his sword and hoisted her harder against him. Her body felt almost made to fit his and his knees threatened to buckle when she undulated over his hardness Oh, yes, she was an enemy, her sexuality far more deadly than her sword aim.
Lelantos pulled back and waited for his goddess to open her eyes. When she did, his body roared to take her. Never had the windows to one’s soul seared him and told him so much. They conveyed that she too longed for release. That she longed to be loved no matter what the circumstances. Was it, perhaps, urgency created by the dangers of warfare that made them reach for each other? From enemies to lovers?
There were worse things, Lelantos mused, as he pushed her away and watched as she stumbled to regain her footing.
“Until we meet again, my beautiful goddess.” Lelantos bowed, cloaked himself in invisibility and turned away, unhindered by her shocked features.
“Stay and fight like your fellows, you coward,” she yelled, holding her sword out to fight off an enemy she could no longer see.
Lelantos ignored her words, ignored the fact he had acted the coward to save his own skin. Yet the war with the Olympian gods had some years yet to run. With the divine, and with Zeus in particular, nothing was ever done in haste or without thought. The war would be no different.
One day they would meet again. He was sure of it.