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  Love And War

  The Gods of DC Series Book Two

  Tricia Andersen

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Love and War (The Gods of DC Series One)

  Copyright © 2018 Tricia Andersen

  ISBN: 9781790356461

  Edited by Renee Waring, Guardian Proofreading Services

  Cover design by Tricia Andersen

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  To Cat, Jess, Jason, Bubba, Josh and Troy, since you guys are on my mind a lot this time of year.

  And to the lovely ladies of Romance with the Writers at

  M & M Bookstore.

  Special thanks to Mindy Upton at Wild Truth Design Co. for letting me use her Mad Lib. Find her Mad Libs at www.wildtruthdesignco.com

  Chapter One

  The mountains of paperwork were starting to remind her of home.

  Athena stared at the piles as she heaved out a sigh. When did some mere mortal decide that battle should be reports, statistics and forms to be filed in triplicate? Shouldn’t they have clued the goddess of war in on this one? Recreating Olympus on her desk wasn’t her idea of a productive afternoon.

  She nudged her dress skirt up to her hip then slipped her favorite blade from the leather sheath strapped around her thigh. She balanced the knife between her index fingers as she pondered.

  All of this? All her misery? It was her half-brother’s fault. Ares was so busy playing house with his vampire-turned-nymph lover, Juliet, that he failed to fuel hatred and aggression between warring factions. There were a few talking peace. She couldn’t very well incite her favorite generals into battle plans if there was no war to fight.

  So instead of war, she was writing reports. She hated reports with the passion of a thousand burning suns.

  She slumped back in her office chair as she gazed at the silver glint of the blade. If the fact that she was the most bored she’d ever been in the infinity she’d walked this planet wasn’t bad enough, she now had a houseguest.

  She could thank her asshole brother for that too. Well, him and the naked ring girl Juliet found him lip locked with in his office. The poor nymph arrived on the doorstep of Athena’s loft in tears blubbering the news.

  Athena was the one who saved Juliet moments before she was incinerated by the sunrise. Athena was the one who’d defied her father, Zeus’s, orders to kill Juliet and changed her into a nymph just like Ares wanted.

  And it was Athena who promised to kick Ares’s ass if he hurt her. After a night of take out Chinese food and pints of expensive ice cream, Athena left a sleeping Juliet to go have it out with her sibling. She took a moment to sense Ares then took off on the warpath. He was at his temple, which doubled as his fight club. Maybe once Athena was done with him she could teach a lesson to the little slut involved with this mess.

  Freddy, Ares’s high priest and club manager, met her in the doorway of the club. He escorted her inside personally and offered her a shot or two of her favorite rum.

  She smiled. She’d always liked Freddy. She should have snapped up his family before Ares did. Had she known he was going to be born she certainly would have.

  Freddy calmly explained what happened before Athena could demand Ares’s whereabouts. The ring girl and a waitress had plotted the whole thing. They seemed to be angry that Ares was off the market. The ring girl had forced herself on Ares when she got the signal from the waitress that Juliet was coming.

  Ares wanted to destroy both of them. Freddy had never seen the god so furious in all his life. Freddy was able to talk Ares down to just firing them. Killing them would risk revealing who Ares really was and the modern world wasn’t ready for that.

  Since then, the god of war ghosted to where he was now so he could be left alone.

  Athena searched Freddy’s mind and heart for the truth. She was a goddess. She could do that. By the little grin he gave her, she could guess he knew she was doing just that.

  Every word he spoke to her was true. There wasn’t the hint of deceit even when Freddy confessed that he had no idea where his boss was.

  Athena hoped Ares would be pissed enough to create some kind of chaos. She would if she were set up like that, by someone she thought she trusted.

  Nope. Nothing. Her brother must have been sulking in his cave instead, or lord knows where. He wasn’t at the club or at her place making things right with his lover.

  Athena went home to an inconsolable Juliet and explained. She thought the nymph would be relieved by the news and get the hell out of her apartment so she could have some peace. Instead Juliet vomited all over her new, very expensive, maize corn colored rug.

  Juliet’s condition didn’t change over the next few days. She was tired. She was irritable, and she couldn’t keep anything down. It baffled Juliet. Nymphs didn’t get sick. They were immortal. Was Athena’s work to change Juliet from a vampire unraveling?

  It took a particularly nasty text from Athena’s step-mother, Hera, for the light bulb to go off in her head. Cursing out the goddess of home and hearth made her think briefly about family and how fucked up hers was. She hurried off to the drugstore to confirm her suspicions. How was her brother going to handle this news?

  “Penny for your thoughts?”

  The voice startled Athena. She jumped, accidentally flinging the knife into the nearest wall as she tried to steady herself in her chair.

  She glared at Ares as he gave her an impish smile.

  Athena glanced past him, out the door of her office. Those under her bustled around completely oblivious of her new visitor. She scowled at him as she willed the door shut with a bang.

  “What the hell are you doing?” she demanded.

  “Can’t I visit my favorite half-sister?” he countered.

  “You haven’t before.” Her eyes raked over his slacks, suit coat, and linen shirt with the top two buttons undone. “Thanks for not dressing like a slob like you usually do.”

  “It’s not for you.”

  “Picking up another waitress, huh?”

  Ares glared at her. “Don’t. Freddy already told me that he explained everything to you. I didn’t want her to kiss me. She’s fucking lucky I didn’t snuff her pathetic life out right there.”

  “Such a charmer, Ares.” Athena snapped her fingers to summon her knife to her. It wiggled a couple of times before it was freed and flew through the air into her hand. She tucked it away in its sheath.

  Ares plucked at a couple of pieces of lint on his jacket then smoothed the fabric. The god of war actually looked anxious. “How is Juliet? Is she okay?”

  Athena cocked her head at him. “Is that who you’re dressed up for? I told you if you hurt her that I’d kick your ass.”

  “I’m here to bring her home.”

  “Good luck with that.”

  “She’s mine, Athena.”

  “She’s a strong-willed nymph. She’s going to tell you to fuck off.”

  “Not with a dozen roses and this.” He slipped a box out of the inside pocket of his coat and opened it.

  The beautiful heart shaped stone pendant on a chain twinkled with a mystical light.

  “You should give her a ring,” Athena muttered as she studied the necklace.

  “What the hell do
you mean?” he questioned.

  Athena shook her head. “It’s not my place, Ares.”

  Ares set the box on her desk then sat back in his chair. “No, Athena. You opened the can of worms. Spill. What is going on with Juliet?”

  Athena sighed as she mimicked her half-brother. “She came to me in tears. After I talked to Freddy, I told her the truth. How did she respond? She threw up all over my rug. Ever since all she does is vomit, sleep, and complain about being achy.”

  Ares eyes widened in alarm. “Whatever you did to change her from a vampire to a nymph is failing.”

  Athena wagged a finger at him. “I thought that at first, but no. There is a perfectly reasonable explanation.”

  Ares just stared at her, his brow creased in confusion. Athena shook her head again and continued. “Come on, bro. Put the puzzle pieces together. It’s not that hard.”

  “Athena, I’m not in the mood for games. Just spit it out.”

  “You’re going to be a daddy. Again. Try not to fuck this one up like you did the others, okay?”

  Ares gaped at her, his mouth dropping open at her news. She watched his jaw as he concentrated on closing it, only for it to fall back again. “Are you certain?”

  “She’s peed on a stick. It came back positive. We haven’t gone from there.”

  “Huh.”

  Athena leaned over her desk towards him. “Ares, she is still my nymph. If you hurt her or that baby physically, or break her heart, I will rip you apart.”

  He sat forward in his chair until he nearly met her nose to nose. “Athena, I have never loved anyone like I love Juliet. I wanted to get her pregnant while she was still a vampire, but she didn’t want to curse our child. Now to find out she is carrying my baby, I’m torn between stealing her away to a high-priced hotel room to celebrate or just taking her home and kissing her lips and her belly until my mouth is numb.”

  Athena skewed her face up in disgust. “Yeah. Keep your plans to yourself. But you’re happy?”

  “Ecstatic. Overjoyed. Beyond the moon. I love this little one more than my existence and I haven’t even met them yet.”

  Athena slumped back in her chair and waved her hand towards the door. “Good. Go get your girlfriend out of my loft. And act surprised when she tells you, alright?”

  Ares rose to his feet. “Of course, Sis. Thank you for watching out for her. I appreciate it.”

  “You’re welcome. I’d appreciate it if you used the door…”

  Before she could finish, Ares disappeared. The rest of her words fell on an empty room. “Like a normal human being. Which you’re not. You’re a god.”

  Athena rubbed her brow as she sat up and shuffled the papers on her desk. On the upside, she more than likely would have her place to herself by the time she got off work. True, Juliet wouldn’t make it easy for Ares. The god of war would have to beg and grovel to win her back.

  But that was the thing. He would win her back. They were so deep in love there was no doubt she’d go back to him. And now they would have a little one to share that love with.

  And knowing the love they shared made her restless. Her brother was a grade-A asshole and found his happily ever after. Was she ever going to find hers?

  She growled under her breath. It wasn’t going to happen within the walls of the Pentagon. She reached over and flipped off her computer. She stacked up the last few stray sheets of paper on her desk. Maybe she’d go get a drink while the lovebirds vacated her place.

  She stopped as her gaze landed on a form. She studied the last checkoff form for the newest fighter jet the Air Force had purchased. Sleek, stealthy, and fast, it called out to the war goddess in her. She scanned the sheet to find where it was and smiled when she read the location. It was housed just a few miles away.

  “Screw the bar. Let’s take this baby for a spin,” she muttered to herself as she dropped the form on the pile. Scooping up her keys and purse, she made a beeline for the door without so much as a goodbye to anyone in her department.

  * * * *

  There were a few perks to being a goddess. Believe it or not, living for eternity wasn’t one of them. However, tinkering with mortal things like the flight schedules for billion-dollar fighter jets was without a doubt worth it.

  Athena zipped up her jumpsuit then picked up her helmet. She did teach herself to fly. She didn’t use her powers to navigate it. It fed the fire inside her when she gripped the controls and took flight. It was the closest she came to being back on Olympus.

  She nodded to a passing pilot as she strode down the corridor towards the hanger. A grin slowly spread across her lips as the jet came into sight. Flight crews scrambled to prepare it for flight. She bet they were shocked they had to get it ready in the first place. Funny the things that happened when gods get involved.

  She climbed up to the cockpit and settled into the seat. One by one she flipped the controls on as she felt the slow crawl of the plane being pushed to the runway.

  “Alright, beautiful,” she murmured. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

  Athena drummed her fingers on the controls as she waited for the tower to give her clearance. She grinned when static was followed by a voice. “Lynch, ready for takeoff.”

  “Roger.” Athena pressed forward on the throttle and the jet stormed down the tarmac with a roar of the engines. Moments later it was climbing through the air.

  The land below streaked past as Athena found her altitude. She laughed to herself as she took in the sky around her. The engineers weren’t shitting anyone. This was one sweet ride. The power behind this beast was mind-blowing. This baby was going to do some serious damage especially when there was a fleet of them.

  She sighed as she stared at the billowing clouds around them. This was the closest she could come to Olympus, other than being there. Ever since her father, Zeus, had moved them from their home to Washington DC to be closer to the mortal world and the technology he craved, she rarely got back to the mountain. She missed it. Granted, seeing her work in action was satisfying but…

  The sound of alarms and frantic beeping pulled her from her thoughts. She studied the dials and display monitors looking for the source of the emergency. Systems shut down one by one as the plane fell from the sky.

  “Shit, shit, fuck.” Athena swallowed back the sour bile rising in her throat as she held tight to the yoke. She raced through the options in her head. She could just set the plane back on the tarmac where they’d started. But how many mortal’s minds would she have to alter to make them forget? She did a quick count in her head. There were way too many to deal with.

  She glanced out the window to see the earth rushing towards her. She closed her eyes to focus on the inner mechanisms of the jet. Maybe if she could find whatever was wrong she could stabilize it, fix it and keep it from crashing. Erasing random sightings and incident reports was far easier than figuring out who exactly saw her on the base that day.

  She gasped as she found the shorting wire in the engine. A moment later her entire body was jolted by the impact of the jet colliding with the ground. The memory of that wire was the last she had before everything went black.

  * * * *

  Mack stared out through the skeletal trees as he sipped his bottle of beer. It had been a long day at the shop. Fuck, he hated humans. His co-workers were no exception. He was glad to be home so he could enjoy his beer, finish up that rabbit he’d roasted the other night then get some shut eye before he got any calls.

  His gaze rested on his tow truck, the words Bradshaw Towing roughly scripted across the door. Being this far in the swamp he would have thought he’d get one or two a month. Instead it was one or two a night. It was astounding how many stupid people drove into the muck to find alligators. It interrupted Mack’s sleep. One of these nights he was going to just let one of the buggers eat them instead of towing them out.

  The roar of an engine tore him from his thoughts. Sounds like that didn’t happen out here or at least not that loud. He stood
up and stroked his full, chocolate brown beard as he searched for the noise. He looked up and caught the underbelly of a jet as it streaked past overhead.

  He hadn’t set his bottle of beer down on the overturned milk crate before the boom shook the ground. A pillar of fire rolled through the air. He muttered a string of curses as he picked up the pace. There was no way in hell anyone could survive that crash. And soon the military would be invading his sanctuary looking for answers. Fucking peachy.

  Mack wove through the trees and stomped through the standing water towards the burning wreckage. Even from this distance he could feel the heat on his skin. He hurried when his gaze fell on a delicate, pale hand.

  He cringed as he crept closer to the blaze. As quick as he could manage, he reached for the wrist of the pale hand and tugged. His breath caught in his throat as a blonde woman dressed in a flight suit slid along the mud. He had a funny feeling it wasn’t from the smoke drifting over him. He didn’t get out much and it had been a very long time since he’d laid eyes on someone so beautiful.

  He shook the thought out of his mind and scooped her over his shoulder. He stumbled his way through the muck to safety and dropped her on the first downed tree he came too. There sure as hell wasn’t any reason to haul a dead body everywhere and he didn’t need the feds hunting him down if she were. He’d leave the corpse behind.

  He shivered as he touched her cheek. He could feel his boxers tent with his sudden erection. Then his heart leaped in his chest.

  “Fuck, she’s alive. How did she survive that?” he muttered to himself. He glanced back at the engulfed jet glowing in the distance. He knew his true nature. He was used to bizarre things. But this was one hundred percent impossible.

  He carefully lifted her in his arms and cradled her close to him. He took his porch steps two at a time then threw the door open with a bump of his hip. She moaned as he laid her on the couch.

  He stared at her as he rubbed his chin. Something primal and ancient burned deep in his soul. It demanded that he claim her, that he not let her go free until she was bound to him for eternity. All he could imagine was her naked in her bed, and him buried deep inside her.