Ares (Contemporary Mythos Book 3)

Some months later…

We sat behind cover, switching out the magazines of our weapons. I peeked around the corner, counting the number of assailants.

“I see three on the left, four on the right. Dino and Chelsea are directly across from us on the other side,” I said, holding my paintball gun vertically.

Ares chuckled. “You know his name is Dionysos, and yet you still insist on calling him Dino.”

“He’ll always be Dino to me.” I grinned and checked that the chamber had an adequate number of paintballs loaded.

As the first months went by of the two of us sharing the responsibilities of the more passionate side of war, regeneration, and progress, we never took a moment to simply be—to have fun, to let our bodies recuperate from the stress of godly intervention. We made a pact to do something “normal” once a week. Not only to take a break and let loose, but it comforted me to remember my mortal side—the human side. We’d done it all—ax throwing, bowling, laser tag. But the one we kept circling back to time and time again…was paintball.

I asked Chelsea to join, not expecting her to say yes. When she agreed, I’d drilled her on just how painful getting hit by a paintball, despite three layers of clothing, could feel. After she complained about my goddess-like nature not being affected by them, she told me it was something I liked, and she wanted to support me.

Yes, we had “the talk” about four months ago. It took three days to convince her, a week to start talking to me again, and another week to accept it. It was like she went through the stages of grief. In a way, I guess the old me really had died.

Ares grumbled when I suggested Dino tagged along. He softened at the idea when I’d told him about Dino’s visit before becoming a goddess. Plus, I knew Ares wanted the opportunity to thwart him with paintballs. He’d loaded his gun with yellow paint, knowing Dino couldn’t stand the color. Something about it reminding him of piss.

“Oh my God!” Chelsea yelped from another log across the way. “A spider was just crawling up my pant leg!”

“Can someone remind me why they teamed me up with the wet blanket?” Dino shouted to us.

Ares and I grinned at each other.

“Excuse me?” Chelsea scoffed, the sound of three paintballs exploding against armor followed.

I flipped onto my knees, peeking over the edge of the log. Dino had three blue paint spatters on his chest. He narrowed his eyes at Chelsea before dropping them to look at her handiwork.

Chelsea’s mouth gaped, and she frantically shook her head. “My finger slipped. Honest.”

Chelsea still managed to look pristine with her auburn hair pulled back in a low, wavy ponytail despite playing in an athletic event. She even bothered to slather on make-up. I told her it’d end up sweating off underneath the goggles, but she insisted.

“You better run,” Dino teased.

Chelsea looked from him to me and then behind her before sprinting away.

Dino chuckled and stood up, not worrying about paintballs, considering he was already out. “It’s all up to you two now,” he said to us with a wink before chasing after Chelsea.

“You take right, I take left?” Ares peered at me with those sultry eyes of his.

I tugged his beard. “I thought you’d never ask, my Sparkly Snicker-Doo.”

“The name’s growing on me.”

“Careful God of War, or I will call you it in public.”

He slid a hand over my inner thigh as he grazed my chin with his beard. “I’m terrified.”

Even as a goddess, he still made my heart race. “Shoot now. Play later.” I gave a tiny lick to his grinning lips before switching my focus to approaching players.

We jumped from our shield, aiming our paintball guns at mortal strangers. Every shot landed home, and we continued to work the tree lines until we reached the center. My gun clicked. Empty.

“I need to reload,” I said to him over my shoulder.

Ares switched directions, shooting in mine instead. I ducked down as I popped the magazine and slid in another. He placed a hand on my back, shooting over me, covering me. When I stood up, my gun loaded and cocked, we reached over each other’s shoulders, firing at approaching players from behind the other. His eyes sparkled at me.

We continued this charade of fighting back-to-back or shooting over each other’s shoulders, covering the other when they had to reload ammo. As the numbers dwindled, the godly adrenaline was at full force, and I planted a kiss on his lips. Our intuition didn’t cease when we were kissing. It didn’t dwindle when we were doing…anything. As we devoured each other, we shot anyone who dared tried to stop us.

I pulled away with my hand still resting behind his neck and peered up at the only man who could’ve ever closed the widening gap in my life. It turned out it wasn’t a man at all.

He rubbed the tip of his nose against mine. “I think we got them all.”

Groans and moans from several players thwarted with paintballs surrounded us. Paint splatters of yellow and red. Our colors.

“We should probably find Dino and Chelsea,” I said through a lustful sigh.

We made off to the forest, looking for any signs of them. When we were a reasonable distance from the paintball battlefield, a blue portal opened in front of us. Heph toppled out, not covered in goo this time.

“How would you twats like to fight in a real battle?”

“Name the time and place.” I bounced my brow at Ares, taking a step forward.

Ares caught the crook of my arm. “Depends on what you’re up against.”

“What if I told you, brother, that in another timeline, one of the captured Titans has escaped?”

“Maláka,” Ares growled.

“Exactly. And you both were the second and third best choices to fight the big beasties. I’m not going to tell you which is which.” Heph squinted one eye.

The skin between Ares’s eyes crinkled with concern.

“I’m up for it if you are, Spartan.” My confidence had soared these past months. It was as if nothing could stop me. And it was time to test the limits.

“Let’s do it.” Ares grabbed my hand. “It may even be time to summon the fire-breathing horses.” He grinned at me.

“Aren’t I invited?” Dino’s voice asked from behind us.

He stood there alone with his arms out.

“Why would you be?” Heph scoffed.

Dino rolled his eyes and tossed his paintball gun into the dirt. “Are you still hung up on that whole Hera business?”

Heph’s eyes shifted. “No. I just don’t bloody like you.”

Dino glared at him, and Heph leaped into the portal.

“You better not have upset Chelsea.” I bit back a smile.

“I didn’t. I didn’t. One paintball clipped her in the shoulder, and some got on her Versachagucci something or another shirt. Why did she wear it to a paintball match? You got me.”

I cocked my head to one side. “You should get to know her better, Dino. I think she’d surprise you.”

“Her? She has a stick so far up her a—” He pointed behind him with his thumb.

I interrupted by lifting a palm. “Trust me. The best things happen unexpectedly. But they can’t happen if you don’t give them a chance.”

Ares’s sultry stare warmed my cheeks. I didn’t have to look at him to know he was staring at me, probably even smiling.

Dino scratched his cheek with a squished brow before turning his attention to Chelsea batting branches in the thick of the forest.

“Ready to save the universe?” Ares snaked an arm around my waist.

“I don’t think this Titan knows what it’s up against.” I trailed my hand over his forearm, tracing the armor tattoo.

He nipped my earlobe. “I told you, Amazon. The blood we could shed.”

Heph’s head poked out from the portal. “You two mind shagging after the giant monster wrecking a city is, I don’t know, stopped?” His brow shot up.

“One last thing,” Ares said, holding up his paintball gun.

He shot Dino twice in the chest, spattering yellow paint over his shirt.

Dino jumped back, but it was too late. “Bro.”

“Now we can go.” Ares tossed me a sinister grin and chucked the paintball gun.

Dino seethed at the yellow stain on his clothes. “I won’t forget this.”

“You better not,” Ares replied.

Grinning, I tugged Ares into the portal, and we whisked into the unknown.

Together. Always.