Destined for a Deity (Mark of Mars) Read online

  The ground shook slightly as a loud growl echoed in Mars’ chest. “You will show me humility, mortal,” he thundered. “You belong to me.”

  “When the underworld freezes over,” she spat.

  Jenna tried to make a break for the exit but he was too fast. She struggled like a fiend but it was useless, he had immortal strength. “You are mine, Jenna.”

  “Let go of me, you dick. Before I make you bleed,” she shouted.

  “You dare threaten me?” he roared.

  “Let me go,” she hollered, throwing her head back and hitting him hard on the bridge of his nose.

  Mars swore loudly, but instead of releasing her, his temper raged even more. His eyes had turned red and his hands were starting to burn her skin. She was far too emotional to try and reason with him, and he most likely would not listen.

  “You’re hurting me,” she cried, her skin felt like it was about to melt.

  “And you will suffer a lot more pain, mortal,” he growled. “Until you show me the respect I am due.”

  Out of self-preservation, Jenna did the only thing she could. She made a desperate grab for one for one of the daggers on the wall and plunged it into his thigh. It kind of worked. He let out a howl of pain as he dropped to the floor, blood pumping out his leg. Jenna froze for a moment, devastated to have injured him, but she had no choice.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, tears pouring down her face. The look on his face almost froze her to the spot, it was positively terrifying. He started to adopt a fiery glow around him, flames virtually leaping from those once golden eyes.

  Forcing her legs to move, she sped from the room, straight into Arianna.

  “I…Mars…” Jenna did not know what to say.

  “Leave now. I will handle Mars.” Her tone softened on seeing Jenna’s tear-stained face. “Go, quickly.” She removed the bloody dagger that was still in Jenna’s shaking hands.

  She didn’t need telling twice. Bolting for the front door, she snatched up her cloak and ran for her life. There was only one place she could go. And this time she wouldn’t be touching any bloody statues on the way.

  “Father, quickly,” Minerva shouted.

  “Where is she, sister?” Mars roared. “I’m going to extinguish her life with my bare hands.”

  “You’ll do no such thing,” Minerva tried to hold down her brother. Even losing a lot of blood, he was still stronger than she.

  “The bitch tried to kill me,” he spat.

  “No. Had she wanted to do that, she would have pierced you through the heart,” Minerva replied calmly.

  Jupiter arrived in a flash. “Get him to Olympus. He’s been cut with celestial bronze.”

  “I’m going nowhere until that mortal has paid for this insult.” Mars’ face was so distorted in anger and pain, Minerva could barely see her brother.

  Jupiter hit his son with a beam of lightning which rendered him unconscious. “He needs to get to the healing room. Once he is cured, we will address the other issues.”

  They transported in a flash. Watching Mars lying on the table, Minerva felt such empathy for him. He truly cared for Jenna, but whatever had passed between them must have been so acrimonious for him to want to harm her. Ignoring the fact of course that Jenna had stabbed him.

  “You know you will have to restrain him until his temper subsides,” Minerva looked at her father.

  “Yes. I take it his deity didn’t sit too well with Jenna?” Jupiter had been expecting trouble.

  “No.” She stroked her unconscious brother’s hair affectionately. “I have never seen him in so much pain.”

  “The effects of celestial bronze are not pleasant.”

  “I meant emotional pain.”

  Jupiter gave half a smile. “It is the first time he has ever had to use his heart. Jenna’s rejection of his deity pierced him hard.”

  “Is she lost to us?”

  “No,” Jupiter flapped his hand. “She loves him, be he mortal or immortal. Being the stubborn creature she is, it will just take her a little while to see that.”

  “Perhaps I should go talk to her.” Minerva was concerned, not just for her brother, she did not want to lose her friend.

  “Jenna needs to clear her thoughts. Don’t forget that she will see you in a different light too now.”

  “I guess so. I just feel quite useless.”

  “Mars will need you when he regains consciousness. Your knowledge of the female mind will be invaluable.”

  Minerva chuckled softly. “On that front, he will need all the help he can get.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Amelia sat beside Jenna’s bed in the Medical wing at McVale’s. Professor Daniels had ordered her to be sedated for her own health; she had come through the gateway covered in blood and rambling incoherently about Gods. She squeezed her friend’s hand. Whatever had happened had to have been monumental; Jenna never lost control of herself like that. And more to the point, whose blood was she covered in?

  She glanced up as Professor Daniels walked in.

  “She’s been sedated for nearly twelve hours, I’ve asked Dr Poulssen to bring her around.”

  “What if she’s still distressed?”

  “We can’t help her until we know what has happened.” The Professor looked at Amelia a little awkwardly. “Forgive me for asking you this, but is Jenna’s relationship with the Marshall more than platonic?”

  “Yes,” Amelia responded.

  “Well, that rules out him forcing himself on her.”

  "There is always the chance the blood on Jenna’s dress is not human.”

  “Dr Poulssen is analysing that.”

  Right on cue, Poulssen sloped in and injected something into Jenna’s drip. Some minutes later, she opened her eyes groggily.

  “Welcome back,” Amelia smiled.

  Jenna closed them again for a few moments, before re-opening them. “Did I go somewhere?”

  “You’ve been asleep for a while. Do you remember where you are?”

  “At McVale’s. And why are you looking at me like that? Has something bad happened?”

  “You arrived back here yesterday, shouting incoherently about Gods. We’ve had you sedated since.”

  “I wasn’t incoherent. In fact I think vociferous was more like it.”

  Amelia couldn’t help but laugh, Jenna was back in the room. “We think you might have ingested a hallucinogenic of some sort.”

  “No. I might have been a wee bit jittery. Finding out the Olympus Gods are real can do that.”

  “What makes you think they are real?”

  “Marcus is Mars. I saw him change with my own eyes.” She glanced over at Professor Daniels who had remained quiet. “I carry some of his life force which is why I am partially immortal.”

  “You are not immortal, Jenna.” Daniels headed over to her. “You heal a little quicker than others, that is all.”

  Jenna rolled her eyes and yanked out the drip in her arm. She held up her hand as both Amelia and the Professor darted towards her. “Allow me to prove a point.” She pointed to the needle wound. “In five, four, three, two and one. Voila. No injury. That’s taking quick healing to a whole new level.”

  Amelia stared at her arm. “That’s not possible.”

  “We are aware your blood has changed, but it does not prove the existence of the Roman Gods. I feel partly responsible for this delusion as I tasked you with finding the proof,” Professor Daniels stated flatly.

  Jenna swung her legs out of the bed. “Not wishing to be rude, I don’t care what you believe. I have pissed off and stabbed one of the most feared Gods in history. What’s worse, he knows about the gateway so I am anything but safe from him here.” Her legs felt incredibly shaky and she had to lean on Amelia. “One roar from him can trigger an earthquake and I am not waiting around to face a life in Tartarus. I’m going home. Bath home.”

  “You’re leaving?” Amelia sounded distraught.

  “A leave of absence,” Professor Danie
ls stepped in. “After a few days, you might want to return. Of course it doesn’t have to be to the same time zone.”

  Amelia helped her up the stairs to her bedroom. “Are you really going to be alright?”

  “Yes,” she sniffed. But it was too late, the tears had started to flow freely. “I loved him, but he never truly existed.”

  “Who didn’t?” Amelia wasn’t following her.

  “Marcus. He was just a projection of Mars.”

  “Are you sure? That hissing vision in black seemed pretty real to me.”

  Jenna spluttered. “Yes. It is just the façade that was false. He’s actually gold.”

  “Cool. Sorry, I mean how dreadful.”

  “In person, Mars makes his statue look positively lame. But his ego is as legendary as the man himself.”

  “We make a right pair,” Amelia squeezed her arm. “My Roman love turns out to be a cheating lothario, and yours an egotistical God. Perhaps English men aren’t as bad as we first made out.”

  Jenna laughed despite herself. “I’m going to become a nun, I think.”

  “You can’t. You believe in more than one God.”

  “I only worship one though. Surely that counts?”

  “Now there’s a question for the Pope.”

  “I’m Protestant.”

  “Archbishop of Canterbury, then.”

  They flopped down on her bed giggling. You had to be barking mad to see the funny side of their situation.

  “When are you heading out?”

  “Not wishing to sound too much of a wuss, but tonight. If Mars finds me here, he could destroy the entire Institute.”

  “It must be bad if you’re going to take on that ferry again.”

  “I’m not. I’m about to ask Mrs Davidson to organise a helicopter. I want to be home this afternoon.” Amelia looked at her stunned. “Hey, what’s the use in being loaded if I can’t spend it?”

  “Not wanting to depress you even more, what about Ares and Julius?”

  “I would like Ares with me, but ask Julius first if he wants to adopt him. He adores that kitten. If he doesn’t, then I’m sure you can sneak him back here. But you’re not going back just yet are you?”

  “No. I want to stay a little while longer here. I’m also looking at alternatives. And now with you perhaps going, I think I want to change time zones.”

  “We could always shake up Athens around 500BC?” Jenna suggested. “How’s your ancient Greek?”

  “Average. Something tells me you speak it fluently.”

  “Blame my parents. Adopted parents. Or we could consider some early Minoan empire or even Egyptian. The possibilities are limitless.”

  “What’s wrong with a different Roman time zone?”

  Jenna shuddered. “The earlier Roman empire was much more violent and unsettled. Later would be useless because Mars would know I was back.”

  “It might be cool to see the Parthenon intact,” Amelia mused.

  Jenna already had, and not in a dream as she thought. Actually she didn’t want to think about it. What she had uncovered seriously messed with her brain.

  Mars woke somewhat disorientated. He was in the healing room in Olympus, but why? He was a God. The only other person in the room apart from one healer was Minerva. She looked unduly strained.

  “Jenna,” he shouted sitting bolt upright.

  “Easy, brother,” Minerva pushed him back down. “You are still weak.”

  He looked at her like she was speaking another language. “Are you calling me weak?” he barked.

  “Yes,” she snapped. “Are you forgetting you were pierced with celestial bronze?”

  His hand went instinctively to his thigh, he had forgotten. “Jenna. She is ….safe?”

  Minerva nodded. “Can you remember what happened?”

  “All too clearly,” Mars stared up at the ceiling. “My mortal shield failed.”

  “Let me guess, at a very inopportune time?”

  “Very. Jenna was in denial that I could be both men, we exchanged some heated words and events got out of hand.”

  “When I ran into the poor girl, she was shaking like a leaf and quite distraught, completely unaware she still held the dagger.”

  “I might have shown her some immortal powers,” Mars looked away from his sister, truly embarrassed.

  Minerva let out a frustrated hiss. “You are supposed to be winning her over, not trying to kill her. No wonder she bloody stabbed you, I would have done.”

  “I need to see her,” Mars attempted to sit up again.

  “I’m sure you do, but right now we have to consider her needs too. I have never seen a young woman look so frightened. She will need a few days to cool.”

  “She needs protection still. Is Ajax watching her?”

  “No, she has returned through the gateway.”

  “Can we get a message to her, via Amelia?”

  “Again no. Father has ascertained through young Julius that Amelia left the city a couple of days ago.

  “I will speak to Gaius.”

  “You’re going nowhere, brother,” Minerva fixed him with a steely glare.

  “I still have a city to Marshall,” he glared back.

  “Father wants you under surveillance for a few days.”

  “I am immortal, I heal very quickly, even from the effects of celestial bronze,” Mars grunted.

  “That is not the reason he wants you to remain here. It is for both Jenna’s and your protection.”

  “He has me under house arrest?” Mars asked incredulously.

  “Yes. And although you appear all meek and contrite now, the brother I saw yesterday even frightened me. We need to guarantee you have full control of your temper before you go anywhere near civilisation.”

  Mars stared into the empty space his sister had left. He wished Jenna had pierced his heart with the dagger, then he would not be feeling the pain he was now. The pain at almost killing her in a rage. He had promised never to hurt her, yet it was his hand around her throat, burning her skin, all because she refused to accept him in place of his alter-ego Marcus. She chose a mortal over a God. Her choice shouted loud and clear that it was a genuine love she had for Marcus, and although they were the same person, it hurt that she cared nothing for his immortal self. Other than just admiration for his physical attributes.

  And now she was gone. Perhaps it was for the best, for her at least, if he let her go. With a time zone separating them, he could not hurt her any more. He felt something strange and wet on his cheek. Brushing it away, he realised it was a tear. The last one he had shed was over seven hundred years ago as a child.

  CHAPTER 18

  Mrs Grainger had Jenna in such a bear hug, she thought her housekeeper was going to crack her ribs.

  “It has been far too long since you were last home, young lady,” Mrs Grainger complained.

  “It’s my studies that take me away,” Jenna apologised. “And as I am based at the other end of the country, it is difficult to get home often.”

  “Well, it is a pleasure to have you back finally. And you certainly arrived in style.”

  “It was a last minute decision to come so I took the quickest route to get here.”

  “Your room has been made up and I’ll bring some tea to the study for you. I imagine you will want to go over some paperwork.”

  “What would I do without you, Mrs Grainger,” Jenna smiled appreciatively.

  “I’ve been with your family so long, I couldn’t dream of going anywhere else.”

  Jenna headed up to her room to drop her bag off. All her worries seemed to ease the minute she had set foot in the house, it was her sanctuary. Her bedroom was just as she had left it, the epitome of Georgian elegance. Leaving her belongings, she wandered down to the study, the sooner she tackled any paperwork, the more free time she would have tomorrow to ride and perhaps go shopping in Bath. She needed to keep her mind occupied.

  The study always brought a lump to her throat, it was her fath
er’s domain. A heavily panelled room, with a sturdy ornate desk at one end, two small leather sofas at the other. A portrait of her parents hung on one wall, that was the only change she had ever made to the room. Mrs Grainger had left a tray with tea and various sandwiches and cakes for her. Jenna almost polished off the lot, they tasted so delicious.