Seraglio of the Gods - Segment 06

Chapter 26

“Woman, I will be dead if you don’t stop smothering me.” Those muffled words startled me enough to drop Vulcan back onto the stretcher. “Ouch, damn it, are you trying to kill me?”

Loki was trying not to laugh. “I was trying to tell you he wasn’t dead, just wounded and unconscious.” He helped me to my feet before repositioning Vulcan in a more comfortable position. “Now, if you’re through trying to finish what the Titans started, I’ll take you both to his home.”

I refused to let go of Vulcan’s hand while the horse pulled the stretcher the short distance to his building. Loki called over a couple other males, and the three of them lifted Vulcan from the stretcher. Despite their trying to be careful, I winced whenever I heard Vulcan gasp from the pain.

After they placed him on his bed, the two males returned to the courtyard. I gave Loki a big hug before also sending him outside to where his concubine, Sorrel, was waiting impatiently for him. Vulcan was lying on the bed, the clothes he wore tattered and covered in blood.

“Well,” I said, shaking my head in mock disgust, “I guess it’s up to me to clean you up.” After getting wet towels from the bathroom, I carefully removed his clothes and washed the blood from the many shallow cuts on his torso. He had a long, deeper slash on his leg, the one not already covered with scars. “Turn over, and I’ll see what damage you’ve done to your back.”

“Well,” Vulcan grunted and turned over slowly, “I didn’t damage myself. It was the enemy, so you should be yelling at them, not me.”

“I am not yelling,” I yelled.

For the next few minutes, I kept silent, too busy washing the dirt and blood from Vulcan’s back. By the time I returned the bloody towels to the bathroom, Vulcan had either slipped back into unconsciousness or simply exhausted sleep.

I laid down on the bed and began crying uncontrollably in relief until I too fell asleep beside his freshly washed and bandaged body.

* * *

Chapter 27

During the next three days, Vulcan spent most of the time sleeping, letting his body heal naturally from his wounds. Each morning, Grace, the old woman who was a favorite among the concubines, brought us our meals. Besides delicious food, she also brought news of what was happening outside our room.

In this way I learned Cupid returned safely to his mother and was currently staying with Venus at Jupiter’s palace. Grace put it this way, “You’d think Cupid was still a baby the way his mother hovers over him. She allows only Hera and Ares anywhere near him.”

“Ares visits his son?” I wondered how Sabrina was taking this. I hadn’t seen her since the gods returned because I had remained inside with Vulcan after that. I soon found out when she brought the food on the fourth day instead of Grace doing it.

When she came into Vulcan’s quarters carrying the basket of food, her appearance shocked me. There was no way I could blame her gray hair on sunlight. It had spread from her temples throughout all her red hair. In addition, there were small wrinkles around her once beautiful eyes. Those eyes now looked tired and a bit frightened.

When she saw I’d noticed the changes in her appearance, Sabrina burst into tears. “I don’t know what’s happening to me, Melody.” She tried to back out of the room when she realized Vulcan was awake and watching us. “I’ve tried to get messages to Ares, hoping he knew what was wrong, but he’s ignoring me.” Unable to speak further, Sabrina gave me the food basket and ran from the room, her sobs echoing behind her.

I quickly put the basket on a table when I look over and saw Vulcan trying to get out of bed. “Lie down, you fool, you’re going to open some of those wounds.”

“You don’t understand, Melody, I have to speak to Ares.” Vulcan managed to stand beside the bed, swaying from weakness. “If he doesn’t stop it, your friend will either die soon or end like Grace.”

* * *

Chapter 28

I sat down on the edge of the bed, or rather fell down, shocked at what he’d just said. “Why? Does this have something to do with Cupid or what’s been happening on earth?”

Vulcan sat down beside me, his breathing labored from the minor exertion of standing. “No, this started before we left. Didn’t you notice she was no longer wearing the chain around her hips?”

“Yes, she said Ares removed it a day or two before I arrived here.” I hesitated before asking, “Isn’t that a good thing, to have the chain removed?” My mind raced back to Briana, so delighted that her Oghma recently removed her chain of submission.

Before Vulcan could explain, a visitor again interrupted us. I stood up trembling as Hera swept majestically into the room.

“Get out, slave,” she ordered, not even bothering to look in my direction. “I want to talk to my son…in private.”

I got out, leaving Vulcan to cope with Hera. In the days I’d been caring for him, not once had his mother showed any interest in her injured son. In any event, I hurriedly dressed and left them alone, returning to the women’s quarters.

Walking into the large room, I looked around for Sabrina. She was nowhere to be found, and I started asking the other women where I could find her.

“You haven’t heard, Melody?” asked Sorrel, sadness filling her eyes.

“What? Please tell me.” The uncertainty about what Vulcan was going to tell me caused to speak more sharply than I meant to, but Sorrel continued as if she hadn’t heard.

“She just came back a few minutes ago, and Izzy forced her downstairs to the old servants’ living area.” Izzy was the old crone who enjoyed tormenting the concubines. She was the same one who had dragged Astrid to her death weeks earlier.

“Did anyone follow them to find out what’s going on?” I asked this even as I knew the answer. None of us ever went into the lower wing of the building where the old women lived. One concubine accidentally entered years ago, or so I heard, and Izzy and a few others beat her to death. Just the idea of any of us now going there was unthinkable. It didn’t surprise me when Sorrel shook her head, and the rest of the women also denied going after Sabrina and Izzy.

For the next couple hours, I sat with Sorrel and plied her with questions about what had been going on in the days I’d been with Vulcan. She was just telling me of hearing about the worsening situation on earth, when Grace came toward us.

“Melody, I must bring you back to Vulcan. He has forgiven you for returning here unescorted, but has ordered that it never happen again.” Her gentle smile took the sting out of Vulcan’s rude command. “Hera just left, but I heard her tell him he could do much better than a slave like you.” Grace patted my arm in sympathy. “Don’t be upset by that. She’s always thought he was foolish to divorce a beauty like Venus.”

Nevertheless, walking back across the courtyard with Grace, I was fuming at Vulcan. I also was composing in my mind exactly what I thought of his high-and-mighty ways and what his mother could do with her unflattering opinion of me.

When Grace left me at the doorway to the forge, I angrily walked through into the living area. All my angry thoughts disappeared when I saw Vulcan struggling to finish dressing. The long gash in his leg had reopened, and blood was starting to run down onto the floor.

He turned when he heard me coming into the room and held up his hand to stop any protests I had. “Hera demanded my presence at her husband’s palace, and I need you to help me walk over there.” Vulcan slowly came toward me, each step slow and deliberate. “I don’t want anyone to know of my weakness, and it isn’t uncommon for one of us to be with our concubine in the courtyard.”

I started to object, and Vulcan angrily cut me off. “Give me your arm and be quick about it! I don’t want to hear one word from you.” Knowing it was useless to argue when he was in this foul mood, I reluctantly obeyed.

We made the long walk across the courtyard in total silence, with Grace following a few steps behind us. Vulcan’s only words before he entered the palace alone were, “Both of you wait for me here. I won’t be long.”

* * *

Chapter 29

The short time stretched into long minutes, and soon two hours had passed. Just as I was about to disobey Vulcan and return with Grace to the women’s quarters, Vulcan angrily charged out of the palace’s front door. To say he was angry would be the understatement of the century, or many centuries for that matter.

He had started limping back to his home when he remembered the two women who had been waiting patiently for him. Grace calmly walked toward him, no longer bothered by the inconsideration of the gods. However, I was not going to let Vulcan get away with his bad manners and foul mood. Even after Grace left me, I continued standing in the shade of the palace, nonchalantly checking to see if I had any broken fingernails.

When Vulcan saw I was remaining by the palace door, he impatiently demanded, “Come here and walk behind me. I’m ready to return home and don’t need a slave misbehaving right now.”

Now, on earth I’d run a successful business with 25 happy and well-paid employees. I was more familiar with giving orders than with taking them, particularly from a nearly naked, dominating male. The idea of knowing I was his slave rankled more and more every time Vulcan gave me an order.

Seeing his hands clenched into tight fists, though, convince me that now was not the time to strike a blow for equality and independence. I’d already experienced his anger once when he raped me, so I quickly walked to where Grace was standing waiting for me. Vulcan had walked on, in the knowledge that either I obeyed his order, or he would severely punish me.

Once at Vulcan’s home, Grace left us and returned to the women’s quarters. She assumed Vulcan would want me there in his bed as a release for some of his pent-up anger. However, if he thought that’s what he would be doing, he could think again.

When inside his living quarters, Vulcan turned to me with the first words he’d said since his earlier order at Jupiter’s palace. “You’ll be staying here for tonight, so take your clothes off, get into bed, and prepare yourself.” With that, he turned his back on me and went into the bathroom.

Prepare myself? Just like that, prepare myself. This thought fueled my anger, so now there were two people ready to explode. Vulcan returned in a few minutes to the bedchamber, and I saw he had put fresh bandages on his wounded leg. What he saw was a woman still fully dressed and glaring in fury at him.

I think both of us realized the night ahead of us would be interesting for Vulcan and dangerous or possibly deadly for me.

* * *

Chapter 30

“Hera is right. You are a terrible slave.” Vulcan calmly said this while stripping off his own clothes before heading for the bed.

I continued to stand by the bedroom door, prepared to run if Vulcan became violent. Instead, he climbed into bed and stretched out on it. The sheet, stained with multiple vaginal and seminal fluids, didn’t bother Vulcan. Well, it bothered me, and there was no way I was getting into bed with him.

“Vulcan, I do not care in the least what Hera thinks of me. I also don’t like you calling me a slave, and I most certainly am not getting into that filthy bed.”

“Why? That’s all you are, a slave I can use in any way I want. As your master, I demand you get into bed now.” Vulcan actually sounded unsure of himself when he said this, and I started to wonder what had happened at Jupiter’s palace between him and Hera. Instead of the anticipated fight with Vulcan, I was seeing a tormented male who was trying to convince me of something he himself didn’t believe.

My anger started to diminish, and I decided to press him for what was bothering him. “Did Hera tell you that? I understand she would prefer you’d stayed with your wife. Is that what you want?”

“Of course not, Melody. Venus deserves someone like Ares, not an ugly cripple like me. Everyone agrees she bettered herself when she left me for my brother.” Vulcan looked startled at hearing me make a derisive and rude sound, which on earth is known as a Bronx cheer. “What was that?”

“I was expressing my opinion of the stupid comment you just made. You may be lame, but so what?” I took a few steps closer to the bed. “I don’t know where you got the idea you’re ugly. Okay, you don’t have the stunning beauty of Apollo, but few men do. Besides, most women prefer a mate who’s not prettier than they are.” I sat down on the edge of the bed, being careful to pick a relatively clean spot on the sheet away from the dried sexual fluids.

“Oh, then I should be extremely popular with women, shouldn’t I?” This Vulcan said sarcastically as he inched closer to me. Without warning, he reached over and grabbed me around my waist. When he pulled me down on the filthy sheet, I struggled fiercely to get loose. However, I was no match for Vulcan, a strong, muscular male who was intent on having sex, whether or not I was willing.

* * *

To be continued in next segment.

Seraglio of the Gods - Segment 07  (XGC) Chapters 31 through 35 #1314252 by J. A. Buxton