He laughed bitterly. "I've betrayed you? When have you ever kept faith with me?"
She answered his question with a stinging backhand across his face that split his lip. Only now that he was secure could she strike him. She grabbed his hair, turning it instantly blond, and jerked his head back as hard as she could. "I wish I'd never met you."
"I assure you the feeling's more than mutual."
Then she did the cruelest thing of all. She manifested a mirror before him and dressed him in the same chiton he'd worn when they met. Brushing the hair back from his neck, she blew her breath on his skin, knowing how much he hated it.
"This is what you're afraid of, isn't it? The entire world knowing what a whore you really are. Eleven thousand years later, you're still crawling into the bed of whoever can pay your fee. Tell me, Acheron, what did Soteria give you to sleep with her?"
He glared at her in the mirror and answered her with the truth. "She bought me with the one thing you've never been able to manage, Artemis. Kindness. Warmth."
She wrenched his hair so hard he was sure she pulled a full handful of it out. "You bastard whore! I would have given you the world had you asked it of me, but instead you'd rather be in the bed of a common human."
He licked the blood from the corner of his mouth. "You've never given me anything, Artemis, without making me pay dearly for it. Not even your heart."
"That's not true. I bore your daughter for you!"
"No. You bore your daughter. You didn't keep Katra because of me. You kept her out of total selfishness and you know it. You never really intended for me to know I had her because you didn't want to share her with me or anyone else. You could have told me the truth at any time, yet you hid her from me for more than eleven thousand years." He shook his head at a truth that scalded his soul. "You're selfish and you're cold, and I'm tired of getting frostbite when I touch you."
She brought the whip down across his back. Ash hissed as pain tore through him.
"I own you!" she shrieked.
Ash tightened his grip on the chains that held him in place. "I won't be owned by you, Artemis. Not anymore. I shouldn't have to barter myself to you for kindness and I'm through with it."
She hit him again. "You would rather sell yourself to a human who can't understand you? She knows nothing of our powers. Nothing of what it means to be a god. The responsibility. The sacrifice."
His breathing ragged, he stared at her in the mirror. "And neither do you. Soteria doesn't ask me for anything. She gives, Artemis. No strings. No hidden agenda. She takes my hand in public and she holds it. She's not embarrassed to be seen with me."
She jerked his head back and snarled in his ear. "Because it costs her nothing to be seen with you! You ask too much of me. You always have."
"Did it never occur to you that you ask the same of me? I've given to you for eleven thousand years and I'm tired of it. I'm tired of being ridiculed by you and your brother. I'm tired of taking your shit and dealing with your moods while you refuse to allow me the same courtesy. I want my freedom."
After releasing his hair, she hit him three more times before she raked her nails painfully down his back. "There is no freedom for you, whore. Ever."
Tory smiled as she saw Simi walking up to the bar. She still remembered the first time she'd seen the demon, though at the time she'd thought Simi an average college age girl who'd made a great babysitter for her. It was hard to believe after all the phone and e-mail conversations they'd shared that Simi had failed to mention the one basic fact that she was a demon.
Then again . . .
But as Simi approached, she could tell something was wrong with her. "What's wrong, Simi?"
"That old heifer bitch goddess is hurting akri again and akri won't let the Simi do anything to help him, but the Simi isn't supposed to say anything about what the bitch-goddess does so forget the Simi said anything." She huffed as she sat down on a bar stool and propped her chin in her hand. "Hook the Simi up with some ice cream, Akra-Tory. I need double scoops."
Aimee went to accommodate Simi while Tory walked around to sit beside the demon.
"What do you mean the heifer goddess is hurting Ash? You mean Hera?" She was the goddess most often referred to as cow-eyed in mythology.
"Not that one. The redheaded mean one that the Simi wants to eat, but akri say 'No Simi. You can't eat Artemis.' The Simi hates that heifer."
Tory went cold as she remembered what Ash had told her about Artemis and their relationship. "Where's Ash?"
"On Olympus. He told the Simi to come stay with you and make sure no one hurts you."
This couldn't be good and Tory felt ill that she couldn't help him. "What does Artemis do to Ash?"