Notes: This was originally part of another story, but it can pretty much stand on its own. I've taken liberties with the myth of Demeter and Persephone. (this is something new?) According to Aristophanes, Eros was the son of Erebus -- himself the son of Chaos -- and Nyx, the goddess of Night, and according to Hesiod, Nemesis was their daughter. Thanks as always to Gail for the beta.
Eros in Love By Tinnean
It was a foolish accident that started it all.
I had never fallen in love. I had seen what my arrows did to god and mortal alike, and I vowed silently that it would never happen to me. I took my pleasure where I found it, but had a care never to endanger my heart.
I was in my palace of alabaster and gold and abalone, seated cross-legged on a pillow on the floor, my wings folded neatly at my back, separating my arrows, lead for disinterest, gold for love, into their proper quivers. I looked up to see the Lord of the Underworld swagger in.
"Eros."
"Hades." I rose gracefully to greet him, for was the god of love nothing if not graceful?
The warm expression in his eyes told me the sight pleased him, and that pleased me; I had always found him easy to look upon, the tight black curls that covered his head, the eyes like ebony...
A slight pain startled me, and I stared in shock at the tiny drop of blood that beaded in the center of my palm, caused by a golden arrow gripped carelessly.
It did not occur to me to be cautious of where I next let my gaze fall. I raised my eyes and beheld the dark, muscular god before me, and I fell helplessly in love.
Not hopelessly. As the god of love, I had no doubt I could make him love me in turn. "What may I do for you?"
But at that moment, Demeter arrived. With her was her daughter Kore, the maiden.
"Greetings, Eros." Her voice grew chill, "Hades," and she turned, pointed, from him. "Eros, I come at Aphrodite's request."
"That is odd. She is not here."
"Strange." Her foot tapped impatiently. "Perhaps I misunderstood. Come, sweetling." Her expression as she gazed upon her daughter was beyond loving. "You said you wished to gather flowers with your friends?"
"Yes, please, Mother." She gave a small smile, and they were gone.
"I want her." Hades' face was flushed with lust. The black eyes he turned to me burned with his passion. He did not love her, but he wanted her. "You will see to it, will you not, Eros?"
My heart bled, but I nodded. "Of course."
There would be no 'of course'. Instead, when the maiden wearied of gathering flowers on the plain of Enna and sat beside the pool of the naiad Cyane, trailing her fingers in the cool water, almost as if she were stroking the soft flesh of a lover, I shot her with a golden arrow, and she fell in love with Cyane.
I watched as the two embraced, their lips but a breath apart.
Abruptly, the earth split apart, and Hades emerged in his chariot, as black as the six steeds that drew it. Flames shot forth each time a hoof struck the ground, and the ground itself trembled.
Hades seized the maiden and pulled her to him, while Cyane cried out in horror. To stop her cries, he struck the waters with his sword, and the young naiad, dissolved in tears of despair, sank to the bottom of the pool.
And I? Unable to do anything but watch in helpless dismay.
"Cyane! You brute!" Kore beat at his chest with her small fists, crying, "Mother! Mother!" But it was to no avail. He silenced her with a kiss, and in the blink of an eye they vanished.
Zeus materialized out of the air. Since there were no females for him to try to lure to his bed, he was in his usual guise of king of the heavens. "That was well done, think you not?" He rubbed his hands in glee.
"What have you done?"
"You were too slow in acting. Hades came to me."
"And you gave him what he wanted." I could not curse the king of the Olympians, but, oh, how great was my desire.
"Yes." He preened.
"Demeter will not be pleased to learn her daughter has been abducted."
"Nonsense. Kore is my daughter too. And after all, all mothers want their daughters wed to kings." He ran a hand over my golden feathers, tugged one loose, and used it to caress my lips.
I felt soiled. "I must go." And with no more than that, I left him standing there, gloating over the success of his scheme.
I spent my nights at the River Cocytus, the river of lamentation, lamenting a love I could never have.
And my days...
My days were spent standing on the balcony of my palace, gazing down toward the Underworld.
"This must cease!" Zeus appeared in my great hall, his mien harassed. "Demeter bewails her daughter's loss, and you ... "
"I thought all mothers wanted a king for their daughters." All of Olympus knew of Demeter's anguish, and all on Earth felt it.
He scowled at me. "Things are getting out of control!"
True. The land withered, became sere, and bore no fruit.
As for I? Mortals had to fall in love - or not - without my intervention.
I shrugged and walked away from him, out onto the balcony, where I stared down into the clouds that circled the crown of Mount Olympus, and he stormed away, shouting for Night.
A soft breeze wafted through my feathers, like a lover's touch, and I arched into it.
Behind me, someone approached. I did not need to turn to know it was Nyx, my mother. Her step was soundless; she could have been treading on air. But then, she probably was. The goddesses of the pantheon had no need to set their dainty feet upon common soil.
Petty. My thoughts shamed me.
She came to stand beside me, slid an arm around my waist, and rested her head upon my shoulder.
"My son."
I said nothing, did not meet her eyes.
"You are sad."
"That surprises you?"
"You are the god of love."
For all the good it did me. "The one I love is pining for someone who is pining for someone else."
"Zeus has spoken to Demeter, has spoken to Hades. Persephone will be returned to her mother."
Of course, Persephone. She was no longer a maiden. "Hades wants her still. He will bide his time until she returns to him."
"But he will be lonely. It is not good to be alone, my son." With that, she pressed her fingertips to my cheek and left me to ponder her words.
It was not good to be alone. I went to visit Hades in his kingdom.
His palace was ebon - onyx and obsidian and jet - the surfaces so polished I could see myself reflected back in the torchlight.
"What do you want?" he snarled when he saw me standing before him. "What good is the love I bear Persephone, when I can only have her with me for part of the year?"
"Have me for the other part of the year," I said in low tones.
"You?"
I found myself pressed up against a rough stone wall, feathers of my wings broken, and yet I was so aroused I felt nothing but the need to be possessed by the one I loved.
His teeth grazed my throat, and he inhaled deeply. "You smell of musk." There was a tearing sound and my linen tunic fell to the ground, shredded. "Your skin is soft, but beneath it I can feel sleek muscles." His hands wandered over my body, stroked over my chest to rouse nipples that pleaded for his lips, his teeth, his tongue. His fingers flexed over my hips and pulled me close against the hardness of his body, and he took my mouth with ferocity, biting and sucking.
"I want you," I whispered. I knew better than to speak of love. I dug my nails into his back and blindly sought his lips.
"Yes!" he growled, his breath warm and sweet as wine against my mouth. "Show me your tricks, pretty god."
My head was spinning as if I were in a whirlwind, and when the whirlwind stopped, I was on my back on a bed that no matter how soft, was painful against my broken feathers. I sat up enough to free my wings, the broken feathers healing even as my wings unfurled, and Hades caught his breath at the sight of my golden wings extended. He pushed me back down, pushed my thighs back and apart, and touched roughened fingertips to my cock, over my balls, and teased the sensitive skin behind them to dip shallowly into my hole. He pressed a kiss to a bottom cheek, then spread them, and his cock, thick and hard, breached my opening, thrust deep into me, and his mouth swallowed my moans.
There was no pain - with immortals there never was - but I had never been taken like this before. The sounds that spilled from my mouth were like those made by my acolytes, male or female, as I made love to them, but I cared not. I arched up to meet each thrust and begged him for more.
Hades caressed the blond curls that covered my head, that covered my groin, gave a hoarse laugh, and bit down on my earlobe. He rolled us over, and I was above him, impaled on his cock, and I whimpered and shivered.
"Such wide blue eyes. Fly for me, pretty god." He gripped my hips with powerful hands, and had I been mortal, bruises would have decorated the pale flesh.
My extended wings gave me balance. I leaned back and braced my hands on his thighs, flexing my fingers to knead the hard muscles. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the rise and fall, and whimpered when I felt his palm close around my cock, and he began to pull, all the while his cock, deep inside me, brushed against a spot of which I had been completely unaware.
How could I, the god of love and sexual desire, not have known of this wonder?
"Eros."
I opened my eyes.
His eyes dark and hot and snaring mine, my lover pressed his thumb on the crown of my cock and rubbed in circles, spreading the fluid that beaded at the tip, and with a startled gasp, I flew as I had never flown. Hades pulled me down as he surged up, and heat flooded me as he joined me on that flight.
My wings enfolded us, shielding us from any who might come in search of the dark lord. I placed the palm that had been pricked by the golden arrow over his heart, and we slept.
Time seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.
I lay on my stomach on our bed, while my lover stroked the pinions and vanes of my unfurled wings, making sure each golden feather lay just so.
"I love your wings," he murmured, and nuzzled the spot where they joined my spine. I wriggled in voluptuous pleasure.
"My Lord, my Lord!" One of his minions hovered in the doorway, its cloven hoof pawing the tiled floor, the grimace that passed as a smile on its face. "Your Lady is here!"
"Persephone!" He was gone before I realized it, a feather drifting to the floor. That tiny hurt was nothing compared to the pain that tore at my heart; that would have brought me to my knees had I been standing.
How could mortals bear it?
I gave myself a shake, rose and dressed in my tunic and sandals, and returned to my palace on Mount Olympus.
Time passed, although not so quickly. Finally, with the approach of spring, Persephone returned to her mother once more, and I returned to my lover.
Hades was pleased to see me, so pleased that he had me on his bed before I realized it, and as he entered me, he took my hand, brought it to his mouth, and, eyes fastened to mine, caressed the tiny scar with lips and tongue.
And so it went, year after decade after century. Until...
"Eros."
"Nemesis. Welcome, Sister." It was once again Persephone's time to be with Hades, and I was in my own palace. I went to her and kissed her on first one cheek and then the other. "I have not seen you in quite some time."
"I have been busy, dispensing divine justice, little brother. How do I find you?"
"I am well."
"You do not look well." She frowned at me. "You would not tell untruths to your sister, would you?"
I sighed. "This is my affair," and I flushed as I realized the truth of my words.
"You are hurting. I do not like to see this."
"This is my choice, Nemesis. You will not hurt him, promise me!"
"'Him'?" Her dark eyes narrowed. How odd that I of all the family should be so fair. One would have thought Aphrodite had given birth to me.
"Hades. The Lord of the Underworld is my lover."
"Hades, who is wed to Persephone? Oh, little brother, this is not well done."
"He needs someone during those months when his queen is with her mother. Who better than the god of ... of sexual desire?"
"But then he sends you away when she returns."
"Sister, it is my choice."
"Is it? One might think you pricked by one of your own arrows." Her eyes narrowed again at the flush that ran from my torso to my forehead. "Is there an antidote?" I shook my head, and she studied me thoughtfully. "You could shoot him with a golden arrow."
"I cannot." I raised my hand to forestall her protest. "I would an I could... But I love him so much... I want what is best for him, what makes him happy. I ... I cannot."
"You are a fool." I flinched, and she took me in her arms and rocked me. "Nevertheless, I love you, and that is without the aid of an arrow. I will make things well for you, little brother."
"You will not hurt him!" I commanded.
She murmured something I did not understand.
"What was that, Nemesis?"
"I will not hurt... him. This I promise you." She embraced me and left, and when nothing seemed to happen, I thought, not that she had forgotten her vow, for she did love me, but that her duties as goddess of vengeance occupied her time.
Spring approached, and Persephone went joyous to her mother and I, even more joyous, to the god I loved.
My time with Hades flowed on and on. During the day I visited my temples, which were filled with tokens of gratitude, for there were fewer and fewer mortals who found their love returned with indifference. And the nights were spent with my lover.
I awoke one morning with a start. Hades was pacing the sleeping chamber.
"What is it, my lo ... lord?"
"It is mid-summer."
"Yes?"
"It is mid-summer."
"I do not understand." But abruptly I did understand, and I felt myself turn cold. "Persephone... " Of course she knew of us, that during the months when Spring walked the Earth, I was in her husband's bed. A secret could not be kept on Mount Olympus. "Why has she not returned?"
"I do not know."
"I will leave." I got out of bed and began to dress. I would not bathe and wash his scent from my body, not now, perhaps not for a long time to come.
"Why?"
"Pardon?"
"Why do you leave, my pretty blue-eyed god? I have not asked you to go."
"But surely... "
"Eros." His eyes were warm, warmer than when he had looked upon Persephone when she was still Kore. He took my hand and turned it over, revealing the small scar on my palm, and brought it to his mouth. Then he turned over his hand, to reveal the golden arrow, and beside it, on his heartline, a drop of blood. He stroked my blond curls, and drew me into his embrace. "Persephone may be my Queen, but you, my pretty god," he tipped my chin up and kissed me, "you are my own."
Epilogue
I never learned how Nemesis managed to do what she did, or what promise she exacted from Demeter to prevent the Earth from once again suffering perpetual Winter.
All I knew was that Demeter gave over her duties to Hestia, goddess of the hearth. There was some discontent among the gods who remembered Demeter's reaction the first time she lost her daughter, but Zeus permitted it, and so Demeter left Mount Olympus, once more to search the Earth for her beloved daughter.
But that, as they say, is another story.
"Eros."
I gazed over my shoulder. "Yes, my love?"
Hades smiled and took my hand, raising it to his mouth. "Come," he murmured against the small scar on my palm." And he led me to our sleeping chamber.
~End~