Marcus' Prey

Prologue

I knelt in front of the thirteen assholes, inwardly seething. How dare they think to command me? They fear my very presence. I knew it. I could smell it on the air, acrid and sour.

And these are the supposed "major" gods? Their weakness did dishonor to Greece.

Zeus, the spineless weasel, was the first to speak.

"You may rise, Thanatos."

I snapped my head up at that statement, my eyes surely blazing at his crude attempt to undermine me. I saw the brief flash of nervousness in the King of Olympus' eyes, and Hera gasped quietly in abject fear. I fought back my signature wolfish grin. Hera was a stone-cold bitch, and nothing pleased me more than making her sweat. The only gods in the room who looked unconcerned by my wrath were Athena, Hephaestus, and unsurprisingly, Hades. They were also the closest thing I had to friends.

"I will rise as I wish, just as I chose to kneel. I do not require, nor particularly care for your permission, Zeus."

My voice was icy, cutting through the silence like a frigid whip. Indeed, Zeus and several others flinched as if I'd swung a leather strap.

These fuckers would never get that honor.

"For once, I believe I speak for all of us," Hades spoke up calmly, albeit with a hint of a smirk, "When I say we apologize for my buffoon of a younger brother's transgression."

Zeus' stormy eyes flashed with barely restrained fury, but he couldn't speak without risking offending me. Hades was one clever bastard.

We tended to get along quite well.

"I have no patience for further politics, Athena barked, her tone that of a general on the field of battle, "My father has a foolish and idiotic task for you."

"Quiet yourself, Athena!" Hera sneered, tossing perfectly coiffed dark hair over a pale shoulder, "You've spoken your piece."

I paid no mind to the pointless bickering. I let the wicked grin that had been hovering just below the surface to show itself. The room went dead silent at its appearance.

I smiled like a predator, and they knew they were the prey.

"If Athena believes my 'task' to be foolhardy, then surely it is," I snapped, my voice low and lethal, "The fact that you've lost sight of that bodes ill."

Athena inclined her head in the barest of nods. Her equivalent of a wild declaration of undying friendship.

Of course, it would not be tactically wise for her to do so, so she refrained.

Like Hera, she was also a stone-cold bitch. But, unlike Hera, Athena was my stone-cold bitch.

"As you know, there is a new religion rising. In the broken remnants of Rome, they worship a singular 'God'." Hephaestus drawled, undoubtedly just to irritate his mother. It was effective.

"I am aware, of course. I hardly live under a rock, Blacksmith." Hephaestus' expression told me exactly what he thought about that. "And yet I do not see how the Byzantines should concern us. They are merely the dying embers of a once great empire." I waved my hand dismissively to punctuate my words.

"Ah, how must it feel to transcend the pantheons?" Hera muttered sarcastically under her breath. She hadn't meant for me to hear it, but I did.

And I never could resist a snide comment.

"It feels delicious." My voice was a purr, which I wielded it like a weapon, the low baritone as lethal as it was soothing.

"They are not a threat to you, perhaps," Zeus snapped, his voice cutting. "You are Death. Universal. Untouchable. But to us, the Byzantine's betrayal of their old faith weakens us significantly."