Darkest Seduction

Ares

I sit in my kitchen as Pheonix walks in, way to ruin my good mood. 

"No one saw you stab the guy and he won't be speaking to the police." He tells me sitting opposite me. 

I don't react as I continue to nurse my drink. 

"Want to tell me what possessed you to stab someone in public? Oh no, wait you don't need to because I know. He had his hands on Aria." Pheonix says, staring at me. 

He wants me to look at him but I just want him to leave. 

"Did Helen tell you that?" I ask him, calmly. 

Pheonix scoffs, "No. One of the men trailing you did. What happened Ares? You don't ever do things like that in public. What you did was stupid and impulsive this isn't like you." 

I have to laugh at that. 

"What's wrong little brother? Nervous I'm losing it and you might have to start sorting out your own messes. Huh. Yeah I know I have to be the perfect and controlled one so you can act like a fucking idiot with no consequences right?" I spat at him. 

I wasn't lying but I wasn't being entirely honest. I liked having control, I never wanted to be impulsive or reckless. But even if I wanted to be those things I couldn't be. Phoenix had taken that role. 

My brother says nothing as he pours his own glass of whiskey, "You really like her, don't you? And don't give me the bullshit excuse you gave Padre about her being hot and it being good politics. You like Aria." 

"I like the woman I'm going to marry. Well fuck." I say dryly, sipping my drink. 

"I'm trying to fucking be there for you, why are you being difficult?" 

Before I can think, I'm smashing my glass into the wall. Any ounce of control or restraint I had left the minute Aria opened her legs for me. 

"You haven't been there for me in the entire time I have known you. No one has. Padre wasn't, Zeus is a lost fucking cause and Madre takes enough pills to kill a small child. I am the sole reason our family is anything in this world. Alright? I fix your messes, I plan the business deals. I do everything, I do not need you to try to play brother now. It's insulting." My voice is calm despite the storm swirling in my head. 

Pheonix doesn't react, not at my actions or my words. He just sits there. And after a few seconds of me silently staring at him I understand he's waiting. 

He's really determined to be a brother to me. 

Fine, I will indulge him. 

"Look what love did to our mother. She's broken beyond repair, a shell of a woman she once was. I won't ever end up like that. You are not supposed to be in love with anyone in our world. It will be used against you. My one weakness cannot be something so easy to kill." 

"You think Aria is that fragile?" Pheonix responds and I sit down. 

"She's only human. Knives, guns, and explosions cannot kill pride or greed. But fuck they can kill the people you love." I choke out. 

I didn't want to talk about this, but it felt good to say it out loud. 

"You won't let yourself get to a point where you love her?" 

I couldn't. I couldn't love her. I wouldn't be able to survive it if anything happened to her. Love did make you weak, fuck what all the poets said. 

Loving someone was like having your own heart walk outside your body and hoping everything would be okay. 

Well, hope wasn't enough to reassure me. 

Maybe if I didn't have a hundred enemies, maybe if I could guarantee her safety. But I couldn't.