Devil May Cry (20 page)

He clenched his teeth at the sound of his mother's voice in his head. “No, Metera. I'm just hurt that you kept her from me.”

“I would rather you be angry at me. Your hurt makes me ache.”

“I'm sorry.”

“Why do you apologize when I'm the one in the wrong?”

“Because I would never hurt you for anything.”

His mother appeared to him then as a pale Shade. “Come home, Apostolos. Free me and I will make sure you never hurt again.”

He shook his head. “I can't, Metera. You know that.”

She let out a tired breath. “One day, my child, you will seize the destiny you were born to.”

Ash hoped not. If he did, the world would end.

*   *   *

Kat
manifested back in Sin's penthouse. He was right where she'd left him by his bar, looking just as gorgeous.

He stood up from the bar stool and crossed the short distance between them. She could see the worry in his eyes. “Did you find him?” he asked anxiously.

She shook her head at the irony. She'd gone to find his brother and instead had found her father.

“Not exactly. But my father gave me this.” She lifted up the tiny red ball on her chest so that Sin could see it. “He said it would lead us to Zakar.”

A deep scowl marred his brow. “You met your father?”

She nodded.

“Are you all right?”

His concern warmed her a lot more than it should have. It was so touching. “Yeah. In a weird way, I think I am.”

He approached her slowly and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I really am.”

There was a tenderness on his face that she couldn't even begin to fathom. But it only lasted until his next question.

“So did he kill Artemis?”

Well, that was certainly an “ah” mood killer that wasn't helped by the eagerness of his tone. “Sin!”

“What?” he asked, his face a mask of innocence. “It's a legitimate question. I hope he cut her head off and stuck it on a pike.”

Men! Or more to the point, Sin! He was terrible. “Sorry to disappoint you, but she's still breathing.”

“Damn,” he said in a low tone. “Just once couldn't he give that—”

She arched a warning brow at him before he used the noun she despised.

“Woman,” he said with an expression that let her know he really resented using that word, “what she deserves?”

“Would you punish the mother of
your
daughter?” No sooner were those words out of her mouth than she realized she'd hit a hard chord in his heart. She could feel his pain and it stung her deep.

Honestly, he looked as if she'd struck him.

“Sin…” She took a step toward him, but he quickly stepped back.

“We need to find Zakar,” he said from between clenched teeth.

“Sin, don't change the subject. I want to know what's wrong. Why did my comment hurt you?”

“Let's just say you gave me clarity with one comment and leave it at that.”

But she didn't want to leave it at that. She wanted to understand him. “I know your wife cheated on you. I saw it.”

“And now you know why I never killed her over it. She was the mother of my children. Any other sore spots you wish to salt? I was once humiliated when I first tried to use my powers of flight as a kid. Instead of soaring over the mountain, I fell down and busted my chin. Why don't we call me incompetent all the way around? I assure you it was much less embarrassing than being a fertility god who couldn't satisfy his own wife.”

So that was the source of it.…

His shame made her ache for him. She cupped his face in her hands and stared at him so that he could see her sincerity. “And having been in your bed, I can honestly say that there had to have been something profoundly wrong with a woman who wasn't satisfied by you. Maybe it was a birth defect.”

He looked at her with hooded eyes. Even so, she could feel the comfort her words had given him. He reached up and covered her hands with his. “I can't believe you're related to … what was the term Simi used? ‘Bitch-goddess'?”

She rolled her eyes at him. “I know. I'm the watered-down version and you're lucky for that.”

He took her right hand and placed a gentle kiss on her knuckles. “Thank you, Kat.”

“Hey, I never say anything I don't mean. It's a curse I inherited from my father.”

Sin grinned at her. “I don't think it's a curse so much as refreshing.”

Her heart pounded at the light in his dark golden eyes. She had a bad feeling where he was concerned. There was something about him that she found so comforting and she didn't even know why. Something about him that just called out to her. She wanted to ease the pain in his gaze, and at the same time he gave her so much by doing nothing more than looking at her like he was doing right now.

It made her uncomfortable. She brushed her thumb over his fingers before she took a step back. Looking down, she picked up the small
sfora.
“I don't know if this will work, but are you ready to try?”

“More than ready.”

Kat closed her eyes and summoned Simi and Xirena to her side. Sin stiffened as they appeared in the room looking a bit peeved.

Kat smiled at him and his reservations. “We're having to go into who knows what. While I know you can kick serious demon ass and I can kick most demon ass, I still like the idea of having a little cavalry standing at our backs. Especially since they're probably hungry.”

He shook his head but didn't say anything.

“Where are we going,
akra
-Kat?” Simi asked.

“Food?” Xirena asked hopefully. “Watching all that Diamonique made me hungry.”

Kat wrinkled her nose at Xirena. “Knowing my luck, there will be many gallu for your dining pleasure tonight.”

Xirena and Simi rubbed their hands together in delight.

Kat laughed before she covered the
sfora
with her hand. “Okay, folks. Fasten your seat belts. This could very well be a bumpy ride.” She concentrated and waited with bated breath.

Nothing happened.

“You're not doing it right,” Simi said petulantly. “
Akra
-Kat has to take it off, put it in her palm, and think of who you're trying to find.”

“Oh.” She glanced to Sin. “Your brother looks like you?”

“Since we're twins … yeah.”

“Okay. One sexy Sumerian coming up.” Kat took the necklace off and closed her hand around the orb. As soon as she began to imagine Sin in her mind with Zakar's name, the orb began to glow. The rays spread out from between her fingers and danced along the walls like a strobe.

Then the red light slowly encompassed them. Two seconds later, they were in a damp cave. By the heavy earthen smell, it seemed to be deep underground. The
sfora
's light faded and left them encased in the darkness.

In fact, it was so dark that the only way she could see Simi and Xirena was by their glowing eyes. The silence was only broken by the sound of heavy, angry breathing. Kat tried to peer through the darkness to the source of the sound, but her eyes couldn't focus on it at all.

She reached out and felt Sin's biceps under her hand.

Sin lifted his hand and a small flame appeared from his palm so that they could see in the darkness.

At first all she could see was the earthen walls of the cave. Then the breathing stopped.

And so did hers.

There on the other side of the cave was the body of a man lying on a stone slab. But that wasn't what horrified her. It was how he'd been laid out. His left shoulder was pinned to the slab by a sword that had been buried through his body to the hilt in the stone. His right arm had been lifted and a smaller sword driven through his wrist to pin it down. His legs had been done in a similar fashion, only the swords had been planted through the fleshy parts of his calves.

Bile rose in her throat as they moved toward him.

Sin was silent, but she could feel the anger roiling through him. And once they were close enough, she saw the blood that was running from the wounds and the scars that marred every inch of the man's naked body. His hair was matted and long, as if it'd been years since anyone had washed or combed it. He was clean-shaven, but it was easy to see why that one bit of hygiene had been observed.

There were bite marks all over his neck. Some of them were long and jagged, as if the gallu had torn themselves away from his flesh in an effort to cause him as much pain as possible after their feedings.

But the worst was his eyes. Someone or something had seared them shut.

Xirena accidentally touched his leg as she neared him.

The man jerked his head toward her. “Fuck you, gallu,” he snarled in Sumerian before spitting in Xirena's direction. He tried to fight.

Kat winced as the swords tore into his flesh.

“Stop it, Zakar,” Sin said, moving closer to his brother so that he could hold him in place.

Zakar tried to bite him.

Sin cupped his brother's head in his hands. “Stop it. It's me. Sin. I'm here to free you.”

“Fuck you,” Zakar spat again.

Sin wiped the spittle off his face with the back of his hand. “Stop fighting. You're only hurting yourself more.”

Kat cringed as Zakar pulled his wrist up and the sword made a slight scraping noise against the stone. The pain of that action had to be killing him.

Sin held his brother's arm in place before jerking the sword free. Instead of being grateful, Zakar tried to punch him. When that failed, Zakar grabbed Sin by his hair and slammed his head into the stone by his side.

Sin cursed before he twisted out of Zakar's grasp. “Dammit, boy, you better be glad I love you.”

As Zakar continued to fight, he ignored Sin.

Kat stepped forward to help Sin. “I'll get the ones in his legs.”

“Let us,” Simi said as she pushed her back. “Charontes are stronger. We can pull them out in one clean motion and it'll hurt him less.”

Kat was grateful for their help—anything to spare the poor man more pain.

Moving to the side, she watched as Simi, Xirena, and Sin pulled the remaining swords free of the stone and Zakar's body. Zakar let out an echoing scream that sent a chill all the way to Kat's soul as he thrashed about in utter misery.

And as soon as he was free, he rolled to the floor and crouched to attack.

“Zakar!” Sin snapped, trying to make him understand. “It's Sin.”

Zakar lunged at Sin and wrapped his arms about him before tackling him to the floor.

Kat wanted to help but wasn't sure what would be the best course of action. More than that, she didn't want to hurt Zakar any more.

By Sin's face as he tried to keep his brother from hitting him, she could tell he felt the same way.

“Can we eat him?” Xirena asked.

“No,” Simi said quickly. “Eating people is wrong.…” She made a face. “The Simi sounds like
akri
now. But
akri
's right. Besides, it would make
akra
Kitty-Kat mad.”

Suddenly bright light filled the cavern. Sin and Kat froze as they realized they were no longer alone with Zakar.

“Well, well, looks like more food has arrived.”

CHAPTER TEN

Kat
turned at the growling tone that was similar to Kessar's voice. The demon looked a lot like him, but his hair was darker and his eyes were coal black. If that weren't enough to warm her day, there were six more demons behind him. Five males and one female.

“How cute,” the female said as she came around the males to stand in the front. “The blood slave has friends.”

Before Kat could even blink, the demons vanished only to reappear directly in front of each of them.

Except for Sin. The leader and two of the male demons surrounded him.

She tried to watch Simi and Xirena as their wings came out of their backs and they attacked the demons in front of them, but her vision was blocked by the female in front of her.
Gah,
in demon form, the gallu were really an unattractive race. The female's eyes were sharp and beady, and her lower jaw was distorted by the double row of fangs. Curling up with one of the gallu would be like getting close to Stephen Sommers's Mummy after only two kills.

Ew.…

The female tilted her head and smiled, showing off her fangs. “How wonderful. An Atlantean to eat.”

Kat snorted. “How wonderful. A bitch to declaw.”

The female ran at Kat, who quickly sidestepped, grabbed her arm, and slammed her into the cavern wall. That really had to hurt. Good. It was almost enough to make Kat smile.

Shrieking, the female gallu turned back to face her. Kat kicked her back and slugged her hard. She then stabbed the gallu straight in the heart and waited for her to explode.

She didn't.

“Between the eyes,” Sin snarled at her. “You can't take them out like a Daimon.”

Duh, how could she have forgotten that so soon? So much for her training.

The demon lunged at the same time Kat recovered her dagger and shoved it straight between the demon's eyes. The demon let out a piercing sound before she exploded all over Kat.

Ugh, gross.… Give her a Daimon any day over one of these. At least Daimons didn't smell when they exploded.

Disgusted, Kat shook it off and turned to see Simi and Xirena “eating” their gallu demons. Oh yeah, she'd never order pizza again after seeing that.

Note to self. In the future tell Simi to bring a bib along with the barbecue sauce.

Trying not to watch them as they feasted on body parts she could no longer even identify, Kat went to help Zakar, who was blindly stabbing at the demon who was tormenting him like a cat with a stray ball. Sin had two of his attackers dead at his feet and was working on the third as she ran across the room.