DH 05 Kiss Of The Night

KISS OF THE NIGHT

By

Sherrilyn Kenyon

What do you get when you have one immortal Viking warrior no one can remember five minutes after he leaves their presence, a princess on the run for her life, and one seriously annoyed demigod? Basical y, you get my life.

It started out simple enough. One night I went to save a woman in trouble. The next thing I knew, the doorway to hel had opened and out stepped Daimons—vampires the likes of which I’d never seen before.

Led by the son of Apol o, they are out to end the curse that has banished them al to darkness. The only problem with that is they have to kil Cassandra Peters to do it and if she dies, so dies the sun, the earth and al who dwel here. Life’s just a bowl ful of cherries, ain’t it?

Brought together by fate, it’s now my job to protect a daughter of the very race I have been hunting for centuries. Neither of us dares to trust the other. But she is the only one who remembers me… More than that, with her courage and strength, she is the only one who has ever touched a heart that I thought had died centuries ago.

The only way for a Dark-Hunter to regain his soul is through the love of a woman. But what happens when that woman isn’t exactly human?

KISS

OF THE

NIGHT

Some kisses are worth dying for…

Sherrilyn

Kenyon

USA Today
Bestselling Author of
Dance with the Devil

A Dark-Hunter Novel

“If you love
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
or
Angel
, then boy, is this the book for you… original and complex…

the characters are unforgettable and the action thril ing.”

—
Romantic Times
Top Pick on
Night Pleasures

“A wild, wicked delight… no one does sexy, tormented heroes better—or more inventively—than Sherrilyn Kenyon.”

—Nicole Jordan, bestsel ing author of
Ecstasy
on
Night Pleasures

“By turns funny and touching… a compel ing story that wil make you laugh out loud. The gods haven’t had this much fun since Xena!”

—Susan Krinard, author of
Secret of the Wolf
on
Night Pleasures

“Sherrilyn Kenyon’s imagination is as bright as her future.”

—Teresa Medeiros, author of A
Kiss to Remember
on
Night Pleasures

“Fabulous… one series that belongs on the keeper shelf.”

—readertoreader.com on
Night Pleasures

“Get out a fan. New Orleans is hot and steamy, so is this story.”

—
Old Book Barn Gazette
on
Night Pleasures

St. Martin’s Paperbacks Titles

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Fantasy Lover

Night Pleasures

Night Embrace

Dance with the Devil

KISS OF THE NIGHT

Copyright (c) 2004 by Sherrilyn Kenyon.

Excerpt from
Night Play
copyright (c) 2004 by Sherrilyn Kenyon.

ISBN: 0-312-99241-6

Printed in the United States of America

St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition
April 2004p>

St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY10010

.

KISS OF THE NIGHT

Sherrilyn Kenyon

St. Martin’s Paperbacks

Thrylos

Atlantis”

Fabled.Mystical. Golden. Mysterious. Glorious and magical.

There are those who claim that it never was.

But then there are also those who think they are safe in this modern world of technology and weapons.

Safe from al the ancient evils. They even believe that wizards, warriors, and dragons are long dead.

They are fools clinging to their science and logic while thinking it wil save them. They can never be free or safe, not so long as they refuse to see what is right before their very eyes.

Because al ancient myths and legends are rooted in truth, and sometimes truth doesn’t make us free.

Sometimes it enslaves us more.

But come, fair ones, and listen to me tel a tale about the history of the most perfect paradise that ever existed. Beyond the mythical Pil ars of Heracles, out in the great Aegean, was a once proud land that nourished a race of people far more advanced than any who came before or since.

Founded in the ancient mists of time by the primordial god Archon, Atlantis took her name from Archon’s eldest sister, Atlantia, whose name meant “graceful beauty.” Archon conjured the isle with the help of his uncle, the ocean god Ydor, and his sister Eda (earth) to give the land to his wife Apol ymi so that they could populate the continent with their divine children, who would have al the room they needed to romp and grow.

Apol ymi wept with such joy at her gift that her tears flooded the land and made Atlantis a city within a city.

Twin islands ringed by five channels of water.

Here she would birth her immortal children.

But it was soon discovered that the great Destroyer, Apol ymi, was barren. At the request of Archon, Ydor spoke to Eda and together they created a race of Atlanteans to populate the islands and to bring joy again to Apol ymi’s heart.

It worked.

Golden and fair in honor of the god-queen, the Atlanteans were far superior to any other race of man. They alone gave Apol ymi pleasure and made the great Destroyer smile.

Peace-loving and just, like their ancient gods, the Atlantean people knew no war. No poverty. They used their psychic minds and their magicks to live harmoniously within the balance of nature. They welcomed al foreigners who came to their shores and shared with them their gifts of healing and prosperity.

But as time passed and other pantheons and peoples arose to chal enge them, the Atlanteans were forced to fight for their homeland.

To protect their people, the Atlantean gods came into constant conflict with the upstart Greek pantheon. To them, the Greeks were children fighting for possession of things they could never understand. The Atlanteans tried to deal with them as any parent would an angry toddler. Fairly. Patiently.

But the Greeks wouldn’t listen to their ancient wisdom. Zeus and Poseidon, among others, were jealous of the Atlantean riches and serenity.

Yet it was Apol o who coveted their island the most.

A ruthless, cunning god, Apol o set into motion a means to take over Atlantis from the older gods. Unlike his father and uncle, he knew the Greeks could never defeat the Atlanteans in open warfare. It was only from within that one could conquer the ancient advanced civilization.

So when Zeus banned Apol o’s warring race, the Apol ites, from their native Greece, Apol o gathered his children together and led them across the sea to the shores of Atlantis.

The Atlanteans sympathized with the psychic, godlike Apol ite race that had been persecuted by the Greeks. They looked to the Apol ites as cousins and welcomed them so long as they abided by Atlantean law and caused no strife.

Publicly the Apol ites did as they were told. They made sacrifices to the Atlantean gods while never breaking their covenant with their father, Apol o. Every year they picked the most beautiful virgin among them and sent her to Delphi as an offering to Apol o for his kindness in giving them a new home where they would one day reign as gods.

In the year 10,500 B.C. the beautiful aristocrat Clieto was sent to Delphi. Apol o fel instantly in love and sired five sets of twins on her.

It was through his lover and her children that he foresaw his destiny. At long last, they would lead him to the throne of Atlantis.

He sent his mistress and children back to Atlantis where they married into the Atlantean royal family. As Apol o’s older children had intermarried with the native Atlanteans and blended the two races together, making his children even stronger, so would they. Only he would keep the royal bloodline pure to ensure the strength and loyalty of the Atlantean crown to him.

He had plans for Atlantis and his children. Through them, Apol o would rule the entire earth and cast down his father as his father had cast down the old god Cronus before him.

It was said that Apol o himself would visit the queen of every generation and father the male Atlantean heir on her.

As every eldest son was born, Apol o would then go to his oracles to find out if this son would be the one to overthrow the Atlantean gods.

Every year he was told no.

Until 9548 B.C.

As was his custom, Apol o visited the Atlantean queen whose king had died more than a year before. He came to her as a phantom and fathered his son on her while she slept dreaming of her dead husband.

It was also that year that the Atlantean gods became aware of their own destinies. For the queen of the Atlantean gods, Apol ymi, found herself pregnant with Archon’s child.

After al the centuries of aching for a child of her own, the Destroyer at long last had her desires granted. It was said the island of Atlantis flourished that day and knew more prosperity than ever before. The god-queen celebrated joyously as she told al the other gods of her news.

As soon as the Fates heard her announcement, they looked at Apol ymi and Archon and proclaimed that Apol ymi’s unborn son would bring about the death of them al .

One by one, the three Fates each spoke a single line of prophecy.

“The world as we know it wil end.”

“Al our fates wil rest in his hands.”

“As a god, his every whim wil reign supreme.”

Terrified of their prediction, Archon ordered his wife to slay the unborn infant.

Apol ymi refused. She had waited too long to have her child to see him needlessly dead over the words of the jealous Fates. With the help of her sister, she birthed her son prematurely and hid him away in the mortal world. To Archon, she delivered a stone baby.

“I’ve had enough of your infidelities and lies, Archon. From this day forward you have hardened my heart toward you. A stone baby is al you wil ever have from me.” Enraged, Archon trapped her in Kalosis, a nether realm between this world and theirs. “There you wil stay until your son is dead.”

And so the Atlantean gods turned on Apol ymi’s sister until they forced a confession from her.

“He wil be born when the moon swal ows the sun and Atlantis is bathed in total darkness. His queenly mother wil weep in fear of his birth.”

The gods went to the Atlantean queen whose son’s birth was imminent. As predicted, the moon eclipsed the sun as she struggled to give birth, and when her son was born, Archon demanded the baby be slain.

The queen wept and begged for Apol o to aid her. Surely her lover wouldn’t see his own son kil ed by the older gods.

But Apol o ignored her and she watched helplessly as her newborn son was slain before her eyes.

What the queen didn’t know was that Apol o had already been told what was going to happen and it wasn’t his son she bore, but another child he had switched in her womb to save his own.

With the help of his sister, Artemis, Apol o had taken his son home to Delphi where the boy was raised among Apol o’s priestesses.

As the years passed and Apol o failed to return to the Atlantean queen to father another heir, her hatred of him grew. She despised the Greek god who couldn’t be bothered to give her a child to replace the one she had lost.

Twenty-one years after she had witnessed the sacrifice of her only child, the queen learned of another child fathered by the Greek god Apol o.

This one was born to a Greek princess who had been given to the god as an offering in hopes of swaying the god’s benediction toward the Greeks, who were at war with the Atlanteans.

As soon as the news reached the queen, her bitterness swel ed deep inside until the tide of it overwhelmed her.

She summoned her own priestess to ask where the heir to her empire would be found.

“The heir to Atlantis resides in the house of Ancles.”

The same house where Apol o’s new infant son had been born.

The queen screamed in outrage at the proclamation, knowing Apol o had betrayed his own children. They were forgotten while he forged a new race to replace them.