The Dark-Hunters (121 page)

Artemis’s face softened a degree, as if she could relate. “Yes, I understand.”

“Then can I—”

“The answer is still no.”

“Why?”

“Because nothing in this world is ever free. If you want his soul back you have to earn it or pay for it.”

“How?”

Artemis shrugged.
“You
can’t. You have nothing I want or value, therefore you have nothing to barter with.”

“Oh, come on, are you serious?”

“Deadly.” Artemis flashed into vapor and vanished.

Ugh! Sunshine wanted to throttle the woman. How could she be so selfish?

“Artemis!” she called out before she could stop herself. “You seriously suck!”

Closing her eyes, Sunshine sighed. What was she to do now? There was no way that selfish heifer would ever let go of Talon’s soul.

What were they going to do?

*   *   *

Amanda Devereaux-Hunter woke up at seven-thirty in the morning. She glanced absently at the clock and closed her eyes, then jerked to full alertness as the time dawned on her.

It was seven-thirty
A.M
. and her infant daughter, Marissa, hadn’t awakened for her five o’clock feeding.

Not quite panicked, but definitely concerned about her baby, she got up and went to the nursery in the room beside hers.

As she neared the crib, her heart stopped.

It was empty.

At only three weeks of age, there was no chance Marissa had gotten up and walked away.

Oh God, it was Desiderius!

He’d come back for them!

Terror gripped her at the thought. Ever since she and Kyrian had defeated that monster, she’d had recurring nightmares of him returning from the dead for vengeance against them.

“Kyrian!” She raced back to the bed and woke her husband.

“What is it?” he asked grumpily.

“It’s Marissa. She’s gone.”

Kyrian sat up, fully alert now. “Gone where?”

“She’s not in her crib. I don’t know where she is.”

He sprang from bed and grabbed his pants from the floor. Without waiting for Kyrian, Amanda ran through the upstairs, her heart pounding.

Where could her baby be?

The thought of losing her child was her worst nightmare.

She dashed down the stairs to see if the front door was open. If maybe someone had come in and taken her.

As she started into the living room, Amanda pulled up short. Shocked to the core of her being, she focused her gaze on the most unbelievable sight she’d ever beheld.

Acheron lay on the leather couch with Marissa cuddled contentedly on top of his muscular chest, up under his chin.

A pack of diapers was on the coffin-shaped coffee table along with an empty bottle of formula.

Relief and disbelief flooded her simultaneously.

When she had first met Acheron a little over a year ago, he had been the most terrifying thing she’d ever seen. A man possessed of incredible powers and contradictions, she had no doubt he could wish all of them into oblivion and yet there he lay with her infant daughter cradled tenderly in his huge hands.

“Is something…” Kyrian’s voice trailed off as he, too, saw them.

She looked up at him over her shoulder. “I didn’t know Ash liked babies.”

“Neither did I. The uncomfortable way he’s been behaving with Marissa in the house, I just assumed he had no use for them.”

Kyrian was right. Ash had done nothing but avoid being around Marissa as much as possible. Every time she cried, he actually cringed and made a hasty exit. Amanda would never have guessed that he would actually tend her daughter.

Crossing the room, she reached for the baby.

Ash came awake with a look so feral and fierce that she stepped back with an audible gasp.

He sat up on the couch, but didn’t move farther.

He blinked as he saw her and Kyrian.

“Sorry,” Ash breathed. “I didn’t realize it was you.”

“I was just going to take her off you.”

He glanced down at Marissa who was still sleeping within the shelter of his hands. “Oh. I must have fallen asleep while I was burping her.”

He handed her to Amanda and the way he did it told her a lot. Acheron had an expertise that said he’d handled a baby more than just a few times.

“I hope I didn’t scare you,” he said apologetically. “She was crying when I came in and I went upstairs to make sure she was okay.” He looked strangely pale, as if the thought of a baby crying was somehow painful for him. “Since the two of you were still sleeping and I was up, I figured I’d give you guys a break.”

Amanda bent over and kissed him on the cheek. “You’re a good man, Ash. Thanks.”

A pain-filled look crossed his face as he pulled back from her. He got up from the couch and picked his backpack up from the floor. “I’ll go on up to bed.”

Kyrian stopped him as he started for the hallway. “You okay, Acheron? You look kind of shaken.”

Ash laughed at that. “When have I ever been shaken?”

“Good point.”

He clapped Kyrian on the shoulder. “I’m just tired.”

“Yeah, I was wondering where you spent yesterday. You never came back here to sleep.”

“I had something to take care of. Something that wouldn’t wait.”

Amanda sighed. “You know, Ash, one day you’re going to have to learn to confide in someone.”

“Good night, Amanda,” Ash said. He inclined his head to Kyrian and headed for the stairs.

Amanda joined her husband as Acheron vanished upstairs. “I can’t believe you’ve known him for twenty-one hundred years and you know so little about him that you can’t even tell me his real hair color.”

He shrugged. “Ash is so self-contained and -controlled that I doubt if anyone will ever know anything about him other than his name.”

*   *   *

Sunshine lay in her bed long into the morning, remembering the sound of Talon’s deep, even breaths while he slept.

She remembered the way he liked to keep his knee snuggled high between her thighs and his arm draped possessively over her chest with his left hand buried in her hair.

How she missed him.

Then, her thoughts drifted into the past. Far into her other life …

“Don’t go, Speirr. There is evil in this. I know it.”

Angry, he’d jerked his arm free of her grasp. “They murdered my uncle, Nynia. Cut him down before my eyes. I will not rest until I have vengeance.”

As Nynia, she had been too afraid of losing him to press the matter. She’d always deferred to him in all things. He was her husband. But in her heart, she’d known he was about to set matters into motion that could never be reversed.

And she had been right.

Just as she knew somehow tonight would settle everything one way or another.

What if she lost Talon?

She couldn’t bear the thought of it any more than she could bear the thought of living out her life without him.

She glanced around her loft, at all the familiar things.

Since the day she’d divorced Jerry, all she had wanted was her career, her art.

Now, alone with her stuff, it just didn’t seem quite so important to her.

Her art didn’t hold her at night. It didn’t make her laugh or seduce her. It didn’t make her body burn with desire or shiver with orgasms.

It didn’t punch Jerry in the nose for being a jerk.

Only Talon did that.

Only Talon
could
do that.

Her eyes fell to the Snoopy dispenser as tears welled up. “I can’t let him go.”

If only she knew how to keep him.

*   *   *

Zarek sat in the darkened corner of the living room, listening to the city outside awaken. He should be sleeping, resting up for the night that was to come, but he couldn’t seem to find the peace he needed.

His phone rang.

He answered it to find Dionysus on the other end.

“Are you ready for tonight?”

Zarek took a drink of vodka before he answered. “I’m always ready to cause trouble.”

“Good. Since Talon is now on to Styxx, it requires a little more effort for tonight’s preparations. I’ll need you to get Sunshine away from the Celt and bring her to me. She has to be in the warehouse by eleven-thirty. Now rest and be ready to kill Talon and Valerius.”

That he could do with no problem. “What about Acheron?”

“Leave him to us.”

The phone went dead.

Zarek tossed his cell phone aside and returned his attention to the vodka. He’d already drank three-quarters of it. It was a pity Dark-Hunters couldn’t get drunk. For that matter, they couldn’t even get numb. The only induced pleasure they could take was human blood.

Closing his eyes, he remembered the woman he had tasted last night. Now she had been full of passion. Laughter. Even love. And there for a short time he had felt something other than the pain that cocooned him.

He leaned his head back against the wall and finished off the vodka, letting its smooth taste burn down his throat.

And as he sat there, alone, he couldn’t help but wonder how Sunshine would taste …

*   *   *

Talon got up alone to the smell of turpentine on his sheets. He should have washed them, but he couldn’t bear the thought of losing that last bit of her.

He wanted his Sunshine. He needed her.

And she was lost to him forever.

Sighing, he got up, showered and dressed, then headed into the city.

Tonight everything would be decided.

As soon as the sun set, he rode his motorcycle to Sanctuary where Ash had told him to meet everyone.

Instead of meeting them in the bar itself, he went to the building next door that was also owned by the bear clan.

Attached to the bar by a locked door in the kitchen, the other building was where the bears and certain were-members of the staff lived. The house was equipped with a makeshift hospital, complete with a doctor and a vet.

Sanctuary was more than just a bar. It was a safe haven for any Dark- or Were-Hunter who needed aid.

By the time Talon was admitted into the drawing room of Peltier House, the Peltier quadruplets had already been dispatched to patrol the Mardi Gras crowd for Daimons.

Julian and Kyrian were locked in a holding cell upstairs where Mama Lo Peltier was guarding them until morning. Even in the drawing room, Talon could hear them threatening to kill Valerius, who stood by the fireplace with a sneer on his face.

Nick sat in a stuffed chair, munching a bag of potato chips, and Eric St. James sat on the couch, staring into space.

Almost thirty years old, Eric looked a lot younger. He had long black hair and was another one of the goth contingency.

He’d come into their community as a second-generation Squire, but preferred Dorean Status, meaning he didn’t serve one particular Hunter. He served anyone who needed him.

“Acheron, you better let me out of here,” Kyrian shouted from upstairs. “Do you hear me?”

“Sounds like I missed a party,” Talon said to Ash, who was standing with his back against the far wall.

“You have no idea. I decided it was best to keep Kyrian and Julian locked up until morning. I already called and told Amanda and Grace not to worry about them.”

“I really wish you would let them out,” Valerius said to Ash.

Ash didn’t bother to comment.

Instead, he stared at Talon. “You almost look normal tonight. Are you going to stay that way?”

“I told you I could contain myself.” So far, it was working.

Talon was at peace with the fact that come the dawn he’d be having it out with Camulus.

When Ash stepped forward to speak, it dawned on Talon that Zarek was nowhere to be seen.

Was he upstairs too?

“Where’s Zarek?” he asked Ash.

“I have him guarding Sunshine.”

Now that destroyed his calm.

“Like hell!” Talon roared.

“Trust me, Talon. I believe in Zarek to do the right thing.”

Talon’s response was emphatic. “I don’t trust him. At all. And after this, I’m not sure if I trust you.”

“Enough of the bickering,” Ash said. “Just do as I told you and everything should work out.”

“Should?” Talon asked.

When Ash spoke, there was an odd note in his voice that made Talon wonder how much more Ash knew than he was telling them. “We have predestinies, Talon, but human will can circumvent them. If everyone does as I’ve instructed, then things should work out the way they’re meant to.”

Talon clenched his teeth. “And if we don’t?”

“We’re all screwed.”

“Gee, Ash,” Nick said sarcastically, “you’re just so damn comforting.”

Ash gave him a wry look. “I try to be anyway.”

Nick’s answer was flat. “You fail admirably.”

Talon was still stewing.

Ash spoke to all of them. “What I need everyone to know is that we have a truly sinister night ahead of us. It seems Dionysus and Camulus have combined their forces to try and get themselves reinstated to their full godhoods.”

“How are they planning on doing that?” Valerius asked.

“The two of them aren’t strong enough to do it on their own. They need the power of a third god to aid them.”

“What god?” they all asked simultaneously.

“Apollymi.”

“Who the hell is Apollymi?” Talon asked. “I’ve never even heard of her.”

One corner of Ash’s mouth turned up wryly. “She’s an old god who dates back to my time. One who has powers over life, vengeance, and death. The Atlanteans affectionately referred to her as the Destroyer.”

“Is she like Hades?” Valerius asked.

“Oh no,” Ash said ominously, “this god makes Hades look like a Boy Scout. Apollymi finishes off her victims with an iron hammer and commands an army of malformed demons.

“The last time someone freed her, plagues and suffering permeated the world and she sent Atlantis straight to the bottom of the sea. She headed across Greece, laying waste to the entire country, and setting them back culturally thousands of years before she was finally returned to her holding cell. The Destroyer will unleash holy hell on this earth. Starting with New Orleans.”

“Oh goodie,” Nick said sarcastically. “I just love knowing about these things.”

Ash ignored him.

“So how do they intend to free the Destroyer?” Talon asked.