The Dark-Hunters (125 page)

“You can’t kill me,” Styxx squeaked out. “If you do, Acheron dies too.”

“And I curse the day the Fates bound your life force to his.” She narrowed her eyes at him as if she wanted nothing more than to splinter him where he stood. “You’re right. I can’t kill you, but I can make living a worse hell than anything you can imagine.”

“What are you going to do to me?” Styxx asked.

She smiled evilly. “You’ll see, little human, you’ll see.”

Styxx vanished.

Artemis turned to face them. She took a deep breath and seemed to calm down exponentially.

“Take care of your soul, Speirr,” she said to Talon. “Know that it was purchased for you at a very dear cost.” Then she too vanished.

That left them alone with Camulus.

“Well,” Talon said to the Celtic god. “It appears your friends have abandoned you.”

Camulus sighed. “What a pity. Excess, War, and Destruction. Together, we would have had a high time on earth. Oh well. I shall just have to content myself with taking her from you again. After all, she gave me her soul and now I wish to claim it. And of course, the fun thing about souls, they can only be claimed from a dead body.”

Camulus started for her.

Talon pulled his srads out ready to do battle.

Out of nowhere, a bright flash lit the room. It faded into a form that was almost as dear to Sunshine as Talon’s.

“Grammy?” Sunshine asked in disbelief.

Her grandmother stepped between them and Camulus. She faced the Celtic god with a stern glower. “’Fraid not, hon. You don’t own bupkis.”

Camulus was aghast at her appearance. “Morrigán? What are you doing here? This doesn’t concern you.”

“Oh yes, it does.” Her grandmother transformed from a little old lady into the beautiful war goddess Talon had met in his days as a mortal man.

Talon went cold.

Sunshine sputtered. “Excuse me? What is this?”

Her grandmother looked at Sunshine apologetically. “I didn’t mean for you to find out this way, Little Bit, but Acheron and I had to stop them from unleashing Apollymi. And to get Talon free, we needed the two of you here to face Camulus.”

Talon gaped.

Ash had known all about this? Why hadn’t he told him?

The Morrigán turned back to Camulus. “Sorry, Cam. For once
you
forgot to read the fine print. You agreed with Bran to let Nynia be reborn to mortal parents for your scheme. You never specified that her grandparents be mortal too.

“Since I couldn’t help Speirr escape your curse and his bargain without declaring war on you and Artemis, I figured the least I could do was return his wife to him in the body of someone you couldn’t touch. Nynia now reborn as Sunshine is flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood. When Speirr drank from her neck, he took my blood into him and now he, too, has my protection.”

Camulus cursed.

Her grandmother wrinkled her nose. “It just reeks, doesn’t it? You can’t kill her or him unless you want to fight me.”

Talon exchanged a stunned look with Sunshine.

“One day, Morrigán. One day…” Camulus flashed out of the room.

The Morrigán took a deep breath, then turned around to face them. “Congratulations, kids.”

“I’m free?” Talon asked, still unable to believe it.

The Morrigán nodded. “With your Dark-Hunter powers intact.”

Sunshine hesitated. “Is he still a Dark-Hunter?”

“No,” her grandmother said. “Artemis released him from his vow when she gave up his soul. Once psychic powers are bestowed on someone, they remain with them forever.”

Sunshine smiled. “So he can go out into daylight now?”

“Yes.” The Morrigán looked suddenly uncomfortable. “By the way, there’s something I need to tell you two.”

“What?” they asked in unison, both of them afraid of what she might say.

“Because of the way our pantheon works, the two of you are…” She bit her lip and wrung her hands.

“We are what?” Talon prompted, terrified of what was coming next. When dealing with a god, one could never be too careful.

“You’re immortal unless you renounce it.”

Sunshine blinked. “What?”

Her grandmother cleared her throat. “You and your brothers were born immortal, sweetie. It’s why you still look like a baby even though you’re pushing thirty.”

“Does that mean Mom’s immortal too?” she asked.

“No. Since your father isn’t, she decided that she would give up her immortality to age with him. But since it was my blood that gave her immortality, it was passed on from her to you and then from you to Talon.”

Joy ripped through Talon. “You mean I never have to watch her die again?”

“Never. Not unless you choose to.”

“Oh hell no,” Talon said, laughing.

“I figured as much.” The Morrigán stepped back. “Well, I’m sure the two of you have a lot to do. Like plan a wedding. Go make lots of babies.” She took their hands into hers and then pressed them together. “I expect a large number of great-grandkids from you two.”

The Morrigán vanished, leaving them to stare at each other in wonderment.

Sunshine licked her lips as she stared up at him. She couldn’t believe everything that had happened tonight.

Most of all, she couldn’t believe she had Talon for her own. “So what’s our first course of action?”

That familiar look came into his amber eyes. “Try to make a baby?”

She laughed at him. “Sounds good, but it’ll probably take us the rest of the night to get back to your cabin.”

“True, but your loft isn’t that far away…”

Sunshine smiled. “No, it isn’t.”

He kissed her hand and then led her from the room.

They left the building and blended into the monstrous crowd of Mardi Gras celebrants who were heading home. Sunshine’s heart was light as they walked hand in hand, until they reached the street.

Gasping, she pulled Talon back as a giant float narrowly missed him. Then she burst out laughing. “What is it with you and the Mardi Gras floats?”

“It’s not the floats, love, it’s you. Whenever you’re around, everything else fades from my notice.”

She bit her lip impishly. “You keep talking like that and I’ll definitely take you home, lock you up, and throw away the key.”

“That’s fine with me, just make sure you’re naked when you do it.”

Chapter 19

Zarek watched as Talon and Sunshine vanished into the crowd. He was happy for Sunshine, but he couldn’t understand what the two of them felt for one another.

He’d never known any kind of love.

“Fuck it,” he snarled, limping away from the building. He needed to get back to his townhouse.

“Dionysus will be coming for you.”

He paused at the sound of Acheron’s voice behind him. “So?”

Ash sighed as he drew near. “Can we not have a truce?”

Zarek scoffed at the thought. “Why? Mutual disdain suits us so well.”

“Z, I’m too tired for this. Give me something to use with Artemis. Something that will make her want to give you another chance.”

Zarek laughed bitterly. “Yeah, right. After what I saw in there you don’t honestly expect me to believe that she pulls your chain, do you? How stupid do I look?”

“Things aren’t always what they seem.”

Maybe, but Zarek wasn’t willing to give on this. He’d screwed himself royally tonight. The moment he had turned on the gods, he’d known they would make him pay.

Not that he cared.

Let them come for him.

“Look,” he said, turning his back to Acheron, “I’m tired and hungry, and I just want to lie down until my injuries heal, okay?”

“Okay.”

Zarek paused as a group of college students stumbled past, laughing and teasing each other. He watched them curiously.

They turned a corner and vanished.

He looked around at the drunken tourists and locals who were screaming and cheering. It was almost one
A.M
. now and still the city was alive and vibrant even though the crowd was being told to disperse.

“When do I go back?” Zarek asked, dreading the answer.

“Tomorrow. Nick’ll be by to pick you up about two. He’ll have a tinted van that can get you out to the airstrip without exposing you to daylight.”

Zarek closed his eyes and winced as he thought about returning to Alaska. A few weeks more and spring would arrive.

He’d be housebound again.

A flash to his left caught his attention. Three seconds later, a Daimon came running through the crowd. The Daimon flashed his fangs and snarled at Zarek as if he had no idea who or what he was facing.

Zarek smiled evilly, anticipating what he was about to do.

“What are you?” the Daimon asked when he failed to scare or intimidate him.

Zarek quirked his lips. “Oh please, let me give you the job description. Me, Dark-Hunter. You, Daimon. I hit, you bleed. I kill, you die.”

“Not this time.” The Daimon attacked.

Acting on instinct, Zarek caught him in the throat and used his claw to kill him.

The Daimon evaporated as Valerius came running up through the crowd.

The Roman was breathing hard and had obviously been chasing after the Daimon for some distance. Valerius looked at Ash and inclined his head, then he glanced to Zarek and froze.

Zarek met his shocked gaze without flinching. As per Ash’s orders, he had shaved his goatee off.

Recognition darkened Valerius’s eyes as he stood there without blinking.

Zarek gave him a wry smile. “Surprise,” he said quietly. “Bet you didn’t see that one coming.”

Without another word, he headed off into the crowd, leaving Valerius and Acheron to their own ends.

Chapter 20

NEW ORLEANS AT DAWN

Brothers. The word hung in Valerius’s heart as he stared at the marble bust in his foyer. It was the face of his father.

It was the face of his brother.

Zarek.

Pain racked him as he stood there trying to reconcile the past with the present. Why had he never seen the resemblance?

But he knew. He’d never really looked at Zarek before tonight.

A pathetic lowborn slave, Zarek had been so far beneath his notice that he had barely glanced at the boy.

There had only been one time in their lives when he had truly seen him.

He couldn’t remember now what Zarek had been beaten for. For that matter, he couldn’t even remember which of his brothers had committed the deed that had caused Zarek’s punishment. It could just as well have been his misdeed as that of one of the others.

He only remembered that it was the first time he had recognized Zarek as a person.

Zarek had been lying on the cobbled floor, clutching his arms over his chest, his naked, scarred back bloody and torn.

What had struck Valerius most was the look on Zarek’s face. The boy’s eyes had been hollow. Empty. Not a single tear was evident.

Valerius had wondered at the time why Zarek hadn’t cried at such a harsh beating, but then it had dawned on him that Zarek never cried.

The wretched slave had never uttered a single word while they beat him. No matter what they said or did, the boy just took it like a man, with no sobs, no begging. Just hard, cold stoicism.

Valerius couldn’t fathom such strength from someone who was younger than him.

Before he realized what he was doing, he’d reached out and touched one of the welts on Zarek’s back. Raw and bleeding, it had looked so painful that he tried to imagine what it would feel like to have
one
such wound, much less an entire back full of them.

Zarek didn’t move.

“Do you need…” Valerius had choked on the last of the sentence. He had wanted to help Zarek up, but knew they would both be punished if anyone saw him do such a thing.

“What are you doing?”

His father’s angry voice caused him to jump. “I-I-I was l-l-looking at his back,” he answered honestly.

His father had narrowed his eyes on him. “Why?”

“I was c-c-curious.” Valerius hated how he always stuttered around his father.

“Why? Do you think it hurts him?”

Valerius had been too afraid to answer. His father had had that dead look that often came into his eyes. A look that meant the kind, loving father he knew was gone and the brutal military commander was there instead.

As much as he loved his father, he feared the military commander, who was capable of most any act of cold-blooded ruthlessness, even against his own sons.

“Answer me, boy. Do you think it hurts him?”

He nodded.

“Do you care if it hurts him?”

Valerius had blinked back his tears before they betrayed him. The truth was he did care, but he knew his father would fly into a rage if he ever dared breathe that aloud. “N-n-no. I don’t c-c-care.”

“Then prove it.”

Valerius blinked, suddenly afraid of what that meant. “Prove it?”

His father had retrieved the whip from the stand and handed it to him. “Give him ten more lashes, or I will see
you
given twenty.”

Heartsick and with his hand shaking, Valerius had taken the whip and delivered the lashes.

Unused to wielding a whip, he had missed Zarek’s back entirely. His lashes landed on Zarek’s unscarred arms and legs. Virgin flesh that had never been beaten before.

For the first time Zarek had hissed and recoiled from the lashes. So much so that the last lash ended up cutting across Zarek’s face, right below his brow.

Zarek had screamed, cupping his eye as blood poured from between his dirty fingers.

Valerius had wanted to vomit as he heard his father praise him for blinding the slave’s eye.

His father had actually patted him on the back. “That’s it, my son. Always strike where they’re most vulnerable. You’ll make a fine general one day.”

Zarek had looked up at him then and the emptiness was gone. The right side of his face had been covered in blood, but with his left eye, Zarek had conveyed all the pain and anguish he felt. All the hatred that was directed both inward and out.

That look was seared inside Valerius to this day.

His father had beaten Zarek again for the insolence of that glare.

No wonder Zarek hated them all. The man was entitled to it. More so now that Valerius knew the truth of Zarek’s parentage.