The Dark-Hunters (187 page)

“I don’t want to die, Wulf,” she sobbed against his chest. “I don’t want to leave my baby. There’s so much I need to tell him. He won’t even know that I ever existed.”

Wulf tightened his grip on her as he heard those heartfelt words.

How he wished he could tell her how foolish her fears were, but they weren’t. She cried over a fate neither of them could change.

“We have time, Cassandra. Tell me all your stories about you, your mother, and your sisters, and I’ll make sure the baby knows every one of them. And every baby after this one. I won’t let them forget you. Ever.”

“Promise?”

“I swear to you, just as I swear I’ll keep them safe forever.”

His words seemed to calm her. Rocking her gently in his arms, Wulf wondered which of them had it worse. The mother who wouldn’t live to see the baby grow, or the father who was damned to watch the baby and all those after him die.

Chapter 9

For three solid weeks, Wulf kept Chris and Cassandra under house arrest. But as time went by and no Daimons showed, he began to wonder if maybe he wasn’t overreacting a bit.

Thor knew Chris accused him of it at least five times an hour.

Cassandra had withdrawn from school entirely even though she hated to. She was only about three weeks along, but looked more like three months. Her stomach was rounding out, letting them all know that there really was a child inside her.

It was the most beautiful thing Wulf had seen, even as he struggled to keep himself emotionally distant from her.

But it was hard. Especially as they spent so much of their time together taping her for their baby. Most of the time, she was perfectly calm as she told the baby about her past, her mother and sisters. Her father. With every fond memory she shared with the baby, he felt himself growing closer to her.

“See, this,” she said, as she showed her hand with the signet ring on it to the small camcorder he held. Wulf focused the lens on it. “My mother told me that this was the actual wedding ring the Atlantean kings used when they married.”

Cassandra looked at it sadly. “I’m not sure how it survived all these centuries. My mother gave it to my father so that he could give it to me. I’ll make sure your father has it to give to you too.”

Whenever she talked about the baby’s future without her, it killed a part of him. The injustice of it tore his heart into pieces.

The pain in her eyes, the regret.

And whenever she cried, it hurt him even more. He would soothe her as best he could, but in the end they both knew what the outcome of all this would be.

There was no way to stop it.

Her father came often during the daylight hours to meet with her. Cassandra didn’t have her father meet Wulf since her father wouldn’t remember him anyway.

For that he was truly grateful.

Instead, Cassandra introduced her father to Chris and they made plans for the two of them to stay in touch after the baby came.

Acheron had called on Mardi Gras night and put Wulf on an immediate leave from his Dark-Hunter duties to watch over Cassandra and protect the baby. Two more Dark-Hunters had been transferred to St. Paul to take over Wulf’s usual patrols and to help keep watch should Stryker or the others come after them.

Ash had also given him the name of an Apollite Dark-Hunter named Spawn who might be able to help them with what Cassandra needed for her pregnancy. Wulf had called every night to leave a message at Spawn’s house, but Spawn had yet to respond.

Nor had he been able to reach Acheron again.

His phone rang.

Cassandra watched as Wulf pulled his phone out of his pocket and answered it. She knew he was worried and not just about her and Chris. His best friend, Talon, had vanished and none of the Dark-Hunters had had any contact with him in weeks.

Even more concerning, Acheron had also gone MIA. Wulf kept telling her it was a bad omen, even though Kat told them not to worry about it. Apparently Acheron was rather famous for having times when no one could reach him.

Kat had assured them that Artemis would never allow anyone to hurt Acheron. If he had been harmed, they would all know it.

Cassandra sat on the floor with Chris and Kat, playing Life. They had tried to play Trivial Pursuit earlier only to learn that a Dark-Hunter and an immortal handmaiden to a goddess had a decidedly unfair advantage over Cassandra and Chris.

In Life, the only thing that mattered was luck.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Wulf said a few minutes later after he hung up the phone and rejoined the game.

“Something happen?” Cassandra asked as she moved her piece.

“Talon got his soul back.”

“No friggin’ way,” Chris blurted out, sitting back on the floor in shock. “How’d he do that?”

Wulf’s face was impassive, but Cassandra had grown to know him well enough to see the tenseness of his features. He was happy for his friend, but she could tell he was also a bit envious. Not that she blamed him.

“He met an artist and they fell in love,” Wulf said as he sat back down beside her and adjusted his play money. “On Mardi Gras, she got his soul back and freed him.”

Chris made a disgusted noise at Wulf’s announcement. “Oh man, that sucks. Now he’s going to have to join Kyrian on the geriatric patrol.”

“Chris!” Cassandra gasped with an inappropriate laugh. “That’s a horrible thing to say.”

“Yeah but it’s true. I can’t imagine trading immortality for a woman. No offense, ladies, but something ain’t right with that.”

Wulf kept his attention on the game board. “Talon didn’t trade his immortality. Unlike Kyrian, he got to keep his.”

“Oh,” Chris said. “That’s cool then. Good for him. Man, must be nice to have your cake and eat it, huh?”

Chris’s face flushed as he looked back and forth between them and realized what he’d just said. “I mean—”

“It’s okay, Chris,” Wulf said charitably. But his eyes betrayed the hurt he felt.

Kat took her turn.

Cassandra reached over and laced her fingers with Wulf’s. “I didn’t know Dark-Hunters could go free.”

“It’s rare,” Wulf said, tightening his grip on her hand. “At least it was up until this last year. Talon and Kyrian make two we know.”

“Three,” Kat added as she moved her piece on the board.

“Three?” Wulf asked. He looked shocked.

Kat nodded. “Three Dark-Hunters have been freed. I heard the other handmaidens talking about it last night when I went to check in with Artemis.”

“I thought you didn’t get a chance to talk to her,” Cassandra said, remembering what Kat had told them after her return last night.

“Oh, I didn’t. She has the big Do Not Disturb sign on her temple door. There are definite times when no one but Apollo dares to barge into her domain. But I did hear the other
koris
gossiping about it. Apparently, Artemis wasn’t real happy over the matter.”

“Hmm…” Cassandra said as she thought about that.

“Who else was freed?” Wulf asked.

“Zarek of Moesia.”

Wulf’s jaw went slack as Chris looked at Kat as if she’d sprouted a new head.

Chris snorted. “Now I know you’re full of it, Kat. Zarek is marked for death. There’s no way.”

Kat looked over at him. “Yeah, well, he didn’t die and ended up going free instead. Artemis has threatened everyone’s head if she loses another Hunter.”

Those words weren’t comforting to Cassandra. She could only imagine how much less so they were for Wulf.

“I never thought I’d see the day when they would set Zarek free,” Wulf said under his breath. “He’s so psychotic they’ve had him under exile for almost as long as I’ve been a Dark-Hunter.”

Cassandra took a deep breath at that. It didn’t seem right that someone like this Zarek could be free while Wulf was cursed the way he was.

“I wonder what Nick’ll be doing for a Dark-Hunter now that Talon’s free,” Chris said as he grabbed the canister of Pringles from Kat. “I can’t imagine he’d ever serve Valerius.”

“No doubt,” Wulf said. He explained to Cassandra that Valerius was the grandson of the man who had ruined Kyrian’s family and crucified the Greek general. Since Nick was Kyrian’s former Squire and a personal friend, Nick would never serve the man whose family had done that to Kyrian.

Wulf, Kat, and Chris continued to discuss the Dark-Hunters, while Cassandra thought over what she’d learned tonight.

“Could I free you?” Cassandra asked Wulf.

A strange look darkened his eyes. “No. Unlike the other Dark-Hunters, I don’t have an out-clause.”

“Why?”

Wulf let out a tired breath as he spun the wheel for his turn. “I was tricked into serving Artemis. Everyone else volunteered.”

“Tricked how?”

“That was
you?
” Kat interrupted before Wulf could answer her question.

Cassandra turned toward Kat. “You know about it?”

“Well, yeah, there was a big brouhaha at the time it happened. Artemis is still steamed that Morginne beat her out. The goddess doesn’t like anyone getting the better of her and most especially not when it’s a mortal she owns.”

“How did she do it?” Cassandra asked.

Kat took the Pringles back from Chris before he could polish them off. That boy liked to eat. They had yet to figure out how he managed to stay so skinny eating the way he did.

Grousing, he got up and headed to the kitchen, no doubt to get more snacks.

Kat set the canister down by her leg. “Morginne made a pact with the Norse god Loki. He used a thistle from the Norns that is said to be able to let someone swap places with someone else for a day.”

Wulf frowned at her words. “Then how did they make it last?”

“Loki’s blood. The Norse gods have some weird rules and he wanted Morginne for himself, so he swapped her soul for yours in order to keep her. Artemis didn’t feel like going to war with him to get Morginne back. She figured you would be a better Hunter anyway.”

Wulf’s eyes narrowed.

Kat gave him a sympathetic pat on the arm. “If it makes you feel any better, he’s still torturing Morginne for it and with him she has no out-clause either. Even if she did, Artemis would kill her. The only reason she hasn’t is because Loki still protects her.”

“It doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“No. I guess it wouldn’t.”

*   *   *

Stryker paced the floor of the dimly lit banquet hall, wanting blood. For three weeks now they hadn’t been able to find a trace of Wulf or Cassandra.

They couldn’t even get to her father to help draw her out.

Damn it all.

He had his son Urian working on it now, but it seemed useless.

“How hard can it be to find where a Dark-Hunter lives?”

“They are crafty,
kyrios,
” Zolan said, using the respectful Atlantean term for “lord.”

Zolan was his third in command and one of Stryker’s most trusted soldiers. He’d been promoted through the Spathi ranks for his ability to murder ruthlessly and show no mercy to anyone. He’d reached the coveted “general” status more than ten thousand years ago.

Like Stryker, he chose to dye his hair black and wore the Spathi symbol of a yellow sun with a dragon in its center—the emblem of the Destroyer.

“If they weren’t,” Zolan continued, “we’d be able to track and kill them through our servants while they slept.”

Stryker turned on Zolan with a glare so malevolent that the Daimon shrank away from him. Only his son held enough courage to not flinch from his anger. Urian’s bravery knew no equal.

The demon Xedrix appeared before him in the hall. Unlike the Daimons, Xedrix didn’t bow or acknowledge Stryker’s elevated stature in their world. Most of the time, Xedrix treated him as more of a servant than a master. It was something that angered Stryker even more.

No doubt the demon thought his place in the Destroyer’s esteem was enough to protect him, but Stryker knew the truth. His mother loved him absolutely.

“Her Benevolent Grace wishes a word with you,” the demon said in a low, even tone.

Benevolent Grace. Every time Stryker heard that title, he wanted to laugh, but knew better. His mother didn’t really have a sense of humor.

He pushed himself up from his throne and willed himself into her private chambers.

His mother stood over a pool where water flowed backward up a glittering pipe from this world into the human realm. There was a fine rainbow mist and vapors around the water. It was here the goddess could scry so that she knew what was happening on earth.

“She is pregnant,” the goddess announced without turning around.

Stryker knew the “she” that the goddess referred to was Cassandra.

“How can that be?”

The goddess lifted her hands and drew a circle in the air. Water from the pool formed like a crystal ball. Even though nothing but air held it, it swirled about until it held an image of the woman they both wanted dead. There was nothing in the ball to give him any indication of how to find Cassandra.

Apollymi dragged one fingernail through the image, causing it to shake and distort. “Artemis is interfering with us.”

“There is still time to kill both mother and child.”

She smiled at that. “Yes, there is.” She opened her hands and the water arced from the ball, back into her pool. “Now is the time to strike. The Elekti is being held by Artemis. He can’t stop you. He won’t even know when you attack.”

Stryker flinched at the mention of the Elekti. Like the Abadonna, Stryker was forbidden to attack him.

He hated restrictions.

“We don’t know where to attack,” he told his mother. “We’ve been searching—”

“Take one of the ceredons. My pets can find them.”

“I thought they were forbidden to leave this realm.”

A cruel half-smile curved his mother’s lips. “Artemis broke the rules; so shall I. Now go,
m’gios,
and do me proud.”

Stryker nodded and turned about sharply. He took three steps before the Destroyer’s voice made him pause.

“Remember, Strykerius, kill the heiress before the Elekti returns. You are not to engage him. Ever.”

He stopped but didn’t look back. “Why have I always been forbidden to touch him?”

“Ours is not to question why. Ours is but to live or to die.”