The Dark-Hunters (194 page)

As they headed down the corridor, a little girl came running up to Wulf. She craned her neck to look up at him accusingly. “Are you really going to kill my baby sister tonight because she didn’t wash behind her ears?”

Both of them were aghast at her question.

“Excuse me?” Wulf asked.

“My mommy says Dark-Hunters kill little boys and girls when they don’t behave. I don’t want you to kill Alycia. She’s not bad, she just doesn’t like to get her ears wet.”

Wulf knelt down in front of the little girl and brushed her hair back from her face. “Little one, I’m not going to hurt your sister or anyone else here. I promise.”

“Dacia!” a man snapped as he rushed forward. “I told you never to talk to anyone with dark hair.” He scooped his daughter up and ran off with her as if terrified that Wulf really would kill her.

“Hasn’t anyone ever told you people that we don’t hurt Apollites!” Wulf shouted after them.

“Sheez,” he said under his breath. “And all this time, I thought Christopher was the only person I terrorized.”

A passing man answered his words by spitting on Wulf’s shoes.

“Hey!” Cassandra snapped, going after the man. “There’s no need to be rude.”

The man raked a repugnant glare over her. “How could you let something like him touch you? I say we should have left you to die by the Daimons. It’s what a whore like you deserves.”

His eyes darkening, Wulf slugged the Apollite. Hard. The Apollite staggered back, then charged him.

He caught Wulf about the stomach and slammed him back into the wall. Cassandra cried out at the sight, wanting to stop them, but she was too afraid of hurting the baby to try.

Suddenly, Apollites came out from all directions to break them apart. Even Urian came out of nowhere.

Urian was the one who pushed Wulf back. His skin tone was ashen and it was obvious Urian was extremely weak. Even so, he put himself between Wulf and the Apollite and kept a hand on each one.

“Enough!” Urian roared at the two of them.

“Are you all right?” Wulf asked him.

Urian released both men. The Apollite was taken off by the others, but he cast a parting malevolent glare at them.

“You need to stay out of sight, Dark-Hunter,” Urian said, his tone much kinder than it had been earlier. He wiped a hand over his sweat-covered brow.

“You really don’t look good,” Wulf said, ignoring his warning. “Do you need something?”

Urian shook his head as if to clear it. “I just need to rest for a while.” He curled his lip at Wulf. “Can you stay out of trouble long enough for that?”

“Uri?” Phoebe asked as she joined them. “Did I take too much?”

Urian’s face softened instantly. He pulled her against his side and kissed the side of her head. “No, love. I’m just tired. I’ll be fine.”

He pulled away and started back for their apartment. He staggered.

“Bullshit,” Wulf said. Before Cassandra knew what he was doing, Wulf had Urian’s arm slung over his shoulders and was headed back for their apartment.

“What are you doing?” Urian asked angrily.

“I’m taking you to Kat before you pass out.”

Urian hissed at that. “Why? She hates me.”

“So do I, but we both owe you.”

Cassandra didn’t speak as she and Phoebe followed after them all the way back to their apartment.

Kat and Chris were playing cards when they entered.

“Oh, jeez, what happened?” Kat asked as soon as she saw Urian.

“I think I took too much blood from him,” Phoebe said, her beautiful face lined with worry.

Wulf laid Urian down on the couch. “Can you help him?” he asked Kat.

Kat pushed Wulf out of the way. She held up two fingers in front of Urian’s face. “How many fingers do you see?”

“Six.”

She popped him on the side. “Stop that. This is serious.”

Urian widened his eyes and tried to focus his gaze on her hand. “Three … I think.”

Kat shook her head. “We’ll be back.”

Cassandra watched in awe as Kat flashed them out of the room.

“Now why didn’t she do that when we were being chased by Stryker?” Chris asked.

“She’s taking him to Kalosis, Chris,” Phoebe answered. “I doubt any of you want to go into a realm ruled by nothing but Spathi Daimons and one really pissed-off ancient goddess who is bent on destroying the entire world.”

“You know,” Chris said. “I really like it here. Not to mention, I can now look at Kat’s hand.” He picked up her cards and cursed. “I should have known she wasn’t bluffing.”

Cassandra watched her sister closely. In spite of the worry on her face, Phoebe looked a lot better than she had before. Her cheeks were pink, her skin bright.

“I’m so sorry I interrupted you two,” Cassandra said, her face growing instantly warm again.

“Please don’t be. I mean, don’t make it a habit, mind you, but if you hadn’t come in, I might have killed him. He has a bad tendency to not tell me when I’ve taken too much blood. It scares me sometimes.”

Wulf crossed his arms over his chest. “So Daimons can die from blood loss?”

“Only when it’s being sucked out of them,” Cassandra answered.

Phoebe gave him an arch stare. “Are you planning on using that against us?”

Wulf shook his head. “I’d rather die myself than suck on another man’s neck. That’s disgusting. Besides, didn’t you tell me that’s how Apollites can be changed into Daimons? It begs the question that since Dark-Hunters have no souls, could they be made Daimon too?”

“Yeah, but DH blood is poisonous to the Daimons,” Chris said as he shuffled his deck of cards. “Isn’t the point of that so that no Daimon can feed off or convert you guys?”

“Perhaps…” Phoebe said. “But then disembodied souls can possess a Dark-Hunter, and since Uri and I share souls, it makes you wonder if perhaps a Daimon and Dark-Hunter could share one too.”

“Let’s hope we never find that one out,” Wulf said as he moved to sit on the couch in front of Chris.

Phoebe turned back toward Cassandra. “So what did you want when you came to see me?”

“I’ve been putting together a memory box for the baby. Notes and pictures from me. Little mementos to tell him about our people and family, and I was wondering if you would mind putting something in there from you.”

“Why do you need something like that when we’ll be more than happy to tell him anything he wants to know?”

Cassandra hesitated, not wanting to hurt her sister’s feelings. “He can’t grow up here, Phe. He’ll have to be with Wulf in the human world.”

Her sister’s eyes snapped fire. “Why can’t he grow up here?” Phoebe insisted. “We can protect him just as well as Wulf. Probably more so.”

Wulf glanced up as Chris dealt him a hand of cards. “What if he’s even more human than Cassandra is? Would he be safe here?”

The indecision on Phoebe’s face said it all.

No, he wouldn’t be. They had seen enough of Wulf’s treatment tonight to verify that. Apollites were no more tolerant of humans than humans were of Apollites.

At least they didn’t tie each other to stakes anymore and set fire to them.

At least not often.

Wulf looked meaningfully at Phoebe. “I can protect him and his children a lot easier than you can. I think the temptation of having a human soul here would be way too much for some of your people to handle. Especially given how much they hate Dark-Hunters. What a coup. Kill my son, get a human soul, and take revenge on the very thing all of you despise most.”

Phoebe nodded. “I suppose you’re right.” She took Cassandra’s hand. “Yes, I would like to add some things to the box for him.”

While Wulf and Chris played cards, Cassandra went to the bedroom and retrieved the large silver-inlaid box that Kat had brought with them from the house, along with paper and pens.

She and Phoebe wrote letters to the baby. After a while, Phoebe left her alone to run a quick errand.

Cassandra sat alone in her room, flipping through the pages of notes and letters she had made for her son. How she wished she could see him grow. She would give anything to glimpse her son as a grown man.

Maybe Wulf could contact a Were-Hunter and have one take her forward in time. Just for a quick glance. Just to let her see what she would miss.

But then that might be even worse. Besides, pregnant women couldn’t travel through the time portals.

“I hope you look like your father,” she said, rubbing her stomach gently as she imagined the little baby inside her. She could easily see him with dark, wavy hair like Wulf’s. He’d be tall, hopefully muscular.

And he would be forced to grow up without a mother’s love. Just as Wulf would be forced to watch her die …

A sob caught in her throat as she reached for another piece of paper. She wrote quickly, holding back her tears, telling her son just how much she did love him. Letting him know that even though she wasn’t with him physically, she would be with him spiritually.

Somehow she would find a way to watch over him. Always.

She finished the letter, placed it in the box, then took it to the living room where the guys were still playing cards. She was afraid to be alone. Her thoughts had a nasty way of torturing her whenever she was by herself.

Chris and Wulf were champions at keeping her mind off the future. At making her smile even when she didn’t feel like it.

Chris had just dealt Cassandra into their game when Phoebe returned with a book.

“What’s this?” she asked as Phoebe added it to the box on the couch next to her.

“It’s a book of Apollite fairy tales,” Phoebe said. “Remember the one Mom used to read to us when we were kids? Donita sells them in her shop so I went just now and bought one for the baby.”

Suspicious, Wulf picked the book up and flipped through it with a frown. “Hey, Chris,” he said, handing it to his Squire. “You read Greek, right?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s in here?”

Chris started reading silently, then burst out laughing. Hard.

Cassandra cringed as she remembered some of the things her mother had read to them when they were children.

Chris kept laughing. “I don’t know if you want the baby to see this if you’re the one raising him.”

“Let me guess,” Wulf said, narrowing his gaze on Phoebe. “He’ll have nightmares that Daddy is going to hunt him down and rip his head off?”

“Pretty much. I am particularly fond of the one called: ‘Acheron the Great Evil.’” Chris paused as he turned to another story. “Oh, wait … You’ll love this one. They got the story of the nasty Nordic Dark-Hunter. Remember the story with the witch and the oven? This one features you with a furnace.”

“Phoebe!” Wulf snapped, looking over at her.

“What?” Cassandra’s sister asked innocently. “That’s our heritage. It’s not like you guys don’t swap stories on Andy the Evil Apollite or Daniel the Killer Daimon. You know, I see human movies and read their books too. They’re not exactly nice to my people. They portray us all as soulless killers who have no compassion or feelings.”

“Yeah, well,” Wulf said, “
your
people happen to be soul-sucking demons.”

Phoebe cocked her head with attitude. “You ever met a banker or a lawyer? Tell me who’s worse, my Urian or one of them? At least we need the food; they do it just for profit margins.”

Cassandra laughed at their banter, then took the book from Chris’s hands. “I appreciate the thought, Phe, but could we find a book that doesn’t paint the Dark-Hunters as Satan?”

“I don’t think one exists. Or if it does, I’ve never seen it.”

“Great,” Wulf muttered, picking up another card, “just great. My poor son’s going to have nightmares all of his childhood.”

“Trust me,” Chris said as he upped his bet against Wulf. “That book’s going to be the least of your kid’s problems with you as his father.”

“What do you mean?” Cassandra asked.

Chris put his cards down and met her gaze. “You do know that as a small child, they actually carried me around on a pillow? I had a custom-made helmet that I had to wear until I was four.”

“That’s because you banged your head every time you got angry. I was afraid you were going to get brain damage from it.”

“The brain is fine,” Chris said. “It’s my ego and social life in the toilet. I shudder at what you’re going to do to that kid.”

Chris dropped his voice and imitated Wulf’s lilting Norse accent. “Don’t move, you might get bruised. Oops, a sneeze, better call in specialists from Belgium. Headache? Odin forbid, it might be a tumor. Quick, rush him for a CAT scan.”

Wulf shoved his shoulder playfully. “And yet you live.”

“Ever the better to procreate for you.” Chris met Cassandra’s gaze. “It’s a hell of a life.” Then Chris dropped his gaze as if he were thinking about that for a minute. “But there are worse ones out there.”

Cassandra wasn’t sure which of them was most stunned by that confession. Her or Wulf.

Chris got up and went to the foyer where a trestle table was set with snacks and drinks. He poured himself more Coke and grabbed some chips before he and Wulf resumed their game of cards.

It was just before midnight when Urian rejoined them. He looked a lot better than he had earlier. His deep tawny skin had a healthy glow. His eyes were bright and for once he wore his long, blond hair down around his shoulders. Cassandra would give Phoebe credit. Her husband was extremely gorgeous.

When he was dressed completely in black, there wasn’t much difference between Urian and a Dark-Hunter. Except for what they needed in order to live.

Phoebe smiled as Urian neared her.

Wulf didn’t. In fact, the tension between the men was fierce.

“What’s the matter, Dark-Hunter?” Urian asked as he draped his arm around Phoebe’s shoulders. “You were hoping I’d succumb?”

“No, I was just wondering who you killed to reclaim your health.”

Urian gave a short amused laugh at that. “I’m sure the cows you eat aren’t exactly thrilled by their slaughter either.”

“They’re not people.”

Urian sneered at that. “In case you haven’t noticed, Dark-Hunter, there are a lot of people out there who aren’t human either.”

Taking Phoebe’s hand, Urian led her toward the door. “C’mon, Phe, I don’t have much time before I have to return to Kalosis and I don’t want to spend it with my enemies.”