The Dark-Hunters (273 page)

Tabitha came awake to find herself alone in her old bed. She closed her eyes and wished herself back to childhood. Back to the days when all of her sisters had shared this house with her. Back to the time when their worst fear was not having a date for the prom.

But time was ever fleeting.

And there was no way back.

Sighing, she rolled over and realized that Valerius wasn’t with her. She felt the absence of him immediately.

She got up and pulled on a bathrobe her mother must have left in the room for her. As she walked past the dresser, she paused, then stepped back to see a ring on top of it.

Her heart pounded as she recognized Valerius’s signet ring on top of a folded-up note.

Picking it up, she read the handful of words.

Thank you, my lady Tabitha. For everything.

Val

Tabitha frowned. Was it a kiss-off? Oh, yeah, that was just what she needed right now.

Why not?

She was almost angry until she read it again and realized that he hadn’t signed it “Valerius.”

He’d used her nickname for him.

A nickname he hated.

Her throat tight, she tucked the note into her pocket and kissed the ring he’d left her. She slid it onto her thumb and went to bathe.

*   *   *

Valerius was dreaming of Tabitha. She was laughing in his ear as she lay beneath him.

It seemed so real, he could almost swear he felt her hand on his back …

No, now it was buried in his hair.

And then she moved it away and ran it over his hip, down his thigh until she cupped him in her palm.

Growling in pleasure, Valerius opened his eyes to realize it wasn’t a dream.

Tabitha lay on her side next to him. “Hi, baby,” she whispered.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, unable to believe she was real.

She held her hand up to show him his ring. “How could I be anywhere else given the curtness of your note?”

“My note wasn’t curt.”

She scoffed at him. “I almost thought you were telling me to hit the road.”

“Why would you think that? I left you my ring.”

“Consolation gift?”

He rolled his eyes at her misbegotten reasoning. “No, that ring means that the wearer is worth his or her weight in gold. See?” He held it up so that she could see the regal crest.

A slow smile spread across her face. “I’m worth my weight in gold?”

Valerius moved her hand to his lips so that he could kiss it. “You’re worth a lot more than that to me.”

Her eyes misted as she looked up at him. “I love you, Valerius.”

He’d never heard anything more precious to him. “I love you, too, Tabitha,” he said, his voice thick.

Her smile widened as she pulled him into her arms and kissed him senseless.

She literally tore her shirt off before she wiggled herself up under him.

Valerius laughed at her eagerness before he kissed her gently on the lips.

She wasn’t in the mood for that. They made love furiously, as if they wouldn’t have another chance again.

Afterward, they lay in each other’s arms. Valerius toyed with her hair as he contemplated their future. “So what do we do now, Tabitha?”

“What do you mean?”

“How do we make this relationship work? Kyrian still hates me and I’m still a Dark-Hunter.”

“Well,” she said raggedly. “Rome wasn’t built in one day. We take it one step at a time.”

Little did she know that those steps were going to be horrific.

The first one came the night of her sister’s wake. Valerius had driven her to her parents’ only to pull up short as they realized Kyrian, Amanda, and Julian and his wife Grace were there.

The animosity was tangible.

Tabitha had meant to stay with Valerius the entire time, but her Aunt Zelda pulled her away.

“I’ll be right back.”

Valerius nodded as he went to get something else to drink.

Julian and Kyrian cornered him in the kitchen.

He sighed wearily as he waited for them to start in on him. He set his cup down.

Kyrian grabbed his arm.

Valerius was about to lay him out cold when he realized that Kyrian wasn’t hurting him. He pulled back Valerius’s sleeve so that the scars of his execution were visible.

“Amanda told me how you died,” Kyrian said quietly. “I didn’t believe her.”

Valerius jerked his arm away. Without a word, he started away from the two Greeks.

But Kyrian’s voice stopped him. “Look, Valerius, I have to tell you that it literally kills me every time I see you. Can you imagine what it would be like if I had the face of the man who nailed you to the wood?”

Valerius gave a bitter laugh at the irony. “Actually, I know exactly how you feel, General. Every time I use a mirror, I too see the face of my executioner.”

He may not have been twins with his brothers, but they looked enough alike that it was hard to see himself in a mirror without seeing them. It was why he was so damned grateful Dark-Hunters didn’t cast reflections unless they wanted to.

Kyrian nodded. “Yeah, I guess you would. I don’t suppose I could bribe or bully you away from Tabitha, can I?”

“No.”

“Then we’re going to have to be grown-ups here because I love my wife too much to hurt her. She’s lost one sister, it would kill her to lose another one. She needs Tabitha.” Kyrian grimaced as if in pain, then held his hand out to Valerius. “Truce?”

Valerius took his hand into his. “Truce.”

Kyrian released him, then Julian offered his hand.

“For the record,” Kyrian said before he left. “This only makes us friendly enemies.”

Tabitha came into the kitchen as they left. “You okay?”

He nodded. “Kyrian decided to grow up.”

She looked impressed. “I guess immortality agrees with him.”

“Apparently so.”

The two of them stayed at the wake until just after midnight when they decided to head home in Tabitha’s beat-up Mini Cooper.

As they entered the foyer, they found Ash waiting for them.

“What are you doing here?” Valerius asked.

Ash came forward and handed a small box to Tabitha. “You know what to do. Just remember: Don’t drop it.”

Tabitha was aghast as she held the box that contained Valerius’s soul in her hand. “We had decided that we weren’t going to do this. I don’t want to take Valerius’s immortality from him.”

Ash let out a long, tired breath. “Until you return his soul to him, Artemis owns him. Is that what you want?”

“No.”

“Well, there you go.” Ash headed for the door, then paused to look back at them. “By the way, Tabby, you’re immortal now, too.”

“What?”

He shrugged. “It wouldn’t be fair to Amanda to lose you to old age.”

“But how? How can I be immortal?”

Ash gave her a wry grin. “It’s the will of the gods. Don’t question it.”

He slipped out the door and left them alone.

“Wow,” Tabitha breathed as she opened up the box to see a royal blue medallion inside. It was vibrant with swirling colors that made it seem as if it were living.

She closed the box. “Well, what do you think?”

“I think you’d best not drop it.”

She agreed.

Later that night when it came time to stake him so that she could return his soul to him, she learned something horrible.

She couldn’t do it.

“C’mon, Tabitha,” Valerius said as he sat up on the bed, shirtless. “You stabbed me the night we met without even blinking.”

“Yeah, but you were a dirtbag then.”

“I think I’m offended.”

*   *   *

Weeks went by as Tabitha attempted to stab Valerius, only to meet with failure.

She even tried to pretend he was a Daimon.

It didn’t work. Not to mention the small fact that they had yet to discover what would drain his Dark-Hunter powers and make him human long enough to die.

So they settled into a strange kind of peace. Tabitha moved out of her apartment over her store and left that for Marla to keep while she lived with Valerius.

They stayed together in the daytime and hunted together at night.

Still she couldn’t stake him, but at least one afternoon, she’d learned his weakness: hurting her. It’d been an accident. He’d been reaching for his sword when he’d accidentally elbowed her. For two hours, his eyes had been blue.

Even so, she hadn’t been able to stab him.

It was hopeless.

Until that summer. While Tabitha and Valerius were in the middle of training in the upstairs gym, the unthinkable happened.

One minute, she had been playing with Valerius; the next, Kyrian burst through the door, causing Valerius to strike her by accident. His eyes turned instantly blue. Before she realized what he was doing, Kyrian grabbed Valerius, threw him to the ground, and drove a stake through his heart and left it there.

“What are you doing?” Tabitha shrieked, rushing toward him.

Amanda caught her. “It’s okay, Tabby,” she said, forcing the box that held Valerius’s soul into her hand. “Since you keep telling me that you can’t do this, Kyrian volunteered.”

“Yeah, and with any luck, you might actually drop it,” Kyrian said evilly.

Tabitha scowled at him.

Grabbing the box from her sister, she knelt beside Val.

Valerius lay on the floor panting. His face was covered in sweat while he bled from his wound.

“Don’t worry, baby. I won’t drop it.”

He offered her a trembling smile. “I trust you.”

Tabitha’s heart stopped as he died. Grabbing the medallion, she cried out as it burned her palm. Tabitha bit her lip and placed the medallion to the bow-and-arrow brand on Valerius’s hip.

“Sh,” Amanda said soothingly. “It’ll stop burning in a second. Just think about Valerius.”

She did, even though every sane part of her wanted to let go of the burning hunk of lava that seared her hand.

Finally, it started to cool.

Valerius didn’t move.

Tabitha began to panic.

“It’s okay,” Amanda said. “It just takes a minute.”

And after a few more, Valerius opened his eyes, which were now a permanent and vibrant shade of blue. His fangs were completely gone.

Tabitha smiled at the sight of him, grateful beyond measure that he was alive. “You don’t look right.”

Valerius cupped her face. “I think you look beautiful.”

“I think I should stake him again just for good measure,” Kyrian said.

“I think we need to be going,” Amanda said as she got up from the floor, grabbed her husband, and made a quick exit.

“Oh, c’mon,” Kyrian whined from the hallway. “Can’t I please stake him one more time?”

“Hi, human,” Tabitha said before she kissed him.

Then she pulled back with a cry as she realized something.

She was immortal. Now that Valerius was no longer a Dark-Hunter, he wasn’t.

“Oh, my God,” she breathed. “What have we done?”

But the answer was simple. They had just damned her to live out eternity without him.

Chapter 17

Four months later
Mount Olympus

“Your brother’s getting married today, Zarek.”

Zarek rolled over in bed to find his wife Astrid staring at him with that unnerving gimlet look that she seemed to reserve solely for him whenever he irritated her. “And I should care, why?”

“He’s all the family you have left, and I would like for my baby to know both sides of his family.”

Zarek turned back to his side as he pretended to ignore her. But that was impossible. For one thing, he loved her too much to ever discount her, and for another, she wouldn’t be ignored.

He felt her hand in his hair as she toyed with it. “Zarek?”

He didn’t answer. After Ash had returned to earth with Tabitha, he’d spent a lot of time in the
Peradomatio,
or Hall of the Past.

Astrid was wearing off on him after all. Being married to her had taught him much about justice.

No, that wasn’t exactly true. Being with her was making the past somehow bearable, and now that she was pregnant …

He didn’t want his son born into a world where forgiveness was an alien concept.

“It’s not easy to let go of the past, Astrid,” he said finally.

She kissed his shoulder, sending chills all over him. “I know, Prince Charming.” She rolled him over, onto his back, and leaned over him.

Zarek placed his hand against her distended stomach, where he felt his baby moving rambunctiously against his palm. His son was due in only two weeks.

“So, do I need to get dressed for a wedding?” Astrid asked quietly.

Zarek brushed her long, blonde hair back from her face so that he could cup her cheek. “I prefer you naked, in my bed.”

“Is that your final answer?”

*   *   *

“What’s wrong, Tabitha?”

Tabitha turned around to see Valerius behind her. He looked completely elegant in his black tie attire, but then he always looked that way. Unlike her, he never had a single hair out of place.

Her body warmed instantly at his approach. She wore a strapless wedding dress and was barefoot at the moment, having kicked off her high heels the minute they left the cathedral.

“Nothing’s wrong,” she lied, not wanting him to know just how sorry she was for all the strife she’d caused him.

And how she really would be the death of him one day.

Her heart ached.

“Are you ready to trade me in yet?” she asked playfully, even though her throat was really tight.

“Never, but there’s a large crowd of people out in the backyard who are wondering where the bride is.”

She wrinkled her nose at that. “Okay, I’m coming,” she said, taking him by the arm.

He led her back outside into the thick of madness that was her family.

She’d opted at the church not to divide up the guests in the pews lest it become painfully obvious that there wasn’t anyone on the groom’s side.

Even four of the seven groomsmen had to be borrowed from her side. Only Ash, Gilbert, and Otto had been there for Valerius.

She was still angered that no other Dark-Hunter had come or sent good wishes.

Kyrian, Julian, Talon, and Tad had graciously volunteered to finish out the number of groomsmen so that her sisters wouldn’t be without escorts. For that, she would love them always.