The Dark-Hunters (305 page)

But Alexion wasn’t really listening to Kyros at the moment. All he could hear was Danger’s breathing getting lighter and lighter.

She choked as she struggled to continue breathing. She reached up and touched his cheek with a cold hand. “If anything is left of me, will you take it to France? There’s a mass grave in a park in Paris—”

“I know that park,” Alexion said. It was where the victims of the guillotine had all been buried.

Danger took a deep breath. “My father, his wife, and my brother and sister are there. If I can’t be with you, I want to be with them.”

Alexion nodded as tears choked him. “I promise, Danger. I won’t let you be alone.”

She offered him a wan smile. “We had fun, didn’t we,
mon coeur?
” She stroked his cheek with her thumb. “I’m so going to miss you.”

Then he felt it … that last expulsion of breath from her body.

She went limp in his arms as her hand fell away from his face.

Alexion threw his head back and cried out as pain tore through him. In that moment, he hated Acheron. He hated Kyros. He hated Stryker, but most of all he hated himself for not being able to protect her.

Xirena and Kyros stayed back, their faces pale as they watched him, but Alexion didn’t care. Nothing mattered except the woman who lay limply in his arms.

A woman whose vibrancy had shown him how to live again. More than that, she had shown him how to love. She had reached inside his heart and made it beat for the first time in more than nine thousand years.

Now she was gone.

And his heart would never beat again.

No! his heart screamed in denial. She couldn’t die. Not like this. Not someone who had loved to live so much. Someone who had spent her life helping others.

She had believed in him and he had let her die …

Urian paced back and forth between Kyros and Xirena, and Danger and Alexion. “I can’t believe Ash just let her die,” he growled. He looked up at the ceiling. “You are a fucking asshole!”

“No,” Alexion said as tears fell, while he held her cold, pale body to his chest. “It has to be this way. He can’t change fate.”

“The fuck he can’t,” Urian snarled angrily. “He brought me back and I was a Daimon. Why would he save me and not her?”

Alexion had no answer to that. He didn’t have any answers at the moment. All he could feel was the pain of her loss. The agony. It was raw and consuming.

How could she be dead?

How could he have allowed this to happen?
Damn me, damn me, damn me!

“I’m sorry I failed you,
akri,
” Xirena said.

Alexion didn’t speak. He couldn’t.

Suddenly, a bright light appeared in the room.

Acheron flashed into a corner, where he stood with a stoic expression.

Urian turned on him with a curled lip.

“Don’t even, Daimon.” Acheron zapped him out of there before Urian could speak.

“Kyros,” Acheron said gently. “Go home and rest.”

Then he, too, was gone.

Acheron hesitated as the demon stared at him as if he were an apparition.

Her face was ghostly pale from her fear of him. “Will you kill Xirena now?”

“No.” Ash knelt by her side and healed her wounds. “Return to your master for a little while and you will meet your sister soon.”

The demon nodded, then ran up Alexion’s sleeve, to his chest.

Alexion still hadn’t moved as he cradled Danger to him.

Acheron cocked his head as he watched them with those all-powerful, swirling silver eyes. “Why don’t you question me?”

Alexion swallowed against the bitter lump in his throat that was choking him. “Because I know better.” He looked up at Acheron so that he could see the sincerity in his eyes. “But I hate you right now.”

“I know.”

And then it happened …

Danger’s body evaporated into a shiny gold powder.

Alexion cried out again as he felt her loss completely. “No!” he growled as he tried to scoop the powder up so that he could take it to Paris for her as he’d promised.

“Don’t,” Acheron said gently as he reached out for him.

Alexion shoved him away. “Damn you, you bastard, I promised her. I promised—”

He covered his eyes with his hands as he sobbed, realizing it was hopeless. “There’s nothing left to bury. Nothing left to gather even.”

Oh, gods, how could she be gone like this? How? It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair.

“We have to go, Alexion.”

He nodded even though what he wanted to do was attack Acheron himself. He knew it wasn’t Acheron’s fault, but it didn’t matter. He wanted to strike out and hurt someone. Anything to ease the burning, aching hole inside him.

There was nothing left to stay for.

Danger was gone …

His heart shattered, he felt his human body melting as it shifted from the human realm to Katoteros. He found himself back in the throne room where Simi was waiting.

“Alexion!” she shrieked happily, running at him before she launched herself into his arms. “You’re back!”

She pulled away and frowned when he didn’t return her enthusiasm. Cocking her head, she scowled at him. “But you’re so sad. Why are you sad, Lexie? Was them Daimons mean to you? The Simi will eat them if they hurt you.”

Acheron gently pulled her away. “He needs to be alone for a little while, Sim.”

“But…”

“It’s okay.” Acheron took her hand and gave him the space he needed.

Alexion didn’t speak as he walked the back hallway toward his chambers. He was so cold inside that he didn’t think he could ever be warm again.

For the first time ever, he hated this place. He hated everything about it. Most of all, he hated Acheron.

At least he did until he opened the doors to his room. He stopped short, his breath catching, as he saw the impossible.

It couldn’t be, yet it was …

There in the center of his room, dressed in a red chiton, was Danger.

He couldn’t speak as he caught sight of her there.

She was looking around as if disoriented. “Where am I?”

No words would come out of his mouth as he rushed to her and scooped her up in his arms. She felt real.

She felt alive …

Could it be? Did he dare believe that this was real?

Holding her close, he buried his head against her neck, inhaled her scent and wept.

“Alexion, you’re starting to freak me out.”

He pulled back with a laugh. “How did you get here?”

“I have no idea. One minute I was in a lot of pain, then everything was dark, and then I was here.” She leaned toward him. “Where is here?”

“My chambers. You’re in Katoteros.”

She frowned up at him. “I don’t understand.”

Neither did he.

“You didn’t really think I was going to let this end badly, did you?”

Alexion turned to find Acheron standing in the doorway, watching them with a smile.

“We learn from our pain,” he said, using the words Acheron so often quoted to him.

Acheron shrugged. “But we are rewarded with pleasure.” His gaze shifted to Danger before it returned to meet his levelly. “You’ve served me too long and too well for me to turn my back on you, Alexion. I couldn’t save her life without altering too much of the universe. But I can give you this.”

Alexion was grateful and at the same time stunned by it. He had never expected Acheron to do something like this … ever. “You hate people in your house.”

Acheron let out a weary breath. “What the hell? I got used to you. I’ll get used to Danger in time too.”

Danger gaped. “I get to stay? Here? With Alexion? Really?”

“Only if you want to,” Alexion said.

Danger swallowed as her eyes filled with tears. She wrapped herself around Alexion and held him tight. “I can’t believe this.”

“I’m sorry for what you lost, Danger,” Acheron said quietly. “This existence is far from perfect.”

Alexion saw a panicked look darken her eyes. “Do I have to drink blood to live?”

Acheron shook his head. “Only Einstein over there has to do that. But like him, you won’t be able to taste food anymore.”

Danger laughed. “That’s all right. Who needs taste buds anyway? I’ll just eat a lot of popcorn.”

Acheron’s gaze softened. “If you want to release your demon, Alexion, I’ll go introduce her to Simi and give you two some time alone.”

Alexion frowned. “How is it that you’re not stunned she has a sister?”

“I’ve known for a long time that she wasn’t the only demon out there. It wasn’t too big a leap of faith to figure she probably had some family too.”

Still, Alexion was shocked that Acheron had kept such a secret from them. “Then why didn’t you tell us?”

“Simi likes the idea of being the only one. I was going to tell her the truth once she got a little older. But I guess now’s the time.”

Alexion agreed. “Xirena, I summon you to human form.”

The demon popped off his body and stood back, reserved. “Am I in trouble?”

“No,” Alexion assured her. “You’re going to meet Simi.”

Her eyes sparked with happiness.

“Come, Xirena,” Acheron said. “I’ll take you to her.”

She hesitated. “You’re not trying to trick Xirena, are you?”

“No.”

“It’ll be all right,” Alexion said. “You can trust him.”

Xirena went to Ash hesitantly before the two of them left the room.

Danger waited until they were alone before she turned back to Alexion and pulled him into her arms. “Is this really real?”

“Yeah,” he breathed as he held her close. “I still can’t believe you’re here.”

“You can’t? I thought I had lost you forever.”

“At least I didn’t die on you.”

“No, but that’s not a problem for either one of us again, is it?”

Alexion smiled as he savored the sight of her bright brown eyes shining up at him. “Not unless we piss off a Charonte.”

“Then I will make sure I never do.”

He hugged her tight and picked her up in his arms, grateful that he had her back. This time, he was going to make damn sure that nothing happened to her again. “I love you, Danger.”

Danger kissed him as her heart swelled with joy. “I love you too,” she breathed.

And though this life with him wasn’t going to be perfect, it would be really, really close. So long as they were together, nothing else mattered.

Epilogue

Standing in the throne room, Simi stared at the other demon suspiciously as she moved her head back and forth much like a snake eyeing something it wanted to strike at. “What do you mean, she’s my sister?” she asked Ash.

“Xiamara, do you not—”

“I am the Simi,” she said, stomping her foot. “Xiamara is my mother.”

Xirena was so confused that Ash actually felt sorry for her.

Simi came up to her slowly and poked at her. “You look real.”

“I am real.”

“Then why did you not come see me?”

Xirena was aghast at the question. “I couldn’t. The bitch-goddess wouldn’t let me.”

“Artemis?” Simi squealed. “I hate her.”

“No,” Xirena corrected her, “the other bitch-goddess, Apollymi.”

“Hey!” Ash snapped simultaneously with Simi.

Xirena looked even more confused.

“She a goddess, that Apollymi,” Simi said reverently. “She always good to the Simi. She makes me horney-warmers to keep my horneys warm and she gives me lots of cookies when I come see her.”

Xirena’s jaw dropped. “She does what?”

Simi put her hands on her hips. “You heard me, deaf demon. She a good lady, that Apollymi, and the Simi will hurt anyone who says otherwise.”

Xirena stepped forward and whispered loudly. “Will your
akri
let me talk to you alone?”

Simi blew a raspberry and waved her hand at Ash. “Like I care if he says no. He don’t control me.”

Xirena appeared horrified by her words. “He’s your
akri.
”

Simi blew her another raspberry. “He’s my daddy.”

“He’s your
akri,
” she said from between clenched fangs.

Simi frowned at Ash. “There’s something seriously wrong with my sister. Why she keep saying you my lord and master when you’re just my daddy,
akri?
”

Ash shrugged. “I have no idea, Sim. You need to set her straight.”

“Hmmm.” Simi wrapped her arm around her sister’s shoulders and led her over to the corner where she had her own television monitors. “See, in this world, Xirena, the Simi does what she wants and
akri,
he say, ‘Okay, Simi, whatever you want, Simi.’ Unless it involves eating people; then he usually says no, but that’s the only time. Other than that, he do what the Simi says. See how that works?”

Xirena appeared completely baffled by her sister.

Simi popped her head up to look at Ash. “Where she staying anyway?”

“You could share a room with—”

“No,” she said immediately. “The Simi don’t share her room,
akri.
Ever. I don’t care that she is my sister. My room has all my special mementos in there. I think you should make her one of her own.”

Ash knew better than to argue with his demon. Not to mention the fact that it didn’t bother him to humor her. He actually enjoyed spoiling her. “Okay. Where do you want it?”

“Kind of next to mine, but not so close that she blocks the view to my Travis Fimmel billboard that the Simi has on the great wall.”

“Your what?” Xirena asked. “What’s a Travis Fimmel?”

Simi’s jaw dropped as she looked stunned. “You don’t know about Travis Fimmel? Oh, sister, you are deprived. He the finest man alive.”

Xirena shuddered. “You lust for men?”

“Well, I certainly don’t lust for women.”

“No,” Xirena corrected, “I mean, you lust for humans?” The way she said that you could tell it was the most disgusting thing the demon could imagine.

“Well, don’t you?” Simi asked.

“Ew!” Xirena looked at Ash. “What have you done to her? You have corrupted a good demon!” She looked back at Simi. “You need to see Drakus.”

“Who that?”

“He the finest demon to ever live. He can breathe fire out his nose and mouth at the same time.”

Simi’s face beamed. “Ooo!”

Ash cringed as he saw where this was going. “Simi’s too young for that.”