The Dark-Hunters (376 page)

His first instinct was to strike Nick back, but Ash caught himself before he did more damage to the Cajun. The crowd around them cut them a wide berth as people moved to get away, while the Weres looked around in nervous debate about whether or not they should come between two Dark-Hunters, or more importantly, if they should interfere with Ash.

Nick’s face was contorted by rage. “How could you destroy New Orleans?”

Ash frowned at him. “What?”

“You heard me. Wasn’t it enough that you killed me? Did you have to punish all my friends and family, too?”

“Nick, get a grip.”

He shoved Ash back, into a table. “I’ve just spent the last few hours looking at the pictures … at the people. You could have stopped it and you didn’t.”

Ash felt his anger snapping. They were drawing way too much attention here in the bar. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Nick was relentless as he stalked Ash. “Yes, I do. I know what you are. You brought Kyrian and Amanda back from the dead. You saved their baby from the Daimons and you did
nothing
to help my mother. You claim you loved New Orleans and yet you did nothing to help the city when she needed you most.”

“That’s not true, Nick. I was there and I did what I could. But even I have limits and rules about what I can and can’t do. My God, you were like a brother to me. How can you think that I’d ever do anything to hurt you?”

“You killed me, remember?”

“No. I’ve loved you and your mother like I’ve never loved another human being in my entire life. I never wanted to see the two of you hurt.”

“Bullshit! One snap of your fingers and you could have deflected the storm. Talon could have deflected it. You refused to let him, didn’t you?”

Ash shook his head. Fate wasn’t that easy to control. “It’s not that simple.”

“It
is
that simple.” He shoved Ash again.

The people in the bar were getting restless now, especially the Weres. Nick was drawing way too much attention to them and he was speaking of things that no one was supposed to talk about.

“Lay off me, Nick. I mean it.”

Nick grabbed Ash by the front of his coat and pulled him close enough that he could whisper in his ear. “Or what? You’ll kill me again?” He laughed at that as if it amused him greatly.

Letting go, Nick stepped back and smoothed Ash’s lapels. “You know, I’m sorry. I’m forgetting all the manners my mother tried so hard to teach me.” He narrowed his eyes meaningfully. “How’s Simi doing? Has she picked up any new guys lately?”

That succeeded in breaking the hold Ash had on his temper. He bellowed in rage as he felt himself slipping. Throwing his head back, he froze everyone in the bar. Everyone. They stood silently in place as the music continued to play while he and Nick faced each other. Not as friends. As enemies.

Nick’s face actually paled as he saw Ash’s true form.

“You never knew when to shut your mouth, Cajun.” His voice was a guttural demonic growl.

“What are you?”

Ash looked down at his blue hands, which were marbled by silver. His gaze was hazy now from the fire that swirled in his irises and pupils.

Closing his eyes, he shoved his emotions aside and returned to his human form. How he wished he could erase Nick’s memory, but Nick was one of those one in a trillion people who were immune to Ash’s mind manipulation. It was what had made them friends.

Unfortunately, Nick wasn’t immune to Ash’s god powers, and that was what had made them enemies.

“For your own sake, Nick. Stay away from me and never say Simi’s name in my presence again.”

Nick gave an evil laugh. “One day, Ash, I’m going to find a way to kill you for what you’ve done to the people I love.”

“Don’t threaten me, boy. You don’t have those powers.”

“It’s not a threat,” he said, his eyes burning. “It’s a promise.”

Ash growled low in his throat as he pushed his way through the frozen people.

“Keep walking, Ash. But remember when you feel my hand delivering the death blow to you that you’re the reason I’m here.”

Ash paused and turned toward him. “No, Nick. You’re just another mistake Artemis has made that will cause me nothing but misery.”

Nick grabbed a bottle from the table beside him and flung it at Ash.

Ash splintered the glass bottle before it reached him. The pieces hung silently in the air for a full ten seconds before they fell to the floor as harmless dust.

Turning on his heel, he headed for the door intent on putting as much physical distance between them as possible.

He was so intent, in fact, that he failed to notice the one person in the corner who wasn’t frozen. The one person who had witnessed the entire encounter.

As the room returned to normal and Nick went back toward the bar, the woman in a dark wig smiled evilly.

Now this was something they could definitely use.…

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Satara flashed herself straight into Kalosis. For once, Stryker wasn’t in the hall or “war room,” as it had once been aptly called. In fact, the vast room was oddly empty, with his throne sitting alone on the dais.

The unexpected silence was eerie.

All of the Daimons who normally gathered here must be in their own homes, which lined the dark streets outside in this realm where sunshine was eternally banished.

Atlantean legend once claimed that this was the palace of Misos, the Atlantean god of death and violence. Archon, the peaceful king of the gods, created this realm to control Misos and keep him prisoner, along with all of his minions who preyed on both the Atlantean people and mankind.

Stryker’s black throne of carved dragons, skulls, and crossbones had been fashioned by Thasos (the Atlantean personification of death) for Misos himself while he ruled over all the damned who were sent to Kalosis to be punished. Ultimately, Archon had even sent his queen, Apollymi, to this realm to be held so long as her natural son lived.

After her beloved son had died, Apollymi had left her prison in this realm and destroyed all of the Atlantean pantheon—just as the Fates had prophesied. And as she made her way across Greece, bent on destroying the entire world, somehow the Greek gods had found a way to return her to her prison in Kalosis.

No one knew how they’d done it and not once, in all this time, had any of them breathed a word of it.

But it wasn’t long after her new incarceration began that Apollymi had mentally reached out of this prison and summoned Stryker to her so that she could teach him how to take human souls and save his people.

That had been a hell of a day …

And Satara was grateful her brother had lived, because through him, she had a shot of ending her enslavement as a handmaiden to Artemis once and for all. That was if she could find the missing bastard to tell him her news.

Knowing her time was extremely finite, she rushed through the rooms of the palace, looking for him.

Oddly enough, she found him where she least expected … his bedroom.

And he wasn’t alone. There were half a dozen Daimons, male and female, sprawled all over him and his bed. That wasn’t counting the two who were making out on the floor in front of her.

She didn’t know what stunned her most, the fact that it was an orgy or the fact that Stryker was actually having sex with someone. Given his coldness, she honestly hadn’t thought he’d bother.

Then again, he didn’t seem to be particularly involved with the two women and one man who were trying to please him. Rather, he looked bored and preoccupied.

“Excuse me,” Satara called. All of them froze at the sound of her voice. “I really hate to interrupt this, but I have a situation I think Stryker will be very interested in and I don’t have time to wait until you’re through.”

Stryker pushed the woman on top of him off and sat up. “Leave us.”

Without a single word, they quickly gathered their clothes and walked past Satara, out the door.

Stryker was a bit more leisurely as he pulled on a robe but let it hang open as he moved from the bed.

Fine. If his nudity didn’t bother him, it certainly didn’t bother her.

Facing her, he wiped away the bit of blood at the corner of his mouth with his finger before he licked the digit clean. “Since you interrupted my dinner and I’m still hungry, could you make this quick?”

Satara was amazed by his words. “
That
was dinner?”

He gave her a bored stare as he closed the distance between them. “Yes. I like to play with my food before I eat it.”

That sounded more like the vicious Daimon she knew. But that wasn’t what had her here.

“Acheron is free of Olympus and I’ve been recalled to Artemis’s temple. I thought you’d want to know that he’s in Seattle with his Dark-Hunters now.”

Stryker let out a long, aggravated breath. “I guess it was too much to hope that she’d actually keep him this time.” He paused before he looked back at her. “Is that all?”

“No. I was at the Serengeti a few minutes ago and learned something
very
intriguing.”

*   *   *

Susan winced as Ravyn held an ice pack to her eye.

“For a woman who can handle herself so well in a fight, I can’t believe you got taken out by a defenseless doorjamb.”

She narrowed her eyes on him. “Given the size of my goose egg, I would argue the defenseless part. That doorjamb has a mean left hook. Besides, it’s not my fault. I was distracted.”

“By what?”

His butt, if the truth were told, but she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of knowing she’d been so preoccupied by his body that she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going. “I don’t remember.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I don’t.”

He brushed her hair back from her forehead with a gentle touch while he kept the ice over her brow. “You were amazing tonight, by the way.”

“Thanks, but not half as much as you guys were.” Her heart clenched as she inadvertently thought about Belle and right behind that thought was another, even more disturbing one. It was an image of Ravyn down on the ground … being executed in the same way.

Looking up at him now, she couldn’t get that out of her mind. Belle’s death had been way too easy to accomplish. To be so powerful, the Dark-Hunters had an awful Achilles’ heel.

Then again, most beings, supernatural or otherwise, usually died once their heads were removed. There really was no way back from that unless you were a character on a soap opera or in a horror movie.

Suddenly, someone screamed from upstairs, causing Susan to jump and scrape her brow against the ice bag. It was followed by running feet and something very heavy hitting the floor.

“What now?” she breathed, tired of the constant fighting for their lives. Honestly, she just wanted a few minutes of quiet.

“I don’t know.” Ravyn handed her the ice bag before he went to check it out.

Susan left the bag on the mattress before she followed after him. They rushed up the stairs to the hallway.

All of Ravyn’s family was there, along with a couple of other Weres and the doctor she’d seen on their arrival.

But it was Jack who held her attention. He sat on the floor, crying with his arms wrapped around his legs, rocking.

“What happened?” Ravyn asked Terra, who stood off to the side, looking perplexed by Jack.

Terra’s eyes were deeply sad. “Patricia died a few minutes ago from her injuries.”

Susan felt ill from the news.

“It’s not right,” Jack wailed as he pulled at his hair. “She never hurt anyone. Why is she dead? Why!”

The doctor patted him on the back as she looked up at Dorian. “I think you guys should go back to work. I’ll take care of Jack.”

They nodded before they complied.

Ravyn’s father took a moment to narrow his eyes on his son and curl his lip in disgust. “Why are you still here?”

Ravyn didn’t give him the satisfaction of showing any emotion whatsoever. “Love you, too, Dad.”

His face was so contorted by rage that Susan expected him to lash out at Ravyn. And he probably would have, had Dorian not pulled him away.

Ravyn’s face didn’t betray anything, but his eyes spoke a tome about how much his father’s rejection hurt him. And in that moment, she hated his father for the pain he caused Ravyn.

Her heart breaking for both Jack and Ravyn, Susan started to return downstairs until she realized that Ravyn wasn’t behind her. Instead, he went to Jack and knelt on the floor beside him. The doctor looked a bit surprised but didn’t say anything while Jack sobbed.

“Why couldn’t she have at least woken up for a few minutes?” Jack whispered. “I just wanted to talk to her one last time. I wanted her to know how much I loved her. How much she meant to me.”

Ravyn reached out and touched his forearm to comfort him. “She knew, Jack.”

He shook his head. “No, she didn’t. I was always complaining whenever she asked me to do something. Why did I complain all the time? I should have done something, just once, without lipping off. Oh God, I just want her back. I’m so sorry, Mom.”

Susan’s eyes teared as she listened to him and remembered her own pain when she’d learned about her mother’s death. It’d been the worst moment of her life.

It still was. And like Jack, all she could think about was how many things she wanted to change. How many things she wanted to say, that she couldn’t.

She watched silently while Ravyn sat on the floor beside him. The two of them sat shoulder to shoulder with their backs to the wall as the doctor pulled back to give them space.

Ravyn let out a tired sigh. “You know what I miss most about my mother? She used to sing to herself every night while she knitted by the firelight.”

Jack looked up with a frown. “Your mother didn’t knit. She was a Were.”

“Yeah, I know. It was such a strange hobby for her to have, but she loved it. She’d make all kinds of things, but her gloves were my favorite. I could always feel her when I wore them. Smell her scent. For some reason, I could never keep up with them. So she’d make a new one to match the one I still had, kiss it, put it on my hand, and then say to me, ‘My poor little kitten had better keep up with his mittens or I’ll skin ’im.’ I’d laugh, go off with them, and lose one again every time.”