The Dark-Hunters (388 page)

Kissing him wildly, she thrust her hips against his hand, seeking even more pleasure from him. “I want more,” she demanded, reaching for his zipper.

He laughed wickedly. “And you will have it.”

“Geary!”

The loud shout jolted her from her dream and left her heart racing even faster than Arikos had. Geary opened her eyes to find herself lying facedown on her bed.

Tory burst into the room. “You better come quick. Thia is about to drown Teddy. And I’m not kidding.”

*   *   *

Arik pulled out of the dream with a curse as he hovered in the
strobilos
that gave him no form or substance while he spied on the human realm. Whenever a person awoke from their dream, it left a dream god in a vast nothingness. There was no sound, no color, nothing but blackness.

All he could feel was her fleeting emotions, and he was desperate to keep those.

“Megeara…” Arik called, wanting to return to what they’d been sharing. But he knew it was too late. His little fixation was stronger than the average human and didn’t always come to him when he called for her.

Not even the Lotus serum could induce her to sleep until she was ready and agreeable. All it did was give her a headache as she fought against it.

Damn it. He wanted her back!

His body was aching with unsated need, but more than that he felt something strange in his chest.

Grief.

He craved her and he was angry at her loss. Never once in all the history of the human world had he felt anything like this. Dream gods were supposed to be devoid of emotions … at least all except for pain. That emotion alone had been left for them so that the other gods could control and punish them.

Only he didn’t feel pain in his chest. He could still feel Megeara’s emotions as his own, which told just how powerful her repressed passion and anger were.

She’d started out as a passing curiosity for him. Her dreams had been vivid and colorful—two things most people’s were not. The average person dreamed in black-and-white with a lot of mist.

Most dream gods avoided those, especially the erotic Skoti like him who were ever questing for the more daring humans. Why dance in the dreams of an unimaginative person when the point was to experience feelings and senses through the sleeper?

So his kind skipped through dreams, seeking those who could create beauty and give to the Skoti what they needed.

Megeara’s dreams had been awash in clever sensations. He’d first come upon her while she was bathing in a river of chocolate.

Rolling over on the misty ground that made up one of the dream chambers, Arik closed his eyes to summon the memory. There were still the remnants of Megeara’s passion inside him even though their dream connection was severed, and that allowed him to remember the pleasure of finding her that first night.

Even now he could taste the dream chocolate on his tongue as he’d licked it from her naked body. Feel the warm sensation of it sliding over his skin as they made love in it. He wondered now as he’d wondered then what that chocolate would really taste like on the mortal plane.

Why had it given Megeara so much pleasure?

Most of all, he burned to know what
she
would really taste like. How she would smell.

His cock twitched in sweet expectation.

“Arikos?”

He turned his head away as a bright light burst into his darkness. “Fuck off, M’Ordant,” he snarled, recognizing the voice of his older half brother.

“Is that anger?”

Arik pushed himself up and moved to stand beside the god who was equal to his height. Like him, M’Ordant had black hair and translucent blue eyes. All of their race were marked by those colorings, along with an unearthly beauty.

This time when Arik spoke his tone was flat and level, as was befitting one of his cursed species. “How would I know? I have no emotions.”

M’Ordant narrowed his gaze and if Arik didn’t know better, he’d swear his brother was puzzled. Even though they couldn’t truly feel, they’d learned to mock expressions. It made the other gods less nervous around them. “You’ve been spending too much time with the human. You need to move on to another.”

That was the way of it. A Skotos such as Arik was only tolerated to help drain humans of excess emotions. If Skoti spent too long with one person, they could, in theory, make the person go mad or even kill them.

The Skoti were normally given a single warning and if they failed to heed it, an Oneroi would be selected to either punish or eliminate them from existence. M’Ordant was one of many who monitored human sleep and who kept the Skoti in line.

“And if I don’t want to leave her?”

“Are you being argumentative?”

Arik gave him an arch stare. “How could I be?”

“Then you are done with her.” M’Ordant vanished.

The wisest course of action would be to heed his warning. But Arik was too drawn to his human to pay attention to M’Ordant’s words. After all, that would require fear … something Arik knew nothing about.

Closing his eyes, Arik could still smell the scent of Megeara’s flesh. Still taste the salty sweetness of her body on his hungry tongue. Feel her touch on his skin.

No, he wasn’t done with her. He was only beginning.

CHAPTER 2

Leaning against the side of the boat so that she could watch the nearby sailboats gliding over the clear blue water, Geary didn’t know what was wrong with her. She was so sleepy she could barely keep her eyes open, and that wasn’t like her.

“I think I have narcolepsy.”

Tory paused by Geary’s side before looking her up and down. “Possibly. Did you know that seventy percent of people with narcolepsy also suffer cataleptic attacks?” Before Geary could open her mouth to comment, Tory refuted her own theory. “That’s not you, though. I’ve seen you angry enough times to know that that lovely symptom doesn’t affect you. Of course, narcoleptics also have vivid hallucinations either while asleep or even while awake. And, of course, sleepwalking. I know you don’t sleepwalk. Have you become delusional lately?”

Yes, but discussing vivid sexual fantasies with a fifteen-year-old bookworm wasn’t something Geary intended to do.

Geary scowled at her. “How do you know all this? Jeez, Tory, you’re a kid. Act like it.” Before she could even blink, Tory reached out and punched her on the arm. Hard. “Ow!” She rubbed her biceps where Tory had hit her. “What was that for?”

“Unexpected and irrational emotional outbursts. Isn’t that what teenagers are supposed to do? Oh, and sulk. A lot.”

Geary held her hands up in surrender. “Fine. Have it your way,
Dr.
Kafieri.”

In an expression more akin to her age, Tory gave her a gleeful grin before she went to help the boat’s captain with some line he was securing.

Shaking her head, Geary headed back belowdecks to find Teddy and Scott, who were grumbling about Thia’s presence on their team while they worked … something Geary couldn’t help since she’d promised Thia’s mother to watch after her this summer. Apparently, the little shrew had attacked Teddy for taking up too much of Scott’s time.

Geary hoped they’d get over their ire soon. She had banished her cousin to the city for a short round of shopping while they prepared to sail back to the area where Geary believed Atlantis was hiding. The last thing they needed was to have Thia gaggling about, complaining over everything.

Besides, Thia lived for shopping. The shinier the object, the more she adored it. So much so, the girl had actually worn red horns last Halloween that were decorated with dangling diamond hoops. As was fitting for her, Thia had dressed up as a shopping demon.

Brian had volunteered to accompany her and keep her out of trouble—which, knowing Thia, was a necessary assignment. Their luck, she’d end up being either abducted into white slavery or stolen by green aliens.

Meanwhile, Geary was so tired, she couldn’t stand it. It was all she could do to stay awake.

“Megeara. Return to me. …”

A chill went down her body as she heard the deeply erotic voice in her head again.

From the corner of her eye she saw something move. She turned and there in the doorway, on the stairs that led to the top deck, was Arikos. Dressed completely in black, he stood to the side with wicked eyes that promised her an endless night of orgasm, and a seductive smile that froze her to the spot.

“Come, Megeara.”
His voice whispered like a phantom wind, caressing her. Lulling her.

He held his hand out …

Never had she seen a more compelling pose. All she wanted was to take his hand and have him sweep her up in his arms like he did in her dreams. She wanted to strip him bare and taste the perfection of his body.

To taste those inviting lips.

Without thinking, she held her hand out toward his. So close that they were almost touching. Only a breadth of a hair more …

But he wasn’t real and she knew it.

“Geary? Can you hand me my ruler?”

She started at Teddy’s voice. Dropping her hand, she glanced to her left and saw the ruler on the cluttered desktop. She barely blinked before she looked back toward the stairs.

They were empty, with no sign of Arikos waiting there for her to return, and that filled her with extreme disappointment.

I am losing my mind.

Yeah, but what a way to go. Everyone should be stalked by such a sexy hallucination.

Not wanting to think about that, she picked up the ruler and handed it to Teddy, who was watching her with a concerned frown. Even though he was only a few years older than her, he acted more like a father to her than a friend or colleague. His short brown hair was always impeccably combed, and he had jolly brown eyes and a sweet set of kind dimples. “Are you okay?”

“Tired.”

He scratched his head as if baffled by her response. “You slept fourteen hours last night.”

She patted his arm. “I know, but I’m still tired.”

“Maybe you need a physical.”

More likely my head examined.
She pushed that thought aside to smile at him. “I’ll be fine. Really.”

At least she would be if she could stop having these bizarre delusions. Even now she felt as if someone was watching her …

*   *   *

Arik wanted to curse in frustration as he watched Megeara smiling at another man. Why wouldn’t she succumb to his serum? To his pleas?

How could a mere mortal woman be so strong?

“Arikos?”

As light intruded into his dark chamber once more he let out a tired sigh at the sound of his uncle Wink’s voice. Arik was getting seriously tired of these interruptions when all he wanted was to be with his human target. “What?”

“I’ve been told to retrieve my sleeping serum from you. You seem to be abusing it and making your human ill.”

Arik rolled over to face the older sleep god. Wink’s long brown hair was braided down his back as his light gray eyes danced with mischief. Even though Wink was one of the oldest gods, he held the personality of a thirteen-year-old boy. There was nothing he loved more than to play pranks and tease—two of the very things that had gotten Arik and his brethren cursed.

At one time, they’d been too easily seduced and manipulated by the other gods and had allowed themselves to be used by Wink, Hades, and the others in private jests and wars.

Until the day Zeus had put a stop to it once and for all. Funny how he’d only punished the tools and not the ones who’d wielded them.

But then, Zeus wasn’t known as a god of justice.

“And if I want to keep the serum?”

Wink arched a brow at that, then tsked. “Come now, Arikos, you know the rules.” His face sobered. “You also know what happens to those who don’t cooperate.”

Of course he did. All of his kind knew. His back bore more scars than the sky held stars. There were times when he suspected his grandfather Hypnos, who oversaw their physical punishments, was nothing more than a sadist who could only feel pleasure when he was doling out pain to others.

How cruel was it to send the Skoti in to drain humans of excess or pent-up emotions, then punish them when they didn’t want to leave because they finally experienced something other than pain?

But that was the way of it.

After his “chat” with M’Ordant, Arik had known it would come to this. There was no use in arguing. Wink had been sent to retrieve the Lotus serum they used on humans, and all the bribery on Olympus wouldn’t sway him. Wink was only a pawn who served the sleep gods.

Arik pulled out the small vial and handed it to Wink, who took it with a stoic smile.

“Cheer up, old boy. There are plenty of other dreamers out there for you to play with. Mankind is generous to you that way. They live for their dreams and are possessed of them constantly.”

Yes, but none of those humans held the type of uninhibited, vivid dreams of Megeara. It made Arik long to know what she’d be like outside the dream realm. What she would be like as a human …

Arik watched as Wink withdrew, then left him in the dream chamber to face the darkness alone.

Perhaps this was just punishment after all. A son of the god Morpheus, Arik had originally been one of the Oneroi. As was customary for such, he’d been assigned humans to watch over and protect against the Skoti who sometimes preyed on them. In those days, he’d spent his life monitoring his subjects, making sure the ones under his protection had normal dreams that would either help them work through their problems or inspire them.

Until that one fateful night.

He’d gone to help one of his assignments who was ill. Because of her sickness, her dreams had become extremely vivid and emotional—so much so that one of the Skoti had latched onto her. Such a thing was common and even tolerated. Skoti fed from human emotions, but so long as they kept it under control and didn’t lead the dreams or interrupt the human’s life, they were allowed to drain humans. It was only when the Skoti began to return repeatedly and took control of the host that they were punished.

Humans held fragile psyches. A returning Skotos could easily turn human minds and either drive them insane or make them homicidal. In the worst case, a Skotos could even kill the human, which was why the Oneroi monitored them. If a Skotos spent too long with their host, then it was the Oneroi’s place to step in and drive them out.