The Dark-Hunters (401 page)

Geary could barely think as she watched the deadly dance of Arik with the others. She’d never seen anything like it.

Arik used the staff to lift himself up from the ground and drove his feet into the man with auburn hair. Then Arik swung around to attack the bald man and the twins at the same time.

Go, Arik.

But she couldn’t leave him to this on his own. Even for a dream, this was getting bloody, and honestly, this wasn’t what she wanted in her subconscious.

Wanting control again, Geary walked over to them. “Excuse me?”

Arik paused at her call, which allowed the bald man to deliver him a staggering blow to his face. He twisted back before snarling at her. “Run, Megeara.”

“Run from what? They’re circus freaks, and while this is mildly entertaining, I’d like to go back to what we were doing before they interrupted us.” She waved her hands at the others. “So you guys, go poof.”

The twins approached her slowly. “This isn’t a game, human. Listen to the Skotos and go. We’re not bound by the laws of the Oneroi. Killing humans is nothing for us.”

Was that supposed to scare her? Yeah. What had she eaten for dinner that it was manifesting like this?

Oh yeah. Crab cakes. Those never really agreed with her. She’d eaten two of them. Maybe that was why there were twins. Or she was just tired, which was the most likely explanation.

At any rate, she was tired of this part of the dream.

“Well, aren’t you all scary in black? Oooo. What are you two masquerading as? Evil Man and his trusty sidekick Bad Boy?” She let out a tired sigh. “Look, this is really annoying me. I want my dream back and that means all of you have to go now.”

One of the twins reached to grab her, but before he could, Arik was there. He pulled her by the arm, away from the others.

He paused to send a fiery blast back toward them as they ran forward. “You have to go, Megeara.”

“Not without you.”

Arik wanted to curse the fact that she couldn’t distinguish reality from her dreams. If she died on this plane, she died in her world, too. Same as him.

She stopped and grimaced. “Why are you playing with them? Just snow them in.”

He didn’t understand what she meant until she snapped her fingers and blocks of ice encased the Dolophoni. His jaw went slack as it stopped them dead in their tracks.

A human shouldn’t have that ability. “How did you do that?”

“It’s a dream, silly. I’ve always had control in my dreams. As a kid I used to pretend I was watching TV and if I didn’t like the dream, I just changed the channel. Like this.”

Suddenly the beach was gone. They were in a summer meadow with no sign of the Dolophoni to be had.

Arik’s jaw slackened even more as he felt the sharpness of solar heat and smelled heather and wheat. How was this possible? Humans couldn’t control dreams like this. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear she had Oneroi blood in her.

But she didn’t. There was a scent and aura that all the gods had—even those who only held a bit of god blood. Megeara had none of that. She was fully human.

Before he could ask how she’d gained control away from the Dolophoni, she captured his lips with hers. For a heartbeat all he could sense was her. With every part of him.

Unfortunately, he had more to focus on than how good she tasted.

“Please, Megeara. I would love to stay with you, but I can’t.”

She frowned up at him. “What are you talking about?”

He kissed her on the forehead before he pulled away. She had gotten them away from the Dolophoni, but they were still out there, looking for him, and they wouldn’t stop until he was dead. They wouldn’t care who got in the way. All that mattered to them was completing their mission.

The last thing he wanted was to see Megeara hurt.

“I’ll be with you soon.”

And with that, he pulled out of her dream.

Arik awoke in the hammock to the taste of blood in his mouth. His entire body ached to the point he could barely draw breath.

What was going on? None of this should be happening.

He didn’t know why the Dolophoni had been sent after him, but then, the why didn’t matter. All that counted was the fact that they wouldn’t stop until he was dead.

They’d found him in the dream realm.

It wouldn’t take them long to find him in the human world, too.

Holding his breath, he rolled out of the hammock and fell to the deck. He groaned as pain assailed him. He tried to stand, but his body wouldn’t cooperate. With no choice, he lay on the deck, looking up at the stars that twinkled silently in the sky above.

And as he watched them, bitter laughter filled him. How absolutely apropos.

His dream had just turned into a nightmare.

CHAPTER 11

Geary woke up at dawn feeling invigorated. She’d had a restful, dream-free sleep the night before and now she was anxious to be about the excavation. It was time to get cracking and set fire to the world.

Tory was already up and dressed, sitting in the corner with a flashlight as she reviewed pictures of their site. She looked like an eerie specter in the darkness.

“What are you doing?” Geary asked.

Tory pushed her glasses up on her nose and gave Geary a wistful look. “Wishing I could dive with you. It would be so cool to be down there and be the first on site, touching everything.”

Geary nodded. At two hundred feet down, it was far too deep for Tory, who was only a recreational diver. Not to mention, it was just too dangerous for her to chance. Both Jason and Tory’s father had died during diving accidents. That was one family legacy Geary had no intention of bequeathing to anyone.

“Next time.”

Tory sighed. “Yeah. Just keep the live feed going so that I can see it and pretend I’m there, too.”

“Yes, my queen. Anything else you’d like?”

Tory grinned. “A million dollars and Brad Pitt.”

As Geary threw back the covers and left her bed, she laughed at Tory’s stock answer. “You forgot world peace.”

“I’m feeling a bit selfish today. Teenage hormonal overdose, I think. Or just general excitement.”

Geary rolled her eyes as she went to brush her teeth. It didn’t take her long to get dressed. As eager to get started as Tory, she all but sprinted to the upper deck. The sky was just starting to lighten. Pink was laced with the blue as orange broke through in ribbons that spiraled above her, promising her good weather for the dive and excavation. Closing her eyes, she inhaled the fishy scent of the sea and smiled.

It was a good day to be alive.

And grateful to the man who’d given her this dream, she went to the hammock to wake him.

Only Arik wasn’t there. He lay on the deck with his back to her. Afraid he was ill, she rushed over to him and knelt by his side.

“Arik?”

He groaned ever so slightly as she shook him. Rolling onto his back, he opened his eyes, and she saw a slight bruise on his forehead.

“What are you doing on the deck?”

Arik gestured to the hammock above him. “I fell out of the hammock while I was sleeping.”

“On your head?”

“Apparently. Good thing it’s hard, huh?”

She grimaced at his misplaced humor.

Arik’s breath caught as she gently brushed the hair back from his brow to examine his cheek and forehead. The look of concern on her face was enough to make him want to bruise himself again to see if she’d duplicate it.

Luckily, he wasn’t
that
masochistic.

Yet.

“You need to be more careful.”

“I intend to,” he said honestly. He wasn’t about to let the Dolophoni get the drop on him again. While on the boat he was semiprotected, since they wouldn’t cause a commotion in front of a group of humans.

At least that was the lie he was telling himself. The problem with the Dolophoni was that they didn’t really have a set of rules to follow that anyone knew. You merely hoped they’d abide by the ones set down for everyone else.

In the end, they, like the Chthonians, were a law unto themselves. The only difference being that the Cthonians truly had no one holding their leash. At least with the Dolophoni, the Erinyes could call them off. Not that they did that often. The Furies had a tendency to revel in conflict, and there was nothing they loved more than a good bloodbath.

Megeara sat back on her heels to stare at him. The dawn’s light highlighted her hair and made it glow. Her cheeks were pink, and all he could think of was the hours he’d spent kissing those lips.

And the hours more he’d like to spend making love to her.

He was already hard for her, wanting to taste her again. Why wouldn’t she grab him in this realm the way she did in the other?

“You are so beautiful.”

She gave him a doubting look. “Man, you hit your head hard, didn’t you?”

He frowned. “Why can’t you take a compliment?”

“Because I’m just not used to them. I come from a family that doesn’t believe in randomly patting people on the back. The assumption is if no one’s yelling at you, you’re doing a great job. And no one ever complimented each other on appearances. Those are trivial. It’s what’s inside that matters.”

His smile turned gentle and guileless. “And you’re even more beautiful there.”

Geary merely stared at him. What did a woman say to that? “Thank you.” But that was extremely inadequate for what she felt. Everything about Arik touched her deep and made her want to stay with him.

“Hey, Gear?”

She turned at Teddy’s call. “Yeah?”

“We got a kink in the dredge. Justina is working on it right now. I just wanted to let you know.”

“Thanks.”

Geary pulled back and smiled at Arik. “We’ve got a lot to do. You feeling up to it?”

“Absolutely. I’m here to help.”

And over the next hour as they prepared the boat and equipment, he proved to be true to his word. No matter how hard or dirty the task, he lent himself to it without complaint.

They were just about to weigh anchor when Solin showed up on the docks looking perfectly groomed and highly offended.

His eyes heated, he boarded the boat and made his way straight to Geary. “You weren’t about to leave me, were you, Doctor?”

Geary didn’t know what to say. Honestly, she’d forgotten about him.

Luckily, Arik showed up at that moment and distracted Solin from chastising her. A stern frown creased Solin’s brow as he noted the slight bruise on Arik’s forehead. “What happened to you?”

“He fell out of his hammock last night,” Geary explained. “And if you two will excuse me, I want to get under way immediately.”

Arik didn’t speak until he was alone with Solin.

“Hammock?” Solin said with a mocking laugh. “It looks more like you had a run-in with something hard.”

“I did. The Dolophoni showed up last night in my dreams.”

Solin went completely still. Anger radiated out of him with such ferocity that it actually singed Arik. One would think they’d attacked him instead. “How many?”

“Ten.”

Solin arched a shocked brow. “And you lived? I have to say I’m surprised.”

“I don’t go down easily.”

“Apparently. So how did you get away from them?”

“They pulled back after I killed one of them, then—”

Solin gaped. “You what?” he asked in disbelief.

“I killed one of them.”

Solin gave him a look of supreme respect. “How did you manage that?”

“I’m real good at what I do.” He didn’t say that arrogantly, he was only stating fact.

“Yeah, and have you any idea of the firestorm you’ve just unleashed for yourself? The Dolophoni don’t like people to get the better of them.”

“I know and I’m sure we’ll battle again.”

Solin shook his head as he looked out over the water. One corner of his mouth lifted into an evil grin. “So which bastard did you nail?”

Arik didn’t know their names, but he had a feeling Solin must have had more than his fair share of run-ins with them to be this interested. “The one with a staff.”

Solin laughed. “Erebos. Good man. Wish I could have seen it. Zeus knows I’ve been wanting to shove that staff up his ass for centuries.” He indicated Arik’s face. “Are you sore, too?”

“Yes.”

“Amazing.”

And it was. None of this made sense. There shouldn’t be a single remnant of their battle on him. With the exception of death, things that happened in the dream realm shouldn’t transfer to the human plane. It just didn’t happen. “All I can figure is it has something to do with the fact that I’m Skoti and don’t belong in this realm. Maybe that’s why I can feel dream pain in this world.”

“Maybe.”

Suddenly the sound of a tin whistle rent the air as the boat engines started up. Arik cocked his head as someone started playing an Irish tune. A few seconds later, he heard a beautiful voice singing the folk song “I’m a Man You Don’t Meet Every Day.” The rest of the crew picked up the song as they pushed away from the dock and headed out of the harbor.

Every one of them was working together, and the sight of them like that warmed him.

Arik smiled at the camaraderie. “They’re incredible, aren’t they?”

“What? Humans?”

He nodded.

“They can be, I suppose.”

Arik watched Solin as he kept himself apart from the others, and he couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to have the best of both worlds. To be able to feel and walk among humans both in this realm and in the sleep one. How could Solin be so lackadaisical about it all? Surely he had to appreciate the beauty of this world. “So what’s it like?”

Solin frowned. “What’s what like?”

“Being human.”

He let out an angry scoff. “Basically sucks. I highly recommend returning to your godhood as soon as you can.”

Arik didn’t understand that. There was so much charm here. So much of everything. “Listen to their song … look at the landscape. How can you not love it here?”

Solin curled his lip. “Disease. Filth. Waste. Crime. Brutality. What’s there to like?”

“There’s brutality on Olympus.”

“True. But I hate humanity as much as I hate the gods. Both groups are selfish bastards bent on destroying everything around them. They were given a perfect world and rather than enjoy it, they’d rather destroy it and each other. Excuse me if I don’t look at them with love in my eyes but rather scorn in my heart.”