The Dark-Hunters (415 page)

That snapped Geary out of her hysteria.

Surely, not …

“If you tell me that you’re one of them, then I’m absolutely going to freak out.”

Kat’s face was deadly earnest. “Then you better freak.”

“Good God, is no one what they seem? Is Kichka the Egyptian goddess Bast in disguise?”

“No, Kichka is a cat.”

Uh-huh. She was supposed to believe that after the bomb Kat had just dropped on her? “And let me guess. You’re a god, too, right? Which one? Athena? Hera? Oh, what the heck? Aphrodite?”

Kat gave her a droll stare. “No. I’m not a god. I’m a servant to Artemis.”

“Artemis?” Yeah. That just sounded so much better … not. “The goddess of the hunt, huh?” Geary looked down at the wood deck. “There must be some kind of vapors coming up off the floor of the sea—like the oracle of Delphi. That’s why I’m seeing and hearing all this insanity.” She nodded, liking the sound of that argument. “I’m hallucinating, aren’t I?”

“Oh, get a grip,” Kat said irritably. “If you can accept Solin, Arik, and M’Adoc, you can certainly accept me, too.”

“One would think that, wouldn’t they? But I’ve known you too long to think that all this time you’ve been hiding a secret like this from me.”

“And now you know why I wasn’t thrilled when you found Atlantis and wanted to start digging around the city.”

Well, since she put it that way, it did make sense. “And were you in on my death plan with Arik, too? Are you the one who killed my father?”

Kat’s eyes blazed in anger. “Excuse me? You don’t need to be tossing around ludicrous accusations like that. I had nothing to do with your father’s death. I loved that man. He was weird and strange, but I loved him and I would have done anything to keep him safe. While you were off in America, I was here with him, doing the best I could to help him and keep him alive even though he was bent on killing himself.”

Tears filled Geary’s eyes at the truth. “I’m sorry, Kat. I’m just upset and I don’t mean to be taking it out on you.”

Kat nodded. “No offense, but you
should
be sorry. How could you let M’Adoc take Arik?”

“Arik was going to kill me.”

“Hardly.”

“It’s true,” Geary said past the lump in her throat. “Arik admitted it.”

Still, Kat scoffed. “Arik loves you, Geary. It’s so obvious it’s painful. No man, god or otherwise, watches over a woman the way he does you and then lets her die, never mind kills her. That’s just stupid.”

“Yeah, he loves me now, but when he loses his emotions next week, what then? M’Adoc said that he’d kill me without question. He said that Arik would have no emotions or choice but to do as they said.” There, it sounded rational. Kind of.

“Arik?” Kat asked incredulously. “Do what he was told? Please. He hasn’t followed the directions of any god in thousands of years. That’s why he’s Skoti.”

All of Geary’s fears that M’Adoc was lying came rushing back. “What are you saying, Kat?”

“No offense to you, kid, but what I’m saying is that you just ordered a man who loves you to his death.”

CHAPTER 18

With his hands cuffed behind his back, Arik didn’t flinch or struggle as M’Adoc hauled him into the sanctity of the triumvirate’s hall. He’d never been inside this place before, not even in dreams. It was the sacred domain of the triumvirate who zealously guarded it from all the rest of their kin.

No one knew why, but Arik had to give the guys credit. It was an opulent palace made of glass and gold that they’d constructed here. It was fit for a dream god and even Zeus would be at home … The council room where they were was decadently comfortable with padded chairs and even a laptop computer that was so out of place as to be funny … if Arik wasn’t about to die.

M’Ordant was seated before it, and as they came in he looked up with an unguarded expression that showed both confusion and shock—two emotions he shouldn’t have. “Damn, M’Adoc, how did you manage this one?”

M’Adoc shoved Arik against the solid glass table, the corner of which bit into his hip bone and bruised him. He had to grind his teeth to keep from lashing out at M’Adoc. But Arik had given his word, and so long as the god kept his and didn’t harm Megeara, Arik would submit, even though it went against every part of his genetic makeup to do so.

M’Adoc shrugged as he moved to stand beside Arik. “He surrendered willingly. In exchange for our keeping his human safe.”

There was no missing the stunned look on M’Ordant’s face.

“Was there no fight?”

Arik turned his head slightly as he heard D’Alerian’s deep voice from behind him. He couldn’t see him, but he could feel D’Alerian’s presence. Of the three of them, his had an unmistakable aura. He wasn’t the most powerful, but his presence could be felt all the way to the marrow of someone’s bones.

“He knew better than to fight me,” M’Adoc said in a sinister tone.

“Get over yourself, M’Adoc,” Arik snarled. “You had nothing to do with this. There was no need in my staying in the human realm any longer since all you did was hurt Megeara by telling her of my bargain with Hades.” She would never forgive him, and that hurt even more than a thousand beatings. Strange how originally the thought of her death had meant nothing to him. Now he grieved over every tear and doubly over the ones he’d caused her. “Just take me to Hades and end it.”

M’Adoc took him by the arm. His lips were twisted as he raked Arik with a sneer. “Oh no, Arikos. I don’t think so. See, I hand you over to Hades and he’s going to start questioning how it is you have so many emotions that you’re willing to surrender yourself to save a simple human’s soul.”

“Because Hades made him human,” D’Alerian answered in a dry, stoic tone. “There won’t be any questions over it. It would only stand to reason.”

M’Adoc turned on him with a hiss. “Are you willing to take that chance?”

D’Alerian’s jaw flexed. “There’s no chance involved, Adarian. He is human, by Hades’ command, and he acted as a human. The god would expect no less.”

Arik frowned as D’Alerian used M’Adoc’s real name, Adarian. As part of their punishment, and to push them away from the idea that they were individuals of any merit, many of the original Oneroi had been stripped of their names and given new ones to designate their roles.
D’
meant that D’Alerian was normally assigned to watch over immortals such as the Dark-Hunters.
V’
designated a human helper—as an Oneroi, Arik’s name had been V’Arik or V’Arikos, which he now hated, since it sounded like a vein condition. And the
M’
was reserved for those who policed them all. There were many who called D’Alerian M’Alerian. But for reasons no one understood, D’Alerian continued to use the name they’d given him before he’d risen to the ruling ranks.

M’Ordant closed his laptop as he faced them. “He’s right. We should hand him over to Hades. We don’t want to cross the god of the dead. He’s a nasty bugger.”

M’Adoc scoffed at them. “And when Hades kills Arik and his immortal soul is stripped bare while Hades tortures him in Tartarus, don’t you think King Badass is going to discover the fact that little Arikos can feel something other than pain without having a human host to sponsor those emotions?”

A rivulet of shock went through him. What was M’Adoc saying? Arik froze as he began to suspect that the emotions he’d thought were residuals left from Megeara’s might have been his own after all. “What’s going on?”

“Shut up, Arik,” M’Ordant snapped angrily.

M’Adoc glared at his brothers. “We can’t take a chance of them learning the truth. Ever.” His gaze bored into D’Alerian. “Of everyone in this room, Neco, you have the most to lose. Don’t let your compassion for him stop you from doing what needs to be done.”

Pain flickered across D’Alerian’s face before he gave a subtle nod.

There wouldn’t be any mercy given to Arik, not that he had expected any. Honestly, his welfare didn’t matter. “I don’t care what happens to me,” Arik said to M’Adoc. “Just remember you promised to take care of Megeara.”

One corner of M’Adoc’s lips twisted up into a mocking smile. “Oh, don’t worry. I fully intend to take care of her. Immediately.”

D’Alerian scowled. “I don’t like that tone,
adelphos.
”

M’Adoc cast a belittling smirk at him. “No one gives a damn what you like, Neco. She’s a liability to us. She knows the location of Atlantis and she knows we exist. Would you have me leave a threat like that out there?”

He was going back to kill her. Arik knew it with every ounce of his being.

“You swore to me, you lying bastard.” Arik turned on M’Adoc, intending to fight, but as soon as he neared him, he felt something hot and solid pierce his stomach. Pain tore through him.

Arik staggered back and looked down to see a long, bloodied dagger in M’Adoc’s hand. He couldn’t believe it as his knees weakened from the agony of his wound.

M’Adoc moved toward Arik with a merciless glint in his eyes. He buried a fist in his hair as his empty, cold gaze burned into Arik’s. “Sweet dreams, Arik,” M’Adoc said an instant before he stabbed him again and everything went dark.

*   *   *

Geary was numb as they returned to the docks. Over and over she kept going through everything with Arik. But deep inside, she knew Kat was right. Arik had loved her. In spite of everything or maybe because of everything, they’d fallen in love with each other, and she’d just thrown him to the wolves.

She should have trusted in him. Arik wouldn’t hurt her, she knew that. He might have had bad intentions in the beginning, but he wasn’t like that now. Why hadn’t she given him the benefit of the doubt?

“What am I going to do, Kat?” she asked as they tied the lines.

Kat sighed. “There’s nothing to do. He’s gone.”

Geary straightened up to stare at the taller woman. “I can’t accept that. I can’t.”

But Kat was immune to her pleading look. “You’re going to have to.”

“Why?” Geary asked.

“Because sometimes life just basically sucks, and this is one of those times.”

“And if I don’t want it to?”

Kat shook her head. “When has it ever listened to you?”

She did have a point. But it didn’t stop the pain inside Geary from hurting. How could she have let M’Adoc take Arik? She should have fought. Should have told him she loved him.

Instead, she’d just stood there as he was taken and done absolutely nothing.

Damn me, I’m such a fool.
She’d waited her entire lifetime for love, and then when she’d finally found it she’d cast it aside in one moment of hurt anger. How could she have been so stupid?

“This can’t be how it ends.”

Kat’s features softened as she neared her. “Geary, look. Arik sacrificed himself to keep you safe. Don’t ruin it by putting yourself into danger and dying. Let him go.”

She stared at Kat. “If someone you loved were suffering because of you, could you let him go?”

Kat screwed her face up as if she was in pain. “This isn’t about me,” she said in an anguished tone that answered Geary. “Oh, okay, so I wouldn’t stand by and let the man I love suffer when I was the one who caused it.… Damn.”

“Yeah. Damn. We have to find some way to help him.”

Kat raked her hand through her hair as if irritated beyond her tolerance. “I don’t even know how to begin to fix this.”

“I do.”

Geary put her hand to her temple as she heard Apollymi’s voice in her head.
“Not now, please.”

“Don’t dismiss her,” Kat said out loud. “Apollymi’s probably our best hope right now.”

“You know about…” Of course she did. “You hear her, too?”

“All the time. She has a bad habit of nosing her way into pretty much everything I do. She’s terribly nosy that way, but she’s always a friend to me.” She smiled before she addressed Apollymi. “
Mibreiara,
have you any suggestions that don’t involve one of us letting you out?”

“That is the suggestion
I
prefer.”

“Yes, but neither Geary nor I will do that. You got anything else?”

“Yes, but it’s tricky. Listen to me, my girls. You’re about to have an important lesson in men and god politics.”

*   *   *

“Solin?”

Solin cursed as he heard Arik’s voice in his head.
“I have nothing to say to you.”

“Fine. I don’t want to hear it anyway. What I need is for you to listen.”

“Listen, my ass.”

“I need your ears, Solin,”
he said wryly,
“not your ass.”

“Go to hell.”

“I’m already there.”

Solin paused as he felt something odd brush against his collar. It was the touch of the dead and he knew it, even though it’d been centuries since he’d last felt one. “What?”

A Shade of Arik appeared before Solin. His features were ghastly white, his eyes dark and pain-filled. He wore nothing but a pair of tattered pants. “M’Adoc killed me.”

Solin couldn’t have been more shocked had he been the one who’d died. “How?”

“I surrendered myself to him to protect Megeara. Now he’s reneged on our bargain and is heading for her. I need you to protect her from him.”

Of course he did, and Solin was through being the dupe in this. Why should he put his life on the line for anyone? Who would he go to for help once he was a Shade? No one. “Do you think I even care?”

“I know you do, Solin. In spite of your protestations, I can see the real man inside that you try so desperately to ignore and hide.” He paused before he spoke again. “Please, Brother. She’s not a fighter and he won’t stop until she’s dead. Don’t let an innocent die over nothing.”

Still Solin didn’t want to get involved in this. He’d made a similar mistake before and paid dearly for it. “Do I look like an Oneroi to you? I’m not here to protect humans. Why don’t you go warn her yourself?”

“She won’t speak to me or listen. M’Adoc told her of my bargain with Hades. She hates me now.”

Solin didn’t miss the tremor of pain in Arik’s voice. Nor the look of absolute misery on his face. The fact that she was hurting tore Arik apart. “You love her?”