The Dark-Hunters (416 page)

“Obviously more than my life,” he said, his voice trembling from his emotions.

Solin narrowed his eyes on Arik. “It hurts, doesn’t it? To have that one person you love learn the truth of what you are and hate you for it?”

“You have no idea.”

“Yeah, I do.” And instead of feeling the satisfaction he’d anticipated when Arik tasted his own misery, Solin felt nothing but more pain. There was no joy in hurting someone else. At least not for him. “Where are you?”

“I’m on the banks of Styx. M’Adoc won’t allow Charon to ferry me over for fear of Hades finding me and learning the truth. I’m sure that when Hades learns I’m dead, he’ll go for Megeara to fulfill my bargain, and that I can’t allow. She’s innocent in this and shouldn’t have to pay for my stupidity. I have nothing to give you, Solin, but please, if there’s any decency left in you, don’t let her die because of me. I’m begging you.”

Solin knew that kind of love. He’d tasted it once and it’d been burning on his tongue like a bitter pill for countless centuries. “Just so you know, I’ve never had a drop of decency in me.” Arik literally deflated before Solin’s eyes. “But I won’t let them hurt her. Rest easy.”

Even as he spoke, he knew that would never happen. Hades wouldn’t allow Arik peace once he learned where the man was, and from the looks of it, neither would M’Adoc. And for the first time in centuries, Solin honestly felt sorry for someone other than himself.

“You can trust me, Arik.”

“Thank you.” He inclined his head to Solin before he faded out.

Taking a deep breath, Solin leaned back in his chair. His motto had always been to help no one because no one had ever helped him. He hated people.

He hated the gods most of all.

And he had no business getting involved in this. But how could he stand by and not do something? Megeara needed protection, and unlike him, she didn’t have the powers to fight against them and win. They would tear through her in no time.

If he were smart, he’d contact ZT and let the Chthonian handle it.

“Nah,” he said with a bitter smile. “I’d rather be vindictive than smart.” And with that he flashed himself out of the safety of his home to search for a human.

It didn’t take much to find Megeara. Her aura stood out even to the waking Dream-Hunter, especially since she was in such emotional turmoil.

But what gave him pause was the air of hopeless sadness that engulfed her. It’d been a long time since he’d seen its equal. “You okay?”

She jerked around at the sound of his voice to glare at him. “What are you doing here?”

“I have no idea, but I think it’s to help.”

She scoffed at him as she pulled down a book from her bookshelf. “That boat already sailed. You told us we were on our own.”

“Yeah. But the amazing thing about boats is that they occasionally turn around and come back.”

“Or they blow up while hosting your air supply,” Kat added meaningfully.

He turned his head to see her entering the room from his left. “True, but not this one. Arik asked me to guard Megeara from the others.”

Megeara gave him a suspicious look. “Why would he do that?”

“Because he’s not able to.”

Still suspicion was heavy in her eyes. She didn’t trust Solin, and honestly he couldn’t blame her for it. “And why would you do that when you’ve already made your position clear?”

He shrugged. “I’m basically doing it to piss off the powers-that-be.”

“And?” Kat prompted.

“And what?”

“I don’t know, there just seemed to be an
and
attached to the way you said that.”

And … for some reason he didn’t want to think about, he’d come to like and respect Arik. But that he’d never admit to. “There’s no
and.
”

“All right then,” Kat said, clapping her hands together. “We’re trying to save Arik. You said he came to you. Where is he?”

Solin hesitated. He’d assumed they knew already, but apparently the women had no clue what’d happened to Arik. “He came to me as a Shade, Kat. M’Adoc killed him.”

Geary dropped the book in her hand at the unexpected news. If Kat hadn’t reached out to steady her, she would have probably fallen.

Arik was dead.

It couldn’t be—and yet she could tell by the look on Solin’s face that he wasn’t joking.

“I can’t breathe,” she whispered as her tears gathered in her throat to choke her. “He can’t be gone.”

“Sh,” Kat said as she pulled Geary against her. “It’s okay, Geary.”

But it wasn’t okay. Arik was dead and it was her fault. She hadn’t even fought for him. M’Adoc had come and she’d all but shoved Arik into the hands of the man who’d killed him.

She sobbed as her heart shattered. How could she have done such a thing, even in anger?

“Uh, ladies. I hate to say it, but I’m not through being a harbinger here. Arik came to me because M’Adoc is hell-bent on cleaning this situation up.”

Kat stepped away from her. “Cleaning it up how?”

He looked meaningfully at Geary. “Humans aren’t supposed to know we exist.”

That shocked Geary’s tears away as a chill went down her spine. “He’s coming to kill me, too.”

“Yes.”

Anger consumed her as she wiped away her tears. “What about Tory and Thia?”

“They don’t know anything, so they’re safe. But you, my dearest, are another matter entirely.”

Well, she could handle that. Her life was one thing, theirs was another. So long as they were safe, she could deal with whatever came her way.

She bent to retrieve her book of mythology from the floor. “I can’t believe this.”

Solin nodded. “It’s really quite pathetic, isn’t it? Arik gives himself up because M’Adoc swears he won’t hurt you, and then the lying bastard decides you need to die anyway.”

Geary froze at his words as dread consumed her. “Arik did what?”

Solin looked ill. “Oh, don’t tell me you didn’t know that, either?”

“No,”
Kat said, stressing the word. “She didn’t.”

Solin wiped his hand over his face. “Okay, I’m just going to stand here and be quiet.”

“It’s too late, Solin,” Kat said from between clenched teeth. “You’ve already done your damage.”

“Wait,” Geary said as her mind whirled with thoughts. She looked down at the leather-bound book in her hands. “We can save Arik.”

They exchanged a frown before Kat shook her head. “I don’t see how.”

“Oh c’mon, you’re both
in
the pantheon. Shades have been brought back before.” She held the book out to them. “Look at Orpheus and Eurydice. Hades allowed her to leave.”

Solin snorted. “That’s one example out of thousands Hades has denied, and laughed at while he did so.”

Geary glared at him. “I thought you were going to be quiet.”

“Sorry.”

“As much as I hate to admit it, he’s right,” Kat said with a sigh. “Not to mention Eurydice never made it out. Orpheus looked back before he reached the surface, and she was snatched right back into the Underworld. Hades is a selfish bastard that way. He never willingly lets go of a soul.”

Apollymi cleared her throat in Geary’s mind.
“Were you not listening to me earlier? Why do I even bother? Just call me Circe or Cassandra for all the attention I’m paid. Why do I have to resort to them anyway? Ferandia would be a better example, but since she’s Atlantean no one knows that story, do they? No. So I have to resort to those insipid Greek tales, half of which were stolen from us. But that’s another matter. Point is, no one ever listens to a trapped goddess.…”

Laughing in spite of everything, Geary realized Apollymi was right, and she was going to take the goddess’s earlier advice. She looked up at Solin. “Oh, Mr. Dream Master, where’s Persephone?”

“Good girl.”

Solin narrowed his eyes. “You’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking, are you?”

Kat grinned. “You want to move the mountain, you give it something it can’t resist. Geary and Apollymi are right. Hades won’t even look at us. But he listens to his wife. We need her.”

Solin was still shaking his head. “And if she won’t help?”

“I’m not going to think about that,” Geary said sternly. “I can’t afford to.”

Solin looked reluctant, but in the end, he agreed with them. “All right then, let’s go.”

“None of you are going anywhere.”

Geary froze as M’Adoc appeared in the doorway before them.

And he wasn’t alone.

CHAPTER 19

Geary took a step back at the sight of M’Adoc and the Dolophoni … at least that’s who she assumed they were. There were three of them, but she’d never seen them before. Unlike the first group, these were all women. Dressed in black leather, with black hair, nails, and lipstick, they looked mean and nasty. They were also fanged, with eyes so dark, she couldn’t even see where the pupils ended and the irises began. All they needed was snakes in their hair to be even …

Oh wait, one of them had that. Black snakes slithered out of her ponytail to curl around her neck and hiss at them. Lovely. Just lovely.

Solin moved to stand in front of Geary and Kat. “This is over, M’Adoc.”

“No, it isn’t. Not until she’s”—he indicated Geary with a jerk of his chin—“dead. Now either you and Katra can hand her over and leave or you two can bleed.”

Solin let out an exaggerated breath. “Looks like I’m bleeding then. Unlike some people I know”—he duplicated M’Adoc’s action, indicating him with his chin—“
I
keep my word.”

M’Adoc narrowed his eyes before he turned his head to address the women over his shoulder. “Kill them.”

Geary tensed for the coming fight. Before she could even blink, Kat turned to her and grabbed her. Kat whispered something in Atlantean and then she kissed Geary fast on the lips.

Stunned beyond belief, Geary closed her eyes as she felt something hot and powerful spreading through her body, and Kat stepped away to confront the others. For a full ten seconds Geary couldn’t move as indescribable power filled her. It was comparable to when she’d held Apollymi’s medallion in her mouth, only this felt stronger, deadlier. And this time
she
was definitely in charge and not someone else. The power was incredible. It was as if her brain was alive and growing.

And when she opened her eyes, she no longer saw in the same colors. Everything was more vibrant now. More vivid.

The snake-haired woman seized her. Without thought, Geary dodged the punch and returned the blow with one so fierce, it knocked the woman off her feet and sent her flying. Literally. She cleared the ground by a good five feet before she slammed into the wall and fell to the floor. The snakes hissed and strained in anger.

Kat dispelled her attacker every bit as easily. But Solin appeared to be reticent to strike his. However, when the woman backhanded him and laid open his cheek, he changed his mind. Head-butting her, he knocked her to the ground, then turned to face M’Adoc.

The three women came to their feet to renew the fight. They took a step forward in unison.

“Enough!”

Geary was expecting it to be Zebulon, but it wasn’t. Instead, there was another Dream-Hunter who was leaner than M’Adoc and Solin. He appeared between them and held his hand up for the women who strangely obeyed him. His ebony hair was long and braided down his back. He was dressed all in black and held a look that said “I’m in the mood to kill anyone who pisses me off.” But more than that, there was an aura of power around him so strong that it actually made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

“Whose side are you on, D’Alerian?” Solin asked as he wiped the blood away from his face with the back of his hand.

“Ours,” another man answered as he appeared beside D’Alerian. Equal in height to D’Alerian, he wore his black hair cropped short and had on a pair of jeans and a button-down shirt. His eyes seemed to be a blue so pale, they looked colorless. Those eyes were eerie and deadly as they settled on Geary with purpose.

M’Adoc smiled in approval. “So you finally see my way of things.”

It was D’Alerian who answered. “No. We can’t let you kill the human. It’s wrong and this isn’t who and what we are. We protect, we don’t assassinate.”

Kat and Solin exchanged a puzzled frown.

“What’s going on here, M’Ordant?” Solin asked the newcomer.

“We’re taking M’Adoc into custody.”

M’Adoc cursed. “Are you insane? You can’t do this.”

D’Alerian turned to face him. “Yes, we can, and yes, we are.”

The women looked confused but didn’t interfere as D’Alerian covered M’Adoc with some sort of shimmery web. M’Adoc tried to fight, but it held him tight and constricted more with every movement. Finally, it was so tight that all he could do was curse them.

“It’s called a
diktyon,
” Kat answered Geary’s unasked question. “It’s something Artemis uses to capture animals and not hurt them. Although how they”—she indicated the Dream-Hunters—“ended up with one of them, I don’t know.”

D’Alerian looked at the women. “Your services are no longer required. Furies, return.”

They vanished instantly while M’Adoc continued to curse the others. “Do you understand what you’re doing? What the gods will do to us?”

D’Alerian’s eyes were sad and dark. “Sometimes our worst enemies are ourselves, M’Adoc. You are becoming the very thing they fear us to be, and that we can’t allow.” He met Geary’s gaze. “You understand that you can never speak a word of us to anyone?”

Like this was something she’d be bantering about? Yeah, right. “Who would ever believe me?” she asked seriously.

D’Alerian nodded in approval. He took a small ring from his pinkie and placed it in Geary’s palm. “I know what you plan and I wish you luck with it. Give this to Persephone and tell her that Neco supports you, that you’re calling in the favor she owes him.”

Geary was baffled by his actions and his words. “What?”

He closed her hand over the ring. “Don’t question it, Megeara. Just do it.”

Grateful and amused by his commanding tone, she couldn’t help teasing him. “You’re a bossy bunch, aren’t you?”

One corner of M’Ordant’s lips twisted. “You’ve no idea.” An instant later, he vanished with M’Adoc in tow.