The Dark-Hunters (473 page)

“Did we defeat them?”

“I wish I could say yes, but I don’t think so.”

Damn …

“You didn’t beat them … yet.”

They looked up to find Deimos standing over them with a cold, gloomy expression.

“What are you doing here?” Leta asked.

He let out a tired breath even though there was a hint of amusement in his eyes. “Getting involved in something I should leave alone but thought I ought to stick my neck out for it anyway. What the hell? Pissing off gods is what I do best.”

Leta frowned at him. “And what exactly are you talking about?”

“In short, Dolor found a human sacrifice to the other side. He’s now in human form. His highly nonentertaining birth is why he vanished from here so abruptly. He’s on his way to kill Aidan’s body while his consciousness is trapped here.”

Leta cursed to learn that Dolor had found a body donor. Most people tended to pull back from being killed so that a god could use their body to murder their enemies. Apparently they weren’t so lucky this time. “Who was the sacrifice?”

He jerked his chin toward Aidan. “His nephew. Donnie gave the kid up to the ghost to provide a body for Dolor’s use.”

Aidan went cold at the news. “No way!”

He shook his head grimly. “You want the god of pain to do your bidding, you have to pay a steep price for it. Blood and bone, my friend. Blood and bone.”

That sent Aidan’s senses reeling. He knew his brother hated him, but not this much … Surely to God, Donnie wouldn’t have killed his own son just to get back at him.

Would he?

No, it wasn’t possible. “He couldn’t have done something like that.”

But by the light in Deimos’s eyes, he knew the truth he wanted only to deny. “You’re talking about a man who set out to ruin the doting brother who gave his lazy ass a free ride. Why do you think this is beyond him?”

Because Aidan remembered when they were kids together. He remembered the laughter they’d shared. The hard times when they had been a united front against a world that was out to beat them down. Without Donnie, he wouldn’t have made it through the death of their parents. He wouldn’t have had the confidence to go out and make it on his own.

How could that boy who used to laugh with him have turned into the kind of monster who could kill his own son? “I can’t believe this. I just can’t. How could jealousy do this? How? It can’t sour someone to this extreme, can it? I mean really…”

Deimos gave him a sympathetic look, but there was no relief or comfort in that stare. No peaceful understanding to such a brutal reality. “It can and it does. Believe me. I’ve seen a lot worse than this in my billion or so years of existence—the first murder man committed was one brother against the other for no other reason than that one petty emotion. Jealousy turns to hatred which then turns to poison. It infects and it destroys until it eats someone alive. Your brother was so angry that you made something out of your life, that you had fans who would do anything for you. He couldn’t take it; he couldn’t understand why you would have something like that while he didn’t. His only goal has been to take you down a notch and put you back where you belong … underneath him. If he can’t have it, then damned if you will.”

It still didn’t make sense to him why Donnie felt like that about him. “But I never let the fame get to me. I never changed. I’ve always remembered who I am and where I come from.”

“Yeah,” Deimos said. “And do you remember the old Joe Walsh song ‘Life’s Been Good’?”

“What of it?”

“Everybody’s so different,
I
haven’t changed.”

Aidan stood there in silence as the words echoed in his head. He hadn’t thought about that song in years, but Deimos was right. He was still the same boy who’d run barefoot in the summer because they needed to save their shoes for school. He still said “please” and “thank you” to everyone around him, regardless of who they were.

But Donnie … he wasn’t the man he’d once been. The minute Aidan had given him a taste of wealth, he’d begun to treat people like they were beneath him. Like he was somehow better even though he wasn’t the one who’d earned it.

And Donnie wasn’t the only one who’d changed. So many people had come and gone through Aidan’s life. Those who’d had no use for him when he’d been a starving actor trying to get a break had become his bosom buddy the moment he’d begun getting choice roles. Suddenly he was important and people wanted to meet him. But Aidan still felt like the young actor who’d been left outside of hot nightclubs because he didn’t rate. The same actor others had brushed off as insignificant.

And then there had been Heather …

Damn, old Joe had been a prophet with that song. It made him wonder who had screwed over the songwriter so that he’d been able to express it so eloquently.

Deimos stepped forward. “We have to get the two of you awake. Dolor is on his way to your place to hit the two of you while you’re unconscious.”

Leta cursed. “We’re sleeping ducks.”

Deimos nodded. “It’s a good plan on his end.”

Yes, it was. Aidan glanced to Leta before he asked Deimos, “Can you wake us?”

“I don’t know. But here’s to trying.” The god vanished.

Aidan turned toward Leta who watched him carefully. She had a red spot on her face from a backhand one of the other gods had given her. Her hair was tousled and her pale eyes were filled with admiration. That look tore through him and it made him ache.

He held his hand out to her.

Her gentle touch set him on fire as she wrapped her fingers around his. His cock hardened instantly, making him wish they had a moment alone. He couldn’t believe she’d infiltrated his life so easily, but he was so glad she had.

“If I end up dead tonight, I just want to say thank you.”

She gave him an arch stare. “For what?”

“Knocking on my door and forcing your way into my life.”

She smiled at him. “No problem. I’m just sorry I didn’t do a better job of saving you.”

Those words were a symphony to his ears. “You know, in a weird way, I think you did.”

“What do you mean?”

He tugged her closer to him so that he could feel her body heat against his skin. It set his nerves on edge and reminded him exactly what she had brought into his life. “I’ve been asleep for a long time. Living in an empty place. I don’t feel so empty now. There’s something else there.”

“Something else?”

He nodded, wrapping his arms around her. “It’s you.” He touched his heart. “You woke me up and I feel again. It’s actually kind of nice, and if this is the last chance I have to say it, I just thought you should know.”

Leta’s heart pounded at the words she knew were so hard for him to utter. They meant everything to her. And she felt the same way. “After my husband died, I never thought I would be able to care for another person. And then I found you. I won’t let them have you, Aidan. I won’t.”

He kissed her hand before he cupped her face in his hands and placed the tenderest of kisses on her lips. Her senses spun. If she could, she would stay right here with him. There was nothing she wanted more than to be human and to stay by his side.

If only she could …

“Leta?” She heard Deimos’s voice as a faint whisper in her head.

One more minute.

But it wasn’t meant to be. She felt something pulling her back, away from Aidan.

No!

And still she felt herself slipping, falling down a dark tunnel until she was again waking up in the human plane. So groggy she could barely move, she blinked open her eyes to find Deimos staring at her.

“Aidan?”

He indicated the area beside her with a lift of his chin. “I can’t get him to wake up.”

“Where’s Dolor?”

As if in answer to her question, she heard someone coming up the stairs outside.

Her heart hammering, she rolled over to shake Aidan. “Aidan!” she snapped.

He didn’t move.

Deimos grimaced. “How much did you give him?”

“Apparently more than I should have. I wanted to make sure that neither of us pulled out of the dream early.” Leta shook her head as she stared at Aidan lying there in perfect repose. In spite of the turmoil and battle in his dream, his handsome features were so peaceful, his body still and relaxed. However, the time for dreaming was behind them. They now had an enemy to face in this realm.

“Please wake up,” she breathed, but she knew better. He was too far under. There wouldn’t be any more waking for him. At least not for a long time.

Someone was kicking against the cabin door, trying to break it down.

She brushed her hand against Aidan’s whiskered cheek before she rose from the bed. “We have to defeat them.”

“I’m right here by your side.”

She impulsively kissed Deimos’ cheek. “Thank you.”

He inclined his head before he flashed himself to the living room. Leta followed after him, knowing they were the only thing standing between Aidan and death.

She glanced back to the bedroom where he slept before she whispered a solemn vow. “I won’t let you down, Aidan. I swear it.”

Aidan jerked back in surprise as he heard Leta’s voice in his dream state. He hovered in the room, unable to wake up. It was as if he were caught between the dream and reality. That strange nether realm where lucid dreams were made. He could see her and Deimos, see Dolor and Donnie as they broke through his door and spilled into his living room.

“I have to wake up.” But no matter what he tried, he couldn’t. It was the most frustrating thing he could imagine.

He looked at his brother, whose blond hair was shaved close to his head. Donnie had beefed up in prison and his green eyes were insane as he looked about. Aidan wasn’t sure how Dolor had gotten his brother out of jail, but then it probably wasn’t hard for a god to do whatever he wanted to.

“Where is he?” Donnie snarled. “Aidan!”

Leta braced herself in the middle of the room. “You’re not getting him.”

Donnie turned on her with a look of steel. “Like hell, bitch. He’s mine, and if you don’t move, I’m going through you to get him.”

She closed her eyes an instant before a staff appeared in her hands. “Then let’s dance because the only way to get to him is through me.”

Dolor, who was in Ronald’s body, stared at Deimos. “You don’t belong in this fight, Demon. You sure you want to stand there?”

“No place I’d rather be.”

Ronald/Dolor blasted him off his feet. Deimos rolled with it before he returned the blast with one of his own.

Leta scissor-kicked Donnie and drove him back from Aidan’s room.

Aidan watched the fighting with bated breath. It was inconceivable to him that the two of them were willing to be battered to protect him. No one had ever done that for him before.

Donnie swept Leta off her feet. As he went to kick her, she rolled away and twisted her body to knock him down. Damn, the woman was a better fighter than Jackie Chan. But Donnie was no slacker and obviously jail had taught him a few things.

Deimos and Dolor were locked in a massive battle as they slammed from wall to floor to wall again. They were equally matched, and there wouldn’t be an easy victor in that fight.

And just when he was certain Leta would take Donnie, Donnie caught her from behind with a garroting chord.

Aidan’s heart stilled as he watched her struggle.

“I can’t flash out,” she called to Deimos.

Dolor laughed. “It’s one of Artemis’s toys. You’re snared.”

“No,” Donnie laughed in a sinister tone. “You’re dead.”

Aidan felt his rage building to an unbelievable level. There was no way in hell he was going to let her die because of him. He threw his head back and roared with the ferocity of everything he felt.

His adrenaline pumping, he ordered himself awake.

Still Donnie tightened the chord.

“Leta!” Aidan shouted.

Her face was turning blue as she fought for breath. He reached out to touch her, but it was too late.

Leta slumped in Donnie’s arms.

EIGHT

Aidan came awake with the taste of rage bitter on his tongue. As he heard the fighting outside his bedroom, his anger built to a stellar level.

“Leta,” he snarled, throwing himself toward the door. He snatched it open to see her on the floor at Donnie’s feet.

Without stopping, he dove at his brother, catching him about the shoulders before they fell to the ground. His gaze turning red, Aidan slugged him with everything he was worth, over and over again. Donnie tried to throw him off, but he was having none of it. He was through with his brother’s crap.

“I hate you,” Donnie shouted.

“Feeling’s mutual,” Aidan said an instant before he slammed Donnie’s head against the slate floor as hard as he could. Blood exploded over the hardwood floor. His brother’s blood should have appeased him. It didn’t.

And as he looked into his brother’s dilated eyes that were an exact match to the shade of his own, Aidan wanted to weep.

How had they come to this? How?

That moment of weakness cost him as Donnie kicked him back. His brother grabbed him by the shoulders and rolled until Aidan was pinned to the floor. There was no mercy in Donnie’s eyes as he rained blows on Aidan.

“How could you?” Aidan demanded furiously as he blocked most of the hits.

“Because I hate you, you piece of shit. You got everything that should have been mine. Everything! The looks, the money, the hot girlfriend. It’s not fair for you to have so much and for me to have so little.”

That was so not true. Donnie had been even better looking than Aidan when he’d been younger. Where Aidan had been lean and had to work for muscle tone, Donnie had always been naturally muscled. Donnie had been the one to get married and have a family. Tracy had only left him because he’d cheated on her. As for the money, Donnie could have had that too, but rather than start a business for himself, he’d been content to make the steady salary of a cable installer. Good money that he’d spent on drugs, alcohol, and strippers—which had also caused the break-up of his marriage. “You’re insane.”

“Yeah and you’re a dick. Do you have any idea what it’s like to watch your wife lust after your kid brother? To listen to her sing your brother’s praises and tell you how you don’t measure up?”