The Dark-Hunters (501 page)

She gave him an indignant look. “That’s not the way to get into my pants, Xypher. Ew! Bad imagery.”

Before Xypher could answer, the scent intensified. Simone turned to see a tall, blond man in his early twenties coming toward them. Something about his features reminded her of Dev from Sanctuary.

“Lycanthrope.” The word came out as a low growl.

Xypher nodded. “Demons have an unnatural dislike for each other. It can be overcome, but it’s not easy. Were-Hunters are an offshoot from their Daimon cousins, which is why you’re feeling that burst of adrenaline that makes you want to attack him. It’s your instinct providing you with an extra boost in the event you have to fight.”

The man stopped as he caught sight of them. He cocked his head as if he could sense them the same way they could sense him.

“Peltier?” Xypher called.

He came over to them slowly, sizing them up with each step. “Kyle. I’m their youngest.”

Xypher narrowed his gaze on him. “What are you doing here?”

“I was visiting a friend.”

Xypher wasn’t so sure about that. But then, suspicion was his middle name. “You’re a Katagari in human form during daylight hours … how is that—” He stopped as he understood.

The Katagaria were animals who could take human form. During the daylight, they, especially while they were as young as this whelp, were relegated to their animal forms until the sun set.

Kyle Peltier was more than what he seemed.

“It was nice meeting you, Kyle,” Xypher said curtly. “Give Carson our best.”

“Will do,” Kyle said before he headed across the street to where a Ninja motorcycle waited. He hopped on and took off without looking back.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Simone asked.

“I’m not sure. It’s a strange feeling…” But he couldn’t place it. Truthfully, it felt like the Dimme, but that didn’t make sense. If the Dimme was anything like her gallu cousins, she’d be looking for a dark place to rest during daylight hours. Not out here in open housing and she definitely wouldn’t be near a Katagari.

As soon as the Dimme caught that scent, she’d be running.

He shook his head to clear it. He had to be imagining things.

Pushing those thoughts aside, he turned to Simone. “Okay, I have all my powers intact. I don’t know where we’re going, but you do, right?”

“Yes.”

Good. He was about to show her how to transport through the cosmos with her powers. Hopefully, they wouldn’t end up in Alaska. “Think of the place we’re going. Picture it perfectly in your mind.”

She did.

Xypher wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes. An instant later, they were in the shadows of an alleyway. He heard the police talking among themselves, saw the photographer and Tate moving around a covered body.

He glanced around to make sure they wouldn’t be seen before he solidified them.

A slow smile spread over her face. “Will I be able to do that on my own?”

“Most of it you’ll be able to do. But it will take a lot of practice. And be careful doing it. Sometimes your clothes don’t follow with you.”

Her face paled. “That would be unbelievably bad.”

“For you, yes. For me? I’m all for skinny-flashing.” He raked her with a hot stare that actually lit her blood.

But she wouldn’t let him know that.

Grinning wickedly, he handed her a sandwich, then headed toward Tate who looked up at them from the body.

Tate frowned at their food. “Eating at a crime scene?”

Grimacing at the blood spatter on the walls around them and the gore on the street, she handed her sandwich back to Xypher. “I’m not.”

Tate gaped. “Wow, you’re finally squeamish. I never knew you had it in you.”

Simone was surprised, too. She’d always prided herself on not getting sick at a crime scene. But the smell of dried blood was rank in her nostrils. The color of it was a deeper shade than normal. It was almost like she could taste the blood and that made her extremely queasy.

Xypher on the other hand appeared completely unaffected.

“So what do we have?” she asked, taking deep breaths so that she wouldn’t undignify herself.

Tate let out a long, tired breath. “Well, his head is missing so I don’t think we have to worry about him getting up and walking around again. This isn’t Sleepy Hollow.”

Xypher frowned. “Sleepy Hollow?”

Simone shook her head. “A famous story about a headless horseman who chased victims.”

“That’s sick.”

Simone arched a brow at him. “This from a demon who’s eating at a crime scene?”

“I’m hungry. You should be grateful I’m eating the sandwich and not chowing down on someone’s blood. I can do that, you know.”

“Yeah,” Tate said slowly. “Let’s try to avoid freaking out any more civil servants.”

Simone tried to focus. “What are the deets?”

“We’re not sure. It looks like a fight of some kind ensued and obviously our guy here lost.”

Xypher moved around the scene while they spoke.

Simone watched the way Xypher studied the blood patterns as if he could picture the exact way the fight had played out. When he neared the body, one of the officers shooed him away.

She approached slowly. “What are you thinking?”

“I want to see the body.”

She went over and uncovered it, then flinched as the smell hit her full force. Damn, she was never going to get used to these new senses.

Xypher nodded before he finished off the sandwich. “It’s what I thought.”

He was so nonchalant. The least he could do was share what he knew. “Which is?”

“Trophy kill.”

Simone exchanged a puzzled look with Tate. She didn’t like the sound of that in the least. “What do you mean, ‘trophy kill’?”

“The body is a message from one demon clan to another. ‘Don’t fuck with us.’”

Tate shook his head in denial. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you talking about?”

Xypher indicated the body with his thumb. “You better autopsy him yourself, Tate, ’cause he isn’t human and a regular human is going to freak when they open up his body and find that his internal organs aren’t where and what they’re supposed to be. He’s a Charonte…” He glanced back at the body. “Or was a Charonte.”

Tate held his hands up in frustration. “What the hell’s a Charonte?”

“A. Demon,” Xypher said as if he were talking to an imbecile.

“Are you sure?” Tate asked.

“Yes. Gallu don’t die like that. When a gallu demon dies, it disintegrates like a Daimon. Daimons disintegrate like a Daimon. Humans who are killed by gallu become zombielike creatures.” He pointed back to the body under the tarp. “And Charontes die like humans. Their bodies stay intact for burial.”

Tate scowled. “But how do you know he’s Charonte and not a human?”

“His skin is blue.”

This time Tate scoffed out loud. “Humans turn blue when they die.”

“Their skin doesn’t marble when it goes blue.”

That took some of the steam out of Tate. “I assumed it was body paint.”

“No, it’s genetic paint that he was born with and runs all the way through his entire epidermal layer. Mr. Charonte obviously strayed into the wrong place.” He pointed up to the walls around them where blood was splattered as high as twenty feet from the ground. “I give him credit, he fought well. You can smell his blood and those of his attackers.”

“Plural?” Tate asked.

Xypher nodded. “Three of them. I’d say they ambushed him and left him so that he’d be found and the rest of his clan would see the body and be afraid. Or depending on what breed of Charonte, his clan will attack and start an all-out war between them.”

Tate let out a long breath before he glanced at Simone. “Man, he’s like having one of those trackers from the Old West movies in the thirties. What else do you know, Tonto?”

“Well, let me tell you what I didn’t know.”

“And that is?”

“That there were any Charontes left in the human world. So going back to the trophy kill … Why? Who did the gallu want to see this?”

A chill went down Simone’s spine. “Maybe it’s a message to us.”

“No. They’d be terrorizing us. This”—he again gestured to the large amount of blood—“was over territory.” He looked back at Tate. “You guys have a Charonte clan living here and now you have a gallu one. And if something isn’t done, New Orleans is about to get caught in the crossfire.”

“And it’s not even three yet,” Tate said bitterly. “Makes me want to go home, crawl into bed with my wife, and just wait it out, doesn’t it?”

“Not really,” Xypher said. “Makes me wish I’d been here to fight it out with them. I’d like to tear into some gallu hide.”

Simone ignored that. “So we’re looking for a hungry Dimme and a clan of Charontes.”

“Yes.”

Even though she didn’t like the concept of it, Simone nodded. “Any idea where the Charontes might be hanging out?”

“Offhand, I’d say someplace not too far away.”

Tate cocked his head. “Why would you say that?”

“Well, if you’re going to send a message to someone, you don’t leave the message in a place where they won’t see it. You put it somewhere obvious.” He looked around at the buildings surrounding them. “Which means the Charontes would be near here.”

Another chill crawled down Simone’s spine. “How dangerous are these Charontes?”

Xypher shrugged. “Depends on how socialized they’ve become and how angry they are. Obviously, they’ve been hiding here under your noses without anyone knowing it.”

Tate scoffed. “Well, it is New Orleans. Lot of freaky shit happens here.”

An officer approached them. “We’ve looked everywhere for the poor guy’s head. We think whoever killed him must have taken it. You thinking voodoo, Doc?”

“I’m thinking something, Sam. I’m done with the body. Wrap it up as soon as you guys have what you need and I’ll finish up at the lab.”

“Okay.”

Tate walked over to them. “Thanks for the help. I’m going to fabricate paperwork as usual. If you guys come up with something else, let me know.”

Simone turned toward Xypher, who was pacing around. The wind whipped at his hair, dragging it down into his eyes. The demon inside her was now even more attracted to him than the woman in her had been. There was a new sensual side to her that hadn’t been there before.

It allowed her to understand him so much better. The power inside her was hungry, but she didn’t know for what. It was like a physical ache.

As if he sensed her thoughts, he turned in her direction. The intensity of his gaze scorched her.

And it was then she smelled the same thing he did …

Before she could move, Xypher was there, moving faster than anyone could see. “Your eyes are red,” he whispered, putting himself between her and the officers who were still investigating the scene.

She went cold at his words. “What?”

“Your eyes have changed. You need to recognize when it happens so that you can prevent it.”

“How bad do they look?”

He looked down at her. Instead of blue, his irises were white, rimmed in red. “They look like this.”

She cringed. “What can I do?”

His eyes went back to blue. “Act like you have something in one eye, and I’ll walk you away from the humans.”

Bowing her head, she closed her eyes and rubbed the right one. “I don’t like this, Xypher.”

“I know. But you’ll get used to the physical cues and then you’ll have more control over the demon part of yourself.”

She winced at that. “I don’t want to be a demon.”

“Neither did I, but we can’t help who or what our fathers impregnate, can we?”

His words were harsh and they stung her. “My father loved my mother,” she said defensively.

He scoffed at her. “You’ve seen what the gallu look like in their demon form. It makes you wonder what kind of woman could be attracted to that.”

Still Simone wanted to defend her parents. She’d loved them completely. “They met at a bar when my mom was in college.”

He frowned. “What?”

“That’s what my mom told me once. She was working as a waitress when my dad came in and they started talking.”

Xypher paused as he remembered what Jaden had told him about her parents. “He must have been there scoping out his victim. It’s a wonder he didn’t kill your mother while he was at it.”

“My mother said it was love at first sight. As soon as she saw him, she knew he was different from other men … It makes me wonder if she ever knew exactly how different he was. Do you think he told her he was part demon?”

“I don’t know, Simone. You would think, but that was one hell of a secret. I can easily see why he wouldn’t tell her.”

So could she. For that matter, how would she ever tell someone what she was? Who, other than Tate and Xypher, would ever believe her?

He stopped her on the sidewalk. “Look at me.”

“Are my eyes better?”

He nodded. “Just stay on top of your emotions, and that’ll help.”

She swallowed. He made that sound so much easier than it was. Dear Lord, what if she did this during class? They’d never believe it was instantaneous special effects. “I’m scared of this, Xypher. If anyone finds out I’m a demon, I’ll lose everything.”

He put his hands on her arms and squeezed them comfortingly. “You’ll be okay. I promise. But can you imagine the fear your father must have had when he decided to be with your mother? He had to abandon everything and everyone he knew. To throw off his shackles like he did … That must have been strong love indeed.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your father was a bound demon, Simone, with a master he served. When that happens, your master owns you completely until you fulfill whatever indenture contract he holds over you. If you escape that bond before you fulfill that contract, it’s a death sentence. Your father knew that and still he ran.”

“To be with my mother.”

Xypher nodded. He couldn’t imagine what her father had been thinking or what kind of contract he’d run from. It was …

He paused as a scent filled his nostrils. He inhaled deeply before his eyes flashed to red.

“What is it, Xypher?”

“Charonte.”

THIRTEEN

Simone and Xypher turned and there on the street behind them stood three extremely tall, well-built men. One was lean with jet-black hair that was short in back, but longer in front where it fell over his eyes. The other two were auburn haired and built like weight lifters. But for the orangelike scent of their skin and their strangely glowing eyes, they would have appeared human.