The Dark-Hunters (525 page)

Being reminded he was nothing.

No doubt his father would punish him later for this. Not that he cared.

He no longer felt physical pain like the rest of the world. Too many days of being used and abused had left him hollow and unable to feel much of anything except hatred and anger.

Those two emotions burned inside him constantly.

He’d been made a whore against his will and now it was held against him as if he’d had a choice in the matter. As if he enjoyed being groped and fought over.

So be it.

Seeking some sort of vengeance on the ones who had cursed him to this fate, he found himself heading into the temple across the street from Apollo’s.

It was empty. Most likely the occupants and caretakers were all across the street to witness his sister’s sacrifice.

Fucking pigs.

There was nothing people loved more than to watch someone else being humiliated, especially royalty. It gave them a sense of power. A sense of superiority. But in the back of their minds, they all knew the truth. They were just grateful it wasn’t them being degraded.

He walked down the center aisle that was framed by huge columns that stretched up toward the heavens. Columns that led toward the statue of a woman. He’d never been inside a temple before. Whores weren’t allowed since the gods had abandoned them and mankind had damned them.

Defiantly, he lowered his cowl as he stared up at the carved image of the goddess. Made of solid gold, she was beautiful. Her peplos seemed to be rippling from an unseen wind and she held a bow in one hand with a quiver of arrows on her back. Her left hand rested on a tall poised deer that was brushing up against her leg.

He stared at the writing on the tablet at her feet, but couldn’t read it.

He vaguely recalled Ryssa trying to teach him to read all those years ago when she’d rescued him. He hadn’t seen a scroll or word since.

As he traced the first letter of the goddess’s name, he thought he recognized it.

It was an A. Ryssa had told him his own name began with that letter.

He ran through his mind his limited knowledge of the gods and what he knew of them as he tried to think of one whose name sounded similar to his.

“You must be Athena,” he said out loud. It would make sense since Athena was goddess of war and held a bow in her hand.

“I beg your pardon?
Athena?!
”

He turned sharply at the angry voice behind him. The woman was incredibly voluptuous with long, curling auburn hair and dark green eyes. Her beauty was natural and piercing. If he were capable of being sexually attracted to anyone, he might even have desired her. But honestly, he’d screwed so many people that he could live the rest of his life without another body under, over or near him.

Dressed in a white flowing gown, she stood with her hands on her curvy hips. “Are you blind? Or just stupid?”

He snarled at the insults. “I am neither.”

She approached him with a narrowed gaze before she gestured toward the statue behind him. “Then how is it you don’t know the image of Artemis when you see her?”

Acheron rolled his eyes at the mention of Apollo’s twin sister. He should have known since the temples were so close together. “Is she as worthless as her brother?”

The woman’s mouth fell open. She appeared shocked by his question. “I beg your pardon?”

Anger burned through him as he saw the tributes laid out on the altar before the imperial goddess. He flung his arm against them, sending them flying. Platters crashed to the floor while bits of flowers, toys and other offerings scattered and rolled over the marble. “Why do they bother when no one on Olympus hears them and if they do it’s obvious they don’t care?”

“Are you mad?”

“Yes, I am,” he said from between clenched teeth. “Mad at this world where we are nothing to the gods. Mad at the Fates who put us here for no purpose except to toy with us for their petty amusement. I wish all of the gods were dead and gone.”

The woman snarled, rushing at him. Acheron caught her hand before she could slap him.

She shrieked and something slammed into him, knocking him straight to the ground. Pain spread through his body.

An unseen force picked him up from the floor and flung him against the wall. The breath left him as he was pinned to the wall, a good ten feet above the ground.

The woman glared at him. “I should kill you.”

“Please do so.”

Artemis withheld the final god bolt that would have sent this human straight to Tartarus where he belonged, and let him fall to the ground. She’d never met anyone who didn’t know her on sight. Never met anyone who couldn’t feel her unearthly presence and god powers and yet this human seemed immune to them.

She watched as he pushed himself to his feet and stood defiantly before her. He was a handsome young man. She’d give him that. His face was flawless in its beauty. Dark blond brows slashed over swirling silver eyes that were searing with their hatred. No one had ever dared give her such a look.

His long blond wavy hair framed his features to perfection. It appeared softer than down and was every bit as inviting.

And his body … It was lean and well muscled. Tanned. Gorgeous. There was something about it that made her mouth water for a taste of him. Never in her life had she felt such an incredible pull toward any man.

More than that, he was taller than she, a mortal rarity that she appreciated.

“Have you any idea who I am?” she asked him.

“Judging from your anger and what you just did to me, I would assume you’re Artemis.”

So, he wasn’t stupid after all.

“Then bow down and apologize.”

Instead, he offered her an intense look that caused her stomach to flutter. He walked toward her with an arrogant swagger that made his entire body ripple like a panther’s. A foreign aching need pounded through her. She didn’t understand what she felt, but whatever it was, it left her breathless and weak.

He laid his warm hand against her cheek as he stared down at her face with those beguiling eyes that seemed to hypnotize her. “So, you’re a goddess,” he said, his voice thick as he boldly examined her. His pupils dilated …

Her stomach tightened even more. His nearness was searing. His eyes riveting.

She’d never felt anything like this.

Before she realized what he intended, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

Artemis couldn’t breathe as she tasted him. Part of her was outraged that he would dare such, but another, alien part of her was thrilled by the unexpected sensation of his lips on hers. Of his tongue exploring her mouth.

His arms surrounded her as he pulled her closer to him.

Her head spun as he pulled back slightly and trailed his lips from her mouth to her neck. Chills swept over her, and at the same time an incredible heat built inside her. All she wanted was to pull him closer …

To feel every inch of his body.

He made an appreciative noise against her skin that made her ache. “You do taste divine.”

He dropped to his knees before her.

“What are you doing?” she asked as he lifted one of her feet into his hands. She didn’t understand what was going on. It was as if she had no control of herself. This … creature compelled her in a way that was wholly unnatural.

He looked up at her and her stomach felt as if it were turning over. “Kissing your feet, goddess. Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?”

Well, yes, but as he nibbled her instep she couldn’t suppress a deep moan of pleasure. Artemis leaned back against the wall as his mouth worked magic on the sensitive tendons of her foot.

She’d never known such a rich, deep burn deep in her blood. And he didn’t stop with her feet, he trailed his lips up her leg, to the back of her knee.

Artemis struggled to breathe.

Then he moved his mouth higher.

“What are you doing now?” she gasped as his warm breath fell against her buttocks.

“I’m kissing your ass. Isn’t that what people are supposed to do?”

“Not like that.”

She groaned as he nibbled her high on her buttocks. She should stop him. He had no right to touch her like this and yet she didn’t want this to end. It felt too good.

He nudged her legs farther apart.

With a mind of their own, her legs obeyed him. Artemis looked down to see him with his eyes closed as he tormented her with pleasure.

She felt his hands on her as he touched her where no man had ever touched her before. His fingers ran down her cleft, making her burn even more before he took her into his mouth.

Reaching down, she buried her hand in his hair as he tasted her.

Her senses went wild as she surrendered herself to him and the licks he gave that sent her careening to an unimaginable height. Every one sent a white hot shiver through her. Her throat went dry an instant before her body burst apart.

Artemis cried out as she experienced her first orgasm.

Terrified and embarrassed, she vanished.

Acheron sat on the floor in stunned disbelief. The taste and smell of Artemis permeated his senses. His body burned with aching need.

He’d never really tasted desire before. His body had always reacted to being stimulated by others or by drugs, but he’d never really wanted to touch someone.

Until now.

Now he wanted a woman … no, he wanted a goddess and that made no sense to him.

He laughed bitterly. “The least you could have done was kill me, Artemis,” he shouted. That had been his only intent when he’d first approached her.

But the moment he’d touched her, he’d felt real desire.

Unable to fathom that, he wiped his mouth and pushed himself to his feet. Turning around, he looked up at her statue, which bore no resemblance to her whatsoever. He gave her a sarcastic salute.

His body strangely hungry, he left the temple and made the long walk back to the palace alone. And with every step he took, his anger built even higher than it’d been before.

It was eerily silent as he walked through the marbled corridors of his father’s home with no destination in mind. Everyone had gone to see Ryssa’s sacrifice. He wondered idly if it would work. If Apollo’s favor could be swayed from the Atlanteans to the Greeks.

Not that he cared. Neither the Atlanteans nor the Apollites had been any kinder to him than the Greeks had been.

All any of them wanted to do was fuck him.

Sighing, he found himself in his father’s large and impressive throne room—his first time walking into it, since the previous times he’d been bound in chains and dragged through the doors.

His gaze narrowed as he saw the two gilded thrones at the far end. Thrones that should have been his mother’s and father’s, but since his mother had been banished for his birth, Styxx had occupied her place. Too bad the old bitch had died in her isolation. She would have loved to see her precious Styxx become king.

Styxx. His baby brother.

Acheron cursed. If not for his eyes, he would have been the one to sit to the right hand of his father.

No one would dare mock him then. No one would ever have forced him to his knees to …

He snarled at the memories.

It was so unfair.

He’d never asked for this life. Never asked to be born. Never asked to be a demigod.

He heard Estes’s voice in his head.
“Look at him. Son to an Olympian. How much will you pay for a taste of a Greek god?”

Acheron didn’t even know who his father was. His mother had always protested her innocence over his birth and no god had ever stepped forward to acknowledge him.

Angered by that fact, he crossed the room to sit on his father’s throne. The man would die to see him perched on it and that gave him an instant moment of gratification. His father would have it burned.

Perhaps he should let his father find him here. It would serve the king right to know a whore had fouled his beloved throne.

A whore … he flinched with the thought.

By birthright, this should have all been his. Closing his eyes, Acheron tried to imagine what the world would have been like had he possessed blue eyes like Styxx.

People would respect him.

Respect.

The word hung like a phantom in his mind. That was the only thing he’d ever craved.

“Don’t you want to be loved?”

He opened his eyes to see Artemis standing in the center of the room, studying him.

“Everyone claims they love me.” At least while they screwed him. Unfortunately, that affection ended the minute they came. “I’ve had more than my share of other people’s love. I’d rather do without it for a while.”

She frowned. It was a delicate expression that he found oddly sweet. “You’re a strange human.”

He scoffed at that. “I’m a demigod. Can’t you tell?”

Her frown deepened as she drew near him. “Whose issue are you?”

“They tell me Zeus.”

She shook her head at that. “You’re no son of an Olympian. I would know it if you were. We can always sense our own.”

Her words went through his heart like a knife. “Then whose son am I?”

She cupped his chin in her warm, soft hand so that he looked up at her as she stared into his freakish eyes. Eyes he’d hated all his life. Eyes that betrayed him.

“You’re human.”

“But my eyes…”

“They are strange, but birth defects are common among your kind. There are no god powers inside you. Nothing to mark you as divinity. You’re human.”

Acheron closed his eyes as pain assailed him. So he was his father’s son after all.

It was the last thing he’d wanted to hear. A birth defect. A simple accident of birth had deprived him of everything. He wanted to scream out in anger.

“Why are you here?” he asked, opening his eyes to find Artemis still staring at him.

She ignored his question. “Why do you not fear me?”

“Should I?”

“I could kill you.”

“I asked you to, but you didn’t.”

She cocked her head as if he baffled her completely. “You’re very handsome for a human.”

“I know.”

Artemis scowled at his words. They weren’t said arrogantly. Instead, he’d said them angrily as if his beauty bothered him. He was so unlike any human she’d ever met.