The Dark-Hunters (538 page)

Artemis gave Acheron a crooked grin before everyone at the party, except Ryssa and the woman who’d been teased, became ill. The guards tried to protect Styxx from the dogs an instant before they unloaded their stomachs all over their prince.

Crossing the distance between them, Artemis clapped her hands together in satisfaction. “I don’t know about you,” she said with an evil glint in her green eyes, “but
I
feel better.” She looked around proudly. “They’ll be fine by morning, but none of them will be out of their beds much tomorrow. As for Styxx, he will feel the effects of his cruelty for at least a week.”

Acheron wished he could take pleasure in the pain around him, but he didn’t. No one deserved what she’d done tonight any more than he deserved what Styxx had done to him.

She cocked her head. “Aren’t you happy?”

Acheron glanced at the poor wretches around him. “Thank you for avenging me. It means a lot, Artie. Truly. But having been on the receiving end of cruelty my entire life, I don’t take pleasure in harming others, so, no, it doesn’t make me happy to see them like this. Especially those who’ve never done me harm.”

“You’re a fool not to. Believe me. They wouldn’t be so kind to you.”

In his experience, she was right. Even so, he just couldn’t bring himself to laugh at the humiliation they suffered.

Artemis let out a sound of disgust. “You are such a strange human.” She cupped his cheek in her hand. “I warn you now though, if he ever scars your face again I’ll unleash an agony on him that he’ll
never
recover from.”

The anger and sincerity of her gaze scorched him. Only Ryssa had ever been indignant over his punishments. The fact that Artemis cared went a long way in erasing the anger he’d harbored against the goddess.

In truth, she’d kept her word and had done nothing to hurt him.

Don’t trust her.

But his heart wanted to believe that on some level she loved him—that she cared.

She raised up to kiss him. The instant their lips touched, she took him to her temple. Acheron felt a strange fissure go through him.

“What the…?”

Artemis’s eyes were glowing bright. “I’ve given you the power to fight to protect yourself. You were right. I can’t always be there when you need me. But—” She placed her fingertip on his lips. “You can’t use those skills on a god, only a human.”

“Why would I want to attack a god?”

Artemis leaned her head against his shoulder and inhaled his masculine scent. She adored the innocence inside him that couldn’t even conceive of hurting her. “Some men do.”

“Men do a lot of things I don’t agree with.”

“And that’s why I’ve given you the powers you need. I don’t want you hurt like that ever again.”

Acheron tried to fight the swell of love inside him. But he couldn’t. Not when she gave him so much. Not when she touched him like this and made him feel decent and wanted.

Artemis squeezed him tightly, then pulled back to hand him a small box.

“What’s this?”

“My gift to celebrate your birth. Open it.”

Stunned, he gaped at her. Honestly, he couldn’t fathom what he held in his hands. “You’re giving me a present?”

“Of course.”

But it couldn’t be that simple. Nothing ever was. “What payment do you want?”

She scowled at him. “I want no payment, Acheron. It’s a gift.”

Still he shook his head in denial. “Nothing is ever freely given.”

She closed his hand around it and caressed his fingers. “This is freely given to you, akribos. And I wish to see you open it.”

Truly, he couldn’t fathom this. Why would Artemis give him a present?

His heart pounding, he opened the box to find a ring inside. Picking it up, he saw a double bow and arrow on it, but when he moved the ring, it shifted to an image of Artemis with a deer.

She smiled happily. “It’s an insignia ring. I give them to my followers whom I grant the ability to summon me. Most of them have to find a tree and perform a ritual and say the right words. But you, my Acheron, you may summon me at any time.”

When he started to put it on his finger, she stopped him. “It should be worn over your heart.” A gold chain appeared and as Artemis placed it around his neck, another thought occurred to him. It wasn’t just over his heart … worn like this the ring was also out of sight.

At least she thought enough of you to give you a gift.

That was true.

She kissed his cheek, then manifested a sword in her hand. Handing it to him, she winked. “Show me what you do.”

“What do you mean?”

She inclined her head to two shadow warriors behind him. “Fight them, Acheron. Whatever you need to defeat them will be yours.”

Skeptical, he stepped away from her. But the moment they approached, his body knew instinctively how to fight.

Artemis smiled in satisfaction as she watched Acheron spar with the shades. She’d done a good deed for her human. And as she watched, heat invaded every part of her. He moved like quicksilver. His muscles rippled and flexed, straining and defining with every blow he parried and delivered. Her hunger built and she wondered why his blood was so addictive … more so than even her brother’s.

Why did she crave Acheron so?

Yet there was no denying his allure. Right now, she wanted to throw him on her bed and keep him there for the rest of eternity.

The smile he gave her as he finished off his sparring opponents made her melt.

“I told you,” she said, approaching him.

Acheron held the sword in his fist with a confidence he’d never known outside of someone’s bed. He couldn’t believe that he finally knew how to fight as well as he knew how to use his body to please others. It was a heady concoction.

Power …

Grateful to Artemis, he tossed the sword aside and pulled her into his arms. Something strange rippled through him. It was like a part of him had been unleashed and it shook him to his foundations.

Artemis trembled as she saw his silver eyes flash red at the same time his lips turned black. It happened so fast that she wasn’t sure she hadn’t imagined it.

Then Acheron took possession of her mouth with a fury that was dizzying. She felt the power of him and it made her tremble. Her heart pounding, she surrendered herself to him. He pinned her to the wall behind her. His lips and tongue burned her, and let her know exactly how much he’d been withholding from her these months past.

This was a new side of her pet. And when he entered her, she almost passed out from the sheer pleasure of it.

He was as wild and untamed as a predator in the wild. The sound of his breath, punctuated by grunts of pleasure, set fire to her soul. A laugh caught in her throat. Had she any idea he’d be like this, she would have given him this gift long ago.

Screaming out as her orgasm ripped through her, she dug her nails into his skin. But he didn’t even pause as he delivered even deeper and harder strokes to her body. She wouldn’t have thought it possible, but her pleasure increased as another orgasm exploded.

When he finally came, she was completely weak and sated. So much so that she realized she hadn’t even fed from him.

Blessed Olympus, how could this be?

Effortlessly, Acheron swung her up in his arms and carried her back into her temple, to her bedroom.

“How can you even move after all that?” she asked breathlessly.

“Goddess, I could fly right now if you asked me to.”

Laughing, Artemis lay weakly on her bed as her body still tingled from the memory of his.

Acheron lay beside her, then rained kisses over her lips and breasts.

She shook her head at him. “You are feisty this day.”

Acheron paused at her words before he betrayed himself. He wasn’t feisty. The truth was that her actions had made him fall in love with her all over again. He remembered now why he’d opened himself up to her. Artemis was kind when she chose to be.

If she didn’t care for him, his wounds today wouldn’t have mattered to her. Not even Estes had cared emotionally when he’d been harmed. Wounds only meant lost profits to him. But Artemis had been genuinely angry on his behalf.

He took her hand and led it to his lips so he could kiss the palm of her hand. “I am ever your servant, my goddess. I pledge myself to you forever.”

She giggled. “My Acheron, you have no concept of forever.”

“Then I pledge myself to you for the rest of my life.”

She brushed the hair back from his face. “I accept that pledge … and that’s the best one I’ve heard this day. Now come feed me. You’ve made me terribly hungry.”

Acheron slid himself up her body and offered her his neck. At the twinge of pain, he remembered Styxx laying the brand over his skin.

Hissing, he pulled back instinctively. He felt his flesh tear as blood flowed freely from the wound. He tried to cover it, but the blood spurted between his fingers, coating them and staining the white linens under him.

Artemis sucked her breath in sharply as she realized what Acheron had done. His blood covered them both. She grabbed his neck and held him close while she healed the wound. He trembled against her.

“You should never do that, Acheron.”

Now he’d be too weak for her. She bit back her anger. Normally she’d have punished him, but he’d been through enough. Cleaning him up, she laid him back against her bed to let him rest.

He tried to stay awake, but his eyes finally fluttered closed. Artemis stared at his naked beauty on her bed. His legs and arms were so long and graceful, so incredibly well formed. His stomach muscles were cut so deep that they looked chiseled. And as she remembered the way he’d made love to her, she grew hot all over again.

“You should always touch me like that.”

If only he could hear her.

She reached to brush her hand through his hair and the instant her hand made contact, his hair turned jet black. She jerked back and watched as blue marbled itself over his skin.

Terrified, she scrambled from the bed. The number twenty-one wrote itself down his spine before the color faded and he returned to his normal state.

She frowned in confusion. Was this a reaction from her gift or her feeding from him? She’d never fed from a human before him. Did they all do this?

Again she heard him whispering in Atlantean.

“It wasn’t a happy anniversary. I want to come home now.”

“Acheron?” She approached him slowly before she shook him awake.

He opened his eyes. Instead of silver, they were so black she couldn’t even see the pupils. Then his eyes fluttered shut and he returned to sleep.

That was
not
normal. “What are you, Acheron?”

Every god power she possessed said he was human. But this wasn’t typical of that species.

“Artemis!”

She jerked back and dressed herself as she heard Apollo’s shout. Leaving Acheron to sleep in her bed, she materialized in the center of her greeting room where her brother stood with an angry sneer on his face.

“Is something wrong?”

“I. Need. Food.”

She folded her arms over her chest. “Why are you so angry about it?”

“I wanted my human, but she’s pregnant and can’t suffer it.”

“You have others.”

“I don’t want them.” He grabbed her. The moment he did, he paused then smelled her hair. “You’ve been with a man?”

Her heart faltered. Unwilling to betray Acheron, she slapped Apollo’s hand. “Why would you say such a thing?”

“There’s a foreign scent on you. And it’s masculine.”

She rolled her eyes to cover the fear inside her. “I’ve been with humans all day, accepting their offerings. I must reek of their stench.”

He fisted his hand in her hair. Artemis grimaced, finally understanding why Acheron found the gesture so offensive. Apollo wiped his finger behind her ear, then studied the digit. “Blood? Have you fed on another?”

She steeled herself and met his gaze levelly. “I didn’t know when you’d be back and I was hungry.”

His eyes sharpened. “Have you found yourself a male pet?”

She clawed at the hand he held in her hair. “You’re my little brother, not my lover. Now release me or feel the full measure of my wrath.”

He shoved her back. “You’d best remember who I am and who you are, sister.” He curled his lip as if she suddenly disgusted him. “I’d rather feed from a servant.”

Artemis didn’t take another breath until he was gone. Her entire body was quaking from fear of his wrath.

The door to her room opened. She turned to see Acheron staring at her. He leaned against the door with one arm braced. The mixture of power and weakness was compelling. “I would fight him for you but for the dishonor you’d suffer.”

Her heart was warmed by the thought. “You can never fight him, Acheron. You have no power to fight a god. He’d kill you and not blink.” She closed the distance between them and wrapped her arm about his lean waist. “Come, my sweet. You need to rest.”

But as she returned him to bed, the fear inside her built. Should Apollo ever learn about Acheron, no power on Olympus would be able to save his life.

AUGUST
25, 9528
BC

Acheron lay in his bed, missing Artemis. Holding her ring over his heart, he smiled at the memory of her last night. Over the past weeks she’d been so kind and giving to him. No one, not even his sister, had ever been more thoughtful.

Closing his eyes, he could see her running toward him in her garden, laughing. They spent hours hunting, in shooting practice or just lying together in her garden while he played for her and she read to him.

How he wished they could stay like that.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t have the stain on her reputation and he understood it even though he hated it.

A knock sounded on his door.

Rolling over, he saw Ryssa push the door open. She closed the door carefully before rushing to him. She was amazingly agile given her distended stomach. “Are you coming?”

Now there was a question he wasn’t used to hearing from his sister. “Where?”

“To Artemis’s temple?”

Again, not a question he was used to hearing. “What are you talking about?”