The Dark-Hunters (581 page)

Ash was surprised by that. She was nothing like the Greek goddess. “Athena?”

“You know, she sprang fully formed out of the head of Zeus. My dad used to say that I did the same thing and, like Athena, I gave my father a splitting headache.” She smiled widely. “Show me a little of anything and bam, instant expertise. But this language is hard to learn. Beautiful, but difficult. Could you read in it for a moment so I can hear the way it lilts?”

Ash nodded before he obliged the request.

Tory listened to the inflections in his voice, mesmerized not only by how sexy it was, but by his intelligence. Before she could stop herself, she placed her hand to his jaw to feel the way his muscles worked while he spoke.

Ash paused at the tenderness of her touch and met her gaze.

“Don’t stop speaking it,” she whispered. “I love to hear your accent.”

Little did she know he’d do anything she wanted so long as she touched him like this. He swallowed before he spoke again.
“I wish, Soteria. I wish I could make love to you like a human man. With no past to get in our way and no regrets. I would sell my soul for it.”

Tory frowned at the words that seemed to come from his heart. “What did you say?”

“That you are an inquisitive imp.”

She snorted. “No, you didn’t.”

“Maybe, but you don’t know for sure, now do you?”

She growled at him even though she enjoyed the fact that when he spoke in English, his accent was thick and lilting. “You know when you use that accent of yours, you could get away with murder.” She pulled his sunglasses off, then folded them and put them in his pocket. “I like looking at your eyes.”

“You’re a very strange woman.”

Perhaps, but there was something about him that made her feel warm and safe. She brushed the pad of her thumb over his lips. “Why do you hide from the world?”

“I don’t hide from anything.”

“Yes, you do. The clothes you wear … they’re your armor that you use to keep everyone away. You like to look dangerous and rebellious … it’s like there’s a part of you that thinks, if you give people a cause not to like you, then when they don’t it’s okay because you were the one who decided they weren’t allowed to like you anyway.”

He started to pull away, but she stopped him.

“I would be a friend to you, Ash. A good one, if you’d let me.”

Ash looked away as he remembered Artemis offering her friendship to him. “No offense, Tory, people say that with all good intentions. Unfortunately when the test comes, we inevitably fail it.”

“Have you ever failed it?”

“Yes, I have.” His sister had trusted him to protect her and he’d let Artemis get in the way of that. Nick had been the closest thing to a real friend and he’d cursed him to die.

As a friend, he sucked and he wouldn’t wish his friendship on anyone.

“Well, I haven’t failed,” Tory said firmly. “Not once. But the only way for you to know that is to trust me. And since I know you can’t give me your trust, I’ll forget we had this discussion.” She looked back at the book. “What’s this word?”

Ash hesitated as he saw his name in Ryssa’s handwriting. He started to lie to her, but it caught in his throat. He wanted to trust her. He didn’t understand it. But he couldn’t help himself. With a deep breath, he did what he hadn’t done in centuries. He trusted. “It’s Acheron.”

Tory looked at him intently. “It’s your name?”

“Yes,” he said, making sure he kept all emotion out of his voice. “She had two brothers. Acheron and Styxx.”

“Named for the rivers of woe and hate? How morbid of their parents.”

“More apropos perhaps.”

“That would be worse, I think.” She turned the page. “It’s so weird reading this. She seems like anyone you’d meet today walking down the street. Her main concerns are pleasing her father and she misses her brother. She has the same fears as modern women—being taken seriously. Being listened to.” She let out a wistful sigh. “Can you imagine the world she lived in? I wonder what kind of clothes she wore. What kind of bed she slept in…”

“I imagine she was a lot like you. Gentle and unassuming. Determined and protective of those she loved. And she probably annoyed both of her brothers from time to time.”

His words touched her. “Is that what you see when you look at me?”

“No. I see a homicidal maniac who hates my guts.”

She laughed. “Seriously?”

His teasing look sobered. “Yes, Soteria. That is what I see when I look at you.”

She laced her fingers with his.

Ash stared at their hands entwined. It was the most incredible sight he’d ever witnessed.

Pam rejoined them. He expected Tory to let go of him and stiffen uncomfortably as everyone else did. She didn’t. She kept her hand in his.

“Did you save our skin for the burger?” she asked Pam.

“You’re off the hook for the moment. What can I say? Super Pam to the rescue.”

Ash put his sunglasses back on as Pam moved to the other side of the bed. She saw their hands and smiled. “I’m glad you two made up.”

“Hey, the man saved my life. That ought to be worth a bump or two on my ego.”

Pam arched both brows. “Who are you and what have you done to my best friend?”

Tory looked up at Ash. “Dying tends to put a few things into perspective.”

She had no idea.

“Have you ever had a near-death experience, Ash?” Pam asked.

“You could say that.”

Pam snorted. “What? You get caught sneaking out of the house by your dad, too?”

If the woman only knew. “That one definitely left a lasting impression on me.”

“Yeah. I ended up grounded for a month.”

Tory was watching Ash. There was a note in his voice that told her there was a lot more to his story than he was letting on. But if he wouldn’t tell her anything in private there was no chance he’d say anything in front of Pam.

His phone started ringing. Releasing her hand, he stepped back to check the ID. “I have to take this. Excuse me.”

Tory watched as he walked into the hallway.

Pam let out a low, appreciative whistle. “Jiminy Cricket, that man has the finest ass I’ve ever seen. No wonder he wears long coats. We should swathe him head to foot just to save human sanity.”

Tory playfully slapped at her friend’s arm. “Would you stop.”

Pam gestured toward the door. “You have your glasses on. Do you not see how fine an ass that is? And he’s Goth too.” She made a purring sound deep in her throat.

“We’ve got to get you hooked up with someone soon. The extra hormones are eating away your brain.”

“I know. It’s so sad, isn’t it?”

Tory laughed as she returned to staring after Acheron and wondered what was going on with his call.

*   *   *

“Are you sure about this, Urian?”

“Absolutely—it pays to have friends on the dark side. Stryker is sending out scouts even as I speak to find the journal. He wants to take down Artemis and Apollo and absorb their powers. He’s also hoping there’s something in the journal to hurt you, which now has your mom going apeshit and sending out her demons to look for it too.” Urian laughed evilly. “Welcome to Armageddon, buddy. Looks like they’re starting without you.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Ash had just stepped back into Tory’s room when his phone rang again. Looking at the ID, he sighed. “Excuse me. I’m having to answer another round of ‘Help me, Mr. Wizard’ calls.”

Tory shook her head at the poor man whose phone seemed to be a constant source of irritation for him.

Pam sat down in the chair where Ash had been earlier. “How many friends does he have?”

“I think they’re work-related calls.”

“Ah, so what does he do?”

“He’s a wrangler.”

“Uh-huh…” Pam’s voice was filled with doubt.

“I know. He hasn’t told me exactly what he does either, but apparently they’re always calling him for it.”

Pam’s eyes sparked with interest. “Maybe he’s an international assassin. Oooo, wouldn’t that be cool?”

“We have got to get you away from movies.”

*   *   *

Ash paused mid-sentence as a unique fissure of power went down his spine. The sensation was unmistakable … there were demons in the hospital. And he would pretty much stake his life on who they were after.

Hanging up, he backed into Tory’s room. “We have to go.”

“Uh, hello?” Tory said sarcastically. “Hooked to an IV here. Not going anyplace in the near future.”

He moved to the bed and pulled it out of her arm before she could even blink.

Tory was aghast at his actions and was stunned when her arm stopped bleeding. “What’s going on?”

“People who want us dead are closing in. And if we don’t get moving, it’s going to get ugly.”

Her heart hammered at the thought of someone coming after them. “There’s only one other problem—clothes. I don’t have any.”

Pam stepped forward. “Yes, you do. Ash, guard the door and give us a minute.”

“You have twenty seconds.” He hit the door and closed it tight.

“Can you move?” Pam asked.

“Surprisingly, yes.”

“Okay, switch clothes with me and let’s be quick.”

Tory was out of her gown in an instant. She was a little sore from the wreck, but not nearly as much as she should be for someone who’d just been operated on. It didn’t make a bit of sense.

But before she could think anything else about that, Ash was in the doorway again.

“We’re out of time.” He held his hand out to her.

“I don’t have any shoes.”

“We’ll cope. Come on.”

She took his hand.

Without another word, he hauled her into the hallway, toward the elevators. When the doors opened, he pulled her into a room and motioned for her to be quiet. His actions terrified her. Who was out there?

“Wait here,” he mouthed to her before he opened the door and vanished into the hallway.

Tory wasn’t sure what was happening. She only hoped Ash knew what he was doing.

A few seconds later he came back and motioned for her to move quickly. He practically shoved her into the open elevator. But as the doors closed, she looked back toward her room where two very tall men were headed. Dressed all in black, they appeared sinister.

“What about Pam?”

Ash pulled her back so that the doors could close. “She’ll be fine. They know who they’re after.”

“Who are they?”

Ash cringed at the question he couldn’t really answer. Demons out to torture her just seemed a bit farfetched, especially since he wasn’t sure how Stryker had known to send them here. “I don’t know their names. But I for one don’t want to introduce myself to them right now.”

“Are you sure they won’t hurt Pam?”

He handed his phone to her. “When we get in the car, you can call her.”

“What car?”

He didn’t answer since he was focusing all of his power on masking their presence from the demons and on locating the rest of their crew. There were at least ten of them crawling through the hospital. He could shield his powers from them and mask Tory’s looks.

At least from everything except an archdemon. Born of a demon’s union with a god, they were a unique and highly unpredictable breed. And one of them was in the hospital leading the others.

Ash led her to the parking lot and over to his silver metallic Porsche 911 GT2. He opened the passenger door while he scanned the lot.

She paused in the opening. “Please tell me we’re not stealing this.”

“It’s mine.” He dangled the fat Porsche key in front of her.

Tory was still suspicious. Having done the Porsche driving school a few years ago just for fun, she’d learned the various models and their price tags. This was the creme de la creme of Porsche—and it drove like a badass dream. She’d wanted one so badly she could taste it, but the price tag was way out of her reach. “You own a quarter-million-dollar car?”

“Give or take a few ten thousand, yeah. Now get in.”

Tory wasn’t completely convinced. How on earth could he afford a car like this? But as she looked over at the driver’s seat and realized that it was definitely designed for a very tall human, she couldn’t deny the obvious. It had to be his. She got in as he slid into the driver’s side.

Yeah, the car fit him like a glove and the fact that he knew the key went in on the left-hand side said he’d been in the car enough not to hesitate with it.

“Acheron!”

As Ash shut his door, she looked up at the shout to see a large brown-haired man running toward them.

“Buckle up.” Ash slammed the gearshift into reverse.

The man ran up onto the back of Ash’s car.

“Oh, you fucker,” Ash snarled angrily. “Getting paw prints on my car … I swear, you scratch it, you die.” He slammed on the brakes and sent the man flying onto a parked blue sedan.

Ash turned the steering wheel sharply and headed straight for the man, who had rolled to the ground.

Tory cringed as she expected them to plow straight into him. Just as they reached him, he jumped out of the way with an astounding agility.

“You’re crazy, aren’t you?”

Ash didn’t answer her as he took a corner so fast, she swore she felt a 2G pull. There on the street was a white BMW that fell in behind them.

“We’re being followed.”

Ash cursed at the sight of them in his mirror. More demons. But he was grateful they were at least attempting to blend in. Stryker must have had a talk with them about keeping anonymity in the human realm. Their inhibition to blast him leveled the playing field since he couldn’t use his powers outright either.

Downshifting, he cut through traffic, heading toward the interstate. He needed to get them out of the populated areas before an innocent was hurt. Something easier said than done as two more cars appeared and then opened fire on them.

Ash threw a shield up to protect the car. He tried to use his powers to flip over the cars chasing them or at the very least stall the engines, but because they were demons inside and not humans, they countered his abilities with their own.

Damn them!

“My God,” Tory gasped. “Do they suck at shooting or what?”

He didn’t comment as he caught sight of four sleek black Honda Blackbirds closing in on them. Two of the bikes had double riders and the rider on the back was loaded for bear with KACs 6 × 35mm PDW that they pulled out from under their jackets.