The Dark-Hunters (626 page)

Every now and again, he’d look up expectantly at any sudden sound. Once he was sure it was nothing, he’d return to his reading.

Just after midnight, he sighed and stared up at his ceiling. “Where the hell are you, assholes? You scared or something?”

He waited as if he really expected an answer. Glaring furiously, he put the book on the floor and pulled his tank top off to show her a chest rife with horrendous scars. She would think them battle wounds, but they were so jagged and torn that they appeared to be where his vital organs had been viciously ripped out of his body.

“Fine,” he said, his tone filled with disgust, “just don’t leave too big a mess in my place. I’m sick of having to clean up blood first thing in the morning and don’t fuck up my book. I’d like to finish it for once.” He turned out the lights and went to sleep.

Alone and in total solitude.

Who had he been talking to?

He’s gone insane from his punishment.…
Hephaestus had warned her of his delicate mental state. Obviously the god was right.

Delphine sat in the darkness, waiting for Cratus to reach the dream state—which took forever, since he seemed to be fighting sleep. It was as if he was waiting for someone to attack him and he wanted to be alert when they did.

As she waited, all she wanted to do was comfort him and she didn’t even understand why. She’d never felt a compulsion like this before.

Probably because she knew what it was like to feel isolated from the world—granted, not as much as he was, but she still remembered the desolate feelings of her former life. As a young woman, she’d lived among the humans and had thought herself one of them. Even then she’d known something wasn’t quite right with her. She’d never felt emotions the way other humans did.

It hadn’t been until her teen years that her powers had fully manifested. She’d been so afraid of rejection or hostility from her family and friends that she’d held it in and told no one about her vivid dreams and frightening powers.

Until the Dream-Hunter Arik had shown up in her dreams and explained to her who and what she really was. Explained that her mother had been seduced by a sleep god, which had resulted in her birth.

To this day, she owed her sanity to Arik. He alone had explained to her how the Oneroi—the gods of sleep—had been created to help mankind with their dreams. Night after night, he’d visited and trained her until she had control of her powers. And once she was able to channel them, he’d taken her to the Vanishing Isle, where her kind lived, and had introduced her to the other gods.

There for centuries they’d been friends.

Even though Arik had eventually gone Skoti—turned into the evil dream gods who preyed on humans as they slept—she’d still been grateful to him for his guidance. So much so that she’d never pursued him in the dream realm to fight against him as she’d done other Skoti.

But Cratus had no one to protect him …

A fact that became brutally apparent an instant later when the air around him surged. Delphine started to go in, but an inner sense told her not to.

Something bad was about to happen.

She could feel the evilness of it. The fierce power went down her spine, painfully, and it froze her to the spot.

In the blink of an eye, one of the deadliest of all creatures materialized over his sleeping form. At first glance Azura appeared small and frail. But appearances were most deceiving. The very heart of evil, she was deadlier than any creature except for her brother and sister. Her skin was blue to mirror the icy coldness of her heart. Her hair, eyes, eyelashes and lips were snow-white. Dressed in a black leather halter top and pants, she knelt down by Cratus’s side.

Delphine tried to transport in, but couldn’t.

Azura looked back over her shoulder and smiled as if she knew Delphine could see her. “You will all perish,” she said softly before she reached out to touch Cratus on the arm.

He came awake ready to battle.

Azura dodged his hands. “Calm yourself, Titan. I’m not here to harm you.”

Cratus froze as he found himself in the presence of one of the original gods of the universe. The only problem was, she was concentrated evil. Granted, she wasn’t quite as sinister as her brother, Noir, or sister, Braith, but she gave him a good run for his money.

“What are you doing here?”

She smiled. “You know what I’m here for, baby. I’ve come to make you an offer you won’t want to refuse.”

He sneered at her. “I’m not interested in fighting for the gods.”

She patted him gently on his face. “Sweetie, you so greatly underestimate us.” She dropped her hand to his arm.

Cratus hissed in pain as the words his mother had placed there burned like fire. The agony was so fierce that he couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. He wanted to shove her away, but even that was impossible.

She whispered in the first language of the universe and as she did so, he felt his will slipping. His sight dimming.

Then the pain was gone, and his heart was as empty as the sty he called home.

“Follow us, Cratus, and you will serve at the right hand of the masters. No one will ever be able to turn you again.”

He wanted to tell her no, but the part of his heart that resisted was closed and sealed. Instead he saw all the centuries of his suffering. Felt all the degradations he’d been through, starting with Zeus pinning him to the floor with his lightning bolts.

As the son of Warcraft and Hate, he wanted revenge.

No, he burned for it.

“Come with me, Cratus, and we will make Zeus beg you for mercy.”

“I live in a world where if something seems too good to be true, it always is.”

She gave him a sweet, placating smile. “Not this time. You will have all the power you want. All the money you could ever imagine. No more crawling to a boss you loathe. No more being tortured on the human plane. No more having to fight with the gods who cursed you to this.” She leaned forward to whisper in his ear. “Revenge…”

Revenge.

She nuzzled his cheek with hers. “Take my hand, Cratus, and I’ll take you far away from this misery to a place where you will never again want for anything.”

Don’t do it.
There was more to this than what she told him. There always was. He knew it deep inside and yet as he lay there, all he saw was the past. The unending cycle of misery that Zeus had given him.

If nothing else, at least Azura would kill him and put him out of this suffering.

He had nothing to live for. Nothing.

Dying was easy. He’d done that every night for thousands of years. But to have one minute free of what his life had been …

He would take it.

His gaze burning into hers, he nodded. “I’m yours.”

Laughing, Azura took his hand. “Then come, my precious warrior. Let us rain fire and destruction on the Olympians and humans. The final war has begun.”

CHAPTER 2

Delphine staggered back in horror. She tried her best to flash into Cratus’s room to stop them.

She couldn’t. Azura had her blocked and wasn’t about to let her in.

“No!” she shouted at them. But it was too late. They were gone from his apartment, and he was now in the hands of ultimate evil.

What were they going to do?

How could this have happened?

Most of all, why couldn’t she have stopped it from happening? She shouldn’t have waited for him to go to sleep. She should have let him know she was here and stayed on him no matter his protests. They should have kept him in their sights until he caved.

But that was neither here nor there. Would’ves, could’ves, should’ves didn’t change the fact that Cratus would now fight against them.

Damn.

There was only a tiny handful of gods who could draw power from the Source and most of them had already defected to Noir’s side. Out of the ones left on their side, none could touch Noir’s skill. Only Cratus had been strong enough to fight against them. Worse, she’d now have to face Phobos and Zeus with her failure.

She’d be lucky if they didn’t kill her.

But she wasn’t a coward. Things had unraveled and she needed to let them know as quickly as possible so that all of them could adequately prepare for the war that was coming.

And their inevitable defeat.

Look on the bright side. You’ll most likely be dead in a few minutes instead of imprisoned for eternity.

Swallowing, she wanted to run and hide. To find one place of safety in the world.

If only she could. But there was no safety now. Noir and Azura were back, and they wouldn’t stop until they had all of them in chains.

Until they had the world of man conquered.

Her heart thundering in fear, she left her small room to travel to Olympus. To the hall of the gods, where Zeus and the others usually gathered at this time of day to eat, gossip and plot. As a demigod, she’d mostly avoided the place. She’d never felt welcomed there. The gods had their cliques and she tried to stay out of the line of fire, especially since so many of them had horrific jealousy issues. She’d heard of lesser gods being turned into all kinds of monsters for no other reason than one of the gods happened to look at her while his wife was present. Not wanting to become a gorgon, deformed spider or some other such, Delphine had avoided the place at all costs.

Until today.

Swallowing a fear a Dream-Hunter shouldn’t be feeling, Delphine pushed open the doors to see over three score gods gathered there. Apollo played on his lyre while Aphrodite and Ares shared a bowl of ambrosia. Hermes was with Athena, playing a game of chess with miniature live pieces.

Zeus rested contentedly on his throne while Hera sat beside him, talking to Persephone. It was a cozy scene that she really hated to disturb.

As she walked forward, Phobos appeared and pulled her to a stop. “What happened?”

“Cratus defected.” She could have sworn she’d whispered those words, but all sound and activity paused in the hall as if she’d shouted.

Zeus stood up slowly, his eyes flaming with the weight of his fury. Tall and blond, he would have been very handsome were it not for his nasty disposition and tendency to kill anyone he took even a minor dislike to. “You are not about to tell me that you’ve failed to bring Cratus here.”

Not while you’re looking at me like that, I’m not.
She had to bite her tongue to keep that quip inside. Given his mood, he wouldn’t be exactly kind and take it.

Phobos’s eyes widened to caution her to silence—as if she needed it—before he turned to Zeus and defended her. “Minor setback, my lord. Really.”

That did nothing to appease the king of the gods. “Are you willing to take her place beneath my axe?”

“Do I have to?”

Zeus bellowed his anger. “I am not amused by either of you.”

As Zeus started toward them, Nike stepped forward. “My lord?” she asked quietly. “Might I have a word with them?”

He looked at her as if she might be the next to get blasted—right after he finished with them. “Make it
very
short.”

Nike nodded before she descended the dais where Zeus’s throne was set. Apollo sneered at her, but she paid him no attention as she made her way to Delphine’s side.

Nike pulled her close. “Tell me what has happened.”

Again, Delphine spoke in only the quietest of tones. “Azura got to him before I could. She promised him freedom and revenge if he’d join them.”

Zeus cursed. “I shall have you both killed for this!”

Nike stepped in front of Delphine. “My lord, please bear with me. I’m the goddess of victory, and Cratus is my brother. Believe me, if there’s anyone in this room who knows how to reach him and sway him, it is I.”

Zeus curled his lip. “Then sway him, but that has nothing to do with their lives.” He gave a meaningful glare to Phobos and then Delphine.

Delphine definitely didn’t like where this was heading, and she wanted to get out from under Zeus’s angry countenance. She also had to bite back the question of why Nike, if Nike knew her brother so well, hadn’t been sent after him to begin with.

But the point of this was to save her life, not goad them into murdering her.

“What my brother needs, I cannot give him.” Nike glanced at Delphine. “But she can. Give us a chance, my lord. Please. I know we can regain his allegiance.”

The fury on Zeus’s face intensified until Delphine was sure he’d strike out at her.

But after a few horrendous heartbeats, he conceded. “One chance is all you have. Azura and the others will kill their hostages in two weeks and then come for the rest of us. You have twelve days to sway him or kill him.”

Delphine shook her head at his order. “Cratus can’t be killed.”

Zeus laughed bitterly. “Oh, yes, he can. Even if they restore his powers to their full potential, stab him in his heart and he
will
die.”

Delphine frowned. “How?”

The pride on Zeus’s face sat ill with her. “His immortal heart was ripped from his chest when I cast him out of here, and it is a frail human heart he has now. Pierce it and he dies, plain and simple. And there will be no resurrection for him in the morning as we’ve done in the past.”

She saw pain flash in Nike’s eyes. “Come with me, Delphine.”

Delphine followed the smaller goddess to the doors that led out onto a balcony overlooking the rainbow falls and the thick green foliage that surrounded the hall. When Phobos started to join them, Nike shooed him back inside.

“This isn’t for you, Phobos. Please understand.”

He inclined his head before he returned inside and shut the doors behind him.

The moment they were alone, Nike pulled Delphine to the farthest corner of the balcony before she spoke in a hushed tone. “You know what’s at stake so I won’t even reiterate it. But what you don’t know is the part of my brother that only I was ever privy to. He and I bonded because he protected me from our parents, and I worshiped him for it. He’s a good man, but it’s not easy to find that part of him that he keeps guarded and that was before his punishment. You will have to remember that he’s the son of Hatred and War, and those two things are mother’s milk where he’s concerned. It’s what he does best.”