The Dark-Hunters (647 page)

Jericho stared at her. “Who have you made mad?”

“Just you and Noir. With everyone else I tend to keep a low profile to avoid events such as this.”

“Well, you obviously pissed off someone with some pull.” The Phonoi only served a handful of gods. And he was determined to find out who was behind this.

Jericho summoned Jared to him. The Sephiroth came instantly, but there was a trace of blood at the corner of his lips that he wiped away with one knuckle. Whether it was his or someone else’s Jared didn’t say.

“Is there something you needed?” Jared asked.

Jericho nodded. “While I draw my powers from the Source, I know that you are more in tune with it. I need you to listen and tell me who sent the Phonoi after Delphine.”

“Will that knowledge help you?”

Jericho looked at Delphine. “Absolutely.”

Jared stiffened his arms out by his body and splayed his hands as if he was connecting with something none of them could see or hear. His eyes dilated to solid black and then turned completely red. Even the pupils. His skin turned so pale that he looked dead. The veins on his forehead protruded as he whispered in the language of the most ancient of gods.

Then his voice changed to that of the Source. Neither male nor female, it was a soft whisper and spoke in a language they could understand.

“You have summoned us from our slumber. Tell us what you seek.”

Jericho crossed his arms over his chest. “The name of the god who is controlling the Phonoi.”

“You know the answer, dear Cratus. There is no need to bother us with something so trivial.”

“I know my suspicions, but I need to know the truth.”

“Zeus.” The name echoed throughout the hall.

Jericho growled low in his throat as his fury snapped hard. “Why?”

A single tear of blood ran down Jared’s white cheek. “She is the one who can destroy him. Fathered by a mortal man and from the womb of a goddess she was born. It was why you were sent all those centuries ago to kill her. Why her mother fought so hard to protect her.”

Delphine froze as she tried to understand what the Source was telling them. “My mother was human.”

“No,” the Source whispered. “Madoc was there the night they came for you. He fought by your mother’s side.”

“I fought with Leta, but Jericho wasn’t there,” Madoc said.

“You had already been taken into custody when he joined Dolor in their small hut. Though you didn’t see him, he was there, and he saved the life of the one child Zeus was trying most to kill.”

“I don’t…” Madoc paused. “No, Zeus punished us for a dream he had.”

“You knew the truth then as you know it now. No Oneroi ever came forward or was punished as the one who gave Zeus his dream. You even suspected it then, but never dared to breathe your suspicion out loud for fear of what more they’d do to you. Had any Oneroi dared to humiliate him, Zeus would have taken the one responsible and displayed his remains as a warning to all the others.”

Madoc cursed. “He’s right. I always wondered why Zeus failed to point out the one responsible. Why we were banned from ever mating again…”

Jared looked to Delphine. “A prophecy is only as powerful as the one who believes it. Now that you know the truth, it is only you who can command it.” Jared hissed as his eyes and skin tone returned to normal.

He had broken his connection to the Source.

Delphine still hadn’t moved as she tried to sort through everything. “My mother wasn’t my mother?” She looked at Madoc. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know. I mean, I knew you favored Leta in your looks, but never in my wildest hallucinations would I have dreamed you were her supposedly dead daughter. Thank the gods that I never told Zeus about you.”

Indeed. And thank the gods she had made it a point to avoid the others. Had any ever suspected …

But it made her wonder about the woman who’d borne her. The woman she’d never met. “Is my mother still alive?”

“Yes. She lives in the human realm with her husband.”

Delphine let out a happy yet sad cry as tears filled her eyes. Her mother was alive.

She turned to look at Jericho.

He wasn’t there.

“Jericho?” Frowning, she glanced around the room but he was nowhere to be found.

Madoc scowled as he looked about, too. “He was right here.”

The same thought went through them at the same time.

“Zeus.”

Jericho had gone after the father god …

CHAPTER 15

Zeus was laughing at Hermes when he felt a rush of malevolence. It was so potent, it was tangible and it cut through him like a barbed knife.

Glancing around the hall, he tried to find the god or goddess who would dare feel that toward him. But he saw nothing. No one was even paying attention to him.

Was he hallucinating?

“Is something wrong?” Hera asked from her throne on the right side of his.

“Do you not feel that?”

“Feel what?”

Before he could answer, the door to the temple was shouldered open. Dressed in his full battle regalia, Jericho shoved the doors wide. The long black duster clung to his body, outlining every muscle that had been honed to kill. Sharp spikes stood up on each shoulder, curving in toward his face like a lethal frame.

His wings were wide as his long white hair flowed over his shoulders and down his back. Both of his hands were covered with sharp metallic claws that scraped against the gold of the door like nails on a chalkboard.

His black, silver-studded boots tapped an evil staccato as he walked across the marbled floor with a look of hell-wrath and merciless vengeance carved into his eerily perfect features.

No one moved.

No one dared. Only Zeus knew who his target was. The rest held their collective breaths in anxious fear lest Cratus call them out and they have to face him.

Undoubtedly they all remembered the last time he had boldly strode into this hall.

But today was different …

“Ares!” Zeus barked at his son, who was the god of war. “Protect your father! Take that dog down! Now!”

Ares covered himself with his armor, then jumped from his table into Jericho’s path. Without hesitating, Jericho summoned his shield and sword before he lunged at the god. Their shields clanged loudly as Jericho used his to drive the god back.

Ares dug his feet in and leaned with all of his weight against the shield, but it wasn’t enough to block Jericho. He was like a steamroller with only one destination in mind.

Zeus.

“Your blood won’t appease me, Ares. Stand down or feel a wrath the likes of which you can’t imagine.”

Ares stabbed at him over the shield.

Growling, Jericho lifted the edge of his shield to deflect the strike, then returned it with a thrust of his own. His short sword curled around the back of his opponent’s shield and opened a gash in Ares’s upper arm.

Sick of the obstacle, Jericho threw his shield down and used his sword to pound against Ares’s shield. Faster than the god could counter, Jericho delivered slash and stroke after slash and stroke down on the gold shield, bending it fast and furious until it was melded to Ares’s arm. The god cried out as the gold pinched and bit into his flesh.

Jericho kicked him back, sending him sprawling across the floor.

He used his powers to wrench the sword from Ares’s hand and brought it into the grasp of his left claw.

Crossing the swords in an arc before he brought them down to rest at his sides, Jericho turned around, looking at all the gods and goddesses gathered. “Anyone else want to bleed for this bastard?”

Zeus hurled a lightning bolt at him.

Jericho deflected it with his sword. “I will submit to you no more.”

Another one came at him. This time, he dropped Ares’s sword and caught the bolt in his hand. It sizzled against the silver claws, humming and throbbing. But it didn’t hurt him through his armor. “Are you mentally defective, Olympian? You
never
defeated
me.
I submitted to you, but never again.”

Zeus pulled forth another bolt. “You have a human’s heart. You
can
be killed!”

Jericho threw the lighting bolt back at Zeus, who barely dodged it. “Then do it. If you or one of the blind fools who follows you honestly believe you can … bring it on. I’m in the mood for Slaughter. Killing and Murder, too.”

Zeus’s eyes widened as he caught Jericho’s meaning and the source of his fury.

Athena, Apollo, Dionysus and several others stood up as if they would fight on Zeus’s behalf.

But before they could, Jericho felt a powerful presence at his back. Expecting an attack, he turned, ready to battle.

Then froze in place.

There behind him was Delphine, with Madoc, Zeth, Zarek, Astrid, Jared, Deimos, Phobos, Asmodeus and two dozen Oneroi. And they looked open for business and ready to defend.

He could barely comprehend what he was seeing.

The other gods backed down immediately.

Delphine and her group moved forward until they surrounded him in a protective arc. She gave him a mischievous wink. “You didn’t really think you’d be standing alone, did you?”

“Yeah, I did.” Jericho was still aghast at their unfounded show of support. Never in his wildest imaginings would he have seen this coming.

Never would he have asked or expected it.

Madoc snorted. “It’s a new world, brother. And we, the downtrodden, are taking it back.” He looked at Zeus with a feral snarl. “We won’t be tools for you or anyone else ever again. Consider yourself deposed.”

Zeus growled low in his throat as he glared at each of them. “How dare you! Do you really think such a puny number scares us?”

Zeth snorted. “We scared you enough that you had our daughters slaughtered. What kind of god fears an infant?”

The Olympian gods whispered among themselves.

“It’s true,” Jared said. “He has twice commissioned the death of Delphine, and yet she lives.”

Zeus sneered at Jericho. “By your own words, I own you. You swore that if I released the Oneroi’s emotions you would bow down to me forever.”

Jericho shrugged. “Yeah, I did say that, didn’t I? You should have made me swear by my mother an unbreakable oath … oops. Sucks to be on your side today.”

Zeus blustered angrily. “You can’t renege.”

“And I never would have, had you not come after the only reason I made the bargain to begin with.” Jericho retracted the claws on his left hand to take Delphine’s. “Had you not lied to me and gone after her, I would have left you to live in peace while I upheld my oath. But I will not serve someone who tried to kill the only person I’ve ever cared about. I will not bind myself to you and leave her vulnerable for you and your subjects to attack.”

Delphine’s grip tightened on his hand.

Ares pushed himself up from the floor. His shield gone, he cradled his broken arm to his chest. “We can fight them, Father.”

“You can fight,” Jericho mocked, “but you will never win.”

“Father?” Ares asked uncertainly.

Zeus glared at them. “I will not be your prisoner.”

“You won’t have to be.” Madoc moved to stand in front of Zeus. “We don’t want your position or your authority. The gods know, we definitely don’t want to have to deal with the whiny, petty bullshit the rest of you mess with on a daily basis.”

Deimos snorted. “I don’t know. I thought it was kind of funny when Dionysus ran a Dark-Hunter over with a Mardi Gras float a couple of years ago. That amused me for days on end.” He laughed like an evil cartoon villain.

Jericho rolled his eyes. His old friend had always been a bit off. It was why the two of them had once gotten along so well.

Eros and Psyche stood up from their table to Jericho’s left. With white wings and blond hair, Eros was the epitome of beauty. He was also dressed in a pair of black leather pants, a black shirt and boots like a human biker. Psyche’s red hair was pulled back from her face, and she was dressed like a biker’s moll. She tucked her hand into Eros’s.

Jericho tensed as they made their way over to him and his group.

But what stunned him most was when Eros extended his hand to him in friendship. “We’re not all assholes here. And right now, I’m thinking we have a lot more to be concerned about with Noir and his crew. Consider us allies.”

Zeus bellowed in rage.

“Don’t have an aneurysm, old man,” Madoc said snidely. “What I propose is a truce. You and your court remain as you are, plotting and scheming against each other, while we are left alone to handle our affairs.”

Zeus was aghast. “You would split this pantheon?”

Madoc shook his head in denial. “This pantheon was split a long time ago. We’re through being your lap dogs and living in fear of angering you. We have much more important things to focus on than your petty intrigues and dalliances.” He looked at Jericho. “And with a Titan behind us, we now have the power to tell you to shove it where even Helios doesn’t shine.”

Zeth lifted his head high to address the gods around them. “Any of you who are willing to fight Noir and Azura, we will welcome to our team. The rest of you can carry on business as usual.”

Athena and Hades stepped forward. As always, Athena stood tall in a flowing red dress and black hair. The goddess of war and wisdom, she carried herself with all the fluidity of a Grace.

Hades, on the other hand, was dark and sinister. The god of the Underworld, he only had patience for his wife, who was notably absent. “We’re with you.”

Zeus let out a deep sound of disgust. “Have you lost your mind, Hades?”

“No. Rather I’ve found my soul. Noir and Azura declared war on us. The least we can do is offer a resistance they won’t soon forget … brother.”

“Then welcome.” Madoc turned back to Zeus. “We will leave you in peace, and you
will
return the favor to us.”

“Yeah!” Asmodeus shouted, puffing his chest out.

Zarek leaned forward and whispered, “You might not want to do that, big guy. The angry man on the throne doesn’t have much of a sense of humor.”

“Oh.” Asmodeus hid himself behind Jared.

Zarek laughed until he realized other people were looking at him. He immediately sobered back to an “I’ll kill you and dance on your grave” stance.