The Dark-Hunters (791 page)

A life with no Lydia.

Lydia lay there, staring at him as emotions played across his face. In that moment, she knew what he’d wanted to say and couldn’t. And it was okay, because she didn’t need the words. She could see it plainly in the way he looked at her as if terrified he was dreaming and at the same time so hungry that his light gaze seared her.

Taking his hand into hers, she folded his two middle fingers down and spread out his thumb, index finger and pinkie so that they were standing up straight.

“What’s this?” he asked quietly.

“What you’re not saying, but I hear it anyway.” She kissed his folded down fingers and placed hers over his.

Seth stared at their combined hands that strangely reminded him of two halves of a heart that formed a whole one when placed together.

She was right. It was exactly how he felt whenever he was with her.

Her smile brightened the darkest part of him as she buried her hands in his hair and brought his lips down to hers. “I will never leave you alone again, Seth,” she whispered before she kissed him. “I promise. Not unless you want me to.”

And that he would never crave. How could he?

But as she made him blind with the ecstasy of her touch, he couldn’t shake the feeling that this wouldn’t last.

How could it?

He’d been cursed by his own father and thrown away by his mother. Even so, he wanted to believe in her promise.

If only he could. Yet in the back of his mind lingered the bitter doubt that all of this was only temporary.

He dipped his head down to taste her again. Just as his lips brushed hers, unimaginable agony tore through his entire body. Before he could do anything, it lifted him from the bed and threw him into the wall.

CHAPTER 18

Seth felt the first stirring of his god powers returning to him as he hit the floor hard enough to splinter an internal organ. Thank the gods he wasn’t human, or he’d be dead right now. But what he truly hated was the metallic taste of his blood in his mouth.

Revolting.

With his tongue, he checked to make sure his teeth were still in place, then looked to see what had attacked him.

His blood ran cold the moment he realized what Noir had done. What the bastard had sent after him.

Damn it to hell …

Verlyn who at one time had been a god of ultimate good. Noir had corrupted it and turned it into the twisted embodiment of evil in front of him now. Seth had no idea how Noir had accomplished it. All he knew was that Verlyn was one of the deadliest creatures in existence.

So much so, that even Noir hesitated to release him for fear that one day he wouldn’t be able to put Verlyn back into whatever cage Noir kept it in.

Standing an impressive seven feet in height, Verlyn couldn’t be bargained with. It merely did what it was told.

And obviously its orders now were to bring Seth back to hell.

Seth closed his eyes and summoned as much of his powers as he could. A small kiss.

Just a token. A little more than what he’d had at Sanctuary.

But it was enough to put his armor in place and to set fire to it. Pushing himself up, he knew this was about to get ugly.

Lydia dressed herself in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt as she stared at the mountain that’d just appeared in their room. Dressed in a long, black coat with a high-standing collar that was trimmed in silver … silver that appeared to be stained by blood, the man had shaved his head smooth and symbols were tattooed down the center of his skull, culminating into a sharp point right between his eyes.

His right eye was ringed with black and from the bottom of it was another set of symbols that went down his cheek to his chin. The only color on his body was a splash of a bright green shirt he wore beneath the black coat.

But the most shocking thing came when he turned to assess her as a threat.

He had the same eyes as Jaden. Only in reverse. Where Jaden’s eye was brown, his was green and vice versa.

There had to be a story there between them. Were they relatives? But this wasn’t the time to try and do an interview. Not when the mountain turned away from her and headed for Seth with a deadly stride that promised Seth a major ass beating.

She launched herself toward the mountain.

“No!” Seth growled, throwing his arm out toward her.

He manifested one of his force fields around her to hold her back from the fight.

Seething, she glared at him. “What are you doing?”

“Saving your life. He won’t attack you, unless you attack him, and then he’ll kill you.”

She scoffed. “I doubt that.”

“I don’t.”

Lydia held her hands up in a choking gesture. Why wouldn’t he see her as a capable fighter? She was just as able to battle as he was.

But then given his age, she was lucky he wasn’t more of a chauvinist. All in all, he did pretty well with it.

Sometimes.

However, this wasn’t one of them.

Seth backed up against the wall, making sure to keep Verlyn in front of him. That was the only safe place when dealing with an enemy this deadly.

Verlyn’s eyes started glowing red. “You have been summoned, Guardian.”

“Yeah,” Seth said slowly. “It’s what I figured. But I’m going to have to disappoint Noir and you.”

Verlyn tsked. “Poor choice that.”

“Yeah, well, what’s new there?”

Baring his jagged teeth, Verlyn rushed him.

Seth caught the beast and flipped him to the floor. He tried to pin him there, but it was impossible. Verlyn probably outweighed him by a good hundred pounds of solid muscle. Muscle that shouldn’t be as flexible as his was.

“Damn you, you fat bastard. Lose some weight.” It was like trying to control a full-grown rhinoceros.

Verlyn twisted around in a way that shouldn’t be possible for something with an internal skeleton and snatched Seth off his back. He slammed him against the floor hard enough to daze him. And then Verlyn slammed him there a couple more times for good measure.

“I think you need some help there, baby,” Lydia called to him. “Want to let me out?”

“No,” he choked through his windpipe that was being crushed by Verlyn’s hand, which happened to be twice the size of his. “Won’t be able to play with you later if you’re bruised and I’m feeling guilty that I caused it.”

“You are so sick.”

And right now, he was getting his ass kicked. Seth kept punching at Verlyn, but it was like hitting a brick wall with a bare hand.

Not to mention, he was getting tired of having his head dribbled on the hardwood floor. Why hadn’t Maahes carpeted the damn place?

Speaking of that bastard, where was Mr. I Would Have Protected You Had I Known? So much for his worthless vows.

Yet again, he was nowhere around when Seth needed him.

Then Seth smelled it. That fetid stench that signified Verlyn was opening the channel between the human realm and Azmodea.

If he didn’t do something fast, he was going back there.

Lydia saw the panicked despair in Seth’s eyes as he locked gazes with her. That scared her, but when her shield suddenly went down so that she could join the fight, she knew she had only heartbeats to save him.

Her only thought his safety, she ran for Verlyn. When he would have grabbed her, she shifted into her jackal form and latched onto his forearm with everything she had.

Verlyn screamed out in pain, trying to pound her into releasing him. But she wasn’t about to let go. Not until he was gone and they were safe.

Out of nowhere, a bolt of lightning went through the room, striking Verlyn right through his heart. Lydia released him immediately. Unfortunately, the bolt didn’t kill him, but it knocked him through the glass window and sent him to the sea below.

Maahes ran to check on them.

Seth wasn’t ready for that as he stared at Lydia’s true form.

She was a jackal.

A fucking jackal.

And as he stared at her, something about her tugged at his memories. Like déjà vu. But he couldn’t place it. Not right then when he was grappling with so many other rancid emotions vying for his attention.

Why hadn’t she told him?

Unaware of the turmoil he’d interrupted, Maahes pulled back from the window. “C’mon. We need to get out of here. I’m pretty sure our friend down there isn’t dead.”

Verlyn wasn’t, but in a few minutes, Lydia might be.

His gaze never wavering from her canine body, Seth pushed himself up from the floor.

Lydia returned to her human form even though she had second thoughts about it. One look at Seth’s face and she knew just how badly she’d screwed up.

He would never forgive her for this. And she couldn’t blame him for it. Not really.

But right now, they had to get away from Verlyn and she still had her promise to keep. She wasn’t about to allow Noir to take Seth back.

“Where do we go now?” she asked Maahes.

Maahes stepped away from the shattered window. “Out of here, ’cause he’s getting up and he don’t look too happy about it. Does he have any friends?”

Seth’s tone was stoically dry. “He makes his own friends.”

Moving to stand next to Maahes, Lydia didn’t understand what Seth meant until she scanned the landscape below where Verlyn had fallen, and saw that he could split himself into multiple beings. Multiple beings who could fly and climb up …

Fast.

Maahes cursed. He grabbed Lydia by the arm, then Seth. One second they were in his house, and in the next, they appeared in the throne room of a huge golden Egyptian temple. Lydia turned around slowly to take in the beauty of it. From the luminescent way it appeared, she was sure they were no longer in the human realm, but another. The walls shimmered from sheets of gold. There was a huge dais in the center where a gilded throne was flanked by two god statues. She had no idea which two, though. One she could swear must be Maahes’s. Not that it looked like him. It was merely an impression she had.

“Now I dare that bastard to come here,” Maahes said proudly.

Lydia hoped he was right, but she wasn’t feeling so cocky. “Where are we?”

“Ma’at’s house. Her temple, actually. She doesn’t really live here. She thinks it’s too ostentatious.” He all but sneered the last word.

Yeah, he would say that, given the overstated luxury estate he lived in. Obviously, Maahes didn’t have a problem flaunting excess wealth.

“We’ll be safe here,” Maahes said confidently.

Seth snorted. “I wouldn’t bet
my
house on it. Believe me, he’ll find us. It’s what he does.”

“Yeah, but—”

Seth gave him a withering stare. “He was one of the original six primal gods. Believe me, this won’t even slow him down.”

Maahes cursed under his breath.

“Exactly,” Seth added sardonically.

Lydia refused to be so pessimistic. “Then how do we escape him?”

“We don’t. Ever.”

Maahes narrowed his gaze. “I don’t believe that. There’s always a way to defeat anything. You two make yourselves at home, and I’ll be back in a few.” He vanished instantly.

Alone now, Lydia felt awkward as she turned toward Seth. His face was stoic, but it was the torment in his eyes that cut to her soul.

“I’m sorry. I should have told you what I was.”

Still, he gave her no clue about his mood. “Why didn’t you?”

“Jaden told me not to. Given what happened to you, we were afraid of how you’d react to it.”

He rubbed absently at his neck where the swallow would be under his armor. “Does Jaden make all of your decisions for you now?”

She screwed her face up in distaste. What was he trying to say? She wasn’t exactly sure, but she knew it was making her angry. “That’s not fair, and you know he doesn’t.”

He moved to stand in front of her, reminding her of just how huge and intimidating he could be, even when he wasn’t trying. And even though he appeared completely calm and composed, his blue eyes screamed at her. Or maybe that was the weight of her own conscience.

The one thing she was sure about was that she’d hurt him. And that she’d never meant to do.

“Then why didn’t you tell me?” he asked quietly.

That answer was complicated so she settled on a simple one that she hoped would placate him without hurting him more. “I was afraid he was right.”

Seth ground his teeth as she stabbed him straight through his heart. For a full minute, he couldn’t breathe from the pain of her words that hurt him so much more than any physical blow. So, he’d been right, even though deep inside, he’d been hoping he was wrong.

Still, he refused to let her know just how much damage she’d done to him with that.

Not now.

You’re a monster. Why would she ever see anything else? You’re stupid and revolting …

He cleared his throat to make sure no residual emotions would be there to betray him when he spoke. “Have I ever given you any reason to fear me?”

Her jaw dropped with incredulity. “Uh, yeah.” Then she ticked her list off her fingers. “You took my powers. Made me your prisoner and threatened to kill me
and
my father. Have you forgotten that you tortured my father, and I don’t mean a little bit either?”

No, he hadn’t. The guilt of that tore at him every time he looked at her and saw how much she loved her father.

Nor had he forgotten his own list of ills against her. “You stabbed me. You bit me until I bled, and you invaded Noir’s sanctum to free a god Noir wanted questioned. Had I not taken you prisoner when I did, he would have nailed you to the wall and eaten your entrails. Trust me, you would never have gotten Solin out of there in one piece. And you would still be there, begging for someone to kill you.”

“Yeah, okay,” she said angrily, “a little touché there, but—”

“There’s no but. Yes … I am pissed off that you’re a jackal. I can’t stand them. But that’s not why I’m mad.”

“Why, then?”

“You, who have done nothing but lecture me on trust, didn’t trust me with the truth. You withheld it, and you purposefully hid it.” Because she had thought of him as less than human.

Less than caring.

That was what stung him deepest of all.