The Dark-Hunters (882 page)

The night Sirona was entombed, Talon had burned his plantation to the ground and headed into the swamp where he vowed to let no other human being near him again.

Deleted Scene from
Seize the Night

The events that occurred during
Seize the Night
took the Dark-Hunter world by storm. Much-beloved characters died, and suddenly nothing was sacred. What with Desiderius’s massacre and everything that happened to Nick Gautier, the novel rattled off to its end at an insanely intense pace. Because of that, this soft, quiet, and beautiful scene featuring Acheron at Cherise Gautier’s grave just didn’t quite fit.

Ash listened quietly as the priest spoke words of comfort outside the tomb in the St. Louis cemetery where Cherise Gautier had been laid to rest. Julian, Grace, Kyrian, Amanda, Tabitha, and Valerius stood to his right while Talon, Sunshine, and the Peltiers were lined up on his left to pay respect to one of the finest women Ash had ever been privileged to know.

He was dressed in the same clothes he’d had on the day he’d first met the woman. A pair of slouchy black pants, an oversized black sweater, and a long leather coat. Cherise had taken one look at him and clucked her tongue.

“When was the last time you ate?” she’d asked him.

“An hour ago.”

His words hadn’t fooled her at all. Convinced he was lying to save his pride, she’d promptly sat him down in a chair and proceeded to make him a plate of Cajun hash browns while Nick had tried not to laugh at them.

In the last eleven thousand years, she had been one of the rare humans who had treated Ash like a human being. She hadn’t seen him as anything more than a young man who needed a mother’s love and a friend.

And he missed her more than anything.

As he stood with the cold wind cutting through him, he could hear his own soul screaming out in rage that he had caused this. How could one sentence uttered in anger cause so much damage? But then they could. Cuts and bruises always healed, but words spoken in anger were most often permanent. They didn’t damage the body, they destroyed the spirit.

“I first met Cherise the day her mother birthed her,” the old priest said to them. “And I was there the evening she brought her own child into this world. Nick was her pride and all of you who knew her know that if you’d ever asked her what her most prized possession was, she would have answered with Nick’s name.”

Kyrian slid a sideways look to Ash, who heard the former Greek general’s thoughts. Since Nick’s body hadn’t been found after the vicious murder of Cherise, the consensus among the New Orleans Dark-Hunters and Squires, both former and current, was that Nick had become a Dark-Hunter himself.

They all knew better than to ask Ash for the truth.

The humans who didn’t know of their world all assumed that Nick had been another casualty to whatever fate had befallen his mother, while the authorities believed Nick had killed her.

The latter was why Ash knew he couldn’t bring Nick back to New Orleans. Not for a long time at least. The police were looking for him and they would convict him in a heartbeat.

Not to mention he didn’t really want anyone to know about Nick. At least not until Nick was ready to deal with the world.

After the priest finished, Amanda and Tabitha placed the roses they held in their hands at the door of Cherise’s tomb while the priest and Peltiers left.

Amanda paused beside Ash. “We’re having a memorial service later for Nick at our house. Just the Dark-Hunters and Squires.”

Ash nodded, but refused to meet her eyes. If he did, he was sure she’d know the truth.

He didn’t move until he was alone. Sighing, he glanced around at the stone monuments that made up the cemetery. There were so many here whom he had personally known. So many he had seen live and die.

He could hear the sound of their voices on the wind, remember their faces, their lives.

“I’m sorry, Cherise,” he whispered.

Stepping forward, he created a
mavyllo,
a sacred black rose that had been created by his mother, and laid it beside the red ones. Unlike the red ones, it would take root here and grow in memory of her.

It was the highest honor his kind could bestow on anyone.

“Don’t worry, Cherise. I won’t let anything else bad happen to your son … I promise.”

Reading Order of the Dark-Hunter Stories and Novels

Child, how naive of you. I want the soul of the woman who has compelled you to make a deal with the devil.

—Hades

If you’re a stickler for making sure you’ve read everything in the Dark-Hunter universe in the order in which it was released, here’s a checklist for you. It includes the novels as well as all the Dark-Hunter-related stories, and where those stories were originally found.

Fantasy Lover

“The Beginning”

“Dragonswan” (from
Tapestry
)

Night Pleasures

Night Embrace

“Phantom Lover” (from
Midnight Pleasures
)

Dance with the Devil

“A Dark-Hunter Christmas”

Kiss of the Night

Night Play

“Winter Born” (from
Stroke of Midnight
)

Seize the Night

Sins of the Night

“Second Chances” (from the Dark-Hunter Collectible Booklet)

Unleash the Night

Dark Side of the Moon

“A Hard Day’s Night-Searcher” (from
My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding
)

“Until Death We Do Part” (from
Love at First Bite
)

“Fear the Darkness” (2007 online e-mail exclusive)

The Dream-Hunter

Devil May Cry

Upon the Midnight Clear

Official Series Web Sites

Ahhh, the beauty of annihilation. There’s nothing like it.

—Apollymi

Dark-Hunter Web site,
www.Dark-Hunter.com

Dream-Hunter Web site,
www.Dream-Hunter.com

Were-Hunter Web site,
www.Were-Hunter.com

Daimon-Apollite Web site,
www.Katoteros.com

Sherrilyn Kenyon Fan Club,
www.vampirechick.com

Sherrilyn Kenyon MySpace Page,
www.myspace.com/officialdarkhunter

Exceptionally Brief Afterword

Baby, the world you know just got ugly.

—Ravyn Kontis

As Promised

Now that you’re finished, go back to the beginning and start again. Read often. The information in this book tends to change as often as Ash’s hair color. A smart Dark-Hunter is a breathing Dark-Hunter. Protect this book with your life.

Now, go on, go play. Save the human race from extinction. I’ve got work to do.

And so do you.

Acknowledgments

The ability of the human heart to sacrifice for the one it loves … there is nothing on Olympus than can even begin to compete with that.

—M’Adoc

Like me, this compendium would not be the amazing thing it is without a lot of help and inspiration from my friends and family.

First and foremost, I must thank the Dark-Hunter posse and my own personal muses—Dee Clingman; Lillie Rainey; Janet Lee; Tracy Willoughby; Kitti McConnell; Kristi Gillis; Mary Robinette Kowal; Nicole Hamilton; and Shannan Starnes—for keeping me in line, tossing ideas around, and helping at the drop of a hat. I must also thank the lovely and effervescent Jenny Rappaport and Lori Perkins. Jenny Hime, you’re the best friend a fairy-godmother-in-training could hope to have.

Humongous hugs go to Eddie Coulter—whom most of you know from the Dark-Hunter message boards as EvylEd—for coming back from K-Con loaded down with maps, brochures, and pamphlets; for driving to my house at least once a month and forcing me to remember what the outdoors looks like; for giving me an ear to vent into and a shoulder to cry on; and for keeping me in
Stargate
episodes and temporary sanity.

For everything New Orleans, I must thank my Louisiana families: Robin and Beau Erwin; Aunt Nina, Uncle Robbie, and the rest of my Stringer clan; and the Ordoynes—Dale, Ora, Devin, and Megan. Who knew that Greeks and Cajuns could have so much in common? Big, big love to all y’all.

And for all those reminders on what it is to be Greek, I must thank Gloria and Angelo Metropolis, as well as my immediate family: my very cool, very patient, very giving (and very forgiving) parents George and Marcy Kontis; my talented sister Soteria, whose stories always make me laugh when I need it most; and my beautiful, immortal grandmother, Helen. That lady from Troy had nothing on you, Nana.

I would be remiss (and he would never forgive me) if I didn’t mention Steve, my knight in shining armor, who has the amazing ability to love me and support me and kick me in the butt from halfway around the world. Thanks, babe.

Last but not least I, of course, have to thank the infamous Sherrilyn Kenyon—friend, mentor, and goddess with a generous heart. You’re fabulous, sweetie. To infinity, and beyond.

THE DARK-HUNTER COMPANION. Copyright © 2007 by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Text
here
© 2007 by Kate Johnson. Illustrations © 2007 by Dabel Brothers. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.stmartins.com

First Edition: November 2007

eISBN 9781429931342

eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to
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Also Available from #1 Bestselling Author Sherrilyn Kenyon

The Dark-Hunter Series

Fantasy Lover

Night Pleasures

Night Embrace

Dance with the Devil

Kiss of the Night

Night Play

Seize the Night

Sins of the Night

Unleash the Night

Dark Side of the Moon

Devil May Cry

Acheron

One Silent Night

Bad Moon Rising

No Mercy

Retribution

Time Untime

Styxx

The Dark-Hunter Companion

The Dream-Hunter Series

The Dream-Hunter

Upon the Midnight Clear

Dream Chaser

Dream Warrior

The Guardian

The Chronicles of Nick

Infinity

Invincible

Infamous

Inferno

The League

Born of Night

Born of Fire

Born of Ice

About the Authors

New York Times
bestselling author
Sherrilyn Kenyon
has over ten million copies of her books in print in twenty-six countries. Her groundbreaking Dark-Hunter vampire novels were an overnight sensation that have given her an international following, with devout fans in more than forty countries, and landed her on multiple bestseller lists in publications like
The New York Times, Publishers Weekly,
and
USA Today.
A versatile, award-winning writer, Sherrilyn has carved out multiple bestselling series in numerous genres and subgenres. Writing as Sherrilyn Kenyon and Kinley MacGregor, her series include the Dark-Hunters, the Dream-Hunters, Nevermore, the League, and the Lords of Avalon. She lives near Nashville, Tennessee.

Alethea Kontis
’s short fiction has appeared in
Realms of Fantasy
and
Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show.
In 2005, she coedited the critically acclaimed SF all-star
Elemental: The Tsunami Relief Anthology
(featuring a story by Kinley MacGregor) and launched her exclusive dark fantasy and horror small press, Nyx Books. Alethea lives in Tennessee and is currently working on a young-adult fairy-tale fantasy novel.