The Dark-Hunters (183 page)

He turned and opened the door.

“Wulf,” she said before he could leave.

He faced her.

“Thank you for saving me again when I know it must burn every part that you did so.”

His look softened. “It doesn’t burn every part of me, Cassandra. Only you do that.”

Her jaw went slack as he left the room and closed the door behind him.

She stood dumbstruck as those words whipped through her. Who would have thought her Viking warrior could have a more tender side? But then she ought to know the truth. She had seen his heart in their dreams.

Dreams that were real. In those few precious hours, she had glimpsed the man’s heart. His fears.

Things he kept guarded and secret from everyone, except for her …

“I must be out of my mind,” she breathed. How could she feel any tenderness toward a man who made no bones about the fact that he killed her people?

And in the back of her mind, she wondered whether Wulf would kill her, too, if she turned Daimon.

*   *   *

Wulf let out a long, tired breath as he entered the living room where Chris was lounging on the couch. Just what he needed, one more person tonight who couldn’t do what he’d been told.

Thor, didn’t any of them have a lick of sense?

“I thought I told you to pack.”

“Go pack, brush your teeth, get laid. All you do is tell me what to do.” Chris flipped through the channels on the TV. “If you would look at my feet, you will see that I’m all packed and am just waiting on my next order, thank you very much.”

Wulf looked down to see a black backpack in front of the couch. “That’s all you’re taking?”

“Yeah. I don’t need much, and whatever else I need I’m sure I can buy since the Council knows that I am the charmed one who has to be humored lest the big bad Norseman go a Viking on their heads.”

Wulf tossed one of the cloth sofa cushions at him. Gently.

Chris tucked the pillow behind his back and didn’t respond as he continued to flip channels.

Wulf sat down on the other sofa, but his thoughts kept drifting back to the woman he’d left in his guest wing. He was so confused where she was concerned, and confusion wasn’t something he had much experience with. He’d always been a basic man. If he had a problem, he eliminated it.

He couldn’t eliminate Cassandra per se. Well, he could in theory, but that would be wrong. The closest he could come would be to toss her out the door and let her fend for herself or hand her off to Corbin.

But Ash had charged him with her care and he didn’t believe in passing his obligations off. If Ash wanted him to watch her, there must be a reason for it. The Atlantean never did anything without a damned good reason.

“So how much does Cassandra know about us?” Chris asked.

“It appears everything. Like she said, she’s an Apollite.”

“Half.”

“Half, whole, what’s the difference?”

Chris shrugged. “The difference is I really like her. She’s not snotty like most of the other rich hos in my college.”

“Don’t be so disrespectful, Christopher.”

Chris rolled his eyes. “Sorry, I forgot how much you hate that term.”

Wulf propped his head against his hand as he watched the TV. Cassandra
was
different. She made him feel human again. Made him remember what it was like to be normal. To feel welcomed.

Those were things he hadn’t felt in a long time.

“Good grief. You two look like Village of the Sofa Damned.”

Wulf leaned his head back to see Cassandra standing in the doorway. Shaking her head at them, she came forward and handed him the phone.

Chris laughed and turned the sound down. “You know, it freaks with my head to see you here in my house.”

“Believe me, it freaks with my head to be here in your house.”

Chris ignored her comment. “Not to mention how weird it is that you remember him when you come back into the room. I keep feeling the deep need to introduce the two of you.”

Wulf’s phone started playing Black Sabbath’s “Ironman.” He picked it up and flipped it open. Cassandra walked over to sit near Chris while Wulf answered it.

“What is she doing here?”

Cassandra frowned at Wulf’s gruff question.

“It’s security calling,” Chris told her.

“How do you know?”

“The song. Wulf thinks it’s funny that it plays ‘Ironman’ for my escorts. They live in the security house that’s down the estate not far from the gate. Someone must have pulled in to the driveway and buzzed for entry.”

And she thought her father was paranoid about security. “What is this place, Fort Knox?”

“No,” Chris said earnestly. “You might actually break in or out of Knox. The only way out of here is with at least two guards trailing you at all times.”

“You sound like you’ve tried to go over the wall.”

“More times than you can count.”

She laughed as she remembered what Wulf had told her in her room. “Wulf said it was useless.”

“It is. Believe me, if there was a way out of here, I’d have found it and used it by now.”

Wulf hung up and rose to his feet.

“Is it for me?” Chris asked.

“No, it’s Corbin.”

“She’s the one with Kat?” Cassandra asked Wulf.

He nodded as he went to the front door.

Cassandra followed after him in time to see a sleek red Lotus Esprit pulling up in front of the house. The passenger door opened to show her Kat, who got out of the car and rushed up to the house.

“Hey, kid, you all right?”

Cassandra smiled. “I’m not sure.”

“Why is she here?” Wulf asked Corbin as the Dark-Huntress drew near him.

The Huntress tucked her hands in her pockets as she drew closer to Wulf. “She’s in Artemis’s service too. Her job is to protect Cassandra, and I thought it wise to let her help you.”

Wulf looked suspiciously at Kat. “I don’t need any help.”

Kat bristled. “Relax, Mr. Macho, I won’t rain on your parade. But you do need me. I happen to know Stryker personally. I’m the only shot you have at deflecting him.”

Wulf wasn’t sure if he should put any faith in those words. “You said you didn’t know him at the club.”

“I didn’t want to blow my cover, but that was before you guys separated us and I had to convince Corbin to return me to Cassandra before Stryker finds her again.”

“Do you trust her?” he asked Corbin.

“About as much as I trust anyone. But she pointed out that she’s been with Cassandra for five years and Cassandra ain’t dead yet.”

“It’s true,” Cassandra said. “I’ve trusted her implicitly all this time.”

“All right,” Wulf said reluctantly. He met Corbin’s gaze. “Keep your phone on and I’ll be in touch.”

Corbin nodded, then headed back to her car.

“We haven’t met formally,” Kat said, holding out her hand to Wulf as Corbin drove off. “I’m Katra.”

He shook her hand. “Wulf.”

“Yes, I know.” Kat led them into the house, back to the living room where Chris was still sitting on the sofa.

Wulf locked and bolted the door behind them.

“By the way, Wulf,” Kat said as she paused by Chris’s backpack. “If you’re thinking of sending Christopher away in order to protect him, I’d urge you to reconsider it.”

“Why?”

She indicated the TV with her thumb. “How many times have you seen the ‘let’s kidnap the good guy’s side-kick and hold him for ransom’ episode?”

Wulf snorted at that. “Trust me, no one would be able to get him free of the Squire’s Council.”

“Au contraire,”
Kat said sarcastically. “Stryker won’t have a bit of a problem finding him. The minute you let him out of this house, Stryker and his Illuminati will be on him like white on snow. He’ll never make it into another protected area without them having him. Literally.”

“They wouldn’t dare kill him, would they?” Cassandra asked.

“No,” Kat said. “That’s not Stryker’s style. He’s into punishment and hitting people where it hurts the most. He’ll send Chris back, all right. The kid just won’t be intact any longer.”

“Intact how?” Chris asked nervously.

Kat lowered her gaze to his groin.

Chris immediately covered himself with his hands. “Bullshit.”

“Oh, no, baby doll. Stryker knows how much Wulf values your ability to procreate. It’s the one thing he’d take from both of you.”

“Chris,” Wulf said sternly, “go to your room and lock the door.”

Chris ran from the room without hesitation.

Wulf and Kat glared at each other. “If you know this Stryker so well, then how do I know you’re not working for him?”

Kat snorted at that. “I don’t even like him. He and I have a mutual friend who has caused us to run into each other a few times over the centuries.”

“Centuries?” Cassandra asked. “As in
centuries?
What are you, Kat?”

Kat patted her comfortingly on the arm. “I’m sorry, Cass. I should have told you before, but was afraid you wouldn’t trust me if I did. Five years ago when Stryker almost killed you, Artemis sent me in to make sure he didn’t get that close to you again.”

Cassandra’s head swirled at the disclosure. “So you
were
the one who opened the portal in the club?”

She nodded. “I’m breaching nine kinds of oaths here, but the last thing I want is to see you hurt. I swear it.”

Wulf moved forward. “Why all this trouble to keep her safe when she’s only going to die in a few months anyway?”

Kat took a deep breath and stepped back. She looked at each of them in turn before she finally spoke. “I’m no longer here to keep
her
safe.”

Wulf put himself between Kat and Cassandra. He tensed as if ready to do battle. “What do you mean by that?”

Kat tilted her head so that she could meet Cassandra’s gaze behind Wulf’s back. “I’m here now to make sure the baby she carries is born healthy.”

Chapter 8

“M-m-my what?” Cassandra asked, floored by Kat’s words. She couldn’t have heard that correctly. There was no way she was pregnant.

“Your baby.”

Obviously her hearing was fine. “What baby?”

Kat took a deep breath and spoke slowly, which was a good thing since Cassandra was having a hard time following all this. “You’re pregnant, Cass. Only just, but the baby will survive. I’ll make double damn sure of that.”

Cassandra honestly felt as if someone had slugged her with a stunning blow. Her mind could barely conceive of what Kat was telling her. “I can’t be pregnant. I haven’t been with anyone.”

Kat’s gaze went to Wulf.

“What?” he asked defensively.

“You’re the father,” Kat said.

“Oh, like hell. I hate to break it to you, baby, but Dark-Hunters can’t have children. We’re sterile.”

Kat nodded. “True, but you’re not really a Dark-Hunter now, are you?”

“Then what the hell am I?”

“Immortal, but unlike the other Dark-Hunters you didn’t die. Ever. The others become sterile because their bodies were dead for a time. Yours, on the other hand, is every bit as intact now as it was twelve hundred years ago.”

“But I didn’t touch her,” Wulf insisted.

Kat arched a brow at that. “Oh, yes you did.”

“That was a dream,” Wulf and Cassandra said in unison.

“A dream you both remember? No, you were put together so that you could renew Cassandra’s bloodline, and I ought to know since I was the one who drugged Cassandra earlier so that she could be with you.”

“Oh, I’m going to be sick,” Cassandra said, stepping back to lean on the sofa arm. “This can’t be happening. It’s just not possible.”

“Oh, well,” Kat said sarcastically, “let’s not have reality intrude now, shall we? I mean, hey, you’re a mythological being descended from mythological beings and you’re in the house of an immortal guardian no human can remember five minutes after they leave his presence. Who’s to say that you can’t get pregnant in a dream by him? What? We’re jumping into the realm of reality now?”

She gave Cassandra a penetrating stare. “Tell you what, I’ll believe in the laws of nature when Wulf here can go out in the daylight and not spontaneously combust into flames, or better yet, when you, Cass, can actually go to a beach and get a tan.”

Wulf was so stunned that he couldn’t move as Kat continued to rail. Cassandra was pregnant with his child? This was something he had never, ever even dared to think about or hope for.

No, he couldn’t believe it. He just couldn’t.

“How could I have made her pregnant in a dream?” he asked, interrupting Kat.

She calmed down a bit and actually explained it to them. “There are different kinds of dreams. Different realms for them. Artemis had one of the Dream-Hunters pull both of you into a semiconscious state so that you could, shall we say, get together.”

Wulf frowned at that. “But why would she do that?”

Kat indicated Cassandra with her hand. “She wouldn’t sleep with anyone else. In the five years I’ve been with her, she hasn’t so much as even looked at a guy with lust in her eyes. Not until the night you stepped into the club to kill the Daimons. She lighted up like a firefly. After she ran out after you, I thought we’d finally found her someone she would happily sleep with.

“But did you two do the normal, natural thing and go back to your place and mate like bunnies? No. She comes strutting back in like nothing had happened. Sheez. You are both hopeless.” Kat sighed. “So Artemis figured she could use that momentary connection you two had on the street to put Cass into your dreams so that you could impregnate her that way.”

“But why?” Cassandra asked. “Why is it so important that I be pregnant?”

“Because the myth you laugh at is true. If the last of Apollo’s direct bloodline dies, the curse is lifted.”

“Then let me die and free the Apollites.”

Kat’s face turned dark with warning. “I never said they would be free. See, the fun thing with the Fates is that nothing is ever easy. The curse is lifted because Apollo will die with you. Your blood and life are linked to his. When he dies, the sun dies with him as does Artemis and the moon. Once they are gone, there is no world left. All of us are dead.
All
of us.”

“No, no, no,” Cassandra breathed. “This can’t be right.”