The Dark-Hunters (288 page)

He scoffed at the demon. “The Alexion is not a god. Like you, he’s only a servant.”

“He did not speak as a servant,” Caradoc argued. “Nor did he shatter as a human should have. I dealt him death blows and still he fought.”

Stryker snarled at him, then stepped back as the demon moved toward him. Like it or not, he knew that if it came down to a fight, the Charonte would win.

“You didn’t have to obey him. I promise you. He is not a god and is incapable of harming you.”

Caradoc tilted his head as if digesting that. Finally, he shook his head. “I will not go for him again. The risk far outweighs the possible benefit. The goddess would kill me if I harmed one of her family. Even from here, she would hunt me down and assassinate my entire existence. Find another fool for your errand.”

The demon tucked his wings around his body and walked arrogantly from the room.

Stryker cursed. He truly hated those things. They disgusted him even more than the humans did.

One day, he would destroy both races.

“What do we do now?” Trates asked.

“Fetch Xirena.”

Trates laughed nervously at the command. “Xirena? Why? She’s the fiercest of the Charontes. She barely takes direction from Apollymi, never mind one of us. I don’t think anyone can control her.”

Stryker smiled slowly. “I know. That’s why I want her. She won’t be afraid of a mere servant. She’ll come back with his heart for me and she won’t care what Apollymi thinks.”

Chapter 11

Well, the trip to Kyros’s house was a complete wash. He wasn’t home and his Squire didn’t want to let them in until Kyros returned. Danger sighed as they stood on the wraparound porch of Kyros’s blue and white antebellum mansion.

Aberdeen was quiet tonight, with a little breeze whispering around them through the large oaks that flanked the white wooden steps. The old Mississippi town had a very special charm to it that was indicative of a town lost in a time warp. Even the downtown area, where the sidewalks were covered with a metal awning, harkened back several decades.

Danger was particularly fond of the small Catholic church, which had a distinctly old world feel to it. She really loved this town. It was a hidden historical jewel that most people didn’t even know existed.

Alexion looked strangely out of place with his urban-chic of a black turtle neck—which was no longer torn from the dagger toss—his black wool slacks, and white cashmere coat. He honestly looked as if he’d just stepped off a runway in Milan. He was so incredibly masculine … so much so that he was downright edible.

What was it about him? If he could bottle that sexual attraction, he’d be richer than Bill Gates.

You’ve got much more important things to think about than what he’d look like naked.

True, but there was something about him that just made her want to take a bite out of him and it was starting to really irritate her. She wanted herself focused and detached—her normal state of functionality.

“What do we do now?” she asked, trying to distract herself. “Wait here for him?”

“No, it could be hours before he returns. I think we should patrol. If the Daimons are in league with Kyros, then they’ll be hunting and feeding tonight. Where’s the closest population center for them to draw from?”

Danger thought about it for a minute. Tupelo was really spread out, and though there were a few clubs that the Daimons would occasionally stalk, there really wasn’t much Daimon activity in her neck of the woods. Not like there was in other areas of Mississippi, such as the coast, Tunica, and various college towns—which was why there were six Dark-Hunters in the Golden Triangle area of Mississippi where Kyros was stationed.

“There are two colleges they hit a lot. The W, which is the Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, and MSU in Starkville.”

“How far away are they?”

“Not very. Columbus is about half an hour. Starkville another fifteen, twenty minutes from there.”

He nodded as if he were considering the information. “Which school is larger?”

She gave him a teasing look. “I thought you had a mystical orb that could tell you these things?”

He narrowed his eyes at her, letting her know he didn’t find her ribbing humorous.

“Lighten up,” she said with a smile. “Starkville. It has over fifteen thousand students in residence. The Daimons love to party there with the co-eds. Kyros, Squid, and Rafael are assigned to it. Tyrell, Marco, and Ephani are in Columbus.”

Alexion indicated the car with a tilt of his head. “Then that’s probably where we should start. With any luck, Kyros might be there tonight.” He headed down the steps.

Danger followed him, trying not to notice the fact that he had a killer walk. In more ways than one. It was predatorial and deadly. The kind of walk that women would stop to stare at and admire.

When he went to the passenger side of the car to get in, she gave him a puzzled stare. “What, no hocus-pocus this time? You’re not going to get in and start driving away?”

“I don’t know the way.”

She was rather stunned he admitted that. It made him seem almost human. He’d been so larger than life up until now that she assumed he could do just about anything. “You knew how to get here without my help.”

“I cheated. There were signs along the road, and once we were in Aberdeen, it wasn’t hard to find this house since it’s right off the main stretch. I recognized the outside of it from the sfora. But I didn’t see any road signs for Columbus or Starkville.”

Danger laughed. She liked a man who was honest … and relatively normal. “Okay. OnStar is here and you’re covered. Get in.”

She got into the driver’s seat and belted herself in while he joined her. She went to start the car, only to realize that in their haste to leave the Charonte, she’d forgotten her keys. “Um, a little help here, please?”

He frowned, then smiled. “Sure.”

The car started.

She shook her head as she put it in gear. “You know, as handy as that power is, it could also get you arrested.”

The smile he gave her warmed her all the way to her toes. Not to mention she loved the way he smelled … like fresh soap and all man.

“Then I’ll be careful of whose motor I start,” he said in a devilish tone, indicating that he meant the double entendre she inferred.

“I wish,” she whispered under her breath as she backed out of the driveway. She really wished he wasn’t starting hers all the time. It was hard to stay on track when her libido was literally drooling in his presence.

At least in the driver’s seat she had more to focus on than how much she’d like to take him out of those clothes for a test-drive.
Jeez, Danger, stop with the bad car analogies and clichés. You’re acting like a slut-puppy, panting after him.

It was true, but she couldn’t seem to help herself. He was compelling.

Clearing her throat, she forced her thoughts back to business. “Is there any magical way you can pinpoint where Kyros is right now?”

“I wish, but no. Not without the sfora.”

“Why didn’t you bring it with you?”

He sighed before he answered. “It’s forbidden. It could be very destructive for something that powerful to fall into the wrong hands.”

“You think?”

Alexion shook his head and forced himself not to laugh. The last thing he wanted was to encourage her. She had to be the most sarcastic human to ever live. But he found her strangely entertaining.

More than that, he found her invigorating. She was such a welcome change from the monotony that made up his regular life. His world was without color or emotion. It was cold and lonely. She, on the other hand, was vibrant and warm. He wished he could have a part of her to take back to Katoteros with him.

But it could never be.

All too soon, he would return to what he’d been.

And she wouldn’t even know that she’d ever met him. He wouldn’t even be a faint memory of a dream. All knowledge of the time they were together would be removed from her mind.

But he would remember, and he would miss her always. Strange how that had never happened before. He thought of the Dark-Hunter men he’d spent time with in the past while he judged the others, but there was no regret in not keeping in touch with them.

He’d only just met Danger and already he knew he’d miss her.

How peculiar.

He watched as she handled the car with total precision. For the first time ever, he found himself completely curious about her.

What did she like? What did she hate?

Normally, he asked no personal questions of anyone. After living so long with Acheron, he knew the futility of it. Not to mention, he didn’t like getting to know someone he’d have to leave and never see again.

Don’t get personal.
It would be a mistake of grand proportions.

Still he couldn’t listen. “Do you like being a Dark-Hunter?” he asked her before he could stop himself.

Her answer was automatic. “Most days.”

“And on the others?”
Stop it.
But that was easier thought than done. He really did want to know what she thought about everything.

She gave him a winsome smile that made his groin jerk in reaction. She was truly lovely and it wasn’t just her looks. There was something infectious about her. It drew him in, making him want something he knew he couldn’t have.

“Like with any life,” she said, “some days are wonderful and some stink. It gets really lonely late at night when there’s really no one around. Sometimes you wonder if you made the right choice. If maybe you reacted in anger too soon and made a pact you shouldn’t have. I don’t know. I wasn’t completely dead long enough to remember it or to know if death would be preferable to this life, so maybe I did choose rightly.”

She glanced at him. “So, Mr. All-Knowledge, you want to clue me in on what the alternative is like? Do you remember being dead?”

He thought it over. “Yeah, I do. When you’re not a Shade, it’s peaceful. I always thought as a mortal man that I’d spend eternity in the Elysian Fields with my family gathered around me.”

“So what made you go with Artemis instead?”

The old pain lanced through him. It was weird that after so many centuries it would still hurt to remember the wife he’d once loved so much and the callous way she’d allowed him to die. But as Acheron so often said, there were some wounds that not even time could heal. Humans learned from their pain. It was a necessary evil for growth.

Yeah, right. He sometimes wondered if Acheron was a sadist or masochist. But he knew better. Acheron understood pain in a way very few did. Like Alexion, he lived with it constantly and if he could he’d banish it forever.

He looked at Danger, and watched as the streetlights illuminated her fragile face. With the exception of Kyros, Brax, and Acheron, no one knew much more about him than his name. He was a vague legend who was held up as the first of their crew to become a Shade.

He was essentially their bogeyman. An example of what happened if the wrong person tried to restore their soul back into their body. But that was the extent of what they’d been told.

They knew nothing about the shame of his trust in his wife, or the fact she’d had a lover. They knew nothing about the fact that he’d been a blind, trusting fool.

Kyros and Brax had held their silence on the matter all these centuries. It was one of the reasons why Alexion had wanted to come back and save Kyros if he could.

Even in death, the man had been his friend.

Alexion took a deep breath before he spoke. “The first time I died, I was murdered,” he said simply. “Like you, betrayed by someone I trusted.”

Her brow wrinkled in sympathetic pain. “Who killed you?”

“My wife’s lover.”

She grimaced. “Ouch.”

“Yeah.”

“And then your wife dropped the medallion instead of freeing your soul,” she said, her voice filled with anger. “I can’t believe she’d do that to you.”

Alexion appreciated her rage on his behalf. “Hell of a way to find out that the children you thought were yours weren’t.”

To his amazement, she reached over and placed her hand soothingly against his. The unexpected kindness of that single action sent chills over him. It meant a lot to him that she treated him like a normal man when they both knew he wasn’t. “I’m really sorry.”

He covered her hand with his other one and gave a light squeeze. The delicate bones under her skin belied the strength he knew she carried within her.

“Thanks. I’m sorry your husband was a dirtbag.”

Danger laughed at his unexpected use of that slang word. Against her will, she felt her guard softening toward him. It’d been too long since she’d spent time with a man chatting like this. Most of the people she talked to were other female Dark-Hunters, and all of them she’d known for decades. This was a nice change of pace. “Did you go back and kill your wife?”

“No.” He gave a short, bitter laugh. “I have to say, it was truly one of the finer moments of my life … or death. I felt like a complete and utter asshole, lying there, looking at her as she watched me die. There wasn’t even pity or the smallest amount of regret in her eyes. If anything, she was glad to see me go.”

Poor guy. She knew firsthand that it was not only painful but humiliating to have misjudged someone so badly. “So what happened to her?”

One corner of his mouth quirked up in wry humor. “Acheron turned her to stone. She’s now a statue that stands in the hallway outside my room.

Danger widened her eyes. “Are you serious?”

“Absolutely. I blow her a sarcastic kiss every morning when I walk past her.”

“Man,” she said, shaking her head, “that’s cold.”

“You think so?”

“Honestly? Not at all. I’d have been much crueler.”

Alexion was curious as to what would be a worse punishment than the one he had meted out for her. “How so?”

“I’d have put her in a park somewhere so the birds could crap all over her.”

He laughed. Okay, that really would be much worse. “Remind me to stay on your good side.”

“Yeah, well, my mother used to have a saying, ‘hell hath no fury as a woman angered.’”