The Dark-Hunters (431 page)

It’d seemed so cruel to her as a child. Sometimes it still seemed cruel.

But Sin had withstood it with grace.

Lifting his hand, she kissed the worst of the burn scars on the back of his left wrist.

Sin trembled at the tenderness of Kat’s actions. Honestly, he didn’t know how to deal with it. Insults and attacks he could handle.

Gentleness …

That terrified him. “I thought you hated me.”

She let out a short laugh that sent a rush of air over his skin. “I do.” She looked up with an openness that seared him. “You know you shouldn’t condone Daimons working for you.”

“My handful of Daimons haven’t wrecked nearly as many lives as your mother and uncle, but I notice you still love them.”

He did have a point. “Only on most days.” Kat cleared her throat and moved away from him. “You were going to train me to fight the gallu.”

Even as she said the words, she saw the image of his daughter in her mind. Ishtar had been ripped open by the demons. Literally torn apart. And by the look on his face, Kat could tell he was having the same thought.

“Don’t worry,” she assured him. “I can handle them. I’m born of two gods.”

He scoffed at her bravado. “So was Ishtar.”

Yeah, but Ishtar wasn’t her and didn’t have the same genetic makeup. “My father is the harbinger of death and destruction. My grandmother the Great Destroyer. My mother is the goddess of the hunt. I think I’ll be okay.”

“Yeah,” he breathed, stepping away from her. “You do have the history of absolute terror and cruelty in your veins.”

She winked at him. “Remember that if you ever come between me and my chocolate bar.”

“I’ll try.” His tone was less than convincing. He didn’t think her much of a fighter, but he would learn. She’d show him exactly what she was made of.

“So how many Daimons do you have in your casino?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I’m not sure. Don’t study them close enough to worry about it. Damien keeps them in line. If they eat the wrong tourist, he kills them.”

“And you’re totally okay with this?”

“I trust Damien more than I trust anyone else.”

That made no sense to her whatsoever. Then again, her grandmother controlled an entire army of Daimons and said nothing of the lives and souls they took in order to stay alive. Of course their leader, Stryker, was now plotting her death, but that was another issue.

It took Kat a minute to realize why Sin’s tolerance bothered her so. It was because they were here on the same plane as the humans. Stryker and his army had to come to this plane to feed and she’d never witnessed it. Somehow it seemed more wrong to harbor Daimons right in the heart of humanity.

“I thought you didn’t trust anyone,” she said.

“I never said I trusted Damien at my back or with my life. Only my money.”

“And yet you’re trusting me at your back?”

“Not completely. You are to stay by my side so I can watch you. Don’t think for one minute that I’ve forgotten you’re the face and voice of the one woman I want to kill more than any other.”

It really was too much to hope he could get past that. But then if someone had taken her godhood, she’d be a little upset herself. “Understood. So what’s the game plan other than to avoid Deimos and my mother?”

“We have to find the Hayar Bedr.”

Kat frowned at the unfamiliar term. “That would be what?”

“The Forsaken Moon.”

“And would it be animal, vegetable, or mineral?”

“Animal. Definitely animal.”

Why did that surprise her? Oh wait, ’cause it was completely normal to refer to an animal as a forsaken moon. Yeah.… “Really? What kind of animal would be called the Forsaken Moon?”

“My twin brother.”

Kat was stunned by the revelation. That was something she hadn’t seen inside him. “There are two of you?”

His features darkened. “In a manner of speaking. Originally, there were three of us born to a human mother. She was a peasant my father had taken a fancy to and impregnated. We were no more than children when the prophecy came down that said we would destroy the pantheon. In anger, my father killed the eldest triplet; then he came for me and Zakar. Even though I was only ten, I was the stronger, so I hid Zakar in the dream realm and fought my father for the right to live. I told him I’d already taken care of my brother and absorbed his powers.”

“But you hadn’t.”

“No, but the idea that I had possessed the power to kill my own brother scared my father enough to give him pause. Even though he still wanted me dead, he decided that since the prophecy had foretold the three of us would cause the destruction, one of us should be all right to live. So I took my place in their pantheon and Zakar stayed hidden for the most part. The humans knew him, but any time they made mention of him I told my father I was the one in their dreams using my brother’s name.”

“And he believed you?”

He gave her a wicked grin. “You don’t screw with a fertility god if you want to stay vigorous.”

True. Fertility gods had a way with a whammy that could ruin most men’s nights.

And their egos forever.

“So where’s your brother now?” Kat asked.

Sin let out a tired breath as he left her to go to his bar and pour himself a drink of whisky. “I have no idea. The last time I saw him was after Artemis had drained my powers and left me for dead. Zakar helped free me from her net, but he didn’t stay around long after that. He told me there was something he had to take care of and then he vanished.”

“And you have no idea where he went?”

He knocked back the drink with one gulp and poured another glassful. “None. I’ve tried to summon him. Call him, you name it. Nothing. Not a postcard or whisper for thousands of years. Part of me wonders if he’s not dead.”

“If he is, where does that leave us?”

“Basically screwed over raw.” He tossed back another drink. “It was his blood we used to bind the gallu the last time. Which means we need his blood to bind them again.”

“If you’re twins, why can’t we just use your blood to rebind them?”

He offered her a drink, but she declined with a shake of her head.

Sin put her glass away before he answered her question. “I’m not a Dreamwalker. Zakar is. In dreams, he once battled the demon Asag, the genetic father that was used to create the gallu. During their fight, Zakar absorbed some of the demon’s powers. It’s why he can stand against them alone and I can’t. He understands them and their weaknesses. It was through Zakar that I was able to control and fight the demons.”

“Then how is it that Ishtar died by their hands?”

This time he didn’t bother with the glass. He drank straight from the bottle before he responded. “Once I was negated and Zakar had vanished, she was alone in the fight against them. I heard her crying out for help one night and I rushed to her even though I knew I didn’t have the power to fight them.”

He swallowed as pain filled his eyes. “It was too late. You have no idea what it feels like to hold your child in your arms and watch her die. To know that if you still had your powers, you could have saved her.” His look pierced her. “I could have forgiven Artemis what she did to me. It’s the death of my daughter that I will never get over. If I ever have a chance to kill that bitch, believe me, I will take it. All consequences be damned.”

A chill ran over her at his heartfelt words. Not that she blamed him. She’d seen the pain of Ishtar’s death through his eyes and she’d felt his horror and rage.

No father deserved that memory.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she took a step forward. “Sin…”

“Don’t touch me. I don’t need comfort, especially not from the daughter of the woman who took everything from me.”

Kat nodded. She understood that and it made her ache for him. “What happened to Ishtar’s powers when she died?”

He polished off the bottle with one last swig. “Before she died, she transferred enough of them to me to keep the universe from unraveling—it’s also why I can now fight the gallu and defeat them. After her death, the rest were released, which resulted in one hell of a volcanic eruption. Then Aphrodite entered our pantheon as the goddess of love and beauty to replace Ishtar, and it wasn’t long after that, that my pantheon was history. Literally.”

Kat swallowed as she remembered the Greek gods talking about that. Aphrodite had used jealousy as a weapon to turn the Sumerians against one another until they no longer trusted anyone near them. Kat’s aunt had been insidious as a manipulator. It still amazed Kat how people who’d known one another for so long were so willing to listen to the lies of a newcomer.

How willing they were to give in to such a negative emotion to the point where they would do anything to go after one another just to see their innocent enemy fall.

In the end, they had all paid a steep price.

But that was the past and it wouldn’t cure their current dilemma. What they needed was someone who could …

She paused as she remembered something Sin had said.

“I have a question. Why can’t you do what Zakar did? If you’re twins, can’t you fight Asag in a dream and then get the same kind of demon powers?”

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “If I had my own powers and not half of Ishtar’s, there’s a lot of things I could do … like kill your mother, for instance.”

She’d walked right into that one. Choosing to ignore his rancor, she tried another thought. “What about the Oneroi?” They were the dream gods for the Greek pantheon. “Could we get one of them to find Asag and fight him?”

“Could try. Of course we have no idea how Asag’s venom might affect them since they’re born to another pantheon. Could be very interesting. Either it’ll work or they’ll become a new type of demon we’d have to learn to kill. Who should we pick as a guinea pig?”

Kat screwed her face up at his sarcasm. He was right, though. There was no telling how such a thing could adversely affect one of her cousins. “Looks like Zakar is our best bet.”

“Unless you can talk your bitch mother into releasing my powers, yeah.”

She narrowed her gaze at him. “Well, that’s just a little hard, since I can’t even talk her into sparing your life, huh? You haven’t exactly endeared yourself to her.”

“Oh, excuse my utter lack of manners there. Should we call Mommy dearest and invite her over for tea? I promise to be on my best manners when I choke the life out of her.”

“Whoa,” Kish said with a laugh as he entered the room to their right, “what is this? Battle of the Sarcastic and Pissed? Should I make popcorn? Forget
American Idol,
man. This is much more entertaining.”

Sin cast a murderous glare toward his servant. “Is there a point to your latest irritation, Kish?”

“Had a sudden death wish. Felt the deep need to come up here and have you freeze me again. I like being a statue … just so long as you don’t stick me in a park somewhere and let pigeons shit all over me.”

Kat had to stifle a laugh. Oh, if looks could mutilate, Kish would be a kish kebob.

“O-kay,” Kish said, stretching the word out, “so the point of my visit is there’s a man downstairs wanting to speak to you. He says it’s urgent.”

“I’m a little busy.”

“I told him that.”

“Then why are you disturbing me?”

Kish held his closed fist out. “He wanted me to give this to you.”

Sin had to struggle not to roll his eyes at his servant. “I don’t take bribes.” But as Kish let fall a small medallion into Sin’s hand, his agitation evaporated. It was an ancient Babylonian coin. “Did he happen to mention his name?”

“Kessar.”

Kat frowned at the name she’d never heard before. “Kessar?” she repeated.

Sin didn’t speak as cold dread and anger shrank his stomach. “He is to the gallu what Stryker is to the Daimons,” he explained.

Without another word, he snatched a cane from the wall and headed for the elevator to take him down to the casino.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Kat
exchanged a frown with Kish before she followed after Sin to the hallway where his elevator was located. Sin gave them an agitated glare as they shuffled him aside to get into the ornate paneled elevator with him.

“What?” Kat asked irritably, looking up at him.

His response was a low growl.

“I take it you know this guy, boss?” Kish asked.

Sin still didn’t speak.

Kat didn’t need her powers to feel the feral rage inside him—to sense the killer he’d become at the mere mention of Kessar’s name. She didn’t know what past they had with each other, but it was obviously not a happy one. Apparently Kessar rated right up there with her mother in Sin’s estimation.

Sin was ramrod stiff beside her and clutched the cane with a white-knuckled grip. His features were even sharper now. His eyes brittle. How he managed to look attractive like that she didn’t know, but there was something about him and his anger that set her hormones panting.

Suddenly the Hinder song “Get Stoned” started going through her head. Totally inappropriate, especially at this moment in time. Still, she couldn’t help wondering if anger really did make sex better. Then again, she had no real idea of what sex felt like even calm.

They really need to let me out more.

Sin glanced down at her as if he could read her thoughts.
Oh, that’s good.
Just what she needed—him inside her head, hearing the fact that she felt compelled by his angry looks. Groovy. Just groovy.

She might as well squeal like a thirteen-year-old while she was at it and tell him how hot he looked when ticked off. Her luck, he’d stay that way.

Diverting her gaze to the doors, she didn’t speak or make any movements that might betray the line of her thoughts. How embarrassing would that be? Especially given the fact that the man hated her entire maternal lineage.

There were just some degradations a person didn’t need. This was definitely one of them. So she tried to ignore him. Something that would have been a lot easier if his image weren’t reflected in the steel of the doors. Damn, the man was good-looking, especially when he had that hard, determined look about him. He was all predator and all man.