The Dark-Hunters (433 page)

When Artemis had dumped him in the desert, Zakar had been the one to find him and restore his health. When no one else would come near, Zakar had nourished him back to health and taken him to safety.

And how had he repaid his brother?

He’d let the gallu take him.

Sin deserved to die for the betrayal. If only he could make it up to Zakar, but he knew better. Nothing could make up for torture and pain.

Disgusted with himself, he left the elevator as soon as the doors opened and returned to his penthouse. He leaned the cane against the bar and set the box down before he raked his hands through his hair. He wanted to scream out in frustration.

“Don’t worry, Sin. We’ll get them.” Kat placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

He didn’t know how that one touch could soothe him, but somehow it did. More than that, it sent an electric charge through his body that heated him instantly.

And even though his body reacted hungrily to her presence, his intelligence wasn’t fooled. In spite of her kindness, there was only one reason for her to be with him right now. “Your mother sent you in to kill me last night, didn’t she?”

Kat was shocked by his unexpected question. How had he figured that out? “Excuse me?”

He turned to level a menacing stare at her. “Don’t lie to me, Kat. Artemis wants you to kill me. Admit it.”

There was no need for dishonesty. Sin had been lied to enough and she wasn’t about to continue that trend. “Yeah. She did.”

He gave a bitter laugh before he pulled a dagger out of its hidden sheath at his waist.

She held her breath, expecting him to come for her, but he didn’t. Instead, he handed it to her.

“If that’s your intent, then go for it. I’m not going to sit around, waiting for your attack when my back is turned. Be a man about it and let’s get the fighting over with.”

She didn’t know why, but she was strangely amused by his demand that she man up and face him. It still didn’t change the fact that she had no intention of killing him now.

Kat placed the dagger down on the bar. “I am not my mother, Sin. She doesn’t control me.”

That seemed to pacify him. At least for a few seconds. “And when I go to kill her? Where will you stand? At my back or in my way?”

She offered him a slight smile. “I don’t think you will go after her.”

His look was harsh and deadly. “You’re going to bet her life on it?”

“Yes. Because you know her death would rupture the fabric of the earth and, unlike her, you’re not that selfish.” Any time a major god was killed, their powers were released back into the universe. If no one absorbed the powers, they could easily detonate like a nuclear bomb. Especially when the dying god was born of the sun or moon. Those gods had to be protected more than any other.

And since Artemis had absorbed Sin’s powers on top of her own, it made her destruction twice as dangerous as that of any other god.

Sin’s gaze narrowed. “Maybe I’ll absorb her powers and replace her as she did me.”

Kat still wasn’t buying what he was trying to sell her. “If you knew how to do that, then you’d have done it before now.”

Glancing away, he shook his head. “You trust way too easily.”

“And you trust not at all.”

His face grim, he moved away from her. “You’re damned right.”

Okay, she’d learned a trigger for the ex-god. Don’t even tease about trust. He had issues there.

Wanting to restore the comradery they had almost found before it had veered off the road and careened down the hill where it exploded into flames, she sought to change the subject. “So are you going to show me how to fight those things so that the next time Kessar darkens your door I can make him limp
and
bleed?” Her words almost got a smile out of him.

Almost.

“What about the
sfora
and finding my brother?”

“Hold that thought a second.” Kat closed her eyes and let her thoughts drift. She saw her grandmother in her garden and though she wasn’t weeping, Kat could feel Apollymi’s sadness. Her grandmother wasn’t up to receiving visitors just yet and that meant even her alone. She was still angry over Sin’s last visit and aching over what had happened to Acheron.

Opening her eyes, Kat gave Sin a pointed stare. “Can we wait a bit? I don’t think Grandma wants to see you or me just yet. Give her a little more time … another hour or two, and hopefully this time when we go she won’t try to feed you to her demons. Is that okay?”

“Not really. But since I know better than to rush an angry goddess, I’ll strive for an ounce of patience.”

This was true. “Besides,” she added. “We have Simi coming and I think it best we be here when she arrives.”

“Yeah,” he said with a low laugh. “I definitely don’t want a hungry Charonte around my workers and clientele.”

It was true. Simi could be a bit ferocious when left on her own. “So are we up for the training?”

He looked at her clothes. “We’ll need to get you something else to wear. I don’t think that’s going to work for training.”

Well, it worked for fighting, but she wasn’t going to point that out and risk alienating him when she really needed to know how to kill those things that made her skin crawl.

Kat snapped her fingers and her jeans and shirt turned into black workout pants and a black tank top, complete with tennis shoes. “This work?”

“That’ll work.” He duplicated her gesture by snapping his fingers and his own clothes changed to black sweatpants and a white tank top that only emphasized the dark, sculpted muscles of his body.

Oh yeah, baby.… She had to stop herself from sucking her breath in as desire tore through her. Good grief, he was yummy when barely dressed. And it made her wonder how much more yummy he might be naked.

Not to mention, his actions proved that he was a lot more powerful than the average Dark-Hunter. He might not have all his god powers, but he had enough to make him extremely formidable.

Wondering what he was going to show her, she followed him down the hallway to a large exercise room.

*   *   *

Ash
groaned in his sleep as his dreams twisted through a hazy mist. He truly hated dreaming. He always had. They never made sense and this one was no more helpful or lucid than any other.

There were two women tormenting him that he didn’t know. One was tall and blond. Strangely, she reminded him of Artemis. But it wasn’t her. This woman had compassion and gentle eyes. She stood over him with a sad look on her face.

“One day we will know each other.…”

Then the other stepped forward, but her face was completely hidden by the mist. Even so, he knew she was angry at him. Furious even as her eyes glared at him through the shadows. “Who do you think you are? I hate you! Get out. I don’t ever want to see you again. I hope you get hit by a car in the parking lot. If I’m lucky, it’ll even back up over you. Now go!”

The venom of the tone tore through him. What had he done to her? Why would she hate him? All women loved him. They coveted his presence.

But not this one.

She wanted to cut his head off.

Ash woke up in a cold sweat. It took him a minute to realize he was in Artemis’s bed, safe from the scalding tongue of his tormentor. Wiping his brow, he sat up slowly, letting the white silk sheets pool around his waist.

Gods, how he hated to sleep. He’d never had a good dream in his entire existence. But at least these weren’t focused on his past. They were from somewhere else.…

“Worthless!”

He scowled at Artemis’s shriek from the other room. It was followed by the sound of something breaking.

“I did my best.”

“You’re worthless!”

Ash didn’t hear anything else, but he felt like someone had just slammed him against the floor. Every part of his body ached and he had to know why. Getting out of bed, he manifested his clothes on his body before he stalked across the floor and flung the large gold doors open with his thoughts.

Deimos had Artemis pinned to the floor by her throat. “You ever—”

He didn’t get a chance to finish his threat before Ash picked him up and tossed him wide. Deimos hit the wall, then the floor. He sprang to his feet, braced for attack until he realized who he was facing.

His lips and nose bleeding, Deimos wiped at his face.

Ash gave him a cold, emotionless stare. “You should leave now. Really.”

Deimos spat blood on the white marble floor. His gaze went to Artemis, who was now sitting where Deimos had left her. For once she wasn’t looking arrogant. “If you want the bastard dead, Artemis, you should send your pet after him.”

Normally Ash would have let such a comment pass without issue. But today it just struck him the wrong way. He threw his hands out and brought Deimos straight into his grip.

“I’m so in the mood to kick someone’s ass for no good reason. Glad you dropped by.” He kneed Deimos in the stomach, and just when he was going to punch him, Deimos vanished.

“Oh, c’mon,” Ash said out loud. “Was it something I said?”

As expected, Deimos stayed quiet. One word would have allowed Ash to follow him to his haven and finish it.

Bastard.

Still not appeased, he went to Artemis, who hadn’t moved from her spot on the floor. How very strange for her. He clenched his teeth as he saw her throat was red from Deimos’s attack and her cheeks were pinkened by anger.

“You all right?” he asked.

“Like you care,” she spat in a snit. “You’d just as soon hurt me, too.”

He bit back a sarcastic comment of agreement as he saw the pain in her eyes. Even though they’d had a less than idyllic relationship, it wasn’t in him to kick her when she was down and hurting. He’d been hurt enough in his life to never want to deal that to someone else.

He sat down beside her on the floor and pulled his knees up to his chest. “So what happened?”

Her sullen pout would have made a toddler proud. “Nothing.”

He drew a ragged breath as he saw where this was heading. She wanted to talk, but she was going to make him drag every word out. Lovely. Just how he wanted to spend his time here. Then again, given what she normally did to pass time with him, this was an improvement. “C’mon, Artie. I know better. You sent Deimos after Sin, didn’t you?”

Her pout increased before she sniffed. “What choice did I have?
You
wouldn’t do anything.”

Would she
never
grow up? Just once, he’d like to deal with an adult.… “I can’t while I’m here. You know that. You refused to give me a break to go talk to him.”

“You wouldn’t do anything even if you weren’t here.”

Probably true.

She sniffed again and gave him a sideways glare. “No one cares what happens to me.”

“Don’t, Artemis,” he said between clenched teeth. “I don’t play that pity game and you know it. If you want Daddy to baby you, he’s in the big hall up the hill.”

The anger returned to her eyes. “Why do you stay with me if you feel that way?”

Funny, he asked himself that every day. “You know why.”

She sidestepped his comment. “You hate me, don’t you?”

Sometimes. No, most times. But he felt her current vulnerability and for some reason he could never fathom, he had a need to soothe her. Yeah, he was one sick sonofabitch. “No, Artie, I don’t.”

“You’re lying,” she accused. “Don’t you think I know the difference?” A single tear slid down her cheek as she stared at him. “You used to hold me like I mattered to you.”

She was right, and the sad thing was, back then she’d mattered to him more than his own life. But that had been eleven thousand years ago and many, many things had changed between them. “You used to not beat me, too. Remember?”

Artemis shook her head. “You changed even before that. You were angry at me before you died.”

Ash so didn’t want to deal with this. His past had been painful enough the first time around. The last thing he wanted to do was relive it in any shape, form, or fashion.

Getting up, he headed back to the bedroom, but Artemis followed him.

“What happened to you?” she asked.

He laughed at the stupidity of that question before he turned around to face her again. She truly looked clueless. “How could you forget? It was the day you told me I was nothing more than a booty call for you. Oh, wait.… What were the exact words you used? ‘If you ever tell anyone about us, I’ll have you flayed in my temple until you’re bleeding all over my floor.’ That was kind of a buzz kill, huh? And then when you fulfilled that promise even when I hadn’t breathed a word of us to anyone, it destroyed whatever part of me cared for you, Artemis.”

“I apologized for the beating.”

Ash winced at her words. Words. Mere words she thought could erase the pain and humiliation he’d suffered because of her. He could still feel the sting of the lash against his naked flesh.

Even now he heard his sister’s shrill cry that afternoon when his human father had confronted him over his absence.
“Father, stop! He’s innocent. He was with Artemis. Tell him, Acheron! For the sake of the gods, tell him the truth so he’ll stop this beating.”

His human father had knocked him to the ground. He then kicked him onto his back and pressed his foot to Ash’s throat to the point where bile had risen to choke him. “What lies have you told her, maggot?”

Ash had tried to push the foot away, but his father had only pressed it even harder against his windpipe. Speaking had been all but impossible. “Nothing, p-p-please…”

“Blasphemer.” His father had stepped back then and left Ash to strangle as he tried so desperately to breathe through his bruised esophagus. “Strip him and drag him to Artemis’s temple. Let the goddess witness his punishment and if he really was with her, then I’m sure she’ll come to his defense.” He’d turned a smug look at Ryssa. “Beat him at the altar until Artemis shows herself.”

The humiliation of that day still stung him to the core of his soul. The people who’d cheered for the executioner to strike him harder. The priests who’d slapped him while the executioner had beat him.

The water that had been thrown in his face to revive him whenever he’d passed out from the pain …