The Dark-Hunters (436 page)

Simi stuck her tongue out at Xirena. “My
akri
is my daddy. He said so and it is so, so your wings can droop all they want, ’cause it won’t change anything.”

Sin was still befuddled by the two of them. How were these two supposed to help them combat the gallu? Kessar would tear them apart. Rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably, he looked at Kat. “Are you sure we shouldn’t see about getting another set of demons? I don’t see how they’re going to help, given the way they’re arguing.”

“Oh, trust me,” Kat said with a short laugh, “the fighting stops as soon as food comes into the picture.”

“Food?” Simi stopped her tirade instantly. “Where’s some food?”

“Is it good food?” Xirena chimed in.

Simi rolled her eyes at her sister. “Is there such a thing as bad food?”

“Well, yeah, there’s Daimon. They’re kind of gamey tasting and they stick in my fangs.”

“Oh, that’s true,” Simi agreed. “But I have this one kind of barbecue sauce from New Orleans that can kill that gamey taste. It makes them really good eats. Rank Daimon meat right up there with human and opossum.”

Xirena looked thrilled. “Is that that sauce I saw in your room with the woman with a leather whip on it?”

“Oh no. That’s Pain and Suffering, but that one’s good, too. This one’s got a man who’s breathing fire like a fat dragon, only he’s not fat, he’s—”

“Excuse me, demons?” Sin asked, interrupting them.

They looked at him as if he were about to be added to their menu.

And coming under their full attention was a
big
mistake. As soon as Xirena’s gaze met his, recognition lit her black eyes. “You a Sumerian.”

Her eyes flashed yellow as her skin mottled with red and black and black wings grew out of her back.

He braced for the fight, but before she could attack, Kat stepped in front of him. “Calm down, Xirena. Sin’s on our side.”

Xirena spat on his floor, which irritated the hell out of him, and he was sure housekeeping wouldn’t appreciate it, either. “Death to all Sumerians.”

“They’re not all bad,” Simi said, crossing her arms over her chest. “
Akri
knew this one Sumerian who was a fisherman for a long time. He’s really nice to the Simi. He used to feed me these tasty balls of fish all soaked in olive oil and wrapped in grape leaves. Then he’d let the Simi eat fishcakes and the eyeballs. Fish eyes are very tasty, especially in olive oil.”

Xirena growled at her, “Sumerians are all enemies to the Charonte.”

Simi put her hand on her hip and cocked her head. “Well, that’s just stupid. You can’t hate an entire race ’cause one or two of them are mean. What you got against the Sumerians anyway?”

“They created the gallu demons to kill us.”

“Oooo.” Simi’s face brightened. “I like them gallu demons. They so crispy when you burn them.
Akri
used to let me eat them by the dozen. And he never cared, neither—not like when I’d eat people. But then all them gallu went away and the Simi couldn’t eat them anymore. I really miss them. They were so yummy.”

“And now they’re back,” Kat said, gaining their attention again.

Xirena’s expression looked as if she’d just stepped into a manure factory.

Simi just looked excited. “Can I eat them?”

Sin nodded. “Bon appétit.”

Kat gave him a chastising glance over her shoulder. “Yes, Simi. But we need you and Xirena to help us fight them.”

Xirena jerked her chin toward Sin. “I think we should feed the Sumerian to them. He would deserve it.”

Kat tsked at her. “Xirena…”

“I told you, Katra,” Simi said in a singsongy tone, “she all kinds of mean. You should have her eat your earrings when you’re not looking. And they were the good ones, too. Covered with diamonds … they sparkle a lot.”

Xirena glared at Simi. “Well, you would be mean, too, if you saw how them gallu killed us, and eating them won’t be easy without your
akri
there to shield their powers. They are evil demons who can kill us.” She looked at Katra. “Will the cursed god help?”

Kat hesitated. She wished, but that wasn’t an option right now. “We’re going to try and do this without his help.”

Xirena’s eyes widened. “Why would we do that?”

“’Cause
akri
don’t know about Katra,” Simi explained. “If he learned about her, he would be really sad and the Simi don’t want to make
akri
sad, so you can’t say a word about Katra to him. He sad enough already because he has to deal with that bitch-goddess with the red hair.”

“Simi,” Kat said in a warning tone.

“Well, she is a bitch-goddess. I know you love her,
akra
-Kat, but facts is fact and she a mean heifer.”

Xirena smacked her lips. “I haven’t had a heifer in a while. Are there any heifers here?”

Simi cast a sideways look at her sister. “I know where a big red one is on Olympus.”

Kat shook her head. “Simi!”

“What?” She batted her eyes with a wide, innocent expression. “If Xirena eats her, then how can I get in trouble for it?”

Sin snorted. “It’s like dealing with children. Ye gods, how did the Atlanteans stand it?”

Kat pressed her hand to the throb in her temple as she wondered the same thing herself. “They’re normally a bit more silent than this.”

He looked less than convinced. “Really?”

“Apollymi keeps a tight rein on them.”

At the mention of Apollymi’s name, Xirena hissed. “Death to the bitch-goddess! May she die in a flaming pit of Charonte spit.”

Sin laughed at Xirena’s condemnation. “Damn, Kat, you can’t win for losing. Is there anyone, other than you, who actually likes your family?”

She sighed in resignation. “Some days it seems not.”

“You one to talk,” Xirena said testily. “Nobody likes your family, either.”

“Yeah!” Simi paused. She put her hand to her face to whisper at her sister, “Is that true?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah!” Simi shook her fist in the air to prove her point.

Sin shook his head at her. “I think I’m getting a migraine from this.”

“You can’t get migraines,” Kat reminded him.

“Then it’s a tumor … one the size of two demons.”

She laughed at his acerbic tone. “You wanted help. I give you the cavalry.”

Well, she had done that. But Sin wasn’t convinced the cure might not be a thousand times worse than the ailment. “Strange, I have this feeling our cavalry may yet run us both over … then eat us.”

Kat gave him an agitated stare. “So where do they stay?”

Sin hesitated at the question. Leaving them alone didn’t seem like a good idea to him. “Can they be left alone?”

She shrugged. “I don’t see where they’re any more dangerous than the Daimons you have downstairs patrolling tourists for dinner.”

“They don’t have wings and horns.”

Xirena returned to looking human. “Neither do we. Unless we want them.”

Simi lifted her hand like a student. “If the Daimons are eating tourists, can we?”

“No,” Sin and Kat said simultaneously.

“Well, poo.” Simi pouted. “Why them Daimons get special treatment?”

Xirena screwed her face up in a huff. “Maybe we ought to go back to Katoteros. At least there we got them dragon things to eat whenever we’re hungry.”

Simi’s face paled. “You ate
akri
’s pets? Bad Xirena. He don’t like it when they go away. Oooo, you better hide when he come home and finds them missing. He’ll be very upset.”

Kat cleared her throat and hoped to get them off this topic and back to the one that needed to be discussed. She looked at Sin. “You can put them in a room with QVC and they’ll be as happy as clams.”

“QVC?” the demons said in unison.

Simi looked at her watch. “It Diamonique time, too. Where’s a TV?”

Sin rubbed his eyebrow before he went to call Kish and book the two demons a room down the hall from his suite.

They were still chattering about the yummy Diamonique flavor when Kish came to get them and show them to their room.

Sin stood in the doorway watching them leave. “Those are some demons you’ve got there.”

“Yes,” she said with a smile as she closed the distance between them, “they are. We just have to make sure nothing happens to Simi. Acheron would kill us both.”

Sin’s eyes softened as he looked down at her. “I somehow doubt he would kill you. But I, on the other hand, would most likely be short a couple of heads.”

She frowned. “Couple?”

He pointed to the one on his shoulders, then dipped his hand down to his groin.

“Ah.” Kat laughed. “You’re awful.”

“Yes, but while I know I can hold my own against most creatures, Ash is one I know for a fact can hand me my ass in a box. Therefore, I try to stay on his good side as much as possible.”

She wasn’t sure she bought that statement. “You’re not really afraid of him, are you?”

“Definitely not afraid. Just highly respectful. I thank the Fates for what they did to him by making him live as a human being for a while. Had they not, can you imagine what the universe would be like? Think of the power he and Apollymi command. Now put the ego of a typical god on it.”

Yeah, it was the stuff of nightmares.

But it also begged the question of whether or not that was what had made Acheron the way he was. It was a question Kat had pondered a lot. “Yet you have a conscience. I can’t imagine you running over people to get what you want.”

“I’m not the same creature now that I was when I had my godhood. When I was young, I was angry and bitter over what my father had done to us and, as a god, I had a lot to prove. Not to mention living as a human has a very sobering way of altering your perspective on many things.”

Kat’s stomach shrank at the tone of his voice. Her gaze fell to the scar on his neck. She reached up to touch it and thought about how much pain that wound must have caused him. She had to bite her lip to keep from apologizing to him for taking his powers.

She’d been so young and stupid herself. Like most children, she’d been blind to her mother’s faults. She’d only wanted to please Artemis and make her happy. How was she to know one mistake would hurt someone else so badly and alter the history of the world?

If only she could take his powers from her mother and return them to him, but Artemis would never allow her to do that. If she tried, she’d lose her mother forever, and even in spite of Artemis’s faults, Kat loved her. She would never do anything to hurt her mother.

Sin took Kat’s hand from his neck and placed a light kiss on her palm. Even so, there was a wild look in his eyes. He was allowing her near him, but he could turn on her any moment. It was scary and titillating.

“We still have to find my brother,” he reminded her.

Kat nodded. “All right. I think it best if I go alone. I’ll go see if my grandmother can help with the
sfora.
”
And if she’s in a receiving mood.
For something like this, they wanted Apollymi to be happy and helpful. Otherwise, it would be a waste of time to visit and would most likely result in her refusing to help them at all.

Kat stepped away from Sin, but before she could flash out of the room, he laid a hand on her arm.

“Thank you, Katra. I appreciate the help.”

She didn’t know why, but those few words made her heart soar. “You’re welcome.”

He inclined his head before he gave a tender squeeze. “And I haven’t forgotten your gift to me. Thank you again.”

She stepped forward and laid a gentle kiss to his cheek. “I’ll be back soon.”

*   *   *

Artemis
hesitated as she neared her bedroom. She chewed her thumbnail in indecision. Maybe she should just go to Zeus’s temple for a while and think of something on her own.…

“What did you do?”

She jumped at the sound of Acheron’s voice coming from behind her. “I thought you were in bed,” she snapped.

“I had to go to the bathroom.”

“Oh.”

His swirling silver eyes were piercing as he glared at her. “What have you done, Artie? And don’t say, ‘Nothing.’ I know by the way you’re acting that it’s going to seriously piss me off.”

She hated when he could read her so easily. How did he do that?

But she refused to be the one on the defensive. So she did what she always did. She went on the offensive. “Well, it’s your own fault.”

He rolled his eyes at her. “Of course it is. Everything’s always my fault. So what did I do now?”

She narrowed her gaze at him in anger, but there was still a part of her that was terrified of him. Most of all she was terrified of what he was going to do when she told him what she needed … and mostly why she needed it.

“You have to promise me two things before I tell you.”

A tic worked in his jaw. “What?”

She took a step back to put more distance between them. “First that you won’t kill me. Ever. And the second that you’ll stay here another week.”

Ash hesitated. This had to be even worse than he suspected for her to want to make such a bargain with him. His gut knotted in anger. He could feel his eyes turning red and his cheeks growing warm. But she wouldn’t care about that.

And he knew her well enough to know that if he didn’t give her what she wanted, she’d never tell him whatever it was that had her so nervous.

“Okay. Fine.”

“Say the words, Acheron. I want to know you are bound by them.”

He cursed before he spoke between clenched teeth. “Fine. I promise I won’t kill you, and—”

“Ever.”

Ash took a deep breath before he said, “Ever.” Gods, how he’d like to choke her.

“And you’ll stay here for another week … unless I need you to do something for me.”

That made his blood run cold. “Do what?”

“Say it, Acheron, and then I’ll tell you.”

Oh yeah, this was going to infuriate him. He only hoped he could keep his word. If not, he’d perish from it right alongside her. “All right. I won’t leave here for another week, unless you need me to do something.”

She let out a long, relieved breath. “Good. Now you stand right there.”

Okay … He did and wondered what the hell was wrong with her … besides the fact that she was selfish and cold.