The Dark-Hunters (438 page)

He’d barely finished the call before Simi appeared before him.
“Akri!”
She beamed in delight. “Can you come home now?”

He cast a malevolent stare at Artemis. “Not right now. But I have an assignment for you.”

She looked a bit confused. “You do?”

“Yeah. I apparently have someone I need you to watch over. I want you to make sure nothing at all happens to her. Do you understand?”

Simi paled. “You don’t want the Simi to watch over the bitch-goddess, do you? ’Cause no offense,
akri,
that would just be wrong, and I love you, but that’s more love than the Simi has for anything. Even Diamonique.”

He smiled at her honesty. “Not Artemis, Sim. I need you to watch over a woman named Katra.”

She scowled at his request. “
Akra
-Kat?”

A bad feeling went through him. “You know her?”

She became antsy, which was never a good thing.

Artemis made a sound of disgust. “He knows she’s his daughter, twit.”

Simi turned on her with an arch look. “Twit?
Moi?
The Simi? Why, I do believe the bitch-goddess has done gone and gotten herself confused. She thinks she’s me, not that I blame her. All women want to be me because of my beautoneousness and the fact that I have such stylish clothing and sparklies. But believe me, I ain’t no heifer-goddess.”

“Oh, please, you stupid demon. Like I would ever want to be you.”

Simi’s eyes flashed dark so fast that Ash barely had time to grab her and hold her back from eating the bitch-goddess. “No, Sim. Leave her alone.” Then he looked at Artemis. “Insult her again and she’s the least of your concerns.”

Artemis scoffed. “You can’t hurt me.”

“You’re right.
I
can’t. But you never said I couldn’t give you over to my girl here.”

Simi laughed happily. “Oooo, I finally get to eat the bitch-goddess? Oh, goodie!”

Artemis vanished instantly.

Ash would have taken satisfaction in that if he wasn’t so upset. He released Simi and turned her to face him. “You knew about my daughter?”

She lowered her chin like a child afraid of a spanking—something he’d never done to her. “Is
akri
angry at his Simi?”

He pulled her to him and held her against his chest. “How could I be angry at you?” She was the only thing in his life that had ever loved him without conditions or embarrassment. But it still didn’t stop him from being hurt that she’d kept this secret. “I just wish you’d told me.”

“But the queen goddess said it would make you cry to know. She said it would hurt you so much—like she hurts ’cause she can’t have you with her. I didn’t want you to sit and cry like
akra
does.”

He tightened his hold on her. “I know, Sim. It’s okay.”

She pulled back to look up at him. “Are you sad,
akri?
”

“A little.”

She took his hand into hers. “The Simi didn’t mean to hurt you,
akri.
”

“Oh, baby, you didn’t hurt me. I’ll be all right.”

“Okay,” she said gently, “’cause if you’re not all right, I’ll eat the heifer-goddess for you and make it all better.”

He smiled at her. “You can’t do that.”

She pouted. “Just a little nip? Maybe her heel or a finger. She’d never miss it … unless she went to pick something up and then, well, who cares. Well, maybe you, but no one else would.”

“No, Sim. Your little nips are the size of a shark bite. I need you to find Katra for me and guard her.”

“Oh, the Simi knows right where she is. I just left her.”

His jaw went slack. Though to be honest, at this point he didn’t know why anything shocked him. “You what?”

“She with that ex-god who hates the heifer-goddess like I do. They asked for me and Xirena to help them fight those gallu demons you used to let me eat. Apparently, there’s a bunch of them out now.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a bottle of barbecue sauce. “I’m all prepared.”

Ash shook his head, trying to understand. “The gallu are loose now?”

She nodded. “Sin said they’re coming out by the dozen—just enough to make a good appetizer for us.”

Yeah, and enough to do serious damage to the human race. “Go, Simi. Watch over Katra for me.”

“Okay,
akri.
But don’t be sad.” She blew him a kiss before she vanished.

He let out a tired breath as he surveyed the empty room. Everything on earth was falling apart and he was trapped here because of Artemis’s insatiable libido. Where was the justice in that?

“What the hell’s going on?” He had to know.

Closing his eyes, he tried to locate Sin and the gallu, but all he saw was a haze with no real form or substance. That didn’t surprise him, though. He usually had a hard time seeing anything below while he was in Artemis’s temple. She didn’t want him to know since it would make him even more restless to leave than he already was.

But there was one person who could tell him what he needed to know.…

He returned to the balcony outside Artemis’s main room and leaned against the railing. Closing his eyes again, he let his
ensyneiditos
travel out of his body, through the cosmos until he was in his mother’s garden. It was the only break he was allowed while here. Because the
ensyneiditos
was simply the conscious part of himself and not his body, he could use it to visit others while trapped on Olympus.

It was also the
only
way he could ever visit with his mother. If he ever appeared to her in the flesh, it would release her from her prison and allow her to destroy the world—which was her one goal in life.

His goal was to prevent that.

Floating into Kalosis, he found her sitting near the pool in the back. The obsidian rocks were as iridescent as her pale skin as she scryed by using the black water to make a
sfora.
His mother had lifted a portion of the water up to form a dark swirling ball in the air.

But what stunned him was the woman who stood beside her. It was a face he’d seen before, but only in his dreams. Her features were similar to his, only there was enough of her mother in that face to mark her for what she was.

His daughter.

“Katra?”

The ball splintered and fell in droplets back to the water as the two of them turned to face him. And when those green eyes looked into his, he wanted to cry. But pain was nothing new to him. He was so used to hiding it that it didn’t even require any real effort on his part.

“Apostolos,” his mother said breathlessly before she rose to her feet. She looked back and forth between them. “Are you angry?”

Kat couldn’t move as she waited for an answer. By the way he’d said her name, she knew someone had told him about her. And she couldn’t believe her father was here … with them. But she knew he wasn’t really here. He was only an apparition. He couldn’t have any real contact with his mother without it freeing her.

Still, he was looking at Kat with a stern expression.

She’d dreamt of this moment where he knew her for what she was millions of times in her life. Only in her dreams she was filled with happiness, not trepidation. She’d tried to imagine every possible scenario for their meeting, but none of them had come close to this.

Now she wanted to run to him and hug him. If only she could. His cold demeanor was such that she was afraid to even move.

“Dad?” she asked hesitantly.

He looked away as a single tear fled down his cheek and he faded away from them. It made Kat’s own eyes swim as her emotions gathered in her throat to bitterly choke her.

Her grandmother placed a tender hand on her shoulder. “Go to him, Katra. He needs you.”

She nodded before she flashed herself from Kalosis to Olympus. She was on the balcony where she’d frolicked and played as a child.

And her father was only a few feet from her.

Kat wasn’t sure what to say or do. She wanted to run to him. Or, better yet, say something. But nothing came to mind while she felt his pain and sorrow.

He stood as still as a statue, gazing out on the garden below.

Suddenly he gasped as his consciousness returned to his body. Her heart stopped the instant he turned toward her and met her gaze.

Her tears flowed down her cheeks as her emotions overwhelmed her. She wiped angrily at them. “I don’t normally do this. I’m really not that emotional.”

Still he didn’t speak. He merely walked toward her as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He stopped just before her and stared at her as if she were a wraith.

Up close, he seemed so much larger. Much more powerful. She supposed it was normal for a daughter to be intimidated to a degree by her father. But she was honestly scared.

“Have you had a good life?” he asked in a gentle tone.

That single question only made her cry harder as she nodded. “I only wanted for one thing.”

“And that was?”

“You.”

Ash couldn’t breathe as his own tears fell from his eyes. It infuriated him. He didn’t cry. Ever.

Yet the thought of having missed so much of her life, the knowledge that he was a complete stranger to his own daughter, tore him apart.

How many children had he coddled and protected over the centuries? How many had he held, wishing he had his own, but convinced that he was incapable of it? Now to learn that he’d had a daughter all this time …

It was so unfair.

He swallowed as he ached to reach out to touch her but was afraid she’d shove him away like everyone else in his past. Surely she must hate him for his neglect. He wouldn’t blame her if she did. God knew, he’d felt that way when he learned about his real parents. He’d despised them for never telling him who they were, for never being there when he needed comfort or love.

Until now, he hadn’t realized how hard his first meeting with his mother must have been for her.

“I don’t even know what to say to you,” he whispered.

“Me, either. I guess we’ll just stand here and cry at each other, huh?”

He laughed at her unexpected humor.

Kat wiped at her eyes again. “Can I hug you?”

Ash held his arms out, and before he could move she ran to him. The feel of her there as he wrapped his arms around her rattled him to the depths of his soul. This was his daughter.
His
true flesh and blood. A wave of possessive pride ripped through him, but the love he felt for her was enough to almost drown him.

Now he fully understood his mother and her anger on the night she’d learned about his past. He wanted to hurt anyone who’d ever hurt Kat.

The guilt over not being there …

Not once in Kat’s life had he held her. Never had she cried and felt his comforting touch. She’d lived knowing nothing about him other than the fact that he had donated DNA to make her. His only comfort was that he’d never known about her existence.

How much worse had it been for his mother to know he was out there but to not be able to go to him?

“I’m so sorry,” he breathed against Kat’s hair as he cradled her head in his palm. “I didn’t know.”

“I know you didn’t.”

Still he wanted her to understand just how sorry he felt. “Why didn’t you ever come to me?”

“When I was young I was afraid you’d be mad at me. Every time I saw you come here, you were always so angry. You hated Artemis and I was afraid you’d hate me for tying you to her.”

He pulled back and cupped her face in his hands. “I could never hate you.”

Kat had waited her whole life to hear those words as more tears gathered in her eyes. To feel the touch of her father. It was so much sweeter than she’d ever imagined. “I love you, Dad.”

Ash let out a sob as pain wracked him. Those words tore through every fiber of his being. “I’m so sorry, Katra.”

“Me, too. I should have told you. I know that. But I really didn’t know what you’d do to Mom. I was afraid you’d kill her.”

He gave a bitter laugh. “I probably would have.” He shook his head as he looked her up and down. “You’re so beautiful. I wish I’d seen you as a child.”

She gave him a coy grin. “You didn’t miss much. I had buck teeth and stringy hair.”

He laughed. “I seriously doubt that.”

“It’s true, and I was really hideous as a preteen. Tall and gawky. I used to bump my head into everything. Still do sometimes.”

He shook his head at her. “You
are
my daughter.”

“Sure I am,” she scoffed. “I can’t imagine you ever being uncoordinated.”

“Oh, I assure you I’ve nailed quite a few signs with my forehead. It’s a wonder ‘Exit’ isn’t permanently imprinted right between my eyes.”

Her melodic laugh filled his ears and made his heart ache.

Ash couldn’t get over how similar her mannerisms were to his. It was like looking into a mirror and seeing someone else’s face in your stead.

But his joy was cut short by another fear as he realized just how similar the two of them were and what that might have meant for Katra growing up. “Has your mother been good to you?”

A slow smile spread across her face. “For her, yeah. I mean, other than the fact I could never call her Matisera unless we were alone, she really was good.”

How awful to never be able to acknowledge Artemis as her mother in public. He knew that pain well and it made him even angrier that Artemis, having done that to him, would also do it to his child.

How selfish could one person be?

“Is she loving to you?”

Kat swallowed at his question and she knew exactly what he meant by it. He was afraid her mother had been cold to her. But in spite of Artemis’s shortcomings, that had never been the case.

Wanting to set his mind at ease, Kat took his hand into hers and closed her eyes so that she could show him.

Ash jerked as he saw Katra’s memories in his mind. She was no more than seven and she was alone with her mother in Artemis’s bedchamber. They were curled up together in Artemis’s bed.

Katra frowned as she laid a tiny hand to Artemis’s moist cheek. “Why do you cry, Matisera?”

“You’re too young to understand, my little one.”

“Then you can tell me why you cry and I won’t understand it. Then you’ll feel better and be happy again.”