DH 05 Kiss Of The Night (36 page)

“It’l never be over. Not so long as my father”—he spat the word out—”lives.” Ash shook his head. “And I thought my family was dysfunctional… Let it go. You’ve already lost. My God, you just kil ed your own son, and over what?”

Stryker roared with anger, then attacked Ash.

Wulf grabbed his son from Chris at the same time Zarek pul ed Cassandra behind him. Wulf wanted to get them out and to safety, but they couldn’t reach the door while Ash and Stryker fought in front of it.

Stryker shot a god-bolt at Ash who took it without flinching. Instead, he gave the Daimon a blow that knocked him up into the air and slammed him against the wal .

Wulf whistled low. They al knew Ash was powerful, but he’d never seen the Atlantean do something like that.

Stryker attacked again. But for some reason, Ash didn’t kil him. The two men slugged it out as if they were humans and not…

Whatever the hel the two of them were.

His face bloody, Stryker shot another blast at Ash.

He deflected it. Ash raised his hand, and as he did so, Stryker was lifted from the floor.

Stryker shot a bolt at him that caused Ash to stagger back and release him.

The Daimon hit the ground running. He wrapped his arms around Ash and rammed him into the wal .

But before he could strike Acheron again, a yel ow-fleshed demon appeared out of nowhere. Her eyes flashing, she wrapped her arms around Stryker and then vanished into nothingness.

Acheron snarled at that.

“While you’re at it, Apol ymi,” Ash shouted. “You better keep him there.”

“What the hel are you?” Wulf asked Ash as he turned to face them.

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want answered,” Zarek said. “Believe me. You’re so not ready to know the truth.”

“Is Stryker gone?” Cassandra asked.

Ash nodded.

Cassandra hugged Wulf, then took Erik from his hands and held him against her shoulder to quiet him. “I know, baby,” she cooed. “But the scary man is al gone.”

“What grabbed the Daimon?” Kyra asked. “Where did they go?” Ash didn’t answer. “You’re safe now, guys. At least for a little while.”

“Wil he be back?” Cassandra asked.

Ash gave an odd half-laugh. “I don’t know. He’s one of the few creatures beyond my powers. But like he said, it’s not over. He might be back in a few months or a few centuries. Time passes differently where he lives.”

Kyrian, Talon, and Julian came into the room.

“The Daimons have al vanished,” Talon said. “We kil ed some, but the rest…”

“It’s al right,” Ash said. “Thanks for the help.”

They nodded, then walked out of the bedroom, into the chaos of the living room.

“Man, it’s going to take days to clean this up,” Chris said, looking around in disbelief.

Then, before their eyes, the destruction was cleared. Al that was left behind were the bodies.

Zarek snorted. “You better stop while you’re ahead, Acheron.”

“I’m not ahead, Z. I can’t fix what was real y damaged here tonight.” Ash’s gaze went to Shanus’s body.

Wulf shook his head as he picked up Shanus to carry him to the town’s center.

There were Apol ites everywhere, crying and screaming over their dead.

“They didn’t deserve this,” Wulf said to Acheron.

“Who does?” Ash asked.

A woman came up to Wulf. She had the bearing of royalty and it didn’t take much to ascertain who she was.

“Shanus?” she said, her eyes fil ing with tears.

Wulf laid the body down for her. “Are you his wife?”

She nodded as her tears glistened in her eyes. She cradled his head in her lap and wept quietly.

Cassandra moved forward. “I’m so sorry.”

The woman looked up, her eyes fil ed with hatred. “Get out. Al of you! You’re no longer welcome here. We helped you and you destroyed us!”

Zarek cleared his throat. “That might not be a bad piece of advice,” he said to Wulf, looking around at the others who were directing kil ing glares toward them.

“Yeah,” Ash agreed. “You guys help Wulf and his family get out of here. I’m going to see about someone.” Wulf knew he meant Urian. “Do you want us to wait for you?”

“No. There’l be a couple of SUVs waiting for you topside. Head home and I’l catch up later.”

“SUVs?” Kyrian asked.

“Again, I repeat, don’t ask questions you don’t want answered,” Zarek said. “Just accept the fact that Acheron is a freak of nature and let it go.”

Ash cast him a drol glare. “I may be a freak, but at least I don’t throw lightning bolts at my brother.” Zarek laughed evil y at that. “At least I haven’t struck him with one… yet.” Ash watched as Zarek led the group out of the city.

He stood in the center, surveying the damage around him. He started to clear it out just as he’d done with Wulf’s house and the apartment, then stopped. The Apol ites would need something to focus on other than their pain.

Rebuilding the city would take their minds off their grief. At least for a little while.

Deep in his heart, he wept along with them.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should…

He forced himself to walk down the corridor without yielding to the need inside to fix everything.

By the time he’d reached Urian’s apartment, Ash was disgusted by the bloodshed Stryker had wrought in the name of Apol ymi.

There was no sense in this, but then she was the Goddess of Destruction. And it was why he had to make sure she was never released from her prison.

Ash found Urian on his knees in the center of the living room. The man held a smal gold locket in his hands as he wept silently.

“Urian?” Ash said in a low, steady tone.

“Go away!” he snarled. “Just leave me alone.”

“You can’t stay here,” Ash said. “The Apol ites wil turn on you.”

“Like I care.” He looked up and the empathetic pain Ash felt from Urian made him take a step back. It had been a long time since Ash had come into direct contact with so much hopeless grief. “Why didn’t you let me die too? Why did you save me?”

Ash took a deep breath as he explained it to Urian. “Because if I hadn’t, you would have sold your soul to Artemis over this and kil ed your father.”

“You think I’m not going to kil him over this?” He turned on Ash with a growl. “There’s nothing left of her.

Nothing! I don’t even have anything to bury. I…” His words broke off as he sobbed.

“I know,” Ash said, placing his hand on Urian’s shoulder.

“You don’t know!”

Ash gripped his chin and lifted it until their gazes locked. “Yes, Urian, I do know.” Urian struggled to breathe as he saw images flickering through Ash’s swirling silver eyes. There was so much pain in them, so much agony and wisdom.

It was hard to maintain eye contact with him.

“I don’t want to live without my Phoebe,” Urian said, his voice breaking on the words.

“I know. For that reason, I’m giving you a choice. I can’t lock on to your father to monitor him. I need you to do that. Because sooner or later, he’l be back after Apol o’s lineage.”

“Why would I protect them? Phoebe died because of them!”

“Phoebe lived because of them, Urian. Remember? You and your father were responsible for kil ing her entire family. Did you ever tel Phoebe it was you? You? Who kil ed her grandmother? Or her cousins?” Urian looked away shamefaced. “No. I would never have hurt her.”

“Yet you did. Every time you, your father, or one of your Spathis kil ed one of her family, she felt the pain you feel now. Her mother’s and sisters’ deaths tore her apart. Isn’t that why you saved Cassandra to begin with?”

“Yes.”

Ash stepped away from him while Urian wiped his tears away.

“You said I had a choice?”

“The other is that I wil erase your memories of everything. You’l be free of al of this. Al your pain. The past, the present. You can live as if none of this had ever happened to you.”

“Wil you kil me if I ask it?”

“Do you real y want me to?”

Urian stared at the floor. To most people, his thoughts would be unknown. But Ash knew them. He heard them as clearly as he heard his own.

“I’m no longer a Daimon, am I?” Urian asked after a brief pause.

“No. Nor are you an Apol ite, exactly.”

“Then what am I?”

Ash took a deep breath as he spoke the truth. “You are unique in this world.” Urian didn’t like that any more than Ash liked being unique. But some things could never be changed.

“How much longer wil I live?” Urian asked.

“You’re immortal, barring death.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“Most of life doesn’t.”

He felt Urian’s frustration with him, but at least it was lessening some of the man’s grief. “Can I walk in daylight?”

“If you want, I can make it so. If you choose amnesia, I wil make you ful y human.”

“You can do that?”

Ash nodded.

Urian laughed bitterly as he raked a cold look over Ash’s body. “You know, Acheron, I’m not stupid, nor am I as blind as Stryker. Does he know of the demon you carry on your body?”

“No, and Simi isn’t a demon, she’s part of me.”

Urian’s gaze bored into his. “Poor Stryker, he’s so screwed and he doesn’t even know it.” The intensity of Urian’s gaze burned. “I know who and what you are, Acheron Parthenopaeus.”

“Then you know if you ever pass your knowledge along I’l make sure you regret it. Eternal y.” He nodded. “But I don’t understand why you hide.”

“I’m not hiding,” Ash said simply. “The knowledge you carry can’t help anyone. It can only destroy and harm.”

Urian thought about that for a minute. “I’m through being a destroyer.”

“Then what are you?”

Urian let his thoughts wander through the events of this night. He thought about the aching pain inside him that screamed over the loss of his wife. It was so tempting to let Acheron erase it al , but with that he would lose al the good memories he carried too.

Though he and Phoebe had only had a few years together, she had loved him in ways no one ever had.

Touched a heart he had thought was long dead.

No, it hurt to live without her, but he didn’t want to lose al connection with her.

He fastened her locket around his neck and rose slowly to his feet. “I’m your man. But I warn you now. If I’m ever given a chance to kil Stryker, I wil take it. Consequences be damned.”
Chapter 17

Stryker snarled in outrage as he found himself in the Destroyer’s throne room. “I was so close to kil ing them. Why did you stop me!”

Stil the demon Sabina held him.

For once Xedrix wasn’t in the room with his mother, but Stryker didn’t have time to ponder the demon’s whereabouts. His thoughts were too consumed by hatred and vexation.

His mother sat on her chaise completely poised, as if she were holding court and hadn’t just destroyed al their years of careful planning.

“Do not raise your voice to me, Strykerius. I wil not take insubordination.” He forced himself to level his voice even while his blood simmered in fury. “Why did you interfere?” She pul ed her black pil ow into her lap and toyed with a corner of it. “You cannot win against the Elekti. I told you that.”

“I could have beaten him,” Stryker insisted. No one could stop him. He was sure of that.

“No you couldn’t,” she said firmly. She dropped her gaze again and ran her hand elegantly over the black satin. “There is no pain worse than a son who betrays your cause, is there, Strykerius? You give them everything, and do they listen? No. Do they respect? No. Instead they shred your heart and spit on the kindness you would show to them.”

Stryker clenched his eyes shut as she voiced the very thoughts inside him. He had given Urian everything and his son had repaid him with a betrayal so profound that it had taken him days to come to grips with it.

Part of him hated Apol ymi for tel ing him the truth. The other part thanked her.

He had never been the kind of man to cradle a snake to his bosom.

Stryker would never do to his mother what had been done to him. “I wil listen to you, Mother.” She cradled the pil ow to her breast and sighed wearily. “Good.”

“So what do we do now?”

She gazed at him with a smal , beautiful smile. When she spoke, her words were simple, but her tone was purely evil. “We wait.”

Wulf sat on the couch with Cassandra beside him. Erik slept peaceful y in his mother’s arms, oblivious to the violence and deaths that had occurred tonight.

Oblivious to the fact that the world the baby was just coming to know had almost ended.

Since they had returned home, Wulf had refused to let either one of them out of his sight.

Chris was helping Talon bandage his arm, which had gotten shredded by one of the Daimons. Julian sat with an ice pack on the back of his head while Kyrian poured peroxide over his bloodied knuckles, into a bowl.

Zarek stood like a statue against the wal by the hal way that led to the kitchen. He, alone, appeared unscathed by the fighting.

“You know,” Kyrian said, pausing long enough to hiss as he poured alcohol over the peroxide. “The fighting was a lot easier when I was immortal.”

Talon snorted. “I stil am immortal and I’m pretty banged up. That was a hel of a fight.” The phone rang.

Chris got up to answer it.

“That better not be Stryker,” Cassandra said breathlessly.

It wasn’t. It was her father.

Chris handed the phone off to her and her hand shook. “Daddy? Are you al right?” Wulf held her against his chest as she wept and talked for a few minutes, then hung up.

“It was what you said,” she breathed to Wulf. “They never had him. Stryker had used the same trick to get you to leave the city that he used on me to open the apartment door. Damn that bastard!” The phone rang again.

“What is it?” Chris snapped. “A ful moon?”

“Yes,” al the men said at once.

“Oh.” Chris answered it, then handed it over to Kyrian.

“Hel o?” Kyrian said. “Oh, hi, hon. No, I’m okay.” He cringed a bit. “No, hunting was good. We’l … uh… we’l be home tomorrow.”

He paused, then glanced to Julian. “What head wound?” He cringed even more. “No, tel Grace, Julian is fine. Just a little bump. We’re al fine.”