“You’re really not sane, are you?”
“No, Urian. I’m not. A sane man would have told you to go to hell and meant it.”
Sick to his stomach that he’d even asked him to join them for this when he should have left him alone and at peace, Urian opened the portal to Kalosis. I’ve got your back, brother. Because obviously, no one else ever had.
With a sharp nod to his friend, he made a promise to himself that no one was going to hurt Styxx again. “Walk this way.” Urian stepped into it and vanished.
Without so much as glancing at Savitar or Acheron, Styxx followed.
When they finally stopped falling, they were inside a main room that was filled with Daimons and demons.
Beautiful …
Styxx let out a severely annoyed groan. “Great location, Uri,” he said under his breath. “Think one of them is willing to sell us a summer home here?”
Urian grinned at him. “You can always ask.”
Every demon and Daimon was frozen into place by their sudden appearance in the middle of the hall where Urian had grown up. Ah, it was good to be back.
Styxx cut a sideways glance to Urian. “What are they waiting for?”
Urian winked at him because he knew exactly why they were nervous. Every Daimon here had been told that if Acheron ever stepped foot into their domain, Kalosis would splinter. That Apollymi would be free and the worlds would tear themselves apart.
“Armageddon,” he said drily.
Styxx narrowed his eyes on Stryker.
Stryker glared at his son with an expression that was best defined as pained hatred. “You dare to stand with my enemy?”
“Against you, Solren, I’d stand with Mickey Mouse.”
Stryker curled his lip. “You worthless son of a bitch. You should have never been anything more than a cum stain.”
Urian scoffed. “I could definitely say the same thing about you. It would have saved the world and all of us a lot of misery now, wouldn’t it?”
Styxx and Urian braced themselves to fight as the Daimons started forward, but they were thrown back by some unseen force.
Not sure what had happened, Styxx turned to Stryker and growled. “Enough of the family reunion bullshit. Where is Soteria?”
Out of nowhere, Apollymi appeared a few feet from them.
She indicated a door behind him with an imperious jerk of her chin.
Urian went still as he watched her, cautiously. There was something strange about her that he didn’t quite understand. An odd undercurrent between her and Styxx.
“She’s over there.” Then she crossed the short distance to embrace his friend.
What the hell?
Styxx’s breathing turned ragged at her touch. He clenched his fists tight.
“At last, m’gios.” Atlantean for my son. “You’ve come to set me free.” She placed a kiss on his cheek and then whispered in his ear words that Urian barely heard. They were harsh and cold and made him suck his breath in sharply. “For my son’s sake, you better embrace me, Greek whoreson. If I can touch something as vile and repugnant as you, you can touch divinity.”
Urian knew his friend well enough to read the fury in his body language as he forced himself to hug her. Nodding to her, Styxx stepped back, then headed for the door.
Before Styxx reached it, a tall, thin woman with brown hair and very pretty features came running out of the room. She wore a black jacket that was much too large for her and clutched it over her shirt, which had been torn open.
Oh shit. Urian cringed as dread went through him. If anyone had done to her what he feared, Acheron would tear this place down.
And the world would end.
All of a sudden, she threw herself into Styxx’s arms and kissed him. Then she stiffened and pulled back slowly to stare up at him suspiciously.
Double shit.
Urian passed a panicked stare to Davyn as they both waited for everyone to realize that he wasn’t Acheron.
And they probably would have, had Nick Gautier not chosen that moment to walk out of his father’s study.
Unholy crap …
There was something you didn’t see every day. A Malachai sporting a Dark-Hunter bow-and-arrow mark on his left cheek that made it look like Artemis had bitch-slapped him when she marked him. His eyes dark with rage and madness, Nick ran at Styxx as if he intended to kill him. But before he could reach him, Urian grabbed Nick and shoved him back into the room where they’d been.
Styxx pulled Tory in after them.
And Urian realized just how fucked they all were as he saw his aunt’s dead body on the floor.
This just gets better and better.
Panicked, he looked at Styxx and Tory. “We have to go.” Then he looked at Nick. “And you need to come with us.”
Nick curled his lip in obvious hatred. “I’m not going anywhere with him. I’d rather be dead.”
Urian forced Nick to look down at Satara’s body. “I’m going to make the wildly founded assumption that Satara’s dead by your hand and not Tory’s.”
Gripping Nick’s chin, Urian forced him to meet his gaze. “Now, stay with me on this, Cajun. My father slit my throat and murdered my wife because he thought I’d betrayed him by getting married. Before that, he loved me more than his life, and I was his last surviving child. His second-in-command. Now what do you think he’s going to do to you once he sees her body? I can assure you, it won’t be a fun-filled trip to Chuck E. Cheese. For all their animosity toward each other, Satara is his sister and she’s served him well over the centuries. If you really want to stay here and have some fun with Stryker, I won’t stop you. But I really wouldn’t recommend it.”
’Cause Stryker would gut him just for the shoelaces.
That finally seemed to get through to Nick. Sanity returned to his eyes. “Fine. I’ll go with you.”
While they argued, Styxx cracked the door to check on their restless enemies. “Urian,” he said between clenched teeth. “I think they’re catching on.”
“Catching on to what?” Nick asked.
Tory rolled her eyes at Nick. “That this isn’t Ash.”
The words had barely left her lips before they faded out of the room.
Zolan, Stryker’s third-in-command and the leader of his personal Illuminati attack force, cleared his throat in the silent room. “Um … boss, I don’t mean this disrespectfully, but why are we still here? I mean, if Acheron has come to free Apollymi, shouldn’t there be an explosion or something?”
The Daimons and demons looked around as if waiting for an opening to the outer world to appear or for Apollymi to burst into song and dance, or for something else unnatural to happen.
Meanwhile, Apollymi just stood there completely stoic, appearing almost angelic and sweet, as she watched Stryker closely.
Davyn scratched the back of his neck nervously as he waited for a sign from Urian that they were clear. “I agree, kyrios. It doesn’t feel like the end of the world.”
Stryker turned a cold sneer to Apollymi. “No, it doesn’t, does it?”
Apollymi arched a taunting brow. “How does the song go, ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine’?”
In that moment, Stryker knew exactly what had happened. Launching himself from his throne, he ran to the room just as Urian, Tory, Nick, and what had to be Ash’s twin brother Styxx vanished.
His anger over the obvious trick mounted until he saw Satara lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Fear washed away his rage as he ran to her only to find her dead. Her eyes were glazed and her skin tinged with blue.
His heart shattered as he pulled her into his arms and held her close, fighting against the tears of grief and pain. “You stupid psychotic bitch,” he growled against Satara’s cold cheek. “What have you done now?”
Apollymi stood in the doorway, aching for Strykerius as he rocked his dead sister in his arms, reminding her of the day she’d found her precious Acheron’s cold and lifeless body dumped on the cl
Like he was garbage.
She had died that day, and every day since that she’d been forced to live without him.
Sympathy and a newfound respect for Stryker tore through her.
The fact that he could love someone as broken as Satara had been said much for him. Yes, he could be cold-blooded, but he wasn’t heartless. Closing her eyes, she remembered him the day they’d first met. Stryker had been young and bitter over his father’s curse.
“I gave up everything I ever cared about for him and this is how he repays my loyalty? I’m to die in agony in only six years? My young children are now banished from the sun and are cursed to drink blood from each other instead of eating food, and to die in pain at only twenty-seven? For what? For the death of a Greek whore killed by soldiers I’ve never even seen? Where’s the justice in that?”
Understanding his agony and wanting to exact her own revenge on Apollo, Apollymi had pulled Stryker into her ranks and taught him how to circumvent his father’s curse by absorbing human souls into his body to lengthen his life. She’d given him and his children shelter in a realm where the humans couldn’t harm them and where there was no danger of his children accidentally dying by sunlight. Then she’d allowed him to convert others and bring them here to live.
In the beginning, she’d pitied him and she’d even loved him as a son.
But he wasn’t her Apostolos, and the more he was around her, the more she wanted to have her own child with her no matter the cost. She admitted it was her own fault that she’d put a wall between her and Strykerius. And the two of them had used each other to get back at the people they hated.
Now it all had come to this.…
The death of his beloved sister.
“I’m so sorry, Strykerius.”
He looked up at her, his silver eyes swirling in pain. “Are you? Or are you gloating?”
“I never gloat over death. I may relish it, from time to time, when it’s justified. But I never gloat.”
“And I don’t let challenges like this go unanswered. There will be payback.”
“But you owe it to Styxx and Nick, not my Apostolos or his Soteria. Remember that.”
Urian sighed as they made it back to the Sanctuary bar in New Orleans that was owned by the Peltier Were-Hunter bear clan.
Acheron launched himself at Soteria and gathered her into his arms. Urian remembered when Phoebe used to run to him like that in Elysia. How they’d savor every minute.
Gods, how he missed her …
“Are you all right?” Acheron asked Tory. “I’m fine. Really.”
“But we’re not,” Urian said drily from the other side of the room. “Nick killed Satara while they held Tory.”
“He did it to protect me,” Tory interjected.
Urian snorted. “We’ll put that on the headstone for you. In the meantime Stryker’s going to want blood for this. A lot of blood.”
Nick scoffed at his dire tone. “No offense, but your father doesn’t scare me, especially given how bad I want a piece of his hide. Come get some.”
Urian looked less than impressed. “I know you think you share powers with him, Nick, but trust me, he didn’t give you anything but the leftovers. Not to mention one small thing. No one gets a piece of him until after I do.”
Acheron let out a shrill whistle. “Down, children. We have more things to do than just save your machismo.”
Acheron leveled his glare at Nick. “We have a battle to prepare for. I’m not letting Stryker take Nick.”
Nick laughed bitterly. “I don’t need your fucking help. I can fight on my own.”
Acheron didn’t flinch at the hatred in his tone. “I know why you hate me, Nick. I get it. But your mother wouldn’t want you to kill yourself again. Hate me tomorrow. Tonight, tolerate me as a necessary evil.”
Nick shoved Acheron away from him. “This doesn’t make us friends.”
Acheron held his hands up. “I know.” He turned back to Tory and took her hand in a tight grip. Indecision hung there before he spoke and shocked Styxx to the core of his being. “Styxx, take her out of here. Keep her safe.”
Tory gaped as she skimmed Styxx with a horrified expression.
Stryker came through a portal and his gaze went straight to Urian. “You’ve betrayed me for the last time.” Flicking his wrist, he sent a leaf-shaped dagger right at Urian’s heart.
Before it could reach its target, Acheron caught it in his hand. “Take your girls, scream, and run away now, Stryker. It’ll save you time later. Believe me, you don’t want a taste of me in the mood I’m in.”
Stryker took that with flippant disregard. He ran his tongue over his fangs as if he were savoring the idea of feeding on Acheron. “There’s nothing I crave more than the taste of blood.” He looked around at the men who stood with Acheron and laughed in derision. “Tonight we feast, Spathi. Attack!”
More than ready to battle, Urian pulled Tory behind their group as the Daimons swarmed them.
“Stab them in the heart,” Urian said to Styxx before he demonstrated how to kill the Daimons.
Another blast of light in the room left them with a huge group of enemy reinforcements.
Styxx stabbed the first one to reach him. Only he didn’t explode into dust like the Daimon had. “Urian? A little instruction, please.”
“Demons … eyes.” Urian stabbed a demon between the eyes to show him what he meant, before he turned and ducked the fangs of a Daimon. “And whatever you do, don’t let the demons bite you or they can control you.”
Styxx disarmed a Daimon who held a sword, then spun around and caught him with his dagger. The Daimon exploded all over Styxx.
Stryker went for Nick, but Acheron caught him and the two of them went to the ground, punching with a fury Styxx knew all too well. Glad I’m not the only one you hate that much.
More men arrived. Since they were neither Daimons nor demons, Styxx pulled back until he could determine if they were friends or foes.
A demon launched itself at Soteria. She tried to kick him back but failed epically. Just as it would have reached her, Julian of Macedon, a longtime friend of Acheron’s, was there with a xiphos. He severed the demon’s head with one well-placed swing. Balancing the leaf-shaped blade on his shoulder, Julian turned to face her. “Can you handle a sword?”
“Yes.”
“Kyrian!” Julian shouted to his best friend, another blond Greek. “My kingdom for a sword.”
Kyrian tossed what appeared to be only a hilt. In one fluid move, Julian caught it and pressed a button on the cross hilt. The blade shot out to just under three feet in length. He handed it over to Soteria. “Daimons have to be stabbed through their hearts. Demons between their eyes, and if you cut the heads off any of us, we all die.”
“How do I tell the difference?”
“Most of the Daimons are blond and they explode into dust when you pierce their hearts. Hit the heart and if that doesn’t work, try the eyes. If you stab someone who whimpers, then hits the ground, you attacked a good guy. Just FYI.”
One of the demons made for Urian’s back. Styxx pulled a smaller knife out of the demon body closest to him and used it to pin the new demon between his eyes.
Urian turned to fight as the demon fell to his feet. He met Styxx’s gaze and inclined his head to him.
Styxx whirled and, forgetting he didn’t have a hoplon, raised his arm to catch a sword down across it. Hissing, he stumbled back, then lunged with the sword in his right hand. His opponent spun, then came back immediately with another blow. Styxx narrowly jerked his head away in time.
Urian tried to reach him to help, but he was swarmed with his own Daimons and couldn’t get to him at all.
Then Urian saw Stryker, and the expression on his face was one of controlled fury. He was locked on his target, and in his hand was the one weapon that could kill Acheron.
An Atlantean dagger imbued with the blood of Apollymi and with poisonous ypnsi sap from the darkest trees grown in the forests of Kalosis.
For a moment Styxx didn’t react. If Stryker killed Acheron, it was over. All of it.
He would finally have peace.
But then he made the fatal mistake of looking at Soteria, who saw what he did.
Acheron’s imminent death.
The horrified agony on her face and the tears in her eyes undid him. Love like that didn’t deserve to be separated. There was no worse hell than being one half of an eternally separated whole.
No one knew that better than Urian did.
Twice in his life, he’d been dealt that blow. First with Xyn and then with Phoebe. He wouldn’t let that kind of hatred crush Tory.
He went to stop it, but before he could get there, Styxx ran at Stryker. He caught the Daimon lord right before he reached Acheron, who had stupidly closed his eyes while he fought.
Because Styxx still wore sunglasses, Stryker lost focus on Acheron and mistook him for his brother.
Stryker laughed in satisfaction as he buried the knife deep into Styxx’s stomach.
Urian felt that blow as if he’d taken it himself.
Styxx stumbled back and fell into someone. His sunglasses went flying.
Time hung still as they all watched him fall against Acheron and his brother stepped aside to let him go down hard on the floor.
Growling at the fact he’d missed Acheron, Stryker reached for the dagger in Styxx’s stomach. Styxx held it inside him with one hand while he tried to beat Stryker back with his other. But his blood made the hilt too slippery and the pain and scar weakened his grasp. Against his best effort, Stryker yanked the dagger out.
Styxx gasped. “Acheron!” he shouted, warning his brother.
Turning in time, Acheron caught the Daimon overlord with the blunt end of his staff and shoved him back. “Flee or die,” he snarled.
Stryker curled his lip. “Fuck you.”
Narrowing his gaze on Stryker, Acheron shoved him back, then slammed the staff to the ground. A wave of raw, unfettered power shot out from it to the demons and Daimons around them. Every one of them turned to dust.
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