The Dark-Hunters, page 237
“No,” he insisted emphatically, “I’m not.”
She stood up on her tiptoes and pulled his head down so that she could kiss him. The coldness of his skin immediately vanished as he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her blind.
She could feel his heartbeat increase as his tongue swept against hers.
Danger pulled back. “You’re not unfeeling or uncaring. I doubt if you ever have been.”
Alexion’s head spun at her words and his reaction to her kiss. It was true. Around her he was completely different. He found himself feeling things that he hadn’t felt in untold centuries. Until the moment she had entered his life, he’d begun to doubt he could ever really feel again.
With her, he did.
How could this be?
“There can never be anything between us, Danger.”
“I know.” He heard the pain in her voice. “I’m a big girl, Ias, and I can take care of myself. But you … you need to can the destroyer act around me. I don’t like it.”
He frowned at her words. “Why did you call me Ias?”
“Because Ias is the man who considers a demon his daughter and it was Ias who woke me up tonight with a rose tickling my cheek.”
“But I’m also the Alexion.”
She offered him a smile that melted the iciness of his entire existence. “There’s a tough side to all of us. Be grateful; it was my tough side that nailed you with the dagger a few minutes ago.”
He laughed at that, then sobered. “I don’t know what to feel when I’m around you.”
“Yeah, I’m confused too. I can’t believe that I’m about to help you hang my friends.”
“I’m not trying to hang anyone, Danger.”
“No? Then what’s with the list of hopeless you have over there?”
He glanced to the paper where he’d been writing. “That’s not a list of names. It’s a list of rules for Keller so that the demon doesn’t eat him.”
She laughed at him. Leave it to Alexion to think of that one. “I knew I should have studied Greek in school.”
Grateful that he was almost back to “normal,” she took his hand in hers. It was still warm. “Are we friends again?”
“Yeah, I think we are.”
* * *
“Akri!”
Ash rolled over in his bed as he heard Simi running down the hallway outside his room in Katoteros. She burst through the door, then launched herself at his bed.
He woofed as she landed on him then sat heavily on his chest. “I was sleeping, Sim.”
“I know, but I heard Alexion calling out again. The Simi wants to go see him, akri. Lemme go! Please.”
Ash felt the all too familiar knot in his gut as he fought himself not to allow her that wish. But he couldn’t.
The last two times he’d let Simi out without him had been disastrous. In Alaska, she’d almost died, and in New Orleans …
That was something he still couldn’t think about without his temper erupting.
“I can’t, Simi.”
“Why not?”
He sighed heavily. “I can’t tamper with his fate. You know that. This is his time and if I answer him I will probably do whatever it is he asks. So for all our sakes, I’ve turned his voice off in my head and I would advise you to do the same.”
She pouted as she pulled the sfora out of her pink coffin-shaped purse. “At least make this work so’s I can see him.”
“No.”
She growled at him. “But what if he gets hurt? What if he dies?” Her face blanched. “You can’t let him die, akri. You can’t. The Simi loves her Alexion.”
He reached up to brush her long black hair back from her face. “I know, edera,” he said, using the Atlantean endearment for “precious baby.” “But his fate is in his hands, not mine. I won’t alter it.”
Her pout increased. “You control fate. All fate. You can make everything all right. Please do it for your Simi?”
That was easier said than done. He was a living example of the disaster that came from trying to interfere with someone’s destiny. His entire life both as a man and a god had been destroyed because of people who meddled with his “fate.” He would never do such a thing to someone else. “Sim, that’s not fair and you know it.”
“Not fair is hearing Alexion in my head and not being able to help him. He don’t sound right, akri. I think them peoples is being mean to him. Let the Simi go eat them.”
Ash closed his eyes and tried to see the future for Alexion so that he could give Simi some peace.
But there was nothing to be seen except black mist. Damn. He hated that he couldn’t see the fates of his loved ones, any more than he could see his own.
He considered calling Atropos, who was the Greek goddess in charge of cutting the thread of life that governed humans. She would be able to tell him if Alexion would die. But he knew better than to summon her. She hated him passionately.
None of the Greek Fates would ever tell him anything of the future. They had turned their backs on him centuries ago. To them, he was long dead and forgotten.
“We will just have to wait and see what happens.”
Simi blew him a raspberry, then got up to leave.
She slammed the door on her way out.
Ash rubbed his head as the sound echoed in the room. Since his emotions weren’t tied to the Mississippi Hunters, he knew which of them would live and who would die. That saddened him greatly, and all he could do was hope that Alexion was able to sway them away from their destinies in time.
Only their free will could alter what he saw for them.
That was why he’d sent Alexion to Danger. Since the day he’d started training her, he’d had a soft spot for her. The small Frenchwoman covered her tender heart with a coat of arsenic to keep others away, but he knew what she hid from others. She was a good woman who’d been dealt a bad hand. The last thing he wanted was to see her dead. And yet he knew in his heart the futility of wishing for what could have been.
Danger’s days were extremely numbered, and unless a miracle happened, there was nothing any of them could do to help her.
Chapter 18
They were seriously batting absolute zero with no pinch hitter in sight. Danger sighed heavily as they returned to her house. They’d spent the last few hours seeking out the Dark-Hunters in the area only to find out that most of them had an ax to grind with Acheron.
Granted, there were times she got a little annoyed with his vagueness too, but this was ridiculous.
They blamed him for being stuck in Mississippi (which she personally loved). It really wasn’t a bad place to live. Granted it was hot in the summer, but there was a lot of beauty to be found here.
They also blamed him for not making their immortality better. Blamed him for all kinds of stuff that was basically their decision, not his.
Worse was the fact that she knew Acheron could read their minds. No wonder he didn’t visit here more often. How could he continue to let Artemis use the Dark-Hunters against him while they cursed everything about him? That man had more fortitude than anyone she’d ever known.
Personally, she’d tell them all adios, and go find her own private paradise.
The fact that he didn’t …
He was either a saint or a masochist.
Perhaps a little of both.
“I can’t believe their gall,” she said to Alexion as he shut her back door. “Who knew Squid had a death wish?”
Unlike her, he took it all with nihilistic stoicism. It was true, around others he was ice-cold and without any emotion at all. Their words didn’t anger him the way they did her. He just stood there and listened while they railed.
Alexion shrugged as he turned the hall light on for her. “It happens more than you’d think. If I can save ten percent, it’s a good night.”
She didn’t want a ten percent survival rate. She wanted one hundred percent. But Squid had thrown them out the minute they’d started talking about Acheron.
Thank God she’d been able to convince Alexion not to wear his white coat over there. There was no telling what the angry ex-pirate would have done to them if he’d suspected Alexion was the destroyer Kyros prophesied him to be.
Squid had completely refused to listen. Damn him for his stubbornness.
“You know, I think we need to work on your speech.”
Alexion arched a brow. “What’s wrong with my speech?”
She led the way into her living room. “Well, I think it was the ‘or else’ part that lost us Tyrell. Have you ever noticed that Dark-Hunters aren’t exactly the ‘or else’ kind of guys? They’re the kind who will do the opposite of what you want or bust a gut trying. They’ll doom themselves just to spite you because you told them not to.”
He frowned. “What would you have me say to them? ‘Hi, I’m here to be your friend? Let’s sit, have a cup of coffee, and chat?’”
She laughed at that image. Yeah, Alexion was definitely not the type to sit and “chat.”
Then again, neither were the others. For the most part, the Dark-Hunters were beer-drinking, bar-brawling kind of men. They were far more likely to slug it out than talk.
“No,” she said, sobering. “But you could try to be nicer to them.”
That familiar droll look came over his face. “I don’t need to be nicer to them. I just need to feel them out to see what side of the fence they’re going to fall on. The only ones we need to worry about are the ones who are undecided. Tyrell may yet come around.”
“I don’t know. He had some very creative use of the language as he told you to go blow.”
“Then again, he might be a tough sell.”
She shook her head at him as she went upstairs to the media room to find Xirena asleep on the couch. There was no sign of Keller.
Danger pulled the cell phone out of her pocket and called him only to discover that he’d left a couple of hours ago and gone home to bed.
“Sorry to wake you. I was just worried. Night, Keller.”
He wished her good night, then hung up.
Alexion moved to stand behind her. He leaned down ever so slightly so that he could just inhale her scent of magnolias and woman. His body jerked and fired in reaction, but then he tended to keep an erection in her presence. Everything about her fired his hormones.
And it wasn’t just because he was horny.
There was more to his attraction to her than that. He liked her. But more than that, he respected her. She was an intelligent, courageous woman.
In short, she was a gem.
She stepped back, into his embrace, and leaned her head against his shoulder so that she could look up at him. Her eyes were dark and searching. Something in that look tore through him, making his heart pound.
Was she his savior or his downfall?
The thought of that terrified him. But she had made him live again when nothing else had. She had reawakened his emotions, made him care …
Most of all she’d made him crave.
In more than nine thousand years nothing had ever come so close to making him feel human. There were times when he was around her when he swore he could almost taste again. He wanted her to distract him.
Most of all, he wanted her to touch him.
He placed his hand against her cheek before he dipped his head down to kiss her. She moaned deep in her throat and sank her hand in his hair as she turned in his arms.
Alexion growled at the sweetness of her kiss as his heart raced out of control. Breaking away, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to his bed.
He shouldn’t be doing this again. Everything was going completely wrong with this mission and yet she made it all bearable. Somehow it didn’t seem so bad with her here.
Danger sighed as he laid her down on the bed, then joined her. What was it about him that made her sizzle? Tonight had been a disaster, in more ways than one, and yet here with him it was okay.
It didn’t make sense. She just wanted to be held by him, to have him chase away the entire world until there was nothing but the two of them. She’d never felt like this before.
She rose up to capture his lips as he began unbuttoning her shirt. He kneaded her breast with his hand, slow and gently. She nuzzled her cheek to his, loving the way his whiskers pricked her skin. It sent chills through her.
Unable to stand it, she jerked his turtleneck over his head so that she could run her hands over the taut muscles. She wrapped her legs around his waist and squeezed him tight.
He laughed in her ear.
“You okay?” he whispered.
“Yes. But I want to eat you up.”
He laughed again. “It’s a good thing you’re not a Charonte. Otherwise, I might be scared.”
“Yeah, but I do have fangs…”
His answer was another deep, passionate kiss as he unfastened her bra. He pulled back to take her breast into his mouth. Danger arched her back as she delighted in the feel of his tongue pleasing her.
Wanting to taste him too, she rolled over and pinned him to the bed.
He looked at her quizzically as she pulled back and crawled down his body.
Alexion ground his teeth at the sight of Danger making love to him. She looked predatorial and wild, and it went through him like a hot lance. She smiled wickedly as she pulled his boots and socks off.
He started to sit up, only to have her push him back.
He’d never really liked for a woman to take control, but with Danger it was different. He enjoyed the way she looked as she reached for his fly. Lying back, he watched as she undid his pants and his cock sprang forward.
She hissed at the sight of him before she ran her smooth, cool palm from his base to his tip. It was an effort not to come from the sheer beauty of that alone.
Biting her lip, she slowly pulled his pants down his legs. Still she wouldn’t let him sit up. She pushed him back again. “I want to look at you,” she said insistently as she pulled the rest of her clothes off.
His heart pounded at the sight of her pale beauty. She was exquisite. She picked his foot up to rub the sole of it with tender care. Ripples of pleasure went through him, until she took a nip of the flesh there.
“You’re killing me, Danger,” he breathed raggedly.
“There’s a reason why my people call it la petite mort.”
Alexion was beginning to understand it exactly, especially when she took him into her mouth. He couldn’t remember the last time a woman had touched him like this. But one thing was certain, he’d never enjoyed it as much as he did now.
Growling in satisfaction, he cupped her face with his hand as she gave him complete satisfaction.
Danger groaned at the salty taste of him. She really did want to devour him, but she had to be careful not to hurt him with her fangs. She craved the scent and taste of this man and she didn’t even know why.
But she had to have more of him.
He sat up suddenly and withdrew from her. She was confused until he rolled her over, onto her back. He positioned himself with his knees at her shoulders, then spread her legs so that he could taste her as well.
Danger dug her heels into the bed as pleasure consumed her. There was something incredible about this mutual sharing. It touched her that Alexion wasn’t content to just receive pleasure. He took his time making sure that she was every bit as satisfied as he was.
There were far too many men out there who couldn’t care less about a woman. She was grateful he wasn’t one of them.
Alexion wished he could taste her fully. He hated having his senses dulled. But even so there was no way to get around the fact that he adored this woman. Her hands clutched his buttocks while her tongue worked magic on him.
He wanted more of her. Pulling away, he switched positions again so that he could sink himself deep inside her. She hissed the instant he did and scoured his back with her nails.
He’d barely started thrusting before she came so fiercely that she almost threw him out. Alexion laughed in her ear as he took joy in the sound of her pleasured cries. It sounded as if she were singing.
Danger wrapped her body around his as he continued to thrust against her. Each thrust went through her, heightening her orgasm even more. She pulled his lips to hers and kissed him fiercely as he moved even faster. She loved the sensation of having him inside her. The intimacy of holding him like this. He was incredible.
She felt him tense an instant before he drove himself in deep then shuddered in her arms. Smiling, she held him close as his climax claimed him. When it was over, he collapsed on top of her and held her tight.
Danger brushed his hair back from his face as they lay there lost in the aftermath of their passion. It was quiet and still in the house. But her heart ached with the thought of his leaving her. All too soon he would be gone and her life would go on for eternity without him.
“Is there any way you’ll ever be able to visit me after this assignment?”
He tensed. “No.” She heard the regret in his tone.
“Why not?”
“Because even if I did, you wouldn’t remember me.” He pulled back to look down at her. “It’s the way it has to be.”
Tears gathered in her throat, but she refused to let him see them. “That’s not fair to you. You can never make any friends.”
“No, I can’t. This is all I have.” He sighed wearily. “It’s all we have.”
“I don’t understand how you can be so nonchalant about it. Don’t you ever get mad over these stupid rules?”
He looked away and yet she saw the hurt in his eyes. “No, Danger. I don’t. Believe me, this is far better than the alternative. At least this way I have moments of muted happiness.”
She turned his head so that he could look at her. “Tell me the truth, Ias.”
He sighed wearily. “Yes, there are times when I would give anything to be able to have one chance at being normal again. To have one moment when I was human and could eat and feel. But I’m just grateful that I have this time with you right now. You make me feel almost human. At least closer to it than I have been in a long time.”
She kissed his whiskered cheek, savoring the feel of his rough shadow against her lips. “I wish this could last.”
