The Dark-Hunters, page 337
While the man wobbled from the blows, Sin pulled back his long coat to show a large dagger. The man came at Sin with his mouth open, trying to bite him. Sin dropped to the ground and swept the man’s feet out from under him. The man hit the cement hard. Sin turned and drove the knife deep between the man’s eyes.
The man screamed, writhing on the sidewalk as he flailed and kicked.
“Oh, shut the fuck up,” Sin growled before he pulled the dagger out and stabbed the man again.
Kat slid off the car, cradling her broken arm, and before she could stop him, Sin decapitated the dead man and burned him right there on the sidewalk. She recoiled at the horror of it. They were in broad daylight and Sin didn’t even seem to care.
Anyone could see this.
Before she could move, Sin was in front of her, grabbing her. “Are you bit?”
He didn’t even look at her face before he started frisking her. She hissed as he touched her broken arm, but he didn’t pause in his inspection.
When he pulled up her shirt to look at her stomach, she slapped his touch away. “Get your hands off me.”
“Did he bite you?” he snarled, punctuating each word harshly.
It was then he looked up at her face and froze.
A heartbeat later, he grabbed her throat and started choking her.
CHAPTER THREE
Kat lifted her legs and kicked him back. Sin hit the ground with a whoof before he flipped to his feet and came after her again.
She pushed herself away from the car and ducked his hands, then sucked her breath in sharply as she hurt her arm—that only made her angrier. “Trust me, asshole, you don’t want a piece of me.”
His nostrils flared. “Oh yes, I do. I’ve been dreaming of strangling you for centuries.”
What the hell did he mean by that?
All of a sudden, the sound of approaching sirens rent the air. Kat turned her head to listen, but the instant she did, he grabbed her.
This time when she went for him, he moved faster than was humanly possible. One moment they were on the street and in the next everything went black.
Sin smiled evilly as Artemis collapsed into his arms. It was true he lacked the bulk of his god-strength, but his brother had made sure after Artemis had drained him that he still had enough juice to protect himself.
Even against the gods.
He couldn’t believe fate had been so kind as to throw the bitch right into his path.… Now she was his and he was going to make her pay for what she’d done to him.
Smiling at the very thought, he flashed himself to his penthouse in Las Vegas. None too gently, he dumped his prisoner on his black leather sofa before he went to his bedroom to gather a few necessary items. Holding a goddess hostage was tricky business. Once she awoke she’d be pissed and wanting blood.
His blood.
Therefore, he’d need a few things to make sure she didn’t use her powers to rip his heart out. Opening his closet, he moved to the back and shoved his clothes to one side. Hidden behind them was his vault. The door was made of tarnished bronze and held a hand and retinal scanner. Rather impressively modern, given the fact that he was an ancient Sumerian ex-god. But one had to make adjustments when one was locked in the hell that was the modern human world.
He opened the door and moved inside, where he kept the remnants of his own temple in Ur—what few things Artemis hadn’t destroyed after she’d eliminated him. It wasn’t much, a gold urn or two and the altar tray where his worshipers had once placed offerings. He’d also kept a few statues, but most of the vault’s contents were taken from his daughter’s temples. After her death, he’d tried to save anything that bore her image, and those were carefully preserved in the glass cases around him.
But that wasn’t what had brought him here. What he sought rested in the far back corner, in a leather trunk that creaked eerily as he opened it. A sadistic smile curled his lips as he found the most important item he’d saved all these centuries.
The diktyon that Artemis had used to tie him in place as she sucked his powers from him. Something in its composition rendered an immortal powerless. It kept them trapped and helpless.
He could still feel the humiliation of being at her mercy.
And once the bitch had drained him, she’d dumped him in the desert still wrapped in the net.
“Thanks for being so compliant. Now to pit the rest of your pathetic pantheon against each other until they’re all gone.” Her laughter had rung in his ears.
Like a milk-whelp, he’d been forced to call out to his family for help. His father had laughed and then turned his back … as had all the others. The only one to show him pity had been his brother, Zakar. If not for him, Sin would still be lying in the desert.
Rotting or worse.
Of course their laughter had died out soon enough. Artemis had fulfilled her promise. Almost every member of his family had been disposed of by the Greek gods. The Greeks had either absorbed their powers and replaced them or turned them against one another until none were left. That had been three thousand years ago.
Now it was time to settle the score.
Grabbing the net, he headed for the couch where he’d left Artemis “sleeping.”
She was still lying right in her spot, unconscious. Good. You know, you could kill her right here. Right now …
The temptation was strong. But then what fun would it really be? She was unconscious. She wouldn’t feel it. Wouldn’t know it. Besides, she was a goddess. To kill her while she still had her godhood would cause a rift in the universe.
The only way to destroy gods was to dispense or absorb their powers and then kill them.
Not to mention, he wanted to see her suffer. He wanted to look her dead in the eyes when he sucked her powers out and reestablished his godhood—wanted her to know the abject humiliation and pain of being completely vulnerable.
And that he could only do if she were awake and alive.
Damn.
With that in mind, he took his time cocooning her in the webbing. Let her be held down by her own weapon. It was only fitting. If he was lucky, she’d cry like a baby and beg for a mercy he had no intention of giving her.
Oh yeah, he could hear her now.…
“Please, Sin, please let me go, I’ll do anything.”
“Bark like a dog.”
She would, too. She’d be crying and hysterical. And he’d just laugh at her. He savored the very thought of it.
Sin paused as he secured her feet and glanced up at her face. To his deepest chagrin, he actually had to admit that she was beautiful—in a lethal, snake-like, venomous, bitch sort of way. In his murderous dreams, he’d forgotten exactly how graceful and attractive she was.
But here and now, he remembered things he’d buried three thousand years ago. He’d gone to her temple that day because she’d intrigued him. Granted, goddesses were beautiful, but Artemis had been exceptionally attractive even by their high standards. She’d told him how lonely she was. How she wanted someone who understood her. He’d stupidly considered her a kindred spirit.
And like everyone else he’d ever known, she’d turned on him. Kindred spirit nothing. She’d laughed in his face and had reduced him to a pathetic immortal.
He didn’t see anything beautiful about her now. But he did find it odd that she had blond hair instead of the vibrant red she was famous for. Maybe that was because she’d been in the human world and she was trying to pass as one of them for some reason.
Still, her body was the same. Tall, graceful, and well-built, she was put together like the goddess she was. Any man, immortal or otherwise, would kill to have access to a woman like this. And Sin remembered a time when he’d been so attracted to her that he would have done anything to make her happy.
Now all he wanted was to kill her.
“Hey, Sin?”
He paused as he saw his servant, Kish, coming into the room. Just under six feet tall, Kish appeared to be in his mid-twenties, but in reality the man was almost three thousand years old. Like Sin, he had jet-black hair and dark olive skin, only his hair, unlike Sin’s, hung just past his shoulders.
Kish froze in place as he saw the woman on the couch. “Uh, boss, whatcha doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?”
Kish made a face as he scratched at the area right above his left ear. “It’s looking pretty kinky. And here’s where I should remind you that kidnapping a woman in this day and age, and in this country in particular, is a federal offense.”
Sin wasn’t amused. “Yes, and in your original time period it was a capital offense that resulted in the man’s testicles being cut off before he was beheaded.”
Kish jerked at the mention of castration and cupped himself. “Yeah, and so why are you kidnapping her?”
“Who says I kidnapped her?”
“The fact she’s unconscious and tied up … fully clothed. I figure if it was really kinky and she was cooperating, she’d be awake and naked.”
Kish did have a point.
He moved forward and looked more closely at her before he glanced back to Sin. “So who is she?”
“Artemis.”
“Artemis who?”
Sin gave him a hard stare. “You know. Greek goddess bitch who stole my powers.”
Kish let out a nervous laugh. “That’s the goddess trussed up like a turkey on your couch. Are you insane?”
“No,” Sin said as righteous fury drove him on. “I had an advantage and I took it.”
Kish’s face turned ashen. “And when she wakes up, we’re both toast. Burnt toast. Charred toast. Whatever the hell is beyond charred, that’s us.” He moved his index finger back and forth between them to emphasize their coming doom. “She’s going to kick both our asses. And no offense, I don’t want my ass kicked by a goddess … well, Angelina Jolie in a black teddy and spiked heels notwithstanding. Angie-baby could drive those spiked heels all over me, but this…” He gestured toward Artemis. “This will get me painfully disemboweled, and that I’d like to avoid at all costs.”
Sin shook his head at the man’s hysteria. “Calm down before you wet my rug and I take a newspaper to you. She’s not going to kick our asses. This net negates her powers. It’s how she sucked me dry and left me humiliated.”
Kish cocked his head as if he wanted to believe that but wasn’t sure he should. “Are you sure about that, boss?”
“Positive. The diktyon was designed as a trap for gods and immortals. So long as she’s held by it, we’re fine.”
Kish was still cringing. “I don’t think ‘fine’ is the word I’d use in this situation. More like ‘screwed’ or ‘dead’ even. She’s not going to be happy about this.”
As if Sin gave a shit what she was or wasn’t happy about. “Once I have my powers back, it won’t matter. She’ll be in no position to hurt either of us.”
“And how are you going to do that?”
Sin had no idea. He honestly wasn’t sure how she’d gotten them to begin with. After she’d given him nectar to drink in her temple, things had gotten fuzzy and he wasn’t completely sure what all she’d done to him. His belief was that Artemis had sucked his powers out of him by drinking his blood. Personally, he didn’t want to drink her blood—there was no telling what diseases the bitch might carry: rabies, distemper, parvo.… But if it would reinstate him, he’d do it.
First he had to find out from her if a blood exchange would work.
He glared at his servant. “Don’t you have something to do?”
“If not for the fact it would result in your breaking every bone in my body and making me cry for Mommy, I’d be calling some cops. As it stands, I think my neck is best served by trying to talk sense into you.”
Sin clenched his teeth. “Kish, if you value your life, get out of here and stay out of here.”
But the instant Kish took a step back, a feeling of dread consumed Sin. Kish was too panicked, and when panicked, people always did incredibly stupid things—like call the cops on an immortal who didn’t want to even begin to try to explain why he was holding a woman on his couch in a net.
Or worse, call Acheron, who would freak on Sin if he ever learned about this.
So Sin froze him in place.
Sin stared at Kish’s statue with satisfaction. “Yeah, you chill and let me worry about this.”
It was for the best and it would keep him from having to kill Kish later. And while Sin was at it, he sealed his door so that no one else could disturb him.
* * *
Kat came awake with her arm aching. She tried to shift her weight off it, only to learn that she couldn’t. A feather-light netting covered her. Unfortunately, it was a netting she knew all too well.
Artemis’s diktyon.
Disgust consumed Kat over a prank that had grown old centuries ago when another of Artemis’s handmaidens had thought trapping her like this was entertaining. Wouldn’t the woman ever learn that Kat didn’t find this funny?
“All right, Satara, stop with the stupid games and let me up.”
But as Kat focused her eyes, she realized that she wasn’t at home and Satara wasn’t there, laughing at her.
Rather, there was a man, glaring his hatred at her. Again.
She let out a sound of deep aggravation. “What is your damage?”
“Simple. I want my powers back.”
Of course he did. What god wouldn’t want his powers back? But Lucifer’s hell would freeze solid before she ever allowed a psycho like this to have even an inkling of power. “Yeah, well, tough shit.”
He curled his lip. “Don’t fuck with me, Artemis. I’m not in the mood.”
“And neither am I, dumb-ass. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not Artemis.”
Sin paused at her words and took a closer look at her. There were small things about her that were different. But the woman held the same green eyes. The same facial features. She was Artemis. He could feel the power emanating from her. “Don’t lie, bitch.”
She kicked at him, but he sidestepped it. “Don’t you dare call me that, dickhead. I don’t take that from anyone, least of all someone like you.”
“Give me my powers and I’ll gladly free you.” And he meant that. Once he got his powers returned, he’d kill her and then she’d be free.
“Look, Brick Wall, I can’t give you what I don’t have. I. Am. Not. Artemis.” She clipped each word as she spoke it.
He leaned over her so that she could see just how much contempt he held for her and her feigned conviction. “Yeah, right. Do you think I could ever forget the face that has haunted me for three thousand years? The face of the woman whose throat I want to cut?”
She literally snarled at him like a wild beast. “Get it through your head. I’m not Artemis.”
“Then who are you?”
“My name is Kat Agrotera.”
It was his turn to scoff. “Agrotera, huh?” He grabbed the netting over her chest and pulled her up so that they were eye to eye. “Nice try, Artemis. Agrotera means ‘huntress.’ Did you think I’d forget it was one of the names your followers applied to you?”
She struggled against his hold. “It’s also the epithet that’s used by Artemis’s kori—that would be me, you moron.”
He laughed in her face. “You’re one of Artemis’s servants? How stupid do you think me? You fooled me once, but not twice.”
Kat let out a long breath as frustration consumed her. She actually had the powers to break out of the netting. But if she did that, she’d give him a really big tip on how much power she had and who she really was. That was knowledge a creature like this didn’t need to have.
No, it was better to make him think she was powerless and without consequence. “Believe it or not, I am.”
He released her to fall back on the sofa before he gave her a repugnant glare. “Uh-huh. Artemis would never allow a kori near her who was her height. Nor one who had her eye color. She’s too vain for that. You’re too vain.”
“If you want to be technical, I’m taller than she is. Didn’t you remember that part?”
Sin hesitated. Honestly, he couldn’t recall Artemis’s exact height—it’d been too long since he’d last seen her. All he remembered was that she’d been over six feet tall. “I stand by what I said. Artemis would never allow a kori in her temple taller than her.”
“News flash: She’s mellowed with age.”
Yeah, right. “Sure you have … just like me.”
The woman leaned her head back and let out an irritated growl. “Look, you seem to have issues I don’t want to even begin to know about. Let me go and we’ll both forget this ever happened. If you don’t, you’re going to be real sorry.”
He scoffed. “Not this time, Artemis. You’re the one who’s going to regret this. I want my powers back that you stole from me. You tricked my ass and then you stripped everything from me except my life, and you damn near took that.”
Kat went rigid as his words pricked a deeply buried memory inside her. But it was fuzzy and fleeting, and she couldn’t get a good handle on it, so she defaulted to what she remembered of the event.
“You were going to kill Artemis. She said you hated her … that you’d broken into her temple and tried to rape her and—” The words stopped as she realized the lie Artemis had told. How could a god from another pantheon have gotten into Artemis’s temple on Olympus without an invitation?
It was something that hadn’t dawned on Kat back then. She’d been too young and too afraid that he would hurt or kill Artemis. Back then, many of the gods had been at war with one another and those who policed them had been on hiatus. There had been many threats made against Artemis and several close calls.
But one thing would have been impossible. An outside god couldn’t enter the domain of another without invitation.
Oh gods, it was another half-truth.…
He screwed his face up at her. “What are you talking about? Have you lost your mind?”
