"She knows all about you," Wulf said. "Dream-Hunters can see right through us."
Cassandra tentatively touched D'Aria's hand. It was soft and warm. Human. Yet there was a strange electrical field around it that was similar to static electricity, only different. It was oddly soothing.
"We are not so different in this realm," D'Aria said quietly.
Cassandra withdrew her hand. "But you have no emotions?"
"At times we can, if we have been recently inside a human's dream. It's possible to continue to syphon emotions for a brief time."
"Skoti can syphon for longer periods," Wulf added. "They're similar to Daimons that way. Instead of feeding off your soul, the Skoti feed off your emotions."
"Energy vampires," Cassandra said.
D'Aria nodded. Cassandra had read about the Dream-Hunters extensively. Unlike the Dark-Hunters, there was a ton of ancient literature that survived about the Oneroi. The gods of sleep appeared throughout Greek literature, but there was seldom a mention of the evil Skoti who preyed on people while they slept.
All Cassandra knew about them was that they were highly feared in ancient civilizations. So much so that many ancient humans were afraid to even mention the Skoti by name lest they incur a midnight visit from the sleep demons.
"Would Artemis have done this to us?" Wulf asked D'Aria.
"Why would she?" D'Aria countered.
Wulf shifted slightly. "Artemis seems to be protecting the princess. Could she have sent her into my dreams for that purpose?"
"I suppose most anything is possible."
Cassandra seized on D'Aria's words with zeal and a rare glimmer of hope. "Is it possible that I don't have to die on my next birthday?"
D'Aria's emotionless gaze held no more promise than her words. "If you are asking me for prophecy, child, that I cannot give you. The future is something each of us must meet on his or her own. What I say now may or may not be truth."
"But do all half-Apollites have to die at twenty-seven?" Cassandra asked again, desperate for an answer.
"That, too, is an Oracle question."
Cassandra closed her eyes in frustration. All she wanted was some hope. A little guidance. One more year of life. Something. But apparently she was asking too much.
"Thank you, D'Aria," Wulf said, his voice deep and strong.
The Dream-Hunter inclined her head to them, then vanished. There was no trace of her. No sign. Cassandra looked around the elegant garage of a man who had lived for untold centuries. Then she looked at the small signet ring she wore on her right hand that her mother had given her just days before she died. A ring that had been handed down through her family since their first ancestor had prematurely crumbled to dust.
All of a sudden, Cassandra burst out laughing. Wulf appeared bemused by her humor. "Are you all right?"
"No," she said, trying to sober. "I think I snapped a wheel at some point tonight. Or at the very least stepped over into the realm of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone."
His frown deepened. "How do you mean?"
"Well, let's see…" She looked at her gold Harry Winston watch. "It's only eleven o'clock and tonight I have gone to a club that seems to be owned by shape-shifting panthers, where a group of vampire hit men and one possible god attacked me. Went home only to be attacked again by said hit men, god, and then a dragon. Had a Dark-Hunter save me. My bodyguard may or may not be in the service of a goddess and now I just met a sleep spirit. Hell of a day, huh?"
For the first time since meeting him in the flesh, she saw a hint of a smile on Wulf's roguishly handsome face. "Just a typical day in the life from where I'm standing," he said.
He moved closer to her and examined her neck where Stryker had bitten her. His fingers were warm against her skin. Soothing and gentle. The scent of him filled her head and made her wish for a moment where they could go back and just be friends again.
There was very little blood on her shirt. "It looks like it's closed up already."
"I know," she said quietly. There was a coagulating gel in Apollite saliva, which was why they had to continually suck for blood once they opened a wound. Otherwise the wound would close before they had a chance to eat. The gel they secreted could also blind humans if an Apollite spat in their eyes.
She was just grateful that the bite didn't unite her with Stryker in any way. Only Were-Hunters had that ability. Wulf stepped back from her and led her into his house. He wasn't sure why he had been given the task of seeing to her safety, but until Acheron told him otherwise, he would do his duty. Feelings be damned. As he opened the door, his cell phone rang.
Wulf answered it to find Corbin on the other end. "Hey, did you find Kat?"
"Yeah," Corbin said. "She told me she only went to take out the garbage and came back to find Cassandra gone."
He relayed the information to Cassandra, who looked confused by it. "What do you want me to do with Kat?" he asked Cassandra.