It was just after five o'clock and nearing dusk when Amanda reached Kyrian's. She parked her dark blue Taurus in front of the house and walked up to the grand front door, then knocked.
She expected Nick to answer; instead, the door swung open slowly to show her no one at all. Frowning, she walked inside. The door instantly slammed shut behind her, making her gasp in startled alarm. Now that she thought about it, the front gates had done the same thing. Only then she had assumed Kyrian had seen her car on the video monitors and had opened the gates before she had a chance to buzz the house.
Now she wasn't so sure. Her heart hammering, she still didn't see anyone about. The silent house appeared completely empty. "Hello?" she asked, entering the foyer slowly. "Nick? Kyrian?"
"So you're Amanda Devereaux."
She froze when she heard the voice coming from the living room. It was deep and provocative, with an accent unlike anything she'd ever heard before. The rich sound reminded her of quiet thunder.
For an instant, she feared it might be a Daimon, until her eyes adjusted enough to where she could see the stunningly gorgeous man on the sofa. He was lying on his back with his legs dangling way over the arm of the sofa and his hands behind his head as he watched her from the darkness.
Shirtless and barefoot, he wore a pair of tight leather pants. He had long, dark green hair and a stylized small birdlike tattoo on his left shoulder, the tail of which curled down and around his biceps. His skin was the same golden tone as Kyrian's and it set off to perfection the small gold necklace he wore around his neck.
"And you are?" she asked.
"Acheron Parthenopaeus," he said in that steady, deep voice. "Pleased to meet you." His words were devoid of any warmth or emotion. Okay, this was no Yoda. Well, except they both had green heads.
The man on the sofa looked to be no more than in his early twenties and yet there was a hardness to him that belied his youthful appearance. It was as if he had seen hell firsthand and had returned from the journey forever wiser. Even while lying down, he commanded awe, and a shiver of fear went down her spine. Something about Acheron was truly frightening, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was.
He just made her greatly uneasy.
"So you're the infamous Acheron."
A smile played across his devastatingly handsome face. "Lord and master of the great barbarian horde that roams the night."
"Are you truly?"
He shrugged nonchalantly. "Not really. I would have better luck harnessing the winds." She laughed nervously. He rose slowly to his feet and approached her like a great, stalking beast. As he drew near, the force of his presence and the sheer size of him overwhelmed her. At least six-foot-eight, he towered over her with an indescribably powerful essence.
"My God," she breathed as she craned her neck to look up at him. "Is there some unwritten law that you guys have to be giants?"
He laughed, showing her a glimpse of his fangs. "What can I say? Artemis likes her Dark-Hunters tall. Short men need not apply."
As he stopped before her, she saw his eyes. Her jaw went slack. Unlike Kyrian's, they shimmered. There was no other word for it. As she watched him, his eyes shifted through an entire blue and silver spectrum. Like quicksilver, the colors changed and blended. It reminded her of a turgid sea with shifting waves.
"Off-putting, aren't they?" he asked as he watched her watch him.
"Are they supposed to do that?"
He smiled a tight-lipped smile, but didn't respond as he pulled a pair of black opaque sunglasses from his back pocket and put them on. Now that his eyes were covered, she noticed the strange scar on his neck. It looked as if someone's hand print had been burned into his throat while he was being throttled. Very, very strange.
"What brings you here, little human?" Acheron asked.
"I've come to see Kyrian."
"He doesn't want to be seen."
"Well," she said, stiffening her spine to stand strong against this Dark-Hunter she was sure could splinter her in a nanosecond. "We don't always know what's best for us."
He laughed at that. "Very true. So you think you can save him?"
"You doubt me?"
He cocked his head as if assessing her mettle and walked a small circle around her. As he passed, she saw the healing wounds on his back. They overlapped and crisscrossed like some twisted river map. But the most peculiar part was that they seemed to form an intricate pattern that was as beautiful as it was horrifying. Her heart lurched at the sight. He must have endured untold hours of agony for each visible welt.
Dropping her gaze from his lean, muscular back, she found the bow mark of Artemis that was identical to the one Kyrian had on his shoulder. Only Acheron's was located over his right hipbone.
"You know," he said in a low, ominous tone. "I've walked this earth for over eleven thousand years, my lady." He paused and leaned to whisper in her ear. "I have seen things in my life that are unimaginable to you, and you ask if I doubt you?"
He took a step back so that he could watch her face before he finished his sentence. "Lady, I doubt the very air you breathe."