Yes, but knowledge was power and they had a right to know who and what they were fighting. "You're just like Acheron."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"It wasn't intended as one."
"I know. But it irritates you that you're not irritating me." His grin widened. "I can live with that."
She rolled her eyes at him. "What ever."
"Give me 'tude, woman. I live for it. And none of this is germane to why the Daimons are now after you."
No kidding. "That is the question."
Dev sobered as he gave her a look that chilled her all the way to her missing soul. "No. The real question is...how many more of them are going to come after you?"
Chapter 8
Stryker stood over the smoldering remains of the Daimons who'd failed him. He really couldn't stand incompetence.
Zephyra beat a staccato rhythm on the arm of her chair with her long red nails as she watched him with an amused light in her eyes. "Feeling better, love?"
"Not really. Thinking I should reanimate them just so I can kill them again."
She wrinkled her nose in amusement. "I do so love you, bunny." Only she could get away with calling him that. Anyone else would be...
Another stain on the floor.
Stryker let out a frustrated breath. "Our little Huntress knows we're coming for her and that we have Aunt Artie's nets.... You know the problem with sending out morons who have no vested interest in accomplishing your goals?"
"They don't care," she answered. "But I would think breaking their eternal curse would make any Daimon have a vested interest in succeeding."
"You would think." He gestured to the steaming remains on the floor. "But obviously you're wrong. They were more concerned about who was cheating on whom than saving our race. Pathetic imbeciles."
Zephyra didn't comment on that. "Do you want me to go after her then?"
He would say yes, but to get Samia now would require they go into Sanctuary and drag the bitch out. That place was teeming with preternatural predators who enjoyed bloodletting as much as he did. He'd just gotten his wife back. He wasn't about to risk her to such a venture.
He would go himself, but that would violate a treaty he had in place....
Alliances sucked. One day he'd learn better than to make them.
"No. I think I have a better idea."
Zephyra stopped tapping her fingernails. "Which is?"
"Someone who wants the Huntress more than I do. He will bring her to us. Of that I have no doubt."
Stryker only hoped his messenger didn't dismember her first.
Sam fastened her jeans, then froze at a peculiar sound she hadn't heard in a long time.
A little girl giggling.
She turned fast to see the door open a quarter inch then slam shut. The giggling got louder.
What in the world?
Using her powers, she opened the door gently so as not to hurt her Peeping Tom. The girl stumbled into the room in a flurry of blond curls and bright blue eyes and dimples. Around four years old in human years and dressed in a cute pink dress with some cartoon character on it that Sam didn't know, she was absolutely beautiful.
"You weren't supposed to see me," she said in a whispered shout. "Uncle Dev said he'd have my entire tail section if I bothered you. I'm not bothering you, am I?"
Yes. The sight of her tore through Sam viciously. It made her ache for her own daughter and was strong enough to form a lump in her throat and to cause her eyes to water slightly. It was so harshly wrong how even after all these centuries her arms felt empty and itched to pick up and hold a baby close. To have one of those precious moments back when she used to bury her face in her daughter's curls and inhale that sweet baby scent...
I sold my soul for the wrong thing.
And that hurt most of all.
Sam offered the little girl a smile. "No, sweetie. You're not bothering me at all."
That thrilled the little girl as she slammed the door shut and ran into the room, closer to Sam. She grinned wide as she held her hands behind her back. "Uncle Dev said that when people touch you, you can tell things about them. Can you?"
"I can."
She jumped up and down in her excitement as she clapped her small hands. "That's so neat. I don't have my powers yet. I keep hoping they'll come in...along with my breasts, but so far nothing. How long did it take you to get big breasts?"
Sam hesitated before she answered a question that strangely made her laugh. "When I was about twelve."
"Hmmm, I wonder what that makes in Were-Hunter years? I can't ever keep that straight." She looked down at her flat chest. "Obviously I'm not there yet. At least that's what I hope. Otherwise I'll have to stuff my bra like my cousin does. Her breasts look really, really lumpy. Like oatmeal lumpy. But I think it's 'cause what she uses to stuff them with. Kara says toilet paper isn't as good as socks. It's really gross and it makes her papa really angry."