STRYKER SMILED AS HE WATCHED ACHERON turn blue and for once it wasn't his natural skin tone. The bastard was one gasp away from death. At least until the Chthonian Savitar flashed into the room with twenty Charonte demons to attack War and drive him away from Acheron. Stryker's anger ignited as the winged demons attacked en masse. They lifted War up from the floor and slammed him against the wall even as he blasted at them. Savitar ran to Acheron to revive him. Damn. Why couldn't the Chthonian bastard stay on the beach where he lived? No, Savitar had to bring a demon army out to defend Acheron.
Not to sound childish, but it just wasn't fair . . . And it seriously pissed him off.
"Strykerius!" Apollymi's shrill scream ripped through the air, piercing his ear drums and making the hair on the back of his neck stand at attention. An instant later, she was standing in front of him with her white blond hair flying around her beautiful face. Like him and Acheron, her eyes were a pale, swirling silver. And they were filled with fury as she glared at him.
He should probably be scared, but it wasn't worth the energy it would take to rise to the occasion. Besides, he'd had the worst things done to him. Torture, dismemberment, and death would be a welcome relief to his current state of nothingness.
"Is something . . . wrong?" he asked nonchalantly, knowing the tone would only enrage her more.
Apollymi wanted to shriek at his patronizing tone. She wanted to blast the bloodsucking Daimon lord before her into oblivion. If only she could. But for an act of weakness on her part centuries ago, she would free herself of him once and for all. However, he'd been fatally wounded by his father, and to strike back at Apollo she'd shared her blood with Strykerius and fortified him. While that act had saved his life, it had also tied their life forces together.
If he died, she died. It was why her son would never really harm Strykerius no matter how angry the Daimon made him. It was why she couldn't kill Stryker herself.
Ironic, really, she was a goddess known for lacking compassion and the handful of times she'd actually shown some had come back to bite her harshly. There was nothing to be done for it now. Her real son was under attack and her adoptive one, Stryker, was most likely to blame for it.
"What have you done?" she demanded.
Stryker leaned back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head as he eyed her cautiously. "Mulling mostly coupled with a shot or two of reminiscing and a drop of regretting a few past decisions. Some might even call it moping, but I'd kill anyone so stupid as to suggest that of me." He was more a plotting kind of Daimon.
Her hair rose even higher around her like ribbons twisting in a strong wind, letting him know she didn't appreciate his sarcasm. "Apostolos is under attack. Did you provoke it?"
He didn't know why it bugged the shit out of him for her to call her son Apostolos when the rest of the world knew him as Acheron, but it did. And honestly, he hadn't provoked dick. He'd directly caused it. Big difference.
However, he wasn't stupid enough to tell her that. Their life forces might be tied together, but when it came to her real son and his well-being, Apollymi lost all self-restraint and sense of survival.
She'd kill them both to protect Acheron.
"No," Stryker answered honestly. He slid his gaze down to the sfora that was hidden from Apollymi's view. The moment Stryker focused on it, he saw War surrounded by the Charonte demons who were actually doing damage to the spirit. Acheron was on the floor coughing and wheezing. A little worse for the wear, but alive nonetheless. Worthless bastard. Savitar was shouting to the demons, but sound wasn't available to Stryker while Apollymi was here.
Damn them.
Careful to shield his expression, he returned his gaze to Apollymi's. "So what can I do for you, Matera?" he asked, using the Atlantean word for mother.
Apollymi drew a long, slow breath as she tried to detect the truth from him. Strykerius had always been a convincing liar. At one time the two of them had been a united force against Apollo. But those days were gone and now the two of them danced around each other in a complicated battle of one-upmanship.
She would cast him and his Daimons out of here, but for all their aggravation, they provided her with company and an army that allowed her to still have power to affect the human realm. Not to mention the small point that so long as they worshiped her, they fed her powers.
Unlike her small group of priestesses who still lived and served in the human world, the Daimons held much more power. They could provide her with a means to protect Apostolos.
"I want your Daimons to subjugate War. Immediately."