"I would never have touched her had I known she was your daughter."
Ash turned to face him. "We both fucked up, Nick. We were both trying to protect ourselves from harm, and in doing so, we ruined the very things we wanted to shield. I should have trusted you more, but my past has never lent itself to such openness." He let out his own tired sigh. "So are you here to fight me?"
Nick's eyes sparkled red in the shadows. "Believe me, nothing would give me more plea sure than killing you. But I need a favor and I don't have anyone else to turn to."
Ash arched his brow at that. He knew the bitter pill Nick was swallowing and the last thing he would do was make it burn more. "What's happened?"
"War took Menyara. I need to know his weakness so that I can help her."
Ash let out a light laugh at the irony. "You are his weakness."
"At full strength. Maybe. But I can't stop him like this, can I?" Ash shook his head.
"Can you?"
"Not alone."
Nick took one step closer to him. "Then tell me what I need to do."
"Ash!"
Ash stepped back to look down where Tory was calling him. If he'd thought Nick was a shock, it was nothing compared to what waited for him there. He had to blink twice just to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.
"Damn. Lucifer must be sitting on icicles today." Ash glanced back to Nick. "Stay here for a few."
"Ash—"
"Trust me, Nick. Stay hidden and I'll be right back." Ash flashed himself down to the table where Stryker was standing next to Tory. The Daimon looked less than happy to be there, but that was nothing compared to Ash's feelings, especially since the Daimon stood practically on top of two of the six most important people in Ash's world.
Ash narrowed his gaze. "What are you doing here?"
"Savitar sent me to speak to you."
Ash arched a brow, but he knew Stryker wasn't lying. There was no other way for him to have gotten in here unchallenged. "So what's up?"
Stryker's features were completely blank. "War has taken my daughter and is holding her." There was a crack in his voice to let Ash know the man wasn't as ambivalent as he was trying to appear.
Ash shook his head. "There seems to be a lot of that going around suddenly."
"Has he taken Kat?"
Ash laughed at the very thought of War trying that award-winning act of stupidity on his daughter . . . But that thought scattered as he realized how simple the solution to all their problems was. Kat. There was a weapon War wouldn't see coming and by the time he realized it, he'd be defeated and back under their complete control. Deadening his expression, Ash folded his arms over his chest as he met Tory's gaze and winked at her.
She, Simi, and Danger were completely composed and silent as if waiting to see whether they should attack Stryker or let him live on in peace. "I assume you're here to beg a favor."
"I beg for nothing. I'm merely proposing a temporary truce."
Ash scoffed. "A truce to deal with the very thing you unleashed in an effort to kill me?"
Stryker shrugged nonchalantly. "Why bicker over split hairs?"
"True. After all, we have much larger grudges against each other than that." Stryker's eyes turned dark, his expression deadly. "Then you refuse?"
"No. War has to be stopped, and it will take the whole of us to do it."
"The whole of who?"
Before Ash could answer, Nick appeared beside them. Curling his lip, Stryker stepped forward to attack him. Ash forced Stryker back and put himself between the two. "Think of your daughter. You kill him, we're screwed and she's dead."
Stryker cursed. "Fine. But once War is put down, I'll be after the two of you again."
Grinning snidely, Ash let go of Stryker and stepped to the side of the two men. He held his hand out. "Works for me. For the ones we love, today we're allies. Tomorrow we resume our natural order of mortal enemies. Gentlemen, and I use that term loosely for all of us, have we an accord?"
Nick covered his hand with his own. "I'm in."
Stryker hesitated. "For Medea." He placed his hand over theirs. Tory gave a light laugh.
"What a freaky alliance this is. So what do we do now?"
Ash didn't hesitate with his answer. "You stay here."
She growled at him. "Acheron—"
"No arguments, Sota. I swear, it'll be fine."
"We've had this macho discussion before, and you normally lose."
It was true, he did have a hard time saying no to her, but for all that, she was more than reasonable, which was why he loved her. "And I know you're fully capable of holding your own. The gods know, I'm not strong enough to stand against you for long, but in this, I need a clear head which means I need you out of harm's way."
"Fine. But anything goes wrong and I'm coming in."
"Nothing's going to go wrong."
She looked at Nick and then Stryker before she returned her gaze to him. "You are such an optimist. My Spidey-sense is tingling all over the place."
He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "That's from eating the ice cream. Relax."
Danger snorted. "Relax. Trust me. It'll be all right. Isn't that how I ended up dead?"