Only their free will could alter what he saw for them.
That was why he'd sent Alexion to Danger. Since the day he'd started training her, he'd had a soft spot for her. The small Frenchwoman covered her tender heart with a coat of arsenic to keep others away, but he knew what she hid from others. She was a good woman who'd been dealt a bad hand. The last thing he wanted was to see her dead. And yet he knew in his heart the futility of wishing for what could have been.
Danger's days were extremely numbered, and unless a miracle happened, there was nothing any of them could do to help her.
Chapter 18
They were seriously batting absolute zero with no pinch hitter in sight. Danger sighed heavily as they returned to her house. They'd spent the last few hours seeking out the DarkHunters in the area only to find out that most of them had an ax to grind with Acheron.
Granted, there were times she got a little annoyed with his vagueness too, but this was ridiculous.
They blamed him for being stuck in Mississippi (which she personally loved). It really wasn't a bad place to live. Granted it was hot in the summer, but there was a lot of beauty to be found here.
They also blamed him for not making their immortality better. Blamed him for all kinds of stuff that was basically their decision, not his.
Worse was the fact that she knew Acheron could read their minds. No wonder he didn't visit here more often. How could he continue to let Artemis use the DarkHunters against him while they cursed everything about him? That man had more fortitude than anyone she'd ever known.
Personally, she'd tell them all adios, and go find her own private paradise.
The fact that he didn't…
He was either a saint or a masochist.
Perhaps a little of both.
"I can't believe their gall," she said to Alexion as he shut her back door. "Who knew Squid had a death wish?"
Unlike her, he took it all with nihilistic stoicism. It was true, around others he was ice-cold and without any emotion at all. Their words didn't anger him the way they did her. He just stood there and listened while they railed.
Alexion shrugged as he turned the hall light on for her. "It happens more than you'd think. If I can save ten percent, it's a good night."
She didn't want a ten percent survival rate. She wanted one hundred percent. But Squid had thrown them out the minute they'd started talking about Acheron.
Thank God she'd been able to convince Alexion not to wear his white coat over there. There was no telling what the angry ex-pirate would have done to them if he'd suspected Alexion was the destroyer Kyros prophesied him to be.
Squid had completely refused to listen. Damn him for his stubbornness.
"You know, I think we need to work on your speech."
Alexion arched a brow. "What's wrong with my speech?"
She led the way into her living room. "Well, I think it was the 'or else' part that lost us Tyrell. Have you ever noticed that DarkHunters aren't exactly the 'or else' kind of guys? They're the kind who will do the opposite of what you want or bust a gut trying. They'll doom themselves just to spite you because you told them not to."
He frowned. "What would you have me say to them? 'Hi, I'm here to be your friend? Let's sit, have a cup of coffee, and chat?'"
She laughed at that image. Yeah, Alexion was definitely not the type to sit and "chat."
Then again, neither were the others. For the most part, the DarkHunters were beer-drinking, bar-brawling kind of men. They were far more likely to slug it out than talk.
"No," she said, sobering. "But you could try to be nicer to them."
That familiar droll look came over his face. "I don't need to be nicer to them. I just need to feel them out to see what side of the fence they're going to fall on. The only ones we need to worry about are the ones who are undecided. Tyrell may yet come around."
"I don't know. He had some very creative use of the language as he told you to go blow."
"Then again, he might be a tough sell."
She shook her head at him as she went upstairs to the media room to find Xirena asleep on the couch. There was no sign of Keller.
Danger pulled the cell phone out of her pocket and called him only to discover that he'd left a couple of hours ago and gone home to bed.
"Sorry to wake you. I was just worried. Night, Keller."
He wished her good night, then hung up.
Alexion moved to stand behind her. He leaned down ever so slightly so that he could just inhale her scent of magnolias and woman. His body jerked and fired in reaction, but then he tended to keep an erection in her presence. Everything about her fired his hormones.
And it wasn't just because he was horny.
There was more to his attraction to her than that. He liked her. But more than that, he respected her. She was an intelligent, courageous woman.
In short, she was a gem.