If people would take a breath before lashing out to take into account everyone who was in their line of fire.
Yet they never did. Instead, anger was a double-edged sword that cut in both directions as it swung a wide arc and left a bloody swathe in its wake.
Urian sighed. His personal fate was looming faster than he could keep track of. He had less than five years to that fateful birthday.
Five years …
A blink, and he’d either be dead like his mother or a Daimon like his brothers and father. In a way, he envied his brothers for having already made their decisions. It no longer weighed on their minds.
Would he be able to do it? Or would he be like Archie and Davyn, and have to be fed by another Daimon?
While Urian thought himself strong enough to go Daimon, he didn’t really know for certain. It was one thing to tear apart the humans who’d hurt his mother. Another to kill those who were innocent.
The gods knew that Archie was the last one he’d have thought would falter in the face of a human. His brother had never spared him any conscience.
Or any blow. Physical or mental.
And he’d been the one to rip apart the human children that night …
But then the true measure of any warrior was never known until the day they were battle-tested. Only in the heat of that moment would they come to know if they would be shattered from the blows of a superior enemy or rise victorious to overcome all challengers. It was one thing to say what he’d do in the abstract but another to actually do it when that moment came barreling down with crushing brutality.
Stand and fight, or turn and flee.
The irony wasn’t lost on him that the brother who’d gone out to avenge their mother and slaughter humans in her name wasn’t the brother who’d been able to turn Daimon to save his own life. Yet the one who’d been a coward and run home to hide that night had been the very one to take that soul to save his own.
You just never know who will fight for themselves and who will fight to save another.
Whom you could trust and when. That was the most frightening part of life. It was ever unexpected.
Opening the door, he found Sheba waiting. Just as she’d said.
Even though she was highly agitated, he didn’t let it bother him, as that was basically her normal state of being. Rather he undressed and returned to bed. Ever the dutiful pet.
She frowned as soon as she saw the grim expression on his face. “Are you all right?”
“My brothers … they went Daimon.”
Her jaw dropped. “Did they want you to join them?”
“Not yet. It was merely a courtesy call.”
Sheba ran her hand over his chest, raising chills in the wake of her warm caress. She paused over his heart, where a dark Daimon’s mark would rest were he to convert as they had. “You know you have a choice, love. I can petition our goddess to make you one of us. You don’t have to go Daimon like them.”
Her eyes flashed that peculiar shade of amber-orange as she trailed her hand lower to cup him and toy with his sac while she slowly teased his Adam’s apple with her tongue. Urian sucked his breath in as his cock hardened in her palm.
It was a tempting offer. To become a different sort of demon. Serve another goddess.
At least he had options.
“Just say the word…”
How could he when at the moment he couldn’t think straight while she did that? He was a slave to his hormones whenever she stroked him like this. All he could feel was her.
Suddenly, a jarring scream rang out through the stillness. “Majesties!”
Well, that ruined the mood. And irritated the crap out of him.
More screams were followed by the sounds of clashing steel. Frustrated at another interruption, Urian used his powers to flash himself into the armor that his wife insisted he wear to blend in with her army, and gathered his sword and shield while Sheba scrambled from the bed with a rush of creative expletives.
Worried about her given the escalating violence that was heading for them, he used his powers to dress her in her own armor.
She met his gaze with a grim smile. “Remind me later to tell you that I love you.”
He handed her battle helm to her. “Rather remind you of that when I do something that pisses you off.”
Laughing, she rose up on her tiptoes to give him a hot kiss. “You are a sexy beast, Urian Deathbringer.” Her eyes smoldered as she scraped his chin with her fangs. “I ache for you to fill my belly with your children.”
Guilt stung him as she pulled away to grab her own sword and shield. While she never held it against him that he had yet to make her pregnant, he dreaded every month when her flow came and he saw the disappointment in her eyes that she hadn’t conceived. That was the only good thing about Apollites. Once they converted to Daimons, their women could no longer carry children and that part of nature’s cycle ceased for them. While the transition could be hard on some of the women who mourned their premature loss of fertility, others met it with joy.
Sheba craved children. So much so that she’d been a good stepmother to Thia’s. It was why he had yet to tell her the children had left without saying good-bye. He wasn’t sure how she’d handle it.
But that could wait.
Placing his helm on his head, he stepped outside and sucked his breath in sharply as he saw the chaos that awaited them.
Never had Urian seen such carnage. While he’d been on raids, those were skirmishes … such as the night they’d attacked the human village. The humans had been caught off-guard and asleep.
Likewise, over the last year while he’d lived here, Sheba and her warriors had led small raiding parties against human caravans and small groups of human travelers—which was why he hadn’t protested the loss of Xyn’s armor overly much. He hadn’t really needed it to fight against their lesser skill.
But this wasn’t a raiding party.
It was an army. Heavily armed and well trained. Their golden armor shone like the sun in Apollymi’s pool all those years ago. It was near to blinding and was marked by a sun emblem. And they were cutting through Sheba’s warriors with a bitter ease that left him gaping.
Until he saw his sister-in-law, whom Sheba had made her commander—she was under attack and about to go down. Too late, Urian remembered himself. His powers. Roaring, he summoned the strength of his grandfather Apollo and shot out an invisible sonic blast toward them.
It knocked down the first wave of humans and gave Sheba’s warriors time to pull back and regroup. He caught his wife about her waist. “We need to retreat.”
Her eyes flared indignantly. “Retreating is for cowards!”
“Sheba! Open your eyes. We’re outnumbered twenty to one. Half your people are already dead.”
“Never! I will not—” Her words were cut short as an arrow went through her throat.
Stunned, Urian couldn’t move for a second as she gurgled on her own blood. Then as Urian went to shield her, two arrows penetrated his armor and sank into his chest.
“Cut their heads off!” the humans cried. “Burn the demons’ bodies! Make sure nothing remains!”
Another human was shouting to the soldiers. “Find the kids! Whatever you do! Hunt down all children! Round them up!”
Tears of pain blinded him as more arrows rained down so thick, he could barely see the walls of their home. He didn’t even know where the archers were. All around, their people fell with screams and cries. Some with whimpers. He held on to Sheba and tried to summon his powers, but he was in too much pain.
The best he could manage was to open a portal. If he could get them to Kalosis, his father could help them.
But he was too weak even for that.
The blue shimmering doorway began to fade as soon as he opened it.
“Baba!” Urian gasped, trying to crawl toward it. If he could just make it to that …
It vanished.
Ni! He felt Sheba’s hand in his hair. Turning his head, he met her gaze.
Blood trickled from the corners of her lips as she tried to smile. “My Uri,” she breathed. “So fair.” Then the light went out of her eyes.