Stygian (Dark-Hunter #27)

Urian couldn’t move as he heard him walking away. He was paralyzed by his own grief and anger. This was so wrong. And he felt horrible for his father. Furious for his sister who had to leave her own children.

And madder than hell that he would be forced to watch her agony on this day.

Not like they all hadn’t seen it before.

Countless times.

They even had a term for it. The Thanatogori—deathwatch, or daylong vigil—whenever one of their species turned twenty-seven and decided not to turn Daimon.

Already his sister would have begun the painful process of dying. Urian had seen enough of his friends die like that. He’d never watched family perish.

Dreading this, he knew he had to go sit with his father. So he left and headed to her house, where all of his family was already gathered.

Even Geras and Nephele, along with Nephele’s husband, were there. The only one missing was Xanthia. But then she hadn’t really spoken to him much since the night he’d returned Nephele to Kalosis. He wasn’t sure why, and since she refused to speak, he didn’t press it.

Besides, her psychosis wasn’t really his problem, especially now that she was remarried. Though it was ironic that Geras and Nephele still considered him their father. And that was fine by him.

He continued to think of them as his children.

Paris and Davyn greeted him first at the door. Both had swollen eyes.

“I can’t believe she’s doing this.” Paris wiped at his cheeks while Davyn held him.

“Me either. She’d always seemed more levelheaded than this.” Trying to distract himself, he glanced over to the table, where a strange urn had been set. “What’s that?”

Davyn winced. “Tobias made it. He wants to put his mother’s dust in it so that he can keep her with him after…” His voice broke off as his tears began to flow.

Urian understood. Tobias was Tannis’s youngest and her only son. He was the one who was closest to his mother. “Where is she?”

Paris drew a ragged breath. “On her bed. He won’t leave her side.”

“Let me go see them, then.” Urian headed to the back and had to finagle his way through the crowd. By the time he reached Tannis’s room, he barely recognized his own sister. She was so much older already.

Her two daughters lay on each side while her son was at her feet on the bed. His father knelt on the floor, holding Tannis’s infant granddaughter, Marcella, whom her eldest daughter had birthed only two weeks ago.

Helena, who’d been named for their mother, clung to Tannis, but her other daughter, Rhoda, launched herself at Urian as soon as she saw him. “Uncle Uri! Make her stop this!”

“I wish I could, stormy. I tried all day yesterday. All I got for it was insults.” He kissed his niece’s head.

Rhoda wailed in the shrillest of tones. “I’ll never die like this. So help me, I’ll eat every human alive first!”

“Good girl,” his father snarled with pride. “Make sure you pass that fire on to your children.”

“Baba!” Tannis snapped. “Don’t you dare encourage her to such things.”

Someone took Urian’s hand. He glanced down at first, thinking it would be a niece or nephew.

It was Archie.

“Think if one of us bit her, it would keep her from dying?”

Urian considered it. “Might. But then she might kick our asses for the effort. Feel free to try.”

He snorted.

And so their day went, with insufferable slowness as they listened to her screaming in agony and watched her dying. Urian had never felt so helpless. Nor had he hated so much.

By the time dawn came to end her suffering, they were all scarred so deeply that none of them could speak as their father slowly gathered her dust to place in Tobias’s jar.

Tobias cradled it with the tenderest care and placed it on the mantel before he and his sisters went to hold their silent vigil. Urian’s brothers began to disperse with their families. Theo spoke in a quiet whisper to his father while Paris and Davyn came up to Urian.

Paris glanced over to their father. “Davyn and I are going Daimon tonight.”

Urian arched a brow at that. “Pardon?”

A tic started in his twin’s jaw. “After this … I’m not waiting another day or night. Davyn only has a few more months. We decided not to push our luck. You’ve been one for two years now, yeah?”

He nodded.

“It’s not so bad, is it?”

Urian scratched at the back of his neck. “Honestly? It’s not the best. Especially in the beginning. I spent a lot of those first months sick with it. Tricking a human into granting permission to take their soul isn’t as easy as you think. Picking a human with a strong soul is even harder. They’re corrupt little bastards. And the constant whining will drive you to insanity.”

“Then how do you cope?”

Urian gave them an evil grin. “I live on venom.”

“I could do that.”

He snorted. “You’re too much in love. But I’m here to help. If you need anything, you let me know.”

Nodding, they left him alone. Urian waited on his father since they were the only two who didn’t have anyone else.

“You worried about me?”

He heard the stern note in his father’s tone. “A little.”

“Don’t. I’m not that fragile.”

Perhaps. But unlike his brothers, Urian never forgot the fact that his father really wasn’t that much older than they were. He’d been a teen when Archie and Theo and Tannis were born. Barely twenty when Urian and Paris had come along. Too young to have been thrust into the decisions that Apollo had forced onto him.

Too young to be cursed to die.

His father met his gaze. “So are you.”

“Pardon?”

“I can hear your thoughts, Urian. And you’re too young to have been put through so much.” His father picked up Tannis’s pillow from the bed and pressed it to his face so that he could breathe her scent in. Then he cradled it to his chest like an infant and closed the distance between them. “I don’t want to bury another child. Help me protect your brothers.”

“I intend to.”

“Good. And I’ve been thinking about what you said.”

“About Helios’s prophecy?”

He nodded. “Apollo had another Apollite mistress. We’ll start with that line before we worry about ours. I want you in charge of hunting down every last one of them and cutting their throats. Let’s see if there’s any truth to this.”

“You sure?”

Tears welled in his eyes as he stroked Tannis’s pillow. “Kill them for me, Urian. Every last fucking one of them.”

He winced at the agony in his father’s voice. It mirrored his own. “I will see it done, Baba.”

*

Urian sat by Xyn’s pool, with his feet dangling in the water, seeking some form of comfort, even though there was none to be had for his vacant and damned soul. I am too young to feel this old and defeated.

Because today, he felt ancient. Indeed, the weight of his soul and grief was so heavy that if he were to throw himself into the water, he had no doubt it would drag him to the bottom of those black waters and drown him. He’d have no ability to swim with it wrapped around him like this.

How did his father manage? If he hadn’t respected the man before, he definitely did now. Because this shit sucked the very breath out of his lungs and made him want to just surrender to the pain and end it all. It was a struggle to come up with one single reason why he should bother to find another soul and not just allow the one that was currently screaming in his brain to take him to the grave and end it all.

Unlike the rest of his family, he was completely alone. Even his father had a girlfriend or wife or whatever Nelea was.

Urian wasn’t really sure what her true role was, other than a convenient meal. As much as she stayed at their home, he was rather sure she lived there and nowhere else. But neither she nor his father had made a firm declaration of their relationship, and Urian wasn’t certain if he wanted to know whether he had a new mother. So he didn’t ask, and they didn’t say.

He simply remained cordial with her, and passed brief, polite conversation with her whenever their paths crossed.