“I went out for a psuché.” The psuché or psuché-sullambano was what they called the act of seeking a human soul. It was very different from the ichoraima, which was the act of feeding on Apollite blood. “Why? What’s happened?”
“Jason, Abiron, and Melissa were all killed last night.”
That news hit him like a crippling blow. Archie and Hagne must be reeling. That was three of their four children. “How?”
“A Dark-Hunter.”
Urian couldn’t breathe. The pain was so great and so overwhelming it was if his body and mind couldn’t react, so it shut down. He just stood there, stunned. Trying to process the fact that in one fell swoop, Archie had lost the majority of his children.
I have to go to him.
Urian teleported to his brother’s home. Without knocking, he opened the door to find the house strangely empty. He used his powers to sense where they might be. As he neared the bedroom, he found his brothers and sisters-in-law comforting Hagne, who was in bed, curled in a ball, unable to cope with her loss. She was completely catatonic.
Archie was nowhere to be seen.
Terrified of what that meant, Urian went to find him. For a few minutes, there was no sign of his brother anywhere.
Not until he had a peculiar thought. Acting on instinct, Urian went to the small garden where the kids used to play.
Sure enough, he found Archie sitting alone, underneath the tree where Abiron had carved his name. As he drew closer, he realized that his brother held one of Melissa’s dolls in his trembling hands.
“Archie?”
He didn’t speak.
Urian knelt by his side and placed his arm around his shoulders.
Then his huge brute of a brother looked up at him and burst into tears. Clinging to him, he sobbed in a way Urian had never heard him do before. Not when they’d lost their mother. Or their sister or brother. Never once had anything broken the mighty Archimedes.
Until today.
“I’m so sorry.”
Archie tightened his hold on Urian. “I should have been with them. Why wasn’t I there? How could I have let them go alone? I was their father, Uri. It was my job to protect them.”
“Shh, Archie, you didn’t know.”
“I left them alone…”
“You did nothing wrong.”
“Nay, but I did. I left them to fend for themselves when I shouldn’t have. I should have been there!”
Suddenly, Urian felt a powerful grip in his hair. Looking up, he saw his father. Without a word, he pulled Urian back and then cradled Archie in his arms to rock him. Then with his other arm, he pulled Urian against his chest to hold him like he’d done when they were boys.
His hold was brutal and crushing, and yet it was strangely comforting.
“We won’t be broken. Not by this. The gods can try, but we are stronger than they know. And we are mighty. Do you hear me, my sons?”
He wiped at the tears on Urian’s face and then Archie’s. “Look at me, both of you.” He waited until they complied. “We will rise up and strike back. We are not the only ones to lose in this and we will not allow them to take it all from us. Not without a fight. Blood for blood. Life for life. We all have a choice. You either cave to the blows of your enemies…”
“Or you mount their heads to the wall,” Urian finished for him.
His father nodded. “Thánatago.” Deathbringer.
And after this, he would forge his own Thánati. A team of Spathi to hunt and prey on their predators. If the gods and Dark-Hunters wanted a war, Urian was willing to bring it to them.
July 18, 2945 BC
Urian was getting ready to leave with a strike team when a bright light flashed in the main hall of Kalosis. Grimacing, he stepped back, expecting another Apollite or Daimon. That was what normally came through their bolt-hole.
Although over the last few thousand years, they’d had the occasional Dark-Hunter or demon be stupid enough to try, and that had been highly entertaining.
But this … this was something else.
Everyone in the room froze.
His father came off his throne. Tall and muscular, the man held the aura and smell of an Apollite or Daimon, yet his dark hair said he was definitely not one of them.
Not that a Daimon couldn’t have dark hair. Their father and Archie dyed theirs. But this man’s skin tone suggested that his hair might actually be naturally that shade. That, and the fact that he smelled of an animal scent.
Like Xyn.
As if he were a hybrid being of some sort.
“Who are you?” his father demanded.
Screw that. Urian wanted to know what he was.
“Nicander, son of Simonides.” He glanced around at them with a scowl as they circled him, trying to determine if they should welcome him, restrain him, or kill him. “What is this place?”
His father didn’t miss a beat. “It depends on your intent and species. What exactly are you?”
“I’m a Katagari Tsakali.”
Urian was the first to snort. “You say that as if we should have a clue as to what it means.”
He cast a disdainful smirk toward him. “Means I’m a shapeshifter. You don’t get out much, do you?”
“Enough to kill what annoys me.” Urian raked him with a sneer. “And to skin enough animals to make a new pair of boots whenever I need them.”
When Nicander started for him, the Daimons between them grabbed him and held him back.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Trates warned him. “He might look young, but Urian’s one of our strongest warriors. Trust me, you don’t want to tangle with him.”
Curling his lip, Nicander backed down, then turned toward his father. “King Lycaon—”
“Who?”
“Lycantes of Arcadia. He was crowned Lycaon VI of Arcadia. Stupid bastard had the unfortunate luck of falling in love and marrying an Apollite bride without knowing it. Somehow, she kept it a secret from her husband until her twenty-seventh birthday. When Queen Mysene died, Lycaon realized that their sons would fall prey to the same fate.”
Crossing his arms over his chest, Urian cringed at the sad reality of their mixed marriages. The gods had given them no reprieve even with that.
“Lucky him, his sister was the goddess Shala.”
Urian let out a low whistle. As the daughter of Erebus and Nyx, Shala was literally born of Night and Darkness. But more than that, her husband was the god Dagon, and his mother, Hekate, was the daughter of the Titan sun god, Helios. That was quite a family tree. No wonder Mysene had wanted to marry into it. As an Apollite, that was a wise decision if one wanted to save her children.
“I take it the king decided to invoke some family intercession?” Urian asked.
Nicander nodded. “Dagon came to their aid and used his magick to splice animal DNA to Apollite biology.”
Now he had Urian’s full attention. “How’d that work out for you?”
Spreading his arms wide, Nicander turned a small circle for all of them to see. “Better than anyone could ever imagine. There are two breeds of our species now. Arcadians, who have human hearts, and thus that is their primary form.”
The hairs on the back of Urian’s neck stood up. “Meaning what?”
“They’re born human and live their lives primarily as human beings. At puberty, they are able to shift into whatever their alternate animal form is.”
His father narrowed his gaze on him. “And the Katagari?”
“Katagaria is the plural form. Katagari is singular. We are born as animals and have an animal heart. Therefore our base form is that of whatever animal we were born as. In my case, I’m a jackal. Which means I sleep in that form, and if I’m injured or I die, I revert to it. It’s my strongest form.”
“That’s so fucked up,” Archie said.
Urian concurred.
And apparently so did Nicander. “I didn’t choose this anymore than you chose to be Apollite. We were rounded up and experimented on against our wills. This was forced on us. But the upside is that we don’t die at twenty-seven and we don’t have to feed on blood anymore to live.”
Now that got everyone’s attention.
“Beg pardon?” His father stood up.
Nicander nodded. “You heard me. We live hundreds of years. With our magick intact.”
“Sign me up!”