Stygian (Dark-Hunter #27)

Urian shrugged with a nonchalance he didn’t feel, because he knew he was dancing with the devil. “Returning the favor.”

“Says the boy playing with fire?”

Urian’s blood ran cold. “What do you mean?”

A slow, evil smile crept across his face. “When you keep a lot of secrets, they will creep out. There’s only so long you can keep the lid on a boiling pot. And you know what you’ve done.”

Helios vanished.

Panic filled Urian as he considered those words and the fact that Helios must know what he’d been doing to protect Phoebe.

The god was right. Every night Urian woke up, he felt like he was balancing on a razor blade. To keep his wife happy, he was lying to his father, protecting her last sister with everything he had—even killing his own people to do it.

To protect his own ass and marriage, he lived in terror of Phoebe finding out that he’d been the one who’d led the strike team that had taken out her eldest sister and her grandparents. That he’d been personally responsible for about half of her childhood traumas and those of her mother.

He was the bogeyman that caused her to wake up in the middle of the day, shaking.

What have I done?

His happiness had been bought on a lie. Sooner or later, it would unravel. He knew that. It had to.

All things built on a lie would always come crumbling down, sooner or later. The truth about Cassandra was going to come out. They would all learn it and it would destroy her. People didn’t like being lied to, and they always turned on the liar and dragged them to beat them twice as hard for the betrayal. It was the worst thing anyone could ever do.

Suddenly, he felt a presence behind him. Urian turned, ready to fight.

Then he smirked at the last person he expected to see.

Ruyn Widowmaker.

And he wasn’t alone. He was traveling with a demon Urian had only come across a few times over the centuries, but he was one he knew better than to get tangled up with.

Shadow. His allegiance was always questionable at best. One never really knew where his loyalties lay. Not even with himself. He could be a spiteful bastard. And when he saw Urian, the expression on his face said he had about as much trust for Urian as Urian had for him.

That they’d rather set each other on fire than pass pleasantries.

“Should I ask what trouble you two are getting into?”

Ruyn smiled. “Mostly mayhem. You?”

“Same.” Urian jerked his chin at Shadow. “I see you’re hanging out with a whole new level of loser.”

Shadow made a face at that. “I’d be insulted, but for the fact that coming from you and your class of demon, that’s a compliment.”

“How you figure?”

“My boy could be hanging out with a lot worse. He could be with a Daimon.”

Urian snorted. “Touché.”

And as he studied them, he realized that their timing here was a bit suspicious. “You two looking for Helios?”

“No.”

“Yes,” Shadow said at the same time. He glared at Ruyn. “Why are you lying?”

“Why are you being honest?”

“I didn’t get the lie memo.” Shadow smirked. “You have to keep me up to speed on these things. Otherwise, expect absolute honesty.”

“Really? Thought you were Prince of Shadows?”

Shadow grimaced. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Dubious? Nebulous? Questionable character?”

“You have me confused with your mother.”

Urian let out a low whistle at that. “Hey, now, no need to invoke that dig. That’s seriously going low, Shadow. I’m flagging that play. And on that note, I need to get back.”

As he started to leave, Ruyn stopped him.

When he looked back at his former brother-in-law, Ruyn laid a verbal bomb on him. “There’s something weird going on in the Nether Realm. Something has kicked the proverbial hornets’ nest and they’re going crazy. Watch your back, brother. The gods are crazy, and we’re in their way. Which means they’re going to be coming for us.”





February 15, 2004

Urian pulled out his cell phone and masked his number to appear to be that of a Dark-Hunter’s Squire. He called their senior dispatch and made sure to disguise his thick Greek accent. “Uh, yeah, I was at Dante’s Inferno and I just saw a couple Daimons in there cruising for vics. You might want to wake a Hunter and send one in before they kill somebody.”

“Thanks, Squire. Could you give us your ID?”

He hung up, knowing they’d comply. They always did. Back in the day, he’d call in the reports like that from pay phones to lure Dark-Hunters out to kill them.

Never, ever in those days would he have dreamed he’d be using this tactic to protect Apollo’s heiress.

Hades is sitting on icicles.

Worse? One of Davyn’s friends, Jensen, was on the strike team. He’d tried to get the moron to stay home.

He hadn’t listened.

At least he’d been able to get Davyn to stay out of it.

Standing on the rooftop of the building next to the club, Urian watched the alleys as people came and went. His phone rang. He glanced down to see Phoebe’s number.

He answered immediately. “Hey, zoi mou.”

“Don’t call me ‘your life’ right now. I hear that and it makes me afraid you have bad news.”

“God, no, Phee. Your sister’s fine. I don’t have eyes on her, but the guys aren’t here yet so she’s safe.”

“You’re sure?”

“Positive. I can feel Kat inside. There’s no mistaking her power. And it’s calm. No fire-bolts are flying. No one’s calling the cops.”

“Okay. Love you.”

“Eimai trellos gia sena.”

“You know that’s just Greek to me, right?”

He laughed at her teasing tone. “I’m crazy for you.”

“Ah … well hurry up. Save my sister and get your hulking sexy ass home. You know whenever you speak Greek to me you make me horny.”

And those words made him instantly hard. “That was mean.”

“I know. Get here soon.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He hung up the phone and sobered as he saw his friends arriving.

Crap! If the Dark-Hunter didn’t arrive, he was going to have to go into that club, and ruffle some Were-Hunter fur to protect Cassandra himself.

That would go over like a Charonte in Artemis’s temple.

Shit …

Urian had just reconciled himself to that miserable fate when he finally saw the huge hulking predator swaggering toward the door. Yeah, there was no missing that kind of arrogant stride.

Dark-Hunter.

Thank the gods.

Saluting the bastard in silence, Urian stepped back into the shadows. Now he was off to get laid and put this shitty night to rest. He’d deal with his father later.

And deal he would.

Because there would be hell to pay. But the smile on Phoebe’s face when he told her that Cassandra was safe would be worth it.

His wife would definitely return the favor and show him her gratitude.

Yet as he opened the portal to take him to Elysia, he couldn’t help thinking he was living on borrowed time and that everything was about to come crashing down.

He could feel it in his bones.

Death was coming. And the bastard already had him marked.





February 16, 2004

Urian entered his father’s study with the pride and grace of a lethal predator. Looking neither left nor right, he made his way straight to where his father stood in front of his desk to report his findings from the Inferno, where he’d gone earlier to speak to the owner Dante Pontis’s brother, Sal. A smarmy little panther.

After that encounter, he still felt the need to shower and he’d barely spent fifteen minutes talking to the were-beast.

His father narrowed his gaze on him. “Any word?”

Urian shook his head. “Not yet. The Were-Hunter said he’d lost her scent, but that he will pick her up again.”

His father clapped him on the back. “I want at least twenty standing by. There’s no way she’ll escape us all.”

Effing awesome. Make this as hard on me as you can. Outwardly, Urian showed no emotion whatsoever. “I’ll summon the Illuminati.”

His father inclined his head to him. “Good. And this time, I’ll go with you.”