Not just because it was Phoebe’s sister, but because he didn’t want to see anyone else die tonight.
He swerved his Hayabusa and went back to check the three Illuminati who’d been wrecked to see if they needed medical attention to get home.
March 9, 2004
Stryker paced the floor of the dimly lit banquet hall, wanting blood and not from one of their own. For three weeks now they hadn’t been able to find a single trace of the Dark-Hunter Wulf Tryggvason or the Apollite heiress Cassandra Peters, who was the final key to eliminating their curse for once and for all and getting Helios off their backs!
How could they go into hiding so effectively? It didn’t make any sense!
He had Urian working on it now, but it seemed useless. “How hard can it be to find where a Dark-Hunter lives?”
“They are crafty, kyrios,” Zolan said from his right.
Zolan was his third-in-command and one of Stryker’s most trusted soldiers, after Urian and Trates. He’d been promoted through the Spathi ranks for his ability to murder ruthlessly and to never show mercy to anyone.
Like Stryker, he chose to dye his hair black and wore the Spathi symbol of a yellow sun with a dragon in its center—the emblem of Apollymi the Destroyer.
“If they weren’t,” Zolan continued, “we’d be able to track and kill them through our servants while they slept.”
Stryker turned on Zolan with a glare so malevolent that the Daimon shrank away from him. Only his son held enough courage to not flinch from his anger. Urian’s bravery knew no equal.
Out of nowhere, Xedrix appeared before him in the hall. Unlike the Daimons, Xedrix didn’t bow or acknowledge Stryker’s elevated stature in their world. Most of the time, Xedrix treated him as more of a servant than a master, which pissed him off to no uncertain end.
No doubt the demon thought Apollymi would always protect him, but Stryker knew the truth. His mother loved him absolutely and no one else.
“Her Benevolent Grace wishes a word with you,” the demon said in a low, even tone.
Benevolent Grace. As if! Every time Stryker heard that title for Apollymi, he wanted to laugh but knew better. His mother didn’t really have a sense of humor.
Without delay, he willed himself to her palace and walked through the double door that led out to her private gardens where she was waiting for him.
As usual, Apollymi leaned over her pool where black water flowed backward up a glittering pipe from this world into the human realm. There was a fine, rainbow mist and vapors around the water. It was here the goddess could scry so that she knew what was happening on earth. Past. Present. Future.
“She is pregnant,” the goddess announced without turning around.
Stryker knew the she that the goddess referred to was Cassandra.
“How can that be?”
The goddess lifted her hands up and drew a circle in the air. Water from the mirror formed like a crystal ball. Even though nothing but air held it, it swirled about until it held an image of the woman they both wanted dead. There was nothing in the ball to give him any indication of how to find Cassandra.
Apollymi dragged one fingernail through the image, causing it to shake and distort. “Artemis is interfering with us.”
“There’s still time to kill both mother and child.”
She smiled at that. “Yes, there is.” She opened her hands and the water arced from the ball, back into her pool. “Now is the time to strike. The Elekti is being held by Artemis. He can’t stop you. He won’t even know that you attack.”
Stryker flinched at the mention of the Elekti. Like the Abadonna, Stryker was forbidden to attack him.
He hated restrictions.
“We don’t know where to attack,” he told his mother. “We’ve been searching—”
“Take one of the ceredons. My pets can find them.”
“I thought they were forbidden to leave this realm.”
A cruel half smile curved her lips. “Artemis broke the rules, so shall I. Now go, m’gios, and do me proud.”
Stryker nodded and turned about sharply. He took three steps before the Destroyer’s voice gave him pause.
“Remember, Strykerius, kill the heiress before the Elekti returns. You are not to engage him. Ever.”
He stopped but didn’t look back. “Why have I always been forbidden to touch him?”
“Ours is not to question why. Ours is but to live or to die.”
He ground his teeth as she gave him the human quote.
When she spoke again, the coldness in her tone only angered him more. “The answer to that is how much do you value your life, Strykerius. I have kept you close all these centuries and I have no desire to see you dead.”
“The Elekti can’t kill me. I’m a god.”
“And greater gods than you have fallen. Many of them to my wrath. Heed my words, boy. Heed them well.”
Irritated by that, Stryker continued on his way, pausing only long enough to unleash Kyklonas, whose name meant “tornado.” Once unleashed, the ceredon, like him and Urian, was a deadly menace.
March 10, 2004
“Keep hitting them with everything!”
Urian cringed at his father’s orders. They were blasting Wulf’s mansion like the final round of Call of Duty. It was a wonder someone hadn’t called in the National Guard on them.
This is ridiculous!
But he didn’t dare speak reason to his father when he was in this mood. It would be the same as trying to reason with King Leonides, and he had no desire to be kicked into a spiked pit or fed to lions.
And he was equally shocked when Kat appeared in the guardhouse with them. She winced as her gaze went to the two dead men on the floor that his father had slaughtered on arrival. Not to mention the dozen Daimons his father had on the lawn preparing for another round of attacks.
Only four Daimons were inside the guardhouse. Him, his father, Icarus, and Trates.
Trates looked up from the monitors and went pale at the appearance of the one person none of them could harm.
“How did you get in here?” Kat demanded.
Urian gave her a droll stare. “We walked.”
Stryker turned slowly, methodically around to face her with a sardonic grin. There was no fear in him, only wry amusement. Unlike Urian, he wasn’t quite as sarcastic. “The guards came outside when we ate the pizza deliveryman and tried to stop us. We dragged them inside after they were dead.”
“You are so evil.”
Urian snorted. “Judgmental much?”
Ignoring his comment, his father took pride in Kat’s insults. “Thank you, love, I pride myself on that.”
Kat opened the portal back to Kalosis. “It’s time for you to all go home.”
Stryker looked at the opening, then laughed. “’Fraid not, sweetie. Mama likes me better at the moment. So you can shove that portal up your very attractive ass. Me and my boys have work to do. Either join us or leave.”
Urian didn’t miss the light of fear in Kat’s eyes that those words wrought. He couldn’t blame her. His father was terrifying. “You have to go. Those are the rules. The portal opens and you have to walk through it.”
Stryker came forward, his eyes sinister and cold. “No, we don’t.”
The portal closed.
She gasped. The Destroyer had given him a key too and placed him in control.
Stryker cupped her face with his hand. “It’s a pity she protects you so. Otherwise I would have had a taste of you centuries ago.”
She glared her fury at him. “Get your hand off me or lose it.”
To her surprise, he obeyed, but not before he kissed her rudely.
Kat shrieked and slapped him.
He laughed. “Go home, little girl. If you stay here, you might get hurt.”
Her body shaking, Kat flashed back into the house.
Urian shook his head. “You shouldn’t treat her like that.” The words came out before he could stop himself.
His father passed a disbelieving stare toward him. “Pardon?”
“You taught us better and if we’d ever grabbed a woman or spoken to one like you just did, you’d have torn our asses up.”
“I know. There’s just something about her that makes me insane.”
Not wanting to argue, Urian went back to watching the monitors.