Dark Side of the Moon (45 page)

Leo tsked at her. “You should read chapter fifty-six.”

“Why?”

It was Otto who answered. “That's the chapter that tells you how you can free your Dark-Hunter and marry him.”

Susan gaped at that. Ravyn hadn't said anything about that to her. “Are you serious?”

“Always. I don't have a sense of humor … well, Roman general and Tabitha not withstanding.”

She had no idea what he was talking about and honestly she didn't care.

“You know,” Leo said, distracting her. “I like this article, Sue. What say we make it front-page?”

Her head still spinning from her latest discovery, she nodded at him. “That'd be great. I'll … um … I'll see you guys later.”

She left them alone and headed back to her car as quickly as she could. Could she really be able to get Ravyn out of his service to Artemis?

The thought thrilled her.

At least until she got home and brought it up to Ravyn, who didn't seem pleased by the prospect at all.

“No,” he said firmly.

She couldn't believe his automatic answer. “What do you mean, no?”

He crossed his arms over his chest as he faced her in the hallway. “What I said. No. I'm not getting my soul back from Artemis.”

“Why not?”

“I don't want to be mortal.”

That didn't make any sense. Why wouldn't he want to be free? For someone who hated cages, he seemed awfully happy to live in bondage to a Greek goddess.

“But you can leave—”

“No, Susan. I can
die.
” He shook his head. “I don't want to die and I damned sure don't want you to die on me, either. I want us to bond when you're ready and I want us to be together forever.” He gestured at the window that looked out onto the city. “I have a job to do here in Seattle. A really important one. I go back to being a Were-Hunter and then I go from this to being a Sentinel again and that's the last thing I want to do.”

She frowned at the unfamiliar word. “What's a Sentinel?”

“Essentially, it's the Arcadian equivalent to a Dark-Hunter. Only instead of chasing Daimons, I chase down other Were-Hunters. And I lose all immortality. But wait, it gets better. The minute I return to being mortal again, the Katagaria have a clear shot at you because you're my mate.”

“Oh.…” Suddenly the idea of him getting his soul back wasn't so appealing to her, either. “They'd really do that?”

“Yes. We are at war and they'll stop at nothing to hurt us.” He cupped her cheek in his hand as his black eyes and the sincere adoration there warmed her. “But if you really want that for us, then I'll call Ash and we can ask for the test to restore my soul. I leave it up to you.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Susan bit her lip as she considered that. “What if Ash won't let us be together if you continue being a Dark-Hunter?”

“He let Cael have Amaranda. Do you really think he'll stop us?”

He had a point. “I don't know. I mean, after all, you only
think
you love me.…”

Ravyn laughed at that and rolled his eyes. “There's no thinking to this, Susan. I
do
love you. Why else would I volunteer to spend eternity with you? Have you any idea how long that is?”

“No,” she said, giving him a devilish grin before she kissed him. “But I'm going to find out.”

EPILOGUE

Spent from sex, Nick lay naked on the floor, panting beside Satara who was laughing as she stroked his chest. His entire body burned and he now heard voices in his head that echoed and screamed.

What have I done?

When Satara had come to him and told him about her connections to the Daimons and gods, he should have turned her away, but her offer to strike back at Ash had been too good to pass up. He knew that as a Dark-Hunter he'd never have the ability on his own to kill Ash. But with his life force tied to a god's …

He could do it.

And he felt that power now seeping through him. It hummed and sang with an unimagined beauty. He wasn't human. He wasn't Dark-Hunter.

He was …

Nick frowned as he saw his reflection in a silver globe that was on the bottom shelf of the Daimon's bookcase. Rolling toward it, he pulled it closer to him until he could see his eyes.

His breath caught sharply in his throat as he stared at his distorted face.

It couldn't be.

The door to the room opened to show him the demigod Daimon who'd allowed him to share his powers. No longer wearing sunglasses, he looked at Nick with the same swirling silver eyes that Ash had.

The same eyes that Nick now had, too.

“Who
are
you?” Nick breathed.

“I would be the one man on your list, after Acheron, who you want to kill, and you're now my minion, Nick. Welcome to my hell.”

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THE DREAM-HUNTER

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Arik wanted to curse in frustration as he watched Megeara smiling at another man. Why wouldn't she succumb to his serum? To his pleas?

How could a mere mortal woman be so strong?

“Arikos?”

He let out a tired sigh at the sound of his Uncle Wink's voice as light intruded into his dark chamber once more. He was getting seriously tired of these interruptions. “What?”

“I've been told to retrieve my sleeping serum from you.”

Arik rolled over to face the older god. Wink's long brown hair was braided down his back as his light gray eyes danced with mischief. Even though Wink was one of the oldest gods, he held the personality of a thirteen-year-old boy. There was nothing he loved more than to play pranks and tease—two of the very things that had gotten Arik and his brethren cursed.

At one time, they'd been too easily seduced and manipulated by the other gods and had allowed themselves to be used by Wink, Hades, and the others in private jests and wars.

Until the day Zeus had put a stop to it once and for all. Funny how he'd only punished the tools and not the ones who'd wielded them.

But then Zeus wasn't known as a god of justice.

“And if I want to keep the serum?”

Wink arched a brow at that, then tsked. “Come now, Arikos, you know the rules.” His face sobered. “You also know what Hypnos does to those who don't cooperate.”

Of course he did. All of his kind knew. His back bore more scars than the sky held stars. There were times when he suspected his grandfather was nothing more than a sadist who could only feel pleasure when he was doling out pain to others.

How cruel was it to send the Skoti in to drain humans of excess or pent-up emotions, then punish them when they didn't want to leave because they finally experienced something other than pain?

But that was the way of it.

After his “chat” with M'Ordant, Arik had known it would come to this. There was no use in arguing. Wink had been sent to retrieve the Lotus serum and all the bribery on Olympus wouldn't sway him. Wink was only a pawn to Hades and Hypnos.

Arik pulled out the small vial and handed it to Wink who took it with a stoic smile.

“Cheer up, old boy. There are plenty of other dreamers out there for you to play with. Mankind is generous to you that way. They live for their dreams and are possessed of them constantly.”

Yes, but none of those humans held the type of uninhibited, vivid dreams of Megeara. She kept everything bottled up inside during the daylight hours. It was only in her dreams that she allowed her true self to shine.

And he craved that part of her.

Arik watched as Wink withdrew and left him alone in the dream chamber to face the darkness alone.

Perhaps this was just punishment after all. A son of the god Morpheus, Arik had originally been one of the Oneroi. As was customary for such, he'd been assigned humans to watch over and protect against the Skoti who preyed on them. In those days, he'd spent his life making sure the ones under his protection had normal dreams that would either help them work through their problems or dreams that would inspire them.

Until that one fateful night …

He'd gone to help one of his assignments who was ill. Because of her sickness, her dreams had become extremely vivid and emotional—so much so that one of the Skoti had latched onto her.

Born of a human mother and the dream god Phobetor, Solin lived on earth, but at night he ran amuck in the dreams of other humans. Completely amoral, he didn't care what he did to others so long as he enjoyed himself.

For centuries, the Oneroi had been trying to stop and trap Solin. He was one of the few Skoti who'd warranted a death sentence. His voracious appetites and fighting skills were legendary among the Oneroi who'd been unfortunate enough to confront him.

And Arik had been one of them. Still young by their years, Arik had thought to take Solin on his own.

Most of the Skoti fled at the approach of an Oneroi. The Oneroi had full backing of Hypnos and Zeus to do whatever they had to to control the Skoti. Since a Skotos could drain emotions from any human, they normally left without issue and didn't waste time fighting as they could simply move on to someone else.

But Solin was stronger than most. Bolder. Instead of fleeing as Arik had expected, Solin had turned the human loose on him. By their laws, Arik had been forbidden to hurt the human and Solin had known it. Arik had tried to pry her away without harm, but the moment her lips had touched his and he'd tasted her lust, something inside him had shattered.

He'd felt pleasure and arousal for the first time in his life.

And when the human had dropped to her knees and taken him into her mouth, he'd known his war in this was lost. In one heartbeat, he'd gone Skoti.

He'd been Skoti ever since.

Drifting from one dream to the next, he'd been searching all these centuries for someone who could raise his emotions to the level of that first night. But no one had come close.

Not until Megeara.

Only she was able to reach through the emptiness inside him and make him see vivid colors again. To make him feel her emotions. After all these centuries, he finally understood why certain Skoti refused to leave their partners.

Why they were willing to risk death.

Because of Megeara, he wanted to know what the world looked like through her eyes. What it tasted like. Felt like. And her ability to pull herself away from him was starting to seriously piss him off.

But what could he do? Even if he went to earth to be near her, he couldn't really experience her or her environment.

He wanted her passion. Her life force.

There might be a way to touch her …

Arik paused at the thought. It was true that both the Oneroi and Skoti could take human form in the mortal realm, but because of their curse, they still lacked emotions. So what was the point? They were just as cold and sterile and unable to feel in human form as they were in their own god-form.

That wasn't what he wanted.

No, he wanted to be human. He wanted feelings and emotions so that he could experience her to the fullest extent possible.

It was impossible.

Or was it? They were gods, with god powers. Why should such a thing be unattainable?

His powers weren't capable of such. Zeus had made sure of that.

Then again,
Arik
's weren't. But there were others whose powers made a mockery of his. Gods who could make him human if they willed it.

Zeus would never concede such a thing—he hated the dream gods too much. His children would be too afraid of him to try. But his brothers …

They were a different matter entirely.

And Arik knew which one to barter with.

Hades. The god of the Underworld held no fear of anyone or anything. His powers were more than equal to any of the others, and best of all, he hated the other gods as much as they hated him.

Because of that, Hades was always open to a good bargain, especially if such a bargain would irritate Zeus.

It was at least worth a shot.

With Megeara's niggling emotions retreating from him, Arik flew from the Vanishing Isle where most of the dream gods resided and descended down, straight into the heart of Hades's domain. It was dark as night there. Dismal. There were no ivory or gold halls like the ones found on Olympus. At least not until one visited the Elysian Fields where good souls were sent to live out their eternity in paradise. Those lucky enough to attain residence there had any- and everything their hearts conceived of. They could even be reincarnated should they choose it.

But the Elysian Fields were only part of a much vaster realm. One that held nothing but misery for those who were damned to it. Especially this time of year. Three months ago, the god's beloved wife, Persephone, had been sent to live with her mother in the upper realm. Until Persephone's return, Hades would be literally hell to deal with. From the moment she left until her return, he would spend his time torturing all those around him.

A saner god would wait to try and deal with him after Persephone's return when Hades was more reasonable, but Arik was desperate. The last thing he wanted was to take a chance on another Skotos finding Megeara. Or worse, on losing her.

No, it was now or never.

Besides, Arik had never been a coward. He'd never once retreated from battle or conflict. It was what had made him one of the best of the Oneroi and what had made him one of the deadliest Skoti.

He always took what he wanted. Damned be the consequences. He had eternity to deal with those. What mattered most was the present and that was what he focused on. Always.

As he flew past Cerberus, the three-headed dog rose up to bark at him. Ignoring it, he dove down into the catacombs made of the skulls and bones of Hades's enemies. Many of whom were the bodies of Titans and ancients who'd had the misfortune of irritating the somber god—they didn't even warrant Hades torturing them for eternity. He'd relegated them to nothing more than decoration.