Sherrilyn Kenyon: Dream Chaser

He held her arm up to show her the bracelet that matched his. "Yeah. Since both of us are wearing these I'm going to take a wild guess that they bind us together somehow. 'Cause, let's face it, the Daimons don't usually tag you before they bite. They're not Marlin Perkins out to study us."

Simone looked down at her arm as a bad feeling went through her. "What are you saying?" She actually knew, but she wanted to hear it from him before she was willing to believe it.

"I'm saying that if I were you, I wouldn't get too far away from me until we figure out what exactly these are and what they do. Knowing the gods as I do, I'm sure we're fucked somehow."

Knowing the gods . . .

Oh, this was going from bad to worse. “What are you?” she asked, terrified of what answer he might give her.

His look was; as cold as the wind outside. "Don't ask questions you don't really want answered."

"Um, guys ..." Jesse said, interrupting them. "The Daimons have a car and they're coming after us."

Xypher cursed.

In the blink of an eye, Simone went from the passenger side to the driver's.

Xypher was now in her seat. "Can you get us out of here?"

She should probably question what had just happened, but given the fact that one of her best friends was a ghost and the other worked for immortal Vampire slayers, she was used to the unusual on a daily basis. What mattered right now was getting free.

"Defensive Driving 101. Fasten your seat belt." She threw the car in reverse and headed for the Daimons, who quickly swerved to miss her. Simone did a quick K-turn in the center of the road and headed back toward the alley where they'd met.

"Nice work."

She was amazed that the surly Xypher was capable of giving her a compliment. "It pays to hang around the police. You pick up all lands of useful things."

Jesse popped his head up in the front seat, between them. "They're still behind us."

"Not for long." Xypher rolled down the window and he pulled a gun out of his pants pocket. He opened fire on the car following them.

Simone's eyes widened as she heard the tire blow out. The car skidded sideways before it turned over in the street "Nice shooting.Tex."

He pulled the mag out and replaced it with another one. "I have an unfair advantage. I can make the bullets go where I want them to. I took out the Daimons before I KO'd the car."

Simone cut into a small parking lot, then stopped again. She turned in the seat to face him. His cheeks were reddened from his exertion and the wind burn on his skin as he'd filed on the Daimons. The color made his eyes stand out even more.

He looked gorgeous and human, and yet. . . "What exactly are you?"

Xypher didn't answer as he rubbed a hand over his brow. "We have to figure out these bracelets before it gets any darker. I don't like playing with unknown factors."

She gave him a droll stare. "You're not alone on Planet Ego. I, too, want to know what I'm dealing with, and right now. Psycho, you're the most crucial unknown factor in my world. So answer my question. What are you?"

The sneer was back on his face. "That's not so easily answered, human."

She turned the car off, pulled the keys out, and folded her arms over her chest. "Try."

Xypher ground his teeth as he fought the urge to kill her. After all, she was just another human, albeit a cute one. Human, nonetheless. Normally, he wouldn't have hesitated to put her out of his misery, but he had a really bad feeling about the bracelet on his arm. The fact that they both wore them probably meant their lives, if not actual souls, were linked together somehow. Which meant that if she died, there was probably a good bet that he would, too.

Dammit. She'd have to live until he figured this out.

He considered lying to her. But why bother? She'd seen the Daimons, some of his powers, and what the hell? There was a ghost in the backseat who appeared to be a friend of hers. The way she'd acted so far said that she was at least familiar with the supernatural.

What was a little more?

"How up are you on Greek mythology?" he asked her.

"Zeus is the king, right?"

Xypher snorted. "He thinks he is most days. Personally, I think he's a pompus ass who should be bitch-slapped by Hera at least once in his existence."

Simone winced as she realized that he was going to be somehow related to them . . . Yeah, her luck was improving by the minute. "So what has Zeus got to do with this?"

"Not much really. You're the one who brought him ip."

She let out a tired breath of exasperation. "I'm getting a headache and you're still avoiding my question."

"Fine," he said simply. "I'm a Skotos."

She scowled at the unfamiliar word. "That means what? You have toe jam?"

He looked less than amused by her question. "No, human, it means I used to be a dream god."

Well, he was kind of dreamy . . .

Oh, no, Sim, you're not really buying into his baloney, are you? It seemed so far-fetched and yet the Dark-Hunters Tate worked for were an army of immortal warriors created by the goddess Artemis to protect mankind.

Yeah, it'd taken her a while to swallow that reality. Arid if she believed that Tate wasn't crazy and that the Daimons were real—because she'd seen them more times than she wanted to—then she had no choice except to buy this farm tale, too.

Taking a deep breath to brace herself for the rest of his story, she tensed. "And now you are?"

"The walking dead."

With images of the Daimons trying to eat her running through her head, Simone shot out of the car. All she could think of was escaping him before he made a meal out of her.

She didn't get very far.

Xypher flashed himself in front of her and caught her against his chest. "I told you not—"

She clipped him hard in the throat.

Cursing, he let go of her as he struggled to breathe.

Xypher glared at her as he imagined tearing her into bloody pieces. Angry beyond tolerance, he slung his hand out and pinned her to the wall behind her. His throat throbbing, he stalked toward her intending to make her pay for her attack.

He’d been hit enough in his life . . .

"Do that again," he growled between clenched teeth, "and, bracelet or no bracelet, I'll tear your head off and use it for a doorstop."

Simone felt fear crawling down her spine, but she wasn't about to let him see it. "What do you want with me?"

"Not a damn thing. All I want is an entrance into the Daimon hell so that I can sit and kill an old friend. You're just the poor sap who got caught in the crossfire."

He released her so fast that Simone almost fell. She caught herself and stood as tall as she could, but it was far from intimidating since he was a full head taller than her. "I don't like being threatened, lied to, or manipulated. You'd do well to remember mat," she said.

He sneered at her bravado. "Or what you're going to snivel at me?"

Jesse started for him but before he could strike Xypher, Xypher turned and caught him by the throat. Throwing Jesse to the ground, he drew back to hit him, then caught himself before he completed the punch.

He moved away.

Jesse gaped at her as he pushed himself to his feet.

Simone was stunned. Though Jesse could move things, no one had ever been able to touch him before. "How can you touch him?"

Xypher crossed his anus over his chest. "I still have a lot of my god powers, but not all of them, and the ones I have keep coming and going without any predictability. No doubt courtesy of Hades and his sick sense of humor."

Jesse stared at her in disbelief. "I think we're going to have to believe him. No one's been able to touch me since the night I died."

Swallowing, Simone nodded her agreement, What Xypher had just done was impossible and unexplainable. "All right. Let's start over. You're a dream god with screwed-up powers who is out to kill someone. And these ..." She held up her arm with the bracelet. "Are an unfortunate gift."