Sherrilyn Kenyon: Devil May Cry

May the gods, ancient and new, have mercy on them all. "Damn you, Artemis," he snarled. The stupid bitch. By one act of selfishness, she'd condemned them all. And she didn't even care. She thought her own godhood would protect her from the demons to come.

She was such a fool.

Why do you even bother? All fighting would do was prolong his own death. But it wasn't in him to just stand aside and do noth­ing while innocent people were killed. Do nothing while the earth was overrun and destroyed. No, he'd been fighting back the gallu demons for too many centuries to just cede the earth to them with­out taking out as many of them as he could.

They were hard kills, but the Dimme...

They would rip him apart and laugh while they did so. Sighing, he turned the water off and reached for a towel. He paused as he saw the latest scar on his hand. Damn them for it. Un­like the Daimons the Greek god Apollo had cursed to live by stealing human souls, the gallu could turn humans into one of them. The poison in their bite could infect even Sin and make him a demon as well. It was why he had to burn the poison out every time it invaded his body. Why he had to make sure to behead the creatures and burn their bodies. It was the only way to completely destroy the poison and to keep them from regenerating.

They were prolific breeders. One bite, one blood exchange... that was all it took. They didn't have to kill humans to turn them into demons. But the gallu enjoyed the killing so much that they usually did it just for shits and giggles. Once infected, the deceased human quickly lost control of their id to the gallu, who could com­mand the human to do anything they wanted. The humans then be­came mindless blood slaves.

Or worse.

Eleven thousand years ago, there had been designated warriors sanctioned by the Sumerian gods who had been trained to fight the gallu off. When the number of those warriors had fallen and they'd become all but extinct, Sin and his daughter and brother had trapped the gallu to keep them from preying on humanity. But over time, and after the death of the Sumerian pantheon, the gallu had begun working their way free of their prison. They'd also become smarter and more organized.

Now they were trying to find the artifacts Sin's brother had hidden to help awaken the Dimme, hoping that the Dimme would reward them for their loyalty. And the Dimme probably would.

Yeah, in three weeks' time it was seriously going to suck if you were human.

Sin towel-dried his hair. There was no use thinking about it to­night. He'd found the Tablet of Destiny. Tomorrow, he'd seek the Moon. Until then he needed a few hours of rest.

Completely naked, he tucked himself into the bed and tried to put the night out of his mind. But it was no use. He could picture the gallu gathering their forces. See them turning the humans into creatures like themselves. It wouldn't take them long to overrun the world. Mother would turn on child, brother on brother. Theirs was a blood hunger that knew no satiation. The ultimate weapon, they'd originally been created to combat the Sumerian pantheon's enemies.

Specifically, they'd been created to battle against the Charonte demons that Sin's father had been convinced would one day destroy them all. What his pantheon had never envisioned was the day when Atlantis would be destroyed and her Charontes along with her. With no other demons to keep them in check, the gallu had turned their attention and hunger on the humans.

They'd laid waste to entire cities before Sin, Ishtar, and Zakar had corralled them. Sin could still see the bodies of the slain hu­mans rising up as mindless demons to fight.

But more than that, he could see his own children turning on him...

Sin growled as he banished those memories. They would do nothing but cut him more deeply. And he'd been cut enough. The past was gone.

He had a future to fight for and he'd need all his strength for it.

Closing his eyes, he forced himself to think of nothing. To feel nothing. He couldn't let anything as petty as revenge or hate de­plete him. He had too much to do.

Kat wandered through the streets of New York, trying to get a bearing on Sin. He might not even be in the city anymore, but since he'd been here the night before, it was the most likely spot to search for him. A chill wind cut through her as she made her way through the holiday crowd.

Honestly, she loved visiting New York at Christmas. She could well understand her father's need to be in the city this time of year. True, it was cold, but there was a lifeblood here as people rushed through the streets, shopping, working, and living.

What she loved best was the decorated store windows and the fun themes their decorators chose. They were exquisite and made the hidden child in her giddy, especially when she saw other kids squealing in delight as they pointed to a window and then rushed to the next one, pushing past aggravated adults.

Kat had never been so carefree. Even though she'd been shel­tered, her childhood had never been innocent. She'd seen things no child should see, and though she tried not to be jaded, it was hard not to be.

But those children who were laughing and giddy... the ones who had no idea how ugly the world could be—they were the ones she fought for. And those children were why she had to find Sin and stop him. He couldn't be allowed to prey on them.

Not after what he'd done last night to that poor woman. Why would he desecrate a human body? Kat still couldn't get over that. It hit her on a level so raw that she could do nothing but ache for the woman and her family, who would never know what had hap­pened to her.

It was mean and it was awful. More than that, it was just wrong.

As Kat paused to let a little girl cross in front of her, a large man shoved her from behind. Kat scowled at him as he passed by her, mumbling to himself. He took one look at the child and hissed like a cat. Then he stared at the child speculatively... like a feral beast contemplating its next morsel.

But as he reached for the child, her mother snatched her back and chastised her for running away.

The man turned a hungry look on the pair that made Kat's blood run cold. It was unnatural. What's more, there was a flash of red in his eyes that wasn't human.

She'd never seen anything like it.

With one last sneer, he seemed to think better of attacking the mother and child before he continued on his way.

Curious about him and his intentions, Kat followed inconspic­uously. If it weren't for the daylight shining so brightly, she'd think him a Daimon trying to find a human soul to steal to elongate his life. But that wasn't possible. Because of Apollo's curse on their race, none of the Daimons could come out so long as the sun was shining. If they did, they burst into flames.

What was he then?

More to the point, what pantheon did he belong to? If he wasn't human and he wasn't Daimon, some god had created him. The question was for what purpose?

Kat reached out with her powers, but all she could sense was his human spirit and his anger as he stumbled about.

Maybe he was simply insane...

He darted into a side street where there weren't any people.

Something in her compelled her to ignore him and continue her search for Sin.

Kat didn't. It wasn't in her to just let such a thing go. If the man was up to no good, she was one of the few people who could stop him. She would never be like her mother and just ignore peo­ple's pain. Not when she could stop it.

So instead of walking on, she followed the man down the empty street. She didn't make it far before he turned on her with a feral snarl.

This time his eyes were a flaming red that swirled around his black pupils. He opened his mouth, showing her a double row of fangs before he grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her into the brick wall.