Sherrilyn Kenyon - Sins of The Night

Alexion met the Squire's gaze. Keller was an odd but likable man. For a nuisance. "They'll be delivered."

"By who? You got you a Squire or something? Now that'd be something, wouldn't it? A Squire for a Squire?"

One corner of Alexion's mouth quirked up as he thought of Simi, who constantly brought things to him because she thought he might want or need them. "I definitely have something."

Keller frowned at him. "Yeah, okay. If you'll follow me, I'll show you to a room upstairs where you can sleep. It's real nice. Acheron has used it a few times whenever he was here in the past, but it's been a while since we last saw him. Well, okay, I've never seen him here, personally, but I know from Danger that he's been here before. I think the last time was before I was born. Or maybe not. Sometimes I get Danger's stories mixed up. Do you ever do that with Acheron? I bet he has a lot of stories to tell, being that he's older than dirt. His house must be really cool, huh?"

Rolling his eyes, Alexion rubbed his thumb against his temple while Keller rambled on.

As they left the living room and headed toward the stairs, Alexion caught a faint trace of magnolias in the air. It was mixed with something else… something definitely feminine. It must be the Dark-Huntress's scent and his body reacted to it instantly.

He was hot and heavy with sudden need. At his home in Katoteros, there was no one to have sex with. Nothing but long lonely nights that left him edgy and hard. The only benefit to being sent in to judge was that he usually had a day or two to find himself a woman and ease the deep-seated ache.

You have much more pressing concerns than getting laid.

That was one theory anyway, but judging by the throbbing erection he had at the moment, he would definitely argue it.

"How long have you served Dangereuse?" he asked the Squire. It was unusual for a male to be Squired to a female. Usually the humans who made up the Squires' Council forbade a Squire to serve a Dark-Hunter if the Squire might be sexually attractive to the Dark-Hunter. Since Dark-Hunters and Squires were supposed to have a platonic relationship, the Council always tried to give the Dark-Hunter a Squire who was the opposite of what sexually attracted him or her.

It made him wonder if Dangereuse might be attracted to women, as opposed to men.

"About three years. My dad is the current Squire for Maxx Campbell over in Scotland, and after I graduated college, I thought I'd like to join the family business, you know?"

The man seemed to love to end sentences with those two words.

Keller continued on without pause. "I wish I'd grown up over there, but when I was a kid, Dad was stationed in Little Rock, serving this Dark-Hunter named Viktor Russenko who got killed a few years back. Did you know him?"

"Yes."

"Damned shame what they did to him. Some Daimons caught him alone and jumped him. Poor guy. He didn't stand a chance. It was awful, you know, so the Council thought my dad needed a change of scenery. I think Scotland was a good move for him. Maxx seems to be a really laid-back Dark-Hunter. Do you know him too?"

Alexion nodded at the name. He knew much about the Highlander Dark-Hunter who had been recently relocated from London to Glasgow. "How does your father like it over there?"

"It's all right, but he misses home. They talk funny over there and not many can understand his accent. He's real Southern sounding."

Now there was the pot describing the kettle.

Keller continued to ramble on as he led the way into a medium-sized bedroom that had an adjoining bathroom. Alexion cocked his head as he felt something strange go through him. It was cold, almost sinister, and he couldn't place it.

If he didn't know better, he'd think it was…

" Acheron ?" He sent the mental call out through the dimensions.

His boss didn't answer him.

Then as soon as the sensation had come, it was gone.

How strange…

Danger didn't know what to believe as she headed home from Aberdeen to Tupelo. She'd stayed too long with Kyros and her powers had waned a lot more than she should have allowed. She felt weak and sick, and in truth, she wanted nothing more than to lie down for a while and give herself time to recover.

Most of all, she needed time to think through everything they had told her tonight. To be honest, Stryker had made some rather convincing arguments.

"You have been trained that all Daimons are evil and out to prey on humans. Well, newsflash, we're not the ones who are in the wrong. Acheron is. He was cast out of our home realm, Kalosis, because even our mother could no longer abide his rampant killing. It's why he uses you to kill us now. He wants revenge on us.

"Your powers wane when you're together because Acheron took your souls and has devoured them. That's why the first Dark-Hunters were allowed to stay together. In the beginning, their souls weren't dead. He actually did have them. But after Acheron ate the souls of Kyros and Callabrax… then they were like the rest of you and could no longer be together without it draining their powers."

Still, that hadn't made sense to her.

"Whether you like it or not, little girl, your souls are dead. That's why you can't be in a room with another soulless being. The energy that sustains you, that keeps you animated, begins to clash with the energy of the other soulless being. Why do you think you don't lose your powers around a Daimon? We have a soul inside us, and it allows us to be together without harm. That's why you can be with Acheron and not feel the drain and why Acheron can go into a cemetery and not be possessed. He, unlike you, has a stolen soul inside him."

Danger had still been skeptical. " That doesn't make sense. What about Kyrian and the other Dark-Hunters who have gotten their souls back ?"

Stryker's answer had been automatic. " They didn't get their souls back, they got someone else's ."

That had been the most ludicrous thought of all. " Yeah, right. We all know that anytime a soul enters a body that it's not meant for, the soul withers and dies in a matter of weeks. Kyrian has had his soul back for years now ."

Stryker had laughed evilly at that. " That's not true if the soul comes from an unborn baby. That's why Daimons covet pregnant women so much. If you take the soul of the unborn, it can sustain you until the body dies ."

Those words had left her cold. To do such a thing was an abomination.

She still wasn't sure if it was possible.

" How could Acheron get such a soul ?" she'd asked.

" Where do you think the medallions come from that he uses to restore a Dark-Hunter to his or her previous human state? Our mother is the keeper of souls ." He had looked at Kyros. " The Greek word for 'Destroyer' is the Atlantean word for 'soul'. Your people made the assumption that Apollymi was a god of destruction, but in truth, she is a guardian of souls. My brother uses a demon to steal those souls from her whenever he needs one. He then returns the souls to a handful of you every so often so that the rest of you will continue to obey him. He knows you have to have hope in order to not turn on him and become disgusted with your existence and duties. It's why you must go to him whenever you want to be free. He does this whole 'I have to petition Artemis' bullshit when in truth what he has to do is break into our mother's temple and steal a new soul. Trust me, there is no Artemis to petition ."

It all sounded so preposterous.

Truth is stranger than fiction …

That was true enough, and she couldn't get past the eyes. No one had those mystical, swirling silver eyes except for Acheron… and Stryker. They both had black hair, which Stryker had turned blond before her eyes.