Devil May Cry (Dark-Hunter 11)

CHAPTER FOUR

Kat cringed as Sin spoke a truth that only the bravest of souls would even dare whisper. And never within Artemis's hearing range.

Kat leaned back against him, away from the knife. "Damn, boy, you have an unholy gift for pissing off people." As was evidenced by Artemis's shriek of outrage. "Why don't you tell her that dress makes her look fat while you're at it?"

He answered by pressing the blade closer to Kat's throat. "I'm not playing, Artemis."

Artemis's face turned to stone. "And neither am I."

Before Kat could even blink, the dagger left her throat. She was pulled from Sin's arms by an unseen force an instant before the knife was ripped from his hand and plunged into his chest, three times. On the third time, it was left buried to the hilt where it slowly rotated in his chest.

Sin cursed foully before he jerked it out.

Kat held her hand up toward Artemis, trying to defuse the situation. "Matisera."

"Stay out of this, Katra. Go home."

By the tone of Artemis's voice, Kat knew she should obey. But she couldn't stand by and let Sin die if what he'd said about the gallu was true. They couldn't be left without someone who knew how to fight them.

Artemis stalked toward him. "It's time I finish what we started."

Sin pushed himself up from the floor and ran at Artemis, but he didn't come close before he was slammed into a far wall. He growled, then slung his arm out.

Artemis went flying.

Kat took a step toward her mother to protect her. But before Kat could take two, Artemis's voice rang out. "Deimos!"

Kat came to a halt at the same time a large, fierce man appeared by Artemis's side. Dressed all in black, Deimos had short jet-black hair that was streaked with wide white stripes-a much different hairstyle than he'd had the last time they met. He was terrifying in appearance, especially with the tattoo that started out as a light eyeliner around his electric blue eyes and then zigzagged from his tear ducts down his cheeks to his neck. Beautiful and deadly, he stood before them with his legs braced wide apart, his head tilted low like a predator and his arms held at his sides, close to his weapons-one sword and one gun-ready to fight.

"Suck his powers out and kill him," Artemis snarled.

Kat gaped at the order. Once issued, it couldn't be taken back. Deimos was one of the most dangerous of the Dolophoni. A son of the dreaded Furies, he was the one the gods called out when they needed a relentless Terminator and he wouldn't stop until Sin was dead.

Deimos ran at Sin and slammed him to the floor.

"What have you done, Matisera?"

"What I should have done in the beginning." Artemis tried to flash Kat out of the room, but since Artemis had traded Kat's service to her grandmother, she didn't have that power anymore.

Kat's mother snarled at her, "Leave us, Katra. Now."

But she couldn't. She was the reason Sin was in this mess, and though he was giving Deimos a good fight, in the end she knew who would win it.

And it wouldn't be Sin.

Sin was fighting with one hand tied behind his back and three nasty chest wounds while Deimos could draw from the power of the entire Greek pantheon to kill him-it was one of many benefits bestowed on the Furies and their children. And though Sin might deserve to die, he didn't deserve death like this.

Not after what they'd done to him and not if what he'd said was true. They would need him to fight the demons of his own pantheon.

"Sorry, Matisera." Kat barely registered the confusion on Artemis's face before she ran at Sin. He was against the wall, fighting, while Deimos was pulling out his sword to finish him off. Kat grabbed Sin from the side and flashed them from his apartment to her own place in Kalosis.

They landed in a pile of twisted limbs in the center of her dark living room. Sin hissed before he pushed her away. Kat didn't go far. He was bleeding profusely, but what concerned her was the gaping wound his dagger had left. If he were mortal, that would have been fatal to him, and it was probably causing him enough pain right now that he was wishing it was.

She scooted herself toward him. "You need to be tended."

He glared at her. "Where are we? What did you do?"

"I kept you from dying."

He pushed her hand away from his wound. "Oh, believe me, I could have held my own."

Kat sat back on her legs. "Yeah, you were doing a real bang-up job of it. I particularly liked the way you were bruising his fists with your face. A few minutes more and I'm sure your heart would have been on the attack... after it was ripped from your chest."

He grimaced at her. "What do you know?"

"More than I want to most days."

Sin frowned at the catch in her voice as she spoke. It was apparent that she was weary, no doubt of Artemis and her machinations. They were enough to wear down even the stoutest of immortals.

And as much as he hated to admit it, she was probably right about him getting his ass kicked. He should have known better than to go up against Artemis without his full powers. It'd been stupid, and he was lucky the Dolophonos hadn't torn his heart out.

But he'd wanted his revenge, and nothing else, especially something as trivial as common sense, had mattered.

Katra moved forward and ripped his shirt open to expose the jagged wounds in his chest from the dagger Artemis had repeatedly planted there. He started to shove Kat away, but before he could, she manifested a cool rag in her hand so that she could clean the wounds. Her kindness made no sense to him whatsoever given her genetic makeup. Not to mention, he wasn't used to anyone helping him for any reason. Everyone he'd ever known had turned their backs on him and left him to suffer.

People weren't kind and he knew it. Not unless the act of kindness could benefit them in some way.

"Why are you helping me?"

She gave him a withering glare. "Who said I'm helping you?"

He arched a brow at her as he looked pointedly at her hand that was wiping away his blood.

She cleared her throat before she answered. "I don't like to see people get screwed over, okay?"

"And why don't I believe that? Oh wait, I know. Because you're the daughter of the biggest bitch who has ever lived. One who makes her entire life an event of screwing over anyone she comes into contact with."