Devil May Cry (Dark-Hunter 11)

"Would you stop saying that?" Kat said from between clenched teeth.

Like that would ever stop him. "She is a bitch."

"Not that, the other part. And actually you better stop saying both or I'm going to tend this wound with a salt poultice."

"Why? Aren't you proud of Mommy dearest?"

Kat's green eyes met his and they were smoldering. "I love my mother with everything inside me and I would kill or die to protect her. That's why you need to stop talking like that about her because I will kill you."

Sin paused as a frightening thought went through him. If Katra was Artemis's daughter...

He could remember Artemis pulling him toward her bed as his head was fuzzy from drink. She'd torn his shirt from him and then thrown him down on her mattress.

Artemis was supposed to be a virgin...

An awful feeling went through him. "Oh shit, you're my daughter, aren't you?"

Kat screwed her face up as if that was the most repugnant thought she could imagine. "Don't flatter yourself. Your genes could never have created me."

Yeah, right. She was beautiful and tall-taller than Artemis, which could easily have come from him. Her skin was a darker hue... His stomach shrank in trepidation. "Then who's your father if it's not me?"

"That's hardly any of your business."

"It is me, isn't it?"

She rolled her eyes at him before she knitted his wounds closed with her fingers. "Men and their egos. Trust me. My mother wouldn't have you in her bed even if you were dipped in chocolate-coated caramel."

Oh, now that really offended him. "Excuse me? I'll have you know I happen to be damn good in bed. My skills are unsurpassed. I wasn't just a god of the moon. I was the Sumerian god of fertility. You know what that means, don't you?"

"You have a lot of penis envy over the other fertility gods?"

He shoved her hands off him, then started to get up only to wince and fall back.

"Don't worry. I won't tell the other gods about your small penis problem."

She appalled him. "You are your mother's daughter."

"And I told you to stop saying that."

"Why?"

"Because no one's supposed to know about me."

He scoffed at the anger in her tone. "What are they? Blind? You look just like her."

"No, I don't. I look mostly like my father. I only have my mother's eyes. How you guessed it is beyond me."

There was no surprise there, either. "You have the same voice."

Kat pulled back and frowned. "Do I?"

"Yes. The accents are different, but the tone of it isn't. You sound just like her."

Kat pushed herself to her feet and moved away from him, disturbed by his disclosure. He was highly perceptive. Something most men weren't. Then again, people in general weren't normally that perceptive, and it made her wonder if anyone else had ever picked up on the similarities in her and Artemis's voices. If they had, they'd been smart enough to keep it to themselves.

"Thanks for the help," Sin said, indicating his mended chest before he repaired his shirt with his powers. Then he tried to leave her house by flashing out only to learn that he couldn't. "What the...?"

Kat shrugged at his angry glare. "You have to stay here."

"Bullshit," he growled.

"No, no shit here," she said, indicating her clean floors with her hand. Then she cupped her broken arm to her chest. "You leave this place and you're a dead man. Trust me. The moment you spoke that which will not be spoken and my mother called out the Terminator to destroy you, your death warrant was signed."

Every part of him bled fury. "I won't be held hostage. You understand?"

She laughed at his righteous indignation. "Oh yeah, right. This from the man who knocked me out and then bound me up like a mummy? What was that action?"

"That was different."

"Yeah, only 'cause I was the victim. Oh wait, you're right. I'm doing this to protect you and you did yours to kill me. Maybe I should let you leave. It would serve you right."

"Then why don't you?"

She took a breath to calm herself before she spoke. Anger accomplished nothing and she knew that. It was what had gotten her mother into more messes than an entire crew of Molly Maids could get her out of. "Because I want the truth about what happened the night you came to Olympus. Artemis said that you tried to rape her."

He made a choking noise as if touching Artemis was the worst thing he could imagine. "And what do you think?"

"I don't know. You haven't exactly shown me any high moral fiber here. Maybe she's right and you did."

He moved to stand in front of her. His eyes practically glowed gold in the light as he raked a disgusted look over her. "Trust me, baby. I've never had to force myself on any woman. But let's say, for argument's sake, that I did. Do you think me dumb enough to try it on Olympus under the noses of the other gods?"

He had a point, but she wasn't about to let him know that. "You're arrogant enough. You might."

"Yeah," he said in a low, feral tone, "arrogant but not stupid."

"Then why were you there?"

His features blank, he moved away from her, which made her wonder what he was hiding. There was something about that night that he didn't want to even think about-she could feel it.

"Answer my question."

"It's none of your business," he snapped. "Now if you'll excuse me." He started for the door.

Kat held her hand up and clenched her fist. The door immediately vanished. "I wasn't kidding. You can't leave."

The next thing she knew, she was lifted from her feet and pinned to the wall. "And neither am I. Let me out of here or you will regret it."

She shook her head slowly. "Kill me and you'll never get out." She felt the pressure holding her to the wall increase before it set her back on the floor with a gentleness that surprised her. "Thank you."

He narrowed his eyes on her. "I have to get out of here. There's less than three weeks to Armageddon and I have a lot to do to prepare for it."

"Yeah, and right now I have a broken arm that needs to be tended. So I tell you what. You sit here contemplating Artemis's murder and Armageddon, and I'll be back in a few. But don't break or touch my stuff... or I'll take it out of your hide."

He opened his mouth to speak, but before he did, she flashed herself out of her small house and into the main palace of Kalosis.

Kat manifested in the main foyer and had to take a moment to locate her grandmother with her thoughts. As was typical of her grandmother, Apollymi was outside, in her garden.

Out of respect, Kat walked the short distance through the throne room to the gilded doors that opened out onto the grounds. Her grandmother didn't like for people to pop in on her unexpectedly-Kat was the only one who knew why. Once as a child, she'd done that and caught her grandmother weeping hysterically in grief and pain-it was something Apollymi couldn't stand for other people to see.

As the Great Destroyer, she only wanted people to see her strong and ruthless. But Kat's grandmother was much more than just that. She had a heart and she ached, just like everyone else in the universe.

All Apollymi wanted was to have her son, Kat's father, returned to her. A son she'd loved more than anything and one she'd only held twice in her life. Once briefly when he'd been taken prematurely from her to be hidden in the womb of another woman and on the day the Greek god Apollo had killed him.

There wasn't a day Apollymi didn't mourn their separation and ache for her son to come home. And she reacted harshly to anyone who caught her weeping. She was a strong, proud woman who didn't believe in showing any weakness to anyone.