Devil May Cry (Dark-Hunter 11)

Kat smiled at his sarcasm. "There is the Daimon hall. I'm sure Stryker would love to lay fangs on you."

He scoffed at her threat. "Stryker's a pussy. I'd have him wetting his pants three seconds after seeing me."

His bravado only amused her more. "Yeah, right. I heard he kicked your ass last time you met." Not true, but she felt the need to tease him.

"Bullshit."

"No," she taunted, moving closer to him with her hands on her hips, "serious shit. It's all over the Dark-Hunter bbs how he mopped the floor with you and then laughed while you bled."

"Says who?"

Kat froze as she realized she'd unknowingly walked right up to him during their mock fight. Now they were so close that she could feel his breath on her face.

He was tall and sexy. There was no denying it. And those eyes...

She could see to eternity in those sharp, golden eyes that were fringed with thick, dark lashes. What's more, she was suddenly enticed with the texture of his skin. There was something electrifying about a man's jawline. Something edible. And it beckoned her to want to touch him.

Sin stood completely still as his gaze focused on her parted lips. Kat had a beautiful mouth that complemented her pale features, and a sudden burst of desire pierced him, She really was beautiful all over. Her skin was so smooth and pale. Her eyes bright and intelligent.

The more he got to know her, the less like her mother Kat appeared.

And it'd been a long time since he'd been around a woman who dared to stand up to him, never mind openly taunt him. A long time since he'd felt such heat in his loins.

Before he knew what he was doing, he dipped his head down to kiss her.

Kat shivered at the sensation of his lips on hers. She'd never had a real kiss before. Between her mother and her grandmother, Kat had been guarded and watched to the point that no man had ever really been alone with her.

At least not for long.

She'd always wondered what a tender kiss would feel like. And she had to say that Sin's didn't disappoint. His lips were soft and demanding, his body hard against hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck, drawing him closer to her. Oh, it was heaven all right. Wonderful and warm. Hypnotizing. Oh yeah, she could stay here for a while.

Until he was suddenly ripped out of her arms and thrown against the far wall. Sin cursed as he was held six feet above the floor.

"Keep your lips and other body parts to yourself or you'll be headless."

Kat laughed at the sound of her grandmother's booming voice in the room an instant before Sin was slammed to the floor so hard, she could hear his bones rattle.

He let out a disgusted sigh. "I swear I'm getting my powers back if for no other reason than to-"

"Sh," Kat said, interrupting him. "Be careful, she can hear you."

He rolled himself over and leaned his head back to look at Kat from the floor. She didn't know how such a pose could be sexy, but somehow he managed it. "How do you have a social life?"

"I don't."

"Yeah," he said as he rose to his feet. "I imagine Ash is even tougher on you than they are."

Sadness filled her at the mention of the father she would give anything to know. But the truth was, her mother had kept them apart and while it hurt Kat, she understood the reason and complied even though the daughter in her didn't want to. Honestly, their separation was the thing she regretted most in life. "Not really. My father doesn't know about me."

Sin was stunned by the news. If he knew anything about Acheron, it was that the man would be furious to learn he had a grown daughter no one had told him about. "How the hell have you kept that from him? He knows everything."

Kat shrugged. "Most everything. He can't see those who are closest to him, and since I share a genetic link, I'm a ghost to his vision. My mother hid me from him first and then my grandmother joined in once she realized that giving him the knowledge of me would only hurt him more... and it would give my mother another tool to use against him. Believe me, it's much better for everyone if he never learns I exist."

That made sense, but still it wasn't right. Personally, he'd kill anyone who would keep such a thing from him. "And none of you thought about how wrong you were?"

"What do you mean?"

"Ash will die if he ever learns he has a child that he has never seen, especially since you're grown."

"That's why he can never know and why you have to stop referring to Artemis as my mother. As far as anyone is concerned, I, like all the other handmaidens, was a foundling that Artemis raised."

Sin shook his head. Damn, with the exception of losing a child, he couldn't imagine anything worse than to have a child he didn't know about. Acheron deserved so much better than this. "You three have really done a number on him. Does anyone else know?"

"Just you, Simi, and us. And I'm depending on you to not say anything."

"Don't worry about me. I don't want to be the messenger he kills in anger." He gave her a devilish smile as he relished an image of Ash blasting Artemis into oblivion. "You know, there is a bright side to this. Sooner or later he's going to find out about you, and when he does he'll kill Artemis for me. I just hope I'm there to see it."

She gave him a peeved look that somehow managed to make his groin jerk. "Very funny. He would never hurt her."

"Yeah, I know. Damn it to hell," he said in a low tone. "Bastard is still in love with her. There's something seriously wrong with him."

"No," she said softly. "He's not in love with her anymore. I would know it if he was. I'm not sure if he was ever anything more than infatuated by her. But he understands her and it's not in his nature to hurt anyone if he can help it."

Sin snorted in disagreement. He'd seen Ash break loose on a few people over the centuries, which was one of the reasons Sin didn't push the Atlantean god too far. And those were for minor encroachments. Sin couldn't imagine how much fury Ash would unleash over something this major. "You don't know him as well as you think you do."

"And what makes you the expert?"

"Let's just say I understand betrayal. And having been where he is, I know the explosion to come. Trust me. 'Duck' won't quite cover it."

She tensed at his warning. "Artemis didn't betray you."

"Who said I was talking about her?"

Kat paused as she tried to read him, but Sin was anything but an open book. Even his emotions were hidden from her. Normally she could tell what anyone near her was feeling, and though she got twinges from him, it was nothing like what she normally felt. It was baffling and strange to be so clueless. "Who betrayed you then?"

He folded his arms over his chest. "That's the thing about betrayal. You don't really want to talk about it, especially not with strangers who are related to your worst enemy." He looked around the room before he spoke again. "So where does all this leave us anyway? You plan on keeping me here until after the gallu unleash the Dimme or what?"

That seemed to be the question of the day. She truly wasn't sure what she should do with him. "You're not lying about the Dimme, are you?"

He pulled his shirt off, over his head, to show her a body that was riddled with scarred muscles. Some of the scars appeared to be claw marks, while others were clearly from bite wounds and burns. "Do I look like I'm joking?"

No. He looked more battle scarred than an ancient warrior. A tremor of sympathy went through her. It was obvious he'd been fighting a long time to keep humanity safe.

And he'd been doing it for the most part alone. No one at his back.

That hurt her most of all. No one should face such a nightmare alone. "What can I do to help?"