Devil May Cry (Dark-Hunter 11)

"Yeah," he said, his voice thick, "it's not so easy to trust, is it?"

Still, she didn't back completely down. He had to admire her for that. "You have the Tablet of Destiny. That can render me powerless."

"But that doesn't show your trust, does it? Tell me how to kill you without it."

Kat stopped dead as she seriously considered the consequences of answering him. Given his hatred of her mother, it would be all kinds of stupid to give him that kind of power. He could kill her, any time, any place.

She remembered all the things that had been posted on the Dark-Hunter boards about him. He was without compassion or even sanity. But then a man such as that wouldn't be scarred from battling demons to help mankind.

Such a man wouldn't have come to her rescue. No, he wasn't the monster other people had painted him. But he wasn't a saint, either.

Trusting him could cost her her life. Not trusting him could destroy the world.

Was there really a choice here?

Don't do it...

It was terrifying even to contemplate, but she really had no other option. One of them was going to have to open up, and it dang sure wasn't him.

"I tell you the answer and you'll train me?" she asked point-blank.

"Yeah, what the hell?"

She took a deep breath for courage before she spoke again. "Very well. My powers are derived from the sun and the moon. The longer I go without one or the other, the weaker I become. It's why I can't stay here with my grandmother for too long or I'll be sick. If I were confined here without exposure to the sky, it would kill me."

Sin stared at her incredulously. He couldn't believe she'd told him that. Was she insane? "Do you know what you've just done?"

"Yes. I trusted you."

Yeah... She was nuts. No doubt about it. What kind of fool let loose something this important? "You know how much I hate your mother."

"And I know what you think of my father."

"Who doesn't even know you live."

"There is that," she conceded. "But I want to help you do the right thing, and if that means giving you power over me, then I'll do it."

She really was insane. He couldn't get past that. What kind of being would be so damn stupid and trusting? And for what? To help a race that didn't even know she existed? "I can destroy you now."

"Yes," she said, her eyes burning with intensity. "You can. But I'm trusting that you won't."

Sin shook his head in disbelief. No one had ever trusted him like this... not even his wife. Gods just didn't relinquish that kind of control to anyone under any circumstance. "You're not right, are you?"

"Could be. Other people have definitely thought so, and right now my inner monologue is going wild with worse insults than that."

He lifted his hand to touch her cheek. Her skin was as soft as silk against his fingertips. She was so delicate and yet he sensed within her a core made of steel. "Do you understand the danger you're going to face?"

"Seeing how my arm was broken earlier by one of them and your body is pretty torn up, I have a real good idea. But I've never been one to back down from anything. You need help and I intend to give it whether you want it or not."

Someone by his side. To fight. What a novel concept. No one had ever made such an offer before and he still wasn't sure if he should accept. But he had given her his word and he wasn't the kind of person to break an oath.

Still he was doubtful of her. "How do I know you won't take what I teach you and use it against me?"

She made a rude sound at him. "Hello? You have the knowledge to kill me. I think in this I'm the one who's most likely to get screwed."

He nodded in agreement before he dropped his hand from her face. "All right then. I need to get out of here. Back to my place so that we can prepare."

"Okay."

In a blink of an eye, they were back in his penthouse in Las Vegas. He looked around for Artemis, but she, along with her Dolophonos, was gone. Kish was still standing by the sofa as a life-sized statue.

Kat arched a brow as she saw Kish's frozen form for the first time. "Friend or foe?"

"Depends on the time and day." He snapped his fingers and Kish returned to his normal self.

Shaking his head, Kish frowned. "Did you freeze me again?"

Sin shrugged. "You were annoying me."

"I hate it when you do that." Kish did a double take as he realized Kat was standing beside him, watching him with a curious glimmer in her eye. Confusion marked his brow before he turned back to Sin. "You and Artemis made up? Damn, how long was I frozen?"

Kat laughed. "I'm not Artemis."

"I made a mistake," Sin said, not wanting to go into it.

"And you admit it?" Kish held his hands up. "Don't blast me, boss. I'm going to check on the casino. None of this is my business. None of it. Kish wants to live, so he's leaving. 'Bye." He barely opened the door before he rushed through it, out of their sight.

Kat gave Sin an amused smirk. "Interesting help. Is he your Squire?"

Sin shook his head before he picked his coat up and draped it over the back of a bar stool. "I'm not a Dark-Hunter. I don't do Squires."

"Interesting choice of words."

He gave her a droll stare. "Ha ha."

She moved to stand beside him so that she had him trapped between her and the bar. "So why are you considered a Dark-Hunter then?"

"Acheron's idea. He thought adding me to the payroll was the least he could do given what Artemis had done to me."

"But you don't hunt Daimons."

"No. Acheron knew from the beginning that the gallu were out there. So the two of us have been keeping them under control."

Kat frowned at that. "Ash helps?"

"Why are you surprised?"

"I thought you said no one outside your pantheon could kill them."

"Yeah, well, your father's a little different from others. I'm sure you know that."

Kat couldn't agree more. There was a lot about her dad that was odd, to say the least. "Then what makes you think I can't do it?"

"You're not a Chthonian. If you were, you wouldn't have a weakness."

Kat arched a brow. The Chthonians were god-killers. Rather like a check and balance system provided by nature. They alone had the power to destroy anything indestructible. The only problem was no one knew how to destroy them. The only person who could kill a Chthonian was another Chthonian. "Is that their secret?"

"Not really. Most ancient gods know that one. It's why they're so afraid of Chthonian justice."

True. They alone made the ancient gods sit up and listen. Unfortunately for Sin at the time her mother's pantheon was attacking his, the Chthonians were turning on one another and there had been no one there to protect his pantheon.

Kat glanced out the tall windows to her left where she had a spectacular view of the Vegas strip. "So why are you out here in the desert anyway?"

"Logistical management. My father put the Dimme and gallu out here because at the time the population in America was scarce and he thought it would be a good way to control them. Unfortunately, he lacked the vision to see nuclear development in the twentieth century. With Nevada's testing, it began to shake out the gallu and free them dozens at a time. As they go free, I hunt them and their victims."

Kat took his hand in hers so that she could study all the scars that marred its beauty. She remembered when she was a young woman and her mother had summoned her to her bedroom.

"Help me, Katra. We have to take his powers from him or he'll kill me."

Kat flinched at the memory. Sin had been unconscious at the time. Too young and gullible, she'd done what her mother had requested.

And she had ruined the man before her.

He'd kill her if he ever learned that truth.

"What happened to your father?" she asked.

Sin stroked her fingers with his thumb before he pulled away from her. "Infighting and out-fighting. What's the old saying? 'Beware Greeks bearing gifts'? Apollo and your mother came in as friends to spread lies. They systematically turned each of us against the other until there was no trust left. Not that I'd ever had much to begin with. After I was drained and degodded, I tried to warn the others, but they didn't think it could happen to them. I was a fool after all and deserved what happened. They were all smarter than I was. Or so they thought."

"And yet here you are while they're all gone."

He nodded. "Survival is the best revenge. Me and the cock-roach."

"And the gallu?"

He laughed at that. "Probably. It would serve me right to have to fight those bastards for the rest of eternity."

Kat smiled at his humor. He really was a smart, funny ex-god. There was something about him that was absolutely infectious, and it made her giddy just to be around him. It wasn't often that she liked someone so readily. But even in spite of everything she'd heard about him, she wanted to believe in him.

It made no sense.

And yet all she wanted to do was reach out and touch him. To kiss him again and see what would have happened had Apollymi not blasted them apart.

Instinctively she took a step toward him. And she would have probably made a move had a strange shiver not gone down her spine. It was a tingle she knew all too well.

Daimon.

Born of the cursed Apollite race that was forced to die painfully at the tender age of twenty-seven, Daimons could only survive if they began feeding on human souls. It was why they had to be hunted and killed. As soon as a soul was taken, it would begin to die in the foreign body. The only way to save that soul and send it to its proper place was to kill the Daimon before the soul died.

Now one of the Daimons was nearby.

A knock sounded on the door. It made her blood run cold. There was a Daimon outside. She knew it.

She tried to stop Sin as he went to answer the knock, but he didn't listen. He swung the door open, and sure enough, there was a tall blond Daimon standing there in a black suit.

Manifesting a knife in her hand, she ran for him.