Devil May Cry (Dark-Hunter 11)

He looked at her with hooded eyes. Even so, she could feel the comfort her words had given him. He reached up and covered her hands with his. "I can't believe you're related to... what was the term Simi used? 'Bitch-goddess'?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "I know. I'm the watered-down version and you're lucky for that."

He took her right hand and placed a gentle kiss on her knuckles. "Thank you, Kat."

"Hey, I never say anything I don't mean. It's a curse I inherited from my father."

Sin grinned at her. "I don't think it's a curse so much as refreshing."

Her heart pounded at the light in his dark golden eyes. She had a bad feeling where he was concerned. There was something about him that she found so comforting and she didn't even know why. Something about him that just called out to her. She wanted to ease the pain in his gaze, and at the same time he gave her so much by doing nothing more than looking at her like he was doing right now.

It made her uncomfortable. She brushed her thumb over his fingers before she took a step back. Looking down, she picked up the small sfora. "I don't know if this will work, but are you ready to try?"

"More than ready."

Kat closed her eyes and summoned Simi and Xirena to her side. Sin stiffened as they appeared in the room looking a bit peeved.

Kat smiled at him and his reservations. "We're having to go into who knows what. While I know you can kick serious demon ass and I can kick most demon ass, I still like the idea of having a little cavalry standing at our backs. Especially since they're probably hungry."

He shook his head but didn't say anything.

"Where are we going, akra-Kat?" Simi asked.

"Food?" Xirena asked hopefully. "Watching all that Diamonique made me hungry."

Kat wrinkled her nose at Xirena. "Knowing my luck, there will be many gallu for your dining pleasure tonight "

Xirena and Simi rubbed their hands together in delight.

Kat laughed before she covered the sfora with her hand. "Okay, folks. Fasten your seat belts. This could very well be a bumpy ride." She concentrated and waited with bated breath.

Nothing happened.

"You're not doing it right," Simi said petulantly. "Akra-Kat has to take it off, put it in her palm, and think of who you're trying to find."

"Oh." She glanced to Sin. "Your brother looks like you?"

"Since we're twins... yeah."

"Okay. One sexy Sumerian coming up." Kat took the necklace off and closed her hand around the orb. As soon as she began to imagine Sin in her mind with Zakar's name, the orb began to glow. The rays spread out from between her fingers and danced along the walls like a strobe.

Then the red light slowly encompassed them. Two seconds later, they were in a damp cave. By the heavy earthen smell, it seemed to be deep underground. The sfora's light faded and left them encased in the darkness.

In fact, it was so dark that the only way she could see Simi and Xirena was by their glowing eyes. The silence was only broken by the sound of heavy, angry breathing. Kat tried to peer through the darkness to the source of the sound, but her eyes couldn't focus on it at all.

She reached out and felt Sin's biceps under her hand.

Sin lifted his hand and a small flame appeared from his palm so that they could see in the darkness.

At first all she could see was the earthen walls of the cave. Then the breathing stopped.

And so did hers.

There on the other side of the cave was the body of a man lying on a stone slab. But that wasn't what horrified her. It was how he'd been laid out. His left shoulder was pinned to the slab by a sword that had been buried through his body to the hilt in the stone. His right arm had been lifted and a smaller sword driven through his wrist to pin it down. His legs had been done in a similar fashion, only the swords had been planted through the fleshy parts of his calves.

Bile rose in her throat as they moved toward him.

Sin was silent, but she could feel the anger rolling through him. And once they were close enough, she saw the blood that was running from the wounds and the scars that marred every inch of the man's naked body. His hair was matted and long, as if it'd been years since anyone had washed or combed it. He was clean shaven, but it was easy to see why that one bit of hygiene had been observed.

There were bite marks all over his neck. Some of them were long and jagged, as if the gallu had torn themselves away from his flesh in an effort to cause him as much pain as possible after their feedings.

But the worst was his eyes. Someone or something had seared them shut.

Xirena accidentally touched his leg as she neared him.

The man jerked his head toward her. "Fuck you, gallu," he snarled in Sumerian before spitting in Xirena's direction. He tried to fight.

Kat winced as the swords tore into his flesh.

"Stop it, Zakar," Sin said, moving closer to his brother so that he could hold his brother in place.

Zakar tried to bite him.

Sin cupped his brother's head in his hands. "Stop it. It's me. Sin. I'm here to free you."

"Fuck you," Zakar spat again.

Sin wiped the spittle off his face with the back of his hand. "Stop fighting. You're only hurting yourself more."

Kat cringed as Zakar pulled his wrist up and the sword made a slight scraping noise against the stone. The pain of that action had to be killing him.

Sin held his brother's arm in place before Sin jerked the sword free. Instead of being grateful, Zakar tried to punch him. When that failed, Zakar grabbed Sin by his hair and slammed his head into the stone by his side.

Sin cursed before he twisted out of Zakar's grasp. "Dammit, boy, you better be glad I love you."

As Zakar continued to fight, he ignored Sin.

Kat stepped forward to help Sin. "I'll get the ones in his legs."

"Let us," Simi said as she pushed her back. "Charontes are stronger. We can pull them out in one clean motion and it'll hurt him less."

Kat was grateful for their help--anything to spare the poor man more pain.

Moving to the side, she watched as Simi, Xirena, and Sin pulled the remaining swords free of the stone and Zakar's body. Zakar let out an echoing scream that sent a chill all the way to Kat's soul as he thrashed about in utter misery.

And as soon as he was free, he rolled to the floor and crouched to attack.

"Zakar!" Sin snapped, trying to make him understand. "It's Sin."

Zakar lunged at Sin and wrapped his arms about him before tackling him to the floor.

Kat wanted to help but wasn't sure what would be the best course of action. More than that, she didn't want to hurt Zakar any more.

By Sin's face as he tried to keep his brother from hitting him, she could tell he felt the same way.

"Can we eat him?" Xirena asked.

"No," Simi said quickly. "Eating people is wrong..." She made a face. "The Simi sounds like akri now. But akri's right. Besides, it would make akra Kitty-Kat mad."

Suddenly bright light filled the cavern. Sin and Kat froze as they realized they were no longer alone with Zakar.

"Well, well, looks like more food has arrived."