No Mercy (Dark-Hunter 18)

His gut twisted in anger as he was forced to go to the place where the bitch-goddess had once tortured him. He hated this temple with a passion that burned as deep as a thousand suns. Now that he was free of Artemis and had discovered what being with someone who really loved him was like, it was hard to go back even for a visit.

He forced eleven thousand years of bitter resentment down as he walked through the gilded doors then pulled up short.

The temple was completely devoid of people. Not even Artemis's handmaidens were in attendance. Oh, this ain't good. He felt sick as he recognized what that meant.

Nick, you poor sonofabitch. What are you doing?

That boy had always possessed a suicidal streak in him and it made Acheron sick to see how badly he and Artemis had screwed up Nick's happy-go-lucky life. Guilt gnawed at him, but there was nothing he could do about the past.

This was about the future.

"Artemis?" Ash called. His deep voice echoed through the marbled room.

She instantly appeared in front of him. Perfect in a way only a goddess could be, she was dressed in her customary white sheath dress that hugged her voluptuous body. Long red hair framed a face so perfect it was hard to even look at it. Yet his centuries of being under her thumb robbed him of the ability to appreciate anything other than her absence, and that he was truly grateful for when it came.

She chewed her long, red thumbnail as she shifted from foot to foot. Ash let out a long-suffering sigh. By the nervous way she was twitching, he knew it was going to be bad.

"What's going on?"

She bit her lip before she answered, and tried to look innocent. She failed miserably. "What do you mean?"

"Dammit, Artemis, don't play this shit with me. I'm done. Where's Nick?"

"Nick who?"

Growling, he grabbed her arm and pulled her toward him. Yes, it was rougher than it should have been, but she'd brutally beaten him for centuries and then tried to kill his wife. She was lucky he was a forgiving god, otherwise...

"I know he's here. I traced his powers. You seem to forget I'm one of the handful of gods who can do that."

She swallowed before she gestured to her bedroom.

More nausea consumed him as he realized what that meant. "You tied him to you?"

She shrugged his hand off her arm. "What business is it of yours? You left me, remember?"

It amazed him that she made it sound like he was the one in the wrong given what she'd put him through. But she was right about one thing. It wasn't his business. Nick was a grown...what ever the hell he was.

Still, this was beyond the pale. She'd now aligned herself to one of the beings who wanted him dead.

Great. Just great. He saw this train wreck coming and unfortunately, his foot was caught in the rails.

"You are such a piece of work," he snarled. Stepping past her, he used his powers to sling open her bedroom doors. They made a resounding crash as they hit the walls.

The moment he entered her room, he froze.

As expected, Nick was naked on her bed. However, he was in the throes of some kind of fever. Completely unconscious, his entire body glistened with sweat. But what concerned Ash most was that Nick whispered in a language Ash didn't know. As a god, there wasn't supposed to be a language he couldn't speak or comprehend.

He had no idea what Nick was saying. Was it gibberish? And yet it sounded too precise and formed to be random. The hairs on the back of his neck stood tall.

Ash glared at Artemis. "What have you done to him?"

Artemis shrugged as she moved to stand a few feet from the white ivory bed that was shrouded by sheer gold drapes. "Nothing. He's been cooling down for over a day now."

"Burning up, Artie. The words are 'burning up.'" Why couldn't she ever get her colloquialisms straight?

"Oh, what ever." That lackadaisical attitude made him want to choke her. Nick could have died and her only care would be how to dump his body without the other gods seeing her.

Trying not to think about that, Ash lifted Nick's eyelid to see that his eyes were demon red. His skin burned like the fires of hell. Nick's fangs were longer than normal. Serrated.

What was going on? Was he mutating into something else?

Most of all, who or what had control of him?

"How long has he been like this?" He made a sound of disgust before she could answer. What a stupid question. Time had no meaning to Artemis. "Did he say anything before he fell ill?"

"No."

Aggravated, Ash used his powers to delve into what had happened between them. All he saw was them having sex and then Nick falling back in pain.

He hadn't moved since. But as Ash delved deeper, he went from this Nick to other Nick incarnations. And there he saw...

"Oh, shit."

Artemis jumped. "What?"

Ash ignored her as he jolted Nick with a vicious god bolt straight to his heart.

Nick came out of his coma swinging. Especially once he saw it was Ash who'd hit him. He moved to grab Ash, but Ash spun away, out of his reach. Nick let out a furious grunt. "What the hell are you doing here, asshole?"

Ash put a little more distance between them. Not out of fear of Nick hurting him, but out of fear he might hurt Nick. "I would ask the same thing about you." He glanced to Artemis. "I would have thought you knew better."

Nick lunged at him.

Ash shielded his body so that Nick couldn't come near him--again for Nick's protection. The Cajun had a way and a mouth on him that eroded all of Acheron's patience and motivated him to violence faster than Artemis stalking him.

"Do you remember what happens when a demon masquerades as someone?" Ash asked.

Oblivious to the fact he was completely naked, Nick sneered at him. "What kind of stupid question is that? Of course I do."

The victim being duplicated was left comatose...

Or dead.

Ash narrowed his gaze on Nick. "What was the last day you remember?"

"Today. Tuesday."

Ash shook his head. "It's Saturday, Nick. You've been in a coma for three and a half days." He used his powers to pick up Nick's hand and rub it against the whiskers on his cheeks that confirmed what Ash was telling him.

That finally took away some of his bluster. "What?" Then he stiffened. "Quit playing with my hand, you friggin' perv."

Ash released him and manifested a blanket over him. "Dude, I'm not the one standing with my schlong hanging out. Have some dignity."

Nick flipped him off before he wrapped the blanket around his waist.

Ash ignored his hatred. "Just so you know, Gautier, I have a couple of Dark-Hunters and Were-Hunters who want a piece of your ass because they think you attacked Sanctuary."

Nick gaped. "I haven't been near it since the wolves attacked."

"I know. I'm just updating you on what's going on since you were kind enough to loan your body to someone who's been masquerading as you and turning your protectors against you."

Nick cursed, then glanced at Artemis as if remembering her presence. He actually blushed before he returned to glaring at Ash. "I'm going to kill Stryker."

"Stay away from him. You haven't mastered enough of your powers yet to even think about taking him on. Trust me. All you'd do right now is make him a nice mincemeat pie."

Nick fell silent before he said something to betray himself. He had more abilities than Acheron knew about and for some reason they seemed to be growing exponentially. He wasn't the weak-kneed neophyte. But Ash didn't need to know that.

Not yet.

Nick flinched as a peculiar surge went through him. He'd been getting them a lot lately and he didn't know why. Sharp and intense, they took his breath. Another one shot up his spine, driving him to his knees.

"Nicky?" Artemis ran to his side.

Nick held her back as weird images danced in his head. He saw things from his past rearrange.... People he didn't know and others who'd died...

What the...?

"You all right?" Ash asked.

No, but he wasn't about to admit that to Ash. No one would ever again know his weaknesses. What was going on was his business. Ash had already betrayed him once. He wasn't about to give him another chance to damage his life, such as it was.

And in his head, he heard the voices that had been getting louder lately. Voices that wanted him to hurt the people around him. They were so seductive and with them came a power so fierce it was hard to resist.

He felt his eyes turning red.

There was a raw, primordial power coming and it was out for blood. The only question was, whose?