Styxx (Dark-Hunter 22)

He could only imagine how he'd pay for this.

Acheron leaned his head forward and more lightning flowed through him. The Charonte tightened its grip around him and hissed a fiery breath at the goddess.

Artemis tried to climb up Acheron's leg, but she was forced back, away from him.

"You know, folks," Camulus shouted. "The idea was to kill Acheron, free Apollymi, and reclaim our god status. Not piss him off and end the world. Personally, I don't want to be ruler of nothing. But if someone doesn't stop this guy, that chant he's making is going to undo life as we know it and un-create the world."

"What are we going to do?" Sunshine asked Talon.

Talon kissed her lips then moved away from her. Against all odds, he rose slowly to his feet.

Acheron shot a lightning bolt at him.

Talon deflected it. He moved slowly through the maelstrom until he reached Acheron's side. "Let it go, T-Rex."

Acheron spoke to him in Atlantean. By the expression on Talon's face, it was obvious he didn't understand.

"He says to back off or die," Styxx translated. "He's summoning the Destroyer."

Talon shook his head. "I can't let you do that."

Evil laughter echoed again.

Talon rushed him. He caught Acheron about the middle and knocked him to the floor. The Charonte arched up, shrieking.

The Celt ignored it as he slugged Acheron. Hard. Which woke his brother up, and the two of them started pounding each other even worse than the fight they'd had when Styxx had found Ryssa dead.

The floor beneath them shook.

Zarek came through the door, bleeding, and was immediately thrown backward, against a wall.

Artemis tried again to reach Acheron and again he tossed her back while he fought with Talon.

"I'll give the boy credit," Camulus said. "He always was a fighter."

Talon stopped fighting as he heard those words.

Styxx scowled as he heard Talon's thoughts in his own head. You never could learn your place, Speirr. You never knew when you should just lay down the sword and play nice.You're right, Camulus. I've never known when to fight and when to withdraw. It's what got me cursed.

I have to be calm now.

The next words in Talon's head stunned Styxx, as they had come from Acheron. "I can show you how to bury that pain so deep inside you that it will prick you no more. But be warned that nothing is given freely and nothing lasts forever. One day something will come along to make you feel again, and with it, it will bring the pain of the ages upon you. All you have hidden will come out and it could destroy not only you, but anyone near you."

Talon looked up at Acheron and saw the fury of the man who was attacking him.

Acheron rushed him again.

This time instead of fighting, Talon embraced him like a brother then he cupped Acheron's face in his hands and tried to make his old friend see him.

Acheron's features were no longer human. They were those of the twisted demon that had haunted Styxx's nightmares. The demon he fought in battle. His brother's eyes were bloodred and yellow, and there was no mercy in them. They were cold. Vicious.

The colors in his eyes swirled and danced like fire.

They were actually similar to what Apollo's eyes did right before his worst attacks on Styxx. Archon's, too.

"Acheron," Talon said calmly, slowly. "Enough."

At first Styxx didn't think Acheron had heard Talon. Not until his brother turned his head to see Sunshine on the floor.

"Talon," he rasped hoarsely. Acheron's eyes flickered then he looked back at Talon.

Suddenly, another shock wave shot through the room, this one in the reverse direction from the first. It was as if the unleashed power was drawing back into Acheron's body.

Still in dragon form, the Charonte shot up toward the ceiling then vanished.

Acheron's features transformed from a demon's back into those of a man. His brother blinked his now swirling silver eyes, and looked around as if he were waking up from a nightmare. Without a single comment, Acheron stepped away from Talon, wrapped his arms around his chest, and walked across the room as if nothing had happened.

As Acheron passed by Artemis, she reached for him, but he dodged her touch and kept walking.

Artemis turned on her own brother with a snarl. "Just you wait till Dad gets his hands on you."

"Me? He knew what I had planned tonight. Wait until I tell him about Acheron!"

Artemis curled her lip. "Oh shut up, whiney-boy." She held her hand out and zapped him out of the room.

Styxx braced himself as Artemis turned her angry gaze to him. He knew what was coming.

Back to his hell.

"You," she said, her tone thick with loathing.

I am so screwed. But maybe if he pissed her off enough, she might yet kill him rather than send him back. "How can you protect something like him? After I died, I was sent to the Elysian Fields while he was-"

"No concern of yours," she said, interrupting him. "You and your precious family, you turned your backs on him and condemned him for something that wasn't his fault."

Styxx was aghast at her words. He'd never held anything against Acheron except what Acheron had done to hurt him. "Not his fault? Please." He tried to say something more, but his voice vanished.

"That's better." Artemis simpered. "Funny, the two of you sound alike and yet you whine. Thank Zeus, Acheron doesn't have that repugnant quality. But then he was always a man and not some sniveling little child."

Oh yeah, that so described his brother and him.

The bitch really was crazy.

She backed him against the wall. "I can't believe you. I gave you a perfect existence. Your own island, filled with everything you could ever desire, and what did you do? You've spent eternity hating Acheron, plotting ways to kill him. You don't deserve mercy."

Perfect island? Everything he could desire?

Yes, she was insane. She had to be if she thought his life on a desolate island was perfect.

As for Acheron ... the last thing on Styxx's mind had been payback. He'd been too occupied by his own grief for his wife and son, and by trying to survive to even contemplate getting back at a brother he didn't think he'd ever see again.

"You can't kill me," Styxx squeaked out the erroneous thoughts in her head. "If you do, Acheron dies, too." He choked as she tightened the hold on his throat, cutting off his correction of her misinformation.

"I curse the day the Fates bound your life force to his."

That was not the Fates, bitch. It was his mother. Get your story straight.

How stupid could one goddess be?

Oh wait. It was Artemis, after all. The twin sister of Apollo. Intelligence was not their forte.

Artemis narrowed her eyes at him as if she wanted nothing more than to splinter him where he stood. "You're right. I can't kill you, but I can make living a worse hell than anything you can imagine."

He laughed. "What are you going to do me?" Turn me over to your perverted brother?

That was the worst thing imaginable.

She smiled evilly. "You'll see, little human, you'll see."

One moment he was in the factory, and in the next ...