Styxx (Dark-Hunter 22)

Yeah, this was going to leave a mark.

And be bloodier than any battle he'd ever known.

So be it. Pain he was used to. And he wasn't going down without a vicious fight. Tonight he was taking his life back and agony to anyone who tried to stop him.

Lowering his chin, he smiled at them. "Come get some, bitches."

* * *

Acheron handed his unconscious daughter off to Sin. "Something from the old demon bite interacted with Epithymia's powers," he explained. "I drained her, but she needs to feed."

Sin nodded grimly as he took her and vanished.

Acheron was aghast at the others in the room, who were supposed to have been there to help them fight. "What happened?"

Set growled. "We're locked out. If you're not Greek or Atlantean, forget it. Only Katra had the ability to get to you. And even then it wasn't easy for her to teleport in."

Urian nodded. "I couldn't get in either. You're all he's got, boss."

"Simi, return to me."

She immediately laid herself over Acheron's heart as a dragon-shaped tattoo.

Xirena bit her lip. "Me, too, akri?"

"Absolutely."

That would get the demons in.

Acheron glanced around at his allies. "I'm weakened-every time I strike them, it drains a portion of my god powers-and the weapons Artemis brought might work on Apollo, but they're shite on the Atlanteans. We are in over our heads and I won't lie, it's ugly. So, who wants to try to go in with me and save my brother's life?"

They all stepped forward.

"All right. Here goes nothing." Closing his eyes, Acheron summoned everything he could and teleported them back to Katateros.

For several minutes, he, too, was locked out. When they finally broke through whatever Archon had done to shield the temple, Acheron was completely unprepared for the sight that awaited them. Blood was everywhere. It looked like the stage production of Evil Dead. But what scared him was the sight of Styxx's phoenix shield. Twisted and bent out of shape, it was in the middle of the largest pool of blood. Blood was smeared to the doors as if a struggling body had been dragged out through them.

Demonbrean and Ilios lay moaning on the ground near Apollo who wasn't in any better shape. Styxx must have beat the crap out of the Greek god before they'd overpowered him. Epithymia was still sobbing uncontrollably and hadn't moved from her spot where she'd fallen after Kat had drained her powers.

As Styxx had predicted, Dikastis stood calmly in the shadows and appeared to have not fought at all.

Not sure of the god's loyalties or intentions, Acheron went to him first. "Where's my brother?"

Raw anger flared in the god's eyes. "They took him to the temple arena."

"Why aren't you with them?"

"I'm a god of justice. I will not participate in something that's wrong and undeserved."

"Will you fight with us then?"

Dikastis nodded without hesitation.

* * *

His breathing ragged, Styxx was so battered and bruised at this point, he wasn't sure why he was still conscious. He'd managed to knock out three of them and weaken the rest, but in the end, he'd been outnumbered and was no match for a dozen gods who'd been asleep and resting for centuries.

Against Styxx's best efforts, Archon and Asteros had dragged him to the temple Acheron had confined him in years ago.... To the arena where they'd once made his life utter hell. Laughing all the while, they'd secured him to the rack they'd used for his beatings and other things that had left him bleeding internally for eternity.

Damn them.

Archon fisted his hand in Styxx's blood-soaked hair and jerked his head back. "You're not defeated so soon, are you, prince?"

As if. Ryssa had slapped harder than Archon hit. "Fuck you."

"How I wish, but unfortunately, we're making you a sacrifice." Archon gagged him then looked over to Leto. "Summon our lady vengeance."

Leto laughed as she neared Styxx. "You didn't really think Epithymia had Bathymaas's heart, did you? Trust me, I kept that for myself. Now I'm going to finish what I started fourteen thousand years ago."

And when I'm done destroying what's left of the Greeks, I'm going to tear apart the Atlanteans as I did the Sumerians and Egyptians. No one is going to stop me. No one.

Styxx's eyes widened as he heard her thoughts loud and clear.

Leto pulled out a knife and sliced open Styxx's cheek so that she could fill a vial with his blood. She mumbled words he didn't understand as she blended his blood with another compound. And as she did so, his head began to spin.

All of a sudden, he remembered being Aricles.

He saw Bethany at his side as she held on to his biceps. "Do not fight Apollo for my honor. It's not worth one single drop of your blood. Run with me, Ari. Let's leave all this behind and never look back."

"I can't, and neither can you, Bathia. We have too many responsibilities. Too many to protect. We cannot abandon this world to their cruel hands."

"I no longer care about any of that. You are all I cherish now."

His blood racing with fury and pain, Aricles had pressed his cheek to hers and held her close. "And you're all that matters to me. I won't have your reputation tarnished by that pig. You've done nothing wrong." The two of them had secretly married and he wanted Apollo's throat for the lies the Greek god and his whore mother had told against Bathymaas. "I will beat that bastard down for you, my goddess. Have no fear."

She buried her hand in his hair as tears streamed down her beautiful face. "You are the heart they claim I was born without. It's why I can't be the soul of justice anymore. You've changed me forever.... And you can't leave me in this awful world without you."

He kissed her forehead. "Let me win your honor and then we will go wherever you wish."

"Swear it to me."

"On my eternal soul. I will always be with you, Bathia. Nothing will take me from you, ever. Not even the gods." He lifted the Egyptian ieb amulet from her chest and kissed it then tucked it back between her breasts.

Styxx gasped as he fully understood what Set had told him. Bathymaas had been created by the Source, not born of a mother....

With no heartbeat whatsoever, she'd been a complete stranger to any kind of emotion until Aricles had taught her how to love.

The Egyptian jug-shaped amulet was the heart Set had given her as a girl when she'd asked her father why she didn't have a heartbeat like others. It was part of the same amulet Bethany had given him to protect him in battle.

"This holds my love for you, child, and while you can't understand it, know that so long as you wear it, you carry a vital piece of me with you. My heart has great power and it will keep you safe and warm in my absence."

That was how Leto had destroyed the Egyptian pantheon and trapped Set in the desert. Once she'd stolen the half of Bathymaas's heart that Set had hidden in his domain, she'd used Set's DNA and Seth's blood to trap the primal god.