"This isn't a game, Tabitha," Julian said sternly. In his human life, Julian had been the Greek general who had commanded Kyrian. Unfortunately, he'd run afoul of the gods, who had cursed him into a book to be a sex slave to whatever woman summoned him out.
Selena's best friend Grace Alexander had set the half-god free.
Since then, Julian had often joined ranks with the Dark-Hunters to fight the Daimons, and now he was joining ranks with Kyrian to kill Valerius.
It was something she would never allow.
She held her arms out to keep them back. "No, it isn't."
"It's all right, Tabitha," Valerius said from behind her. "This is a confrontation that's been a long time coming."
"Talon," Tabitha said, glancing over to the tall blond Celt who was standing behind his Greek friends. As always, Talon was dressed like a biker in a black motorcycle jacket, T-shirt, and leather pants. His hair was cut short except for two thin braids that hung from his left temple. "Are you going to help me?"
Talon grimaced. "Unfortunately, yes." He moved to stand with her.
"Celt-" Kyrian snarled.
His face determined, Talon crossed his arms over his chest.
"Look," Tabitha said between clenched teeth. "We have bigger problems right now than you two hating Valerius and his family."
"Like what?" Kyrian asked.
Tabitha pointed to the ground where Ash still lay.
Kyrian's face went pale as his gaze focused on Ash's body. "What happened?"
"I don't know," Tabitha said. "One of the Daimons did that to him and we need to get him to safety."
Kyrian passed a grudging, angry look at Valerius. "We're not through."
Valerius said nothing as he moved toward Ash.
When he started to lift Ash up, Kyrian shoved him back. "Get your filthy hands off him, Roman. We don't need your help. We take care of our own."
"Valerius happens to be the only Dark-Hunter here," Tabitha snapped at her brother-in-law. "He has more right to help Ash-"
"Greeks don't want or need Roman help," Julian said as he brushed roughly past Valerius.
Tabitha felt Valerius's anger, his pain, but most of all, she felt shame from him.
Why?
"Val?"
As soon as it was out of her mouth, Tabitha realized she'd just made a strategic mistake. Kyrian let out a vulgar curse. "Oh, don't tell me you've taken up with him. Shit, Tabitha, I thought even you had more sense than that."
That was it! Tabitha went to stand in front of him. "Get off the cross, Kyrian. Literally." She gestured behind her to Valerius. "He didn't hurt you."
Kyrian curled his lip at her. "How do you know? Were you there?"
"Ooo, childish much? No, I wasn't there. But I can do math and I know how old he was when you were killed. What? You let a five-year-old nail you down?"
Someone grabbed her from behind. Tabitha started to attack until she realized it was Valerius pulling her back. "Don't, Tabitha. Just let it go."
"Why should I? I'm tired of the way they treat you. Aren't you?"
Valerius's face was completely stoic, but his heart wasn't. She felt his pain. "I honestly don't care what they think of me. I really don't. And you don't need to alienate your entire family. Just leave this alone."
"Why?"
Valerius looked past her to Kyrian, then he stared at her. Hard. "This will wait. Right now, Acheron and you need to be safe. Go with Kyrian."
Tabitha wanted to argue, but he was right and she wasn't so stubborn as to not recognize that basic fact. The longer they stood out here arguing, the more danger Ash was in, especially since Simi wasn't here to protect him.
Their first priority was to get Ash to safety. "You be careful."
Valerius gave her a strangely tender Roman salute, then spun on his heel and left them.
"You're unbelievable," Kyrian snarled as he and Julian lifted Acheron's body up from the ground. "I can't believe you screamed at Amanda about me and you'd cuddle up to that bastard."
"Shut up, Kyrian," Tabitha said. "Unlike Amanda, I don't mind staking you straight through the heart."
"Where are we taking T-Rex?" Talon asked as he grabbed Ash's feet and helped to carry him.
"Back to my house," Kyrian answered. "After the attack of that demon on Bride Kattalakis when she was visiting us, Ash put some kind of mojo on it to make it safe. I figure whatever did this to him can't come back and hurt him if he's there."
Talon nodded. "What exactly did this to him?"
Tabitha shrugged. "I don't know. He was hit with something and poof, down he went. It happened so fast, I didn't even see what they hit him with."
Talon let out a slow breath. "Man, I wouldn't have thought anything could bring down Ash. Not like this."
"Yeah," Tabitha agreed, "but at least he's still alive. Kind of... in a freaky sort of way."
She didn't want to admit to them just how frightened she was of the fact that the Daimons had brought the powerful Atlantean down without breaking a sweat. If they could do this, then there was no telling what they could do to the rest of them.
Which begged the question of why the Daimons had left them alone when they could have killed them, too.
It didn't make sense.
They wended their way down the darker, less traveled alleys, watching for Daimons and innocent passersby who might call the cops if they saw them carrying what appeared to be a dead body as they headed for Julian's Land Rover.
Tabitha got in the backseat with Ash while Talon stayed behind to continue patrolling for Daimons. Getting into the front passenger's seat, Kyrian remained sullenly silent while Julian drove them over to the Garden District where Kyrian's mansion stood less than two blocks away from Valerius's.
She wondered if either man realized just how close they lived to each other. They were practically neighbors and yet they were divided by infinite hatred.
Putting that out of her mind, she ran her hand over Ash's hair. It had an odd, spongy texture. His eyes were half-open and for once the silvery color didn't swirl. It was terrifying to think something could do this to him and none of them knew what it was or if they could restore him.
God, what would happen if they couldn't?
What would happen to the Dark-Hunters if they didn't have Ash to lead them anymore? It was a terrifying thought. He always knew what to do and to say. How to make things better for everyone.
Biting her lip, Tabitha fought her panic down. Simi would get help for Ash. There was no way she wouldn't.
The men got out and pulled Ash from the seat, then carried him into the house with Tabitha one step behind them.
Amanda came off the sofa the instant she saw Ash being carried into her foyer. "Oh my God, what happened?"
"We don't know," Kyrian said as he and Julian carried Ash toward the mahogany stairs.
"Tabby?" Amanda asked.
She shrugged as she followed after the men. Amanda joined the procession up the stairs. As they reached the top landing, a tall African-American man came out of one of the guest rooms.
"Acheron?" he said, his voice thickly accented.
"We don't know what happened," Kyrian said in answer to his unasked question as they brushed past him.
"Hi, I'm Tabitha," she said, extending her hand to the new Dark-Hunter who was guarding her family.
"Kassim," he said, shaking her hand before they both followed the men into Ash's room.
Once they had Ash safely tucked into the bed, Kyrian curled his lip at Tabitha. "Why don't you ask your sister about her new friend, Amanda?"
"Kyrian," Tabitha said in warning. "Lay off or you will limp."
"What friend?" Amanda asked.
"Valerius Magnus," Julian said. "They were rather friendly tonight when we found them."
"Yes, we were," Tabitha said. "And it's none of your business."
Amanda gave her a harsh stare. "Tabitha-"
"Shut up!" Tabitha snapped. "Look, I will gladly submit to the 'jump all over sister Tabitha' session after we help Ash. Right now, I'm going to start calling some people and see if anyone knows how to fix this. You guys can stand here with your thumbs up your butts and roast me all you want, but I'm not listening."
Pulling her phone off her belt, Tabitha headed for the stairs, then down to the living room and called Tia, who was completely useless for this.
"C'mon, T," Tabitha begged her sister. "There has to be an undo spell."
"Not if you don't know what caused it. Ash isn't exactly human, Tab. One wrong move and we could really do some damage to him."
Tabitha growled into the phone, then hung up. Amanda had just joined her in the living room when they heard something hit the front door so hard, it rattled the hinges.
Handing the phone to Amanda, Tabitha pulled her stiletto from her boot.
"Akri!" Simi's maniacal wail echoed through the house like vicious thunder. "Let the Simi in, akri!"
"What is that?" Amanda asked, her face ashen.