"Then who is lying to you?"
His answer was automatic. "They are."
"Yes," Stryker said, finally smiling. "They're lying and so what are we going to do about it?"
Kyros gave him a hard, sinister glare. "Kill him."
Danger watched Alexion as he sat at the small round table looking completely defeated. For a man who claimed to have no emotions whatsoever, he was definitely showing them now.
At his insistence that they not return to her house where they could be found again by the demon (or for all they knew, the demon might still be waiting for them), they'd rented a hotel room.
To be honest, Danger was a little nervous about staying here. She didn't like feeling this exposed. If the maid were to open the door during the day and let sunlight in...
Alexion, according to his own admission, wouldn't explode into dust, but she would. And no offense, being roasted wasn't something she wanted to experience unless it involved one of her friends telling embarrassing stories about her.
But Alexion had assured her that he wouldn't let any harm befall her.
I suppose this is the test then.
If she survived the day, he was honest. If she didn't... she would be seriously pissed.
And dead.
In the meantime, it was just the two of them in the small hotel room. And to be honest, Alexion looked weary and beat by what had happened with Kyros. The poor man had been so upset that he hadn't even touched his dinner.
"He'll come around," she said as she pulled her boots and socks off.
He looked up at her. "I wish I had your faith."
"Then have faith in Acheron. That's what you keep telling me to do. Would he have sent you here to fail?"
"Yes," he said, his voice tired and yet strangely determined.
His answer surprised her. "No he wouldn't. That would be cruel."
"Yes," he insisted. "He would have. As Acheron would say, sometimes you have to fail in order to succeed. Whether we want it or not, there is an order in the universe. It's hard to understand and many, many times it's hard to swallow, but it's there and our choices are our own. Failure is part of life and no one can succeed every time they try something."
She huffed at that. "Well, that sucks."
He nodded in agreement. "But failure is the price of having free will."
"Maybe we would be better off without it then."
He gave a short laugh. "That's what Acheron thinks most of the time. He really hates free will, but he will never interfere with it."
"How could he?"
Alexion grew quiet again.
She could sense his restlessness and yet he sat there perfectly still. She'd eaten twice during the night. He hadn't. He'd only said that he wasn't hungry. But then given the fact that he couldn't really taste food, she could understand that.
"Are you going to come to bed?"
He let out a long breath before he answered. "I'll sleep later."
"Alexion..."
"I'm fine, Danger. Really."
No he wasn't. She didn't need a sfora to see that.
Feeling for him, she went to stand beside his chair. "You're not really fine."
He looked up at her. Those green eyes of his were haunting in their beauty and pain. "No, I'm not."
His confession caught her off guard.
"You know," he said quietly, "I'm the one who monitors Acheron's e-mail account. I'm there in Katoteros when his cell phone starts ringing off the hook from all of you wanting to talk to him, day and night. There are times when it makes him completely insane. But I envy him the chaos. The 'human' contact. I think it's why he never verbally complains about it around me. He knows how much I would kill for it."
Her heart ached for him and for the lost sadness she saw in the depths of those glowing green eyes.
"My life is so endless," he said, his voice carrying the full weight of his misery. "The only contact I have outside of Acheron and Simi is with other Shades. The ones who are damned scream at me to help them because they know I'm one of the few beings who can hear them. The ones who live on the Isle of Padesios aren't interested in making friends with me. They avoid me every time I go near them."
"The Isle of what?"
He sighed. "It's a region in Katoteros where Acheron allows the Shades a facsimile of paradise. Their existence, like mine, is limited, but they don't suffer. Not like the others do. Although I think the knowledge that they can never again be human is punishment enough. I think that's why they hate me so. I at least have some semblance of a corporeal form. They don't and they never will again."
"Why doesn't Ash give it to them?"
"Same reason he doesn't send me to earth unless he has to. It's cruel to be so close to being human and know that you're not. That you'll never be again. It just brings it all home."
The anguish he suffered tore through her. He looked lost, alone. She understood both feelings. She'd felt them a lot over the last two hundred years. She could only imagine how much worse it would be to experience it over nine thousand years.
She laid her hand against his whiskered cheek. The stubble teased her palm, sending a chill up her arm.
He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply as if he were savoring the scent of her skin. The feel of her touch.
His loneliness touched an inner, foreign part of her. It touched the part of her that was like him. Eternally alone.
Her heart pounding, she tilted her head down to taste his lips.
Alexion was stunned by her kiss. He wished that he could really taste her. Really know the full sensation of her breath mingling with his as her tongue spiked through his mouth.
His body roared to life, wanting to feel her naked against him. He deepened his kiss a moment before he pulled back to look up at her. "Don't do this to me, Danger. It's cruel when you know how long I've been without a woman."
Her staccato breaths fell against his cheek a moment before she pulled her shirt off over her head.
His heart stilled at the sight of her black lace bra that left very little of her breasts covered. Her pink nipples were taut, just begging for his mouth.
It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.
Danger knew she shouldn't be doing this and yet she couldn't stop herself. Like him, it had been too long since she'd last had sex. But more than that, she felt an odd connection with him. Right or wrong, she wanted this moment. In a weird way, she needed it as much as he did.
Taking his hand into hers, she led it to her breast.
He sucked his breath in sharply before he dipped his fingers beneath the lace to touch her. His skin was rough, but his touch was gentle as he lightly kneaded her breast.
She rose up ever so slightly to kiss him feverishly as she began frantically unbuttoning his shirt. Every inch of flesh she exposed was perfect. There wasn't a scar or blemish anywhere on his ruggedly masculine body. The only mark he bore was a strange tattoo on his left shoulder of a yellow sun that was pierced by three white lightning bolts. She touched it lightly, wondering at what appeared to be a series of letters in the middle. It was an alphabet she'd never seen before.
"What is this?" she asked as she traced it.
"Just a tattoo," he said, his voice ragged. "It was on me when I woke up in this form."
Dismissing it, she untucked his shirt, then pushed it and his coat off his shoulders.
He pulled his hand away from her breast to let her undress him.
Alexion actually shivered at her harried speed. It had been far too long since he'd last tasted desire like this. Danger literally crawled into his lap as she returned to hungrily kiss his lips.
He growled at the ferocity of that kiss, at the way his body hardened, wanting a taste of her. Her breath mingled with his as she ran her warm hands over his naked back. He reached around her to unfasten her bra. The black lace fell free, allowing her small breasts to tease his bare chest.