Dark Side of the Moon (Dark-Hunter 9)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Satara flashed herself straight into Kalosis. For once, Stryker wasn't in the hall or "war room," as it had once been aptly called. In fact, the vast room was oddly empty, with his throne sitting alone on the dais.

The unexpected silence was eerie.

All of the Daimons who normally gathered here must be in their own homes, which lined the dark streets outside in this realm where sunshine was eternally banished.

Atlantean legend once claimed that this was the palace of Misos, the Atlantean god of death and violence. Archon, the peaceful king of the gods, created this realm to control Misos and keep him prisoner, along with all of his minions who preyed on both the Atlantean people and mankind.

Stryker's black throne of carved dragons, skulls, and crossbones had been fashioned by Thasos (the Atlantean personification of death) for Misos himself while he ruled over all the damned who were sent to Kalosis to be punished. Ultimately, Archon had even sent his queen, Apollymi, to this realm to be held so long as her natural son lived.

After her beloved son had died, Apollymi had left her prison in this realm and destroyed all of the Atlantean pantheon-just as the Fates had prophesied. And as she made her way across Greece, bent on destroying the entire world, somehow the Greek gods had found a way to return her to her prison in Kalosis.

No one knew how they'd done it and not once, in all this time, had any of them breathed a word of it.

But it wasn't long after her new incarceration began that Apollymi had mentally reached out of this prison and summoned Stryker to her so that she could teach him how to take human souls and save his people.

That had been a hell of a day...

And Satara was grateful her brother had lived, because through him, she had a shot of ending her enslavement as a handmaiden to Artemis once and for all. That was if she could find the missing bastard to tell him her news.

Knowing her time was extremely finite, she rushed through the rooms of the palace, looking for him.

Oddly enough, she found him where she least expected... his bedroom.

And he wasn't alone. There were half a dozen Daimons, male and female, sprawled all over him and his bed. That wasn't counting the two who were making out on the floor in front of her.

She didn't know what stunned her most, the fact that it was an orgy or the fact that Stryker was actually having sex with someone. Given his coldness, she honestly hadn't thought he'd bother.

Then again, he didn't seem to be particularly involved with the two women and one man who were trying to please him. Rather, he looked bored and preoccupied.

"Excuse me," Satara called. All of them froze at the sound of her voice. "I really hate to interrupt this, but I have a situation I think Stryker will be very interested in and I don't have time to wait until you're through."

Stryker pushed the woman on top of him off and sat up. "Leave us."

Without a single word, they quickly gathered their clothes and walked past Satara, out the door.

Stryker was a bit more leisurely as he pulled on a robe but let it hang open as he moved from the bed.

Fine. If his nudity didn't bother him, it certainly didn't bother her.

Facing her, he wiped away the bit of blood at the corner of his mouth with his finger before he licked the digit clean. "Since you interrupted my dinner and I'm still hungry, could you make this quick?"

Satara was amazed by his words. "That was dinner?"

He gave her a bored stare as he closed the distance between them. "Yes. I like to play with my food before I eat it."

That sounded more like the vicious Daimon she knew. But that wasn't what had her here.

"Acheron is free of Olympus and I've been recalled to Artemis's temple. I thought you'd want to know that he's in Seattle with his Dark-Hunters now."

Stryker let out a long, aggravated breath. "I guess it was too much to hope that she'd actually keep him this time." He paused before he looked back at her. "Is that all?"

"No. I was at the Serengeti a few minutes ago and learned something very intriguing."

Susan winced as Ravyn held an ice pack to her eye.

"For a woman who can handle herself so well in a fight, I can't believe you got taken out by a defenseless doorjamb."

She narrowed her eyes on him. "Given the size of my goose egg, I would argue the defenseless part. That doorjamb has a mean left hook. Besides, it's not my fault. I was distracted."

"By what?"

His butt, if the truth were told, but she wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of knowing she'd been so preoccupied by his body that she wasn't paying attention to where she was going. "I don't remember."

"Uh-huh."

"I don't."

He brushed her hair back from her forehead with a gentle touch while he kept the ice over her brow. "You were amazing tonight by the way. "

"Thanks, but not half as much as you guys were." Her heart clenched as she inadvertently thought about Belle and right behind that thought was another, even more disturbing one. It was an image of Ravyn down on the ground... being executed in the same way.

Looking up at him now, she couldn't get that out of her mind. Belle's death had been way too easy to accomplish. To be so powerful, the Dark-Hunters had an awful Achilles' heel.

Then again, most beings, supernatural or otherwise, usually died once their head was removed. There really was no way back from that unless you were a character on a soap opera or in a horror movie.

Suddenly, someone screamed from upstairs, causing Susan to jump and scrape her brow against the ice bag. It was followed by running feet and something very heavy hitting the floor.

"What now?" she breathed, tired of the constant fighting for their lives. Honestly, she just wanted a few minutes of quiet.

"I don't know." Ravyn handed her the ice bag before he went to check it out.

Susan left the bag on the mattress before she followed after him. They rushed up the stairs to the hallway.

All of Ravyn's family was there, along with a couple of other Weres and the doctor she'd seen on their arrival.

But it was Jack who held her attention. He sat on the floor, crying with his arms wrapped around his legs, rocking.

"What happened?" Ravyn asked Terra, who stood off to the side, looking perplexed by Jack.

Terra's eyes were deeply sad. "Patricia died a few minutes ago from her injuries."

Susan felt ill from the news.

"It's not right," Jack wailed as he pulled at his hair. "She never hurt anyone. Why is she dead? Why!"

The doctor patted him on the back as she looked up at Dorian. "I think you guys should go back to work. I'll take care of Jack."

They nodded before they complied.

Ravyn's father took a moment to narrow his eyes on his son and curl his lip in disgust. "Why are you still here?"

Ravyn didn't give him the satisfaction of showing any emotion whatsoever. "Love you, too, Dad."

His face was so contorted by rage that Susan expected him to lash out at Ravyn. And he probably would have had Dorian not pulled him away.

Ravyn's face didn't betray anything, but his eyes spoke a tome about how much his father's rejection hurt him. And in that moment, she hated his father for the pain he caused Ravyn.

Her heart breaking for both Jack and Ravyn, Susan started to return downstairs until she realized that Ravyn wasn't behind her. Instead, he went to Jack and knelt on the floor beside him. The doctor looked a bit surprised but didn't say anything while Jack sobbed.