The Dream-Hunter (Dark-Hunter 10)

"Because sometimes life just basically sucks, and this is one of those times."

"And if I don't want it to?"

Kat shook her head. "When has it ever listened to you?"

She did have a point. But it didn't stop the pain inside Geary from hurting. How could she have let M'Adoc take Arik? She should have fought. Should have told him she loved him.

Instead, she'd just stood there as he was taken and done absolutely nothing.

Damn me, I'm such a fool. She'd waited her entire life-time for love, and then when she'd finally found it she'd cast it aside in one moment of hurt anger. How could she have been so stupid?

"This can't be how it ends."

Kat's features softened as she neared her. "Geary, look. Arik sacrificed himself to keep you safe. Don't ruin it by putting yourself into danger and dying. Let him go."

She stared at Kat. "If someone you loved were suffering because of you, could you let him go?"

Kat screwed her face up as if she was in pain. "This isn't about me," she said in an anguished tone that answered Geary. "Oh, okay, so I wouldn't stand by and let the man I love suffer when I was the one who caused it... Damn."

"Yeah. Damn. We have to find some way to help him."

Kat raked her hand through her hair as if irritated beyond her tolerance. "I don't even know how to begin to fix this."

"I do."

Geary put her hand to her temple as she heard Apollymi's voice in her head. " Not now please."

"Don't dismiss her," Kat said out loud. "Apollymi's probably our best hope right now."

"You know about..." Of course she did. "You hear her, too?"

"All the time. She has a bad habit of nosing her way into pretty much everything I do. She's terribly nosy that way, but she's always a friend to me." She smiled before she addressed Apollymi. " Mibreiara, have you any suggestions that don't involve one of us letting you out?"

"That is the suggestion I prefer."

"Yes, but neither Geary nor I will do that. You got anything else?"

"Yes, but it's tricky. Listen to me, my girls. You're about to have an important lesson in men and god politics."

"SOLIN?"

Solin cursed as he heard Arik's voice in his head. " I have nothing to say to you."

"Fine. I don't want to hear it anyway. What I need is for you to listen."

"Listen, my ass."

" I need your ears, Solin," he said wryly, " not your ass."

"Go to hell."

"I'm already there."

Solin paused as he felt something odd brush against his collar. It was the touch of the dead and he knew it even though it'd been centuries since he'd last felt one. "What?"

A Shade of Arik appeared before Solin. His features were ghastly white, his eyes dark and pain filled.

He wore nothing but a pair of tattered pants. "M'Adoc killed me."

Solin couldn't have been more shocked had he been the one who'd died. "How?"

"I surrendered myself to him to protect Megeara. Now he's reneged on our bargain and is heading for her. I need you to protect her from him."

Of course he did and Solin was through being the dupe in this. Why should he put his life on the line for anyone? Who would he go to for help once he was a Shade? No one. "Do you think I even care?"

"I know you do, Solin. In spite of your protestations, I can see the real man inside that you try so desperately to ignore and hide." He paused before he spoke again, "Please, Brother. She's not a fighter and he won't stop until she's dead. Don't let an innocent die over nothing."

Still Solin didn't want to get involved in this. He'd made a similar mistake before and paid dearly for it.

"Do I look like an Oneroi to you? I'm not here to protect humans. Why don't you go warn her yourself?"

"She won't speak to me or listen. M'Adoc told her of my bargain with Hades. She hates me now."

Solin didn't miss the tremor of pain in Arik's voice. Nor the look of absolute misery on his face. The fact that she was hurting tore Arik apart. "You love her?"

"Obviously more than my life," he said, his voice trembling from his emotions.

Solin narrowed his eyes on Arik. "It hurts, doesn't it? To have that one person you love learn the truth of what you are and hate you for it?"

"You have no idea."

"Yeah, I do." And instead of feeling the satisfaction he'd anticipated when Arik tasted his own misery, Solin felt nothing but more pain. There was no joy in hurting someone else. At least not for him. "Where are you?"

"I'm on the banks of Styx. M'Adoc won't allow Charon to ferry me over for fear of Hades finding me and learning the truth. I'm sure that when Hades learns I'm dead he'll go for Megeara to fulfill my bargain, and that I can't allow. She's innocent in this and shouldn't have to pay for my stupidity. I have nothing to

give you, Solin, but please, if there's any decency left in you, don't let her die because of me. I'm begging you."

Solin knew that kind of love. He'd tasted it once and it'd been burning on his tongue like a bitter pill for countless centuries. "Just so you know, I've never had a drop of decency in me." Arik literally deflated before Solin's eyes. "But I won't let them hurt her. Rest easy."

Even as he spoke, he knew that would never happen. Hades wouldn't allow Arik peace once he learned where the man was, and from the looks of it neither would M'Adoc. And for the first time in centuries, Solin honestly felt sorry for someone other than himself.

"You can trust me, Arik."

"Thank you." He inclined his head to Solin before he faded out.

Taking a deep breath, Solin leaned back in his chair. His motto had always been to help no one because no one had ever helped him. He hated people.

He hated the gods most of all.

And he had no business getting involved in this. But how could he stand by and not do something?

Megeara needed protection, and unlike him, she didn't have the powers to fight against them and win.

They would tear through her in no time.

If he were smart, he'd contact ZT and let the Chthonian handle it.

"Nah," he said with a bitter smile. "I'd rather be vindictive than smart." And with that he flashed himself out of the safety of his home to search for a human.

It didn't take much to find Megeara. Her aura stood out even to the waking Dream-Hunter, especially since she was in such emotional turmoil.

But what gave him pause was the air of hopeless sadness that engulfed her. It'd been a long time since he'd seen its equal. "You okay?"