Devil May Cry (Dark-Hunter 11)

CHAPTER TWELVE

Sin braced himself for the coming fight, but strangely, Kessar didn't make any moves toward him.

Instead, he stared at Zakar with a twisted half smile. "I see you found my pet, Nana." He returned his gaze to Sin and his face turned to stone. "And my brother."

Sin shrugged in feigned sympathy. "He attacked us," he said sarcastically. "What was I supposed to do? Invite him to dinner?"

"You were supposed to die." Kessar narrowed his eyes on him. "It would have been a good start."

Sin shook his head. "I don't know. I die, you get bored. World ends. Doesn't really fit, does it? Besides, I can't make things too easy on you. What's life without pain?"

Kessar's gaze went back to Zakar. "That's a question best answered by the pet, isn't it?"

Fury darkened Sin's gaze as he saw the shame on Zakar's face, but before he could move to retaliate, Zakar blasted the demon.

Kessar turned it away with a wave of his hand. "Don't you ever learn, dog?"

Zakar glared at him. "I will fight you till I die."

Kessar laughed. "Oh, you're going to die all right. All of you. And for what you've done to my brother you will suffer unimaginably."

"Yada yada yada." Kat slowly enunciated each word before she looked at Sin as if bored by their exchange. "Am I the only one who gets sick of the bad-guy monologue?" She held her arms out like a zombie and mocked Kessar's accent. " 'Ooo, I'm the big evil. I'm going to kill you all. Just wait while I bore you to tears with my egomaniacal bullshit. I'm just a demon windbag who likes to hear himself speak and I'm trying to intimidate you.' "

She looked back at Kessar and put her arms down. "Really, if that's the case, you need to stop letting your mother dress you funny. It's hard to take anyone serious as a killer when he looks likes an investment banker. The only part of me that's nervous is my checkbook."

Kessar ran his tongue over his fangs as he eyed her as if she were a tender niblet. "Your girlfriend has quite a mouth, Nana. I'm going to enjoy shoving her words down her throat."

Sin glared at him. "Not nearly as much as I'm going to enjoy killing you."

Kat rolled her eyes. "What is this? A hen party? For a couple of guys, you're talking more than an episode of Oprah. If we're going to fight, let's fight."

Zakar frowned at her. "So eager to die are you?"

Kat shrugged. "Not particularly, but I'd rather go down clubbing Kessar than from boredom."

Suddenly there were four dozen Kessars all around them.

Kat cursed as she realized she might have spoken too soon. This could get ugly-and given the number of Kessars present, that was putting it mildly-fast.

"Yo, Toto," she said to Sin, "I'm having a bad Matrix II flashback and hearing Mr. Anderson in my head from that guy who was the elf in Lord of the Rings."

Sin arched a brow. "Orlando Bloom?"

"No, the other one."

Without warning, Kessar started for her. Kat moved to attack him, but before he reached her, she was jerked out of the way.

All of a sudden, someone was shaking her. Hard.

"Ow!" Kat blinked open her eyes to find Kytara standing over her while she lay in bed beside Sin. "What the...?"

"Wake up your boyfriend. I'm going to get the one in the other room before Kessar tears him apart." Kytara vanished.

Yawning, Kat rolled over and did what Kytara had told her. Sin came awake, ready to fight.

"Whoa," Kat said, ducking his grip. "It's me. Kat."

It took him a second to focus on her face and to realize he was awake. "Where's Kessar?"

"Not here. He's only in our dreams." She scooted toward the edge of the bed. "Kytara just woke me, then headed out toward your brother. Let's go see if she can explain all this."

They left the bedroom to find Kytara in the main room, which was so dark, they could barely see. Sin turned on a small lamp on the bar that cast a dull yellow glow around them.

The Dream-Huntress was kneeling on the floor beside Zakar, staring at him while he continued to sleep.

Sin went to wake him, but Kytara grabbed his arm to stop him. Her eyes were vibrant and blue in the low light. "He's not what you think."

"He's my brother."

"Yes," she breathed as she met his gaze, "but ask yourself why they let him live."

"To torture him."

Kytara shook her head. "To ruin him, Sin. He's no longer a god of dreams. He's become one of them."

Sin shook his head in denial. "He fought against them. I saw it for myself."

Kat stepped forward, agreeing completely with Sin. There was no way Zakar could be on the side of the gallu after all he'd gone through. Not after all Kessar and his minions had done to him. It wasn't possible.

But her friend knew something... had seen something that had her panicked. Kytara was hiding a truth she didn't think Sin could handle.

Kat knelt on the floor next to Kytara. "He told us he'd been fractured. What did he mean?"

Kytara sat back on her feet before she rose to tower over Kat.

"They have infected him and he can't control it. He's as likely to kill you as he is them."

Kat rose immediately as those words haunted her. Surely not...

By Sin's face, she could tell he refused to believe it. "Kat fixed his injuries."

"On the outside. It's what's inside him that's deadly. He now has the same blood hunger they have."

"No. He battled Asag and survived. It gave him immunity to the gallu."

"It gave him resistance, not immunity. They have been feeding on him for centuries with no letup. The gallu is inside him and it's trying to gnaw its way out even as we speak. He is a danger to all of us. Why do you think they had him tied down? He has their strength, the powers of a god, and the demon inside him that will kill anything without remorse."

Kat was sick at the news. It wasn't fair for Zakar to have suffered so much only to die now that he was free. "There has to be something we can do."

"Kill him," Kytara said simply.

"I can't." Sin's voice broke with the weight of his emotions. "He's my brother." His eyes betrayed the agony inside him. "My twin."