Devil May Cry (Dark-Hunter 11)

Anger singed him. "I saw you mend her when she was hurt. You can heal this. I know it."

She shook her head. "I can heal wounds, but this... this is in her blood. It's spreading through her. I can't fix this. It's beyond me."

He felt as if someone had just sucker punched him. He shifted Kat in his arms so that he could press his lips against her feverish temple. Every laugh she'd ever given him... every touch burned through him now.

The thought of never hearing another sarcasm-laden quip...

It couldn't be over. He couldn't lose her over something so stupid as a bite they'd failed to cauterize. If not for helping him, she wouldn't even be in this.

No, there had to be something else he could do.

He glared at Apollymi as he felt his own tears pricking his eyes. "I won't let her die like this, Apollymi. Do you hear me? There has to be something. Anything. Don't tell me that out of two pantheons we don't have a solution."

She brushed a loving hand through Kat's pale hair. "Maybe her father can do something. He understands demons a lot better than I do."

A chill went over Sin at her words-the last known address for Ash was Artemis's bed. "What?"

Apollymi locked gazes with him. "You have to take her to Olympus. Apostolos is the only one I know who might have a solution or cure for this."

Personally, he'd rather have both eyes gouged out than ever step foot on Olympus again. The last time he'd ventured there, it'd cost him everything he had, including his dignity.

But one glance at Kat's beautiful face and the obvious pain she was in and he knew he was willing to walk through the fires of hell to make her better.

"Where is he on Olympus?"

"Artemis's temple."

Of course he was. Where else would Acheron be when Sin needed him?

How unfair was this? But his past didn't matter right now. Only Kat did.

"All right," he breathed, "but I can't go there on my own. Artemis stripped that power from me to keep me from killing her."

"Oh, we can only hope." Apollymi touched him on the shoulder. "Do me proud," she whispered. Then, louder, she called out to her son, "Apostolos?"

Ash's answer was almost instantaneous. "Yes, Matera?"

"I have Sin here with Katra. She's ill and she needs you, but I can't send them there without your help."

Sin barely had time to blink before he found himself on the balcony of Artemis's temple.

The large doors to his left opened to show Acheron in a pair of black leather pants and a long, heavy silk Atlantean robelike formesta that billowed out around his boots as he walked. "What's wrong?"

Sin met him halfway across the balcony. "A gallu bit her."

Ash's face paled. "Where?"

"I don't know and I'm really not sure. We went to a cavern to free my brother and several of them showed up and attacked us. It's the only time I think it could have happened, but she didn't tell me she'd been bitten." He looked down at her, wondering why she'd kept that secret from him. "She was fine until a short time ago. She told me she had a headache and then she started burning a fever. I thought she was sick until Zakar told me she was converting. "

Acheron took her from his arms and carried her inside to a white chaise where he laid her down. Sin's heart sank at how pale she appeared. Her eyes were rolled completely back in her head, but at least her teeth were no longer chattering.

Then again, he wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.

"Katra?" Ash asked, kneeling down by her side. When she didn't respond, he laid his hand on her cheek.

She screamed the instant Ash touched her face, then tried to bite him.

Ash jumped back, out of her reach.

Sin cursed at the sight of her double set of fangs. She really was converting... Agony welled up inside of him at the thought of losing her. He was nauseated and wanted to kill Kessar for this.

"It's too late, isn't it?"

Ash looked up at the pain he heard in Sin's voice. And in that one moment, he had a realization about their relationship that made his insides shrink. Why else would Sin have come here and not be after Artemis to kill her?

He could have just left Katra with Apollymi and returned home. Instead, he'd come here with her and now watched over her with fear in his eyes and agony in his voice.

There was only one conclusion to be drawn.

Sin was Katra's lover.

Ash wanted to curse in anger, but it was too late for that. They'd already been together. He could feel it. Besides, he barely knew his daughter-who was he to parent her now and tell her that she shouldn't have slept with Sin? She was a grown woman.

One who was in deep trouble.

And unfortunately, Ash couldn't get her out of this alone. To cure her, he needed help. Standing up, he pinned Sin with a gimlet stare. Ash had to know the truth of what existed between them.

Katra's life depended on it.

"What does Katra mean to you?"

A wall came up inside Sin over that question. Ash could almost hear it closing, but he couldn't tell if it was motivated by suspicion, fear, or guilt.

"Why do you ask me that?"

Ash ground his teeth as he glanced back to his daughter, who was thrashing about on the chaise. There was only one way to save her, and it broke his heart. It was the last thing he wanted to do to anyone. But it was the only way to get the demon out of her.

"I have to bond her to someone."

Sin was confused by Ash's strange behavior and his words. Ash was reticent about helping his daughter, and Sin couldn't understand that. He would have brought down the heavens to protect his own. Why was Ash so upset now?

"Okay. What's the problem with that?"

Ash seared him with that swirling silver gaze that seemed to be able to see straight to his soul. When Ash spoke, his voice was thick with emotion. "Listen to me, Sin. I'm going to have to summon the demon out of her... by draining her blood. If I know the demon within, it won't let go of her until I've taken so much blood that she's going to die from it. The only way to save her will be to bond her to someone else by using their blood. When I do this, she will need that person for the rest of her life to feed from. She'll be a vampire."

Sin hesitated. He wanted to make sure he understood exactly what Ash was saying. "But not a gallu."

"No. She'll be just as she was... unless she goes too long without feeding. Then she'll turn cold and will feed from anyone who's capable of sustaining her."

"Then what are you waiting for?"

Still Ash was hesitant. It was obvious he didn't like the thought of bonding them together, and Sin couldn't understand why until Ash continued. "Blood bonds like this are very sexual. She's my daughter. For an obvious reason, I don't want to bond her to me... That leaves"-he hesitated-"you."