Devil May Cry (Dark-Hunter 11)

"No. Not unless they have a conduit"-he gave her a meaningful sneer-"to drain you. Our powers will be back. Personally I think the prick is just playing with us."

Kat didn't believe that. "No, he was honestly afraid of Simi and Xirena."

"That's because they can rip his heart out and, as we learned, they're immune to the Tablet."

"Which gives us an advantage."

"As long as their numbers are small, yes. But the minute they open the doorway and let the whole demon clan out to party, our demons are dead."

Xirena's eyes widened. "Um, I don't like dead. Dead is bad."

Simi nodded in agreement. "Akri would be really sad if his Simi died. The Simi wouldn't be happy about it, either."

"And neither would I," Kat assured them. "Don't worry. We won't let them eat you."

Sin folded up the couch. By his demeanor, she could tell he was trying to think of a solution. Finally, he met her gaze. "Any chance Grandma will let more demons out of her sight?"

"I don't know. Too many Charontes out of Kalosis without Apollymi here to rein them in would be like too many gallu set free. I think we'd just be changing the face of human annihilation."

"Of course it would," Sin growled. "Now they have the Moon, they have the Tablet that I found for them, and we have no powers so long as they hold it. If we attack, they drain us. I should just shoot myself and end my suffering before they turn me into one of them."

Kat rolled her eyes at his melodramatic tirade. "Don't go Socrates yet. It's not over until they let loose the Dimme, right?"

He snorted. "Excuse me if I'm not feeling really upbeat and hopeful at the moment. After all, the one person I thought I could trust is the one who fucked me the hardest."

Kat had to clench her hand to keep from slapping him. Her first instinct was to give tit for tat. But as she opened her mouth to let him have it, she remembered Acheron's words.

"But I do know this, Katra. The first betrayal, even as severe as it was, could have been forgiven had your mother just apologized and meant it. Had she come to me and promised that she'd never hurt me again, I would have laid my life down for her. Instead she let her pride get in the way. She was more focused on punishing me for her imagined embarrassment than she was on the future we could have had together."

Those words quelled her tongue. She didn't want to make the same mistake her mother had made. She'd wronged Sin and they both knew it.

Taking a deep breath for patience, she turned toward Simi. "Simi?" she said quietly. "Will you please take Kytara's body home to Olympus? Give her to M'Adoc."

Simi nodded as she came forward to hug her. "Don't be so sad, akra-Kat. We'll eat all them gallu demons and make it all right. You'll see."

Kat smiled at the two demons. "I know you will, Simi. Thank you."

As Simi went to pick up Kytara from the floor, Xirena looked a bit awkward, as if she wasn't sure what she should do. "I'll wait in our room." Xirena vanished an instant before Simi did.

Sin headed for the bar to pour himself a drink. "You might as well join them. No need in staying around here."

Kat followed him behind the counter. "You're not getting rid of me that easily."

He slammed a glass down on the counter so hard she was surprised it didn't shatter. "Don't push me, Kat. My anger at you right now is only surpassed by my desire to kill Kessar. Since I can't lay hands on him, you might prove a worthy substitution." He poured the glass full.

"And I want you to understand the depth of my sorrow over what I did to you and your family. If I could put a hair shirt on to make amends, I would. I wish by all the gods I've ever met or even heard of that I could go back and return your powers to you. You deserve them. But I can't do that." He turned to leave.

But she wasn't willing to let him go that easily. Angry over his dismissal, she spun him around and kissed him. "I love you, Sin. I just wanted you to know that."

Sin was stunned by both her actions and her declaration. He couldn't move. All he could see was the tender look on her face. The sincerity. But even so, he heard the laughter of his wife echoing in his head. "You're incompetent as a god, a lover, and a man..."

The only thing he'd ever been good at had been killing. But Kat made him feel as if he had more skills than that. She made him feel as if he mattered. As if he had value.

And that shredded his resistance to her.

She laid her soft hand to his cheek. "We will win this and we will save your brother. I promise. I won't ever let you down or hurt you again. I swear it by all that I am and all I hope to be. You can trust me, Sin."

He swallowed as his emotions choked him. He wanted to turn and walk away from her, but he couldn't. It was too late for that.

"Don't disappoint me, Kat. I don't think I could recover from it if you did."

Kat's eyes teared as she heard those words from him. He didn't say that he loved her, but it was a start. He hadn't laughed at her or thrown her out.

He'd given her the promise of a relationship. A chance to rebuild the trust that had been broken. She couldn't expect more than that.

"You have my word, Sin."

He dipped his head down and gave her the lightest whisper of a kiss. Even so, it sent shivers over her and it fired her blood.

She buried her hand in his hair and held him close so that she could nuzzle her cheek against his. The scent of his skin made her hot and shivery. Her entire life had been spent wanting this kind of contact. He felt so good in her arms.

She didn't want to be her mother. She didn't want to miss him. To live her life with a memory of what they'd had and then to know she'd lost it all because of stupidity.

For the first time in her life, she had total clarity on Artemis's relationship with her father. It was a tragedy she didn't want to duplicate.

She rubbed a lock of Sin's hair between her fingers as she realized just how much she really did love him. Not just his body, which was hot, but the man inside it. "We're going to win this."