Acheron (Dark-Hunter #14)

Ash was still in bed, not quite awake, but no longer sleeping when his phone rang. Assuming it was another Dark-Hunter in need of something stupid, he answered it without even looking at the number.

"Hey, Ash, it's Tory. I'm at the grocery store. What do you want tonight?"

You on a platter . . . He forced himself away from that uncharacteristic line of thought. "I really don't eat much, Tory. There's nothing I need."

"Oh come on. You didn't grow to the height of a mountain without eating someone out of house and home."

Actually he had.

"There has to be something you live on besides beer and if you say wine, I will hurt you."

He smiled in spite of himself. "I swear to you, there's nothing I want."

"You like frustrating me, don't you? Fine, I'll make falafel and humus-you're Greek. You'll live with it, like it, and you're going to eat some whether you want to or not. I'll see you tonight."

What was it with Tory and food? She was almost as bad as Simi. How could a woman that skinny eat all the time? He tossed his phone down, then rolled onto his back and covered his eyes with his arm, not wanting to get up yet. He'd been out late the night before hunting Daimons after he'd left Tory's house. Something was brewing here in New Orleans, but he couldn't figure it out.

Stryker was plotting something. He could feel it.

But he didn't want to think about Stryker right now either. Letting his thoughts drift, they came back to a pair of beautiful brown eyes circled by small glasses and set into the face of the most frustrating human being on the planet.

Soteria.

Before he could stop himself, he imagined her naked in bed with him. Her hair falling forward over her face as she leaned over him for a kiss . . . His cock hardened instantly.

Unable to stand it, he reached down to move himself so that it didn't hurt.

"You want a hand with that?"

Moving his arm, his eyes flew open to find Artemis in bed with him which instantly killed his peaceful mood. "No."

She pouted. "Oh c'mon, Acheron. You're not really going to let all that go to waste, are you?"

He rolled over to give her his back. "I'd rather masturbate."

She punched at his shoulder. "You're in one of those moods again, aren't you? I hate when you get so sullen with me."

Then why did she keep coming around him when it was his natural state in her presence? Well that, and severely pissed off.

"What do you want, Artie? It's not like you to pop into my bed and you know better than to come to Katoteros. How the hell did you get past Alexion anyway?"

"He's too preoccupied with his wife to notice me these days."

Note to self, kill Alexion again later. At least make the bastard wander around the shores of the Isle of the Dead for a while.

"So why are you here, Artie?"

"You want me here."

Yeah, like an alien rectal probe up my sphincter. "How you figure that?"

"Since you can't see it because it would impact your future, you told me to always let you know whenever something happened involving the Atlantean remains."

And she'd already failed to tell him about the diary which could have been disastrous for him if it'd been one from Ryssa's twenties. "And?"

"Well I just had those people arrested in Greece for excavating without a license. Say thank you, Artemis."

Ash turned his head to look at her. She was literally simpering with pride over what she'd done. "What people?"

"You know, that pathetic-looking archaeologist that we saw? Her people. They'd uncovered the site and were pulling things out of the water yesterday by the handfuls. Found all kinds of things. I know how upset you get when people do that, so I had the authorities go arrest them and confiscate the artifacts."

"Did you happen to have anyone beaten up while you were at it?"

"Why would I do that?"

He scoffed as he rubbed his forehead. "You seem to get off on seeing someone beaten."

She narrowed those evil green eyes on him. "You are in such a foul mood. I don't like to see you beaten either."

He'd seen the gleam of sexual satisfaction one time too many in her eyes while he was being punished to believe that. She loved making him bleed. It was the only time she felt more powerful than he and it made her even hornier than she was right now.

"Whatever you say, Artie."

"Then roll over and satisfy me."

"I have a headache."

She brushed her hand through his black hair, turning it blond. "You can't get a headache."

"Sure I can. I have a hundred twenty pound one rubbing on me even as I speak."

She slapped at his bare back. "You're such an asshole." She bit him hard on the arm before she vanished.

Grimacing, Ash rubbed at the spot. At least she hadn't torn his skin out. This time.

"I had them arrested."

He sighed as he realized those would be friends of Tory's. He better get up and go deal with it. Tory would be furious and scared for them.

"Greetings, brother."

Stryker glanced up to see his half-sister, Satara, standing in the doorway of his office. Because they'd had different mothers Satara had been spared the Apollite curse of death that Stryker bore, but then again, since their father had given her to Artemis to be a permanent servant to the bitch, he wasn't sure which of them had the worse life.

Today, Satara's hair was coal black like his and she wore a tight, red leather dress that clung to every deep curve of her body.

"What brings you here, sister?"

"Auntie Artemis, of course. You said to always tell you when she was in a tizzy over something. She went off on a big one last night."

"Over what?"

"It seems a team of archaeologists stumbled onto Atlantis. The real one. And some of the artifacts, including a pristine journal, were recovered."

Stryker sat back in his chair. "One of Ryssa's journals?"

"Given the way Artemis reacted, my guess is yes."

Oh this was good. The humans had no idea that Apollites and Daimons lived among them and they'd gone to quite a bit of effort to make sure it stayed that way. But if one of Ryssa's journals was uncovered . . .

It could tell everything about them.

It was bad enough he and his Daimon brethren had the Dark-Hunters after them. The last thing they needed was for their food source to get scared and start hiding from them at night. They only had a few hours each night to hunt or die. This could be bad.

"I need you to find that journal."

Satara walked forward to lean on his desk. "Artemis is already one step ahead of you."

He pondered that. Artemis seldom ever bothered herself with anything other than chasing after Acheron. "Why does she want it so badly?"

Satara shrugged. "I guess her fear is someone will learn that it wasn't Apollo who sank Atlantis. Or maybe Ryssa knew about Artemis's relationship with Acheron and wrote about it."

Stryker's mind whirled with other possibilities. "Or maybe there's something in that book that tells Acheron's weakness. Maybe even a way to kill him or Apollo and Auntie too."

Satara's eyes sparked with new interest. "I'll find that book."

"You do that. And if anyone gets in your way-"

"They're lunch."

"Forget Jake Gyllenhaal and Shia LaBeouf, have you ever seen a better looking man in your life?"

Tory frowned as she walked past a group of female students who were giggling and agog over who knew what.

"I don't think he goes here. I've never seen him before, but I'd kill to have him in at least one class."

"I'd kill to have him under me!"

"I've seen him around. He's been at the bar Sanctuary on Ursu-lines a couple of times when I was there partying with friends. I think he's hooked up with that tall blond waitress who has such a nasty attitude."

"Are you serious? How on earth did I miss that? I must have been good and drunk."

Their comments faded out as Tory made her way to her office. But as she neared it, the female student body count got higher and higher or more to the point thicker and thicker. She actually had to push her way through them.

Yeah . . . this wasn't right. She'd never seen so many people this interested in the Anthropology department before.

It wasn't until she neared her door that she realized why.

Ash was there. Dressed in a long black duster that made her wonder just how many ankle length coats he had, he leaned against the wall with his arms folded over his chest. His was a powerful nonchalance that was riveting. She looked down and smiled at his crossed booted feet and the ever present black backpack resting behind them.

Those dark sunglasses were in place and today his long hair was pulled back into a ponytail. And his silver nose stud had been exchanged for one that looked like a small red ruby.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, reaching her door.

"Waiting for you."

She glanced around at the traffic jam he'd caused. "Really, you should have called. I think the Fire Marshal would have issues with this."

A slow grin broke across his face. "Sorry."

She opened the door and stood back. "You better get inside while I hold them off."

Picking up his backpack, he laughed before he complied.

Tory turned toward the collection of students. "See how exciting Anthropology is? He's a leading expert in ancient Greece. Now you should all change your majors so that you can ogle men like him all day long. Or better yet, uncover naked male statues."

She closed the door to find Ash smirking at her. "Was that necessary?"

"Hey, I live to recruit students for the department. If I can make you good for something, then by golly I'm going to do it."

"By golly?"

She shrugged as she put her armload of books down on her desk. "Yeah, like you don't have weird things you say, too. So what can I do for you?"

"I want to go back to that 'make you good for something' statement for a minute . . . Why do you hate me so much?"

Tory squirmed a bit under his hidden scrutiny and pointed question. "I wouldn't say I hate you. The hatred has fallen down to a mild distaste."

"Why?"

She sighed as she returned some of her books to the shelves behind her desk. "Because everything seems so easy for you. Have you ever had a day in your life where people weren't lining up to take care of you?"

"Yes, Soteria. I have. I assure you, my life has never been an easy one and you should be grateful every day you live that you can't imagine what kind of childhood I had."

Tory paused at the note in his voice and the deadly sincerity of his words. "I'm sorry, Ash. I didn't know."

He set the backpack down on the floor. "It's easy to look at people and make quick judgments about them, their present and their pasts, but you'd be amazed at the pain and tears a single smile hides. What a person shows to the world is only one tiny facet of the iceberg hidden from sight. And more often than not, it's lined with cracks and scars that go all the way to the foundation of their soul."

He was right and it made her feel guilty that she was so quick to assess people. It'd always been a fault of hers that she tried not to give in to. "You are amazingly astute for someone your age."

He snorted. "I told you, I'm older than I look and I've never had anything in my life that I didn't pay for one way or another."

She shuffled a stack of papers into her inbox. "Now that I think about it, you'd have to be a glutton for punishment to keep coming near me given my acerbic personality where you're concerned."

Ash offered her his hand. "Truce?"

"Peace, my brother," she said shaking his hand. "Now why are you here?"

Sighing, he stepped back and crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, I heard from a friend that some archaeologists in Greece had been arrested for excavating without a permit. I wanted to see if they happened to be your team."

She waved her hand dismissively. "Why would they be my team?"

"They were excavating a site they claimed to be Atlantis. Sounded like your guys to me."

"But we have all of our paperwork."

"If you're sure . . ." he let his voice trail off meaningfully.

She screwed her face up as if she realized her luck would have them in trouble. "Wait. Let me call."

Ash sat down in the chair in front of her desk and stretched his legs out while she dug her phone out of her purse.

Tory frowned at his backpack on the floor and the way he kept it within easy reach. "What's in that backpack, by the way? You're always guarding it like it holds national security secrets or something."

"Dirty underwear."

She rolled her eyes. "Thanks so much for that image."

"You asked."

Shaking her head, she dialed David's number. When he didn't answer, she rang Justina. Again, no answer. Her panic set in as she tried for Bruce.

"Tory?"

She breathed in relief as he answered. "Hey sweetie, I can't get-"

"They've all been arrested."

Disgusted and afraid, she glanced to Ash whose handsome face was completely stoic. "What?"

"The whole team. I stayed on land to wait and sign for the new diving gear that was coming in and the next thing I knew, the boat was impounded and everyone was taken into custody."

Tory let out a frustrated breath. "How is this possible?"

"They say our paperwork is forged."

"Bullshit! It's not forged. Solin helped us to get it renewed just last spring."

"Yeah and as usual Solin has fled the scene. We can't find him either. For all I know he's in jail alongside them."

"Oh good grief. Okay, you sit tight and I'll see what I can do." Hanging up, she looked at Ash who sat as still as a statue. "You were right. My whole crew. Gone. Arrested. Perfect. Shoot me now and save me the expense of a bullet later."

He let out a tired breath as he rubbed one large hand down his thigh. "Don't worry. I'll make a call and get them out."

"You can do that?"

"I can do it." He pulled his phone out and flipped it open with a stern flick of his wrist.

Hoping he wasn't lying, Tory sat behind her desk and held her breath while she leaned her head against her hands. How had this happened? Her poor team. They had to be terrified over this.

Ash spoke in that deep, rhythmic flawless Greek of his that sent a shiver down her spine. "Hi Gus, it's Acheron Parthenopaeus. I need to pull in a favor from you. There's a group of anthropologists who were arrested for excavating in the Aegean, this morning I think. Can you get them out and clear them of all charges?"

He laughed. "I know they think it's Atlantis. Everyone wants to find a treasure. But I don't want to see them hurt for a pipe dream. They're harmless friends of a friend if you know what I mean. Get them out of trouble for me."

He tapped his thumb on his thigh while he listened. "No . . . I don't think they need a lesson. I'm sure they're rattled enough as it is. Give Olympia my best and let me know the minute the baby's born. I'll see the two of you next time I'm in Greece."

She straightened as he closed the phone. "Well?"

"He can get them out without a problem, but the artifacts are confiscated and there's nothing he can do about that. If you guys go digging down there again, they're going to execute you."

"You're joking."

"Not really. The authorities are extremely hot over this."

"But we had the right permits."

Ash held the closed phone against his chin. "According to them you didn't and they were one step away from issuing a warrant out for you because you took part of their national heritage out of their country without permission."

"What I have isn't Greek, it's Atlantean."

"The diary is Greek and they're not stupid. Even if it was Atlantean, they'd claim it since it came out of the Aegean which is their territory."

Tory hung her head in her hands. "I can't believe this. I was going to hand it over to them once I got a translation for it-I always give them whatever we find . . . just not necessarily as soon as we find it."

"Well Gus can get it smoothed over. Your guys'll be out of jail shortly and it would probably be in your best interest if you get that book back to the Greek government before they reconsider their decision and issue a warrant for you."

She looked at him. "Thank you for all your help, Ash. Really. Thank you. I don't know what we'd have done had you not heard about this and been here."

"I would say no problem but actually it is, so please don't do this again. Calling in favors is something I try really hard not to do. It usually bites me on my ass somehow."

Tory gave him a wan smile, knowing that she'd put him in a bad position. "Tell me what I can do to make this up to you?"

"Just stay out of trouble."

"I plan to." She growled before she pushed herself away from her desk. "Okay, enough pity party, I-" Her words were interrupted by her cell phone ringing. "I'm holding that thought." She picked up the phone. "Yes? No, I'm not at home. Yes, please dispatch the police. I'm on my way."

Ash frowned. "What's wrong?"

"That's the alarm company. There was a three-alarm burglary at my house." She grabbed her purse and keys.

"I'll drive."

"What?"

"You're too rattled to drive and you don't need to go alone to confront burglars. I'll go with you."

Tory was so grateful to him just then. She handed him her keys and followed as he led the way out of the building to the parking lot where she'd left her Mustang.

"What a day . . ." she breathed as she buckled herself in. "No, what a crappy week. I'm almost afraid to get up tomorrow."

Ash started the engine. "I know, first you met me-perish the thought-then your team got attacked. Now your house. Where's a hammer when you really need one?"

She smiled in spite of herself.

"It'll be all right," he said reassuringly.

She hoped so. But in the back of her mind, she was telling herself that it was a false alarm. That there was nothing bad at her house.

Please don't let there be anything bad at my house. She couldn't stand the thought of a stranger touching her things. Of her life being scrambled.

The moment Acheron parked out front, she knew better. Her front door was wide open and there was no sign of the police. She started to open the car door, but Ash stopped her.

"Wait for the police."

"Why?"

"You don't want to contaminate any evidence before they get here."

He was right, but she hated it.

It was another fifteen minutes before the police arrived. They went in first and then motioned to let them know it was safe.

Tory felt her tears starting even before she entered the living room. Her entire house had been ransacked. "Oh my God . . ." The OCD in her was horrified by what had been done. Everything was out of order.

The police, a man and woman officer, looked at her sympathetically. "We'll need a list of everything that's missing."

Tory barely understood what they were saying. Covering her mouth with her hand, she stared at pictures of her parents and family that had been thrown on the ground. Her drawers had been opened and their contents dumped all over her floor. She hadn't seen this much damage since she'd helped friends clean up after Katrina. "I can't believe one human being could do this to another."

Suddenly Ash was there, holding her against his chest. "It's all right, Soteria. Just breathe."

She held on to him, grateful he was with her. Grateful that he was holding her while her whole world was turned upside down. First Nikolas's attack, then her team arrested and their equipment confiscated, now this . . .

The female officer frowned as she scanned the damage. "Is it just me or does it look like they were searching for something?"

Tory pulled back at her question. "What do you mean?"

The male officer indicated the drawers on the floor. "In most burglaries, especially when you have houses this close together and it's daylight, they usually grab some big ticket items and run." He shined his flashlight at her television, still on its stand in the corner in front of her tall windows. "They didn't even grab your TV."

The female officer nodded in agreement. "Not to mention, it appears the alarm was tripped on their way out of here. Like they were trying to draw you out or something."

Tory scowled at them. "Why would they want to draw me here? That doesn't make any sense."

"No, it doesn't," the male officer said, turning his light off and returning it to his belt. "Unless they were looking for something."

The woman offered her a kind smile. "We've got the CSI unit coming over to take some prints. There's really nothing else we can do. Make a list of whatever's missing and we'll put it in your file and run it through the local pawn stores. Other than that, you'll have to file a report with your insurance company."

The male officer concurred. "And you might want to have your boyfriend stay with you tonight."

A wave of fear went through her. "You think they'll come back?"

The male officer shook his head. "We don't know. Besides most burglary vics have trouble sleeping for a night or two after a break-in."

Tory sat on the arm of her couch as she surveyed the destruction around her. She was grateful she kept her precious artifacts either with her or locked in a vault on campus. "I can't believe this." Ash took her hand in his and didn't speak while the police questioned her about possible suspects and their people came in to dust various areas and pieces for fingerprints.

They found nothing. Not a single smudge. Either the burglars were wearing gloves or they were mutants.

Personally she voted for mutants. She preferred to think that than deal with the fact that a normal, everyday person could do something like this to another.

When the police were finally gone, she turned to Ash. "I'm sure you have something better to do than baby-sit me."

"It's all right. I don't mind. There are some things you shouldn't be alone for."

There was a slight note in his tone that made her think he'd been alone through a lot of them.

He stooped down to pick up the pictures of her parents before he returned them to her mantel. She didn't know why, but the way he handled them made her heart clench with tenderness at his consideration for her.

"Do you have any family, Ash?"

He put the pictures right back where they'd been, as if he remembered the exact spot from his previous visit. "We all have people we love."

She didn't miss the fact that he avoided answering her question. Without looking at her, he went to the items that'd been knocked off her end table.

Kneeling on the ground, Ash frowned as he picked up a shadow box that had a small black rock in it. A tiny bronze plaque on the bottom read SOTERIA'S FIRST EXCAVATION 1985.

"What's this?"

Her eyes misted as she moved to take it out of his hand. "It's from the first time my parents allowed me to dig with them. I was so proud when I found this. I thought I'd discovered a rare spear point. My father didn't have the heart to tell me it was only a rock. So they framed it for me and put it in my room by my bed with a light that used to shine on it." She sobbed as a tear escaped past her control. "Those bastards touched my parents' belongings!"

Ash came to his feet to hold her as she cried. She clung to him as if her entire world had been shattered. He'd learned to bury his tears so deep inside that he couldn't fathom the passion and hurt it took for her to cry like this. All he knew was that the few times in his life when he'd cried this way the one thing he'd craved had been comfort.

And not once had there ever been any.

So he offered to her what no one had ever given to him. He let her sob until she was spent and the shirt over his chest was damp from her tears.

Tory pulled back, wiping at the wet spot she'd made. "I'm so sorry, Ash. I'm not an emotional person. I'm not." She cleared her throat and gave him the most determined look he'd ever seen. "I will not let them do this to me. I'm stronger than this."

"Everyone cries sometimes, Tory. There are some pains that run too deep for even the strongest to take without breaking. I don't think any less of you for it."

She laughed nervously. "You really aren't the asshole I thought you were, are you?"

He offered her a kind smile. "Actually, I have moments of great assholishness. Unfortunately, you seem to have been witness to most of the recent ones."

Tory patted his muscular arm in gratitude for his understanding. He was so easy to talk to at times. Sniffing back her tears, she looked around at the mess. "I'll never get all of this cleaned up."

Her house phone rang. She left Ash in her living room as she went to the kitchen to answer it.

Ash returned to gathering up the photographs as he tried to understand what had happened here. He should be able to replay the entire scene in his head, but like trying to see Tory's future, it was blank. This just wasn't normal for him.

He was a god of fate . . .

Glancing over his shoulder, he watched as she returned to his side and picked up one of the drawers that had been tossed upside down next to the couch.

"That was my friend Pam. She panicked when I didn't answer my cell and called the house. She and Kim are going to come over and help clean the mess."

"You want me to leave then?"

She hesitated. "Only if you want to. It's actually comforting to have you here with me." She looked away from him as if admitting that embarrassed her and put the drawer back in place. She stepped back and froze. "How weird."

"What?"

"They didn't steal my stereo either." She moved a sweater that had been tossed over it by the burglars to show him her white Bose wave system.

That was an odd thing for a burglar to miss. "Maybe they didn't see it."

"Maybe." She pushed it back on the shelf, then turned it on.

Ash frowned as the Bee Gees blared. "Night Fever"? He shuddered. "Disco?"

"Shush," she said, waving at him before she picked up another drawer. "It comforts me when I feel bad."

"How on earth can disco comfort you?"

She picked up a picture of her parents and turned it toward him. Her mother, who looked a lot like Tory, was in a white halter top dress with feathered brown hair while her father was in a yellow paisley polyester shirt and brown leisure suit with curly black hair and a mustache. They were leaning together in front of what appeared to be a New York disco club that Ash vaguely remembered from the late 1970s.

Tory stroked the photo lovingly. "My mother's best friend, Sheri, who is a major shutterbug, took this the night my parents first met. My father thought my mother was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. So he sheepishly went over and asked her to dance, expecting her to say no. She didn't. She thought his bashful hesitancy was so sweet that she said yes. They went out onto the dance floor right as Donna Summer's 'Last Dance' began playing. The extended dance version. By the time it ended, my father went down on his knee right there in the club and proposed to her. They married a year later and were never parted again until the day my mother died."

She swallowed as if the memories were hard for her to handle. Her bottom lip quivered as she swayed to the song. "When I was little, my parents used to break out their disco albums and we'd dance to them until we were too tired to move. Hearing disco is like having them with me again. I swear every time I hear Thelma Houston's 'Don't Leave Me This Way,' I hear my mother's voice singing to me while she holds me in her arms and dances around the room with me laughing."

He envied her those memories of being loved and cherished. He wished for her sake that her parents were still here to comfort her. "How old were you when they died?"

"I was seven with my mother and ten when my father died. He was never the same after she left us."

"She didn't leave you by choice."

"I know." Tory placed the photo back on her bookshelves on top of an old, worn copy of Homer's Odyssey. "It's just easier to say she left than to say she died." She looked at him. "What about you? Do you have any memories like that?"

He tried not to think about it. "Not really. I grew up without my parents."

"Did they die?"

He turned away and focused on cleaning the mess in her floor. "It's more complicated than that which is why I don't talk about it."

Tory scowled at the coldness in his voice that she was sure he was only using to shield himself. "I'm sorry, Ash. Did you know them at all?"

He didn't answer, but she could feel the sadness in him which led her to believe that he hadn't really known anything about them at all.

She watched as he quietly made order out of the chaos the burglars had left. There was an Old World air about him. A really old soul trapped inside a young body. More than that, there was something soothing. As if being with him calmed her deep inside in a way nothing else ever had. It was almost like being home . . . It didn't make any sense, but there was no denying what she felt when she was around him.

All of a sudden, there was a sharp knock on her door.

She went to find Pam and Kim standing outside with two boxes of extra large pizza and a twelve-pack of beer. The two of them looked a lot alike in many ways. Pam was taller and had her spiked hair bleached blond in front and dyed jet black in back. Kim's hair was the same style but the exact opposite in color. Decked out in their uniquely Goth fashion, they looked like they belonged with Ash a lot more than Tory.

Pam indicated the road behind her with her thumb. "Hey, is that a cop in the car across the street?"

Tory saw a brown sedan. "I don't think so. Why?"

"Cause the two guys in it had a pair of binoculars trained on this place when we pulled up."

Ash was at the door before Tory could even blink. He brushed past her, but before he could make it to the first step the car peeled out.

Ash almost summoned Simi to follow the car, but caught himself the moment the words gathered to this tongue. Damn, that had been close. The women would have been shocked to find a demon coming to life off his arm . . .

"Why would they be watching the house?" Tory asked.

Ash turned to face her. "I think you need to tell me everything you found on that dig."

"What do you mean?"

"I think something was uncovered that a lot of people are suddenly interested in."

Tory scoffed. "They're museum pieces. Nothing of any real value to anyone other than a collector."

Yeah and the small sfora necklace Ash had given to his daughter also had the capabilities of ending the entire world. The problem with the most powerful amulets and talismans was that mortals couldn't identify their significance.

But in the right or wrong hands, rather, they could have cataclysmic consequences. "Humor me and show me what you've found."