Kat lifted her legs and kicked him back. Sin hit the ground with a whoof before he flipped to his feet and came after her again.
She pushed herself away from the car and ducked his hands, then sucked her breath in sharply as she hurt her arm-that only made her angrier. "Trust me, asshole, you don't want a piece of me."
His nostrils flared. "Oh yes I do. I've been dreaming of strangling you for centuries."
What the hell did he mean by that?
All of a sudden, the sound of approaching sirens rent the air. Kat turned her head to listen, but the instant she did, he grabbed her.
This time when she went for him, he moved faster than was humanly possible. One moment they were on the street and in the next everything went black.
Sin smiled evilly as Artemis collapsed into his arms. It was true he lacked the bulk of his god-strength, but his brother had made sure after Artemis had drained him that he still had enough juice to protect himself.
Even against the gods.
He couldn't believe fate had been so kind as to throw the bitch right into his path... Now she was his and he was going to make her pay for what she'd done to him.
Smiling at the very thought, he flashed himself to his penthouse in Las Vegas. None too gently, he dumped his prisoner on his black leather sofa before he went to his bedroom to gather a few necessary items. Holding a goddess hostage was tricky business. Once she awoke she'd be pissed and wanting blood.
His blood.
Therefore he'd need a few things to make sure she didn't use her powers to rip his heart out. Opening his closet, he moved to the back and shoved his clothes to one side. Hidden behind them was his vault. The door was made of tarnished bronze and held a hand and retinal scanner. Rather impressively modern given the fact that he was an ancient Sumerian ex-god. But one had to make adjustments when one was locked in the hell that was the human world.
He opened the door and moved inside where he kept the remnants of his own temple in Ur-what few things Artemis hadn't destroyed after she'd eliminated him. It wasn't much, a gold urn or two and the altar tray where his worshipers had once placed offerings. He'd also kept a few statues, but most of the vault's contents were taken from his daughter's temple in Ur. After her death, he'd tried to save anything that bore her image and those were carefully preserved in the glass cases around him.
But that wasn't what had brought him here. What he sought rested in the far back corner, in a leather trunk that creaked eerily as he opened it. A sadistic smile curled his lips as he found the one item he'd saved all these centuries.
The diktyon that Artemis had used to tie him in place as she sucked his powers from him. Something in its composition rendered an immortal powerless. It kept them trapped and helpless.
He could still feel the humiliation of being at her mercy.
And once the bitch had drained him, she'd dumped him in the desert still wrapped in the net.
"Thanks for being so compliant. Now to pit the rest of your pathetic pantheon against each other until they're all gone." Her laughter had rang in his ears.
Like a milk-whelp, he'd been forced to call out to his family for help. His father had laughed and then turned his back on him... as had all the others. The only one to show him pity had been his brother, Zakar. If not for him, Sin would still be lying in the desert.
Rotting or worse.
Of course their laughter had died out soon enough. Artemis had fulfilled her promise. Almost every member of his family had been disposed of by the Greek gods. The Greeks had either absorbed their powers and replaced them or they had turned them against each other until none were left. That had been three thousand years ago.
Now it was time to settle the score.
Grabbing the net, he headed for the couch where he'd left Artemis "sleeping."
She was still lying right in her spot, unconscious. Good. You know, you could kill her right here. Right now...
The temptation was strong. But then what fun would it really be? She was unconscious. She wouldn't feel it. Would know it. Besides, she was a goddess. To kill her while she still had her godhood would cause a rift in the universe.
The only way to destroy a god was to dispense or absorb their powers and then kill them.
Not to mention, he wanted to see her suffer. He wanted to look her dead in the eyes when he sucked her powers out and reestablished his godhood-wanted her to know the abject humiliation and pain of being completely vulnerable.
And that he could only do if she were awake and alive.
Damn.
With that in mind, he took his time cocooning her in the webbing. Let her be held down by her own weapon. It was only fitting. If he were lucky, she'd cry like a baby and beg for a mercy he had no intention of giving her.
Oh yeah, he could hear her now...
"Please Sin, please let me go, I'll do anything."
"Bark like a dog."
She would too. She'd be crying and hysterical. And he'd just laugh at her. He savored the very thought of it.
Sin paused as he secured her feet and glanced up at her face. To his deepest chagrin, he actually had to admit that she was beautiful-in a lethal snake-like, venomous, bitch sort of way. In his murderous dreams, he'd forgotten exactly how graceful and attractive she was.
But here and now, he remembered things he'd buried three thousand years ago.
Like everyone else he'd ever known she'd turned on him. She'd laughed in his face and had reduced him to a pathetic immortal.
He didn't see anything beautiful about her now. But he did find it odd that she had blond hair instead of the vibrant red she was famous for. Maybe that was because she'd been in the human world and she was trying to pass as one of them for some reason.
Still, her body was the same. Tall, graceful and well built, she was put together like the goddess she was. Any man, immortal or otherwise, would kill to have access to a woman like this. And he remembered a time when he'd been so attracted to her that he would have done anything to make her happy.
Now all he wanted was to kill her.
"Hey, Sin?"
He paused as he saw his servant Kish coming into the room. Just under six feet tall, Kish appeared to be in his mid-twenties, but in reality the man was almost three thousand years old. Like Sin, he had jet black hair and dark olive skin, only his hair, unlike Sin's, hung just past his shoulders.
Kish froze in place as he saw the woman on the couch. "Uh, boss, whatcha doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?"
Kish made a face as he scratched at the area right above his left ear. "It's looking pretty kinky. And here's where I should remind you that kidnapping a woman in this day and age, and in this country in particular, is a federal offense."
Sin wasn't amused. "Yes, and in your birth time period, it was a capital offense that resulted in the man's testicles being cut off before he was beheaded."
Kish jerked at the mention of castration and cupped himself. "Yeah and so why are you kidnapping her?"
"Who says I kidnapped her?"
"The fact she's unconscious and tied up... fully clothed. I figure if it was really kinky and she was cooperating, she'd be awake and naked."
Kish did have a point.
He moved forward and looked more closely at her before he glanced back to Sin. "So who is she?"
"Artemis."
"Artemis who?"
Sin gave him a hard stare. "You know. Greek goddess bitch who stole my powers."
Kish let out a nervous laugh. "That's the goddess trussed up like a turkey on your couch. Are you insane?"
"No," Sin said as righteous fury drove him on. "I had an advantage and I took it." His face turned ashen. "And when she wakes up, we're both toast. Burnt toast. Charred toast. Whatever the hell is beyond charred, that's us." He moved his index finger back and forth between them to emphasize their coming doom.
"She's going to kick both our asses. And no offense, I don't want my ass kicked by a goddess... well, Angelina Jolie in a black teddy and spiked heels notwithstanding. Angie-baby could drive those spiked heels all over me, but this..." he gestured toward Artemis. "This will get me painfully disemboweled and that I'd like to avoid at all costs."
Sin shook his head at the man's hysteria. "Calm down before you wet my rug and I take a newspaper to you. She's not going to kick our asses. This net negates her powers. It's how she sucked me dry and left me humiliated."
Kish cocked his head as if he wanted to believe that, but wasn't sure he should. "Are you sure about that, boss?"
"Positive. The diktyon was designed as a trap for gods and immortals. So long as she's held by it, we're fine."
He was still cringing. "I don't think fine is the word I'd use in this situation. More like screwed or dead even. She's not going to be happy about this."
As if Sin gave a shit what she was or wasn't happy about. "Once I have my powers back, it won't matter. She'll be in no position to hurt either of us."
"And how are you going to do that?"
Sin had no idea. He honestly wasn't sure how she'd gotten them to begin with. After she'd given him nectar to drink in her temple, things had gotten fuzzy and he wasn't completely sure what all she'd done to him. His belief was that Artemis had sucked his powers out of him by drinking his blood. Personally, he didn't want to drink her blood-there was no telling what diseases the bitch might carry: rabies, distemper, parvo... But if it would reinstate him, he'd do it.
First he had to find out from her if a blood exchange would work.
He glared at his servant. "Don't you have something to do?"
"If not for the fact it would result in your breaking every bone in my body and making me cry for mommy, I'd be calling some cops. As it stands, I think my neck is best served by trying to talk sense into you."
Sin clenched his teeth. "Kish, if you value your life, get out of here and stay out of here."
But the instant Kish took a step back, a feeling of dread consumed Sin. Kish was too panicked and when panicked people always did incredibly stupid things-like call the cops on an immortal who didn't want to even begin to try and explain why he was holding a woman on his couch in a net.
Or worse, call Acheron who would freak on Sin if he ever learned about this.
So Sin froze him in place.
He stared at Kish's statue with satisfaction. "Yeah, you chill and let me worry about this."
It was for the best and it would keep him from having to kill Kish later. And while he was at it, he sealed his door so that no one else could disturb him.
Kat came awake with her arm aching. She tried to shift her weight off it, only to learn that she couldn't. A feather-light netting covered her. Unfortunately, it was a netting she knew all too well.
Artemis's diktyon.
Disgust consumed Kat over a prank that had grown old centuries ago when another of Artemis's handmaidens had thought trapping her like this was entertaining. Wouldn't the woman ever learn that Kat didn't find this funny?
"All right, Satara, stop with the stupid games and let me up."
But as Kat focused her eyes, she realized that she wasn't at home and Satara wasn't there, laughing at her.
Rather, there was a man, glaring his hatred at her. Again.
She let out a sound of deep aggravation. "What is your damage?"
"Simple. I want my powers back."
Of course he did. What god wouldn't want his powers back? But Lucifer's hell would freeze solid before she ever allowed a psycho like this to have even an inkling of power. "Yeah, well, tough shit."
He curled his lip. "Don't fuck with me, Artemis. I'm not in the mood."
"And neither am I, dumb-ass. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not Artemis."
Sin paused at her words and took a closer look at her. There were small things about her that were different. But the woman held the same green eyes. The same facial features. She was Artemis. He could feel the power emanating from her. "Don't lie, bitch."
She kicked at him, but he sidestepped it. "Don't you dare call me that, dickhead. I don't take that from anyone, least of all someone like you."
"Give me my powers and I'll gladly free you." And he meant that. Once he got his powers returned, he'd kill her and then she'd be free.
"Look, Brick Wall, I can't give you what I don't have. I. Am. Not. Artemis." She clipped each word as she spoke it.
He leaned over her so that she could see just how much contempt he held for her and her feigned conviction. "Yeah, right. Do you think I could ever forget the face that has haunted me for three thousand years? The face of the woman whose throat I want to cut?"
She literally snarled at him like a wild beast, "Get it through your head. I'm not Artemis."
"Then who are you?"
"My name is Kat Agrotera."
It was his turn to scoff. "Agrotera, huh?" He grabbed the netting over her chest and pulled her up so that they were eye to eye.
"Nice try, Artemis. Agrotera means 'huntress'. Did you think I'd forget it was one of the names your followers applied to you? "
She struggled against his hold. "It's also the epitaph that's used by Artemis's kori-that would be me, you moron."
He laughed in her face. "You're one of Artemis's servants? How stupid do you think me? You fooled me once, but not twice."
Kat let out a long breath as frustration consumed her. She actually had the powers to break out of the netting. But if she did that, she'd give him a really big tip on how much power she had and who she really was. That was knowledge a creature like this didn't need to have.
No, it was better to make him think she was powerless and without consequence. "Believe it or not, I am."
He released her to fall back on the sofa before he gave her a repugnant glare. "Uh-huh. Artemis would never allow a kori near her who was her height. Nor one who had her eye color. She's too vain for that. You're too vain."
"If you want to be technical, I'm taller than she is. Didn't you remember that part?" Sin hesitated. Honestly, he couldn't recall Artemis's exact height-it'd been too long since he'd last seen her. All he remembered was that she'd been over six feet tall. "I stand by what I said. Artemis would never allow a kori in her temple taller than her."
"News flash: She's mellowed with age."
Yeah, right. "Sure you have... just like me."
The woman leaned her head back and let out an irritated growl. "Look, you seem to have issues I don't want to even begin to know about. Let me go and we'll both forget this ever happened. If you don't, you're going to be real sorry."
He scoffed. "Not this time, Artemis. You're the one who's going to regret this. I want my powers back that you stole from me. You tricked my ass and then you stripped everything from me except my life, and you damn near took that."
Kat went rigid as his words pricked a deeply buried memory inside her. But it was fuzzy and fleeting, and she couldn't get a good handle on it, so she defaulted to what she remembered of the event.
"You were going to kill Artemis. She said you hated her... that you'd broken into her temple and tried to rape her and-" The words stopped as she realized the lie Artemis had told. How could a god from another pantheon have gotten into Artemis's temple on Olympus without an invitation? It was something that hadn't dawned on Kat back then. She'd been too young and too afraid that he would hurt or kill Artemis.
Back then, many of the gods had been at war with one another and those who policed them had been on hiatus. There had been many threats made against Artemis and several close calls.
But one thing would have been impossible. An outside god couldn't enter the domain of another without invitation.
Oh gods, it was another half-truth...
He screwed his face up at her. "What are you talking about? Have you lost your mind?"
"No " Kat said as a wave of guilt consumed her. "I'm not Artemis. Let me go."
"Not until I have my powers back."
This was getting annoying... "And for the last time, I can't give you what I don't have "
"Then you're going to stay in that net until eternity comes to pass."
She growled at him, "Well, that's really intelligent, isn't it? What are you going to do? Put drinks on me or just use me as a conversation piece whenever friends come over? And let's not even think about what's going to happen when I need to use the restroom, shall we? I hope you have a standing order at Sofa Express."
Sin wasn't sure if he should be entertained or appalled by her outburst. He had to give her credit, though, she certainly had a way with imagery. "Well aren't you a wealth of sarcasm?"
"Oh, just wait. I haven't even started." She winced as she jostled her arm and pain must have shot through her shoulder.
Sin felt a prick of conscience over that and he hated himself for it. Let her suffer. What was it to him? Yet the part of himself that he despised most-the part that was still compassionate-begged him to help her.
But she was right. Her staying in that netting wasn't going to do either one of them any good. "Look, Artemis, or, assuming this isn't another of your lies and tricks, Kat, I have to have my powers back. It's imperative."
"Sure it is. You just want them back so that you can kill Artemis and take revenge on her"
"I'm not going to lie and say that's not true. It is. I want her dead in a way unimaginable. But I have bigger problems right now. And you just met one of them on that backstreet in New York."
Kat paused as she thought back to the creature she'd been fighting. It'd been scary all right. "I assume you mean that... thing that attacked me."
"Yes. The gallu demons are running rampant now and the Dimme are about to go free and I'm the only person alive who can push them back. If I don't have my powers to fight them, the world is going to end. You remember what happened to Atlantis? This is going to make that look like fun and games."
"No offense, old man, Atlantis was destroyed before I was born, so I don't remember squat about it."
But she did know the stories of how the continent sank.
She sat still for a moment, thinking. She knew Artemis wasn't trustworthy. But she didn't know if the same was true of Sin. Was he feeding her a line or was there truth to what he said? "What about those people last night? Why did you behead them and then burn them?"
She realized that was the wrong thing to ask as his eyes flared murderous rage at her.
"You spied on me?"
"Artemis told me to, so yeah."
His rage was so potent, she could honestly feel it filling up the air between them.
"Don't look at me like that. I can spy if I want."
"And why did you spy on me?"
Kat squirmed a bit. Telling him that what Artemis had really wanted-his death-would most likely only piss him off more. So she opted for a more delicate explanation. "Artemis wanted to know what you were up to. She thought you were trying to kill her."
"Yeah, and as much as I want that bitch dead, right now I have bigger problem." He paused before he spoke again. "The reason I cut the heads off the gallu and burn them is that if I don't, they come back like a bad horror movie reject."
That at least explained part of it, but it didn't explain why he desecrated their victim.
"Why did you do that to the human?"
"Why do you think? One bite from the gallu and their victim becomes a mindless demon they can control. Desecration is far kinder than what they do to humans like her. Whenever a human dies by their hands, they have to be slain and dusted or they'll be back, too."
Oh... No wonder he'd been frantically searching her for a bite wound before he'd knocked her out.
"Is that why you burned your arm last night?"
He nodded. "If you can catch it early enough, you can cauterize the wound and stop the poison from spreading through your body."
Yeah, but that had to hurt and it made her wonder how many times he'd done that in the past. "Out of curiosity... does Artemis know about the gallu?"
"I don't know, Artemis. Do you?"
She sighed at his insistence that she was her boss. "I thought we'd gotten past this."
"Until I see conclusive proof, no. I stand by what I know about you, you bitch. Now give me my powers back."
Fury snapped through her veins at his denseness and insult. What was it going to take to make the man realize that she wasn't Artemis?
Break the net and then break his bead...
That urge was so strong that it was all she could do not to yield to it.
"Katra?"
Kat jerked at the sound of Artemis's voice in her head.
"What's going on? Why are you so angry? Is Apollymi bothering you?"
Kat rolled her eyes. "Stop spying on me."
Sin curled his lip. "It's hard not to look at you sprawled out on my couch. Not to mention how funny that is coming from you given what you did last night."
She grimaced at Sin as she realized she'd spoken out loud.
"Katra? Tell me what's wrong or I'm coming to check on you. It's not like you to get this riled."
Now she's concerned about me? Kat didn't know what aggravated her more, being trussed up by a Sumerian ex-god or patronized by a Greek one.
Oh wait, the trussing definitely won this one out. It ranked right up there with eye gouging.
"It's all right, Matisera," she said silently to Artemis. "I have it."
"And why is it I find that hard to believe?" Artemis popped into the room right in front of Kat, hands on hips. Dressed in a long white sheath gown, Artemis wore her vibrant red hair down so that it flowed around her body.
Kat cringed as she realized what the goddess had just done.
Sin spun around. His jaw went slack as he took in Artemis's presence and realized that Kat hadn't been lying to him. Obviously, she wasn't the goddess after all.
To her credit, Artemis didn't panic. Instead she merely eyed him as if he were a mild annoyance. "Wow, look what the cow dragged in." She cast a penetrating glare at Kat. "Why is he here?"
Sin cursed as he realized he'd just been played by both of them.
The handmaiden forgotten, he went for Artemis, but before he could reach her, the handmaiden somehow appeared before him. How the hell had she gotten out of the net? He knew firsthand that it didn't give that easily. But that wasn't here or there.
What mattered was getting his hands on Artemis.
"Calm down," Kat said, cradling her arm.
He shook his head. "Move out of my way, girl. I won't be kept from what I want."
Artemis rolled her eyes. "And what do you want? Your mewling powers back?" He lunged at her, but Kat caught him about the waist and slung him to the ground with a strength he'd never imagined a woman could have-especially considering the fact that she had a broken arm.
She landed on top of him.
Pushing her away, he growled, "I don't want to hurt you, but it doesn't mean I won't."
Kat glared at him. "Ditto."
He tried to move past her, but the woman was like Velcro. Kat attached herself to his body and kept him from reaching Artemis.
Artemis scoffed at their struggle. "Get out of the way, Katra, so I can zap him."
Sin paused as he finally calmed enough to realize something highly significant. He looked back and forth between Katra and Artemis.
And as he did so, he knew exactly how to get his upper hand back.
He pulled the long, ornate dagger out of its sheath in his boot before he grabbed Katra and held the blade to her throat. He cut a gimlet glare at Artemis. "Give me my powers back, Artemis, or I'll take your daughter's life."