Kat cringed as Sin spoke a truth that only the bravest of souls would even dare whisper. And never within Artemis's hearing range.
Kat leaned back against him, away from the knife. "Damn, boy, you have an unholy gift for pissing off people." As was evidenced by Artemis's shriek of outrage. "Why don't you tell her that dress makes her look fat while you're at it?"
He answered by pressing the blade closer to Kat's throat. "I'm not playing, Artemis."
Artemis's face turned to stone. "And neither am I."
Before Kat could even blink, the dagger left her throat. She was pulled from Sin's arms by an unseen force an instant before the knife was ripped from his hand and plunged into his chest, three times. On the third time, it was left buried to the hilt where it slowly rotated in his chest.
Sin cursed foully before he jerked it out.
Kat held her hand up toward Artemis, trying to defuse the situation. "Matisera."
"Stay out of this, Katra. Go home."
By the tone of Artemis's voice, Kat knew she should obey. But she couldn't stand by and let Sin die if what he'd said about the gallu was true. They couldn't be left without someone who knew how to fight them.
Artemis stalked toward him. "It's time I finish what we started."
Sin pushed himself up from the floor and ran at Artemis, but he didn't come close before he was slammed into a far wall. He growled, then slung his arm out.
Artemis went flying.
Kat took a step toward her mother to protect her. But before Kat could take two, Artemis's voice rang out. "Deimos!"
Kat came to a halt at the same time a large, fierce man appeared by Artemis's side. Dressed all in black, Deimos had short jet-black hair that was streaked with wide white stripes-a much different hairstyle than he'd had the last time they met. He was terrifying in appearance, especially with the tattoo that started out as a light eyeliner around his electric blue eyes and then zigzagged from his tear ducts down his cheeks to his neck. Beautiful and deadly, he stood before them with his legs braced wide apart, his head tilted low like a predator and his arms held at his sides, close to his weapons-one sword and one gun-ready to fight.
"Suck his powers out and kill him," Artemis snarled.
Kat gaped at the order. Once issued, it couldn't be taken back. Deimos was one of the most dangerous of the Dolophoni. A son of the dreaded Furies, he was the one the gods called out when they needed a relentless Terminator and he wouldn't stop until Sin was dead.
Deimos ran at Sin and slammed him to the floor.
"What have you done, Matisera?"
"What I should have done in the beginning." Artemis tried to flash Kat out of the room, but since Artemis had traded Kat's service to her grandmother, she didn't have that power anymore.
Kat's mother snarled at her, "Leave us, Katra. Now."
But she couldn't. She was the reason Sin was in this mess, and though he was giving Deimos a good fight, in the end she knew who would win it.
And it wouldn't be Sin.
Sin was fighting with one hand tied behind his back and three nasty chest wounds while Deimos could draw from the power of the entire Greek pantheon to kill him-it was one of many benefits bestowed on the Furies and their children. And though Sin might deserve to die, he didn't deserve death like this.
Not after what they'd done to him and not if what he'd said was true. They would need him to fight the demons of his own pantheon.
"Sorry, Matisera." Kat barely registered the confusion on Artemis's face before she ran at Sin. He was against the wall, fighting, while Deimos was pulling out his sword to finish him off. Kat grabbed Sin from the side and flashed them from his apartment to her own place in Kalosis.
They landed in a pile of twisted limbs in the center of her dark living room. Sin hissed before he pushed her away. Kat didn't go far. He was bleeding profusely, but what concerned her was the gaping wound his dagger had left. If he were mortal, that would have been fatal to him, and it was probably causing him enough pain right now that he was wishing it was.
She scooted herself toward him. "You need to be tended."
He glared at her. "Where are we? What did you do?"
"I kept you from dying."
He pushed her hand away from his wound. "Oh, believe me, I could have held my own."
Kat sat back on her legs. "Yeah, you were doing a real bang-up job of it. I particularly liked the way you were bruising his fists with your face. A few minutes more and I'm sure your heart would have been on the attack... after it was ripped from your chest."
He grimaced at her. "What do you know?"
"More than I want to most days."
Sin frowned at the catch in her voice as she spoke. It was apparent that she was weary, no doubt of Artemis and her machinations. They were enough to wear down even the stoutest of immortals.
And as much as he hated to admit it, she was probably right about him getting his ass kicked. He should have known better than to go up against Artemis without his full powers. It'd been stupid, and he was lucky the Dolophonos hadn't torn his heart out.
But he'd wanted his revenge, and nothing else, especially something as trivial as common sense, had mattered.
Katra moved forward and ripped his shirt open to expose the jagged wounds in his chest from the dagger Artemis had repeatedly planted there. He started to shove Kat away, but before he could, she manifested a cool rag in her hand so that she could clean the wounds. Her kindness made no sense to him whatsoever given her genetic makeup. Not to mention, he wasn't used to anyone helping him for any reason. Everyone he'd ever known had turned their backs on him and left him to suffer.
People weren't kind and he knew it. Not unless the act of kindness could benefit them in some way.
"Why are you helping me?"
She gave him a withering glare. "Who said I'm helping you?"
He arched a brow at her as he looked pointedly at her hand that was wiping away his blood.
She cleared her throat before she answered. "I don't like to see people get screwed over, okay?"
"And why don't I believe that? Oh wait, I know. Because you're the daughter of the biggest bitch who has ever lived. One who makes her entire life an event of screwing over anyone she comes into contact with."
"Would you stop saying that?" Kat said from between clenched teeth.
Like that would ever stop him. "She is a bitch."
"Not that, the other part. And actually you better stop saying both or I'm going to tend this wound with a salt poultice."
"Why? Aren't you proud of Mommy dearest?"
Kat's green eyes met his and they were smoldering. "I love my mother with everything inside me and I would kill or die to protect her. That's why you need to stop talking like that about her because I will kill you."
Sin paused as a frightening thought went through him. If Katra was Artemis's daughter...
He could remember Artemis pulling him toward her bed as his head was fuzzy from drink. She'd torn his shirt from him and then thrown him down on her mattress.
Artemis was supposed to be a virgin...
An awful feeling went through him. "Oh shit, you're my daughter, aren't you?"
Kat screwed her face up as if that was the most repugnant thought she could imagine. "Don't flatter yourself. Your genes could never have created me."
Yeah, right. She was beautiful and tall-taller than Artemis, which could easily have come from him. Her skin was a darker hue... His stomach shrank in trepidation. "Then who's your father if it's not me?"
"That's hardly any of your business."
"It is me, isn't it?"
She rolled her eyes at him before she knitted his wounds closed with her fingers. "Men and their egos. Trust me. My mother wouldn't have you in her bed even if you were dipped in chocolate-coated caramel."
Oh, now that really offended him. "Excuse me? I'll have you know I happen to be damn good in bed. My skills are unsurpassed. I wasn't just a god of the moon. I was the Sumerian god of fertility. You know what that means, don't you?"
"You have a lot of penis envy over the other fertility gods?"
He shoved her hands off him, then started to get up only to wince and fall back.
"Don't worry. I won't tell the other gods about your small penis problem."
She appalled him. "You are your mother's daughter."
"And I told you to stop saying that."
"Why?"
"Because no one's supposed to know about me."
He scoffed at the anger in her tone. "What are they? Blind? You look just like her."
"No, I don't. I look mostly like my father. I only have my mother's eyes. How you guessed it is beyond me."
There was no surprise there, either. "You have the same voice."
Kat pulled back and frowned. "Do I?"
"Yes. The accents are different, but the tone of it isn't. You sound just like her."
Kat pushed herself to her feet and moved away from him, disturbed by his disclosure. He was highly perceptive. Something most men weren't. Then again, people in general weren't normally that perceptive, and it made her wonder if anyone else had ever picked up on the similarities in her and Artemis's voices. If they had, they'd been smart enough to keep it to themselves.
"Thanks for the help," Sin said, indicating his mended chest before he repaired his shirt with his powers. Then he tried to leave her house by flashing out only to learn that he couldn't. "What the...?"
Kat shrugged at his angry glare. "You have to stay here."
"Bullshit," he growled.
"No, no shit here," she said, indicating her clean floors with her hand. Then she cupped her broken arm to her chest. "You leave this place and you're a dead man. Trust me. The moment you spoke that which will not be spoken and my mother called out the Terminator to destroy you, your death warrant was signed."
Every part of him bled fury. "I won't be held hostage. You understand?"
She laughed at his righteous indignation. "Oh yeah, right. This from the man who knocked me out and then bound me up like a mummy? What was that action?"
"That was different."
"Yeah, only 'cause I was the victim. Oh wait, you're right. I'm doing this to protect you and you did yours to kill me. Maybe I should let you leave. It would serve you right."
"Then why don't you?"
She took a breath to calm herself before she spoke. Anger accomplished nothing and she knew that. It was what had gotten her mother into more messes than an entire crew of Molly Maids could get her out of. "Because I want the truth about what happened the night you came to Olympus. Artemis said that you tried to rape her."
He made a choking noise as if touching Artemis was the worst thing he could imagine. "And what do you think?"
"I don't know. You haven't exactly shown me any high moral fiber here. Maybe she's right and you did."
He moved to stand in front of her. His eyes practically glowed gold in the light as he raked a disgusted look over her. "Trust me, baby. I've never had to force myself on any woman. But let's say, for argument's sake, that I did. Do you think me dumb enough to try it on Olympus under the noses of the other gods?"
He had a point, but she wasn't about to let him know that. "You're arrogant enough. You might."
"Yeah," he said in a low, feral tone, "arrogant but not stupid."
"Then why were you there?"
His features blank, he moved away from her, which made her wonder what he was hiding. There was something about that night that he didn't want to even think about-she could feel it.
"Answer my question."
"It's none of your business," he snapped. "Now if you'll excuse me." He started for the door.
Kat held her hand up and clenched her fist. The door immediately vanished. "I wasn't kidding. You can't leave."
The next thing she knew, she was lifted from her feet and pinned to the wall. "And neither am I. Let me out of here or you will regret it."
She shook her head slowly. "Kill me and you'll never get out." She felt the pressure holding her to the wall increase before it set her back on the floor with a gentleness that surprised her. "Thank you."
He narrowed his eyes on her. "I have to get out of here. There's less than three weeks to Armageddon and I have a lot to do to prepare for it."
"Yeah, and right now I have a broken arm that needs to be tended. So I tell you what. You sit here contemplating Artemis's murder and Armageddon, and I'll be back in a few. But don't break or touch my stuff... or I'll take it out of your hide."
He opened his mouth to speak, but before he did, she flashed herself out of her small house and into the main palace of Kalosis.
Kat manifested in the main foyer and had to take a moment to locate her grandmother with her thoughts. As was typical of her grandmother, Apollymi was outside, in her garden.
Out of respect, Kat walked the short distance through the throne room to the gilded doors that opened out onto the grounds. Her grandmother didn't like for people to pop in on her unexpectedly-Kat was the only one who knew why. Once as a child, she'd done that and caught her grandmother weeping hysterically in grief and pain-it was something Apollymi couldn't stand for other people to see.
As the Great Destroyer, she only wanted people to see her strong and ruthless. But Kat's grandmother was much more than just that. She had a heart and she ached, just like everyone else in the universe.
All Apollymi wanted was to have her son, Kat's father, returned to her. A son she'd loved more than anything and one she'd only held twice in her life. Once briefly when he'd been taken prematurely from her to be hidden in the womb of another woman and on the day the Greek god Apollo had killed him.
There wasn't a day Apollymi didn't mourn their separation and ache for her son to come home. And she reacted harshly to anyone who caught her weeping. She was a strong, proud woman who didn't believe in showing any weakness to anyone.
Not even her own granddaughter. But Kat could feel Apollymi's sadness and grief in all its harsh bitterness. Kat's father's empathy was one of many things she'd inherited from him. It was why she would never embarrass Apollymi or anyone else if she could help it.
So Kat approached slowly, just in case Apollymi needed time to compose herself. There was a light breeze whispering by. The garden itself was surrounded by high black marble walls that shone so much they reflected images like mirrors.
Apollymi sat on a black chaise with her back to Kat. Two Charonte demons, a male and a female, flanked the chaise. The male demon was dressed in a loincloth that left the whole of his lean, muscular body bare. His skin was a pale maroon that had yellow mingled with it. His eyes were as black as his hair and wings. The female was orange and red in skin tone and dressed in a black leather halter top and shorts. Her hair was a dark brown bob that only emphasized the sharpness of her features and the redness of her eyes. The demons were as still as statues, but Kat knew they were highly aware of her presence and watching her every move.
Dressed in a black flowing gown that left her shoulders bare, Apollymi cradled a small pillow in her lap. It had been a gift that Simi, Acheron's personal Charonte demon, had brought to her years ago. And because it held Acheron's scent Apollymi kept it ever near her so that she could feel closer to the son she could never touch.
Kat's grandmother was absolutely beautiful and appeared completely serene. With long white blond hair and swirling silver eyes, she didn't appear any older than her mid-twenties. Her pale skin was luminescent, and small drops of glitter sparkled in her hair.
She turned her head slightly to greet Kat, but Apollymi's welcoming smile turned to a frown as she saw Kat's broken arm. "Child," she breathed, moving from her chaise. She placed the pillow on her seat before she crossed the short distance to Kat so that she could inspect her arm. "What happened?"
"I got caught in the cross fire."
"If that bitch Artemis-"
"Please!" Kat said between clenched teeth. "Enough with everyone insulting my mother. Am I the only one in existence who loves her?"
Apollymi arched a brow. "Of course you are. Everyone else sees her for what she is."
Kat growled at her, "Be that as it may, if not for her you wouldn't have me. So could we please not insult her and just make my arm better, okay?"
Apollymi's features softened instantly. "Of course, my baby." Apollymi touched Kat's shoulder and immediately her arm was cured.
Kat took a breath in gratitude as the pain finally receded. She'd inherited her grandmother's healing powers, but unfortunately, they didn't work on herself. Only on other people. Which really sucked when she couldn't get to her grandmother for comfort. "Thank you."
Apollymi smiled, then kissed her lightly on the forehead before she fanned Kat's long blond hair around her shoulders affectionately. "I haven't seen you in a while, agria. I've missed you."
"I know and I'm sorry about that. Time tends to get away from me."
Sadness darkened Apollymi's eyes as she patted Kat on the shoulder before she stepped away. "I wish I could say the same."
Yeah, it was hard on Kat's grandmother to be trapped here in what had once been the Atlantean hell realm. Eleven thousand years ago, Apollymi's entire family had banded together to imprison her, and so long as Acheron lived, Apollymi could never be free.
Kat felt deeply for the solitude her grandmother suffered from even though Apollymi commanded an entire army of Daimons and Charontes. They still weren't her family and they didn't make her happy.
"How are things with Stryker?" Kat asked. Stryker was Apollo's son and he now led the Daimon army Apollymi controlled. When Apollo had cursed the Apollite race to die on their twenty-seventh birthday, he'd unknowingly cursed his own son and grandchildren to die as well. Since that day, Stryker had hated his father and had plotted his destruction.
The only reason Stryker was still alive was because Apollymi had seized the opportunity to make Stryker her adopted son so that she could use him against Apollo and Artemis. For centuries the two of them had been united in their hatred against the Greek gods.
Then three years ago, after a rough confrontation between the two of them, Stryker had begun turning against Apollymi. It appeared to be an unending battle of one-upmanship.
Kat's grandmother laughed angrily. "We are at war, agria. So he sits in the next building, plotting my death as if I'm too stupid to know it. What he forgets is that far better men than he have tried to kill me and while I may be in prison, they are dead-which will be his fate once he grows enough nerve to openly attack me. But that's not why you're here, is it?" She took Kat's hands in hers. "What has you troubled, precious one?"
There was no need to sugarcoat her inquiries and Kat was nothing if not blunt. "Have you ever heard of a gallu demon?"
The two Charontes hissed vehemently the instant the word "gallu" left her lips. Kat's eyes widened at their unexpected response. She'd never seen them do that before, or even anything similar to it.
"Relax," Apollymi said soothingly to her bodyguards. "There are no gallu here."
The male demon spat on the ground. "Death to the Sumerians and all their progeny."
Apollymi let out a deep breath before she released Kat's arms and walked her away from the Charontes. "The gallu were created by Enlil, the leader of the Sumerian gods, to fight and kill the Charonte demons back in the day when the Charontes roamed the earth freely." That explained the unexpected hostility. "Needless to say, the Charontes can't stand even the mention of those disgusting creatures. Now why do you ask of them?"
"Do you know what has become of them?"
Apollymi nodded. "After I destroyed Atlantis and the gallu no longer had the Charonte to fight, they turned on the humans and on their creators. Eventually, three of the Sumerian gods united and locked them away such as was done to me."
"And the Dimme? What are they?"
Apollymi gave her a suspicious frown. "Why do you ask of the Dimme?"
"I was told they're about to go free and destroy everything."
A peaceful, dreamy look appeared on Apollymi's face as if she was relishing the mere thought of the bloodbath to come. A slow smile curved her lips. "That would be a beautiful sight, truly."
"Grandma!"
"What?" she asked as if offended by Kat's tone. "I'm a goddess of destruction. Tell me honestly that you find nothing exciting about the idea of a billion people screaming out for mercy and help when there's no one left who cares what befalls them. Or the entire earth being rained on by all manner of demons bent on ultimate torture and sacrifice. Them ripping and shredding human flesh as they claw in a drunken frenzy fueled by their hatred of everything. Drinking blood in an orgy of terror... ahhh, the beauty of annihilation. There's nothing like it."
Kat would have been appalled had it not been a very typical thought for her grandmother. "And I'm, well, not technically a goddess since I don't belong to a single pantheon, but I follow after my father, who likes to protect mankind, and I really don't want to see a bunch of demons eating people. Call me sentimental."
Apollymi made a noise of extreme dissatisfaction. "That's the only thing I detest about your father. You two are, what is that human word you use... wimps."
"Hardly. Dad and I can more than hold our own."
Apollymi gave an uncharacteristic snort that Kat decided to ignore.
"And you still haven't answered my question," Kat pressed on in spite of her grandmother's ill mood. "What are the Dimme?"
Now the goddess was irritated, which was manifested in her grabbing one of the sweet black pears that grew on black-barked trees of her garden. She crushed it in her hand. "They're Anu and Enlil's final revenge on us all. While the gallu may be seen as the atom bomb that negated my Charontes, Anu created the Dimme as a nuclear holocaust."
Kat wasn't sure what she meant. "How so?"
"The Dimme are seven demons unlike anything you can imagine. They are uncontrollable, even for the gods. They're so dangerous that the Sumerians never even dared release them. From the moment they were created, they were put in a cell that has a time release. Every few millennia, whatever is holding them weakens. If the Sumerian gods are still alive, they reseal the seven demon sisters and life goes on as normal. But should something happen to the pantheon and there be no more Sumerian gods to reseal their tomb, the Dimme are unleashed on the world to destroy it and whatever pantheon is in charge. It's Anu's last laugh against whoever killed him and his children." So Sin hadn't been lying... It made Kat's stomach ache to think of what the seven demons could be capable of. She already knew what the typical monsters could do. And the Charonte. There was no telling what the Dimme would be like. "Don't you think that harsh?"
Apollymi gave her an arch look. "I only wish I'd thought of it myself."
Kat shook her head. She didn't know why Apollymi hated her mother so much, since the two of them were pretty darn close in personality-and thought similarly on most topics.
Apollymi licked the sweet juice from her fingertips. "But that doesn't explain why you're asking me all this, child. What about the Sumerians has you so curious when you've never asked about I them before?"
"Well, right now, I have their last survivor locked in my house."
Apollymi went rigid. "You what?"
"Sin's in my house, down the street."
Apollymi's swirling eyes began to glow-something they only did when she was highly agitated. "Have you lost your mind?"
Before Kat could defend her decision, Apollymi vanished.
Kat cursed. There was no doubt in her mind where her grandmother had gone. Aggravated, too, Kat flashed herself back to her house.
Sure enough, Apollymi was there and Sin was pinned to the wall.
"Grandma."
"Back off," Apollymi snarled.
Kat was stunned by her response. Not once in all her life had Kat's grandmother ever raised her voice to her. The next thing she knew both Sin and Apollymi were gone.
What in the name of Zeus was going on? Kat closed her eyes but couldn't find any trace of them.
They had to be at the palace and there was no telling what Apollymi was doing to Sin. But whatever it was, it was sure to be bloody and painful.
And that was what Apollymi did for people she liked.