The moment the sun set, the door to the bedroom opened and Nick walked out. He paused at the end of the short hallway, fixed a smile on his face, then continued to the living room.
“I’d like to apologize to you,” he said smoothly. “I’m having a hard time adjusting to being…me, and…well…it’s no excuse to take it out on you.”
Aiden regarded him calmly over the rim of her coffee mug. She took a sip, then placed it on the table. “Fine,” she said in an even voice, knowing that he was lying. The insincerity was coming off him so thick that she could smell it. Fine. She knew where he stood on certain issues.
Nick’s smile faltered slightly when she continued to observe him. Deciding to escape her scrutiny, he walked to the counter and poured himself a cup of coffee. “Do you know of any hotels in the area that are trustworthy?”
“Not off hand,” she said. “There are some empty condos in this building, if you’d like to borrow one.” Ash had asked her to put him up for a reason, but he didn’t exactly specify that Nick had to stay in her condo.
“Really?” Nick asked, genuinely surprised.
“There’s one next door doesn’t get too much natural light.” She took a drink of her coffee. “Interested?”
“For a couple days,” he said. “Then I have to get back to the reality of my new profession.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
With Nick in the other apartment, Aiden finally relaxed. She hadn’t realized it, but with him there, her muscles had tensed up and now they were aching. After a long, hot shower, she had tried to contact Ash to tell him about Nick, but Ash seemed to be AWOL. He didn’t answer his phone, and any attempts at telepathy were met with silence.
Aiden sighed. Ash was either on Mount Olympus, or in one of his ‘not going to talk to you until I get this figured out’ moods. She shook her head in annoyance… gods! They sure were a moody bunch at times.
With her former houseguest ensconced next door, she decided against a night of flying for actually getting to bed early and sleeping. Slipping in under the cool covers, she tried to put all worries out of her mind and waited for sleep to claim her.
Soon, Aiden rolled over in her sleep, settling in to a comfort zone while her dreams started. She smiled to herself when she discovered she was walking on the beach on Neratiti. Savitar appeared in front of her, grabbing her to him with a soul-searing kiss that made her squirm in delightful anticipation.
Savitar kissed his way down her neck to her shoulders, moving behind her as he held her. His hands covered her breast as he kissed, then he opened his mouth wider, and she felt pain as he sunk his incisors deep into her neck.
Aiden screamed and sat up in her bed. Her hands immediately went to her neck as she frantically checked for blood.
“Okay,” she finally whispered. “Just a dream.” Exhaling raggedly, she cringed as the image flashed before her eyes again.
Her head jerked up at a feeling in her mind, a soft caress that calmed her and took the fear away. She knew it was Savitar, reaching out to her, and she appreciated it more than he would ever know.
She smiled at that. He probably did know…the dude knew everything.
She wondered if he knew how much she missed him.
I do. Now go back to sleep. Her eyes felt heavy at the soothing voice, and they slid shut once more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was well after midnight when Nick found who he was looking for. The man was decked out in black, from boots to a flowing jacket, and Nick wondered if the Dark-Hunters knew just how much they all looked alike. In any city, all Nick had to do was look for someone dressed like a Terminator reject, and ninety-nine percent of he time, it would be a Dark-Hunter.
The other man stood just to the left of the bar, surveying the crowd, and looking a little too much like he was trying to blend in. Six foot three, solid muscle and a body that seemed to attract a lot of the women in the crowd, Nick assumed that the man was Keegan, one of the four Dark-Hunters that called this mountain city home.
Staying on the opposite side of the bar so that Keegan wouldn’t sense him, Nick surreptitiously motioned to two of the Daimons that were also there. They avoided looking at him as they mingled with the crowd, making sure that Keegan saw them.
Nick knew the exact moment the Dark-Hunter noticed the Daimons; his posture stiffened, and he walked away from a rather scantly clad buxom redhead that was trying her best to take him home.
As soon as Keegan followed the Daimons out of the bar, Nick turned from the door and continued drinking his beer. He’d give it about thirty minutes before checking on things.
Outside, Keegan kept a respectable distance between himself and the Daimons, wanting to see where they were heading. Only a stupid Dark-Hunter would attack where there were only two Daimons, since they tended to travel in fours or more, so they could attack an unlucky victim en masse.
He stopped suddenly when he walked in to an alley, and discovered that he was alone. There was no way the Daimons could have reached the other side in time, and he pulled out two knives as he slowly turned around. No one was behind him, and when he turned back, he was still alone.
Deciding the blood suckers must have realized he was following them, and had run as soon as they entered the alley, he walked back the way he had entered, and headed back for he bar and that rather lovely redhead.
About two blocks from the bar, he stopped as he felt the unmistakable presence of a Daimon nearby. Since killing Daimons came before the possibility of him getting laid, he headed towards the presence, hoping it was the two from earlier.
He arrived behind a building and discovered that it was indeed the two from earlier, along with about twenty or so of their friends.
~~~~~~~~~~
Ash pulled another book from the case, flipping through it, then letting it fall to the growing pile on the floor. Once the shelf was empty, he ran his fingers over the surface, looking for anything that hinting to something being hidden.
He worked methodically, checking each and every bookcase in the large room, then waved a hand, placing all the books back in their proper places when he was done. He turned to survey the rest of the room, his eyes falling for a moment on the chair by the window.
Nearly three years ago, Cherise Gautier had been found dead in that chair, her neck ripped open by a vicious attack. Needing to find out just what her son Nick was up to, Ash slowly walked to the chair, ran his hand along the back, then closed his eyes.
As he suspected, he was far too close to the deceased woman to feel any hint of her death, and he took a step back with a sigh. He should have been able to stop her from being killed…but he was a little too close to death himself at that moment to even realize that she had been killed. Too many people were being killed by the Daimons that night, and the feeling of their souls crying out had attacked him viciously.
He hadn’t even known that Nick had died either. The one human who came closer to a best friend than anyone else in history had killed himself, and Ash had been too wrapped up in saving others to know.
One thing that kept Ash going millennium after millennium was the knowledge that all this pain and suffering paled in comparison to what could be if Ash didn’t even give a damn to care. He could turn his back, and just walk away from humanity and the gods, and live in seclusion until the world crumbled. But, he knew he would never do that. He cared enough to believe in the ‘greater good’, and had long ago vowed to see it through to the end, regardless of how much it hurt him.
Sometimes believing in the ‘greater good’ seriously sucked, though.
He sighed, turning his attention back to his surrounding. This room had been the last one that he checked, and he walked out in to the hot New Orleans evening feeling slightly annoyed. He hated that he had to sink to such measures to ensure that one of his Dark-Hunter’s wasn’t hiding something that had the potential to harm far too many people.
Before making his rounds of the city’s streets, Ash pulled out his cell phone and turned it back on, grimacing at the amount of voice messages that he had. Quickly going through the first two hundred, he stopped at one from Aiden. He dialed her number, hoping that Nick hadn’t pissed her off enough that she was calling to tell Ash that she had annihilated his newest Dark-Hunter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Daimon exploded in a cloud of fine gold powder that fell harmlessly to the ground. Keegan ignored it as he stabbed another one, quickly bringing the number of his adversaries down to a manageable level.
What started off as over twenty was soon somewhere near an even dozen, but the soul stealers were getting in hits on the Dark-Hunter at every opportunity.
Keegan hissed in pain as he felt something slice across his back, and he swung blindly back, satisfied at the gentle poof that signified the demise of yet another one. Stumbling forward from a hit, he tripped over one of the Daimons, and landed on the ground. He quickly sprung to his feet, but wasn’t fast enough to dodge a Louisville Slugger as its swinger landed a homerun on his head.
The Dark-Hunter fell to the ground with a moan, and tried to move as the bat continued to smash against his back and head. He tried to stay conscious, since he knew that the moment he lost it, he would be dead, and fought his way to his knees.
He knew he had been trapped, and knew that the two in the bar had walked on past him to lure him outside. He wouldn’t be so stupid next time, and once he killed off these pesky Daimon, there would be real hell to pay for any stupid enough to try the same trick again.
Grabbing the one with the baseball bat, he pulled him down, stabbing a knife into the center of his chest, which pierced the black mark, killing the Daimon and releasing any of the souls he had stolen. He grabbed the bat before it hit the ground, and staggered to his feet, taking a few swings at the remaining Daimons who now eyed him warily.
“Come on, you little bastards,” he growled. He faked hitting one, moving slightly as the Daimon backed up. “That’s right. Now, you’re all gonna stay put, and I’m just going to get going.” It irked him to leave the remaining ones alive, but he was nearly falling to the ground himself, and needed to recuperate.
Besides, he could always find the Daimons some other time. He had neared the end of the building when a bright light shot out of the shadows and threw him into the opposite wall. He hit with a thud, then rebounded to the ground in a heap.
The Daimons ran to grab him, pulling his unconscious body up, and then looked at the person who had succeeded in bringing the tough Dark-Hunter down.
He stared as the Daimons carried Keegan away, then turned and walked back into the shadows.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The ringing of the phone pulled Aiden out of a deep sleep, and she managed to knock the receiver to the floor before answering it.
“Yeah?”
“You called?”
Aiden closed one eye as she tried to focus on the clock. “It’s the middle of the night, Ash,” she mumbled. “Call me in the morning.”
“Where’s Nick?”
“Next door,” she said in a whisper as she fought the sleep that wanted to claim her back. “He’s staying in the condo next to mine.”
“He’s supposed to be staying with you.”
Aiden sighed. “It’s late, I’m sleeping and if you want to bitch at me, do it in the morning.” She blindly hung the phone up, placing it in the cradle in the third try, and then rolled over to sleep again.
Her eyes opened and she moaned as the phone rang again. She picked it up. “Next door is staying with me, okay? I own the friggin’ condo.”
“Uh, okay.”
Aiden blinked, then sat up in bed. “Savitar?”
“Hey, babe,” the immortal replied. “How’s things?”
From the tone of his voice, she could tell that he called for a reason. “It’s the middle of the night, and there’s a conspiracy to keep me from sleeping.”
“Up for a visit?”
Before she could answer, a blue fog started in the corner, and soon solidified into Savitar. “What if I said no?” she asked.
“You weren’t going to,” he assured her as he took the phone from her hand and hung it up. He sat on the edge of the bed and looked at her.
Aiden could feel herself melt under the intensity of his gaze. “What can I do for you?”
“Now that was a loaded question,” he said with a half-smile. “You’ve got some questions that are going round and round in your mind, and you want answers, but you’re afraid to offend a friend by asking.”
“And you know that how?”
“I know every delicious thought in that amazing brain of yours,” he said. “Even the one regarding licking whipped cream off of each other, which I would be more than pleased to explore with you… after we get these queries of yours settled.”
Aiden blushed bright red at his words, and then sobered. “I thought you were secretive and all that?”
He shrugged. “The questions aren’t about me, are they…” He raised an eyebrow at her. “Now. Ash’s personal life is something he holds very close and doesn’t talk about. To anyone. So, that’s settled.”
“I see.”
“Good.” He nodded, ignoring the sarcasm in her words. “As for Mr. Gautier… well, Nick is tap dancing on the yellow brick road to a rude awakening, but it’s a trip he has to take, and has to complete to the very end.”
She stared as she took the limited information in. He certainly was in a cryptic mood, and she doubted that he would say anything else regarding either subject until he felt like it. “Well, thank you for clearing everything up for me.”
“You’re more than welcome. And now, on to that other thought that you have.” He smirked as two cans of whipped cream suddenly appeared on her nightstand.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Keegan’s eyes popped open and he jerked when he realized he was lying on the ground. His head hurt like hell, and although there were only three real ways to kill a Dark-Hunter, Keegen thought that being hit like this should rank right up there with sunlight, disembowelment and beheading.
He went to stand, stopping in surprise when he could only get to his knees. Looking down, his black eyes grew wide when he saw a handcuff connecting his wrist to a cast iron fence.
“Oh, hell, no,” he hissed as he tried to jerk the cuff free. The sky was getting lighter and he started to panic when he knew he only had a very limited amount of time to get free and get to some sort of shelter until evening.
Quickly checking for his cell phone so he could call for help, his panic increased tenfold when he discovered that it was gone. Taking a knife out of his pocket, he tried to pry the chain apart, succeeding only in snapping the blade.
“Come on, come on,” he muttered as he stuck the handle in a link and twisted as hard as he could. Giving up on that, he pulled back as hard as he could and kicked at the metal post that held the other end of the handcuff.
He stopped when he heard a sound, and looked over his shoulder to see a man around his height, with dark brown hair, dark sunglasses and a double bow and arrow tattoo that covered his neck and on to his face. The stranger was a Dark-Hunter but it was one he had never seen before.
Not that that was strange, since he’d actually never seen most of them beyond a picture on a computer screen.
The stranger walked to him with a gate that suggested that he was anticipating something.
“Lil’ help?” Keegan asked.
Nick crouched about four feet away, and regarded him calmly. He took off his sunglasses and showed his swirling silver eyes. “I need some information.”
“Unlock me and I’ll tell you everything you need to know,” Keegan said. Then I’ll slit your throat.
Inhaling through clenched teeth, Nick stood and took one step forward. “I need to know the location of a certain artifact.” He smiled slightly when Keegan grew still. “This…item…has the power to destroy certain gods, and-“
“And you can go straight to hell, buddy,” Keegan said with conviction. His eyes flicked to the horizon, and the lightening of the sky. Well, hell. If he was going to die, the least he could do was keep this bastard talking so that he could take him to shade-dom with him.
“I thought you just said that you’d tell me everything you know?” Nick shook his head with a disappointed sigh.
“That was before I found out that you’re nothing more than a spineless traitor.”
Nick stood and looked out as the first rays of sun were peeking over the horizon. “Have a nice eternity,” he said. “I’m sure being a shade is all you’ve heard it is.”
Pain erupted all over his body as the sunlight touched him, causing Keegan to scream. Through the haze, he realized that the other man was fine. How could that be, if he was a Dark-Hunter? The stranger was forgotten as the agony quickly spread inside and he curled into a ball as his voice grew hoarse from the screams.
Nick watched as Keegan disintegrated before his eyes, slightly disappointed that it didn’t take as long as he thought it would. He’d heard reports of Hunter’s dying by sunlight, but most took more time to basically melt.
He sighed in frustrated annoyance. Leave it to him to find one that didn’t have the gumption to at least last long enough to make it worthwhile. He watched as what was left of the body quickly turned to ashes, then dissolved to leave nothing but a handcuff to show that anyone had been there.
Author notes
Keegan is from 'Wings Of A Cloud', the previous Were-Hunter/Dark-Hunter story.
In a list
Please tell me what you think
Comments
-
oh but *I* found a typo! sorry to burst your bubble. whe keegan is trying to break the chain he says "come on, come 'one'" instead of 'come on, come on' which im assuming is what you meant.
other wise though i didnt like him that much it still sucks that stupid face killed him... what a loser. -
-
Thanks
(one thing I hate about spell check... it doesn't catch the wrong word... just the misspelled ones.
I never really liked Nick in the novels, and I think that's carrying over to my writing. And.. I just finished the newest DH novel a little while ago (Devil May Cry), which the author reveals a lot of little things that I plan on mentioning.
...eventually.
-
-
I love the relationship between Aiden and Savitar... so sweet.
If this is a soap opera, then it's the best soap opera I've seen... and I don't think it starts being a soap opera until so-and-so is having a baby belonging to so-and-so even though so-and-so is married to so-and-so's sister or something like that... I confused myself...
Yikes. Nick isn't very nice...
Great chapter! No typos that I could find. You have so many great characters (or should I say the author who wrote the books did?) Either way, you still make them come to life. Great characters, great story- keeps me happy. Have a great day!
MooNight
beginning: 5, language: 5, plot: 5, ending: 5, dialog: 5, characters: 5.
-
-
then it's not a soap-opera yet!
The characters are Sherrilyn Kenyon's, but I created Aiden. I've used her canon, and bent it all to heck, making assumptions on how her characters would act.
-
Adding your comment:
