That frown deepened, minutes ticking by. Very well. I will do this for you.
Yes, you make yourself useful, angel boy. Meanwhile, Ill be in the bathroom. Williams jet-black hair was dripping wet and plastered to his face. There was a fluffy white towel wrapped around his waist, displaying muscles that rivaled Pariss own, and a tattooed treasure map that led to his man junk. Looking at him, you could see the makings of a temper so savage anyone who miraculously survived an encounter with him would end up needing therapy. And diapers. Ive got to finish deep conditioning my hair.
Or maybe not so savage.
No matter. Paris had never been closer to finding and saving Sienna. With these two warriors at his side, hed succeed. Guaranteed.
CHAPTER FIVE
SIENNA BLACKSTONE, newly crowned Queen of the Beasts, Princess of Blood and Shadows, and Duchess of Horror, stood with her back pressed into the crumbling stone wall of the castle she unwillingly called home. Her wings were heavy, constantly pulling at recently formed tendons and bones, making her ache, cringe and, humiliatingly enough, sometimes cry.
The wings arched over her shoulders and draped down her sides in a cascade of midnight, their spiky tips now reaching the floor. She remembered seeing these very wings on Aeron, the previous host for the demon of Wrath. On his muscled, grimly tattooed body, they had appeared soft, gossamer, as weightless and beautiful as storm clouds. On her slight frame, they overpowered and overwhelmed and she had trouble finding her balance.
Sadly, that wasnt the worst of her problems. Cronus, god of gods (according to him) and all around asshat (according to her), paced in front of her, ranting and raving. Saying he was upset would be the equivalent of saying the Atlantic was a rain puddle.
When shed first met him, hed looked like a codger of an old man, complete with gray hair, wrinkled skin and stooped shoulders. Now he was GQ flawless and barbarian tough. Dark chestnut hair hung to strong, wide shoulders. Skin of the smoothest texture was tanned to the perfect shade of bronze. Hed also ditched his prissy toga in favor of a black mesh shirt and black leather pants.
The change was gargantuanand creepy. She wanted to ask why hed gone this route, then offer to punish his stylist free of charge. Did she dare? Heck, no. The ranting and raving would morph into a straight-up savage beating. At least, thats the impression he gave.
I saved you, he snapped, death in his timbre as he stomped one foot in front of the other, back and forth, back and forth. I strengthened you. Gifted you with your demon. And how do you repay me? By constantly refusing to obey me. Its unconscionable!
Gifted? Really? If the new definition of gifted was cursed forever and ever with misery and pain, then yeah, he had. I obeyed you, she reminded him. At first.
At first, he said, parroting her thoughts. His was an accusation that lashed like the sharpest of whips. And only because you were compelled. Youve since learned to block me.
True. And that she had was a testament to the iron-hard rigidity of her stubborn core. With only a thought, this huffing, puffing being could render unending pain. With a wave of his hand, he could vaporize entire cities. Something she would do well to remember.
Sienna chose her next words carefully. To be fair, you tricked me. Okay, so maybe she hadnt chosen carefully. At least her tone had been as flat and unaccusatory as possible.
A narrowed flick of his gaze nearly buckled her knees. How so?
She pressed more of her weight into the wall. You promised I would see my younger sister.
You look so pretty, Enna.
Really?
Really. Youre the prettiest girl in the whole wide world!
Skye, her only sibling, a little girl shed adored with her whole heart, had been abducted years ago, never to be seen or heard from again. Sienna missed her terribly, prayed she was healthy, whole and that she hadnt suffered incomparable cruelties.
Yet you merely teased me with a glimpse of her, she added, rubbing her stomach as she always did when she thought of her sister, reminded of yet another girl, someone else shed loved and lost, the She cut that thought off before it could form. I wont break down in front of this creature.
Cronus ground his molars. That glimpse I should have known it would come back to haunt me. He paused, a low growl bubbling from his throat. I guess I should at last admit the truth, then. I showed you an illusion of your sister, nothing more.
Wait, wait, wait. An illusion? Sienna bit her tongue. Why would he How could he? No matter the question, the answer was simple. To play her like a piano, as Paris had once said to her about her. Bastard wasnt a vile enough word for this beast.
Steady, calm. Is she even alive? Sienna gritted out.
Of course.
There was no of course with Cronus. He lived by his own set of rules, and he didnt always abide by those.
Every time he appeared before her, her demon showed her the despicable things hed done throughout his life. The lives hed taken, striking down not just his enemies, but his own people, humans, anyone who dared defy him. And hed stolen, oh, had he stolen. Ancient artifacts, powers that belonged to others, women. He had no shame. No limits.
How do I know youre telling the truth now?
You wont. Your demon will.
A suspended moment as she searched inside herself. Wrath was calm, not worked into a frenzied need to punish him for lying. That glimpse of Skye had indeed been an illusion, but Cronus did believe she was still alive. Sienna gritted her teeth, saying, Bring her to me, the real Skye, and let me keep her, then Ill do anything you ask.
No.
Why? She stamped her foot. It was childish, sure, but she had no other way to express her displeasure with this man. Do you, a supposedly all-knowing being, not know where she is?
In a blink, he was a mere whisper away, scowling down at her, his breath fanning over her. Enough about your sister! Arent you curious why I gifted you with Wrath? You, a fragile, dearly departed female who had upset one of my strongest warriors? Arent you curious about my desire for your willing participation in my war?
Do not suggest the king of the Titans needs a breath mint. She gulped. And dont you dare think about the warrior you upset. Dont you dare think about Paris. Oh, no, no, no. Y-yes. And now she was stuttering? Grow some lady balls, Blackstone!
Red flashed in Cronuss eyes. Demon-red. A fiendish crimson that made her think of blood mixed with nuclear toxins. Not only was he the king of the Titans, but he was also possessed by Greedand right now, his demon was at the wheel, driving his actions, his words. Around her, the castle shook, his anger rattling its very foundation.
You know the Hunters. You know how they operate. You were once a part of their cause.
I know. As if she could ever forget or absolve herself. Once shed even borne the symbol of infinity on her wrist, their mark. A permanent reminder of their goals. In this spirit form, she had no tattoos but the butterfly around her wings, and for that, she was immensely grateful. The same is true for thousands of others.
Except those thousands of others actually had no idea they were fools, or that they were expendable, nothing more than puppets on strings. Like she had beenuntil shed gotten a bitch slap of truth and clipped those strings with brutal proficiency.
Soon after Wraths possession of her, Cronus had whisked her to a Hunter compound. Because Cronus could shield himself from prying eyes and humans could not see her, no one had noticed them. Just as shed seen the kings sins play through her mind, shed seen the transgressions of the Hunters. Thefts, rapes, murders, all in the name of good. That she had once been a (supposedly vital) part of their cause, that she had once aided them
Punish them Steal, rape, murder
There he was. Wrath. Her dark companion. Even remembering what hed seen, and being worlds apart from those responsible, he urged her to seek vengeance against the Hunters. To show no mercy, no forgiveness for even the innocent among them, for all the harm they had caused, to hurt them far worse than they had hurt others.
Punish
Cringing, she covered her ears with her hands. Shut up, shut up, shut up, she chanted. Sometimes she could resist him; sometimes she could not. Thats when he would overtake her, and her world would go black. For a little while, at least.
Though she was cursed to remain inside this deteriorating monstrosity of a castle, somehow Wrath was not. When he was in control of her mind, they could leave. He would use her body to castigate others however he wished.
Days later, she would wake up with blood on her hands, coating her skin. Of course, memories of what the demon had done would then deluge her. Sadistic, stomach-curdling things. And yet, nothingnothing!he had forced her to do was more disgusting than what the Hunters were doing to innocent humans.
Humans. How odd her new vernacular was to her. Once shed been a human. Such a foolish human. How could I ever have thought the goal of the Hunters was the elimination of evil?
Well, okay, that was easy. As a teenager, shed seen a vile demon in actionor what shed thought was a demonand the experience had freaked her out, convinced her that such evil was the reason her sister had been taken. Combine that with the shock of learning that humans were not alone, that there was an entire world of creatures at work around them
The whole other-world thing had proven to be true, at least. But the rest, the demon shed seen? While they did in fact exist, she hadnt encountered one that night. Her Hunter boyfriend had drugged herhis preferred method of recruitingcreated the perfect atmosphere to elicit fear, and her hallucinating brain had filled in the rest. Afterward, hed fed her fear with stories of the evil they could fight and the good they could do, saying she might even be able to find and save her sister.
What hed failed to tell her: humans made their own decisions, influenced by demons or not. They decided to embrace the dark or run into the light.
Not all Hunters cloaked their malevolence with righteous determination; she knew that, she did. Some were genuinely sincere in their desire to rid the world of evil, and wouldnt create their own to do so. But the fact that she had once willingly contributed to such a warped cause, well, she would never get over that fact. Worse, she had hurt Paris, a warrior who would give his life to protect the ones he loved.
There was no stopping the next flood of thoughts, each revolving around the man she had once harmed beyond repair. She had struck at Paris when he was at his weakest. Worse, she would have aided in his cold-blooded murder if he hadnt escaped with her.
During that escape, she was shot down and shed even blamed him for that, thinking he had used her body to shield his own. Oh, how she had despised him. Now, she despised only herself.
No, that wasnt exactly true. She also hated the Hunters and everything they represented.
Cronus wanted her to punish them. Her demon wanted to punish them. She wanted to punish them. But Cronus refused to simply unleash her. Instead he demanded she return to their midst and spy on Galen, the leaders right-hand man, as well as the keeper of Hope. Yep, a demon was second-in-command of the demon slayers, and none of them knew it. They thought he was an angel.
As devoted as you were to the Hunter cause in life, Galen will believe you wish to rejoin him in your death, Cronus said, as though reading her thoughts. Maybe he had. He will welcome you with open arms.
He wont be able to see me.
He will. Leave that to me.
He wont wonder why Im demon-possessed? How Im demon-possessed?
He knows. My wife, his leader, told him. But he is overly confident of his appeal and his strength, and he will think he is watching you.
In that case, hell never tell me anything.
No, hell feed you false information, and the truth can be garnered from that.
What if he asks me to prove my loyalty to him?
He will.
And she would be forced to comply to continue her ruse. Would he ask her to hurt the warriors she now wished to aid? To hurt innocent humans? Well, the answer to both was the same. Never!
Look at me. Once a human who didnt know about the supernatural, then a Hunter in the midst of it all, hating the demons I chased, and now Im one of those demonsand hoping to aid the others. Sorry, but Im gonna have to stick with my first answer.
Another flash of red streaked through Cronuss eyes, brighter than before. If she was intelligent, she would view that red as a stoplight for her resistance.
Why start acting like a smartie now? Thats a big-time no, in case you forgot, she said more firmly.
Your human superior ordered you to sleep with Paris, he growled, and you did. Do not try and act self-righteous with me.
Yes, but her attraction to Paris had been immediate and overwhelming. She had yearned for him.
Yearned for him, even though she believed his demon was responsible for infidelity, the breakup of marriages, teen pregnancies, rapes and the rampant spread of STDs. Even though Paris had been, and would always be, at the head of a never-ending parade of lovers. A fact driven home by a coworker who had watched him for days, snapping pictures of all the women he bedded, then showing those pictures to Sienna after shed brought him in. And yet shed still had to fight a wave of jealousy, an emotion she never should have felt in the line of duty.
Had she mentioned her mental incompetence?
If he asks you to kill for him, seduce him into bed instead, Cronus said. That will save you from having to do something unpleasant.
They certainly had different definitions for unpleasant! Youd be better served demanding I bring you Galens head in a magical box of starlight while riding on the back of a Pegasus through a rainbow, because he wont want me sexually. Ive never been the type to attract a mans attention.