Chapter 15
Ash ground his teeth as Artemis ran her hands through his long, blond hair. He shuttered his eyes as he watched her draw a lock of it between her fingers and flick the curl back and forth with her fingertip.
"I have to go," he said.
She pouted seductively, running her graceful hand down his bare chest, her fingernails gently scraping his skin. "I don't want you to go."
"Release me, Artie. I have to find Styxx before he hurts anyone else. He almost killed Zarek last night."
"Who cares? Zarek is better off dead."
"That can be said for most of us."
She painfully raked her nails down his arms, which were secured to her bedposts by a pair of soft golden cords. "I hate when you talk like that. You're so ungrateful after all I have done for you."
Oh yeah, she had done so much for him. More like to him and very little of it had been kind or enjoyable.
"Don't make me break your restraints, Artie." If he used his powers to untie her "special" cords, it would send a signal through Olympus alerting the other gods of his presence in her temple. Anytime he "visited" her, his powers were seriously restricted. He could do paltry parlor-type tricks such as open doors or dress and undress, but anything more than that would be picked up by the Olympian gods and would cause them to investigate the unknown source of power.
That was the only thing Artemis feared.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you? To have Zeus or one of the others find you in my bed?"
"Then let me go."
The golden cords unwrapped themselves from his wrists. Ash sighed as he moved his arms for the first time since dawn and let the circulation travel back into his hands.
A wave of exhaustion hit him, but he shook it off.
As usual, Artemis hadn't let him sleep at all while he'd been with her, and he'd now been awake for two days straight.
He was so tired, he wanted nothing more than to sleep.
"Oh, guess what I found out for you," Artemis said. "My worthless brother, Dion, has hooked up with yours and with the Gaulic war god, Camulus, in a bid for power. Is that a goof or what?"
Acheron froze. "What did you say?"
"Dion and Cam think they can retake their godhoods and they're using your brother as their ringleader. Can you say, rockball's chance?" She laughed. "Just imagine, a forgotten Gaulic war god, my brother, whose only claim to fame is sucking down wine and getting laid, and your brother, whose only good mark is he happens to look like you. And they think the cabbage can lead them to glory." She snorted, then laughed again. "I can't wait to see what these losers have planned."
Acheron stared at her. She might underestimate their abilities, but he had a sneaking suspicion of what they intended to do.
On Mardi Gras, the barrier between this world and the one where the Atlantean Destroyer was held would be thin.
There could be only one reason for them to have Styxx in on their plans...
They wanted to release the Destroyer and the only way to do that would be by killing Ash.
One way or another, Ash was going to make sure it didn't happen.
Come Mardi Gras, they all had a big surprise coming.
They had no idea who and what they were dealing with. The Destroyer was far beyond their ability to command or control. Once unleashed, she was the most merciless ancient god imaginable. One who had slain every member of her own family. Afterward, she would have destroyed the entire earth had she not been stopped and imprisoned.
If Camulus and Dionysus thought to bargain with her after they killed him, they were pathetically mistaken.
He almost smiled at the thought of them trying to reason with her. Mardi Gras night would be interesting, no doubt.
"By the way," Artemis said as she reclined naked on the bed and ran her bare foot up his spine in a long, cool caress, "your children have been very bad while you were here."
Ash stopped rubbing his wrist and looked at her. "What do you mean?"
"In direct disobedience to your orders, Zarek was out and about earlier this evening, and he and Talon got into a fight in the French Quarter."
Anger rushed through him. "What? When?"
"About two hours ago."
"Dammit, Artemis," he snarled. "Why didn't you tell me?"
She shrugged and ran her hand over her naked breasts in an effort to draw his attention to her. "I liked you where you were and I knew if I told you, you'd leave."
Ash glared at her. Her selfishness knew no bounds. Angry at her, he snapped his fingers and returned his clothes to his body. He made his hair black and grabbed his backpack up from the floor.
"I hate that hair color on you," she said petulantly, zapping his hair back to blond.
He stiffened. "Yeah, well, the only color I hate more than blond is auburn." He made his hair black again, then zapped hers to a matching shade.
Her furious shriek echoed through the temple as Ash mentally commanded himself back to New Orleans.
Sunshine felt an adrenaline rush as they approached the biker bar at 688 Ursulines Avenue. It was the best place in town to come meet friends, eat good food, and find all kinds of fun things to do.
"You didn't tell me we were going to Sanctuary."
Talon frowned. "You know about Sanctuary?"
"Honey, there's not a single woman in this town who doesn't know about Sanctuary, Land of the Bodacious Gods. Heck, me and my girlfriends want to get together and vote Mama Lo an award for her policy against hiring any man not seriously buff."
She noted the offended grimace on his face and couldn't help laughing. "Not that you're not buff. You can certainly hold your own against the Sanctuary Hotties. But face it, haven't you ever noticed that this place is like Hooters for women?"
"No. I can honestly say that I've never noticed how good-looking the men at Sanctuary are. Nor have I ever cared."
The outside of the club was a typical New Orleans building that had been constructed in 1801. The brick was a rust color and a huge sign swung over the old-fashioned saloon-type doors. It showed a full moon rising over a hill where a motorcycle was parked and proudly proclaimed this place as Sanctuary, Home of the Howlers-the Howlers being the house band for the club, and a mighty fine-looking group of men they were too.
The bar was open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and was owned by the Peltier family. The owner, Mama Lo, had eleven studly sons who again warranted the woman an award for beautifying the city.
Each one of them was a prime male specimen guaranteed to make a woman pant.
Dev Peltier was at the door as they entered. A regular bouncer, he was one in a set of identical quadruplets. Sunshine had never met a woman who didn't want to take one of the quads home. For that matter, they wanted to take them all home and use them as matching bookends in the bedroom. Only it wasn't books her friends wanted to sandwich between the quadruplets.
Dev had a pair of piercingly blue eyes and long, wavy blond hair that fell to the middle of his back. The only way she knew it was Dev as opposed to one of his brothers was the bow-and-arrow tattoo on his arm.
She paused as she realized it was identical to the brand on Talon's shoulder.
"Hey, man," Dev said in that shivery-hot, deep accent that was a cross between French and Cajun as he caught sight of Talon. The two of them did a high-five shake. "Where have you been?"
"Out and about. You?"
Dev gave him a wicked grin. "Mostly in and out."
Talon laughed. "I'm not going there."
Dev looked at her and winked. "Hey, little Sunshine, why you hanging out with this loser? You lose a bet or something?"
"Or something," she said with a smile.
"You know Dev?" Talon asked her, his body going rigid as if the thought made him jealous.
"Yeah," Dev answered before she could. "She comes in all the time. Her and Aimee play pool in the back."
"You come here alone?"
Sunshine shoved Talon playfully on the shoulder. "Would you stop? You're not my father and no one bothers me here thanks to Dev and his brothers."
"That's right, Talon, you know my policy. No one harasses a woman in Sanctuary unless she wants to be harassed."
"The exception being Aimee," Sunshine couldn't resist adding. The only daughter in the massive Peltier clan, Aimee couldn't get near a man without one of her brothers or her enormously tall, well-muscled father having a stroke.
"Double damn straight." Dev inclined his head to the coffin that was kept in the corner of the club right as you came in the door. "That's the last moron who asked my sister out."
Talon laughed again. "There's another place I don't want to go to. I'm looking for Eros, has he been in here yet?"
"Upstairs by the storeroom playing poker with Rudy, Justin, and Etienne."
"Thanks." Talon led her through the front half of the bar where tables and booths were set up for eating. The place was rather crowded tonight and the music from the Howlers was loud and thumping.
"Hey, Talon," Sunshine shouted in his ear. "Why do you and Dev have the same bow-and-arrow mark on your bodies?"
He glanced back to where Dev stood at the door. "Dev thinks it's funny that he bears the mark of a..." His voice trailed off, but she caught his unspoken meaning by the glint in his eyes.
The bow mark must be the signature sign of a Dark-Hunter. "Is he one too?"
"No, he's another breed entirely."
Understanding ripped through her. "A breed like Vane?"
He paused and lowered his head so that he could speak without being overheard. "Yes, and at the same time, no."
So he must be a were-beast of a different sort. "Does this mean his entire family is able to change..."-she shifted gears as a patron came too close-"their clothes to something entirely new?" she finished.
He nodded.
Wow! Who knew? An entire were-family ran one of the most popular places in town. Very chic.
Talon straightened and headed for the back where the pool tables were kept. There was an ornate pine staircase that led to the area above, where additional tables were set up for people to eat and watch the band as they played below.
Even the upstairs area was packed tonight.
Without stopping, Talon led her past the patrons and headed for the last table on the left, which was set in a corner.