Chapter 18
Sunshine followed Zarek's directions to the Warehouse District, but getting there in the heavy traffic wasn't easy. They probably could have walked faster.
Normally the traffic wouldn't have bothered her; however, Zarek wasn't exactly friendly, and between his sour mood and the drunken revelers on the street who kept staggering out into the road, her nerves were pretty much fried.
She wasn't really sure why they had to go out tonight, but Zarek had assured her that Ash wanted her moved for safety's sake.
He'd promised her that Talon would be able to fight better knowing she was hidden away from Camulus and Styxx.
"So how long have you been a Dark-Hunter?" she asked, trying to do something to ease the tension between them.
"You don't care, so why do you ask?"
"Well, you're just Mr. Warm and Fuzzy, aren't you?"
He looked at her coldly. "When you kill things for a living, it tends to take the warm and fuzzy right out of you."
"Talon isn't like that."
"Well, bully for him."
She growled as she slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting a man dressed up like a bull. He pounded on the hood of her car and yelled, then dashed across the street.
Sunshine moved forward again, even more slowly, through the bumper-to-bumper traffic. "You don't like Talon, do you?"
"Wish him dead every time I see him."
She frowned at Zarek's blase tone. "I can't tell if you mean that or not."
"I mean it."
"Why?"
"He's an asshole and I've had enough assholes in my life."
"Do you hate Ash too?"
"Baby, I hate everyone."
"Even me?"
He didn't answer.
Sunshine didn't bother him after that. There really was something spooky about Zarek. Something cold and unreachable. It was as if he took pleasure in the fact that he shoved everyone away from him.
At least twenty minutes passed before Zarek shocked her by asking a question of his own. "You love the Celt, don't you?"
"Yes."
"Why? What is it about him that makes you care for him?"
She sensed Zarek was asking something much deeper than that. It was as if the concept of love were so alien to him that he was struggling to make sense of it.
"He's a good man who makes me laugh. He looks at me and I melt all over the floor. When I'm with him, I feel like I can fly."
Zarek turned his head away from her and watched the Mardi Gras crowd outside.
"Have you ever been in love?" she tried again.
Again, he didn't answer. Instead he directed her to a warehouse on St. Joseph Street.
The place was dark and forbidding. "Is this where we're supposed to be?" she asked.
He nodded.
She parked in an alley behind the building, and they left the car.
Zarek led her in through a back door and up a series of stairs. He opened a door at the end of the hallway and let her enter first.
Sunshine stepped inside. At first glance, she thought the tall blond man was Acheron with a new hair color. But when she saw Camulus standing by his side, she knew it wasn't.
It was Styxx who was standing between Camulus and a brunet man she didn't recognize.
Sunshine turned to run.
Zarek closed the door ominously and took up a blocking position before it. The look on his face told her that he had no intention of letting her pass through him.
"Come in, come in, said the spider to the fly," Camulus said.
Sunshine lifted her chin as she faced the men. Camulus was extremely handsome, but he had a smile that was pure evil.
Even more so than Zarek and that was hard to accomplish.
The man she didn't know was humongously tall with light brown hair and a goatee. He had an extremely refined, well-bred look to him.
"I'm going to take a wild guess that you are Dionysus," Sunshine said, remembering what Selena had once told her about the patron god of Mardi Gras.
He smiled as if flattered she knew him. "Guilty."
Camulus let out a long breath. "She's so bright. It's almost a shame to kill her. But... oh well."
"You can't hurt her," Zarek said from the door. "You promised me she wouldn't be harmed if I brought her here."
"So I lied," Dionysus said. "Sue me."
Zarek started for the god, but Sunshine stopped him. She wasn't really sure why she did that, it just seemed as if he were the closest thing to an ally she had in that room.
She turned back to Camulus, knowing exactly how he planned to hurt Talon tonight. "I'm not going to let you kill me in front of Talon."
They all laughed. All except for Zarek.
"You can't stop us," Camulus said.
Zarek glanced down at her, then did a double take as his dark gaze fell to her necklace. "Uh, gods, I think you've forgotten something."
Dionysus curled his lip. "We forget nothing."
"Oh, okay," Zarek said sarcastically, "then you must already know that she wears a Marking Medallion."
They sobered instantly.
"What?" Camulus snarled.
Sunshine pulled her grandmother's necklace out of her shirt and held it up to them. She couldn't really believe it might help her, but hey, anything at this point was worth a try. "My grandmother said that the Morrigan would always protect me."
Camulus cursed. "Oh, this ain't right." He cursed again.
"This thing really works?" she whispered to Zarek.
"More than you know," he whispered back. "He can't kill you without making the Morrigan angry."
"Well, who knew?" she said, amazed by the knowledge. "Cool."
"Yup," Zarek concurred. "Better than a cross with Dracula."
She beamed. "Does it work against Dionysus too?"
He nodded.
Oh, this was good. Very, very good. "Okay, then, let's talk."
"Talk about what?" Dionysus hissed.
"Not you. Him." She indicated Camulus with a nod. "I want to talk about Talon's curse."
Camulus's eyes blazed at her. "What about it?"
"I want you to lift it."
"Never."
She held her medallion out to him. "Do it or..." She gave Zarek a sideways glance. "Does this have any power to hurt him?"
"Only if he hurts you first."
Damn. What kind of protection was that? She needed to have a talk with whoever came up with these things.
A calculating glint lightened Camulus's eyes. He sighed as if bored. "Oh well, since I can't kill you, I guess I'll have to content myself with killing Talon instead."
Terror consumed her. "What?"
Camulus shrugged nonchalantly. "It's rather pointless to let him live happily ever after with you when my intent was to make him suffer. Since you can't die, he'll have to."
Her hand shook as she held the medallion in her suddenly sweaty grip. "Won't Artemis be mad if you kill one of her soldiers?"
He looked at Dionysus, who burst out laughing. "Artemis, darling that she is, would most definitely care. However, she won't start a war with the Celtic pantheon over it. Unlike me, Cam is safe from her wrath."
"Doesn't it just reek?" Camulus asked. His happy smile belied his dire words.
Sunshine wanted to cry. This couldn't be happening.
By saving herself, she had condemned Talon to die.
No! She couldn't let this happen. "Okay, there has to be another way."
Camulus narrowed his eyes as if thinking about the matter. "Perhaps there is. Tell me, Sunshine. How much does Talon's happiness mean to you?"
"Everything," she said sincerely.
"Everything. Well, that certainly is a lot." His look turned steely cold, frightening. "Does it mean as much to you as your own soul?"