Apollymi dragged one fingernail through the image, causing it to shake and distort. "Artemis is interfering with us."
"There is still time to kill both mother and child."
She smiled at that. "Yes, there is." She opened her hands and the water arced from the ball, back into her pool. "Now is the time to strike. The Elekti is being held by Artemis. He can't stop you. He won't even know when you attack."
Stryker flinched at the mention of the Elekti. Like the Abadonna, Stryker was forbidden to attack him.
He hated restrictions.
"We don't know where to attack," he told his mother. "We've been searching-"
"Take one of the ceredons. My pets can find them."
"I thought they were forbidden to leave this realm."
A cruel half-smile curved his mother's lips. "Artemis broke the rules; so shall I. Now go, m'gios, and do me proud."
Stryker nodded and turned about sharply. He took three steps before the Destroyer's voice made him pause.
"Remember, Strykerius, kill the heiress before the Elekti returns. You are not to engage him. Ever."
He stopped but didn't look back. "Why have I always been forbidden to touch him?"
"Ours is not to question why. Ours is but to live or to die."
He ground his teeth as she gave him the distorted human quote.
When she spoke again, the coldness in her tone only angered him more. "The answer to that is how much do you value your life, Strykerius? I have kept you close all these centuries and I have no desire to see you dead."
"The Elekti can't kill me. I am a god."
"And greater gods than you have fallen. Many of them to my wrath. Heed my words, boy. Heed them well."
Stryker continued on his way, pausing only long enough to unleash Kyklonas, whose name meant "tornado." Once unleashed, the ceredon was a deadly menace. Much like Stryker.
It was close to midnight when Wulf's phone rang again. Answering it, he heard a gruff Greek accent that he didn't recognize.
"This is Spawn, Viking. You rang a few hundred times while I was gone?"
Wulf ignored the man's aggravated tone. "Where have you been?"
Spawn's response came out as a low growling challenge. "Since when the hell do I answer to you? I don't even know you, hence it's none of your damned business."
Well, someone hadn't taken his personality pills for the night. "Look, I don't personally have a beef with you, Daimon-"
"I'm an Apollite, Viking. Big difference."
Yeah, right. "Sorry. Didn't mean to offend."
"To quote you, Viking, yeah, right."
Holy shit!
"And yes, I heard that too."
Wulf tamped down his anger and blanked out his mind. The last thing he wanted was to betray himself to a stranger who could be every bit as lethal as the Daimons after Cassandra. "If you know so much, then you should know why I was calling."
Silence answered him.
After a brief pause, Spawn laughed deep in his throat.
"You can't blank your thoughts from me, Wulf. There's no way to shield yourself from me so long as I have direct contact with you, such as the phone you're holding. But don't worry. I'm not your problem. I'm just surprised Apollo really does have an heiress to protect. Congratulations on the baby."
"Thanks," Wulf said less than sincerely.
"And to answer your question, I don't know."
"Know what?"
"If halflings live past twenty-seven. But then anything is possible. I say in a few months we should pop us some Orville Redenbacher's, then sit back and enjoy the show."
It enraged him that the Apollite would make light of something so tragic. "Shut up, Spawn. I don't find you funny at all."
"More's the pity then. I happen to think I'm quite the comedian."
Wulf wanted nothing more than to tear the Apollite Dark-Hunter apart.
"Then it's a good thing I live in Alaska where you can't reach me, huh?"
"How can you do that?"
"I'm a telepath. I know your thoughts even before you do."
"Then why are you being such an asshole?"
"Because I'm a telepath, not an empath. I couldn't care less how you feel, only what you think. But since I also had a message from Ash telling me to help you two, I suppose I will."
"Mighty big of you," Wulf said sarcastically.
"Yes, it is, especially given how much I detest most of you. But since Cassandra is one of my people, I'll try and play nice. If I were you, I'd go find her an Apollite midwife to help birth your son."
Wulf's heart clenched at his words. "It's a boy?"
"Not quite yet, but he will be when he forms a little more."
Wulf smiled at the thought, though to be honest, a small part of him wished for a daughter. One who could remind him of her mother once Cassandra was gone.
Squelching that thought before it led him somewhere he didn't need to go, he listened to Spawn's list of things Cassandra would require.
"My people are a little different from humans. There are special dietary concerns and environmental changes."
"I know Cassandra needs a transfusion," Wulf said, thinking of how pale she'd looked for the last two days. "She told me earlier she was feeling weak."
"Trust me, she needs more than that."
"Such as?"
Spawn ignored the question. "I'll make a few calls and see if I can find someone who is willing to help you two. If we're lucky, there might even be a colony to take you in. I can't make any promises. Since I'm now batting for the other team, my people have a bad tendency to hate my guts and want to kill me whenever I try to contact them."
"I appreciate it, Spawn."
"Yeah, and I appreciate your lying to me for the sake of politeness when we both know better. The only reason you're tolerating me right now is Cassandra. Good night, Wulf."
The phone went dead.
"I take it that didn't go well."
He looked over his shoulder to see Cassandra standing in the doorway of his room. His thoughts had been focused on Spawn's caustic personality, and he hadn't heard her come in. "About like walking into a bear cave coated in honey."
She smiled at that as she drew near him. "Interesting image."
He thought over what Spawn had said about her needs. She'd been pregnant for almost a month now. Was she okay? "How are you feeling?"
"Very, very tired. I came down to go to bed early."
He gave a halfhearted laugh at that. "Only in our world would midnight be considered early." He pulled her gently into his lap.