Wulf laughed as his old friend drew near. They hadn't seen each other in over a century. He gladly shook the Celt's hand.
Wulf turned to the man in the middle and remembered him, too, from the brief time he had spent in New Orleans over one hundred years ago during Mardi Gras.
"Kyrian?" he asked. The ancient Greek general had changed quite a bit since the last time he had met him.
Back then, Kyrian's hair had been cropped short and he had worn a beard. Now it was shoulder length and his face was clean-shaven.
"Nice seeing you again," Kyrian said, shaking his hand. "And this is my friend Julian of Macedon."
Wulf knew the man only by reputation. Julian had been the one who had taught Kyrian everything he knew about fighting and battle. "Glad to meet you. Now what the hell are the three of you doing here?"
"They're your backup."
He turned to see Acheron Parthenopaeus joining their group. He didn't know what stunned him most, their presence or the sight of the infant Ash had strapped into a baby harness, facing his chest.
Wulf was aghast. "Kyrian? Is that your baby?"
"Hell, no," Kyrian said. "No way I would bring Marissa into this. Amanda would geld me first and then kill me if I even considered it." He inclined his head to Acheron. "That's Ash's baby."
Wulf cocked a brow at that. "Lucy," he said in a mock Ricky Ricardo accent, "you got some 'splaining to do."
Ash grunted. "Stryker isn't stupid. Your idea of going in with a plastic baby, while admirable, would never work. Stryker would smell the plastic in an instant." He turned the Snugli sack around to face Wulf so that he could see the tiny, dark-haired infant it contained. "So I give you a real baby."
"What if it gets hurt?"
The baby sneezed.
Wulf jumped as fire shot out of its nostrils and almost singed his leg.
"Excuse me," the baby said in a singsongy voice. "I almost made Dark-Hunter barbecue, which would be really sad 'cause I ain't got no barbecue sauce with me." The baby leaned its head back to look up at Ash. "You know fried Dark-Hunter isn't good plain. What you need-"
"Sim," Ash said in a warning tone under his breath, cutting the baby off.
The baby looked up at him. "Oh, I forgot, akri. Sorry. Goo, ga, goo."
Wulf rubbed his forehead. "What is that?"
"He told you, Simi's his baby... demon."
All five of them turned at the deep, sinister voice that was laced with a heavy Greek accent. Another man stepped out of the shadows. He was almost as tall as Acheron with black hair and vibrant blue eyes.
Ash arched a brow. "You came after all, Z. Glad you made the party."
Zarek snorted. "What the hell? I didn't have anything better to do. Figured I might as well come kick ass and take names. Not that I really give a damn about their names. I'm just in it for the bloodlust."
"So you're Zarek," Wulf said, eyeing the notorious ex-Dark-Hunter who had once been exiled to Fairbanks, Alaska.
His nasty attitude not only bled from every pore, but was apparent from the lip he kept perpetually curled. Billy Idol and Elvis had nothing on this man.
"Yeah," Zarek said, sneering even more. "And I'm freezing, so can we rush this little get-together so I can kill some assholes and get back to the beach where I belong?"
"If you hate it here so much," Talon asked, "why did you agree to come?"
In a subtle gesture of flipping Talon off, Zarek scratched his eyebrow with his middle finger, which was covered with a long, sharp metallic claw. "Astrid wants me to make friends. I don't know why. Some weird woman thing. She's trying to make me more sociable."
Ash let out a rare laugh at that.
Zarek passed an equally amused, knowing look at Acheron. "I don't want to hear it from you, O Great Ash. You're the one who got me into this in the first place." Then Zarek did the most surprising thing of all; he bent down and chucked the baby on the chin. "How you doing, little Simi?"
The baby jumped happily up and down in the harness. "Fine. You got any more frozen beans for me? I miss being in Alaska with you. It was fun."
"No time for food, Sim," Ash answered.
The baby blew him a raspberry. "Can I eat the Daimons then?"
"If you can catch them," Ash promised, making Wulf wonder what the man knew about the Daimons that he wasn't sharing.
"What's that mean?" Zarek asked for him. "You being vague again?"
Ash looked at him archly. "Always."
Zarek let out a sound of disgust. "Personally, I think we should get together and beat the hell out of you until you come clean."
Kyrian scratched his chin thoughtfully. "You know-"
"Don't even go there," Acheron said irritably. He turned to Wulf. "Go get your weapons. You have an appointment to keep."
Wulf paused by Ash's side. "Thanks for coming."
Ash inclined his head to him and stepped away as he cuddled the baby demon to his chest.
Wulf went back to the car to get Kat, but she was nowhere to be seen. "Kat?" he called. "Kat?"
"What's wrong?" Talon asked as he and the others joined Wulf by the car.
"Did you see the woman I was with?"
They shook their heads.
"What woman?" Talon asked.
Wulf frowned. "She's six feet four and blond. She couldn't have just van-" He paused as he rethought that statement. "Never mind, she's one of the few people who could have just gone poof."
"Is she your wife?" Kyrian asked.
"No, she's one of Artemis's handmaidens who's been helping us."
Ash scowled at that. "Artemis doesn't have a kori taller than her. Believe me. She doesn't let any woman look down on her. Literally."
Wulf looked at him as a feeling of dread went through him. "I hope you're wrong. Because if you're not, then Kat was working with Stryker all this time and is most likely off to tell him about our surprise party."
Ash cocked his head slightly as if listening for something. "I don't even sense her. It's as if she doesn't exist."
"So what do you think?" Kyrian asked.
Ash picked his baby up as she started kicking him in the groin and moved her to his hip. The baby played with his braid, then started chewing it.
Wulf furrowed his brow. If he didn't know better, he'd swear that baby had fangs.
"I don't know what to think," Ash said, pulling his hair away from the baby, "Kat bears the description of an Apollite or Daimon."
"But she walks in daylight," Wulf added.
Zarek cursed. "Don't tell me there's another Day-Slayer loose."
"No," Acheron said firmly. "I know for a fact Artemis hasn't created one. She wouldn't dare. At least not at the moment."
"What's a Day-Slayer?" Talon asked.
"You don't ever want to know," Julian answered.
"Yeah," Zarek concurred. "What he said, times a hundred."
"All right, then," Wulf said, heading for his house. "Let me get my things and we'll be on our way."
As he walked off, he saw Talon move to stand beside Ash. "This is the part where you normally say if everyone does what they're supposed to, everything will work out as it's meant to. Right?"
Acheron's face was impassive. "Normally, yes."
"But?"
"We're dealing with something greater than the Fates tonight. All I can honestly say is it's going to be one hell of a fight."
Wulf laughed at that as he left hearing range. That was okay by him. Fighting was the one thing he and his people excelled at.
They arrived at the Inferno just before midnight. Oddly enough, the bar was completely empty of patrons.
Dante met them at the door, dressed in black leather. He didn't have his vampire teeth in, and he looked extremely angry.
"Ash," he said, greeting the Atlantean. "Been a long time since you've darkened my door."
"Dante." Ash shook his hand.