"The walking dead."
With images of the Daimons trying to eat her running through her head, Simone shot out of the car. All she could think of was escaping him before he made a meal out of her.
She didn't get very far.
Xypher flashed himself in front of her and caught her against his chest. "I told you not-"
She clipped him hard in the throat.
Cursing, he let go of her as he struggled to breathe.
Xypher glared at her as he imagined tearing her into bloody pieces. Angry beyond tolerance, he slung his hand out and pinned her to the wall behind her. His throat throbbing, he stalked toward her intending to make her pay for her attack.
He'd been hit enough in his life . . .
"Do that again," he growled between clenched teeth, "and, bracelet or no bracelet, I'll tear your head off and use it for a doorstop."
Simone felt fear crawling down her spine, but she wasn't about to let him see it. "What do you want with me?"
"Not a damn thing. All I want is an entrance into the Daimon hell so that I can sit and kill an old friend. You're just the poor sap who got caught in the crossfire."
He released her so fast that Simone almost fell. She caught herself and stood as tall as she could, but it was far from intimidating since he was a full head taller than her. "I don't like being threatened, lied to, or manipulated. You'd do well to remember mat," she said.
He sneered at her bravado. "Or what you're going to snivel at me?"
Jesse started for him but before he could strike Xypher, Xypher turned and caught him by the throat. Throwing Jesse to the ground, he drew back to hit him, then caught himself before he completed the punch.
He moved away.
Jesse gaped at her as he pushed himself to his feet.
Simone was stunned. Though Jesse could move things, no one had ever been able to touch him before. "How can you touch him?"
Xypher crossed his anus over his chest. "I still have a lot of my god powers, but not all of them, and the ones I have keep coming and going without any predictability. No doubt courtesy of Hades and his sick sense of humor."
Jesse stared at her in disbelief. "I think we're going to have to believe him. No one's been able to touch me since the night I died."
Swallowing, Simone nodded her agreement, What Xypher had just done was impossible and unexplainable. "All right. Let's start over. You're a dream god with screwed-up powers who is out to kill someone. And these ..." She held up her arm with the bracelet. "Are an unfortunate gift."
He nodded. "For all I know, these little Tinker-toys could explode and kill us. We've got to get them off."
You think? She bit back the sarcasm, sensing it wouldn't help the situation or his cranky mood. "Okay. I think I know someone who can help us."
"You?" He sneered. "You know someone." He laughed.
Oh, that offended her. "Hey, I happen to know a lot of people. Most of them are highly unusual."
"Yeah, and do any of them have a connection to a Greek god?"
"As a matter of fact they do." She raked him with a smug look. "They happen to work for Artemis."
He sobered instantly. "You know the Dark-Hunters?"
"Not personally, but I know a Squire."
"Take me to him."
Those words went over her like ice down a gown in the middle of the night. "You are one seriously bossy SOB. Who died and made you ..."
Simone paused as she realized that if he was telling the truth, then the man really was a god. Which would answer her question. And it explained a lot about his ego and pushiness. "Never mind. Get in the car and let's find Tate. If you're right about these things exploding, then we need to hurry."
They were in the car instantly.
Simone shook her head to clear it as a foreign buzz whispered in her ears. "Wow. Can you take us to Tate's office like that?"
"Only if I've been to it first. I have to know where I'm going to perfect it. Otherwise we could turn up in a wall or someplace foul."
Foul was bad. She definitely didn't want to do that. Implantation in a wall wouldn't be much better.
Jesse appeared in the backseat. "By the way, did you guys realize that Gloria vanished during the chase? I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."
Sadness gripped her as she started the car. "I'm sure it's bad. But we'll worry about her after I talk to Tate. Unless you can find her in the nether plane, there's not a lot we can do about her for now."
Fear flashed in Jesse's brown eyes. "Yeah, right. Remember what happened the last time I did that? It's not an experience I want to rush back to."
Neither did she. Poor Jesse had almost gotten swallowed by a Daimon.
Simone headed toward Tate's office and picked up her phone from the console. She dialed his number to make Sure he was there.
He answered on the fourth ring. "Hey, my love. I just got off the phone with the Squires,"
She slid a glance to Xypher, who was sitting there looking grim and irritable. "That's great, but right now I have a really pressing problem."
"You find something?"
"More like something found me."
"What do you mean?" Tate asked, his voice full of fear.
Simone considered the best way to tell him what had happened. But she wasn't one to beat around the bush. Besides, if Tate worked for the Dark-Hunters, maybe he knew what a Dream-Hunter was. "While I was looking over things, a group of Daimons showed up and so did ... a Skotos."
Tate laughed nervously. "You're shitting me, right?"
Xypher cocked a handsome brow at her as if he could hear her conversation.
"No," she said, dragging the word out, "and I take it you know what mat is, then."
"Absolutely. Were you hurt?"
"Scuffed a bit." She turned left onto Canal. "But the point of this is the Daimons slapped something on my wrist and the Skotos', too. We don't know what it is and we need to find someone who does."
"You need an oracle." Tate made that sound so easy.
Simone shook her head. "Yeah, and we're just a little far from Delphi, hon."
"You don't have to go to Greece, boo. You know Julian Alexander, right?"
She frowned at the familiar name. "The hot classics professor?" "Not that I personally consider him hot, but yeah."
She ignored his sarcasm. "You're not seriously telling me that he's an oracle who speaks to the gods?"