Even though Xypher was barely more than a child, Zeus had tried to kill him. But Poseidon had stopped his brother from making that mistake. "The Sumerians are looking for a reason to call out the Chthonians on us. You kill that boy and we'll all have to answer for it."
The Chthonians were essentially the gatekeepers of the universe. They made sure that the pantheons didn't war among each other since such things tended to lead to the ultimate destruction of the earth and everyone who called it home.
Zeus had curled his lip at his brother. "Then what would you have me do with him?"
"Strip his emotions and train him like the rest of Phobetor's brats. There's no longer anything to fear in an Oneroi. And once he's trained, we'll be able to use him to spy on the Sumerians for us."
And so Xypher's brutal training had begun.
Young and stupid, Xypher had actually thought his father would come to his rescue.
He hadn't. In fact, it'd been his father who'd helped to beat him and strip his emotions to prove his loyalty to Zeus, If Xypher had been a full demon, they wouldn't have been able to subjugate him. Unfortunately, he had too much of his father's blood in him for that.
They'd broken him on a hot summer's day when he'd decided it would be easier to give in to the training than to suffer any more abuse. AH of his emotions had bled out of him until he was numb to everything. No taste, no smell. Nothing that could induce an emotion.
Honestly, he'd welcomed it. All the years of pain were gone. And at least the Greeks weren't quite as bloodthirsty as the demons. They hadn't made him fight for every morsel. Bleed for every comfort.
To be a demon meant to take and destroy. Food was only given to those who could kill for it.
I should have stayed an Oneroi.
Things had been so much simpler then. All he had to do was monitor the sleep of humans. Make sure other Skoti didn't fixate on one particular human too long. The gods permitted the Oneroi and Skoti to exist so long as they didn't disturb the balance of the universe or make the human host insane from their dreams.
Whenever the Skoti came too close to breaking those two laws, the Oneroi were sent in to either drive them away or kill them.
It'd been a cushy life.
Until Satara had come to him. A handmaiden to the goddess Artemis, she'd been as beautiful and alluring as any immortal. She'd summoned him into her dreams and there she'd shown him kindness and the softer emotions he'd never experienced before. They'd made love like they were on fire. Her every breath, every touch, had given him pleasure.
When she was with him, he felt alive . . .
Xypher cursed as he remembered the bitch. Sultry and seductive, she'd made him pay dearly for wanting to be something more than what he was. It was a mistake he'd never make again.
"You okay?"
He blinked at Simone's soft voice that interrupted his thoughts. "Never better."
"Dang," Jesse said, leaning closer to Simone. "If that's his 'never better' it makes you wonder what 'never worse' looks like, huh?"
She glanced back over her shoulder. Xypher didn't know why, but there was something utterly charming about her expression and actions.
"Shh, Jesse, play nice. Remember, he can hurt you."
"Yeah, and I want to know right now who I can complain to about that. It just doesn't seem right."
Xypher narrowed his eyes on him. "How did you get to be a ghost, anyway? You annoy one person too many and they cut your throat?"
"Ha, ha," he said sarcastically. "No, it was a car wreck on a really rainy night as I was talking my girlfriend home from work. The last thing I heard was her telling me to go left at the light. So when the big bright light came, I went left and next thing I knew, I was trapped here on earth."
Xypher rolled his eyes. "That is the most pathetic thing I've ever heard."
Jesse snorted. "Really? The most pathetic thing I've ever heard was this half demon, half god who-"
"Jesse!" Simone snapped. "Again, I feel compelled to remind you that he can hit you and make it hurt. Bad."
That quelled the ghost a bit.
Xypher frowned as he watched the two of them. They were extremely comfortable together . . . like family. He'd never been that close to anyone or anything and it made him wonder what had happened to cause that bond between them. "How did you end up with Simone?"
Jesse laughed. "See, this is where you'd say something like, none of your damned business. But unlike you, I'm nicer than that."
Xypher narrowed his eyes.
An instant later, Jesse tripped as if someone had shoved him from behind.
He caught himself and turned to glare at Xypher. "Hey, Vader, keep your Jedi mind tricks to yourself. That hurt!"
"Yeah, and next time it'll hurt a lot worse. Now, how did you end up being the personal nuisance for Simone?"
"It was the night my mother and brother were killed," Simone said, her voice betraying a subtle note of sadness, "I was in the hospital, waiting for my dad to arrive, when Jesse came to me and told me not to cry."
Xypher hated to admit it, but it was a nice thing for Jesse to do. "How did they die? Car wreck?"
She shook her head before she wrapped her arms around herself as if to provide comfort or protection from the bad memory. "It was a robbery gone bad. We were coming back from a school play and Tony wanted one of those stupid candy ring pops for a tie at. My mother pulled in to a convenience store to humor him. Since I was sleepy and didn't feel good, I stayed in the car while they went in. When they didn't come right back, I lifted myself up in the backseat to see what was taking so long. As soon as I did, I saw two men gunning them down by the counter. I was so scared, all I could do was cover my ears and crawl down behind the front seat to hide. The police found me there a few minutes later when they came. They had to take the seats out to get to me."
Xypher felt like shit. There was no other description. He saw the tears in her eyes and it made him angry that someone would do that to her.
When her gaze met his, the agony in those hazel eyes tore through him like a dagger, "Tony was only seven years old. How could someone open fire on a baby with his mother?"
Xypher looked away, unable to bear the pain and scrutiny he saw in her eyes. "I don't know."
"You're part demon. Can't you give me some insight into such evil?"
"No. As corrupt as I've been, I've never hurt a child and I never would."
Shifting the bags to one hand, Xypher pulled her to a stop. He wanted to comfort her, but he wasn't sure how. What did humans do for comfort? Touch?