Even more ashamed by her loving care that didn’t scold or judge, he dropped his gaze to the floor, unable to look her in the face. The ache inside him was so great that at times it felt as if it would swallow him whole. It was like some great beast that gnawed at him, threatening to devour what little was left of his soul. “I’m too young to be this tired, Tannis,” he whispered. He was sick of the way the others treated him. Of the lies they told behind his back and of how they watched him—with malice, jealousy, and hatred when he’d done nothing to warrant it.
It was what made him lash out in violence. He wanted to beat the world down as much as it tried to do to him. Most of all, he just wanted to be left alone.
Sliding onto his bed, she drew him into her arms and held him. “I know. Everyone expects you to be strong and to act like a grown man and you’re just a boy, Urian. Yet you were never allowed to be a child.”
It was true. They always had to be on guard. And because they appeared to be grown, everyone treated them that way, but inside, they were still kids. At least that was how he felt.
“Do you feel old enough to be married?”
She shook her head. “There are parts about it I like. Parts of it that scare me.” She sighed. “I imagine it’s like you in the ring. Do you feel ready for real battle?”
“Sometimes. You know, I’ve been battling Theo’s and Archie’s hairy asses for years.”
She snorted. “Not the same and you know it.”
“So you say. It’s gotten pretty bloody at times.” And at the mention of blood, he became acutely aware of how hungry he was. How near her veins were to his lips. It caused his stomach to rumble.
Tannis’s eyes widened. “How long has it been since you last fed?”
Unlike humans, they didn’t call their nourishment eating. It wasn’t the same. At all.
What they did was primal and raw in a way humans would never understand. It was more a ritual. Not that he would know, since the only thing he was intimate with was a cold, nasty sheepskin bladder.
Urian shrugged.
“You don’t feed every day?”
“Why bother? It’s not like it’s ever filling, anyway.”
“Urian!”
He let out a tired breath. “Don’t, Tannis. You’ve no idea what it tastes like. It’s disgusting.” He pulled the bladder from the drawer where he’d thrown it and held it out to her.
She gingerly took it and, after a dainty sip, gagged on the foul taste.
“Told you so.”
Pressing her hand to her lips, she handed the bladder back to him and shuddered. Still unable to speak, she nodded and then coughed. “You win. That’s revolting.”
“I know.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I wish I were a warrior. I’d kick all their rears for being mean to you and force them to feed you.”
“That’s called rape, sister. I’d rather starve.”
She took his hand into hers. “I’m going to help you find someone. I promise.”
How easy she made it sound. Not even bloodlust or intoxication could override their innate mistrust or fear of him. It left him so lonely and isolated. He felt like such an outsider. Like an enormous freak. So much so that the only one he could relate to was a dragon …
“Wish you luck with that.”
“Tannis!”
She jumped at their father’s roar.
Urian tightened his grip on her hand. “You want me to come with you?”
“Nay. Best I go face the beast alone. I talked him into this godforsaken marriage. While I might only be a daughter, I did inherit the same degree of backbone as my brothers.” Smiling sadly, she kissed his knuckles and released his hand. “A marriage for you soon, I promise.”
Those words hit him like a fist to his gut. “Just one better than yours.”
“Ha, ha. That was low, Urian. Even for you.”
“Sorry. Couldn’t resist.”
She blew him a kiss before she flashed herself out of his room to confront his father and find out if there was anything left of her husband.
Sighing, Urian leaned his head back against the stone wall and closed his eyes. His father’s muffled voice was strangely comforting in its anger. Not because of its fury but because of the love that fueled it. Stryker would never be this riled over anything else. He was a passionate man.
“Damn it, Tannis! I told you not to marry that piece of shit!”
Urian smiled at Tannis’s calm, sweet voice. “Am I a widow, Baba?”
“Nay, but I doubt you’ll ever be a mother.”
Urian laughed. And with that, he craved a visit with his own mata. It felt like forever since he’d last seen her.
Getting up, he used his powers to dress in his armor—something his father insisted they do if they ever left Kalosis. They were also supposed to go out in groups. Never alone.
A minimum of four. More was even better. His father was that paranoid, especially when it came to his sons. Stryker wanted no one to take a chance on being jumped by the humans or gods who hunted them.
That was the only order of its kind that Urian defied. And only when he visited his mother.
Not because he was reckless but to protect her. The fewer who knew where she lived, the better. She was too vulnerable and the last thing he wanted was to make her a target for someone who might need a quick soul to elongate their life. Daimons got desperate and when they did, no one was safe. They would prey on anyone.
Man, woman, child.
Infant.
His siblings could find her if they desired. And while it might be selfish, Urian always preferred to see her without them. Only Tannis didn’t hog his time with her. She would selflessly share their mother whenever they visited, and not try to belittle or upstage him.
Not even Paris was so kind.
Besides, he had Xyn’s armor and so long as he wore it, he couldn’t be harmed. It was like being wrapped in her arms, and he felt safe and comforted in a way that defied explanation. Normally whenever he was upset, she was the one he sought.
But tonight, he wanted his mother’s comfort more.
Leaving his room, Urian went to the chest where they each placed things they wanted to take to their mother on their visits and put them in a small basket. It was something they all did for each other as a favor. Then he walked down the narrow passage, toward Apollymi’s section of the palace where he knew none of his family would be, as they feared the goddess even more than they feared their father. And there he opened a portal to the human world. It was the only safe place to do so without risking detection. If one of the others here detected the rift, they’d attribute it to either Apollymi or one of the Charonte, who weren’t supposed to use the portals, but sometimes they did so at the behest of the goddess, or whenever some human or the demon-broker, Jaden, summoned them out.
The channel began as a cold shift in the air, then a shimmer of glowing particles that swirled faster and faster until they congealed to make a large hole that united the two worlds. The light was blinding to those who lived in darkness. And like moths to a flame, it drew them toward it.
As soon as Urian stepped through, he realized that it was later than he normally visited his mother’s cottage. Closer to the middle of the night, judging by the height of the moon in the clouded sky.
Still, his mother usually kept her cottage lit until well past the midnight hour in case one of them happened by.
The moment he stepped into her realm, Urian shivered at the unexpectedly cold air. That was one thing that was hard to get used to in the human world. The difference in climate. The weather in Kalosis was steady, year round. Never too hot. Never too cold. It didn’t rain.
Out here …
Brr …
Blowing into his hands, he stamped his feet against the ground, then paused as he caught a peculiar sound from inside the cottage. It was a high-pitched laugh followed by a deep moan.
Urian’s eyes widened at intimate sounds he knew all too well.
Time froze solid and came crashing down around him until he couldn’t breathe or think. His heart hammered hard in the center of his chest. How could this be?
Part of him wanted to storm into that cottage and tear them apart like an angry child. To gut the man who dared to defile her so. To demand she return and apologize to his father for humiliating him when he was the one who provided for her and cared for her welfare.
But the man in him understood her loneliness that had to be debilitating at times. The fact that while his father did provide for her material well-being, he’d never once cared for her emotionally. Stryker hadn’t even ventured here a single time since her exile to speak to her or ask if she needed anything. The way he’d left her had been cold and callous.
That part of her life their father left entirely up to them to see after. So no, he couldn’t blame her for wanting this.
Needing companionship.
Still …
Heartsick that she’d moved on with her life away from them, Urian knew what he needed to do. He set the basket down that he’d brought for her and removed the necklace she’d given him.
His mother deserved to be happy without the threat or taint of her Apollite family hanging over her head. She was human and this was her world.
It wasn’t theirs. It could never be theirs.
“S’agapo, Mata,” he whispered. I love you.
With tears in his eyes, he touched the door of her cottage, knowing that this would be their final good-bye.
It was for the best. She was human.
He was an Apollite.
Forever cursed. Forever damned. His mother would have to be darkness from this day forward. Better now than later.
As Apollymi had told him, love was a weakness that no one needed. He wasn’t a child any longer. He was a man. A warrior. Time to throw his toys away and embrace the soldier his father had raised him to be.
I am the light who will lead my people.
He couldn’t change what he was. Nor could he deny his destiny. Nay, the time had come for him to embrace his fate.
Alone.
June 10, 9511 BC
“I can’t believe I let you morons talk me into this.”
“Zeus almighty, Archie … enough! No one invited you!” Paris paused to glare at him before he passed an irritated glare at Urian. “One more gripe and you have my permission to knife him where he stands.”
Theo put his hand over Archie’s mouth. “How ’bout I strangle him?”
“That’ll work.” Paris draped his arm around Davyn. “Now show some respect and shut it already.”
Archie continued to make sounds of discontent as they moved in relative silence through the forest toward the village where Davyn’s sister and brother-in-law lived.
Urian didn’t say anything as they trudged along. While it annoyed him that Archie was here, it was actually very typical of his brother’s behavior. Davyn had wanted to come out and be with his family in their village for a couple of days, and as a matter of course, Paris had insisted on being with him to make sure Davyn didn’t do this alone.
No one should be left alone to watch a family member die.
Needless to say, while they might attempt to kill each other most of the time they were together, they weren’t about to let anyone else have that honor. And it was too dangerous for Paris and Davyn to run solo in the human realm without them. While Davyn might claim his family could take care of themselves, they didn’t believe it.
In it for one. In it for all.
So here they were, en masse. Pissed off and sniping at each other.
As Xyn would say, the ushe.
“What is this Cult of Pollux stuff again?” Ophion asked. Unlike the rest of them who remained blond, he had chosen to dye his hair black, like their father.
“In a word? Idiotic!”
“Archie!” Paris renewed his stern glare. “Stop!”
“It’s fine, Paris. He’s not exactly wrong.” Davyn handed Ophion a small medallion that contained an interlocking circle pattern on it.
Ophion scowled at the piece. “What’s this?”
Urian tried to keep the disdain out of his own voice since he actually agreed with Archie, for once. “Everyone in their community wears that emblem as a sign of solidarity that they intend to honor their pledge. Or they wear it on the night when they come together to be with the family member who’s abiding by the vow they took that they won’t commit ritual suicide to avoid Apollo’s curse and go Daimon. That they’ll sit there on their twenty-seventh birthday and decay as the god intended them to.” Alkimos’s and Telamon’s eyes widened in horror. “Archie’s right! They’re idiots!”
“Thank you. Finally someone who agrees with me.”
Theo snorted at Urian’s words. “I often agree with you. I just don’t admit it out loud ’cause I don’t want anyone else to think I’m an idiot like you.”
Urian’s laughter died as he smelled fire all of a sudden. The scent hit each of his brothers at about the same time.
As did the crackling sound of it. The clashing of steel and screams …
In unison, they went into battle mode and formed a phalanx, pulling on their helms and locking their shields into place. Out of habit, Urian took the weak end. As the strongest fighter among them, he’d volunteered for it years ago. The eight of them present were a well-practiced unit when it came to war, especially against humans.
Unlike Davyn’s family and their village, the sons of Strykerius weren’t Anglekos—the term reserved for Apollites who’d taken a vow never to use their psychic powers or superior strength to harm humans.
They were Spathi. Ruthless. Cold. In it for blood and bone. Loyal only to Apollymi, and hell-bent against the human race and anyone who threatened an Apollite or Daimon. It was why their emblem was a dragon over a sun. The sun being the mark of Apollymi the Destroyer, and the dragon for their father, Stryker.
And as they came up to the village under the cover of darkness, Urian saw what caused the noises and odor.
Human soldiers had annihilated the Apollites who lived there and were still pillaging and burning everything and everyone they could find.
With an anguished cry, Davyn almost broke rank and started forward, but Paris caught him and held him back.
“Nay, love. In the name of vengeance. Remain calm or they’ll have us, too.”
Something proven as the humans saw them and rallied to attack.
Theo came around so that they formed a circle. Urian frowned at his brother, who cast him a smug sneer.
“What?” Theo asked in an offended tone. “I might think you’re an obnoxious little shit … which you are, Uri. But you are my brother. Be damned if I’ll see you die by a human hand.”
“Aye,” Archie growled. “And I’m not about to go home and tell Solren I let you die. He’d skin us all.”
Urian laughed as his brothers let out a war cry and countered the first strike against them and the impenetrable wall they presented to their enemies. He struck with his kopis and his powers, using both to drive the humans back and knock them from their feet as they attacked him and his brothers.
They had intended to remain in a circled phalanx, but in a matter of minutes, the humans had broken them apart with their assault, especially those who were coming at them in chariots with javelins. Urian twisted as one of the charioteers came by and slammed a whip down across his shield. It caught against the edge, yanked him forward, and wrested him away from their protection.
Even so, Urian used his powers to lock the chariot’s axle and sent the bastard who hurt him flying.
As he turned to engage his next attacker, a bright blue flash caught his eye.
It was a blond child, running.
His jaw went slack. Especially when he noticed the boy trying to run into a burning cottage.
Shit!
Urian flashed himself to the child’s position so that he could grab him to protect the boy.<br />
The moment he did, the boy sank his fangs straight into Urian’s hand.
Definitely Apollite and not human.
“Hey!” Urian flashed his own fangs at the boy to let him know whose side he was on.
Tears flowed from the child’s eyes as he realized Urian was an Apollite and not a human out to harm him. “Please help! My mata and sister are trapped because my mata’s blind and my sister won’t leave her!”
Glancing around, Urian saw that the boy wasn’t safe either. Not in the cruel sea of madness that surrounded them. The humans were brutal and those fighting them weren’t a bit better. “All right.” He pushed him toward some brush. “Stay low. I’ll be right back.”
The boy ran like a rabbit while Urian rushed into the building. Even over the roar of the fire, he heard the girl weeping and pleading with her mother as she tried to save her. He headed for them.
Covering his mouth and nose with part of his chalmys, he picked through the burning building, dodging embers and falling planks as best he could. He’d always been afraid of fire. It was another thing that could easily kill them.
The smoke burned his eyes while he stayed low and felt his way along the floor until he found the girl next to her mother, who was barely conscious and wounded terribly. It was obvious the humans had taken their time abusing her.
And the moment Urian touched the woman, she screamed and began swinging wildly at him.
“Shh, you’re safe. I’ve got you.” He unpinned his fibula and removed his cloak, grateful to the gods that Sarraxyn had made his armor flameproof. Strangely enough, it managed to even keep his body cool in the oppressive heat of the place.
“He’s an Apollite, Mata. He’s got fangs like us.”
The woman broke down into horrendous sobs as she clung to him unexpectedly.
“I’m going to wrap you in my cloak and teleport you both out. All right?”
She nodded weakly.
Urian quickly covered her naked body and then flashed them from the burning building to where the boy should be waiting for his return, hopefully well hidden, under cover so that no one had discovered him and hurt him while he was gone.
As soon as the three of them were outside, the boy ran over to them from his hiding place in the hedges. The girl grabbed on to her brother and held him tight. “Geras! I thought you dead!”
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