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 that 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 her 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 gave 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 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’m a god.”
“And greater gods than you have fallen. Many of them to my wrath. Heed my words, boy. Heed them well.”
Irritated by that, Stryker continued on his way, pausing only long enough to unleash Kyklonas, whose name meant “tornado.” Once unleashed, the ceredon, like him and Urian, was a deadly menace.
March 10, 2004
“Keep hitting them with everything!”
Urian cringed at his father’s orders. They were blasting Wulf’s mansion like the final round ofCall of Duty. It was a wonder someone hadn’t called in the National Guard on them.
This is ridiculous!
But he didn’t dare speak reason to his father when he was in this mood. It would be the same as trying to reason with King Leonides, and he had no desire to be kicked into a spiked pit or fed to lions.
And he was equally shocked when Kat appeared in the guardhouse with them. She winced as her gaze went to the two dead men on the floor that his father had slaughtered on arrival. Not to mention the dozen Daimons his father had on the lawn preparing for another round of attacks.
Only four Daimons were inside the guardhouse. Him, his father, Icarus, and Trates.
Trates looked up from the monitors and went pale at the appearance of the one person none of them could harm.
“How did you get in here?” Kat demanded.
Urian gave her a droll stare. “We walked.”
Stryker turned slowly, methodically around to face her with a sardonic grin. There was no fear in him, only wry amusement. Unlike Urian, he wasn’t quite as sarcastic. “The guards came outside when we ate the pizza deliveryman and tried to stop us. We dragged them inside after they were dead.”
“You are so evil.”
Urian snorted. “Judgmental much?”
Ignoring his comment, his father took pride in Kat’s insults. “Thank you, love, I pride myself on that.”
