Screwing her face up, Xirena narrowed her gaze as she stared at him. “He could look cute with horns.”
Urian’s eyes widened at the thought of them putting horns on his head. The image of them drilling them into his skull was horrifying. Charonte were known to do things like that.
Luckily, Xirena got up with a pair of stuffed red ones that attached with clips. Making herself taller, she handed one to Simi and each one clipped a horn to his head.
They stepped back to stare at him, then high-fived each other. “Charonte!” they said in unison.
Simi gave a firm nod. “You’s a perfect, beautiful Charonte now!” She grinned. “Can you look in a mirror or are you still too Daimon for that?”
He laughed. “I can look in mirrors now.” That was one of the things Ash had fixed about him that still freaked him out whenever he happened to see his reflection.
“Goody!” Simi used her powers to conjure a crystal-encrusted, Hello Kitty hand mirror that she held up for him so that he could see the horns.
Urian grinned at the silliness of it. “Perfect.”
“Charonte!” She held her hand up for him to high-five her.
“Charonte!” he said, and gently touched her palm with his.
Alexion picked that moment to come in and burst into laughter. “Should I even ask?”
Urian glared at him. “Not if you want to live.”
Simi snorted. “Akri-Uri is a Charonte now. We’s adoptive him. He our baby now so if you make our baby cry, we make you cry.”
Urian’s grin turned to straight shit-eating. “I like that a lot.” Crossing his arms over his chest, he dared Alexion. “I’ve got Charonte mamas now. Go ahead, insult me.”
Alexion sputtered as he looked back and forth between the two demons, who were now very alert. “The only Danger I flirt with is my wife. Who I’m going to find right now. But word to the wise about your adoption, Uri … they feed their babies habanero sauce straight up from the bottle, and good luck with the burping.” Then he vanished.
“Hey! That a joke?” he shouted after him.
No answer.
A bad, sick feeling went through Urian. He turned toward the demons. Both of whom were now on their feet and coming closer with purpose.
Oh shit …
October 2010
“We have a problem.”
“You’d have had a bigger one had you arrived a minute earlier before I pulled my pants on,” Acheron said drily as Urian materialized directly in front of him as he stood in the kitchen of the New Orleans home he shared with Tory. He’d been scooping ice cream when Urian made an unannounced appearance. “Were you raised in a barn?”
A loud knock sounded on the back door.
Acheron rolled his eyes at Urian’s sarcasm when it was obvious Urian had thrown the sound as a “screw you” to him. The expression on Ash’s face said,Lucky for you, I just had great sex with my wife that put me in such a happy place that not even your assholishness can disturb it.Otherwise Urian was sure he would have been a flaming stain on the wall. “What’s up?”
“Dev’s not on crack.” Dev Peltier being the Were-bear from Sanctuary who normally stood guard at their front door, which let out onto the street. Apparently, the bear had claimed that he saw Daimons out in daylight, walking around with tourists. Since everyone knew Daimons couldn’t do that … the natural assumption was that the bear was on crack.
Acheron licked the back of the spoon before he set it in the sink. “Never thought he was.… Ketamine maybe, but never crack. Why, did you?”
Urian watched Ash return the ice cream carton to the freezer. “I just came away from a chat with one of my old friends.” Which really just meant Davyn as he had no other friends on the Dark Side. “He told me that the Daimons are able to take gallu demon souls into their bodies and that Stryker is converting his army with their blood.”
Just as Urian had done when Davyn told him what his father was up to, Acheron froze at those words. The Sumerian gallu powers were intense. The ultimate in evil, one of them in a Daimon’s body was a nightmare of biblical proportions.
More than that, gallu bites turned their victims into mindless drones. Like a zombie on steroids. One could make thousands.
A Daimon would now be able to make more of their kind. Lots more.
