The Darkest Pleasure (Lords of the Underworld #3)(46)
Author: Gena Showalter

"Yes. If she is dead. I still think there’s a good chance she’s alive."

Don’t you dare start to hope. You just admitted Hope is a demon. Danika allowed the stories to occupy every available space in her mind, sorting through them, trying to pull the most important facts front and center. How much time passed, she didn’t know. But when she focused, Reyes was sitting in a chair directly across from her – close enough to touch – patiently and silently waiting.

"Did you know there were more demons than there were immortal warriors?" she found herself asking softly. "Without the box, some had to be placed inside the prisoners of Tartarus. Demons like Fear. Loneliness. Greed."

Only for a moment did he appear disbelieving. He worried two fingers over his jaw. "Were any placed inside the Titans?" he asked, but the question was not for her. Clearly, he was thinking aloud. "They were prisoners at that time. Of course, there were hundreds of other immortals locked away during any given decade, so…" He shook his head. "No. No, this isn’t possible. Had this happened, I would have known."

"Maybe your demon didn’t know. It was locked inside a tiny, dark box. And I doubt your gods tell you everything. Besides, all I know is what I was told. Believe it or don’t believe it. I don’t care."

"But how could your grandmother know these things…" He stopped, sucked in a breath. "She was like you, was she not? She had visions?"

Danika nodded sadly. "We’ve been haunted by demons our entire lives." She helped me deal with mine, but I failed to save her from hers. I should have stayed with her, guarded her.

That dark skin Danika so loved to touch slowly paled. "This is…this is too much to absorb," Reyes said. "More demons? More possessed warriors?" He shook his head, scrubbed a hand down his face. "Do you know what this means?"

"That you have to slice my throat now?" The question was devoid of sentiment.

He tsked. "I told you. I will not hurt you. Not now, not ever." Then, "Danika, this means we have been intertwined since the beginning."

There was awe in his tone. Reverence. His meaning, however, escaped her. "The beginning of what?" she asked, suddenly so tired she could barely hold up her head. After all the self-defense and combat lessons I took, I couldn’t save the woman who watched me every summer, played hide-and-seek with me in the woods and taught me how to ride a bike. Was she looking down from heaven, ashamed? Was she now at peace with the angels they’d both seen in their dreams?

Reyes cleared his throat. "We have been intertwined since the beginning of my creation, I think."

That would mean fate had played a role in both their lives, and right now Danika didn’t want to consider fate.

"The grandmother who told you of Hope, she is the one…" His voice trailed off, as if he feared broaching the topic again.

"Yes. She is the one Aeron – " sweet Jesus, saying it was hard " – killed." There’ll be no more stories from her. Danika squeezed her eyelids tightly closed, blocking the tears forming there. As soon as I get my strength back, Aeron is mine.

Gentle fingers smoothed over her brow, along the curve of her nose.

She shivered, surprised by the warmth and comfort seeping from his skin into hers. How could she sit here, letting a demon touch her like this? Letting a demon – Pain – console her? "Tell me about the warrior who houses Hope." She would give the information to Stefano, no hesitation. It wouldn’t be a betrayal to Reyes to feed Hunters data about a man he despised.

One of Reyes’s brows arched. "Why?"

"To distract me. I don’t want to think about my…I just don’t want to think anymore."

Again Reyes reached out, gently hooked a strand of her hair behind her ear. "Galen and I were friends once. Soldiers in Zeus’s elite army. I didn’t yet know that he was the kind of man who would smile to your face but stab you the moment your back was turned."

"Where is he now?"

"I know not. After the possession, he disappeared." Reyes leaned down and kissed her cheek, the brush of his mouth soft and gentle. "Is there anything I can get you? Anything you need?"

"I’m going to destroy your friend, Reyes." The admission sprang from her, unstoppable. "Aeron. I know I told you I wouldn’t, but…"

He sighed, weary. "All I ask is that you think about your actions. Aeron is stronger than you. He is immortal, you are mortal. You could probably hurt him, but most likely he will not die. He can hurt you, and you will crumble."

"He has to sleep. I don’t mind taking his head while he sleeps. Or…" Slowly she faced him, lids cracking, parting. The room receded, the warrior becoming her only focus. "You’re as strong as he is. You’ve defeated him before. He came for me, but you stopped him."

"The Darkest Pleasure"

As she spoke, a curtain of unease fell over Reyes’s harsh features.

"Kill him for me," she beseeched.

"Danika – "

"Kill him, and I’ll do anything you want. I’ll cut you as many times as you need."

"Danika," he said again. In the three syllables it had taken to utter her name, she’d heard a war being waged. He was fighting himself.

Twice she’d watched him exchange blows with Aeron, but never had she seen such a look of torture on his face. A lump formed in her throat, and she swallowed it, felt it settle deep in her stomach. Still, she didn’t take back her request.

"As I said, your grandmother might be alive. Why won’t you consider the possibility?"

"Aeron remembers her bloody body." What’s more, the Hunters had seen Aeron carry an unconscious woman away. Not that she could admit that little tidbit.

"But Aeron did not recall rendering the deathblow. Warrior that he is, he would not forget something like that. That has to mean that when he left her, she was still breathing."

Maybe…possibility…what if…

"In the morning, I will take you to your sister and your mother and perhaps you can locate your grandmother. Tonight, I will have Torin hunt – Uh, damn. Find them. Torin will find them for you."

Danika stiffened, every muscle suddenly humming with tension. "Will he hurt them? If he hurts them, I’ll – "

"No, no. You have my word. No harm shall befall them."

She believed him. Stupid of her, but she did. She had no other lifeline at the moment.

"No matter what, we will find your grandmother, as well. You will know, one way or another, what happened to her."

No matter what. One way or another. Ominous phrases. And yet, the second stirring of hated hope did spark to life. Maybe…possibility…what if…the phrases once again swept through her mind. It was human nature to wish for the best, she supposed, and too hard to believe otherwise without solid proof. She hadn’t seen her grandmother’s body; as Reyes had reminded her, Aeron had said he thought he’d killed her, not that he truly had.