Page 25 of One Silent Night (Dark-Hunter 15)
She looked at the door at the same time Medea slung it open. For once Medea didn't react to seeing them naked in bed together. That alone told Zephyra how dire the news was.
"Kessar has sent an emissary to speak with Father. He needs to come immediately."
Stryker's clothes appeared on his body as he left the bed. Zephyra was just about to reach for hers when he dressed her, too. She scooted out of bed to meet Medea in the doorway.
Stryker took the lead.
Medea lifted one curious brow as she drew even to Zephyra, but said nothing as they followed Stryker down the hallway to the receiving hall. There in the dim light, the Daimons were gathered around a tall, lithe gallu female. Her long black hair was loose around her shoulders as she curled her lips in repugnance at the gathered Daimons.
Stryker didn't speak as he walked past her to the dais where his black skeletal throne waited. It shimmered in the dim light and looked as menacing and lethal as the man who occupied it. Zephyra followed him up, expecting him to protest. He didn't. With the presence of a god, he took a seat nonchalantly and stared at the gallu as if she were an insect on his floor he was about to step on. Zephyra took position on the right-hand side of his throne. She braced one hand on the top spindle that was carved into the image of a spine.
"You have word from Kessar?" Stryker asked the gallu.
"He offers you a chance to surrender."
Stryker laughed aloud at her stupidity. At Kessar's audacity. If they thought to make him blink, they were sadly mistaken. "I told him to quit sucking the blood of idiots. It's now infected his own intellect."
The female gallu snapped her fingers.
Two more gallu came forward with a Daimon in chains. It was Illyria, one of his Spathi commanders. Her pale blond hair was a stark contrast to her black clothing. True to her nature and station, she didn't beg as they brutally forced her to her knees.
But she was weak. Her skin held that ashen, iridescent cast that came from waiting too long to feed. Her body was starting to age and decay. Already she looked older than twenty-seven. In a matter of minutes, she'd become middle-aged.
"Give them nothing, my lord," Illyria spat, trying to fight the two gallu who held her.
"She will die if you don't surrender."
Stryker shrugged. "We all die, gallu. You should be more concerned about your own fate."
She raked him with a cold glare. "Your skin shows that you need to feed, too." She cupped Illyria's chin in her hand. "Look at her aging. Her bones are becoming brittle. She won't last out the hour. Even if you feed from one another, you will only die that much sooner."
Stryker maintained his air of nonchalance. "I'm not Sisyphus trying to restrain death. Illyria is a soldier. If it's her time, it's her time. I'm not at war with Atropos. It's her will to take us whenever she likes. My only goal is to die with dignity."
Zephyra was impressed by Stryker's demeanor and levelheaded negotiation. He wasn't the same as the boy she'd known. The man before her was fierce and not willing to be intimidated.
She could appreciate that. Just as she saw the aggravation in the eyes of the gallu. The demon was about to slip up.
And as Zephyra glared at the gallu, an idea came to her. It was bold but illuminating. She placed her hand on Stryker's shoulder and leaned forward to whisper into his ear. "Drink from the gallu. . . ."
Stryker went still at her words. Gallu blood was infectious. It could convert anyone who came into contact with it into one of them and make that person a mindless zombie for them to control. Did Zephyra hate him so much that she wished that fate on him?
He met her gaze. She was beautiful there, by his side. It was where she should have always been. Yet he didn't know if he could trust her. What she proposed . . .
It was suicide.
"Trust me," she breathed in his ear, sending chills down his body.
Did he dare? She'd said it herself, women were vengeful to the end.
Her dark eyes seared him and told him nothing about her intent. She could be setting him up to live.
Or die.
"Take the gallu's soul," she said in a tone so low he wasn't even sure he heard it. "Kill the bitch and she can't control you."
Losing patience, the gallu cleared her throat. "You are completely cut off. We will take all of you down. Your only hope is to surrender and beg mercy from Kessar and the rest of us."
The universe would shatter to pieces before he begged anyone for anything.
Stryker rose slowly to his feet. Zephyra still gave him no clue as to her mood or intent. If she was being honest. Or setting him up.
No matter, he wasn't one to be bullied ever. Descending his dais, he walked toward the gallu. The two holding Illyria tightened their grips, ready to kill her should he move on them.
"Sriana ey froya," he said in Atlantean to Illyria. Succor them and destroy them. He glanced at Illyria and felt his eyes change. No longer silver, he knew they were now glowing red. He was calling forth the god powers inside him. Turning back to the gallu, he locked gazes with her.
She stiffened instantly as her will was negated by the one blessing Apollo had forgotten to take from the Apollites when he'd cursed them.
They could control anyone with a weak will. It was that gift that allowed them to take human souls into their bodies. But the hard part was finding humans whose love of life was strong, but their minds were weak. In the case of the gallu, the two were synonymous.
Stryker held his hand out to her. "Come to me, gallu."
She didn't hesitate to obey.
A slow smile curled his lips as he pulled her close and then sank his fangs into her throat. She cried out as he drank and she bled.
Illyria followed suit on the gallu to her left while Davyn grabbed the one on her right.
Stryker's head swam at the taste of power inside the gallu blood. At least until his stomach began to cramp and ache. Instinctively he started to pull away, only to find Zephyra there.
"Don't stop," she said, holding his head to the gallu's throat. "Not until she's dead."
He pulled back enough so that he could speak. "I think I'm converting. I don't feel right."
"You will. Trust me."
She kept saying that, but he still wasn't sure if he should believe her. Honestly, he felt ill from the blood. As if he would vomit at any moment. But he kept his fangs in the gallu's throat and continued to drain her until Zephyra pierced her between her eyes to kill her.
Then he felt it. That moment when the last gasp of life left and the body went limp in his arms. He held the demon's chest against his heart-the center of his being-and waited for her soul to merge with his. Normally the absorption was a small shock that was followed by a sense of profound invigoration.
This time it struck him like a lightning bolt and caused him to drop the body and stagger back. He cried out as it ripped through him, blackening his skin. He struggled to breathe, but it was impossible. Over and over he saw lights flashing around him and heard the sound of his blood pumping through his veins. It was like staring at the fabric of the universe. The power coalesced inside him, heating his body and making his senses swirl.
He cast his gaze around the room and noted the way his men shrank back. Suddenly Zephyra was there.
She took his face in her hands. "Look at me, Strykerius. Focus."
He did and as their gazes locked his heart slowed down. His vision and hearing cleared.
A slow smile curved her lips an instant before she ripped his shirt open. He frowned as she placed her hand over his heart, where there was no longer a black mark denoting where the soul exchange took place. Stryker stared at the unblemished skin in confusion. The moment an Apollite took a human soul into their body to elongate their life, a black mark appeared over their heart where the souls merged.
His was gone.
"I don't understand."
"When a Daimon merges with a demon, you have the strength of both species. They are immortal. Now so are you."
He was aghast. "How is this possible?"
She smiled evilly. "Gallu blood is potent. Whatever it is that makes it infectious merges with our DNA and strengthens us. You're free from having to take souls in."
He turned to look at Davyn and Illyria, who were now standing over the bodies of the gallu they'd killed. "We're not gallu slaves?"
Zephyra shook her head. "Not once your master is killed. It's a new world, Stryker. A new dawn."
And Zephyra had given it to him. Nothing could have meant more.
"The only thing that will kill you now is decapitation."
He wanted to shout out in joy. "How many Daimons can we convert with one gallu? If we feed the blood to several and then kill the demon, will it convert all and then free them when we kill it?"
She shrugged. "There's only one way to find out. Try it and see."
