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Kat tried to crawl out frorowled in her ear before he rolled away and stood up to confront whatever had knocked him into her

I should probably listen

But that just wasn&039;t who she was So she pushed herself up, then wished she&039;d listened to him after all

Kessar was in the room with six other demons That alone made her blood run cold Yet it wasn&039;t the only bad news They had Zakar in chains again, and the worst was Kytara, who lay dead a few feet fro, Kat stared in horror at her friend&039;s lifeless body It looked as if they&039;d tried to literally tear Kytara apart The sight and grief made Kat sick to her sto?

Sin was on his feet, trying to fight the de the operative word It was obvious so with his powers

Infuriated over what they&039;d done, Kat tried to blast Kessar and then realized exactly what had happened to Sin She had no powers, either So them

"He has the Tablet," Sin said fro one demon into another

Well, that explained it, but it didn&039;t help The Tablet was sucking their powers out of them Oh, fabulous No wonder they demons had been able to take Zakar and kill Kytara

Kessar laughed before he headed toward Kat with a deadly intent

To her shock, Sin put hi at Sin, who jumped back and struck him a fierce blow in the chest It didn&039;t faze Kessar as he kicked Sin so hard, it lifted his It was time to put a stop to this

Simi and Xirena instantly appeared "What?" Simi asked until she saw the demons

Both she and Xirena exploded into demon form Kat stumbled back it was the first time she&039;d ever seen the whole of Simi&039;s true fors, and claws She wrapped herself around the nearest demon and ripped his throat out

Kat turned away froht

Kessar pointed the Tablet at Sihed "We&039;re not gods, you moron We&039;re demons, and that has no effect on us" She flew at hi Zakar, and vanished with hi to catch them before they vanished, but he was too late

And he had no powers to follow

Kat felt the grief she saw on his face as he turned to look at her while Si" She&039;d never seen any man look more stricken

"I&039;iveness in his expression at all as he stalked toward her His eyes were filled with utter agony "You keep saying that"

"But I&039;m sincere"

He raked her with a sneer "Sincerity doesn&039;t fix any of this, now does it?"

No, it didn&039;t, and it didn&039;t bring back Kytara&039;s life How the hell had they ed to kill her? It didn&039;t make sense "What happened?"

He let out a tired breath as he wiped the blood from a cut over his left eye "When I ca the Tablet in his hand" He gestured toward Kytara "He must have used the Tablet to drain her She was already dead when I arrived"

"How did he get his hands on the Tablet?"

"Damned if I know I had it locked in the safe in uilt and pain settled deep in her soul This was all her fault All of it

If not for her, Sin would still have his god powers and there would be no danger to the world

Kytara would still be alive

How could she even begin toapart because she&039;d o Her heart sank to her sto attack from the Dimme "We&039;re doomed, aren&039;t we?"

"Yeah," he said, his voice thick "We are If you have any last wishes to accoet started"

Still in deleahed in resignation "I&039;ht noould be me"

Simi shook her head "Akra-Kat isn&039;t a bitch You&039;re always nice to the Simi"

"But I wasn&039;t nice to Sin" She walked slowly toward hiuilt "I know you don&039;t believe me, but I am sorry about all this More than you&039;ll ever know"

His expression was cold "I appreciate the thought, but it doesn&039;t really change anything, does it?" He walked over to Kytara and closed her eyes, then he covered her with a blanket "You should probably take her body home to Olympus It&039;s the least we can do"

Kat was confused "We don&039;t have to burn her?"

He shook his head "No They just killed her There&039;s no bite marks on her that I could see Guess they didn&039;t want to convert her over"

Kat couldn&039;t i as od would have been a big boon for the the deotten so out of hand?

Sighing, she frowned as she saw Si back into their more human forms "Why didn&039;t you call for Silare "Well gee, since I popped in here in theto save my brother and had hoped Kytara was only wounded and not dead, I really didn&039;t think about theot about the demons down the hall"

Kat had to bite back an equally caustic retort He was hurting and she knew it This wasn&039;t easy on either one of the one for good?"

"No Not unless they have a conduit"-he gave her a ful sneer-"to drain you Our poill be back Personally I think the prick is just playing with us"

Kat didn&039;t believe that "No, he was honestly afraid of Simi and Xirena"

"That&039;s because they can rip his heart out and, as we learned, they&039;re ie"

"As long as their numbers are small, yes But the minute they open the doorway and let the whole demon clan out to party, our demons are dead"

Xirena&039;s eyes widened "Ureement "Akri would be really sad if his Simi died The Simi wouldn&039;t be happy about it, either"

"And neither would I," Kat assured them "Don&039;t worry We won&039;t let them eat you"

Sin folded up the couch By his de to think of a solution Finally, he aze "Any chance Grandht?"

"I don&039;t know Too many Charontes out of Kalosis without Apollyallu set free I think we&039;d just be changing the face of hurowled "Now they have the Moon, they have the Tablet that I found for the as they hold it If we attack, they drain us I should just shootbefore they turn me into one of them"

Kat rolled her eyes at his o Socrates yet It&039;s not over until they let loose the Di really upbeat and hopeful at the ht I could trust is the one who fucked me the hardest"

Kat had to clench her hand to keep froive tit for tat But as she opened her mouth to let him have it, she remembered Acheron&039;s words

"But I do know this, Katra The first betrayal, even as severe as it was, could have been forgiven had your ized and meant it Had she coain, I would have laid et in the way She was ined eether"

Those words quelled her tongue She didn&039;t want to ed Sin and they both knew it

Taking a deep breath for patience, she turned toward Simi "Simi?" she said quietly "Will you please take Kytara&039;s body home to Olympus? Give her to M&039;Adoc"

Si her "Don&039;t be so sad, akra-Kat We&039;ll eat all theht You&039;ll see"

Kat smiled at the two demons "I know you will, Simi Thank you"

As Simi went to pick up Kytara from the floor, Xirena looked a bit aard, as if she wasn&039;t sure what she should do "I&039;ll wait in our room" Xirena vanished an instant before Simi did

Sin headed for the bar to pour hiht as well join the around here"

Kat followed hi rid of lass down on the counter so hard she was surprised it didn&039;t shatter "Don&039;t push ht now is only surpassed by my desire to kill Kessar Since I can&039;t lay hands on hilass full

"And I want you to understand the depth of my sorrow over what I did to you and your family If I could put a hair shirt on to ods I&039;ve ever o back and return your powers to you You deserve them But I can&039;t do that" He turned to leave

But she wasn&039;t willing to let hiry over his dismissal, she spun him around and kissed him "I love you, Sin I just wanted you to know that"

Sin was stunned by both her actions and her declaration He couldn&039;t move All he could see was the tender look on her face The sincerity But even so, he heard the laughter of his wife echoing in his head "You&039;re inco he&039;d ever been good at had been killing But Kat made him feel as if he had more skills than that She made him feel as if he mattered As if he had value

And that shredded his resistance to her

She laid her soft hand to his cheek "We in this and ill save your brother I proain I swear it by all that I am and all I hope to be You can trust me, Sin"

He sed as his emotions choked him He wanted to turn and walk away from her, but he couldn&039;t It was too late for that

"Don&039;t disappoint me, Kat I don&039;t think I could recover from it if you did"

Kat&039;s eyes teared as she heard those words from him He didn&039;t say that he loved her, but it was a start He hadn&039;t laughed at her or thrown her out

He&039;d given her the promise of a relationship A chance to rebuild the trust that had been broken She couldn&039;t expect more than that

"You have htest whisper of a kiss Even so, it sent shivers over her and it fired her blood

She buried her hand in his hair and held hiainst his The scent of his skin made her hot and shivery Her entire life had been spent wanting this kind of contact He felt so good in her arms

She didn&039;t want to be her mother She didn&039;t want to miss him To live her life with a memory of what they&039;d had and then to know she&039;d lost it all because of stupidity

For the first time in her life, she had total clarity on Arteedy she didn&039;t want to duplicate

She rubbed a lock of Sin&039;s hair between her fingers as she realized just how much she really did love him Not just his body, which was hot, but theto win this"

"I can al back, she smiled "So what do we need to do?"

He took a deep breath before he answered "One Don&039;t die Two Don&039;t get bitten"

She really hoped there was more to it than that "And?"

"Kick their ass," he said siave her a wicked grin "Isn&039;t it though?"

She laughed at his mischievous de in the balance "I&039;ve found that specifics aren&039;t necessarily a bad thing at times like this Plans can actually be your friend"

"Really? I&039;ve found a ga loose and i loose, huh? Is that really what you&039;re going to do?"

Sighing, he stepped away from her, and his face fell to complete sobriety "No We have a time bomb in our hands and a lot to do Step one-"

"Get your brother"

He shook his head "We have to get the Tablet first"

"You&039;re willing to leave Zakar in their hands?"

He winced as if the ht cut him "It&039;s not et to hi him a lot closer than before And if they have the Tablet e go for him"

"They&039;ll kick our asses"

"Exactly We have to get the Tablet back The question is how"

Kat considered that for a minute They couldn&039;t exactly waltz in there and demand it They didn&039;t even knohere it was What they needed was an insider

"Does Kessar have a weakness?" she asked

"None that I know of"

Why didn&039;t that surprise her? Simple If he&039;d known of one before now, he no doubt would have used it "Well, I ht"

He scowled at her "Where are you going?"

"The Vanishing Isle You stay here and rest and I&039;ll be right back"

He actually appeared to be afraid for her "You sure you don&039;t want me to come with you?"

"Yeah This I&039;ll need to do alone"

"Be careful"

Warmed by his concern, Kat nodded before she tried to flash She didn&039;t get far

"It&039;s the Tablet," Sin said as she let out a frustrated growl "You&039;re still drained"

She let out a fierce growl "This is just a little inconvenient"

Sin moved to stand behind her She closed her eyes as she felt the heat of hi about him that never failed to warm her body His scent, his presence, it filled her with desire and strength

He placed his hands on her hips and bent his head so that he could whisper in her ear As soon as thefrom his hands to her body It sent a warled

"What are you doing, Sin?"

"I&039;ht tears to her eyes and choked her "You&039;re trusting me?"

His lips were so close to her cheek that they tickled her skin "You asked for another chance I&039;ive it to you"

Don&039;t fail h he didn&039;t say those words, she could feel them in her heart "I won&039;t fail you, Sin," she whispered back to hih to flash her to the hall where Sias, since she was nowhere to be seen

Her raw eive herself a moment for composure D&039;Alerian, M&039;Adoc, and M&039;Ordant stood with their backs to her Froods were alht black hair that hung just past his shoulders M&039;Ordant&039;s black hair hung to his collar and was straight, while M&039;Adoc&039;s was the sath, only wavy All three were dressed in black and speaking in a low tone

M&039;Ordant lifted his hand and covered Kytara&039;s body with a light silk sheet "It&039;s disturbing to iht we&039;d seen the last of those bastards centuries ago"

D&039;Alerian shook his head "Only on the huods were smart and hid them well from the rest of us"

Kat cleared her throat to let them know they weren&039;t here alone The three of them turned toward her with stern frowns that melted as soon as they realized it was her and not one of the other gods

She closed the distance between them "I&039;m sorry to eavesdrop"

M&039;Adoc didn&039;t appear very forgiving of her actions "Been there long?"

"No I ca comment and concur with it"

Unlike M&039;Adoc, D&039;Alerian&039;s expression was cos you here, Katra? Does Artemis want us to haunt so them "No Not this tiallu&039;s dreams? More important, has any Dream-Hunter been in Kessar&039;s?"

Still D&039;Alerian&039;s face showed no emotions whatsoever "Why would an Oneroi-"

"Not Oneroi," she said, interrupting hi for soallu I need a vicious Skotos Someone ould knohat Kessar is truly afraid of"

They exchanged puzzled looks