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In ions, the concept of hell has long been one where the dead were punished for the evils they participated in or perpetrated while living

In the Atlantean hell realm of Kalosis, there icked souls aplenty, but none of the punished for what they&039;d done while alive Indeed, most of them had led calm, peaceful lives As Urian-a Spathi Daimon who&039;d once called Kalosis home-so often said, "We&039;re not the daorically fucked"

And it was true Those here were all being punished not for their transgressions, but rather for sootten queen in Atlantis had done centuries ago to strike back at her forod Apollo, she&039;d sent her soldiers out toso, she&039;d damned all of her Apollite people not only to a life spent in darkness but to a life span of only twenty-seven years A life that would end on their birthday as their body slowly, painfully deteriorated over a twenty-four-hour period until there was nothing left but a faint dust

It was a cold, callous fate that each man and woman here in Kalosis would have met had their leader Stryker not found the mythical portal that allowed him to descend from the world of od whose indignant fury had made a mockery of Apollo&039;s

Trapped within the hell realm by her own family who had feared her powers, Apollyet aith his cruelty She had e hiht hiate his life It was a lesson Stryker had gladly shared with others of his race as he brought theeance but Apollyions of Daih he owed her so oddess who had saved his life and adopted him

Now, he sat in the banquet hall of her home and watched as his Spathi warriors celebrated their latest victory

"Death to the humans!" one of his warriors shouted above the din

"Fuck that," another replied "We need them Death to all Dark-Hunters!"

An echoing cheer rang out through the barren hall Stryker leaned back in his cushioned throne as he watched the Apollites and Dairatulate each other on their most recent success-the capture of Ravyn Kontis The darkened hall was lit only by candles as they poured Apollite blood-the only thing that could sustain their cursed bodies-from pitchers and spilled it all over theathered here, Stryker envisioned a better world A world where his people weren&039;t condee of twenty-seven A world where they could all walk in the daylight that he&039;d taken for granted as a child

And all because his father had knocked up a whore and then gotten pissed when the Apollites had killed her off Apollo had cursed theod&039;s o Ancient, ancient history

Stryker was the present and the Dai went as planned, they would one day soon reclaim the human realm that had been taken from them Personally, he&039;d have rather started with another city, but when the human official had come to him with a plan for the humans to help rid Seattle of Dark-Hunters it had been a perfect opportunity to start aligning the race of man with the Apollites and Daimons Little did the humans know that once the Dark-Hunters were cleared, there would be no one to save their souls It would be open season on all mankind

"How many Dark-Hunters are left in Seattle?" he asked his second in command

Like the other Daiolden blond hair and dark brown eyes-the epitoht for a second "Once Kontis is dead, we&039;re down to seven"

Stryker curled his lips "Then we&039;re celebrating too soon"

Silence rang out at his words

"How so?"

Stryker turned his head to see his younger half-sister approach his carved throne with a bold, determined stride Unlike the Spathi Daimons who made this place home, she bore no fear of him Dressed in a black leather catsuit that laced down the front and hugged her lithe, ainst the arm of his chair Her dark eyes were coantly cocked a questioning brow

"He&039;s not dead yet" He spoke each word sloith careful enunciation "I&039;ve learned when dealing with these bastards to take nothing for granted"

She gave a sarcastic half laugh before she pulled his cell phone off his belt and dialed it

In theory, the phone shouldn&039;t work in this nether realet the better of them, his Spathis had found a preternatural wave that could carry the signal out of Kalosis and up into the human world It was a dubious trick that served theood Apollite vet in Seattle answer the phone "Is he dead yet?" she asked,Stryker&039;s earlier tone

He could only hear the faint ave an evil laugh "Ooo," she said, wrinkling her nose in a seductivehirabbed the phone from her "You&039;ve done what?"

Even over the static of the line, he heard the Apollite sweating "I u to neuter him, my lord"

Stryker saw red at that "Don&039;t you dare"

"Why not?" Satara asked in an offended tone

Stryker glared at her as he answered for both her benefit and that of the vet on the other end "For one thing, I don&039;t want Kontis out of that cage until after he&039;s dead-he&039;s too dangerous for that-and for another, I won&039;t stand by and see a worthy opponent enity"

Satara scoffed "So to explode Where&039;s the dignity in having your brains splattered all over a cat box because you wanted to look up some human whore&039;s dress? If he&039;d truly been worthy, we&039;d have never caught hirip on the phone "Trickery isn&039;t worthy of our species"

"Oh, get out of the Stone Age, Strykerius There&039;s no such thing as noble duels anymore This is a world where the better sneak wins"

Perhaps, but he res didn&039;t work quite that way and after eleven thousand years he was too old to change his ways "Even so, he is a cousin to us and-"

She sneered at him "The Were-Hunters turned their backs on the Apollites and Daio They don&039;t consider you family anymore"

"Some do"

"Kontis doesn&039;t," she shot back "If he did, he&039;d have never been able to sell his soul to the Dark-Hunters and join their ranks For hundreds of years he&039;s hunted and killed your kind I say geld the bastard and wear his shriveled balls as a trophy "

Trates cringed at her words, as did several other males in the room, some of whom instinctively cupped themselves

And Satara wonders why no man will date her

"Leave him intact," Stryker ordered the Apollite over the phone while he glared at his sister "I&039;ll be there after sundown to check on him myself and he better be as he hen you captured hi up the phone and returned it to his belt

Satara rolled her eyes "I can&039;t believe you would show mercy to an enemy You who cut the throat of your own son to appease Apollyrabbed her by the neck to silence her "Enough," he growled as her eyes bulged "Unless you want to see the exact nature of my mercy, you&039;ll take a more respectful tone when you address me I don&039;t care who you serve Let Artemis find another handmaiden Oneher away from him, he stood up

Utter silence filled the hall as he scanned the gathered Spathis Physically no older than twenty-seven, each el of death

And they were his to co his sister, he addressed theiven a rare opportunity to ith the hu about the end of the Dark-Hunters in Seattle and give us the foothold we need in their world But don&039;t think for one minute that this war is over And as soon as Acheron realizes how , he will co on"

Stryker pinned a fierce look on Satara "Are you ready to battle the Dark-Hunter leader?"

Her eyes flashed with bloodlust as she rubbed her throat "With every breath I have"

Stryker scoffed "Suicidal bravery will get us nowhere Apollymi protects that bastard of hers It will never be by a Daimon hand that he dies"

"It&039;ll be by a huht

Stryker nodded "And it will take a great deal of planning and careful execution if we&039;re to do this Kill Acheron and the other Dark-Hunters will be easy to manipulate or elireement

"So who do we kill next?" Trates asked

Stryker considered the seven Dark-Hunters ere left Each one of them had been a fierce warrior in their huet in the bunch

But with the hue Like the Apollites and Daiht but their human helpers could What&039;s more, the Dark-Hunters couldn&039;t sense a human the same way they could an Apollite or Daimon Humans could easily sneak up on them and deliver an unexpected death blow Not to mention the small oath that all Dark-Hunters took to preserve human life even at the expense of their own

It was an oath that would be their undoing

"We&039;ll let the humans choose This is their war We&039;ll support them for now, but in the end, should they fail it&039;ll be their funerals and not ours"

Susan knew better than to get her hopes up as she parked in front of the ani more than a major waste of time

Or it could be your ticket back-

"Oh, shut up, Pollyanna," she snapped at herself as she grabbed her purse She hated that little bit of an optimist who still lived inside her Why wouldn&039;t it die?

But no, she always had to have hope even when it was pointless What rong with her anyway? Other people got to be jaded why not her?

I&039;ot out of her car and headed for the entrance She pushed open the door to walk into a brightly lit reception area

There was a perky blond teenager standing behind a counter where the girl was tucking papers into file folders "Hi," she said, glancing up at Susan "Can I help you?"

"Cats I&039;ave her an odd look Not that Susan blamed her There couldn&039;t have been less enthusiasht even have been curling her lip as she said it She wasn&039;t quite sure It was hard to hide as ed creatures who&039;d irl pointed to the left "They&039;re over there"

"Thanks" Susan headed toward the light blue door that was h with the word Cats