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His fury riding him hard, Jericho stormed back into his room Then fell instantly still as he found Delphine asleep on his bed, beneath his blood cloak Her features pale, her blond hair cascaded around her in a soft, tangled mess that made his hand itch to touch it

She had the faintest of snores that strangely teased his ears and war that wasn&039;t her fault, he crossed the room to kneel beside her It was hard to reconcile her with that sweet, happy baby who had wrapped its little fingers around his and held on so tight that it touched hi ever had before

Now he knehy her eyes had given him pause

They had touched him then as they touched him now But why? What was it about her that quieted hiht er?

Granted, he&039;d known her ers, really He&039;d known Leta&039;s naod But honestly, he&039;d never cared beyond that Since Leta had never upset Zeus and hadn&039;t run in the same circles he had, there had been no reason for theht when their worlds had violently collided, they had both lost everything

Zeus, furious over a dreaiven hiods be rounded up for punishment Those like Leta, ere eny they&039;d produced killed Zeus had wanted no one to survive who could ever harain

Then the Oneroi had been tortured and stripped of their eured if they had no emotions, they wouldn&039;t feel coain

What he hadn&039;t realized was that in dreams, they&039;d be able to channel the sleeper&039;s emotions So much so that some of the Oneroi would become addicted to it, since it was the only way they could feel anything but emptiness

So the Skoti had been born Then it became the job of the Oneroi to police or kill their brethren so that none of theain under Zeus&039;s command

A part of that vicious cycle, Jericho had harmed Leta even worse than the Dolophoni and Oneroi had harmed him They had only killed hihter

Leta&039;s desperate screams still echoed in his memo-ries She had screamed herself hoarse and he couldn&039;t blaiven what they&039;d taken from her

Maybe the past centuries were justified after all What they&039;d done to her had been inexcusable The least he could have done was let her know that he&039;d saved her daughter But everything had happened so fast, there hadn&039;t been enough time Not to mention had anyone knohat he&039;d done, they would have killed Delphine instantly

Yet here she was alive Because he&039;d hidden her and had never breathed a word of it

Jaden was right His suffering hadn&039;t been in vain She was grown and beautiful

Placing his hand to Delphine&039;s war features She was so similar to her mother Yet so different The blond hair

His heartbeat raced at the softness of her skin under the pads of his fingertips He hadn&039;t really touched a woman in countless centuries

He ran his hand from her cheek to her hair A part of him wanted to kiss her so badly that he wasn&039;t even sure how he kept fro it Perhaps because she was asleep and he didn&039;t want to violate the peace she see?

What did Oneroi dreae, he&039;d never had peace in the dreaod, he&039;d been violent and cruel His dreams had reflected his reality

As a man, he hadn&039;t dreahts as a corpse No, that wasn&039;t true, he&039;d dreamed while conscious And in those, he&039;d escaped to peaceful havens A quiet beach A cabin in the woods A lone temple in the desert Places that were isolated from the world where no one could make him feel small or worthless Where no one could kill hith back and no one could touch hinity Most of all, he had a beautiful wo

He hated her for that She&039;d grown up without knowing her life had been paid for with ine

He clenched his hand in her hair, wanting to hurt her for that But he kneasn&039;t her fault She&039;d been an innocent child

It had been his own decision to ruin his life He could have killed her as Zeus ordered and everything would have been fine

For him

"Were you worth my sacrifice?" he whispered,

Her eyes fluttered open as if his words had reached her The asp He tried to pull his hand away, but her hair rapped around his fingers She yelped as herwhy he bothered since it was her own actions that had hurt her, not his

"What were you doing?" she accused

"Nothing"

Delphine frowned at his sullen, angry tone His deht with his hand in a cookie jar Rubbing the sore place on her head, she sta?"

"I went to see Deih her "Did you see M&039;Adoc? Is he alive?"

Jericho felt jealousy flare at the obvious concern and care she had for the leader of the dreaods M&039;Adoc had never sacrificed for her "No, I didn&039;t see him"

She looked crushed, and it killed the satisfaction he wanted to feel "Is Deiht?"

That was a od was all there, but that was a separate argument "I&039;ve seen hih Noir has carved hiood"

"And I suppose that made you happy"

"No," he answered honestly "In spite of the fact 1 wanted to beat hi anyone tortured"

"Not even Prorowled at her "Why do you provoke me?"

Delphine paused at his question Honestly, she didn&039;t know It really wasn&039;t in her nature to go after people Yet the ular How out of character for her "You irritate me"

"Iirritate you? "

She nodded "You have the power to save people and yet you intend to fight for Noir That irritates ible

reason why I should fight for a god who has already shown ard he holds for me For an entire pantheon that spent thousands of years attackingto do" That sounded ridiculous even to her

He arched one brow

"Okay So I admit it doesn&039;t ood hed bitterly as he ered on the sheath as if he were afraid to let go of it And frole, she had a very nice view of his muscular back Tall and handsome, he could easily take a woman&039;s breath away and heaboutto learn"

He turned on her with anger again "What ga to play?"

She backed up on the bed Not afraid of him, but concerned that she continued to irritate hiaave me to you naked and rather than attack me or hurt me," she picked up a corner of the cloak that was still draped around her, "you covered me up Those aren&039;t the actions of someone who&039;s innately cruel I think there&039;s a lotto bet on it "Why did you cover round his teeth Because no one deserves to be shamed like that He knew from personal experience But he would never say that out loud He didn&039;t want her to know that he here she was concerned She&039;d be able to use that against hi with his life No one would ever have control over hiain

"Asmodeus?" he called

He waited until the de, oh evil Minor Master?"

"I&039;ry Where do we find food here?"

Asht Jericho insane for even asking "Truthfully, I don&039;t advise eating in this realm I mean, you can if you want, but"

"But what?" Jericho prompted after Asmodeus seeether "We have certain deet rather violent whenever they s because I would end up dead You ht thely and really, really sain, maybe not Doesn&039;t spoil Noir&039;s I think it uts them Sick, but true"

Asain, this time in appreciation and interest "Oh, hello,smile as he kissed her tenderly on the hand "Asmodeus, demon extraordinary at your service Any service you may require, especially those that involve nudity and adjoining body parts joining other people&039;s body parts"

"Asmodeus!" Jericho snapped "You don&039;t see her, do you hearhad electrocuted hi is intact" He put his hands out as if feeling for furniture "Is there anyone here besides the two of us? No? Good I&039; now unless Minor Master has another preferably nonpainful task for me,"

"You&039;re dismissed"

"Cool beaners" Asmodeus vanished

Delphine frowned at Jericho "He&039;s not right, is he?"

"Yeah, I think Noir may have hit him on the head one time too many and way too hard" He faced her "So would you like to joinas it doesn&039;t involve the entrails of deht be persuaded"

"Demon entrails have no appeal for me, either Zeus&039;s are another ht "Ew"

He held his hand out to her

Delphine hesitated, wondering if she should be doing this instead of finding a way to M&039;Adoc and Deiet near them without Jericho Maybe food would predispose hiement, she took his hand in hers

As soon as she did, he teleported thee Place It looked to be early evening, but it was hard to say for sure since time on earth ht seeht be a year on earth A slight exaggeration, but

She looked around the deserted alley that had closed and boarded-up shops What a strange place to choose She didn&039;t knohat she&039;d been expecting, but this wasn&039;t it

"What are we doing here?"

He changed his clothes into a pair of jeans, a black shirt and dark hair before he started toward the street "Going to eat What? You got Alzheimer&039;s?"

She narrowed her eyes at hiave her a "duh" stare "If I put us inside the restaurant, people ht scream and freak Not to mention, it has a Web cam there that makes it even harder to just poof inside Damn modern people and their wizard&039;s tools," he said sarcastically "I miss the days e could just kill and roast a chicken, huh?"

She rolled her eyes "You really can&039;t help being an asshole, can you?"

"I probably could, but it&039;s not worth the effort Gods forbid youto ht be willing to risk it"

His eye turned dark "You don&039;t ever want to see what&039;s inside me, Delphine It&039;s not pretty"

Delphine reached up to touch the scar that ran out frorip "I didn&039;t say you could touch me"

"No, you didn&039;t Sorry" She pulled her hand from his and watched as he walked stiffly to the street and toward a restaurant called Ach her heart was heavy with guilt over eating while her brethren were suffering

Win hi as she lacked her god powers, she was at his mercy

She winced as she finally understood the true horror of all he&039;d been through It was so hard to be without the powers that had been a part of her almost the whole of her life To be at the mercy of others How had he stood it?

The world was terrifying like this And it gave her a whole new appreciation for the humans who inhabited this place Especially since they were the prey for so s

She paused at the door while the hostess grabbed their athered people People who had no idea that Jericho was a god and she his prisoner

The hostess seated them at a table in front of thethat looked out onto the street Even though there were TVs playing and people talking, she could still hear the music from Bourbon Street, which was just a few feet away

How she wished Deimos and the others could be here now and not in whatever holding cell Noir was using for thelanced at hihed "I&039; while Noir is torturing thelare "First of all, you don&039;t want ry Ever I&039; starved for centuries, I&039;ain when I don&039;t have to Second, letabout your friends Deimos held me dohile I was branded and then tookNo clothes, noto call ed at what he described

But he took no mercy on her "A hundred years later, M&039;Ordant"-one of the leaders of the Oneroi who had been her mentor-"dumped me inside a Spartan prison camp and told the commander I was a traitor to their people You don&039;t really want to knohat the Spartans did to people they thought betrayed the out the crew-"had me put inside a Turkish prison in the fifteenth century where I was i tortured for three weeks" His face was stoic, but the pain in his eye was excruciating "So you&039;ll have to excuse ht now At least no one&039;s shoving a sharp spike up their asses"

Her stomach shrank at the horrors of his past "You were impaled?"

His expression turned to chiseled stone "You know the worst part about i on bleeding and aching as the spike works its way slowly through your body until it pierces soods you worship that you never knohat that feels like" But he did

She looked away, unable to cope with the emotions that filled her How could they have done that to one of their own? Then again, they&039;d been even crueler to others for reasons every bit as petty It hy she&039;d done her best to stay off all their collective radar