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Jericho was descending into hell Well, more like an Atlantean hell realue tit for tat?

Hell was hell, no matter the pantheon

Delphine had stayed behind with Phobos, after reed that the fewer people asking, the better chance they would have

Stryker and his wife Zephyra, would respect a single eht consider lunch

Tory led Jericho down a black ht stick over her head It reflected off the walls with an eerie lu if he were hu

They were heading toward Stryker&039;s reception hall

Since Acheron couldn&039;t co the apocalypse, Tory had volunteered to guide Jericho and make the introductions Apparently part of Acheron&039;s duties as Harbinger was to release his mother from her prison which happened to be the realm they were in

If Acheron so o free and destroy the world, so he could never see her

Would have been tragic if Jericho were capable of feeling sympathy for someone else He could appreciate it, but frankly, he didn&039;t care

Tory smiled at him "It&039;s really noble of you to risk so ive two shits about the Oneroi My plan was to fight against theallu on me and control me that way He declared this war, and I&039;ll be daallu attack h of my life with other people in control of me I won&039;t spend one ive him one And I will not lose"

Tory let out a slow breath "I forgot you&039;re the son of Styx and Pallas"

He inclined his head to her "Yeah, and I&039;m full of both their venooal is to get the Oneroi and Skoti back on their feet, and then take out the gallu as quickly as possible After that, it&039;s open season on the Olympians"

"Does that include Delphine?"

He saw red at thehe had no intention of discussing with anyone "She&039;s none of your business"

Tory gave hi to offend or pry I was just pointing out that you seem to care for her"

Yeah, but the problem was he didn&039;t understand why One touch, one whisper and he was undone by her

Why Delphine, when no one else had ever h his anger and made him feel

Warm

Human

Whole

In all these centuries, he&039;d never felt like he did whenever she touched hile caress than any entity he&039;d ever known

She alone had the power to bring hied the subject "How is it you&039;re able to coo from this realm?" It seemed odd that Stryker would tolerate her here

"My ave e strikes ht want to bind me in chains and feed me to his Daimons, he wouldn&039;t dare Apollymi can be a little hard to defeat"

"And yet Apollymi tolerates you?"

She smiled "She hates hu she wouldn&039;t do for Acheron"

"Except leave the hulistening hallith one hand on the wall "I know it doesn&039;t make sense But she declared war on the humans and refuses to back off However, Ash and anyone he loves is supposed to be immune from the Daimons she controls"

There was a note in her voice that set off Jericho&039;s alarms "Supposed to be?"

Her expression turned dark and sad, letting him know that she felt deeply for all involved "Nick&039;s mother was very close to Ash She died froo, which is why Ash and Nick are noith each other Nick blao It&039;s very sad, really, and breaks etting better, which concerns me If what they have now is better, I&039;d hate to see worse" She drew up short as a blond woman cut off their path

Petite and lithe, and dressed in a black leather catsuit and corset, the wo here snooping around, Tory?"

Instead of reacting to the wory tone, Tory cocked her head "I didn&039;t think I was snooping It didn&039;t feel like a snoop I have snooped before and can honestly say this isn&039;t it"

The wolared at her

"Relax, Medea," she said in a calm, even tone "We&039;ve come to see your mother"

She narrowed her eyes "Your funeral"

Tory sood to see you, too You&039;re just such a ray of happy sunshine, I so look forward to all our interactions"

Medea sneered at her "You should be glad you helped save ht now"

Tory snorted "Andto do with the fact that you&039;d be toast if you touched lare Medea cast at her should have been lethal

Jericho didn&039;t speak as they followed Medea into an eundy, it was obviously designed to intimidate Not that it worked on him There wasn&039;t much that inti that intimidated hiet her" She shut the door and locked it, which seeiven the fact that they could pop out of here at any minute But far be it from him to point out the obvious

As soon as they were alone, he faced Tory "I take it Zephyra is her mother?"

She nodded

"You think we stand a chance with this?"

Tory shrugged as she looked around "We won&039;t know until we talk to her I think she ht, and I use that ith all applicable optimism, help us"

"Help you do what?"

Tory snapped around to see Zephyra, who had flashed herself into the room behind Stryker&039;s desk Tory frowned intently at the de rather tan for a nocturnal creature"

Zephyra ignored her

Almost identical in looks to Medea, she was unbelievably beautiful with lush curves that were heightened by her tight black dress "Have you a point to this visit? Or should I just kill you now and start a war?" She looked past Tory to Jericho "And I really resent your bringing a god into my domain"

Jericho winked at her, which only seeesture, Tory sood reason"

"And that is?"

"We need Jared"

Zephyra laughed incredulously, then sobered so fast he wondered if he hadn&039;t hallucinated the laugh "You&039;re wasting my time Get out"

Damn, she was a surly bitch It made him wonder how Stryker tolerated her

"Oh, co hiht now?"

"One thing he&039;s not doing is pissing me off, which is more than I can say for you"

"Children," Jericho said, stepping forward "Let&039;s try this again We have a gallu proble to convert Oneroi and Skoti into gallu so they can attack unfettered in our drea to be safe No one," he reiterated coldly "And by that I allu are just as likely to eat a Daiht want to think about it"

Zephyra narrowed her gaze threateningly "And people in hell want ice water Soet than you are e he had to shake the stubborn woainst Noir and Azura Have you any idea how bloody this is going to get?"

Zephyra didn&039;t speak

"What do you want in exchange for hi you have"

Suddenly a loud crash sounded fro past them to throw open the door that was opposite of the one they&039;d coh

Jericho&039;s eyes widened as he saw a Daie hall Only he wasn&039;t a Daier He had the allu victi hie, and they would run That was the beauty of the gallu-not only could they turn people into zombies, their zombies could make more zombies

If they were ever loose, they could kill everyone in no ti?"

She exposed her fangs at hiht hiallu have a score to settle with you guys on their own"

"You have no idea" She grabbed a sword from the wall and headed after the Daimon

Jericho was extreallu went for her She ducked his arms, spun and in one clean stroke severed his head fro her flow, she held the sword out to another Daimon "Clean that up, Davyn, and tell Stryker we have a problem"

"I noticed"

Jericho&039;s attention went to the extremely tall, dark-hairedair and deadly aura, he would guess him to be Stryker

Stryker looked down at the corpse on the floor and sighed angrily "What are the da now?"

Jericho answered before Zephyra had a chance "They&039;re uniting with the Oneroi and Skoti to attack us in our sleep"

Stryker cursed foully "I should have killed the gallu when I had the chance"