"I made a mistake," Sin said, not wanting to go into it.
"And you admit it?" Kish held his hands up. "Don't blast me, boss. I'm going to check on the casino. None of this is my business. None of it. Kish wants to live, so he's leaving. 'Bye." He barely opened the door before he rushed through it, out of their sight.
Kat gave Sin an amused smirk. "Interesting help. Is he your Squire?"
Sin shook his head before he picked his coat up and draped it over the back of a bar stool. "I'm not a Dark-Hunter. I don't do Squires."
"Interesting choice of words."
He gave her a droll stare. "Ha ha."
She moved to stand beside him so that she had him trapped between her and the bar. "So why are you considered a Dark-Hunter then?"
"Acheron's idea. He thought adding me to the payroll was the least he could do given what Artemis had done to me."
"But you don't hunt Daimons."
"No. Acheron knew from the beginning that the gallu were out there. So the two of us have been keeping them under control."
Kat frowned at that. "Ash helps?"
"Why are you surprised?"
"I thought you said no one outside your pantheon could kill them."
"Yeah, well, your father's a little different from others. I'm sure you know that."
Kat couldn't agree more. There was a lot about her dad that was odd, to say the least. "Then what makes you think I can't do it?"
"You're not a Chthonian. If you were, you wouldn't have a weakness."
Kat arched a brow. The Chthonians were god-killers. Rather like a check and balance system provided by nature. They alone had the power to destroy anything indestructible. The only problem was no one knew how to destroy them. The only person who could kill a Chthonian was another Chthonian. "Is that their secret?"
"Not really. Most ancient gods know that one. It's why they're so afraid of Chthonian justice."
True. They alone made the ancient gods sit up and listen. Unfortunately for Sin at the time her mother's pantheon was attacking his, the Chthonians were turning on one another and there had been no one there to protect his pantheon.
Kat glanced out the tall windows to her left where she had a spectacular view of the Vegas strip. "So why are you out here in the desert anyway?"
"Logistical management. My father put the Dimme and gallu out here because at the time the population in America was scarce and he thought it would be a good way to control them. Unfortunately, he lacked the vision to see nuclear development in the twentieth century. With Nevada's testing, it began to shake out the gallu and free them dozens at a time. As they go free, I hunt them and their victims."
Kat took his hand in hers so that she could study all the scars that marred its beauty. She remembered when she was a young woman and her mother had summoned her to her bedroom.
"Help me, Katra. We have to take his powers from him or he'll kill me."
Kat flinched at the memory. Sin had been unconscious at the time. Too young and gullible, she'd done what her mother had requested.
And she had ruined the man before her.
He'd kill her if he ever learned that truth.
"What happened to your father?" she asked.
Sin stroked her fingers with his thumb before he pulled away from her. "Infighting and out-fighting. What's the old saying? 'Beware Greeks bearing gifts'? Apollo and your mother came in as friends to spread lies. They systematically turned each of us against the other until there was no trust left. Not that I'd ever had much to begin with. After I was drained and degodded, I tried to warn the others, but they didn't think it could happen to them. I was a fool after all and deserved what happened. They were all smarter than I was. Or so they thought."
"And yet here you are while they're all gone."
He nodded. "Survival is the best revenge. Me and the cock-roach."