Kat smiled at her friend's intuition. "Okay, I'm busted. There was a point to this call. Can you put the big guy on the phone for me? I have a couple of Dark-Hunter questions for him."
"Sure. Hang on a sec."
Kat raked her hand through her tousled curls as Wulf came to the phone. When she'd first met him, he'd been a Dark-Hunter. They were immortal protectors who'd sworn their service to Artemis in exchange for an Act of Vengeance. Their job was to kill the Daimons who preyed on human souls and to spend eternity in Artemis's service protecting mankind.
But Wulf had been granted his freedom and now he lived happily with his son and daughter and wife in Minneapolis. And he policed the Daimons only when the Dark-Hunters in his area needed an extra hand.
"Hey, Kat. You wanted to speak to me?" Even after all these centuries, his voice still held its thick Nordic accent.
"Yeah. Do you happen to know the Dark-Hunter named Sin?"
"I know a couple who have that name. Which one are you referring to?"
"Sumerian."
"The fallen god?"
"That would be he."
Wulf let out a speculative breath on the other end. "Personally, no, I don't. But I've heard rumors about him. They say he's crazy as hell."
"They who?"
"Everyone. Any Dark-Hunter who's ever been in his area. Any Squire who ever made the mistake of crossing his path. He's a vicious bastard who tolerates absolutely no one near him."
Well, that didn't sound promising. But it did corroborate Artemis's fear. "You know anyone I can call who knows him personally?"
"Ash."
Yeah. There were two problems with that. One, Artemis would flip out if Kat ever went near the Atlantean god, and two, Artemis would flip out if she ever went near the Atlantean god.
"Anyone else?"
"No," Wulf said firmly. "Let me reiterate that he's completely antisocial and will not interact with anyone. They say he once let a Dark-Hunter die at the hands of a Daimon and laughed while he watched it happen. You can log into the Dark-Hunter bulletin boards at dailyinquisitor.com/bbs and see if you can find someone he might have let into his inner circle. I seriously doubt that from what little I know about him, but that would be your best bet."
Great. Just great. "Cool. Thanks for the help. I'll let you get back to your movie. You guys take care."
"You, too."
Kat hung up the phone and then grabbed her laptop from under the bed and followed Wulf's advice, but after a couple of hours on the bbs and on the Dark-Hunter.com Web site reading profiles, she gave up. They didn't tell her anything except Sin was a loner and a psycho.
Apparently, he didn't even go after Daimons. According to one story, he'd walked past a group of them once while they were feeding and didn't even grimace. There were also numerous stories of him inflicting burn wounds on himself and cursing anyone who came near him.
Boy, he sounded like a warm, fluffy bunny. She couldn't wait to meet him. Obviously he wasn't a people person, which was fine by her. As an only child, she didn't always play well with others either.
But the tales of his self-mutilation concerned her. What kind of creature was he that he'd continually do such a thing? Had his sanity been lost when he'd been drained of his god powers or had he always been like that?
Sighing, she closed her laptop and forced herself to get up out of her comfy bed and dress. It was only three in the morning... still a couple of hours before sunrise, which meant Sin was probably on the streets, wandering about aimlessly as he bypassed Daimons in need of death.
Kat closed her eyes and concentrated until she found what she was looking for...
Sin's essence.
But it wasn't where she'd expected to find him. Instead of being in Las Vegas, he was in New York... Central Park to be precise. She frowned at the sight as she shimmered in the shadows in a transparent Shade form. No one would be able to see her, but if the light were to hit her just right, it would catch a luminescent outline of her body. That was why she was keeping to the shadows-out of sight and reach of an insane ex-god.
Her research had said that Sin was stationed in Las Vegas.
About half an hour outside of town.