"Come in, come in, said the spider to the fly," Camulus said.
Sunshine lifted her chin as she faced the men. Camulus was extremely handsome, but he had a smile that was pure evil.
Even more so than Zarek and that was hard to accomplish.
The man she didn't know was humongously tall with light brown hair and a goatee. He had an extremely refined, well-bred look to him.
"I'm going to take a wild guess that you are Dionysus," Sunshine said, remembering what Selena had once told her about the patron god of Mardi Gras.
He smiled as if flattered she knew him. "Guilty."
Camulus let out a long breath. "She's so bright. It's almost a shame to kill her. But... oh well."
"You can't hurt her," Zarek said from the door. "You promised me she wouldn't be harmed if I brought her here."
"So I lied," Dionysus said. "Sue me."
Zarek started for the god, but Sunshine stopped him. She wasn't really sure why she did that, it just seemed as if he were the closest thing to an ally she had in that room.
She turned back to Camulus, knowing exactly how he planned to hurt Talon tonight. "I'm not going to let you kill me in front of Talon."
They all laughed. All except for Zarek.
"You can't stop us," Camulus said.
Zarek glanced down at her, then did a double take as his dark gaze fell to her necklace. "Uh, gods, I think you've forgotten something."
Dionysus curled his lip. "We forget nothing."
"Oh, okay," Zarek said sarcastically, "then you must already know that she wears a Marking Medallion."
They sobered instantly.
"What?" Camulus snarled.
Sunshine pulled her grandmother's necklace out of her shirt and held it up to them. She couldn't really believe it might help her, but hey, anything at this point was worth a try. "My grandmother said that the Morrigan would always protect me."
Camulus cursed. "Oh, this ain't right." He cursed again.
"This thing really works?" she whispered to Zarek.
"More than you know," he whispered back. "He can't kill you without making the Morrigan angry."
"Well, who knew?" she said, amazed by the knowledge. "Cool."
"Yup," Zarek concurred. "Better than a cross with Dracula."
She beamed. "Does it work against Dionysus too?"
He nodded.
Oh, this was good. Very, very good. "Okay, then, let's talk."
"Talk about what?" Dionysus hissed.
"Not you. Him." She indicated Camulus with a nod. "I want to talk about Talon's curse."
Camulus's eyes blazed at her. "What about it?"