"Perhaps not, but he will do as we want. Trust me."
Stryker was less than convinced. Still, he noted her peculiar choice of pronoun. "We?"
"You want Gautier dead. I want you dead. Personally I don't care if this Gautier lives or dies, but if he is a threat to my Sephiroth, I want him terminated, too. Best to catch him before he learns to use his powers."
Stryker smiled. "A woman after my own heart."
For once her look was seductive and it made him hard just to see it. "You're absolutely right about that. Nothing would please me more than ripping that organ out of you and feasting on it."
War arched a brow at her open hostility. "Mmm, a woman I can relate to. Please tell me you're unattached."
"She's my wife," Stryker snapped.
"Was," Zephyra corrected quickly. "You seem to have forgotten an important verb tense." She looked up at War. "He divorced me."
War lifted her hand to his lips and placed a tender kiss on her knuckles. "Pleased to meet you, my lady. What name do I apply to one so fair and vicious?"
"Zephyra."
"Like the wind. Soft and gentle."
She gave him a sly smile. "And capable of utter destruction when riled."
He sucked in his breath in sharp appreciation. "I commend you, Stryker. You have excellent taste in women. Too bad you weren't man enough to hold on to her."
Against his better sense, Stryker shoved him away from her. "Zephyra is mine. You'd do well to remember that."
War looked less than intimidated as he turned to address Zephyra. "After you kill him, give me a call and I'll show you what a real man is capable of. In the meantime, if we're going to kill the Malachai, and I definitely am in for that, we need to get started. Every second we delay, his powers grow."
"Then back to Greece to release my Sephiroth." She looked at Stryker. "Return me to my temple."
JARED SIGHED AS HIS BLOODIED AND RAW WRISTS throbbed in utter agony. How he wished he could die. But this was his fate for all eternity.
It's what you deserve, traitor.
Perhaps it was. But at the time he'd done it, he'd made the only decision he'd been able to.
Leverage. Life was all about leverage and the balance of power had never been with him. All creatures were victims of their births and families. With all the power he commanded, not even he had been immune. Disgusted by that, he tensed as he felt a foreign ripple through the air around him. He knew that sensation . . .
An instant later, clarity came as the door opened to admit his bane Zephyra and two men. One was the Daimon demigod again. The other . . .
Polemus. War.
Bravo that. They needed the spirit of war awakened like he needed a hot poker shoved up his ass. Keep that idea to yourself, boy. You don't need to give Zephyra any more suggestions on how to make you suffer.
True enough. She lived to make him beg her for mercy.
Jared met Zephyra's hostile glare and knew instantly why they were there. "It never fails to amaze me what people will do to have their way. I won't kill him for you. You know better than to ask that of me."
Zephyra tsked as she pulled a dagger out of her boot. "Why do we have to play this game, Jared? You know my thoughts. I know you're already in my head reading them. Now be a good boy and do what I say."
He was so tired of following orders. Of having no will of his own. It was time he stopped serving and took control of his miserable life. "I don't care what you do to me."
She ran a deceptively tender hand down his grizzled cheek, making him ache for a real caress. One that wouldn't turn vicious on him. "I know you don't. But we both know you don't feel that way about your little friend. Him you would die to protect."
He tensed at the mention of his demon companion. "Nim's not here. He left."
"Of course he did." Her tone was mocking.