She shrugged. "I was bitten by a gallu-the same one who owned Jared. He thought to make me his mindless sycophant, and what he learned is that I'm a lot stronger than I look. I killed the bastard."
Medea sighed. "Why don't you tell him the truth, Mum?"
"Truth?" Stryker asked with a frown.
Zephyra cursed as she glared at her daughter. Her eyes snapping fire, she turned toward Stryker. "Fine. I traded my humanity so that Medea would live longer than her twenty-seventh birthday."
"What are you talking about?"
"Unlike you," Zephyra sneered, "I didn't have an Atlantean goddess willing to show me how to take human souls to live. I asked Artemis to intervene on Medea's behalf and she refused. She told me she wouldn't countermand her brother's curse even for her own niece. After I'd already lost my grandson and son-in-law to the humans, I wasn't about to let my own baby die because of Apollo. So I conjured one of the brokers and promised him my soul if he'd protect her."
It sounded easy enough, but there was one problem. Demon brokers didn't respond to Daimon requests. "You can't do that. Only a demon can."
She gave him a highly sarcastic look of appreciation. "You're such a brainiac, baby. And to think, I thought I married you for those amazing abs. Who knew all that brainpower was buried under those bulging biceps?"
Medea made a choking sound before she spoke again. "She allowed a demon to feed on her and convert her so that she could summon a broker."
The look of sarcasm mixed with annoyance was transferred to Medea.
Disregarding Zephyra's prickliness, Stryker was amazed by her capacity to love. It touched him profoundly that she'd make so great a sacrifice to protect their child. It was that deep ability to care for her loved ones that had made him fall in love with her in ancient Greece.
"After I was converted, I turned on the demon and killed him. The beauty of the gallu. If you kill the one who bites you, you regain your self-control and keep the powers of the gallu to boot. It's beautiful really, except for the annoying blood craving that was added to the one I already had due to Apollo. But life is nothing if not a series of trade-offs, eh?"
Perhaps. But it still left one unanswered question. "And Jared?"
"He was offered to me to keep me from killing the gallu demon. I took custody of him and then nailed the demon to the wall of his own home. No one threatens me or my child. Ever. And I'll never be someone's slave. No one controls me."
He could respect all of that. He'd done worse things to the ones who'd killed his sons.
Except for Urian.
Unwilling to think about that, he narrowed his gaze on Zephyra. "That explains your advanced age." Demons, even if they were only half bloods or converts, were excluded from Apollo's curse. "But what of hers?" He indicated Medea with a jerk of his chin.
Zephyra crossed her arms over her chest. "I had to trade my soul for her life, which is now tied to mine. Strange how the gods love to do that. Sadistic and cold, really. But no matter. Unlike us, she doesn't have to feed on humans to live longer-she's still an Apollite technically. She could even have more children if she could ever find a man who wasn't worthless."
"I did find one," Medea said, her voice breaking. "The humans butchered him."
Zephyra touched her lightly on the arm. "I know, baby. I didn't mean to be so callous. I loved him, too." She looked back at Stryker. "It's why I made sure I slaughtered every descendent of the families who took his life and why I relished each and every kill."
Stryker gave her a formal ancient military salute. "And that's why I admire you so. A warrior's code to the end." Blood for blood. Tit for tat. Life for life.
It was the one thing they'd always seen eye to eye on.
Davyn groaned from the bed as he finally came to. Lifting his head, he focused on Stryker. "How many of our men did they kill?"
"I don't know. What happened?"
"War." His voice was weak and strained, as if pain had just ripped through him. He brushed his hair back from his face before he pushed himself into a sitting position. "He told the demons that they shouldn't be subservient to you anymore. That they should rise up and kill us all to take over Kalosis. He said it would be the perfect demon haven, once all the Daimons were dead or converted."
Stryker growled low in the back of his throat. "Treacherous bastard."
Zephyra scoffed. "You're the one who unleashed him."
"To kill Nick and Ash," he said defensively.
She arched one taunting brow. "What did you think he'd do after that?"
"I assumed he'd kill me, not my people."