"One of the bitch-goddess's koris, they them people who serve her in her temple on Olympus. Katra good quality people who gonna help my akri. Now let the Simi in!"
"It's okay," Tabitha said to Kyrian. "I know Simi well enough to vouch that it's really her out there."
Kyrian gave her a menacing stare. "Yeah, and you know Valerius, too. That gives me so much faith in your judgment-not."
Tabitha went rigid. "Amanda, if your husband's balls have any meaning to you, I suggest you move him out of my way or he's going to be singing in soprano."
"Let her open the door, Kyrian."
"Like hell," he snarled. "My daughter is asleep upstairs."
"Her niece is asleep upstairs," Amanda reminded him. "Tabitha would never endanger Marissa. Now move."
Kyrian made a gesture as if he'd like to choke both of them, then stepped aside.
Tabitha swung open the door to see Simi outside with an extremely tall, robed woman.
Neither woman asked where Ash was, they seemed to know instinctively.
"Don't worry, Tabby," Simi said as the unbelievably tall woman headed toward the stairs. "Katra will never hurt my akri. She loves him like us."
Katra didn't listen to Simi as she made her way up the stairs of the unfamiliar house. Then again, there was no such thing as an unfamiliar house to her. She'd inherited great powers from both her father and mother, including the ability to feel the essence and layout of buildings.
This house echoed warmth, respect, and love. No wonder Acheron liked to stay here whenever he visited New Orleans. This was a wonderful home and Marissa was a lucky child to live here. How she wished she'd known such a place as a little girl.
She opened the last door on the hallway to find Acheron lying prone on a large, four-poster bed.
Kat paused at the sight of Acheron there. Never in all these centuries had she been so close to him. As a young woman, she'd often tried to catch glimpses of him as he came and went on Olympus to see Artemis. Like all of the goddess' servants, Kat was banished from the temple whenever he visited.
She more than any other was forbidden to ever be near him. And now...
She'd waited all her life for this one, single moment. For one chance to touch him. Know him.
To feel his arms around her, just once.
Her heart pounding, she crossed the room to stand beside the bed that didn't really accommodate his tall, lean frame. The pallor and odd color of his skin did nothing to detract from the fact that he was without a doubt the most handsome man who had ever been born.
But he was so much more than external beauty.
Even in stasis, he was commanding and frightening. She could feel his powers reaching out to her. Calling to her.
He was power incarnate.
More than that, he was invaluable to the order of the universe. If Acheron should ever die...
It didn't bear thinking on.
Using her own powers, which were second only to his, Kat shut and locked the bedroom door with her thoughts before she lowered her cowl and sat beside him. She wanted a few minutes alone with him where no one could observe them.
"You are so handsome," she breathed as she traced the line of his eyebrows.
Since the moment she had first glimpsed him when she was a young child, she'd yearned to touch his hand. Yearned to have him call her by name.
Or better yet, yearned just to have him know she existed at all.
But it wasn't meant to be.
Artemis would always stand between them. She had ordained centuries ago that no one, especially not Kat, could ever touch the sacred Acheron.