"And you didn't," Alexion said.
Tears brightened Viper's eyes as a muscle worked in his lean jaw. "Efie didn't deserve what she got. Man, it's a waste of a good woman." His agonized gaze came back to hers. "I want the ones who are responsible. I want to feel their blood on my hands."
"We'll get them," Danger assured him.
Viper looked at Alexion. "I'm sorry I attacked you."
Alexion shrugged it off. "It's understandable, given the circumstances, and forgiven."
Danger offered him a smile. That was part of why she loved him so. He understood people in a way few did.
Viper took a deep breath as he looked Alexion over. "I only have one question. If you're not Ash's destroyer, why are you here?"
Alexion's answer was dry and sarcastic. "To make friends and influence people."
Viper frowned as Danger laughed.
"The influencing people is true," Alexion said stoically. "But I really don't care about friends. What I do care about are the Dark-Hunters. Kyros and Stryker are right about-"
Danger cleared her throat, interrupting him as she recognized from previous Dark-Hunter encounters where this particular speech was heading: disaster.
Alexion might understand people's emotions and actions, but he didn't know how to talk to them. "Did we not have a discussion about the 'or else' bit?" she asked him.
He gave her a peeved stare. "Okay, then what do you suggest I say?"
She patted him playfully on the stomach. "Watch and learn." She turned toward Viper. "How long have you known Ash?"
"Like you, since the night I was made a Dark-Hunter."
She nodded. "Right, and what did Ash tell you the night you met him?"
Viper fell silent for a minute as if he were reliving the event in his head. "Basically, he said that he was there to show me how to survive."
"Right. And if he meant that then why would he send someone out to kill you now?"
She saw the truth in Viper's eyes as he realized it. "He wouldn't."
"No, he wouldn't." She touched his arm sympathetically. "Don't feel bad. I forgot that part myself, but that is the spiel Ash gives every Dark-Hunter when he first meets them. Then he spends the next few weeks teaching us how to fight and how to live. More than that, we get all the money we can spend, great homes, and servants. If we were just his expendable pawns, in his army, why take such good care of us?"
Viper laughed darkly at that. "You're right. I gave my loyalty, blood, and sweat to the Spanish armada and they didn't give a damn what I ate or where I slept. And my pay stunk."
She nodded.
"The only Dark-Hunters I have ever killed were the ones who preyed on humans," Alexion said emphatically. "That is the only thing Acheron will not stand for. And it's the reason I'm sent in. If you're willing to leave the humans alone and let bygones be bygones, so is Acheron. You can go home in peace. But if you think that he's lying to you and that you can do whatever you want to the humans without fear of retribution, then you go home in pieces."
Danger saw Viper's eyes flash at the threat. She half expected him to attack Alexion again.
To her relief, he didn't.
After a few tense seconds, Viper stepped back. "Kyros is calling together the Dark-Hunters in the area the night after tomorrow. He says he has something to show us about Acheron that will prove his guilt above everything else..." He looked at Alexion. "I won't be there."
Danger smiled. "Good man."
"I try most nights." Viper inclined his head to them. "I better go. We're now short one DH in Memphis, and Danger is draining the shit out of my powers. Not to mention, the last thing I need is to breeze the dawn."
She nodded. "Vaya con Dios, Sebastian," she said, using Viper's real name.
"Hasta la vista, frances." He looked at Alexion. "Y tu, weirdo."