He smiled at the grogginess of her voice. "Night, Susan."
"Night, gorgeous." The words were barely out of her mouth before he heard her fall into a deep sleep.
How he wished it were that easy for him, but his erection was throbbing so badly that it was all he could do to lie still and not attend to it in some way.
Closing his eyes, he imagined Susan in his arms, her naked body pressed up against his as he sank himself deep inside her. Or better yet, her on top of him, riding him slow and easy as they both sought their own piece of paradise...
It was an image that both tormented and soothed him as he felt sleep slowly overtake him.
"Who exactly is Savitar?" Satara asked as she faced an angry Stryker in the main hall at Kalosis. The dark hall was empty except for her and her brother, who sat on his throne, thrumming his fingers against the carved arm as he eyed her with malice.
"That would be the question d'eternite, little sister. Basically he is what makes everything evil and otherwise quake in its boots. I've never met a god yet who didn't flinch at his approach, and that includes the bastard who donated his sperm to create us. Savitar scares the gods so much that they won't even speak his name for fear of drawing his attention to them. Ironically, the only person who doesn't fear him is Acheron. No idea why."
That didn't bode well for her plans. As a handmaiden to Artemis, Satara had never even heard of this man, but then given what her brother said, that made sense. Artemis liked to keep her head down low. "How do we fight him?"
"We don't. I already told you, we don't screw with him."
She wanted to choke him for his obstinacy and fear. If there was anything she loathed it was weakness. "Then how do we get inside the Serengeti to drive out Ravyn?"
"Again, we don't." Stryker rose to his feet and stepped down from his dais. He strode forward with an eerie, silent gait until he was beside her. "My plan, such as it was, for Seattle has fallen apart. Now that the Dark-Hunters know what we're up to, there's no point in pursuing it. The game is over."
"Not so fast," she said as her mind played through everything that had gone wrong. "What was your original plan?"
"What do you mean?"
"Before Seattle opened its doors to you, what did you have planned?"
He didn't answer. But even so, Satara knew. "You're after Acheron. You want to see him suffer." She stepped closer to him so that she could whisper faintly in a voice that the goddess who ruled this realm wouldn't hear. "More than that, you're after Apollymi herself for all the pain the two of them have caused you."
He didn't react, but still she knew the agony Stryker harbored. To prove his devotion to Apollymi, he'd cut his son's throat and made Urian a bitter enemy.
Urian had been the only thing Stryker had ever loved. And that included her. He kept her around only because he didn't like to be totally alone, but at the end of the day, she didn't have any delusions about where she fell in his affections. If she died this instant, he would shrug it off and move on.
Urian, on the other hand, was a constantly festering wound that ate at him.
"Do you have a point?" Stryker asked from between clenched teeth.
She nodded as a new idea formed. "There are still ways to damage Acheron here and now."
"Such as?"
"Oh, Stryker," she said in a pitying voice. "Of all men, you should know exactly how to cripple someone. What hurts more than having someone you trust beyond measure turn on you?"
His face hardened and she knew he was thinking of the day he'd learned Urian had been lying to him while protecting the family Stryker was sworn to kill.
"Yes," she whispered in his ear. "Now imagine turning one of Acheron's men to our side without his knowing it? We can do to him exactly what he did to you..."
Suspicion darkened his eyes. "How?"
She laughed low and evil. "What has always been the downfall of man, my brother?"
He didn't hesitate with his answer. "Pride."
"Hardly." She held her hand up to her face and blew a deep breath across her nails before she pinned him with an evil stare. "Love, my brother. It is the one thing that men will kill to possess. The one thing that will make them do things that they would never normally do. Things they can't even conceive of. And it will be the one thing that will ultimately bring Acheron to his knees. His Dark-Hunters are the one weakness that we can reach and exploit. We haven't lost Seattle yet. There are still ways to claim the city and drive a spike straight through Acheron's heart."
"And if you're wrong?"
"What have we got to lose? Honestly?" Satara stood on her tiptoes so that their gazes were locked and level. She offered him a tiny hint of a hopeful smile even though his face was still hard and unforgiving. "But if I'm right?"