"Yeah, and do you remember when we were trying to get ahold of Ash and no one knew where he was?"
"Yes."
Kyl frowned. "Ash said his phone wasn't working."
"Trust me, it was working just fine. He knew what was happening, but he stayed out of it and left us alone to deal with the Daimons, knowing we weren't capable of fighting them without him. And then the Daimons came out and went to town all over us. While we were distracted with trying to fight them off, their leader, Desiderius, possessed Ulrich so that he could kill Amanda's sister and my mother. As a possessed Dark-Hunter he was able to enter Kyrian's house without an invitation. He took off Kassim's head and then he killed Amanda and Kyrian."
Kyl rolled his eyes. "You're the idiot, Nick. They didn't die."
"Oh, yes, they did. Trust me. Artemis had already dumped me into Hades when Kyrian showed up. Even though he was dead, he was beside himself because Amanda wasn't there with him. Since she was a Christian and he was an ancient Greek, she'd gone off to her heaven while he was on his way to his. Still bloody from our deaths, we stood there on the banks of the river Acheron, waiting for Charon to ferry us to the other side. While we waited, Kyrian spilled his guts to me about everything that had happened to cause his death."
"Kyrian isn't dead," Kyl insisted.
Hatred flared deep in Nick's eyes. "Not now he isn't. Acheron brought him back. "
Still Kyl argued. "Ash doesn't have that power."
"And you're stupid if you believe that." Nick sat forward and punctuated his words by pounding his hand on the desk. "News flash, folks. Ash is a god."
Leo and Otto laughed at him.
"Nick, are you high?" Zoe asked.
He turned on Zoe like a demon looking for a victim. "No. Deny it if you want, but I know the truth. I might be the youngest Dark-Hunter created, but I've been in this world a long time and I know exactly what I'm talking about. The rest of you are just fools in a game that's being played behind your backs. The Spathi Daimons that you're up against now aren't stupid. Until Desiderius went after Kyrian the first time, no one even knew that Daimons could live a hundred years, never mind a thousand... or more to the point, eleven thousand. But Ash knew and even when I asked him about them, he didn't say a word. Why is that?"
Dragon narrowed his eyes on Nick. "Ash didn't know or he would have."
"Ash is the king of secrets. You all know that. I don't know how the Daimons are related to him, but I know there's a link."
Now it was Belle's turn to laugh. "What are you saying? Ash is a Daimon?"
"No. He's a god and somehow he's linked to them." Nick looked at each one of them. "These aren't what you're used to dealing with, folks. These are so much more and now they have human help, too."
Menkaura frowned. "What do they want with us?"
"They want to bathe in your blood and trust me, they will."
Erika made a rude noise. "Well, aren't you just Mr. Sunshine?"
Nick turned his head slowly toward her like something out of a bad horror movie. Not to mention the fact that his face reminded Susan of a king addressing a peasant who'd dared to breathe his air. "Who are you, little girl, and why are you even in this meeting?"
She pointed to Ravyn. "His substitute Squire and I have no idea, but at least I'm not bringing everyone down with this doom and gloom bullshit."
Now he looked to Susan like the king after the peasant had wet his shoes... and she didn't mean with water. "Substitute Squire? What the hell is that?"
Erika gave him a "duh" stare that had to be one she reserved for those who were a bit slow. "It's a person who doesn't want to be a Squire, but who got drafted into this because Mr. Kontis won't let anyone else around him for more than twenty-four hours. I think my father has lasted longer with him than anyone else in the past because he's half-deaf and can't listen to Ravyn's razor-sharp sarcasm. Something I can only tolerate because, well, he taught it to me from the crib."
Nick didn't look impressed by her speech. "Then as a Squire you should know to sit there and keep your mouth shut."
Erika's jaw dropped in indignation. "What do you know about being a Squire?"
"He used to run the Dark-Hunter Web site," Leo said under his breath.
She turned on him in a pique. "And that makes him an expert?"
Kyl shrugged. "He's the one who put the Squire's handbook online."
"So he can write HTML, so what? My grandma could do it, if she were still alive."