"What's going on here?" she asked Kyros.
Kyros let go of her. "Yeah. I didn't believe it, either, at first. But he can mask the Daimon in him so that we can't feel his presence."
"How?" she asked.
The Daimon laughed, flashing her a set of fangs. "It's a trait that runs in my family. My mother can do it. I can do it and my brother can do it."
Scowling at the two men, she didn't understand what he was talking about.
Not until he removed the sunglasses and revealed a set of swirling silver eyes that she had only seen on one man before…
Acheron Parthenopaeus.
"He's Acheron's brother," Kyros said as if he could hear her thoughts. "And he's told me lots of things about our fearless leader that have left me cold. Acheron isn't who or what you think he is and neither are we."
"So how did you do that thing that made all them Daimons explode?"
Sitting next to the Squire who was driving him back to Danger's home, Alexion winced as Keller continued to ramble on with questions and comments. The man had three speech speeds: fast, faster, and "shut up before my brain explodes from trying to follow you." He'd always been told that Southern Americans spoke slowly.
That was apparently a myth.
He hadn't had a headache since he'd been human, but for the first time in nine thousand years, he was beginning to feel throbbing pain between his temples.
Much like an irritating toddler, Keller kept going, picking up speed with every word. "Now, you haven't answered me and I gotta know. You know, if we could all think them Daimons into pieces it would sure be a whole lot easier. Can you imagine all of us just looking at them—and boom! They're dead. You got to tell me how you do that. C'mon. I have got to know, you know?"
Alexion flexed his jaw before he answered. "It's a trade secret."
"Yeah, but I'm in the trade. Squires need to know, too. We're not the ones who are immortal so it seems we should know first, you know? C'mon, tell me how you did it."
Alexion stared at him in warning. "I would show you, but it would kill you to use it."
Come to think of it, that wasn't such a bad idea…
He opened his mouth to tell him.
"Don't."
Alexion growled at Acheron's voice in his mind. "Either do this yourself, or stay out of my head."
"Fine, you're on your own from now on. I'm outta here. I'm going to go play solitaire or something."
Yeah, right. Acheron playing a game. As if he had a minute to spare.
Keller pulled into the driveway of a small mansion in northwest Tupelo, which was Dangereuse's domain. The Dark-Huntress had been assigned to the area for the last fifty or so years. Her home was designed after a French chateau complete with a courtyard that was set off to the left side of the house.
Keller pressed the control in his dark green Mountaineer for the garage door to open. "Fine, be that way. Don't share, but when I get killed, I'm going to haunt you for not telling me diddly when you had the chance to save me. You know, that's just not right. Not right at all." He whipped the dark green SUV into the garage, then shut the garage door behind them.
Even though it was a three-car garage, there was no other car inside. He had assumed that Dangereuse would have returned before now. "Where is your mistress tonight?"
"I dunno. She took off about an hour after sundown and I ain't heard nothing since. Wish she'd been here, though, to get those Daimons. I thought I was toast until you popped into the alley. And speaking of popping in, how did you do that, anyway? Where did you come from? I know you had to have some way to get here, you know?"
Alexion got out of the car slowly as he tried to get his bearings. He'd only seen her house a time or two in the sfora. But things looked very different in person than they did through the mist's distortion.
"Hey?" Keller snapped his fingers as he came around the SUV. "Did you hear me? How did you get to Tupelo without your own car?"
"I have special talents."
"Are you one of them teleporters?"
Alexion took a deep breath for patience, which was wearing thin in this new body. That was the hardest part about the Krisi—the judgment—and coming to earth. He wasn't used to all the bright colors, sounds, and emotions that were filtered through a real body. At times, he was like an overstimulated toddler—one who had the ability to level a city if he got pissed enough.
Keller was even more inquisitive and annoying than Simi on her worst day. And that was quite an accomplishment. "Don't ask me any more questions, Keller. I'm just going to lie to you and I'd rather not have the stress of trying to remember what lie I handed you."
Scoffing at that, Keller took him into the house, which was done in contemporary retro decor. The small foyer that led from the garage to the kitchen was a dark purple color.
Keller dropped his keys in a basket on the counter. "Why you want to lie to me?"
"I don't want to," he said drolly, "which is why I said not to ask me anything else."