It made him wonder if Dangereuse might be attracted to women, as opposed to men.
"About three years. My dad is the current Squire for Maxx Campbell over in Scotland, and after I graduated college, I thought I'd like to join the family business, you know?"
The man seemed to love to end sentences with those two words.
Keller continued on without pause. "I wish I'd grown up over there, but when I was a kid, Dad was stationed in Little Rock, serving this DarkHunter named Viktor Russenko who got killed a few years back. Did you know him?"
"Yes."
"Damned shame what they did to him. Some Daimons caught him alone and jumped him. Poor guy. He didn't stand a chance. It was awful, you know, so the Council thought my dad needed a change of scenery. I think Scotland was a good move for him. Maxx seems to be a really laid-back DarkHunter. Do you know him too?"
Alexion nodded at the name. He knew much about the Highlander DarkHunter who had been recently relocated from London to Glasgow. "How does your father like it over there?"
"It's all right, but he misses home. They talk funny over there and not many can understand his accent. He's real Southern sounding."
Now there was the pot describing the kettle.
Keller continued to ramble on as he led the way into a medium-sized bedroom that had an adjoining bathroom. Alexion cocked his head as he felt something strange go through him. It was cold, almost sinister, and he couldn't place it.
If he didn't know better, he'd think it was…
"Acheron?" He sent the mental call out through the dimensions.
His boss didn't answer him.
Then as soon as the sensation had come, it was gone.
How strange…
Chapter 3
Danger didn't know what to believe as she headed home from Aberdeen to Tupelo. She'd stayed too long with Kyros and her powers had waned a lot more than she should have allowed. She felt weak and sick, and in truth, she wanted nothing more than to lie down for a while and give herself time to recover.
Most of all, she needed time to think through everything they had told her tonight. To be honest, Stryker had made some rather convincing arguments.
"You have been trained that all Daimons are evil and out to prey on humans. Well, newsflash, we're not the ones who are in the wrong. Acheron is. He was cast out of our home realm, Kalosis, because even our mother could no longer abide his rampant killing. It's why he uses you to kill us now. He wants revenge on us.
"Your powers wane when you're together because Acheron took your souls and has devoured them. That's why the first DarkHunters were allowed to stay together. In the beginning, their souls weren't dead. He actually did have them. But after Acheron ate the souls of Kyros and Callabrax… then they were like the rest of you and could no longer be together without it draining their powers."
Still, that hadn't made sense to her.
"Whether you like it or not, little girl, your souls are dead. That's why you can't be in a room with another soulless being. The energy that sustains you, that keeps you animated, begins to clash with the energy of the other soulless being. Why do you think you don't lose your powers around a Daimon? We have a soul inside us, and it allows us to be together without harm. That's why you can be with Acheron and not feel the drain and why Acheron can go into a cemetery and not be possessed. He, unlike you, has a stolen soul inside him."
Danger had still been skeptical. "That doesn't make sense. What about Kyrian and the other DarkHunters who have gotten their souls back?"
Stryker's answer had been automatic. "They didn't get their souls back, they got someone else's."
That had been the most ludicrous thought of all. "Yeah, right. We all know that anytime a soul enters a body that it's not meant for, the soul withers and dies in a matter of weeks. Kyrian has had his soul back for years now."
Stryker had laughed evilly at that. "That's not true if the soul comes from an unborn baby. That's why Daimons covet pregnant women so much. If you take the soul of the unborn, it can sustain you until the body dies."
Those words had left her cold. To do such a thing was an abomination.
She still wasn't sure if it was possible.