Fear the Darkness Read online

  “I have no emotions. I only do as I’m told. Betrayal is for those who have

  something to gain.”

  It was true. The Dream-Hunters had been cursed by Zeus to feel

  nothing.

  Satara smiled at him. “It’s too soon, Nick. I know. You go home now and

  rest. When you’re ready to have your mother back, bring Marissa to us.”

  Nick nodded before he turned back and did what she said.

  Satara narrowed her eyes as Nick vanished from sight. He was being rather

  willful, but they could still control him. He needed their blood to live and so

  long as they had him tied down, there was nothing he could do to escape.

  At least nothing that didn’t involve him begging Acheron for help and

  that was the last thing Nick would do.

  “Do you really want me to bring his mother out of the Underworld?” Kra-

  tos asked. “That will require a massive amount of cooperation from Hades.”

  She scoffed at him. “Of course not. We get Marissa and both he and his

  mother can roast in their hell for all I care. But you are another matter. I want

  you in his dreams, every night, working on him. He has enough anger to feed

  you well, my Skotos. Play on that anger. Build it higher until he will be willing

  to do anything to free his mother and kill Acheron.”

  She saw the hesitation in Kratos’s eyes.

  She curled her lip. “Oh, don’t tell me you’re going to be a wuss too. I’m

  sick to death of weak men around me.”

  He grabbed her and shoved her against the wall. “I’m not a wuss, Satara.

  You’d do well to remember that.”

  She tsked at him. “For a god with no emotions, you seem rather testy.”

  He released her. “I’m siphoning off you and your hatred. Even in this

  realm, it’s pungent.”

  “Leave my hatred alone. I don’t want it diminished. Remember, Dream-

  Hunter, I’m a god too. Fuck with me and I’ll bring down the wrath of Zeus

  on you.”

  “You’re only a demigod and a servant at that.”

  “But dear old Grandpa Zeus will take an audience with me and then he’ll

  take your head. Are you willing to chance that?”

  He took a step back and gave her a look that let her know she should be

  on guard while sleeping in the future.

  17

  FEAR THE DARKNESS

  S h e r r i ly n K e nyo n

  “Just do your part, Kratos, and I’ll do mine. The Oneroi don’t monitor

  the dreams of Daimons. You help me keep Nick turned against Acheron, and

  I will give you a playground unimagined by your brethren.”

  Kratos swallowed at her promise. Three weeks ago, he’d been one of the

  Oneroi. A servant of the gods who protected humans and immortals while

  they slept. Then Satara had summoned him in her dreams and had turned

  him Skoti. She’d seduced him with her body and made him crave emotions

  like a drug. Now he couldn’t stand the emptiness of his existence. He only

  wanted to feel and he was willing to do anything to keep his newfound emo-

  tions.

  She was right. His kind didn’t prey on Daimons, and if they were half as

  enticing as she, then he would have a banquet at his fingertips.

  And all he had to do was feed the Dark-Hunter’s anger and grief. Simple.

  “It’s a deal, Satara. You give me what I need and I’ll give you what

  you want.”

  She smiled. What she wanted was simple. Nick Gautier’s loyalty and the

  baby Marissa. With those two things, she could bring down both the Greek

  and the Atlantean pantheons.

  Then she would be a god and she would make Apollymi look weak.

  And Nick, Acheron, and Kratos would be her eternal slaves.

  18

  FEAR THE DARKNESS AUDIOBOOK

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  insider details from Sherrilyn Kenyon...

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  Fear the Darkness is Narrated by Holter Graham

  Holter Gr aham is a stage, television, and screen actor. He has recorded

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  Pa r t i i :

  A LETTER FROM

  SHERRILYN KENYON

  Hi, everyone!

  I hope you enjoyed the short story and I know the first question many of you will

  have after reading it—is that it for Nick? No! :) I promise Nick will have a full-

  length book in the future.

  That being said, I’ve been wanting to do this short for a while, but it didn’t

  really fit into any of the novels. I thought that it was important for the fans of the series to understand why Nick can’t simply forgive and forget where Ash is con-cerned. As Ash so often says, emotions don’t have brains. And as I know firsthand,

  grief takes years to deal with, especially when someone is violently and unexpect-

  edly taken too soon from your life.

  Nick makes a cameo appearance in The Dream-Hunter , and here’s a small

  bit of that cameo.

  “Ah, jeez. Nick!”

  Ash turned at Kyrian’s irate shout to find the general standing in the

  doorway near the black mark Nick had left on the floor. A few inches shorter

  than Ash, Kyrian had short blond hair and was dressed in black. “I’m going

  to kick your ass, boy! How many times have I told you no skateboards in

  the house?”

  Nick came up behind Kyrian with a face as white as chalk. Ash had seen

  condemned men look less panicked.

  “It’s not Nick’s fault,” Ash said quickly as Nick stopped behind Kyrian’s

  back with his eyes wide. “It’s these new biker boots. Sorry. I was so stunned

  when M’Adoc showed up that I skidded on the floor.”

  Kyrian gave him a suspicious glare, but since he couldn’t prove Ash was

  lying, he let it go. “Well, then, could you fix it?”

  The mark vanished instantly.

  21

  A LETTER FROM SHERRILYN KENYON

  S h e r r i ly n K e nyo n

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re the friggin best ever,” Nick mouthed at Ash from behind Kyrian’s

  back. He held his hands up in a silent gesture that said Ash rocked. “I love

  you, man. ”

  Kyrian turned sharply to glare at Nick who immediately acted as if he

  were just scratching his head. “You called me, boss?”

  “No. I’ve called you a lot of things, but ‘boss’ has never been one of them.

  And it never will be either.”

  Nick raked his hand through his long brown hair. “Dang, he’s in a bad

  mood tonight. You need to get laid, boss.”

  “Shut up, Nick.”

  I just love this whole scene (which can be r
ead in its entirety in The Dream-

  Hunter ). Like many others, I miss the old Nick too. But Nick is on a journey,

  and hopefully he’ll be a better man because of it. Or he’ll die a spectacular death.

  Only me and my friend Janet know for sure.

  In the meantime, I’m working on the next book in the Dark-Hunter series,

  Devil May Cry . While The Dream-Hunter has Ash’s heroine in it, DMC has events that will greatly impact Ash and his future. Not to mention it has one heck

  of a HUGE surprise in it. It opens in New York during Christmas and it will take

  the reader someplace they haven’t gone before. It also has Urian’s return and a

  Simi shocker. I love this book and I hope all of you will be on the lookout for it in

  August.

  And keep an eye out for the return of Born of the Night , the first book in

  the League series. St. Martins has heard our cries and has taken mercy on us. All

  of the out-of-print books will be back in print very shortly, and SMP was kind

  enough to let me go back in and edit them. So for the first time ever, they will be

  a cohesive series and you will get to read them the way I wanted them to be read.

  I’m so excited!

  I hope all of you had a great holiday season and that 2007 brings nothing but

  warmth to your heart and laughter to your home.

  Hugs!

  Sherrilyn

  22

  Pa r t i i i :

  Sneak Peek:

  A va i l a b l e F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 7 i n Pa p e r b a c k

  THE DREAM-HUNTER

  A r i k wa n t e d t o c u r s e i n f r u s t r at i o n a s h e wat c h e d Megeara smiling at another man. Why wouldn’t she succumb to his serum?

  To his pleas?

  How could a mere mortal woman be so strong?

  “Arikos?”

  As light intruded into his dark chamber once more he let out a tired sigh

  at the sound of his uncle Wink’s voice. Arik was getting seriously tired of these

  interruptions when all he wanted was to be with his human target. “What?”

  “I’ve been told to retrieve my sleeping serum from you. You seem to be

  abusing it and making your human ill.”

  Arik rolled over to face the older sleep god. Wink’s long brown hair was

  braided down his back as his light gray eyes danced with mischief. Even though

  Wink was one of the oldest gods, he had the personality of a thirteen-year-old

  boy. There was nothing he loved more than to play pranks and tease—two of

  the very things that had gotten Arik and his brethren cursed.

  At one time, they’d been too easily seduced and manipulated by the other

  gods and had allowed themselves to be used by Wink, Hades, and the others

  in private jests and wars.

  Until the day Zeus had put a stop to it once and for all. Funny how he’d

  only punished the tools and not the ones who’d wielded them.

  But then, Zeus wasn’t known as a god of justice.

  “And if I want to keep the serum?”

  Wink arched a brow at that, then tsked. “Come now, Arikos, you know

  the rules.” His face sobered. “You also know what happens to those who don’t

  cooperate.”

  Of course he did. All of his kind knew. His back bore more scars than the

  sky held stars. There were times when he suspected his grandfather Hypnos,

  24

  THE DREAM-HUNTER

  S h e r r i ly n K e nyo n

  who oversaw their physical punishments, was nothing more than a sadist who

  could only feel pleasure when he was doling out pain to others.

  How cruel was it to send the Skoti in to drain humans of excess or pent-

  up emotions, then punish them when they didn’t want to leave because they

  finally experienced something other than pain?

  But that was the way of it.

  After his “chat” with M’Ordant, Arik had known it would come to this.

  There was no use in arguing. Wink had been sent to retrieve the Lotus serum

  they used on humans, and all the bribery on Olympus wouldn’t sway him.

  Wink was only a pawn who served the sleep gods.

  Arik pulled out the small vial and handed it to Wink, who took it with a

  stoic smile.

  “Cheer up, old boy. There are plenty of other dreamers out there for you

  to play with. Mankind is generous to you that way. They live for their dreams

  and are possessed of them constantly.”

  Yes, but none of those humans held the type of uninhibited, vivid dreams

  of Megeara. It made Arik long to know what she’d be like outside the dream

  realm. What she would be like as a human...

  Arik watched as Wink withdrew, then left him in the dream chamber to

  face the darkness alone.

  Perhaps this was just punishment after all. A son of the god Mor-

  pheus, Arik had originally been one of the Oneroi. As was customary for

  such, he’d been assigned humans to watch over and protect against the

  Skoti who sometimes preyed on them. In those days, he’d spent his life

  monitoring his subjects, making sure the ones under his protection had

  normal dreams that would either help them work through their problems

  or inspire them.

  Until that one fateful night.

  He’d gone to help one of his assignments who was ill. Because of her

  sickness, her dreams had become extremely vivid and emotional—so much

  so that one of the Skoti had latched onto her. Such a thing was common and

  even tolerated. Skoti fed from human emotions, but so long as they kept it

  under control and didn’t lead the dreams or interrupt the human’s life, they

  were allowed to drain humans. It was only when the Skoti began to return

  repeatedly and took control of the host that they were punished.

  Humans held fragile psyches. A returning Skotos could easily turn human

  minds and either drive them insane or make them homicidal. In the worst

  case, a Skotos could even kill the human, which was why the Oneroi moni-

  25

  THE DREAM-HUNTER

  S h e r r i ly n K e nyo n

  tored them. If a Skotos spent too long with their host, then it was the Oneroi’s

  place to step in and drive them out.

  If all else failed, the Oneroi would kill the Skotos.

  At one time, Arik’s life had been dedicated to protecting his humans.

  To feel nothing and to only follow the orders of the elite Oneroi. In his day,

  he’d vanquished numerous Skoti without understanding or caring why they

  sought humans the way they did. Why they felt a burning need to risk their

  lives for their quest.

  And then one night...no, one encounter had changed that and brought

  with it a clarification that still resonated within him.

  Born of a human mother and the dream god Phobetor, Solin lived on

  earth, but at night he ran amok in the dreams of other humans. Completely

  amoral, he didn’t care what he did to others so long as he enjoyed himself.

  For centuries, the Oneroi had been trying to stop and trap Solin. He was

  one of the few Skoti who’d warranted a death sentence. His voracious appe-

  tites and fighting skills were legendary among the Oneroi who’d been unfor-

  tunate enough to confront him.

  And Arik had been one of them. Still young by their years, Arik had

  thought to take Solin on his own.

  Most of the Skoti fled at the approach of an Oneroi. The Oner
oi had full

  backing of the other gods to do whatever they had to do to control the Skoti.

  Since a Skotos could drain emotions from any human, they normally left

  without issue and didn’t waste time fighting when they could simply move

  on to someone else.

  But Solin was stronger than most. Bolder. Instead of fleeing as Arik had

  expected, Solin had turned the human loose on him. By their laws, Arik had

  been forbidden to hurt the human, and Solin had known it. Arik had tried

  to pry her away without harm, but the moment her lips had touched his and

  he’d tasted her lust, something inside him had shattered.

  He’d felt pleasure and arousal for the first time in his life.

  And when the human had dropped to her knees and taken him into her

  mouth, he’d known his war in this was lost and his conviction shattered. In

  one heartbeat, he’d gone Skoti.

  He’d been Skoti ever since.

  Drifting from one dream to the next, he’d been searching all these centu-

  ries for someone who could raise his emotions to the level of that first night.

  But no one had come close.

  Not until Megeara.

  26

  THE DREAM-HUNTER

  S h e r r i ly n K e nyo n

  Only she was able to reach through the emptiness inside him and make

  him see vivid colors again. To make him feel her emotions. After all these cen-

  turies, he finally understood why certain Skoti refused to leave their partners.

  Why they were willing to risk death.

  Because of Megeara, he wanted to know what the world looked like

  through her eyes. What it tasted like. Felt like. And her ability to pull herself

  away from him was starting to seriously piss him off.

  But what could he do? Even if he went to earth to be near her, he couldn’t