A Dangerous Fury (The Sentinel Demons Book 3) (7 page)

“I haven’t seen that expression on Drew’s face before,” Talia agreed with amusement.

“I might have sent them all a few images of what the world would be like if demons overrun the Earth,” she admitted, hating to play her Sentinels that way, but they really were being ridiculously foolish. “Just a little preview of what kind of life you’d all have in the future if the Evils aren’t contained.”

“Brilliant!” Kat exclaimed.

“Very savvy,” Talia agreed.

“Where did you send them?” Kat asked inquisitively.

Athena shrugged and sat back down. “They are currently discussing the error of their ways at Kristoff’s residence. Maybe it will remind them that the man who saved all of their lives needs us right now.”

The last thing Athena had wanted to do was lose her temper with her Sentinels, but the three men had to think fast and change their minds quickly. She didn’t have time to cater to their fears. Things would get a whole lot worse for their mates if they didn’t wake up.

“If we save Kristoff and the balance is restored, what will happen to you?” Talia asked, her voice concerned. “If your mating with Hunter is just temporary, what happens
after
this is over?”

Athena rubbed her arms as a sudden chill washed over her body. “I’ll pass on to go to my final rest in the Elysian Fields,” she shared with the women. “After thousands of years, I think I’m more than ready.”

“What about Hunter?” Kat queried nervously. “I don’t think he wants you to go. Do you really want to leave? Can’t you make the deal permanent?”

“I don’t think Hunter wants me forever,” she blurted out without censoring her words. “It’s our choice whether the relationship becomes permanent or not. If we both agree, I can become Hunter’s
radiant
instead of leaving this dimension.”

“Um…Athena…no offense but I think you failed to notice the way Hunter looks at you,” Talia stated confidently. “I think he’d be shattered if you left him. I’ve never seen him care about anything except killing Evils. Now that I know why he did it, I feel bad that we lectured him about something he couldn’t control. But now it’s like he only sees you. He looks at you exactly the same way Drew and Zach look at us.”

Kat nodded enthusiastically in agreement. “Besides, I don’t want you to go,” Kat exclaimed mournfully. “Any woman who can handle three irate Sentinels like that would be great to have as a friend.”

“Definitely,” Talia concurred.

Friends?
Athena found herself longing to be part of these two women’s circle. Instinctively, she knew she could trust them. “I’d like that,” she whispered, her tone slightly raw and vulnerable. She’d always had Kristoff as a true friend, but she ached to have female confidants, women she could share things with and exchange opinions with. After her night with Hunter, she had plenty of questions. But... “I can’t stay if Hunter doesn’t make me his permanent
radiant
. He doesn’t think he’s good for me.”

“What do
you
think?” Kat asked softly.

“He’s pigheaded and stubborn,” Athena noted. “His self-esteem is terrible, and he guards his emotions carefully. I doubt he’ll ever admit that I’m stronger than he is, and he’ll always try to protect me when I don’t need his protection at all.”

“But?” Talia prompted.

“But it’s really kind of sweet. I’ve never had anyone try to protect me before. Not even my father.” Zeus had watched stoically as she had been sent away, and she’d never seen him again after she’d been imprisoned. She’d disgraced him, disappointed him. “Hunter would always stand beside me no matter what happened.”

“You’re falling in love with him,” Kat said excitedly.

“Don’t be silly,” Athena said emphatically. “Of course I’m not—”

She stopped speaking as two sets of feminine eyes stared at her knowingly.

“We know the signs,” Talia assured her, and Kat nodded in agreement. “If you care about each other, make the relationship permanent. You want that, don’t you?”

Her emotions completely raw at the moment, Athena nodded slowly. “I do. Despite his sarcasm and defensive attitude, Hunter’s the most amazing male I’ve ever met. Being a
stabilizer
hasn’t been easy for him as a human or a Sentinel. Yet he did what he had to do to survive.”

“We were afraid we were going to lose him,” Talia said grimly. “Stay with him, Athena. He deserves his own piece of happiness and so do you.”

“How do I convince him if he doesn’t want it?” Athena asked desolately, her heart clenching with a yearning she didn’t understand.

“Tell him how you feel. He feels the same way, I guarantee it,” Talia replied.

Even if Hunter did care for her, convincing him that she wanted him more than she wanted eternal paradise was going to be a hard sell. Even though Hunter could read her thoughts, his sense of worthlessness was stronger than whatever he was picking up in her mind. And talking about her feelings didn’t come easy to her. It felt so new, so foreign to her nature.

Athena looked at the eager, optimistic looks on Talia and Kat’s faces, wishing she could feel as confident as they did that she could win Hunter’s heart.

“I think not only does he care for you, but he needs you, Athena,” Kat mentioned tentatively, her voice quivering with concern. “He seems happy. He’s smiling. I don’t want to see him go back to the way he was before.”

Athena nodded her understanding, remembering how playful Hunter had been this morning. She had experienced all of his memories, and he
was
changing. “I think I may need some advice.” The statement came out of her mouth without thinking. Usually she was the one dishing out wisdom while others listened. “I have no idea how to seduce a Sentinel,” Athena confided helplessly.

“If you’re his
radiant
, all you have to do is breathe,” Talia answered with a gentle laugh. “We’ll help you, Athena. Ask us anything.”

Trusting the women with her secrets, Athena took a deep breath and started learning as much as she possibly could about Sentinel mating.

The conversation lasted for hours.

“W
hat in the hell is taking her so long to bring us back?” Hunter grumbled, annoyed that he’d been detained along with his two brothers. He hadn’t even said a word. Granted, he was
thinking
that there was no way in hell that he wanted Athena anywhere around the Evils. But he hadn’t actually said anything out loud. The horrifying mental images Athena had sent to him and his brothers of a world ruled by Evils had stunned him, kept him mute. She hadn’t held back, the blood and mayhem taking over their brains. Each one had viewed images of their mates in danger and being captured by Evils over and over again.

“She’s the boss right now,” Drew replied morosely, twisting the ring Kristoff had given him on his finger. “I never thought about how powerful she has to be since she created Kristoff and he recruited the rest of us. She doesn’t look or talk like a kick-ass goddess.” Drew shifted in the big recliner in the living room, a place where they had taken refuge after Athena had dropped all three of them on their ass in Kristoff’s kitchen with the last of her horrific images still rolling around in their heads. “How does it feel to have a mate who is more powerful than you are?” Drew queried Hunter unhappily.

“She’s fucking amazing,” Hunter answered honestly, not particularly bothered by the fact that Athena had some incredible skills. All he could think about was how she felt beneath him while he buried his cock inside her over and over again. Besides, the stronger she was…the more able she was to protect herself if he wasn’t near her. But in the demon realm, her powers wouldn’t do her much good if she was unable to slay an Evil.

“What the hell is wrong with you, dude?” Zach asked Hunter, shooting him a perplexed look. “Since when have you been content to sit around and not worry about killing something?”

Since I met Athena. She’s all I think about, all I obsess over right now.

It wasn’t like the instinct wasn’t there to go out and waste Evils, but a stronger compulsion had taken the place of murderous instincts: He wanted Athena. She was beauty and strength, innocence and seduction. The dick he hadn’t paid much attention to for over a century was suddenly in charge of his every impulse, and his desire to make Athena really belong to him was overwhelming. A temporary mating mark wasn’t enough. He wanted to watch the magical glow of his marking on her shoulder instead of a pale imitation. Dammit! He wanted to be close to her forever, have her right beside him. For a man who was a loner, it was downright uncomfortable. But there it was…his all-consuming desire, the thoughts that were currently overriding his instinct to go out and destroy Evils. Given a choice, if he couldn’t be with Athena, he’d take slaughtering Evils above any other activity on any given day. Problem was…he didn’t like the thought that Athena could never be his. “I want our mating to be real,” he confessed to his brothers. “She’s all I think about now.”

“So do it,” Zach advised from his place on the couch. “It’s not like you
can’t
. It’s an option, right? If you both want the mating to be real and bond yourselves, you can do it.”

They could, but Hunter couldn’t even dream about that happening. Not with him. “Do you think she’d trade eternal paradise in the Elysian Fields with her fellow gods to stay here in a hell-on-earth to be my
radiant
?” She’d have to be crazy. His Princess might be eccentric, but she was smart. Athena would make the obvious choice.

“You’re actually falling for her.” Drew gaped at Hunter, astonished.

“Zip it, Irish,” Hunter rumbled. “A Sentinel doesn’t fall for a goddess.”

“Bullshit,” Zach interjected. “Is she
still
a virgin goddess?”

Hunter’s head jerked toward Zach and he speared him with a warning glance. “None of your damn business.”

“We’re your brothers. Everything is our business,” Zach retorted obnoxiously. “How was it?”

Gut-wrenching, earth-shattering, and life-changing.
Hunter knew he’d never be the same again. “It was fine. Now shut the hell up.” He looked from one brother to the other, wishing he had Athena’s powers to smack them both again.

Drew and Zach looked at each other and smirked, a knowing expression on their faces.

“You obviously wanted her enough to seduce her,” Zach contemplated. “And she apparently wanted to be persuaded. She has enough power to zap you into oblivion if it annoyed her. I’m assuming it was mutual.”

“Lay off, Zach,” Hunter growled, not wanting to talk about his intimate acts with Athena.

“I’m just saying that maybe she’s the one. I’d take Hell on Earth versus paradise any day if it meant staying with Kat. Any place without her would never be paradise. It would just be lonely,” Zach shared genuinely. “I think I’d go slowly insane without her.”

“I won’t go insane,” Hunter denied, but he knew that he very well might. Just the thought of Athena leaving forever made him crazed.

Mine!

“Nope. You’re already in Crazytown. You’ve been vacationing there for a while,” Drew answered stoically. “You’re changing, Hunter. Athena could be your one chance to be happy.”

“I can’t be happy if she’s not.” Keeping Athena from finally going to the Elysian Fields would be selfish. After all she’d been through to try to protect humankind, and after thousands of years alone, she deserved to be with her family in a better place than with him on Earth. “We don’t even know what the future holds here.”

“We’ll get Kristoff back and regain the balance. We have to,” Zach said emphatically. “Like it or not, those mental pictures that Athena threw into our minds hit home. We have to win this thing, make sure the Evils don’t rule the world.”

“Athena is right,” Hunter rumbled. “It won’t happen unless we have all of the parts of the puzzle, all of the prophecies fulfilled. I’m not happy about Athena going into the demon realm. She might be powerful, but she can’t slay an Evil. And she needs to get to Goran to return all of the Evils to their original state. He’s the leader, and he’s the Evil that absorbed all the power. The others get their power from him because their creators are gone. Every one of us has a job to do in order to save the Earth, including your mates.”

“And yours,” Drew snapped back at Hunter before he let out a masculine sigh. “I know she’s right. I don’t want to think about the day that I can’t protect Talia if the Evils overrun the Sentinels completely. We’re in a dangerous situation right now, barely hanging on. Athena was right when she said that none of us are thinking about the future. But it will kill me to see my wife vulnerable in the demon realm.”

Hunter didn’t mention that Athena had slowly lost her power over time before their temporary mating, probably because she’d slowly given it all to Sentinels to keep them going. He liked to give his brothers a hard time, but Athena’s sacrifice would weigh heavily on both of them. It sure as hell bothered him.

“It will kill me, too, but I get that it’s worth the risk, considering the alternative,” Zach admitted flatly, staring blankly at Hunter. “Since when did you become the rational Winston?”

Hunter grinned at his two brothers. “I guess since I began to worship a goddess of wisdom and truth.” More seriously he said, “I understand how you’re both going to suffer because of your instincts to protect your
radiant
s, but wouldn’t you rather suffer for a day than for eternity if everything goes to hell here?”

Zach and Drew were silent for a moment before Zach said quietly, “Who’d have thought Hunter would become a damn philosopher.”

“I’m not. I’m the same asshole I’ve always been,” he grunted. “But I think we deserved her smack-down for not thinking about the future.”

“Agreed,” Drew acknowledged.

“Hunter, I wish we would have known everything about your situation a long time ago. It sucks that you were constantly punished for something you couldn’t control. And we’re your brothers. We should have supported you instead of kicking your ass,” Zach said remorsefully.

Hunter wasn’t sorry for anything he’d done or the punishment he’d taken. He shrugged. “It kept Athena in existence.” His actions were just that simple…and that complicated.

“Don’t let her go the way I almost did with Kat,” Zach warned ominously. “Kristoff isn’t here to knock some sense into your head like he did with me. Temporary or not, she’s your
radiant
. Make it permanent.”

Mine. Mine. Mine.

The words echoed in his mind. He didn’t like to be reminded that there would be a day, probably very soon, that Athena would disappear from his life completely.

“I can’t,” he told his brothers hoarsely. “She’s not really mine. We were put together to solve a common problem.”

“Horseshit!” Drew exclaimed loudly. “When is she going to be transported away to the Elysian Fields?”

“I don’t know,” Hunter said huskily, looking at his two brothers desperately. “Who knows when the Fates will think she’s no longer needed. I’m assuming after we rescue Kristoff and the balance is stable again.”

Zach shook his head. “Who’d want to go to the ultimate paradise when she could stay here with us?”

Drew snickered. “Then she’d have to be mated forever to Hunter.”

“I don’t think she’d have a problem controlling him,” Zach replied, amused.

Hunter blew off their sarcastic remarks. “She doesn’t try to control me. This is the first time she’s really lost her temper. Well, the first time she’s been
really
mad.” Maybe he’d pushed Athena’s buttons a few times to watch her eyes turn to scarlet flames, but he knew she’d never disrespect him by misusing her power. “She doesn’t abuse her strength.”

“I guess we deserved this set down,” Drew mused. “We weren’t thinking. Being here in his empty house reminds me of how much we owe Kristoff, and how much Talia wants to get to know her father.” He paused before adding, “And I have to admit that I miss him.”

“We were going to try to rescue him,” Zach reminded his brother.

“A suicide mission,” Hunter injected. “The Evils will end your existence in the demon realm and leave your mates unprotected after they kill both of you…and me. If that’s what you decide, you know I’ll follow you.”

The Winston brothers might not be siblings by blood, but they were brothers by choice, making the bond between them ever stronger. Hunter knew that whatever Zach and Drew decided, he’d be with them.

“No. Athena’s right,” Drew conceded. “We need to plan our attack carefully. We’re going to need some of the other Sentinels to join the mission.”

“I’m glad you’re finally seeing reason.” Athena’s voice sounded by the entry to Kristoff’s living room.

Mine.

Hunter’s cock was instantly hard, and he wanted to wipe the troubled expression from her face by burying himself inside her until she looked like she did last night: wanton and responsive, her eyes shooting fire as she climaxed gloriously beneath him.

“We are,” Drew answered gravely. “I don’t think we have much choice.”

“You don’t,” Athena agreed darkly, raising a brow at Hunter.

That’s my woman. God…she’s magnificent.

“I’m thinking we should give you Kristoff’s ring. You’re here now and able to lead the Sentinels.” Drew started to twist the large ring from his finger.

“Don’t,” Athena demanded. “I don’t need the ring to manage any of you. You, Zach, and Hunter will lead this battle. I’m just going to be a…” She stopped as though thinking of the word she wanted. “Consultant,” she finished hesitantly. “I can’t kill an Evil, so in many ways your power is more important than mine.” She started to pace the living room, this time with her hands behind her back like a general. “We’ll need to utilize warrior Sentinels. I’ll leave those selections up to you. You know who is the best and the strongest of the fighting force.”

“What about the toxins? Aren’t they going to affect all of the Sentinels?” Zach asked, his tone respectful now.

“I can handle that when we get to the demon realm.” Athena dismissed the problem with a wave of her hand. “My main purpose there will be to get to Goran and Kristoff so I can restore the Evils to their original forms and rescue my demon king. But there are other benefits as well. The toxins are easy for me to negate, and I can watch over your mates while you tackle the Evils. Once Kat has guided all of you to the demon realm and Talia restores power to all of the Sentinels, their work will essentially be done. But we’ll need them there in case we need their skills again.”

“Do you think Kristoff is still alive?” Zach asked hesitantly.

Athena stopped pacing and dropped into one of the vacant chairs. “I do. My only fear is that he won’t be the same man who entered the lair of the Evils. He could be…altered.”

“How?” Drew asked urgently.

“He won’t die easily. He’s a Sentinel, but he still has the powers of a demigod—”

“That’s exactly what he told me and Talia,” Drew interrupted. “But how could he be altered?”

“Different,” Athena said evasively, as though she didn’t want to explain completely. “The Evils are masters at torture. The sooner we plan and execute this mission, the better.”

Hunter saw both of his brothers flinch before their expressions grew remorseful. “Then we plan, and we fight,” Hunter rumbled, standing up to hold his hand out to Athena.