Dark Hunter 00 - Dark Bites (Novellas) Read Free Page B

what to make of that. Or what it was about Aricles that would cause her to doubt her decisions now.
    Weird.
    “Sentient beings adjust… in time.”
    She met his gaze. “You’ve never adjusted to being without Lilliana.”
    He winced at a bitter truth that stung him hard. “I’m a demon and very different from them. Besides, Lil changed me from what I was, and then was violently taken from me. It’s not the same as leaving home to serve a goddess and defend my people.”
    Bathymaas pulled back from saying anything else. She knew how much it hurt Caleb to talk about his wife. And for the first time, she felt a strange ache in her chest for him over his loss. She wasn’t sure why.
    Yet there was no denying it was there.
    If only she knew why she felt this now.

October 28, 12,252 BC
     
    Bathymaas watched Aricles sitting alone on the bank of a small stream. Since they had moved the Ēperon from her Theban temple to the Atlantean island that was centrally located in the Aegean, she’d kept a close eye on her men. They were targets now. Not just from the Chthonians, but from the gods as well. And the last thing she wanted was for them to be attacked before they stood ready to defend themselves. While they were all valiant warriors, it was harder to fight against demons and gods than mortals.
    And while the other five were eager to take their places as elite warriors, Aricles stood alone with his reticence for battle. As with now – while the others were off to seek fleshly comforts – he sat on his grassy bank with no other company than his shadow.
    Frowning at him, she had no idea what it was he did there, or why he appeared so content with it. Nor did she understand why he wasn’t with his brethren…
    Aricles cocked his head as he felt Bathymaas’s presence behind him. Strange how he was so attuned to her. Even before the scent of sweet lilies reached his senses, he’d known she was here with him. “Am I needed, my goddess?”
    “No.” She paused by his side to touch the handmade pole he held in his hands. “What is it you do?”
    He pulled at the line. “I’m fishing.”
    “For what?”
    “Fish.”
    Her frown deepened. “Is this how it’s done?”
    “It is. Would you like to try?”
    “I’m not sure. What does one do to fish?”
    Aricles smiled at her innocent question. While the other members of his band lost patience with her inability to understand human activities and emotions, he found her quite beguiling and endearing. “Come and sit with me, my lady, and I’ll show you.” He removed his cloak and laid it down on the ground to protect her clothing and to give her some padding from the damp grass.
    In the daintiest and most graceful manner he’d ever seen, she sank down by his side.
    He carefully showed her the metal hook he’d made. “You bait the hook.” He picked up a worm from the small clay pot where he’d gathered them a short time ago and showed her how.
    “Does that hurt them?”
    “I try not to think about that.”
    “Oh, sorry.”
    He wiped his hands. “Once it’s anchored to the hook, you place it into the water and wait for a fish to take the bait. Then you pull the fish to shore and capture it.”
    She watched as he tossed the line in. “How long does it take?”
    “It could be right away or hours from now, or even not at all.”
    That seemed to confuse her even more. “Does this not bore you?”
    He shook his head as he heard his brother’s insults in his mind over his favorite pastime. “Not really. I find it relaxing to sit with my thoughts and listen to the wind whispering to me through the trees.”
    “You do have a serenity about you that others lack.”
    That was a polite term for what Galen called his boorishness. “I’m a simple man, with simple needs.”
    She ran her hand over the carvings he’d made on the pole. They were for the god of water, Ydor, who was said to favor fishermen. “And what are those needs you speak of?”
    Aricles scratched at his