The Darkest Pleasure Read Free Page A

daily physical exertion could provide. They were loaded down with weapons and ready to fight at any moment of any day. They had to be.
    “I don’t recall deciding to throw a party up here,” Reyes said.
    “Well, old age will wipe your memory like that,” Paris replied. “Remember, we need to discuss our next plan of action? Among other things.”
    He sighed. The warriors did what they wanted, when they wanted, and no biting remark would stop them. He knew that firsthand, because he was the exact same way. “Why aren’t you out researching Hydra’s hiding places?”
    Lush lips better suited for a woman thinned into a mulish line. Paris’s eyes flashed the kind of agony Reyes usually saw staring back at him from his own mirror, replaced all too soon by the warrior’s usual irreverence.
    “Well?” Reyes prompted when there was no answer.
    Finally his friend said, “Even immortals need coffee breaks.”
    There was obviously more to the story than that, but Reyes didn’t press. I am not the only man with secrets. Several weeks ago the warriors had split up to search for Hydra, a cranky half snake, half woman… thing who was guarding some of King Titan’s favorite “toys.” Those toys—weapons, really—were supposed to lead them to Pandora’s box. So far, they’d only managed to snag one. The Cage of Compulsion. They had only the barest of clues about the locations of the others.
    “Yes, but when faced with extinction, coffee breaks lose their importance. And yes, I realize I need to do more for our cause. I will. After.”
    Paris shrugged. “I’m doing what I can. The U.S. is a huge damn place and studying it from afar is almost as difficult as navigating its lands amidst all those people.” Each of the warriors had traveled to different countries to ferret out clues about the box, had no success and had quickly returned to learn whatthey could from here. Without switching his attention from Reyes, Paris asked Lucien, “Did he tell you where Aeron is or what?”
    One of Lucien’s black brows arched toward his hairline. “No. He didn’t.”
    “Told you he’d be difficult.” Paris frowned. “He hasn’t been himself for weeks.”
    Reyes could say the same about Paris, he realized as he noticed lines of fatigue and stress around the usually optimistic man’s eyes. Perhaps he should press Paris for answers. Clearly, something had happened to his friend. Something major.
    “We’re running out of time, Reyes.” Accusation coated Paris’s words. “Cooperate. Help us.”
    “Hunters are more determined than ever to end us,” Lucien added. “Humans have discovered the Unspoken Ones’ temple, limiting our access yet increasing that of the Hunters. We’ve only found one artifact out of four, but all are supposedly needed to locate the box.”
    Reyes arched a brow, mimicking Lucien’s earlier expression. “You think Aeron can help with any of that?”
    “No, but we do not need discord among us. Nor do we need the distraction of worrying about him.”
    “You can stop worrying,” Reyes said. “He doesn’t want to be found. He hates who and what he is and he hates us seeing him like that. I swear to you, he’s content where he is or I would not have left him.”
    The door to the roof burst open and Sabin, keeper of Doubt himself, stalked through, dark hair dancing in the breeze.
    “For fuck’s sake,” the man said, throwing up his arms. “What the hell’s going on?” He spotted Reyes and comprehension instantly dawned. He rolled his eyes. “Damn, Pain, you sure know how to spoil a meeting.”
    “Why aren’t you researching Rome?” Reyes asked him. Had everyone stopped working in the half hour he’d been on the roof?
    Gideon, keeper of Lies, was close at Sabin’s heels and prevented the warrior from answering with a sober, “My, my, how fun this looks.”
    In Gideon speak, “fun” meant boring. The man couldn’t utter a single truth without experiencing debilitating pain. Pain,