Dream Warrior by Sherrilyn Kenyon Page B

again.
    What he hadn’t realized was that in dreams, they’d be able to channel the sleeper’s emotions. So much so that some of the Oneroi would become addicted to it, since it was the only way they could feel anything but emptiness.
    So the Skoti had been born. Then it became the job of the Oneroi to police or kill their brethren so that none of them would suffer again under Zeus’s command.
    A part of that vicious cycle, Jericho had harmed Leta even worse than the Dolophoni and Oneroi had harmed him. They had only killed him. He had taken what Leta loved most.
    Her husband and daughter.
    Leta’s desperate screams still echoed in his memories. She had screamed herself hoarse and he couldn’t blame her for it. Not given what they’d taken from her.
    Maybe the past centuries were justified after all. What they’d done to her had been inexcusable. The least he could have done was let her know that he’d saved her daughter. But everything had happened so fast, there hadn’t been enough time. Not to mention had anyone known what he’d done, they would have killed Delphine instantly.
    Yet here she was … alive. Because he’d hidden her and had never breathed a word of it.
    Jaden was right. His suffering hadn’t been in vain. She was grown and beautiful.
    Placing his hand to Delphine’s warm cheek, he cocked his head to study her resting features. She was so similar to her mother. Yet so different. The blond hair made her features softer. Inviting.
    His heartbeat raced at the softness of her skin under the pads of his fingertips. He hadn’t really touched a woman in countless centuries.
    He ran his hand from her cheek to her hair. A part of him wanted to kiss her so badly that he wasn’t even sure how he kept from doing it. Perhaps because she was asleep and he didn’t want to violate the peace she seemed to have found.
    Was she dreaming?
    What did Oneroi dream of? His dreams used to be of battle. To his knowledge, he’d never had peace in the dream realm. As an immortal god, he’d been violent and cruel. His dreams had reflected his reality.
    As a man, he hadn’t dreamed at all since he’d spent the nights as a corpse. No, that wasn’t true, he’d dreamed while conscious. And in those, he’d escaped to peaceful havens. A quiet beach. A cabin in the woods. A lone temple in the desert. Places that were isolated from the world where no one could make him feel small or worthless. Where no one could kill him or hurt him in any way.
    Where he had his old strength back and no one could touch him …
    Now he was there at long last. He had power. He had dignity. Most of all, he had a beautiful woman in his bed …
    The very one who had cost him everything.
    He hated her for that. She’d grown up without knowing her life had been paid for with more suffering than she could ever imagine.
    He clenched his hand in her hair, wanting to hurt her for that. But he knew it wasn’t her fault. She’d been an innocent child.
    It had been his own decision to ruin his life. He could have killed her as Zeus ordered and everything would have been fine.
    For him.
    â€œWere you worth my sacrifice?” he whispered.
    Her eyes fluttered open as if his words had reached her. The moment she saw him, she jumped with a loud gasp. He tried to pull his hand away, but her hair was wrapped around his fingers. She yelped as her movements pulled it.
    â€œI’m sorry,” he said, wondering why he bothered since it was her own actions that had hurt her, not his.
    â€œWhat were you doing?” she accused.
    â€œNothing.”
    Delphine frowned at his sullen, angry tone. His demeanor reminded her of a child caught with his hand in a cookie jar. Rubbing the sore place on her head, she stamped down her own anger. “Where do you keep going?”
    â€œI went to see Deimos.”
    She sat up as a shiver of excitement went through