** spoiler alert ** Dark Hunter series - we always feel sympathy for the heros and heroines - and it is interesting how after a bit, Kenyon throws in bits so that we also feel sympathy for some of those evil doers (Artemis, Apollymi, and now Stryker)... Stryker, the leader of the Daemons. He has a tattoo of a black tear drop for each of his dead children, his dead wives, and hs sister - he mourns them.

The storyline is of Stryker and zephyra... married when they were 14... 11,000 years ago... We learn that Apollo was cruel to his son - one time dressing him in a dress and threatening to castrate him and placing him in service to Aretmis with his sisters)... and he truly loved the servant girl Zephyra... but when Apollo threatens rape, torture, & death for Zephyra unless Stryker leaves her, he does (after collecting her picture, a ribbon she wore at their wedding, and the ring she tossed at him in anger)... and he thought she died after a normal human life, but he thinks of her every day.... (for 11,000 years ?

Instead, Zephyra was thrown out on the street by her father after he took the money Stryker left for him, and she drank the bollod of a gullo to become strong & immortal to protect their daughter (that he never knew he had) and goes under Artemis' protection for trade of becoming her assasin to take care of her problems...

And Stryker releases War - after getting his agreement to kill Acheron and Nick - and knowing that War would kill him after killing the other two... and in anger, Artemis sends Zephyra to kill Stryker -

and now Stryker wants to live... he didn't know she was alive,, he didn't know he had a daughter with her... and he fights her for the right to 2 weeks with her - and if she still wants to kill him after 2 weeks, he will let her - he realizes that he has no life without her, and that he would be happy if it were her to take his life...

and she is touched, bit by bit, as she appreciates the teen he was, the man he became (they do share a bloodlust and dislike for humans)... and she finds his momentos and is touched, and he shares the full memory of this father's threat, and his pain, and her words the night he left her, and she forgives him... ahhh... and he finds his trust in her (or accepts his death in her) when War is preventing them from leaving and feeding, and sends in 3 gallu's to manipulate and threaten ... and Zephyr tells him to drink all of the gallu's blood (though their blood converts them to demon and in controlof the demon), but she tells him to drink it all and to take her soul... and he trusts her and does, and it removes the curse of Apollo - so that they are not dependant on human blood/souls... and as many Apollites as possible are following suit - a new threat to humans - they can go out in the day... hmmmm

but the Dark Hunter's story moves forward - with War's attack on Nick unlocking Nick's true nature as Malachai - inherintly evil, but tempered by his human mother's love & their poverty - and only Jared (a new character) can kill him - being of the same source... and the Jared character - servile to Zephyra and Medea - chained in a room, tortured by them (especially Zephyra) for past 'crimes'... and he has his own Simi (Nim, a small adult male with a teddy bear) whom he wants to protect, and whom Zephyra uses to manipulate... I;m guessing his story will be soon...

And Nick takes some responsibility for his actions and feelings - and joins with Stryker and Acheron to take down War (although it takes Tory, Kat, and Zephyr to finish War off).