DANCE WITH THE DEVIL

by Sherrilyn Keynon

  When he finally managed a bite of it, she looked up expectantly. "Well?"

  He swallowed it before he answered. "It's good, but I don't think I'm willing to repeat that experience. Not good enough to make up for all the work it takes to get to it."

  She laughed as he tossed the apple into a large white garbage can.

  She took him inside the arcade so that she could teach him to play Skee-Ball, one of her favorites. He was amazingly good at it.

  "Where did you learn to throw like that?"

  "I live in Alaska, princess, land of ice and snow. There's not much difference between this and tossing a snowball."

  She was surprised at that. She had a funny image in her mind of him playing in the snow, which would be completely out of character. "Who do you throw snowballs with?"

  He rolled another ball up the ramp and into the center circle. "No one. I used to toss them at the bears so that they would get mad and come close enough for me to kill them."

  "You killed little bears?"

  He gave her a droll look. "They weren't little, princess, I promise you. And unlike rabbits, you can make more than one meal off them and it doesn't take as many hides to make a coat or blanket. In the dead of winter, there's not a lot to eat. Most times before there were grocery stores it was either bear meat or starve."

  Astrid's chest tightened at his words. She'd known it wouldn't be easy for him to survive, but what he described made her want to reach out and hold him close. "How did you kill them?"

  "With my silver claws."

  She was aghast. "You killed bears with a claw? Please tell me there are easier ways to do that. Spear, bow and arrow, gun?"

  "It was long before guns, and besides, it wouldn't have been fair to the bear. He couldn't attack me from a distance. I figured he had claws and I had claws. Winner take all."

  She shook her head in disbelief.

  She had to give him credit, at least Zarek was sporting about it. "Didn't you get hurt?"

  He shrugged nonchalantly, then tossed another ball. "Better than starving. Besides, I'm used to being cut up." He gave her a mischievous look. "Want a bearskin rag, princess? I have quite a collection."

  She didn't find any humor in his question.

  Her throat tight, Astrid wanted to weep from what he was telling her. Images went through her mind of him all alone, wounded, dragging a bear that outweighed him by at least ten times through the arctic snow just so that he could eat.

  And getting the bear home was just the beginning of it. He'd have to skin and butcher it before the other animals smelled his kill or their blood.

  Then cook it.

  No one to help him and no choice except to do that or starve.

  She wondered how many days he'd spent with no food at all…

  "What about food in the summertime when you have twenty-two hours or more of daylight? I mean, you couldn't preserve the meat for long and it wouldn't give you enough time to plant or harvest anything. What did you do then?"

  "I starved, princess, and prayed for winter."

  Tears welled in her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Zarek."

  His jaw flexed. He refused to look at her. "Don't be, it's not your fault. Besides, the hunger wasn't as bad as the thirst. Thank the gods for bottled water. Before that there always were a few days when I couldn't make it to the well even though it's just a short walk outside my door."

  He reached for another ball.

  Astrid placed her hand on his to stop him.

  He turned to face her, his lips slightly parted. She pulled him into her arms and kissed him, wanting to give him some comfort, some degree of solace.

  Zarek crushed her to him. She opened her mouth to taste him fully and to let his strength wash over her.

  He pulled back with a groan. "Why are you here?"

  "I'm here for you, Prince Charming."

  "I don't believe you. Why are you really here? What do you want from me?"

  She sighed. "You are amazingly suspicious."

  "No, I'm realistic and dreams like this don't happen to me."

  She arched a brow at him. "Never?"

  "Not in the last two thousand years, anyway."

  She smoothed the line on his brow with her fingertip and smiled up at him. "Well, things they are a-changing."

  Zarek cocked his head at that, not believing it for a minute.

  Some things never changed.

  Never.

  "Zarek!"

  He felt an odd tugging at his chest.

  But it wasn't Astrid doing it.

  "Is something wrong?" Astrid asked.

  "Zarek!"

  It was a man's voice calling to him. One that seemed to come from miles away.

  "I feel suddenly strange."

  "Strange how?" she asked.

  "Zarek!"

  The clear boardwalk turned dark. His sight began to dim, his head to spin.

  Zarek felt himself drifting away from Astrid. He fought with all his strength to remain with her.

  To remain with his dream.

  He didn't want it to end. Didn't want to wake up in a world where no one wanted him.

  He had to get back to her.

  Please, just one more minute…

  "Zarek! Damn it, boy, don't make me have to slap you. The last thing I need right now is a concussion. Now get up!"

  Zarek came awake to find Jess leaning over him, shaking him hard.

  Cursing, he kicked the cowboy back, into the wall.

  Jess's foul oath matched his own as Jess rebounded off the wood. Zarek's back and arm throbbed in response to Jess's injuries.

  But he didn't care. He intended to add so many more injuries to the cowboy that neither one of them would be able to walk without limping.

  He owed the bastard for the shot in his back.

  And he always paid his debts in full, with interest.

  Zarek came out of the bed snarling, ready for battle.

  "Whoa, Z!" Jess said, ducking the punch Zarek swung at him. "Calm down."

  Zarek stalked him like a lion eyeing an injured gazelle. One that intended to make the gazelle its dinner…

  "Calm down? You shot me in the back, you son of a bitch."

  Jess's face turned to stone and he gave him a cold, chilling stare. "Boy, don't you dare insult my mama, and you better stop and think about that one for a minute. I was a paid killer since I was old enough to hold a gun. Had I shot your dumb ass, you wouldn't have a head right now. Having been shot in the back by a friend, I sure wouldn't want to return that favor to anyone. Not even an ornery cuss like you. And why the hell would I hurt myself just to get to you anyway? Lord, boy, use your head."

  Zarek still wasn't ready to believe him. Though mostly healed, his back was a sore reminder that someone had tried their damnedest to kill him. "Then who shot me?"

  "One of them idiot Squires. Hell if I know which one. They all kind of look alike when they're not yours."

  Zarek hesitated as he tried to sort out everything that had happened over the last few days.

  Everything was a bit fuzzy in his mind. The last thing he really remembered was trying to leave Astrid's cabin…

  He frowned as he looked around, realizing he was still here.

  Jess had awakened him while he was lying fully dressed in a bed he didn't remember climbing into.

  He frowned as he saw Astrid lying in that bed, too.

  The dreams he'd had…

  What the hell?

  Jess reloaded his shotgun. "Look, I don't have time for this. Do you know who Thanatos is?"

  "Yeah, we met."

  "Good, 'cause he's already killed one Dark-Hunter tonight and he's right behind me. I need you up and running. Fast."

  Zarek's stomach went south at his words. "What?"

  Jess's face was grim and lethal. "He took out a Dark-Hunter without breaking a sweat. I've never seen anything like it in my life. Now Thanatos is coming for you, Z. It's time to make like a fox and get the hell out of Dallas."

>   What did that mean? If Zarek's head hurt before, it was nothing compared to the ache he felt trying to decipher that last bit of cowboy colloquialism.

  "Whatever you do," Jess said, his voice deep and thick with warning, "don't let Thanatos near your bow-and-arrow mark. Apparently it works like the Daimons' ink blot in the center of their chests. One tiny stab and we're dust."

  Zarek scowled at his words. "What bow-and-arrow mark? I don't have one."

  Jess scoffed. "Of course you do. We all have one."

  "No I don't."

  Jess looked up from his gun, his face completely un-amused. "Maybe it's in a spot you don't look at. Like your butt or something. I know you got one. It's where Artemis touched you when she captured your soul."

  Zarek shook his head at him. "Artemis never touched me. She couldn't get near me without cringing so she used a stick to make me a Dark-Hunter. I swear to you, there's no mark on me."

  Jess's jaw dropped in disbelief. "Wait, wait, wait. Are you telling me they stick you out here where there are no Daimons and you don't have a weak spot? What kind of shit is that? I live in Daimon Central with one hell of an Achilles' heel that no one ever bothered to mention, and you live where there's no danger to you and yet you don't have one?"

  Jess paced the floor. It was a habit Zarek had learned about during one of their late-night phone conversations. Once Jess started on a rant, it was hard to get him off it.

  "What's not fair with this picture?" Jess railed. "And then Ash asks me to come up here to save your ass and here we are dropping like flies while you're Teflon.

  "No, I have a problem with this. I love you, man, but da-yam. This just ain't right. I'm up here freezing my balls off, and you, you don't need protection. Meanwhile I have a bull's-eye on my arm that says, 'Hey, Daimon on steroids, kill me right here.'"

  Still Jess rambled. "Do you realize, I put my keys in my mouth to pull out my wallet to pay for gas and they froze there? The last thing I want to do is die up here in this godforsaken place at the hands of some freaked-out something no one has ever heard of before except for Guido the Killer Squire from Jersey? I swear I want someone's ass for this."

  Jess took a breath but before he could start ranting again, the front door to the cabin burst open.

  The entire house shook from the force of it.

  Zarek felt a cold, familiar shiver up his spine.

  A faint trace of a memory flashed through his mind. It was vague and disconcerting.

  He'd felt this before…

  With no time to contemplate, he used his telekinesis to slam and lock the bedroom door.

  He shoved Jess toward the window. "She has a wolf somewhere in the house. Find him and get him out."

  Something struck the door forcefully.

  "Come out, Zarek," Thanatos growled. "I thought you liked to play with Daimons."

  "Yeah, I'll play with you, you bastard." Zarek blew out the window with his telekinesis and pushed Jess through it while Thanatos continued to assault the door.

  Crossing the room, Zarek grabbed Astrid, who was still sound asleep on the bed, and handed her out the window to Jess. "Get her out of here."

  Jess had barely taken Astrid from him before the door blew apart.

  Zarek turned around slowly. "Didn't your mother ever teach you it's not nice to intrude?"

  Thanatos narrowed a cold, harsh glare at him. "My mother disintegrated when I was only a year old. She didn't have time to teach me anything. But you, on the other hand, taught me well how to hunt and kill my enemies."

  Zarek was so shocked by the words that it left him open to the first attack.

  Thanatos caught him with a blast straight to his chest.

  Zarek rolled with it, taking strength from the pain.

  He was good at that.

  As he braced himself to attack, a gunshot rang out twice. Thanatos staggered forward, then turned around with a snarl.

  Zarek's eyes widened as he caught sight of two bullet holes in the back of the Daimon's skull. Bullet holes that healed instantly.

  Jess cursed from the hallway. "What are you?"

  "Jess," Zarek snapped. "Get out. I can handle this."

  As Thanatos went for Jess, Zarek ran at his back and knocked him into the doorframe.

  "Go!" he shouted at Jess. "I can't fight him with you here. I need all my powers."

  Jess nodded and ran for the front door. Zarek heard him pause long enough to get the wolf out.

  "Alone at last." He laughed as Thanatos shoved him back against the far wall. "Oh, the pleasure of the pain."

  Thanatos raked him with a disgusted sneer. "You really do suffer from insanity, don't you?"

  "Hardly. I have to say I enjoy every minute of it." Zarek let his powers surge through him until his hands burned from the heat of them. He channeled the ions in the air and charged them full, then directed them at Thanatos.

  The blast knocked him halfway down the hall.

  Gathering more power, Zarek knocked him back again, into the den. He kept hitting Thanatos until the man landed on the floor by the hearth.

  If Zarek were smart, he'd take advantage and run.

  But he wasn't that smart. Besides, Thanatos would just come after him and he was too old and too damned pissed to run.

  Thanatos regained his feet.

  Zarek blasted him again, knocking him over the sofa where he landed in a heap.

  He shook his head at the Daimon, who was no longer moving. "Tell you what, why don't you look me up when you're ready to play with the big boys?"

  Zarek walked out of the house and summoned his powers to lock the door behind him. He could hear Thanatos pounding on the door, trying to break out.

  Without a backward glance, Zarek walked to the snow-machine that must belong to Thanatos. He opened the gas tank and made sure there was plenty of gas in it.

  He snapped a hose from the engine, then used it to siphon the gas into his mouth.

  Walking back to the cabin, he pulled his lighter out of his back pocket.

  He lit the lighter, then spewed gas at the house and watched as the door caught fire.

  After several more trips, he stood back and surveyed the flames that were quickly consuming Astrid's house.

  It was a good thing she was rich.

  Looked like she was going to need a new place to live after this.

  Zarek pulled a cigarette out of his coat pocket and smiled. Underneath his breath, he sang the Talking Heads' classic song, " "Three hundred sixty-five degrees… burning down the house.'"

  Astrid came awake to a roar. Her lack of eyesight momentarily stunned her until she realized she'd been pulled from her drugged sleep.

  But how?

  Both she and Zarek should sleep for at least another day.

  She could tell by the sounds and upright position of her body that she was no longer in her bed.

  It felt like someone's car.

  "Zarek?" she asked hesitantly.

  "No, ma'am," a deep voice drawled in a thick Southern accent "Name's Sundown."

  Her heart pounded. "Where's Zarek? Sasha!"

  A hand touched her arm comfortingly. "Easy now, darling. Everything's going to be all right."

  "Where's my wolf?"

  By the way the air in front of her face stirred, she could tell Sundown was waving his hand about an inch from the tip of her nose.

  "Yes, I'm blind," she said irritably. "Tell me where Sasha is."

  "He's the furry thing at your feet."

  She let out a small breath of relief, but that was only half her concern. "And Zarek?"

  "We left him behind."

  "No," she said, her heart hammering once more. "I'm not supposed to leave him."

  "We didn't have any—"

  Astrid didn't hear the rest of his statement. She was too busy trying to open the car door.

  A strong hand pulled her back. "Whoa, little lady, what I'm doing here is dangerous. I've got to get you as far away from the cabin as I can. Trust me, if anyo
ne can handle this, Zarek can."

  "No he can't," she said, trying to stand up. "I have to go back to him. If anyone finds out that I'm not with him, he's dead. Do you understand?"

  "Lady—"

  She brushed away his hand. "Thanatos will be sent for him. I have to go back."

  "You know about Thanatos?"

  Astrid reached out, trying to find Sundown's mouth to feel for fangs.

  He dodged her hand.

  "Do you work for Acheron?" she asked.

  "Do you?"

  "Answer me. Are you one of his… men?"

  He hesitated before he answered. "Yes."

  She breathed a sigh of relief. Thank Zeus for small favors. "I'm Zarek's judge. If I leave him unchaperoned, Artemis will call out Thanatos to kill him."

  "I hate to break it to you. She already did. I just left the two of them at your place to have it out."

  Astrid's head spun. How could this be?

  "You're sure it was Thanatos?"

  "That's what he said and after the way he tore through us Hunters, I tend to believe him."

  Astrid felt ill at the news. This couldn't be happening.

  Why would Artemis breach their agreement?

  She knew Artemis had been anxious for a verdict, but still…

  "You've got to get me back. Zarek can't kill him. None of you can."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Only Acheron has the power to kill Thanatos. Only Acheron. None of you stand a chance against him."

  Sundown cursed. "All right. Hold tight and I pray God you're wrong, lady."

  Astrid felt Sasha stirring as Jess turned the car around in a move that reminded her of a carnival ride.

  "Shhh, Sasha," she said, reaching down to touch and soothe him.

  "Where are we? What happened?"

  She felt him shifting slightly to look up at Sundown. He let out a low growl.

  "And who the hell is this refugee from A Fistful of Dollars? "

  "He's a friend. So be nice."

  "Nice? Fine. I won't bite him. Just yet." Sasha settled back a bit. "Why am I in a truck? How did I get here? And why does my head feel like it's about to explode?"

  "I drugged you."

  She had a distinct feeling Sasha had his eyes narrowed at her and his teeth bared. "You what?"

  She flinched at the anger in his voice. "I had no choice. But yell at me later. We have a problem right now."