DANCE WITH THE DEVIL

by Sherrilyn Keynon

  They didn't pop in during a blizzard and drag a wounded Dark-Hunter into their homes.

  His stomach shrank as the reason for her presence slammed into him.

  Someone had sent her here.

  For him.

  He gripped the handlebars fiercely, unwilling to let go for fear of what he might do to her. "What kind of nymph are you, princess?"

  "Justice," she said quietly. "I serve Themis and I was sent here to judge you."

  "Judge me?" He let out an extremely disgusted sound. "Oh, you're un-friggin-believable."

  Zarek had never wanted to hurt anyone so much in his life. Getting up from the snowmachine before he yielded to his temper, he put space between them.

  Was this his luck or what?

  He'd finally found someone whom he thought didn't judge him and she really was a judge whose sole purpose was to pass judgment on him and the way he lived.

  Oh, yeah, he really knew how to pick them.

  The gods were still laughing at him. Mocking him.

  All of them.

  Enraged, he paced around the snowmachine so that he could watch her sitting on the seat, looking all prim and proper with her hands folded in her lap and her head down.

  All ladylike.

  How dare she screw with him like this! Who did she think she was?

  He was tired of people messing with him. Tired of games and of lies.

  A judge. Acheron had sent in a judge before they killed him. Ooo, Zarek was just tickled pink by the consideration.

  Maybe he should be flattered that they even gave him a pretense of impartiality. It was a hell of a lot more than he'd gotten as an accused slave.

  "This was all just a game to you, wasn't it, princess? 'Come, Zarek, sit on my lap. Tell me why you won't behave.'" His vision turned dark. Deadly. "Fuck you, lady, and fuck them."

  Her head snapped up. "Zarek, please!"

  "So what, you decided Acheron was right? I'm psychotic, so send in your dogs to kill me?"

  She got up and turned to where she heard his voice coming from. "No. Thanatos wasn't supposed to be sent in after you. As for Acheron, he would never convict you. If not for him, you'd be dead now. He bartered who knows what with Artemis so that I could come to you and find a way to save your life."

  He snorted. "Yeah, right."

  "It's the truth, Zarek," she said, her voice sincere. "Deny it all you want to, but it doesn't change the fact that we are on your side."

  He raked her with a repugnant glare he only wished she could see to appreciate. "I ought to leave you here to freeze to death. Oh, wait, you're an immortal nymph. You can't die."

  She lifted her chin and stood as if braced to take on his worst. "You can leave me if you want to. But the man I have come to know isn't so callous or cruel. He would never leave someone to die."

  He ground his teeth. "You know nothing about me."

  Astrid left the snowmachine. Walking slowly, she reached out with her hand, wanting physical contact with him. She needed it, and something told her he did, too. "I've been inside you, Zarek. I know what no one else does."

  "So what? Is that supposed to make me all warm and cuddly for you? Look, the little princess stole into my dreams to save me. Ooo, I'm so touched. Should I cry now?"

  She grabbed his arm.

  His muscles, like him, were tense and hard. Fierce. "Stop it!"

  She reached up to touch his ice-cold cheeks with both of her hands. They were chafed from the ride, and yet they still managed to warm her icy fingers.

  Half-expecting him to pull away, she was amazed when he didn't. He stood there like a statue. Unmoving. Cold. Inflexible.

  Astrid swallowed, wishing for a way to make him understand. Wishing for a way she could reach him so that he would stop being so self-destructive.

  Why wouldn't he see the truth?

  Zarek couldn't breathe as she cupped his face in her warm hands. She was so beautiful, with tiny sparkling snow-flakes on her eyelashes and blonde hair. He saw the pain on her face, the softness.

  She seemed to want to help him and yet he couldn't make himself believe that.

  People were always self-serving. All of them.

  She was no exception.

  And yet, he wanted to believe in her.

  He did want to cry.

  What had she done to him?

  For a brief time in his dreams he had begun to think that maybe he wasn't so bad. That he deserved some kind of happiness.

  Gods, he was such a fool.

  How could he have been so stupid and trusting? He knew better.

  Trust was only a weapon that was used to kill people.

  It had no place in his world.

  Astrid stroked his cheeks with her thumbs. "I don't want you to die, Zarek."

  "Here's the kicker, princess. I do."

  Tears filled her eyes and melted the snowflakes on her lashes. "I don't believe you. Thanatos would have gladly given you that wish and yet you fought him. Why?"

  "Habit."

  She closed her eyes as if frustrated with him. Her grip tightened on his face, then to his complete shock, she burst out laughing. "You really can't help it, can you?"

  He was completely baffled by her reaction. "Help what?"

  "Being an asshole," she said, her voice broken by laughter.

  As she continued to laugh, he stared at her in disbelief. No one had dared laugh at him before. At least not since the day he'd died.

  Then she did the most unexpected thing of all. She walked into his arms and hugged him. Her laughter brought her body into contact with his, setting fire to him.

  It reminded him so much of his dream…

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him close.

  No one had ever held him like this. He didn't know if he should embrace her or shove her away.

  In the end, he found himself placing his arms awkwardly around her. She felt just as she had in his dream. Every bit as wonderful.

  He hated that most of all.

  She gave him a tight squeeze. "I'm so glad Acheron sent me to you."

  "Why?"

  "Because I like you, Zarek, and I think anyone other than me would have killed you by now."

  Even more suspicious of her than before, he released her and stepped back. "Why do you care what happens to me? You've been inside me; tell me honestly I didn't scare you."

  She sighed. "Honestly, yes. You do scare me, but by the same token, I've seen goodness in you, too."

  "And the village I showed you in my dreams? The one I destroyed."

  She furrowed her brow. "It was broken and fragmented. It didn't feel like a memory to me, it felt like something else."

  "What?"

  "I don't know. I think there's more to what happened than you recall."

  He shook his head. How could she have faith in him when he didn't have any in himself? "You really are blind, aren't you?"

  "No. I see you, Zarek. In a way I think no one ever has before."

  "I assure you, princess, if you saw the real me, you'd run for cover," he scoffed.

  "Only if I knew you'd be waiting under that cover for me."

  He was floored by what she said.

  She didn't mean it.

  It was another game. Another test.

  No one had ever wanted him. Not his mother, not his father. Not his owners. He didn't even want to be with himself.

  So how could she?

  Zarek paused as he felt a psychic tremor run through him. "Thanatos is coming."

  Her eyes widened in fear. "Are you sure?"

  "Yes."

  He pulled her toward the snowmachine. It would be dawn before long.

  He would be trapped, but Thanatos…

  The Daimon would be able to walk in daylight.

  Zarek wrapped his arms around Astrid. He should leave her here for what she'd done to him, hand her over to Thanatos to see if she would buy him more time to escape. Yet he had this crazy idea of protecting her.

  No
, it wasn't an idea. It was a yearning he had to keep her safe.

  Resigned to his stupidity, he started the snowmachine and headed it toward his property.

  Astrid took a deep breath as they resumed their trip. She had violated more rules than she cared to think about.

  And yet as she felt Zarek surrounding her, she knew it was worth it. She had to save him.

  No matter what it took.

  She'd never felt so determined. Or more sure of herself. He gave her a confidence and strength she had never known.

  He needed her. In spite of what he said or even thought. He needed her in a way that was painful.

  The man had no one else in the world. And for some reason she couldn't understand, she wanted to be the one person he relied on. The one person who could tame him.

  He drove them for almost an hour before they stopped again.

  "Where are we?" she asked as he climbed off the snowmachine.

  "My cabin."

  "Is it safe?"

  "Not a bit. And it looks like all hell broke loose here."

  Zarek stood in stunned disbelief as he looked around. There was still blood on the snow, but from whom, he couldn't tell.

  The sight tore through him as reality came crashing home.

  A Dark-Hunter had died here.

  His kind didn't die often and he felt a peculiar ache for the man who had died tonight. It wasn't right.

  It wasn't fair.

  If anyone should have paid that price, it should have been him. He should have been here to confront Thanatos.

  The thought of an innocent man being turned into a Shade made him want Artemis's blood.

  And where the hell was Acheron? For someone who was supposedly willing to put his ass on the line for the Dark-Hunters, the Atlantean was amazingly absent.

  Curling his lip, he went back to the snowmachine.

  "C'mon," he said. "We have a lot to do."

  He walked off and left her to find her own way.

  "I need your help, Zarek. I need you to tell me where things are so I don't walk into anything."

  It was on the tip of his tongue to remind her of the fact that she'd claimed she could watch after herself. Then his memories surged and he remembered what it was like to only see shadows.

  To walk into things because he couldn't see them.

  He didn't want to touch her anymore.

  He hated the very thought of it because every time he felt her, he craved more of her.

  Against his will, he found himself taking her hand into his. "C'mon, princess."

  Astrid bit back her smile. His tone was harsh and yet she felt a small victory inside her heart. Not to mention the fact that he had stopped using "princess" as an insult. She didn't think he even realized that now when he called her that, his voice softened ever so slightly.

  Sometime during their dreams, the insult he'd used to keep her at a distance had become an endearment.

  Zarek led her into his cabin.

  "Stand here," he said, placing her to the left just inside the doorway.

  She heard him rustling around to her right. While he was busy, she brushed her hand against the wall to feel her way over to him. What she found there surprised her.

  Frowning, she ran her hand over the deep dips and planes of the wall. It was an incredible tactile sensation. Intricate. Complex. But what she touched was so large that she couldn't quite understand what it represented.

  As she followed the design with her hand she realized it covered the entire wall.

  "What is this?" she asked.

  "A beach scene," he said distractedly.

  She arched a brow. "A beach scene is carved into your wall?"

  "I get bored, okay?" he snapped. "So I carve things. Sometimes in the summer, I run out of wood and I carve the walls and shelves."

  Just like the wolf he'd sculpted in her house.

  Astrid stumbled over something as she reached for the next wall. Several things fell, scattering over her feet.

  Zarek cursed. "I thought I told you to stay put."

  "I'm sorry." She bent down to pick the things up to find that they were carved wooden animals.

  There seemed to be dozens of them.

  She was stunned by the intricacy of each piece as she ran her fingers over them, picking them up from the floor. "Did you do all these?"

  He didn't answer as he snatched them up and piled them back.

  "Zarek," she said, her tone stern, "talk to me."

  "And say what? Yes, I carved the damned things. I usually do three or four of them a night. So what?"

  "Then there should be more of them. Where are the others?"

  "I don't know," he said, his voice a little less hostile. "I take some into town and give them away and the rest I burn whenever the generators go out."

  "Don't they mean anything to you?"

  "No. Nothing means shit to me."

  "Nothing?"

  Zarek paused as he looked at her kneeling beside him. Her cheeks were chafed, the skin no longer soft and protected as it had been when he first awoke in her cabin. She stared over his shoulder, but he knew it was because she wasn't quite sure where he was.

  Her lips were slightly parted, her hair mussed.

  In his mind he could see her in his arms, feel her skin sliding against his. And in that moment, he made a startling discovery.

  He did care about something.

  Her.

  Even though she had lied to him and tricked him, he didn't want her hurt. He didn't want to see her delicate skin damaged by the extreme weather.

  She should be sheltered from such harshness.

  How he hated himself for that weakness.

  "No, princess," he whispered, the lie catching in his throat. "I don't care about anything."

  She reached out then so that she could touch his face. "Is that lie for your benefit or mine?"

  "Who says it's a lie?"

  "I do, Zarek. For a man who doesn't care, you've made a great effort to make sure I'm safe." She smiled at him. "I do know you, Prince Charming. I really do see what's inside you."

  "You're blind."

  She shook her head. "I'm not nearly as blind as you are."

  Then she did the most unexpected thing of all. She leaned forward and captured his lips with hers.

  Something inside him shattered at the contact, at the sensation of her moist, sweet lips. Of her tongue sweeping against his.

  This wasn't a dream.

  This was real.

  And it was wonderful. As good as she had tasted before, it was so much better now.

  He crushed her to him, taking control of the kiss. He wanted to devour her. To take her right now on the floor until his hard-on was spent and sated.

  But if his dreams were any indication, it would take more than a single act of sex to ease the fire in his groin.

  He could love this woman all night long and still be begging for more when the morning came.

  Astrid couldn't breathe from the fierceness of his kiss. The heat of his body set fire to her own.

  He was truly wild, her warrior.

  He slid his cool hand under her shirt until he could cup her breast. She shivered as his fingers pushed the lace of her bra aside so that he could run his palm against her swollen nipple.

  She'd never allowed anyone to handle her like this. But then, she'd done a lot of things with him that she had never done before.

  All her life, she'd been circumspect and proper. The kind of woman who lived by the rules and who never sought to break or even bend them.

  Zarek freed something within her. Something wild and wonderful.

  Something unexpected.

  He pulled back from her lips as his hand moved lower, over her belly, down toward her waistband.

  She trembled as he unbuttoned her pants, then slid her zipper down. In their dream, there was still some protection of it not being real. Of everything being a dream.

  Tonight that barrier was gone. Once he touched h
er in this realm, there was no going back.

  What the heck? There was no going back for her anyway. She would never be the same.

  "Would you let me screw you on my floor, princess?" he asked, his voice ragged and deep with hunger.

  "No, Zarek," she breathed. "But you can make love to me anywhere you want to."

  She took his hand in hers and slid it down her pants, into her cotton panties.

  Zarek's breathing was ragged as she opened her legs in invitation. He stared at her lying on his floor. Her crumpled shirt was pulled up, showing off her rounded stomach while his hand was stark against the light pink cotton of her underwear. Tiny tufts of her hair peeked out from under the waistband as he massaged her mound gently.

  She unzipped his pants, spilling his erection out. He couldn't move as she took him into her warm hands.

  His body on fire, he slid his hand down through the moist curls at the juncture of her thighs so that he could touch her intimately while she stroked him.

  She was so wet already, her nether lips swollen, begging for more. Her hands massaged him, causing him to harden to the point of pain.

  He slid his fingers over her cleft, delighting in the sound of her murmured pleasure.

  He dipped his head to her breast, to toy with her nipple. He sucked and teased, taking his time tasting her.

  Wanting more of her, he went to slide his fingers into her, only to touch something that stunned him. Something that hadn't been there in the dream.

  He went cold.

  Pulling back, he frowned as he felt her hymen under his probing fingers. "You're a virgin?"

  "Yes."

  He cursed and moved away from her.

  "You're a virgin," he repeated. "How the hell can you be a virgin?"

  "Easy. I've never slept with a man before."

  "But my dreams…"

  "Those were dreams, Zarek. That wasn't really my body."

  His vision turned dark. Unwarranted jealousy gnawed at him. His little nymph had found one hell of a loophole. "So how many men have you fucked in their sleep?"

  "You bastard!" she snapped, rising up into a sitting position on the floor. "If I could find your face, I would slap you format!"

  Angry, she straightened her clothes and moved away from him. Her cheeks were flushed, her hands trembling, as she continued to curse both of them under her breath.

  It was then he knew.