"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?"