No one.

She snuggled closer to him.

Zarek stared up at the jagged top of the tunnel. Funny how more than fifty years ago he'd dug this part of it never knowing that one day he would lie here with a lover by his side.

Astrid.

He had no business being with her. No right to touch her.

She was as close to heaven as a man like him was ever going to get.

And yet he didn't want to give her up. Not now.

Not ever.

She was the one person in all of history he would die for.

No doubt tonight he would.

Chapter 14

Thanatos lay on a warm, comfortable bed in the house of a Spathi warrior. The Spathi, like the Spathi's family members (both Daimons and Apollites), were all asleep in their bedrooms, waiting for sundown when it would be safe to go out.

After he had lost Zarek's trail last night, Thanatos had searched until exhaustion overtook him.

The Daimons had brought him back here to rest, and though he was still tired, he couldn't sleep anymore. Not while his nightmares racked him.

He could feel the call of the Oracles trying to summon him back to his cage in Tartarus.

He refused to heel. For nine hundred years he'd been waiting for this. Waiting for his vengeance.

The day Artemis had created him, she had promised him that he would be able to kill Zarek of Moesia. Then for some unknown reason, she had changed their bargain.

Nothing had gone the way she had said.

Instead of living in wealth and comfort, he had been confined to a tiny cell, forgotten and alone.

"No one can ever know you're alive," she'd told him. "At least not until I need you."

And so he had waited. Year after year, century after century, screaming at the goddess to either let him out or kill him.

She'd never answered.

And he'd learned that there were some things worse than the short life span that terrified his Apollite kin.

Immortality in a dark hole was far worse.

He would not go back. No one would ever cage him again. He would tear down the whole ofOlympus first.

Artemis had been so afraid of her Dark-Hunters running amok that she hadn't thought ahead. There was no one who could stophim .

Something flickered through his mind. A fragment of a memory.

He saw himself as an Apollite... saw...

The image changed to that of Zarek killing his wife.

Thanatos roared with anger.

No, killing Zarek was too easy.

He wanted the man to suffer just the way he had.

Suffer.

Pain...

For the first time in nine hundred years, he smiled. Yes. Zarek had protected a woman last night. He had cradled her against him on the snowmachine.

Hiswoman.

Thanatos rose to his feet and shrugged his coat on. Even though he was exhausted, he wouldn't try to sleep any longer. He dressed quickly, quietly. He would find the Dark-Hunter. Find his woman.

She would die, but Zarek... he would live. Just as Thanatos had. In eternal pain, aching for his love who was lost.

Zarek paused as he looked down at Astrid, who had fallen asleep while they'd been talking.

Talking.

He'd never thought to really do that with anyone. But then, he'd done a lot of things with her that he had never thought to experience.

Even asleep she looked tired. Her sweet eyes had circles underneath them.

He placed a kiss on her lips, and moved away so as not to disturb her.

The demon lay on the floor where she had been sitting. She was also sound asleep. One arm was curled under her head while the other hand was tucked under her chin. She reminded him of a little girl. No wonder Ash liked her.

He glanced back at Astrid. His strength.

His weakness.

Simi was Ash's.

And he had responsibility for both of them.

Feeling the full weight of that burden, Zarek grabbed an extra blanket and covered the demon.

She smiled in her sleep and said very softly, "Thank you,akri ."

Zarek looked longingly at his coat, which was still underneath Astrid.

He took another blanket over to her and covered her, too. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the small items he'd collected when he'd ventured into his cabin a few minutes before to get food for Simi.

He set them beside Astrid and placed her hand over them so that she could "see"

what they were when she awoke.

He let his hand linger on her face.

"I'll miss you," he breathed, knowing that even after he became a Shade she would torment him.

After all, he needed her more than he needed food or air.

She was his life. Taking a deep breath, he ran his fingers through her hair, letting it warm him. He imagined her fiery and soft in his arms. The way she looked when she came for him.

The way her voice sounded whenever she said his name.

Yes, he would definitely miss her.

It was why he had to keep her safe.

Forcing himself away from the comfort she offered, he left the two women.

He went to the end of the tunnel that led out into the woods.

Armed with as much firepower as he could carry, he opened the trapdoor, shivered as the cold air rushed over him, and left to find Thanatos.

Astrid jerked awake when a strange sound invaded her sleep.

"I like that Zarek. He quality people!"

She blinked her eyes open as she recognized Simi's voice. Astrid started to move until she felt something underneath her hand.

Some of Zarek's figurines lay there, and as she traced the lines of them with her fingers, she realized what they were.

Each one was a character fromThe Little Prince . There were six of them in all: the little prince himself, the sheep, the elephant, the rose, the fox, and the snake.

They were exquisite pieces that had been given even more attention to detail than the others she'd "seen."

"He even gave me a can opener so I don't have to use my fangs. I like that. Metal is hard on the teeth." Simi smacked her lips. "Pork and beans popsicle. Yummy!

My favorite."

"Simi?" Astrid said, sitting up. "Where is Zarek?"

"I don't know. I woke up a few minutes ago and found this yummy food he left for me."

"Zarek?" Astrid called.

He didn't answer.

Of course, for him, that was typical.

"Simi, is he in the cabin?"

"I don't know." "Would you please go see?"

"Zarek!" Simi shouted.

"Simi, I could have done that."

The demon gave a heavy, irritated sigh. "Okay, but don't let my beans thaw out."

She paused, then added, "Akrisaid to protect you, Astrid, not to fetch for you. Zarek a big Dark-Hunter and he can walk about on his own."

Astrid felt the demon vanish.

After a few minutes she came back. "Nope, he not there, neither."

Astrid's heart pounded.

Maybe he had just gone for more food.

"Did he leave a note, Simi?"

"Nope."

Zarek kicked open the door to the first Apollite house he reached. The small community of Apollites had been here for several decades now on the outskirts ofFairbanks , but he'd left them alone.

Dark-Hunter Code forbade any Hunter from harming an Apollite until they turned into Daimons who fed off humans. So long as they kept to themselves and didn't harm humans and lived out their lives until they died at twenty-seven, they were afforded the same protection as any human being.

It was why, at least according to Simi, Zarek had been banished. To Artemis and the gods, killing an Apollite was as serious a crime as killing a human.

But at the moment, Zarek would gladly break that law and any other to keep Astrid safe.