The demon's eyes widened as she gasped in pain.

At first Zarek thought she might be playing until she staggered back. Tears were in her eyes as she looked up at Zarek in agonized disbelief.

"It's not supposed to hurt," she cried like a small child. "I'm invincible.Akri said so."

His heart pounded.

Blood trickled from her lips.

Zarek kicked Thanatos back and picked Simi up in his arms. Even though his injured arm trembled from the agony of it, he ran with Simi toward his snowmachine.

Thanatos stood back, waiting.

He watched them leave and smiled. "That's it, Zarek. Run back to your woman.

Show me where you have her hidden."

Artemis felt the shock wave go through her temple like an earthquake.

Something let out an angry, baleful roar.

Her attendants looked up, their faces white.

Artemis sat up on her throne. If she didn't know better she would think...

The door to her private chambers disintegrated. Pieces of it flew through the room as if propelled by a violent tornado. Her women screamed and ran for the door that led outside, seeking shelter from the unexpected maelstrom. Artemis wanted to run, too, but her fear held her immobile.

It was extremely rare that she saw this side of Acheron.

She was too terrified of him to ever push him this far.

He floated out of her bedroom with his long black hair whipping around him.

His eyes were blood-red, swirling like fire as his unnatural powers surged. His fangs were overgrown and large.

He was the very thing she feared most in the universe. In this state, he could kill her with nothing more than a passing thought.

She panicked. If she didn't get him calmed down the other gods would feel his presence and there would be hell to pay for everyone.

Most of all for her.

She used her powers to mask his, hoping to disguise his abilities as her own.

With any luck, the other gods would assume she was having her own tantrum.

"Acheron?"

He cursed at her in Atlantean and held her back with an invisible wall. She felt his agony. He was in excruciating pain, but she didn't know why.

Everything in her temple whirled in the vortex of his powers and rage. The only thing still grounded were the two of them.

"Artemis? I have a problem."

She flinched as she heard Astrid's voice in her head. "Not now, Astrid. I have a situation here."

"Let me guess, Acheron is angry?"

"I am past anger, Astrid." His voice was low, deep, and evil sounding. Acheron's bloody gaze pierced Artemis. "How is it Simi is wounded?"

Artemis's fear tripled. "The demon's hurt?"

"Simi's dying." Astrid and Acheron spoke simultaneously.

Artemis covered her mouth. She felt suddenly ill. Sick. Horrified and scared beyond belief.

If anything happened to his demon...

He would kill her. Acheron used his powers to pull her roughly to him. "Where did Thanatos get one of my daggers, Artemis?"

A tremor of guilt went through her with that question. When she had created the first Thanatos seven thousand years ago, she had granted him weapons to slay the Dark-Hunters. At the time she had thought it divine justice that he use one of Acheron's Atlantean daggers to kill them.

As soon as Acheron had realized a dagger was missing, he had gathered all his weapons together and destroyed them.

Now she understood why.

He'd done it to protect his demon.

"I didn't know your dagger would hurt it."

"Damn you, Artemis. You have taken everything from me. Everything!"

She felt his pain, his sorrow. She hated him for that. If she died tomorrow he wouldn't care at all.

But for the demon, he wept.

Why wouldn't he love and protect her like this?

"I'll go get it for you, Acheron."

Acheron stopped her from leaving his side. "Don't you do anything, Artemis. I know you. You're not to help or try to heal her in any way. You just pick her up and bring her right back here to me. Swear it on the River Styx."

"I swear."

He released her.

Artemis shimmered from her temple to where Astrid, Simi, and Zarek were hiding underground. The demon lay on the floor with Zarek and Astrid kneeling beside it.

"I wantakri !" Simi sobbed. She was screaming and crying hysterically.

"Shh," Zarek said, soothing her. He held a tourniquet over her wound. Both the tourniquet and his hand were covered in blood. "You have to calm down, Simi.

You're making it worse."

"I want my daddy! Take me home, Astrid. I need to go home now."

"I can't, Simi. That power is taken from me until I deliver a verdict to my mother."

"I wantakri ," she wailed again. "I don't want to die without him. I'm scared. Please, please take me home. I just want my daddy."

Zarek looked up as a shadow fell over them.

It was a face he hadn't seen since the day he'd become a Dark-Hunter.

Artemis.

Her long auburn hair curled around her lithe, beautiful body. She wore a long, white dress and her green eyes glittered ominously in the dim light of the tunnel.

He held his breath, half-expecting her to kill him. No Dark-Hunter was ever allowed to be in the presence of a god.

Simi saw her and let out a terrible shriek. "Not her! The heifer goddess is going to kill me!"

"Shut up," Artemis snapped. "Believe me, I'd love to see you dead but if you die, I'll never hear the end of it."

Artemis picked her up in spite of her struggles.

She looked at Astrid and Zarek. "Have you judged him yet?"

Before Astrid could answer, the trapdoor behind them burst open.

Zarek cursed as he saw Thanatos coming through it.

He turned to order Artemis to take Astrid with Simi, but she'd already vanished.

He, alone, had to protect her.

Damn Artemis for this!

"Run!" he shouted at Astrid. He urged her toward the trapdoor that led into his cabin.

"What's happening?"

"Thanatos is here so unless you've got some god power that can kill him, run!"

"Where's Artemis?"

"She vaporized."

Astrid gave a disgusted look, then did as he said.

As Zarek helped her up, Thanatos reached them.

Zarek kicked him back.

"You're not going to escape me, Dark-Hunter. But then, it's not really you I'm after."

His blood running cold at those words, Zarek glanced down to see Thanatos's gaze locked on Astrid.

Thanatos licked his lips. "Vengeance is a dish best served cold."

Once Astrid was clear of the basement, Zarek dropped back down the ladder and began to pummel Thanatos. "We're in Alaska, dickhead. Here everything is cold."

Zarek slammed him back into the wall, then made a dash for the trapdoor.

Once he was in the cabin, he shut and locked the trapdoor. Zarek slid the wood- burning stove over it, then reached inside to remove the mink and her kits. The mother bit the crap out of him, but he didn't flinch.

As gently as he could, he put them in his backpack and rushed from the cabin.

Astrid was just outside his door.

"Zarek, is that you?"

He kissed her.

"That better be you."

He snorted at that.

With no time to waste, he raced over to Thanatos's snowmachine and ripped a hose from it. He led Astrid to his vehicle. "You have to get out of here, princess.

My powers can't contain him for long."

"I can't see to drive this thing."

Zarek stared at her, memorizing her face. Memorizing the way she looked up under the moonlight that was spilling through the clouds.

She was beautiful, his star.

Unlike any in all the universe.

He heard Thanatos breaking free.

Then he did something he had never done before. It was a power Ash had shown him centuries before, but one he'd never had a use for.

Tonight he did.

He kissed her passionately.