"Oh, yeah, let's neuter you and see if it affects you, you-"

"Sasha!"

"What? He's obnoxious. And I am not a dog."

She walked down the hallway to pat Sasha's head. "I know."

Zarek ignored the wolf and the woman as he went to the window and pulled the curtains back. It was just after oneA.M. and the blizzard was as fierce as it had been earlier.

Damn. He was never going to get out of here. He only hoped the weather broke long enough to allow him to make it back to his woods. No doubt the Squires, Jess, and Thanatos were waiting for him at his cabin, but he had several more "safe"

areas none of them knew about. Places where he could get weapons and supplies.

But he had to be on his land to reach it.

"Zarek?"

He expelled an aggravated breath.

"What?" he snapped.

"Don't use that tone with me," she said with a sharp note in her voice that caused him to arch a brow at her audacity. "I like to know where people are in my house.

Be nice, or I'll make you wear a cowbell."

He felt a strange urge to laugh. But laughter and he were strangers.

"I'd like to see you try it."

"Are you always this cranky or did you just wake up on the wrong side of the bed?" "This is it, baby, get used to it."

She came to stand right beside him and he had a feeling that she purposely did it just to irk him. "And if I don't want to get used to it?"

He turned to face her. "Don't push me, princess."

"Oooo," she said in a less than impressed voice. "Next thing you'll be talking like the Incredible Hulk. 'Don't make me angry, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry.' " She cast a haughty look in his general direction. "You're not scary to me, Mr. Zarek. So you can just check the attitude at the door and play nice while you're here."

Disbelief racked him. No one in the past two thousand years had dismissed him so easily and it angered him that she would dare discount him now. It reminded him of too many bad memories of people who saw through him. People who held no regard for him whatsoever.

The first vow he had made to himself as a Dark-Hunter was that he would never again worry about trying to earn other people's respect or kindness.

Fear was a far more powerful tool.

He backed her up against a wall.

Astrid panicked as she felt Zarek pressing in on her while the wall behind her blocked her escape. She had nowhere to go. She couldn't breathe. Couldn't move.

He was so large, so strong.

All she could sense was him. He surrounded her with power and danger. With the promise of lethal reflexes. He was trying to make her fear him, she knew it.

It was working very well.

He didn't touch her, but then, he didn't have to. His presence alone was terrifying.

Dark. Dangerous.

Deadly.

She felt him bend down to speak angrily into her ear. "If you want nice, baby, play with your fucking dog. When you're ready to play with a man, then call me."

Before she could respond, Sasha attacked.

Zarek stumbled away from her with a curse as the air around her stirred viciously with Sasha's frantic movements.

Cringing instinctively, Astrid held her breath as she heard the sound of wolf and man fighting. She strained to see, but she was surrounded solely by darkness and overwhelming angry sounds.

"Sasha!" she shouted, wishing she could see what was happening between them.

All she heard was the mingling of hisses, growls, and curses.

Then something solid hit the wall next to her.

Sasha yelped.

Terrified of what Zarek had done to her companion, Astrid knelt on the floor and felt her way over to where Sasha was lying before the hearth.

"Sasha?" She ran her trembling hand through his fur, seeking wounds.

He didn't move.

Her heart stopped beating as terror filled her. If anything had happened to Sasha, she would kill Zarek herself!

Please, please be all right...

"Sasha?" She held him close and reached out with her thoughts to his.

"I'll kill him. So help me, I will."

She shook in relief at Sasha's anger. Thank Zeus he was alive!

Zarek pulled his torn shirt off and used it to contain the blood on his right arm, neck, and shoulder where the pooch had shredded his skin with its claws and teeth.

He barely contained his fury. He hadn't been wounded this many times in a single hour since the day he'd died.

Snarling, he stared at the swollen red flesh. He hated to be wounded.

It was all he could do not to go back to the den and make sure that damned dog never attacked another living thing in its life.

He wanted blood. Wolf blood.

For that matter, he wanted human blood. One quick nip to calm his fury and remind him of what he was.

Just one taste of her...

Astrid came inside the bathroom and ran into him.

He growled at the warm sensation of her body slamming into his.

Without comment, she pushed him away from the sink and knelt down to retrieve a first-aid kit.

"You could have said 'Excuse me.' "

"I'm not talking to you," she snapped.

"Love you, too, babe."

She froze at his sarcasm and glared in his general direction. "You really are an animal, aren't you?"

Zarek ground his teeth at her words. It was all anyone had ever seen him as. He was too old now to change his ways. "Woof, woof."

Huffing at him, she started to leave, then stopped. She turned back toward him with a snarl. "You know, I have no idea where you come from and I don't really care. Nothing gives you the right to hurt other people or Sasha. He was only protecting me, while you... You're nothing but a bully."

Zarek stood immobile while vicious, horrid images tore through his memory.

The sight of his village in flames.

Of bodies lying scattered all around.

The faint sounds of people screaming.

The fury inside his heart that demanded blood...

He winced as pain lacerated him. He hated his memories almost as much as he hated himself.

"One day someone needs to teach you some civility." Astrid turned and headed back toward the den.

"Yeah," he said, curling his lip. "Go tend your dog, princess.He needs you."

Zarek, on the other hand, didn't need anyone.

He never had.

With that thought in mind, he went to the room where he'd awakened.

Storm or no storm, it was time for him to leave.

He pulled his coat on over his bare chest and buttoned it. It too had been damaged by the gunshot and would leave his healing back exposed to the weather.

So be it.

It wasn't as if he could freeze to death anyway. There were some advantages to immortality.

The hole would just make for a nice cool breeze to run down his spine until he could find more clothes.

After he was dressed, he headed for the door and did his best not to notice Astrid, who was on her knees in front of the warm fire, soothing and consoling her pet as she tended him.

The sight made him ache in a way he wouldn't have thought possible.

Yeah, it was time he got the hell out of here.

"He's leaving."

Astrid started at the sound of Sasha in her head. "What do you mean, he's leaving?"

"He's behind you right now, dressed and headed outside."

"Zarek?"

She was answered by the slamming of her door.

Chapter 5

Zarek froze outside the door. Literally and figuratively. The bite of the wind was so harsh that it took his breath and sent a fierce shiver down his entire body.

It was so cold outside that he could barely move. The snow was falling fast and furiously, and was so dense that he couldn't see more than about an inch from the tip of his nose. Even his goggles had frozen.

No one sane would be out tonight.

So it was a good thing he was insane.

Grinding his teeth, he headed north. Damn, but it was going to be one long, miserable walk home. He only hoped he could make it to some kind of shelter before dawn.

If not, Artemis and Dionysus were going to be two happy gods in a few hours and old Acheron would have one less headache in his life.

"Zarek?"

He cursed as he heard Astrid's voice over the howling winds.