"All right, then. I'm going to head out and let Mike take my ass out of here while I still got some of it left unfrozen… Oh, hey, by the way, Spawn headed out a while back. Said to tell you not to worry about returning his phone. You know, he's not half-bad for an Apollite and he's not that far from here. Maybe you ought to call him sometime."
"You playing matchmaker?"
"Um, no. Definitely not, and again you're freaking me out with that entire train of thought. I've heard enough stories about you Greeks and all that. In fact, tell you what, forget I said anything at all about Spawn. I'm out of here. You take care, Z. I'll see you online."
Zarek hung up the phone and turned it off. Might as well. Jess was the only person who ever called him anyway.
He stood in the center of his cabin, aching so much that he could barely breathe.
Alone now, he needed Astrid in a way that defied his ability to comprehend. He wanted something of hers.
No, heneeded something.
Sliding the stove aside, he went back to his tunnel where he could remember holding her. Down here in the darkness, he could pretend she was still with him.
If he closed his eyes, he could even pretend she was in his dreams.
But it wasn't her. Not really.
Zarek let out a ragged breath and picked his coat up from the ground. As he started to pull it on, he caught a whiff of roses.
Astrid.
He clutched the coat to his skin, burying his face deep in the fur so that he could capture her scent.
He held it in trembling hands as emotions and memories crashed through him, racking him.
He needed her.
Oh, gods, he loved her. He loved her more than he'd ever imagined possible. He remembered every touch she'd given him. Every laugh she'd had around him.
The way she'd made him human.
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) And he didn't want to live without her. Not for one moment. Not a single one.
Zarek fell to his knees, unable to deal with the thought of never seeing her again.
Holding his coat that smelled of her, he wept.
Ash pulled away from Zarek, giving him privacy to grieve.
Artemis was outside in the temple courtyard, having one of her screaming tantrums over the verdict while he was alone in her throne room with Simi safe on his chest.
"What fools these mortals be," he breathed.
But then he too had been a fool for love. Love made fools of everyone. Gods and man alike.
Still, he couldn't believe Zarek had let Astrid go any more than he could believe Astrid had left.
Och mensch!
Artemis materialized before him. "How is this possible?" she railed. "Never in the entire history of her life
has she judged a man innocent!
"
He looked at her calmly. "Only because she's never before judged an innocent man.
"
"I hate you!
"
He laughed bitterly at that. "Oh, please don't get my hopes up. You almost gave me a hard-on with that thought. At least tell me this time your hatred will last more than five minutes.
"
She tried to slap him, but he caught her hand. So instead she kissed him, then tore away from his lips shrieking.
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) Ash shook his head as she vanished again.
She would calm down in time. She always did.
But he had other things to worry about at the moment.
Closing his eyes, he breached the distance between Olympus and the human world.
There he found what he was looking for.
Zarek jerked his head up to find himself in the middle of a white and gold room. It was huge, with a gold-domed ceiling embossed with wildlife scenes. The room was encircled with white marble columns and in the center sat a large ivory settee.
What surprised him most was to see Acheron standing in front of the settee, staring at him with those strange swirling silver eyes.
The Atlantean had long, golden-blond hair and looked strangely vulnerable—which for Acheron was an impossibility. He was dressed in a pair of tight black leather pants and wore a long-sleeved black silk shirt that had been left unbuttoned.
"Thank you for Simi," Acheron said, inclining his head toward him. "I appreciate what you did for her when she was wounded."
Zarek cleared his throat, rose to his feet, and aimed an angry glare at Acheron. "Why did you fuck with my head?"
"I had to. There are some things people are better off not knowing."
"You let me think I had killed my own people."
"Would the truth have been any easier on you? Instead of the old crone's face, you would have been haunted by the face of a young woman and her husband. Not to mention you would have had the knowledge to kill any Dark-Hunter who got in your way, including Valerius, and had you done that, I wouldn't have been able to save you. Ever."