Dance With the Devil

 

Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) Zarek just didn't strike him as the type to go after those weaker than him.

 

But then, who else would have dared?

 

 

 

 

Astrid found Zarek alone in the center of a burned-down medieval village.

 

There were bodies, burned and unburned, scattered everywhere. Male and female. Every age. Most of them had torn throats as if a Daimon or some similar creature had fed off them.

 

Zarek walked among them, his face grim. His eyes tormented.

 

He had his arms wrapped around himself as if to protect him from the horror he was witnessing.

 

"Where are we?" she asked.

 

To her shock, he answered "Taberleigh.

 

"

 

"Taberleigh?

 

"

 

"My village," he whispered, his voice angst-ridden and tight. "I lived here for three hundred years. There was this one old crone who saw me once when she was a young girl. She used to leave me things from time to time. A leg of dried mutton, a wineskin of ale. Sometimes nothing more than a note to say thank you for watching over them." He looked at Astrid, his face haunted. "I was supposed to protect them."

 

 

 

Before she could ask him what had happened to the village, she heard the muffled cries of an old woman.

 

 

 

Zarek bolted toward her.

 

The woman lay on the ground wrapped in torn clothes, her old body broken. She was covered in blood and bruises.

 

 

 

 

 

Astrid could tell by Zarek's expression that this was the woman he had spoken of.

 

Zarek fell to his knees beside her and wiped the blood from her lips as she straggled to breathe.

 

The woman's old gray eyes were piercing with accusation as they focused on him. "How could you?

 

"

 

The life faded from the crone's eyes, turning them dull, glazed.

 

She went limp in his arms.

 

Zarek bellowed with rage. He released the woman and pushed himself to his feet. He paced a wide circle, raking his hands angrily through his hair.

 

Panting, he looked every bit as insane as everyone claimed.

 

Astrid hurt for him. She didn't understand what this was about. What he was reliving.

 

She followed him. "Zarek, what happened here?

 

"

 

His face anguished, he turned around to confront her. Hatred and guilt burned in the midnight depths of his eyes.

 

He swept his arm out to indicate the bodies around them. "I killed them. All of them." The words came

 

 

 

 

Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) out as if torn from his throat. "I don't know why I did this. I just remember the rage, the craving for blood. I don't even remember killing them. Just flashes of people dying as they came near me."

 

His face was bleak. His eyes filled with self-loathing. "I am a monster. Do you see now why I can't have you? Why I can't stay with you? What if one day I killed you, too?"

 

Her chest constricted at his words as true panic and fear engulfed her.

 

Had she misjudged him?

 

"All men are guilty." It was her sister Atty's favorite saying. "The only honest men are those infants who haven't yet learned to speak lies." ,

 

Horrified, Astrid looked around at the dead bodies…

 

Could he really have been capable of something like this?

 

She didn't know what to think now. Whoever was responsible for this slaughter did deserve to die. It more than explained why Artemis wouldn't want him around people.

 

Astrid paused at that thought.

 

Wait a minute…

 

Something was wrong.

 

Deadwrong.

 

 

 

 

 

Astrid looked at the bodies around them.Human bodies. Some of them children, most of them women.

 

 

 

Had Zarek done this, Acheron would have killed him instantly. Acheron refused to tolerate anyone who preyed on the weak and defenseless. And especially anyone who harmed a child.

 

 

 

There was no way Acheron would suffer a Dark-Hunter to live who could destroy and kill the people he'd been sent to protect. She knew that with every molecule of her body.

 

 

 

"Are you sureyou did this?" she asked.

 

 

 

He looked aghast at her question. "Who else would have done it? There was no one else here. Do you see anyone other than me with fangs?"

 

 

 

"Maybe an animal—"

 

 

 

"Iwas the animal, Astrid. There was no one else capable of this."

 

 

 

She still didn't believe it. There had to be some other explanation. "You said you don't remember killing them. Maybe you didn't."

 

 

 

Rage and pain flared in his eyes. "I remember enough. I know I did this. Everyone knows. It's why the other Dark-Hunters fear me. Why they won't speak to me. Why I was banished to a place where there were no people to protect. Why I wake up every night afraid Artemis is going to move me away fromFairbanks into an area where there are even fewer people."

 

 

 

Part of her feared that he was telling the truth, but she discounted it.

 

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