"Yeah, we met."
"Good, 'cause he's already killed one Dark-Hunter tonight and he's right behind me. I need you up and running. Fast."
Zarek's stomach went south at his words. "What?"
Jess's face was grim and lethal. "He took out a Dark-Hunter without breaking a sweat. I've never seen anything like it in my life. Now Thanatos is coming for you, Z. It's time to make like a fox and get the hell out of Dallas."
What did that mean? If Zarek's head hurt before, it was nothing compared to the ache he felt trying to decipher that last bit of cowboy colloquialism.
"Whatever you do," Jess said, his voice deep and thick with warning, "don't let Thanatos near your bow-and-arrow mark. Apparently it works like the Daimons' ink blot in the center of their chests. One tiny stab and we're dust."
Zarek scowled at his words. "What bow-and-arrow mark? I don't have one."
Jess scoffed. "Of course you do. We all have one."
"No I don't."
Jess looked up from his gun, his face completely un-amused. "Maybe it's in a spot you don't look at. Like your butt or something. I know you got one. It's where Artemis touched you when she captured your soul."
Zarek shook his head at him. "Artemis never touched me. She couldn't get near me without cringing so she used a stick to make me a Dark-Hunter. I swear to you, there's no mark on me."
Jess's jaw dropped in disbelief. "Wait, wait, wait. Are you telling me they stick you out here where there are no Daimons and you don't have a weak spot? What kind of shit is that? I live in Daimon Central with one hell of an Achilles' heel that no one ever bothered to mention, and you live where there's no danger to you and yet you don't have one?"
Jess paced the floor. It was a habit Zarek had learned about during one of their late-night phone conversations. Once Jess started on a rant, it was hard to get him off it.
"What's not fair with this picture?" Jess railed. "And then Ash asks me to come up here to save your ass and here we are dropping like flies while you're Teflon.
"No, I have a problem with this. I love you, man, but da-yam. This just ain't right. I'm up here freezing my balls off, and you, you don't need protection. Meanwhile I have a bull's-eye on my arm that says, 'Hey, Daimon on steroids, kill me right here.'"
Still Jess rambled. "Do you realize, I put my keys in my mouth to pull out my wallet to pay for gas and they froze there? The last thing I want to do is die up here in this godforsaken place at the hands of some freaked-out something no one has ever heard of before except for Guido the Killer Squire from Jersey? I swear I want someone's ass for this."
Jess took a breath but before he could start ranting again, the front door to the cabin burst open.
The entire house shook from the force of it.
Zarek felt a cold, familiar shiver up his spine.
A faint trace of a memory flashed through his mind. It was vague and disconcerting.
He'd felt this before...
With no time to contemplate, he used his telekinesis to slam and lock the bedroom door.
He shoved Jess toward the window. "She has a wolf somewhere in the house. Find him and get him out."
Something struck the door forcefully.
"Come out, Zarek," Thanatos growled. "I thought you liked to play with Daimons."
"Yeah, I'll play with you, you bastard." Zarek blew out the window with his telekinesis and pushed Jess through it while Thanatos continued to assault the door.
Crossing the room, Zarek grabbed Astrid, who was still sound asleep on the bed, and handed her out the window to Jess. "Get her out of here."
Jess had barely taken Astrid from him before the door blew apart.
Zarek turned around slowly. "Didn't your mother ever teach you it's not nice to intrude?"
Thanatos narrowed a cold, harsh glare at him. "My mother disintegrated when I was only a year old. She didn't have time to teach me anything. But you, on the other hand, taught me well how to hunt and kill my enemies."