So how could she?
Zarek paused as he felt a psychic tremor run through him. "Thanatos is coming."
Her eyes widened in fear. "Are you sure?"
"Yes."
He pulled her toward the snowmachine. It would be dawn before long.
He would be trapped, but Thanatos...
The Daimon would be able to walk in daylight.
Zarek wrapped his arms around Astrid. He should leave her here for what she'd done to him, hand her over to Thanatos to see if she would buy him more time to escape. Yet he had this crazy idea of protecting her.
No, it wasn't an idea. It was a yearning he had to keep her safe.
Resigned to his stupidity, he started the snowmachine and headed it toward his property.
Astrid took a deep breath as they resumed their trip. She had violated more rules than she cared to think about.
And yet as she felt Zarek surrounding her, she knew it was worth it. She had to save him.
No matter what it took.
She'd never felt so determined. Or more sure of herself. He gave her a confidence and strength she had never known.
He needed her. In spite of what he said or even thought. He needed her in a way that was painful.
The man had no one else in the world. And for some reason she couldn't understand, she wanted to be the one person he relied on. The one person who could tame him.
He drove them for almost an hour before they stopped again.
"Where are we?" she asked as he climbed off the snowmachine.
"My cabin."
"Is it safe?"
"Not a bit. And it looks like all hell broke loose here."
Zarek stood in stunned disbelief as he looked around. There was still blood on the snow, but from whom, he couldn't tell.
The sight tore through him as reality came crashing home.
A Dark-Hunter had died here.
His kind didn't die often and he felt a peculiar ache for the man who had died tonight. It wasn't right.
It wasn't fair.
If anyone should have paid that price, it should have been him. He should have been here to confront Thanatos.
The thought of an innocent man being turned into a Shade made him want Artemis's blood.
And where the hell was Acheron? For someone who was supposedly willing to put his ass on the line for the Dark-Hunters, the Atlantean was amazingly absent.
Curling his lip, he went back to the snowmachine.