Astrid turned back to the demon. "Simi, why aren't you talking to Zarek?"
"Because akri said not to. He didn't say I couldn't talk to you, though."
"Do you do everything he tells you to?" Zarek asked her.
Simi ignored him.
"Yes, she does," Astrid answered. "But the good news is, Simi can't lie, either. Can you, Simi?"
"Well, why would I? Lies are too confusing."
Oh, yeah, like she wasn't. He'd never seen anyone or anything more confusing than this demon.
"Why did Acheron tell you not to talk to Zarek?"
"I don't know. That redheaded bitch-goddess got all angry when he told me to come protect you. It went like this..."
The demon flashed from her form into that of Acheron. "Protect Zarek and Astrid. Now."
She transformed into Artemis. "No!" she snapped. "You can't let her go, she'll tell Zarek everything."
Simi, looking like Artemis, put her hand against her cheek and whispered loudly to Astrid. "This the part where the redheaded goddess went on and on about what happened in Zarek's village and akri got all upset at her. Don't know why he won't let me kill her and get it over with, but finally he say..."
She flashed into Ash's body once more. "Simi, don't speak to Zarek but make sure Thanatos doesn't kill either one of them."
Simi returned to her small, slight demonic self. "So I said okay and here I am not talking to Zarek."
"Wow," Zarek said as she stopped her one-demon show. "She's a camcorder, too. How convenient."
She leveled a murderous glare at him, but directed her words at Astrid. "I miss the days when the Simi could pick off Dark-Hunters and no one noticed."
Astrid moved forward to find Simi who took her hand and faced her with a benign, sweet look. It was obvious the demon liked her.
"What happened in his village that Artemis doesn't want Zarek to know about?"
Simi shrugged. "I don't know. She's all paranoid all the time anyway. Afraid akri is going to leave and not come back, which I keep telling him to do. But does he listen? No." Her next comment came out in Ash's voice. "She's not your concern, Simi. You don't understand, Simi."
She made another rude noise. "I understand, all right. I understand the bitch-goddess needs the Simi to barbecue her until she learns to be nice to people. I think she'd be rather attractive on fire. I could make her look like that old sea hag or something."
"Simi!" Astrid stressed her name and took her by her arms as if trying to keep the demon on the topic. "Please tell me what happened in Zarek's village."
"Oh, that. Well, the Thanatos thing, not the one after you now, but the one who came before him, went all wild and killed everybody. Them poor people didn't stand a chance. Akri was so mad he wanted the bitch-goddess's heart for it, only I say she don't have no heart to take."
Zarek felt as if someone had just slugged him. "What are you saying? You mean I didn't kill them?"
Astrid's mind whirled with what Simi was revealing. If Zarek were innocent of destroying his village, then why had he been banished?
"Zarek didn't kill them?" she asked Simi.
"Of course not. No Dark-Hunter would kill their charges. Akri would eat them if they did. Zarek killed them Apollites- which made everybody mad."
Zarek frowned. He didn't remember anything about Apollites. There had never been any around his village. "What Apollites?"
Astrid repeated his question.
Simi spoke slowly and carefully as if they were the ones who had trouble sticking with the conversation. "The ones that Thanatos gathered to use for cannon fodder. Jeez, don't you people know nothing about the Daimons and Apollites? Thanatos can summon them up and make them do things for him. He can do it with people too sometimes.
"He was sent by Artemis to kill some Dark-Hunter up in Scotland, then after he did that, he went after all the other Dark-Hunters so that he could destroy them and all the Apollites could live in peace and feed off the humans without worrying about any of you guys."