"He's a man, baby sister," Lacy chimed in. "If his lips are moving, he's lying."
"Why don't the three of you stay out of this?" Acheron said.
Atty stiffened. "Excuse me? We're the Fates and-"
A sideways glare from Acheron cut her off midstream.
"Why don't we leave them alone?" Atty said to her sisters. The three of them hurried off while Acheron watched Zarek and Astrid with his arms folded over his chest.
Zarek still hadn't taken his gaze off Astrid. "You going to be a voyeur, Ash?"
"Depends. You going to give me something to look at?"
"If you keep standing there, I am." He looked over his shoulder then.
Acheron inclined his head to him and turned around to leave. As he did so, the breeze caught a portion of his shirt and blew it back, showing a flash of one shoulder.
Zarek started at the red welts it revealed. Welts he knew from experience came from a whip.
"Wait!" Astrid said, stopping Acheron. "What about Zarek's soul?"
Acheron stiffened ever so slightly before he called out, "Artemis?"
She shimmered in beside him.
"What?" she snarled back.
He nodded toward them. "Astrid wants Zarek's soul."
"Oh, like I care, and what is he doing here anyway?" She narrowed her eyes at Astrid. "You should know better than to bring him here."
Ash cleared his throat. "I brought Zarek here."
"Oh." Artemis calmed instantly. "Why did you do that?"
"Because they belong together." He smiled ironically. "It's fated."
Artemis rolled her eyes. "Don't even go there."
Astrid came to her feet. "I want Zarek's soul, Artemis. Return it to him."
"I don't have it."
They were all stunned by her words.
"What do you mean you don't have it?" Acheron asked, his tone sharp and angry. "Don't tell me you lost it."
"Of course not." She looked over at Zarek and Astrid, and if Zarek didn't know better, he'd say she looked embarrassed. "I never really took it."
All three of them stared at her in disbelief.
"Come again?" Ash asked.
Artemis curled her lip as she looked at Zarek. "I couldn't take it. That would have involved my touching him and he was disgusting back then." She shuddered. "There was no way I would have put my hand on him. He smelled."
Open-mouthed, Acheron looked at Zarek. "You lucky bastard." Then he turned back to Artemis. "If you didn't touch him, how has he been an immortal Dark-Hunter all this time?"
Artemis gave him a haughty sneer. "You don't know everything after all, now do you, Acheron?"