She pushed herself off the bed at his hostile words and it was only then he realized he'd growled them at her.
"There's a bad blizzard outside," she said, her voice less friendly than it had been before. "No one is going to be able to go anywhere for a while."
Zarek didn't believe it until he parted the curtains on her window. The snow was falling so fast and thick that it looked like a dense white wall.
He cursed under his breath. Then louder he asked, "How long has it been doing this?"
"The last few hours."
He ground his teeth as he realized he was stuck here.
With her.
This was really not good, but at least it would keep the others from tracking him. With any luck the snow would disguise his trail and he knew for a fact that Jess hated the cold.
As for Thanatos, well, given his name, language, and looks, Zarek would peg him as an ancient Mediterranean, too, and that meant Zarek still had an advantage over both of them. He'd learned centuries ago how to move quickly over the snow and what dangers to avoid.
Who could have known that nine hundred years in Alaska would actually pay off someday?
"How can you be up and moving?"
Her question startled him. "Excuse me?"
"You were severely injured when I brought you in a few days ago. How can you be moving now?"
"A few days?" he asked, stunned by her words. He ran his hand over his face and felt his thick whiskers. Shit. It had been days. "How many?"
"Almost five."
His heart pounded. He'd been here for four days and they hadn't found him? How was that possible?
He frowned. Something about that didn't seem right.
"I thought I felt a gun wound on your back."
Ignoring the gaping hole in the shirt, Zarek pulled his black undershirt on over his head. He was sure it'd been Jess who had shot him. Shotguns were the cowboy's weapon of choice. His only consolation was the thought that Jess was aching from it as much as he was. Unless Artemis had lifted her ban. Then the bastard would feel nothing but satisfaction.
"It wasn't a gun wound," he lied. "I just fell."
"No offense, but you'd have to fall off Mount Everest to have those kinds of wounds."
"Yeah, maybe next time I'll remember to take my climbing gear with me."
She scowled at him. "Are you mocking me?"
"No," he answered honestly. "I just don't want to go into what happened."
Astrid nodded as she tried to discern more about this angry man who couldn't seem to speak without growling at her. Awake, he was far from pleasant.
He'd been near death when Sasha had found him. No one should be so badly beaten and shot, and then left for dead as he had been.
What had the Squires been thinking?
She was amazed the rogue Dark-Hunter could stand at all even after four days of rest.
Such treatment was inhumane and unbecoming of those who had sworn to protect mankind. Had a human found Zarek, his cover would have been even more blown by their carelessness, and the humans would have learned of his immortality.
It was something she fully intended to report to Archeron.