The woman lay on the ground wrapped in torn clothes, her old body broken. She was covered in blood and bruises.
Astrid could tell by Zarek's expression that this was the woman he had spoken of.
Zarek fell to his knees beside her and wiped the blood from her lips as she straggled to breathe.
The woman's old gray eyes were piercing with accusation as they focused on him. "How could you?"
The life faded from the crone's eyes, turning them dull, glazed.
She went limp in his arms.
Zarek bellowed with rage. He released the woman and pushed himself to his feet. He paced a wide circle, raking his hands angrily through his hair.
Panting, he looked every bit as insane as everyone claimed.
Astrid hurt for him. She didn't understand what this was about. What he was reliving.
She followed him. "Zarek, what happened here?"
His face anguished, he turned around to confront her. Hatred and guilt burned in the midnight depths of his eyes.
He swept his arm out to indicate the bodies around them. "I killed them. All of them." The words came out as if torn from his throat. "I don't know why I did this. I just remember the rage, the craving for blood. I don't even remember killing them. Just flashes of people dying as they came near me."
His face was bleak. His eyes filled with self-loathing. "I am a monster. Do you see now why I can't have you? Why I can't stay with you? What if one day I killed you, too?"
Her chest constricted at his words as true panic and fear engulfed her.
Had she misjudged him?
"All men are guilty." It was her sister Atty's favorite saying. "The only honest men are those infants who haven't yet learned to speak lies." ,
Horrified, Astrid looked around at the dead bodies...
Could he really have been capable of something like this?
She didn't know what to think now. Whoever was responsible for this slaughter did deserve to die. It more than explained why Artemis wouldn't want him around people.
Astrid paused at that thought.
Wait a minute...
Something was wrong.
Dead wrong.
Astrid looked at the bodies around them. Human bodies. Some of them children, most of them women.
Had Zarek done this, Acheron would have killed him instantly. Acheron refused to tolerate anyone who preyed on the weak and defenseless. And especially anyone who harmed a child.
There was no way Acheron would suffer a Dark-Hunter to live who could destroy and kill the people he'd been sent to protect. She knew that with every molecule of her body.
"Are you sure you did this?" she asked.
He looked aghast at her question. "Who else would have done it? There was no one else here. Do you see anyone other than me with fangs?"
"Maybe an animal-"
"I was the animal, Astrid. There was no one else capable of this."