That didn't sound good, but Talon followed him.
Acheron remained silent as they left the Pedestrian Mall and headed down Pirate's Alley in the direction of Royal Street.
Just beside the St. Louis Cathedral, near the small garden behind it, Acheron stopped. Talon glanced about uneasily. Dark-Hunters didn't do well around holy places. Since they were men who had lost their souls, souls that had lost their bodies tended to want to take up residence with them. A strong Dark-Hunter could fight the souls off, but only Acheron was completely immune to possession.
It was the main reason Dark-Hunters lived only in new houses and why Nick had taken a psychic into Zarek's townhouse to ensure no ghosts were hanging out. A possessed Dark-Hunter was a scary thing.
"Tell me about the woman you spent the day with."
He started at Acheron's words. The man's powers had never ceased to amaze him. "Nothing to tell, really."
"Don't lie to me, Talon. Sunshine is still within you. I can feel her there. She's in your thoughts and your blood."
The man was truly eerie. "Look, I know where my duties lie. I made an oath to Artemis and I'm not trying to find a way to break it."
"That's not what concerns me."
"Then what is?" Talon asked.
"Do you remember what I told you the night you took vengeance against your clan?"
"Nothing comes without a price."
"Exactly. This woman is inside you, little brother. If you don't get her out, she will unlock those emotions I taught you to bury."
"Would that be so bad?"
Acheron removed his sunglasses and gave him a hard, serious stare with those ageless, timeless glowing eyes. "Yes, it would. You are the one Dark-Hunter I can depend on to have a clear, level head. I need you to stay focused, especially since we have Daimon Fest coming up and two Dark-Hunters in town who hate each other.
"Your emotions are the key to your powers, Talon. When you lose your control, you lose your Dark-Hunter immortality with it, and I don't want to see you dead because you can't control your libido."
"Don't worry. I'm under control."
"Good. Just make sure you stay that way because if you don't, you will get yourself killed."
"Oh, thank God you're there," Selena said in Sunshine's ear as soon as Sunshine answered the phone. "Where have you been? I've been ringing the phone off the hook all day long trying to reach you. I know you can never find the damn thing, but dang, girl... I've been so worried that I was about to head over there and see if you were okay or if this unknown guy had murdered you in your loft." Selena finally took a breath in the midst of her tirade. "Please tell me he's not still there."
Wiping off her paint-stained hands while she cradled the phone between her ear and shoulder, Sunshine smiled at Selena's concerned voice and her motherlike lecture. "No, Selena, Mr. Bodacious is gone. He had to go meet some friends."
"Well, what time did he leave?"
"A few minutes ago."
"Sunshine!"
"What?" she asked in feigned innocence.
"Oh, honey," Selena gasped, "don't tell me you spent the whole day with him playing Parcheesi or something."
Sunshine bit her lip as she remembered exactly what they had spent the day doing. It made her warm and tingly all over again. "We didn't get to the Parcheesi, but we did it on the backgammon table a couple of times. And on the couch, the kitchen counter, the floor, the coffee table, and-"
"Oh, my God, TMI-way too much information. Tell me you're joking about this."
"Nope, not a bit. I'm telling you, Selena, forget the Energizer Bunny, this guy had it all."
Selena groaned. "What were you thinking? You just met him."
"I know," Sunshine said, agreeing completely with her friend that she was a lunatic for doing something so stupid. "It's so not like me, but I couldn't help myself. It was just like that weird magnetic force that grabs me when I'm walking past the Frostbyte Cafe and makes me swerve in to get a triple scoop of Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey."