"Mommy," he breathed against her cold face as he rocked her in his arms. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I didn't. Please wake up, please. Oh, please, Mom, don't leave me."
Then his rage took hold. It steamed through his veins and screamed out in shattering waves that tore him apart. "Artemis!" he shouted. "I summon you to human form. Now!"
She appeared almost instantly with her hands on her hips and in a pique.
At least until she saw his mother's body.
"What is this?" she asked, curling her lip as if the sight of death disgusted her. "You're Acheron's friend Nick, aren't you?"
Nick laid his mother back in her chair, brushed the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand, and rose slowly to his feet. "I demand vengeance on the Daimon who did this and I demand it now."
She made a rude noise of dismissal. "You can demand all you want to, human, you're not going to get it."
"Why not? You give it to every other asshole who demands it. Make me a Dark-Hunter. You owe it to me."
She cocked her head and arched a brow at him. "I owe you nothing, human. And in case you haven't noticed, you imbecile, you have to be dead before you can become a Dark-Hunter." She let out a disgusted sigh. "Didn't you learn anything from Acheron?"
Artemis took a step back, intending to return home to Olympus, but before she could, the human knelt to the ground and picked up a gun.
"Make me a Dark-Hunter," he snarled an instant before he pulled the trigger.
Artemis froze at the loud, echoing sound of the gunshot. She couldn't breathe as she took in the sight of the man lying dead at her feet.
"Oh, no," she said breathlessly as her heart pounded. Acheron's human friend had just killed himself... right in front of her!
What was she going to do?
Her panicked thoughts raced. "He'll blame me for this." He'd never forgive her. Never. Even though it wasn't her fault, Acheron would find some way to blame it all on her, to say that she should have known and should have stopped him.
She stared in horror at the gore that spattered the front of her white dress. She'd never seen such before.
"Oh, think, Artemis, think..." But she couldn't think straight. All she could hear was the sound of Acheron in her head as he told her why Nick and his mother meant so much to him.
"You'll never understand, Artie. They had nothing but each other and instead of blaming each other for ruining their lives, which many people would do, they bonded. Cherise's life has sucked and yet she's still kind and giving to everyone she meets. One day, Nick's going to marry and give her a houseful of grandchildren to love. Zeus knows, they both deserve it."
Only now Nick lay dead at her feet.
Dead by his own hand, and he was Catholic.
She could smell the sulphur already.
"Acheron!" she called, allowing her voice to travel through all dimensions. She had to tell him before it was too late. Only he could fix this.
He didn't answer.
"Acheron!" she tried again.
Again, he was silent.
"What do I do?" She was forbidden to make a Dark-Hunter from a suicide. But if she left Nick dead, his soul would be claimed by Lucifer and he would spend eternity in hell being tormented.
Either way, she would lose. Acheron would blame her for letting his friend suffer. He would think she'd done this on purpose just to hurt him.
And if she saved Nick...
The consequences didn't bear thinking on.
But as she stood there in indecision, one image came and stayed in her mind. The look on Acheron's face the day she had turned her back on his pain.