Alexion's tone was emotionless. "All humans do eventually."
"Yeah," she said, her voice carrying the weight of anger that was building inside her at the thought of just evaporating like that. "But it usually takes more than five minutes."
"Not for a Dark-Hunter."
Danger continued to stare at the spot. It was highly disturbing. She wasn't even sure why. Only that it seemed a body as strong as theirs, which was immune to so much, shouldn't just crumble away in a matter of minutes.
The finality of the death hit her hard.
Alexion pulled her into his arms. Her first instinct was to push him away, but honestly, she needed his touch right now. She needed something to ground her and to keep her from panicking over a reality that had never hit her before.
Ultimate death.
No Artemis to bring them back. No heaven. Just total annihilation and desolate pain. She could be like that man Alexion had showed her earlier. Without hope. Without anything at all.
"It's all right, Danger," he said softly against the top of her head as he cradled her. "I don't know if it'll make you feel better, but he had started killing humans."
In a way it did, in a way it didn't. "I don't want to die like that, Alexion."
And then she realized something...
He had. He'd died alone with the woman he'd loved dropping his soul and refusing to help him.
How could his wife have done such a thing? It was so cold. So callous.
Danger pulled back ever so slightly to look up at him. "Is that what happened to your body?"
He nodded. "It's why I don't have one now."
But he felt so real, so solid. "Then how can you be here to hold me?"
There was a tenderness in his eyes that fired her blood. He might be a destroyer but he understood compassion, and she truly appreciated his showing it to her now when she needed it most.
"Acheron has a lot of powers and luckily reincarnation is one of them. This temporary body is identical to yours, except it really is indestructible. Cut my head off and I can still poof right back here."
That didn't make sense to her. "I don't understand. Then why were you afraid of the Charonte?"
He gave a nervous laugh. "The Charontes don't just destroy the body. They destroy the ousia."
"The what?"
He smoothed the hair back from her face as he explained it. "It's the part of us that exists beyond the body or the soul. The soul is our spiritual part. The ousia is what gives us our personality. It is our essence, our life force if you will. Without it, there's nothing left of us. It is the ultimate death, from which there is no return of any kind. A Charonte is one of the few things that can easily end what little existence I have left. And though my existence might suck a lot, I'll take it with all its drawbacks over total destruction any day."
She still didn't understand. "But if Acheron is so powerful that he can grant you a temporary body, why can't he give you a permanent one?"
Alexion grew quiet and took a step back.
His face had turned to stone again, letting her know that she had touched on a very sensitive subject. "C'mon, Alexion, spill it. There's something even weirder about you, isn't there? Something that scares you."
She could see it in his eyes.
He moved away from her, back toward the car. She went after him, not really expecting an answer.
But after a few seconds he said, "Acheron was young when he brought me back. At that time, he didn't have a full understanding of his powers, and the gods know Artemis wasn't forthcoming with instructions. If she'd had her way, he wouldn't have learned anything."
A bad feeling went through her. "So basically what you're saying is he screwed up with you."
He nodded without looking at her. "If I'd died even a hundred years later, it would have been a different story for me. But what was done to me is irreversible even for Acheron. I can never again be human or live as a man. There's nothing to be done for me. Ever."