Page 51 of Dance With the Devil (Dark-Hunter 3)
"Whatever you do," Jess said, his voice deep and thick with warning, "don't let Thanatos near your bow-and-arrow mark. Apparently it works like the Daimons' ink blot in the center of their chests. One tiny stab and we're dust."
Zarek scowled at his words. "What bow-and-arrow mark? I don't have one."
Jess scoffed. "Of course you do. We all have one."
"No I don't."
Jess looked up from his gun, his face completely un-amused. "Maybe it's in a spot you don't look at. Like your butt or something. I know you got one. It's where Artemis touched you when she captured your soul."
Zarek shook his head at him. "Artemis never touched me. She couldn't get near me without cringing so she used a stick to make me a Dark-Hunter. I swear to you, there's no mark on me."
Jess's jaw dropped in disbelief. "Wait, wait, wait. Are you telling me they stick you out here where there are no Daimons and you don't have a weak spot? What kind of shit is that? I live in Daimon Central with one hell of an Achilles' heel that no one ever bothered to mention, and you live where there's no danger to you and yet you don't have one?"
Jess paced the floor. It was a habit Zarek had learned about during one of their late-night phone conversations. Once Jess started on a rant, it was hard to get him off it.
"What's not fair with this picture?" Jess railed. "And then Ash asks me to come up here to save your ass and here we are dropping like flies while you're Teflon.
"No, I have a problem with this. I love you, man, but da-yam. This just ain't right. I'm up here freezing my balls off, and you, you don't need protection. Meanwhile I have a bull's-eye on my arm that says, 'Hey, Daimon on steroids, kill me right here.'"
Still Jess rambled. "Do you realize, I put my keys in my mouth to pull out my wallet to pay for gas and they froze there? The last thing I want to do is die up here in this godforsaken place at the hands of some freaked-out something no one has ever heard of before except for Guido the Killer Squire from Jersey? I swear I want someone's ass for this."
Jess took a breath but before he could start ranting again, the front door to the cabin burst open.
The entire house shook from the force of it.
Zarek felt a cold, familiar shiver up his spine.
A faint trace of a memory flashed through his mind. It was vague and disconcerting.
He'd felt this before...
With no time to contemplate, he used his telekinesis to slam and lock the bedroom door.
He shoved Jess toward the window. "She has a wolf somewhere in the house. Find him and get him out."
Something struck the door forcefully.
"Come out, Zarek," Thanatos growled. "I thought you liked to play with Daimons."
"Yeah, I'll play with you, you bastard." Zarek blew out the window with his telekinesis and pushed Jess through it while Thanatos continued to assault the door.
Crossing the room, Zarek grabbed Astrid, who was still sound asleep on the bed, and handed her out the window to Jess. "Get her out of here."
Jess had barely taken Astrid from him before the door blew apart.
Zarek turned around slowly. "Didn't your mother ever teach you it's not nice to intrude?"
Thanatos narrowed a cold, harsh glare at him. "My mother disintegrated when I was only a year old. She didn't have time to teach me anything. But you, on the other hand, taught me well how to hunt and kill my enemies."
Zarek was so shocked by the words that it left him open to the first attack.
Thanatos caught him with a blast straight to his chest.
Zarek rolled with it, taking strength from the pain.
He was good at that.
As he braced himself to attack, a gunshot rang out twice. Thanatos staggered forward, then turned around with a snarl.
Zarek's eyes widened as he caught sight of two bullet holes in the back of the Daimon's skull. Bullet holes that healed instantly.
Jess cursed from the hallway. "What are you?"
"Jess," Zarek snapped. "Get out. I can handle this."
As Thanatos went for Jess, Zarek ran at his back and knocked him into the doorframe.
"Go!" he shouted at Jess. "I can't fight him with you here. I need all my powers."
Jess nodded and ran for the front door. Zarek heard him pause long enough to get the wolf out.
"Alone at last." He laughed as Thanatos shoved him back against the far wall. "Oh, the pleasure of the pain."
Thanatos raked him with a disgusted sneer. "You really do suffer from insanity, don't you?"
"Hardly. I have to say I enjoy every minute of it." Zarek let his powers surge through him until his hands burned from the heat of them. He channeled the ions in the air and charged them full, then directed them at Thanatos.
The blast knocked him halfway down the hall.
Gathering more power, Zarek knocked him back again, into the den. He kept hitting Thanatos until the man landed on the floor by the hearth.
If Zarek were smart, he'd take advantage and run.
But he wasn't that smart. Besides, Thanatos would just come after him and he was too old and too damned pissed to run.
Thanatos regained his feet.
Zarek blasted him again, knocking him over the sofa where he landed in a heap.
He shook his head at the Daimon, who was no longer moving. "Tell you what, why don't you look me up when you're ready to play with the big boys?"
Zarek walked out of the house and summoned his powers to lock the door behind him. He could hear Thanatos pounding on the door, trying to break out.
Without a backward glance, Zarek walked to the snow-machine that must belong to Thanatos. He opened the gas tank and made sure there was plenty of gas in it.
He snapped a hose from the engine, then used it to siphon the gas into his mouth.
Walking back to the cabin, he pulled his lighter out of his back pocket.
He lit the lighter, then spewed gas at the house and watched as the door caught fire.
After several more trips, he stood back and surveyed the flames that were quickly consuming Astrid's house.
It was a good thing she was rich.
Looked like she was going to need a new place to live after this.
Zarek pulled a cigarette out of his coat pocket and smiled. Underneath his breath, he sang the Talking Heads' classic song, " "Three hundred sixty-five degrees... burning down the house.'"
Astrid came awake to a roar. Her lack of eyesight momentarily stunned her until she realized she'd been pulled from her drugged sleep.
But how?
Both she and Zarek should sleep for at least another day.
She could tell by the sounds and upright position of her body that she was no longer in her bed.
It felt like someone's car.
"Zarek?" she asked hesitantly.
"No, ma'am," a deep voice drawled in a thick Southern accent "Name's Sundown."
Her heart pounded. "Where's Zarek? Sasha!"
A hand touched her arm comfortingly. "Easy now, darling. Everything's going to be all right."
"Where's my wolf?"
By the way the air in front of her face stirred, she could tell Sundown was waving his hand about an inch from the tip of her nose.
"Yes, I'm blind," she said irritably. "Tell me where Sasha is."
"He's the furry thing at your feet."
She let out a small breath of relief, but that was only half her concern. "And Zarek?"
"We left him behind."
"No," she said, her heart hammering once more. "I'm not supposed to leave him."
"We didn't have any-"
Astrid didn't hear the rest of his statement. She was too busy trying to open the car door.
A strong hand pulled her back. "Whoa, little lady, what I'm doing here is dangerous. I've got to get you as far away from the cabin as I can. Trust me, if anyone can handle this, Zarek can."
"No he can't," she said, trying to stand up. "I have to go back to him. If anyone finds out that I'm not with him, he's dead. Do you understand?"
"Lady-"
She brushed away his hand. "Thanatos will be sent for him. I have to go back."
"You know about Thanatos?"
Astrid reached out, trying to find Sundown's mouth to feel for fangs.
