Acheron (Dark-Hunter #14)

"Such as?"

"Armor for one. You can't send them out to fight without weapons. They need money to procure food, clothes, horses and even servants to watch over them in the daylight while they rest."

"You ask too much for them."

"I ask only for what they need to survive."

She shook her head. "You never asked any of that for yourself." She was hurt now at that fact.

He never asked for anything.

"I don't need food and my powers allow me to procure everything else I need. As for protection, I have Simi. They won't last alone."

No one lasts alone, Acheron.

No one.

Not even you.

And especially not me.

Artemis lifted her chin, determined to have him by her side no matter the consequences. "And again I say to you, what will you give me for what they need?"

Acheron looked away, his gut tight. He knew what she wanted and the last thing he wanted was to give it to her. "This is for them, not me."

She shrugged. "Fine then, they can do without since they have nothing to barter with."

His fury ignited deep at her casual dismissal of their lives and well-being. She hadn't changed at all.

"Damn you, Artemis."

She approached him slowly. "I want you, Acheron. I want you back the way you were before."

She wanted him as a whore. Her whore. He inwardly cringed as she cupped his face in her hand. They could never go back as they'd been. He'd learned too much about her since then.

He'd been betrayed one time too many.

Acheron would say he was a slow learner, but that wasn't true. What he'd been was so desperate for someone to care about him that he'd ignored the darker side of her nature.

Ignored it until she'd turned her back on him and left him to die. Some crimes were even above his ability to forgive.

His thoughts turned from himself, to the innocent men who were living in a cave. Men who knew nothing of their new existence or enemies. He couldn't leave them there like that.

He'd cost enough people their lives, their futures.

There was no way he could let them lose their souls and life too. "All right, Artemis. I will give you what you want, if you give them what they need to survive."

She beamed.

"But," he continued, "my terms are these: you are going to pay them every month a wage that will allow them to buy whatever they need or desire. As stated earlier, they will need shieldbearers to care for them personally so that they won't have to worry about scrounging for food, clothes or arms. I don't want them to be distracted from their work."

"Fine, I will find humans who will serve them."

"Living humans, Artemis. I want them to serve of their own free will. No more Dark-Hunters."

She gaped at him. "Three of them are not enough. We need more to keep the Daimons in check."

Acheron closed his eyes as he felt the endlessness of this relationship. All too easily he could see into the future and where this was headed.

The more Dark-Hunters, the more he would be locked to her. There was no way to keep her from tying him to her forever.

Or was there?

"All right," he said. "I'll give on this, if you will agree to provide them a way out of your service."

"What do you mean?"

"I want you to establish a way for the Dark-Hunters to regain their souls so that they are no longer bound to you if they so choose it."

Artemis stepped back. This wasn't something she'd foreseen. If she gave him this, then even he would be bound by it.

He could leave her.

She'd forgotten just how devious Acheron could be. How well he knew the rules of the game and how to manipulate them and her.

He was truly her equal.

Yet if she failed to give him this, he would leave her anyway. She had no choice and well he knew it.

However, there were still things that could keep him by her side. One way she knew that would ensure his presence in her life for all eternity.

"Very well. Let us make the rules to govern them, then." She felt his thoughts drift back toward Ias. He pitied the poor Greek soldier who loved his wife. Pity, mercy and compassion would always be his downfall.

"Number one, is that they must die to reclaim their souls."

"Why?" he asked.

"A soul can only be released from a body at the moment of death. Likewise, it can only return to a body that is no longer functioning. So long as they 'live' as a Dark-Hunter, they can never have their souls again. That's not my rule, Acheron, that is simply the nature of souls . . . ask your mother if you doubt me."

He frowned at that. "How do you kill an immortal Dark-Hunter?"

"Well, we could cut off their heads or expose them to daylight, but since that damages their body beyond repair, it rather defeats the purpose."

"You're not funny."

Neither was he. She didn't want to release them from her service. Most of all, she didn't want to release him.

"You have to drain their Dark-Hunter powers," she told him. "Make their immortal bodies vulnerable to attack, then stop their hearts from beating. Only then do they die in a manner that will enable them to return to life."

"Fine, I can do that."

"Actually, you can't."

"What do you mean?"

She fought the urge to smile. Here was where she had him.

"There are a few laws you need to know about souls, Acheron. One is the owner must freely give it up. Since I own their souls . . ."

Acheron cursed. "I will have to barter with you for every soul."

She nodded.

He looked less than pleased by the knowledge. But he would come around in time. Yes, he would definitely come around . . .

"What else?" he asked.

Now for her one rule that would bind him to her forever. "Only a true, pure heart can release the soul back into a body. The one who returns the soul must be the one person who loves them above all others. A person they love and trust in return."

"Why?"

"Because the soul needs something to motivate it to movement, otherwise it stays where it is. I use vengeance to motivate the soul into my possession. Only an equal and as powerful an emotion will motivate the soul back into its body. Since I can choose that emotion, I choose it to be love. The most beautiful and noble of all emotions. The only one worth returning for."

Acheron stared at the marble floor as her words whispered around him.

Love.

Trust.

Such simple words to say. Such powerful words to feel. He envied those who knew their true meaning. He'd never really known either one. Betrayal, pain, degradation, suspicion, hatred. That was his existence. That was all he'd ever been shown.

Part of him wanted to turn about and leave Artemis forever.

"Return my beloved to me. Please, I will do anything to have him home . . ." Liora's words rang in his head. He could hear her tears even now. Feel her pain.

Feel the pain of Ias as he thought of his children and wife. His worry over their welfare.

Acheron had never known that kind of unselfish love. Neither before nor after his death.

"Give me Ias's soul."

Artemis arched a brow. "Are you willing to pay the price I ask for it, and to the terms for their release?"

His heart shrank at her words. He remembered the youth he'd been long ago.

Everything has a price, Acheron. Nothing ever comes to anyone for free. His uncle had taught him well the price of survival.

Acheron had paid dearly for everything he'd ever had or wanted. Food. Shelter. Clothes. Paid with flesh and blood.

Some things never changed. Once a whore, always a whore.

"Yes," he said, his throat tight. "I agree. I'll pay."

Artemis smiled. "Don't look so unhappy, Acheron. I promise you, you'll enjoy it."

His stomach tightened even more. He'd heard those words before, too.

It was dusk when Acheron returned to the cave.

He wasn't alone as he walked up the small rise. He led two men and four horses.

"What is all this?" Callabrax asked.

"These are to be the shieldbearers for you and Kyros. They've come to show you both to the villas where you'll live. They will see to anything you need and I will come by later to finish our training."

A twinge of fear darkened Ias's eyes. "What of me?"

"You're coming with me."

Acheron waited until the other two had mounted their horses and left before he turned back to Ias. "Are you ready to go home?"

Ias looked surprised. "But you said-"

"I was wrong. You can go back."

"What of my oath to Artemis?"

"It's been taken care of."

Ias embraced him like a brother.

Acheron cringed at the contact, especially since it aggravated the deep welts on his back where Artemis had beaten him in exchange for Ias's soul-at least that was the lie she told herself. But he knew the truth. She beat him to punish him for the fact that she loved him.

And those marks were nothing compared to the even deeper welts that resided in his soul.

He'd always hated anyone to touch him.

Gently, he pushed Ias away. "Come, let us see you home."

Acheron flashed them back to Ias's small farm where his wife had just sent their two children to bed.

Her beautiful face paled as she saw them by her hearth.

"Ias?" She blinked. "They told me this morning that you were dead."

Ias shook his head, his eyes bright. "Nay, my love. I'm here. I've come home to you."

Acheron took a deep breath as Ias rushed to her and hugged her close. It went a long way in ebbing the pain of his back.

"There's still a couple of things, Ias," Acheron said quietly.

Ias pulled back with a frown.

"Your wife will have to release your soul back into your body."

Liora scowled. "What?"

Ias kissed her hand. "I swore myself to serve Artemis, but she's going to let me go so that I can come back to you."

She looked baffled by his words.

Ias looked at Acheron. "What must we do?"

Acheron hesitated, but there was no way to avoid telling him what had to be done. "You'll have to die again."

He paled a bit. "Are you sure?"

Acheron nodded, then handed his dagger to Liora. "You'll have to stab him through his heart."

She looked horrified and appalled by his suggestion. "What?"

"It's the only way."

"It's murder. I'll be hanged."

"No, I swear it."

"Do it, Liora," Ias urged. "I want to be with you again."

Her face skeptical, she took the dagger in her hand and tried to press it into his chest.

It didn't work. All the blade did was prick the skin.

Acheron grimaced as he remembered what Artemis had said about Dark-Hunter powers. An average human wouldn't be able to hurt a Dark-Hunter with a dagger.

But he could.

Taking the dagger from Liora, he drove it straight through Ias's heart. Ias stumbled back, panting.

"Don't panic," Acheron said, laying him down on the floor before his hearth. "I've got you."

Acheron reached up and pulled Liora down by his side. He took the stone medallion that contained Ias's soul from his satchel. "You have to take this into your hand when he dies and release his soul back into his body."

She gulped. "How?"

"Press the stone over his bow and arrow brand mark."

Acheron waited until the moment right before Ias died. He handed the medallion to Liora.

She screamed as soon as it touched her hand, then dropped it to the floor. "It's on fire!" she shrieked.

Ias gasped as he struggled to live.

"Pick it up," Acheron ordered Liora.

She blew cool air across her palm as she shook her head no.

Acheron was aghast at her actions. "What is wrong with you, woman? He's going to die if you don't save him. Pick up his soul."

"No." There was a determined light in her eyes that he didn't understand.

"No? How can you not? I heard you praying for him to return to you. You said you would give anything for your beloved to return."

She dropped her hand and eyed him coldly. "Ias is not my beloved. Lycantes is. It was he whom I prayed for and he is dead now. I was told the ghost of Ias murdered him because he killed Ias in battle so that the two of us could be together to raise our children."

Acheron was dumbstruck by her words. How could he not have seen that? He was a god. Why would that have been hidden from him?

He looked at Ias and saw the pain in his eyes before they turned blank and Ias died.

His heart hammering, Acheron picked up the medallion and tried to release the soul himself.

It didn't work.

Furious, he froze Liora into place before he killed her for her actions.

"Artemis!" he shouted at the ceiling.

The goddess flashed into the hut.

"Save him."

"I can't change the rules, Acheron. I told you the conditions and you agreed to them."

He motioned to the woman who was now a human statue. "Why didn't you tell me she didn't love him?"

"I had no way of knowing that any more than you did." Her eyes turned dull. "Even gods can make mistakes."

"Then why didn't you at least tell me the medallion would burn her?"

"That I didn't know. It doesn't burn me and it didn't burn you. I've never had a human hold one before."

Acheron's head buzzed with guilt and grief. With hatred for both himself and her. "What happens to him now?"

"He's a Shade. Without a body or soul, his essence is trapped in Katoteros."

Acheron roared with the pain of what she was telling him. He had just killed a man and sentenced him to a fate far worse than death.

And for what?

For love?

For mercy?

Gods, he was such a fool.

Better than anyone, he should have known to ask the right questions. He should have known better than to trust in the love of another person.

Damn it, when would he learn?

Artemis reached down to him and lifted his chin with her hand until he looked up at her. "Tell me, Acheron, is there anyone you will ever trust enough to release your soul?"

He shook his head. "You know better. You've tutored me too well on how vicious women are. On how much love ruins and destroys. Thank you for the lesson, Artemis. It was just what I needed. And I assure you, it's one I'll never forget."