Ash entered Artemis's temple on Olympus without any preamble. In the middle of the large main room, which was surrounded by columns, she reclined on a white throne that looked more like a chaise longue.
Her koris, who had been singing and playing lutes, immediately rushed from the room and as one rather tall blond kori ran past him, he paused and turned to look after her.
"What are you doing here?" Artemis asked, and for once her tone was hesitant.
He turned back toward her and shifted the backpack on his shoulder. "I wanted to thank you for what you did tonight, but as I considered that, it dawned on me that you have never once in eleven thousand years done anything for me for free. The sheer fear factor of that realization alone has made me come seeking you. So what gives?"
Artemis wrapped her arms around herself as she sat on her white throne. "I was worried about you."
He laughed bitterly at that. "You never worry about me."
"I do, too. I called and you didn't answer me."
"I almost never answer you."
She looked away, reminding him of a cringing child who had been caught doing something wrong.
"Spill it, Artemis. I have a lot of crap to clean up tonight and don't want you on top of it."
She took a deep breath. "Very well, it's not like I can keep it from you."
"Keep what from me?"
"A new Dark-Hunter was born tonight."
His blood ran cold at that. Literally. "Damn you, Artemis! How could you do this?"
She came off her throne ready to battle. "I had no choice."
"Yeah, right."
"No, Acheron. I had no choice."
As she spoke, his mind connected with hers and the images of her and Nick went through him.
"Nick?" he breathed, his heart shattering.
What had he done?
"You cursed him," Artemis said quietly. "I'm so sorry."
Ash ground his teeth as guilt consumed him. He knew better than to speak in anger.
His will, even when not thought out, made reality. One wrong word...
He had damned his best friend.
"Where is he?"
"The bower room."
Ash started to leave, but Artemis stopped him. "I didn't know what else to do, Acheron. I didn't."
She held her hand out and a dark green amulet appeared. She handed it to him.
"How many lashes?" he asked bitterly, thinking it was Valerius's soul she offered him.
A single tear fled down her cheek. "None. It's Nick's soul, and I have no right to it." She pressed it into his hand.
Ash was so stunned he didn't know what to say.
He placed it into his backpack.
Artemis swallowed as she watched him tuck it carefully away. "Now you're going to learn."
"Learn what?"
"Just how heavy a burden a soul is."
He gave her a dry stare. "That I learned a long time ago, Artie."
And with that, he stepped back and willed himself to Nick's prison. He opened the door slowly to find his friend in a fetal position on the floor.
"Nick?"
Nick looked up, his black eyes rimmed in red. The anger and pain Ash saw and felt from Nick tore through him. "They killed my mother, Ash."
A new wave of guilt slammed through him. In one fit of anger and with nothing more than a single sentence, he had altered their fates and had stolen from Nick and Tabitha the two people that neither of them should have lost.
It was all his fault.
"I know, Nick, and I'm sorry." He was sorrier than Nick would ever know. "Cherise was one of the few decent people in this world. I loved her, too."
He loved the New Orleans crew a lot more than he should. Love was a worthless emotion that had never served him anything but misery.
Even Simi...
Ash ran his hand over her tattoo as he fought back his emotions.
He made himself numb, then reached out to Nick. "C'mon."
"Where are we going?"
"I'm taking you home. You have a lot to learn."
"About what?"
"How to be a Dark-Hunter. Everything you think you know about fighting, surviving, it's nothing. I have to show you how to use your new powers and to see correctly with those eyes."
"And if I don't want to learn?"
"Then you'll die and there won't be any coming back from it this time."
Nick took his hand and allowed him to pull him to his feet.
Ash closed his eyes and took Nick home.
He'd never looked forward to training a new Dark-Hunter, but this one...
This one hurt most of all.
Valerius slipped out of the Devereaux house an hour before dawn. Tabitha had finally fallen asleep, and he had carried her upstairs to the room that she had shared with Amanda when they were children.
After placing her on the bed, he'd spent longer than he should have looking over the old photos on the wall of the two of them together.
Of them with their sisters.
His poor Tabitha. He didn't know if she'd ever heal.
He called a taxi and had it drop him at his house. The place was completely dark. There was no one there now, and he realized just how reliant he'd become on Tabitha.
These last couple of weeks...
They had been miraculous.
She was miraculous.
Now their time together was over.
Valerius opened the door to his house and listened to the silence. He shut and locked the door, then walked up the stairs to the solarium where Agrippina's statue waited.
He refilled the oil in her lamp before he realized just how stupid he'd been, both as a man and as a Dark-Hunter.
He hadn't been able to protect Agrippina or Tabitha from the pain that was life.
Just as he couldn't protect himself.
But then, maybe life wasn't about protecting. Maybe it was about something else.
Something even more valuable.
It was about sharing.
He didn't need someone to protect him from the past. He needed the touch of a woman whose warmth chased away those demons. A woman whose very presence had made the unbearable bearable.
And in all these centuries he still hadn't learned the most valuable thing of all.
How to say "I love you" to someone.
But at least now he understood what feeling it meant.
His heart shattering, he touched Agrippina's cold cheek. It was time to let go of the past.
"Good night, Agrippina," he whispered.
Stepping down, he blew out her flame and walked out of the room that had been hers alone and into the one he had learned to share with Tabitha.
Tabitha came awake to find herself alone in her old bed. She closed her eyes and wished herself back to childhood. Back to the days when all of her sisters had shared this house with her. Back to the time when their worst fear was not having a date for the prom.
But time was ever fleeting.
And there was no way back.
Sighing, she rolled over and realized that Valerius wasn't with her. She felt the absence of him immediately.
She got up and pulled on a bathrobe her mother must have left in the room for her. As she walked past the dresser, she paused, then stepped back to see a ring on top of it.
Her heart pounded as she recognized Valerius's signet ring on top of a folded-up note.
Picking it up, she read the handful of words.
Thank you, my lady Tabitha. For everything.
Val
Tabitha frowned. Was it a kiss-off? Oh, yeah, that was just what she needed right now.
Why not?
She was almost angry until she read it again and realized that he hadn't signed it "Valerius."
He'd used her nickname for him.
A nickname he hated.
Her throat tight, she tucked the note into her pocket and kissed the ring he'd left her. She slid it onto her thumb and went to bathe.
Valerius was dreaming of Tabitha. She was laughing in his ear as she lay beneath him.
It seemed so real, he could almost swear he felt her hand on his back...
No, now it was buried in his hair.
And then she moved it away and ran it over his hip, down his thigh until she cupped him in her palm.
Growling in pleasure, Valerius opened his eyes to realize it wasn't a dream.
Tabitha lay on her side next to him. "Hi, baby," she whispered.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, unable to believe she was real.
She held her hand up to show him his ring. "How could I be anywhere else given the curtness of your note?"
"My note wasn't curt."
She scoffed at him. "I almost thought you were telling me to hit the road."
"Why would you think that? I left you my ring."
"Consolation gift?"
He rolled his eyes at her misbegotten reasoning. "No, that ring means that the wearer is worth his or her weight in gold. See?" He held it up so that she could see the regal crest.
A slow smile spread across her face. "I'm worth my weight in gold?"
Valerius moved her hand to his lips so that he could kiss it. "You're worth a lot more than that to me."
Her eyes misted as she looked up at him. "I love you, Valerius."
He'd never heard anything more precious to him. "I love you, too, Tabitha," he said, his voice thick.
Her smile widened as she pulled him into her arms and kissed him senseless.
She literally tore her shirt off before she wiggled herself up under him.
Valerius laughed at her eagerness before he kissed her gently on the lips.
She wasn't in the mood for that. They made love furiously, as if they wouldn't have another chance again.
Afterward, they lay in each other's arms. Valerius toyed with her hair as he contemplated their future. "So what do we do now, Tabitha?"
"What do you mean?"
"How do we make this relationship work? Kyrian still hates me and I'm still a Dark-Hunter."
"Well," she said raggedly. "Rome wasn't built in one day. We take it one step at a time."
Little did she know that those steps were going to be horrific.
The first one came the night of her sister's wake. Valerius had driven her to her parents' only to pull up short as they realized Kyrian, Amanda, and Julian and his wife Grace were there.
The animosity was tangible.
Tabitha had meant to stay with Valerius the entire time, but her Aunt Zelda pulled her away.
"I'll be right back."
Valerius nodded as he went to get something else to drink.
Julian and Kyrian cornered him in the kitchen.
He sighed wearily as he waited for them to start in on him. He set his cup down.
Kyrian grabbed his arm.
Valerius was about to lay him out cold when he realized that Kyrian wasn't hurting him. He pulled back Valerius's sleeve so that the scars of his execution were visible.
"Amanda told me how you died," Kyrian said quietly. "I didn't believe her."
Valerius jerked his arm away. Without a word, he started away from the two Greeks.
But Kyrian's voice stopped him. "Look, Valerius, I have to tell you that it literally kills me every time I see you. Can you imagine what it would be like if I had the face of the man who nailed you to the wood?"
Valerius gave a bitter laugh at the irony. "Actually, I know exactly how you feel, General. Every time I use a mirror, I too see the face of my executioner."
He may not have been twins with his brothers, but they looked enough alike that it was hard to see himself in a mirror without seeing them. It was why he was so damned grateful Dark-Hunters didn't cast reflections unless they wanted to.
Kyrian nodded. "Yeah, I guess you would. I don't suppose I could bribe or bully you away from Tabitha, can I?"
"No."
"Then we're going to have to be grown-ups here because I love my wife too much to hurt her. She's lost one sister, it would kill her to lose another one. She needs Tabitha." Kyrian grimaced as if in pain, then held his hand out to Valerius. "Truce?"
Valerius took his hand into his. "Truce."
Kyrian released him, then Julian offered his hand.
"For the record," Kyrian said before he left. "This only makes us friendly enemies."
Tabitha came into the kitchen as they left. "You okay?"
He nodded. "Kyrian decided to grow up."
She looked impressed. "I guess immortality agrees with him."
"Apparently so."
The two of them stayed at the wake until just after midnight when they decided to head home in Tabitha's beat-up Mini Cooper.
As they entered the foyer, they found Ash waiting for them.
"What are you doing here?" Valerius asked.
Ash came forward and handed a small box to Tabitha. "You know what to do. Just remember: Don't drop it."
Tabitha was aghast as she held the box that contained Valerius's soul in her hand. "We had decided that we weren't going to do this. I don't want to take Valerius's immortality from him."
Ash let out a long, tired breath. "Until you return his soul to him, Artemis owns him. Is that what you want?"
"No."
"Well, there you go." Ash headed for the door, then paused to look back at them. "By the way, Tabby, you're immortal now, too."
"What?"
He shrugged. "It wouldn't be fair to Amanda to lose you to old age."
"But how? How can I be immortal?"
Ash gave her a wry grin. "It's the will of the gods. Don't question it."
He slipped out the door and left them alone.
"Wow," Tabitha breathed as she opened up the box to see a royal blue medallion inside. It was vibrant with swirling colors that made it seem as if it were living.
She closed the box. "Well, what do you think?"
"I think you'd best not drop it."
She agreed.
Later that night when it came time to stake him so that she could return his soul to him, she learned something horrible.
She couldn't do it.
"C'mon, Tabitha," Valerius said as he sat up on the bed, shirtless. "You stabbed me the night we met without even blinking."
"Yeah, but you were a dirtbag then."
"I think I'm offended."
Weeks went by as Tabitha attempted to stab Valerius, only to meet with failure.
She even tried to pretend he was a Daimon.
It didn't work. Not to mention the small fact that they had yet to discover what would drain his Dark-Hunter powers and make him human long enough to die.
So they settled into a strange kind of peace. Tabitha moved out of her apartment over her store and left that for Marla to keep while she lived with Valerius.
They stayed together in the daytime and hunted together at night.
Still she couldn't stake him, but at least one afternoon, she'd learned his weakness: hurting her. It'd been an accident. He'd been reaching for his sword when he'd accidentally elbowed her. For two hours, his eyes had been blue.
Even so, she hadn't been able to stab him.
It was hopeless.
Until that summer. While Tabitha and Valerius were in the middle of training in the upstairs gym, the unthinkable happened.
One minute, she had been playing with Valerius; the next, Kyrian burst through the door, causing Valerius to strike her by accident. His eyes turned instantly blue. Before she realized what he was doing, Kyrian grabbed Valerius, threw him to the ground, and drove a stake through his heart and left it there.
"What are you doing?" Tabitha shrieked, rushing toward him.
Amanda caught her. "It's okay, Tabby," she said, forcing the box that held Valerius's soul into her hand. "Since you keep telling me that you can't do this, Kyrian volunteered."
"Yeah, and with any luck, you might actually drop it," Kyrian said evilly.
Tabitha scowled at him.
Grabbing the box from her sister, she knelt beside Val.
Valerius lay on the floor panting. His face was covered in sweat while he bled from his wound.
"Don't worry, baby. I won't drop it."
He offered her a trembling smile. "I trust you."
Tabitha's heart stopped as he died. Grabbing the medallion, she cried out as it burned her palm. Tabitha bit her lip and placed the medallion to the bow-and-arrow brand on Valerius's hip.
"Sh," Amanda said soothingly. "It'll stop burning in a second. Just think about Valerius."
She did, even though every sane part of her wanted to let go of the burning hunk of lava that seared her hand.
Finally, it started to cool.
Valerius didn't move.
Tabitha began to panic.
"It's okay," Amanda said. "It just takes a minute."
And after a few more, Valerius opened his eyes, which were now a permanent and vibrant shade of blue. His fangs were completely gone.
Tabitha smiled at the sight of him, grateful beyond measure that he was alive. "You don't look right."
Valerius cupped her face. "I think you look beautiful."
"I think I should stake him again just for good measure," Kyrian said.
"I think we need to be going," Amanda said as she got up from the floor, grabbed her husband, and made a quick exit.
"Oh, c'mon," Kyrian whined from the hallway. "Can't I please stake him one more time?"
"Hi, human," Tabitha said before she kissed him.
Then she pulled back with a cry as she realized something.
She was immortal. Now that Valerius was no longer a Dark-Hunter, he wasn't.
"Oh, my God," she breathed. "What have we done?"
But the answer was simple. They had just damned her to live out eternity without him.
