Closing his eyes, he swallowed.
It was true.
One more time, he was going to die for nothing.
"So what?"
Let him die. What did it matter?
If they didn't kill him on the trip in, he'd go out with a good fight, and good fights were all too few and too far between in Alaska.
He looked forward to the challenge.
Angry at himself and the world at large, Zarek splintered the bowl with his thoughts, then brushed the dust off his pants.
Pulling out his MP3 player, he scrolled to Nazareth's Hair of the Dog, put his headphones on, and waited for Mike to lighten the windows of the helicopter and let the lethal sunlight in on him.
It was, after all, what Dionysus had paid the Squire to do, and if the man had a lick of sense he would obey it because if Mike didn't, he was going to wish he had.
Chapter 1
Acheron Parthenopaeus was a man of many secrets and powers. As the firstborn Dark-Hunter and leader of their kind, he had set himself up over nine thousand years ago to be the buffer between them and Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, who had created them.
It was a job he seldom relished and a position he'd always hated. Like an errant child, Artemis loved nothing more than to push him just to see how far she could go before he called her down.
Theirs was a complicated relationship that hinged on a balance of power. He alone possessed the ability to keep her calm and rational.
At least most of the time.
Meanwhile she held the one source of food that he needed to stay human. Compassionate.
Without her, he would become a soulless killer even worse than the Daimons who preyed on humankind.
Without him, she would have no heart or conscience.