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"Eqou," Takeshi taunted

Savitar flashed from the rock, to stand before Takeshi with a sword the likes of which Acheron had never seen before He brought it down across Takeshi&039;s va he knew, the two of theht like a sissy demon"

"Sissy demon? Have you ever "

Savitar swung at his throat The blade whistled through the air, narrowly lected, but grateful he wasn&039;t in the middle of this titanic brawl, Acheron went to sit on the rock Savitar had vacated

Savitar shoved Takeshi back "Your oatherder"

"It&039;s an honorable profession"

"Yeah for a goat"

Takeshi swung around and kicked Savitar away Savitar flipped over and ca hi this ht old woht old woo needed the boost and they were the only ones you could find you could beat?"

"Savitar, Savitar, Savitar At least I won Wasn&039;t it you who had to cry to the counsel to come save your ass froned anger "Four-year-oldtarranine deet the rown and it wasn&039;t just one It was a swarm of them"

"So you admit you had help?"

"Oh that&039;s it, sensei You&039;re tasting sand"

Acheron shook his head at their bantering While they were being harsh to each other, there was a good-natured spirit that let him know they didn&039;tords the sa with their swords

Honestly, they amazed him He&039;d never had a friend he could do that with He envied the headlock "Hey, aren&039;t we forgetting sonity?"

Savitar rolled his eyes "No, you have ain" He pointed to where Acheron sat "Aren&039;t you supposed to be training hi breath "So you adshit I&039;ht and he doesn&039;t Might be a good idea for him to learn"

"True" Takeshi put his sword across his shoulders where he held it with both hands and sain?"

"Sure My ego&039;s had enough tinity Let&039;s od"

Takeshi laughed "I like him, Savitar He fits with us"

"That&039;s why I called you" Savitar handed his sword to Acheron "Good luck, kid"

"Thanks"

Acheron spent the rest of the day training with Takeshi who had to be the worst taskmaster ever born He worked him until Acheron was sure he&039;d drop from sheer exhaustion By the time the sun set and he was free to rest, his entire body ached

Even so, he felt more confident in his skills than he&039;d ever felt before

Savitar handed hiain in thehiht and returned ho in the throne room for him "What do you want?"

"I haven&039;t seen you in days"

"And what a beautiful thing they have been"

She narrowed her gaze "I told you that you&039;d have to feed from me"

Acheron looked at her coldly "I think I&039;d rather be a sadistic monsterlike you"

She curled her lip at hi to be rily "Fuck you, Arte, it knocked her onto her ass on the floor He stalked toward her and saw the fear in her eyes There was a tiuilt and compassion within him Today it just pissed him off "I was butchered on the floor by your brother while you watched it happen Then, when I was finally happy so your blood to bind me to you And you think I&039;m mean? Bitch, please, you haven&039;t seen ed on the floor

That actually succeeded in turning his anger away froe of pity for her and he hated himself for it She didn&039;t deserve his pity Only his contempt

"I loved you, Acheron"

He scoffed "If what you&039;ve shown uts and be done with me"

She burst into tears

Acheron leaned his head back and cursed at the fact that those tears affected hi with him that he actually wanted to comfort her?

I&039;m even more defective than she is

He sla her cry even harder "What do you want from me, Artie?"

"I want my friend back"

"No," he said bitterly "You want your pet back I was never your friend Friends aren&039;t ashamed of each other They don&039;t live in fear of other people seeing thereen eyes swi in tears "I&039;o back and repair everything that&039;s happened But I can&039;t I wish I could save our nepheish that I&039;d been more decent to you I wish" She paused, but it was too late He&039;d heard it loud and clear

"That I&039;d never been a whore Trust me, what you feel about that is a pittance coraded and used I&039;m the one who has to live with that past Not you You should be grateful those nighthtmares, thank you"

Perhaps she did After all, she was the pitiful child who had to tolerate Apollo

She looked up at him "Food can&039;t sustain you anyain But you do have to feed froer You will have no compassion for the world and you will destroy it"

A muscle worked in his jaw He wanted to call her a liar, but he knew the truth He already felt those violent urges inside hi, he held his hand out to her

She took his hand and he jerked her to her feet and into his are her throat, he pulled back and bit into her gently

At the end of the day, he wasn&039;t a monster He wouldn&039;t brutalize her even if she did deserve it

He&039;d h he may have been a thief and a whore, he wasn&039;t a liar He wouldn&039;t serve to her what she&039;d served to hihed as she felt Acheron&039;s powers surging around her His skin marbled to blue while he drank The heat of his breath on her flesh ignited her desire, but when she tried to remove his clothes, he stopped her

"I&039;m in no mood to play with my food, Artemis"

She closed her eyes as she heard his voice in her head

When he&039;d taken his fill, he stepped away fro red as he wiped the blood from his lips "I need tih her "What are you saying?"

"Send a kori to me with your blood"

"No"

This tinited

Arteod for

"You will do as I coainst my will and you will not tell me how to live this new life Do you understand?"

She nodded slowly as her heart broke again over what she&039;d lost "While you&039;re telling ht you back, Styxx came with you And he&039;s filled with even more fury and hatred than you are"

Acheron cursed at the mention of his twin "Where is he?"

"He&039;s on the Vanishing Isle, under the care of a god es me a favor He can&039;t harood place with his every desire fulfilled"

"Then leave hiain"

"Rather difficult, isn&039;t it?"

He curled his lip at her reminder "Don&039;t push e and it wouldn&039;t take much to step over it Trust ht I don&039;t ever want to see you here in ain, but this time they didn&039;t affect hied hiod of destruction had been born Cursed Hated Powerful Lethal

His hatred for the world was carved into his heart His past was a weight he carried on his back and his future was uncertain

He had enery mother out to end the world, a baby demon who needed to be fed every few hours, two lunatics training hioddess who only wanted hiood" to be back in the mortal real Too bad he had no warning for his place in it

Damn the Fates-his sisters who&039;d betrayed and condemned him to this existence

One day, he&039;d pay those bitches back too

April 10, 9526 BC

Mount Olyreed to ht noas enough to et sick For al up Apollo&039;sDaimons on a daily basis

Not that he blaroup of men that the Atlantean queen had sent out to assassinate his sister and nephew Jealous over the fact that Apollo no longer came to her bed, the Atlantean queen had turned her venoht, the queen&039;s men had snuck into Ryssa&039;s bedroo Apollodorus

Then after Apollo had finished killing Acheron, the god had turned on the very race of people he&039;d created Since the assassins had made it appear as if an animal had torn into Ryssa and Apollodorus, Apollo cursed them to feed on each other Only Apollite blood could sustain them What was it with Apollo and Arteh of a curse, Apollo had banished theain and be reminded of their treachery And not to be outdone, he&039;d then condemned their entire race to die slowly and painfully on their twenty-seventh birthday-the sae Ryssa had been

Given the severity of the punishod loved his sister But he knew better Apollo was noht think of turning on Apollo as now telling everyone that he&039;d destroyed Atlantis to get back at the Apollites

Stupid bastard And stupid people for believing his lies

Acheron kept his silence, not to protect the god, but only because Apollo&039;s pathetic arrogance a to be undone Even now Acheron&039;s od&039;s deathalong with Artemis&039;s No sooner had Apollo daone to Strykerius, Apollo&039;s conde hu their lives

No wonder Savitar had failed to tell Acheron the na

It was his ownthe Daieance He should have known

But then his revenge had been more direct He&039;d hunted down the ones who&039;d killed his sister and nephew-those who&039;d survived his mother&039;s attack, and he&039;d s

Noas at ith histo kill those damned Fates"

But it wouldn&039;t be today Today he wasand threatening to kill hi at him, this was the first time since he&039;d died that his head had been clear of their incessant nagging

He felt the ripple of power down his spine that signified her arrival He stiffened in expectation of her shrewish voice When she didn&039;t start yelling at hi

"Why so nervous, Artehed at her acute sense of perception He was different No longer a subservient slave, he was a pissed off god anted the entire world to leave hiave her a droll stare "And I don&039;t like your head attached to your shoulders Guess we can&039;t all have ant, huh?" He narrowed his gaze on her "I don&039;t have tiawk at me, then you can admire my back as I walk away froainst his better judgment, he hesitated "For what?"

She had approached hiry at er doesn&039;t even begin to describe what I aulped as her features drew taut "I had no choice"

"We all have choices"

"No, Acheron We don&039;t"

As if he believed that She&039;d always been selfish and vain and no doubt that was the only reason he&039;d been brought back when he should have been left dead "Is this why you&039;ve been suize?"

She shook her head "I&039;ain in a heart pound"

"Beat," he snarled, correcting her

She waved the word aith her hand "I want there to be peace between us"

Peace? Was she insane? She was lucky he didn&039;t kill her right now If it wasn&039;t for fear of what could happen, he would have

"There will never be peace between us Ever You shattered any hope of it when you watched your brother kill me and refused to speak up on utted on the floor like an animal sacrifice Excuse me if I don&039;t feel your pain I&039;m too busy with ain

It was then he heard the , he watched in horror as she withdrew an infant from the folds of her peplos

"I have a baby for you, Acheron"

He jerked his ared every part of him "You bitch! Do you honestly think that could ever replace my nephehom you let die? I hate you I will always hate you For once in your life, do the right thing and return that to its h force to split his lips "Go and rot, you worthless bastard"

Laughing, he wiped the blood aith the back of his hand while he stared venomously at her "I id whore who sacrificed the only man to ever love her because she was too self-absorbed to save him"

The look on her face scorched hiht and sold to anyone who could pay your fee How dare you think for one oddess"

The pain of those words seared a perht, my lady I&039;m not worthy of you or anyone else I&039;iveyou"

Then he vanished from her

Their relationship was now over There was no power in the universe that would ever ain

You need her blood