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"If that&039;s your intent then Go for it I&039; for your attack when et the fighting over with"

She didn&039;t knohy, but she was strangely amused by his dee the fact that she had no intention of killing hier down on the bar "I am not my mother, Sin She doesn&039;t control me"

That seeo to kill her? Where will you stand? At ht so after her"

His look was harsh and deadly "You&039;re going to bet her life on it?"

"Yes Because you know her death would rupture the fabric of the earth and, unlike her, you&039;re not that selfish" Any tiod was killed, their poere released back into the universe If no one absorbed the powers, they could easily detonate like a nuclear bood was born of the sun or ods had to be protected more than any other

And since Artemis had absorbed Sin&039;s powers on top of her own, it od

Sin&039;s gaze narrowed "Maybe I&039;ll absorb her powers and replace her as she didto sell her "If you kne to do that, then you&039;d have done it before now"

Glancing away, he shook his head "You trust way too easily"

"And you trust not at all"

His face griht"

Okay, she&039;d learned a trigger for the ex-god Don&039;t even tease about trust He had issues there

Wanting to restore the comradery they had almost found before it had veered off the road and careened down the hill where it exploded into fla to show s so that the next time Kessar darkens your door I can ot a s ht a second" Kat closed her eyes and let her thoughts drift She saw her grand, Kat could feel Apolly visitors just yet and that ry over Sin&039;s last visit and aching over what had happened to Acheron

Opening her eyes, Kat gave Sin a pointed stare "Can ait a bit? I don&039;t think Grandma wants to see you or me just yet Give her a little more tio she won&039;t try to feed you to her demons Is that okay?"

"Not really But since I know better than to rush an angry goddess, I&039;ll strive for an ounce of patience"

This was true "Besides," she added "We have Si and I think it best we be here when she arrives"

"Yeah," he said with a low laugh "I definitely don&039;t want a hungry Charonte around my workers and clientele"

It was true Simi could be a bit ferocious when left on her own "So are we up for the training?"

He looked at her clothes "We&039;ll need to get you so to work for training"

Well, it worked for fighting, but she wasn&039;t going to point that out and risk alienating his that ers and her jeans and shirt turned into black workout pants and a black tank top, complete with tennis shoes "This work?"

"That&039;ll work" He duplicated her gesture of snapping his fingers and his own clothes changed to black sweatpants and a white tank top that only emphasized the dark, sculpted muscles of his body

Oh yeah, baby She had to stop herself frorief, he was yummy when barely dressed And it ht be naked

Not to mention, his actions proved that he was a lot ht not have all his god powers, but he had enough toto show her, she followed hiroaned in his sleep as his drea He always had They never made sense and this one was no more helpful or lucid than any other

There were to hiely, she reminded him of Arteentle eyes She stood over him with a sad look on her face

"One day ill know each other"

Then the other stepped forward, but her face was cory at hih the shadows "Who do you think you are? I hate you! Get out I don&039;t ever want to see you again I hope you get hit by a car in the parking lot If I&039;o!"

The venoh him What had he done to her? Why would she hate him? All women loved him They coveted his presence

But not this one

She wanted to cut his head off

Ash woke up in a cold sweat It took him a minute to realize he was in Arteue of his tor the white silk sheets pool around his waist

Gods, how he hated to sleep He&039;d never had a good dream in his entire existence But at least these weren&039;t focused on his past They were from somewhere else

"Worthless!"

He scowled at Artemis&039;s shriek fro breaking

"I did my best"

"You&039;re worthless!"

Ash didn&039;t hear anything else, but he felt like soainst the floor Every part of his body ached and he had to knohy Getting out of bed, he manifested his clothes on his body before he stalked across the floor and flung the large gold doors open with his thoughts

Deimos had Artemis pinned to the floor by her throat "You ever-"

He didn&039;t get a chance to finish his threat before Ash picked him up and tossed hi to his feet, braced for attack until he realized who he was facing

His lips and nose bleeding, Deiave him a cold, emotionless stare "You should leave now Really"

Deiaze went to Arte where Deiant "If you want the bastard dead, Artemis, you should send your pet after him"

Normally Ash would have let such a comment pass without issue But today it just struck hiht Deirip

"I&039;ood reason Glad you dropped by" He kneed Dei to punch him, Deimos vanished

"Oh c&039; I said?"

As expected, Deimos stayed quiet One ould have allowed Ash to follow him to his haven and finish it

Bastard

Still not appeased, he went to Artemis, who hadn&039;t e for her He clenched his teeth as he saw her throat was red froer

"You all right?" he asked

"Like you care," she spat in a snit "You&039;d just as soon hurt reeh they&039;d had a less than idyllic relationship, it wasn&039;t in hi He&039;d been hurt enough in his life to never want to deal that to someone else

He sat down beside her on the floor and pulled his knees up to his chest "So what happened?"

Her sullen pout would have ed breath as he sahere this was heading She wanted to talk, but she was going toevery word out Lovely Just hoanted to spend his tiiven what she normally did to pass time with him, this was an improvement "C&039;mon, Artie I know better You sent Deimos after Sin, didn&039;t you?"

Her pout increased before she sniffed "What choice did I have? You wouldn&039;t do anything"

Would she never grow up? Just once, he&039;d like to deal with an adult "I can&039;t while I&039;o talk to hi even if you weren&039;t here"

Probably true

She sniffed again and gave hilare "No one cares what happens to me"

"Don&039;t, Artemis," he said between clenched teeth "I don&039;t play that pity game and you know it If you want Daddy to baby you, he&039;s in the big hall up the hill"

The anger returned to her eyes "Why do you stay with me if you feel that way?"

Funny, he asked himself that every day "You knohy"

She sidestepped his comment "You hate me, don&039;t you?"

Sometimes No, most times But he felt her current vulnerability and for some reason he could never fathom, he had a need to soothe her Yeah, he was one sick sonofabitch "No, Artie, I don&039;t"

"You&039;re lying," she accused "Don&039;t you think I know the difference?" A single tear slid down her cheek as she stared at hiht, and the sad thing was, back then she&039;d mattered to him more than his own life But that had been eleven thousand years ago and ed between them "You used to not beat ed even before that You were angry at me before you died"

Ash so didn&039;t want to deal with this His past had been painful enough the first ti he wanted to do was relive it in any shape, for up, he headed back to the bedroom, but Artemis followed hihed at the stupidity of that question before he turned around to face her again She truly looked clueless "How could you forget? It was the day you toldmore than a booty call for you Oh wait What were the exact words you used? &039;If you ever tell anyone about us, I&039;ll have you flayed inall over my floor&039; That was kind of a buzz kill, huh? And then when you fulfilled that promise even when I hadn&039;t breathed a word of us to anyone, it destroyed whatever part of "

Ash winced at her words Words Mere words she thought could erase the pain and humiliation he&039;d suffered because of her He could still feel the sting of the lash against his naked flesh

Even now he heard his sister&039;s shrill cry that afternoon when his human father had confronted him over his absence "Father, stop! He&039;s innocent He ith Arteods, tell hi"

His huround He then kicked him onto his hack and pressed his foot to Ash&039;s throat to the point where bile had risen to choke hiot?"

Ash had tried to push the foot away, but his father had only pressed it even harder against his windpipe Speaking had been all but i, p-p-please"

"Blasphele as he tried so desperately to breathe through his bruised esophagus "Strip hioddess witness his punishment and if he really ith her, then I&039;m sure she&039;ll co look at Ryssa "Beat him at the altar until Arte him to the core of his soul The people who&039;d cheered for the executioner to strike him harder The priests who&039;d slapped him while the executioner had beat him

The water that had been thrown in his face to revive him whenever he&039;d passed out from the pain

Every bit of it was still fresh in his ht But no one other than Ash had seen her there She&039;d watched his beating with relish "I told you ould happen if you betrayed me" Then she&039;dAsh and whispered for him to hit even harder, to make the lashes more severe

Ash had only been twenty years old at the time

When it was finally over, and then only because the executioner&039;s ar for three days in her te Aching Alone And while he&039;d hung there, people had come up to spit on him and curse him They&039;d pulled his hair and hit hi but what he&039;d received

When the priests had finally cut him down, his head had been shaved and they had branded the back of his skull with the bow syed in chains behind a horse back to the palace The ground had reopened his wounds and added even more By the time he was back in his room, he&039;d been unable to even speak for the pain He&039;d lain on the cold stone floor for days, weeping for the fact that the woman he&039;d loved so dearly had forsaken hiuarded her nay would ease all of thatThe bitch was crazy

To this day, Arte about their relationship Not that anyone with a brain hadn&039;t guessed it at this point It&039;d only been what? Eleven thousand years of her sneaking hi hiame they all played, and for what? For Artemis&039;s vanity

"Hold me, Acheron," she said with a tremor in her voice

"Hold me like you used to"

It was all he could do not to shove her away But that would be cruel, and in spite of what he ht wish, he wasn&039;t as cruel as she was

Instead, he pulled her against hihed drealed against him

Ash hated her tenderness most of all It reminded him toohis hand in public Of her sh to think that she would cherish hie his presence

But instead, he was and had always been her dirty secret Before his death at the hands of her own brother, Ash hadn&039;t even been allowed to speak her name in public Never to touch or look at her or walk past her teed him

He&039;d been so desperate for even that modicum of kindness that he&039;d accepted it

"I love you, Acheron"

He ground his teeth at words she didn&039;t even understand

Loveyeah If this was love, he could definitely do without it

She kissed his lips before she pulled aith a smile "You always taste like sunshine"

And she always tasted of cold darkness He let out a tired breath "Feeling better?"

Rubbing his chest, she nodded "You look tired, my Acheron

Go back to bed I´ll join you shortly"

Yee-flippin&039;-haw, he thought sarcastically He couldn&039;t wait for that It rated right up there with an acid ene to take care of But I´ll be right back Trust me"

Like he had a choice?

"Take your tirope-free hour

It was really sad when that was the best thing an all-powerful, iod could look forward to

Artemis smiled at him, before she vanished

She took herself to the Underworld where the Dolophoni made their home in the darkest part of Hades&039; do to find Dei the blade of a s what thought was in histhe blade"

"Shouldn&039;t you be finding Sin?"

He set the blade down but didn&039;t look at her as he brushed his hand over other weapons "Depends Is your daughter going to keep getting in my way?"

Her stomach shrank at his words "Excuse me?"

He turned toward her with a cold, sinister look "Your daughter You know, the tall blonde with a body made for sin who has your eyes and her father&039;s powers You didn&039;t really think I was so stupid that I never knew, did you?"

Arterateful Acheron wasn&039;t here to hear that He&039;d kill her

Deiaze "That is why you called me in to kill Sin, isn&039;t it? He learned the truth and now he ainst her "I don&039;t knohat you&039;re talking about"

"Of course you don&039;t" His tone wasHe closed the distance between theainst the wall

Deiave her a twisted smirk "So does that ets in the way?"