Dance with the Devil (Dark-Hunter #4)(34)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

Again.

The demon seemed to have an aversion to sitting still.

"Simi, why did Acheron send you here?"

Simi pulled a sheathed dagger out of a box and examined it with a skill that made Zarek arch his brow. Childlike she might appear, but there was nothing childish in the way Simi handled his weapons.

She tested the balance of the blade like a pro. "To protect you from Thanatos so that your sisters don’t get all freaky and destroy the world. Or something like that. I don’t know why all of you fear the end of the world. It’s not so bad, really. At least then akri’s mama be free. Then she wouldn’t be so cranky at the Simi all the time."

Zarek started at her words. "Ash’s mother is still alive?"

She covered her mouth with her hand and dropped the dagger. "Oh, akri get mad whenever I tell that. Bad Simi. I not talk anymore. I need food."

Zarek rubbed his head as Simi went back to opening boxes. Oh, this was great. He had a nymph to protect, a psycho something out to kill them, and now a mental demon to contend with.

Oh, yeah, this got better and better.

He looked over at Astrid, who had her brow furrowed as if thinking over Simi’s disclosures.

"Just who are your sisters, Astrid, that they can destroy the world?" Zarek asked.

Astrid cringed a tiny bit and shifted uneasily.

This was about to get worse.

He knew it.

Cringing even more, she whispered, "The Fates."

Zarek went cold. Oh, yeah, his life, as bad as it was, just went careening down to Shitsville and there was no off ramp in sight.

"Your sisters are the Fates," he repeated, saying each word slowly and enunciating it clearly so that there could be no misunderstanding.

She nodded.

Anger enveloped him. "I see. Your sisters are the Moirae, the three Fates who are in charge of everything. Women who are known to have no mercy or pity on anyone. Women who the gods themselves fear."

She bit her lip. "They’re really not so bad. They can be almost nice, if you catch them in the right moods."

"Oh, jeez." Zarek raked his hands through his hair as he struggled to keep his temper from exploding. No wonder Ash had sent Simi. If anything happened to Astrid, there was no telling what could happen. "Please tell me there was a family argument and you and your sisters don’t speak to each other. That they can’t stand the mention of your name."

"No, no, we’re extremely friendly. I’m the baby of the family and they are more like three mothers to me."

Zarek actually whimpered at that. "So you’re telling me that right now I’m responsible for Acheron’s beloved pet and the favorite sister of the Fates?"

Simi widened her eyes. "Tell Fang-boy I’m not a pet. If he doesn’t take a nicer tone to me, he’s going to be really sorry."

Astrid ignored Simi’s comment. "It’s not all bad."

"No? Then by all means tell me something good, Astrid."

"They’ll probably side with me when I judge you innocent."

"Probably?"

She nodded lamely.

Zarek growled at that. Leave it to him. Whenever he got screwed by something it was never in a little way.

Astrid turned back to the demon. "Simi, why aren’t you talking to Zarek?"

"Because akri said not to. He didn’t say I couldn’t talk to you, though."

"Do you do everything he tells you to?" Zarek asked her.

Simi ignored him.

"Yes, she does," Astrid answered. "But the good news is, Simi can’t lie, either. Can you, Simi?"

"Well, why would I? Lies are too confusing."

Oh, yeah, like she wasn’t. He’d never seen anyone or anything more confusing than this demon.

"Why did Acheron tell you not to talk to Zarek?"

"I don’t know. That redheaded bitch-goddess got all angry when he told me to come protect you. It went like this…"

The demon flashed from her form into that of Acheron. "Protect Zarek and Astrid. Now."

She transformed into Artemis. "No!" she snapped. "You can’t let her go, she’ll tell Zarek everything."

Simi, looking like Artemis, put her hand against her cheek and whispered loudly to Astrid. "This the part where the redheaded goddess went on and on about what happened in Zarek’s village and akri got all upset at her. Don’t know why he won’t let me kill her and get it over with, but finally he say…"

She flashed into Ash’s body once more. "Simi, don’t speak to Zarek but make sure Thanatos doesn’t kill either one of them."

Simi returned to her small, slight demonic self. "So I said okay and here I am not talking to Zarek."

"Wow," Zarek said as she stopped her one-demon show. "She’s a camcorder, too. How convenient."

She leveled a murderous glare at him, but directed her words at Astrid. "I miss the days when the Simi could pick off Dark-Hunters and no one noticed."

Astrid moved forward to find Simi who took her hand and faced her with a benign, sweet look. It was obvious the demon liked her.

"What happened in his village that Artemis doesn’t want Zarek to know about?"

Simi shrugged. "I don’t know. She’s all paranoid all the time anyway. Afraid akri is going to leave and not come back, which I keep telling him to do. But does he listen? No." Her next comment came out in Ash’s voice. "She’s not your concern, Simi. You don’t understand, Simi."

She made another rude noise. "I understand, all right. I understand the bitch-goddess needs the Simi to barbecue her until she learns to be nice to people. I think she’d be rather attractive on fire. I could make her look like that old sea hag or something."

"Simi!" Astrid stressed her name and took her by her arms as if trying to keep the demon on the topic. "Please tell me what happened in Zarek’s village."

"Oh, that. Well, the Thanatos thing, not the one after you now, but the one who came before him, went all wild and killed everybody. Them poor people didn’t stand a chance. Akri was so mad he wanted the bitch-goddess’s heart for it, only I say she don’t have no heart to take."

Zarek felt as if someone had just slugged him. "What are you saying? You mean I didn’t kill them?"

Astrid’s mind whirled with what Simi was revealing. If Zarek were innocent of destroying his village, then why had he been banished?

"Zarek didn’t kill them?" she asked Simi.

"Of course not. No Dark-Hunter would kill their charges. Akri would eat them if they did. Zarek killed them Apollites- which made everybody mad."

Zarek frowned. He didn’t remember anything about Apollites. There had never been any around his village. "What Apollites?"

Astrid repeated his question.

Simi spoke slowly and carefully as if they were the ones who had trouble sticking with the conversation. "The ones that Thanatos gathered to use for cannon fodder. Jeez, don’t you people know nothing about the Daimons and Apollites? Thanatos can summon them up and make them do things for him. He can do it with people too sometimes.

"He was sent by Artemis to kill some Dark-Hunter up in Scotland, then after he did that, he went after all the other Dark-Hunters so that he could destroy them and all the Apollites could live in peace and feed off the humans without worrying about any of you guys."

Astrid shivered at Simi’s words as she remembered where she had been nine hundred years ago. "Thanatos is the one who killed Miles in Scotland?"

"Yes," Simi confirmed.

"Then he went after Zarek?"

Simi made an agitated noise. "He’s a Dark-Hunter, isn’t he? Are you two having some sort of strange human thing that you can’t follow what I’m saying?"

Astrid patted Simi’s hand hopefully to calm her a bit. "I’m sorry, Simi. You’re just telling us some things we knew nothing about."

Simi cocked her head and looked at Zarek. "Oh, I guess that’s okay then. Still… you should know something about Thanatos. Him being able to kill you and all."

Astrid sensed Zarek was about to speak. She gave him the kill signal while she continued to question Simi.

"Simi, why doesn’t Zarek remember the first Thanatos coming after him?"

" ‘Cause he’s not supposed to. Akri had to kill Thanatos in front of him and he made it so that Zarek wouldn’t remember anything about all that mess."

Zarek let out a slow breath as her words seeped in. Ash had made it so he wouldn’t remember.

"Acheron scrambled my brains?"

Astrid’s face filled with relief. "You’re innocent, Zarek."

Rage tore through him. "So I was banished to this godforsaken hellhole because Acheron killed Thanatos? What kind of bullshit is that?" He paced the floor angrily. "I’ll kill that bastard."

Simi shifted instantly into the shape of a "small" dragon.

One that was wedged into their tunnel. Her eyes blazed angrily as she hissed at him. "Did you insult my akri?"

Ready for battle, Zarek opened his mouth to tell her yes and found Astrid shielding him. She stood between them and held him behind her.

"No, Simi. Zarek has a right to be angry. He’s been exiled for something he didn’t do."

Simi shifted back into her humanoid form. "No he wasn’t. He was banished because he killed the Apollites."

Simi took on the form of Artemis. "See, I told you, Acheron, he’s insane. He knew better than to kill them."

She became Acheron. "What was he supposed to do? They were throwing themselves at him, trying to kill him. It was self-defense."

"It was murder."

"I swear, Artemis, you kill Zarek over this and I will walk out of that door and never come back."

She transformed back into herself. "See. That’s why he was banished. The bitch-goddess didn’t want akri to leave her so she agreed to let Zarek live here just so long as other people weren’t around him."

Simi looked around the dismal tunnel. "Honestly, I think I’d rather be dead myself. This place more boring than Katoteros and I didn’t know it could get more boring than Katoteros. I stand corrected. The next time akri tell me it not so bad at home, I might believe him. You don’t even have decent food here. No TV, neither."

Zarek stepped back and stared blankly at the wall as he tried to remember the past while Simi rattled on without pausing.

He could still hear screams from the villagers, but now he wondered…

Whose screams did he really hear?

Astrid felt her way toward him. The warmth of her presence seeped into him. She touched his arm, making him burn reflexively. Something about her touch always rocked him and made him want to turn into her.

Made him want to touch her.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

"No, not really. I want to know what happened to me that night."

She nodded as if she understood. "Simi, is there anything that can undo what Acheron did to Zarek’s memory?"

"Nope. Akri infallible. Well, except for a couple of things, and we don’t talk about those ’cause it makes akri cranky. I like that word ‘infallible.’ It just like me. Infallible."

"Then it’s hopeless," Zarek said under his breath. "I have no proof that I’m innocent and I’ll never know what happened there."

"I’m not so sure," Astrid said, smiling at him. "Don’t give up on me yet, Zarek. If we get proof of what she says, then my decision will stand. You’re innocent. No one will be able to argue against it. My sisters won’t let you be judged wrongfully."

He scoffed. "I was innocent when I was stoned to death, too, princess. Excuse me if I don’t have a lot of faith in justice or your sisters."

Astrid swallowed. It was true, the innocent often suffered, too. Her mother and sisters dismissed that fact as the way of the universe, even though her mother did strive to give justice to everyone.

Sometimes unfair things did happen. There was no way around that.

Zarek was a perfect example.

Still, he needed to know the truth about what had happened to him. He deserved that much.

"Simi? Is there any way you can show Zarek what happened that night?"

Simi tapped her forefinger against her cheek as she thought that over. "I suppose so. Akri didn’t say I couldn’t ‘show’ him anything, he only said I couldn’t talk to him."

Astrid smiled. Simi had always been extremely literal in her interpretation of everything Acheron ordered her to do.

"Will you? Please?"

Simi walked over to Zarek and took his chin in her hand.

Zarek started to protest, but something seemed to seep into him from her hand. It held him paralyzed.

Simi angled his face until he could stare into her now red and yellow eyes and there he saw the past.

Everything faded from around him and all he could focus on was Simi’s eyes. The images flickered across her pupils, then straight into his mind. He didn’t remember any of it having happened. It was like watching a movie of his own life.

He saw the fires of his village burning to the ground. The bodies scattered. Things that had haunted him for centuries. But that wasn’t all he saw this time.

There was more…

Forgotten images that had been taken from him.

He saw himself stumbling upon the village. Bewildered. Angry. The damage had already been done; he wasn’t responsible.