Sherrilyn Kenyon - Acheron

Missed? What the-Suddenly, he understood what she was trying to say. "You mean screwed?"

"Yes, he screwed us both."

She had no idea. "And what did he do to you?"

"He abandoned me. He took my daughter and what do I have left? Nothing."

Nick scoffed at her self-pity. "Yeah, well, at least you're not on the Daimons' most wanted list. I swear I haven't had a single moment's peace. And the last thing I heard, Stryker's getting ready to break badass all over us."

She rolled her eyes. "You think Stryker doesn't want me dead? My brother's the one who turned on him. It's a cold world where I live."

"It could be worse. You could be friendless."

She gave him an arch glare. "You think I'm not?"

Nick disregarded her question. She had no idea how miserable his life was. How lonely and heartbreaking. "How can a goddess be friendless?"

"The same way a human can."

Yeah, she was insane. "You have the power to make your life better. I don't."

"That's not true. I've lost my only friend."

Honestly that's how Nick felt. He'd loved Ash like his brother and missed the friendship they'd had. Even though Ash had screwed him over, they had been so incredibly close.

Now, because Stryker could see everything Nick could whenever the demigod chose to look, he was completely isolated from the world he'd known before. No friends. No family.

He was alone and he hated it.

Artemis turned a speculative look toward him. "Would you be my friend, Nicholas? I promise you, you won't regret it."

A burst of wind blew through the party, lifting the hem of Tory's dress.

Ash looked up at the sky and frowned as he heard the sound of far-off thunder.

"Is something wrong?" Tory asked.

"There's a storm brewing."

"You mean the weather, right?"

Ash shook his head slowly as his senses tingled. No, there was something coming for them. He could feel it. Dark and deadly, it wanted a piece of him.

"Don't worry, Sota. I'll keep you dry." But even as he said the words, he knew the truth. He wasn't her haven. She was his, and so long as he had her by his side, he could face anything. "Bring the rain," he whispered, "bring the rain."

These are two scenes that I wanted to work into other

books, but they really didn't have a place in them. The first

one was originally in Seize the Night, but the length of the

book was such that my editor at the time thought we should

cut it, especially since it didn't really relate to the story at

hand. Our thinking then was that it might fit into another

book, but it never did. So here it is now, in its entirety.

Ash listened quietly as the priest spoke words of comfort outside the tomb in the St. Louis cemetery where Cherise Gautier had been laid to rest. Julian, Grace, Kyrian, Amanda, Tabitha and Valerius stood to his right while Talon, Sunshine and the Peltiers were lined up on his left to pay respect to one of the finest women Ash had ever been privileged to know. He was dressed in the same clothes he'd had on the day he'd first met the woman: a pair of slouchy black pants, an oversized black sweater and a long leather coat. Cherise had taken one look at him and clucked her tongue.

"When was the last time you ate?" she'd asked him.

"An hour ago."

His words hadn't fooled her at all. Convinced he was lying to save his pride, she'd promptly sat him down in a chair and proceeded to make him a plate of Cajun hashbrowns while Nick had tried not to laugh at them.

In the last eleven thousand years, Cherise had been one of the rare people who'd treated Ash like a human being. She hadn't seen him as anything more than a young man who needed a mother's love and a friend.

And he missed her more than anything.

As he stood with the cold wind cutting through him, he could hear his own soul screaming out in rage that he'd caused this. That he had no one to blame for her death but himself. How could one sentence uttered in anger cause so much damage? But then words were the most powerful thing in the universe. Cuts and bruises always healed, but words spoken in anger were most often permanent. They didn't damage the body, they destroyed the spirit.

"I first met Cherise the day her mother bore her," the old priest said to them. "And I was there the evening she brought her own child into this world. Nick was her pride and all of you who knew her know that if you'd ever asked her what her most prized possession was, she would have answered with Nick's name."

Kyrian slid a sideways look at Ash who heard the former Greek general's thoughts. Since Nick's body hadn't been found after the vicious murder of Cherise, the consensus among the New Orleans Dark-Hunters and Squires, both former and current, was that Nick had become a Dark-Hunter himself.

They all knew better than to ask Ash for the truth. The humans who didn't know of their world all assumed that Nick had been another casualty to whatever fate had befallen his mother, while the authorities believed Nick had killed her.

That latter was why Ash knew he couldn't bring Nick back to New Orleans. Not for a long time at least. The police were looking for him and they would convict him in a heartbeat.

Not to mention he didn't really want anyone to know about Nick. At least not until Nick was ready to deal with the world. Right now the man was too hurt and too angry.

Not that Ash blamed him in the slightest.

After the priest finished, Amanda and Tabitha placed the roses they held in their hands at the door of Cherise's tomb while the priest and the Peltiers left.

Amanda paused beside Ash. "We're having a memorial service later for Nick at our house. Just the Dark-Hunters and Squires. We'd like for you to be there."

Ash nodded, but refused to meet her eyes. If he did, he was sure she'd know the truth.

He didn't move until he was alone. Sighing, he glanced at the stone monuments around him that made up the cemetery. There were so many people here whom he'd personally known. So many he'd seen live and die.

He could hear the sound of their voices on the wind, remember their faces, their lives.

Just like Cherise, they were now nothing more than memories to haunt him.

"I'm sorry, Cherise," he whispered.

Stepping forward, he created a mavyllo, a sacred black rose that had been created by his mother, and laid it beside the red ones. Unlike the red ones, it would take root here and grow in memory of her.

It was the highest honor his kind could bestow on anyone.

"Don't worry, Cherise. I won't let anything else bad happen to your son… I promise."

This scene is the one I'd thought to put in the back of Dream

Chaser , but again, it didn't really fit. For those who've fol

lowed the Dark-Hunter and Dream-Hunter series, you'll re

call that in Talon's book, Night Embrace, the Charonte

escape from Kalosis and vanish.

They're all assumed dead.

In Dream Chaser , we find out that they did survive. In fact,

a large group of them have taken refuge in New Orleans.

And for those of you curious, the demons will return in

Fang and Aimee's book which will be out summer 2009.

In the meantime, here's the reunion scene between Simi and

her brother.

"Why we coming to an old stupid club, akri? The Simi wants to shop."

Ash looked hid his smile as she led Simi and Xirena toward the building at the corner of the block. "Well, it's a special club."

"Special how?" Xirena asked irritably. Like Simi, she wanted to shop and eat. "Is there food there?"

Ash nodded. "Pretty sure since the name of it's Club Charonte."