Sherrilyn Kenyon - Dance With The Devil

If Thanatos or the Squires killed Zarek, then Zarek would become a bodiless Shade who was doomed to walk the earth for eternity. Forever hungry and suffering.

Forever in pain.

Ash winced at the memory.

Unable to stand the thought of it, he headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Artemis asked.

"To find Themis and undo what you've started."

Artemis suddenly appeared in front of him, blocking his way to the door. "You're not going anywhere."

"Then call off your dog."

"No."

"Fine." Ash looked down his right arm at the she-dragon tattoo that ran from his shoulder to his wrist. "Simi," he commanded. "Take human form."

The dragon lifted itself from his skin, shifted its shape into that of a young demonic woman, no taller than three feet. She hovered effortlessly to his right.

In this incarnation, her wings were dark blue and black, even though she usually preferred burgundy for them. The darker color of the wings combined with the color of her eyes told him just how unhappy Simi was to find herself here on Olympus.

Her eyes were white, rimmed in red, and her long yellow-blond hair floated around her. She had black horns that were more beautiful than sinister and long pointed ears. Her flowing red dress wrapped around her lithe, muscular body, which she could mold into any size from one inch to eight feet tall in human form or as large as eighty feet as a dragon.

"No!" Artemis said, trying to use her powers to contain the Charonte demon. It didn't faze Simi, who could only be summoned or controlled by Ash or his mother.

"Whatcha want, akri? Simi asked Ash.

"Kill Thanatos."

Simi flashed her fangs as she rubbed her hands together gleefully and cast an evil smirk at Artemis. "Oh, goodie! I get to make the redheaded goddess mad!"

Artemis looked desperately at Ash. "Put it back on your arm."

"Forget it, Artemis. You're not the only one who can command a killer. Personally, I think it would be interesting to see just how long your Thanatos would last against my Simi."

Artemis's face paled.

"He won't last long, akri," Simi said to Ash, using the Atlantean term for "lord and master." Her voice was quiet but powerful and had a singsongy quality that was quite musical in tone. "Thanatos is barbecue." She smiled at Artemis. "And I like my barbecue. Just tell me how you want him, akri, normal recipe or extra crispy. I'm partial to extra crispy myself. They crunch louder when deep-fried. Reminds me, I need some bread crumbs."

Artemis swallowed audibly. "You can't send it after him. It's uncontrollable without you."

"She does only what I tell her to do."

"That thing is a menace, with or without you. Zeus forbid it should ever go out into the human world alone."

Ash scoffed at that. "She's less a menace than you are and she goes out all the time on her own."

"I can't believe you'd unleash it so carelessly. What are you thinking?"

While they argued, Simi floated around the room, making a list in a small leather-bound book. "Ooo, let's see, I need to get my spicy barbecue sauce. Definitely some oven mitts, 'cause he's gonna be hot from being flame-broiled. I need to get a couple of them apple trees to make wood chips so the meat be nice and apple tasting. Give it that extra yumminess, 'cause I don't like that Daimon flavor. Ack!"

"What's it doing?" Artemis asked as she realized Simi was talking to herself.

"She's making a list of what she needs to kill Thanatos."

"It sounds like it's going to eat him."

"Probably."

Artemis's eyes narrowed. "It can't eat him. I forbid it."

Ash gave a sinister half-laugh. "She can do as she pleases. I taught her to waste not, want not."

Simi paused and lifted her head up from her list to snort at Artemis. "The Simi is very environmentally sound. Eat everything except for hooves. I don't like those, they hurt my teeth." She looked at Ash. "Thanatos don't have hooves, do he?"

"No, Simi, he doesn't."

Simi gave a happy cry. "Ooo, good eating tonight. I get a Daimon for barbecue. Can I go now, akri? Can I? Can I? Can I, please?" Simi danced around like a small, happy child at a birthday party.

Ash stared at Artemis. "It's entirely up to you, Artie. He lives or dies by your word."

"No, akri!" Simi whined after a brief, stunned pause. She sounded as if she were in pain. "Don't ask her that. She never let me have no fun. She a mean goddess!"

Ash knew how much Artemis hated it when he won an argument with her. Her eyes smoldered with barely leashed fury. "What do you want me to do?'.'

"You say Zarek is unfit to live, that he poses a threat to others. All I ask is that you have Themis judge him. If her judge finds that Zarek is a danger to those around him, then I will send Simi after him myself to end his life."

Simi bared her fangs at Artemis as they exchanged venomous sneers.

Finally, Artemis looked back at him. "Very well, but I don't trust your demon. I will have Thanatos stand down, but after Zarek is judged guilty, I will send Thanatos in to finish him."

"Simi," Ash said to his Charonte companion. "Return to me."

She looked disgusted by the mere thought." 'Return to me, Simi,' " Simi mocked as she shifted forms. "Don't go frying the goddess. Don't go frying Thanatos." She made a strange horselike snort. "I am not a yo-yo, akri. I am a Simi. I hate it when you get me all excited about going to kill something and then tell me no. I don't like that. It boring. You don't ever let me have any fun anymore."

"Simi," he said, stressing her name.

The demon pouted and then flew to the left side of his body and returned to his arm in the shape of a stylized bird on his biceps.

Ash rubbed his hand over the small burn there that he always felt whenever Simi left or returned to his skin.

Artemis stared with malice at Simi's new form. Then, she stepped around him and leaned against his back as she brushed one hand over Simi's image. "One day I'm going to find a way to rid you of that beast resting on your arm."

"Sure you will," he said, forcing himself to endure Artemis's touch as she breathed across his skin while she leaned against his back. It was something Ash had never been able to tolerate with ease, and it was something she knew he hated.

He looked at her over his shoulder. "And one day I'm going to find a way to rid myself of the beast resting on my back."

Astrid sat alone in her atrium reading her favorite book, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. No matter how many times she read it, she always found something new in it.

And today she needed to find something good. Something to remind her that there was beauty in the world. Innocence. Joy. Happiness.

Most of all, she wanted to find hope.

A soft gentle breeze floated off the lilac-scented river, through the marble Doric columns and across the white wicker chaise where she sat. Her three sisters had been here for a little while, but she had sent them away.

Not even they could comfort her.

Tired and disillusioned, she had sought solace in her book. In it, she saw goodness, a goodness that was missing in the people she'd known in her life.

Was there no decency? No kindness?

Had humanity finally managed to destroy both?

Her sisters, as much as she loved them, were as ruthless as anyone else. They were completely indifferent to the pleadings and suffering of anyone not related to them.

Nothing touched any of them anymore.

Astrid couldn't remember the last time she had cried. The last time she had laughed.

She was numb now.

Numbness was the curse of her kind. Her sister Atty had warned her long ago that if she chose to be a judge this day would come.

Young, vain, and stupid, Astrid had foolishly ignored the warning, thinking it could never happen to her.