Acheron

asked him.

Sighing, he pushed himself to his feet. 'Nick has issues. Unfortunately, Ash seems to be his biggest one.'

'How so?'

'They used to be best friends and now they're mortal enemies. I didn't know Nick would be able to tell you were with Ash or I wouldn't have let him in here. Sorry.'

Tory waved his apology away. 'You didn't do anything wrong. I'm just stunned by the animosity.' She thought Ash only elicited that kind of anger from her. 'What happened to make them enemies?'

'I honestly don't know. But given how close they were a few years ago, it must have been one hell of a fight.'

Tory shook her head at the disclosure. Poor Ash. Couldn't he depend on anyone to keep faith with him? No wonder he was so skittish of everyone. It seemed he collected enemies the way some people collected trading cards.

It made her want to protect him all the more.

Ash stopped right before he entered Liza's store. He didn't know why, but he had a bad feeling about Tory. Unable to explain it, he flashed himself back to Sanctuary where he found her standing behind the bar, making beers.

Relief the likes of which he'd never known filled him. Without thinking, he dodged behind the bar and pulled her back against him so that he could feel her there, safe and whole.

She reached up and cupped his cheek with her hand. 'Are you all right?'

'Yeah, I just…' He snorted at his own stupidity. 'Never mind.'

Aimee paused beside them. 'If you were about to say that you had a bad feeling, you weren't being ridiculous. Nick was here a few minutes ago.'

His stomach hit the floor as fear filled his entire being. 'What happened?'

Tory turned to face him. 'He told me to give you his regards.'

Ash cursed at the veiled threat. 'I can't believe that sack of shit. If he so much as breathes on you, I swear I'll rip his throat out.'

Dev laughed as he leaned against the bar from the other side. 'No fear there. Tory took him out on her own.'

'What do you mean?'

'I mean I'd be really nice to her if I were you, Ash. She dropped his ass like a trained combat SEAL with one well planted squeeze in a highly sensitive area. It was entertaining as hell for those of us not on the receiving end of it. Nick, however, will probably be a limping falsetto for at least a week.' He shuddered. 'I for one plan to keep at least three feet between me and her arm's reach for the rest of my lifetime.'

Tory's face turned bright pink. 'I don't like being manhandled by strangers.'

He didn't like her to be manhandled either and it snapped his fury to the forefront. 'Nick really didn't hurt you?'

'Not a bit. But I hate that I had to hurt him. Poor guy.'

Ash closed his eyes behind his sunglasses as those words touched him. That was why she meant so much to him. She could see the best in even the worst of creatures-well, except for him when they first met. But even that he was beginning to find charming. 'Why are you down here and not upstairs resting?'

'Boredom. It's not in me to sit around and do nothing all day. I'm Greek. We must work. To quote my Aunt Del there is no lean when you can clean.'

Aimee laughed. 'Don't worry, we're not letting her out of our sight… and after the Nick incident, we're not letting her out from behind this bar.'

'Yeah,' Tory said wistfully, 'Prisoners R Us.'

Ash arched a brow. She said that like it was a bad thing. Truthfully, he was grateful for it. 'Good. Since all of you have it under control, I'm going to return to my errands and I'll be back shortly.'

'Be careful.'

He inclined his head to Tory and the words that touched him before he returned to Liza's store. Just as he reached for the knob, he heard Artemis's shrill scream in his head echoing like barbed wire against his brain.

'Acheron! Here! Now!'

'I'm not your dog, Artemis.'

She appeared in front of him on the street, her eyes flaming red. 'Then if you won't heel, let's see if I can make your bitch beg.' She started to fade.

Ash grabbed her arm and held her beside him. 'What are you talking about?'

She wrenched her arm out of his grasp. 'You didn't really think you could go off and fuck another woman and I wouldn't find out about it, did you? You faithless pig! I'm going to make her scream like no mortal has ever screamed before.'

This time when she started to leave, Ash launched himself at her and took them to her temple on Olympus. He held her pinned between him and her bedroom wall. Artemis let out a shriek so severe he was amazed he still had his hearing.

'Let me go!'

He shook his head. 'Not until we settle this.'

'Settle what? That you're a lying, faithless bastard? How could you!' She tried to scratch at his face.

Ash held her hands and kept her pinned between him and the wall.

'I will have her life, her soul, everything!'

'You won't touch her.'

'You don't command me!'

Those words set his wrath off to such a height that he immediately shifted into his true destroyer's form. He saw his blue hands and could only imagine what the rest of him must look like. 'Don't push me, Artemis. I haven't fed in weeks and in this matter, I will kill you. Do you understand?'

She snarled at him. 'I hate you!'

'You've always hated me. Since the moment I first kissed you in your temple, you've despised me and I know it.'

With a furious scream, Artemis started sobbing as if her heart was being ripped into shreds. She fought against him. 'That's not true. We were friends. I loved you!'

He scoffed at the lies she still believed. 'You loved me so much that you watched as I was butchered on the floor at your feet. That's not love, Artie. I felt your relief when I was dead.'

She shook her head in denial. 'I brought you back because I loved you.'

'That's the lie you tell yourself, but I know the truth. You brought me back because you were afraid of my mother.'

'I am a goddess!'

'And I'm a god. One whose powers mock yours and you know it.'

She shrieked again as she tried to buck him off. 'You've betrayed me and I want vengeance for it.'

'Then take it out on me.'

She froze at his words and for the first time since she'd attacked him, there was a semblance of sanity there. 'What are you saying?'

Ash took a small step back, prepared to seize her again if he needed to. 'I'm the one who betrayed you. If you want to make someone bleed, then I offer myself to you as your victim. But you have to swear to me that you'll never lay a hand on Soteria. Ever.'

The flame of sexual heat in her eyes sickened him. She could deny it all she wanted to, but she got off on making him bleed and suffer. She always had. 'Only if you swear not to use your powers to heal yourself. You will take the punishment you have earned and you will suffer for what you've done to me.'

Because it was always about Artemis.

Of course he wouldn't have been with Tory because Tory was kind to him. The only reason he could ever be with someone else was to hurt Artemis and for that he'd bleed.

Yeah…

'I swear it.'

She lifted her chin. 'Release me.'