She stamped her foot like a child who just had her favorite toy taken away and glared at him. "I hate it when you mess up your hair, and what is this thing you have in your nose?"
Ash felt the stud vanish and the hole close. He clenched his teeth. No doubt his hair was blond again too. "Dammit, Artemis, you don't own me."
Her eyes flashed dangerously. "You belong to me, Acheron Parthenopaeus," she said, her voice full of rage and possession. "All of you. Mind, body, and soul. Don't you ever forget it."
He narrowed his eyes. "You have no real hold over me, Artie. We both know that. When all is said and done, my powers make a mockery of yours."
"Oh no, love. So long as your Dark-Hunter army and the humans they protect mean more to you than you do, I will always have power over you." She smiled coldly at him, then flashed out of the human realm.
Ash cursed and felt a childish impulse to send a lightning bolt slashing through the alley. No doubt she was trying to lure him back to her temple.
Like an idiot, he was going to go. He had to. He still didn't know who had zapped the Daimons, and if it wasn't Artemis, then there was someone else toying with him.
And woe to any other fool who dared to cross him. He tolerated Artemis because he had to.
He didn't have to put up with anyone else. And by Archon's thorny hammer, he'd tear the head off the next person who annoyed him.
"So," Sunshine said to Talon as she sat on his bed wearing nothing but a borrowed T-shirt, her legs tucked up under her. "Are you planning on keeping me here forever, or what?"
Lying on his side, he picked through the platter she had made for them until he found the M&M's he had insisted she include. "Depends. Do you plan to keep making me eat this healthy crap or can I have the leftover steak out of the fridge?"
She wrinkled her nose at him as she munched another strawberry. It still amazed her that she had found his small, secret stash of fresh fruit in the bottom drawer of his refrigerator. The man seemed to have an aversion to eating anything nontoxic.
"I don't see how you stay healthy eating the garbage you have in your cabinets. Did you know I counted five different kinds of potato chips?"
"Really? There should be six. Did I eat all the barbecue?"
"You are not funny." But she laughed anyway.
"Relax," he said, reaching for the banana chips she'd made. "Have a banana."
She gave him an arch look, then trailed her gaze impishly down his gorgeous naked body. "I already had your banana."
He smiled at her. "I think it would be more correct to say my banana had you."
Sunshine laughed again as she leaned over to feed him a strawberry. He held her hand to his lips while he ran his tongue over her fingers and gently nipped her skin before he let her withdraw.
He was unlike anyone she'd ever met before.
But unfortunately, it couldn't last.
Her heart sank as the reality of it hit her. She needed to get out of here before leaving him became even more difficult than it already was. She didn't want to hurt him or herself.
"You know, Talon," she said, picking through the strawberries. "It's been fun the last couple of days, but I really do need to get back home."
Talon swallowed his food and took a drink of water. That was easier said than done. He couldn't take her home, not if the Daimons were still after her and not if Ash wanted her protected.
Dereliction of duty wasn't something the Atlantean was forgiving about.
Dark-Hunters were protectors. Anyone who failed to uphold their code quickly found themselves spending eternity in painful torment.
Not that he needed that threat. The truth was, he didn't want to see Sunshine hurt. He liked her a lot more than he should.
Worst of all, he liked spending time with her. It had been so long since he'd just shared an evening with someone. And she was so easy to talk to. So funny and warm.
"Would you stay the night if I asked you to?"
He saw the sadness in her eyes. "I would like to, but what about tomorrow? You can't exactly take me home then, and if I use your boat, you won't have a way to leave your cabin."
"I could take you home tomorrow night."
She reached out and toyed with his small braids. Her smile was gentle and filled with regret. "No, Talon. As much as I would like to, I need to get back home. I have a job to do and I'm not independently wealthy. Every day I'm not in the Square, it's a day I'm not making money. I have to eat, you know. Wheat germ isn't cheap."
"If it's just the money-"
"It's not, Talon. I have to get back to my life."
He knew she was right. Sooner or later they would have to part company.
He would take her back as she wanted and then he could still protect her after dark, hidden in the shadows.
"Be a part of the world, but never in it."
He remembered the long-ago night Acheron had said those words to him.
"Because of what we do, we have to interact with people. But we must be unseen shadows who move among them.
"Never let anyone know you. Never give them a chance to realize you don't age. Move through the darkness ever watchful, ever alert. We are all that stands between the humans and slavery. Without us, they all die and their souls are lost forever.
"Our responsibilities are great. Our battles numerous and legendary.
"But at the end of the night, you go home alone where no one knows what it is you have done to save the world that fears you. You can never bask in your glory. You can never know love or family.
"We are Dark-Hunters.
"We are forever powerful.
"We are forever alone."
Talon drew a deep breath. His time with her was over. "All right," he said. "I'll take you back."
He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her deeply. And as he tasted her, his thoughts drifted back into the past.
"Speirr?" his uncle's irate voice called from the other side of his door. "Can you please tear yourself away from your wife's embrace for one afternoon to actually attend business with me? My troth, the way you two carry on I can't imagine why you don't have five dozen children by now."
Nynia laughed from above him as she gently rode him. "You're in trouble again."
"Aye, but you're worth it, Nyn."
As she so often did, Nynia leaned over and rubbed noses with him before she kissed him passionately and slid off him. "You'd best be going or your uncle will have both our heads."
Talon winced at the memory and the pain it awoke inside him.
Sunshine pulled back and rubbed her nose against his just like Nynia had always done.
He went cold.
Something wasn't right. These memories, her actions...
The way she awoke his emotions.