Acheron

"Why would I want to attack a god?"

Artemis leaned her head against his shoulder and inhaled his masculine scent. She adored the i

"Men do a lot of things I don't agree with."

"And that's why I've given you the powers you need. I don't want you hurt like that ever again."

Acheron tried to fight the swell of love inside him. But he couldn't. Not when she gave him so much. Not when she touched him like this and made him feel decent and wanted.

Artemis squeezed him tightly, then pulled back to hand him a small box.

"What's this?"

"My gift to celebrate your birth. Open it."

Stu

"Of course."

But it couldn't be that simple. Nothing ever was. "What payment do you want?"

She scowled at him. "I want no payment, Acheron. It's a gift."

Still he shook his head in denial. "Nothing is ever freely given."

She closed his hand around it and caressed his fingers. "This is freely given to you, akribos. And I wish to see you open it."

Truly, he couldn't fathom this. Why would Artemis give him a present?

His heart pounding, he opened the box to find a ring inside. Picking it up, he saw a double bow and arrow on it, but when he moved the ring, it shifted to an image of Artemis with a deer.

She smiled happily. "It's an insignia ring. I give them to my followers whom I grant the ability to summon me. Most of them have to find a tree and perform a ritual and say the right words. But you, my Acheron, you may summon me at any time."

When he started to put it on his finger, she stopped him. "It should be worn over your heart." A gold chain appeared and as Artemis placed it around his neck, another thought occurred to him. It wasn't just over his heart… worn like this the ring was also out of sight.

At least she thought enough of you to give you a gift.

That was true.

She kissed his cheek, then manifested a sword in her hand. Handing it to him, she winked. "Show me what you do."

"What do you mean?"

She inclined her head to two shadow warriors behind him. "Fight them, Acheron. Whatever you need to defeat them will be yours."

Skeptical, he stepped away from her. But the moment they approached, his body knew instinctively how to fight.

Artemis smiled in satisfaction as she watched Acheron spar with the shades. She'd done a good deed for her human. And as she watched, heat invaded every part of her. He moved like quicksilver. His muscles rippled and flexed, straining and defining with every blow he parried and delivered. Her hunger built and she wondered why his blood was so addictive… more so than even her brother's.

Why did she crave Acheron so?

Yet there was no denying his allure. Right now, she wanted to throw him on her bed and keep him there for the rest of eternity.

The smile he gave her as he finished off his sparring opponents made her melt.

"I told you," she said, approaching him.

Acheron held the sword in his fist with a confidence he'd never known outside of someone's bed. He couldn't believe that he finally knew how to fight as well as he knew how to use his body to please others. It was a heady concoction.

Power…

Grateful to Artemis, he tossed the sword aside and pulled her into his arms. Something strange rippled through him. It was like a part of him had been unleashed and it shook him to his foundations.

Artemis trembled as she saw his silver eyes flash red at the same time his lips turned black. It happened so fast that she wasn't sure she hadn't imagined it.

Then Acheron took possession of her mouth with a fury that was dizzying. She felt the power of him and it made her tremble. Her heart pounding, she surrendered herself to him. He pi

This was a new side of her pet. And when he entered her, she almost passed out from the sheer pleasure of it.

He was as wild and untamed as a predator in the wild. The sound of his breath, punctuated by grunts of pleasure set fire to her soul. A laugh caught in her throat. Had she any idea he'd be like this, she would have given him this gift long ago.

Screaming out as her orgasm ripped through her, she dug her nails into his skin. But he didn't even pause as he delivered even deeper and harder strokes to her body. She wouldn't have thought it possible, but her pleasure increased as another orgasm exploded.

When he finally came, she was completely weak and sated. So much so that she realized she hadn't even fed from him.

Blessed Olympus, how could this be?

Effortlessly, Acheron swung her up in his arms and carried her back into her temple, to her bedroom.

"How can you even move after all that?" she asked breathlessly.

"Goddess, I could fly right now if you asked me to."

Laughing, Artemis lay weakly on her bed as her body still tingled from the memory of his.

Acheron lay beside her, then rained kisses over her lips and breasts.

She shook her head at him. "You are feisty this day."

Acheron paused at her words before he betrayed himself. He wasn't feisty. The truth was that her actions had made him fall in love with her all over again. He remembered now why he'd opened himself up to her. Artemis was kind when she chose to be.

If she didn't care for him, his wounds today wouldn't have mattered to her. Not even Estes had cared emotionally when he'd been harmed. Wounds only meant lost profits to him. But Artemis had been genuinely angry on his behalf.

He took her hand and led it to his lips so he could kiss the palm of her hand. "I am ever your servant, my goddess. I pledge myself to you forever."

She giggled. "My Acheron, you have no concept of forever."

"Then I pledge myself to you for the rest of my life."

She brushed the hair back from his face. "I accept that pledge… and that's the best one I've heard this day. Now come feed me. You've made me terribly hungry."

Acheron slid himself up her body and offered her his neck. At the twinge of pain, he remembered Styxx laying the brand over his skin.

Hissing, he pulled back instinctively. He felt his flesh tear as blood flowed freely from the wound. He tried to cover it, but the blood spurted between his fingers, coating them and staining the white linens under him.

Artemis sucked her breath in sharply as she realized what Acheron had done. His blood covered them both. She grabbed his neck and held him close while she healed the wound. He trembled against her.

"You should never do that, Acheron."

Now he'd be too weak for her. She bit back her anger. Normally she'd have punished him, but he'd been through enough. Cleaning him up, she laid him back against her bed to let him rest.

He tried to stay awake, but his eyes finally fluttered closed. Artemis stared at his naked beauty on her bed. His legs and arms were so long and graceful, so incredibly well formed. His stomach muscles were cut so deep that they looked chiseled. And as she remembered the way he'd made love to her, she grew hot all over again.

"You should always touch me like that."

If only he could hear her.

She reached to brush her hand through his hair and the instant her hand made contact, his hair turned jet black. She jerked back and watched as blue marbled itself over his skin.

Terrified, she scrambled from the bed. The number twenty-one wrote itself down his spine before the color faded and he returned to his normal state.

She frowned in confusion. Was this a reaction from her gift or her feeding from him? She'd never fed from a human before. Did they all do this?