"Give him time to think it over," she said gently, feeling for him. "He'll come around."
"And if he doesn't?"
He'd be dead, most likely by Alexion's hand. And as distasteful as she found that, she could only imagine how much more so he did. Therefore, it would only be cruel to point it out, and she had a feeling that Alexion had had enough cruelty in his life.
"Can't Ash tell you the outcome? I know he can see the future."
"Yes and no. Neither he nor I can see the future when it relates to us or to anyone close to us."
That didn't seem fair to her. What would be the point of seeing the future if you couldn't help the people closest to you? "It must stink to know everyone's future but your own."
He let out a tired breath. "You've no idea. It's actually cruel in my opinion. But then maybe it doesn't matter after all since futures can and do change. Something as simple as you're supposed to turn right down a street one day... in your bones you know it, and yet for reasons no one understands, you decide to debunk fate and go left. Now instead of meeting the spouse of your dreams and having a house full of kids, you get flattened by an ice-cream truck and spend the next five years in physical therapy recovering from the injuries; or worse, you die from it. And all because you exercised free will and turned the opposite way on a whim."
That was something to give her nightmares. It really didn't bear thinking on since it made her wonder where she had gone so tragically wrong with her own life. Was it fate or free will that had screwed her over?
"Now that's really morbid, Doc Sunshine. Thank you for that one."
He made a small face, as if he realized just how doom-and-gloom he'd been. "It can work in reverse too."
"Yeah, but I notice you didn't think of the positive one first. Freud would have a blast with you, wouldn't he?"
"Probably so," he said flippantly. "I'll have to ask him when I get back."
She paused at his words and what they signified. "You know Sigmund Freud?"
The grin he gave her was absolutely dazzling in its charm and beauty. "No, but I had you going there for a minute, didn't I?"
Danger shook her head. There was something so oddly infectious about him. She hated the thought that she could be charmed so easily, and yet he was doing it little by little.
"So what should we do with Marco?" she asked, returning to the matter at hand.
Alexion looked at the body. "There's not much to be done now."
Danger did a double take as she realized the body had already decomposed. She stared at the blank spot where he'd been lying just a few minutes ago. The only thing left to mark where he'd been was his clothes.
"Mon Dieu," she breathed. "Do we all do that?"
Alexion's tone was emotionless. "All humans do eventually."
"Yeah," she said, her voice carrying the weight of anger that was building inside her at the thought of just evaporating like that. "But it usually takes more than five minutes."
"Not for a Dark-Hunter."
Danger continued to stare at the spot. It was highly disturbing. She wasn't even sure why. Only that it seemed a body as strong as theirs, which was immune to so much, shouldn't just crumble away in a matter of minutes.
The finality of the death hit her hard.
Alexion pulled her into his arms. Her first instinct was to push him away, but honestly, she needed his touch right now. She needed something to ground her and to keep her from panicking over a reality that had never hit her before.
Ultimate death.
No Artemis to bring them back. No heaven. Just total annihilation and desolate pain. She could be like that man Alexion had showed her earlier. Without hope. Without anything at all.
"It's all right, Danger," he said softly against the top of her head as he cradled her. "I don't know if it'll make you feel better, but he had started killing humans."
In a way it did, in a way it didn't. "I don't want to die like that, Alexion."
And then she realized something...
He had. He'd died alone with the woman he'd loved dropping his soul and refusing to help him.
How could his wife have done such a thing? It was so cold. So callous.
Danger pulled back ever so slightly to look up at him. "Is that what happened to your body?"
He nodded. "It's why I don't have one now."
But he felt so real, so solid. "Then how can you be here to hold me?"
There was a tenderness in his eyes that fired her blood. He might be a destroyer but he understood compassion, and she truly appreciated his showing it to her now when she needed it most.
"Acheron has a lot of powers and luckily reincarnation is one of them. This temporary body is identical to yours, except it really is indestructible. Cut my head off and I can still poof right back here."
That didn't make sense to her. "I don't understand. Then why were you afraid of the Charonte?"
He gave a nervous laugh. "The Charontes don't just destroy the body. They destroy the ousia."
"The what?"
He smoothed the hair back from her face as he explained it. "It's the part of us that exists beyond the body or the soul. The soul is our spiritual part. The ousia is what gives us our personality. It is our essence, our life force if you will. Without it, there's nothing left of us. It is the ultimate death, from which there is no return of any kind. A Charonte is one of the few things that can easily end what little existence I have left. And though my existence might suck a lot, I'll take it with all its drawbacks over total destruction any day."
She still didn't understand. "But if Acheron is so powerful that he can grant you a temporary body, why can't he give you a permanent one?"
Alexion grew quiet and took a step back.
His face had turned to stone again, letting her know that she had touched on a very sensitive subject. "C'mon, Alexion, spill it. There's something even weirder about you, isn't there? Something that scares you."
She could see it in his eyes.
He moved away from her, back toward the car. She went after him, not really expecting an answer.
But after a few seconds he said, "Acheron was young when he brought me back. At that time, he didn't have a full understanding of his powers, and the gods know Artemis wasn't forthcoming with instructions. If she'd had her way, he wouldn't have learned anything."
A bad feeling went through her. "So basically what you're saying is he screwed up with you."
He nodded without looking at her. "If I'd died even a hundred years later, it would have been a different story for me. But what was done to me is irreversible even for Acheron. I can never again be human or live as a man. There's nothing to be done for me. Ever."
He took that with remarkable dignity, but then he'd had a long time to get used to the idea. She, herself, would still be pissed off that Acheron had screwed her up. "I'm really sorry, Alexion."
"It's okay. At least he cared enough to save me. If he hadn't..." He glanced over to where Marco had been.
Crap. She didn't like the thought of him dying like that at all. She supposed he was right. What he had now was much better than the alternative.
Danger tilted her head to indicate the direction of the car. "Why don't we go get something to eat? I'm really hungry."
"Sure."
The car unlocked by itself the instant they drew near it. Danger shook her head at his powers. He was every bit as scary at times as Acheron.
She got into the car on the driver's side while he entered on the passenger's side.
"So what name would you rather I call you?" she asked as she headed out of the parking lot. "Ias or Alexion?"
He gave her a devilish grin that set fire to her hormones. "I would rather you call me 'lover.'" He wagged his brows playfully at her.
Danger rolled her eyes. Like all men with a one-track mind, he was incorrigible.
"Don't blame me," Alexion said in an almost offended tone. "I can't help it. You should see the way you fight. It really turned me on."
"Could you tell me how to turn you off?"
He snorted. "Go two hundred years without sex and then ask that question. There's not a shower cold enough." His gaze trailed over to the tennis courts they were passing where a handful of college students were playing. "Aren't co-eds supposed to be women of loose-"
She made a sound of disgust in the back of her throat. "Don't you even go there."
"Well, if you don't want me..."
She cut him a mischievous look of her own. "I never said that, now did I?"