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inch shorter than Zarek, he had long dark brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and he wore a Western-style outback duster. There was a deadly quick aura around the man and as soon as their eyes met, Zarek knew he'd been betrayed.
    This was another Dark-Hunter.
    And there was only one out of the thousands of Dark-Hunters who knew about Sharon and him…
    Zarek cursed his own stupidity.
    The Dark-Hunter inclined his head toward him. "Z," he drawled in a thick Southern accent Zarek knew only too well. "Me and you need to talk."
    Zarek couldn't breathe as he stared at
Sharon and Sundown together. Sundown was the only person he had ever opened himself up to in his entire two thousand plus years of living.
    And he knew why Sundown was here.
    Sundown alone knew Zarek. Knew his haunts, his habits.
    Who better to hunt him down and kill him than his own best friend?
    "Talk about what?" he asked gruffly, narrowing his eyes.
    Sundown moved to stand in front of
Sharon as if to protect her. That he would think for even an instant that Zarek would threaten her hurt most of all. "I think you know why I'm here, Z."
    Yeah, he knew all right. He knew exactly what Sundown wanted with him. A nice, quick death so that Sundown could report back to Artemis and Acheron that everything was right again in the world, and then the cowboy would return home to
Reno.
    But Zarek had gone quietly to his execution once before. This time, he intended to fight for his life, such as it was.
    "Forget it, Jess," he said, using Sundown's real name.
    He turned and ran for the door.
    Zarek made it back into the yard before Sundown caught him and pulled him to a stop. He bared his fangs at him, but Jess didn't seem to notice.
    Zarek punched him hard in the stomach. It was a powerful strike that made Jess stagger back and it brought Zarek to his knees. Any time one Dark-Hunter attacked another one, the Dark-Hunter who attacked felt the blow ten times worse than the one who received it. There was only one way to avoid this—for Artemis to lift her ban. He just hoped she hadn't lifted it from Jess.
    Zarek struggled to breathe from the pain of it and forced himself to his feet. Unlike Jess, physical pain was something he was used to.
    But before he could go far, he saw Mike and three other Squires in the shadows. They were walking toward them with determined strides that said they were armed for Dark-Hunter.
    "Leave him to me," Sundown ordered.
    They ignored him and kept on coming.
    Spinning about, Zarek headed for his snowmachine only to find its engine in pieces. Obviously they had been busy while he was at Frank's.
    Damn it. How could he have been so stupid?
    They must have destroyed his generators to force him into town. They'd flushed him out of the woods like hunters with a wild animal.
    Fine. If they wanted an animal to track, he would be one.
    He slung his hand out and used his telekinesis to knock the Squires off their feet.
    Unwilling to hurt himself again, Zarek dodged Jess and ran for town.
    He didn't make it far before more Squires fell in and opened fire on him.
    Bullets tore through his body, shredding his skin. Zarek hissed and staggered from the pain of it.
    Still, he kept running.
    He had no choice.
    If he stayed down, they would dismember him, and though his life seriously sucked, he had no intention of becoming a Shade. Nor would he give them the satisfaction of killing him.
    Zarek rounded the side of a building.
    Something hard hit his middle.
    Agony exploded through him as he was flipped head over heels onto the ground. He came to rest on his back in the snow with the breath knocked completely out of him.
    A shadow with cold, merciless eyes moved to stand over him.
    At least six eight, the man held an unearthly masculine perfection. He had pale blond hair and dark brown eyes, and when he smiled, he revealed the same pair of fangs as Zarek.
    "What are you?" Zarek asked, knowing the stranger wasn't a Daimon or Apollite even though he looked like