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one.
    "I am Thanatos, Dark-Hunter," he said in Classic Greek, using the name that meant "death." "And I'm here to kill you."
    He seized Zarek by his coat and threw him against the far building as if he were nothing more than a rag doll.
    Zarek hit the wall hard and slid to the street. His body hurt so badly that his limbs shook as he tried to crawl away from the beast.
    Zarek stopped. "I won't die like this again," he snarled. Not on his belly like some fearful animal waiting for slaughter.
    Like a worthless slave being beaten.
    His body fortified by his rage, he forced himself to his feet and swung around to face Thanatos.
    The creature smiled. "Backbone. How I love it. But not as much as I love sucking the marrow from it."
    Zarek caught his arm as he reached for him. "You know what I love?" Zarek snapped the creature's arm and seized him by his neck. "The sound of a Daimon breathing his last breath."
    Thanatos laughed. The sound was evil and cold. "You can't kill me, Dark-Hunter. I'm even more immortal than you are."
    Zarek gaped as Thanatos's arm healed instantly.
    "What are you?" Zarek asked again.
    "I told you. I am Death and no one defeats or escapes Death."
    Oh, shit. He was screwed now.
    But he was far from defeated. Death might take him, but the bastard was going to have to work for it.
    "You know," Zarek said, falling into the surreal calmness that had allowed him as a whipping boy to suffer through untold beatings. "I'll bet most people shit their pants in terror when you hand them that line. But you know what, Mr. I-want-to-be-scary-and-am-failing-miserably? I'm not a person. I'm a Dark-Hunter and in the grand scheme of things you don't mean shit to me."
    He concentrated all of his powers into his hand, then delivered a powerful blow straight to Thanatos's solar plexus. The creature stumbled back.
    "Now I can sit here and play with you." He delivered another staggering blow to Thanatos. "But I'd rather just put you out of both our miseries."
    Before he could strike again, a shotgun blast hit him square in the back. Zarek felt the shrapnel ripping through his body, narrowly missing his heart.
    Police sirens sounded in the distance.
    Thanatos grabbed him by his throat and lifted him up until he was forced to stand on his tiptoes. "Better yet, why don't I just put you out of yours?"
    Struggling to breathe, Zarek smiled grimly as he felt a trail of blood run out from the corner of his lips. The metallic taste of it suffused his mouth. He was hurt, but not daunted.
    Smiling snidely at the Daimon, he kneed the bastard in the jewels.
    The Daimon crumpled. Zarek took off running again, away from the Daimon, the Squires, and the cops, only he was nowhere near as fast as he'd been.
    The pain made his eyesight blurry and the more he ran the more he hurt.
    The agony of his body was unbearable.
    Not in all his beatings as a child had he hurt this much. He didn't know how he managed to keep going. Only that some part of him refused to lie down and let them have him.
    He wasn't sure when he lost them, or maybe they were right behind him. Zarek couldn't really tell due to the buzzing in his ears.
    Disoriented, he slowed, stumbling forward until he couldn't go any farther.
    He fell into the snow.
    Zarek lay there waiting for the others to grab him. Waiting for Thanatos to finish what they had started, but as the seconds ticked by, he realized he must have escaped them.
    Relieved, he tried to rise.
    He couldn't. His body just wouldn't cooperate anymore. The best he could manage was to crawl forward three more feet where he caught sight of a large cabin-style house in front of him.
    It looked warm and cozy and in the back of his mind was the thought that if he could just make it to the door the person inside might help him.
    He laughed bitterly at the thought.
    No one had ever helped him.
    Not once.
    No, this was his fate. There was no use fighting it, and in truth, he was tired of struggling alone in the world.
    Closing his eyes, he