Written for fun, not profit, all characters (except Maya) property of Sherrilyn Kenyon.

Lunch went smoothly. Kyrian again took her to Sanctuary, because after she'd started the fight with Jay last night Maya had been forced to leave before the rest of the Strati could get a look at her. Nick and Maya spent most of the meal arguing about whether or not she should stay in New Orleans or go back to Los Angeles, so luckily the Squire was too distracted to notice the Strati file through the club. The last complication Kyrian needed was for Nick to freak out on them.

By the end of the meal Maya was in a thoroughly bad mood. Despite what she'd told Acheron, she had every intention of returning to LA. She'd worked too hard to build up her reputation there and maintain her three dojos to just abandon it all now. Nick just didn't understand what it took to keep it all running. No, she'd made herself a success from the sweat of her own brow and she wasn't about to let Jay run her away from that.

Besides, as she'd pointed out repeatedly to Nick, it had proven far more dangerous for her in New Orleans than it ever had in LA. His reply that he could protect her here hadn't gone over well at all.

Maya prided herself on being the type of woman who absolutely did not need protecting.

And to top it all off, she was frustrated. Incredibly frustrated and more than a little miffed at Ash for starting something and not finishing it. He'd been right, she hadn't wanted to give Amanda Hunter an eyeful, but when she'd left why hadn't Ash come back? The idea that she wanted him way more than he wanted her was not a welcome or happy one. Back at the Hunters' house—if such a palatial estate could be termed a mere "house"—Maya locked herself in her room and flung herself on the bed, giving herself full permission to sulk. She didn't usually give in to the urge but today she felt justified.

Ash felt her bad temper and sexual frustration all the way across the house and fully sympathized. He felt exactly the same way. He had no doubt that zapping himself into her bedroom would be an excellent way to cure both of them of their volatile feelings, but he had no intention of doing so. At least not yet. Not until he found out where this intense attraction came from. He'd never wanted a woman so badly before in his life and it was just too much of a coincidence that Maya happened to be the one that inspired such passion. Hell, when he was around her he should be blinded by the aura of her unborn child, not blindsided by lust.

But it was more than lust. If it had been only that, Acheron knew he could have resisted with ease. No, he genuinely admired her, respected the accomplishments she'd made in what had to have been a rough life. Her fighting spirit called to his own, as did her determination. No one achieved her level in the martial arts without discipline and steadfast commitment. And yet despite her harsh background, despite her deadly fighting proficiency, she loved to laugh. Her sense of humor came through even when she was flirting with him and driving him out of his mind. Gods, he loved it.

He wanted her, all of her, everything about her. And there was no way in hell he could have her.

Artemis's unwelcome visit after the rest of them had left to return to Sanctuary hadn't helped his mood. The reminder of his bondage to her always made him burn with a helpless rage he was careful to hide. Now Ash hid Maya too, knowing she was just as great a weakness.

"Why are you shutting me out, Acheron?" the petulant goddess had pouted as he'd dodged her wandering hands and kept a firm lid on his temper. She clearly sensed he was concealing something from her even now. "You've done it twice now. I want to know what you're doing!"

"If I wanted you to know, would I be blocking you?" he'd countered, not even bothering to deny it.

Which had turned out to be a mistake as Artemis screamed herself into a jealous fury, striking a little too close to the mark for his comfort when she accused him of taking a mortal lover.

"There's no mortal lover," Ash had finally managed to interrupt her, exasperation coloring his tone. Not yet, anyway, he thought before he could help it, and could have kicked himself for the thought. Artemis had lost the ability to reliably read his mind at will thousands of years ago, but every once in a while she'd still manage to pick up the stray thought. He'd gotten lucky this time.

By the time she'd left, he'd been screamed at and thoroughly groped despite his best efforts, neither of which had left him in the best of moods. Gods, but he hated Artemis sometimes. Well, most of the time, actually, but as she held the souls of his Hunters, there was little he could do about her. He just had to endure her, something else that left him in a rotten temper.

He was a warrior, an ancient sorcerer, and it went completely against the grain for him to just endure someone who pissed him off. He was a man of action, but right now the only action he wanted was far too dangerous to have.

Even he, a god-slayer, wasn't stupid enough to directly challenge the god Maya carried.

And another thing, come to think of that unborn child. Maya's pregnancy had suddenly started to progress at roughly the speed of light. When she'd arrived less than a week ago he'd pegged the baby at just under four months along. Now it felt more like five. He knew he hadn't been wrong in his first estimation, and he wasn't wrong now, either. Something else was going on here and Acheron was determined to find out what it was before he gave in to the urge to make love to her.

Because he still had every intention of making good on every one of the promises he'd whispered in her ear last night. Whatever the cause, wherever the source of his feelings, Ash had no intention of letting her go. No other man would ever touch her. She was his and his she would remain, and he would make sure she loved every second of it if it cost him the wrath of the most powerful god who had ever existed.

He itched to burn off some of this nervous energy. He hadn't fed when Artemis was there and the volatile mixture of hunger, anger and lust made him just a little too dangerous. Well, there was only one thing for it. Ash smiled grimly as he pulled on his jacket and boots. Killing a few Daimons had never failed to make him feel better, and now that they were hunting Maya en masse, in his opinion they had never deserved it more.

#&#

Maya came awake abruptly, her heart pounding, unable to figure out what had woken her. The room was silent and the house still, but she couldn't shake the certainty that something was wrong.

She rolled out of bed and frowned at the bedside clock. It was the middle of the night. She pulled a knee-length robe on over her short nightgown and opened the bedroom door, wondering just what she expected to find out there at three a.m. but determined to check anyway. Nick and Amanda had boasted of their super-tight security system, but Maya knew nothing was perfect. If there was an intruder in the house, they'd get a surprise when she found them. Nothing would get near that sweet baby or the couple who had been so kind to her unless it came straight through her first.

Descending the stairs silently, Maya caught the glow of lights from the kitchen. She frowned. That was an odd place for an intruder to start, but her gut instinct told her that the source of her unease came from there. She crossed the entryway silently, every muscle tensed and ready for quick action, and looked into the kitchen.

She almost didn't stifle her gasp at the scene that met her shocked eyes. Kyrian and Nick were both there, wide awake in the middle of the night. Nick was speaking low but urgently on the phone as Kyrian helped Acheron out of his torn leather jacket.

And Maya knew at once what had woken her even before she saw the blood on the jacket and shirt Kyrian tossed aside. Acheron, her Acheron, was injured.

Without thinking, Maya rushed into the dimly lit kitchen. "What happened?" she demanded, ignoring Kyrian and her brother and heading straight for Ash.

Nick hung up with a curse he'd never before used in her presence and Kyrian spun around as if he could block Ash from her sight with his body. But Acheron just looked at her and sighed. "You shouldn't be here, Maya."

His words cut her deeply. "Well, tough," she said, narrowing her eyes and not showing the hurt. "Here I am." She pushed past Kyrian and saw blood dripping steadily onto the floor behind the barstool Ash sat on. Her stomach lurched with fear. "Good Lord, what in the world happened to you?"

Ash held up his hands before she could touch him. "It's being taken care of," he said, his voice still low and calm, absolutely cool in the face of the panic Maya was trying to keep from showing. How could he be so calm? "Go back to bed."

She snatched a clean dishtowel from the stack on the counter and kept coming, dancing around his blocking hands to get a quick glimpse at his back before he pulled her back in front of him. " Dear God, Ash! You've been shot!"

He sighed again, as if her concern wearied him. "Yes, I've been shot. Go back to bed."

"But you should go to the hospital!"

"Don't worry about it, Maya," Acheron commanded. "Go back to bed."

Maya ignored him, trying to get around him to press the towel against the worst of the wounds. If he lived he'd find out that mere repetition of an order did not make her any more likely to comply with it. "Let me help—" she started, wishing she could take back the thought if he lived..

A world without him in it was just too horrible to think about.

"I don't want—" Ash interrupted, turning again to block her.

"But you need—" she interrupted right back before he could get to the 'go to bed' part.

He snatched her other hand as she tried to get around him the other way. "I don't need—" he cut her off again.

"I'm just going to—"

"Damn it, woman!" Acheron roared in complete frustration.

"Damn it, let me help you!" Maya shouted right back, refusing to be intimidated even as he held both her hands in an iron grip she couldn't break. He didn't hurt her, but she was given the firm impression that only his conscious gentling of that grasp prevented it. Good gracious, the man was strong!

And sexy, and amazing, and just about everything she'd ever wanted. Hell, no, she wasn't going to back down!

Ash scowled at her and she glared right back, their faces only inches apart. Kyrian and Nick stared frozen in the background. Maya ignored them both. "You've yelled, I've yelled, we all see that you're a tough guy," she said more quietly. "Will you let me try to stop the bleeding now?"

Acheron didn't even hesitate. "No. It's being taken care of. Go back to bed."

And Maya couldn't pretend anymore that his repeated dismissals and refusal of her aid didn't hurt. A lot. "Fine," she whispered, trying to match his cold tone but unable to look up at those blank sunglasses again. How she wished she could see his eyes, to see if they'd at least given him something for the pain he had to be suffering. "Fine. Get your hands off me and I'll leave you to bleed to death in peace."

Kyrian felt the terror and hurt pouring off Maya in chaotic waves and could hardly keep the shock from his face. He and Amanda had been wrong, dead wrong. It had been Acheron in the gym with Maya earlier. A woman didn't feel so strongly for an injured stranger no matter how sympathetic she was. Those chaotic emotions coming off her were for someone far more important to her than that—family, or a dear friend.

Or a lover.

When the hell did this happen? Kyrian stared at Maya, her face as emotionless as if it had been carved from stone in stark contrast to the anxiety that radiated from her, and wondered why Ash didn't seem to feel it, too.

Nick suddenly turned and walked silently out of the room, his eyes blank, and Kyrian knew he had to have received a heavy mental imperative from Acheron. Nothing else could shut up the loudmouthed Squire, especially where his sister was concerned. Before that thought had even finished forming in his mind, Kyrian felt his own head turning toward the door without his conscious direction. He didn't need the hard nudge in the back that followed to take the hint. He, too, left without a word.

Acheron stared down at Maya's impassive face. He did indeed feel the riotous surge of emotions coming off her, chief among them the pain he'd caused her by refusing her help and an overwhelming fear for him that made his heart ache. Fear for him, not fear of him. Archon's decree be damned, he couldn't let her walk away from him feeling like this. "Maya," he said softly. "Maya, talk to me."

She didn't bother to answer but he didn't need her to say the words aloud. Her thoughts were as clear as if she'd screamed them at him. As far as Maya was concerned, she'd already said more than enough. It was just like she'd thought earlier. She wanted far more from him than he wanted from her. She'd been wrong about his motivations last night. It was just sex to him.

"That's not true," Ash murmured, reeling from the revelation that she felt the same powerful draw he did, that she actually needed to help him.

She still didn't look up at him and he felt her fighting the urge to roll her eyes. Her hurt and angry thoughts stabbed at him. Sure, right, he cared. He cared so much he'd rather bleed all over the floor than let her help him or even get behind him to see how bad the damage was. What the hell did he think she'd do, stab him a few times while she was back there?

Acheron winced with ancient memories that hadn't faded even an iota with time. "That's exactly why I hate to have anyone behind me," he said softly.

She felt like weeping and made her face even harder so he wouldn't know it. Can't you trust me, just a little? Can't you feel that I wouldn't do that to you? she lamented in her mind, unable to find the courage to speak the thoughts aloud. Her heart ached all the more for whatever had happened in his past to make him so distrustful now, that made him unable to care for her as she cared for him.

She cared for him! His fingers tightened around her wrists. "I do trust you, Maya," he whispered. "And I care for you more than you know. Much more than is wise."

A shock ran through Maya's entire body as she realized at last what was going on. He was reading her mind, answering her unspoken thoughts! But her rational mind dismissed that idea at once. That was impossible. They were just lucky guesses, that was all. Telepathy was a myth. No one could read minds.

I can. Acheron's voice was a low rumble in her head. Maya's eyes flew to his face, confirming that his lips weren't moving. I don't have a choice, do I? You won't talk to me.

Maya gaped and would have jerked away from him had he not still held her wrists. She was imagining things. She refused to believe it. It was impossible and insane and she just wasn't going there. Huh-uh, no way, she preferred sanity. Maybe this was why he hid his eyes, she thought wildly, so he could lie outrageously without giving himself away.

I'll never lie to you. Ash transferred her wrists to one of his hands, easily trapping them against his chest, and reached up to remove his sunglasses. You want to see, don't you?

She shut her eyes at once.

The sound of the sunglasses dropping on the counter was very loud in the silent room. "Look at me, Maya," she heard him whisper in that black velvet voice of his. Look at me.

No, she thought right back at him, shaking her head just in case he didn't pick up that thought. No, I'm not looking. Put them back on.

"Why?"

She couldn't articulate through the wildly swirling thoughts that battered her numbed brain. He hid something behind those glasses he didn't want her to see, and she didn't want him to show her whatever it was just because he thought he had to make a point. She didn't want him to show her because he felt like she needed proof he was psychic, or to prove he wasn't lying, or because she'd manipulated him into it. She wouldn't look at his eyes tonight, not for any of those reasons. She wouldn't take that from him until it was freely offered.

Something in Acheron's chest tightened to the point of pain. She didn't even realize the gift she'd just given him. No one else in his long life had ever hesitated to take from him, whether he gave freely or not. "Maya, please believe I had no intention of hurting you," he murmured, tangling the fingers of his free hand in her hair and pulling her close. Mine, that voice whispered again, and Ash closed his eyes and felt the rightness of it. Mine.

"Let me help you," Maya whispered against his chest. He felt her shock that he would be concerned about her emotional pain when he was sitting there with half a dozen bullet holes in his back. "I won't stand behind you. Just—I can't stand the sight of you sitting there bleeding. Please?" It was the closest she'd ever come to begging a man for anything.

Ash sighed again, aching with the need to reassure her that these wounds were more a nuisance than a danger to him and hating that Archon's command kept him from doing so. He'd already hurt her once tonight by trying to obey that command, attempting to banish her from the kitchen for her own good, and he couldn't stand to do it again. He pressed the dishtowel back into her hand and rested his forehead on her shoulder as she reached around him to apply pressure to the worst of the wounds. It made the ragged wound throb, but if it made Maya feel better, it was a small price to pay. He'd endure the fires of hell if it meant he could hold her. The scent of her skin soothed him, aroused him, made him want to do impossible things just to impress her.

Gods, he was losing his mind. And he was very afraid he was falling in love.

V'Edrix arrived several minutes later, appearing in the kitchen with his usual disregard for the niceties of doors or knocking. He took one look at Acheron sitting there, his head still on Maya's shoulder, his arms around her waist, and shook his head. You must really like living dangerously, V'Edrix told Ash silently, raising an eyebrow.

Ash raised his head and fixed the Dream-Hunter with a cold glare. She doesn't know anything, he spoke directly in V'Edrix's mind, extremely glad that Maya had missed the Dream-Hunter's distinctive entrance. And she's not going to know anything. That's why she feels this is necessary. So watch yourself, will you?

V'Edrix gave him a skeptical look. You really think that was what I was talking about?

And Ash knew very well that the Dream-Hunter wasn't fooled a bit by his explanation. He straightened, already missing the warmth of her embrace. "Maya," he murmured, looking down at her without the sunglasses on and wondering if she would meet his eyes this time. He found that despite all the very good reasons he should be glad she'd refused earlier, he wanted her to look up and truly see him. He wanted her to know all of him, to find out if she could accept everything he was.

Insanity.

She raised her head but looked past his shoulder instead of at him. She hadn't been lying. She wouldn't look into his eyes tonight. He knew the instant she noticed V'Edrix standing there, felt her go on full alert. Her weight shifted subtly, and although she didn't relax the pressure on his wound for an instant, she managed to put her body between his and V'Edrix.

"Who's that?" she asked, and he felt her readiness to attack on his behalf should V'Edrix prove to be a threat. It warmed him more than it had any right to.

It was ridiculous. He was supposed to be her protector, not the other way around. She shouldn't be so willing to take on a man nearly a foot taller than she was in his defense. And Ash knew very well that the air around him vibrated with carnivorous violence no matter what he did or how he tried to hide it. He couldn't quite hide a smile at the notion that anyone would think he needed defending.

But that was Maya, and he adored everything about her.

"He's a healer," Ash reassured her, skirting the edge of the truth. "Go on back to your room now." There's nothing to worry about. I'll be fine, Maya.

Ash felt Maya's reluctance to leave him alone with this intimidating stranger but he didn't use compulsion on her. Just the thought of forcing her to do anything made his gut tighten. He'll take care of it, Maya, but he won't work on me if you're here, he reassured her again, hoping he wouldn't be forced to it. Please, go back to your bedroom, and don't worry about me.

You'll call if you need me.

Ash's eyes widened as he felt her deliberately use the form of communication that had so frightened her mere moments ago. Her words hadn't been a question and he couldn't kill the warmth that spread through him. His warrior woman, still trying to protect him. I promise, he told her. Right then, he would've done anything she asked.

At last she turned and left them alone in the kitchen, never once looking up into Ash's eyes.