Dark Side of the Moon (31 page)

Leo and Otto laughed at him.

“Nick, are you high?” Zoe asked.

He turned on Zoe like a demon looking for a victim. “No. Deny it if you want, but I know the truth. I might be the youngest Dark-Hunter created, but I've been in this world a long time and I know
exactly
what I'm talking about. The rest of you are just fools in a game that's being played behind your backs. The Spathi Daimons that you're up against now aren't stupid. Until Desiderius went after Kyrian the first time, no one even knew that Daimons could live a hundred years, never mind a thousand … or more to the point,
eleven
thousand. But Ash knew and even when I asked him about them, he didn't say a word. Why is that?”

Dragon narrowed his eyes on Nick. “Ash didn't know or he would have.”

“Ash is the king of secrets. You all know that. I don't know how the Daimons are related to him, but I know there's a link.”

Now it was Belle's turn to laugh. “What are you saying? Ash is a Daimon?”

“No. He's a god and somehow he's linked to them.” Nick looked at each one of them. “These aren't what you're used to dealing with, folks. These are so much more and now they have human help, too.”

Menkaura frowned. “What do they want with us?”

“They want to bathe in your blood and trust me, they will.”

Erika made a rude noise. “Well, aren't you just Mr. Sunshine?”

Nick turned his head slowly toward her like something out of a bad horror movie. Not to mention the fact that his face reminded Susan of a king addressing a peasant who'd dared to breathe his air. “Who are you, little girl, and why are you even in this meeting?”

She pointed to Ravyn. “His substitute Squire and I have no idea, but at least I'm not bringing everyone down with this doom-and-gloom bullshit.”

Now he looked to Susan like the king after the peasant had wet his shoes … and she didn't mean with water. “Substitute Squire? What the hell is that?”

Erika gave him a “duh” stare that had to be one she reserved for those who were a bit slow. “It's a person who doesn't want to be a Squire, but who got drafted into this because Mr. Kontis won't let anyone else around him for more than twenty-four hours. I think my father has lasted longer with him than anyone else in the past because he's half-deaf and can't listen to Ravyn's razor-sharp sarcasm. Something I can only tolerate because, well, he taught it to me from the crib.”

Nick didn't look impressed by her speech. “Then as a Squire you should know to sit there and keep your mouth shut.”

Erika's jaw dropped in indignation. “What do you know about being a Squire?”

“He used to run the Dark-Hunter Web site,” Leo said under his breath.

She turned on him in a pique. “And that makes him an expert?”

Kyl shrugged. “He's the one who put the Squire's handbook online.”

“So he can write HTML, so what? My grandma could do it, if she were still alive.”

“Erika…” Leo said in a warning tone.

“Shut up, Leo,” she snapped.

Nick hissed at her, “You don't talk to a Theti like that.”

“Why not?”

The look on Nick's face would have made anyone with half a brain shudder. Erika, on the other hand, appeared to be missing the part of her brain where her self-preservation should be located.

“You need to learn to respect your elders,” he growled dangerously.

“Oh, yeah?” she challenged him. “Like you would have?”

“As a Squire, I always followed orders.”

Cocking her head, she folded her arms over her chest and glared at him. “Yeah, right. If you followed orders, then how did you get to be a Dark-Hunter, huh? Last time I checked, we weren't supposed to be doing that, now were we?”

“Erika!”

“What?” she snapped at Leo.

He gave her a harsh stare. “We have more important things to discuss and we're running out of time.”

She held her hands up. “Fine. Talk. I'm going to get a sandwich.” As she crossed the room, she mumbled to herself. “Like he's going to save us with his sage bullshit—the man don't know shite about shit. He couldn't even save New Orleans and he lived there.”

Those words went through the room like a pall as everyone sucked their breath in sharply.

Erika tried to open the door only to find it locked.

His face contorted by rage, Nick shot to his feet. “What did you say?”

Erika ignored him while she tried to get the door to open. “Why won't this door open?”

“What. Did. You. Say?”

“Leave her alone, Nick,” Otto said, rising.

Nick threw his hand out and Otto went crashing into the far wall. “What happened in New Orleans?” Nick demanded of Erika.

Finally her survival sense kicked in. Erika turned around, eyes wide as Nick approached her. Gulping, she pressed herself against the door and made a tiny squeak noise.

Nick was only two feet away from her when he went flying across the room to land not far from Otto.

“Two can play that game, boy,” Ravyn said in a feral growl as he stood up. “And I've had a lot more practice with my powers than you have. Don't you
ever
threaten her.”

The door opened a crack.

“Erika.” Ravyn's tone was eerily calm and pleasant. “Go get your sandwich.”

She hurried from the room as Nick pushed himself up from the floor.

Nick glared at Kyl and Otto. “I want the truth about New Orleans.”

It was Otto who answered as he straightened his clothes with a tug. “New Orleans was hit dead-on with a category three hurricane about nine months ago.”

Susan's breath caught at the horror she saw on Nick's face.

“What happened?” he asked, his voice thin and breathy.

Otto sighed before he answered. “The levee broke and flooded the city. It completely wiped out the Ninth Ward.”

Nick leaned against the wall as horror played across his face.

“Your house is still standing,” Kyl said gently. “It had some damage from the winds, but it's repaired now. Kyrian made sure of it.”

“Screw my house. What about the people?”

Otto and Kyl exchanged a sick look. “It was bad. But we're—”

“Why are you here?” Nick demanded. “Why aren't you down there helping people?”

Anger flared in Otto's eyes. “We were sent here before the hurricane hit.”

“You just walked out and left the city?”

“We did what we were told to do, Nick. We're Squires, remember?”

Nick curled his lip. “You bastards.” He pinned a hate-filled glare on Kyl. “I don't expect better from Otto, but you were born there, same as me, Kyl. How could you turn your back on the city and our people?”

“You don't know what you're talking about, Nick,” he said between clenched teeth. “Damn you, how dare you take that tone with me? I lost family down there, boy. We weren't the ones sitting on an island with Savitar, learning to surf. We were in the thick of it. I stayed there through the storm, with Kyrian, Valerius, Talon, and the rest. I was part of search and rescue teams until I couldn't take it anymore. And then I got up and started it over. Every single day. I wasn't transferred up here until three months ago. So don't you dare stand there and judge me.”

Leo whistled. “Enough! Squires, out of the room. Now.”

Susan felt like she'd been caught by shrapnel. She started to argue that she hadn't been the one causing problems, but Leo didn't look like he could take any more arguments from anyone.

Ravyn squeezed her hand reassuringly before she got up. Ironically, Nick took two steps for the door before he must have remembered that he was no longer a Squire. He was a Dark-Hunter.

There was so much agony in his gaze that it stole her breath as he returned to his chair. Feeling for him and for Dave she followed the men out of the room.

She paused to look back at Ravyn, who gave her a small smile. That smile warmed her and gave her strength as she closed the door and headed back downstairs to start her research again.

*   *   *

“All right,” Leo said as soon as the Dark-Hunters were alone in the room with him. “We have a unique problem here. We not only have to avoid the Daimons, but the police, too. Anyone have a suggestion?”

“Bend over and kiss your ass good-bye,” Nick said.

They ignored that oh so not helpful comment.

“Don't we have some cops on the Squires' payroll?” Zoe asked.

Leo shook his head. “Not in Seattle. We have some in Internal Affairs and with the DA's office, but none on the force itself.”

Belle made a sound of disgust. “Why not?”

“The last one retired,” Leo said irritably. “The other one died a year ago of a heart attack. We haven't had a chance to replace them.”

“Well, that blows.” Belle reached for the tequila bottle and didn't bother with her glass. She took a giant swig. “No offense, but I don't want to be barbecue.”

Zoe gave her a pointed stare. “None of us do.”

“Has anyone been able to get ahold of Ash?” Dragon asked.

One by one, they shook their heads.

Except for Nick. “You won't hear from him until it's too late. Any time he vanishes, the Daimons go wild. I told you, they're linked somehow.”

Leo cleared his throat. “That doesn't help us, Nick.”

“And neither does staying together like this,” Ravyn added. “We've been together too long. We need to break.”

“Yeah,” Menkaura agreed.

Belle set the half-empty bottle back on the table. “I just wish we knew what they were up to!”

“That's a no-brainer,” Nick said snidely. He looked around the table as if they were all morons, and honestly, Ravyn was getting a little tired of his attitude. Train him, hell, the man would be lucky if Ravyn didn't kill him.

“Care to enlighten us blind sheep?” Zoe asked.

“Most of you are ancient warriors. Can't you figure it out? Think about it. All through history, what has brought down every great civilization or people?”

“War,” Cael answered.

“No,” Zoe whispered. She looked around the table at them. “It's what has brought all of us over to Artemis.”

Ravyn nodded as he understood what they meant. “Betrayal. Sabotage. None of us were brought down by the enemy who attacked us in the open. We were brought down by the enemy within. By the traitor we didn't see coming at our backs.”

“That's right.” Nick's gaze went back to Cael. “It's always the one you least expect who does it, too. We won't be destroyed by the Daimons. We're going to be destroyed by one of our own.”

Ravyn stiffened at words he knew were all too true. It was why, as Erika had pointed out, he didn't let anyone near him. He'd had enough of trusting people. God, he'd been killed by his own brother. A brother whose life he'd saved only a year before Phoenix had taken his.

Zoe stood up. “And on that sobering thought, I'm going to patrol.”

Menkaura fell in behind her.

“Watch your backs,” Leo called.

Zoe paused at the door. “Don't worry. It's what I'm best at.”

“And beware of the phones,” Nick said. “I don't know how the Daimons do it, but not even the caller ID works right.”

She scoffed at him. “Yeah, thanks.”

Dragon and Belle went next, leaving Cael, Ravyn, Nick, and Leo alone in the room.

Cael met Ravyn's gaze. “August 14, 2007.”

“What's that?”

When he spoke, his tone was barely a whisper. “That's the day I need you to help me do the right thing.”

Ravyn's heart clenched as he realized it must be Amaranda's birthday. That more than anything else told him that Nick was wrong to accuse Cael. He was the one person Ravyn had faith in. “I'll be there.”

Cael nodded and then passed a hostile glare toward Nick before he headed to the door.

As soon as it closed, Ravyn sighed as he looked at the Cajun. “Well, you certainly know how to win friends and influence people. No wonder Savitar wanted you off his hands.”

“Don't start with me, Katagari. Out of all of them, you know I'm telling the truth.”

How he wanted to deny it, but yeah, he could feel it. His animal senses picked up on it with an eerie accuracy. There was something highly out of the ordinary here. “For the record, I'm Arcadian, not Katagaria. Jeez, you've been hanging around Talon too long.”

Nick sneered. “For the record, I don't give a shit.”

Turning away from the angry man, Ravyn looked at Leo. “So what's our next move?”

“You have to stay hidden,” Leo said as he handed him the folder he'd been thumbing through.

“What's this?”

“A file I was collecting. About a year ago, I got a call from a hysterical woman who said she'd seen her neighbor come home one night with blood on her clothes. A neighbor with fangs. I investigated it and found out the woman was on all kinds of medication, so I wrote it off.”

“Okay, so why give it to me?”

“Open the folder.”

Ravyn did. His gaze went straight to the third paragraph where Leo had underlined four words that leaped out at him.
Chief of police's wife.

“That's who she lived next door to.”

Ravyn narrowed his eyes as those words went through him.

“Give it to Susan. Believe me, if anyone can find the truth, even while the cops are hunting her down, it's her.” Leo patted him on the arm and left.

Alone now with Nick, Ravyn closed the folder. “Just so you know, Cael would never betray us.”

“Yeah, and two years ago I thought Ash was a friend of mine. You know what that got me? A bullet to my brain.”

“I don't know how you died, but I know Ash didn't kill you.”

Nick gave a bitter laugh. “I wish I still had your blind faith. Unfortunately, mine was stripped from me the night I died.”