Dark Side of the Moon (33 page)

Even though it was against his nature, Ravyn pulled her into his arms and held her quietly against him to give her whatever comfort he could. Looking down he saw the faint scar on her wrist.

“Tell me something, Susan.”

“What?”

“When did you try to kill yourself?”

Susan swallowed as she remembered that awful, cold November night. It'd been about a week after Alex had left her, and she'd been forced out of her house into a roach-infested dive.

They'd even repo'd her car that afternoon.

On a holiday.

“It was Thanksgiving,” she whispered as she felt the tears pricking her eyes. “Jimmy and Angie hadn't been able to spend it with me because his parents had come in from out of town. They'd invited me over, but the last thing I wanted was to put on a happy face when everything in my life was going wrong. Not to mention I didn't want to answer any questions from his parents about the news reports they'd been watching, where I was served up raw.

“So there I was, in my crappy, rundown apartment. Alone. Thinking about my mother, and how much I missed her, and I realized at that moment, that all the things I'd wanted as a little girl—my dreams of having a family and career—were all gone. All the things I'd worked so damned hard for had been stripped away, one by one. There wasn't someone to stand by me through the scandal. Someone to hold my hand and tell me it was going to be okay and that they would be there for me. I only had me, and I was just too tired to take another step alone. I hurt so badly and there was no one else who understood what I was going through. No one who'd seen their entire life crumble to nothing. So I decided the world would be better off without me in it.”

He cradled her head against his chest. “But you didn't die.”

“No,” she said, sniffing back her tears. “After I'd cut my wrists, I realized how stupid I was being. More than that, I realized that if I killed myself, then those bastards who set me up would win. They wouldn't care that I was gone. They'd probably gloat, and that gave me the strength I needed to survive. After all they had taken from me, I wasn't about to let them have that, too. So I called an ambulance and promised myself that I would never be that weak again. My enemies can take what they want, but my life is mine and so long as I breathe, it has value. I won't ever give up. Not again.”

Ravyn felt something warm go through him at her words. She was amazing. And she was stronger than anyone had a right to be.

It was weird, but of all the people he'd known in his long life, with the exception of Cael, she was the only one he really believed understood his feelings. She knew firsthand exactly what he was talking about when it came to loss.

“Damn, we're a pair, aren't we?” he said quietly.

“Could be worse.”

Her words surprised him. “How so?”

“We could be Nick.”

He laughed gently at her never-ending humor. Sometimes it was gallows and dark, but it never failed her. She wore it like armor. “Good point.”

Clearing her throat, she pulled away. He didn't miss the very subtle gesture of her wiping away a tear with her pinkie before she looked up at him. “What's his deal anyway? Why does he have the bow and arrow mark on his face while the rest of you have them in more private areas?”

“I have no idea. I've never seen a Dark-Hunter have one in such an obvious spot before. I think Zoe might have had something when she asked if Artemis had slapped him.”

Susan smiled at the thought. “Well, if he was as kind to her as he's been to the rest of us, I might understand her motivation.”

“Yeah, but in a way I feel sorry for him. He's not the same man who used to run the Web site. He was always sarcastic, but I can respect that. Now he's bitter and angry.”

Ravyn shook his head as he remembered the way Nick used to be. There was nothing he could do to change that. Only time would allow Nick to regain some semblance of what he'd been before. “Enough about Nick. You need to check that folder out. Leo thinks it's a lead to who's helping the Daimons.”

That caught her interest immediately. She headed back for the folder and sat cross-legged on the mattress to read it.

Ravyn's groin jerked at that and he wasn't sure why … well, okay, he was. There was something very inviting about that position as inappropriate thoughts went through him. He'd give her credit, she was hot in bed and on the floor, and he wondered how she'd be in other places such as the kitchen counter, the shower, and out in the woods, under the stars.

His body was really burning at those thoughts.

But she was completely engrossed by her work right now. She didn't even appear to know he was in the room as she started fanning pages around the mattress to read them. Her brow furrowed, she grabbed the laptop and pulled up Google.

“You want something to drink?”

“Coffee,” she said in a distracted tone as she grabbed a pencil and started making notes.

“Black?”

“Cream and sugar, or a caramel macchiato is always welcomed.”

“Ooo, a Starbucks woman after my own heart.”

That finally made her look up. “That's the best part about living in Seattle. Twenty-four stores in a ten-block radius. It's the only thing I don't miss about living in D.C.”

He laughed. “All right, I'll see you in a few.”

She went back to her research while he made a coffee run.

Ravyn paused in the doorway for a second just to watch her. She looked beautiful but tired. Most of all, she looked determined. He remembered a time when he'd had that kind of fire. A time when he'd lived for the thrill of the hunt. He wasn't sure when those feelings had faded. When he'd learned the complacency of just going through the motions of life. Of finding a temporary partner for sex one night and then leaving to find a new one the next.

Now he wondered what it would be like to have a woman who knew his likes and dislikes. To have a woman who knew what he was and who didn't seem to mind that he was both a leopard and a man.…

Repressing those thoughts before they got him into trouble, he left the room and headed upstairs. No matter how much Susan appealed to him, she was off the menu. There was no hope for them. He'd been given his one shot at a mate, and he'd sworn himself to Artemis. No matter how much he might wish otherwise, there was no kind of future for them. He went to the kitchen to find Terra bustling around the kitchen as she helped prepare appetizers for their clients in the club.

She paused as she saw him. “You need something?”

“Yeah, he needs to leave.”

Sighing in disgust, he turned to see Phoenix behind him. “Lay off me, Nix. I'm really not in the mood for your bullshit.”

“Yeah, that's because you're a pussy.”

Anger whipped through him so fast that Ravyn was actually stunned he didn't go for his brother's throat. Ravyn turned slowly to glare at him. “Me?
I'm
the pussy?”

“That's what I said.”

“Uh-huh. If I'm the coward here, then why am I dead while you're alive? You were mated for what, two hundred years, and you never bonded to Georgette? What were you waiting for, Phoenix? There were several blue moons during that period.”

Growling in rage, Phoenix started for him only to have Terra knock him away. “Sanctuary, Nix.”

His breathing ragged, he had bloodlust all over him as he glared at Ravyn.

Terra let out a deep breath. “Leave the kitchen, Phoenix. You can either go on two legs or I'll carry you out.”

His gaze slid to hers. “You wouldn't dare.”

“Oh, trust me.” she said in deadly earnest. “I would and I'm man enough to do it, too.”

He curled his lip at her before he headed out the swinging door that led to the club.

Terra wiped her hands on her apron before she looked back at Ravyn. “Now where were we?”

“Coffee.”

“Coffee coming right up.”

Impressed by Dorian's mate, Ravyn watched as she made her way over to the counter where the coffeepots were set. His brother's mate was an interesting beast. She didn't look like Dorian's type at all. And for some reason, Ravyn's curiosity got the better of him. “Are you bonded to Dorian?”

She paused in filling the mug to look up at him. “Yes. Unlike Phoenix, he isn't a pussy.”

Ravyn laughed in spite of himself as she returned to filling the mug, then she pulled a thermos out and filled it, too. “How long have the two of you been mated?”

“Seventy-five years.” She placed the mug and thermos with a small container of sugars and cream on a tray for him.

“How long have you been bonded?”

“Nosy much?” Her gaze burned into his, and to his surprise, she answered. “Seventy-five years. Dorian never wanted to come home and find his mate dead after what all of you had been through. He said that the Fates joined us for a reason and that his place was to be by my side, even in death.”

A newfound respect for his brother welled up inside Ravyn. But more than that, he remembered the horror of the night his village had been destroyed. When the men had started falling around them, the assumption had been that those who were standing had mates who'd survived.

They'd rushed back home only to find out just how many of their clan hadn't bonded to their mates.

The hardest blow for Ravyn had been his mother. Given how much his parents supposedly loved and respected each other, he'd just assumed they were bonded. But apparently his father hadn't loved her enough.

“Thanks, Terra,” he said, taking the tray.

“Ravyn?”

He paused to look at her.

“Dorian thinks about you all the time and he holds himself responsible for not stepping up to defend you against Phoenix.” She looked around as if embarrassed that she'd confided that to him. “I just thought you should know.”

Ravyn's throat grew tight. So he did have a brother who still loved him. Not that it changed anything. Dorian was still too much of a coward to stand up to the others or to let Ravyn know that he didn't agree with the pack about his banishment.

So be it. He'd lived these past three hundred years without them, he could certainly live longer.

He inclined his head to Terra before he left her to return to Susan, who was gnawing her pencil to a nub.

“You're going to break your teeth on that.” He set the tray down beside her.

She appeared baffled by his words. “What?”

He pointed to the pencil. “Are you hungry?”

She looked at it and laughed. “No, it's a bad habit I started in grade school. My old boss used to say he could tell whenever I was on to something good by the number of teeth prints in the pencil on my desk.” She set the pencil aside and reached for the coffee.

“I assume by the state of the pencil that you've found something.”

She poured the cream in and added sugar. “Yes and no. Apparently the chief of police's wife died a couple of months ago while visiting Europe with her son.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “I've pulled up a few photos of her at various social events, but nothing that leaps out at me.” Cradling the mug in one hand, she held up a piece of paper from the folder where Leo had written a small note:
Makes the Mad Hatter Look Sane.
“I think Leo was right.”

“Well, so much for that.”

His phone rang. Ravyn pulled it out of his pants and answered it. “Ravyn here.”

It was Otto's voice. “Hey, Ravyn, we have a bit of a situation we need you for. Can you meet us at Post Alley?”

“When?”

“Fifteen minutes?”

“I'll be there.” He hung up the phone to see Susan's quizzical stare. “Otto wants me at Post Alley.”

“Why? I thought you were supposed to be lying low.”

Ravyn shook his head. “Otto didn't say why, but it must be important though for him to call.”

Susan nodded in agreement. “Can I hitch a ride over?”

“Why?”

“Curiosity. C'mon. You're a cat. Surely you, of all people, can appreciate that.”

“I don't know.…” Ravyn hesitated.

“Oh, don't take that tone with me. Either I go with you or I find my own way.”

“And if I don't want you to?”

She gave him a miffed stare. “You know, you'd look really weird in a dress and high heels.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“It means you're not my mother. Now stop arguing and help me find my shoes.”

By the expression on his face she could tell he wasn't happy, but he did help her search out her shoes, which were buried under a pile of Jimmy's papers.

It didn't take them long to reach the alley, which wasn't far from Pike's Market.

They'd just gotten out of Phoenix's Porsche and walked over to it when they heard Zoe's aggravated voice in the darkness.

“Don't make me run up that hill, Daimon, and spill my coffee. If I do, I can assure you that you'll suffer unmercifully before I kill you.”

“I strangely like that woman,” Susan said to Ravyn as she followed him toward Zoe's voice.

They'd only taken a few more steps before they ran into Dragon.

“What are you doing here?” he asked them.

“Call from Otto,” Ravyn said.

Dragon paused. “Me, too. How weird that he'd want us both here. Out in the open.”

That
was
odd. Susan looked back and forth between the men. “Did he say what he needed?”

“He didn't,” they said in unison.

Dragon and Ravyn exchanged a wary stare. “Is it just me,” Ravyn asked, “or do you suddenly have a bad feeling about this?”

They heard Zoe let out a war cry.

The men took off at a dead run up the hill. Without thinking, Susan ran up after them, but as they crested the hill and she saw Menkaura, Cael, and Belle also there, she realized this was a trap.