Dark Side of the Moon (30 page)

Kyl opened the other bottle before he poured the tequila into the plastic cup he had before him. He held the cup up in toast to Belle before he met Susan's gaze. “Belle shot the reporter who failed to mention her as the winner.” He knocked back the drink in a single gulp.

“Yeah, but he took a shot at me first.” Belle tilted her head back to empty her cup, then refilled the glass. “Not my fault he missed. I just showed him up close and personal who the better shot was…” She frowned as she set the bottle aside. “But then, I probably shouldn't have killed him 'cause then he could have fixed that article.”

Leo gave her a dry look. “
And
you wouldn't have become an outlaw.”

“Shut up, Leo.”

Belle grabbed the chair next to Susan, spun it around, and straddled it. At the same time an unbelievably attractive woman walked in.

Susan had to keep her mouth from dropping. She'd truly never seen a more beautiful woman in her life. And she was incredibly tall … at least six foot five, with long auburn hair that was scraped back from her face to fall in a braid all the way to her thighs. Like the others, she was dressed in what must be their uniform of black clothes. Only this Dark-Hunter had on leather pants and a black brocade corset. She was also clutching a venti-sized cup of Starbucks coffee and wearing a pair of five-inch steel-spiked boots, which accounted for some of her unbelievable height.

She stopped beside Nick's chair and took a minute to size him up. “Gautier?”

He didn't even bother to look at her while he poured his own shot of tequila. “Hi, Zoe.”

Narrowing her eyes, she reached out and tilted his head to the side so that she could see the Dark-Hunter mark that was on Nick's face and neck. “Damn, boy, what happened? Artemis bitch slap you?”

He grabbed her wrist and glared up at her.

Zoe broke his hold as she shook her head. “Kyrian said he thought you'd gone over to the
dark
side, but I didn't believe him.”

Nick gulped down his tequila. “Yeah, well, I guess he isn't as dumb as he looks.”

Zoe looked surprised by the venom in Nick's voice. She took a drink of coffee before she frowned at Susan. Zoe inclined her chin toward her. “Who's the new chick?”

“Who's the old bitch?” Susan asked, looking over at Leo.

“Ooo,” Zoe said with an evil laugh, “snotty.” Still there was respect in the woman's eyes. “You got anything to back that up?”

Dragon gave a low laugh of his own. “Yes, she does.
I
trained her.”

“Okay. A smart- and tough-ass. Can't ask for better than that. I know she's not one of us, so I take it she's a Squire then.”

“Yeah,” Leo said.

Susan put her sandwich wrapper back in the sack as she looked over at Ravyn, who was watching her with a seductive gleam in his eyes. “Should I have a shirt on that says ‘New Squire'?”

“Nah,” Kyl said, “it should have ‘Squirehood: what an indenture.'”

All the Squires plus Ravyn laughed. The rest didn't seem to have much of a sense of humor about it.

After taking another swig of coffee, Zoe gave Susan a once-over that was extremely sexual. “Who does she serve?”

Erika answered. “No one. She's Dorean.”

There was no mistaking the interest in Zoe's eyes as they lingered on Susan. “Really?”

Ravyn cleared his throat meaningfully. “You've already got a Squire, Zoe.”

“Yeah, but I can't stand him—he's more woman than I am. Be nice to have an actual female Squire for a change.”

Dragon snorted. “It doesn't work like that, Zo, and you know it. You can't have a Squire you're sexually attracted to.”

She let out an aggravated breath. “I really hate that rule,” she muttered as she took a seat next to Belle and Cael joined them.

He greeted them all before he took a seat beside Leo. Unlike the others, Cael wasn't dressed in black. He had on a pair of baggy blue jeans and a loose V-neck sweater that seemed at odds with his spiked hair. Poor Cael looked like he'd just crawled out of bed and tossed on the nearest clothes he could find.

Susan frowned as she watched him. He seemed extremely subdued, as if something had him completely preoccupied. The reporter in her was instantly intrigued.

Dragon checked his watch. “I don't mean to be rude, but my powers are starting to wane. How much longer before we start this meeting?”

“We're just waiting on—” Leo's voice broke off as the door opened and a short, stout man walked in. In his mid-thirties, he was dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans. He didn't strike her as a Dark-Hunter but rather another Squire.

His face was completely grim as he swept them with a soulful stare.

“What are you doing here, Dave?” Leo asked. “Where's Troy?”

A tic worked in Dave's jaw. He swallowed before he answered in a voice that was thick with grief. “Dead.”

With that one word, it felt as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. For a full minute it was so quiet that all Susan could hear was a faint buzzing in her ears. No one moved.

Even though she didn't know who this Dark-Hunter was, she felt the sadness of his loss. And she knew it deeply affected everyone there, especially Dave.

Ravyn was the one who finally broke the silence. “How?”

Tears gathered in Dave's eyes as he visibly struggled for composure. “Last night, he'd run into a group of Daimons at the Last Supper Club and got seriously injured fighting them. He called me from the alley and said that he was bleeding badly. That he couldn't drive back or go inside without exposing himself to the humans. I told him to wait behind the club and I'd be there as fast as I could. Before I could get him into my car, the police showed up and arrested us. He was too weak to fight—not that Troy would have anyway. There's no way he'd have ever done something to hurt a human.”

Ravyn looked as ill as Susan felt. “You're kidding.”

He shook his head. “We weren't allowed a phone call or anything. They took us to a cell on the east side of the building … no shades or anything else over the windows. I kept shouting at them to move us to another cell, but they'd just laugh and make jokes about crispy critters and toast. There was nothing we could do but wait.”

He shook his head and turned so green that Susan half-expected him to be ill on the floor. When he spoke again, his voice was barely more than a whisper. “Troy kept moving out of the way of the sunlight, and I kept trying to cover the window, but by nine o'clock, it was over.” He winced at the pain of his memory. He looked around the table at the Dark-Hunters. “Pray to whatever God you worship that none of you ever die like that. Forget what Apollo did to the Daimons … this is a whole hell of a lot worse. You don't die right away. It's slow and painful. You just smolder while your skin and bone melt until there's nothing left. Not even ashes.” He covered his eyes with his hands as if trying to banish the images that were haunting him. “He was totally aware of everything right up to the end. He kept praying over and over, between crying and screaming from the pain.” Dave let out a sob. “Why wouldn't they at least give me an ax to put him out of his misery?”

Susan covered her mouth as bile rose in her throat. She glanced around at the Dark-Hunters who were there. All of them felt the pain of what he described. All of them. It was plain on every face. But it was Ravyn her gaze settled on. In the back of her mind was an image of him in the same situation.

It was more than she could stand.

“How did you get out of jail?” Otto asked.

Dave clenched and unclenched his fist as a myriad of emotions played across his face. Rage. Hurt. Even bitter humor was there. But it was the hatred that flared so bright, it was blinding. “They were watching it. After Troy died, they came to the cell and opened the door.… ‘Guess we were wrong about you. But you should be more careful about who you befriend.' Then they stepped back and walked me out of there.”

“We can get them for murder!” Erika said angrily.

Leo shook his head. “How? I'm sure by now they've erased whatever surveillance data they had. Even if they hadn't, who would have believed it? Human beings don't disintegrate in real life—only in Hollywood movies.”

“And there's no body,” Otto added. “No evidence. As far as we can prove, all they did was arrest one man who they let go a few hours later. No harm. No foul. They're untouchable.”

Dave's gaze went to Leo. “And that's why I quit. I'm completely out of this.”

Kyl got up and reached for him.

“Don't touch me,” Dave snapped as he stepped away.

Kyl's features turned harsh. “You've got to pull yourself together.”

“No, hell, I don't.” His face was ashen. “I'm a sixth-generation Squire on my father's side, Kyl. Eighth- on my mother's. I grew up in the house with Troy and I never doubted what I would do with my life.” He gestured meaningfully with his hands to emphasize his words. “We are here to protect the Dark-Hunters' identities. We're their lifeline when they're hurt and we're the only ones they're ever allowed to rely on. Dammit, I failed him. And now I know the man who was like a brother to me is stuck as a Shade suffering for eternity because he tried to protect us. Where's the justice in that?” He turned toward Leo. “I don't care if you guys kill me. I'm done. I can't go through this again.”

“He's right,” Nick said in a deep voice. He gripped the cup of tequila so tightly that his knuckles were white. “This is just like New Orleans. The Daimons are screwing with us and laughing while they do it. There's no telling what they've done that we don't even know about … yet.” He cut a look around the table that was so cold it could freeze fire, and it chilled Susan all the way to her bones. “For all we know right now, one of you could be a Daimon who's already killed a Dark-Hunter and who is now using his body to spy on us.” His gaze stopped on Cael. “You even live with them.”

Cael's face turned to stone. “What's that supposed to mean?”

“When a cow lives with the butcher, sooner or later he gets eaten unless he helps the other cows off to their slaughter.”

“Bullocks!” Cael shouted as he came to his feet.

Still Nick didn't back down. He merely sat there, staring at Cael as if he were trying to figure out if it was Cael or something else. “How
do
we know Stryker or one of his chief minions hasn't possessed you?”

Otto scowled at him. “Nick, what are you talking about?”

He pinned that deadly glare on Otto. “You don't remember anything about the night my mother died, do you?”

“We were attacked.”

“To say the least.” His voice dripped sarcasm. “We weren't just attacked, Otto. We were fucked over royally. Don't you remember the phones and how the Daimons played us? I'd get a call from you, only it wasn't you.… It was them screwing with our heads.”

Susan and Ravyn exchanged an eerie look. The hair on the back of her neck rose at Nick's words.

“No one screwed with the phones, Nick,” Otto snarled.

“I don't remember that either,” Kyl added.

“How could they get our numbers?” Ravyn asked.

Nick scoffed. “Do I look like a Daimon? How the hell do I know? But they did it. Night after night they led us on a merry chase through the streets as they killed us and any innocent bystander who caught their attention.” He looked over at Otto. “Don't you remember the night they almost killed Ash?”

By Otto's face it was obvious he had no idea what Nick was talking about. “No.”

Nick growled deep in the back of his throat. “Let me guess, when all was said and done, Acheron took all of you aside one by one and erased your memory, didn't he?”

Kyl shook his head. “Ash wouldn't do something like that.”

“You idiot. Of course he would. None of you know jack shit about him. But
I
do.” He raked his hand through his hair as his eyes burned with anger. “When you think back, is everything fuzzy? You can remember some things clear as a bell, and others are vague?”

“That's true of any memory,” Otto scoffed.

“Yeah, and do you remember when we were trying to get ahold of Ash and no one knew where he was?”

“Yes.”

Kyl frowned. “Ash said his phone wasn't working.”

“Trust me, it was working just fine. He knew what was happening, but he stayed out of it and left us alone to deal with the Daimons, knowing we weren't capable of fighting them without him. And then the Daimons came out and went to town all over us. While we were distracted with trying to fight them off, their leader, Desiderius, possessed Ulrich so that he could kill Amanda's sister and my mother. As a possessed Dark-Hunter he was able to enter Kyrian's house without an invitation. He took off Kassim's head and then he killed Amanda and Kyrian.”

Kyl rolled his eyes. “You're the idiot, Nick. They didn't die.”

“Oh, yes, they did. Trust me. Artemis had already dumped me into Hades when Kyrian showed up. Even though he was dead, he was beside himself because Amanda wasn't there with him. Since she was a Christian and he was an ancient Greek, she'd gone off to her heaven while he was on his way to his. Still bloody from our deaths, we stood there on the banks of the river Acheron, waiting for Charon to ferry us to the other side. While we waited, Kyrian spilled his guts to me about everything that had happened to cause his death.”

“Kyrian isn't dead,” Kyl insisted.

Hatred flared deep in Nick's eyes. “Not now he isn't. Acheron brought him back.”

Still Kyl argued. “Ash doesn't have that power.”

“And you're stupid if you believe that.” Nick sat forward and punctuated his words by pounding his hand on the desk. “News flash, folks. Ash is a god.”