Dark Side of the Moon (Dark-Hunter 9)

Otto made a noise of disagreement. "He's too high up. He couldn't push that many members of the police department around without someone getting suspicious."

"Yeah, not to mention that it started before he took office." Susan chewed her lip as she considered more suspects. "What about the commissioner?"

"That's more a possibility. Or maybe a detective?"

"No, Jimmy said it went higher than that."

Otto nodded. "He'd be the one to know."

Her heart clenched remembering the fact that Jimmy couldn't tell her anything now.

Damn, if only she had a clue of some kind...

"There has to be a reason for this. Are you sure they've never attempted something like this before?"

"Positive. And in my mind, I can't imagine what would prompt a cop to help a vampire prey on other humans, especially a high ranking one."

"But it is happening."

Otto nodded. "Whatever's going on though, I'm thinking Cael needs to be replaced since he's obviously distracted and not paying attention to what the humans and Daimons are doing. "

She could understand that. "Is it normal for a Dark-Hunter to date an Apollite?"

"No. Hell, no. I've never heard of a Dark-Hunter hooking up with an Apollite before. The only time anything close to this has happened was with Wolf, and he wasn't technically a Dark-Hunter. He was just a human who got caught up in this by a Norse god. Dark-Hunters aren't supposed to date anyone at all. And marriage is strictly forbidden."

That had to stink. She couldn't even begin to wrap her mind around that concept. "So they live for eternity, but they're never allowed to have a significant other of any kind?"

"That's the deal."

"That sucks."

"Yeah," Otto agreed. "It does, but as Ash would say, when you sign with the devil, you're bound to get burned. "

"Ash?"

"The Dark-Hunter leader, Acheron."

She remembered reading about him earlier. Although there wasn't much on him other than he was rather eccentric and hard for a Squire to get ahold of. "How old is he?"

"Eleven thousand plus years."

Her jaw dropped as she imagined a shriveled up old man who looked like Merlin from a King Arthur movie. "That's a long time to putter about."

"Yeah," Otto said with a light laugh, "it is."

They fell silent as Susan ran all of the information through her mind, but honestly at this point, she was beginning to have information overload.

She slowed as they neared the Serengeti.

Otto cursed as he realized her destination. "You can't take him in there again, Susan. "

She parked on the curb, near the back door. "You got a better idea?"

She expected him to argue. Instead, he held a hand up to tell her to wait, while he pulled out his phone and pressed a button.

"Hey, where are you?" He looked up at her as he listened. "We're right behind the club with Ravyn. He's down for the count. Care to come out here and lend me a hand getting him inside?" He held the phone away from his ear and she heard the commotion from the other end before he pressed it back to his head. "I know, but where else can we take him?" He paused. "Yeah, I'll see you in a sec."

Susan leaned over the seat. "Was that Kyl?"

"Yes, and for the record, he thinks you're insane, too."

"Oh, goodie. But I guess that's only fair since I think he's psychotic."

Otto's eyes sparked. "No thinking about it, he is psychotic. Which makes him great in a fight. C'mon, let's get this over with."

Susan looked around the darkened street before she got out. The back door of the club opened to show Kyl joining them. Susan held open the car door so that he and Otto could get Ravyn out. The two of them had to struggle under the weight of him and they weren't exactly gentle. In fact, they banged his head on the roof, trying to get him out.

She cringed in sympathy. "That'll leave a mark I have no intention of explaining."

Otto gave her a harsh glare as he grunted. Leo parked Ravyn's car near theirs, then went to hold the back door open.

Kyl staggered forward with Ravyn between him and Otto. "What happened to him?"

"We have no idea," Susan said as she shut the car door. "The Daimons hit him with some kind of trank."

Kyl paused for an instant until Otto dragged Ravyn forward. "I didn't know a Dark-Hunter could go down on a trank."

Otto gave him a dry stare. "Well, we learn something new every day."

Susan stood back as they reached the door to give them enough room to get inside.

They'd barely gotten in the back of the building before their route was blocked off by Ravyn's father.

"What the hell is this?" he growled angrily.

It was Otto who answered. "Ravyn's been hurt."

"Then dump him on the street with the rest of the garbage."

Otto let out a tired breath as he grimaced from the weight of Ravyn. "We can't do that, Gareth, and you know it."

Two more of the Were-Hunters appeared out of nowhere to stand behind Gareth. "He's forbidden access to the Serengeti. Permanently."

Those words struck something hard inside her. Damn them for being so cold. Her family had been taken from her and if she could have any of them back for even a minute, she'd take it in a heartbeat and not question it. How could Gareth turn his back on his own child, especially when he was hurt?

It made her burn as she thought about her own father. And that made her focus her suppressed rage on Gareth.

"Hang on a second," Susan said. "This is a sanctuary, right?"

Gareth slid her an angry glare. "Your point, human?"

She crossed her arms over her chest and returned that glare tit for tat. "Then you're not allowed to pick and choose who can stay here. I read in my manual that it was really hard for a place to become a... lemony-"

"Limani," Otto supplied for her.

"Yeah, that. And once you were granted that status, you had to welcome in anyone who needed your help. Anyone. Human, Apollite, Daimon, or Hunter."

She saw respect on Otto's face as he gave Gareth a shit-eating grin. "She's right."

Anger beat a fierce tic in Gareth's jaw. "He violated our laws."

"There was nothing in the book about exceptions. According to the rules, you have to take him in unless someone named Savitar bans him from it. Has this Savitar banned him?"