Dark Side of the Moon (Dark-Hunter 9)

"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. J 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?"