"You might just have a point with all that," she admitted in a grudging tone.
Susan fell silent as she watched the streetlights cut across Ravyn's face. He really was a good-looking man. But it wasn't just that that she found appealing. There was something more to him. Something that was in pain and at the same time feral. It made her want to soothe him, especially since she understood what it was like to be alone in the world.
Don't think about it. Her mind was right. She had much more important things to focus on at present than how good he looked and how attracted she was to him.
Her thoughts went to Erika. "So how do you think they got into your house?"
"Hell if I know. Someone would have had to have been inside the house to invite them in. She swears she didn't do it, and it damn sure wasn't me."
That wasn't comforting.
"Have you any idea what's going on with the Daimons tonight? Is this normal for them?"
"No," he said sincerely. "It's highly unusual for them to attack like this. Normally they pick off a few humans and we kill them before they get much age on them. Since their goal is to keep living, they usually run from us, not toward us. And I've never seen them attack a Squires' facility before."
She digested that and wondered why it was different now. What was the catalyst? Could it be the Stryker person that Kyl had mentioned earlier or was it something else?
"What about this Cael? I take it he's a friend of yours."
"Yes."
"How long have you known him?"
"Almost three hundred years."
"Wow. I'm impressed. I guess long-term relationships don't scare you, huh?"
He frowned at her teasing. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing." He still looked perturbed and she strangely found that amusing, too. She didn't normally tease people she didn't know. Yet there was an air about him that just begged her to nettle him. It must be that same suicidal tendency humans had to jump whenever they stood on the edge of a cliff.
Or maybe it was the fact that she liked the way his face softened whenever she amused him. It was extremely beguiling and made her wonder if he'd always been as stern and serious as he was now.
Ravyn slowed as he drew near the Happy Hunting Ground. Yeah, he'd always loved that tongue-in-cheek name for a well-established Apollite/Daimon bar that catered to college students. The college crowd thought it was a play on the singles scene. What they didn't know was that the black dragon shadow flying against a yellow sun on the club's sign was a welcome mat for an Apollite to his Daimon brethren, to let them know they were safe here. Originally Cael had been sent in to shut them down, but the Apollites had quickly offered to make a bargain with him. They would be respectable so long as he protected them. They had even invited Cael to live on the premises. For reasons unknown, Cael had accepted. Now the Daimons tended to stay away. And it was open season on those Daimons who hadn't gotten the word there was a Dark-Hunter in the basement, and who were unlucky enough to wander into the Happy Hunting Grounds to snack on some young college student.
Ravyn just hoped Cael still lived in the basement and hadn't become a casualty of his own trusting stupidity.
"I know this place," Susan said as he parked around back. "I love the recycled trash sculptures out front. I tried to find out who the artist was, but no one would tell me. In fact, the people who work here are really rude."
Ravyn dropped his car into park as Otto pulled his Jaguar to a stop beside them. "The artist would be Cael. The rude people would be the Apollites who own this place."
"Are you serious?"
"Yes."
"Isn't that kind of like playing with your food or something?"
"Something. Definitely something. But Cael likes it here and the Apollites seem to tolerate him. Who am I to question it?"
Ravyn got out of the car and took a minute to get his bearings while Otto joined them. The music from the club was loud and thumping. Susan tilted her head, it was Black Eyed Peas with "Don't Phunk with My Heart."
"Back door again?" Susan asked.
Ravyn shook his head. "You still got that sword?"
"Yeah."
"Keep it close. We're walking into the dragon's den here and I don't know what we're going to find." He exchanged a warning look with Otto. "Any trouble breaks out, I want the two of you to run for the door, and make sure Susan is with you."
Otto gave him a vicious glare that would make a serial killer proud. "No offense, I don't run."
"Neither do I," Susan said firmly.
Leo held his hand up. "For the record, I do."
When Otto scowled at him, Leo rolled his eyes. "It was a joke, Carvalleti. Get a sense of humor."
"I'd really rather not, and don't pull a Gilligan on me. I tend to shoot Gilligans."
Leo flipped him off. "Don't worry. I'm in for the long haul."
Ravyn made a sound of disgust. "Fine. Your deaths are your own business. Just remember I told you how not to be a Gilligan." He tucked his knife into his pants at the small of his back.
They walked around to the front. The brick building was just over a hundred years old. Painted baby blue with black windows that had been decorated with vintage hippie symbols, it looked like a million other college clubs. This early, it wasn't particularly busy as people milled around the front, chatting and panhandling.
There was a cafe and bookstore, Ravenna Third Place Books and Honey Bear Bakery, next door that had a much larger crowd of people. Unlike the club, it was bright and inviting. There was an air of sex and seediness that clung to the Happy Hunting Ground, but then maybe that was what appealed to the regulars.
Trying not to think about how many people had lost their lives because they'd foolishly ventured here for a drink with their friends or a one-night stand, Ravyn opened the door of the club and came face-to-face with a huge Apollite who was waiting in a small foyer area to check IDs. He stood at least six foot seven and had to weigh a minimum of three hundred pounds. It wasn't often he had to look up at anyone.
Damn. As a rule, Apollites were taller than most humans, but due to their liquid diet, they were usually lean. The Apollites here could easily rent this guy out as a major bruiser...
Or a Macy's Thanksgiving Day float-except the sunlight would kill him. Then again, float and fireworks. You couldn't beat that.
The Apollite tensed as soon as he saw them. "What do you want here, Dark-Hunter?"
"Just came to see a friend. "
The Apollite moved to block his access to the club. "You ain't got no friends here."
Ravyn gave him a withering stare. "I better have at least one."
Still the Apollite wouldn't let him pass. "Then you can call him on the phone. Your kind isn't welcome here."
"Does that go for Cael, too?"
The Apollite's face turned to stone. "He's none of your business. Now leave."
Ravyn started past him only to have the Apollite take a swing. He ducked the blow, then added one of his own. The Apollite staggered back.
Out of nowhere three more Apollites appeared. They formed a line between him and the second door that led to the club. "You're not wanted here, Dark-Hunter. Go home."
"Not until I see Cael."
Otto swung open a butterfly knife. "You know, you guys have a pathetically short life. It'd be a shame to lose even one day of it."
"Put that away!" an extremely attractive blond woman said as she came around the bouncers. She was dressed in a lime green go-go outfit, complete with white vinyl ankle boots and white lipstick. Unlike the men, she didn't bother to hide her fangs while she spoke. "No weapons are tolerated in this club, ever."
She gave Otto, Leo, Susan, and Ravyn a scathing glare. "Why are you here?"
Ravyn took a deep breath for patience. "I'm really getting tired of saying this. I want to see Cael and if I have to say that one more time, I'm going to start Daimon-killing practice on the whole lot of you."
The Apollite woman crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm sure he doesn't want to see you."
Otto narrowed his gaze on the woman. "I think he's already dead, Ravyn."
"He's not dead," the woman said, her tone offended. "But you've got no business here with him. He didn't put you on the guest list and the last time we checked, he wasn't exactly social with the lot of you. How do we know you're friends of his?"
Ravyn gave her a toxic look of his own. "Enemies don't come in the front door, baby."
The bruiser said something to her in Apollite. She looked a little nervous as she glanced at Ravyn. "Smart enemies might. For all I know, you're not as dumb as you appear. Maybe you're here to kill Cael."
Ravyn was through playing this shit with her. "There you would be wrong. And unless you want this club to go up in flames tonight, I suggest you let us pass."
She stiffened at his threat. "You can't harm us, it's against the code. No Dark-Hunter is ever allowed to harm an Apollite until we turn Daimon."
"Fuck the code," he said between clenched teeth. "If my friend is dead, I honor nothing but that which gave birth to me... vengeance."
The man spoke to her again.
She hesitated before she answered him. Her eyes worried, she looked back at Ravyn. "You have fifteen minutes with him before you drain his powers. After that, I want you gone."
To his complete shock, the Apollites actually broke apart to let them pass.
Expecting a trap, Ravyn made sure that Susan was between him and Otto while Leo pulled up the rear as they followed the woman through the club, which actually had a fairly large crowd, dancing to the hip-hop music. Strobe lights flashed off three different mirrored balls that spun high above them. To the sides were tables that were covered with black tablecloths that held Apollite and hippie symbols painted in neon colors. Black lights helped the colors to leap out in the darkness. They also served a dual purpose of making Ravyn's eyes ache.
The motion and lights would weaken a Dark-Hunter while leaving Daimons and Apollites unaffected. Smart thinking on their part.
The woman took them past the bar area, through an industrial kitchen, to a narrow door that opened onto a stairway for the basement.
She held it open with one arm and stood back for them to enter without her. "His room is the last one on the left."
Ravyn went down first.
"You think this is a trap?" Susan asked after the woman shut the door behind them. The light in the basement was very faint, but it actually felt good to his eyes after the hostile lighting above. Here, he could see perfectly.
"At this point," Ravyn said in all seriousness, "nothing would surprise me."
Ravyn paused as he approached the door that the woman had said led to Cael's room. He could hear someone grunting as if in severe pain, then suddenly, Cael let out an anguished cry.
His heart hammering, Ravyn kicked open the door and then completely reevaluated his prior comment about surprise.
This... this shocked the total hell out of him.