Ravyn couldn't breathe as those words went through him like a hot knife. What the hell was he thinking? "Your what?"
His features tightened. "Amaranda's my wife."
Rage and disbelief made for a hostile mixture inside Ravyn. "Have you lost your friggin' mind?"
Cael started to shove him, then thought better of it. After all, whatever one Dark-Hunter did to another, the antagonist felt ten times worse. A simple shove to Ravyn would rebound to Cael as a staggering blow. "I know exactly what I'm doing."
Yeah, right. Tangling like this with an Apollite was like milking snake venom for a living. Sooner or later, one of them was bound to turn around and bite him-it was just the nature of the beast. "You fucking idiot! Have you any idea-"
"Of course I do, Rave," he said between clenched teeth. "Don't you dare think for one minute that this has ever been easy for either one of us. It hasn't. We're well aware of the downside and drawbacks of this relationship." The pain in his eyes was raw and powerful.
Part of Ravyn felt sorry for him. The other part just wanted to beat the shit out of him until he saw reason. This wasn't a game they were playing. It was a war they were fighting. And how could a man fight while his loyalties at home were with the very enemy they were sworn to kill?
"How old is she?" Susan asked quietly.
The pain flared even brighter in Cael's eyes. "She turns twenty-six in a couple of weeks."
"Damn, Cael," Ravyn said under his breath. He wanted to argue with him, but to what purpose? They were already married. Even though this had to be the dumbest move Ravyn had ever heard of, Cael wasn't a child. He knew the score and he was the one who would have to live with the consequences of it. Having screwed up his own life over a woman, Ravyn wasn't about to lecture anyone else about their love life. But it never ceased to amaze him how stupid a man could be over a woman. "Well, at least now I understand why the Apollites tolerate you living here. How long have you been married?"
"Four years."
Ravyn let out a disgusted breath as he exchanged a look of disbelief with Otto. It amazed him that Cael had managed to keep it quiet for so long. But then Dark-Hunters didn't usually visit one another's homes and Cael had never asked for a Squire. Even before he'd moved into the Apollite-owned building ten years ago, Cael had been alone, so it would have been relatively easy to keep his marriage hidden from them.
Since Dark-Hunters were forbidden to date or have any kind of long-lasting romantic entanglement it wasn't something that would have come up or been asked.
But then that begged one particular question. "Does Ash know?"
Cael shrugged. "If he does, he hasn't said anything."
Ravyn had to give Cael credit-he was good at hedging around a question. "Did you tell him?"
"No," Cael admitted, "but I haven't hid it, either. I am not ashamed of my wife or my marriage. But I figured as long as no one asked, I wouldn't talk about it. "
"What about her family?" Otto asked. "Since Apollites tend to breed a lot of kids, I'm sure she has more than a sister. What do you do when they turn Daimon?"
Cael's entire posture turned defensive. "Who says they turn Daimon?"
Both Otto and Ravyn gave him a doubting stare.
"You saying they've all died?" Otto asked.
Cael refolded his arms over his chest as his expression turned a bit sheepish. "Not exactly. Some of them have vanished."
"Vanished..." Ravyn mocked. "You mean went Daimon."
Cael's face was stone. "I mean vanished."
The look of disgust on Otto's face was tangible. There was so much tension in the air that it made the hair on Susan's arms stand up. She kept expecting one of them to lunge at the other, but to their credit no one was getting physical.
"Don't ask, don't tell, right?" Otto asked.
"They're my family, Otto," Cael said from between clenched teeth. "I don't go looking for them when they go walkabout. There's enough other Dark-Hunters here to take care of them if they go to the dark side."
Otto released a long, tired breath. "Family? Are you sure they feel the same way about you? Tell me what you're going to do when you wake up with your head detached from your body because your so-called family got nervous... Don't delude yourself, Cael. You're enemies. Always. Sooner or later, one of them is going to sell. You. Out."
"I think he has a bigger problem than that," Ravyn said, drawing their heated attention toward him. "What are you going to do when Amaranda turns twenty-seven?"
The agony in those dark eyes wrung Susan's heart as he looked away. "We don't talk about that."
"Why?" Otto asked. "You planning to hold her hand while she feeds on humans?"
That succeeded in breaking the hands-off truce. Cael grabbed Otto and shoved him back against the wall with so much force, Susan was amazed it didn't crack the plaster. His fangs bared, she half-expected Cael to rip out Otto's throat. "It's not your problem, human. "
Ravyn separated them and put his body between Cael and Otto. "It's all our problems, Cael. All of ours."
Cael curled his lip into a feral snarl.
"You know this might not be so bad," Susan said, drawing their attention to her. "Cael can ask them what's going on, can't he?"
Cael shook his head as Ravyn gave him a curious stare. "No," he said firmly. "I don't call in those kind of favors. They don't ask me about the Dark-Hunters and what we're up to, and I don't ask them about other Apollites or Daimons."
"Unbelievable."
Cael sneered at Ravyn. "Don't cop a superior attitude with me, dickhead. It's not like you're not hunting family, too. At least I don't have any Apollite blood in me. How can you hunt your own kind?"
Susan caught Ravyn as he moved toward Cael. "Enough, boys."
"She's right," Otto said, backing her up. "Besides, you two should be weakening each other by now. "
"We are," they said in unison.
The door at the end of the hall opened to show Amaranda coming back toward them, carrying a small sack of what smelled like food. As she walked past them, Susan noticed a small Dark-Hunter bow and arrow entwined with a rose tattoo on the small of the woman's back.
Amaranda looked pointedly at Ravyn, who somehow managed to keep his face completely stoic. "Cael needs his strength. You need to go."
Ravyn's gaze fell to the teardrops that were tattooed on the hand Amaranda placed on Cael's arm. "She's Spathi?"
Cael's features hardened again. "She's not a Daimon."
"But she's trained to fight us."
Amaranda lifted her chin to stand firm against Ravyn and his criticism. "I'm trained to protect myself and those I love."
"From what?" Otto asked in a dry tone.
She gave him a withering stare. "Whatever I have to."
Again the air was rife with unspent anger and hostility. The frisson of it went down Susan's spine like a phantom touch that set her on edge.
It was only broken when Cael looked at his wife and his anger seemed to fade immediately into a much softer emotion. "Baby, was there a Squire here earlier asking to talk to me?"
"No." Her features were completely sincere and open.
"You sure?" Otto asked.
She nodded. "Kerri would have told me if there were. She wouldn't have kept something like that secret."
Otto looked ill. "He didn't come back and he didn't make it here. They must have intercepted him. Damn. I wonder when we'll find the body."