Utter silence filled the hall as he scanned the gathered Spathis. Physically no older than twenty-seven, each member of their clan was as beautiful as an angel... of death.
And they were his to command.
Ignoring his sister, he addressed them. "We have been given a rare opportunity to work with the humans to bring about the end of the Dark-Hunters in Seattle and give us the foothold we need in their world. But don't think for one minute that this war is over. And as soon as Acheron realizes how many of his Dark-Hunters are missing, he will come here himself to see what's going on."
Stryker pinned a fierce look on Satara. "Are you ready to battle the Dark-Hunter leader?"
Her eyes flashed with bloodlust as she rubbed her throat. "With every breath I have."
Stryker scoffed. "Suicidal bravery will get us nowhere. Apollymi protects that bastard of hers. It will never be by a Daimon hand that he dies..."
"It'll be by a human one," Trates said from his right.
Stryker nodded. "And it will take a great deal of planning and careful execution if we're to do this. Kill Acheron and the other Dark-Hunters will be easy to manipulate or eliminate." He looked around the room as his army nodded in agreement.
"So who do we kill next?" Trates asked.
Stryker considered the seven Dark-Hunters who were left. Each one of them had been a fierce warrior in their human lifetime. There wasn't an easy target in the bunch.
But with the humans helping them for once they had a distinct advantage. Like the Apollites and Daimons, the Dark-Hunters couldn't survive in daylight but their human helpers could. What's more, the Dark-Hunters couldn't sense a human the same way they could an Apollite or Daimon. Humans could easily sneak up on them and deliver an unexpected death blow. Not to mention the small oath that all Dark-Hunters took to preserve human life even at the expense of their own...
It was an oath that would be their undoing.
"We'll let the humans choose. This is their war. We'll support them for now, but in the end, should they fail it'll be their funerals and not ours."
Susan knew better than to get her hopes up as she parked in front of the animal shelter. This could very easily be nothing more than a major waste of time.
Or it could be your ticket back-
"Oh, shut up, Pollyanna," she snapped at herself as she grabbed her purse. She hated that little bit of an optimist who still lived inside her. Why wouldn't it die?
But no, she always had to have hope even when it was pointless. What was wrong with her anyway? Other people got to be jaded... why not her?
I'm just cursed, I guess.
Sighing in disgust, she got out of her car and headed for the entrance. She pushed open the door to walk into a brightly lit reception area.
There was a perky blond teenager standing behind a counter where the girl was tucking papers into file folders. "Hi," she said, glancing up at Susan. "Can I help you?"
"Cats. I'm here looking for cats."
The girl gave her an odd look. Not that Susan blamed her. There couldn't have been less enthusiasm in her voice if she'd tried. For that matter, she might even have been curling her lip as she said it. She wasn't quite sure. It was hard to hide as much distaste as she had for the creepy four-legged creatures who'd made her miserable as a child.
The girl pointed to the left. "They're over there."
"Thanks." Susan headed toward the light blue door that was marked ironically enough with the word Cats.
She pushed it open and had to fight the urge to run back to her car as her sinuses immediately clogged. And this after she'd taken Benadryl half an hour ago in expectation of such misery.
"Good grief," she said, pulling a Kleenex from her purse while she pretended to peruse the evil allergy beasties. Her eyes were even starting to swell, she could feel it.
She sneezed loudly, then dabbed at her nose. "Where are you, Angie?" she asked in a low whisper from between her clenched teeth.
She was just about to abandon the thought of sticking this out when she caught sight of the strangest cat she'd ever seen. Long and lean, it looked as if someone had shrunk a leopard into the size of a house cat. But more than the beauty of its small body was the blackness of its eyes. She'd never seen a cat with black eyes before.
And it looked really angry.
She cocked her head to study it. There was something about the cat that seemed highly intelligent. "Hey, Puss in Boots, you unhappy here?" She sneezed again. Cursing and wiping her nose, she sniffed as her eyes started tearing. "I can't blame you. I'd rather be hit in the head with a tack hammer than stay here."
"Hi there. Can I interest you in a cat?"
She jerked around at Angie's voice. Short with black hair and brown eyes, Angie looked about nervously and by that she could tell Angie didn't want anyone to know they were friends. Catching the cue, Susan looked back at the cat and could have sworn it had one eyebrow raised as it waited for her response. Yeah, the Benadryl was working on something besides her sinuses. "Sure."
"Let me show you to a room where you can play with him for a few minutes." It was obvious Angie had been practicing that speech for a while.
Good thing Angie was a vet and not an undercover agent- she'd be shot in a heartbeat. But Susan didn't say anything more as Angie gently took the miniature leopard out of the cage and put it in a cat cage before she led her toward another blue door that opened into a small petting room.
Pausing outside the door, Angie handed her the cage and gave her an artificial smile. "Take your time. You really want to make sure you know the cat before you take him home."
"Will do," Susan said in the same stilted tone. She took the box, holding it as far away from her body as she could, and entered the windowless room, which she thought was empty until the door closed and she saw Angie's husband standing behind it. A detective, he'd been a friend of hers for years, too.
"Hi, Jimmy."
He put his finger to his lips. "Keep your voice down. Someone could be outside. Listening. Why do you think I had Angie tell you to meet me here? I can't afford anyone to see me meeting with a reporter after what happened last night."
Ooo, he'd gone seriously paranoid.
"Someone like who?" she whispered. "What happened last night?"
He didn't respond. Instead, he took the cage from her outstretched hand and set it right beside the door before he pulled her to the farthest corner, where a small bench rested. "You don't know what I've seen, Sue," he whispered. "What they're capable of. My life, your life... all of us. It means nothing to them. Nothing."
Her heart picked up its pace at his fearful muttering and the panic she saw in his light blue eyes. "Who are they?"
"There's a major cover-up going on and I have no idea just how high up the food chain it goes, but it does go up."
Susan leaned forward eagerly. Exposing high-level cover-ups had once been her specialty. "Major cover-up for what?"
"Remember those missing kids I told you about? The college students and runaways that we've been getting reports on? I've found a couple of them. Dead. Now I've been pulled from the cases and told that they're being handled by a special task force that doesn't exist. That I shouldn't worry about them. "