Dark Side of the Moon (Dark-Hunter 9)

And then he felt her tighten around him an instant before she cried out in orgasm. He clenched his teeth and held her tight in his arms while he quickened his thrusts until he could join her there.

They were both breathing raggedly as they stood by the door. Ravyn didn't want to move, but unfortunately his body slid from hers and left him feeling strangely vacant. He didn't want to leave her. Not even for a second.

She turned around to smile up at him before she nibbled his bottom lip.

"You still stuffy?" he asked.

"Yes, but you're worth it."

He laughed at that before he kissed her. He'd barely tasted her before he felt an awful stinging pain in his palm.

His heart stopped beating at the sensation he hadn't felt in hundreds of years.

It couldn't be...

Susan hissed, shaking her hand as if to cool it. "What on..." Her voice broke off as she saw on her palm what he knew was on his.

The mark.

"Ravyn?" she breathed.

His vision darkened as conflicting emotions tore through him. "I can't mate." Not as a Dark-Hunter. It wasn't possible... was it?

What the hell was this?

Confusion furrowed her brow. "But that is what this is, right?"

He nodded, unable to believe his cursed luck. He was dead. How could he mate? It defied logic. He couldn't have children, he couldn't commit.

And after this, he wouldn't even be able to have sex again...

"Damn you, Fates," he hissed. What were they thinking?

Susan clenched her hand to conceal the ornate scrollwork. She didn't know what she'd expected from him, but this anger sure wasn't it. "I didn't know I was so repugnant to you."

The anger melted from his face. "How could you think that? But damn, Susan, do you understand what this means?"

"Yeah. You're screwed."

Ravyn leaned his head back. "I can't believe this."

"Well, look on the bright side, in this day and age if I told people you guys existed, they'd lock me up and laugh about it with you."

"You're not funny."

She reached up to cup his face in her hand. "I know. Look, I'll make this easy on you. You mate with me and then I can just leave and you'll be free to, pardon the pun, cat around all you want."

"It doesn't work like that."

Susan frowned. "What do you mean?"

"So long as you live, I can't have sex with anyone but you. Ever."

"And if we don't mate, you're a eunuch."

"Basically, yes."

A tremor of fear went through her as she considered what he'd just said. So long as she lived...

"You're not going to kill me, are you?"

He looked both offended and baffled by her question. "What? Are you insane? Why would I do that?"

"Let's see, ten seconds after I met you, you ripped out a guy's throat, and now you're telling me that so long as I'm alive you're screwed. Murder seems like the best course of action for you even though I strongly vote against it."

"Don't worry. I can't kill you. I took an oath to protect human life."

She didn't know what offended her most about that. The fact that he considered killing her or the fact that the only thing that kept him from it was an oath. "Well, gee, thanks, hon. I'm so glad I mean so much to you. "

His face lightened up. "I wasn't serious."

"Uh-huh."

He leaned his forehead against hers and let out a frustrated breath. "I can't believe I'm mated to someone who's allergic to me."

"You? I'm the one who should be having a hissy. How do I introduce you to people? Hi, this is my... what? Significant other? Mate? Pet?"

He closed his eyes and clenched his teeth. "Why must every relationship I have be so damned impossible?"

Susan pulled back and tilted his head so that he met her eyes. "Hey now, defeatist talk from a catman like you? I'm the one who should be freaking out here. I mean, damn, you could give me fleas or something. "

He laughed. "I'll give you something all right." He popped her playfully on the rump.

"You better stop that. I could lure you out in daylight and then take you to be neutered. "

"You don't need daylight for that. All you have to do is walk out that door and stay gone for three weeks."

Her humor died at his dire words. "I won't do that to you, Ravyn."

"Why not? What does it matter anyway? We can't live together. Acheron will never allow it. "

"He's not stopping Cael."

Ravyn paused as he considered that. She was right. "Have you any idea what living with me would entail?"

She wrinkled her nose as if she smelled something foul. "If you're like most men, it probably means dirty underwear and socks on the floor. Toilet seat left up at night. You eating all my peanut butter and not telling me. But," she said in all seriousness, "you better not expect me to clean out that cat box. Erika needs chores, too."

He was stunned by her. She could always find humor in everything.

"Your life will be in constant danger."

"Excuse me? Do you have amnesia? Did you miss the last four dozen attacks on us? And that's not counting the doorjamb that almost decapitated me."

"Susan, I'm serious."

"So am I. I mean, yes, I would rather have had time to fall in love with you and I'd really like for you to be human. But no one's perfect. Granted most men are dogs and not cats... and I am allergic to you-"

He cut her words off with a kiss. "Look, we don't have to settle this right now. I'm asking you for the rest of your life. Literally. There's no such thing as divorce in our world. We have three weeks to act on this. So I want you to really understand what you're signing on for, okay?"

"Okay, but let's not forget that in three weeks, we could be dead or in jail, which for you would probably mean death anyway."

"True."

Susan let him pull her into his arms. She honestly wasn't sure about this, and she was glad he was giving her time to think it over. But she couldn't let him be alone and not have any shot for making a human connection again. That was just wrong and cruel. Especially given how kind he'd been to her through all this.

Still, they had a long way to go and it was getting scarier by the minute. She didn't know what tomorrow would hold. She only hoped that for them, there was a tomorrow, period.

"What do you mean, they got away?"

Trates sighed as he faced the human bastard he'd rather suck dry than deal with. But Stryker wanted this human alliance even if he thought it was completely stupid and beneath them. So here he was, playing nice with the chief of police when what he really wanted to do with Paul Heilig was rip his throat out and drink in his putrid soul.

"We had them trapped in an alley when Acheron showed up and killed every Daimon there. Now we're going to lie low until he leaves."

"Bullshit! You promised me my-"

"Listen to me, human," Trates sneered through his clenched fangs. "You don't want to mess with this Dark-Hunter. He's not like the others."

"They're still bound to the night and when something lives perpetually on the dark side of the moon, all you have to do is drag it into daylight to kill it."

Trates held his hands up. "I'm just here to tell you what Lord Stryker said. You do what you want. It's your funeral." He turned to summon the portal to return to Kalosis.

But as soon as he had his back to Paul, the chief of police ran at him.

Trates hissed as he felt a deep, biting pain in his heart. Gasping, he looked down to see a small sword blade piercing his chest... right through his Daimon's mark.

Paul jerked his sword out an instant before the Daimon exploded into gold powder. "You're wrong about that, Trates. It's your funeral. "

And soon there would be a lot more of them. If Stryker was too big a coward to do what was necessary to protect his children, then that was his loss. But Paul wasn't the same.

He'd already lost his wife to one Dark-Hunter, he wasn't about to lose his sons. No matter what it took, he was going to keep them safe.

Ravyn Kontis still lived and as long as he did, Paul could hear his wife's voice calling out to him to avenge her. And as long as a single Dark-Hunter roamed the streets of his city, his sons were at risk.

That he couldn't allow.

Pulling his cell phone off his belt, he called his deputy chief. "Hey, I need a search warrant."

"For?"

"The Happy Hunting Ground." If Trates wouldn't tell him where Ravyn was hiding, he knew one person who would.