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Susan took a deep breath as they headed for the chief&039;s house on 18th Avenue South, not far froht, it was totally peaceful as theshadows

"It&039;s hard to believe how tragic the world can be when it&039;s like this, isn&039;t it?"

"Yeah," Ravyn agreed "It&039;s why I don&039;tabout the serenity of night that soothes the soul"

Susan gave hiht you didn&039;t have a soul"

He cut his eyes toward her as he drove "I was speakingword for you"

By his face she could tell he enjoyed her teasing "Be nice tohow close we are to dawn, I don&039;t think you should be antagonizing ned sullen look that was positively gorgeous She really liked the fact that he could take a joke and see her humor for what it was Too many people mistook her sarcasm for scorn But it was her defense mechanism Ravyn not only understood that, he seemed to actually enjoy it

Before she could say anything more, he stopped the car a block over froine off "I don&039;t think we should give theree more Personally, she still didn&039;t even think they should be there She glanced around the silent, dark upper-ht on in any house Noto say that she and Ravyn weren&039;t the last two people alive on earth

It was a bit eerie

"You think they&039;re home yet?" she asked

"I don&039;t know It&039;ll be dawn shortly I&039;m sure the chief has to work, so if they&039;re not, I&039;m sure they&039;re not far away"

She nodded, then frowned as a thought crossed her mind "This may be a stupid question, but could you hu to do here?"

He looked at her with an arched brow "The plan is to fight it out with the bad guys and win the day"

She nodded at his dry tone "Good concept, any idea on how to execute it?"

"Not a one" He got out of the car and slaht up to hi withto break into his house and then confront hihs "Can I tell you just how stupid I think this plan of yours is?"

"You just did" He placed the keys in her palers over them "Feel free to head back at any time In fact, I really wish you would" He started away froh her "You&039;re going to get yourself killed, Ravyn Do you understand that?"

A tic worked in his jaw "Fighting Dailanced up at the sky that was growing lighter by the minute "Besides, it&039;s a moot point I don&039;t have tieti before dawn This ends today On my terms Not his"

"At dawn How cliche"

He shook his head at her as he turned and walked toward the chief&039;s house

Susan stood there in indecision Every part of her screaet into Phoenix&039;s car and just leave To keep driving until all of this was behind her

But as she glanced to Ravyn, ashis way steadily toward the chief&039;s house, she knew she couldn&039;t do that He&039;d been alone for all of these centuries If he really was heading for his dooo with him

You&039;re an idiot

Yes, she was And , too But at least she would have confronted the ie&039;s and Jimmy&039;s deaths She owed them that much And she wanted to look the man responsible for their fate in the eye and personally tell hi the keys in her pocket, she ran to catch up to Ravyn

Ravyn wasn&039;t expecting Susan to join hi at his hand he couldn&039;t keep froers with hers before he took her around back and crept along the chief&039;s house

"You think he has an alarh to crawl through

"Probably"

"Then hoe get inside?"

He covered the pane with his hand and closed his eyes to sense if there was anything electrical around theThere was He put both hands on the glass and used his powers to interfere with the electrical connector Then he unlocked theand pushed it open

There was silence as the alar had been breached

Susan shook her head at hiic rin before he lifted her up to crawl inside

As soon as she was safe, he joined her, then slid theclosed and locked it He took a e the curtains over it

The house was coold jacquard drapes pulled closed over everyso that not a single ray of sunshine could enter Definitely the residence of nocturnal beasts who had one serious allergy to daylight

The house was decorated with a hodgepodge of contemporary and antique furniture But even so, it looked like a typical horaphs on the wall of Paul, his sons, and his wife

Susan stared at the pictures, especially the ones of the boys They appeared so nor was identical to what she&039;d worn as a child His sons weren&039;t in their twenties as they appeared They had to be in their rowling sound of a garage door opening So ho around for a place to hide

"We wait," Ravyn said aloud

Nonchalant to the danger they were facing, he went to lean against the arm of the brown leather sofa with his arms crossed over his chest He crossed his ankles and for all intents and purposes looked like so out all night

She couldn&039;t fathom his cool exterior And she really didn&039;t like his strategy It was a good thing the ure it out as I go" just didn&039;t jibe with her

"Don&039;t worry, Ben," a e "We&039;ll get him"

"I can&039;t believe that bastard lied" The voices were getting closer and closer

Susan stepped back into the shadows and whispered a sht way

"Like I said, don&039;t worry about it He paid for his lie We&039;ll get Kontis and the others Mark my words"

"They&039;re marked and noted," Ravyn said in a snide tone as the two men joined them in the roo here?" Paul de from pale to red

Ravyn didn&039;t ured I&039;d save you the trouble of having to search"

Paul seeet control of himself as he adopted Ravyn&039;s cal So what do we do now? Slug it out?"

Ravyn shrugged "Sure Why not?"

"I don&039;t like that plan," Paul said, exchanging a s look with his son

Well, at least she and Paul saw eye to eye on so She didn&039;t like the idea, either

"No?" Ravyn asked as he put his hand to his chin introspectively "Then what do you propose?"

"That we kill you"

That plan she liked even less

Luckily, Ravyn agreed "I have to say that I don&039;t like your plan Too ht hile he waved his hand around his face in a circularon my part, I think" His face turned deadly earnest as he crossed his arain "I&039;d much rather kill you"

The threat didn&039;t appear to concern Paul at all "You can&039;t do that"

"Why not?"

He took a step toward them "If I die, the two of you will never be absolved of the murders You&039;ll be hunted by the police forever"

Ravyn laughed "Forever There&039;s a concept you can&039;t even begin to fathom" He sobered "Trustin my world But that&039;s beside the point I think you seriously overestimate your people and their attention spans More than that, you definitely overesti a shit about them I&039;m a Were-Hunter, s a lot scarier and s I think you seriously underesti odd run down his spine It was like there were multiple Daimons in the house, but he knew better than that He hadn&039;t felt any when they&039;d first entered and Ben was in front of him

"Really?"

"Ravyn!"

He turned to see Susan in the arotten behind him?

But then he knew He could sense a Daimon&039;s presence, but he couldn&039;t really pinpoint it They must have opened a bolt-hole so how ly "Meet my brother-in-law He sometimes travels with lared at the Daimon but knew if he moved to take Susan away froo"

S, the Dai Ravyn&039;s attention back to the chief "We&039;re holding all the cards now"

Ravyn locked gazes with Susan, whose face was stricken by her panic, and he hated that she was endangered

She tried to flip the Daimon over her body or break his hold, but she couldn&039;t He held her so tightly that the only way to get her free would be to kill hi the Dai, Paul made his way over to the curtains and pulled one panel back ever so slightly "Oh look Daybreak What great ti" He turned to level a sinister smirk at Ravyn "Why don&039;t you come see this for yourself, Dark-Hunter?"

"You know I can&039;t"

"True But I really think you&039;re going to"

"Like hell"

"Fine then" He looked past Ravyn to the Daimon "Terrence? Kill the bitch and take her soul"

"No!" Ravyn shouted "Don&039;t you dare touch her"

"If you don&039;t like this scenario, how about this one? You die painfully so that I can enjoy your suffering I let Susan go in exchange for her writing a piece about how you killed all the students that my wife and sons have fed on You&039;re dead, ed,as she swears to forget all aboutshe&039;s seen "

Ravyn snorted at the very idea "That would require uarantee that if I die, she lives"

"You have no choice but to trustthe fact that Paul was right "And how exactly would this work?"

"Sio to theShe opens it up, you fry, and then she can crawl through it and leave Obviously neither Terrance nor Ben can follow after her "

Ravyn turned it over in his un so I know you won&039;t shoot her in the back as she runs across the lawn You&039;re the chief of police It&039;s not like anyone would question it "

By his face it was obvious Paul didn&039;t like the idea, but agreed

"You can&039;t do this," Susan said, her tone a er and fear "I won&039;t help you to die"

"Yes, you will, Susan," Ravyn said calle You do what you have to to survive And your survival hinges onto survive Shouldn&039;t you be fighting this?"

"No I&039; my mate to survive It&039;s our way"

Susan clenched her teeth as pain and sorrow tore her apart It wasn&039;t her way She didn&039;t want to have to kill hiht

Ravyn looked at the chief "Give her your bullets"

No! her ht Terrence Daet free of him She had to She couldn&039;t let Ravyn die

Not like this

Paul pulled the gun out of the holster at the small of his back and unloaded it into his hand Then he handed the bullets to Susan

Ravyn narrowed his gaze on Paul "Fire the gun at the wall so that I know it&039;s eun reeun is empty, yes With this solution, not hardly" He turned to look at Susan

She stopped struggling Her heart froze at the sad resolve she saw rim determination that marked his handsome features "Don&039;t do this, Ravyn We can find another way out"

Ravyn offered her a co smile, but what he really wanted to do was touch her one last time To feel the softness of her skin "It&039;s okay I&039;ve had a really long life"

Susan felt the tears prick the back of her eyes She couldn&039;t believe he&039;d be willing to do this for her That he&039;d da a Shade simply to save her life

And in that moment, she realized that she really did love him

More than that, she didn&039;t want to live if he died

The Daimon led her to the

"Open the latch, Susan," Paul said snidely "Then Ravyn can join you at theto help you out"

She parted the curtains only enough to let her hand reach the latch But as she did that, a thought struck her She kne to get out of this

How to save Ravyn

"It&039;s unlocked," she said

Nodding, Terrence stepped away from theto a safe corner of the rooo check out the daylight, Dark-Hunter"

Her heart pounding, Susan felt Ravyn at her back as he approached her She closed her eyes and savored the strength of hirew

"I know I just ainst her ear "But I think I love you"

She froze her hand on the latch as a wave of anger went through her Instead of war at hilared at him "You think? You think you love me? You don&039;t know?&039;"

His face baffled, he scowled at her "Why are you so angry? I&039; to die here for you Nobly"

"Then you should have just dropped dead and not opened your mouth to piss me off You think? Think? What is that? Obviously it&039;s only wishful thinking on your part, because if you had thought for a single second, you&039;d have known it would upset rabbed the heavy drape and before anyone realized what she was doing, she jerked with all her strength

The curtain rod was torn free frory at the beast behind her, she stepped back so that the curtain would fall over Ravyn to protect hiht

The two Daiht struck them and set them both on fire Susan shielded her face from the horror of their deaths If only she could protect her nose The stench of burning flesh was revolting

And in less than apiles of ash on the green Persian rug

"Ben!" Paul shouted in an agonized cry "No!" He turned on her with his fury blazing "You fucking bitch! I&039;ll kill you for this"

He rushed at her, only to have Ravyn, now in leopard form, launch hiht hi over, Paul pushed himself to his feet and held his injured arm to his side, then ran pell-mell to the interior of the house, toward the staircase, with Ravyn bounding up the stairs after hiely tallHe was dressed in a pair of jeans with a black turtleneck and motorcycle jacket Ravyn stopped halfway up the stairs as Paul continued on to theto point down at them "Kill them!"

Susan&039;s jaent slack at the mention of the Daimon&039;s name So this was their infamous leader Nick had mentioned Tall and lean, with short jet-black hair and wearing a pair of black wraparound sunglasses, he didn&039;t look like the other Daimons, ere all blond

But even so he did ht An aura of brutal, cold power bled from him He had a demeanor that said he relished cruelty and that he was here for blood

Their blood

Ravyn flashed to hurim features

"Why would I kill theer melted into a look of confusion "He&039;s a Dark-Hunter Death to all Dark-Hunters right?" There was nothe fear in his voice now

Stryker nodded "That is enda is a little different" He grabbed Paul by the throat and slung hih that the shorter rabbed Stryker&039;s hand in both of his as his face turned bright red while he struggled to get free

Stryker&039;s entire face was one of hell wrath "You lying bastard You betrayed my trust and you stabbed ," Paul choked out in sharp sobs "I-I-I didn&039;t touch you"

"Yes, you did" Stryker pulled hiain "When you stabbed Trates, ht hand, my second in command, you in essence stabbed me Me And no one stabs at me Do you understand, you pathetic fool? If I were to let you live after what you&039;ve done, I would become weak, ineffectual in the eyes of my men, and that I cannot allow "

Ravyn took a step up the stairs

"Halt!" Stryker snapped at him "This doesn&039;t concern you, Dark-Hunter You and your woo"

Ravyn shook his head "I can&039;t and you know it Even if he&039;s a lying sack of shit, he&039;s still human, and I took an oath to save the huh before his face hardened "Spathis!"

Before they could move, twenty Daimons flashed into the room Three were by Susan while the rest were on the stairs between Stryker and Ravyn

Ravyn ran at the him down the stairs to stand by her side