"And if I don't want you to?"
She gave him a miffed stare. "You know, you'd look really weird in a dress and high heels."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means you're not my mother. Now stop arguing and help me find my shoes."
By the expression on his face she could tell he wasn't happy, but he did help her search out her shoes, which were buried under a pile of Jimmy's papers.
It didn't take them long to reach the alley, which wasn't far from Pike's Market.
They'd just gotten out of Phoenix's Porsche and walked over to it when they heard Zoe's aggravated voice in the darkness.
"Don't make me run up that hill, Daimon, and spill my coffee. If I do, I can assure you that you'll suffer unmercifully before I kill you."
"I strangely like that woman," Susan said to Ravyn as she followed him toward Zoe's voice.
They'd only taken a few more steps before they ran into Dragon.
"What are you doing here?" he asked them.
"Call from Otto," Ravyn said.
Dragon paused. "Me, too. How weird that he'd want us both here. Out in the open."
That was odd. Susan looked back and forth between the men. "Did he say what he needed?"
"He didn't," they said in unison.
Dragon and Ravyn exchanged a wary stare. "Is it just me," Ravyn asked, "or do you suddenly have a bad feeling about this?"
They heard Zoe let out a war cry.
The men took off at a dead run up the hill. Without thinking, Susan ran up after them, but as they crested the hill and she saw Menkaura, Cael, and Belle also there, she realized this was a trap.
And they'd all fallen right into it.
Ravyn cursed as he realized what was going on. Susan had been right. The Daimons had put them together while their powers were weakened knowing that this would drain them even more-which would make them easy pickings for the Spathis. Dammit, they should have listened to Nick. He'd even warned them about the phones. Who knew the crusty bastard had been telling the truth?
And of course, Nick was the only one of them not here...
"We need to separate." The words had barely left Cael's lips before bolt-holes began opening all around them, trapping them in the narrow, grungy alleyway.
Spathis were emerging from the top and bottom of the hill.
"Oh, we're screwed," Belle said as she pulled the whip off her belt and snapped it in the air before her. "Anyone got a bright idea?"
"Yeah," Zoe said as she pulled a knife from the top of her boot, "we learn to teleport."
They all looked at Ravyn. "Wish I could help folks. But that power was stripped from me when I died."
Belle made a face at him. "Well then, what good are you, leopard?"
He didn't know at present. This was a bad situation and they all knew it.
His adrenaline rushing at the prospect of a fight that would most likely be to his death, he turned to Susan. "We need to get you out of here."
She scoffed at him as she gestured toward the top and bottom of the hill where the Spathis were gathering force. "No offense, Catman, unless you know something I don't, I don't think the Daimons are going to let me out."