She nodded, then frowned as a thought crossed her mind. "This may be a stupid question, but could you humor me?"
"Sure."
"What exactly are we going 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 slammed the door shut.
Gaping, Susan jumped out and caught up to him on the side of the road. "Wait a minute. You're joking with me, right?"
"No," he said in all sincerity. "I'm going to break into his house and then confront him."
She let out several scoffing staccato laughs. "Can I tell you just how stupid I think this plan of yours is?"
"You just did." He placed the keys in her palm that held the mating mark and folded her fingers over them. "Feel free to head back at any time. In fact, I really wish you would." He started away from her.
She pulled him to a stop as fear tore through her. "You're going to get yourself killed, Ravyn. Do you understand that?"
A tic worked in his jaw. "Fighting Daimons is what I do, Susan. It's why I was created." He glanced up at the sky that was growing lighter by the minute. "Besides, it's a moot point. I don't have time to make it back to the Serengeti 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's house.
Susan stood there in indecision. Every part of her screamed at her to get into Phoenix's car and just leave. To keep driving until all of this was behind her.
But as she glanced to Ravyn, who was making his way steadily toward the chief's house, she knew she couldn't do that. He'd been alone for all of these centuries. If he really was heading for his doom, then she would go with him.
You're an idiot.
Yes, she was. And maybe she would die this morning, too. But at least she would have confronted the man who was responsible for Angie's and Jimmy's deaths. She owed them that much. And she wanted to look the man responsible for their fate in the eye and personally tell him what a scabbing bastard he was.
Tucking the keys in her pocket, she ran to catch up to Ravyn.
Ravyn wasn't expecting Susan to join him, but when he felt her tugging at his hand he couldn't keep from smiling inside. He laced his fingers with hers before he took her around back and crept along the chief's house.
"You think he has an alarm system?" Susan whispered as Ravyn located a window low enough to crawl through.
"Probably."
"Then how do we get inside?"
He covered the windowpane with his hand and closed his eyes to sense if there was anything electrical around the window. There was. He put both hands on the glass and used his powers to interfere with the electrical connector. Then he unlocked the window and pushed it open.
There was silence as the alarm continued to think nothing had been breached.
Susan shook her head at him. "How do you do that?"
"He's a magic man, Mama," he said, quoting the song from Heart, with a grin before he lifted her up to crawl inside.
As soon as she was safe, he joined her, then slid the window closed and locked it. He took a minute to rearrange the curtains over it.
The house was completely dark and silent. There were heavy brown and gold jacquard drapes pulled closed over every window so 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 home. There were photographs on the wall of Paul, his sons, and his wife.