She nodded before she left them alone.
Ravyn's heart ached for the pain he heard in those soul-deep sobs. Better than anyone, he understood that kind of agony. The kind of loss that reached so far down into your being that it was all you could do to stand still and not launch into a hysterical tantrum of rage.
He'd been bred to that kind of misery. A Were-Hunter's life at best was one of burying family.
His had been even worse than that.
He wanted to tell her it would be all right, but he wasn't heartless enough to hand her that lie. In life, there were never any guarantees other than the one that said when you were down and out, someone would definitely come along to kick you.
So instead, he did something he hadn't done in countless centuries, he pulled her into his arms and held her. She wrapped her arms around him as she continued to sob. Ravyn ground his teeth as ragged emotions tore through him. Like her, he'd lost everything when he'd been mortal...
Even his life.
She would need to cry this out. To let out all the rage and agony until she was spent from it. All he could do was offer her some physical comfort. As paltry as it was, it was better than nothing.
And it was more than anyone had ever offered him.
He leaned his head against hers and closed his eyes while she clung to him.
Susan wanted to scream as countless memories of Angie and Jimmy haunted her. They were her friends. Her best friends. Both of them. She'd known Angie ever since they were children, playing house and dress-up together. As for Jimmy, Susan had been the one to introduce them. They'd even made her the best man at their wedding as a goof.
How could they be gone now? Like this? Who could have hurt them?
"Why?" she sobbed, wanting some kind of solace. Some kind of answer.
But there wasn't any. It was senseless and stupid, and it hurt so deep inside that she wanted to claw the pain out.
Why hadn't she believed Jimmy? Why? She should never have left that shelter without both of them being with her.
Now they were dead.
And it was her fault for being so stupid!
From the deepest part of her soul, anger swelled as she remembered Jimmy's earlier fear. That anger allowed her to gather her strength, and as it overrode her grief she became aware of the fact that she was clutching a complete stranger.
Pulling back, she stared into those obsidian eyes. "What the hell is going on here and don't lie to me. I want the truth about what happened today."
He took a deep breath before he answered. "You're not a Squire, are you?"
Her frustration mounted. "You keep asking me that. What is a Squire?"
He looked ill at her question.
Her gaze fell to the bullet wounds in his chest, which were no longer bleeding. They were all over his arms, his neck, and the bloodstains on the black shirt betrayed all the places where he'd been shot on his chest and back. Yet he was acting as if they were nothing but a nuisance.
Susan touched the bullet wound on his arm that had torn straight through the muscle and tissue. It wasn't makeup or some special effect, it was real and it was gory. "What are you?"
A tic worked in his jaw before he gave a clipped answer. "In short... the only hope you got."
Wiping her eyes, Susan pulled back from him and gaped. "Best hope for what, Catman? Death? Bankruptcy? You know, my life was going along..." She paused as she considered what she was about to say. "Well, rather crappily, to be honest, but at least no one was trying to kill me and no one was dying around me. Since I met you, my life has taken the high road to Shitsville with no off-ramp in sight. My best friends are dead. I've seen you kill a total of five people in-"
"Four," he said, interrupting her. "You took the one out with the bat crack upside his head."
Did he have to remind her of that? "And why was I playing Hank Aaron, huh? Because I stupidly took a stray cat home. Now I'm out the eighty-two dollars it cost to spring you from the shelter, my house is destroyed, my car has become Swiss cheese, and I owe my neighbor God only knows what for the little fence she keeps around her petunia bed. Thanks, Puss in Boots. Really. Thank you."
He looked aghast at her. "I can't believe you're thinking about money at a time like this."
"What am I supposed to think about?" she asked, her voice cracking, "The fact that the two people who mean the most to me in this world are gone and I can't even go to their funeral because everyone thinks I killed them?"