"You know this might not be so bad," Susan said, drawing their attention to her. "Cael can ask them what's going on, can't he?"
Cael shook his head as Ravyn gave him a curious stare. "No," he said firmly. "I don't call in those kind of favors. They don't ask me about the Dark-Hunters and what we're up to, and I don't ask them about other Apollites or Daimons."
"Unbelievable."
Cael sneered at Ravyn. "Don't cop a superior attitude with me, dickhead. It's not like you're not hunting family, too. At least I don't have any Apollite blood in me. How can you hunt your own kind?"
Susan caught Ravyn as he moved toward Cael. "Enough, boys."
"She's right," Otto said, backing her up. "Besides, you two should be weakening each other by now. "
"We are," they said in unison.
The door at the end of the hall opened to show Amaranda coming back toward them, carrying a small sack of what smelled like food. As she walked past them, Susan noticed a small Dark-Hunter bow and arrow entwined with a rose tattoo on the small of the woman's back.
Amaranda looked pointedly at Ravyn, who somehow managed to keep his face completely stoic. "Cael needs his strength. You need to go."
Ravyn's gaze fell to the teardrops that were tattooed on the hand Amaranda placed on Cael's arm. "She's Spathi?"
Cael's features hardened again. "She's not a Daimon."
"But she's trained to fight us."
Amaranda lifted her chin to stand firm against Ravyn and his criticism. "I'm trained to protect myself and those I love."
"From what?" Otto asked in a dry tone.
She gave him a withering stare. "Whatever I have to."
Again the air was rife with unspent anger and hostility. The frisson of it went down Susan's spine like a phantom touch that set her on edge.
It was only broken when Cael looked at his wife and his anger seemed to fade immediately into a much softer emotion. "Baby, was there a Squire here earlier asking to talk to me?"
"No." Her features were completely sincere and open.
"You sure?" Otto asked.
She nodded. "Kerri would have told me if there were. She wouldn't have kept something like that secret."
Otto looked ill. "He didn't come back and he didn't make it here. They must have intercepted him. Damn. I wonder when we'll find the body."
Ravyn released a heavy breath. His exhaustion and sadness reached out to Susan. She wanted to place a comforting hand on him but decided that wouldn't be prudent. Unlike Cael and Amaranda, they weren't a couple. And she didn't know him well enough to gauge if Ravyn would welcome her comfort or resent it.
"At least we know Cael's safe, so we can relax there." Ravyn narrowed his eyes on the other Dark-Hunter. "Stay in touch and remember what I said. Sooner or later, this battle will come to your door."
Worry darkened Amaranda's brow as she looked up at her husband. "What battle?"
He took her hand into his. "Nothing, baby. They're just paranoid."
Otto scoffed at his words. "And cockiness kills."
"C'mon," Ravyn said, pushing Otto toward the stairs. "We have other places to go and other people to annoy."
Otto shrugged his grip off as he headed down the hallway, away from Cael and Amaranda. Ravyn followed after him.
Susan pulled up the rear, but as she reached the stairs, she turned back to see Amaranda drop the sack of food on the floor as Cael pulled her into his arms and cupped her face in his large hands, before he gave her a passionate kiss.
Gone was all of his toughness and in its place was the gentleness of a man who was obviously head over heels in love with his wife.