Otto shifted the box in his hands. "He can bunk in my room. I won't be sleeping for a while anyway." He stepped past Nick, toward the stairs.
They disappeared for a second before Otto came back alone.
He neared the two of them, then spoke in a low whisper. "Whatever you do, don't mention Katrina to Nick. I don't think he needs to know what's happened to New Orleans until he gets some bearing on being back here again. Not to mention, he was originally from the Ninth Ward."
"Don't worry," Ravyn said. "I'm not about to tell him."
Nodding, Otto left them again.
"Are you okay?" Susan asked.
Ravyn shrugged. "Honestly, I have no idea. Any more than I understand why Savitar would release Nick to me. How can I train him with all the crap that's going on?"
"Like he said, Savitar trusts you."
Yeah, but he couldn't imagine why. This day made no sense whatsoever to him. Tired and baffled, he held his hand out to her so that they could return downstairs. "C'mon. We still have a lot of stuff to cover. "
Ash growled low in his throat as he twisted at the rope that held his arm to Artemis's bedpost. At the moment, he hated her.
No, wait, he basically hated her every moment of every day, but at this particular time, he really wanted to rip her head off and play a few games of baseball with it. He stared at the gold hourglass that was set on the shelf across from the bed and watched as the last few grains of black sand fell through it.
He should have known that nothing with Artemis would ever be simple. When he'd made the bargain with her, he forgot to stipulate that she had to stay in the room for a full hour. Instead, she'd finished her fifth orgasm, then vanished out from under him before he could uphold his part.
But not before she'd tied him to her bed to keep him from going after her. Leaning his head back, he ground his teeth in frustration. Yes, he could use his powers to free his arm, but whenever he did that, Artemis went wild on him because the other gods on Olympus could feel it. They weren't "supposed" to know that he was here.
Yeah, right. They'd known for centuries that he stayed with her in her temple, but all of them pretended ignorance so that they didn't have to deal with Artemis's temper tantrums. If only I were that lucky. . . .
Dressed in a long, flowing white gown, Artemis appeared beside the bed. She feigned shock as she saw her hourglass that was now empty. "Oh no, did the hour end?"
"You know it did."
She tsked. "Then I guess we have to start over, don't we?"
"Artie..."
"Don't take that tone with me, Acheron," she said sullenly. "You accepted the terms of your release." She freed his arm, then rubbed at the bruise on his wrist that had been caused by the rope. "Now, now, love, don't be petulant."
Ash recovered his features to the typical stoicism he wore around her. Fine. Now that he knew the rules, he could turn them on her. Rising from the bed, he went to the hourglass and turned it over.
Artemis watched him with a curious frown.
Ash returned to her side and reached for the brooch that held her dress over her body. He opened the brooch and let her dress fall in a puddle at her feet. "Now where were we?"
Susan caught herself as her head dropped down. Blinking, she stifled a yawn. Ravyn reached around her and took her hand from the keyboard.
"Let's call it a night."
"But-"
"Susan, you've been a trooper, but it's already dawn and you look like you're ready to keel over from exhaustion. You can't keep going like this. You're as likely to overlook something as you are to find it."
As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. She'd read the last paragraph at least a dozen times and she still wasn't sure what it said. Her head hurt and it was all she could do to keep her eyes open. "I guess you're right."
This time she didn't bother to hide her yawn as Ravyn shut down the computer for her.
"Did you find anything?" he asked her.
"Not yet. There are a couple of entries about some of the missing students whose parents called trying to locate them. Jimmy wrote that he took the inquiries to his chief only to be told not to worry about runaways. The chief told him he needed to focus his attention on other cases. That's odd, right? I mean, if he's covering up for Daimons, it makes sense. Otherwise why wouldn't he let Jimmy keep investigating their whereabouts?"