He blinked and looked away as if considering her words. When his gaze came back to hers, it was filled with all the raw, aching need he had to win this war against Acheron and Apollymi. "If you're right, Satara, I'll deliver the Atlantean up to you on a silver platter and hand you the dagger you need to cleave his heart out of his chest."
"That's not what I want, Stryker. That's your dream."
His eyes flashed in greedy expectation. "Fine then. You get this for me and I'll give you the secret to kill Artemis and free you from her service forever."
Satara closed her eyes as she tried to imagine it. If she never saw that bitch another day in her life, it would be too soon.
Freedom...
It was too good to be true. Her heart racing at the prospect, she held her hand up to Stryker. "Have we a deal then, Brother?"
He took her hand in his and held it over his heart. "Yes, we do."
Susan woke up suddenly. At first she couldn't tell what had disturbed her. But as she remembered where she was, she realized that Ravyn was twitching while he slept. She started to shrug it off and go back to sleep, but something in the way he moved reminded her of someone caught in a nightmare they couldn't wake up from.
"Ravyn?" She gently shook him.
Before she could blink, he seized her in a fierce grip and whipped her over him, onto her back. His breathing was ragged as he growled a sound so feral that she half-expected him to rip out her throat.
"Ravyn!" she shouted, afraid he might hurt her before he came to his full senses.
He froze for a full ten seconds before his touch gentled. He dipped his head down to inhale deeply by her hair as if savoring her scent. "Susan?"
"Yes."
He pulled back and ran his hands over her as if assuring himself that he hadn't broken anything. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"
"No," she whispered, trying to ignore just how good his hands felt roaming her body. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." He got up from the mattress and moved toward the door. She couldn't really see him until he opened it and the light from outside illuminated his tough stance. He'd removed his shirt and wore nothing but the black jeans as he stepped across the hall to the bathroom.
Susan didn't move while she waited for his return. When he came back to bed, his hair was damp as if he'd washed his face and then raked his hands through it. He wiped the back of his hand over his face before he shut the door and rejoined her on the bed.
He turned his back to her as if nothing had happened. But even so she could sense his unrest. There was an aura of deep sadness and something else she couldn't quite place. His actions reminded her of a tough kid who glared at the world through angry eyes. One who wanted nothing more than kindness and yet any time someone tried to offer it, he rebuffed them rather than take a chance on being hurt again.
There in the darkness, Ravyn's pain reached out to her and it made her want to soothe him.
"You want to talk about it?"
Ravyn lay there with visions of his nightmare still tormenting him. He really hated to sleep. It was the only time he was truly vulnerable. Awake, he could control his thoughts and emotions. Then as soon as he slept, all the things he wanted to forget came back with a vicious clarity. If he could, he'd purge those memories from him entirely.
But they were his memories and his feelings. Two things he didn't like to share with anyone else.
"Not really."
He could sense Susan's disappointment. But what confused him was her gentle kindness that was all but unknown to him. He didn't understand why it was important to her that she try to soothe his unrest.
She rolled over on the mattress so that she was facing his back. When she spoke, her tone was low and comforting. "You know, when I was a little girl, I used to have these awful dreams about..." She hesitated as if considering whether she should continue. With a soft laugh, she admitted her nightmare. "Well, okay, my mother's dolls coming alive while I slept. It was kind of stupid, but it used to scare me to death. "
Ravyn let out a tired breath even though he appreciated what she was trying to do. "I assure you, I'm not dreaming about dolls, Susan."
"I know. But whenever I woke up from my nightmare, my mother would always make me tell her what I'd been dreaming- no matter how stupid it seemed. She said that when you talk about it, you get it out of your mind so that you can dream about good things instead."
"I don't want to talk about it."
But then he felt her hand in his hair, gently stroking his scalp. "Okay."
Ravyn closed his eyes as a foreign emotion went through him. He couldn't remember the last time someone had offered him comfort. The last time a woman had touched him like this. She moved her hand lower, over his shoulder to his arm, where she gently rubbed his biceps. Her touch... no, her kindness singed him with heat.