"Yeah," Menkaura agreed.
Belle set the half-empty bottle back on the table. "I just wish we knew what they were up to!"
"That's a no-brainer," Nick said snidely. He looked around the table as if they were all morons, and honestly, Ravyn was getting a little tired of his attitude. Train him, hell, the man would be lucky if Ravyn didn't kill him.
"Care to enlighten us blind sheep?" Zoe asked.
"Most of you are ancient warriors. Can't you figure it out? Think about it. All through history, what has brought down every great civilization or people?"
"War," Cael answered.
"No," Zoe whispered. She looked around the table at them. "It's what has brought all of us over to Artemis."
Ravyn nodded as he understood what they meant. "Betrayal. Sabotage. None of us were brought down by the enemy who attacked us in the open. We were brought down by the enemy within. By the traitor we didn't see coming at our backs."
"That's right." Nick's gaze went back to Cael. "It's always the one you least expect who does it, too. We won't be destroyed by the Daimons. We're going to be destroyed by one of our own."
Ravyn stiffened at words he knew were all too true. It was why, as Erika had pointed out, he didn't let anyone near him. He'd had enough of trusting people. God, he'd been killed by his own brother. A brother whose life he'd saved only a year before Phoenix had taken his.
Zoe stood up. "And on that sobering thought, I'm going to patrol."
Menkaura fell in behind her.
"Watch your backs," Leo called.
Zoe paused at the door. "Don't worry. It's what I'm best at."
"And beware of the phones," Nick said. "I don't know how the Daimons do it, but not even the caller ID works right."
She scoffed at him. "Yeah, thanks."
Dragon and Belle went next, leaving Cael, Ravyn, Nick, and Leo alone in the room.
Cael met Ravyn's gaze. "August 14, 2007."
"What's that?"
When he spoke, his tone was barely a whisper. "That's the day I need you to help me do the right thing. "
Ravyn's heart clenched as he realized it must be Amaranda's birthday. That more than anything else told him that Nick was wrong to accuse Cael. He was the one person Ravyn had faith in. "I'll be there."
Cael nodded and then passed a hostile glare toward Nick before he headed to the door.
As soon as it closed, Ravyn sighed as he looked at the Cajun. "Well, you certainly know how to win friends and influence people. No wonder Savitar wanted you off his hands."
"Don't start with me, Katagari. Out of all of them, you know I'm telling the truth."
How he wanted to deny it, but yeah, he could feel it. His animal senses picked up on it with an eerie accuracy. There was something highly out of the ordinary here. "For the record, I'm Arcadian, not Katagaria. Jeez, you've been hanging around Talon too long."
Nick sneered. "For the record, I don't give a shit."
Turning away from the angry man, Ravyn looked at Leo. "So what's our next move?"
"You have to stay hidden," Leo said as he handed him the folder he'd been thumbing through.
"What's this?"
"A file I was collecting. About a year ago, I got a call from a hysterical woman who said she'd seen her neighbor come home one night with blood on her clothes. A neighbor with fangs. I investigated it and found out the woman was on all kinds of medication, so I wrote it off. "