Raven, Red Read online

  Raven, Red

  Lion and Raven Series, Book 1

  Connie Suttle

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Connie Suttle

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  Copyright © 2019 by Connie Suttle

  All Rights Reserved

  * * *

  Print ISBN: 1-63478-089-2

  Print ISBN-13: 978-1-63478-089-6

  eBook ISBN: 1-63478-088-4

  eBook ISBN-13: 978-1-63478-088-9

  * * *

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters and incidents portrayed within its pages are purely fictitious and a product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  * * *

  This book, whole or in part, MAY NOT be copied or reproduced by electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying or the implementation of any type of storage or retrieval system) without the express written permission of the author, except where permitted by law.

  * * *

  Published by: SubtleDemon Publishing, LLC

  PO Box 95696, Oklahoma City, OK 73143

  * * *

  Cover by Renee Barratt @ The Cover Counts.

  The Lion and Raven art on the back cover of the paperback by Brittany Johnson.

  To Walter, Joe, Larry, Lee, Dianne, Sarah, Mark, Denise and Brett.

  Thank you.

  In Memory of Jimmie Lou Hasley

  1941 — 2019

  Rest in Peace

  Acknowledgments

  As always, this book is the result of collaboration. If it weren't for the support of my editor, my cover artist and my beta readers, it would be less than it is. All mistakes, as usual, are mine and no other's.

  * * *

  About the Author:

  Connie Suttle lives in Oklahoma with her husband and a conglomerate of cats. They have finally banded together to make their demands, which has proven disconcerting to all humans involved.

  * * *

  You may find Connie in the following ways:

  Facebook: Connie Suttle Author

  Twitter: @subtledemon

  Website and Blog: subtledemon.com

  Also by Connie Suttle

  Blood Destiny Series:

  Blood Wager

  Blood Passage

  Blood Sense

  Blood Domination

  Blood Royal

  Blood Queen

  Blood Rebellion

  Blood War

  Blood Redemption

  Blood Reunion

  Blood Recall

  Blood Alliance

  Legend of the Ir'Indicti Series:

  Bumble

  Shadowed

  Target

  Vendetta

  Destroyer

  High Demon Series:

  Demon Lost

  Demon Revealed

  Demon's King

  Demon's Quest

  Demon's Revenge

  Demon's Dream

  God Wars Series:

  Blood Double

  Blood Trouble

  Blood Revolution

  Blood Love

  Blood Finale

  Saa Thalarr Series:

  Hope and Vengeance

  Wyvern and Company

  Observe and Protect*

  First Ordinance Series:

  Finder

  Keeper

  BlackWing

  SpellBreaker

  WhiteWing

  R-D Series:

  Cloud Dust

  Cloud Invasion

  Cloud Rebel

  Latter Day Demons Series:

  Hot Demon in the City

  A Demon's Work is Never Done

  A Demon's Due

  Seattle Elementals Series:

  Your Money's Worth

  Worth Your While

  BlackWing Pirates Series

  MindSighted

  MindMage

  MindRogue

  MindMaster

  Black Rose Sorceress Series

  The Rose Mark

  Rose and Thorn

  Black Rose Queen

  Queen of Thorns and Roses

  Future Wars Series

  Buffer Zone

  Black Zone*

  Lion and Raven Series

  Raven, Red

  Exile, Ancient*

  Other Titles from SubtleDemon Publishing:

  Malefactor

  Transgressor

  Underhanded*

  by Joe Scholes

  * * *

  *Forthcoming

  Chapter One

  September

  Costa de la Muerte

  Northern Spain

  Fierce winds screamed across the sand, blowing spray off the Atlantic and drenching anyone foolish enough to tread the beaches during such a storm.

  Locals blamed the winds for nightmares and other unnatural occurrences, while oscillating stones in the area rocked and rumbled, giving life to ancient tales.

  Had anyone from the nearby village of Mordomo ventured out, perhaps they would recall their encounter with the et Inpaenitens, thinking they'd met the Santa Compaña instead.

  Perhaps not.

  This night, these spirits were especially agitated.

  It is gone.

  Those words passed silently from one to another, as they found themselves able to break formation.

  Then our chance to destroy it has come, whispered throughout the company.

  First, we must find it. Belhar, eldest, strongest, and the one who'd enthralled his companions, insisted. No matter where it travels. It holds us only while it is here.

  Might we travel then, to find it?

  Only the strongest among us, Belhar admonished. I will choose who may go, and who must stay. Remember, your duty is to open the gate, should the opportunity arise.

  The winds whipped into a higher-pitched scream as the et Inpaenitens resolved to act accordingly and free themselves forever.

  Dispersing completely for the first time in centuries, they left no footprints behind for the winds to erase.

  May, the Following Year

  Deep Ellum

  Dallas, Texas

  Arianne Leone looked up from her painting when the bell over her art gallery door jangled, announcing a visitor. She'd bent low to paint the red and yellow colors of the Indian Blanket wildflowers found in Palo Duro Canyon.

  Paintings of the canyon were some of her best sellers, so she straightened her spine and stepped back to survey her work. The focus of the painting was a well-known rock formation, called the Lighthouse.

  "Ari, it's me," Nico Garcia called from the front of the gallery.

  "I'm back here," she replied.

  "Oh, that's really good," Nico breathed a sigh as he caught sight of her latest work. "I wish my final project was half as good."

  "It was great—you'll get an A."

  "Thanks for letting me work on it here—that made a lot of difference. Too many distractions at home," he admitted. "College is harder than I thought."

  "At least the semester's over—when will your grades be out?"

/>   "Maybe next week," Nico shrugged. He was worried, Ari could tell.

  "You'll do fine," she reassured him. "I just know it."

  "The raven came back again yesterday," Nico said.

  "Because you're feeding him," Ari teased. "Did you ever figure out what the red patch is under his beak?"

  "I still can't tell, and I can't really ask him, can I? He does like tamales, though."

  "You working the night shift?" Ari asked.

  Nico's parents owned Blue Taco, the Mexican restaurant across the street from Ari's gallery. It was a popular restaurant for standard Tex-Mex as well as authentic regional Mexican dishes offered as daily specials.

  "Yeah. Gotta go in at six," Nico answered Ari's question. "Thought I'd come early and see you, first."

  "Want to use the studio during the summer?"

  "Yes." By the breathless tone of his voice and the way his dark eyes lit up, Ari understood Nico's true purpose in paying her a visit.

  "You're welcome to use it anytime. I'll get you a key so you can come and go."

  "All right," Nico's enthusiasm spread with his grin.

  "I may come to the restaurant for dinner tonight—all this talk of tamales is making me hungry."

  "We can go together—you know Papa will not let you pay."

  "He needs to let me pay," she said. "He has to cover his bills, just like everybody else."

  "The restaurant is doing really well," Nico argued. "Besides, you let me paint here."

  "I'm still paying for my dinner. I'm just letting a friend paint in my studio—there are no strings attached. I remember art school, and how much it would have helped me to have an artist's space to do my work. Instead, I had two roommates who couldn't stop talking about guys and getting drunk."

  "Mama keeps asking me about a girlfriend. I have girl friends, but those are two separate words for now."

  "I hear that." Ari and Nico bumped fists. "Want a soda or some water?"

  "Water. It's hot outside." Nico followed Ari to the small fridge she kept in her workspace. "Something weird happened last night, though. Papa thought it was a burglar outside. The police came, but they didn't find anything."

  "They may have been scared off. Don't let your guard down," Ari warned. "People seem to get crazier during the summer heat."

  "Gonna paint some more after dinner?"

  "I think I'll go home. This is almost finished, and I have a crick in my back from bending down to do the flowers."

  "Is it already sold?"

  "Yeah. Somebody in Virginia wants it."

  "Cha-ching," Nico laughed.

  "Hey, that's rent," Ari poked his shoulder. "Do not diss the rent."

  Ari found herself flinging her arms around Nico as a deafening explosion sent them flying across her studio. Time slowed as she reflexively covered him as well as she could before their bodies hit the concrete floor.

  Across the street, fire and screams erupted; Blue Taco had been reduced to little more than rubble. The bomb that leveled the restaurant had shaken the gallery and blown out its plate glass windows.

  Ari came to her senses first, lifting her head—and her weight off Nico. Her back felt as if it were on fire. "Nico?" she whispered desperately. His eyes were closed and his hair was covered in dust and debris that continued to fall around them.

  She'd covered the rest of him, so his clothing was relatively clean. "Nico?" Ari stretched out a shaking hand; temporarily deaf, she couldn't hear his breaths or his heartbeat, and she didn't trust her eyes to tell her whether Nico was alive. Touch was the only sense she had left.

  There—a pulse. Ari found herself wiping tears away. Reaching for her cell phone in a back pocket, Ari groaned in pain. Her back felt as if a thousand needles were stabbing her relentlessly.

  "Nine-one-one, what's your emergency?" the voice on the other end of her call answered.

  "Explosion. Injury. Seven-nine-nine Durrance Street in Deep Ellum."

  "We have several units on the way to that area. Stay on the phone; someone will arrive soon."

  Nico escaped with minor injuries. A paramedic was forced to pick glass and splinters from Ari's back once the dust settled and first responders arrived.

  Everyone inside the restaurant perished.

  "He's nineteen and his parents just died," Ari hissed at Detective Norm Little, who'd arrived to ask questions. She'd disliked him on sight, and when he asked if Nico were in the country legally, she almost slapped him.

  Another detective joined the first; Ari wanted to snarl at him before he opened his mouth. "Norm," Lance Elliott frowned at Detective Little, "I think you're needed outside."

  "But," Little began to argue.

  "Out. Side." Detective Elliott jerked his head toward the open space that used to be a door into Ari's gallery.

  Ari studied Detective Elliott with a critical eye. Forties, a little bit of gray, no paunch, single or divorced, she decided. Elliott didn't budge when it looked as if Detective Little wanted to argue again. She watched with satisfaction as Little turned and walked stiffly toward the entrance.

  Once Little left the scene, Lance visibly relaxed. "Sorry about that," he apologized to Ari. "I'll take it from here. I don't suppose you have a security camera outside?"

  "Yeah. I can send you whatever it captured—before things blew up."

  "Can we do that now? How's the kid?" Lance's voice had gone soft when he asked about Nico, causing Ari to lift an eyebrow.

  Bad cop, good cop, she thought to herself, before leading Lance to the back, where Nico shivered on Ari's sofa.

  Shock, Ari pulled in a weary breath. "Nico, I have a blanket. I'll get it for you." Detective Elliott could wait—Nico was more important.

  "The back of your shirt is bloody," Lance Elliott called after her.

  "Damn. And I just changed shirts," she cursed.

  Lance hated this part of his job. "I'm sorry, Nico," he handed Nico's driver's license back to him. "But we have to find out who did this. Right now, you're the best source of information we've got."

  "Nothing is different," Nico stuttered his reply. Ari had draped a blanket over Nico's shoulders, but the kid was still shivering.

  "I have a note here that says your father called Plano PD last night," he said, trying to keep his voice even.

  "We thought it was a burglar—Mama heard somebody running beside the house, so Papa called the police. They didn't find anything. I'm not sure they looked very hard."

  "He told me the same thing earlier—that they had to call the police," Ari spoke up.

  "I'll send somebody out to check again." Pulling his phone from a pocket, Lance excused himself and walked toward the gallery door to place a call.

  "I'll call Plano PD," Captain Belwether told Lance over the phone. "Can't hurt to check. Now, what's this beef between you and Norm?"

  Lance forced himself not to curse. "The kid just lost both parents," he growled a reply. "Norm decided to air his racism and asked if the kid was here legally."

  "Of course he did," Belwether sounded grim. "I'll expect you to file a report on the incident when you get back to the station."

  "I'm sure Norm already has his complaint written about me overstepping my authority," Lance grumbled.

  "I'll talk to him when he gets back. We don't need this blowing up on the news—that we're this cold-hearted."

  "Except Norm is exactly that."

  "I'll pretend I didn't hear that. He's close to retirement. He and I will have a talk and he'll choose his words more wisely next time."

  "Right. I may have camera footage from a security camera across the street. I'll let you know if there's anything useful."

  "Body count is at twenty-nine and expected to go higher," Belwether said.

  "Damn. Look, I need to go. I don't know how long the kid can hold up, and I still have questions to ask." After ending the call, Lance walked back to the studio behind the gallery. His phone rang again before he reached his destination.

  "House in Plano just des
troyed," Belwether barked. "Homes on both sides damaged. We have to get the kid someplace safe. Somebody's after the whole family."

  "I'll bring him to the station. We can go from there," Lance studied Ari and Nico, who were now huddled together on the sofa. Ari's arms were around Nico, as if she knew something else had gone wrong already.

  Ari followed the detective to his car; Nico walked beside her, still wrapped in the blanket she'd given him. At first, Lance intended to take Nico to the police station, but Nico refused to go without Ari, as if she were his only remaining lifeline in a world gone off the rails.

  "We'll get through this, Nico," she spoke softly to him as Lance opened the back door of his vehicle. Ari stifled a scream when a raven, bearing a small patch of red feathers at his throat, landed on top of the car with a concerned kraw!

  "Don't," Nico begged as Lance waved an arm to shoo the bird away. "He's my friend."

  "We can't take him with us," Lance began.

  "Come. With. Nico," the bird croaked, sending a shiver through Lance. Ari gasped softly but didn't say anything.

  "He said my name," Nico turned to Ari, his eyes wide. "He's my friend," he turned back to Lance.