The Darkest Touch dh-3 Page 24

  Really strange for subterranean dwellers.

  “We take out the ones above floors first,” Michael instructed. “Then we head downstairs. No one goes down there until I give the signal. Understood?”

  Once everyone checked in with an affirmative, they moved.

  About damn time, too. Ryder and Dalton took the lead, inching forward on bellies and elbows through the cactus patch.

  “Careful,” he commed. “Some of the stickers are low. And if you get stuck, just suck it up and don’t holler like a baby.”

  No less than thirty seconds later, he heard Punk growl and whisper a string of obscenities.

  “Guess I’ll have to take the tweezers to you later, huh, Punk?” Mandy teased.

  His only response was another low growl.

  Getting through the cactus was slow and tedious. Ryder and Dalton made sure to stop and survey the house, but it was completely dark. Not that demons needed the light to see. He figured they were expecting them, so he had to make sure not to give the Sons of Darkness any heads-up that the hunters were on the way. And that meant low to the ground, no matter how painful it was for everyone.

  Besides, the crawl through the cactus was only about twenty yards or so, though one would think listening to all the griping that they’d been in there for hours. Ryder was first out, crawling into the middle of a field of thick bushes.

  “Stay low,” he ordered through his mic, settling into a crouch and grabbing his binoculars as he waited for the others. “Make sure you don’t pop your heads up over the tops of the vegetation after you’re clear of the cactus field.”

  They moved just as slowly through the brush and toward the front of the castle. No one was stationed outside the entrance. That was a good thing. The teams split as they had been previously assigned. Ryder went to the side door kitchen entrance and set the explosive, then hid in the bushes with his team and waited for the signal from the front that would be his cue to enter.

  “We’ll sweep the main floor first,” he said to Mandy and Trace. “After we’re clear, we’ll head downstairs with the other teams. Stay close.”

  They nodded and braced themselves for the cue, waiting for Gina and Derek to do their thing.

  The explosion from the front thundered around them, making the ground underneath their feet tremble.

  That was the signal. Ryder blew the door, jumping up and rushing inside. Smoke filled the kitchen, but he’d studied the layout, moving expertly past every object in the room, weapon drawn and ready to fire. He had one thought in mind as he made his way through the smoke-filled rooms-finding Angelique and getting her the hell out of there. He didn’t even want to think about what she’d been going through since she’d been there.

  Anger soared inside him, so when he spotted the first demon heading toward him, he leveled his weapon and fired, a rush of satisfaction zipping through him when it howled and began to melt. Demons appeared from every room, both hybrid and pure, all around them. The hunters formed a tight circle and began battling outward. Fury guided him, the need to exact vengeance for their taking her, and for his own failure to protect her.

  He fired round after round of UV light, sending demons into melting heaps. The closer they got to him, the more he advanced, putting out wave after wave of the blue light that turned them into nothing but molten jelly. He didn’t take time to ponder why it felt so damn good to kill them, he just added to the body count, pushing his way forward, circling around the lightning-fast pure demons that lunged at him, only to pivot and fire at them before they could turn and come at him again.

  With machinelike precision he cut through their numbers, wishing he could touch them, feeling this fierce need to go one-on-one, wanting to make them pay for taking what was his. If he could, he’d wrap his hands around their evil throats and squeeze the life out of them.

  “We’ve got the numbers managed here,” Michael commed. “Derek, Gina, Punk, Mandy, you stay with me. Ryder and Dalton, lead your team underground.”

  “Got it.” Now was Ryder’s chance to rescue Angie and her sister, to grab the black diamond so they could destroy it.

  And maybe, if he was lucky, they’d find the Sons of Darkness, too.

  He was so ready to take them all down.

  “Let’s go,” Dalton said, nudging him on the shoulder.

  Ryder turned and moved with Dalton to the door leading down into the cellar. It was locked. Ryder studied it. Wood. Yeah, whatever. “No time to pick the lock.”

  “Ready?” Dalton asked.

  Ryder nodded, and together they reared back, then kicked the door. It splintered and banged against the wall as it flew open.

  “Okay,” Ryder said to the others. “Stay close. There might be a lot more of them down here.”

  They took a set of narrow cement stairs that led down quite a ways. It was pitch dark down there. Ryder felt for a light switch, found it, and flicked it, but nothing happened. Figured. At least their glasses gave them perfect night vision.

  Once they had all come down, he held up his hand, listening, breathing in to determine the presence of the foul-smelling hybrid demons.

  “No hybrids down here,” he said. The room was empty. No doors or other rooms, but there was a hallway that led into what looked like a tunnel. “Okay, we’re heading down here. Get ready to back up in a hurry if we get rushed by demons.”

  “You think they’re down this way?” Dalton asked.

  “No idea,” Ryder said. “But where else could they be?”

  “Underground.”

  Ryder grimaced. He hoped that wasn’t the case, because finding them then would be difficult, if not damn near impossible, and would require explosives and some heavy-duty tunneling. “Let’s just hope this leads us to them.”

  He and Dalton walked side by side, the rest of the hunters close behind. Other than the sounds of their footsteps on the cement floor, Ryder heard nothing. No voices, no movement. With as many demons as Lou had picked up on his image scanner, Ryder had figured there would be movement, some sound.

  “There’s light up ahead,” Dalton said, pointing with the barrel of his laser to the end of the tunnel.

  “Yeah, and I just saw a shadow to the right of the tunnel exit. Get ready, everyone.”

  They crowded together, and when Ryder gave the signal, they rushed the tunnel exit. Ryder pivoted to the right and Dalton to the left, the rest of them following suit, weapons ready to fire.

  No one was there.

  “They’ve gotta know we’re here,” Trace said.

  “They do.” The room was long, with doors along each side. They looked like they might be the kind used for storage. There were chains and locks on each door.

  “Okay, let’s start busting open these doors,” Dalton said.

  Ryder nodded. “I’ll take the right, you take the left.” He took half the team with him, the others went with Dalton. “Be ready.”

  Lasering the locks open was easy. They pulled the chains, and drew open the heavy doors. Once inside, they found nothing but empty rooms. Ryder and his team checked all six of the rooms on their side, and found them empty.

  Shit.

  Ryder turned to see Dalton busting open the last room on his side of the corridor. He checked it and came out, shaking his head.

  Well, sonofabitch. Where were the women? And the black diamond?

  And the goddamn demons?

  They gathered in the center of the hallway. “Now what?” Rico asked.

  “We missed something,” Ryder said, frowning. “They have to be here.”

  “Maybe they left when they heard us coming,” Punk said.

  “Could be.” Ryder didn’t like this. If they left, did they take Angie with them?

  “What about upstairs?” Dalton suggested.

  Ryder shrugged. “That’s as good a suggestion as any. I’m out of ideas. Let’s go. I’ll bring up the rear.”

  The others began filing up the stairs, but something stopped Ryder.

  A
noise. Faint, but enough to make him turn and move back to the center of the room again. When the sounds of the other’s footsteps quieted, he crouched down and listened again.

  “Ryder, what are you doing?” Dalton commed. He stood at the top of the stairs, looking down.

  “I hear something, Dalton. Give me a minute of quiet.”

  “Demons?”

  “Don’t think so. Just need a sec.”

  “You got it. If you have demons down there, yell and we’re back there.”

  “Yeah. I’ll let you know.”

  As soon as it quieted down again, he took his ear comm out, craned his head from side to side.

  He heard it again, looked down at the floor.

  Yelling. Someone was yelling. The sound was muffled, but he could definitely hear it.

  It definitely wasn’t demon. It was human.

  And it was coming from beneath the floor.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Can you hear me? Help me!” Angelique was screaming now, her voice growing hoarse from shouting as loudly as she could.

  She’d heard voices above, the tromp of footsteps moving over her head. They walked like humans. She didn’t know how she could tell the difference. Maybe it was the movement. Fast and deliberate.

  So she’d started screaming, hoping they could hear her, praying she wouldn’t be left alone in this cold, dark room.

  “I’m down here!” She ran over to the wall, pounded on it, hoping someone would be able to hear the banging.

  Please, please find me. Don’t leave me here.

  But the footsteps moved away and everything went silent.

  Oh, no. Please, God, no. She wanted to cry, to sink to the floor and give up.

  Angry at herself, she sniffed and threw back her shoulders. Dammit, she wasn’t going to quit. She swallowed, coating her throat, and started pounding and screaming again.

  “Help me! Someone please, I’m down here!” She pounded, over and over again until her hands throbbed.

  Then, miraculously, someone pounded back. She heard shouting, as if someone had his mouth right to the floor, trying to communicate to her.

  Tears filled her eyes, and she laughed. They’d heard her! She beat her fists against the wall in acknowledgment.

  The ceiling around her began to chip away, and she recognized the humming of a laser.

  It was the hunters. They were using the laser to melt through the floor above her. She huddled in the corner and averted her gaze from the UV light, staying out of the way as tiny pieces of the ceiling began to fall.

  “Angelique? Isabelle?”

  She tilted her head back and whispered a prayer of thanks. “Ryder! It’s me.” She ran to the small hole in the ceiling.

  “Are you alone or is your sister with you?”

  “I’m alone. I don’t know where Izzy is.”

  “Okay, we’re going to punch a bigger hole so we can pull you up, because we can’t find any other way down there. Get as far back as you can and cover your head and eyes.”

  She moved to the opposite corner and shielded her head and face. Pieces of the ceiling came crashing down. When it stopped, she hurried over to the hole, never happier than to see Ryder peering in at her.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Are you strong enough to hang on to a rope while I pull you up, or do I need to come and get you?”

  “I can do it, no problem.” She’d do anything to get out of this prison.

  He threw the rope and she wrapped it around her arm and hands, hanging on tight while they drew her up and out. As soon as she was on solid footing again, she threw her arms around Ryder.

  “Thank you for hearing me, for finding me.”

  He squeezed her tight. “I’m glad I did. You did a good job screaming.”

  She laughed and refused to let go, needing to feel human touch. His touch. “Thanks.” When Ryder pulled back and studied her, he frowned, sliding his thumb across her cheek.

  She didn’t even realize she was crying.

  “Darlin’, are you sure you’re okay?”

  She sniffed and nodded. “I was alone. It was cold. Shock and stress, I think. I’ll be fine.”

  “Do you remember anything?” Michael asked.

  She pulled back and realized there were even more hunters standing around besides Dalton and the others-people she remembered from Australia.

  How many people had they brought in to search for her?

  She shook her head. “Nothing. After they took me from the church, I woke up down there. No one came in and I couldn’t get out.”

  “What about Isabelle?”

  Cold dread sank like a lead weight in her stomach. “Izzy isn’t here.”

  Dalton frowned over Ryder’s shoulder. “How do you know?”

  “I felt her. And the black diamond.”

  At their quizzical looks, she said, “Something happened while I was in the room. It was like a sudden awareness of both my sister and the black diamond.” She turned her gaze to Michael. “Isabelle isn’t in this place. She’s somewhere else. And the black diamond is with her. She’s touched it and brought it to life.”

  “How can you be so sure?” Ryder asked.

  She shrugged. “I can’t explain it, but I feel it. It’s like a movie playing in my head, thoughts that are occurring in real time.”

  “Do you know where she is?”

  She fought the tears, refused to let them fall again. “No. I see bits and pieces, but not location.”

  “Let’s get out of here,” Michael said. “Before we get more visitors. We’ve got to get Angelique back to the Realm. Then we’ll see if we can track Isabelle and the black diamond.”

  Ryder grabbed Angelique’s arm. “Good idea. I’ll feel a lot better once Angie’s safe.”

  “I was never in danger, Ryder. They didn’t want me.” She sat in the library while Ryder paced in front of her. The others were piled in there, too. After they returned, she’d taken a shower and gotten something to eat. Now she was curled up on the sofa with a cup of tea, feeling much warmer than she’d been earlier.

  “Don’t you see? I was a decoy. You found me easily, just like the Sons of Darkness wanted you to.”

  Ryder scrubbed his hand over his face. “No, I don’t see. And it wasn’t so damn easy.”

  “He probably has cactus spines stuck in his. . well, wherever,” Gina said with a smirk. “We had to crawl through a field. They’re all cranky.”

  Angelique’s lips quirked. “I see. I’ll work on getting those out later.”

  Ryder shot a glare at Gina. “Not funny. And I don’t have cactus spines on any part of me. I’m irritated at Angie.”

  “Why?” Angelique asked.

  “Because I don’t agree with your assessment of what went down. I think the Sons of Darkness still want to use you.”

  She shook her head. “I’m useless to them. That was already proven in Australia. As soon as I laid my hands over the black diamond, the light inside it went dark.”

  “Just because you aren’t as powerful as your sister doesn’t mean you don’t have value to the Sons of Darkness,” Lou said. “Remember, you are still the daughter of a Lord, one of the high demons. You are highly revered by them.”

  “Lou’s right,” Derek said. “The Sons of Darkness don’t easily let go of their own. I know.”

  She didn’t believe that. “That’s not true. Don’t you remember, Lou? Bart cast me aside as if I was nothing to them. And Derek, have they come after you since the incident with Ben?”

  Derek shook his head. “No. They haven’t.”

  “See? They have no use for me, for Derek, or for Nic, and we all have demon blood. But they do want Isabelle.”

  “I have a feeling that some of the Lords might disagree with many of the decisions Bart and Ben had made,” Michael interjected. “The Sons of Darkness have a need for someone of your power. For you and Derek and Nic. I think you’re all vulnerable.”

&
nbsp; Frustration ate at her, made her stomach twinge. Why weren’t they out looking for Izzy instead of having this ridiculous discussion? “I have no power. Don’t you think I tried? If I had any useful demon blood in me, why couldn’t I conjure it up to get myself out of that room?”

  “Demon power manifests itself in unusual ways, Angelique,” Lou explained. “Both Derek and Nic had to learn that, too. You’re still very young and not in control of your skills yet. None of us knows what you can do, or can’t do, what any of you who are half demon are fully capable of. You may never be able to call it up at will.”