Releasing the Hunter

Chapter 25

Ivy wriggled her hands back and forth trying to loosen the ropes around her wrists. She was bound to a chair in the middle of the basement—the same spot she’d been in earlier when she and Ronan had been picked up. Quinn was bound to another chair beside her. The rest of their people had been herded into a corner by the demons. Unfortunately there were only six of them left.

The demon horde, what was left of them at least, were piled in the room as well, all lined up to take a shot at Quinn. They wanted to know where the key was. So far, her brother was keeping mum. But she suspected that would get harder to do as the demons got more creative with their questions. Luckily, the questions had been just that, questions. No painful torture to accompany them. Not yet, anyway. She suspected that was soon in coming.

Very soon, by the malevolent gleam in the current interrogator’s black eyes.

He leaned into Quinn’s face, likely breathing his foul sulfuric breath onto him. “You do realize we’re going to torture you to find out the location of the key, don’t you?”

“Whatever, hellspawn,” Quinn spat. “Give me your best shot.”

Smiling, the demon clenched his fist and wound back, then hit Quinn across the nose. Ivy could hear the definitive sickening crack of cartilage as Quinn’s head snapped back.

She had to bite her tongue to stop from cursing the demon. Her insults and anger weren’t going to help Quinn. It might, in fact, make it worse for him. When he swung his head back around, blood gushed from his nose and soaked his shirt. She closed her eyes and swore under her breath. She pulled at her hands a little more. If only she could get free.

All the demons laughed at Quinn’s busted nose and swollen lip. One female stepped forward and ran a finger over his lips, gathering his blood onto it.

She sucked the crimson liquid off and sighed happily. “Demon-hunter blood is the sweetest thing.”

Quinn cursed at her. But it didn’t stop her from taking more from him.

Ivy couldn’t hold back her fury any longer. She kicked out with her right leg at the demoness. She struck the demoness in the back of the thigh. It sent the demoness stumbling sideways.

This made the other demons laugh again.

The demoness swung around and glared at Ivy. It made her sick to see Quinn’s blood staining her lips and teeth. Ivy had to swallow down the bile rising in her throat.

The demoness moved toward her, coming around the back of the chair. She gripped the back of Ivy’s head, yanking on her hair, pulling her head back. “You know, I think we’ve been doing this the wrong way. We could beat on Quinn all day and he wouldn’t tell us, but if we beat on baby sister...”

Quinn erupted, pulling on his restraints. “You leave her alone! I’ll rip you apart if you touch her!”

And that was the absolutely worst thing he could’ve ever said. Now they knew without a shadow of a doubt that torturing Ivy would work wonders on Quinn’s tongue.

She looked at Quinn, wanting to smack him across the head. He knew better. “Don’t be stupid.”

The demoness leaned down into her face. “I think it’s well past that point, don’t you, darling?”

Ivy spat at her.

The demoness wiped the gob away, then twisted her hand in Ivy’s hair and yanked even harder. Pain shot over her skull. She wondered how painful it would be if the demoness ripped all her hair out. Probably agony. She shivered just thinking about it.

Another demon, the male that had struck Quinn, sauntered over to where Ivy was held. He stood in front of her, openly leering down at her. Her stomach roiled at the lecherous look in his black eyes.

“How about we play with her first?” He kicked at her legs, driving them apart. “I’ve never screwed a demon hunter before.”

The demoness shook her head. “That’s all you think about, isn’t it?”

He shrugged. “I can’t help it. I am a lust demon, after all.”

Ivy struggled in her chair, flailing her legs at him. “I’ll rip it off before you even get it near me.”

He laughed, and then grabbed both her legs. “You’re fun.” He pushed her backwards.

Her chair toppled over with her in it. She hit the hard floor, the back of her head smacking painfully against the cement. Her scalp throbbed like an acid burn, and when she saw strands of her black hair in the demoness’s hand, she understood why.

“You stupid fool,” the demoness berated the other.

Ivy let them argue because her fall had done two wonderful things. It had broken one of the spokes in the chair back and it had loosened her ropes. Without bringing attention to herself, she managed to pull one of her hands free.

She looked at Quinn and winked.

He started to struggle in his chair, bouncing up and down and kicking his legs. “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you all!” He yelled so loud it made her ears hurt. “You’ll never find the key!”

But it did the job. It got the attention of all the demons. All the focus was on Quinn, so no one noticed, at least for the first three seconds, when Ivy rolled to her knees and scrambled to her feet.

“Run, Ivy!” Quinn screamed as he launched himself, chair strapped to his body, at the closest demon to the stairwell, affording her a small window of escape.

She took it. As fast as she could, she sprinted toward the stairs. She was on the bottom step when the demoness came up behind her and grabbed at her hair again.

“I’m going to scalp you alive,” the demoness growled.

“Hell, no, you won’t.”

There was a distinctive popping noise, and something round and silver split the demoness’s face. Shrieking, she clawed at her bubbling forehead and scrambled backwards.

Ivy looked up the stairwell to see Ronan on the top, holding her modified paintball gun. It shot quicksilver-filled pellets instead of paint-filled ones.

She nearly fainted with relief to see him.

“Duck,” he ordered.

She dropped to the stairs as he lobbed two homemade holy-water grenades into the basement. She heard them bounce once, then not only heard the percussion but also felt it as they exploded into a thousand plastic pieces. Holy water exploded everywhere. It even soaked the back of her jeans.

There was a lot of screaming and moaning in the basement when she turned to look at the damage. Demons fumbled around, shrieking and clawing at their melting and bubbling faces, hands, arms, any place that there had been exposed skin.

She pushed off the stairs and went back into the room. She picked up a gun that had fallen from one of the demon’s mangled hands and pumped a round into him. He fell silent to the floor. She turned and shot another one in the face.

By this time, Ronan was down at her side, dispatching the rest. The other humans had jumped into the action, and there were demon parts flying all over the place.

Ivy ran to where Quinn still sat bound in the chair. She untied his hands from behind his back. “Are you okay?”

He nodded. “I think I got speared by shrapnel, though.”

She glanced down and saw a growing blood spot on the denim on his thigh. He pulled open the rip in his jeans to show a small piece of plastic sticking into his flesh. As carefully as he could, he pulled it out and tossed it to the floor.

“It’s just a flesh wound,” Ivy pronounced, which made Quinn laugh. It was an old joke from their childhood and the many Monty Python film festivals they partook in over the years.

She helped him stand and he hugged her tight. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “My head hurts, but I probably just have a bump or two.”

They broke apart, then both turned to look at Ronan. He was busy helping the other captives up the stairs. He paused in what he was doing and looked at them. “There are a bunch of possessed out there that need exorcising. The other two demons ran for it.”

Quinn limped over to the table along the wall; he picked up his bible, a holy water ampul and his cross. He crossed the room, and then brushed past Ronan as he climbed the stairs.

When he was gone, when they were all gone, Ivy moved toward Ronan. He stood waiting for her at the bottom of the steps.

“You saved me. Again.”

He smiled. “Yeah, you owe me big-time.”

“They said you were dead.”

“Lies. As you can tell, I’m quite alive.”

Tears brewing in her eyes, she moved forward and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face into his shoulder. She breathed in the now-familiar scent of him and sighed.

He dropped the paintball gun and wrapped his arms around her, as well. His hands pressed against her back, holding her, possessing her. And she felt right and secure and safe for one of the first times in her whole life.

“I’m sorry,” she breathed into his shoulder.

He brought his other hand up to her neck and cradled her head. “Don’t be. It wasn’t you that drove me out.”

“I know, but I didn’t stop him.”

He sighed. “I didn’t expect you to. He’s your brother. He’s your kin. Blood will always be thicker than water. I know that all too well.”

She pulled back then and looked at him. She brought a hand up to his face and touched his cheek. “You’re wrong, Ronan. You have more humanity than anyone I’ve ever known. You are the good guy. You’re the hero of this story.”

“And what does that make you?”

She stretched up to his face and pressed her lips to his, whispering against them, “The sexy love interest.”

He tilted her head ever so slightly with his hand at her neck and deepened the kiss. The kiss was slow, and hot, and wet and the most perfect thing Ivy had ever experienced.

Until a voice from above ruined the moment.

“If you two can break apart for a minute, I need your help reviving the townspeople.”

Ivy looked up the staircase at Quinn, who was standing up top, a deep frown on his face and impatience in his voice.

“Give us a few minutes, okay, Quinn? We have some unfinished business to take care of.”

Quinn made a disgusted noise, then said, “Jesus, Ivy, can’t you save it for later?”

That made her laugh, and taking Ronan’s hand in hers, she mounted the stairs with the cambion right beside her all the way.