The Darkest Touch

CHAPTER NINE

Ryder.”

He exhaled when he realized it was Angelique. He took his cue from her and didn’t move. “Yeah,” he whispered back.

“I heard something at the window to my room.”

“Back up.”

She inched over and he took a slow roll off the sofa, using his hands to break his fall so he made no noise. They lay side by side, flat on their bellies, while Ryder studied the hallway and her room.

Deathly silence filled the air, the two of them barely breathing. He strained to hear noises around them, anything that would signal something out of the ordinary.

He waited for a crash through the window or door, but it didn’t happen. Instead, a mist began to materialize at the bedroom door, a slow appearance of white smoke, drifting upward from the floor.

“Do you see that?” Angelique asked.

“Yeah.”

“I need a weapon.”

He pulled a blade out from his stash and handed it to her. “If anything comes at you, use this. There are more weapons around the house.”

“I know where they are,” she said.

He felt the steeled tension in her body as they both raised up on their knees.

“Get behind me. Until we know if there’s just one or more, let me handle this.”

She moved, and he was glad he wouldn’t have to argue with her. He was pretty sure that after the last time she faced one of these new demons, she wouldn’t want to go another round unless she had to. At least now she was armed, which gave him a bit of comfort and worried him at the same time.

If she had a weapon it could be used against her. He hoped there was only one demon, but who could tell from the white tornado swirling up in the middle of the hallway.

He noted it didn’t happen in an instant. That was a good thing for demon hunters. They’d at least know these fuckers were coming.

One demon materialized, the same kind as he had fought before, its pale eyes glowing in the semidarkness.

It didn’t move at first, just made a slight turn of its head from side to side, as if sensing the air around it. Then it zeroed in on their direction and moved forward.

Ryder snapped to his feet, Angelique scrambling to do the same. He drew his weapons, a dagger in each hand, and stepped toward the demon.

“Stay out of the way, and always behind me,” Ryder warned.

“Got it.”

The demon ignored Ryder, seemingly intent on getting to Angelique. Exactly what he expected, so he stepped in front of it each time the demon made a motion toward Angie.

When the demon raised its arm to push Ryder out of the way, Ryder sliced it with one of the daggers, feeling a sense of satisfaction when the demon snatched its arm back, hissing in pain. The wounded skin sizzled and began to deteriorate immediately. The demon focused first on its own melting skin, then turned a menacing glare on Ryder.

Emotion. Odd for a demon. This one was damned pissed off, too. Growling, snarling, holding its wounded arm as if in pain.

This was good stuff. Anger and pain were distractions to the demon.

And working out perfectly, since its attention was on Ryder now and not Angelique.

“Come on, fucker. Come at me.” Ryder felt his own rage building and used it to shore up his strength.

The demon lunged at him, this time maneuvering to avoid the daggers. It was strong, grasping Ryder’s left arm and applying a tight, painful squeeze. Ryder stabbed the demon with the dagger in his right hand and the demon let go, backing away again.

The only problem was that even though he was wounding the creature, the skin around the injury began to regenerate.

That sucked.

“Ryder, there’s another one coming,” Angelique said.

He didn’t have time to look, his attention only on the demon he fought. “Let me know when it’s fully formed,” he said, his back turned to her. His primary objective was keeping the demon focused on him, and away from Angelique. Hopefully he could get this one down in time to battle the next one.

With renewed effort, he lunged and attacked the demon, stabbing with the daggers and wishing he’d pulled one of the swords instead so he’d have a longer weapon reach. The demon feinted back at every swipe of the knife, then surged forward to grab at Ryder again. Sometimes it missed, sometimes it didn’t, grabbing Ryder in its bone-crushing grip.

What kind of Wheaties were they feeding these demons anyway? This sonofabitch was superstrong, and being on a hardwood floor wasn’t helping. The demon was pushing, and Ryder had nothing to dig into with his boots. He was sliding backward. The demon gave a hard shove and Ryder went flying, slamming against the stone wall. He grunted at the pain, but filed it away for later, pushing off the wall to go after the demon again.

He caught sight of the next demon, its mist continuing to rise up from the kitchen floor. Angelique, armed, moved toward it.

“Don’t,” he warned her. Her gaze shot to his but he didn’t have time to hold it, his attention turning back to the demon he fought. This one had to die, before Angie tried to engage the other one. With renewed effort, he went low and embedded the dagger in the demon’s midsection. With a look of surprise the creature stilled, using both hands in an attempt to pull the dagger out.

Oh, yeah. Got you now.

Ryder used that momentary advantage to swing the other dagger up and jab it deep in the demon’s chest, right where its heart should be. The demon’s eyes widened; it tilted its head back and howled, an unholy sound.

The demon began to shudder, both hands still around the dagger in its stomach. It dropped its head and stared at Ryder.

“You can’t kill me.”

Its voice was hoarse, filled with frustrated anger.

“Heard that one before,” Ryder replied, stepping back as the demon began to disappear, reforming into its original mist.

He didn’t know if he’d killed it, but at least the damn thing was going away. Soon the demon was invisible, nothing but white smoke, then gone.

“Ryder!”

Ryder pivoted at Angelique’s warning tone and raised his daggers, but too late. The demon was on him and grabbed him by the throat, shoving him back against the wall.

Trapped and his breath cut off, Ryder struggled for air and fought to break free. The demon had his arms pinned against his sides so he couldn’t raise the daggers to stab the monster.

Shit. White spots flickered in front of his eyes. He was losing consciousness, felt himself weakening as his airway was cut off.

He didn’t have much time left, nor the strength to fight the demon.

Where was Angie? He closed his eyes, trying to summon the last ounce of his strength, but the demon was too strong.

Then the demon abruptly released its hold around his neck. Ryder sucked in massive gulps of air, blinking to clear his field of vision. As soon as he could focus again he took in the scene in front of him, certain he had to be delusional. What he saw couldn’t be right.

Angelique was behind the demon, both hands wrapped around its throat. Her fingernails were embedded in its neck, blood pouring from where she had wounded it.

The demon wasn’t struggling. Instead, it stared at Ryder, wide-eyed with shock. Then it turned to mist, vanishing within an iridescent cloud.

Now all he could see was Angelique, her hands still held in the same position they’d been when she’d attacked the demon, her fingers covered with its blood. Her long nails-no, they looked like claws-reformed into her normal short ones.

Holy Christ. What the hell had just happened here?

He took a step forward. “Angie.”

She wore no expression on her face, as if she were looking straight through him. It was like her mind was somewhere else.

“Angelique.” He reached for her arms, drew them down to her sides. “It’s over now. The demon is gone.”

She blinked. Looked up at him. Her arms began to shake, then the rest of her, and he knew what was going to happen. He slid an arm around her waist just as she crumpled. Her eyes swept closed, her head drooping against his shoulder as he eased them both to the floor.

Thirty seconds ago she’d been a warrior.

Now she was out cold.

And he had a million questions about what he’d just seen. Because no way could a normal human woman kill a demon with her bare hands. No matter how strong her fingernails were.

Besides, Angie had short, stubby fingernails. The ones she’d embedded in the demon were like two-inch claws. And after she’d pulled them out, they disappeared.

He picked up her hand. So small and delicate, yet covered in blood.

He rubbed his fingers across her skin, wondering how such a small woman could have kicked that demon’s ass.

Did Angie have demon blood in her? Or did something else happen to her in that cave in Australia? Wasn’t that part of what he’d been sent to find out? She’d just exhibited some kind of superpower, definitely. Evil. . not that he’d noticed. She’d killed a demon, then passed out. She hadn’t taken that long-clawed fury out on him, she’d taken it out on the demon. That was a good sign.

And the new demons. . interesting breed. He had to report to Lou about them. Strong, seemed to be able to survive the silver-tipped daggers, though he was able to make one disintegrate if he could get the dagger in deep enough.

Trial and error. Fun stuff. If he didn’t get killed in the process. He’d like it a lot better if he could just shove his fingers in their throats like Angelique had done. He wondered what that would feel like.

Just the thought of killing them that way gave him an adrenaline rush. He hated to admit it, but he envied Angie’s ability to destroy the demon. He had to rely on weapons.

Angelique stirred. He looked down at her and she raised her lids, her inky lashes lifting to reveal confused eyes.

“You passed out,” he informed her.

She sat, reaching for her head, but stilled when she saw her bloodied hands. “Oh, God. What did I do?”

“Don’t you remember?”

She nodded. “Wait. Yes. I. . killed that thing. I did kill it, didn’t I?”

“Hell if I know. But it disappeared after you stuck your nails in its throat.”

She looked pale. “Mon Dieu.” She pushed away and started to stand. Ryder got up first, then helped her. She was still a little unsteady on her feet.

“I’m all right. I need to wash my hands.”

She wasn’t all right as she weaved her way to the bathroom and turned on the water. Really hot water. She washed, taking a brush to scrub the blood from her hands until they were clean. Through it all, she remained silent. He did, too, knowing she had to go through the process. Some didn’t handle a kill well. He waited to see how Angelique was going to deal with it.

He’d bet Angie didn’t know any more about what she’d done than he did. She seemed to be as surprised about it as he was.

After she dried her hands, he helped her to the sofa, though she seemed to be strengthening more and more with each passing minute. He went to the fridge and got them both something cold to drink. She took several gulps of juice before placing the bottle on the table.

“Thank you. I was dry.”

“You’re welcome.” He studied her, looking for any other changes in her. Nothing. She looked and acted just like the normal Angelique. Normal facial features, no fangs, fingernails still normal. Her eyes were clear, though confused.

“I have no idea where that came from, Ryder. The demon went after you and this. . feeling just came over me.”

“What kind of feeling?”

“Anger. I saw that thing grab you by the throat and I was furious. I stood right in front of it, weapons in hand, and instead of coming at me, it skirted around me as if I didn’t exist and headed straight for you.”

Ryder resisted the urge to smile. “It pissed you off that the demon didn’t come for you?”

“Hell, yes, it did. It went after you with a vengeance, as if you were the only threat. What am I? Week-old moldy lasagna? I’m not without skills, you know.”

He snickered at her taking offense at not being attacked by the demon. “Darlin’, I appreciate your thought process, really. And thanks for coming to my defense. That bastard had me by the throat and my arms pinned. I couldn’t get at my weapons or slash at him.” She’d saved his life.

She shrugged. “I have no idea what I did. It was as if something took me over. Almost like flipping a switch inside me. I felt this burst of anger, then an incredible surge of immense power. I was on autopilot after that. Is it dead?”

“I think so. At the least, it’s gone.”

“Good enough.” She looked down at her hands. “So now I suppose I’ve added to your problems.”

“In what way?”

“You have to figure out what happened to me to make me like. . that. Do you suppose touching the black diamond in Australia did something to me?”

“Maybe. I don’t know the answer to that.”

“Neither do I. It’s scary. But exciting, too. I liked that power.” She lifted her head and he read the truth in her eyes. “It’s both exhilarating and terrifying and I’d like to know the answer myself.”

She was right about that. He would have to figure out what had happened to her. But one thing had happened.

She’d surprised him. She could have run like hell when he’d been engaged with the demons. Instead, she’d stayed and fought. She’d even had his back, killing a demon in order to save his life.

“You killed your first demon.”

She grinned. “I have to admit, it feels good to know that, even if the method was bizarre. If we did, in fact, kill them.”

He shrugged. “Who knows. Either way, they’re gone. And so are we.”

“What do you mean?”

“They found us again. I don’t know how, but they obviously know where we are.” He stood and gathered up the weapons he’d used to fight the demons. Angelique bent down to help him.

“So where are we going?”

He took the daggers to the kitchen to clean them off. “The one place we’re not going is where the black diamond is hidden.”

“Because the Sons of Darkness will be able to find it then.”

“Yes. They’ve tracked you to every location where you’ve hidden.”

“Based on what happened with me, do you think I’m connected to them somehow?”

He turned and studied her. She asked the question matter-of-factly, as if she really didn’t know the answer. He didn’t think she was trying to hide anything. It seemed as if she was as much in the dark about her newly demonstrated power as he was.

“I don’t know. It’s possible that you have some kind of connection to the Sons of Darkness. Either way, I’m not going to risk the black diamond by letting you lead me to it. Not right now, anyway.”

He turned off the water and grabbed a towel, pivoting around to lean against the sink so he could face her.

“Where are we going?” she asked again.

He knew the question she wasn’t asking. She wanted to know if he was going to take her to her sister. Now more than ever he was convinced that was a colossally bad idea.

“I’m not sure. But we’ve gotta keep moving, and hope we can stay a step ahead of the Sons of Darkness until I can figure out what the hell is going on.”

“Okay.”

“Better get packing. I want to leave now.”

She nodded and headed into the bedroom. Ryder jammed his few things into his bag, pausing when he was finished to stare down the hall into her room.

Okay, she amazed him. Infuriated and frustrated him. But she was an exceptionally strong woman. She didn’t scare easily, she was a fighter, and she didn’t run. A lot of women, and men, would have buckled under what had just happened. Angie accepted it, played the possible scenarios over in her mind, and came up with possible outcomes.

She’d make a good hunter. And an ally. And a partner.

It was going to really suck if she turned out to be a demon, because he was starting to care what happened to her.