Her hand grabbed his arm and yanked hard, stopping him instantly. The petite vampire packed three hundred years of power in her grip. She was strong. He stared down into her eyes. Normally, they were blue but at the moment were solid black balls of fury.
She was pissed. He could see that.
A wicked grin slid across his face, and suddenly he bent low. A gasp escaped from between her lips, and he felt her stiffen beneath his hand, as his mouth grazed her softness. It was nothing more than a whisper of touch. A good-bye.
He lifted his head and removed her hand from his arm. “Crazy doesn’t come close to describing what I am.”
Declan felt her gaze upon his back as he turned from her and strode purposefully toward the room. Energy sizzled against his flesh as his hand fell upon the door. Cormac’s ward was faltering.
His hand tightened upon the handle, and Declan felt it give way as he pushed the door open.
Jaxon felt the shift in the air at the same time as Jagger. He frowned and stared into the darkness. They were surrounded by creatures the likes of which he’d never seen before though he’d read reports about them. They were shades, beings that hovered between the living and the dead. Their existence was a permanent state of chaos . . . of pain.
Shades were forever trapped in their own hellish form of purgatory.
Silence filled his ears. It pressed down upon him, and he stilled. His senses sharpened, and his jaguar stirred, agitated, as the shades slowly evaporated into nothing.
He glanced back at Libby, saw the confusion on her face, and winked at her. Her eyes widened, and a quick smile claimed her mouth. She was good. He wished that she was home with Logan, but knew Libby had the skills to take care of herself.
A low-grade keening erupted from the shadows as if the walls themselves were alive. The energy thinned, and he felt it begin to pulsate as the darkness moaned, like the world was tipping, and the edges were ripping away.
And, always, the sound of dripping water echoed in the distance.
Cracker moved in close to his side. The hardened soldier spit on the ground, his movements steady and precise as he did so. He sniffled and smiled fiercely. “The shit’s going to hit the fan any—”
The moaning wavered, amplified into layers, splitting the dark with a hard thrust as the shadows parted violently. Wind came at them from all directions, bringing with it bone-chilling cold.
Jaxon heard Libby gasp as an impressive array of bodies stepped forward, solidifying within seconds. There had to be forty or more demons, and every single one of them began to make a strange series of clicking noises.
Cracker gripped his Glock in his right hand and held his impressive machete in front of him with his left. Jaxon heard him murmur, “Time to rock and roll, boys and girls.”
Jaxon knew they needed to act quickly. Within minutes, the demons would transform into their true selves.
He gritted his teeth, and his eyes flattened into a cold black stare. “Stay safe and shoot to kill. Aim for their heads,” he yelled at his team. He turned quickly to Libby and nailed her with an intense look. “You stay close to me and don’t take any chances. We need to blast a hole through their formation.”
She waved her dagger as she stood loose on the balls of her feet. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll stay close. Someone needs to make sure you don’t get your ass kicked.”
Jaxon arched an eyebrow, his face dark, though his heart swelled at her words. The woman never failed to surprise him.
The clacking reached a crescendo. Jaxon was about to give the order to move out and attack when, suddenly, it stopped. There was no sound other than the steady drip of water and a constant moaning that was slowly fading away.
A roar s
liced through night, and his jaguar reacted painfully. At the same moment, one of the demons pitched forward, smoke rising from the back of its head as it fell into a lifeless heap at his feet.
Dark liquid spewed everywhere, and a rancid odor erupted into the air.
“Someone told me there was a party down here. Good to know they were right.” Ethan Crane stood several feet behind the line of demons, at his side was a large black jaguar. Nico.
Julian was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Declan. Not good.
Ethan snarled, his eyes glowing with a fierce light as he nodded to Jaxon. “Seems a little tame for my liking.”
Jaxon looked to Cracker. “Now.” At the same time, Ethan double-fisted a pair of deadly Glocks and opened fire.
All hell broke loose.
Chapter 30