No Mercy (Dark-Hunter 18)

Chapter 20

Dev opened the door to find Nick in the hallway, dressed for battle. "What's going on?"

"My Spidey sense is off the radar. There's a massive demon migration and it's charting a course straight for us. Since I don't want my house destroyed, I vote we take it where we're least likely to be seen and where we have an advantage."

"And that would be?" Dev asked.

"The St. Louis Cemetery. This time of night, it'll be closed and empty."

Sam shook her head. "I can't go there. I'll get possessed."

Nick rolled his eyes. "Better you than my house."

"I thought you had it shielded?" she shot back.

"I do, but this--"

A loud pop downstairs cut his words off.

Nick cursed as he stepped back and tilted his head. "Looks like we waited too long. Gird your loins, people, join the fight." He vanished.

Dev sighed irritably. "That's so not what I want to do with my loins right now."

Sam laughed. "Don't worry, baby. I'll take care of your loins later. Right now, we fight."

By the time they reached downstairs, Ethon, Chi, and Nick were standing with their backs to each other. Sam could hear the demons scratching, trying to break the shield around Nick's house.

She looked back and forth between Chi and Ethon. "What are you two doing here?"

Ethon winked at her. "Nice seeing you, too. Thanks for the gracious welcome."

Chi ignored him. "We came in at sunset to help guard you and Nick."

"Thank you." Sam turned to Nick. "Where's Ash?"

Nick curled his lip. "He's not welcome here and I refuse to have him in my home."

Dev looked at him like he was crazy. "Is that good idea given what we're facing?"

"My vote is double hell no," Ethon said, swinging his sword around. "But I think we can handle them."

Sam gave Captain Suicide a droll stare. "How did you die again? Oh wait, I know this. 'I can take 'em. I don't need to wait for reinforcements. I can do it myself.' How'd that work out for you again?"

Ethon glared at her. "It wasn't that cut and dry and I would have won had my best friend not stabbed me in the back. Literally."

Nick growled at them. "They're breaking through. You guys might want to get your heads out of your asses and pay attention for this."

The sound of glass shattering echoed through the house an instant before it began crawling with demons.

Lazaros manifested in the center of the room. Ten feet tall and in the form of a twisted one legged serpent, he faced them. "Give me Samia and I'll leave the rest of you in peace."

"Why do you want her?" Nick asked.

"She killed my brother."

Sam frowned as she searched her memory. "I've never killed a demon."

"Liar!" Lazaros snarled. "Your sister sold her soul to him to kill you and your family so that she could be queen in your place. When you became a Dark-Hunter, you hunted him down and killed him."

Frowning in confusion, she shook her head. "No, I didn't. I killed a Daimon."

"You killed an empusa, you moron. And I would have killed you then but I was told you were dead and then I was captured before I could confirm it." He narrowed a blood red stare on her. "Tonight my brother will finally be avenged and I will bathe in your blood." He lunged for her throat.

Dev caught him and drove him back.

The other demons attacked en masse. They swooped in like a dark cloud that wanted to consume them. Sam put her back to Dev's as they fought with everything they had.

She cut the head off one, then drove another to Ethon who quickly dispatched him.

Lazaros whipped his tail, catching her across the back. It felt like a razor slicing through her flesh and it brought out agonizing memories of his brother killing her and her family.

Cursing, Sam stumbled.

Dev caught her and the memories instantly faded so that she had total clarity again. He blasted a shot with his powers straight at Lazaros who absorbed it and sent it back to him. It knocked Dev flying.

Sam caught herself, then gasped as she saw Dev bleeding on the floor. Her powers drained out of her immediately.

Please don't die. Please don't die...

Running to him, she saw that his eye and nose were cut. He had a gash in his side. But he was alive. Bloodied, but alive. Relief swept through her.

He moved to stand.

Over and over, she saw the premonition images of him lying dead in this room. Normally she took power from such things as her rage went through her like the Hulk, but right now...

Her fears paralyzed her. She couldn't lose him.

Dev saw Sam's eyes turn green and his breath was sucked out of his body as his fear mounted. She was human which meant she could die.

Terrified for her, he flipped to his feet and put himself between her and Lazaros. There was no way he was going to let her go down.

Not tonight.

The demons had Ethon and Nick pinned. Chi was completely out of sight. And more demons were coming in.

Lazaros rushed for Sam.

With a battle cry, Dev lunged at him, but just as he reached the demon, it darted and swiped him with its tail. One minute he was about to stab it, in the next he was flying through the air, ass over tea kettle.

Sam snarled as she found her human power. Screw the Dark-Hunter crap. She didn't need it.

The lioness in her roared to life and all she could focus on was saving the people in this room who meant the most to her. And Dev topped that list.

She picked up the fallen sword that Ethon had dropped and true to her Amazon nature, she attacked with every instinct and skill she possessed. She dodged and swerved, hacked and sliced. Lazaros blasted her and she ducked, letting the blasts fly past her and hit the couch, walls, and tables which started burning.

"I hate you bastards," Nick snarled as he saw the damage. "Couldn't you have attacked at Ash's house?"

Not paying Nick's outburst any attention, she completely disengaged herself to keep Dev safe.

Dev was impressed by Sam's prowess as she met every attack with a counter. He'd never seen anything like it and when she came up and stabbed Lazaros in his side, his heart stopped.

Lazaros whipped his tail around and pinned her to the floor.

Rage consumed him as he went for the demon. Lazaros turned to confront him. Sam rolled out from under Lazaros's tail and scrambled for the sword she'd dropped. The moment the hilt was in her hand, she threw it at the demon.

She pinned Lazaros's head to the wall like a grisly trophy. The demon screamed out in agony, shuddered, and then died.

Still the others kept coming.

Sam picked up another sword as she met Dev. She kissed him quickly on the lips, then turned to keep fighting.

"How do we stop them?" Ethon shouted.

Nick cursed. "They're not responding to my powers. There's nothing I can do."

Sam had no powers to use. She looked at Dev.

Dev shrugged. "I say we beat them down until they kill us."

All of sudden, there was a bright flash of light as Acheron appeared in the center of the room. He swept his gaze around them and took in everything before he slammed his staff down and sent a shock of something reverberating through the entire house. It was like some kind of weird sonic boom that shook the very foundation and made the demons disintegrate.

Ethon, bleeding and sweating, glared at Acheron. "'Bout time, boss. What kept you?"

Chi appeared beside Acheron. "I didn't want to bother him. But it was getting too close for my comfort level so I went for the big gun."

Ash gave her an irritated smirk. "Next time someone unleashes a herd of demons, an early call would be nice. I don't want to be scraping up my team's entrails. Took too much to train all of you to start over with recruits."