A Mermaid s Kiss (Daughters of Arianne 1)

There'd been numerous cases of Dark Ones possessing human bodies, making the human's actions indistinguishable from that of a serial killer or the most dangerous of schizophrenics, until a savvy priest--or at least one slapped awake by an angel--would assist in tearing the wretch out of the human body. Now he had more than Anna to protect.

But before he could reinitiate his summons to David, he felt a hesitation among the oncoming Dark Ones. They were . . . milling. Confused by the energy or intent of the vehicle. A strong intent, so strong that when Jonah adjusted his stance to see its approach, the aura blasting before the large red Dodge Ram pickup appeared like a rolling ball of fire.

The truck skidded up, jumping off the hint of road and coming to a sliding stop, a barricade between Jonah, Anna and the darkness bearing down on them.

A slim waif of a woman with blonde hair and vivid blue eyes, shoved open the passenger door. "Get in. Hurry!"

Jonah seized the pack and Anna, with only a blink to regret not being able to salvage the water.

"Take the wheel, Maggie." A hand reached from within, dragged the woman back into the cab. "Drive like you've got the hounds of Hell behind you. Just like I taught you."

A man as tall and broad as Jonah emerged from the driver's side. When Jonah leaped into the back bed, knowing his wings wouldn't fit in the cab, the man put a foot on the wheel well to swing a long leg in, taking a stance beside him. "You better give her to Maggie. We're going to have a hell of a fight to get home. I haven't seen them this bad since the last drought."

He was smart enough not to reach for the tiny precious bundle Jonah held against his chest, but Maggie leaned out the back window, her two hands cupped together like she was about to receive a priceless treasure. Jonah took the important, vital second to stare into her wide blue eyes, so gentle and kind, so determined despite the undercurrent of fear.

"Matt's right. You better let me take care of her."

"She's a little weak."

"I'm better now. I can help--"

"No. You go with her." Jonah transferred Anna into Maggie's hands, noting his one almost dwarfed her two. She had pretty fingers, unadorned except for a simple gold wedding set.

A cold breeze skittered up his spine, like a ship passing, but infinitely more unnatural.

"Drive, Maggie," Matt bellowed. Jonah noted him hefting two shotguns. He tossed one toward Jonah as Maggie disappeared into the cab, holding Anna. "Can you shoot, angel?"

"Bullets won't--"

A shriek and Matt cocked the gun with one hand, rotated it up smoothly and blasted the air at a forty-five degree angle in front of them. The flash illuminated the skeletal, red-eyed visage of the winged Dark One bearing down on him, less than twenty feet away. The double cartridges somersaulted it back, causing it to explode in a shower of flame that flashed light across Matt's firmly held jaw, his cool hazel eyes.

"Brace on the floor." Matt jerked his head down, gesturing toward triangular rubber grips spaced across the truck bed. He had a boot solidly against one as the truck jumped forward with a horrible jerk, hesitated, then leaped forward again with a roar.

"Bless her sweet heart. Still has trouble with the clutch." Matt took another shot in the dark. "Ah, Hell's bells. Closing in."

Jonah took the gun to his shoulder and fired off the four rounds, watching as the charges ignited the air. He spread out his wings to balance himself, and as he did, Matt dropped to a knee to give him the room and use the cover, firing another shot. "Here!" He held another sawed-off shotgun to Jonah. "Keep firing. I'll keep loading and shooting from down here."

There wasn't a weapon Jonah didn't know how to handle instinctively, but he was wondering what in all of Hades was firing out of these guns that could destroy Dark Ones. Two swooped in together.

"Arggh . . ." Matt got struck by one and Jonah fired into it. It dropped Matt onto the roof, sending him rolling down the front windshield while the other tackled Jonah. Striking it with his left wing, he knocked it off himself and the truck and took a shot at its body as it rolled. Cursing when he missed, he went up and aloft, flipping the necessary few feet to grab Matt by the collar, pluck him off the windshield. He caught a glimpse of Maggie's horrified eyes and a tiny fairy on her shoulder, gripping her hair.

Matt rolled into the bed and was back up with a loaded gun before the two Dark Ones could circle back. The two men went shoulder to shoulder, the cab at their back, and fired simultaneously. Matt racked in another round as fast as an angel could fly, and took out a third.

Silence. A great, vibrating silence. Jonah searched the sky. So many stars out, no blot of darkness heralding their enemy's presence. He knew where all the constellations were supposed to be in a clear sky. But he was too wary to relax his guard. They'd been all around, thick as a cloud, though he now realized there'd only been six or seven. But they'd descended with that ferocious, confident aggression he'd rarely seen in such smaller numbers. Damn it all, Luc was right. They were getting ready for something.

He glanced over at his new comrade. Matt had a bloody gash on his head, and his eyes and the set of his mouth were still warrior fierce.

"Goddamn it. I lost my hat. I'll have to go back in the morning and see if I can't find it." But despite the casually irritable comment, Jonah noticed he didn't release his gun or relax his stance, either.

The men stayed pressed shoulder to shoulder, studying the night from all angles.

"Everyone all right in there?" Matt yelled, and the horn honked in reply. "Keep it going as fast as you can, Maggie."

"Matt," he called out over the wind and engine noise, glancing at Jonah. "As you may have guessed. Carpenter."

"Jonah. Angel. As you may have guessed."

Matt glanced at the wing that was brushing his shoulder. "You don't say?"

The grin that creased his face loosened something in Jonah's gut. He'd missed the camaraderie of soldiers. It took him by surprise, because, until now, he hadn't allowed himself to identify that empty space inside of him. It had been just one of many empty spaces. Perhaps that one tear Anna's words had wrested from him had opened up some other things.

Jonah hefted the gun. "These aren't bullets."

"Bet your lily-white ass they are. Wal-Mart special, less than twenty bucks for a hundred rounds. But they've been blessed by Sam the Shaman, and it makes 'em lethal to the likes of them." He nodded at the empty sky. "He said you were coming, for several days now. We've been keeping watch. We're his neighbors, the last house on the track before the Schism."

He cocked a brow at Jonah. "It's hell giving the UPS guy directions when Maggie orders her sundries from the catalogs. 'Take the last house on the left before you hit the magical fault line, where you might be sucked into an alternate reality. Careful, the streets aren't really well marked.' " He chanced a quick look over his other shoulder. "Here we are now. We should be okay as soon as we get in through the gate."

Jonah glanced back to see the silhouette of a two-story wooden house, caught briefly in the headlights as they wound up the road toward it. The wood

fence around the property was split rail, but a mixture of polished, carved white oak and rowan, burned with protection symbols. "They can't go past the gate," Matt said. "Sam says so."

The truck stopped in front of the gate and the driver's door opened. Maggie stepped out on the running board, her hand gripping the top of the door.

Matt whipped around. "Maggie, damn it, use the remote--"

"It's the woman; she's--"

Before Maggie could finish the sentence, she screamed. Her chin hit the driver's door as she went down. Her body landed in the dirt and was jerked out of sight beneath the truck.

"Under the truck, one of them was--" Jonah leaped out of one side with a weapon, Matt off the other, shouting his wife's name.

Catching the back of the truck in one hand, Jonah lifted it, bringing it up on its forward wheels. He had a brief, horrific flash of a Dark One completely blanketing the struggling Maggie. She screamed, her hands clawing, trying to push it off. Younger angels had difficulty dealing with prolonged physical contact with Dark Ones. For humans, it could be lethal, if the Dark One was in attack mode.

It would already be in her mind, her body, taking all of her pleasurable thoughts or happy memories and turning them into twisted nightmares, violating every part of her with its foul stench. Matt seized it before Jonah could roar at him not to touch it, and his arms went into the blackness up to the elbows.

"Matt, pull free!"

The gun was tooled by a human and its timing and sight could be off. Jonah took the shot anyway. After so many battles, he knew hesitation was more fatal. He blasted the beast's head apart inches over Maggie, clipping Matt's shoulder. The man didn't even flinch, grasping Maggie and rolling away with her. Dropping the truck, Jonah caught the creature's leg and pulled it out, sending its body sliding ten feet away before it exploded from the magic of the charge, showering him with Dark One body parts.

"Get inside, inside," Matt panted, lifting Maggie in his arms. Leaving the driver's door open, he shoved Maggie in behind the wheel, stepped up on the running board and leaned over her struggling body to activate the gate's remote and put the vehicle in drive. Jonah followed it in, guarding their backs, probing to make sure the closing gate restored the magical protections on the circle the fence provided around the property.