Betrayal (4 page)

Downstairs, twenty students and instructors had gathered with Lord and Lady Tullering in the ballroom.

Reece straggled in behind her and leaned against the wall. He had his pistols and a rifle, which he used like a cane.

She wanted to tell him to get into the basement. He was in no shape to fight. Gabriel spoke to him.

Reece nodded.

Gabriel slapped him on the back before striding farther into the room.

Brice took control of the ballroom with a raise of his hand. “Quiet down. I know most of you are not ready for this, but demons are within our borders, and we will only have the upper hand for a short time. Those of you who are better shots with either gun or crossbow will lead the way and take out as many as you can. Elizabeth said their numbers were around a hundred, and we will need to even the playing field if we are to succeed. After that, it will be a sword fight. If anyone feels they are not ready or able to fight, go to the basement and protect the servants and staff. There will be no shame.”

Turning toward the door, Brice asked, “Reece, are you able to lead the first wave?”

He looked tired. Her muddy handprint still marred his shirt. “I am able.”

Elizabeth wished she’d worked harder on her aim with a gun. She wanted to keep an eye on him, but he had his job and she hers. It meant waiting for the first wave to complete their task and charging in with her sword.

Brice said, “We need a few to stay behind and protect the house. Belinda, you will stay here.” He put his hand up to stop her from protesting. “You are in no condition to go traipsing across the fields. Be happy I do not order you to the basement. Send a message to London in case we fail. Protect the house if they break through.”

Belinda’s jaw worked from side to side, and she pulled her shoulders back, making a stand. “Yes, sir.”

“Does anyone have anything to add?”

When no one replied, Brice began organizing groups by their particular skill. Hand to hand combat, sword, throwing knives, he made up squads each with various talents.

They were short on fully trained hunters, so Elizabeth found herself leading a squad of students across the wet field toward the woods. Two tall, muscular men murmured together about being led by a girl, but they followed her from the house along with a rather rotund man of perhaps twenty.

She said, “Stay close and do not get killed.”

“I am William.” The stout man offered his hand. He spoke like a man who’d been well educated.

“Elizabeth.” She never stopped moving as she shook his hand.

“Those two are Miles and Joseph, good fighters but not too bright.”

“And you, William, are you a good fighter?”

He shrugged and pointed toward the row of knives tucked into a cross-strap along his chest and belly. “I’m rather good with throwing knives.”

The band of hunters crawled in the grass toward the woods. By one in the morning, they waited several yards inside the shadows of the forest.

Guns and bows ready to take out as many demons as they could before the enemy scattered or charged, the first team crouched to her right. Even though he was pasty and covered in sweat, Reece lay on the ground with his rifle resting against his cheek.

As if he felt her gaze, he turned and gave her a smile and a wink before returning his attention to the demon’s camp. He held up one arm, and when he lowered it, the camp exploded with gunfire. Arrows flew, most of them hitting their mark. They focused their fire on the larger malleus and the poisonous pravus.

Slimy giants tumbled to the ground one after the other. Hunters targeted them first as they had superior strength. Speed saved three of the small poisonous pravus. Screeching, they ran up tree trunks.

Demons screamed and scattered. Some of the nasty beasts encircled the fire in the center of the camp with their backs to the flame.

Elizabeth searched the trees for pravus demons. She stood and lopped the head off a trebox darting toward the field. Her first kill. A strange fuel spread through her, and she ran, yelling toward the encampment. “William, look to the trees. Miles, Joseph, with me.”

Sparks flew toward the heavens as Miles pushed a malleus into the flames.

The beast caught fire, but rushed toward them in spite of his flaming skin.

Joseph stood in its path as it lifted a broad sword. His eyes widened, and he attempted a counter attack.

Elizabeth raised her sword and leaped forward.

Joseph countered too slow and off balance. His death was imminent, unless she moved faster. With a sharp kick, she caught the demon behind the knee, forcing its sword wide of the mark.

Joseph spun away from the blade.

Elizabeth slid between the demon’s tree trunk legs and thrust upward. Gore splattered her as she pulled back her sword, rolled to her feet, and avoided the malleus’s wildly flailing arms and blade.

A knife whooshed by and lodged in the demon’s forehead. Burning, it tumbled to the ground.

William readied his next knife and scanned for his next target.

Miles and Joseph fought back to back beside her and between them, killed better than twenty demons.

William came through with expertly tossed blades, reducing the number of demons charging them.

The trebox fought with short swords similar to hers. No matter how many she killed, another lurked behind it. Her arms ached and her legs wobbled.

A high-pitched scream rang from above, followed by a thud on the ground behind her.

Elizabeth spun, sword raised.

Hairy, with pointed teeth and stubby legs, a demon sprinted toward her.

She crouched and readied her sword. This kind of beast had poisoned Reece and left him in his current state. Rage fueled her as she tracked the unpredictable demon.

Gunfire discharged to her left, and the pravus dropped.

Pale, sweaty, and glaring, Reece stepped beside her. He took a breath. “That was particularly satisfying.”

A trebox rushed in from her right. She whirled and sliced its ribs.

Miles pounced and drove his sword through its chest.

Calm settled over the woods. The hunters stilled, waiting. Elizabeth let her sword down for the first time since entering the woods.

The campfire exploded, shaking the ground. Hunters leaped away.

Elizabeth ducked and shielded her face. Dirt and embers pelted her. She brushed away bits of fire like a swarm of bees, before her blouse caught.

When the debris settled, a dim image of the master stared at her from the blue flames. Sharp pain struck inside her head, and she winced, clutching her skull.

“You are already mine.” His voice rang in her head.

“I belong to myself. You will never own me again.”

Reece stood at her side. Miles and Joseph took positions behind her and William at her other side.

Trebox demons skulked in from the trees. Other demons, hiding in the woods, cried for the master’s protection.

“I am master!” He knocked them off their feet. The fire smoldered out and the master disappeared. Maybe he’d expended all his energy with anger. Perhaps there were acceptable losses in the war for Earth.

Demons rushed where the image had been, but their god had deserted them and left them to die.

Gabriel called out from the other side of the camp. “Keep one for interrogation.”

A trebox charged her.

Elizabeth screamed her rage and sliced the monster from neck to groin. Steaming in the cool night air, its entrails poured to the ground. She spun to kill the next.

Reece and three shocked students stood, staring at her.

Reece smiled. “Well done, Lizzy.”

She caught her breath and bit her cheek to remind herself she’d survived. “You did well too. Are you all right?”

“Nothing a glass of brandy and a good bed will not cure.”

Despite two other skirmishes, one group managed to keep a trebox demon alive. Bound, they dragged it toward the house. She didn’t envy the task of interrogation.

Wrapping one arm around Reece’s waist, she let him lean on her as they turned toward the house. One student and an instructor had been lost. Most of the other wounds were superficial. The bodies and injured were carried out of the encampment.

Where would they send her body when the time came? Perhaps The Company would bury her in an unmarked grave somewhere in the countryside. No one would visit, but it would be fine to be out in the fresh air.

Reece stepped in a hole and they teetered. His ability to find his feet without much help encouraged her.

His shoulders ached and his legs wobbled, but he also had a spark of delight he’d not noted in a long time. Perhaps there was hope. Whether from killing demons or having Elizabeth Smyth’s arms around him, he couldn’t say. She changed his world in ways he’d never imagined. How could this slip of a girl matter so much?

He could go to the country and wallow. His pain would be less. While some of his friends within the Demon Hunter Company might try to draw him out, ultimately he could do it. He might very well sink into a hole so deep no one would remember the great hunter he had once been.

Not only him. He and Lilly had kept London safe for years with no help and then Belinda had made their trio perfection. All of it gone. Belinda had married the Earl of Tullering, and soon they would have a child.

Lilly—his touchstone, had married as well. At one time, he’d even thought he might marry Lilly himself. But their love provided more the kind a brother might have for his sister.

He’d known these women and what they wanted, yet they had left him.

Nothing would ever be the same.

In the ballroom, Lizzy had stayed with him where he leaned against the wall. The young men she’d led each turned to her and gave a formal bow, before moving forward with the rest of the group. She nodded to each, but remained with her shoulder touching his.

Perhaps he was right; it would be different going forward. Did that mean it could not be good?

Covered in mud and the worst kind of grime, she still radiated beauty inside and out. In spite of his exhaustion, his shaft reacted to her. He’d been ill for so long he’d almost forgotten the effects an exciting woman could create.

“You fought well, Lizzy. Not only that, you led well. I’d wager those three young men would follow you to the ends of the Earth if you asked them to.”

“They did very well. I am relieved they did not get themselves killed.” She looked up at him, and he recognized the same fear he experienced whenever a hunter under his command went into battle.

He touched her cheek and pulled away as if burned. It wouldn’t do for the entire ballroom to know he found it hard to resist this amazing girl. This war made the strangest soldiers. This sweet girl should not be risking life and limb to kill demons. She shouldn’t be ordering young men into battle.

Her eyes narrowed. “What are you thinking?”

“That this is no place for you.”

She frowned, but Brice cut off anything she might have said. “Well done. I could not be prouder of all of you. I need a few volunteers to keep watch for the first four hours and four more to take the watch after that. We must not let them get inside the property again. Tomorrow we will devise a more efficient schedule and warning system.”

Several students stepped up.

Brice shook his head at Elizabeth who rushed to the front of the volunteers. “Go get some rest, Elizabeth. You have had a very long night. You can take the second watch.”

Reece followed her out of the room and up the steps.

Once they were at her bedroom door, she spun on him and narrowed her eyes. “Where exactly do I belong if not here?”

“Why do I always seem to anger you lately?”

“Excellent question, but answer mine first.” She propped her fists on her hips, and her breasts pushed up from the scoop of her blouse.

His eyes lowered to take in the stunning view of those globes. He longed to run his fingers along the edge of the fabric, dip inside, and feel her warmth. “I cannot say.”

The clatter of students returning to their rooms sounded on the stairs. She opened her door and tugged him inside before anyone saw them. “Then let me say. If I were not here, my options were to find another position as a scullery maid or become a lady of the night. Please enlighten me as to which of those occupations you think would better suit me?”

“That is not what I meant, Lizzy.” Beautiful and smart, she could be anything at all.

“Have you ever even been in a kitchen, felt the heat of the fire, scrubbed pots and floors until your fingers bled? No. Of course, you have not. If you think I would be better off there than here, you can go straight to hell.”

He grabbed her around the waist and placed his other hand over her mouth before she said more. Her volume had already risen to the point where someone passing in the hall might have heard. “I am sorry I offended you.”

She pushed on his chest.

He took his hand away from those full lips but did not let her go. “I only wished you were not in danger. You are right; I have spent little time in the kitchens, and I am happy for your education. You are a spectacular fighter, but losing you…”

Her chest rose and fell against his. “We may all die in this war, Reece.”

He touched her cheek, so soft and warm. He should release her and go to his own room. “True. I pray that my death comes before yours. I could not bear to watch you die, sweet Lizzy.”

“I never know what to make of you. One minute you act like you desire me, and the next you push me away.”

He laughed but his heart ached. “I hardly know what to make of it myself.”

“Maybe you had better go to your own bed then.”

“Are you tossing me out?”

She pressed her lips to his. Her supple hips, breast, and slim waist molded against him, and his rod ratcheted to attention. He pulled her close and deepened the kiss, tasting her lips and tongue like nectar in his mouth.

She broke away and pressed against his chest only enough so he released her. “You are not invited into my bed, Reece. Not until you have cleared your mind of confusion. I am not a child, and I am not here to satisfy an urge. When you know you want me and when you are certain of who I am…”