DH 05 Kiss Of The Night (24 page)

“No. In fact, we need to batten down the hatches. Things are about to get real y ugly.” Chris came running into the room, his head covered by a footbal helmet.

“What the hel is wrong with you?” Kat asked as she caught sight of him.

Wulf looked over and frowned. “
Now
you wear the helmet?”

“Yes,” Chris said as he stuffed a pil ow down the front of his sweatpants. “Now I wear the helmet. In case neither of you have been paying attention, our little Daimons are busy on the lawn.”

“We know.”

“Ah,” Chris said as he went to the armoire and pul ed out a flak jacket. “So I have one question. I know the shutters can withstand fire and bul ets. How are they against a LAWS rocket and dynamite?” Before Wulf could answer, an explosion rocked the house.

“Careful,” Stryker warned his men as they fired another round at the house. “Not that it’s likely, but give them a chance to come out before you blow the house apart.”

“Why?” Trates asked. “I thought the objective was to kil the heiress.” Urian gave the man an irritated look that said, ‘Are you total y stupid?’ “Yes, but if we hurt the Abadonna in the process, we’re going to find out what it feels like to be turned inside out. Literal y. Like most beings, I actual y like the fact that my skin is outside my body.”

“She’s immortal,” Trates argued. “What’s a bomb to her?”

“Immortal like us, bone-head.” Urian snatched the rocket launcher from Trates’s hand and handed it to Icarus. “Blow her body apart and she
will
die. None of you want to know what the Destroyer would do to us if that happens.”

Icarus aimed more careful y.

Stryker nodded his approval to his son, then projected his thoughts to the rest of his team. “Watch the exits.

I know the Dark-Hunter wil have a back way out of this place. When they run, you’d better catch them. Stand ready.”

Cassandra frowned as Chris packed another pil ow down the front of his sweatpants. “What are you doing?”

“Protecting my assets. After what Kat said about Stryker and that near miss with the pizza knife, I don’t want to take a chance with my prized jewels.”

“Hal elujah,” Wulf said under his breath. “The boy final y developed some brains.” Chris directed a sul en stare at him that Wulf ignored.

Wulf turned the TV on and switched it to the parameter cameras so that they could see the Daimons’

positions. Several of them were running across the lawn.

“It looks like that blast took out some of the east wing,” Wulf said quietly.

Another blast went into the garage.

Chris let out an excited whoop. “I think they just nailed the Hummer. Yes!”

“Christopher!” Wulf snapped at him.

“I can’t help it,” Chris said, calming a degree. “I real y hate that thing. Besides, I told you it wouldn’t protect me from everything. See. It was worthless against the grenades.” Wulf shook his head at his Squire, then noticed Cassandra picking up weapons from the armoire. “What are you doing?” He moved toward her lightning-fast to keep her from touching the weapons.

She let out an irritated breath. “Arming myself.”

“Like hel . Your job is—”

“To stay alive,” she said, her face determined. She touched him gently on the arm in a light caress that sent chil s over his chest. She was so beautiful standing there, ready to take on the world.

“Don’t worry, Wulf, I’m not stupid. I’m not going to engage them and take a chance on one of them kicking me in the stomach. Likewise, I’m not going to just stand here and let them take me without something to fal back on. I’m no more used to being without a weapon than you are.”

“She’s right about that,” Kat said, moving to stand behind Cassandra. “Her teddy bear is a six-inch retractable knife and a snub-nosed .38 Special.”

Wulf stared at Cassandra and the raw determination in her eyes. He admired her more in that moment than he ever had anyone else.

Stepping back, he took her to the cabinet and fastened wrist blades on each of her arms. He showed her the release for the blades and how they swung out.

“And this one…” He pul ed out a smal -caliber Beretta Panther. He slid the ful y loaded clip into the handle and switched the safety on. “Is just to get their attention.” He placed it in a concealed holster, then fastened it to her hip.

Cassandra’s face softened as she looked up at him. For some reason, that look made his entire body hot.

“So what’s the plan?”

“Run for it.”

“Run where?” Chris asked. “If we head to another Dark-Hunter’s house, it’l just drain your power and theirs.

No offense, but I think these guys are a little stronger than the average Daimon and I don’t want to see your butt kicked. At least not tonight while I got things to protect.” Another explosion shattered the glass windows that were covered by the shields.

“We don’t have a choice, Chris,” Wulf said as he put more distance between Cassandra and the windows.

“They’re not going to wait until morning and give us a chance to evacuate in the daylight, and if we don’t leave, they’l blow the house apart around us. We’l just have to have an open evacuation plan.” Chris appeared less than convinced. “I real y, real y don’t like this open evacuation plan idea. Anyone got something better?”

They looked at Kat, who stared back bemused. “I’m not of this world. I have no idea where to hide. I say we go with Wulf.”

“What about Artemis?” Cassandra asked. “Wil she help us?” Kat shook her head. “Sorry. She’s occupied at the moment and honestly couldn’t care less if the world did end. If I disturb her over this, she’l have a raging tantrum.”

“Al right then,” Wulf said. “I suggest everyone get their heaviest clothes on and be prepared to jump ship as soon as possible.”

Stryker watched the security cameras closely. He knew the heiress and her guards wouldn’t stay inside much longer. His men had already blown up the entire garage and were now slowly shooting into the house, section by section. There was a lot of exterior damage, but he couldn’t real y tel how much was being done internal y.

Not that it mattered. If this didn’t work, they’d burn it down. He already had the flamethrowers on standby.

Anyone worth his salt would have exit tunnels. And Wulf was certainly worth his salt.

Urian had found several exits so far.

His son just had to make sure they had found them al
before
their prey left the premises.

“Urian?” he asked his son telepathical y. “Are you in position?”

“Yes. We have al of the exits covered.”

“Where are you?”

“The back lawn. Why? Is something going wrong?”

“No, I just want to make sure we can get to them.”

“They’re ours, Father. Relax.”

“I wil
after
she’s dead.”

Wulf took one last inspection of his charges. They were bundled up and ready. He, on the other hand, was scantily clad. He needed to be able to move freely in case he had to fight more.

“Okay, children,” he said in warning. “Remember, we have to move silently. They can see better at night than…” He paused as he realized who he was talking to. “Wel , better than Chris can anyway. I’l lead the way. Kat, you pul up the rear and, if anything happens, shout and don’t vanish on us.”

“You got it.”

Wulf offered Cassandra an encouraging smile. He took her hand into his and kissed her knit glove, wishing he could feel her skin under there.

She smiled back, then covered her face with her muffler.

Reluctantly dropping her hand, he led them to his bedroom. There were more explosions upstairs.

Wulf growled at the sound of things shattering. “I swear I’m going to take al this out of Stryker’s hide.”

“I just want to know where the cops are,” Cassandra said. “Surely someone has heard al that.”

“I don’t know,” Chris added. “We’re pretty far out. No one probably knows.” Another blast shook the house.

“Someone has to hear
that
,” Cassandra said. “They’ve turned it into a war zone.”

“Wel , let’s hope the cops don’t come,” Kat added from behind her.

Cassandra looked at her from over her shoulder. “Why?”

“Because if they do, al they’l be is another midnight snack for the Daimons.” Cassandra curled her lip at the thought. “Oh, God, Kat, that’s awful!”

“But al too true,” Wulf said as he led them past his bed, into his closet, which was the size of most people’s bedrooms. “In spite of what you think, Cassandra, Daimons are nothing more than rabid animals in need of a mercy kil ing.”

She stiffened, but for once didn’t argue with him.

Cassandra cocked a brow at his wardrobe as they walked through the closet. Everything from the hanging items to every pair of shoes lacked color. It looked like a great black hole. “Like black, do you?” One corner of his mouth quirked up. “It serves its purpose. It’s hard to look intimidating in pastels.” She laughed at that and started to make a comment about how he looked best naked, but then refrained. It wasn’t like Chris and Kat didn’t know they were lovers, but it stil didn’t feel right to say that out loud around them.

Wulf pressed a series of codes into the keypad and opened a secret door in the back that led into his own private catacombs he had had built under the house and grounds in case of emergency.

Though to be honest, Daimons bombing his home hadn’t been one of the things that had entered his mind when he’d had this built.

He’d been thinking more along the lines of a house fire during daylight or maybe a home invasion by more normal, nonfanged terrorists.

Who knew?

Fol owing true medieval fashion, the corridor was long and narrow in order to keep more than one person from going through it at a time and to make it easy to block it should anyone be chasing after them.

Sometimes it paid to be paranoid.

Wulf grabbed a flashlight and led them single file into it.

They walked for several minutes before they came to a five-way split.

“Wow,” Chris said as he peeped around Cassandra and Wulf. “Where do al of these go?” Wulf indicated the one on the far right with the light. “That one goes to the garage, the next one over goes to the field just beyond the south gate, the middle one is for a bomb shelter farther underground. The next one leads to the street outside the main gate and this one”—He indicated the one on his left—”leads to the boathouse.”

“Man, I wish I’d known about this when I was a kid, I could have had a ton of fun down here.”

“Yeah, and you could have gotten lost or hurt and no one would know.” Chris blew him a raspberry.

Ignoring him, Wulf led them down the long, winding tunnel that ran the length of his property. The boathouse was set off to the side so that, to people who didn’t know better, it would look like it wasn’t part of his holdings.

That, along with the design of the boathouse, had been intentional.

More than five thousand square feet in size, the boathouse looked like a home from the water, with the first level of it housing his col ection of boats. The second floor had four bedrooms, a kitchen, living, dining, and game rooms. Over the years this had served as guest accommodations for Acheron whenever he came to town.

Wulf only hoped Stryker wasn’t bright enough to figure out he had an escape route this far down his property.

At the end of the tunnel, there was a steel ladder leading up to a trapdoor that opened in the back of the boathouse inside a storage closet.

Wulf went first, ready for anything. The lock on this door was manual in case of fire. Wulf spun the combination, then waited for the release to sound.

Slowly, he pushed the door open, expecting the worst.

There was no motion in the room or outside it. No sound of someone or something walking about. He listened for several minutes, but al he could hear was the creaking of the ice and the howl of the winds.

Al seemed right…

Lifting himself through the trapdoor, he reached down to help Cassandra up. She drifted a smal distance away in the closet while Chris and then Kat climbed up.

“Okay,” Wulf whispered to them. “It looks good so far. I want you,” he said to Cassandra, “and Chris to stay back. If anything happens, you two dodge back into the tunnels and press the red button to lock the door behind you.”

“What about you and Kat?” Cassandra asked.

“We’l take care of ourselves. You and Chris are the important things.” Cassandra’s eyes told him she didn’t agree.

“It’l take a couple of minutes to lower the airboat from its harness down to the ice,” he explained to her.

“Let’s hope the Daimons don’t hear it.”

Cassandra nodded and kissed him lightly. “Be careful.”

Wulf hugged her gently, then opened the door. He took a step out, then hesitated as his foot col ided with something large and solid on the floor.

No, wait.

It was left-behind clothing. Something that reminded him of Daimon remains.

Wulf pul ed his retractable sword from his boot at the same time a slight shadow moved toward him. He prepared to attack.

“It’s okay,” a feminine voice whispered. “I’m a friend.”

Wulf was far from placated.

He heard Cassandra gasp in alarm. Glancing toward her, he saw she was hesitating in the doorway as if unsure of what to do.

“Phoebe?” she breathed. “It is real y you?”

Phoebe was the name of one of her sisters who had died with her mother.

The shadow stepped into the light so that they could see her face, which was strikingly similar to Cassandra’s. The only difference was their hair. Phoebe’s was golden blond and straight and Cassandra had tight strawberry blond curls. Phoebe wore a black pantsuit and didn’t appear to have any weapons on her. “It’s me, Cassie. I’m here to help you.”

Cassandra stepped back and col ided with Chris, who eyed the newcomer suspiciously. Even Kat was tense.

Cassandra gave her sister a disbelieving once-over. “You’re supposed to be dead.”

“I am dead,” Phoebe whispered.

“You’re a Daimon,” Wulf said accusingly.

Phoebe nodded.

“Oh, Phoebe,” Cassandra said, her voice thick with disappointment. “How could you?”