Though Galen had turned on them and "helped" Pandora, he had played a role in the box's opening, and so the gods punished him alongside the others. Hosting the demon of Hope didn't seem like a harsh enough punishment to Sabin, but Sabin had been unable to deliver his own brand of justice. In the turbulent aftermath of their demon-curse, Galen had disappeared and Sabin had been both glad and furious. Vengeance would have been nice. Perhaps now he'd have his chance.
"How dare he do this?" Strider snapped. "Wasn't one betrayal enough for him?"
"If he's controlling the Hunters, could he also be pulling the strings at that Hunter-infested Institute Ashlyn used to work for? She once mentioned that no one had ever seen its president because he never went out in public." Maddox glanced around the room. "Galen, do you think?"
"Maybe." Sabin shrugged. "Ironic that a facility that prides itself on human superiority could be secretly run by a half demon, half immortal. How do you think he manages to keep the Hunters from knowing the truth about him? They cannot know or they would revolt. And why would Galen want us dead, anyway?"
"Why did he convince us to open the box, and then turn on us?" Strider asked. "He had to win, always, no matter the price."
"Look who's talking, Defeat," Maddox said.
"Perhaps he always planned to try to crush us, to rise above useven the godsand win the heavens."
Sabin gripped the dagger sheathed in his weapon belt. "Whatever his reasons, if you're right and we're about to have a cozy little family reunion, I'm going to take his head. His skull will look nice on my nightstand. Save me from having to get up to use the bathroom at night."
Paris flicked him a wry glance. "I tell the jokes here. Anyway, I wouldn't get my hopes up that he'll make an appearance."
Grinning like the insane freak that he was, Torin clapped excitedly. "Hopes up. Galen is Hope. Funny. Too bad I think you're right. For whatever reason, Galen hasn't yet revealed himself to us. He doesn't know that we know he's the leader of the Hunters."
"Then let's send him a warm fuzzy card and invite him over. And by card I mean all of his Hunters in body bags," Strider said.
"Oh, that's so wrong." Meaning, it was right. Gleeful, Gideon rubbed his hands together. "This is going to be absolutely yawn inducing."
"So," Torin said, fingers flying over the keyboard. "Did we decide to let the Hunters inside or not? They want Danika, the All-Seeing Eye, and they'll be desperate because they think she'll be able to help them find the box, ending us. Letting them inside will place them closer to her."
Sabin shook his head. "Nope, not closer. Reyes is escaping with her. She'll be moving farther away, while the Hunters close in on us."
"How's she an artifact, anyway?" Cameo grumbled.
"Gods, woman," William said. "Your voice is like death. Can you shut it until I leave the room? Please. Seriously, you're like the one woman in the world I want to resist."
She glowered over at him.
"You had better 'shut it,'" Torin snapped at the warrior, no longer grinning, "or you'll find yourself in one of Strider's body bags."
Cameo's glare became the closest thing to a grin Sabin had seen on her face in centuries. "Ashlyn said the artifacts are guarded by the monster Hydra, and Anya later confirmed it. No one has been guarding the girl."
"Perhaps Hydra used to guard her," Sabin said. "Danika's had to be around since ancient times, but obviously isn't immortal so has had to be reborn. Maybe reincarnated. Or maybe the ability is passed through her bloodline, which is why, according to the gods, the entire family has be annihilated. Or perhaps Hydra simply lost her. Hell, maybe Reyes is Hydra. You've seen how he is with her."
There was a beat of silence, then someone chortled, "Reyes is Hydra," then Lucien said, "Let them in. We'll fight them here. Safest that way."
Torin nodded, his fingers never slowing on the keyboard.
Itching with the desire to fight and fight now, Sabin studied the monitors, eight screens that spanned the entire hillside. Nighttime had long since fallen, moonlight allowing only the barest hint of light past the canopy of trees.
All of the Hunters were wearing black and had even painted their faces. But they couldn't hide from the heat sensors or even Sabin's trained eye. Besides the red blur, every rustle of leaves, every scattering of dirt gave them away.
"Shit. They're like locusts," William said. "I mean, seriously. Bugs. There's probably a hundred of them out there."
"Scared?" Sabin asked.
"Hell, no. I think I just came."
Sabin's kind of man.
"How long till they hit?" Strider asked. He shifted from one booted foot to the other, anticipation humming from him.
Torin shrugged, his long white hair shifting on his wide shoulders. "Four minutes. Maybe three. Depends on how smart they are. Some already fell in our pits, and some were killed by the hidden arrows."
As long as I get some, I'm happy, Sabin thought. "They won't storm through the front door all at once. They'll split up. They know we know they're out there, so they're not going to try to be quiet much longer. Some will stay at ground level. Some will climb through windows. Some will probably come down from helis, just in case Danika obeyed orders and went to the roof."
"Then we'll split up, as well," Lucien said. "My men and William will take the hill. Yours can have our leftovers."
Sabin grinned. "What you mean, is we'll fight the bulk of Hunters. I knew I loved you for a reason."
A chorus of chuckles rang out, just as he'd intended. Lucien and his men took off then, grinning as they headed outside. They had lived here for hundreds of years. They knew the best places to lie in wait, knew every secret passage to secure.
Unfortunately, Sabin did not. "Should we free Aeron? Let him join the fight? He's a good man to have at your side."
"Hell, no," Torin said. "He'll go for our heads, as well as the Hunters. What's the matter? You scared? Well, don't be. I'll have a monitor trained on every floor of the fortress. Program your cells to vibrate and I'll alert you as the Hunters enter, telling you where they are."
"How did I ever let you go?" Sabin asked him.
"You didn't," Torin said dryly. "I left you to follow Lucien."
"Semantics." He turned to his warriors and motioned to the hall with a tilt of his chin. "Let's do this."
Each of them nodded and stalked from the bedroom, withdrawing their phones as they walked. Sabin was behind them but quickly pulled ahead, his stride long and purposeful.
"Good day to die," Kane said.
For Hunters, it certainly was. Sabin shoved his phone back into his pocket and filled a hand with his 9 mm. He stretched the fingers of his free hand, popping his knuckles.
"Which faction do you think we're dealing with?" Strider asked. "Stefano, still?"
"It so matters," Gideon replied at the same time Kane said, "Any. All. Who cares?"
"Stefano, beyond any doubt. Late-night attack, overeager army and semiautomatics. Besides, he's the one who first captured Danika. He didn't yet know she was the Eye or he wouldn't have let her go," Sabin said, adding tightly, "He's mine. You see him, you leave him alive."
The man wanted to punish Sabin for the part he'd played in his wife's suicide. That was fine, understandable even. But Stefano kept coming after his men, would never leave them alone, and that wasn't. Sabin might have turned his back on love, but he valued his men over himself and he would not allow them to be hunted like this. "Gideon, entertainment room. You know what to do."
"Nope. I don't." Gideon branched off from the group.
"Kane, north hallway."
With a nod, Kane swerved at the next corner. One of the lightbulbs in the chandelier shattered the moment he did so, spraying glass in every direction. There was a hiss, a muttered curse. Then, of course, another bulb exploded.
Disaster. Couldn't take him anywhere, and gods knew there was no way to avoid explosions with him around. Poor Lucien.
"Cameo" Sabin had tossed a glance over his shoulder. Cameo wasn't among his remaining warriors. Where the hell was she? Irritated, he ran his tongue over his teeth. The woman had been disappearing more and more lately. "Amun, south hallway."
No response. Not even a nod, but Amun changed directions.
"Two minutes more," Strider said, "and then the real fun begins. I doubt Lucien and his crew can kill them all outside."
Sabin flicked him a glance. "Why two minutes? How do you know?"
"Internal radar."
Before the last word left Strider's mouth, the sound of glass breaking echoed through the house. Sabin and Strider shared a grin. "Your radar sucks. Begins now, I'm thinking." He palmed his other gun, the metal a welcome weight in his hand. "West hallway for you, my friend. I'll take east."
Strider nodded, turned on his heel.
"Be careful." Sabin rushed forward, steps eating up the distance. Another window shattered, this one just ahead of him. His cell phone vibrated in his pocket. Little late, Torin, he thought. A moment later, three men swinging from rappel wires sailed through the now paneless window on a gust of wind.
His hands whipped up, wrists crisscrossed, his fingers hammering at the triggers as his arms moved, left going right, right going left. Boom, boom, boom. The men jerked, screamed and then sagged onto the floor.
Seeing their dying bodies, a sense of satisfaction filled him. Yet blended with it was the impatient rumble of his demon. Doubt wanted in on the action.
"Have fun," he mumbled, and could almost picture the demon rubbing its gnarled hands together in glee.
His mind was ripped open as the spirit reached across the mental plane, searching for weak thoughts to pounce upon. Well used to the experience, Sabin didn't even grimace. Good thing. The distraction could have cost him.
Two other Hunters flew through the window. He shot them as quickly and as effortlessly as he had the others. This was his lifethis had always been his life. Fighting, warring, killing. From his earliest memory, he'd known enemies were not to be tolerated. That's why he'd been created, after all: fighting, warring, killing. And that's damn sure how he would take his last breath when he finally reached the end of the line. Fighting, warring, killing.
A rustle sounded behind him.
Spinning, he fired in quick succession. Two more Hunters fell, collapsing forward, shouting in pain. One of their hands reached out and touched his boot. A grenade rolled from those now-lifeless fingers. The pin had already been pulled. Shit. Quick as a blink, Sabin grabbed it and hurled it out the window, praying he didn't hurt his friends. But better it detonate outside than in.
"Fire in the hole," he shouted.
Boom.
So much for preventing explosions. The foundation of the fortress shook. Fire and smoke, screams and the pound of footsteps erupted. A wave of heat billowed into the hallway, blistering his skin. Debris whipped inside, too, and a detached tree limb slapped his face before hitting the floor.
Sabin made to spring over the bodies, only then realizing that one of the Hunters hadn't yet died. The man managed to raise his gun, smiling as he muttered, "No mercy. Isn't that your creed?" He squeezed off a shot.
The bullet slammed into Sabin's thigh, stinging. "Motherfucker!" Close-range shots were a bitch, and he knew immediately the muscle was blown to pieces. Grimacing, he unloaded a round into the Hunter's already broken body, the sound so loud Sabin's ears rang. "Yes," he spat. "That's my creed."
The man gasped his last breath a second later as blood trickled from his mouth.
You're too weak, Sabin heard Doubt whisper to one of the Hunters outside. The Lords will kill you. Most likely you won't survive to see another sunrise.
As clearly as if the Hunter were standing next to him, Sabin heard the man's reply. No. No. I'm strong. I'll kill them.
You're practically pissing your pants in fear. Fear they can sense. They'll attack you like an animal. What if they cut you up and mail your bones to your family?
Used to the stream of doubts, Sabin tuned out the whispers. His head turned left and right, left and right as he backed into the corner beside the broken window. A quick peek out the windowno Hunters about to swing inside. A glance down the hallwayno sign of Hunters there, either.
Sucking in a breath, he gazed down at his wound, his pants already glued to his skin, a bloody hole staring up at him. Fucking great. He reached down, probed the entrance and nearly screamed. It was worse than he'd thought. Twisting his wrist, reaching behind, he felt the back of his leg. There was another hole. Thankfully, the bullet had left him. Okay. Maybe not so bad, after all.
He ripped a strip of cloth from the hem of his shirt and tied it around his thigh, stanching the blood flow.
How are your men doing? Lucien's? You should hope no one dies. The Hunters outnumber you so it's possible
"Shut up," he commanded the demon who was trying to turn the doubts on him.
Most of them have trained to keep their minds blank, Doubt whined. Only a few were open to me and they're now dead.
The demon needed to hear the thoughts of its victims before it could attack. "Poor baby," Sabin muttered. "But if you get me killed, you'll lose everything. Become crazed. Eventually be sucked back into the box."
The back of his skull rattled as the demon jolted in horror. No box. No box!
"Quiet down, then." Blessedly, the creature obeyed.
Outside, Sabin could hear the pop and whiz of gunfire, the pained gasps of humans. The slide of steel through skin and bone. He glanced into the night, remaining in the shadows as much as possible. He saw the glint of silverblades, throwing starsin the moonlight, arcing through the air before connecting with a target.
His gaze caught on one of his friends. Maddox was rushing forward, leapt in the air and fell upon a cluster of Hunters. For several seconds, there was a tangle of arms and legs. A blade moved quickly, fluidly, a dance of feral motion. Then there was utter stillness. Had Maddox
The warrior pushed to his feet, dislodging lifeless bodies. Maddox turned and motioned to someone with a wave of his fingers. Reyes, who had his arm wrapped around a human female's waist, stepped into the light, but they were gone a moment later.