"You heard me, Nick. Who has watch duty on you?"
He scoffed. "No one has watch duty over me. I told Acheron that. All of you are wasting your time. But what ever." He looked past her to where Dev watched them with a stern grimace. "If you don't want to leave. That's fine." His expression turned cold. "Stay. Get killed. No sweat off my balls. I was only doing this as a favor to Acheron anyway."
Sam screwed her face up in distaste. While the attitude was vintage Gautier, he wasn't normally quite so crass.
He dragged his thumb down the side of his face before he sneered, "They're all yours.
She scowled at his Greek that meant to eat until you were stuffed.
No sooner had Nick spoken those words than a bolt-hole opened in the center of the room and a dozen Daimons came out of it.
Chapter 9
Sam cursed as she used her telekinetic powers to open the bedroom door and shove Dev through it so that she could face the Daimons.
With a bellow of rage, Dev kicked the door open and charged back to the fight.
Throwing her hand up to get more punch behind her mental powers, she tossed him out again and this time put the bed in front of the door to keep him out.
Dev stood in the empty hallway, gaping. What the hell? He tried to go back into his room, but couldn't. He heard things breaking and people cursing, but he was effectively locked out.
Anger ripped through him. "Ah no you di'in't."
His powers surging, he used them to teleport into the room where Sam was surrounded by Daimons. He manifested two KA-BARs and went after the Daimons with everything he had.
Sam turned as she felt a new presence in the room. Expecting it to be another Daimon, she froze at the sight of Dev taking out two Daimons with one powerful blow. Her heart hammered and in that one instant she felt her Dark-Hunter powers wane as old memories ripped through her and left her brutalized.
It wasn't Dev she saw now. It was Ioel.
The firelight had flickered against his dark skin and hair as Ioel had gently pushed her toward their daughter's room. "Take Ree and get to safety."
She'd stubbornly refused. "Not without you."
He'd placed his hand on her stomach where their baby was kicking and kissed her on the lips while the attacking Daimons broke into their home. "Go, Samia. Now. Think of our children, not the battle."
Amazons never retreat. They don't fall back.
They fight.
The sound of splintering wood echoed through the house as the Daimons broke in, shouting in victory.
"Mommy!"
Her daughter's terrified scream had pulled her away from her husband and she'd run to her daughter's room with everything she had. But her advanced pregnancy had left her winded and unstable on her feet. Trembling, she'd pulled her frightened daughter into her arms and held her close as her anger sizzled inside her. She wanted blood for this.
The sound of furniture breaking and clashing steel rang in her ears as she looked about for an escape.
There wasn't one.
She had to get her baby to safety....
Sam started for the hall, but was stopped by a flash in the fire-lit room.
And then she'd seen it. That one sword stroke that had pierced Ioel's chest and left him staggering back. Blood poured over him as the Daimons moved to take his soul.
Her own scream had lodged in her throat while she clung to her daughter and felt the life of her unborn baby in her stomach. In this condition, she wasn't strong enough to carry her daughter through the hall--not if she was to outrun the Daimons.
She rushed back into her daughter's room. "Under the bed, Ree. Now." She'd set her daughter down on the floor and watched her scamper to hide. "Not a sound, baby, what ever you do."
Sam had barely grabbed the lamp from the table before the Daimons stormed the room. She'd flung the oil and fire at the first one who reached her. Lunging at him, she'd grabbed his sword and whirled, stabbing the one right behind him. But her distended belly had unbalanced a move she'd made a thousand times in battle.
She'd stumbled back and they'd fallen on her in such a number that she'd been unable to fight them off.
The last thing she'd seen before she died had been her own sister's face at the back of the Daimons.
"There's one more brat to kill. What ever you do, don't let her live. She has to be here somewhere. Find her and make sure she can't inherit anything except a burial."
Brutal, impotent rage and betrayal had ripped her asunder. Even now Sam could hear the scream of it as it radiated inside her. So fierce. So terrible, it had summoned the goddess Artemis to her side. And before the Daimons had had a chance to capture her soul, Sam had sold it.
But it'd come too late to save her daughter....
The piercing agony of that ripped her apart now and it left her dizzy as she watched Dev fighting to protect her.
No! Never again!