Throwing her head back, she let loose with a fierce battle cry before she laid into the Daimons.
Dev paused as he heard the sound a banshee made when it buried a loved one. Haunting and piercing, that baleful screech went down his spine like a shredder. In the blink of an eye, Sam sprung forward, slashing and tearing through the Daimons with a power and skill that was unrivaled. Never in his life had he seen anything like it.
Never.
Damn, woman...
And he'd pissed her off? What the hell had he been thinking?
More Daimons came through the bolt-hole to attack. Dev caught the one going for Sam's back and expired him where he stood. Still they kept coming.
Just when he was sure both he and Sam would go down, the bed against the door went skittering sideways. He grabbed Sam and leapt over it an instant before the door was splintered.
Ethon and Chi, along with Fang, came running in to help with the fight.
With his arm around Sam, Dev tried to guide her into the hallway where she wouldn't be in the thick of it. But she was having none of that.
She turned around to fight.
He tightened his grip on her and forced her to move through the door.
"What are you doing?" She looked up at him.
Dev gasped as he saw her green eyes. By that, he knew she'd lost her Dark-Hunter powers. They could kill her. "Getting you out of harm's way."
"I run from no one."
"We're not running," he said as one of the Daimons broke the window and spilled daylight all over his room. "We're regrouping to fight another day."
Sam wanted to choke him as he tossed her over his shoulder and headed for the stairs. If she still had her powers, she would have, but without them she was relegated to holding on like some pathetic little girl--something that set her temper on fire even more.
One second they were in Peltier House, the next they were inside a strange warehouse-looking place that she'd never seen before. Unlit neon signs that formed an intricate pattern were hung all over the walls. To her left was an industrial bar that was well stocked with alcohol. A large mirror, also wrapped in unlit neon, was behind it. It appeared to be another club, only it wasn't open. And there was no one here. Not even a whisper of a sound.
Dev set her down.
Sam immediately slapped at his hands. "Get away from me! I'm so mad at you I could claw out your eyes!"
He stepped back to give her a peeved glare. "You're welcome."
"For what? Pissing me off?"
"I saved your life."
She scoffed at that. "No. You didn't. You pulled me out of a fight I needed to finish. Gah! I can't believe you left Chi and Ethon there while carrying me off like some helpless child. How dare you!"
Dev took a deep breath to calm himself before he escalated this fight to nuclear proportions. One of them needed to have a calm head until he figured out what was going on. Something during the fight had triggered a profound and unexpected consequence for Sam. The one thing he knew about Dark-Hunters was that they only lost their powers whenever they confronted a memory from the event that had caused them to sell their souls.
Sam was hurting and all he wanted was to help her. Her uncharacteristic screech had told him that. No one made that sound unless they were torn completely up.
"I saw them going for the windows and knew I had to pull you out of daylight before they shattered them. Which they did. Had I not grabbed you when I did, you'd have been killed or at least severely burned." Even with her Dark-Hunter powers drained, she still wouldn't have been able to stand in daylight.
She made a sound of profound aggravation as she surveyed the concrete floor and light blue, riveted metal walls around them. "Where are we anyway? Hell?"
He flashed a charming grin at her. "It's much cooler than that. Club Charonte."
"Which is what?"
He didn't answer. Instead he pulled his phone out and made a call.
Crossing her arms over her chest, Sam glared at him.
Dev recklessly ignored her seething fury at him as Ethon picked up the phone. He wanted to make sure his family was all right before they carried this conversation any further. At least Ethon answered--that in and of itself was a good sign that Sanctuary was still standing. "Hey, what happened when we left?"
"The cowardly bastards vacated right after you did. Chi and I tried to take as many down as we could, but we had to exit the range of that seriously annoying yellow ball in the sky that was dancing all over your room. You know, Bear, you should have smaller windows. Fang went after them, but they vanished back into their hole and he withdrew to protect the family in case they returned to another area for vengeance's sake. Anyway, the fanged brigade is probably tracking you guys right now, so watch your back."