Sam caught it by the chin and drove her fist into its wind-pipe three times in fast succession. Coughing, the demon staggered away. Sam pursued it, punching and avoiding its bites with everything she had as she whaled on it like a pro.
Dev was impressed by her abilities, but it was time to stop this while he could. He went to rejoin the fight and tear the head off its shoulders.
No damn demon kills me and lives. If he was going to go down, he was taking the Charonte to hell with him.
Laughing, the Charonte lifted Dev up with one hand and flung him into the wall, five feet off the floor, then it turned on Sam and wrapped itself around her body. One moment she was fighting. The next, she and the demon were gone.
Dev lay in a bloody heap on the floor, horrified and stunned by what had happened.
The demon had ripped her right out of their existence.
Chapter 12
At Dev's call, Ethon came running into the room with Chi and two more Dogs one step behind him. Dev was still trying to stave off his bleeding and failing miserably at it. Unlike the Dark-Hunters, he wasn't immortal, and if he didn't get control of this soon, he would die.
The first one to reach him was El Escorpion, so named for the black daggers he'd been using since the Middle Ages when he'd become a Dark-Hunter that had scorpions engraved down the blades and on the hilts. No one knew what his real name was and most referred to him simply as Scorpio. The only thing about his past that he'd cop to was that he'd been a knight in medieval Spain--he wouldn't even verify what century. That was if and when you could get him to speak--something that happened about as often as a Mac product going on sale.
Scorpio knelt beside Dev so that he could examine the wound.
Realizing there was no immediate threat, Kalidas retracted the spike on his arm into his black leather armband. At six foot five, Kali was taller than the average Indian male and rumored to have once been an ancient prince during the Classical Period of India. It was something Kali would neither confirm nor deny. But the way the two of them fought, it was hard to believe anyone had been able to kill them.
Ethon turned around in the room, looking for Sam. "What happened?"
Kali's tone was as dry as his expression. "Obviously, something was hungry and bit the bear."
Ethon flipped him off.
Dev ignored their animosity toward each other. "A demon grabbed Sam and took off with her. They were here one second and gone the next."
Chi joined Scorpio on the floor next to Dev. She cringed as she saw his bite. "Oh, that's nasty."
Scorpio didn't comment. Covering the wound with his hand, he locked gazes with Dev. "Take a deep breath, Bear."
The moment he tried, Dev let out a foul curse. Scorpio's touch singed his skin like nobody's business. It felt like the Dark-Hunter was shooting electricity through him--something impossible since Dev was still in human form and not out of control changing back and forth between human and bear. But that was the only thing he could liken it to. The good news, though, was that it stopped the bleeding and sealed the wound better than if Scorpio had cauterized it.
Dev created a damp towel to clean up the mess. "Thanks."
Scorpio inclined his head to him.
Ethon was busy looking over the remains of the food and where they'd fought as if trying to re-create the fight in his head. "What kind of demon was it?"
Dev grimaced as he pulled the towel back and saw how much blood he'd lost. "A Charonte. But I'm thinking it must have been the same person who was pretending to be Nick earlier."
That got Kali's attention. "A shapeshifter?"
"Yeah, but not a Were-Hunter. Maybe a demon of some kind? Demigod? I have no idea. All I know is he knew how to fight and he snatched her out of here with an ease that pisses me off."
Ethon growled. "I'll notify Acheron."
Scorpio held his hand out to Dev and helped him to his feet, then mumbled in Spanish. He wasn't sure, but it sounded vaguely like bad mojo.
Dev changed his clothes into something a little less bloody as Chi seemed to fall into some kind of odd trance. He started to ask about it, but the Dogs acted like it was normal for her and since Dev didn't really know her well enough to judge, he ignored it too.
Kali pulled out his phone and after a few seconds, he cursed. "I can't track her."
A tic worked in Ethon's jaw. "What ever has her will be blocking us. Damn shame none of us has a power that can track."
Dev gave him a droll stare. Didn't the Spartan know anything about Were-Hunters? "I do."
The skepticism on his face was irritating. "How?"
"I'm part animal." Dumbass--For the sake of peace and the fact that getting to Sam was more important than fighting with Ethon, Dev only said that word silently in his head. Though to be fair, Ethon probably hadn't been around enough Were-Hunters to know what they were capable of. "I can track like a bloodhound."
But as he tried, he realized that his powers didn't work after all.
How could that be? Were-Hunters could track across five dimensions and there was no way she'd be in the sixth....