Page 51 of Inflamed By an Incubus

“Got eyes on something here.”

Archer strode towards him, narrowing the gap in only a handful of steps, cutting an imposing figure in his black combat trousers that had been tucked into his boots and an equally dark T-shirt that hugged every muscle on his torso. She hadn’t missed that he had been wearing more T-shirts recently, and she didn’t think it was because their latest adventure had brought them into a realm most referred to as Hell. He was trying to prove to her that her dreams of him were wrong and he didn’t have tattoos.

But it hadn’t stopped her from seeing them every time he appeared in her dreams.

He tugged a rag from his back pocket and patted his nape with it, and watching him do that made her feel even hotter, made her more aware of how stifling the air was.

The temperature in this part of the sprawling, enormous plane of Hell was on the high end in their current location, had sweat trickling down her spine and the rest of the team looking as uncomfortable as she felt.

While Archer borrowed Tim’s binoculars to check out what he had seen, the group took a break, and she reached for the canister hanging from her hip. Just the thought of a sip of water was enough to make her want to moan and when she unscrewed the cap and lifted it to her mouth, and cool liquid splashed across her tongue, she almost did just that.

“How much further?” Sally, one of Archangel’s newest recruits, a wet-behind-the-ears brunette who had a death grip on her rifle, cast a glance around the bleak valley.

“I’d say less than a mile.” Archer handed the binoculars back to the scout and joined the group, his expression grave and dark eyes troubled.

“What is it?” Evelyn went on high alert, her gaze leaping around the valley before it locked on to the direction Archer had been looking. “Dragons?”

Everyone tensed.

Archer gave her an unimpressed look and she frowned right back at him, because she hadn’t meant to make everyone more jittery than they already were.

“I don’t think so. Lights around the encampment are dark. Power is out. Can’t see much else from this distance, but… it doesn’t look good.” Archer looked at the whole team—his team—appearing every bit the commander Mark had made him for this operation. “We should move quietly from here on in. Weapons ready. Not sure what we’re going to find there.”

If it was a dragon, they were all fucked.

Evelyn kept that to herself, but the look Archer gave her, his gaze lingering on her the longest, said he was worried about it being one of that breed too. Some of the smaller species in Hell they could handle, but men and women who could shift into a sixty-foot winged reptile with fangs as long as her arms and toughened scales protecting their vital organs were way beyond the level of firepower the team were packing. Their bullets, even the ones specially designed to deliver a nasty dose of toxin or tranquiliser upon impact, were only going to aggravate a dragon and make it kill them faster.

Archer signalled the direction they were going to take and everyone drew a collective breath and readied their weapons before following him. He cast another look at Evelyn and she read the silent order in it, moved through the team to come up beside him. Before they had left, he had told her repeatedly to stay close to him, and she had seen the concern in his eyes. He was worried that being back in Hell would be too much for her.

After all, the last time she had been here, she had almost died.

The walk to the camp was a twitchy one, with several of the team looking ready to shoot at invisible foes. Evelyn held her nerve, mentally preparing herself for what lay ahead, sure that the reason the team had gone dark was because they had been massacred. Venturing this close to the dragons and the realm that glowed orange in the distance had been a mistake, but according to the report Archer had shown her, Archangel had sent them here for a reason.

They had been looking for something.

The list of the team’s members backed that up. Most of them had been from the sciences division. Researchers mainly, and a couple of technicians for some reason. The team had been assigned less than a dozen hunters to protect them. Archer suspected it had been done to keep their profile as low as possible, stopping the locals from noticing them.

Unfortunately, it looked as if it had failed to do that.

The gloom slowly took on shapes ahead of her, and the dead lights weren’t the first thing she noticed.

The dead hunters were.

Behind her, Sally retched.

“Shit,” one of the men muttered. “You think they’re all dead?”

“Keep it down,” Archer growled and motioned towards the mountains.

Evelyn looked there and spotted what he had. Halfway up the cragged basalt peak there was a cave and ropes hung from the ledge at the mouth of it. Hell of a way to get up there. She frowned at the mouth of the cave, staring into the shadows, and then slid a look at Archer.

“I don’t like it.”

He shrugged.

“I don’t like it either.” He cast her a glance, his dark eyebrows knitting hard, and nodded to her handgun as she drew it. “Keep that at the ready. Not sure what we’re walking into here.”

Evelyn nodded and sucked down a breath, hoping to steady her nerves.

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