Page 70 of Hunted By Darkness

Rilas was right.

Neat fucking trick.

I was out of Tometi’s arms with a jump and the towering giant disappeared from Rilas’s view. Magic swirled around my arms and left me again in a stream, latching onto the demon’s limbs and tethering him to the corners nearest him. It only slackened when Ryker grabbed my hand and then Rilas by a handful of his hair.

He shoved Rilas forward with a devilish grin on his face, dug his boot into the demon’s back, and secured the cuffs around Rilas’s wrists with one hand. I pushed more magic out, and it wrapped around the demon’s body like a snake about to devour its prey whole.

The dance we did was somehow in perfect sync, as if we’d been fighting together all this time. I took the hand of one, then the other, sharing my power with them so they could take their physical forms in staggering attacks.

Tometi landed several blows on Rilas’s head, knocking the demon down into himself, and Ryker followed Tometi’s assault with his own. He stabbed the demon in several places, aimingfor the most damaging spots on Rilas’s body. Blood saturated the demon’s skin and clothes by the time Ryker was done with him.

My magic wrapped around Rilas tighter, keeping him immobile. I didn’t want to risk the other two being hurt. I wasn’t sure if you could kill someone who was technically already dead and a ghost, but I wasn’t about to take any chances. After minutes of nonstop assaults, Rilas’s head dropped down to his chest. His body was pitched forward and lax, only held upright by the magic binding him.

It was the first real look I was given at what had quickly become my prison. The building was as decrepit as I first believed. The floor was covered in rubble and trash, the tile absent in several spots. The table I’d been laying on was marked by a pentagram the same way it had been when we found Reaper’s mother.

I’d called it right—he intended to use blood magic.

I crouched in front of the demon and immediately felt Tometi’s worried hand on my shoulder. Throwing the tall man a smile, I patted him in reassurance and turned back to the unconscious demon.

With all his injuries, Rilas still breathed. It was exactly how I worried it’d be; he couldn’t be killed in the traditional way. At least he could still become unconscious. That was certainly a stroke of luck.

Hoping she’d hear me, I talked directly to my grandmother. “I’m going to get you back. I know what I have to do now. You just sit tight.”

Hand shaking, I stood and snatched the phone he’d put down on a nearby table. I dialed the last number Silas used and put the receiver to my ear. I hoped to Lilith that Silas had taken the same phone. I didn’t have a communication stone, and the infamous assassin ditched every phone he used. You know, assuming he’d remembered to bring one in all the chaos.

The other two kept a tight hold on my shoulders so they could go through Rilas’s clothes and remove anything he might find use for, or better yet, that we might. They came up with a few things Ryker missed, but without knowing what they were, we couldn’t exactly use them.

I pocketed the spoils. Enchanted items were dangerous when you didn’t use them right. We didn’t want to get accidentally trapped by one.

The phone rang and rang. My breathing was sharp as I waited for nearly a minute before giving up. He wouldn’t let it ring that long, that much I was certain. Either he didn’t bring it, or he’d ditched the last one he’d been using.

“Shit,” I mumbled. “We can’t leave this asshole like this. It’s too risky. I’ll have to be here to reinforce the binding magic if he wakes up. One of you needs to go find the others.”

Tometi and Ryker gave me the same look; they wouldn’t leave me for any reason. Neither one wanted me to face this terrifying monster without them. My heart squeezed knowing that only a year ago, Lev was the only person I could count on aside from my father and Dugan. My life might’ve been upended by bullshit, but I’d gained so much in the aftermath.

“If they don’t find us, I can’t send him back,” I argued.

My throat seized up, and it was hard to get the last few words out because I hadn’t found another way to corrupt my gem to summon the old magic. I’d have to do something that would tear me apart inside.

I swallowed and pleaded with them, begging with a pointed glance at both. We didn’t have time to argue about it. I wasn’t sure what sort of healing abilities the demon had, and we couldn’t count on him being unconscious for long.

My eyes strayed to Rilas slouched against the wall, wrapped in my pink magic with his hands cuffed behind his back. Like this he looked like anyone else. Worse, he had the face of the manI loved. It was uncomfortable to see someone who looked like Silas in this terrible state.

“I’ll go,” I heard the wolf finally say. “I’m faster.”

Ryker smiled, then he came over and wrapped his arms around me. The way he hugged me was so warm and full of feeling that I nearly shed another tear. I didn’t hesitate to hug him back. If not for him, I’d still be on that table and at Rilas’s mercy.

Pressing a quick kiss to my cheek, the blonde withdrew with a cute wink. “For my troubles.”

I heard a bunch of shit drop at my feet and looked down to find a pouch and several weapons he’d stolen.

He evaded Tometi’s punishing reach with a grace that didn’t fit his muscly frame, tipping an imaginary hat with a mock bow. “Best be off!”

Then it was just the three of us.

After checking on Rilas again to ensure he was still unconscious, I gathered the items off the floor. Tometi followed every move I made with his all-seeing eyes, but he never let the demon out of his periphery. Pivoting, I grabbed the giant’s hand without a word. His curious gaze dropped to our joined hands before I beckoned his other, offering him a couple daggers and the pouch.

“Take it,” I told him, and he did.

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