Chapter 10
"Careful," Stryker warned his men as they fired another round at the house. "Not that it's likely, but give them a chance to come out before you blow the house apart."
"Why?" Trates asked. "I thought the objective was to kill the heiress."
Urian gave the man an irritated look that said, 'Are you totally stupid?' "Yes, but if we hurt the Abadonna in the process, we're going to find out what it feels like to be turned inside out. Literally. Like most beings, I actually like the fact that my skin is outside my body."
"She's immortal," Trates argued. "What's a bomb to her?"
"Immortal like us, bone-head." Urian snatched the rocket launcher from Trates's hand and handed it to Icarus. "Blow her body apart and she will die. None of you want to know what the Destroyer would do to us if that happens."
Icarus aimed more carefully.
Stryker nodded his approval to his son, then projected his thoughts to the rest of his team. "Watch the exits. I know the Dark-Hunter will have a back way out of this place. When they run, you'd better catch them. Stand ready."
Cassandra frowned as Chris packed another pillow down the front of his sweatpants. "What are you doing?"
"Protecting my assets. After what Kat said about Stryker and that near miss with the pizza knife, I don't want to take a chance with my prized jewels."
"Hallelujah," Wulf said under his breath. "The boy finally developed some brains."
Chris directed a sullen stare at him that Wulf ignored.
Wulf turned the TV on and switched it to the parameter cameras so that they could see the Daimons' positions. Several of them were running across the lawn.
"It looks like that blast took out some of the east wing," Wulf said quietly.
Another blast went into the garage.
Chris let out an excited whoop. "I think they just nailed the Hummer. Yes!"
"Christopher!" Wulf snapped at him.
"I can't help it," Chris said, calming a degree. "I really hate that thing. Besides, I told you it wouldn't protect me from everything. See. It was worthless against the grenades."
Wulf shook his head at his Squire, then noticed Cassandra picking up weapons from the armoire. "What are you doing?" He moved toward her lightning-fast to keep her from touching the weapons.
She let out an irritated breath. "Arming myself."
"Like hell. Your job is-"
"To stay alive," she said, her face determined. She touched him gently on the arm in a light caress that sent chills over his chest. She was so beautiful standing there, ready to take on the world.
"Don't worry, Wulf, I'm not stupid. I'm not going to engage them and take a chance on one of them kicking me in the stomach. Likewise, I'm not going to just stand here and let them take me without something to fall back on. I'm no more used to being without a weapon than you are."
"She's right about that," Kat said, moving to stand behind Cassandra. "Her teddy bear is a six-inch retractable knife and a snub-nosed .38 Special."
Wulf stared at Cassandra and the raw determination in her eyes. He admired her more in that moment than he ever had anyone else.
Stepping back, he took her to the cabinet and fastened wrist blades on each of her arms. He showed her the release for the blades and how they swung out.
"And this one..." He pulled out a small-caliber Beretta Panther. He slid the fully loaded clip into the handle and switched the safety on. "Is just to get their attention."
He placed it in a concealed holster, then fastened it to her hip.
Cassandra's face softened as she looked up at him. For some reason, that look made his entire body hot. "So what's the plan?"
"Run for it."
"Run where?" Chris asked. "If we head to another Dark-Hunter's house, it'll just drain your power and theirs. No offense, but I think these guys are a little stronger than the average Daimon and I don't want to see your butt kicked. At least not tonight while I got things to protect."
Another explosion shattered the glass windows that were covered by the shields.
"We don't have a choice, Chris," Wulf said as he put more distance between Cassandra and the windows. "They're not going to wait until morning and give us a chance to evacuate in the daylight, and if we don't leave, they'll blow the house apart around us. We'll just have to have an open evacuation plan."
Chris appeared less than convinced. "I really, really don't like this open evacuation plan idea. Anyone got something better?"
They looked at Kat, who stared back bemused. "I'm not of this world. I have no idea where to hide. I say we go with Wulf."
"What about Artemis?" Cassandra asked. "Will she help us?"
Kat shook her head. "Sorry. She's occupied at the moment and honestly couldn't care less if the world did end. If I disturb her over this, she'll have a raging tantrum."
"All right then," Wulf said. "I suggest everyone get their heaviest clothes on and be prepared to jump ship as soon as possible."
Stryker watched the security cameras closely. He knew the heiress and her guards wouldn't stay inside much longer. His men had already blown up the entire garage and were now slowly shooting into the house, section by section. There was a lot of exterior damage, but he couldn't really tell how much was being done internally.
Not that it mattered. If this didn't work, they'd burn it down. He already had the flamethrowers on standby.
Anyone worth his salt would have exit tunnels. And Wulf was certainly worth his salt.
Urian had found several exits so far.
His son just had to make sure they had found them all before their prey left the premises.
"Urian?" he asked his son telepathically. "Are you in position?"
"Yes. We have all of the exits covered."
"Where are you?"
"The back lawn. Why? Is something going wrong?"
"No, I just want to make sure we can get to them."
"They're ours, Father. Relax."
"I will after she's dead."
Wulf took one last inspection of his charges. They were bundled up and ready. He, on the other hand, was scantily clad. He needed to be able to move freely in case he had to fight more.
"Okay, children," he said in warning. "Remember, we have to move silently. They can see better at night than..." He paused as he realized who he was talking to. "Well, better than Chris can anyway. I'll lead the way. Kat, you pull up the rear and, if anything happens, shout and don't vanish on us."
"You got it."
Wulf offered Cassandra an encouraging smile. He took her hand into his and kissed her knit glove, wishing he could feel her skin under there.
She smiled back, then covered her face with her muffler.
Reluctantly dropping her hand, he led them to his bedroom. There were more explosions upstairs.
Wulf growled at the sound of things shattering. "I swear I'm going to take all this out of Stryker's hide."
"I just want to know where the cops are," Cassandra said. "Surely someone has heard all that."
"I don't know," Chris added. "We're pretty far out. No one probably knows."
Another blast shook the house.
"Someone has to hear that," Cassandra said. "They've turned it into a war zone."
"Well, let's hope the cops don't come," Kat added from behind her.
Cassandra looked at her from over her shoulder. "Why?"
"Because if they do, all they'll be is another midnight snack for the Daimons."
Cassandra curled her lip at the thought. "Oh, God, Kat, that's awful!"
"But all too true," Wulf said as he led them past his bed, into his closet, which was the size of most people's bedrooms. "In spite of what you think, Cassandra, Daimons are nothing more than rabid animals in need of a mercy killing."
She stiffened, but for once didn't argue with him.
Cassandra cocked a brow at his wardrobe as they walked through the closet. Everything from the hanging items to every pair of shoes lacked color. It looked like a great black hole. "Like black, do you?"
One corner of his mouth quirked up. "It serves its purpose. It's hard to look intimidating in pastels."
She laughed at that and started to make a comment about how he looked best naked, but then refrained. It wasn't like Chris and Kat didn't know they were lovers, but it still didn't feel right to say that out loud around them.
Wulf pressed a series of codes into the keypad and opened a secret door in the back that led into his own private catacombs he had had built under the house and grounds in case of emergency.
Though to be honest, Daimons bombing his home hadn't been one of the things that had entered his mind when he'd had this built.
He'd been thinking more along the lines of a house fire during daylight or maybe a home invasion by more normal, nonfanged terrorists.
Who knew?
Following true medieval fashion, the corridor was long and narrow in order to keep more than one person from going through it at a time and to make it easy to block it should anyone be chasing after them.
Sometimes it paid to be paranoid.
Wulf grabbed a flashlight and led them single file into it.
They walked for several minutes before they came to a five-way split.
"Wow," Chris said as he peeped around Cassandra and Wulf. "Where do all of these go?"
Wulf indicated the one on the far right with the light. "That one goes to the garage, the next one over goes to the field just beyond the south gate, the middle one is for a bomb shelter farther underground. The next one leads to the street outside the main gate and this one"-He indicated the one on his left-"leads to the boathouse."
"Man, I wish I'd known about this when I was a kid, I could have had a ton of fun down here."
"Yeah, and you could have gotten lost or hurt and no one would know."
Chris blew him a raspberry.
Ignoring him, Wulf led them down the long, winding tunnel that ran the length of his property. The boathouse was set off to the side so that, to people who didn't know better, it would look like it wasn't part of his holdings.
That, along with the design of the boathouse, had been intentional.
More than five thousand square feet in size, the boat-house looked like a home from the water, with the first level of it housing his collection of boats. The second floor had four bedrooms, a kitchen, living, dining, and game rooms. Over the years this had served as guest accommodations for Acheron whenever he came to town.
Wulf only hoped Stryker wasn't bright enough to figure out he had an escape route this far down his property.
At the end of the tunnel, there was a steel ladder leading up to a trapdoor that opened in the back of the boat-house inside a storage closet.
Wulf went first, ready for anything. The lock on this door was manual in case of fire. Wulf spun the combination, then waited for the release to sound.
Slowly, he pushed the door open, expecting the worst.