Chapter 9
Tabitha headed for the Daimons without thought until Valerius pulled her to a stop. "What are you doing?" she asked him indignantly.
"It's a trap."
She frowned up at him. "What?"
There was a strange look on his face as he tightened his grip on her arm. "Can't you feel it? Even without powers I sense this one."
"No and if we don't go out there, they're going to kill those people." She tried to twist her arm out of his grasp, but he held tight.
"Tabitha, listen to me. This isn't right. Daimons are never that bold and they had to know I was in here."
He was right. It was too obvious. In this crowd Valerius stood out like sunshine in darkness. "What do you suggest we do, then? Just let the innocent die?"
"No. You stay here and I'll go."
"Bull-"
"Tabitha," he snapped at her, his black eyes burning into her. "I'm immortal. You're not. Unless one of them is wielding an ax, they can't hurt me much. Whatever they do to me, I will survive. You might not."
She wanted to argue with him, but she knew he was right. Not to mention she could feel inside that he was sincere. This wasn't some macho move to prove himself superior to her.
He was concerned for her safety, and if he was worried about her, he wouldn't be able to fight clear headedly.
"Okay," she said. "You go and I'll try not to follow."
A tic worked in his jaw. "For my sake, please do more than try. Succeed." He released her and before she could blink, he was out of sight.
Valerius hurried through the crowd, after the Daimons. He paused at the entrance long enough to ask Ty to keep Tabitha in the bar for her own safety. He wasn't sure if the man would help him with that or not, but if Ty could slow her down some, maybe it would give him enough time to kill the Daimons before she got there and endangered herself.
Leaving the bar, he hesitated on the street. The loud music still rang in his ears. But even so, he could sense the Daimons...
At the end of the block, he turned down Royal and headed in the direction that he was certain they had vanished. The Daimons were moving fast, drawing him into the darkness.
Unless he was mistaken, which was unlikely, there was a large group of them.
He slowed a bit as he approached St. Louis Street and turned onto it. He hadn't gone far before he came upon a gate slightly ajar.
They were inside. Quiet and still.
Waiting.
Had they killed the humans already?
Pulling out a dagger and holding it so that the blade was in line with his forearm while the hilt rested lethally in his palm, he pushed the gate wider, taking care not to make a sound as he slipped inside the pitch-black courtyard.
It was a moonless night, and unlike most of New Orleans, there were no lights back here. He moved around the side of the building, knowing exactly what to expect.
The Daimons were lying in wait for him.
He could hear someone clucking his tongue.
"It's been a long time since I faced a truly intelligent Dark-Hunter. This one already knows we're here."
Valerius came around the shrubbery to find a group of nine Daimons waiting in the courtyard. The women he had thought were human weren't.
They were fanged.
Damn.
Valerius drew himself up to his entire, imperious height and arched a brow at the group. "Well, when one puts out a cosmic calling card, I assume one wants it answered."
A slow smile spread over the Daimon's lips who'd spoken as he moved slowly through the group so that he could stand before Valerius. An inch shorter, the Daimon had a lean build and, like all of his kind, was perfect in his male form.
"The call wasn't for you." The Daimon sighed wearily. Obviously disgusted, he looked at the group behind him. "I thought I told you to draw the woman out, not the Dark-Hunter."
"We tried, Desiderius," one of the women said. "She stayed behind."
Valerius saw red at the name of the Daimon who had scarred Tabitha's face. He wanted to tear the Daimon to shreds, but knew better than to betray himself or Tabitha by acting as if she were special to him.
Had he maintained his composure the night his brothers had killed him, they would have left Agrippina alone. He wasn't about to sacrifice Tabitha needlessly.
Desiderius frowned. "Tabitha Devereaux stayed behind?"
"The Dark-Hunter told her to," another Daimon supplied. "I heard them."
"Interesting." Desiderius turned to face him. "I find it hard to imagine Tabitha would listen to anyone. You must be special indeed."
"She didn't think of you as a threat," Valerius said nonchalantly. "You weren't worth her time." He yawned at them. "No more than you're worth mine."
The Daimon moved to blast him.
Valerius caught his arm, whirled, and elbowed him in the throat. Desiderius staggered back, cursing.
"I know all about Greeks and their tricks," he snarled as he seized Desiderius's neck in his fist and flipped the Daimon onto the street. "Most of all, I know to kill them."
Before he could move his dagger and kill Desiderius, the others swarmed him. One grabbed him from behind while one of the females moved in to stab him with a long, vicious-looking dagger.
Valerius kicked her back, then twisted to confront the ones behind him. One of the Daimons slugged him across the face. He ground his teeth as pain exploded along his cheek to his nose, and he tasted blood.
But then, pain was nothing new to him. As a mortal, he'd been well acquainted with beatings and pain.
Valerius returned the blow with one of his own that sent the Daimon to his knees.
Out of nowhere, a god-bolt struck him hard in the center of his chest. It knocked him off his feet and sent him slamming into the brick wall behind him. Valerius couldn't breathe. He tried to stay standing, but the sheer agony of it overrode his desire and he crumpled to the ground.
"Hurts, doesn't it?" Desiderius said. "It was a gift inherited from my father." Desiderius bent down and seized Valerius's right hand and studied his Roman seal ring. "Now there's something I find interesting, too. A Roman in New Orleans. Kyrian of Thrace must truly love you."
Valerius glared at him as he forced himself to roll.
He'd barely moved before Desiderius hit him with another shocking bolt.
"What are we going to do with him?" one of the women asked.
Desiderius laughed once again, then seized him.
But it was Valerius who laughed hardest as he kicked the Daimon back and shrugged off his pain.
He caught Desiderius and slung him against the wall where he rebounded with a thud. "The question isn't what are you going to do with me. It's what I'm going to do to you."
Tabitha couldn't stand waiting any longer. But she wasn't completely stupid, either. Pulling out her cell phone, she called Acheron, who answered on the first ring.
"Hey, Tabby," he said with a laugh, "Valerius's cell is 204-555-6239."
"I really hate it when you do that, Ash."
"You know what you're going to hate even more?"
"I can't imagine."
"Turn around."