In the next heartbeat, Coyote went flying into the wall beside them, and the one holding his jaw was unconscious on the floor. Coughing to clear his throat, Ren rolled over to see Cabeza doing a death match circle with Chacu.
Chacu raked Cabeza with a sneer. "How's your wife, Kukulkan?"
By the amount of rage and severity of attack that question evoked from Cabeza, Ren was going to lay money that Chacu had had something to do with her death.
And hopefully that was the worst thing the bastard had done to her.
Ren splayed his hands against the earthen floor and pushed himself upright. One of the others grabbed his right arm and snapped the bone.
Okay, that he felt....
Before he could recover, four of them were on him.
"We don't need Chacu or Coyote to finish you." As Ren's attacker reached for the Coyote's club, a sonic boom went through the room so fiercely, it knocked everyone off their feet.
Damn, I'm on the floor again. He was getting really sick of this vantage point.
At first, he wasn't sure what had happened to knock them down. Not until he saw Ash grab one of the Gate Guardians and head-slam his ass into the wall. Yeah, that hurt, didn't it, puta? Slam him again, Ash. He'd say it out loud, but the last one who'd grabbed him had broken his jaw.
Ash rounded the seven of them up, and left Chacu for Cabeza to finish off. His silver eyes swirling with fury, Ash snarled at the Gate Guardians, exposing his fangs. "You swore to protect the innocent."
The tallest one tried to peacock posture Ash. It might have worked had Ash been a couple of feet shorter. But with those combat boots on, Ash topped seven feet easy. It'd be damn hard to intimidate someone that size if they were human. Toss in the god powers, and mad warrior skills ...
You go on, bitch, and posture. Ash can probably use the comic relief.
Bald Ugly jerked his chin toward Coyote as he spoke to Acheron. "We owed a favor to the one who freed us. We were merely paying the obligation."
Ash shook his head. "Ah, see now, that was your mistake. Your obligation tripped all over a man I consider a brother. One I don't like seeing ganged up on and beaten to a pulp when I know one-on-one, you'd be picking up busted teeth ... so I tell you what ... How about I level this playing field a little?"
Still, the imbecile blustered. Maybe because his muscles were five times larger than Ash's, he thought that gave him the advantage. But one of the first things Ren had learned when he'd shot up to tower over his shorter, bulkier opponents ... Lean muscle didn't interfere with fighting technique. It made you lethal. And you were a hell of a lot stronger than you appeared to be, so people underestimated the power of your blows. While a single blow from the mountain could lay you out cold, you could get twenty in to his one and have him down first. The mountain had to be accurate.
You? Not so much.
The mountain sneered up at Acheron. "We're not afraid of you."
Ash shrugged nonchalantly. "That would be exponentially foolish on your part. But I'm not the one you need to fear." Ash turned and approached Ren. "You look like hell, buddy."
"Ah, damn," Ren said, trying not to move his busted jaw any more than necessary. "All those hours in the salon wasted. I'd just got my nails done, too."
"You're so not right." Ash held his hand out to him so that he could pull Ren away from the wall, where Ren had himself braced to keep from falling again.
He took Ash's hand with the arm that hadn't been broken, and the moment he did, the pain vanished. Warmth spread through his veins as whatever Ash was doing to him healed his body completely.
Within a few seconds, Ren felt stronger than he ever had before. More than that, everyone else in the room was frozen solid-like someone had hit the pause button on a player.
Ash didn't seem to notice. "You know, Ren, it occurs to me that you never took your Act of Vengeance when Artemis signed you into her service."
"I didn't want it, then."
"And now?"
Ren glanced over to Coyote, who was frozen in the middle of a furious shriek that made the tendons on his neck protrude, and left his face a mask of ugliness.
As Dark-Hunters, they weren't allowed to arbitrarily kill anyone. There were very strict codes they had to follow. Murdering someone was a big no-no. "You'd allow it?"
Ash arched a wry brow. "You're part demon. Do you really give a shit what I think?"
"The demon in me that knows there's a demon in you who can mop the floor with my raunchy butt tells me to say yes. I care. Deeply."
"You're such a liar," Ash said with a laugh. "And a genius." He jerked his chin toward the group. "So, how about that vengeance?"
There was only one person in the room he truly wanted to lay low. "I'm going to kill Coyote."
"Take them all out if you want. You've earned it."
Ren frowned at the offer. Ash wasn't normally quite this bloodthirsty. Up until he'd married, Acheron had been all Hare Krishna-can't we all get along? Peace and love, brother. Peace and love. Kill the Daimons to free the human souls, but play nice with everyone else.
Yet from the moment Ash's wife Tory had placed that black titanium wedding ring on his finger, Ash had learned the benefits of "You knock on my door looking to fight? Then come on in, brother, and I'll put your rabid ass down tonight."
However, given Ash's lengthy past condemnations of wanton bloodshed, Ren wanted to make double sure that they were on the same page. "What exactly do you mean by that? Send them home intact, a little broken up, or in bloody body bags?"
No sooner had Ren asked the question, than seven more Rens appeared in the room around them. They stood before the Gate Guardians and were also frozen in place, yet posed as if they were about to clobber the one in front of them.
What the hell?
Ash folded his arms over his chest. "Relax. They'll vanish once they dispense of their assigned target ... in whatever way you want them to. And you'll be none the weaker for it. Their powers don't draw from you."
Ren gaped at Ash's abilities. While he'd known the man had mad gpd powers, he'd had no idea that insta-clone-a-warrior was one of them.
"How did you do that?" Ren breathed. "For that matter, how can you even be here? I thought you couldn't help us tonight."