“What the hell?” She grabbed the woman’s wrist. “Why are they attacking us?”
“They’re enchanted. Powerful demons can sway people to do their bidding without a spell or possession.” Ronan shoved the woman spitting and clawing at him into the wall.
“How come I’ve never heard of that?” Ivy had the brunette pushed against the wall with her arm twisted behind her back.
“It’s a rare power and it’s not common knowledge.”
By now, they had garnered the attention of the other patrons in the bar. And the big, burly bartender who was approaching Ronan with fury in his fists.
“What is going on here?”
“Where’s your security man?” Ronan asked.
The bartender shook his head, then ran over toward the entranceway. He stopped midstride. “He’s down.”
The woman attacked Ronan again. This time he grabbed her wrists and, binding her arms together, subdued her. “I think they are both very drunk,” he said to the bartender.
“Should I call the police?” he asked Ronan.
“Actually, if you have a small locked room, we could just toss them in there until they sober up.”
By the way the bartender frowned, Ronan guessed he didn’t much like the idea.
“Where’s Sallos?” Ivy asked, still trying to keep the brunette pressed against the wall.
Ronan looked around in a panic. “I don’t know. I don’t see him.”
“I’m right here, Ivy, my dear.”
Both Ronan and Ivy swung around. Sallos stood grinning by the picturesque floor-to-ceiling windows. He had another patron, a young woman, in his clutches. His hand was around her slender throat and she was dangling above the floor, her feet kicking from the lack of oxygen.
The other patrons moved away from him, eyes widened, hands to mouths, shocked by what they were witnessing. The bartender went to move toward Sallos.
Ronan grabbed his arm. “Don’t. He’ll kill her.”
The bartender stopped, but Ronan could see that it was difficult for him not to try and help. Ronan commended him for that, but his help would surely only kill the woman and most likely him, as well.
Keeping the brunette’s arm twisted behind her back, Ivy pulled her over to Ronan. “Here. Take her.”
Ronan tried to grab the squirming woman but she managed to get out of Ivy’s grasp. She flew at Ivy again, but this time Ivy’s patience was gone. She reared back and punched the brunette square in the jaw. It sent the woman to the floor, unconscious.
She then pushed the woman he had under wraps backwards and knocked her in the chin. She went down like a sack of potatoes, too. Problem solved.
“Nice,” Ronan said but he suspected Ivy wasn’t listening. Her attention was all on Sallos.
She took a few steps toward him. “Let these people go and we’ll have a nice long talk.”
The demon chuckled. “Oh, is that the part when you kill me?”
“I won’t kill you,” she mumbled under her breath.
One of Sallos’s eyebrows quirked up. “I’m sorry? I don’t think I heard you right.”
Ronan stepped in beside Ivy. A united front. He hoped it was enough to best this demon. He wasn’t so sure, though. Sallos was notorious for his viciousness and manipulations.
“You heard plenty.”
“Hmm.” Sallos tapped his lips with his finger. “I see a bargain in the near future.”
“Whatever,” she grunted. “Just let everyone go.”
Ronan leaned into her ear. “Are you sure about this? He’s a sneaky bastard.”
She shook her head. “No, but it’s all I got right now.”
“If I let everyone go free, Ivy Strom, will you refrain from killing me?”
Ronan could practically hear her teeth grinding. She sighed, and then said, “Yes.”
“How about you, Mr. Ames? Care to bargain again?”
Ivy glanced at Ronan, a question on her lips. He shook his head. “You only get one bargain, Sallos. That’s the rules.”
“Rules, shmules.” He smirked. “So be it.” Sallos released his hold on the young woman. She dropped to the floor. She didn’t look that good. Ronan could see the shallow rise and fall of her chest, but he wasn’t sure if that was enough to keep her alive.
He looked over his shoulder to the bartender. “You can help her now. Get her out with the rest of these people.”
The bartender nodded, then rushed to the young woman on the floor. He picked her up in his arms and hurried back to the elevators. “Come on! Everyone out!”
That started a stampede for the exits. It wouldn’t be long before more security showed up, as well as cops. After a loud, bustling five minutes, Ronan, Ivy and Sallos were alone in The View Lounge. They had to work quickly now.
The demon sat down in the one of the vacant orange chairs and crossed his legs, as if having a casual visit with friends. “So, what shall we talk about?”
Ivy wanted nothing more than to breach the distance between her and the demon and fry his ass back to hell. But she had made a bargain that she wouldn’t kill him. She’d think of a way to get out of it later. In the meantime, there was nothing in there about not hurting him an awful lot.
Sallos gestured to the other two vacant chairs. “Sit. We can talk all night if you’d like.”
Ivy moved toward the empty seats but she didn’t sit. Ronan moved with her.
Sallos narrowed his eyes at Ronan. “It’s been a while, Ronan. You look good.”
“How do you know each other?” Ivy asked, curious and suspicious.
“Oh, we go way back, don’t we, boy? In fact, I was there at his birth, so to speak.”
Ronan stiffened, his hands clenched. “I’ll kill you, Sallos. Your bargain isn’t with me.”
“No one’s killing anyone until I get some answers,” she said, glaring at Ronan. But she could see the anger and the pain on his face. An urge to console him swept over her, but she tamped it down. At least until their business here was concluded. Obviously, there was a long, painful story there, and surprisingly, she wanted to know it.
Sallos waved his hand. “Ask.”
“Where is my brother, Quinn Strom?”
“Ah.” He smiled. “There it is. The driving force behind everything you do. The prodigal brother. The chosen one. The great, mighty Quinn Strom.”
“Where is he?”
“Why do you want to know? Why do you want to find him?”
“Because he’s my brother.”
“Yes, but if you find him, wouldn’t that mean the reign of Ivy Strom, feared demon hunter, would be over?” He ran a finger over his mouth as if in contemplation. “You’d be number two, once again.”
“I don’t care.” But deep down inside, Ivy did care just a little. She liked being the toughest, most feared hunter around. Quinn had been that guy before he disappeared. And Ivy had sort of inherited the title because of her last name.
She’d earned it, she reminded herself. Over the past three years she’d earned every drop of blood to be called the best. She might have learned her skills from Quinn and her father, but she’d honed them, expanded on them and even perfected them in Quinn’s absence.
“Now, I know why Ronan wants to find Quinn Strom, but you, Ivy, my dear, are a different matter altogether.”
Ivy glanced at Ronan. “What’s he talking about?”
