inside. He had some time, he knew. Quinn wouldn’t give the key up easily. Ronan suspected they’d have to torture him for a while first.
He lined up the sights on the rifle. He had to hit the guard in the head to knock him unconscious. Anywhere else would just be damaging but not enough to incapacitate. The guard could still cry out to the others.
Ronan was cautious about using the plastic bullets. He knew there had been deaths in the past from precisely this—hits to the head. But there was no other way of taking the guy out from a distance. He’d get in closer for the others. But this first one had to be done this way. Muttering a prayer under his breath, he put his finger on the trigger and pulled.
The bullet hit the guard right in the temple, exactly where Ronan had aimed. He went down like a ton of bricks, sinking to the ground without a word. One down.
Ronan picked up the bag and ran to the corner of the house. He grabbed the fallen guard’s feet and dragged him to the porch, rolling him under it. He then hopped over the railing and onto the porch. He crept along the wall to the other corner and peered over. The guard was there, a woman this time, holding a shotgun. He reached into the bag and grabbed something for close encounters. A stun gun.
He set down the bag, then walked to the end of the porch and leaned over the railing. “Hey.” He ducked back around so she couldn’t shoot him outright. Crouching, he watched through the porch rails for her to appear. He only had to wait ten seconds.
Her eyes widened when she spotted him and she raised her weapon, but Ronan was faster. He had the stun gun through the rails and pressed the button. The two wires sprang out and attached to her cheek. Electricity zipped through the lines and into the woman’s body. She was down on the ground in seconds.
Grabbing the bag, he jumped over the railing, landing softly by the downed guard’s body. He rolled her under the porch, then picked up her shotgun and shoved it into the duffel bag. As quick as he could, he ran along the side of the house to the back. He did a quick peek around the corner. He’d assumed right. There were two guards manning the back.
Before he could consider how he was going to dispatch them, the guard closest to him came around the corner, unzipping his jeans to relieve himself. Ronan snuck up behind him, put his arm around his neck and choked him out. He dragged him to the side and laid him up against the wall. One more to go before he could get into the house and get Ivy out.
Pressed against the side wall, Ronan waited until the perfect opportunity to take out the other guard. It came about five minutes later when he wandered over to find out what happened to his buddy.
“Joe,” the guard called, “where you at?”
Ronan waited until he was right in front of him, then he sprang into action. But he made a vital error. The guard wasn’t one of the possessed, but a demon.
He swatted away Ronan’s arm and smiled. “Hello, sunshine.”
Ivy wriggled her hands back and forth trying to loosen the ropes around her wrists. She was bound to a chair in the middle of the basement—the same spot she’d been in earlier when she and Ronan had been picked up. Quinn was bound to another chair beside her. The rest of their people had been herded into a corner by the demons. Unfortunately there were only six of them left.
The demon horde, what was left of them at least, were piled in the room as well, all lined up to take a shot at Quinn. They wanted to know where the key was. So far, her brother was keeping mum. But she suspected that would get harder to do as the demons got more creative with their questions. Luckily, the questions had been just that, questions. No painful torture to accompany them. Not yet, anyway. She suspected that was soon in coming.
Very soon, by the malevolent gleam in the current interrogator’s black eyes.
He leaned into Quinn’s face, likely breathing his foul sulfuric breath onto him. “You do realize we’re going to torture you to find out the location of the key, don’t you?”
“Whatever, hellspawn,” Quinn spat. “Give me your best shot.”
Smiling, the demon clenched his fist and wound back, then hit Quinn across the nose. Ivy could hear the definitive sickening crack of cartilage as Quinn’s head snapped back.
She had to bite her tongue to stop from cursing the demon. Her insults and anger weren’t going to help Quinn. It might, in fact, make it worse for him. When he swung his head back around, blood gushed from his nose and soaked his shirt. She closed her eyes and swore under her breath. She pulled at her hands a little more. If only she could get free.
All the demons laughed at Quinn’s busted nose and swollen lip. One female stepped forward and ran a finger over his lips, gathering his blood onto it.
She sucked the crimson liquid off and sighed happily. “Demon-hunter blood is the sweetest thing.”
Quinn cursed at her. But it didn’t stop her from taking more from him.
Ivy couldn’t hold back her fury any longer. She kicked out with her right leg at the demoness. She struck the demoness in the back of the thigh. It sent the demoness stumbling sideways.
This made the other demons laugh again.
The demoness swung around and glared at Ivy. It made her sick to see Quinn’s blood staining her lips and teeth. Ivy had to swallow down the bile rising in her throat.
The demoness moved toward her, coming around the back of the chair. She gripped the back of Ivy’s head, yanking on her hair, pulling her head back. “You know, I think we’ve been doing this the wrong way. We could beat on Quinn all day and he wouldn’t tell us, but if we beat on baby sister...”
Quinn erupted, pulling on his restraints. “You leave her alone! I’ll rip you apart if you touch her!”
And that was the absolutely worst thing he could’ve ever said. Now they knew without a shadow of a doubt that torturing Ivy would work wonders on Quinn’s tongue.
She looked at Quinn, wanting to smack him across the head. He knew better. “Don’t be stupid.”
The demoness leaned down into her face. “I think it’s well past that point, don’t you, darling?”
Ivy spat at her.
The demoness wiped the gob away, then twisted her hand in Ivy’s hair and yanked even harder. Pain shot over her skull. She wondered how painful it would be if the demoness ripped all her hair out. Probably agony. She shivered just thinking about it.
Another demon, the male that had struck Quinn, sauntered over to where Ivy was held. He stood in front of her, openly leering down at her. Her stomach roiled at the lecherous look in his black eyes.
“How about we play with her first?” He kicked at her legs, driving them apart. “I’ve never screwed a demon hunter before.”
The demoness shook her head. “That’s all you think about, isn’t it?”
He shrugged. “I can’t help it. I am a lust demon, after all.”
Ivy struggled in her chair, flailing her legs at him. “I’ll rip it off before you even get it near me.”
He laughed, and then grabbed both her legs. “You’re fun.” He pushed her backwards.
Her chair toppled over with her in it. She hit the hard floor, the back of her head smacking painfully against the cement. Her scalp throbbed like an acid burn, and when she saw strands of her black hair in the demoness’s hand, she understood why.
“You stupid fool,” the demoness berated the other.
Ivy let them argue because her fall had done two wonderful things. It had broken one of the spokes in the chair back and it had loosened her ropes. Without bringing attention to herself, she managed to pull one of her hands free.
She looked at Quinn and winked.
He started to struggle in his chair, bouncing up and down and kicking his legs. “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you all!” He yelled so loud it made her ears hurt. “You’ll never find the key!”
But it did the job. It got the attention of all the demons. All the focus was on Quinn, so no one noticed, at least for the first three seconds, when Ivy rolled to her knees and scrambled to her feet.
