What a mess their brothers had made of things.
No more. With Tase at the head of the Lords of the Sons of Darkness now, things would change.
They already had, though not nearly fast enough for him and his remaining brothers.
Catering to humans had been their biggest error.
Using humans-now, that was more like it. Humans could be so easily seduced, their minds and bodies adapted to do the bidding of the dark master. It was only a matter of time, and a bit more experimentation, and there would be many more to fight for the Sons of Darkness. Humans could be given powers to fight, to walk where the Lords could not, to kill, to be the eyes and ears of Tase and his brothers.
And there were so many who wanted what the Sons of Darkness offered. Every day they recruited more.
More to fight against the Realm of Light.
Lou and his demon hunters wouldn’t know what hit them.
Tase finally allowed the smile he’d held back.
“You are pleased about something?” Aron asked.
“I’m seeing the future. For the first time in a long while, it looks exceptionally good for all of us, my brother.”
CHAPTER FOUR
With Angelique occupied outside by the pool, Ryder made contact with Lou and filled him in on the demon attack on Angelique.
“This wasn’t like any demon I had ever seen before, Lou. It was different.”
“Different how?”
“A few things. First, it said it used to be human.”
“That’s not good,” Lou said.
“I didn’t think so, either.”
“What did it look like?”
“Other than glowing blue eyes, it appeared human. And it didn’t respond to any of the weaponry I used.”
“So you weren’t able to injure it in any way?”
“Well, yeah, actually, my silver knife. I stabbed it. It howled in pain, then disappeared in a puff of smoke.”
Lou paused on the other end of the phone. “Interesting.”
“Which means?”
“My guess is the Sons of Darkness have created a new form of demon. They might be recruiting humans, or kidnapping them and changing them into this new form of hybrid. I’ll have to alert the other Keepers right away.”
“Great.” Just what they needed. As if they didn’t already carry three different types of weaponry to battle these things. Any more firepower added to their arsenal and they’d be so gun-heavy they’d have to go hunting in tanks instead of on foot. “So now what?”
“I’ll get the Realm of Light on developing a new weapon to fight against them. In the meantime, see what you can create there.”
Oh, right. Because he was all about manufacturing weaponry while holed up in a villa in southern Italy. “Yeah. I’ll get right on that.”
He could almost see Lou’s smile on the other end of the phone. “You’re resourceful, Ryder. You’ll figure it out. In the meantime, your job is to protect Angelique. She’s the key to finding the black diamond. Eventually she’s going to have to surrender it, and she’s in danger from the Sons of Darkness until she does.”
“Got it.”
“And I wouldn’t put it past the Sons of Darkness to find you again.”
“That’s what I thought, too. Eventually we’re going to have to move again.”
“Keep me posted,” Lou said.
Ryder hung up and made a circle through the house, searching for anything he could use to make weapons. That was his first priority, because like Lou said, the demons were coming after them. He was certain of it. Running had only bought them a little time. The demons had found Angelique once-they’d do it again.
But next time Ryder would be here. Which wouldn’t do either of them much good without decent weaponry to battle the demons, especially if they sent more of the newly designed ones.
“What are you looking for?”
He stopped and turned, facing Angelique. “Silver.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s what hurt the demon who broke in and attacked you.”
