Once everyone checked in with an affirmative, they moved.
About damn time, too. Ryder and Dalton took the lead, inching forward on bellies and elbows through the cactus patch.
“Careful,” he commed. “Some of the stickers are low. And if you get stuck, just suck it up and don’t holler like a baby.”
No less than thirty seconds later, he heard Punk growl and whisper a string of obscenities.
“Guess I’ll have to take the tweezers to you later, huh, Punk?” Mandy teased.
His only response was another low growl.
Getting through the cactus was slow and tedious. Ryder and Dalton made sure to stop and survey the house, but it was completely dark. Not that demons needed the light to see. He figured they were expecting them, so he had to make sure not to give the Sons of Darkness any heads-up that the hunters were on the way. And that meant low to the ground, no matter how painful it was for everyone.
Besides, the crawl through the cactus was only about twenty yards or so, though one would think listening to all the griping that they’d been in there for hours. Ryder was first out, crawling into the middle of a field of thick bushes.
“Stay low,” he ordered through his mic, settling into a crouch and grabbing his binoculars as he waited for the others. “Make sure you don’t pop your heads up over the tops of the vegetation after you’re clear of the cactus field.”
They moved just as slowly through the brush and toward the front of the castle. No one was stationed outside the entrance. That was a good thing. The teams split as they had been previously assigned. Ryder went to the side door kitchen entrance and set the explosive, then hid in the bushes with his team and waited for the signal from the front that would be his cue to enter.
“We’ll sweep the main floor first,” he said to Mandy and Trace. “After we’re clear, we’ll head downstairs with the other teams. Stay close.”
They nodded and braced themselves for the cue, waiting for Gina and Derek to do their thing.
The explosion from the front thundered around them, making the ground underneath their feet tremble.
That was the signal. Ryder blew the door, jumping up and rushing inside. Smoke filled the kitchen, but he’d studied the layout, moving expertly past every object in the room, weapon drawn and ready to fire. He had one thought in mind as he made his way through the smoke-filled rooms-finding Angelique and getting her the hell out of there. He didn’t even want to think about what she’d been going through since she’d been there.
Anger soared inside him, so when he spotted the first demon heading toward him, he leveled his weapon and fired, a rush of satisfaction zipping through him when it howled and began to melt. Demons appeared from every room, both hybrid and pure, all around them. The hunters formed a tight circle and began battling outward. Fury guided him, the need to exact vengeance for their taking her, and for his own failure to protect her.
He fired round after round of UV light, sending demons into melting heaps. The closer they got to him, the more he advanced, putting out wave after wave of the blue light that turned them into nothing but molten jelly. He didn’t take time to ponder why it felt so damn good to kill them, he just added to the body count, pushing his way forward, circling around the lightning-fast pure demons that lunged at him, only to pivot and fire at them before they could turn and come at him again.
With machinelike precision he cut through their numbers, wishing he could touch them, feeling this fierce need to go one-on-one, wanting to make them pay for taking what was his. If he could, he’d wrap his hands around their evil throats and squeeze the life out of them.
“We’ve got the numbers managed here,” Michael commed. “Derek, Gina, Punk, Mandy, you stay with me. Ryder and Dalton, lead your team underground.”
“Got it.” Now was Ryder’s chance to rescue Angie and her sister, to grab the black diamond so they could destroy it.
And maybe, if he was lucky, they’d find the Sons of Darkness, too.
He was so ready to take them all down.
“Let’s go,” Dalton said, nudging him on the shoulder.
Ryder turned and moved with Dalton to the door leading down into the cellar. It was locked. Ryder studied it. Wood. Yeah, whatever. “No time to pick the lock.”
“Ready?” Dalton asked.
Ryder nodded, and together they reared back, then kicked the door. It splintered and banged against the wall as it flew open.
“Okay,” Ryder said to the others. “Stay close. There might be a lot more of them down here.”
They took a set of narrow cement stairs that led down quite a ways. It was pitch dark down there. Ryder felt for a light switch, found it, and flicked it, but nothing happened. Figured. At least their glasses gave them perfect night vision.
Once they had all come down, he held up his hand, listening, breathing in to determine the presence of the foul-smelling hybrid demons.
“No hybrids down here,” he said. The room was empty. No doors or other rooms, but there was a hallway that led into what looked like a tunnel. “Okay, we’re heading down here. Get ready to back up in a hurry if we get rushed by demons.”
“You think they’re down this way?” Dalton asked.
“No idea,” Ryder said. “But where else could they be?”
“Underground.”
Ryder grimaced. He hoped that wasn’t the case, because finding them then would be difficult, if not damn
