“He, like all of them, is new at this; he doesn’t quite have his bearings yet. It will take a while for our new ones to understand.”
“I realize that. Still, we had her in our grasp. Why must I be surrounded by idiots?”
“Yes, this new tactic will require much patience on our part.”
Something Tase had had in short supply, ever since their brothers Bart and Ben had botched everything up, allowing their time in the human realm to make them grow soft, emotional. The Sons of Darkness had paid a great price for their brothers’ sins.
They had lost both Bart and Ben. They had lost their chance at converting Ben’s sons Derek and Dominic, half-human and half-demon, who would have made a fine contribution as new members of the Sons of Darkness. Instead, they now fought as demon hunters for the Realm of Light.
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.”
“Oh. Okay, then. Let’s go silver hunting.”
She moved around the house, opening closets and drawers, picking up every object and inspecting it carefully, laying the ones in the center of the room that were pure silver.
He liked that she didn’t ask a lot of questions or expect a ton of explanation. And she pitched in right away.
“There’s a locked cellar out back, by the way,” she added, throwing a pitcher into the pile on the floor.
“There is?”
“Yeah. It’s behind all those bushes at the far end of the property. I noticed it when I was wandering around the yard. That’s what I came in to tell you.”
He nodded. “Let’s go check it out.”
Okay, so this wasn’t their house, and he would be destroying someone else’s things, but they had to survive. The Realm of Light would take care of reimbursing the owner for the loss of anything they used, and Ryder and Angelique would be long gone before the missing objects were noticed anyway.
Angelique led him to the cellar, completely unnoticeable unless you were searching for it. Leave it to Angie to unearth it. They cleared the brush and Ryder knelt down to inspect the rather sturdy padlock. Not too sturdy, though, because Ryder had it picked within minutes.
“You’re pretty good at breaking and entering,” Angelique said with a wry grin.
“I’ve had some experience getting into places.”
“I’ll just bet you have.”
He discarded the lock and pulled the lid off, wrinkling his nose at the musty smell that wafted up at them from down below.
He turned on his flashlight and led the way down the thick stone steps. “Be careful.”
It was much cooler down here, and roomier than Ryder would have thought at first glance.
“Oooh, antiques!” Angelique said, her voice tinged with excitement. She hurried past him and knelt on the ground, inspecting what looked to be old pottery stacked up and wrapped in nearly transparent, yellowed linen.