He slid into the driver’s seat and glanced over at Isabelle. Asleep, she had the face of an angel. So innocent in all this.
For a moment back there, he’d seen the light in her eyes, the pleading for help.
She’d wanted out, an escape from the darkness.
A chance for redemption. And he was going to give her every chance to crawl out of the hell the Sons of Darkness had put her in. Even at the cost of his own future, possibly his own life.
Because he knew what it was like to walk in darkness, to be one of the damned.
He refused to allow Isabelle to suffer the same fate.
Angelique couldn’t let her concern about her sister blind her to the task at hand. There were still Sons of Darkness to battle, demons to take down, and the black diamond, which continued to pulse and hum at Tase’s feet.
She blamed the black diamond for transforming her sister into a monster. It had to be destroyed. Which meant the hunters had to wrest it away from the Sons of Darkness.
From her position on the ground, she was only a few feet away from it. The hunters were engaged in battling the demons. No one paid attention to her.
She stayed crouched, inching her way closer. Smoke and bodies danced around her, giving her the diversion she needed.
Chancing a glance upward, she could see the demons doing all the work, maintaining a front line of defense to protect the demon Lords. But that line was dropping, dropping. .
She covered her head just as a barrage of electricity and laser fire slammed into the Sons of Darkness. They raised their hands to ward off the assault, and Angelique took the opportunity. She pushed off and ran like hell to the black diamond, snatched it up and, without pausing to see if anyone noticed, turned and dashed in the opposite direction.
The diamond’s power pulsed against her as she held it cradled tight to her chest. The rock was definitely alive.
Angelique skirted the battle and made it to the back of the group of hunters. Lou waited there for her with his hands held out.
“Give it to me.”
She was more than happy to hand it over, since she’d needed all her power and strength to fight the lure of the diamond for the short period of time she’d held it. It was like a sickening sweet temptation. Did it have some kind of hypnotic power? Was that what had happened to Izzy?
She hated that thing. “What’s in there?”
Lou held the black diamond up, palming it, his eyes narrowed. “A demon.”
“Are you serious?”
“I’ll explain later. Right now you need to back away, Angelique. We’re about to do battle.”
Battle? What kind of battle?
She stepped away, pulled her laser in case she needed to shoot it, and watched as Lou grasped the diamond between his palms.
Did the diamond actually growl, or was that her imagination?
“What the fuck is going on?” Derek asked, moving up to stand beside Angelique. So did the rest of them, Ryder on her other side.
“There’s a demon inside the black diamond,” she said, turning around. “Where are the Sons of Darkness?”
“We hit ’em with everything we had and they just disappeared,” Ryder said. “Vanished.”
“Pussies. They couldn’t handle the heat,” Punk added with a satisfied nod.
“They’re not defeated,” Michael said, his brows knit in a tight frown. “They never are.”
“They’ll be back?” Trace asked.
Michael shook his head. “For now, no. They’ve done what they came to do.”
Angelique didn’t understand Michael’s words.
“There’s really a demon in the black diamond?” Mandy’s gaze was focused on Lou. “What’s he doing with it?”
“I have no idea,” Angelique said.
The black diamond’s light grew, seeming to glow beyond its surface now, the hum growing louder until her ears hurt. The light it put off was blinding-still blue, but now more luminous, so bright Angelique had to shield her eyes from the intensity.
The area around them grew colder. Lou’s hands were covered in ice and the ground around him was sprinkled with white crystals.
“Is that thing trying to get out?” Trace asked.
“Yes,” Michael said. “The demon is attempting to break free.”
“What kind of demon is it?” Angelique asked, unable to tear her gaze away from it.
“Powerful.”
“As strong as the Sons of Darkness?” she asked.
“More so. Why do you think they wanted someone or something that would activate it?”
“So why now? Isabelle spent all that time with it. I thought she was the trigger.”
“Isabelle was the catalyst to bring it out of dormancy,” Michael said. “Keepers have the power to actually release the demon from the black diamond.”
Angelique’s jaw dropped. “Why would we want to do that?”
“Just watch,” Michael said.
The blue light surrounded the outside of the black diamond now. Lou moved his hands, palmed the bottom of the diamond and raised his hand over the top of it. As he did, the light lifted to meet his hand, seeming to dance underneath his palm. He crouched and laid the diamond on the ground, then slowly lifted, the light following his hand as he stood.
It was like watching a genie appear from a bottle, a sinuous, seductive dance against Lou’s hand, swirling between his fingers, wrapping around his forearm.
Angelique was transfixed. This was the demon that had been hiding inside the black diamond? She had been carrying a demon around with her all that time after she’d escaped the caves in Australia? She shuddered at the realization.
The light began to materialize into shape, grow larger and form into a body, blue mixing with white as the object undulated before Lou’s raised hands. Legs, hips, the curve of a waist, long, blue-white hair. .
The demon inside the black diamond was female!
“Do you see that?” she asked Ryder.
“Yes.”
“I’ll be goddamned,” Derek muttered. “It’s a girl.”
“Most definitely feminine,” Gina said with a nod.
“Did you know this, Michael?” Angelique asked.
“Yes.”
She supposed it didn’t really matter what gender the demon was. Or maybe it did matter. It was just damn odd that the demon inside the black diamond was female.
And did it ever seem to have a thing for Lou. Or maybe Keepers in general? As soon as its arms and hands materialized, it reached out for him.
Shockingly, Lou held his arms straight from his sides as if in surrender. It came toward him, floating like a ghostly specter, surrounding him, touching his face, his shoulders.
She was beautiful, her face like porcelain, her features perfection, as was her body. Angelique held her breath as the demon caressed Lou’s face, pressing herself against him in a way that could only be described as. . affectionate, almost like a hug.