Releasing the Hunter (Harlequin Nocturne)

by Anna, Vivi

  There was a thick copse of trees on the east side of the house. He would get there, and then plan the best way to get in without killing any of the possessed. And save Ivy. He knew it was going to be damn near impossible on all fronts, but he had to try.

  It was a long, arduous crawl, but Ronan finally made it to the edge of the trees. Cast in shadow among the tall oaks, he could get around easier. He crept along the tree line and crouched behind a large oak directly opposite one of the guards.

  He knew there were two guards at the front of the house; he suspected there would be at least two more in the back. Unzipping the duffel bag, Ronan took out a modified rifle. He screwed on a front piece that looked like a silencer. It was, in fact, a housing for plastic bullets. He didn’t know where Ivy got them, probably an army surplus store somewhere, but it was ingenious for taking out those you didn’t want to kill—just incapacitate.

  Once he took out the side guard, he had to be on the run toward the house to take out the others. He wanted to go in as silently as possible. If the demons knew he was coming, they might panic and kill everyone 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.”

  Chapter 25

  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.

  “Run, Ivy!” Quinn screamed as he launched himself, chair strapped to his body, at the closest demon to the stairwell, affording her a small window of escape.

  She took it. As fast as she could, she sprinted toward the stairs. She was on the bottom step when the demoness came up behind her and grabbed at her hair again.

  “I’m going to scalp you alive,” the demoness growled.

  “Hell, no, you won’t.”

  There was a distinctive popping noise, and something round and silver split the demoness’s face. Shrieking, she clawed at her bubbling forehead and scrambled backwards.

  Ivy looked up the stairwell to see Ronan on the top, holding her modified paintball gun. It shot quicksilver-filled pellets instead of paint-filled ones.

  She nearly fainted with relief to see him.

  “Duck,” he ordered.

  She dropped to the stairs as he lobbed two homemade holy-water grenades into the basement. She heard them bounce once, then not only heard the percussion but also felt it as they exploded into a thousand plastic pieces. Holy water exploded everywhere. It even soaked the back of her jeans.

  There was a lot of screaming and moaning in the basement when she turned to look at the damage. Demons fumbled around, shrieking and clawing at their melting and bubbling faces, hands, arms, any place that there had been exposed skin.

  She pushed off the stairs and went back into the room. She picked up a gun that had fallen from one of the demon’s mangled hands and pumped a round into him. He fell silent to the floor. She turned and shot another one in the face.

  By this time, Ronan was down at her side, dispatching the rest. The other humans had jumped into the action, and there were demon parts flying all over the place.

  Ivy ran to where Quinn still sat bound in the chair. She untied his hands from behind his back. “Are you okay?”

  He nodded. “I think I got speared by shrapnel, though.”

  She glanced down and saw a growing blood spot on the denim on his thigh. He pulled open the rip in his jeans to show a small piece of plastic sticking into his flesh. As carefully as he could, he pulled it out and tossed it to the floor.

  “It’s just a flesh wound,” Ivy pronounced, which made Quinn laugh. It was an old joke from their childhood and the many Monty Python film festivals they partook in over the years.

  She helped him stand and he hugged her tight. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded. “My head hurts, but I probably just have a bump or two.”

  They broke apart, then both turned to look at Ronan. He was busy helping the other captives up the stairs. He paused in what he was doing and looked at them. “There are a bunch of possessed out there that need exorcising. The other two demons ran for it.”

  Quinn limped over to the table along the wall; he picked up his bible, a holy water ampul and his cross. He crossed the room, and then brushed past Ronan as he climbed the stairs.

  When he was gone, when they were all gone, Ivy moved toward Ronan. He stood waiting for her at the bottom of the steps.

  “You saved me. Again.”

  He smiled. “Yeah, you owe me big-time.”

  “They said you were dead.”

  “Lies. As you can tell, I’m quite alive.”

  Tears brewing in her eyes, she moved forward and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face into his shoulder. She breathed in the now-familiar scent of him and sighed.

  He dropped the paintball gun and wrapped his arms around her, as well. His hands pressed against her back, holding her, possessing her. And she felt right and secure and safe for one of the first times in her whole life.

  “I’m sorry,” she breathed into his shoulder.

  He brought his other hand up to her neck and cradled her head. “Don’t be. It wasn’t you that drove me out.”

  “I know, but I didn’t stop him.”

  He sighed. “I didn’t expect you to. He’s your brother. He’s your kin. Blood will always be thicker than water. I know that all too well.”

  She pulled back then and looked at him. She brought a hand up to his face and touched his cheek. “You’re wrong, Ronan. You have more humanity than anyone I’ve ever known. You are the good guy. You’re the hero of this story.”

  “And what does that make you?”

  She stretched up to his face and pressed her lips to his, whispering against them, “The sexy love interest.”

  He tilted her head ever so slightly with his hand at her neck and deepened the kiss. The kiss was slow, and hot, and wet and the most perfect thing Ivy had ever experienced.

  Until a voice from above ruined the moment.

  “If you two can break apart for a minute, I need your help reviving the townspeople.”

  Ivy looked up the staircase at Quinn, who was standing up top, a deep frown on his face and impatience in his voice.

  “Give us a few minutes, okay, Quinn? We have some unfinished business to take care of.”

  Quinn made a disgusted noise, then said, “Jesus, Ivy, can’t you save it for later?”

  That made her laugh, and taking Ronan’s hand in hers, she mounted the stairs with the cambion right beside her all the way.

  Chapter 26

  It took the three of them over four hours to exorcise everyone that needed it and to carry out and burn the dead demons. They dug a ditch, filled it with the bodies, salted it, did the last rites and then burned the lot. Fixing the town was going to take weeks, months even. Time Ronan didn’t have or was willing to give.

  When it was done, the three of them sat in the kitchen and drank whatever alcohol was available. Quinn had a beer, Ivy some scotch and Ronan had vodka on ice. After the fourth one he was starting to feel calm and controlled.

  They hadn’t talked much, but after an hour of straight drinking, Quinn broke the awkward silence.

  He held out his beer bottle toward Ronan. “I misjudged you. I’m sorry for that.”

  Ronan clinked his glass to the bottle. “I’ll take it.”

  They both drank, then Quinn said, “If Ivy thinks you’re good people, then I’m inclined to listen to her.”

  “For once,” Ivy interjected.

  Quinn smiled. “Yes, for once.”

  “Which means, I guess I have to listen to her when she says that you’re not such a bad guy.”

  “Yup, I guess you will.”

  They all clinked their respective containers, and then downed whatever was left in them. Ivy grabbed the scotch bottle and poured more into her glass.

  “I have to say,
I’m happy they didn’t get a chance to torture me to get info from you, Quinn.”

  He nodded. “Me, too.”

  “Do you think you would’ve told them where the key was?”

  He shrugged. “Probably.” He looked at her, and Ronan could see the love there for her. Quinn would’ve gone to hell and back for her.

  Quinn started to chuckle. “It’s ironic, really. The whole time they’re asking for the key and it was right there in front of their faces.”

  Ivy frowned. “What? What do you mean? Where is it?”

  He reached across the table and hooked a finger into the chain around Ivy’s neck. He tugged a little, and the heavy silver cross she always wore close to her skin popped out from her T-shirt. He let it go and smiled.

  She looked down and wrapped her hand around the cross. “Are you serious?”

  He nodded. “I had the key encased in silver and fashioned as a cross.”

  Ronan looked at the necklace, just as surprised as Ivy. It was very clever on Quinn’s part.

  “I had it the whole time?” Ivy asked incredulously.

  “Yup. I thought, what better way to hide it than in the open? Who would’ve thought to look for it around your neck?”

  She dropped her hand and leaned back in her chair. “And here I went and brought it right to them.”

  “You didn’t know, Ivy. It’s not your fault. How could you have known?”

  “Was this the real reason you left?”

  He nodded. “One of them. I thought it would be safe with you, especially if I wasn’t around. And especially since I disguised it so well.” He shook his head. “I just didn’t expect you to come find me after three years.” He touched her on the shoulder. “You’re a persistent one, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah, too persistent, obviously.”

  “The good thing is the key is safe and so are you. That’s all that matters now.”

  She smiled at him, then took a hefty swallow of scotch.