Hammer Down: Children of the Undying: Book 2 (4 page)

Juliet dropped off the trailer, and a few men Devi didn’t recognize swarmed the trucks. They’d obviously arrived with Zel, and Devi ignored them all.

She scrambled to where Cache lay, still, barely breathing, and touched her face. “Come on, sweetie. Open your eyes.”

Cache didn’t stir. Blood seeped from a shallow gash just above her temple, but it was impossible to tell if she had any internal injuries. Behind them, Shane lurched to his feet with an incomprehensible mutter.

Devi watched him, dread growing in her chest, and Juliet knelt beside her. “Flipped?”

“No.” Shane was human, and there was only one thing a demon could do to human consciousness—pop it out and replace it with his own.

Devi reached for the gun at her hip and watched Shane—or what used to be Shane—shuffle closer. His eyes were flat, blank, and his body jerked like a marionette in the hands of an unpracticed puppeteer.

She shot him before she could talk herself out of it, before her own doubts got someone else killed. He hit the ground in a boneless heap, limbs grotesquely askew, and a snarl cut through the sound of battle. The skin who’d attacked her and Shane stared directly at her from ruined eye sockets, the face that had started preternaturally beautiful marred by gore and a twisted expression of rage.

Devi rose. “Juliet.”

Juliet tossed her a machete. The demon couldn’t see her, but he could still sense her if she gave him time, so she moved quickly. She stepped up behind him and swung, gritting her teeth as the blade hesitated, then sliced past flesh and bone alike.

The skin’s head hit the ground with a thump, and Devi fought hard not to follow. Adrenaline had already started to fade, leaving her numb and shaking.

A strong hand curled around her free arm. “The demons who survived are retreating. Our ADS finally cut through the battle frenzy.”

“That’s got to hurt.” Silver eyes, somehow dark even in the slanting afternoon light, stared down at her, and she choked on a sigh. “I thought I got to him in time.”

He said something in response, but she couldn’t hear him over the loud buzz that built again in her ears. He frowned and lifted his other hand to brace her.

She wasn’t making any sense. She took a deep, fortifying breath, and it cleared her head a little. “Cache is hurt. Do you have a doctor at your settlement?”

His gaze jumped from her face to the flat ground where Juliet hovered over Cache, only a few feet away from Shane’s still body. “Lorenzo! One down over here.” Those outrageous eyes fixed on her face again. “The man who got popped. He was one of yours?”

“Shane.” She shuddered. “He was trying to distract— He… I thought I got to him in time.”

“I’m sorry.” Simple words, but the understanding and sympathy there was as tangible as the warmth of his hands on her arms.

A flurry of shouts echoed inside the trailer, and a woman dragged out one of the passengers they’d brought from Nicollet. “Zel, this one’s on the Known list.”

His fingers tightened briefly on Devi’s arms, and he released her with a curse. “Who is he?”

Devi recognized him easily. “Elan Cyrus. He was on your manifest. We picked him up on the edge of town with the rest of the passengers.”

“Cyrus?” Zel pulled out a handheld and touched the screen. His frown deepened as he read, his eyes flicking from left to right. “He met one of our women at a bar in the Global four months ago. He was coming here to be with her.” He lifted his gaze to the woman standing behind Elan Cyrus. “This is the one Kate’s been waiting for. Supposedly.”

She lifted her chin stubbornly. “I’ve studied that list until my eyes burned, Zel. He’s an operative.”

“I believe you. Cuff him and Trip’ll scan his chip when we get back. We’ve got to get out of here before more demons show.”

Devi closed her eyes and tried to shut out the sound of the passenger’s protests as they dragged him away. “How far is it to your settlement?”

“Twenty minutes if we bury the needle. Probably more like forty in your truck.” A pause, and the sound of boots scraping against dirt. “Lorenzo! How’s the girl?”

His answer chilled Devi. “Needs a healer about five minutes ago.”

“We have a healer.” The emphasis Zel put on the word made it clear he wasn’t talking about an ordinary doctor, but someone with magic.

“Not a halfblood.” She’d heard of demons who could heal with a touch but, as far as she knew, the talent didn’t extend to their half-human offspring.

“Not a halfblood.” He didn’t elaborate, just gestured to his Jeep. “I can’t promise you full run of the settlement, but we have an area for visitors. Help Lorenzo get her into one of our 4x4s and we’ll ride ahead. My people will help yours get your trucks moving and bring them behind us. It’s the only way to get her there fast enough.”

She knew she should send Juliet or Tanner ahead and stay with the trucks and the cargo, but her head throbbed and Cache was dying.

Devi braced one hand on the side of the trailer and took a deep breath. “Tanner!”

He appeared, covered in blood but moving so effortlessly it was clear none of it was his own. His gaze swept the space between them, only hesitating twice—once on Shane’s body and again on Cache. “Shit.”

Her vision blurred again. “Cache is hurt, and I need to go on ahead with her. Zel’s people are going to help you get the trucks going again. Can you stay here and handle it?”

He caught her arm and lifted his hand to the back of her head, where his fingers came away bloody. “Damn it, Dev, you knocked yourself silly. I can’t put you in a car with two halfbloods.”

“Don’t be an overbearing jackass. Cache needs me right now.” She pushed his hand away and took a few steps. She was steadier on her feet now, calmer and more focused. “Siphon half the fuel from my truck into Juliet’s. It’ll get them both there, and we’ll figure out the situation later.”

He didn’t like it, that was clear, but he didn’t argue. He nodded shortly and ran a hand through his disheveled hair. “We’ll be right behind you.”

She caught his hand. “Thank you.”

The man Zel had called Lorenzo had already carefully lifted Cache and was carrying her to the Jeep. Devi followed closely, her heart pounding. “How experienced is your healer?”

The man smiled reassuringly, but stress bracketed lines around his eyes. “Rosalyn’s got more raw talent than anyone I’ve ever seen. She can help.”

Zel swung into the driver’s seat and started the engine. “I’ll have her meet us at the visitors’ barracks. Devi, help Lorenzo brace your friend. It’s going to be a rough, fast ride.”

She clambered into the back and squeezed against the seats. Lorenzo lifted Cache in after her, and Devi cradled her head in her lap. “Drive fast.” The words came out sounding more like an entreaty than anything else. “We’ve already moved her, so we may as well get her there as soon as we can.”

The engine roared underneath them, and Zel glanced back as he shifted into gear. “Fast it is, sweetheart.”

Cache’s dark skin was ashen even in the dim moonlight. Devi clutched her hand as the Jeep took off, rattling across the landscape.

All they had to do was get her to a healer. It was simple enough, and it
had
to work, because she couldn’t lose half her team in one night. She couldn’t screw up that badly, couldn’t kill two of her friends, and still make it.

Chapter Four

Zel had just decided to forgo the looping road to the visitors’ building in favor of driving straight across the scrubby grass when Devi’s girl woke up with a scream.

Just noise, not words, but she sounded wounded and scared, and Zel had to harden his heart against the swell of empathy that stirred rumbling thunder as he smashed his foot down on the gas and sent them rocketing across the remaining distance. “Lorenzo? Keep her calm, damn it.”

He immediately bent over her. “It’s okay. I’m Lorenzo. We’re taking you—”

She swung her fist at him, and he jumped back. “Shit, she’s freaking out.”

“Her name is Cache. She can’t hear you, and she doesn’t know who you are.” Devi took the girl’s hand and wrapped it gently around her own. “She’s hurt, and she’s afraid.”

Zel jerked his attention back to driving as his tires spun on the damp, overgrown grass. A few harrowing seconds later, they skidded over gravel as he slammed his boot on the brakes, stopping the vehicle mere feet from the doors.

There wasn’t time to ask questions, but he needed information. He kicked open the car door and reached for the back. “She can’t hear at all? That’s not from the attack, is it?”

“She’s deaf.” Devi kept her eyes on Cache’s face. “Chip replacement went wrong.”

The black-market chip Trip had mentioned. “Is she going to freak out if one of us carries her?”

“Not if she knows I’m here and no one’s harming us.”

The worry etched on Devi’s face tightened his chest, but there was nothing to do now but get them inside—and Lorenzo’s presence had always been more soothing than his own, especially with women. “You got her?”

“Yeah.” The girl whimpered as Lorenzo lifted her to his chest and headed for the door, but she didn’t fight, amazing all on its own when the fear roiling inside her battered Zel’s senses.

The fact that he could sense her fear—and the more focused worry pulsing through Devi—meant his grip on humanity was slipping. He reached for the dashboard and smashed his hand down on the controls for the anti-demon signal, cutting it off with a barely restrained sigh of relief. The nagging pain of the last hour disappeared, but the sickening excitement that simmered in his blood didn’t.

It wasn’t his fault. After more than forty years on the planet, he
knew
it wasn’t his fault. Halfbloods lived with the gifts and curses of their demonic parents, and for him it meant an extraordinary ability to kill…and the pride and pleasure that came with it. The weakness and fear of others would always sing through him, identifying an enemy’s vulnerability and alerting him to an easy target.

Recognizing that didn’t make dealing with it easier when Cache moaned in pain. Lightning crackled through him, sharpened his temper in an instinctive response, and it was a fight to shove down interest in weakened prey and find human empathy for an injured, scared girl.

He concentrated instead on unlocking the thick doors for Lorenzo and deactivating the security alarm just inside. “Take her to the lounge,” he ordered. “Rosa should be there already.”

“Can I go with her?” Devi’s hands clenched into fists, and the tight set of her jaw made him think she wasn’t used to asking permission for her actions.

At least he wouldn’t have to test her ability to accept refusal—this time. “We’re both going. Rosa’s my niece. My sister would shoot me if I let her do a healing without keeping an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t overextend herself.”

Devi flashed him a skeptical look as they followed Lorenzo. “Your niece? How old is she?”

“She’s the only healer within a hundred miles. Does it matter?”

She lowered her voice. “Your friend said she had power, and lots of it. I don’t know much, but I know raw, untrained power is dangerous.”

As if that was a concern people like them got to indulge. “Welcome to life as an outcast.”

Her cheeks flushed, and she closed her mouth and nodded. “I’m sorry.”

A tiny, oddly reassuring shred of guilt fought its way through the storm inside him. At least guilt was a wholly human emotion, and he needed to be human enough to find common ground with her. “It’s okay. You’re worried about your friend. But we’ll do what we can.”

Rosalyn was waiting when Lorenzo walked in, and she paled when she stepped close to Cache. “She’s hurt pretty bad.”

Zel ignored Devi for the moment and dropped his hands to his niece’s shoulders. “She took a hard fall and got roughed up, so I don’t want you doing this without one of us backing you up.”

She offered him a gentle smile. “Then you and her friend should wait outside. Lorenzo can help me.”

Which was Rosalyn’s polite way of reminding him that a halfblood demon whose power lent itself to death did more harm than good in a healing. Zel turned to Devi. “Can you talk to her? Tell her she’s okay and you’ll be right outside? She’s better off if we aren’t in here distracting them.”

It was strange to watch Devi remain so quiet as she leaned over the girl where she lay on the table. Only her hands moved, and she swallowed a ragged sigh. “Outside,” she whispered finally. “You’re safe.”

Cache lifted a shaking hand, brushing the side of her neck, then Devi’s cheek. She wet her lips and whispered one word, slurred and rough. “Okay.”

Rosalyn touched his arm. “Zel.”

“I’m going,” Devi said thickly. “I’ll wait outside.” She turned and walked through the door, rubbing her palms against her khaki cargo pants.

The hallway outside the lounge looked even dingier than he’d remembered, with grimy walls and faded linoleum. He couldn’t remember which of the nearby rooms had furniture, so he shouldered open three doors before he found one with a table and a few banged-up wooden chairs. “Here, sit down. Let me look at the back of your head.”

“It’s a bump, that’s all.” Despite her words, she pulled the tie free of her hair and let the curls fall around her shoulders. “Tanner overreacts.”

Tanner must have been the man riding with her—the one who’d made it out alive. “Your friend should be okay. Most of the risk with Rosa is that she doesn’t know how to focus on an injury. Unless she’s got someone feeding her power, she’s more of a danger to herself than her patient. Like watering a couple of plants by setting off a floor-wide sprinkler system.”

“Is that what she meant when she said Lorenzo could help her? Cache wouldn’t want to put anyone in danger.”

“Lorenzo’s like me. Halfblood. Only one with skills more…useful in healing.” He slid his fingers into her hair and probed gently at her wound. “How bad’s this hurt?”

She barely reacted, and he didn’t know if that was good or bad. “It doesn’t, much.”

Hopefully it meant the injury was minor and not that she was going into shock, though at this point he wasn’t sure he could blame her. “You’ll make it. The rest of your people should be here within the hour, and we’ve got bunks in the basement of this building. You’ll be safe while you sort out what you want to do.”