Kat and Hades both looked at Leucothea standing in the doorway, looking very small and fragile.
There was no room for weakness in a time like this, Kat thought. She didn’t want to be angry with the girl, but she couldn’t help but think how much trouble she’d just put them in with her sense of duty and loyalty toward Kat. However misplaced it was.
“Get into the cellar, and lock the door. We’ll take care of this.” Kat cocked her gun. “Make sure it’s one of us before you come out again.”
Leucothea rushed from the bedroom doorway and wrapped her arms around Kat, nestled her hands up under her jacket. She nuzzled her face into Kat’s neck. Kat could feel the liquid of her tears on her skin.
“I’m sorry.” Leucothea sobbed. “I wasn’t thinking.”
Kat patted her on the back and then pushed her away. “This is exactly why being with me is dangerous, Thea. We’ll be lucky if any of us survive.”
Turning from the girl’s tears, Kat checked her gear to make sure she was fully stocked. Knives strapped to legs, throwing stars on belt, shotgun loaded, and extra shells in jacket pocket.
Smiling, Kat thought of one more thing she needed.
She rushed into the bedroom and found her pack. She brought it back out into the kitchen, setting it onto the kitchen table. Digging into it, she came away with her latest toy. Something she had acquired from a Raider who didn’t know when to quit while he was still alive.
Unfurling it like a coiled-up snake, she ran her hand over the oiled leather.
Hades shook his head. “What in hell is that?”
“A bullwhip.”
“Do you know how to use it?”
With the handle gripped tightly in her hand, Kat lowered her arm and then brought it up quickly, flipping the long whip back over her head. Then she snapped her wrist as sharply as she could.
The leather coil whipped ahead with a resounding
crack;
the tip snapped the log wall and formed a gorge in the wood.
Kat glanced at Hades and smiled smugly.
“Okay, good answer.”
Although that had been the first time the motion had worked just as she had planned, Hades didn’t need to know. Kat wrapped the whip around her hand and fastened it to her belt. She hoped she’d get a chance to use her new weapon before the Dark Dwellers swarmed them and ate them alive.
M
arching up the single dirt road from Hades’ cabin toward the marshal’s place to round up a few more needed gunmen, Hades eyed Kat warily. Every once in a while she grimaced as though in pain. He wondered if sensing the approaching Dark Dwellers triggered that or if she was fighting with something else deep inside. He hated himself for it, but he was afraid of what she could turn into. And not because he feared for his life—no, he and death were friendly acquaintances—but because he knew he would have to kill her.
When they neared the marshal’s door, Hades could hear the marshal’s old hound dog growling and barking wildly from his perch on the worn, sagging porch. Hades wondered if the dog, too, could sense the approaching slaughter. Animals had that keen sense of impending doom.
Just as they reached the bottom step, the door opened with an audible creak. The old, grizzled marshal stood in the doorway, his rifle cradled across his arms as if he already knew they were coming.
“By the looks of you two, I’d say there was trouble brewing.”
Hades took another step up to the stoop and leaned casually against the railing, mimicking the old lawman’s stance. It wouldn’t do to raise a panic. Through conversations with Mary about the town, Hades knew the man had suffered his fair share of hard times and battles. The two men weren’t close, having spoken maybe four times since Hades’ arrival six months ago. He had a feeling the lawman knew on a subconscious level that Hades was not the kind of man who was into swapping stories and reminiscing about women they had bed.
“How many men in the village with guns?” Hades asked, getting to his point quickly and succinctly.
The marshal’s eyes widened at that. “Ten, maybe eleven.”
“Round them up.”
“Wait….”
Kat interrupted him. “I suggest you also round up all the villagers, and put everyone in a central location.”
Hades glanced back at her. “Maybe they should hide. Lock themselves in their cold cellars.”
Kat shook her head. “They’ll be found. Dark Dwellers can smell fear and panic a mile away. It’s like an aphrodisiac.”
“Just what are we dealing with here?” the marshal asked, looking from Kat back to Hades, his wrinkled brow furrowed even more.
“You know the rumors you’ve heard about the bloodsucking cannibals running around near the Vanquished City?” Hades asked.
The marshal nodded.
“They’re not rumors, my friend. Those creatures are real, and they are on their way here.”
The marshal smirked. “Don’t pull my leg, son, I’m not laughing.”
“When the Dwellers get here, marshal, they will do more than pull your leg,” Kat remarked.
“They will yank it off, and eat it for a midnight snack. So I suggest you ring that town bell, and get every single person here, and put them somewhere where we can at least have some chance at saving their lives.”
The marshal stared at Kat as though contemplating her words. He then turned back to Hades and frowned. “The best place to make a stand is at the church house in the village square.”
Hades breathed a sigh of relief. He had thought for a moment that the lawman would balk at their plea for help. But he knew the man was smart. It was a wise choice to listen to two people outfitted in black leather and carrying ample weapons.
Nodding, Hades said, “Get your people together. We’ll check out the best places to make our stand.”
Without a word, the marshal went back into his house. Hades had no doubt that the man was mentally checking off every place in his home at which he had a weapon stored.
After coming back down the steps, Hades matched his stride with Kat’s as they walked toward the village square, passing family homes, smoke rising from their chimneys, and shops, closed for the night, along the way. There was an ominous silence in the air, broken only by the crunch of their boots on the graveled road.
Kat was unnaturally quiet as they marched, but he could see her wincing more openly. The vampyres must be very close.
She glanced up at him and caught his gaze. “We have maybe a half hour,” she remarked as if reading his mind.
“Are they on foot, do you think?”
“I imagine a few are, but we have to assume they have some sort of transport. Thankfully we took ‘Ugly’ from them. So they can’t surprise us from the air this time.”
Hades smiled, remembering the mutant flying lizard they had stolen from Baruch and his goons.
The poor creature had been the Dwellers’ mode of transportation to do their village raids, particularly to Leucothea’s village of Atlantis. Kat had established a strange telekinetic connection with the beast, and it had helped them escape death from the Vanquished City. Now it was flying free with Damian and Darquiel, wherever they had vanished to.
By the time they reached the square, the alarm bell was sounding from the church tower. Within minutes people started streaming out of the tavern and various other shops that had people’s residences over top. All eyes eventually trained onto Hades and Kat as they stood in the center of the square, calculating the best spots to have gunmen posted.
Mary was one of those people. Her family ran the local bakery, and they lived in a three-bedroom loft over the store.
Locking eyes with Hades, Mary rushed to his side. “What’s going on?”
“Get these people into the church, Mary. And then barricade the doors.”
She grabbed on to his arm. “Why? What’s happening?”
“Just do as I say,” Hades pleaded with her. In another time, she would’ve been a good woman to have. Maybe, when he had finally given up on ever seeing Kat again, he would’ve taken her as a wife, and they could have raised a family. Looking down at her comely face and expressive brown eyes, he honestly wished things could’ve been different for her, for him even.
He had put the entire village in danger by coming here to begin with. It had been foolish to think that he could ever outrun or hide from his past. Glancing at Kat, who watched the two of them with an indescribable emotion in her face, he realized that neither of them could outrun anything.
They had a destiny, intertwined, and it didn’t involve log cabins and a life of peace and tranquillity.
Bending down, Hades pressed his lips to Mary’s cheek and whispered in her ear. “I haven’t been able to do right by you, Mary. So please get your family, and get safe. If I can do anything, it’s protecting you and yours.”
She pushed away from him, fear in her eyes. “I can fight.” She turned and looked at Kat. “I can fight like her. I can! I’m not so weak that I need to be protected.”
Kat took a step toward her. Hades thought she might hit Mary, and he motioned to go between them. But when Kat simply put her hand on Mary’s shoulder, Hades gave pause.
“You don’t want to be like me, Mary. Trust me. I am not a good person. I’ve killed people in the past, and I’m going to kill a bunch of people here tonight.” She let her hand drop to her side, to the knife strapped to her thigh. “You don’t want to be me. Fighting won’t make you a hero. It will only doom you to a life of loneliness and pain. Save yourself before it’s too late.”
Hades’ heart squeezed as he watched Kat turn and wander toward the edge of the square. He knew what it cost her to admit such a thing. He wanted to tell her that she was heroic in the telling of it, but he knew she wouldn’t listen. Kat had forsaken herself. And nothing he did or said was going to grant her enough absolution to forgive herself.
Mary watched Kat go and then turned back to Hades. “I will get my family to the church.” She rushed back to where her parents and her younger brothers huddled together in the square.
Within moments she had them moving toward the sanctity of the large wood and rock structure.
Before Hades could go to Kat, the marshal walked into the square, followed by ten armed men.
The crowd swarming around the area fell into a hushed silence.
The marshal moved toward the church. He walked up three steps and then turned around to face the murmuring crowd. “There is trouble coming, folks. I advise that all the women, children, and elderly go into the church, and barricade themselves in.”
“What kind of trouble, marshal?” one elderly woman asked, a crying baby in her arms.
“The worst kind, Laurel.”
That caused a wave of alarm to go through the milling crowd. Hades watched as face after face darkened with fear. And those faces turned to look at him and glance at Kat.
“I knew he would bring us trouble.” An older man spoke up, waving his hand toward Hades.
Others murmured their agreement.
“I knew he was bad news the moment I saw him,” one woman said loudly to her neighbor.
That caused another murmur to pass through the crowd. This time the din was growing in decibels.
Before anyone else could give their opinions, Kat swept through the crowd to join the marshal on the church stairs.
“You can condemn Hades later. Right now you need to get into the fucking building. We have exactly fifteen minutes before all hell breaks loose in this village.”
“Who are you to give orders?” Laurel, the woman with the screaming baby, asked.
“I’m the one who’s going to save your ass.” Kat cocked her shotgun, and set it on her hip. “If you want to die, keep standing here, running your mouths. If you want to live, you have five minutes to get up these steps and into that church. Choice is yours.”
When she reached the bottom step, Hades met her there and put an arm around her. “Diplomatic as always.”
She grinned up at him. “Thank you. At least I didn’t kill anyone. Not yet, anyway.”
The marshal cleared his throat. “Where do you want us?”
“Around the perimeter of the church about six feet out. They’ll be coming on foot and most likely in a transport of some kind,” Hades ordered. “There may be women in their groups. But have no mercy; shoot to kill. Because if they get through, they’ll show you none, and you’ll wish you never woke up this morning.”
“You have any sharpshooters?” Kat asked.
The marshal nodded. “There are at least two men here that can shoot a flea fifty yards out.”
“Put one there.” She pointed to the second floor of the tavern. “And one there,” she suggested, while motioning to the smith across the street.
“And aim for their heads,” Hades added.
As they headed toward the back of the church, Kat stopped abruptly and swore.
“What is it?”
“Thea. Maybe we should go get her.”
“Is there time?”
Kat closed her eyes for a moment, and Hades could see the way her face cringed. Something was paining her. Something from the inside. Finally she opened her eyes and shook her head. Regret flashed across her face.
“She’s a smart kid. She’ll stay hidden,” Hades reassured, although they both knew how irrational and unpredictable the girl could be.
With that, Hades and Kat made their way to the back of the church. Open to the surrounding tree line, it was much too vulnerable for an attack. Hades thought it would be the perfect spot for an ambush.
Hades checked his weapons and prepared for the impending assault. He eyed Kat as she did the same. She was an efficient and well-oiled killing machine. Just as he was. As treasure hunters, they had both earned hard-assed lethal reputations. Every time he went on a hunt, he had always expected to run into her along the way. For years they had lived and hunted without ever meeting. Up until seven months ago, he had had only her dangerous reputation to measure up to and outdo.
But now he knew her. Probably knew her better than anyone who came before. She had let him into her world. And although yet again they were facing peril and their possible doom, he was grateful for every minute of it.
Here was his exact match, his perfect mate in every way. He cursed the world that they had been reunited only to be torn apart again. This could possibly be the last time they stood together side by side in a fight. He might not get another chance to tell her how he felt.