The Darkest Night (Lords of the Underworld #1)(50)

"They haven't challenged us." Lucien scrubbed two fingers over his jaw, a habit of his. "Why?"

"They came up the hill. That is challenge enough. And what about Maddox's girl? The Hunters could be waiting for her signal."

"She's more a complication now than ever," Torin muttered. "I still wonder what role the gods are playing in this."

Aeron plucked at the silver loop in his eyebrow. "We'll have to tell Maddox."

Torin shook his head. "It won't matter to him. You've seen the way he is with her."

"Yes." And he was still disgusted by it. What kind of warrior turned on his friends for a woman who would ultimately betray him?

Lucien laid down his cue and tossed a ball into the air. Catch. Toss. Catch. "We'll be watching and we'll let the Hunters up the hill this time. I don't want innocents killed during the battle."

Reyes gave the punching bag a mean right. "I don't want Hunters here. Not in our home. Let's parade Maddox's human around town, using their Bait as our Bait. They'll follow us, meaning to save her and attack. We'll draw them into a trap, away from the townspeople, and obliterate them."

Everyone regarded him sharply. "If we're seen," Aeron said, "the city will turn on us. It will be Greece all over again."

"They won't see," Reyes insisted. "Torin can monitor the area with his cameras and radio us to let us know the moment someone approaches."

Aeron thought about it, then nodded in approval. The Hunters would be distracted while trying to save Ashlyn, leaving the warriors to pick them off one by one. More important, Aeron wouldn't have to clean their blood from the walls.

He glanced at Lucien, who looked resigned. "Very well. We will use the girl."

Paris rubbed the back of his neck and Aeron thought he meant to protest. Surprisingly, he didn't. "I guess all we have to do now is figure out how to keep Maddox from handing us our asses when he finds out."

Danika peered at her mother, her sister and her grandmother. Their familiar faces regarded her with hope and curiosity, dread and fear. She was the youngest, but she'd somehow become their leader.

"What happened?" Her mother wrung her hands together. "What did they do to you?"

What should she tell them? Danika doubted they'd believe the truth: that she'd performed CPR, helped save a woman from dying and then found herself being flown - flown! - into the city by a winged man, where she gathered her purse, listened to Aeron as he commanded another warrior to go home - a warrior who had had a fortyish woman pinned against a wall, screwing her brains out - and then come back here. All in about thirty minutes. And to top it all off, there was the voice that had mysteriously popped into her head earlier this morning, but she didn't even want to think about that.

She'd lived through all of it, and yet it was unbelievable even to her. Besides, the truth would scare them. And they were scared enough. "I think they'll let us go soon," she lied.

Grandma Mallory started crying, great sobs of relief. Ginger, Danika's older sister, collapsed on the bed with a soft "Thank God." Only her mother remained unmoving.

"Did they hurt you, baby?" Tears filled her eyes. "It's okay, you can tell me. I can take it."

"No, they didn't," she answered honestly.

"You still have to tell us what happened." Her mom gripped her hands and squeezed. "Okay? All right? I've been going crazy, imagining all kinds of things."

Realizing they would actually worry more if she left them in the dark, she finally told them what had happened. The warriors had terrified her, yes. And the dark-eyed one had even managed to - God, she hated to admit this - awaken something inside her with that intense stare of his, causing her to plead for his help.

A plea he'd ignored, the bastard.

But she had to concede that the men had surprised her as much as they'd frightened her. After all, the black-haired man with the strange purple eyes had treated the sick woman, Ashlyn, like a treasure. He'd held her gently. He hadn't seemed bothered by the vomit in the bowl and the smell in the room. His concern had only been for Ashlyn.

Oh, to have a man treat her like that.

She couldn't imagine the hard-looking Reyes softening so much. Or caressing so gently, even while making love. Instantly an image of him, naked and straining, slithered into her mind. With a shiver, she forced a blanket of black over the image. She'd reached for him, begged help from him, and he'd denied her. She would not forget that Reyes wasn't a man to rely on.

"What if these... things don't let us go?" her mom asked on a choked sob. "What if they decide to kill us like they've been talking about?"

Stay strong. Don't let them see those same fears reflected in you. "They promised to let us live if I helped cure that woman, and I did."

"Men lie all the time," her sister said, sitting up. Ginger was twenty-nine years old and an aerobics instructor. Usually calm and reserved. None of them had ever been in a situation like this, and none of them really knew how to handle it.

They'd led normal lives until now, getting up every morning and going to work, carefree and unconcerned, deceived into believing that nothing bad would happen to them. Before this, the worst thing Danika had ever dealt with was the death of her grandpa two months ago. He'd been a loving man with a zest for life, and she'd felt his loss to the marrow of her bones. They all had. Did.