Page 30 of Helsing: Demon Slayer
Thedaemonwaited until the Range Rover had traveled beyond the limits of the current male vessel’s remaining eye. Then he lifted the cellphone the woman had dropped on the pier, its line still open to someone named Olivia.
Someone powerful enough to wield harmonic weapons thedaemonhad never encountered before. True harmonic weapons, measured, precise, and deadly across distance. Weapons no being with human blood had ever wielded.
Weapons no being short of an angel shouldeverbe allowed to possess, let alone wield.
Worse, thedaemonhad sensed the harmonic bond, slender and weak as it was, already formed between the paladin and the woman. The vulnerable woman who had a blood relationship with this supernaturally powerful Olivia. The bond between the paladin and this unshielded woman must not be allowed to become permanent.
Thoughtfully he pressed the call-end button and slipped the device into his vessel’s pocket. He had his own powerful weapon that would enable him to infiltrate and poison the fragile human relationship.
And destroy theElioudstronghold from the inside.
Nine
ExceptforGermaine’ssoftmoaning, silence gripped the interior of the Range Rover, whose acoustics shut out sounds from the engine and road. Or rather, her friend’s moaning and Dianne’s pounding heartbeat, but she was pretty sure that only she could hearthat. It amplified Germaine’s pain against a rushing background of white noise.
Dianne glanced down at Germaine’s thigh on the seat next to her, unable to keep her gaze from the glistening white bone protruding through the flesh of her best friend’s bare thigh. Hot acid burned the back of her throat at the sight. She swallowed hard, trying not to get sick. They didn’t need the contents of Dianne’s stomach spewed onto the SUV’s luxury leather while they raced for their lives from the hellish scene behind them.
She dragged her gaze back up and caught Ryan watching her. The myriad cuts on his face had stopped bleeding, except for one high on his cheekbone. Dianne had the insane urge to rise up onto her knees and swipe her thumb across it.
“We’ll stop as soon as we’re clear of the harbor,” he said in a calm, matter-of-fact voice. “Markos has extensive battlefield medical training.”
The dark-haired man in the front passenger seat shifted and looked over his shoulder, but Dianne only saw the side of his face. “Don’t worry. It looks worse than it is.” Despite his reassuring tone, Dianne saw a look pass between him and Ryan. “I’ll give her some morphine. She won’t feel anything for the rest of the trip.”
The driver threw a glance over his shoulder. “How’d it happen?” he asked in a gritty voice, his eyes meeting Dianne’s in the rearview mirror.
“One of those—those—” Dianne couldn’t bring herself to saydaemonregardless of the evidence. “He broke it with his hands.” She heard the disbelief in her voice.
The driver whistled. “Damn! Know how strong you’d have to be to do that? Her leg’s not that big, but the femur is the strongest, densest bone in the body.”
Despite his words, he didn’t sound all that rattled.
Dianne wanted to scream. Instead, she struggled to push her rising anxiety down. For a moment, it strangled her until she managed to shove it into a hidden well inside her chest she didn’t even know existed. Something, a lid, a door, slipped into place and contained it.
She inhaled and looked out the window next to her at the glistening Adriatic. How was it that the sun still shone? Shouldn’t it be covered with black swarms of locusts? Shouldn’t the cerulean water be transformed into blood red?
Then she looked back at Ryan, who was still watching her. “I suppose this is all just another day on the job for you? You’ve probably seen worse injuries on the battlefield.”
He didn’t sugarcoat his answer. “Alotworse.”
“Are they—those people back there—are they dead?” she asked, her trembling voice barely above a whisper. “The people on the cruise ship, too?”
Ryan lifted a shoulder, careful not to jostle Germaine, whom he cradled within the protective cage of his arms. For a painful moment, acute envy twisted in Dianne, but she squashed it ruthlessly.
“I don’t know,” he said, a shadow across his gaze that had nothing to do with the glare as they drove east.
“Does that mean you’ve never seen this—this behavior—before?” asked Dianne, icy terror shooting to the pit of her stomach. In that instant, she realized that she’d unconsciously believed that this massive warrior, who’d saved her life several times in the past twelve hours, knew what they faced and how to overcome it.
“Not in the civilian population, not to this extent, no.”
“What happened to those men? The ones in front of the bus station. You know ….” Her voice trailed off. Another thing she couldn’t bring herself to say:the ones who’d been cremated before our eyes.
“We deployed some gnats,” said the driver. “Once those babies lock onto your frequency, you can’t shake ’em. Butthat’snever happened before. Only time I’ve seen anyone go up in a ball of fire, one of theElioudlaid hands on him. It must be a glitch.”
“Or an upgrade,” said Markos.
“Whatever,” said the driver grinning at the medic. “Would’ve liked to have some in the Teams. Bin Laden would never’ve known what hit ’im before he went up in a humongous ball of fire.”
“One of them survived,” said Ryan in a grim voice. As he said this, Germaine uttered a sharp gasp and moved restlessly, muttering, almost as if she relived her leg being broken in her unconscious state.
