Page 59 of Helsing: Demon Slayer
Beta felt her giant husband’s unease but didn’t let it affect her. She and the other former WildElioudhad pretty much had a crash course in the hidden war being waged between the forces of the DarkIrim, that is, the fallen Watcher Angels, and theAngeli Fidelisunder the command of the Archangel Michael. András would adapt. And she’d be right at his side, making sure he knew that she was with him all the way.
No, she was worried about Helsing.
Strange to admit that, even if only to herself.
Helsing had stepped in to defend her a year ago, inserting himself into a situation whose complexity he couldn’t possibly grasp. But he was not about to let a Russian thug brandishing a gun in a crowded nightclub pistol-whip a woman in front of him. And he’d taken a bullet for his chivalry. Even after that, the former American soldier had been game to join theElioudin their growing engagement with the Dark forces, a fight his heart was more than large enough to handle, but to which his human nature was vulnerable. Over the past year, he’d become the brother she’d never had.
She wouldnotlet thedaemonsbreak or take him.
Beta kept her grip steady on the Disrupter, but the flare, an echo of something wicked and corrupt, gnawed at her mind as Edvard navigated through the historic city, its streets littered with dead vehicles and, shockingly, personal items like clothing, shoes, even a doll.
To their west, the leaden mass of Lake Shkodër sucked in the illumination from the night sky like a black hole, sending a prescient shiver down Beta’s spine.
The infernal balefire hovering above Helsing's location abruptly extinguished as they left Shkodër.
“Village of Dobraç on our right,” said Edvard, glancing at the glowing map on the tablet that one of Miró’s techs had mounted onto the dash. “Target appears to be located on the north side of the roundabout for the Shkodër Bypass.”
“We’ve got some unfriendlies converging on them,” said András. His hard voice no longer carried the playful tones it had when she’d fallen in love with him. Beta regretted that above else, the curtailment of András’s fun-loving spirit during their ongoing war with the Dark forces.
“Like wolves,” she said.
Dianne and Ryan’s battle with thedaemonshad served as a beacon for nearby humans, the desperate as well as the opportunistic. Both would be dangerous, but how dangerous remained to be seen. Beta’s hand drifted from the Disrupter’s weight against her chest to the Czech handgun in its rig on her thigh.
“ETA one minute to target,” said Edvard, tension tightening his voice. His hands in their tactical gloves clutched the wheel as if he feared control of the sturdy British SUV would escape him.
Beta remembered that he hadn’t yet been in the field againstdaemons, just their human proxies.
“Thedaemonsare gone, lieutenant,” she said, her voice uncharacteristically soft. “You are more than a match for any mangy curs we stumble upon.”
Edvard shot her a wide-eyed look. She nodded at him.
András glanced at their young driver, whom Beta had recruited earlier in the year. “Remember your training. The only easy day was yesterday as the Americans say.” He shifted in his seat, his large hand where it rested on the dashboard fisting, as if he reminded himself as much as Edvard.
The Defender’s headlights penetrated the inky night up ahead as they approached the roundabout. Beta caught a flicker of movement—a human-shaped silhouette darting past the edge of the high-powered beams.
Wolves, indeed.
But when they reached the Opel sedan driven by Dianne, nothing stirred in the night.
Edvard maneuvered the Defender off the highway toward the medium-sized German sedan, which had come to rest in a field to the northeast. It was pitch-dark, a troubling sign after the radiance of Ryan’s valiant effort to vanquish thedaemons. Two signatures inside the vehicle, however, showed that the human occupants lived. One was faint, but the other held steady, if vibrating with minor chords and fraying at the edges from discord.
Beta realized in shock that the weaker signature had keyed itself to the stronger. She looked at András.You see it, too, do you not?
I do. His tone was grim.
Edvard parked the SUV twenty meters from the Opel, and the three of them dismounted, switching their helmet lights to covert redlight mode. András gestured with sharp fingers for Edvard to take up position a few meters in front of the vehicle where the young team member set up a tactical light on a tripod. As he did, Beta and András ran to the car’s front doors, he to the driver’s side and she to the passenger side where Helsing would be.
They waited while their young team member set the infrared sensor to detect any unfriendlies approaching. If anyone got within fifteen meters of their position, the tac light would emit a pulsing strobe of 5,000 lumens in a three-hundred-sixty-degree perimeter as both a warning and a deterrent. It was as much for Edvard as his role guarding their position. TheElioudwould sense attackers before the much-less-sensitive IR sensor.
“On three, illuminate,” András ordered over their comms.
“Copy that,” said Beta while Edvard responded, “Wilco, sir.”
András counted down, and then Edvard activated the spotlight on the tactical light. TheElioudcouple also flared, something that occurred spontaneously and often without their control before a battle but that they also employed in certain situations to baffle or disorient.
This was one of those times.
András spoke to Beta alone.Together, Gomba?
