Page 82 of Helsing: Demon Slayer
“Thezonjësent him on a mission,” she said, her own voice remarkably calm, though Ryan’s growing sensitivity to harmonics revealed agitation in hers. “She wouldn’t do that unless it was for him to get help, right?”
Ryan almost barked at her, but his new insight told him that she was barely holding on. “Yes,” he said in answer to her question, though he had no idea what Olivia’s reasons were. “More knights and otherElioudtravel here from Eastern and Southern Europe. Likely thezonjësent Baxter to tell them we need reinforcements now.”
She nodded and turned back to the composite data feed on her monitor. Ryan leaned over her shoulder, staring at a pane in the upper right that tracked the surges of dissonant energy from the Locusts, who swarmed over all of the buildings in the Aerie. The wolves had broken off circling their defensive perimeter and had melted into the wooded slopes around the compound. Ryan’s battlefield instincts screamed at him. He didn’t doubt that the death-class canines were searching for another vulnerability while the defendants of the Aerie had their hands full.
And their hands were full.
András commanded the Kastrioti forces, directing them to hold specific zones against the Locusts. Thedonatsfought in two groups, one under the command of Elias and the other under an unfamiliar knight, who acted as harmonic pincers to contain and neutralize Abaddon's Swarmtroopers. Despite this, the defenders faltered as the Black Swarm pushed past the perimeter in a matter of minutes. The commanders rallied them, but their efforts barely held the line as men and women fell under the onslaught.
Ryan’s nerves tightened. What looked like mad chaos had a method to it—a method unlike the wild abandon typical ofdaemonsand the possessed. Anticipating a feint by a trio of Battlebugs, he was just getting ready to direct András to the indoor shooting range when a panicked voice broke in over the system-wide All-Call.
“Aerie Actual, this is Eaglet 1. We’re being assaulted by hundreds ofdaemoniacs, some of them armed. They keep pushing past our perimeter from the northeast quadrant. Dozens of winged beings dropped from the sky not long afterwards. Now strong winds send rain and hail against our sensors, making it impossible to see.”
Those dark-winged spirits from the clinic earlier? What the hell were they doing there? Did Mihàil have anything to do with their appearance? Or were they simply attracted to the tumult? Were they friend or foe?
Ryan shoved those questions aside. “Copy that,” he said, scanning the monitor for tactical data on the Kastrioti estate. What he saw sent him back in time to a moment in Afghanistan where his squad was trapped on a mountain ridge, taking fire from the Taliban on all sides. He gritted his teeth, the phantom wind of that Afghan ridge whispering at the edge of his mind. He shoved it into the lightless hole where it belonged. “Prepare for Aegis Pulse in 30 seconds.”
“Copy that, Aerie Actual.”
Ryan nodded at Greta to initiate the weapon after the defenders synchronized for the short-range harmonic burst targeting the Kastrioti estate grounds. He watched thedaemoniacsscatter like roaches under a spotlight, giving his fighters time to regroup.
The reprieve ended too quickly.
The Pulse rippled over the possessed. Even before the energy dissipated, Ryan saw it. The biggest roaches barely flinched. Instead, they shook off the powerful jolt of electromagnetic energy as dogs shake off water. Then they were on the defenders with renewed violence. He clenched his fists against the almost-undeniable urge to grab weapons and a vehicle and haul ass to engage the enemy from behind.
Before Ryan could direct Greta to send another localized Aegis Pulse with a higher frequency, harsh warning sounds blared throughout the TOC.
“Sir, the clinic is under assault,” said Greta, terror turning her voice into a thready whisper.
Ryan stood, transfixed for a horrible moment as crazed humans mercilessly whipped by a towering obsidian Battlebug threw themselves at the entrance door. His breath stuck in his chest as he observed them slamming against the security grille, each impact draining the system’s charge. As bodies fell, newcomers clambered over them. Behind the attackers, more humans lifted a battering ram and maneuvered their way up the terraced slope like some Hell-spawned millipede. A wide chasm opened in front of the clinic, issuing endless numbers of Locusts from its black depth who swarmed the entrance, crawled up the walls, and smashed now barrier-free windows.
At this rate, they’d be conquered before sunrise.
Movement in a lower monitor panel caught his gaze: mounteddonats, led by Elias’s second-in-command, Antonio, rode toward the clinic.
As their resonant and commanding chant swelled up the mountain slope ahead of their charge, an iridescent rainbow of divine music lit up the night. One group flicked their harmonic ribbons at thedaemoniacs, slicing through them. Meanwhile, a handful of knights, flanked by the otherdonats,synchronized harmonic bursts from their chant gauntlets in layered waves of energy against the six-legged freaks.
Thank God. Elias had read the battlefield the same way Ryan had—Abaddon hadn’t sent his troops against them in a frenetic solo attack. He’d sent them in a coordinated, multi-pronged assault that would make any Army general green with envy. The Dark Angel of the Abyss clearly sought the Kastriotis in their fortified bunker.
The bad news? The clinic wasn’t designed for a focused, protracted siege.
Ryan was at the nexus of their defense, but he didn’t know how to counter something like this. He belonged on the battlefield. He belonged out there, face-to-face with the enemy. Not relegated to a control room, watching the battle unfold from behind glass and circuitry.
He belonged with Dianne. Not here, not trapped in this room, but with her.
At the thought of her, he closed his eyes for a moment so that he could focus on picking out Dianne’s unique signature in the maelstrom of music and cacophony within the Aerie.
There!She’d taken up a position on a sniper’s tower behind the training center. Even inside the TOC, Ryan could feel her resonance with his own heart, could hear her unique melody—a sweet, high sound reminiscent of the Bosnian mountains where he’d fallen in love with her. Their individual signatures had melded into a new, richer harmony, knit together with the strength of her faith and underscored by his pain and loss, threading through him like a wordless song he could never forget.
Turning from the valiant young officer, Ryan paced away before activating Dianne’s private comm channel. “Beauty Queen, this is Beast. Sitrep.”
He felt her respond before he heard her in his ear—a tightening along their braided harmonic tether that echoed in his heartrate. He took an involuntary step toward her.
“Beast, this is Beauty Queen,” she said, her voice husky as if she too felt him across the distance. He detected anxiety and fear as well as determination in her harmonics. “Bullets don’t work on the Locusts. I’m focusing on the assholes at Mihàil and Olivia’s house and grounds. Bulletsdowork on them.”
“Copy that,” said Ryan, letting his pride in her strengthen his voice and flow along their spiritual bond.
Before she spoke again, the tether between them burned—fury sizzled along the threads. “Those friggin’daemon dogsare sneaking along the slopes next to the Aerie.”
