Cass went to her and pulled her into a hug. “I swear, I will be safe, sweetie.”
“No.” Marinda yanked free of her. “If you go, then I’m going too.”
Cal reached for Marinda’s arm. “Hey now, let’s not all go crazy. The enemy wants you too. Let Cass go.”
Cass shot him daggers. “You want me to get witchnapped.”
He pulled an innocent face. “Me? Never. Whatever made you think that?”
Colourful light bathed her palms and the strange scent of magic filled the air.
Ares inserted himself between them and grumbled, “Now, now, kids.”
“I do not think it a wise idea.” Keras looked from Cass to Daimon. “My brother is right about that. The enemy wants your ability to raise the dead. We cannot afford to give them any opportunity to get their hands on you.”
Cass turned her glare on him. “So you think you can just bench me?”
The glow of magic coming from her hands grew brighter.
Enyo stepped between him and the witch. “Try it, and we shall see how well you can cast your little spells when you are buried six feet under. I doubt necromancy could bring you back from the sort of death I would deal.”
For a heartbeat, Cass looked as if she might take Enyo up on a brawl, and Keras swore the entire room was holding their breath as they waited to see what she would do.
Keras held his breath because the thought of watching Enyo go all out was strangely alluring.
Had those damned wicked images filling his head again.
He subtly placed his hands into the pockets of his black trousers, trying to conceal the effect they had on him. He wasn’t sure he had ever been so hard.
Cass pulled a face as she shrugged and the light in her palms faded as a smile slowly worked its way onto her lips. “I like this goddess. She has balls.”
The sorceress looked over her bare shoulder at Daimon.
“We should bring her to the gate too.”
Enyo shook her head. “The enemy seemed rather inclined to flee when they saw me in Tokyo.”
“A shame.” Cass hiked her shoulders again. “I would like to see you fight.”
Keras wanted to see it again too.
He shook that thought away and clawed together the tattered remains of his focus. “Daimon and Esher will go, and I will go with them, together with Ares.”
Enyo looked as if she wanted to voice an objection.
“I am going too.” Cass held her hand up, her palm facing Daimon and Marinda. “I will be safe.”
Milos came to her, purring loudly as he twined himself around her legs.
She looked down at him and cooed sweetly. “I know you will be there to protect me if I need you, my adorable baby boy.”
The ginger and white tomcat meowed and then glared at Daimon.
Keras could practically read the guardian deity’s mind. He had met a few in his years, but he had never seen one that was so fiercely possessive of its master. The cat had shown him time and time again that he didn’t like Daimon stealing her attention away from him.
“You’re not coming.” Daimon shook his head when she scowled at him. “Be mad at me all you want. I don’t want you playing bait to lure the enemy out.”
Esher went rigid.
“She doesn’t have to play bait.”
His blue eyes leaped to meet Keras’s and verged on black.
“The Hong Kong gate is opening.”
Chapter 17
Keras stepped the moment Esher announced that the Hong Kong gate was opening, darkness embracing him and the cool touch of the Underworld giving him strength as he prepared himself. The scent of dew and earth greeted him on the other side of his teleport, and he hunkered down in the shadowy night, peering across the rolling landscape of Lantau Island to where the gate was located.
Esher had been right.
Violet light glowed on the next hill, a spot that was growing brighter as he stared at it, willing his senses to sharpen.
Esher and Daimon appeared.
Right in the middle of the group of daemons who were forming a barrier around the gate.
Damn it.
Keras stepped again, because so much for getting the lay of the land before leaping into the fray. His brothers were going to need him.
The daemons weren’t the only ones at the gate.
Meadow, the furie belonging to the enemy and half-sister of Marinda, was there too. She stood with her hand outstretched, palm facing the central disc of the gate as it slowly expanded, confirming his suspicion that she had managed to get her hands on either his or one of his brothers’ blood during a previous battle and it was still potent enough for her to siphon the power to open the gate from it.
Her golden hair flowed around her shoulders as she lifted her other hand to hold both before her. It caressed skin turned milk white by the slender moonlight, a contrast to her black corset and leathers that blended with the night.
Keras landed near to her and immediately focused on the gate.
She bit out a curse as it began to close. Turned a glare on him. That glare became a look of concern as Enyo appeared close to him.
Gods, it felt good to have her at his back.
He wasn’t a fool. He knew he was in no condition to fight, that he wasn’t at peak strength, and it would be easy for the enemy to get the better of him. Not because he was physically weak, but because he was mentally weak right now. The darkness already writhed inside him, rising to steal control of him, and he couldn’t surrender to it, was bone-deep aware of the destruction he would cause if it overtook him, but he wasn’t sure he was strong enough to hold back the tide.
He slid a look at Enyo, silently asking her to do whatever it took to protect his brothers and this world from him if the darker side of him won.
She nodded and stroked her right hand over her left hip, her fingers caressing her black leather trousers. A blade materialised in her grip as she did so, as if she was drawing it from an invisible sheathe.
He wished he had come armed with his own sword. Normally, he fought with his shadows, using his power against the enemy, but doing so now was dangerous, would only provoke the darker side of his blood.
“For fuck’s sake,” Daimon bit out, snagging his attention.
Cassandra stood just a few feet from him as he fought a wave of daemons. His brother drove them back from her and summoned a wall of ice between her and the enemy.
“I told you to stay put!” He growled as he swiftly raised his arm and five sharp shards of glittering ice shot up from the hill, impaling two daemons while the other three managed to evade the attack. “Go back!”
Her pale blue eyes widened and she threw her hands forwards, and turquoise light burst from her palms. A shimmering blue barrier swept across the air between Daimon and an enormous daemon.
The huge blade the male had swung at Daimon clanged harmlessly off the barrier and the daemon grunted and stumbled backwards, losing his grip on the weapon and clutching his arm.
Daimon blinked and looked at Cass. “I take it back. You can stay.”
Because if it hadn’t been for her barrier, the daemon would have skewered his brother.
Two more males lumbered forwards, coming to flank the one who had struck at Daimon.
Keras’s senses lit up. These daemons were old. Powerful. One of the rarer breeds.
They grew before his eyes, grunting and snarling, snapping fangs at each other as obsidian horns curled from their foreheads and huge onyx leathery wings ripped through their T-shirts. Their nails blackened and elongated, transforming into razor-sharp talons.