"This is fucking ridiculous."
Jameson turned his head to look at his brother as they slowly patrolled the nearly deserted street. As one of the most patient of his family, he was used to his brother's lack of patience and incredible temper, but the absolute lack of beings in the street was another matter. Though he and his brother walked the deserted portion of town, there was always a demon or witch that could be seen. He'd been told by Nadia, the newest edition of his family, to go out and patrol, and that he would know why she sent him when he heard it. Three hours later, there was nothing. What the hell was he supposed to be looking for?
As part of The Brethren, an elite group of demon hunters and slayers, Jameson had quickly learned to expect the unexpected. But as his brother said, this was ridiculous. "Nadia wouldn't have sent us out simply to go walking, Liam." Her eyes had gone white and glowed brightly as she told him to search the night for the sign. There was no way he could deny something like that.
Liam scoffed as he said, "Well, it's not like we can ask her now, now can we?" Nadia and his brother Andraemalek, the only half demon in the family, had been summoned by the High Council, the group of powerful beings who'd created The Brethren. The summons meant that the couple would be out of the human realm until their meeting was over. "And what the hell is up with her sending us to hunt a group of Mordecai? We don't deal with those piece-of-shit, want-to-be vampires." The Brethren specifically dealt with powerful demons, not the considerably safer soul sucking animals Liam liked to call Mordecai. "Why aren't the Nariko out looking for them?"
Jameson shook his head as he continued to walk. There was a reason for Nadia's instructions. Unlike Liam, he wasn't about to question it. "Calm down, brother. We'll figure it out." They had to; he didn't like having to walk the streets at night like a leper for no apparent reason.
"We'd better. We could be out hunting some real demons right now."
Leave it to his brother to abandon logic when his temper flared. "Mordecai are demons."
"But not worth our efforts." Liam adjusting his black gloves as he flexed his hands. "Fucking ridiculous."
"Yeah, but-" Jameson stopped when he heard the terrified scream. He didn't bother to look at his brother to ask if he heard the scream as well; he took off running, ready to help whomever was in danger. The screams led them to a back alley placed between two abandoned apartment buildings. Five Mordecai surrounded a lone woman who clutched a grocery bag to her chest. Their unmistakable, overly bronzed skin and red eyes were evident even from the distance between them. Jameson held a hand up for Liam to keep from rushing into battle when he heard the demons conversing amongst themselves.
"He said he wanted her alive."
"That doesn't mean that we can't have a little snack."
"He'll kill you if you take too much."
"Not if we kill you first." Jameson smiled pleasantly as he walked forward. All five Mordecai eyed him speculatively, giving him the advantage he needed. He knew that they thought him to be human, and because they outnumbered him and Liam by three, the odds were in their favor. "You should really learn to pick on people your own size."
The tallest of the Mordecai, a blonde with a neck so thick that he looked like he was all shoulders, pulled the amazingly quiet woman to him as he said, "Kill them."
Finally, the moment he'd been waiting for. Jameson raised his hand to blast the band of idiots with a fireball but stopped when Liam shoved him out of the way. "What the hell, man?"
"I didn't wait all this time to watch you burn the bastards!" Liam stepped forward and grinned when the uppercut he delivered sent one of the Mordecai flying into the side of the building to the left. He'd been itching for a fight and would settle for these idiots. As two others came at him, he blocked their blows a split second before allowing the retractable blades strapped to his wrists to protract. With one swing, he'd embedded one of the blades into the heart of the rail thin demon and relished its tortured scream as it began to molt and degenerate in front of him. He looked to the other one and smiled wickedly when it began to back up. "Oh, no you don't."
Jameson ducked a scant second before the body was thrown over his head. He wasn't too concerned with the fight; the woman held captive dominated his concentration as she kept her gaze centered on him. The intensity in her pale green gaze, as well as the look of wonder she gave him caused something inside him to shift. The shift broke his focus on the fight and gave one of the Mordecai enough time to land a solid blow to his back. Jameson rolled forward and just as he was about to blast the bastard with fire, Liam stepped in and flipped the demon over. The two men nodded to one another before Jameson gained his feet and faced the leader. "Either you let her go or you lose your life when I take her from you."
"I'm not afraid of you," The Mordecai said. To prove his point, he sunk his razor sharp teeth into the woman's neck.
Rage poured through Jameson when he heard he tortured scream. He grabbed the knife he kept hidden in the waistband of his pants and threw it. He'd landed his mark, lodging the blade in the demon's neck. The Mordecai let out a strangled cry as it released the woman and fell to the floor where it immediately began to molt. Her grocery bag ended up flying three feet into the air before crashing down on the ground. Jameson paid no mind to the demon as he lifted the shaking woman into his arms. A cold burn went through his body as he carried her, but he ignored it, determined to get her to Liam. "She's been-" His announcement was cut short when the familiar sirens of police cars approached. They couldn't risk exposure, not this early in the game. Jameson ran to the truck Liam had parked nearby and handed the woman to him as he slid into the backseat.
"What the hell was that?" Liam grumbled as he handed the bleeding woman to his brother. A chill raced up his spine, making him both uneasy and slightly nauseous. "Make sure she doesn't bleed all over my car," he said as he shut the door.
Jameson rolled his eyes and quickly bent to the task of putting pressure on the wound to ease the bleeding. The woman's skin was pale and slowly growing colder. He stared at her lifeless face and frowned at the gnawing feeling in the pit of his stomach. Her round face was accentuated by her wavy brown-red hair. Thin but straight eyebrows highlighted the pale green eyes he remembered and they led to an impossibly straight nose. Full cherry red lips were slightly down-turned.
"Is she all right?"
Jameson looked up and connected eyes with his brother though the rearview mirror. "She'll be better after you heal her."
"I just bet she will," Liam grumbled, "Shit, there's blood on my sweater."
"It's just a sweater."
"No, it's not just a sweater. It's my new Armani sweater." Normally Liam wouldn't care about something so trivial, but he'd really liked that sweater.
"Liam, stop bitching and get us back to the manor." Jameson shook his head as he looked out the window. The empty streets seemed eerie, dead and unmoving. What was going on out there?
The woman's sharp gasp for breath had Jameson looking down at her. Her eyes flickered for a moment before they closed and he frowned at the flush that visibly took over her skin even in the dark cabin of the car. He pulled his hand from her wound when he felt it shift. "Holy shit."
