Donnchadh - Lynn Hagen Page 0,25

shows with Chris, haven’t you?” Donny started walking again. “I’m not going to get into a philosophical debate with you.”

He stilled when he heard clicking. Lots of it, too. Donny cocked his head and tried to hone in on the sound, to try and decipher what it was. Hondo joined him at his side, and his expression said he was trying to figure it out, too.

As the noise drew closer, fire ignited around Hondo’s hands.

“Should we press our rings together now?” Hondo whispered.

Donny rolled his eyes. “What’s that sound? I swear it sounds like a Newton’s Cradle. A hundred of them.”

“Newton’s what?” Hondo asked.

Only the sound wasn’t going that fast. As if the metal balls had been bewitched and were going at an abnormally slow pace. But Donny seriously doubted that was the cause of the noise.

The flames went out in Hondo’s hands before he grabbed Donny’s upper arm. “Nails. And lots of them.”

Donny took a step back as more than one snarling sound echoed in the hallway. The air was suddenly choking with the smell of brimstone and sulfur.

“Hellhounds,” Hondo whispered. “And from the sound of it, an army of them.”

“This was a trap.” Donny and Hondo spun and took off as the sound of a dozen or more barks crashed through the air. Donny looked over his shoulder and wished he hadn’t. The glowing red eyes, multiple pairs, appeared terrifying.

He stopped running, spun around, and watched as the hellhounds bore down on him. If he and Hondo were bitten by multiple hellhounds, they were completely fucked.

Especially if they had that concoction in their mouths that had nearly killed Donny a month ago.

Donny stood there, frozen with the memories of the pain and suffering he’d endured. It swallowed him down, but it threatened to choke him.

“Move it!” Hondo grabbed Donny’s arm and slung him into the stairwell, slamming the door behind them. “Panahasi!”

They raced down the steps, but the demon leader didn’t come to their rescue. It was as though this building stopped them from communicating with each other.

Maybe that was why they hadn’t been able to pinpoint Cadeym’s location. Some kind of spell or buffer or something that blocked supernatural signals.

Hondo sent a fiery blaze up the stairwell, and Donny heard yelps as well as smelled singed hair.

“You’re gonna set the building on fire,” Donny said as he nearly lost his footing. “Not that I care, but we haven’t found Cadeym yet.”

He grabbed Hondo and tried to teleport out, but as with calling Panahasi, nothing happened. They were trapped.

“Get us out of here!” Hondo shouted as they flew down the steps.

“I’m trying, but nothing’s happening.” Donny crashed into the door at the bottom of the steps and realized they hadn’t come out on the main floor. They were in some kind of boiler room.

“What did Panahasi say about us not being helpless humans?” Hondo asked. “Because I’m feeling pretty fucking helpless right now. Panahasi isn’t here, your powers aren’t working, and we’ve got over a dozen hellhounds coming down the steps. I can’t set them all on fire before one or two bite us.”

Pull yourself together. Don’t give in to the panic. That was easier thought than done. Donny was dealing with straight-up trauma from facing the hellhounds again.

He hadn’t gone through this on the street when he’d killed the one following Getty. That was because Donny had been too focused on rescuing his mate. But now? Shit. Pull yourself together. Hondo needs your fighting skills, and Getty needs you to come home.

“There’s got to be an exit down here somewhere,” Hondo said. He yanked on Donny’s arm, as if knowing how this was fucking with him, paralyzing him. “Don’t worry. I got your back.”

Just how big was the school boiler room? It felt like they were weaving their way around large obstacles but getting nowhere.

Donny tried to teleport again, and this time, he felt some crackling just under the skin, but he was still in that fucking basement of the school.

“There!” Hondo ran ahead, and Donny raced behind him.

They came to a rusted metal door with large hinges and bolts holding it closed. Donny ripped the bolts away easily. The door groaned under the pressure of Donny trying to shove it open, but it wouldn't budge.

No way should a door defeat him.

“Let me try.”

Donny moved aside, and Hondo rammed his shoulder into the metal. It buckled and groaned again but remained intact and closed.

“I don’t get it,” Hondo said. “I’ve busted through more complicated things than a