He howled in frustration. "You bitch! Come back here." But he knew it was no good. Misery didn't listen to him.
"Aimee," he whispered. "Please guard your back."
Aimee!"
Aimee cursed as Dev snatched her back. "What?"
He pointed to the piece of missing sidewalk at her feet. "You were about to trip."
"Well, you don't have to scream at me. Sheez!" Her heart was pounding from the scare he'd given her. Here they were hunting Daimons and he was afraid she'd trip on a piece of sidewalk?
The bear was out of his mind and had a most screwed-up sense of priorities.
He flashed her a taunting grin. "Yelling at you is what I do second best."
She snorted. "I would ask what your first best is, but I don't think I want to know. Man-whore that you are, I'm sure it involves women somehow."
He laughed as he led her down a side street. "I'm not sure we're going to find any more of your Daimon friends tonight. Looks like they're fat and happy and hiding."
She hated to admit it, but he was probably right. They'd been searching for hours. "We're lucky we got the one. There's no telling where the others are."
"How many are we looking for anyway?"
"Nine. Well, eight now."
He gaped indignantly at the number. "Eight? Are you out of your friggin' mind? Nine? How do you propose we find eight unknown Daimons?"
She shrugged. "We could always invite them to Sanctuary and kill them out back."
He rolled his eyes at her. "You've gone mental, haven't you?"
"Well, I'm out here with you. It kind of says it all."
He let out a long-suffering sigh as if she were torturing him. "And to think I could be at the door right now, checking out long legs and short skirts."
She gestured toward the street. "Don't let me keep you."
Dev's face went pale as he looked past her.
Aimee turned her head to see what he was looking at, then froze as she saw the shadows stepping out of the walls. These weren't Daimons.
They were demons.
And they were coming for them.
"No!" Fang shouted as he saw images on the cave's wall of Misery and company surrounding Aimee and Dev.
He slammed his fist against the rock, ignoring the pain, as he realized he was about to be the death of another woman. It was just like Stephanie all over again. His enemies had found her because of him.
When will I learn? Women were to be protected and he was cursed where they were concerned. It was why he'd tried so hard not to get close to another one.
Aimee shouldn't mean anything to him, but she did, and the thought of her dying tore him apart.
Growling in frustration, he threw his back against the wall so that he wouldn't have to watch her die. But it didn't work. In his mind, he saw what was about to happen and it sickened him.
What could he do? He was trapped here with hardly any powers or much strength. There was nothing here but soul-sucking demons.
Demons . . .