"Ash," he said, greeting the Atlantean. "Been a long time since you've darkened my door."
"Dante." Ash shook his hand.
Dante looked down at the baby with a knitted brow. "Simi?"
The baby smiled.
Dante let out a low whistle and stepped back. "Damn, Ash, I wish you would warn me when you're planning on bringing your demon here. Do I need to warn the guys the feeding machine has come visiting?"
"No," Ash said, swinging the baby lightly. "She's only here to munch Daimons."
"Where is everyone?" Wulf asked.
Dante glanced to the wall to his right. "I caught wind of what was going down tonight so we closed the place."
Wulf followed his line of vision and saw the pelt of a panther mounted there. He recognized the hide by the streak of red in it. "Your brother?"
Fury darkening his eyes, Dante shrugged. "The bastard was working with the Daimons. Feeding them information about us and you."
"Man," Talon breathed. "That's cold to kill your own blood."
Dante turned on him with a feral sneer that more than betrayed the fact that Dante wasn't human. "My brother betrayed me and our people. If I were as cold as I'd like to be, his hide would be on the floor so everyone could walk on him. Unfortunately, my other brothers were a little disturbed by that so we compromised with the wall."
"Understood," Ash said. "Where's the rest of the pack?"
"In the back. We're staying out of it. We don't like to kill our own."
Zarek snorted at that. "Unless it's your brother."
Dante approached Zarek and the two of them had a mutual sneer-off. "Law of the jungle. The betrayee gets to eat the betrayer."
Zarek gave him a droll stare. "Law of my jungle. Kill them all and let Hades sort them out."
Dante actually laughed at that. "I like this one, Ash. He understands us."
"Gee, Z," Ash said jokingly. "I think you may have found a new friend after all. That should make Astrid happy."
Zarek flipped him off.
Ash ignored it. "All right, game faces, guys."
Dante went to guard the front door while Ash removed his baby from the carrier and handed her to Wulf who was a bit hesitant to touch the little girl demon.
She eyed him speculatively, then smiled. "The Simi won't bite you if you don't drop her."
"I will try not to drop you then."
She flashed her fangs at him, then settled back in his arms, the perfect image of a relaxed infant.
"Should we hide?" Julian asked. "Take them by surprise?"
"We can't," Ash said. "Stryker isn't a normal Daimon."
"More like Desiderius?" Kyrian asked.
"Worse. In fact, my best advice to all of you"-Ash directed a warning glare at Zarek-"is to let me handle Stryker. I'm the only one of us he can't kill."
"And why is that, Acheron?" Zarek asked. "Oh, wait, I know this. Fairbanks will hit one hundred and ten Celsius in January before you answer that."