Ash ruffled Nick's hair like an older brother. "Watch our backs and soothe Amanda's nerves until Kyrian returns."
"You got it."
Ash and Talon left the ornate courtyard and headed into the crowd of tourists and locals who were as thick as fog.
There were hundreds of people out. Hundreds who had no idea that the very fate of the world rested in the hands of the two men dressed in black who were making their way slowly through them.
Two men who were tired tonight. Weary.
One because he had long ago ceased feeling anything except the heavy burden of his responsibilities.
Ash wanted nothing more than one single day to just lie down and rest. One day to find a moment's worth of comfort.
He'd spent eternity waiting for a second chance.
Waiting for an escape from the wreckage of his past and the damnation that made up his future.
Tonight, he had to face his brother for the first time in eleven thousand years.
The two of them had never been on equal footing. Styxx had hated him since the moment of his birth.
For Ash, this was going to be a long, long night.
Talon's thoughts were on Sunshine. On the gentle curve of her face. The beauty of her touch.
Was she in her loft painting?
Was she thinking of him?
"I love you." Her words tore through him.
Talon clenched his teeth, wishing he were touching her. Hoping that at the end of this night she would be safe from Camulus forever.
"Faith, Talon," Ash said as if he knew his thoughts.
"I'm trying."
Talon took a deep breath.
His death didn't concern him. It was Sunshine he couldn't allow to die. Right or wrong, he would see this through, and come morning she would be safe.
No matter what it took.
Sunshine followed Zarek's directions to the Warehouse District, but getting there in the heavy traffic wasn't easy. They probably could have walked faster.
Normally the traffic wouldn't have bothered her; however, Zarek wasn't exactly friendly, and between his sour mood and the drunken revelers on the street who kept staggering out into the road, her nerves were pretty much fried.
She wasn't really sure why they had to go out tonight, but Zarek had assured her that Ash wanted her moved for safety's sake.
He'd promised her that Talon would be able to fight better knowing she was hidden away from Camulus and Styxx.
"So how long have you been a Dark-Hunter?" she asked, trying to do something to ease the tension between them.
"You don't care, so why do you ask?"
"Well, you're just Mr. Warm and Fuzzy, aren't you?"
He looked at her coldly. "When you kill things for a living, it tends to take the warm and fuzzy right out of you."