"You got it."
He started for the Daimon who was coming at her back, but before Ravyn could take more than one step, she'd elbowed the Daimon in the face and flipped him to the ground, where she pinned him with his arm twisted behind his back and with her right foot on the small of his spine.
Realizing she was fine to fight on her own, Ravyn turned to see Belle surrounded by a group of Daimons. She was wounded and bleeding profusely as an extremely large Daimon swung an ax around.
Belle caught the Daimon against his cheek with her whip. The Daimon recoiled, then snarled before he swung the ax. He narrowly missed her as she lunged to the right.
Ravyn rushed at the Daimon's back to kick him away from Belle.
The Daimon spun on him as two more joined them. He could hear Belle cracking her whip and Dragon fighting with his nunchakus while he kept his eyes trained on the Daimon's ax so that he could dodge the deadly swings. Ravyn dropped to the ground and rolled, then kicked the Daimon's feet out from under him. Grabbing the ax as it fell toward the street, Ravyn arced it toward the Daimon's chest and killed him.
And still the Daimons kept coming.
One dove at Ravyn's back, knocking him forward. The ax flew out of his hand as he hit the ground and landed at the feet of another Daimon. Laughing, the Daimon picked up the ax and came after him.
Ravyn tried to back up, only to stagger against another Daimon who shoved him back toward the ax. Ravyn changed into a leopard at the same time the Daimon swung. He missed Ravyn and decapitated the other Daimon. But before Ravyn could think, another Daimon caught him with another ax against his back leg.
Yelping, his powers snapped from the pain and turned him back into a man against his will. He barely had time to summon clothes onto his body and roll away before they were on him.
To his surprise, Susan was there with an ax she must have taken from another Daimon. "Back off," she snarled, driving them away from Ravyn.
Ravyn tried to stand only to have his savaged leg buckle under his weight. His strength was starting to fail him and he knew the other Dark-Hunters weren't in any better shape. No matter what he might like, his pain would keep him in human form.
They were going to die.
The Daimons seemed to be growing stronger while the Dark-Hunters were weakening by the heartbeat. But even so, Ravyn wasn't going to die on the ground like a scared rodent. He forced himself to his feet. A Daimon caught him a punch to the jaw that felt like a sledgehammer striking his bones. He tasted blood as his lip split. Spitting it out onto the asphalt, Ravyn head-butted the Daimon, then kicked him away as a flash caught his attention to the right.
It was two Daimons with axes trapping Belle between them. Frozen by the horror, he watched helplessly, knowing he couldn't reach her in time.
A frisson of grief spun through all of them as they saw her fall to her knees an instant before the Daimons coldly executed her. Susan stared in horror at the woman's body as she lay in a pool of blood on the dark asphalt while the Daimons high-fived each other.
Zoe cried out and started for them, only to have her legs swept out from under her by another Daimon. She hit the ground facefirst, then rolled to her back to kick out at the Daimon who was trying to stab her.
Ravyn was kicked so hard, he swore he heard three ribs crack.
Before he could regain his senses, Menkaura was flung down on top of him. The weight from him was enough to finish breaking Ravyn's ribs. His breathing labored from the pain, he caught the man's look of panic as Menkaura realized the same thing he had.
They had no way to escape.
Ravyn pushed the larger man off his chest and tried to breathe past the awful pain that seemed to seep into every part of him.
"Summon Stryker," one of the Daimons called out to the others. "He'll want to be here to see them die."
"Yeah," a deep, angry voice said, echoing off the brick walls around them, "summon the bastard. I'd really love to get my hands on him right now."
Ravyn held his breath as he heard the last voice he'd expected.
Susan hesitated as the Daimons froze in the middle of their attacks. They were all staring at the bottom of the hill.
She turned to see what had them transfixed and felt her own jaw drop.
Yeah, that'd do it.
Highlighted by the bright moonlight, the man there was incredibly tall, with long black hair that had a red stripe in the front. A strange ethereal fog swirled around him as if it were caressing his entire body like a lover. Dressed in black leather pants and a long leather coat that had its sleeves pushed back to expose his forearms and fingerless black leather gloves, he looked like the typical Goth who hung out around Capitol Hill. But as he walked slowly up the hill with a long, predatorial lope there was an aura of power so dangerous that it made every hair on her body stand up on end.
The Daimons summoned their bolt-holes.
"I don't think so," the newcomer said as each hole fizzled shut before they could use it.