"What do you think, Dad?" the Daimon holding him asked the man with the gun.
"He's either telling the truth or he's a damn good liar. Since I don't know which, I think we should keep them alive, just in case."
Images of his family dying while he'd been powerless to stop their torture ripped through his mind. He looked at Amaranda and her sister and saw the terror in their eyes.
There was no way in hell he would relive that moment. He wasn't about to let them be tortured in front of him while he was powerless to stop it. And with that thought, the last of his Dark-Hunter powers seeped out of him.
The man tossed a pair of handcuffs at the Daimon, who caught them and snapped one over Cael's wrist. He swung about and elbowed the Daimon straight in the face.
"Derrick!" the man shouted before he opened fire on Cael again.
Cael refused to stop. He pulled his dagger out and turned to kill the Daimon.
Another gunshot rang out, an instant before Cael felt something sharp and hot pierce his back. It was the knife the man had used to threaten Kerri. Cael knew it the instant the blade didn't protrude out of the front of his chest. The man twisted the blade sideways and then snapped it off at the hilt to leave the blade buried deep in Cael's heart.
Cael's ears buzzed as he tasted his own blood. He heard Amaranda's screams through the haze as his vision dimmed.
He was dying...
Unable to breathe for the pain, he fell to his knees.
Amaranda screamed out loud at the sight of Cael falling. Agony and grief assailed her and it awoke the fighter inside her. Her rage taking root, she ran at the man who'd stabbed him. Before she could reach him, his Daimon son turned to fight her. He grabbed her and slapped her hard. She spun around to face him again and then acted on pure Apollite instinct.
She launched herself at his throat and sank her fangs into his flesh. His father cursed as he tore her away from his son, but by doing so he caused her to sever the Daimon's jugular. Instead of dying quickly, he fell to the floor and lay there as his blood ran over him and he shook uncontrollably.
His father let out an anguished cry before he shot Amaranda and her sister.
Her vision dimming in pain, Amaranda fell to the floor and couldn't move. It was as if she were completely paralyzed.
"So help me," the man shouted, "I will see all of you dead. Dead!" He stomped her hard on the small of her back before the other Daimon pulled him away from her.
"C'mon, Dad, we'll mourn Derrick later. We have to get out of here before the Apollites realize we're here and what we've done."
"I have a search warrant."
"And you just killed two members of their family. Search warrants are for your people, not mine. They'll kill us both."
He stomped her one last time before they left.
Amaranda could barely see for the tears in her eyes. She'd never known physical or mental pain like she felt right now.
"Cael," she whimpered, needing to touch him. Even though all she wanted was to close her eyes and let death carry her away from the agony of her body, she refused to go without holding his hand.
It was what he'd promised her on the night they'd married.
"I won't leave you alone to die. I'll be there with you, hand in hand, until the end. "
She wouldn't let him die without knowing she was there for him. Hand in hand.
Her limbs shaking, she pulled herself across the slick floor until she reached him. To her shock, he was still alive, but only barely. There were tears in his eyes as he breathed in shallow gasps. No longer the black of a Dark-Hunter, his eyes were a beautiful amber.
"Cael?"
She saw the fire in his eyes as he stared at her. "Sunshine," he breathed.
She choked on a sob as he called her the nickname he'd given her during their wedding vows... vows he'd written just for her. "Even though I walk only at night, I will never know darkness as long as you, my sunshine, are by my side. "
He swallowed as he reached out to touch her cheek. "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you."