Kane's Mate (Armageddon Mates)(8)

Kane growled as he stuck his knife into the demon's black heart. He  pulled it out then used the iced tip of his blade to shatter the heart  as it tuned to ice. Kane moved out of the way quickly as the demon's  body fell to the ground. The head rolled past him. Demons could live  without a heart for a couple of hours but not their heads.

Kane turned to check on Devlin and Griffen's progress. He nodded to Rane  to help, knowing he needed to get to Faith and Jamie. As he ran in the  direction of his princess, he yelled, "I need to get to Faith and Jamie.  Rane, you stay and find the girls Faith was talking about, and call for  a cleanup crew. Tell Devlin and Griffen to join me."

Rane nodded and Kane changed into wolf form as it was faster to get to  Faith. He prayed to all the gods that he would get there in time.





Chapter 4



Thank God she had been brought up with wolves, because she'd had it  drilled into her since she started training with the boys to never leave  home without one of your ice knives or blades. Faith reached down to  her boot and pulled out her ice knife just as the first minion attacked,  biting her arm, its thorny wings cutting her up. She cut the ugly  creature's bat-like wings off and kicked another that was coming at her.  She cut heads off and wings. Each time more came at her they bit and  scratched her with their wings.

Jamie was surrounded by the rest of them. She screamed as a zombie came  out of nowhere and grabbed her hair. She cut off its hand as another  grabbed her around the waist. She hated zombies, because they used to be  humans, but a demon had sucked the life and soul out of them. She  kicked and stabbed its arms. Using its chest, she flipped out of its  arms and landed not so well in front of it. Faith cut off its head.  Shit, she was out of practice.                       
       
           



       

Grabbing a minion by the wings, she sliced them off as another bit her  legs. Then she smelled sulphur smoke, and she turned in the smell's  direction. Jamie had just killed the last minion and zombie, and his  face paled at the sight of the thirteen foot hulking demon charging  toward them. Faith felt Kane and knew he wasn't far.

"I feel Kane, he's not far, so we have to distract him. Come on, Jamie, snap out of it."

He growled and nodded, changing to his half-change form that made all  werewolves an extra three feet taller. The demon reached them and Jamie  pushed her behind him as the horn went through his chest. She heard the  rib bones cracking, and without thinking, she ran around and climbed up  the demon's back. She chopped the arrowhead tail off as it embedded in  her arm. She screamed when more minions attacked her, trying to pull her  off the demon's back.

Faith climbed further up the demon's back, using the thorns. She had to  concentrate on holding on because her blood was everywhere, making it  slippery. She heard the growl just as she reached the thick neck. The  demon was bucking, and one of his clawed hands came around to help the  minions pull her off. Faith slashed and kicked while trying to hold on  for dear life.

She saw Kane pull up to a stop, change to half-change, do a quick  assessment of the situation, and go to the front to help Jamie.

The demon yelled, "You will never be safe. I will not die, we want her. She will be ours."

He tried to fall to the ground to squash Jamie and Kane. She knew Devlin  had joined the fight, helping Jamie cut chunks in the demon's side and  killing the minions, which helped Faith concentrate on cutting the head  off, but her knife wasn't big enough. Devlin passed up his long blades.  She reached, grabbing them and slicing her hands as she moved them up.  The knives weighed a lot more than hers, so she focused all her strength  on cutting the demon's head off. She knew his heart had been ice and it  shattered when, using the last of her strength, she hugged his neck,  pushing the blade toward herself. The demon tried bucking her off one  last time, but it was too late. His head fell to the concrete. As she  backflipped to the ground, the demon's body fell next to her landing  spot.

She turned as strong, familiar arms picked her up. Boy, did he look pissed.

"What the fuck were you thinking, Faith, jumping up on a demon's back?  You're covered in burns from his acid blood, and you're losing a lot of  blood from the deep gashes you have. You're human."

She turned her face away from him as tears ran down her cheeks. God, how she hated that word.

"You will heal quickly, but not as fast as us. Shit, the only reason  that you survived at all was because when you mated with me you gained  healing and strength. I could have lost you. You stupid girl, I can't  ever lose you again."

She cried, her shoulders shaking as he started to walk with her.

"I love you, princess, and you said you wouldn't play hero."

Faith froze in his arms, looked into his eyes. "What did you just say? Do you really mean it? I know you said it earlier but..."

Kane stopped walking and looked at her face. He frowned. "I'm sorry,  princess, I'm an arse, but you scared me to death when I saw you on the  back of that demon." He shook his head. "Let's just say if werewolves  could have a heart attack I would have had one. I can't live without you  anymore, I love you."

Faith didn't care about the cuts, blood, and bruises. She reached up and  pulled his mouth down to hers and kissed him. "I love you too. I will  move in and give you a chance."

He smiled. "Let's get you cleaned up so I can see if we'll need to  stitch you. The cleanup crew should be at the warehouse." He took off  her bloody and holey singlet top. "Your jeans probably saved your legs  from a lot of the burns."

Faith shut her eyes and leaned into him, breathing in his familiar sent.  She snapped her eyes open and yelled, "The little girls!" She looked at  Kane. "Who's looking for the girls?"

"Rane is looking for them."

She punched him, grimacing as the cuts bled again. "You idiot. I love Rane, but he's huge and scary as hell."

Faith jumped out of his arms, wincing as every bruise and cut made  themself known, and started jogging in the direction of the warehouse  she knew the girls were in. Once there she began to sing Twinkle,  Twinkle, Little Star out loud, and repeated it.

After the second time Kane asked, "Why are you singing that song?"

"Their dad used to sing it to them. To tell them everything was going to  be all right he told them whoever knew the song was good and would help  them if they ever got in trouble." She stopped and turned to Kane. "I  have an idea. Change into your wolf form before we round the corner."                       
       
           



       

He nodded. Faith started singing again. "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,"  but in between she would say, "Aren't you a good doggie? You're my  protector. Good doggie." She leaned down and whispered, "Bark like a  dog."

His wolf huffed. Wolves did not like to be compared to dogs, they thought they were superior. He barked and Faith praised him.

"You are such a good doggie. You and my other doggies saved me from the monsters."

After about ten minutes of this, a scraggly little redhead popped out  from behind some crates, next came a smaller, brown topped head. They  slowly came out from hiding, walking toward Faith and Kane cautiously.

Faith smiled. "Hi. Do you like dogs? I have lots of doggies. This one is  called Kane. There's another around here you might have seen, and his  name is Rane."

Rane came in wolf form around the corner. Faith collapsed on the floor,  wincing as the bruises and cuts made themselves known again. The wolves  came to help her sit up, and she gripped Kane's fur as she put her arms  around their necks.

"See, my doggies are protectors. They look after me and only hurt the  monsters. They're really big, soft teddy bears." She buried her face in  their necks.

Muffled laughter could be heard now from outside, damn wolf hearing.

The two frightened girls slowly moved forward until they were just out  of arm's reach. Faith smiled. "Hi, my name's Faith. Let me introduce you  to Kane and Rane."

The youngest little brown headed girl giggled. The redhead said,  "They're funny names, they sound the same. They look the same too, how  do you tell the difference?"

Faith laughed and kissed Kane's head. "You're absolutely right  there … argh, I don't know your name. As I said, my name's Faith. What's  yours?"

The redhead looked down at her feet and mumbled, "Grace."

"Well, Grace, they have lots of differences, you just have to come a  little closer to see them. For example, Rane is just a smidgen smaller  than Kane."

The girls took two tiny steps closer.